that question were resolued but that point standeth vppon an if Nay assure yourselues it is past peraduenture they would take it in great scorne that such a matter should rest vndecided Where it is held by the Churches of Heluetia that such Elderships as they of Geneua talke of are needlesse where there is a Christian magistrate and thereupon the now L. Archbishop of Canterbury for disputations sake reasoning that if there were any such Elders then yet it doth not followe they should bee receiued now Cartwright and his schollers are peremptorie that the offices of those Elderships are the rather to bee continued vnder a Christian magistrate And the learned Discourser sayth as confidently in the like case that the same authoritie which the Church had before there was a Christian Magistrate doth still continue when there is one or else as he addeth we would be glad to learne how this authoritie was translated from the Church in which it was once lawfully vsed vnto the ciuill Magistrate Agreeable to both which resolutions is that saying of Trauerse That Heathen Princes being become Christians doe receiue no further increase of their authoritie than they had before while they were in paganisme It is well By these rules then all is theirs They are Kings Princes the very immediate vicegerentes of Iesus Christ vppon earth And good reason they should then haue both the swords nay twenty swords if there were so many And besides seeing they haue to deale in all causes they must haue all lawes in the closets of their brestes at the least authoritate let scientia come by Cartwrights deuise vpon the suddaine into them how it may at leysure But hereof sufficiently Howsoeuer they crie our against our Bishoppes for intermedling with mo matters than they are able to discharge yet you see into what an infinite sea of affaires they would thrust their Elderships allowing generally that in themselues which formerly they haue condemned in others As by the next Chapter it will appeare more plainely vnto you CHAP. XXVI Those things they reprooue as vnlawfull in others they allow in themselues THere is nothing better knowne than with what contempt and bitternesse diuers amongst vs haue written against the authoritie of Bishoppes especially Archbishops and yet I perceiue that if they might attaine to such an authoritie it would bee well enough accepted For thus their Maister Beza writeth What was ordayned in times past concerning the appointing of prouinciall Synodes by the Metropolitane appeareth manifestly by the olde Canons Neither are we the men who if the ruines of Churches were repayred doo thinke eyther that order or some other like vnto it to be reiected So as these two things bee obserued That a tyrannie be not brought againe into the Church as though the holy Ghost were tyed to some certaine seate or person and that all thinges should be doone to edification c. Indeede hee is already the Primate Archbishop or Metropolitane in effect of all the prouince of Geneua or at the least hee easily foresaw that if anie such order should bee restored againe amongst them hee was the onely man for that great preferment When this worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sixt Canon of the Councell of Nice is brought and vrged to proue the authoritie right and iurisdiction of the Bishop of Alexandria ouer the Churches in diuers countries there mentioned then it must signifie nothing in that place if wee shall beleeue Cartwright but onely a dignitie or preheminence in meetings to goe or sit before the rest But if you talke of the power authoritie and iurisdiction of their Eldershippes then sayth Danaeus Vox potestatis in hac disputatione significat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word of power signifieth as this Greeke worde doth properly import And what is that Forsooth Ius authoritatem alicuius gubernationis illi traditae id est alicuius reigerendae regendae Right and authoritie of some gouernment giuen vnto such a power that is of the gouernement and rule of some thing Nowe if this worde might haue beene so happie as to haue retained this signification in the sayde Councell of Nice where there is speach of Bishops Cartwright had beene put to his plunge and Bezaes annotation mentioned would not haue helped him a rush There is nothing more vsually obiected against the present estate superioritie and authoritie of Bishoppes than the place of Peter Neque vt dominantes in cleris Not as though yee were Lordes ouer the Clergie And that of Luke 22. Vos autem non sic But you shall not be so And it will not bee admitted in anie wise that wee should expound those places of ambitious affectation of tyrannous practise or of the abuse of such superioritie â—or iurisdiction But if you will speake of the right authoritie and iurisdiction of their Elderships the case is cleane altered There are some as it seemeth beyond the seas who seeing the pride of the consistorian gouernement doe affirme That the power of the Church is onely spirituall and not any external exercise practise and right of any authoritie power and gouernment With this opposition so much derogating from the dignitie of their Elderships Danaeus is mooued and answering that conceit sayth that although the power of the Church ad animarum salutem sit comparata be instituted for the health of soules yet notwithstanding it hath necessarily annexed vnto it an indissoluble band an externall exercise practise and vse iuris gubernationis of lawe and gouernment Against this aunswere replye as it seemeth is made with the same places mentioned that are vrged against our Bishops Whervpon Danaeus to make all thinges cleare addeth these wordes to his former aunswere and publisheth the same from Geneua Nam quod c. Whereas it may bee obiected out of Peter Non dominantes c. Not bearing rule c. And out of Luke Vos autem non sic but you shall not be so Facilè soluitur it is easily aunswered Damnatur enim partim abusus non vsus illius potestatis partim illius cum ciuili confusio for partly the abuse is condemned not the vse of that power and partly the confusion of it with the ciuill power Which is the verie aunswere that wee doe make and approoue beeing extorted from them by Gods good prouidence for the stopping of our mens mouthes who vppon pretence of those places haue opened them so wide against the lawfull authoritie of our Bishops It hath beene greatly grudged-at by these reformers that Bishoppes are allowed to bee of the vpper house of Parliament and saine they would haue them out if they knew how Notwithstanding for ought I can finde they haue enioyed that honourable prerogatiue euer since there was an high Court of Parliament in England And still the worde of God is made the pretence for whatsoeuer they desire so as euer you vnderstand that they
orders to this poynte in the newly subscribed booke of discipline Plurium sententiae verbo Dei consentaneae singulares omnes eius cansilij conuentus ecclesiae parere debent All Churches must obey the sentence of the greater part of that Councellor assembly vnder whose direction they are the same being agreeable to the worde of God And agayne It is made a part of theyr Aldermens office to see Vt quae à conuentibus piè decreta retulerint à ciuibus suis earum ecclesiarum studiosè obseruentur that those godly decrees which they shall bring from the assemblyes bee diligently obserued of theyr Cittizens of those Churches Lastly Conuentus sententia rata habeatur donec à conuentu maior is authoritatis secus iudicatum puerit Let the sentence of euery assembly bee ratified vntill it shall be otherwise iudged-of by an assembly of greater authoritie As a classicall to bee ouerruled by a prouinciall a prouinciall by a nationall a nationall by a generall And thus they write of theyr owne orders and assemblyes Which rules take them altogether as they lye if they bee true as I doe not greatly dislike them being well applyed then do these busie bodies among vs sin most directly against theyr own consciences in that they oppose themselues as they do against those things which the greater part of the national Sinode high court of parliament of this Realme hath allowed of beeing most agreeable to the worde of God before some generall Councell or assembly of more authoritie haue iudged otherwise and determined for the course that they haue proceeded in Generall Councell I am sure they haue none And for any other assembly that hath beene held and should haue greater authoritie in England than the nationall Synode of all our owne Churches and the high Court of Parliament let them name it In their writinges generally they exclayme against the high Commission or at the least against the Commissioners as many of them as bee clergie men affirming it to bee against the worde of God that any such should bee of that Commission And yet in Scotland it was agreeable with the Scriptures that fortie or fiftie at the least Ministers of the worde as I conceyue it shoulde bee verie great Commissioners from the King Anno 1589. to very manie great purposes euen for the purging of that lande from all sortes of enemies to the religion there professed Likewise earnest suite is made in the Supplication before mentioned to her Maiestie and found in Fields study that the foresaid foure twentie Doctors that should bee of the Parliament house might be likewise generall Commissioners vnder the great scale of England or the more part of them to beare and determine all and euery secte errour heresie contempt default and misdemeanour agaynst the worde of God and her Maiesties lawes of reformation of religion to depriue any Pastour not dooing or neglecting his duetie to examine witnesses and to imprison the bodyes of all such malefactors and to certifie their names to the Lordes of her Maiesties Councell that they may receiue further condigne punishment Besides there bee some that resemble the high Commission nowe in force vnto the authoritie which they challenge to theyr seuerall Elderships Whereupon one of them acquainted I doubt not with the desires of the rest sayth That if the high Commission were setled in fiue hundred places more than it is and shoulde gouerne by the worde of God and lawes of this Realme there would rise more profit thereby to religion than yet hath beene found by the Bishops He would haue it in fiue hundreth places Scotland is diuided into two and fiftie Eldershippes and of likelyhood they would haue fiue hundred in England And that as I take it is the mystery of his number of fiue hundred To conclude I finde another motion which liketh wel that if there were fiue hundred Elderships more or fewer established yet there might be in euery great Towne certaine Commissioners in causes ecclesiasticall appoynted to looke that the Elderships did their dueties if they did not to compel them therunto by ciuill authority So as therby it appeareth that although our Bishops other Clergie men may not be such Commissioners with vs in some few places yet their Pastors Doctors Aldermen may in euery parish or so many of them or I knowe not whom as it should please her Maiestie to assigne to euery greate Towne Surely the worde of God is much troubled with such kinde of choppers and chaungers of it euery giddy heade wresting and wringing it to serue his owne deuise Wee shoulde haue Commissions to thatch houses withall I see if they might be our directors They are offended with the authoritie that her Maiestie dooth giue vnto her Commissioners for causes ecclesiasticall as beeing vnlawfull in that by vertue of that commission they may sende sometimes for offendors to appeare before them by purseuants and commit them to prison as occasion shal fall out and theyr faultes misdemeanors and contempts shall require But at Geneua the like authoritie in effecte is lawfull in their Eldership For there the Consistorie hath a Beadle sergeant or purseuant or as you lift to tearme him appoynted by the ciuill Magistrates to attende vppon it whose office is to call such before the Consistorie as the Aldermen shall appoynt him And for imprisoning of any offendors and contemptuous persons there is notany matter almost for the which they may call a man before them but one parte of the punishment of it by the lawes of the Cittie is imprisonment As if any when hee appeareth in the Consistorie or els where be so hardie as but to speake euill of any of the Ministers or misname them he is to be imprisoned Besides as I haue noted it before theyr Elders are alwayes of the Councell of state and seldome or neuer but they will bee sure to haue one of the foure Syndickes to bee of that bench So as together they raigne lyke Lordes in theyr Consistorie and who dare say My Lordes why doe you so If they direct imprisonment is but a small matter I speake not agaynst that order there let them vse it as they thinke good Only I see not why the worde of God should bee so bountifull to them and is so sparing to vs. In that by the orders of our Church and the laws of the Realme there is required of Ministers a subscription to her Maiesties lawfull authoritie in ecclesiasticall causes to the Articles of Religion and to the Communion booke c. greate quarrels haue beene raysed and many exceptions are taken against it Insomuch as one a wise man I warraunt you dooth ascribe all the daungers that haue beene complotted against her Maiesties person by the traitrous Papistes the dearth of corne the cause that we haue had such watching and warding by souldiers and lastly that the Spanyards would haue inuaded this land
and ordination of Ministers and of theyr disagreement about the same Cap. 16. fol. 183. Of theyr Aldermens ioynt-office with the ministers in binding loosing of sins of their disagreemēt therin C. 17. f. 190 Of the first institution of the old Deacons and of the disagreemēt about the new disciplinary Deacons Cap. 18. fol. 198 Of certayne Widdows which are made Church-officers of the disagreement which is about them Cap. 19. fol. 215. Of the charge to bee imposed vppon euery parish by meanes of the pretended Eldership Cap. 20. fol. 227. Of theyr desire that those thinges which haue beene taken by Sacriledge from the Church might bee restored againe to the mayntenance of theyr Elderships Cap. 21. fol. 233 They take from Christian Princes and ascribe to theyr pretended regiment the supreme and immediate authority vnder Christ in causes Ecclesiasticall Cap. 22. fol. 250. In the oppugning of Princes authoritye in causes Ecclesiasticall they ioyne with the Papists Cap. 23. fol. 258. Their disagreement in suppressing the authoritie of princes in church-causes in the aduancing of their own C. 24. f. 268 In what causes more particularly theyr Elderships are to deale as they pretend Cap. 25. fol. 281. Those things they reprooue as vnlawfull in others they allow in themselues Cap. 26. fol. 298 How they deale with the auncient Fathers Ecclesiasticall Histories and generall Councels when they are alledged against them Cap. 27. fol. 329. Theyr dealing with all the new writers and manye reformed churches when they make against them Cap. 28. fol. 354. Howe they depend vppon theyr owne Synodes and fauourers Cap. 29. fol. 364. How falsely they alledge the auncient fathers for their pretended parish-Bishops and Elders Cap. 30. fol. 381. How and with what disagreement they wrest and misconstrue the Scriptures in the behalfe of theyr discipline C. 31. f. 396. What account the solliciters for this pretended gouernement doe make each of other Cap. 32. fol. 416. Of the prayse disprayse of this pretended regiment C. 33. f. 421 Of theyr disagreement concerning the necessitie of the Consistoriall gouernement Cap. 34. fol. 436. Of the pretended commoditie that the Elderships would bringe with them and of the small fruites that they bringe foorth where they are Cap. 35. fol. 450. FINIS CHAP. I. Howe vnder pretence of the Prophetes loue to Syon some men would gladly set vp their owne fancies THe holy Prophet Esay foreseeing the miserable captiuitie which the Iews for their transgressions were to sustaine vnder the kinges of Babell did thinke it necessary to prepare their heartes to patience by assuring them that the Lord in his due time would worke their ioyfull and happy deliuerance To the which purpose amongst many other most notable perswasions prophecies he vseth these wordes for Syons sake I will not hold my peace and for Ierusalems sake I will not rest vntill the righteousnes therof breake forth as the light and saluation therof as a burning lampe that is donec erigam piorum animos spe futurae salutis c vntill I may confirme the minds of the godly saith Caluin with the hope of their restitution againe so as they may vnderstand and be fully perswaded that God will be the deliuerer of his Church The false Prophet H.N. the moste illuminated father of the family of loue counterfaiting the imitation of the Prophet of God in this place doth take vppon him to tell the world of a farre greater captiuitie not of 70. yeares but of more then a thousand and fiue hundred yeares that is euer since the Apostles times Wherein saith he darkenes of error hath ouershadowed the earth lumen vitae incognitum factum est the light of life hath been made vnknowen and the trueth hath been hid as vnder the maske of Popery vntill this day of loue He turneth the whole doctrine of our saluation into a vaine mysterie an allegoricall conceit of his own leauing the Church no mediator at all besides himselfe He hath framed a platforme or new kingdome and gospell of his owne inuention bearing this title Euangelium regni dei the gospell of the kingdome of God Into this kingdome as Vicegerentes he hath brought for our ministers his seniores sanctae intelligentiae Elders of the holy vnderstanding patres familiae Christi fathers of the family of Christ and for our Archbishops and Bishops his Primates or principall Elders his seniores parentes Elder fathers and I know not how many illuminated and deified gouernours And perseuering in these and in many other such like very grosse fond imaginations he lewdly presumeth to apply the said place of the Prophet to himselfe and his owne conceites for the better animating of his followers to sticke fast vnto him saying O Syon tua causa non silebo c O Syon for thy sake I will not hold my peace and for Ierusalems sake I will not rest vntill the righteousnes thereof breake forth as the light saluation thereof as a burning lampe that is in effect vntill the holy gouernment of the family of loue bee established vppon the earth T.C. a man I confesse not to be sorted with H.N. were it not vpon this occasion wil needs take vpō him likewise the person of the Prophet and to aduertise vs of a wonderfull seruitude that hath continued in the Church of God in effect with H.N. from the apostles times also which yet remaineth as he saith in the church of England From the which seruitude he reckoneth that it shall neuer be deliuered vntill it submit it selfe to be newly reformed again by the aduise of his deepe vnderstanding assisted with those that diligently wait vpon his illuminated deuises after the maner of Geneua To winne himselfe therefore the better credite for bringing this to passe hee laieth about him and would haue al things turned topsie turuie as they say euen the vpside downe Our ministery their callings our seruice our sacraments and all we haue is out of ioint Councels fathers histories they are but dishcloutes with him he shaketh them off as it were with a shrugge they are indeed as after it shal appeare no body in his handes but he flingeth them here and there at his pleasure He in like sorte with the assistance of his partakers hath framed after the fashion of Geneua a platforme and newe kingdome or rather an infinite number of litle petite kingdomes but yet euery one of them of an absolute power aswell ouer Lordes Earles Dukes Princes Kinges and Kingdomes as ouer the meanest whosoeuer vnder them This kingdome he would impose vpon this land Wherein for our Archbishops Bishops ministers c hee placeth his graund Elders whome he tearmeth pastors his second sort of Elders whome he tearmeth Doctors his third sorte of Elders whome he tearmeth Gouernors ioyning vnto them Deacons to carry their purses and widdows to wash their feete where neede shall require And with this deuise he is so possessed that hee
therefore we confesse that their subiectes ought to obey their ciuile commaundements which may be kept without the breach of Gods law and that not onely for feare but also for conscience sake Thus farre Zanchius whose iudgement in this pointe will be esteemed of I suppose hereafter when all that either is or can be sayd by any man to the contrary will fall to the ground or vanish like smoake If it be saide that Zanchius writeth truely but that my allegation of his wordes is altogether impertinent for that the Bishops of Geneua had neuer any setled right in the ciuile gouernement of that citty I am not the man that will either iustify mine owne discretion or impugne any thinge which may bee brought for the ciuile proceedinges of that state or of any other so as they carry no false groundes of Diuinity with them which may prooue daungerous vnto our owne such as haue bene since published for the authorizing of subiectes in many cases to depose their Princes Christ refused to be a deuider of priuate mens inheritances and then surely it doth not become me to be a decider of any titles to countries citties or kingdomes I pray for all and will not further meddle with any Now it remaineth that hauing made relation vnto you of the premises as you haue heard I should also acquaint you more particularly with the alteration that was made at Geneua in the order and forme of the gouernemente of the Church Wherein you shall finde some greater variety both of actions and pollicy M. Beza speaking of the reformation of religion in that citty sayth that Christes Gospell was established there mirabiliter wonderously A wonder the common saying is doth last but nine dayes but that wonderfull course which he speaketh of will not bee forgotten I suppose in hast As you haue heard that the Bishop of Geneua was dealt withall for the principality of that City so was he vsed as touching his Bishopricke The Ministers cryed out that his Ecclesiasticall iurisdiction was as vnlawfull as his ciuile Wherevpon the Bishopricke was dissolued and that forme of Ecclesiasticall gouernement vtterly abolished whereby that citty had bene ruled in Church-causes from the time that first it receiued the profession of christianity Together with the ouerthrow of which Bishopricke all the orders constitution and lawes of the Church which had beene in framing by all the learned men in christendome euer since the Apostles times were at one stroake quite chopte of and wholy abrogated vnder pretence forsooth of the name of cannon lawes the popes lawes and I wot not what Wherein the ministers dealt as wisely in mine opinion as if some king succeeding fower or fiue of his predecessors whome he hated should therevpon ouerthrow all the lawes that eyther they or any other of his predecessors had euer made before him Maister Caluin being charged by some as it seemeth with the rashnesse which was vsed at Geneua in this point doth excuse it thus in effect vz. that they deale therein as men doe with rotten houses they ouerthrewe all the whole forme of ecclesiasticall building as once as it were into a rude heape out of the which they might the better make choyse and take of that olde stuffe as much as liked them to build withall againe afterward Indeede there are many builders in these dayes of such a kinde of humor Nothing will content them but that they build themselues And therein also they are very inconstant Now this must downe now that must vppe now this must bee chaunged and that must bee enlarged here the workemen mistooke me this is not in good proportion away with it I will haue this square chaunged into a rounde and this rounde altered into a square A fitter metaphore could not well haue beene found to haue shewed the vnstayed minds of such manner of reformers But to proceed The auncient forme of ecclesiasticall gouernement with all the Elders thereof being thus ouerturned as the citezens in the framing of their newe ciuill gouernement had an especiall eye to the manner of the ciuill gouernement of their neighbour citties and states adioyning so had both the magistrates and the ministers at the first also great regard of the ecclesiasticall pollicy in the same citties relying principally vppon their forme of Church-gouernement and vppon their orders and ceremonyes in that behalfe prouided But this Church Modell was also shortly after wholy misliked For the ministers perceiued that as they thought the ciuill magistrats had too great authorie giuen vnto them in church-causes that they themselues had a great deale too little Maister Caluin speaking of this manner of reformation calleth it but a correcting of the Church And Beza yeeldeth a reason why Farellus Viretus contented thēselues with such a simple Church-gouernement vz. in effecte to my vnderstanding not that they were ignorant what insufficiency there was in it but because in such a hurly burly and great chaunge of things they could haue no better and afterwardes when they woulde faine haue bettered themselues the rest of the ministers that should haue ioyned with them therein were fearefull to attempt so soone any new alteration The same yeare that Geneua was assaulted vz. 1 5 3 6. Maister Caluin came thether and was there admitted non concionator tantum hoc enim primum recusarat sed etiam sacrarum liter arum doctor not onely for their preacher for he had refused that before but also for a doctor of the holy scriptures In which place hee was scarcely warme when like a man of courage reiecting all feare hee tooke in hand to frame a new platforme for the gouernement of that Church or as Maister Bezaes word is ecclesiam componere to compound the Church being of likelyhood before in his opinion tanquam dissoluta scopa as a dissolute Chaos and vndigested bundell And in very short time hee did so farre prouaile therein as that hee caused the cittizens being assembled together to abiure their former popish gouernement as they termed it by Bishops and to sweare to a certaine draught of discipline paucis capitibus comprehensam comprehended as Beza saith vnder a fewe heades What the forme of this draught was I finde it not any where mentioned But whatsoeuer it was it appeareth that both he Farellus and Viretus so vsed themselues in the administration of it as that the rest of the ministers and the chiefest of the cittie grew quickly very weary of it For through their rough dealing in diuers pointes especially in opposing themselues against the orders of Berne before that time receiued there and particularly for their obstinate refusing to administer the Lordes supper with vnleauened bread according to a resolution giuen to that effecte by a Synode at Lausanna of the ministers of Berne which resolution since Beza calleth iniquissimum decretum for these and such like causes I say they were al three of them within nine monethes after
their setting vppe of their short plat of discipline bannished the cittie The causes before mentioned of this their bannishment were giuen out thus in generall termes Tyranni esse voluerunt in liberam ciuitatem voluerunt nouum pontificatum reuocare They would haue beene tyrants ouer a free cittie they would haue recalled a new papacy And here beganne the Consistorian humor which raigneth nowe amongst the factious sorte in England to shew it selfe but yet in a more secrete sorte by their priuate letters one to an other Their fauourers and partakers whome they lefte behinde them at Geneua presently after their departure entered into faction and refused to receiue the communion with vnleauened bread as it had beene ordered they should doe by the said Synode at Lausanna The ministers that remained in the cittie after them were greatly disgraced For in that they continued their ministery there without the newe Discipline they were said to hold otiosam functionem an idle function The Senate of two hundred that expelled the said three preachers was termed by Caluin tumultuos a perditorum hominum factio a tumultuoas faction of rakehells castaway es Beza saith that in that councell the greater part ouercame the better But then by the way they were not all of them such manner of men as Caluin reporteth The chiefest magistrates of the cittie euen the Syndickes were termed factionum et discordiarum duces the ringleaders of factions and dissentions They were resembled to Nabucadnezar and the exiles to Daniell And generally they gaue it out against all their backe frendes that they went about to ouerthrowe the Church and that they had obdurated themselues against the Lord Iesus Christ. These and such like speaches you must thinke were giuen out then secretly but since they are published in printe for other ministers instructions which may hereafter receiue any checke about that kinde of discipline Hetherto for ought I finde the pretended discipline had no great successe I must therfore proceede on forward These three preachers being thus banished their friendes at Geneua were maruailous earnest to haue them thither againe Many letters were procured from certaine churches and learned men to the magistrates in that behalfe as you shall partly perceaue by diuerse epistles set out vnder the title or together with Caluins epistles Euery one likewise in the Cittie that held for the discipline did his best with the people But Maister Caluin was the man whom they all of them most desired for the rest being else where placed they cared not much Vnto these endeuours may be added some very wise courses taken by Maister Caluin in the time that he discontinued from Geneua Cardinall Sadolet hauing written to the Geneuians in dislike of the alteration both of their state and of the Romish religion admonishing them to returne to their olde byace Maister Caluin aunswered him and iustified as he thought meete their proceedinges therein to their very good contentment Also where some that of his owne friends had greatly laboured to discredite the ministers of that cittie which were lefte to the griefe of the magistrates endeuoured to haue brought them vtterly into contempt for executing their ministerie without the pretended Discipline c. Maister Caluin staied that course by writing vnto them that he doubted not but that their ministers deliuered vnto them the chiefe heads of Christian religion which were necessary to saluation and that also they ioyned thereunto the right vse of the Sacramentes And then saith he where those two pointes are performed illic substantia ministery viget there is the substance of the ministerie and a lawfull honour and obedience is to be giuen to that Ministery Lastly the mutinie mentioned which was about refusall to communicate with vnleauened bread he likewise appeased by perswading the authours of it that it was a matter of indifferencie for the which they ought not to disquiet the peace of the Church By which occasions together with the former sutes mentioned the Citie as I iudge hauing conceaued a better opinion of maister Caluin then they had before and supposing that if he came againe amongst them he would vse a great deale more mildnesse and moderation in his proceedinges then hee had earst done they were at the last contented after two yeares bannishment and more to recall him vnto them vz in the yeare 1541. Whilest his friendes were labouring for him as you haue heard he himselfe perceiuing that hee shoulde returne thither was still harping to his friendes vppon this string how he might haue the Citie so bound to the forme of Discipline which he had in his head as that afterwardes they might not when they list start from it And therefore as soone as he was come thither hee imployed his studie that way especially At the first offering of his paines to the Senate he told him that the Church there could not possibly continue except there were same certaine forme of Church gouernement established Whereupon the Senate ordered at his request that he and fiue other of the Ministers should conferre together about such a forme as they thought meet and that hauing so done they should offer the same to the consideration of the said Senate Here then you shall see the strength of maister Caluins wit He wisely saw that notwithstanding the Bishops ecclesiasticall authoritie had been vtterly disgraced and was thereupon reiected as being forsooth Popish and tyrannicall yet it was not good for the Church that the ministers should bate the citie one ace of an ecclesiasticall authoritie aequiualent at the least to that which their Bishops formerly had enioyed amongest them Howbeit he well perceiued withall that for the bringing of this matter about there must be verie good pollicie and circumspection vsed or else that it would be a thing impossible to bring a people hauing gotten their libertie into the like or a worse seruitude then they were in before His plot therefore as I take it was as followeth He laboured to perswade the people and the Magistrates that as there was a ciuile Senate for the gouernement of the Citie and the territories thereof in ciuile causes so by the word of God there should be an ecclesiasticall Senate for the gouernment of the same Citie and territories conteining aboue twentie parishes in causes ecclesiasticall And to this purpose he wanted not I warrant you very many probable reasons The persons that should beare authoritie in this Senate I nothing doubt but that he could haue been very well contented they should haue been all of them ministers euen as the ciuile gouernment did then wholly consist of ciuile persons But by reason of the great authoritie that the preachers had before intituled the ciuile magistrates vnto for the bannishment of their Bishop for their dealing in Church causes wherewithall they were in some sorte possessed hee very wisely considered with Farellus and Viretus that if they tooke that course
great hatred and malice Insomuch as writing to his friendes he complayneth in this manner We haue too many of a hard and vntamed necke who vpon euery occasion do endeuour to shake off the yoake that by their tumultes they mighte abolish the lawfull order of the Church There are in that nomber both olde men and young men The youth especially is here most desperate And to Viretus Nisi dominus c. except the Lorde doe rebuke the sea and the windes I see there are greate stormes toward vs which they mooue who ought rather to appease them I dare not call you hether for many causes The chiefest is for that I am afrayd how at the length we must giue place vnto them who will neuer end vntill they haue ouerthrowne all Likewise to the same Viretus Many are such children that they are affrayde at the ridiculous shaking of a head c. Si desistam totum consistorium ruat necesse est if I desist there is no remedy but downe falleth the consistorie Great tumults were vp amongst them in the cittie and therefore he altered his former mind touching his not calling of Viretus and requesteth him most earnestly as beeing more gratious then himselfe to come and helpe to appease them You cannot possibly doe a thing sayth he that shall be more gratefull vnto me then if you shal make a good ende of these quarrells me ad Garamantas relegato though I be bannished into the farthest partes of the worlde And in another epistle Eo prorupit improbitas vt retineri qualemcunque ecclesiae statum diutius posse meo praesertim ministerio vix sperem Impiety hath gotten such a head that I canne scarsely thinke there can anye tollerable state of the Church continue here especially by my ministery These dissentions proceeding thus on for a time at the last they came to this issue vt maior Senatus receptum et bactemus seruatum ecclesiae ordinem repente conuelleret Nos restitimus that the greater Senate did sodainely ouerthrowe the order of the Church which had beene receiued and kept But we withstood them An argument of very good subiection Much trouble would surely haue come of it but that vpon a sermon preached by Maister Caluin and after vppon a motion made by him and the rest of the ministers to the Senate order was taken that for the quieting of all partes the said sentence of the greater Senate should be suspended vntill the state of Geneua had taken the aduise of foure Heluetian citties their neighbours and friendes touching the pointes in question vz. about the authoritye of their Consistorie to suspend men from the communnion as they sawe cause which is the verye scepter of that pretended Syon When this course was taken marke I pray you Maister Caluins pollicy He knew as in effect he saith that none of the magistrates of anye of those fower citties woulde write any aunswere to the cittizens letters of Geneua but by the aduise of their ministers Wherevpon whilest the Syndickes with their councells were conferring about their letters to be sent to the foresaid citties how and what they should write yea peraduenture who should endite them Maister Caluin presently speedeth a messenger one Budaeus with his priuate letter vnto his priuate friendes as to Maister Bullinger c. and with other letters also to the rest of the said Ministers ioyntly of purpose to prepare and pre-occupate their mindes beforehand against their magistrates should write thither Now I am come to the very panting or short breathing of the Consistoriall pretended Discipline whether it shoulde liue or die at Geneua The daunger it lay in was exceeding great but maister Caluin applied all his skill and medicines for the recouerie of it Few Phisitions will take such paines for their patientes In his said letters hee omitteth no point of his oratorie faculty The aduersaries of his discipline he painteth out in their collours as that their Senate was possessed with a lamen table blindnesse that they had dealt contumeliously with poore straungers that they had vsed Farellus very hardly that diuerse of them were such as shamed not to defend Seruetus the hereticke and that they were Sathans Ministers that stirred vp these strifes He indeuoureth to moue all commiseration towardes himselfe and his associates in respect of their paines and daungers vndertaken in the behalfe of that Church as that for seuen yeares together they had been impugned by all those that sought to liue riotously from vnder the yoake that for the space of foure yeares nothing had been pretermitted by the wicked whereby they might by little and little ouerthrowe the state of that Church and that for the last two yeares their condition was no better then if they had liued amongest the professed enemies of the Gospell He ascribeth very much vnto the ministers to whome he writ which was an especiall meanes to procure their good fauours As when he saith now the matter is come to this point that all our ecclesiasticall orders shall be quashed nisi istinc afferatur remedium except there come a remedie from you Againe you must so deale as if the state of our Church were in your handes Againe nunc extremus actus agitur now the last act is vpon the stage and the enemies of the Gospell are beginning alreadie to triumph against Christ his doctrine his ministers and all his members Againe so perswade your selues that if Sathan be not now bridled by you habenas ei laxatum iri he will get the libertie of his bit hereafter at pleasure And againe I beseech you brethren by the name of Christ to thinke that it is no common matter that is committed vnto you but that the consultation to be had is of the state or very being of our Church He touched furthermore all other points which hee was sure would be especially regarded by them being themselues ministers in that he saith that if their aduersaries get the victorie the whole authoritie of the ministerie is not onely gone in Geneua but that it will be subiect to euery base rake-bels reproches Which if it should happen he telleth them that he was resolued to depart thence Vnto all these artificiall points thus insisted vppon by him he addeth another of no lesse importance to drawe the said ministers mindes vnto the bent of his bowe For notwithstanding hee ascribeth so much vnto them as before hath been shewed yet he qualifieth all in such sorte as that they might suspect that except they did concurre with his desire he would hardly for his part yeald to anie thing that might crosse him He writeth vnto them very moderately of his cōsistoriall platforme He saith he is not ignoraunt how diuerse learned men do not thinke that forme of Discipline that hee writeth for to be necessary but yet hee addeth what his owne opinion is of it and that he trusteth no man of iudgement
long they account it since it was in any good reparation saith plainely not as Cartwright affirmeth that it flourished most in Constantines time but thus we must needs confesse in deede that this gouernement of the Church fell to decaye long before the Councell of Nice But yet one step further after maister Cartwrights dubling where speaking in his second booke of the corruption as he tearmeth it that one Bishop had a preheminēce giuen him aboue other ministers which he cannot deny to haue been an ordinance in Alexandria from Saint Marks time c. he saith from the first day wherein this deuise was established corruption grew in the Church c. And the first resistance by any setled Church against that corruption was by those that abolished that deuise of man and receaued the order in the Apostles times touchinge the equality of Ministers as the Bohemians Merindols the Churches in Germany and Geneua See what carieers are here From Geneua to the Apostles times and thence backe againe to Geneua at a leape From Saint Markes time till the time here limited the pretended Presbitery with all the complements thereof as nowe it is vrged hath lyen alla-mort No one setled Church that is in Cartwrightes language no one particular parish in all the world for a 1500. yeares did euer account it vnlawfull for a Bishop to haue authority aboue other Ministers Or thus there hath not bin vpō the face of the earth within the space of a thou sand fiue hundred yeares so much as in any one parish such an equality amongest the Ministers of the worde of God as is now pretended to be in the Presbitery at Geneua and so consequently in all that tyme not suche a Presbitery Or thus within the compasse of the Heauens there hath not beene one Church for aboue 1500 yeares that euer dealt so with Bishops as of late they haue beene dealt withall especially in Geneua and in some other such places as haue followed therein the example of that Citty Well hitherto then you see that since we came from Geneua vz the yeare 1541. the men themselues that talke so much of their Geneua platforme cannot finde it flourishing in the daies of all the auncient fathers nor in all the world for the space of aboue 1500. yeares The fathers alas some of them were but simple men some were ambitious and some were ignoraunt They poore men had small experience and lesse pollicie They wanted iudgement and zeale either to discerne or to keepe in her virginitie this gallaunt Dalila They chopped and chaunged the institution of Christ at their pleasure Any examples that shall be fet from them are very dangerous They were but men But if you will leape ouer all them and come to Geneua there you shall finde wise men learned men humble men zealous men nay rather Angelles then men there you shall see the glorious rankes of Elders sitting vppon their thrones the worshipfull company of Deacons attending vpon the contributions the well Disciplined multitude bringing in the price of their lands and goods and powring all downe at the Deacons feete there Christ carrieth hys owne scepter in Bezaes hand there this pretended holy Discipline so disgraced by the fathers so corrupted and so defaced there she raigneth there shee flourisheth and there she is magnified The Church of Geneua saith a good fellow is the purest reformed Church forsooth in Christendome Againe Geneua is the chiefest place of true comfort in Earth Now what is here said of Geneua and her Ministers except you extend it to all other Churches and Ministers that follow the Geneua platforme they will be angry with you and thinke themselues as I suppose to be very greatly disgraced But I will leaue them clawing one of another and come to the Apostles times to see if the Geneua Church-gouernment may be found out amongest them For either there or no where The Apostle Saint Iohn liued much longer then any of the rest of the Apostles did Saint Ierome saith that he liued after Christes passion threescore eight yeares So as the Apostles times after the largest accompt are not further to be extended Now as Baronius collecteth out of Eusebius Saint Marke was Bishop of Alexandria about 19. yeares and died about the thirtith yeare after Christes ascention So as Saint Iohn out-liued Saint Marke some 38. yeares After this reckoning if the Church of Alexandria should haue departed from Christes institution and so cleane haue disgraced the glory of this fained Eldership when there was a Bishop made there according to Cartwrightes assertion then before wee can finde the Geneua platforme in such perfection as it is in that Citie we must cut of the said 19. yeares wherein Saint Marke had departed so grossely from Christes ordinance from the before mentioned 68. yeares the full extent of the apostles time which being done you haue but eleuen yeares wherein there is any hope for the pretended puritie and practise of the Geneua Discipline to shadow or shrowd her selfe Yea but where Saint Ierome saith that there were Bishops in Alexandria from Saint Markes time c. Cartwright hath this shift vz that the wordes from Saint Marks time may be taken exclusiuely to shut out Saint Marke Whereby to saue Saint Markes credite that an Euangelist should not be thought to haue broken the necke of Christes gouernement he woulde haue this great defection to haue been presently after Saint Markes time and so hee excludeth Saint Marke after the Geneua fashion quite and cleane out of his Bishopricke and will needes suppose that hee was neuer Bishop contrary to Saint Ieromes expresse wordes in sondrie places and contrarie to the full consent and agreement of all the auncient fathers and of all the ecclesiasticall histories But be it as hee would haue it yet let the reckoning be newly cast vp againe and it falleth out that this supposed departing from Christes institution was about thirtie and eight yeares before S. Iohn died Which standeth hardly with the reputation of the Apostles times in my opinion But that is no great matter We know saith the authour of the foresaide booke that was sent vs from Scotland Diotrephes to haue been in the Church euen in the Apostles times and we are assured he could neuer be gotten out of it since the first houre that he set his footing therein And therefore we cannot greatly maruaile though euen in their time there had been a diuerse gouernment from this of the Lordes appointment which we labour for For euen in the Apostles times the mistery of iniquitte beganne to worke And what will they say of Saint Iohn the Apostle and of all the rest of them that out-liued Saint Marke as they haue done of all the auncient fathers was there so small intelligence amongst those most prouident and wise holy men that there could be so notorious a defection in Alexandria so famous a Citie and they neuer to heare of it Or
shall we thinke that they heard of it and conspired together to ouerthrow Christes institution It may be said that peraduenture they heard of it and reproued it but could not reforme it Very well But where be then their admonitions petitions supplications and libels against it Where be their suspensions excommunications and giuings ouer to Sathan Not a word of that abuse in Saint Iohns Gospell written after the supposed defection but especially could he haue pretermitted such a high point in the booke of his Reuelations Or had he so many Reuelations of other matters of lesse importance forsooth and was such an ouerthrowe of Christes kingdome kept from him The Disciplinarian shiftes in this case to make the best of them can be but slaunderous and desperate But to graunt to all of them the acceptation of the Apostles times after the largest accompt there is surely nothing lesse to be found in those times then the Geneua platforme For then as particular congregations professed the Gospell you should haue found a Priest or minister of the worde and Sacramentes placed in them In Citties where there were diuerse such congregations or wherevnto sondry congregations of the country did appertaine then you shoulde haue found some Timothy a Bishop to gouerne them After that diuerse Citties had receaued the Gospell or some whole Countrey it was not long but some Titus was placed as Archbishop ouer them The twelue Apostles were in those times as twelue Patriarchs for all the world who planted directed visited commaunded and appointed the foresaid Church gouernours and what else they thought meet for the benefit of the church If I were presently to leaue this life and should speak what I thought of the present forme of Ecclesiasticall gouernement at this time in the Church of England I would take it vppon my soule so farre as my iudgement serueth me that it is much more Apostolicall then any other forme of gouernment that I know in any other reformed Churche in the world As for these men that talke so much of the Apostles times they are indeede but brablers Their deuised regiment hath not any resemblaunce at all of that which was in the Apostles times They haue peruerted in deede the true meaning of certaine places both in the scriptures and in the auncient fathers for a shew to serue their turnes as after it shall appeare and other proofes from those times they haue not any But you will say this is denied It is so and of that else-where Howbeit in the meane while that cannot hinder my purpose to search out the pretended antiquity of it For it is confessed by them that the Apostles practised no other form of Ecclesiasticall gouernment in their times then Christ himselfe in his time did ordaine and assigne vnto them to be practised afterwards And what forme was that Forsooth they say it was the very same forme of Church regiment that was amongest the Iewes and that Christ when he said Dic Ecclesiae tell the Church did translate the same being called Sanedrim Councell or Senate into the Church to be the onely lawfull gouernment thereof vnto the end of the world So as here then we must fetch another friske about to search for the antiquity of the Iewish Senate Maister Caluin after hee had deuised the Geneua platforme and leapt ouer more then a thousand and fiue hundred yeares for the strengthning of it by those wordes of Christ tell the Church vppon occasion he further saith that as farre as his auncient records will serue him the foresaide Iewish Sanedrim was deuised by the Iewes after theyr returne out of captiuity which was vppon the pointe of fiue hundred yeares before Christ Scimus c. wee knowe that from the time that the Iewes returned out of the captiuitye of Babilon the censure of manners and of doctrine was committed to a chosen Counsell which they called Sanedrim in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hoc legitimum fuit Deoque probatum regimen c. This was a lawfull regiment and allowed of God And againe to cutte of all childishe cauilles how to shift this place as that Caluin saith not that it was then first instituted the sam e Caluin speaketh hereof more plainely where intreating of the seuenty Elders Numbers 2. that were chosen to assist Moyses he hath these wordes Certum quidem est c. it is very certaine that when the Iewes were returned from the captiuity of Babylon because it was not lawfull for them to create a king they did imitate this example in erecting of their Sanedrim Here is then the time as plainely set down again as needeth vz. after the Captiuity the cause why they ordained it vz. because they might haue no King and the patterne they did imitate vz. Moyses choosing of seuenty Elders to assist him in his gouernment But all this will not yet serue the turne For besides many other exceptions which are taken to Maister Caluins extraction of the Iewes Sanedrim out of Christs wordes tell the Church this is one that if they will needes inforce such a gouernment vppon the Church as was amongst the Iewes then they meane belike to wrest from the Prince the ciuile sword and to deale themselues in ciuile causes by their owne authority which they haue so much condemned in others though they meddle not otherwise with them then by the Princes appointment for that the Iewes-sayd gouernment or Sanedrim had to doe as well in ciuile causes as in any other that were Ecclesiastical Their aunswere to this exception is that in deede the gouernement they speake-of had to deale in Christs time with ciuile causes de facto but not de iure and that the Priests Iudaicis rebus confusis through their pride and ambition had crastily and corruptly procured such vnlawfull authority vnto themselues to the defacing and hinderaunce of the Lordes institution by Moyses at the first See how they carry vs from post to piller Maister Caluin is no body with Beza Now we must yet further backeward vz. from the restitution of the Iewes out of Babilon to Moyses his time almost a thousand and fiue hundred yeares Surely maister Caluin should haue been as well acquainted with Moyses doings as Beza is for that he hath written Commentaries vppon all his fiue Bookes which Beza hath not If Caluin in sifting the Text so painefully as he hath done cold finde no such matter in Moyses as Beza pretendeth it doth greatly preiudice in my opinion his lighter conceite But heare his wordes We must omnia reuocare ad institutionem Domini per Mosem loquentis vt quid iure factum sit intelligamus Call euery thing to the institution of the Lorde speaking by Moyses if we will haue a true vnderstanding of this gouernement and of the right authority thereof Very well Here then wee must haue a newe issue We must set vp as I said the Church-gouernement which the Apostles practised the Apostles practised
called it ecclesia that is the Church Very well any thing will content me Howbeit for ought I know there was no cause why it might not haue pleased our sauiour Christ if he had conceiued so notable a liking of that Iewish platforme but that hee might also haue retayned the olde name and so haue made no alteration at all The authour of the booke of Discipline hauing as it should seeme some such like consideration in his head or what other I know not and thinking scorne as I gesse to runne to the Iewes Talmud for a name for this regiment is not afraid to dissent from Caluin Beza his olde tutor Cartwright and a number of other his good maisters here in saying obseruandum est vnà cum re ipsa nomen etiam a Iudaeis ad nos translatum esse It is heere to be obserued that together with the thing it selfe the very name also is translated vnto vs from the Iewes And what name is that Forsooth saith he Nomen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is congregation or church saepius apud Mosen certis delectis viris tribuitur qui a toâ—a congregatione adres obeundas designarentur is often giuen by Moses vnto a certaine number of chosen men that were to be appointed by the whole congregation to deale in sundry affaires So as by this fellowes saying Christ made no alteration at all when he said Dic ecclesiae tell the church but kept euen the olde name of it vz which it had before giuen vnto it by Moses How blinde then was Beza Cartwright and the rest that they could not finde this proper name of their soueraigntie in all the olde testament but were faine to flie to the Talmud But will Beza thinke you take this at his handes No I warrant you For saith he vocabulo ecclesiae significari ciuium conuentum nemo est qui ignoret c. Haebrei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocant Sed postea communis loquendi consuetudo fecit vt pro eoruÌ„ caetu accipiatur qui ChristuÌ„ profitentur There is no man ignorant that the word ecclesia doth signifie an assembly of Citizens The Hebrews do call it an assembly or company met together But afterward by custome it came to passe that it was taken for the assembly of them that do professe Christ. Which custome I hope it will be confessed did begin about Christes time and not in Moses time And then the disciplinarian Trauerser is very well serued for his sawcinesse in taking vpon him to proceed further then his sayd Maisters had giuen him in commission But howsoeuer these fellows will agree amongst themselues me thinketh a man might be bold by their place of Mathew to call their parochiall regiment by the name of the church For they all wil coÌ„fesse that Christ called it so And then it will follow by their grounds that euery parish or church must haue a newe church erected in it which new church must haue authoritie to command censure the old and so one Church must be ouer another Yea but saith Beza in effect we are rather to follow the apostles in this point then Christ. That which he called Church meaning the Synedrium that is Councell the apostles called presbyteriuÌ„ Eldership Quod Christus ecclesiam iam mutato Synagogae vel Synedrij nomine appellarat Paulus presbyterium nominauni That which Christ called the Church changing the name of Synagoge or Councell Paul called Eldership Againe quod Iudaei Synedrium Christiani presbyterium teste Apostolo vocarant That which the Iewes called Councel the Christians as the Apostle witnesseth called Eldership And why Beza would blush if he could not giue a reason for any thing Idcirco fortassis potius quam Synedrium ne qua pateret calumniandi occasio quasi Christiani statum publicum turbare de magistratuum authoritate ac iurisdictione quicquam ad se protrahere vellent The Apostles peraduenture called this regiment rather Eldership then Councell least there might be giuen thereby some occasion of slaundering as though the christians had purposed to haue troubled the publicke state and to haue taken to themselues some part of the Magistrates authoritie and iurisdiction Well and are we yet come to an issue how we may call this forme of gouernement Shall we tearme it the Eldership No surely if wee will follow some other reformed Churches which are so ofte commended vnto vs. Presbyterium vocare Consistorium apud nos mos est It is the maner and fashion with vs at Geneua saith Beza to call the Eldership a consistorie With whom agreeth I.B. the superintendent as it is thought of the Italian Church in London saying Although we haue in our churches the same order which the Apostles ordained yet we haue changed the name of Eldership do call it now by another name vz consistory And good reason It is so called at Geneua The Apostles call it Eldership but yet they dispensing with that point doe call it as they list Men no doubt of a soueraigne prerogatiue But to proceede It shoulde seeme that as these men haue chaunged the name of Eldership into Consistorie so haue others in some places done it into Synod Against both which sort Bannosius in his long and tedious disciplinarian discourse is verie bold to write his minde that it ought rather to be called Eldership then eyther Synode or consistory And that for two reasons vz first because some men do not distinguish sufficiently the assemblies of the christians from the Synodes of the Iewes and secondly because the Hierarchy of Rome doth call their presbyterium Eldership consistorium a consistory From all these as I suppose many of the French Churches or at the least that of Heidelberge doth dissent For thus Iunius lately a chief Ruler there writeth Concilium ecclesiae Senatumue appellamus quod Paulus presbyterium That which Paul called the Eldership wee call the councell of the churche or the Senate and so the Elders there are Senators Which names both of Senate and Senators sayth Beza Vt ciuilibus dignitatibus couuenientius calumniae obnoxium videtur studio quodam vetus purior ecclesia in occidente repudiasse as being proper to ciuile dignities and subiect to slaunder the olde purer churche in the West doth seeme of purpose to haue reiected And Bannosius affirmeth that the reason that moued those where hee was to call the Eldershippe a consistorie was quod nomen minus odiosum quam Senatus esset because it was a name lesse odious then the name of Senate You haue heard also before out of Beza that the Apostles themselues refused the name of Synedrium as being all one with Councell or Senate for the same respects But all this notwithstanding now that belike they thinke themselues in some places to haue laid such sufficient foundations for the coÌ„tinuance of their regiment as that it shall not be remoued what soeuer the Magistrates shall
conceaue of it they shew themselues in theyr colours and doe call it plainely a Senate neither respecting the wisedom which themselues doe ascribe vnto the Apostles nor the foresayd example of the purer West Churches And indeede although at Geneua the name of the Consistory be most in vse yet I gesse that Beza would gladly bring it to be chaunged and called a Senate And I doe partly so thinke because in his printed Booke of excommunication he hath left out the reason why the Apostles called it not Senate but Eldership which reason is in his written Booke that Erastus confuted Besides also oftentimes in his notes vppon the new Testament hee tearmeth the forme of that gouernmēt by the name of Ecclesiasticall Senate And namely where they dreame it was commaunded by Christ in these wordes Dic Ecclesiae tell the Church Constat hic agi de Ecclesiastico Senatu it is manifest saith he that here Christ speaketh of the Ecclesiasticall Senate In another place also he saith tell the Church that is the Eldership and here in effect tell the Ecclesiasticall Senate So that to my vnderstanding he confoundeth Eldership and Senate making them both one Which peraduenture will bring himselfe within the compasse of his own words against Castalion To translate Presbyterium Eldership Senatum a Senate doth argue a greate vanitye of witte and is indeede a prophane innouation But to let that passe by hooke or crooke it must be a Senate which tickleth and pleaseth some of our reformers insomuch as in their Latine discourses of Discipline there is little but Ecclesiasticall Senate and Senatours Christus pro more Iudaeorum Ecclesiam Ecclesiasticum Senatum appellauit Christ after the custome of the Iewes called the Ecclesiasticall Senate the Church Againe Ecclesiasticall Senate is an assembly of Elders c. And againe Cum hic Senatus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Paulo appellatur Presbyteros esse hos Senatores necesse est Seeing this Senate is called by Paul an Eldership it followeth of necessity that the Elders must be Senatoures I omitte some old English names which haue beene giuen to this Minion as Congregation Assembly Segniory c. and some Latine names also as the Epitome of the Church and Diaconia Presbyterorū the Deaconship of Elders because they are now growen as it seemeth to bee too base Rather let vs call it with Iunius if I conceaue his meaning materfamilias the huswife of the Churche in Christes absence or with Maister Beza Tribunal Christi the Tribunall seate of Christ. But yet for all these wordes I greatly doubt it that such honourable titles will not long be continued For if Maister Beza his interpretation of Christes speaches Dic Ecclesiae doth proue to be authenticall then they must be enforced in my opinion to call their gouernement by a name of no great estimation amongest those that professe Christ. For let the place be considered and hee maketh Christ in effect to say Tell the Church that is tell the Senat Archisynagogorum of the Archrulers of the Synagogue who had the power and iurisdiction that is there spoken of in their handes By which exposition if Christ had beene pleased to haue spoken properly without vsing of any figure when he saide Tell the Church he should haue said Tell the Synagogue and the word Church in that place must needes be so expounded Whereby it followeth that if Christes authority by Bezaes exposition may be regarded they ought by theyrowne collections and interpretations to call their seuerall Senates so many Synagogues Besides Maister Beza saith that Synedrium and Synagogue were both one in Christes iudgement and there is nothing more reasonable in theyr writings then to call theyr Senats Synedria which sheweth that at the least they may aswell by Christs testimony call them Synagogues if they list I would not haue troubled you with this tedious discourse of the seuerall names of this pretended regiment but that you might vnderstand how their tongues are deuided about such a trifle and thereby also perceaue the infancy or new birth of this fancy of theirs in that as yet they are not agreede howe to name the Childe If it fall out that it get the name of Senate what an honourable stile will this be Senatus populusque Romanus the Senate and people of Sainct Giles in the Fieldes and so of all other parishes in England CHAP. VII Of their vncertainty concerning the places where this pretended regiment should be erected MAister Cartwright and all his English followers that I haue read doe affirme it moste confidently that by the commaundement of God by the institution of Christ by the rules of Gods word and by the practise commandement of the Apostles There ought of necessitie to be an Eldership in euery parish in euery Congregation Church by Church in euery particular Congregation and not only in Cities but in all Churches in the Countrye and vplandish townes wheresoeuer there is a Pastor without the which Eldership euery such church or Congregation is to be accounted maymed vnperfect no entyre body 10 want the exercise of the principall offices of charity to be destitute of no small part of the Gospell of true Religion of Christs gouernment of the piller of truth and of all those priueledges profits which are assigned by them vnto the enioying of it Hereunto is fit to be added what they haue further written concerning this worde Church and howe they describe their said Parish The Church sayth Cartwright is eyther taken in the Scriptures for the whole body of the Catholique church or for one particular congregation or for the faythfull company of one house This one particular Congregation when it hath an Eldership placed in it they terme it the body of one particular Church and a perfect and vnmaymed body of Christ wherein the ministers of the word and the Elders are the eyes and the Deacons the handes without the which members though it may liue a while they confesse yet saie they it so pineth and wanteth that in the ende it will become a deade corpes vppon the grounde And for the quantitie of this body the dimensions of it or the description of such a particular Congregation or Parish as they speake of thus M. Cartwright squareth it out Euerye competent congregation and particular bodye of a church should haue hir parts in neighbourhood of dwellings wel trussed one with another Againe a Parish well bounded is nothing else but a number of those families which dwelling neere together may haue a commodious resorte and be at once taught with one mouth With these points of our English Eldership I meruell how their associates in other Countries will bee satisfied By the Discipline in Fraunce concluded vppon by fiue generall Synodes of the reformed Churches of that Realme It was agreed vpon that request should be made to the
Geneua at the least that of all likelyhood as diuers housholdes by his owne rule do concurre together to make one conuenient parish So diuerse parishes in one citie suburbes and territorie thereof may be vnited and rightlye beare the name of the church Except wee shall thinke that Christ referring as they suppose his Apostles to the imitation of the Iewes church gouernment they were so negligent workemen as there being at that time 400. Synagogues in that one citie they had erected in all their times but one congregation christian church or parish answerable to one Synagoge it being lawfull for them by the square of that platforme to haue erected if they had could 400. But let this passe as a thing impertinent and to returne to the maimed pining Parishes at Geneua You will say did not Cartwright know the ecclesiasticall gouernment of that citie when he writ his bookes or shall we once conceaue that he thought to condemne that regiment which in other places hee doth so greatly extoll certainly for mine owne part although I do not greatly respect what he will saie that hee either knoweth or thinketh yet I suppose he will neuer for shame denie it but that he misliketh that forme of church regiment For first besides the premises being vrged with Caluins authoritie who thought the church of Geneua with all her sayde Parishes to make but one body of a church his answere to that point in effect is this Admit Caluin so thought I am of opinion that if Caluin had not soe thought hee would neuer haue erected vp such an Eldership And if Beza did not thinke so still I iudge hee would alter it Secondly also vppon another occasion he resembleth the order of certaine reformed churches which in this sence must be necessarily either of Scotland Flaunders or Geneua vnto the custome in S. Ieromes time when Bishops besides their one onely church had certaine other congregations belonging to their ouersight c. and in mislike thereof sayth for parte of his answere to this pointe being pressed by his aduersary against him I appeale to the institution of God and vse of the purer times after the Apostles But amongst other qualifications which he maketh least we should thinke that where such reformations are made as haue diuers parishes belonging to one Eldership there the old Diocesse and Bishops are in effect not abrogated but a little altered he sayth that one in such Eldership is aboue the rest but for a time as Caluin was chosen thereunto euery two yeares and not during his ministerie Which authority ouer many parishes but for a time although he will not plainly condemne it in the reformed churches which hee fauoreth yet speaking against the order of the church of England both he his companions doe make it a steppe whereby Sathan did aduaunce the kingdome of Antichrist Lastly as hitherto you haue found M. Cartwright with his friendes opposite in this matter vnto Geneua and Scotland differing also much from the churches in the Low countries so he seemeth to mee to crosse himselfe For in his second booke hee sayth that particular churches are nowe in steed of Synagogues and that their Synagogues were the same that our particular churches are And in his third booke he writeth thus For my part I confesse that there commeth not to my minde whereby I could precislie conclude out of the olde testament that there was an eldershippe amongst the Iewes in euery of their Synagogues If that can not then be shewed out of Moses who was so faythfull in setting downe all that was committed to his charge and that Christ commaunded no new thing but such as Moses instituted how hath hee vrged so mightely that we must haue his Elderships in euery Parish We shall see peraduenture that in shorte time M. Cartwright will giue ouer this holde and betake himselfe to the citie consistories framing new Diocesses to bee subiect vnto them as in other countries you haue heard they are Well I would wishe that before their Elderships were graunted vnto them they should agree together where they ought to place them But nowe to the seuerall partes of euery Eldership CHAP. 8. Of Bishops generally of the pretended equalitie of Pastors or new parish Bishops and how the chiefe impugners of Bishops beginne to relent IN the olde testament the high Priest besides that he was a figure of Christ had also vnder Moses Iosua the Iudges and Kinges for the better ordering and gouernment of the church authoritie and iurisdiction ecclesiasticall within that countrie of Canaan vnder whom for the same purpose were other Priests at least 24. that were called Principes Sacerdotum Princes of the Priestes all of them inferior to the high Priest but superior to the rest In the new testament our Sauiour Christ whilst hee liued on the earth had his Apostles and in degree vnder them his 70. Disciples After his ascentiō the same inequality of the ministery of the word continued in the Church by all mens confession as long at the least as the Apostles liued In the Apostles times Saint Marke was Bishop of Alexandria Saint Iames was Bishop of Ierusalem Timothy was Bishop of Ephesus and Titus was Bishop of Crete if the ancient fathers and Ecclesiastical histories be of any credite The Apostles hauing receaued the promise of the holy Ghost after a short time dispersed themselues by aduise into diuerse regions And there by painefull preaching and labouring in the Lords haruest they planted no doubt very many Churches As the number of Christians grew and had their particular assemblies and meetings in many Cities and countries within euery one of their circuites they placed pastors in euery congregation they ordained certaine Apostolicall men to bee chiefe assisters vnto them whom they placed some one in this particular countrey another in that and some others in sondry Cities to haue the rule and ouersight vnder them of the Churches there and to redresse and supply such wantes as were needefull And they themselues after a while and as they grewe in age and escaped the crueltie of tyrantes remained for the most part in some head Citty within their compasse to ouersee them all both Churches Pastors and Bishops or Superintendents and to giue their directions as occasions required and as they thought it conuenient When any either of these Apostolicall assistantes or of the Apostles themselues dyed there were euer some worthy men chosen and appointed to succeede them in those Cities and Countries where they had remained For wee may not idlely dreame that when they dyed the authoritie which was giuen vnto them ceased no more then we may that the authoritie of Aaron of his naturall sons expired and ended with them Besides it is manifest by all Ecclesiasticall hystories that many Churches were planted after theyr deathes And furthermore it coulde not be but that some Churches especially vnder those Apostles that were soonest put to
men had offered in the beginning to the Bishops to performe al due obedience vnto them if they would be content to reforme religion they were now againe constrained to make the same knowen more generally both to the Emperour and to all the sayd Princes still offering for their parts as much as they had done before and that if they would but cease to impose vppon them their intollerable burdens of single life of mens vnlawfull and wicked traditions which they did further specifie and to forbidde them to doe those things which God commaunded they should doe that then they would with all their hearts most willingly yeeld vnto their Episcopall iurisdiction and to the restoring of the same where it had beene abolished Vouchsafe I pray you to heare their owne testimonies to this purpose You shall thereby well perceaue that if they were now aliue in England and should finde their names so vsed as they are against the gouernment of our Bishops they would take it in very ill part and be heartily sory for it Thus the authors of the Augustane confession and all the learned men that haue subscribed thereunto in which nūber Caluin is cōprehended haue professed touching this matter The Bishops might easily retain the obedience due vnto them if they vrged vs not to keepe those traditions which wee cannot keepe with a good Conscience They impose a single life and will receaue none that will not swear neuer to teach the pure doctrine of the Gospell Againe we haue ofte protested that we doe greatly approoue the Ecclesiastical pollicy and degrees in the Church as much as lieth in vs doe desire to conserue them We doe not mislike the authoritie of Bishops so that they would not compell vs to doe against Gods commaundement Furthermore we doe here protest and wee would haue it so recorded that we would willingly preserue the Ecclesiasticall and Canonicall pollicy if the Bishops would cease to tyrannise ouer our Churches This our minde or desire shall excuse vs with all posterity both before God and all nations that it may not be imputed vnto vs that the authority of Bishops is ouerthrowen by vs. Besides I would to God saith Melanchthon I woulde to God it lay in me to restore the gouernment of Bishops For I see what a manner of Church we shall haue the Ecclesiasticall pollicy being dissolued Video postea multo intolerabiliorem futuram tyrannidem quà m antea vnquam fuit I doe see that hereafter will grow vp a greater tiranny in the Church then euer there was before Moreouer mira dissipatio erit Ecclesiarum ad posteritatem c. There will be a wonderfull confusion of Churches left to our posterity except they may now bee ioyned together againe and haue certain Bishops who may be enforced to gouerne the church and looke vnto them more diligently then in times past they haue beene looked vnto Againe by what right or law may we dissolve the Ecclesiasticall pollicy if the Bishops will grant vs that that in reason they ought to graunt Et vt liceat certe non expedit And if it were lawfull for vs so to doe yet surely it were not expedient Luther was euer of this opinion whom many for no other cause I see doe loue but for that they thinke they haue cast off their Bishops by means of him and haue obtained a liberty minimè vtilem ad posteritatem which will not be profitable for our posterity For tell me what estate will the Churches be in hereafter if all the olde orders be abolished and that there bee no certaine rulers ordained To the same effect also saith George Prince Anhalt Earle of Ascaine Lord of Sewest and Brewburge vtinam c. I would to God that those which carry the names and titles of Bishops would shew themselues to be Bishops in deede I wishe they would teach nothing that is disagreeable to the Gospell but rule their Churches thereby O quam libenter c. Oh how willingly and with what ioy of hart would we receaue them for our Bishops reuerence them obay them and yeeld vnto them their iurisdiction and ordination c. Id quod nos semper Dominus Lutherus etiam c which we alwaies and Maister Luther both in words and in his writings very often haue professed And Caluin himselfe writing to Cardinal Sadolet concerning the course that had beene held at Geneua as touching the reformation of Religion and in excuse thereof against his challenge doth shew himselfe to be of the same minde he was of when he subscribed to the said confession of Augusta professing that for his part he could haue beene well content that the Bishop there should haue kept his authority and iurisdiction still so that he woulde haue yeelded to the bannishment of Poperye For thus hee writeth Talem nobis Hierarchiam si exhibeant c. If they bring vnto vs such an Hierarchy or Priestly gouernment wherin the Bishops shall so rule as that they refuse not to submit themselues to Christ that they so depend vppon him as theyr only head and be content to referre themselues to him in which Priestlye gouernment let them so keepe brotherly society amongest themselues that they be knitte together by no other rule then by the truth then surely if there shall be any that shall not submitte themselues to that Hierarchy or Priestly gouernment reuerently and with the greatest obedience that may be I confesse there is no kinde of Anathema or curse or casting to the diuell whereof they are not worthy And againe in the same Epistle he vseth these wordes following tending to the great commendation of the authority of Bishops Statue quaeso c. Sette before your eyes I pray you the ancient face of the church as it was amongest the Grecians in Chrys. and Basils times and as it was amongest the Latinists when Cyprian Ambrose and Augustine liued and then behold the ruins of that face as now they are retained in the Church of Rome And there will appeare as great difference betweene them as the Prophets describe vnto vs betweene the excellent estate of the Church that flourished vnder Dauid and Salomon and that Church which in Zedechia and Ioachims dates was fallen into all kinde of superstition and had defiled altogether the purity of the worship of God This Epistle was written by Caluin to the Cardinal 1539. at such time as being remoued from Geneua he remayned at Strasburgh where hauing great acquaintance with Melanchthon Bucer and diuerse other learned men hee carried himselfe in such sort as was greatly to their likings Insomuch as whilest he remained at Strasburgh the Colloquies at Wormes and Ratisbone being appointed by the Emperour for the compounding of controuersies in Religion the learned men that were sent thither for the Protestants reckonned Caluin a meete man to take thither with them Which I thought good to obserue because hereby it will further
appeare what minde and iudgement Caluin still carried concerning Bishops so as they would admit the reformation of Religion contrary to Cartwrights shameles assertion that Caluin would haue shakē at the name of an Archbishop and haue trembled at the office of a Bishop For in the articles agreede vppon at that time by the saide learned men Caluin being amongest them for a reconciliation in the behalfe of the Protestants thus they declared theyr iudgements of this matter Vt omnia ordine fierent in Ecclesia c. That all things might be done orderly in the Church according to S. Pauls rule c. For the auiding of Schismes there was a profitable ordination that a Bishop should be chosen out of many Priests who should rule the Church by teaching the Gospel and by retaining the Discipline qui praeesset ipsis Presbyteris and who should gouerne the Priestes themselues Afterward also there were degrees made of Archbishops aboue them of Patriarches c. These ordinations if those that gouerne do theyr duty as preach ouersee the doctrine and manners of their Churches correct errors and vice practise Ecclesiasticall censures c. are profitable to preserue the vnity of the Church And againe in their additions to the sayde Articles As concerning ordination we especially approoue the auncient custome of the Church that those that are to be ordained should first bee tried instructed and vppon the publicke testimony of some godly and learned men c. admitted into the Ministery This difficult and necessary charge for the Church it is to bee wished reformatiō being made that the Bishops would take vpon them And we heare that our learned men haue expressely so yeelded ordination vnto those Bishops si praecedat reformatio if first there may be a reformation Likewise also in another treatise that was then made by Maister Bucer with the aduise of the said learned men and offered to the Emperour it is thus written Annitendum est c. We must indeuour that that forme and distribution of Ecclesiasticall gouernement which the Cannons doe prescribe to Bishops and Metropolitanes be restored and kept And after in the same Treatise Concerning names and titles and all those things wherewithall that externall power and dignity ought to be adorned and established and the lawfull obedience of such as be vnder them confirmed it will easily be agreed vpon Much more passed in those Colloquies and treatises to this purpose Caluin himselfe as it hath beene sayd being then present and in company whith those learned men And the reasons that moued them so to offer agree and protest at that time in this behalfe I thinke besides the former reasons mentioned were these and such like which Bucer a principall man then amongest them hath else-where sette down When speaking of Bishops and Metropolitanes and of their authoritye ouer the Churches and ministers within their Dioces and Prouinces hee saith thus Hoc consentiebat legi Christs fiebatque ex iure corporis Christi This was agreeable to the law of Christ and was done by the authority of the body of Christ. And in another place I am ex perpetua c. Now by the perpetuall obsexuation of all Churches euen from the Apostles times we doe see that it seemed good to the holy Ghost that amongest Priests to whom the procuration of Churches was chiefly cōmitted there should be one that should haue the care or charge of diuerse Churches and the whole Ministery committed vnto him and by reason of that charge he was aboue the rest and therfore the name of Bishop was attributed peculiarly vnto these chief rulers of Churches Nay he goeth further and sayth that in the Apostles times one of the Priests or Pastors was chosen and ordained to be the Captaine and Prelate ouer the rest who went before the rest and had the cure of Soules and the administration of the Episcopall office especially in the highest degree And this he proueth by the example of S. Iames Act 15. after concludeth in this sort The like ordination hath beene perpetually obserued in other Churches likewise as farre as we may learne out of all the Ecclesiasticall histories and the most auncient Fathers as Tertullian Cyprian Irenaeus Eusebius and others Hereby then it may appear vnto you what was thought of Bishops of their authority by the learned men of those times who sought as narrowly into that calling what was lawfull and what was vnlawfull and were aswell able to iudge thereof I may speake it I trust without offence as either Carwright or all his complices There were some busie bodies indeede a little before or about the time of the Colloquies mētioned who were very angry with the sayd learned men especially with Melanchthon for yeelding so much concerning Bishops Of whom he himselfe writeth in this sort Hoc malè habet scilicet quosdam immoderatiores c. This forsooth doth anger some immoder at men that the iurisdiction and pollicy Ecclesiastical is restored interpreting the same to be the restitution of the Romish souerainty And thus also to Luther you do not belieue into what hatred I am growen with them of Noricum and with certain others for the restitution of iurisdiction vnto Bishops Ita de regno suo non de Euangelio dimicant socij nostri Our fellowes doe so fight for their own kingdome and not for the Gospell Camerarius to the same purpose in like maner maketh this report Audiui quosdā c. I haue heard some accuse Phillip in that respect inhumanissimè most barbarously when one of them said that if he had beene hired with a great summe of money by the Romane faction to haue defended their state he could not in his opinion haue dealt more effectually for them then he did in maintaining of Bishops and that Phillip was not to be accounted a Patrone of his owne part but of his aduersaries and that a chiefe and a singular Patrone c. These things diuers other more slanderous they vttered without shame quorum magnopere postea paenituit puduit plaerosque Whereof many afterwards repented and were ashamed of them But notwithstanding all these and such like slaunderous hare-braines the grauer sort the best learned the godliest and the wisest men amongest the Protestants that then liued did follow and proceede as Phillip had begun euen accordingly as before I haue mentioned And since that time for any thing I can find to the contrary although the bishops still cleauing to the Pope and opposing themselues against all kinde of reformation further then it pleased them were thereupon euen of necessitie reiected as before I haue signified yet as soone as the saide learned men grewe to be able to establish their churches in any reasonable maner they ordained amongest themselues the very same offices in effect throughout the most of the reformed Churches in Germanie chaunging onely the old Greeke names as
Zanchius reporteth of Archbishops and Bishops into new and worse Latine names of superintendentes and generall superintendentes Erneste the Duke of Brunswick presently after the assembly of Augusta procured Vrbanus Regius to go home with him ecclesiarum in toto Ducatu Episcoparum ipsius gubernationi permisit and coÌ„mitted vnto his gouernment the Bishopricke or superintendencie of all the Churches within his Dukedome One Sydonius being thrust as it seemeth from the Bishopricke of Mersenburge as cleauing wholly to Popery was afterwardes vppon his leauing of the Pope and vpon promise made to maintaine the reformation of religion made in his absence restored to his bishopricke And after him succeeded as I take it in that bishopricke George the Prince Anhalt before mentioned being chosen thereunto as hee saith himselfe vniuerso capitali consensu by the consent of the whole chapter He had been brought vp in learning and was at the time of the saide election a Priest or Cannon in the Cathedrall Church of Mersenburge Of whom being bishop Henricus Stenius saith règebat ecclesias in Mersenburgensi diocaesi hee ruled the Churches in the dioces of Mersenburge And againe praesuit ecclesijs vniuersae ditionis Mysorum he gouerned the Churches of all the dominion of Mysya Agreeable aswell to these examples as to the saying of Zanchius before specified is that which Ia Haerbrandus a verie learned man and in his time Diuinitie reader of Tubinge writeth in his common places Debent gradus esse c. There ought to be degrees amongest Ministers c. as with vs in the Duchy of Wirtenberge there are subdeacons Deacons Pastors special superintendentes and ouer them generall superintendentes And in another place the same Haerbrand shewing his iudgement generally Saluberrimum esset c. It were a most profitable order for the welfare of the Church if euery particular prouince had her Bishoppes and the Bishops their Archbishop And Iacobus Andreas hee is muche of the same opinion as certaine Ministers of Heidelberge doe reporte vz where hee saith that it is a difficult matter to defend the peaceable estate of Churches except there be some chiefe ruler and Byshop amongest them to whome rerum summa deferatur the full ordering of matters may be referred To this purpose in like sorte Osiander writeth euen as though he had spoken of the Church of England Although in the Primitiue church when she flourished with myracles there were diuers degrees and orders of Ministers some Apostles some Prophets some Euangelistes and some Pastors and Doctors yet as now the state of the Church is the Ministers may be deuided into three orders or degrees vz Deacons Pastors and Superintendentes c. To the Pastors particular Churches are committed Nec dubitatur c. and it is not doubted but that euery one of them may rule the Church committed vnto him sine collegae concilio without the Councell of any fellow Those pastors we call superintendents who are so set ouer other pastors that they may visite the state of their Churches and punish both the Pastors and the people if any thing be done amisse or if any thing fall out that they cannot correct then they referre it vnto a higher court consisting of deuines and politick men who by the ciuile Magistrates authoritie or approbation doe amend such defects c. Hemingius also affirmeth that there are dispares dignitatis gradus in the ministery that partly by the law of Cod partly by the approbation of the Church that as Christ ascending into heauen gaue gifts vnto men Apostles Prophets Euangelists doctors and pastors so he gaue to the Church authoritie for edification that the Church by vertue of that power ordained ministers for her profite that the purer churches following the Apostles times ordained some Patriarchs some Bishops c. some Pastors and some Catechists c. That the reformed Churches haue their Bishops doctors Pastors and vnder them chaplains we call them curâ—tes as I thinke That the Churches in Denmarke doe acknowledge degrees of dignitie amongst Ministers that they iudge it meet that other Ministers should obey their Bishops in althings which tend to the edification of the church according to the word of God the profitable gouernment of the Church and that they iudge Bb s. to haue authoritie ouer other Ministers of the church ius non despoticum sed patrium Ieremia Hombergus a worthy man in the Churches of God about Styria Carinthia and Carniola but now remoued thence through the persecution which the Iesuits haue kindled in those parts affirmeth in his commoÌ„ places of diuinitie reuiewed allowed at Ratisbone with very direct termes that God himselfe hath appointed degrees of ministers in the church euen amongest those which haue a mediate calling vt concordia inter ministros coÌ„seruetur c. that concord amongst ministers might be preserued the workes of their ministery performed more easily and more decently And after he hath specified the common duties both of Bishops and ministers he setteth down those which he thinketh are peculiar to Bishops and to bee executed by them vz excommunication ordination and confirmation And with him agreeth the Diuinitie reader at Lauinge Phill. Haylbronner writing vpon the first Epistle of S. Paul to Timothy Where he sheweth that the Apostle appointed Timothy to be Bishop of Ephesus that accordingly there are and ought to be degrees and orders of ministers of the Church hauing described the common duties likewise of all ministers generally he saith thus Episcopus c. Besides the said common offices to Bishops was commended the publicke ouersight and gouernment so as it belonged to them to appoint fit ministers for the churches neere them also to heare the accusations and complaints which are made against the Pastors of theyr churches and to decide them c. Sic enim Paulus scribit Timotheo Ephesorum Episcopo for so Paul writeth to the Bishop of Ephesus lay thy hands rashly vppon no man and against a Priest admit not an accusation c. Of the same iudgement in like sort is Egidius Hunius the diuinitie professor at Marpurge in his commentarie vpon S. Pauls Epistle to Titus He affirmeth that the Apostle appointed Titus the generall superintendent for the gouernement ouer the Churches of that large and noble Iland of Crete that his dutie was to ordaine Pastors in euery parish and likewise to make Bishops that the Bishop or superintendent hath his dioces the Pastor his parishe or church as Paule commaunded Titus to place priestes in euery parish That thereby it appeareth God doth require that there should bee orders and degrees amongest Ministers vt alij praesint alij subsint that some may rule and some obey that this order is not newly deuised but receaued in the church from the Apostles times and that God himselfe made a distinction betweene Ministers and appointed degrees according to that hee gaue some Apostles
some Prophets some Euangelistes some Pastors and Doctors for the repayring of the Saintes for the worke and the Ministerie and for the edification of the body of Christ. And againe vppon these wordes A Bishop must be vnreproueable c. hee meeteth with the common obiection for the equalitie of Ministers because euery Minister is called a Bishope sometimes in the Scriptures and sayth that the word Bishoppe notwithstanding it be oftentimes vsed by S. Paule for euery pastor of the church of God who haue a kinde of ouersight ouer theyr seuerall charges and so may suo modo after a sort bee called Superintendents and Bishops c. yet heere it signifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Primarios illos ecclesiarum pastores c. Those chiefe pastors to whom the ouersight of the liues and manners of the other ministers is committed whom according to the force of the Greeke appellation we in these dayes do call Superintendents Hitherto then it appeareth as I take it what is both the practise of the reformed Churches in Germany and the iudgemēt also of the chiefe learned men there since Melanchthon Bucers times concerning Bishops or Superintendents with their preheminence charge and authoritie Some there are indeed beyond the seas who followinge the immoderate proude and slaunderous humor that Melanchthon Camerarius spake of before haue vttered their great mislike of the Germaine Superintendents and that with lesse modestie a great deale then doth well become them In reproofe of one of them Gerlachius a learned man of Tubing writeth in this sort Licet titulos ordinum c. Although thou beholdest with disdaine as it were from aboue the titles of orders after the fashion of hypocrites and of the Anabaptistes yet with a vaine perswasion of knowledge foolish arrogancye whereby thou contemnest our countrymen in respect of thy selfe and dost chalenge especiall knowledge to thee and thy fellowes onely Plus turges quà m omnes Doctores et Superintendentes nostri Thou swellest more with pride then all our Doctors and Superintendents And what commeth into thy minde that thou shouldest cauill at the degrees of ministers as though it were not lawfull to ordayne such degrees for the building and gouernment of the Church Did not God himselfe in the old Testament appoint a chiefe Bishop Priests and Leuits And in the new Testament gaue hee not some Apostles some Prophets some Euangelists and some Pastors and Doctors Had not the primatiue church accordingly Bishops Priestes and Deacons And againe a little after in the same booke whilest thou a proude man girdest so often at the title of Superintendent I affirme that thou reprehendest the Apostle Paule himselfe who hath giuen this name to a distinct order of ministers of the church And our Auncestors following this Apostle haue thought it meete that for the edifying of the church and for orders sake there should be certaine Superintendentes that is ouerseers not onely of the flocke but of the nisters in like manner Thus farre Gerlachius who if hee were in England knewe into what an extremitie the like persons are growen vnto in the same case amongst vs It would peraduenture moue him For nowe there is no remedye with our ministers of that consorte but they must all bee equall They cannot endure it no the meanest of them to haue anye of their owne coate their Superior They are fallen into the contradiction of Chors and doe tell both Moyses and Aaron that they take to much vpon them All Pastores saye they are and ought to be of equall authoritie in their seuerall Parishes and no one to haue power ouer another Euery parish Priest with them must bee a Bishop and haue as full iurisdiction in his Parochiall dioces as it is lawful for any Bishop in the world either to haue or to execute For orders sake they are content that in their Classicall prouinciall or Nationall assemblies some one minister bee chosen from amongst thēselues to be the moderator for the propounding of matters gathering of voices c. But his office preheminence is to continew no longer then whilest those assemblies last Otherwise or for any further authoritie either of Bishops or Archbishops whether they haue abolished popery reformed religiō maintained the gospell abandoned superstitiō or whatsoeuer they haue done or yealded vnto they holde it altogether vnlawfull do raile against them all against their callings and against all that defend them and that with more then heathenish scurrilitie Cartwright is the chiefe man that began this course in Englande and you shall see howe pretily his schollers follow him Archbishops Bishops sayth he are new ministeries neuer ordayned by God The first step to this kind of Bishopricke beganne at Alexandria and not at Syon The name and office of an Archbishop is vnlawfull his function is of the earth and so can do no good but much harme in the church he is a knobbe or some lumpe of flesh which being no member of the body doth burthen it and disgrace it Whereupon foorth come his schollers crying out amaine that Archbishops Bishops are superfluous members of the body of Christ and that they mayme and deforme his body making it by that meanes a monster That they are vnlawfull false bastardly gouernors of the church That they are the ordinances of the Diuell That they are in respect of theyr places enemies of God that they are petye Popes pety Antichristes Bishops of the Diuell and incarnate Diuels that none euer defended this gouernmēt of our Bishops but Papists and such as were infected with Popish errours That the Lawes that mayntaine the Archbishops and Bishops are no more to bee accounted of then the Lawes that mayntaine Steves and that the true church of God ought to haue no more to do with them and their Synagogues then with the Synagogue of Sathan All which Consistorian and modest assertions aswell for the equalitie of Ministers as against the calling of Bishops being ioyned together are wholy opposite to all that which hitherto I haue writt̄e touching this matter Euen as though they should haue cast downe their gauntlets proclaymed an vtter defiance to all the Churches that euer were established in the world for much aboue three thousande yeares the Churches whilest the law continued the churches in Christs time the Churches in his Apostles times the Churches throughout all christendome for a thousand fiue hundred yeares against all the generall Councels all the auncient fathers all ecclesiasticall histories against al the chiefe reformers of religon in this latter age against all the learned mens iudgements before mentioned and against all the reformed churches whersoeuer in christ̄edome that eyther haue BB. or Superint̄edents God forgiue th̄e this great sin of pride presumption deliuer th̄e out of the number of those of wh̄o it is said that their mouthes speake proud things that they dispise gouernment that they
stand in their own c̄oceit that they feare not to speak euill of th̄e that are in dignitie authoritye likewise of those things that they know not that they vse swelling words of vanitie that they beguile vnstable soules that they seperate them selues from other and that they haue not the spirit It will not surely serue their turnes one day to saye that in such their wilfull opposing of themselues as it were against heauen in such their outragious rayling and bitternesse against so holy a calling they followed certaine of their bretheren the ministers in Scotland or in the lowe countries or in Geneua For in this vaine they haue exceeded them all especially them of the two countries last mentioned Maister Caluin although after his restitution to Geneua he might be thought to haue had some harder opinion of Bishopps then he had before yet if you compare him with these fellowes you would thinke him an especiall fauourer and defender of them He could well enough indure it◠to vse these honorable tearmes to Archbishop Cranmer Illustrissime domine clarissime presul et mihi ex animo reuerende commendinge his authoritie his wisdome and his integritie desiringe him to put them all in practise for the benefit of the Church And in his letter to the King of Polonia he sheweth himselfe to be far from Cartwrights minde vz. that the Popes authoritie is more necessary ouer all Churches then the authoritie of an Archbishopp ouer a prouince and that neither of them can discharge so great an office For there writinge against the pope he propoundeth to the Kinges consideration the auncient forme of church-gouernment by Archbishops tearminge it a moderate honor meaninge therby as I take it the preheminence and authoritie which Archbishops then had as beinge limited for the execution of it within the compasse of mans power wheras the Popes pretended authoritie beinge of so large an extent as comprehending the whole world could not possibly be executed by any man liuinge But yet I am short of M. Caluins moderatiō in this matter for discoursing of the state of the auncient churches before the time of popery of Bishops Archbishops and patriarches their authority and superiority in their circuites dioces and prouinces he vseth these modest speeches Although the Bishops of those times did set foorth many canons wherin they might be thought to expresse more then is expressed in the scriptures yet they framed their whole gouernement according to the onely rule of gods word with that caution vt facilè videas nihil fere hac parte habuisse a verbo Dei alienum that you may easily see there was nothing almost in this behalfe disagreeing from the word of God If there may be found any imperfection in the orders which they made yet they indeuoured with a sincere studie to keepe the institution of God from the which nō multum aberrarunt they swarued not much And a little after the elders that were ministers of the worde did choose one from amongst them-selues in euery Cittie vnto whom especially they gaue the title of Bishop Ne ex aequalitate vt fieri solet dissidia nascerentur least by aequalitie as it vsually happeneth dissentions should arise As touching the beginning of this order he agreeth with S. Ierome that it hath continued in the Church since S. Markes time And saith he that euery prouince had her Archbishop that also in the Nicene Councel Patriarches were appointed who were in order and degree aboue Archbishops Id ad disciplinae conseruationem pertinebat It did pertaine to the preseruation of discipline But his conclusion is yet more full and differeth but a little if it differ at all from that which the learneder sort in England doe now maintaine with all antiquitie For speaking of the forme of gouernment so framed as is said in the councel of Nice he vseth these wordes Si rem intuemur reperiemus veteres Episcopos non aliam regendae ecclesiae formam voluisse fingere ab ea quam Deus verbo suo praescripsit if we looke to the forme of gouernment it selfe we shall finds that the auncient Bishoppes would not deuise another forme of churchregiment differing from that which God hath prescribed in his word And thus you may perceaue what great difference there is betwixt our mens spirites and Maister Caluins their outrage and his modestie their pride and his humilitie their rashnes ignorance and giddines and his sobrietie learning and iudgment The forme of ecclesiasticall gouernment agreed vpon in the councell of Nice differeth not from that which God hath prescribed and who then but men that haue shamelesse foreheads dare so incounter it But it may peraduenture be sayd that howsoeuer Caluin did carrie himselfe in this cause yet Beza is of an other opinion Indeed he is so but it turneth more more dayly to his own discredit He succeeded Maister Caluin in place but neither in his learning nor in all his vertues And I do attribute it vnto his want of iudgment that he hath shewed himselfe such a busie body where he had nothing to doe It is chiefly he that hath set the pretended reformers in this whole land so much a gogge against Bishops by his secret letters and other disordered writinges of incouragement vnto them And yet forsooth he can write to other men and pretend the quite contrarie Consider the processe following and then if I be too blame thus to write of him tell me of it In one of his epistles dated 1570. he affirmeth that Archbishops Primates are a shadowe and image of the policy of Roome that they are petty tyrantes in respect of the Pope and that although the names be neuer soe auntient yet it ought to haue beene enquired whether it were lawful to bring them into the church c. It had beene a maruailous beneficiall matter to all posteritie that Beza had beene the commaunder at Geneua in the times of the Primitiue church that so the learend graue fathers of those ages might haue inquired this point of him knowen his pleasure In the yeare 1572. it seemed good vnto him as it hath beene said before to write his letter into this Iland to Knox the reformer in Scotland at what time the Bishops there had receaued the Gospell at the least many of them as I thinke though it woulde not serue their turne to keepe them in their places In which letter amongst many other good consistorian documents hee writeth thus But I would haue you and the other brethren to remember that which is before your eies as Bishops brought foorth the Papacy so false or counter set Bishops the reliques of Popery will bring in Epicurisme They that desire the churches good let them take heede of this pestilence And seeing you haue put that plague in Scotland to flight quaeso c. I hartily pray you that you neuer suffer it againe vnder any pretence or color of keepinge
you of vs or least those things which we haue written of Ecclesiasticall policie properly against that Antichristian tyrannie as necessitie required are taken by some in that sense as if euer we had meant to compel to our order those churches that thinke otherwise then we doo of it and the gouernors of them agreeing els with vs in the truth of doctrine agreeable to the word of God and that except they followed our order we accounted otherwise of them then their godlines and dignitie and mutuall brotherhood doth require c. Farre be this arrogancie from vs. Quis vllum nobis in vllam Ecclesiam imperium tribuit Who doth giue vs authority ouer anie church Far be it from vs that we should thinke so the substantiall matters be kept there ought nothing to be graunted to antiquitie nothing to custome nothing to the circumstances of places times and persons c. Againe in his booke against D. Sarauia hauing spoken of the tyrannie of Popish Bishops hee maketh this exception Neque tamen But wee doo not therefore accuse all Archbishops and Bishops now so called of tyranie For what arrogancie were that Nay so as they doo imitate the examples of the olde holy Bishops and indeuor as much as they can to reforme the house of God so miserably deformed according to the rule of Gods word why may we not acknowledge al of them now so called Archbishops and Bishops obey them and honor them with all reuerence So far we are from that which some obiect vnto vs most falsly and most impudently as though we tooke vppon vs to prescribe to anie Church in anie place our examples to be followed like vnto those vnwise men who account wel of nothing but of that which they doo themselues And to the same effect a little before If now the reformed Churches of England being vnderpropped with the authoritie of Bishoppes and Archbishops do continue as this hath happened to that Church in our memorie that she hath had men of that calling not onely most notable martyrs of God but also excellent pastors and doctors Fruatur sane ista singulari dei benificentia quae vtinam illi sit perpetua Let her truly inioy this singular blessing of God which I wish may be perpetuall vnto her Furthermore it should seeme that Zanchius as moderate and learned a man as euer fauoured the pretended Elderships was appointed some 12 or 16. yeres since to draw a confâ—ssion of religion for the Churches of France others as Melanchthon had done the Augustan confession for Germanie Accordingly hee drew it and in the same speaking of Bishops he vseth these wordes Non improbamius patres c. Wee doo not disalow the fathers in that after a diuers waie of dispensing the word and gouerning the Church they multiplied diuerse orders of Ministers seeing it was lawfull for them so to do as it is vnto vs and seeing it appeareth that they did it for honest causes appertaining at that time to the order decencie and edification of the Church And in the next article Hac ratione c. By this reason vz. that the nurseries of dissentions and of schismes may be taken away wee thinke that these thinges which were ordained before the Councell of Nice concerning Archbishops nay as touching the foure Patriarches may be excused and defended When this booke was perused and this clause found in it then forsoth a deuise was had for the staying of it vnder pretence that now it was thought more meete that there should be a harmonie made of all the confessions of diuers churches But Zanchius himselfe maketh this the chiefe cause if I vnderstand him why his booke dyd mislike some of them for that hee had written as before is mentioned of Bishops For so hee sayth Magnus quidam vir c. A certaine great man meaning Beza as it is supposed did write vnto mee of this matter as followeth Your confession was read by mee and N. others with great delight It is written most learnedly and in a most exquisite methode and if you except that which you adde towards the end touching Archbishops and the Hierarchie mihi summopere placuit it pleased mee exceedingly Vpon this occasion as it seemeth Zanchius printed his said confession with certaine annotations In the which annotations he sheweth three reasons for his allowance of Archbishops Bishops The first is grounded vpon the practise of the primitiue church presently after the Apostles times the second is for that hee thought it his dutie in the draught of his said booke to haue regard to those reformed churches which retaine both Bishops Archbishops and the third because all the reformed Churches generally although they haue chaunged the names yet in effect they doe keepe the authoritie as where they haue superintendents and generall superintendents Nay saith he where these new base Latine names are not admitted Ibi tamen solent esse aliquot primarij penes quos fere tota est authoritas yet there are in those places vsually certaine chiefemen that doe in a manner beare all the sway But I pray you be pleased that I may deliuer vnto you the maner of his setting down of his first reason and that in his owne words for they carry with them a notable condemnation of other mens great pride rashnes Cum haenc conscriberem fidei confessionem c. When I writ this confession of faith I writ all the thinges in it of a good conscience and as I beleeued so I freely spake the scriptures teaching men so to doe And my faith first of all and simply doth rely vpon the word of God then somewhat also vpon the common consent of the whole ancient Catholicke Church if the same bee not repugnant to the scriptures For I beleeue that what thinges were defined and receiued by the auncient Fathers assembled in the name of the Lord with a generall consent of them all and without any contradiction of the holy Scriptures the same surely although they be not of the same authoritie with holy Scriptures yet did they proceed from the holy Ghost Heereof it commeth to passe that those things which are of this nature neither would I neither dare I with a good conscience disallow them And what can be shewed more certainly out of histories out of the councels out of the writings of all the ancient fathers then that those orders of Ministers of the which we haue spoken haue bene ordained and receiued in the Church by the generall consent of all christian common-wealths And who then am I that should presume to reproue that which the whole Church hath approued This is true and religious humilitie Thus all graue and discreet godly men haue euerwritten Those that contemne all the learned Fathers that went before them doe open a windowe to their owne discredite by those that shall come after them That which this godly and great learned man ascribeth to the
bold to build vpon it for a truth that they are so constrained to yeeld vnto And then to ende this chapter Forasmuch as God himselfe appointed an inequalitie amongst the Priestes in the olde Testament Forasmuch as Christ though he calleth himselfe a Minister to minister vnto others was yet the Maister ouer his Apostles and Disciples Forasmuch as by Christs institution and in his owne time the Apostles were superior vnto the seuentie Disciples Forasmuch as the Apostles when the gospell began to spread it selfe appointed sundry Timothies Titus to gouerne the Churches in diuerse countries and territories Forasmuch as all the ecclesiasticall histories doe record the superioritie of Bishops and doe sette downe the Catalogues of many of them and which of the Apostles and Apostolicall Bishops and in what cities countries they succeeded Forasmuch as all the ancient generall Councels all the ancient and godly learned Fathers haue allowed of Bishops and of their superiority ouer the rest of the clergie Forasmuch as Bishops haue been accounted generally throughout the world to be the Apostles successors haue continued in the Church euer since the Apostles times Forasmuch as there was neuer any one of all the auncient Fathers nor any learned man for 1500. yeres but Aerius the heretike that euer held that there ought to bee no difference betwixt a Bishop a Priest I meane an ordinary Minister of the word and that his opinion was imputed vnto him 1200. yeeres since by Epiphanius and S. Augustine for an heresie Forasmuch as all the chiefe of the learned men that were the principall instruments vnder God in this latter age for the restitution of the Gospell allowed fullie of Bishoppes and of their authoritie and would not willingly haue submitted themselues to their obedience if they might haue bene receiued with anie tollerable conditions Forasmuch as all the reformed Churches in Germanie that doo imbrace the Augustane confession haue for the most part their superintendents and generall superintendents the same in effect with our Bishops Archbishops Forasmuch as the chiefest of the Germain writers now liuing do iustifie the calling offices of their superintendents and generall superintendents by the word of God Forasmuch as none of later times euer condemned the calling and authoritie of such Bishops and Archbishops as imbraced the Gospell for ought I finde but Beza and his schollers Forasmuch as Zanchius a fauorer of the Elderliship equalitie and now Beza himselfe ioyning with him do both of them confesse that the calling and authoritie of Bishops and Archbishops may be defended that they did proceed frō the holy Ghost and that there is nothing more manifest in all the Ecclesiasticall histories all the ancient councels and in the writings of all the ancient fathers then the allowance of them throughout all christendome Forasmuch as Beza for his own part hath written so honorably to the now L. Archbishop of Canterbury and so generally of all our Bishops now professing the Gospell condemning those of great arrogancie that shall presume to speak against them Forasmuch as you perceiue by Bezaes confession that there ought to be Bishops or Prelates such as were in the Church from S. Markes time for the auoiding and staying of contentions and schismes And forasmuch I saie as all these particular points are in sort as you haue heard the most of them confessed the rest by diuerse learned men proued to be true so still alwaies to be iustified with as ful consent and authoritie as may satisfie anie men either of learning or iudgement I see no reason why this Anabaptisticall dreame of equality amongst pastors should not be sent backe to the place frō whence it issued why the vrgers of it with such bitternesse ought to bee accounted otherwise off than hereby I trust you may see they deserue why Cartwright and his libelling generation against the present forme of our Church-gouernment should be anie longer indured or why any calling in the world next vnto the calling of euery Moses and soueraigne within their owne dominions should be more esteemed cherished reuerenced or honored by all true christians then the callings offices authoritie of Bishops and Archbishops hauing so generall continuall an allowance both of God himselfe and of all godly and rightly zealous men euer since there was any outward forme of church gouernment appointed CHAP. IX They disagree verie greatly concerning Doctors IT is now become to be a receiued opinion especially amongst those that desire to haue the kingdome of the pretended Elderships to raigne ouer them that S. Paul in the fourrh to the Ephesians doth make the Doctor a distinct office from the Pastor contrarie to the iudgement of S. Augustine Hierome Chrisostome Bullinger Musculus c. who make them but one office euen as feeding and teaching are all one Of this deuise for ought I do remember Caluin was the first author whose conceit Beza followeth And then it may not be meruailed though all the rest of that humor do faithfully imbrace it Of this office our reformers all of them ioyntly do carry this resolute opinion that it is a distinct ordinance of Christ to continue in the Church for euer that there ought to be a Doctor in euery Parish wheresoeuer there is a Pastor that the doctor is one of the members of the body of Christ that the doctor is one of those officers to whō the gouernment of the Church by Christs appointment is cōmitted that cōsequētly he hath by the same authoritie his place voice in the Consistorie as wel by as good right as either the pastor or Elder So as if there be anie reformed churches in the world where there are pastors that haue not these doctors which do not admit them to haue anie such authoritie nor giue thē either place or voice in their consistories then surely all those and many such like speeches following do euen as properly fall vpon them as they do vpon our church against the which they were first coined and vttered They refuse the ordinance of God They depriue the Church of the free gift of Christ they purpose not to haue the Church flourish in true knowledge They want some necessarie guifts which are tied necessarily to that office The knowledge of the son of God being necessarie to saluation The meanes thervnto are absolutely necessarie which is the hauing of pastors and doctors so long as men are subiect to ignorance The church is miserably destitute that wāteth the doctor They cānot take awaie those ministeries that God hath placed in his Church No christian Churches ought to swarue from the officers he nameth doctors that God hath appointed If they do they maime the Church they take away a member from the bodie of Christ they maime his bodie and deforme it Which after the manner of their amplifications is a matter of as great importance as the addition of anie new officers
the Church committed So as then these parochiall Doctors were cleane out of request And is not this the lightnes and fleshly minde which the Apostle renounceth in that they come thus vnto vs with yea and nay But as yet you see not all the vncertainties follies iarres squaringes and contradictions which I finde about this matter Iunius saith that of doctors some were prophets some were doctors Beza he holdeth that S. Pauls meaning was to diuide Prophets into Pastors doctors Whose diuisions or opinions cannot both bee true if the rules of diuisiō be duly obserued For by the first euery prophet is a doctor and by the second euery doctor is a prophet Furthermore as Iunius very cunningly will draw both a prophet and a doctor out of a doctor as Beza wringeth the doctor out of the prophet so Trauerse he can fetch him out of a Bishop Of Bishops saith he some are pastors and some are doctors By whose extraction euery Geneua school-master that teacheth but petits is now become a Bishop And peraduenture I doe espie his pollicie in it A great while it went vnchecked amongst them for an Ecclesiastical canon as though the king of Persia had made it that a Doctor was inferior to the Pastor and to holde the second place But since it was better considered of wisely foreseene that Cartwright some others might more safely take vpon them the office of doctors thē of pastors who are tied more strictly to the obseruation of diuers ceremonies they seeme to mee to bee quite come about and to assigne the first place mentioned vnto the Doctor so no maruaile if they make him a Bishop The office of teaching saith the learned discourser is the chiefe principal office in the church And afterward The office of a Doctor is to teach With whom the godly Sermoner seemeth to agree when he saith Mans soule hath two parts vz. reason or the minde and the hart or the affection By the fall of Adam there is darknes in the mind and rebellion in the hart Now the Lord to cure these diseases hath giuen remedie to his Church First a Doctor to teach vs and then a Pastor to exhort vs c. And Fenner-likewise doth place the Doctor before the Pastor But of this matter I haue no great regard whether soeuer goeth first as proud commeth after And peraduenture they haue some way to shift it I will not therfore stand greatly vppon it especially hauing some other of their Doctoral points to aduertise you of which are of greater importaunce For as yet they are not agreed for any thing I can find whether their Doctors in that they are Doctors bee Ministers to take as wee commonly speake the cure and charge of soules vpon them in particular parishes or not In the whole treatise of the discipline of Fraunce the rules and orders sette downe for making of Ministers doe belong altogether vnto such as our men tearme Pastors And the same course is also held in the seruice booke of Scotland But most plaine it is in the generall Synode of Hage vz. that Doctors are not such Ministers where hauing set downe after the newest fashion the foure functions left vs as they say by Christ vz. Pastors Doctors Elders and Deacons it presently followeth in this manner Nemo sine legitima vocatione c. No man ought to take vpon him to preach or administer the sacraments without a lawfull calling although he be a Doctor an Elder or a Deacon Whereby it appeareth as I said that their Doctors in some places beyond the seas are no Ministers without some further calling And yet our English reformers are generally of another iudgement making Ministers of the worde to comprehend aswell Doctors as Pastors as it appeareth in all their seuerall treatises I will not quote any other places than their subscribed new draught of discipline and their Captaines resolution that the officers mentioned Ephes. 4. were all of them assuredly Ministers of the word Lastly if they should bee able in time to compasse this point that their Doctors by vertue of that calling might goe for such Ministers yet a new controuersie thereupon ariseth not inferiour to any of the rest vz. whether it appertaineth to these kinde of Ministers of the word to be Ministers also of the sacraments Caluin thinketh that this is a part of the difference betweene the Pastor and the Doctor Quod Doctores nec disciplinae nec sacramentorū administrationi praesunt That Doctors haue neither to deale with the discipline ' nor with the administration of sacraments But Cartwright little esteeming Caluins iudgement in this matter is most earnest to the contrary who grounding himself as he would seem vpon diuers reasons examples and authorities giueth out these Oracles The Ministers of the word sacraments cannot be pulled in sunder It is a perpetuall ordinance that the same should bee the Ministers of the worde and sacraments These wordes are plaine inough to expresse a mans mind But you may not giue any faith vnto him For as I suppose hee hath altered his iudgement And yet if you will peruse the place you shall not finde him more peremptorie in any one point throughout all his writings In the new draught of discipline wherunto he hath subscribed it is thus defined The Church-officers are first the Ministers of the worde c. And those are Pastors Qui doctrinam sacramenta administrant Who administer doctrine and the sacraments or Doctors Qui versantur in sana doctrina docenda conuincendis erroribus Who are occupied in teaching of wholesome doctrine and in confuting of errors And thus his second sort of Ministers of the word is quite debarred and cut off from the administration of the sacraments Not to gratifie I suppose either Caluin or the truth but because it concerneth most their owne present estate For as the Doctor for their sakes began to be aduanced a steppe higher than he was before so is hee now likewise as I imagine in the same respect disburdened of that base office They can finde in their harts to preach but vrge them to administer the sacraments and their common answere is this we haue nothing to doe with that duetie it belongeth to the Pastors and we are Doctors The matter is they will not obserue the orders of the Church in the administration of sacramentes whereupon it is now come to passe that there may bee certaine Ministers of the worde who haue not authoritie to administer the sacramentes But let them goe They haue not written truth in the tables of their harts and therefore she hath forsaken them CHAP. X. Their Aldermen must be men of good calling AS concerning the number of these pretended rulers there will bee a more fitte place to speake of that hereafter Now you shall first knowe what manner of men they must bee In most parishes of England no doubt but
coulde not depute it to the Apostle So as it remaineth that he did it by his owne authoritie or at the least in the name of the rest that were ministers of the word which will not agree with our mens platforme If here exception be taken to Caluin as that in some other of his writings he is of an other minde you must bee aduertised that he beginning to write betimes did in diuers thinges vpon better aduise change his opinion And therefore in one of his epistles desireth those that wil reade his workes that they would first take the paines to reade his institutions as conteininge in them for those things there set downe his verie mind and setled iudgment But what if Beza doe in sort agree herin with Caluin Surely if I vnderstand him he doth For vpon these wordes Cum impositione manuum presbyterij id est saith he ordinis presbyterorum qu◠nomine caetus omnis ille significatur qui in verbo laborabat in ea ecclesia that is the order of Priestes or Elders by which name all that company is signified which did laboure in the word in that Church Disburden then for shame your counterfet Aldermen of this ioint-dutie in your Eldership or at the leaste let them rest vntill you be better resolued amongst your selues howe to imploie them least yow bring them within the compasse of the punishment of Corah Dathan and Abiram as I haue said before CHAP. 17. Of their Aldermens ioynt office with the ministers in binding and loosing of sinnes and of their disagreement therin COncerning their pretended authoritie equall with their ministers for their procedings are by voyces in excommunication of the stubborne and absolution of the repentant will they trouble themselues thinke you with any testimonies out of the old testament Indeede they affirme that these censures were resembled there by the authority of discerning bettwene the cleane and the vncleane betwene the holy vnholy of shutting vp the leprous and releasinge them of purginge the vncleane of cursing resembling bindding of blessing resembling loosing c. And be it so But where is there mention in any such places that your pretēded Elders had any authoritie to intermeddle with these matters Are they not throughout the whole olde testament euermore ascribed to Aaron and his sonnes Nay might any that were of other tribes then of the tribe of Leui deale heerwithal Speake franckly truly might they so Beza could find no answere to this question but Probabile est it is probable they might whereas I am perswaded there are fewe assertions of greater absurditie or of lesse probabilitie For the Leuites themselues that were not of the sonnes of Aaron had nothinge to doe in these thinges Trauers defininge what suspension is saith it is a commaundement or prohibition of an Elder of abstaininge for a certaine time from the receauing of the Sacraments For the proofe wherof he groundeth himselfe vpon this shadow as hee termeth it That by the law the vncleane and vncircumcised were prohibited the celebrating of the Passeouer entrance into the Temple Which caused saith hee Ioiada the priest to appoynt certaine porters to the gates of the Temple By which testimonies what hee else proueth then that his Elders were of the number of these Porters I finde not And that surelye agreeth best with Bezaes opion mentioned Horum proculdubio partes erant c. It was out of doubt the dutye of the Arch-rulers of the Synagogues not to admitte excommunicated persons into the Synagogues With which offices if they of that consorte will bee content to infeoffe their Aldermen and goe no further I see no cause why any man should greatly enuie them that preferment But when from dore-keepers they must be so aduaunced as that they must bee abdicators and comforters as they terme them that is more then vpon such weake collections is fit to bee allowed of For where they giue them these iointe offices with the Minister of abdicating the stubborne and of consolation of the repentant if they would speake out it is as much as though they should saie that they haue equall authoritie with them of suspension and excommunication of bindinge and loosing of retaining and remitting of sinnes No no they maie sende them to Parishgarden to loose and bind beares for they are farre vnmeet to haue anie such authoritie ouer mens soules That those which were not Bishops or Priestes that is ministers of the word and sacraments should haue that authoritie which they speake of is a matter that was neuer heard of in the Church of God for a 1500. yeares Cartwright in handling this pointe was able to bring for his purpose but one pertinent authoritie in shew out of all the auncient Fathers vz. out of Tertullian of certaine Presidents that shut offenders from praiers in the Congregation which presidents as hee well knoweth the same Tertullian saith expresslie in an other place were Ministers of the worde and sacraments in these wordes speaking of the Lordes supper Nec de aliorum manu quà m presidentium sumimus neyther do wee receaue at the handes of any other but of the gouernours It is worthie the consideration to see into what extremities men do commonlie fall that will presume to builde the Church vppon the straw and stubble of their owne deuises All the world cannot perswade the papists but that the keies of the kingdome of heauen were onely giuen to Peter and so to his successors and that from him the rest of the Apostles were to receaue them and so must their successors from the Pope Against whom we insist with the auncient Fathers that what was saide to Peter appertained to them all as namelie for one reasō in that where the keyes were promised to Peter tibi dabo I will giue them to thee when this promise was performed Christ gaue them vnto all the Apostles alike and to their successors Whose sinnes yee remit they shall be remitted and whose sinnes ye retaine they shall bee retayned which is the true vse of the keyes Now who are to be termed the Apostles successors if wee will belieue the said auncient Fathers that were in my opinion as honest and learned men as those that oppose themselues against them wee must confesse that they were at the least Ministers of the worde and sacraments and so we haue pleaded in this cause against the papists But now on the other side the world is so come about that whereas the papistes doe giue the keies but to Peter only and so to the Pope where the auntient fathers doe giue them to all the Apostles equally and so to their successors ministers as I said at the leaste now these newe start-ups will needes thrust their aldermen into that number and they must be also the Apostles successors If men will be seduced wilfully by such falseteachers they maie What a ridiculous sayinge is this of Bezaes That In persona Apostolorum the keyes
certaine that the Barrowists woulde not and not they onely but euen some others of a little better credite then any of our English botchers who will needs haue the people to haue in effect as great an interest in the execution of the Church censures as all the rest both ministers and Eldermen Thus Vrsinus writeth hereof Fiat excommunicatio c Let excommunication be done by the consent and authoritie of the whole Eldership ecclesiae and of the Church not of the Church alone nor of the Ministers or presbytery alone For this power is not giuen by Christ to a few or to Ministers onely although the administration and execution of it is committed oftentimes to fewe or to one Minister sed toti ecclesiae but to the whole Church If he will not heare them and others tell the Church Potentes dominantur vos autem non sic Princes beare rule like Lordes but you may not do so The consent therfore of the Church is to be required 1. Because it is Christes commaundement 2. For the authoritie of the action 3. That no man bee iniuried 4. Least the Ministery should be changed into an Oligarchy or Popish tyranny Thus farre Vrsinus In whose iudgment you see the Eldership is to be charged alreadie though it be but newly set vp with the same faults that are imputed to our church-gouernment by the brotherhoode amongest vs that is with the alteration of Christes institution with Lordlinesse and with a Popishe tyranny c. So as by this deuise the people are to bee vnderstoode in the person of the Apostles as well as their Elders and the one hath no more authoritie to binde and loose then the other But nothing will content them long Giue them the head euery yeare will bring forth a new platforme It will not be inough for maister Beza to say Neque enim eis assentior qui non nisi totius ecclesiae c. I doe not agree with them who will not haue any man excommunicated but by the consent of the whole Church and of euery man particularly For Christ hath giuen this authoritie sani iudicij hominibus to men of sound iudgement that is to the colledge of Elders according to the manner of the Iewes Vrsinus and those that are of his opinion will aunswere that the rest of the Church are not of their wits that it is but his pride and his Elders presumption to take so much vppon them that they would be Lords ouer their brethren and for the place of Mathew that they know Christes meaning aswell as he and all that take his part Of the third ioynt office that Cartwright saith dothâ—belong vnto his pretended Elders to bee executed ioyntly with the ministers as it was touched in the beginning of the 16. chapter I shall haue a more fit place to speake in the 22.23.24 and 25. chapters following CHAP. XVIII Of the first institution of the old Deacons and of the disagreement about the new disciplinarie Deacons IN the apostles times when after Christes ascention they began to preach in Ierusalem such was the charitie of those that professed the Gospell that many of them solde all or the most part of that which they had and brought the price of it to the Apostles feete The especiall reason that moued them as I take it so to do was this The greatest part that at the first did followe the Apostles were of the poorer sorte Who vppon theyr newe embracing of that so comfortable a doctrine did giue ouer themselues to the carefull meditation and throughly learning of it leauing their trades though not altogether yet surely as I suppose for the most part vntill at the least that they grew to bee more fully instructed therein To the which purpose they kept asmuch together with the Apostles as possibly they could and had their holy assemblies their exhortations praiers and the administratioÌ„ of Baptisme secretly in priuat houses for fear of the Magistrats Now as I said the most of these being poore men and the Apostles themselues hauing nothing to liue vpon When any of the richer sorte did ioyne themselues to that meeting or congregation they sold such thinges as they had or thought meete and brought the price of it vnto the Apostles not onely for theyr owne maintenaunce but committed the distribution of it vnto them for the reliefe also of the rest that wanted and were not able to prouide for themselues those thinges that were necessary This charge as well for the saide religious exercises in their priuate assembly as for this distribution equally to be made as the occasions required the Apostles took vppon them more particularly for a short time then they did afterward vz. vntill the number of Christians in Ierusalem increased from 120. vnto fiue thousand at the least and did grow daily more and more so as they were as I thinke constrained to haue diuerse Congregations And then because they found it to be some hinderaunce vnto the execution of their generall Commission for the further dispersing of the Gospell they caused seuen men to be chosen such as were knowen to be of honest report and full of the holy Ghost and wisedome Vnto whom that businesse was more specially committed Who thenceforth might not onely according to their honesty and discretion take into their hands such money as shoulde be brought from time to time to the godly disposed for the purpose mentioned but also in the Apostles absence agreeably with the fulnes of the holy Ghost whereby they held the mysterye of faith in a pure conscience were to teach to comforte to moue to confirme in the faith the brethren in theyr particular congregations or meetings and likewise to offer their common praiers in al their names vnto the Lord and to baptise the children of the faithfull For the Apostles in appointing of these newe officers had as well regard to the Soules of the people as to their bodies And because at that time which was the infancy and first spring of the Church there were not such meete men as might be made Priests or as they tearme them now a daies preaching Elders it pleased the Apostles to haue them trained vp in that exercise and to make the office of Deacons a degree and a step to the fulnes of Priesthood Which is expressed by Saint Paul when he saith of Deacons qui bene ministrant gradum bonum sibi acquirent they that minister well shal purchase to themselues a good degree And this order or office of Deacons being thus as you haue heard first instituted at Hierusalent was afterward vppon the same occasions and for the same ends ordained in other Churches where alwaies they executed all the parts mentioned of their offices so long as the Churchâ—s continued wherein they were placed Or if it happened as it did after in IerusaleÌ„ that their Churches were dispersed so as contributions collections ceased yet they continued their
followeth Timendum est c. It is to be feared least wee seeme ridiculous to your magistrats in requiring that of them which as yet wee haue not obtained of our owne We shall teach what the right vse is of church goods and who are the lawfull Stewardes of them that by our authoritie wee maie vrge those of Neocome Cur non potius exordium a nobis facimus But first why do not we begin with our selues Take heede therefore least in attempting to do you good that we doe not rather hurt your cause How much more forceable would that be which is in the booke that I procured to be printed when I was at Strasburgh For there the Princes as many as imbrace the gospel do promise the restitution of all which they haue in their possessions if once there were any godly concord agreed vpon Your magistrates are to be admonished by the example of those Princes that at the least vntill that time they would keepe them all wholy together vndisposed of or distracted in their owne hands You will aske me why I cease or hold my peace if I see the same mischiefe in Geneua that vexeth you Ego verònō cesso c. I do not truly cease openly in my sermons as oft as oportunitie serueth therunto Contestor Deum homines graue nobis imminere iudicium I do with griefe praier call God and men to witnes that a heauie iudgement hangeth ouer our heades I haue also affirmed diuerse times asmuch in our Senate neither doe I thinke that as yet I haue discharged my dutie seing I haue nothing preuailed But I do follow Ambrose who retayning the doctrine and the place of a pastor so as in defence of them he was ready to haue spent his life agros tyrannidi Imperatoris Valentiniani sinebat hee permitted the possessions of the Church to the tiranny of Valentinian the Emperor For our magistrates do suspect that the strife is but of emulation as though our griefe onely were that they haue wrong those thinges out of our fingers which now they possesse excepte peraduenture they giue it so out not because they thinke so but for that they would thereby discredit our words in that behalfe But yet notwithstanding we must so auoyd suspition that we doe not winke at sacriledge And againe the same maister Caluin in another epistle to Viretus doth signifie vnto him how he dealt with the magistrates of Geneua at one especiall time when there was speach about certaine stipends When I sawe howe hard they were in that matter acriter aurem illis vellicaui c. I made their eares to burn saith he as concerning the administration of Church-goods how in time they were to thinke what account they should make both to God and men Papam fuisse furem et sacrilegum videndum ne simus successores that the Pope was a thiefe and a church robber and they were to looke to it that they proued not his successors I did vse a preface that might cause attention vz. That the woundes of a friend were better c. and that they should not seeke any Balaam qui illis in maledictione benediceret who in their cursed estate should blesse them Hitherto maister Caluin whose wordes I haue set down at large that you might the better vnderstand the estate of the most worthy Reformation of the church of Geneua and how the discipline being there in her full prime and brightnes it is not possible that anye grosse enormities should continue in that Citie Indeed it is much and I meruaile how it is endured that maister Caluin should resemble the magistrates of Geneua to such cruell tyrannouse and sacrilegious persons Valentinian the Emperor and the Pope of Rome But most of all I wonder that maister Beza would publish such letters in print Being but written to priuate men the matter could not be great Marry now they are thus offred to all posteritie the testimonie of such tyrannous sacrilege will be euer had in memorie For which kind of dealing they are much beholden to Beza It was indeed handled of him politickly Of likelyhood the sacrilege mentioned doth continue there still But he being a prouident man thought it better that maister Caluin being dead should tell them of it then he himselfe being aliue and therefore subiect vnto their displeasures For otherwise maister Beza for his parte is as earnest against sacrilege as euer maister Caluin was and it may be for ought I do know or remember to the contrarie that hee hath dealt himselfe as roundly with them But sure I am of his iudgement which doth appeare in his treatise of his three sortes of Bishops where this question being propounded vnto him vz. Whether these thinges which had beene once vowed to holy vses might afterwardes bee otherwise employed he maketh this answere Concerning the goodes of the Church first of all we suppose great heed ought to be taken that none doth staine himselfe with handling the church goods For if God hath taken reuenge of such sacrilege euen amongst the very Idolaters what trow we will his iudgement bee against them which haue spoyled his Church and haue prophaned the thinges which were set a part for his true worship Moreouer it is euident that this turneth greatly to the reproch of the name of God and of his holy gospell as though for sooth papistrie hath beene abandoned not for the loue of the truth but to robbe the Church of her goodes as though new theeues haue entred into the roomes of the olde c. Viretus in like manner for his earnestnes in this pointe is neither short of Caluin not Beza The lesse authoritie that the ministerye and ministers haue the greater libertie haue sacrilegers theeues extortioners and other wicked ones Againe I know many which liked the gospell well when in the beginning their preachers cryed against the abuse that they sayd was in the Romish church and in priests and monkes They liked well also that the goods of the Church should be taken from Priests and Monkes to haue the gouernment of them themselues vnder colour that the Priests and Monkes abused them and that they should be put to better vse but God knoweth how euill they are bestowed vppon manye and in many places The worst is that those which haue not done herein as they ought and which dayly forget themselues more more cannot now a dayes so much as suffer the preachers to admonish reproue them to stir thē vp to bestow it where they ought to bestow it according to the order discipline c. And in another place These fellowes that will not restore the church-liuings may be likened to those Diuils which cry why art thou come to torment vs before our time And the same fellowes also say Qui nostra tollit inimicus est hee that taketh awaye ours is our enemie They regard not whether they haue gotten the goods that they possesse
in their printed Supplication against all the new Iulianistes and Atheists mentioned CHAP. XXII They take from Christian Princes and ascribe to their pretended regiment the supreme and immediate authority vnder Christ in causes Ecclesiasticall IN the beginning of the reformation of Religion in Germany the learned men there opposing themselues verie mightely against the Popes vsurped iurisdiction did verie learnedly and soundlie shew and proue to their aduersaries the soueraigne authority of Christian Kinges and Princes in causes Ecclesiasticall within their owne dominions and countries Which authoritie vppon the banishment of the Pope as well there as after also in England was both there and here vnited by diuerse laws vnto the interest of their Crowns and to the lawfull right of ciuile regiment This doctrine since that time hath beene so very throughly maintained by sundrie notable men as Brentius against Asoto Bishop Horne against Fecknam Bishop Iuell against Harding and many other learned men against such other Papistes as haue taken vppon them to impugne it that I am perswaded had it not beene that newe aduersaries did rise opposed themselues in the matter the Papists before this time had beene vtterlie subdued For either vppon the attempt in Geneua for the erecting of the Consistorian gouernment which cannot endure any superior authority ouer it in causes Ecclesiasticall when Caluin and Viretus were banished the Citty or else vppon their restitution and after they had preuailed in their said attempt the Ministers there whether in reuenge of their banishment or least their Magistrats should at any time to come giue eare to the aforesaide Doctrine I will not saye but vppon some such occasion they did presentlie thrust themselues into this question that with such spitefull railing and bitternes as though they had conspired with the Pope and his Proctors against al other reformed churches that reiecting their pretended Discipline or new Papacie indeed had submitted themselues vnto the said lawfull authority of Christian Princes in causes Ecclesiasticall And hereof it came to speake the trueth plainelie that Caluin could not abide that King Henrye the eight should bee tearmed the head or supreme gouernour in Earth of the Churches of God within his Dominions And writing to one Myconius how certaine men in Geneua perswaded the Magistrates there Ne potestate quam illis Deus contulisset se abdicaerent that they woulde not depriue themselues of that authoritie which God had giuen them he tearmeth them according to the Consistorian language prophane spirites and mad men whom saith he if we speaking of himselfe and his fellowes shall ioine together to encounter and with a valiant and inuincible zeale fight for that holy authority vz. CoÌ„sistorian c the Lord with the breath of his mouth will destroy The saide Myconius in like sorte reporteth to Caluin from Basill how some in those borders did write to the like purpose in the behalfe of Christian Magistrates alledging the examples of Moises Dauid and other godlye Kinges which saith hee in effect is to make them Popes and then addeth quid si laici huiusmodi argumentis fuerint persuasi what if lay men shall be perswaded by such argumentes Indeede that will cutte the throate of all your soueraigntie But of all others that haue opposed themselues to Christian Princes in this matter besides Martin-Marre-Prelate and some such like companions amongest vs Viretus for rayling scoffing and biting passeth and excelleth Those that stand in defence of the Magistrates authoritie he resembleth to white Diuels and saith They are false Christians though they couer themselues with the cloake of the Gospell and the reformation of the same And againe The Ministers that haue forsaken the Romish Church in seeking to get the Magistrates and peoples fauour against the Pope Priestes and Monkes haue so despised the state of Priestood and Ministery of the Church and so magnified the state of the Magistrate that they now feele the fruict thereof he meaneth that the goods of the Church are thereby gone and wasted Further saith he they thought it a goodby reformation in the Churche to abolishe all the Canons and decrees with the good Statutes which the auncient Fathers and Doctors hadde ordayned to maintaine good Discipline in the Church They haue put all into the Magistrates handes and haue made them maisters of the Church which he tearmeth to be nothing else but the changing of the Popedome the taking away of both swordes from the Pope and giuing them to Princes the euerthrowing of a spirituall Pope and setting vppe a temporall Pope which vnder another colour will all come to one end Nay hee taketh vppon him to prooue that these Temporall Popes as hee tearmeth them are more to bee feared if they take roote and will be worse theâ— the Spirituall Popes and that so the olde Popishe â—yr 〈◊〉 is not taken awaie but onely changed and disguised And his reasons are First that the olde Pope had not the Temporall sworde in his own hand to punishe with death but was fayne to praye aide of the secular power which the neâ—e Pope's need not to doe Secondly that the olde Popes had some regarde in their dealinges of Councelles Synodes and aunciente Canons c. but the newe Popes will doe what they list without any Ecclesiasticall order bee it right or wronge Thirdlye because it chaunceth ofte that these newâ— Popes haue neither learning nor knowledge and yet these shall bee they that shall commaund Ministers and Preachers what they list on paine of their sworde and ministerie and shall appoint them lawes touching their estate and ministery and likewise to the whole Church Giue him also the hearing a little further I praie you Who so vseth such meanes to reforme the fault of the Pope doth not reforme the Church but deforme is more then it was before c. This I dare say that I see already in some places that vnder title of reformation by the Gospell some christian Princes haue in ten or twentie yeares vsurped more tyranny ouer the Churches in their Dominions then euer the Pope and his adherentes did in sixe hundred yeares And lastly If there be any Magistrates in these daies which vnder the title of authority and power that God hath giuen them c. will make the Ministers of the Church subiect vnto them as the Pope hath made them subiect to him and his c. the same doe verily set vp a newe Pope changing onely his coate and maske And thus far Viretus in his thirde Dialogue of white Diuels which was not written I feare by the instinct of anie good spirite nor without some euill direction translated into English of purpose to seede the seditious fier that our turbulent Copper-smiths following this Dâ—sciplinarie tract haue kindled alreadie amongest vs. I haue omitted his earnestnes in the behalfe of his own and Caluins Discipline that the authority thus denied to Princes might be yeelded to them and
their followers and that all men both Princes and others would be content to submitte their neckes vnder that yoke Which were to make Princes saith Erastus trulie quasi carniâ—ices as it were the executioners onely of their pleasures quemadmâ—dunâ— in Papatu factum videmus as we see it practised in the Papacy and in truth is nothing els but that I may vse their phrases to banish one Pope and admitte of thousands or to deliuer their Scepters from the tyrannie of the old Pope and to subiect them to the tyranny of these new Popes euen to excommunication as Cartwright with his English crue doe affirme and so consequently to depriuation or death as Buchanan the Scottishe Consistorian teacheth My purpose is only in this place to make it knowne from whence our brotherhood haue furnished themselues with their inuectiues against the authoritye of Princes in causes ecclesiasticall and that whatsoeuer they pretend in words yet they are of the same minde that Viretus is if they durst so plainly vtter it Or if they be not let them confes in print that the premisses cited out of his sayde dialogue are false and then for that pointe let them be credited But that I am perswaded they will neuer doe I am sure if they should that besides their opposition with Geneua they should also recant their owne assertions which directly exclude the ciuile magistrates from dealing in ecclesiasticall causes As for example The whole gouernment of the Church is to be committed to Ministers Elders Deacons The church is now to the worldes end to haue no other offices in it but of pastors Doctors Elders and Deacons They which are no Elders of the Church haue nothing to doe in the gouernment of the same They deuide the Church wherein anye Magistrate King or Emperor is a member into those which are to gouerne vz. Pastors Doctors and Elders and into such as are to obey vz. magistrates of all sortes the people Indeed Beza will haue the ciuile magistrate one of the Church-officers But Cartwright will not consent for his part to yeald them so much For saith he as Pastors cannot bee officers of the common wealth no more can the magistrate bee called properlye a church-officer And in truth what Beza graunteth it is in effect nothing sauing for a shew and to serue their own turnes forsooth vt tranquillitatem ecclesiae procurent â—t tueantur Their office is to procure and defend the peace of the Church whereas else where hee agreeth with Viretus yee may bee sure and in his Booke against Erastus peremptorily affirmeth That Princes haue no more to doe with matters of the Church then Ministers haue with the affayres of the common wealth Which by their doctrine generallie is none at all But saide I hee agreeth with Viretus I might saie rather with Cardinall Allen and Saunders if he bee the author of the Booke intituled Vindicie contra Tyrannos as it was reported For there hee saith that if anie Prince shall challenge to himselfe both Tributes that is authoritie aswell in Ecclesiasticall causes as ciuile as by the circumstances of the place it is euident hee doth as if hee would like the old Giaunts scale heauen and surprise it and is guiltie of treason and doth thereby forfeite his fee that hee holdeth no lesse than a subiect or vassall shall that vsurpeth the kinges royaltyes and in this respect such kinges are very often depriued thereof much more iustlye then a vassall or subiecte maye bee insomuch as there is some proportion of comparison betwixte a vassall or subiect and his Lorde but betwixt God and the king betwixt a wretched man and the Almightie there can bee no proportion at all Furthermore Cartwright and some others with him do affirme that Kings and princes do holde their kingdomes and dominions vnder Christ as hee is the sonne of God onlye before all worldes coequall with the father and not as hee is mediator the heade and gouernor of the Church Whereuppon they doe first builde that all Kinges aswell heathen as Christian receiuing but one commission and equall authoritie immediately from God haue no more to doe with the Church the one sorte then the other as being in no respect deputed for Church officers vnder Christ otherwise then if they bee good Kinges to maintaine and defende it And secondlye that as God hath appoynted all Kinges and Ciuile Magistrates his immediate Lieutenants for the gouernment of the worlde in temporall causes so Christ as hee is mediator and gouernour of his Church hath his immediate officers to rule in the Church vnder him and those they saie are no other then Pastors Doctors and Elders to whom they ascribe as large authoritie in causes Ecclesiasticall And all this as I take it they haue learned of the Papists For whereas maister Harding saith that the office of a King in it selfe is all one euerie where not onely amongst the Christian Princes but also amonge the Heathen and thereuppon concludeth that a christian Prince hath no more to doe in the deciding of church-matters or in making ceremonies and orders for the Church then a Heathen Cartwright alloweth of his iudgement and doth expresly affirme that hee himselfe is of the same opinion professing his mislike of those who teach another right of a Christian and of a prophane magistrate Whereat Trauerse his scholler aymeth in like sorte when hee saith in effect that heathen princes being conuerted to the fayth receiue no further increase of theyr power whereby they maye deale in causes ecclesiasticall then they had before And lastly it is no lesse agreeable vnto their seconde assertion that whereas the Papists saye the Pope with his Cardinalls and Bishops are a true representation of the Catholicke Church of Christ vnder whom the Pope being Peters supposed Successor is the ministeriall and immediate chiefe gouernour of it here vppon earth now Cartwright and others doe affirme that euerye particular parish hauing such an Eldershippe in it as they desire is a liuelye patterne and representation of the whole and catholicke Church of Christe vnder whom saye they their Pastors Doctors and Elders are the ministeriall and immediate gouernours by right of euery such Catholicke parish-parish-Church vppon earth And thus if I bee not deceiued that playnelye appeareth which was in the beginning of this Chapter propounded vz. that for all their protestations they derogate from Christian Princes and arrogate to their Elderships the supreame and immediate authority vnder Christ in causes ecclesiasticall CHAP. XXIII In the oppugning of Princes authoritye in causes Ecclesiasticall they ioyne with the Papists THere is nothing will lightlye anger our pretended Brotherhood more then if ti be tolde them that they denie in effect with the common aduersaries her Maisties lawefull stile and prerogatiue Royall in causes ecclesiasticall Oâ— saye they wee doe not wee are slaundered wee yealde vnto her Highnes
as much authoritie as anye King maie lawfully challenge we abbridge her of nothing that the worde of God alloweth her and many other such ambiguous protestations they vse to make in this behalfe But they plav the deceitfull sophisters whom the Lord abhorreth For these are some of their grounds A man would thinke that they had taken them out of Hosius The Christian soueraigne ought not to be called the head vnder Christ of the particular and visible churches vvithin his dominions No ciuile magistrat hath prehemineÌ„ce by ordinary authoritie to determine of church-causes No ciuile magistrat in Councels or assemblies for church-matters can either be cheefe moderator ouer-ruler iudge or determiner No ciuile magistrat hath such authoritie as that vvithout his consent it should not be lavvfull for ecclesiastical persons to make any church-order or ceremonie No ciuile magistrat ought to receiue either tenths or first fruits of any ecclesiasticall persons The iudgemeÌ„t of church-matters pertaineth to God they ought ordinarily to be handled by the church-officers the principallitie or direction of the iudgement of them is by Gods ordinance pertaining to the ministerie of the Church As for the making of orders and ceremonies in the church they do vvhen there is a constituted and ordered church pertaine vnto the ministers of the church and to the ecclesiasticall gouernors and that as they meddle not vvith the making of ciuile lavves and lavves for the common-vvealth so the ciuile magistrate hath not to ordaine ceremonies pertaining to the church The ministers are to determine of controuersies as they arise and to make or abolish needfull or hurtfull ceremonies Herevnto may be added that which is before obserued how he ascribeth the same right in church causes to an infidel or prophane magistrat that he doth to any Christian princes and of their mutuall agreement with the Pope himselfe in the manner of both their excluding of Christian magistrats from hauing any thing to do as vnder Christ in his Church Hitherto then concerning all these puritane-popish assertious so much derogating from the lawfull authoritie of Christian princes There is but only this difference betwixt them the rankest Iesuits in Europe that what the one sort ascribe to the Pope and his shauelings the other do challenge to themselues and their Aldermen Vpon which occasion Cartvvright finding himselfe with his fellowes ranged to walke step by step with such a crue taketh vpon him like some dawber or bricklaier to make a high wall as he tearmeth it betwixt the Papists and them in this point But God knoweth it is a simple one and so thinne that you may easily looke through it and discerne them marching both togither First sayth he the Papists exempt their priests from the punishment of the ciuile magistrate vvhich vve doe not It is reason in deed you should not But if you doe not what doe these things mean The author of the second admonition desireth that he and his companions may be deliuered by act of Parlement from the authoritie of the ciuile magistrates as Iustices and others and from their inditings and finings Furthermore where Cartvvright sayth that the authoritie of christian Princes commeth immediately from God and not from Christ as he is mediator and that the authoritie of the svvord is the same ordinance of God as vvell in heathen princes as in Christians doth it not follow that in his iudgement Christian princes haue no authoritie ouer any of their subiects but only as they are men and not as they are either Christians or priests If you thinke it doth not then what T.C. wanteth I.B. doth supplie and that in proper tearmes as if it please you to peruse the place it will appeare vnto you Besides there goeth a letter from hand to hand written by certaine gentlemen of Suffolke to the Lords of her maiesties councell wherein there is great complaint made in the behalfe of certaine of the brotherhood as a matter fit to bee reformed that being ministers they had at their assises bene presented brought to the barre endicted arraigned and condemned Which dealing they tearme to be very hard and tending to the vtter discredit of the vvhole ministerie and profession of truth So that of all likelihood for all Cartvvrights saying both he and his fellowes could be well contented to be exempted from the ciuile magistrats But let vs heare the papists vpon this point or first part of Cartvvrights wall and peraduenture you shall find them as forward for their subiection herein as hee himselfe is or at the least as small a difference betwixt them as euer you saw though it were betweene two twiâ—nes Good kings may put bishops and priests in mind of their duties and bridle both their riot and arrogancie The prince by the vvord of God may make lavves for the obseruation of both tables and punish the trangressors I do here presently offer my selfe to receaue a corporall â—ath vpon the Euangelists that I do vtterly thinke and am persuaded in my conscience that the Queenes highnesse is the onely supreme gouernour of this realme and of all other her highnesse dominions and countries c. And further I shall presently svveare that her highnesse hath vnder God the soueraignty and rule ouer all maner of persons borne vvithin these her highnesse realms of vvhat estate ecclestasticall or temporall soeuer they be Fatemur person as EpiscoparuÌ„ qui in toto orbe fuerunt Romano imperatori subiectos fuisse VVe confesse that the persons of all the Bishops in the vvorld vvere subiect to the Romane emperour Rex praeest hominibus Christianis verum non quia sunt Christiani sed quia sunt homines quoniam ipsi episcopi sunt homines episcopis etiam ea ex parte rex praeesset The king ruleth christiaÌ„s not as they are christiaÌ„s but as they are men because bishops are men the king in that respect hath authoritie ouer them Harding also confesseth that if the causes be ciuile and temporall and all other causes our reformers do tie to their Elderships Bishops may be conuented before ciuile authoritie And it appeareth amongst all the learned Papists that the cheese prerogatiue they haue had in this point hath proceeded from the meere fauour and good will of Christian Princes the rather to couer and keepe from the people such faults in the Clergie as might breed their contempt Hitherto then this wall riseth vp but easily especially if I should adde in this place the brethren of Scotland their diuinitie for this matter when they not the Papists gaue the king and state occasion to make it by act of Parlement 1584 treason for any man to refuse to answer before the king though it were concerning any matter which was ecclesiasticall Now concerning the second part of Cartvvrights wall it is this The Papists sayth he vvill haue the Prince to
execute vvhatsoeuer they conclude be it good or bad vve say that if there be no lavvfull ministerie as in time of necessitie Dauid did eat the shevv bread vvhich vvas othervvise lavvfull for the priests only to eat of that then the Prince ought to set order and that vvhen there is a lavvfull ministerie if it shall agree of any vnlavvfull thing the Prince ought to stay it Surely you are very proper and right liberall sayers Doth not your admonisher affirme that if your platforme were once on foot all men must stand vnto the determinations of your maiesticall church officers that I may vse maister VVakes tearme except it should happen in some matter of faith they should make decrees against the vvord of God And I pray you if any such thing should happen how could the king reforme it or as you say stay it He iudgeth their sayd orders to be erronious and perceaueth the mischiefes that do depend vpon them but how shall he redresse and preuent them Shall he compell the authors of them to assemble themselues together againe and to retract and condemne all such their decrees They are of that humor as experience hath told vs that it is vnlikely they will be compelled to any thing No it were too great a disgrace for them to yeeld in any thing that once they haue broached were it good or bad but especially when it is decreed in any of their worshipfull meetings And besides if the king should presse them too far in such a matter he might find them peraduenture but very ticklish subiects Cartvvright to shuffle vp some blundering answer to these points sayth That if in such a case the church ministers should shevv themselues obstinate and vvould not be aduised by the Prince they should thereby prooue themselues to be an vnlavvfull ministerie that vpon such an occasion the Prince might remooue thē Remouethē How By any ordinarie authoritie which you do allow to the christian magistrats in causes ecclesiasticall But you haue told vs before your mind herein In effect that it must be done by an extraordinarie authoritie euen by the same right that Dauid did eat of the shew-bread which were it not in such a case of necessitie none but the Priests might in any wise eat of For otherwise as it is before mentioned where such a platforme is in execution as they seeke for the Prince hath not any thing to doe by their doctrine God knoweth either with placing or displacing of church ministers Or if Cartvvright will say that I wrest his words to the worst construction and that he meaneth plainely as purposing thereby to confirme for his part her maiesties ordinarie supreme authoritie in those maner of causes I am content he make the best of his owne words that he can whether he meant ordinarie or extraordinarie authoritie so that when he hath done he will stand vnto it But let him say what he is able yet he hath a woolfe by the eares and shall neuer be able so to shift his hands but that it will follow that both he and all the pastors doctors and elders that are combined with him are by his words both obstinate and vnlawfull ministers except he shall withdraw this part of his wall as being to weake to make such a separation from the papists as he pretendeth For notwithstanding that the present gouernment of the church of England is established and confirmed by a nationall synod with the generall cōsent of the whole land to be a most lawful godly forme of gouernment notwithstanding that her Maiestie doth so thinke of it and hath shewed herselfe many waies as by her acts of parlemēt her proclamatiōs her sundry speeches yea by the punishing imprisoning of some certaine persons vtterly to dislike of their pretended discipline as being in her princely iudgement a meere forgerie vaine conceit of busie restlesse heads cōtrary to the word of God and ancient practise of all the godly churches in the world for 1500 yeares all these things I say notwithstanding yet they haue rayled libelled raged against the said present gouernmēt They haue and do still neglect as well her maiesties setled iudgment of the vnlawfulnesse of their decreed platforme as also her lawes her pleasure and many commandements that they should desist hereafter from that their erronious deuise and submit themselues quietly to the forme established Nay they are so far from yeelding in this point to any authoritie of her maiestie whether ordinarie or extraordinarie as that they haue attempted by very vnlawfull and seditious means to aduance their purposes against her highnesse will and do plainly giue it out that they wil not desist they will not hold their peace they will haue their desires though they be driuen to vndertake such means for that end as will make their hearts to ake who are their cheese impugners Stand now to your words maister Cartvvright if you meant plainly vz. If the ministerie shall agree of any vnlavvfull thing the prince ought to stay it and then are not all the packe of you concluded by your said answer to be obstinat persons and a false ministerie If you haue any refuge in the world it is this that whatsoeuer the said nationall councell the learned mens opinions that do impugne you the lawes of this realme all the ancient churches and her maiestie relying vpon them whatsoeuer they altogether do thinke iudge to be lawfull you care not or you are sory for it but all that notwithstanding you are sure for that you haue decreed amōgst your selues vz. that you haue not therein erred and therefore they must all beare with you though you rest your selues vpon the truth of your own decrees giue no place either to councel law prince fathers learned men or any other authoritie whatsoeuer that maketh against you And will not H.N. and Barovv will not al hereticks schismaticks say as much where is then the princes authoritie you spake of For staying such kind of proceeding what course shall he take These ministers as I sayd conclude vpon their owne deuises The king considereth of them and findeth them vnlawfull but they denie it what shall hee do Your refuge Cartvvright is euerie Heretickes refuge If her Maiestie with all the reasons mentioned cannot stay you and your sect let neuer any king or ciuile magistrat looke by any authoritie which you do giue vnto them in causes ecclesiasticall to stay the fancies of any such fellowes But the substance of all their deuises is nothing but pretences of things that are not And agreeable therevnto is this second part of Cartvvrights wall of the difference betweene him and the Papists who in effect for ought I see are as franke to Christian Princes euen in this point as either he or his fellowes Princes extraordinarily sayth Harding haue laudably intermedled vvith Religion as iudges and rulers of spirituall causes Good Christian Princes euer tooke into their
hands the carefull charge or procuration of Churches as pertaining to their dutie Good Kings and Princes do maintain true religion and by the aduise of their priests vvhen any great defections happen do pull dovvn the false And where Cartvvright doth charge the Papists to constraine their Princes for the keeping of their decrees be they good or bad although it be true in deed that they do so and that those of his owne stampe likewise vvhere they raigne are nothing more fauourable vnto them as farre as their might will reach yet as he doth in this matter prefer himselfe and his adherents before them it is but a meere cauil For the Papists holding this ground that their Councels and Popes in such their decrees and conclusions as it pleaseth them to make cannot erre that being graunted it followeth of necessitie that euery Christian Prince ought to put them in execution and to punish those that shall oppose themselues against them So that vvhatsoeuer they do impose vpon the Church they affirme it is good euen as Cartvvright doth his discipline which he would intrude vpon vs both of them ioining in this point that as wel Cartvvrights new ministery as the popes priesthood will be the iudges of their owne decrees whether they be good or bad and then what leaue they to the Christian magistrat more the one sort then the other Surely this wall riseth very slowly as yet but peraduenture the third part will be higher thē the other two when you haue viewed them iudge Our meaning is not sayth Cartvvright vtterly to seclude the magistrat out of our church-meetings for often times a simple man as the prouerbe sayth the Gardiner hath spoken to good purpose c. He may be assistant and haue his voice in such assemblies Out of question you deale very bountifully with your soueraign But to helpe him in building this part of his wall I will set downe what is the vttermost that he yeeldeth to herein if hee haue not retracted the same as afterward it shall be considered The Prince may call a councell of the ministerie and appoint both the time and the houres for the same The ciuile magistrat is not vtterly to be excluded from such assemblies as do meet for the deciding of church-causes and orders he may be there assistant and haue his voice but he may not be either moderator there nor determiner nor iudge Neither may the orders or decrees there made be sayd to haue bene done by the Princes authoritie And therefore in times past the cannons of councels vvere not called the Emperors but the Bishops decrees Princes may be assistant in councels and ought to defend the same assembled if any behaue themselues there tumultuously or othervvise disorderly the Prince may punish him The Prince ought to confirme the decrees of such councels to see the decrees executed and to punish the contemners of them Thus hereof Cartvvright and now come in the papists It vvas lavvfull in times past for emperors to call councels to appoint both time and place for the same And maister Harding confesseth that princes may do so still by the aduise of the clergie Princes and their embassadors according to their estates haue most honourable seats in all councels may sit there as assistants giue their aduises make exhortations to the Bishops to be very circumspect and carefull and in the end may subscribe vvith them to the causes there decreed But they may not sit there as iudges moderators or determiners and therfore in their subscriptions they vvrōt not as bishops did definientes subscripsimus but consentientes Neither vvere the councels called Imperatoria but Episcopalia Princes may be assistant in councels Nay sayth Saunders they may be presidents ouer Bishops in councels ad pacem concordiam retinendam vt nullum fieri tumultum permittant tumultuantem vero custodiae mancipent and cause such assemblies to auoid all delaies All Christian princes ought to confirme the decrees of generall councels to see the decrees executed and to punish the contemners of them Compare these places with Cartvvrights words and tell me what great difference ye find betweene them But what if Cartvvright as I sayd haue retracted these points then it must needs be confessed that the Papists do yeeld more to Christian princes in causes ecclesiastical then the puritans CHAP. XXIIII Their disagreement in suppressing the authoritie of Princes in church-causes and in the aduancing of their ovvn IT appeareth in the latter end of the two and twentith chapter how by a fine distinction of raigning vnder Christ as he is onely God and vnder Christ as he is mediator they first would exclude all Christian princes from their lawfull authoritie in causes ecclesiasticall ascribing no more vnto them then as if they were heathens except it be to execute their pleasures and to maintaine them which they say is the dutie also of all the heathen rulers and secondly how by the same distinctiō they lift vp their own horns as if it were so many popes challenging euery one of them together with their elderships to be Christs immediat vicars for church-causes vpon earth In the substance of which doctrine although they do all agree yet when they come to the particular grounds whervpō they would gladly lay their foundations of it there they are distracted and do confound themselues I meane not to enter here any further into this matter then as cōcerning the sayd distinction with the seuerall branches thereof Cartvvright bestoweth soure leaues to prooue that no ciuile magistrat may be called the head of the particular church within his dominion And his cheefest reasons are drawn from the parts of the distinction mentioned Now when he laboureth so much vpon this word head hee knoweth that we meane thereby nothing els but a chiefe authoritie and he wrangleth of purpose that whereas his opinion is direct that no ciuile magistrat as he is a ciuile magistrat hath any office in the Church he might dazle the eies of his reader as though he could bee content to maintaine the right of the crowne and did only insist vpon the word head But to muster them together about the said distinction Cartvvright sayth that our Sauiour Christ as hee is the sonne of God only or as he is onely the Creator and preseruer of mankind coequall vvith his father he is the gouernour of kingdoms and common-vvealths and not as hee is the sauiour and redeemer of mankind But the humble motioner doth tell vs from Scotland another tale peraduenture vpon the credit of the brethren there Christ sayth he hath all povver and superioritie aboue all principalities either in heauen or in earth he is Lord of lords and King of kings and the Prince of kings in the earth he is Lord of all kingdoms and common-vvealths to dispose and rule them at his pleasure
that for as much as Christ is neuer seuered from his body nor from any part of it and is able and dooth performe that vvherefore he is called head vnto all his Church therefore there is no need of any subordinate head ouer any particular Church or as he sayth there can be none As if a man should reason thus Christ is our sauiour our priest our prophet and our king Christ is our sheapheard our doctor and our archbishop Christ is neuer absent from his church nor euer will be and he is able to performe that wherefore he is called our sauiour our priest our prophet our pastor our doctor our bishop our archbishop our archfeeder therefore we need no priests pastors doctors bishops or archbishops neither ought there to be any such subordinate or ministeriall meanes allowed of or permitted for the sayd benefits of building teaching and gathering of the church The collections in my opinion are both alike Againe by the same phrase of speech that Christ as mediator is called by him els-where the head of euery particular church and in that respect euery particular church is tearmed his body So Christ as he is the sonne of God only to graunt him for a minute so much being the head of euery particular kingdome it may be said that euery particular kingdome is his body Now then whereas he reasoneth thus very grauely in his owne iudgement If the church be the body of Christ and of the ciuile magistrat it should haue tvvo heads vvhich vvere monstrous Why may not I in like sort make this inference if the common-wealth be the body of Christ and of the ciuile magistrat it should haue two heads which were mōstrous which collection being ridiculous by his own phrase offspeech his said argumēt is also ridiculous For my part certainly I do thinke that the word heard as it is yeelded to christiā princes signifying nothing els as I sayd but a cheefe ruler I see no cause then why it should be a more monstrous thing for thē to be subordinat rulers of the church vnder christ then to see princes thrust downe and six or seuen base persons a malster a brewer a baker a mason a smith a butcher a tinker and such like aduanced to that so high an authoritie Well as our prouerbe sayth Be it as it bee may and that is no banning If Princes will bee thus dallyed withall let them for me and they shall bee the first that will repent it But vvhat should they do when they heare their authoritie so substantially impugned by so worthie persons with such inuincible arguments such demonstrations such collections such concurrencie in their opinions such concord such notable agreement together in their grounds for that purpose Indeed you will say so when you shall see how after they haue foiled princes in such sort as it hath bene declared they intitle themselues and their wise and worshipfull Eldermen to their authoritie You cannot imagine mens bodies to be faster tied together with the strongest rope that euer was made of sand then their minds and iudgements are fast lincked and vnited in this matter As now it shall partly appeare after I haue layd before you three or foure of their new quircks very pertinent to this place some of them haue bene alreadie touched but you cannot heare a good thing too often They affirme if I can vnderstand them that euery wel ordered parish hauing an Eldership in it is the perfect bodie of Christ that Christ is properly to be called as well the head of euery such particular body or church as he is of the Catholicke church Against whome by the way I might oppose a chiefe diuine of New stadium a Consistorian towne in the Palsgraues countrie who sayth that as the Church is called the body of Christ it properly signifieth Solos electos the elect onely and that all particular churches as the members of the Catholike church do make but one body of Christ vvhereof hee is to bee called especially the head But I will not stand vpon these points onely I touch them that it might still appeare how well they agree together Then to proceed The same men likewise affirme that euery one of their mentioned well ordered parishes is a representation and as it vvere a liuely portraiture of the vvhole or Catholicke church and that singularum ecclesiarum idem est ius euery such parish Catholicke church hath equall authoritie no more one then another And now I draw nere to the pith of this matter For as touching the gouernment of euery one of these particular bodies of Christ or of euery one of these demie catholicke churches they hold that princes being iustly dispossessed their pastors doctors and aldermen are by right Christs immediat and subordinat lieutenants or vicars generall But now for as much as our sauiour Christ say some of them is a priest a prophet and a king and all in respect that he is both God and man our only mediator and redeemer Here beginneth a new skitmish from which of these his dignities they must deriue their interest whether their said vice-gerents are to challenge their soueraigntie from Christ as he is a priest from Christ as hee is a prophet or frō Christ as he is a king For as the great learned clearke that made the booke of ecclesiastical and ciuile policie affirmeth vvhosoeuer is to be called Christs vicar hee must be so tearmed either in respect of all those his three offices or of tvvo of them or of one at the least It hath bene commonly held heretofore that Christ taking vpon him the ministerie of the gospell to preach and teach the same did ordaine his Apostles and disciples to ioine with him in that part of his priestly office In regard whereof it hath also bene defended against the papists that euery lawfull minister is as much the vicar of Christ or his substitute to teach his people as the bishop of Rome and that they ought all of them equally when they preach the word pray for the people or administer the sacraments to be receiued heard and intertained as Christs embassadors Christs ministers euen as though Christ himself in his own person did presently here vpon earth execute these offices Besides it is vrged by the Counterpoizer many other that Christ hauing translated the Iewes Sanedrim into his church he hath appointed vnto vs for the Ievves priests our pastors and for their teaching Leuits our doctors c. Whereby it followeth that if the priests of the old law were Christs vicars as he was their priest the pastors ought so to be in the time of the gospel But the excellēt politian he vseth the matter in such sort as by no means the ministers of the word may haue any tenure of their offices vnder christ as he is priest Ne ipsi quidē pastores erunt Christi sacerdotis vicarij quod tamen falso
sibi persuasit papa diaboli vicarius The pastors themselues shall not be Christ's vicars as he is priest vvhich office notvvithstanding the pope the diuels vicar tooke falsely vpon him The pastors he saith shall not be Christs vicars as he is a priest And thē ther is no remedie They shal not How shal they hold then immediatly of him as he is a prophet That is it They are his substitutes or vicars saith hee onely as he is a prophet Did any man euer say so before Surely not to my remembrance Maister Fenner in his diuinitie perused by maister Cartvvright and allowed of at Geneua can find but two kinds of offices appertaining to Christ vz. his priesthood and his kingly office and therfore he maketh prophesie a part of his priesthood It is much what also to the same purpose and directly contrary to I. B. that the diuinitie grounds printed at Geneua do affirme by the mouth of one Abraham Henric where they say Pastorū ministeriū vt olim sacerdotum c. The dutie of pastors as in times past of the priests consisteth in three things teaching administring of the sacraments publicke praier So as either I.B. must be content that ministers may be Christs vicars as he is a priest or else I see not how he will bestow them You will say peraduēture that they may be Christs vice-gerēts as he is a king but that as I sayd he will not indure If any might be Christs vicars sayth he as he is a king the Apostles Prophets Euangelists Ministers and Doctors might be his vicars At ne hi quidem quia rex est dicendi sunt vicarij But they neither are to be called Christs vicars as he is a king Well some place they must haue there is no remedie I dare say you would smile if it should so fall out that all our consistorian ministers will needs bee Christs substitutes in that he is a king Surely I must tell you it proueth so For as touching I. B. they reckon him I perceaue but a simple politian Christs kingdome it hath bene truly vrged is not of this world it is plea good enough against our bishops but it holdeth not to impaire the estimation of our petit consistorian kings A distinction will helpe thē at a pinch Christs kingdome is not of this world but it ought to be in this world Do you not here desire to know what this kingdome is That I may not keepe you long in suspence it is the Geneuian Eldership and euen the very same kingdome saith our counterpoizer vvhere of Christ spake many times after his resurrection by the space of sortie daies as the Iesuits themseluss are compelled to confesse See the seducer Who cōpelled the Iesuits to say so would not a man haue thought that this place had bene vrged by some protestants against the papists for the ouerthrow of some especiall points of poperie wher vpon after much paines the Iesuits bad bene driuen in spight of their heads to admit of the interpretatiō mētioned But it is clean contrary the Iesuits do abuse this place of purpose in the behalfe of the Antichristian Romish form of church regimēt so doth the Counterpoizer following the Iesuits therin for the setting forth of their Geneuian papacy or Regalitie I could adde here a number of strange sayings whereof you shall here anon in some other chapters following concerning this new presbiteriall kingdome But now it is more pertinent to make the point I haue in hand more apparant vnto you Christ as a king prescribed the forme of ecclesiasticall gouernment saith Cartvvright not as a priest nor as a prophet but as a king With Cartvvright his scholler Dudlie Fenner doth agree in this point setteth downe the first part of his kingly administration to be about the building and continuance of the church by the officers appointed Eph. 4.11.12.13 Maister Beza also he runneth the same course how Christ being a king the head of the church doth administer his kingdome Per legitime vocatos pastores by pastors lavvfully called And Sonnius in like manner affirmeth that Christ doth execute his kingly office in the collectiō of the church by the ministerie of the word and sacraments and by the internall gouernment of his spirit and the external of the ministerie Here is indeed very roiall preferment for al the ministers of the word But I meruaile how the ruling elders do hold their authoritie They are neither priests nor prophets of likelihood then they must be little kings Wel then Christ is the king the presbiterie is his kingdome his immediat vice-gerents they are all of them What Surely by the due course of degrees which are acknowledged the pastors must be all of thē as it were emperors the doctors kings the elders dukes and the deacons lords of the treasurie c. And for the authoritie of euery such kingdom it must needs fal out to be very soueraign For if euery presbiterie as it is before noted be properly to be called the body of Christ and the true portraiture of the catholick church that euery one of thē is of equall authoritie now that the officers in them are Christs immediat vice-gerēts within their own kingdoms who shall controll any of their doings or whither should a man appeale if he found himselfe iniuried I remember maister Bezas saying That euery eldership is the tribunall seat of Christ. Which is all one almost with the assertion of some Romish parasits that the pope and Christ haue but one consistorie They tell vs of appellations from an eldership to a classis from a classis to a prouinciall synod from a prouincial synod to a nationall from a nationall vnto a generall councell But as the papists do make euery appellation from the pope to be as absurd and all one as if the appeale were made from Christ so must it necessarily follow to be as vntollerable to appeale from any consistorie it being as it hath bene affirmed the tribunall seat of Christ and the officers in it Christs immediat gouernors And because it is pretended that the regiment they speake of is in the best perfection at Geneua I would gladly know whither a man might appeale vpon occasion from that eldership there The churches of Bern or Zuricke haue no more to do with the church of Geneua they will say then Geneua hath to do with them or an eldership in Scotland with another of the low countries But I haue taried too long vpon this matter in collecting vpon their contrarie assertions Therefore to conclude I would wish all christian and godly magistrats that haue as yet in their hands the lawfull authoritie in church-causes which belongeth vnto them by the word of God to keepe it stil vntill at the least these disciplinarie deuisers be fully resolued whether we must account thē priest prophets or kings priests if they be Christs substitutes as he is a
hee shall thereby incurre the high displeasure of these Rabbies which he shall be sure to haue sticking vpon him vntill they can waite him as good a turne yet I say againe vvhat is left to the magistrat The iniurie is confessed afore There shall need no triall of the fact where so many witnesses may be vsed to prooue his confession afore if now he should denie it All that the magistrat hath to do is to set down what recompense I shall haue for my sayd iniurie and to tax my charges If you say nay hee will heare the cause againe Indeed I confesse he had need to do so But so both I and the partie should be doubly charged and troubled Besides that course would turne to the vtter discredit of the presbyteries that their dealings fitting in the seat of Christ should come to be scanned by those that are but humane ordinations For so some of them by colour of the Apostles words do debase magistracie And therefore peraduenture they will thinke it meet that vpon certificat from them the magistrats should so prōceed to adiudge me a recompense and to rate mine expenses without any further adoo Some such thing it is though not in this very case which the ministers of the low countries haue desired Thus a very graue man borne amongst them reporteth of this matter Ministri nullam habent coërcendi potestatem nec habere volunt Tantùm cupiunt vt magistratus puniant eos qui ipsorum mandatis parere detrectarent Quod nunquam sunt facturi nisi prius de tota causa legitime recognouerint actoribus aut accusatoribus ministris consistorij Quod seniores ministri alienū à suo ministerio esse similiter iudicant In haec absurd a inciderunt propter reiectam episcoporum authoritatē c. The ministers there haue no povver to correct any man neither vvill they haue any Only they desire of the magistrats to punish such as should refuse to obey their cōmandements vvhervnto the magistrats vvil neuer yeeld except they may take notice of the vvhole cause againe by ordinarie course of lavv the ministers of the consistories making thēselues either plaintifs or accusers VVhich the elders and ministers do iudge not to be agreeable to their ministerie And they are fallen into these absurdities he had also before named some other through their reiecting of the authoritie of bishops You see their desire in this case and it may in mine opinion bee stretched to the former And then as I haue shewed through scandales offences consciences and I know not what pretences challenges and counterfait prerogatiues the iurisdiction of their elderships will be so large as the ciuile magistrats iudges and lawyers shall not need to be greatly troubled These things with all the premisses of this chapter considered I dare say you long to know by what authoritie they challenge to deale in all these so many and so infinite causes And to satisfie your longing the learned discourser shall first speake his mind Our sauiour Christ sayth he in the vvord church alludeth to the Ievves Sanedrim vvhich had the hearing and determining of all difficult matters amongst them the like vvhereof he vvilled to be established in his church for administration of gouernment What you will say but weightie matters How come they now to al matters euen to Robin-hood maigames and may poles Ye say truly but Cartvvright will supply this defect For indeed this discourser shot many bowes too short This vvas the policie and discipline of the Ievves and of the sinagogue saith he from vvhence our sauiour tooke this and translated it vnto this church that vvhen any man had done any thing that they held for a fault that then the same vvas punished and censured by the elders of the church And M. Beza Quod ius fuit Synagogae sub lege cur non valeat in ecclesia sub euangelio authore Christo Math. 18.17 non video I see not why the same authoritie that the Synagogue had vnder the lawe shoulde not continue now in the Church vnder the Gospell according to Christs institution in the chapter mentioned Indeede if Christ haue ordained any such matter it is good reason it should bee so But because they will needs bring vs to the Iewes let vs see what prettie tales they will tell vs of those times They say and it is true that the Priests were the Lawyers of the land And would they be so now If the same pollicie continue why should they not They tell vs further that in ciuill causes when there did arise anie doubt in law amongst the Iudges the decision thereof did belong to the Priests iurisdiction If that also were a good pollicie and that it be continued by Christ then I see no reason why it should not againe be now established in all places They say that the 17. of Deuteronomie from the beginning of the eight verse vnto the ende of the thirteenth doth intreat of the ecclesiasticall Senate where it is said that iudgements betweene bloud and bloud between plea and plea c. did belong to the priestes and that it was death for any man not to rest in his determination If this pollicie be in like manner continued who then in the common-wealth but the ecclesiasticall Elderships Matters of bloud and of all pleas Who would not take those points to be more ciuil causes It is true But they tell vs that when the priests dealt in any of those causes they dealt not in them ciuilly but ecclesiastically It will trouble a man to find out their sleights But one example to this purpose you shall haue When such a doubt did rise saith Beza Non de facto Not of the facte for that was meere ciuill but Deiure what the law was in such a case then the Ecclesiasticall Eldership determined thereof and that doone the ciuill Iudge gaue sentence of the facte accordingly As though there should be two Courts in Westminster hall one for matters of fact in ciuill and criminall causes consisting of temporall Iudges and another for matters of Conscience for all sortes of offences and for matters of lawe consisting of ecclesiasticall persons some Pastors and Doctors assisted in solemn maner with their church Aldermen Suppose then I pray you that you are by chaunce in Westminster hall such a difficult matter in lawe as is pretended commeth before the Iudges of some fact whereupon downe they come from their seats and go to the Elders May it please your Maisterships there is such a cause before vs which seemeth to be a foule matter if it fall out as the bill or declaration is laid what is the law in this point The Elders consult together resolue them The Iudges giue them a legge returne to their places the cause falleth out according to the complaint and so they pronounce the sentence as the Aldermen taught them Suppose I say all these things
themselues are excepted Whereof it commeth that the very same proiect is made to the Lordes of her Maiesties most honourable Councell which was deuised by Beza for Scotland vz. that in place of the Bishops there might be present in the parliament house some wise and graue Ministers of especiall gifts learning sorted out of all the land to yeld their Councell according to Gods heauenly lawe euen as the ciuill Iudges are readie to giue their aduise according to the temporall law and for matters of greater difficultie But would they sitte there as the Iudges doe and haue no voices I take it they would scorne that greatly For I nothing doubt but if they were there they would account themselues the wisest in the companie And therefore it was more substantially considered of by him who penned a Supplication to her Maiestie and wished That foure and twentie Doctors of Diuinitie to be called by such names as it should please hir highnes might be admitted into the Parliament house and haue their voyces there in steade of the Bishops And would they bee called Lords if it pleased her Maiestie for the honour of that house to appoynt it so Their wordes doe import so much and I make no doubt of it but that to gratifie her highnesse they would bee content to humble themselues so farre In the hope which they haue conceiued to ouerthrow the state of Bishoppes and to haue their deuise allowed of and established in the lande they inueigh most bitterly against the Bishoppes and the Conuocation house misliking that the dealing in ecclesiasticall causes should bee committed vnto them in sorte as now it is affirming that the liberties of the Parliament are thâ—reby betrayed and that it appertaineth to that Court to order matters of religion But what if the Bishops were excluded and none admitted into the Conuocation house but such as they woulde chuse from amongst themselues how then Indeed saith the Supplicator If the Conuocation house were such as it ought to bee c. then were it not lawfull for the Parliament to establish any thing in the matters appertaining to the pure worship of God but by theyr direction Which is this in effect if I vnderstand them that the Parliament should prouyde theyr new pretended gouernours of sufficient maintenance and set vp theyr Eldershippes and then enact it likewise that whatsoeuer they should ordaine in their assemblies and meetings for the time to come concerning Church causes should be in full strength and for euer obeyed vntill it might please them to make some alteration Which is the point that Knox aymed at in his Exhortation to England wherein for the good instruction of her Maiesties subiectes he sendeth them from Geneua these Allobrogicall rules That the pretended discipline ought to bee set vp that all Princes ought to submit themselues vnder the yoke of it that what Prince King or Emperour shall disanull the same he is to be reputed Gods enemie and to be helde vnworthie to raigne aboue his people and then sayth if such order were once established as there he prosecuteth and the discipline well executed accordingly theyr yearely comming to the Parliament for matters of religion shall bee superfluous and vayne And this also is playne by Cartwrights newe forme of discipline subscribed vnto by himselfe and his fellowes Which forme they haue auowed vppon theyr oathes to bee such as that they purposed to haue beene suitors to her Maiestie for the generall establishing of it In which their purpose if once they may preuayle there shall neuer Parliament bee troubled againe in matters of religion otherwise then as I sayde for making of lawes that the people may obey their orders For the whole gouernement is there ascribed vnto their Elderships other assemblies insomuch as the ciuill Magistrate is not once mentioned in it It is well knowne how vehement they haue been and still continue against the now Lord Archbishop of Canterbury in that he is one of her Maiesties most honourable priuie Councell accounting it vnlawful for a Bishop or Minister of the worde to holde anie such roome and authoritie And yet notwithstanding it is greatly allowed of liked that Beza in Geneua should be one of the Councel of that state there one of the threescore and they admit not anie into theyr Consistory so much as the meanest of their Aldermen but hee must bee eyther a Syndicke or one of the Councell of threescore or one of the Councell of two hundreth Now I cannot possibly be brought to thinke that the worde of God should deale so partially but that it may bee as lawfull heere as there if it please her Maiestie to haue a Bishop to bee one of her most honourable Councell It is apparant in the former Chapiter what little account they make of generall Councels The best are censured by them and reprooued It is not well borne by Cartwright that the Councell of Nice should be tearmed a famous Councell And for other Councels or Synodes they are scarcely reckoned to bee worthie the mentioning If you presse one of that forte with the authoritie of them all though hee be not thirty yeares of age hee will not sticke to make a tush at them and tell you that himselfe is of another opinion No decrees made by them will bind these fellowes And as touching our owne nationall Synodes and Parliaments they are prosecuted with the greatest contempt The reformation of religion made by that authoritie is tearmed a deformation The articles of religion are misliked in diuers points The Iniunctions Aduertisements Canons Orders Ceremonies and all thinges in a manner are despised by them For they are but mens preceptes forsooth euery man must trie them and keepe or allowe what he list at the least if hee will but pretend that hee dooth it of conscience Howbeit if they may haue once authoritie to establish their Elderships and to meete together in theyr classicall prouinciall or nationall assemblies there to make such lawes and orders as they shall thinke good then see I praye you how they chaunge theyr song Touching my departure from that holy assembly without leaue c. Icraue pardon Holy assembly It was a Conuenticle in London about the yeare 1584. I am ready to runne if the Church commaund according to the holy decrees and orders of discipline Holy decrees and orders The matter was for his going into the Lowe Countries with the Earle of Leicester and for his absence from his benefice To the determination of a nationall Synode men shall stande as it was at Ierusalem except it bee in a great matter of fayth or a great matter expressely against the Scriptures It was agreede vppon in the Northampton classis that concerning any matters of doctrine or about the sense of any place of Scriptures the brethren within that compasse must stande to the determination of that clâ—ssis And these are the
were other vsed in like manner which did more terrifie them For saith Caluin Tandem adieci c. At the length I added further that they must build themselues another Cittie and liue therein by themselues except they would bee contayned heere vnder the yoake of Christ hee meaneth theyr Consistorie and that as long as they liued in Geneua they did striue but in vaine not to obey the lawes there Well by what meanes they were drawne vnto their oath I will not stand vpon it but sworne they were and so confessed all Whereupon Omnes in carcerem coniecti They were all cast into prison Amongst the sayd dauncers besides the said Henriche who was depriued of his Ministerie and committed to prison for three dayes there was in that company one of the foure Syndickes or chiefe Magistrates of the Cittie and hee was remooued from his office vntill hee had giuen some testimonie of his repentance which vppon the admonition of the said Consistorie hee presently did as it seemeth and so escaped prison There was also an other in that meeting named Perrin the Captaine of the Cittie as I take it a man with whome Caluin had many quarrels Hee as it seenieth perceiuing by Caluins eagernes what would fall out about that sporte got himselfe to Lyons hoping before his returne Rem tacitè sepultam iri That the matter would bee deade and buryed But sayth Caluin of him after his returne Quicquid agat poenam non effugiet Doe what he can hee shall not escape vnpunished In this Perrins absence his wife Francisca hearing as I suppose that Caluin shold vtter some harde and angry wordes agaynst her husband rayled both against him and the rest of the Consistoriall associates But Caluin aunswered her Vt merebatur as shee deserued And this was the ende of that inquisition Perrin with his wife were committed to prison as the rest of his fellowes had been hee for dauncing and shee I thinke for rayling Whereof Maister Caluin wrote thus to his friend Perrinus cum vxore fremit in carcere Vidua prorsus insanit alij pudore confusi silent Perrin with his wife dooth frette in prison the widdowe Balthasar is quite madde other beeing ashamed doe holde theyr peace Heere was good Consistorian and round dealing It should appeare that Caluin tooke as much vppon him as some Bishoppes or Commissioners in England doe But why shoulde I stande so long vppon this example It maye bee sayde wee must not lyue by examples And it is true Heare therefore for the conclusion of this poynte a Canon of the reformed Churches in Fraunce The faythfull may bee constrayned by the Consistorie to say the truth so farre foorth as it derogateth nothing from the authoritie of the Magistrate Constrayned this may reach farre But the worde of God alloweth them there it should seeme what they lift In my opinion if such maner of proceeding be lawfull at Geneua and in Fraunce it may in some sorte be tolerated in England It is a thing too manifest with what libelling and rayling the forme of our seruice of our ceremonies of our ornamentes of our apparrell c. hath beene depraued and shamefully slaundered As That our Communion booke was culled out of the Popes Portuise this was abused in Poperie that is papisticall it were better to conforme our selues in outward thinges to the Turkes than to the Papistes These and those thinges were deuised by the Pope that Antichristian beast Whatsoeuer commeth from the Pope which is Antichrist commeth first from the deuill If of the egges of a Cockatrice can be made wholsome meate to feede with or of a spyders webbe any cloth to couer withall then maye also the thinges that come from the Pope and the Deuill bee good profitable and necessarie vnto the Church Against these and many such lyke speeches aunswere hath beene made that it is lawfull to trie all things and to holde that which is good That these thinges which are good were not so defiled by theyr beeing in the Popes portuise but that they might bee taken thence and vsed That we must distinguish betwixt the abuse of a thing and the lawfull vse of it That it is no good reason the Papists abused this therefore wee maye not vse it That as good men sometimes deuise that which is euill so euill men may sometimes deuise that which is profitable c. But all these aunsweres and a number more besides to the same effect are misliked denyed and condemned by these our factioners Howbeit vppon occasion the streame is turned and they themselues are driuen to make the verie same aunsweres for the iustifiyng of their owne proceedinges and for the maintenance of certaine particular matters which they doe vrge and allowe of It hath beene layde to their charge that for all theyr goodly pretences of reformation yet indeede the courâ—e they helde did smell most rankly of Anabaptisme Donatisme and of a newe kinde of Papisme As where tâ—ey disquiet the peace of the Churches already reformed rayle vppon our Ministers and theyr calling affirme that our Sacramentes are not sincerely ministred that there is no Church as it should bee but those that they like of that our ceremonies and orders are all vnlawfull that we haue no lawfull Ministers nor Bishoppes that Princes may not deale in causes ecclesiasticall c. These and manye such like poyntes beeing layde to theyr charge Cartwright as though hee had neuer dreamed of any thing to the contrary frameth this generall aunswere in the name of all his fraternitie If amongst the filth of their heresies vz. of Papistes Anabaptistes and Donatistes there may bee found any good thing as it were a grayne of good corne in a great deale of darnell that wee willingly receyue not as theyrs but as the Iewes did the holy Arke from the Philistines whereof they were vniust owners For heerein it is true that is said The sheepe must not laye downe her fell because shee seeth the Wolfe sometyme cloathed with it Yea it maye come to passe that the Synagogue of Sathan maye haue some one thing at some time with more conuenience than the true and Catholicke Church of Christ. Such was the ceremonie of powring water once onelye vppon the childe in Baptisme vsed with vs and in the moste reformed Churches which in some age was vsed by those of the Eunomian heresie Hitherto Cartwright Whose aunswere if it bee true dooth concurre with ours and may stay his owne and his fellowes gyddinesse heereafter Cartwright was purposed once to haue been Doctor of Diuinitie And thereof hee writeth in this sorte I had the aduise of more than a doozen learned Ministers who considering that I had the office of a Doctor in the Vniuersitie were of opinion that for the good they esteemed might bee doone thereby I might swallowe the fonde and idle ceremonies which accompany it To the request of which friendes I yeelded But when his
Bishoppes grounding themselues vppon one of Cartwrightes principles That any increase of authoritie being added to a Church-Minister dooth cleane chaunge his Ministerie and maketh it a new Ministerie Whervpon they conclude that Archbishoppes and Bishoppes hauing receyued an increase of theyr authorities by diuerse Councelles c. are become to bee of a newe Ministerie neuer ordayned by Christ nor his Apostles and so consequently vnlawfull and to bee abolished The follie of this collection hath beene shewed manie wayes both by reasons and by examples but yet they haue not beene satisfied But nowe you shall see they are put to silence for euer For Beza is peremptorie to the contrarie of that which they haue so inforced In his booke agaynst Doctor Sarauia speaking of a place of Ieromes how Bishoppes were ordayned for orders sake c. hee sayth in effecte That when they had such authoritie giuen then for orders sake Mutatio non suit in re ipsa id'est in ipso ordine sed tantùm in ordinis modo There was no chaunge made in the thinge it selfe that is in the order but in the manner or measure of the order And afterwards more plainely where hee setteth downe another manner of principle than Cartwrightes vz. That wee must distinguish betweene the nature of a thing and that which adhereth vnto it accidentally because Eo in aliud cōmutato vel sublato res ipsa permanet The accident beeing chaunged or taken away the thing it selfe remaineth Whereupon if I vnderstande him he groweth to this issue That the increase of any such authority as is before mentioned or the alteration of the manner or order is not of the essence of the Ministery but a thing that is accidentall and may be chaunged according to the circumstaunces of times and places And hee bringeth this example Accidentale fuit c. It was accidentall c. Vt vnusquispiam iudicio caeierorum compresbyterorum delectus presbyterio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esset permaneret That one beeing chosen by the iudgement of the rest of his fellow-priests or Elders should be the President or the Prelate ouer the presbytery and so continue You will aske mee perhaps how this geare comes about that Beza is so opposite to Cartwright I will tell you my conceit I suppose that matters of their pretended Discipline are growen to greater ripenes in Geneua then they are thankes be to God in England and that therfore Beza is more franke to let vs see what they generallie shoote at then Cartwright dare bee as yet For howsoeuer Cartwright presumed to tell vs as it seemeth vntrulie that their moderator forsooth should be chosen but for one action only and that Caluin being chosen to that office for two yeares so as I take it from two yeares to two yeares misliked that small preheminence should so long remayne with one which in time might breede inconuenience and that Beza also misliked it for that cause Yet now you see that Beza is far from that base conceit thinketh that that office maie bee permanent and further saith that to ordaine it so now certè reprehendi nec potest nec debet it neyther can nor ought surely to bee reprehended And his reason is this for that it hath beene an order that one should bee so chosen to haue such a permanent preheminece in the Church euer since Saint Markes time Nay he is come to this that he is content to yeald in effect that the institution of an Archbishop is agreable to the word of God vz. ex illa generali et verissima Apostolica regula c. according to that generall true Apostolicall rule which appoynteth that all thinges should bee done orderly in the house of God Est igitur or do c. There is therefore saith hee an order in it selfe and by it selfe prescribed by God but the reason or vse of that order and the manner of it dependeth vppon the circumstances of times places and persons and is as men speake according to Lawes positiue Nowe if these thinges that Beza writteth bee true and that he himselfe peraduenture could bee well inough pleased to enioye such an office if the sayde circumstances of time and place might serue his turne to obtaine it then we perceaue that such additions of titles and preheminence so he and his fellowes may haue them do make no such alteration of the essence of the ministerie as with vs is pretended There is great barking against the church of England for that by Act of parliament some partes of the Canon Law are retained and to bee vsed by our Bishops for the better gouernment of the Church insomuch as the very name of the Canon law is become odious the commō sort of simple men of the factious crue verily supposing that the name of such a law rule or institution is popish vnlawfull and diuelish and therfore they crie out crucifie it crucifie it awaie with it wee will not be ruled by it we will none of it As though they shoúld saye we are lawlesse men for rules and orders we detest them whatsoeuer seemeth good in our own eyes that we will doe at the least if we euer yeald our obediēce to any churchlaw it shall bee surelie of our own making sie vppon all former Councels sie vppon all those decisions which the auncient fathers made sie vpon all old and auncient constitutions And thus in effect they write speake in their libels and ordinarie table-talke whereas notwithstanding if there be anie thing in the Canon-law that will serue their purposes they can be contēt to steale it thence to take to themselues thereby the commendation which is due to the true authors fathers of it Cartwright his fraternitie in their essentiall draught of discipline haue drawen more then seuen partes of eight of it out of the Canon-lawe and auncient constitutions Viretus perceiuing but too late what hindrance grew to the platforme of their new discipline by the vtter abolishing of the Canon-law at once and as it were in a furie which he supposed did wold still haue bridled princes if it had been retained and still in force sheweth his dislike of such rashnes in these wordes They thought it a goodly reformation in the Church to abolish all the Canons decrees with the good statutes which the auncient fathers and Doctors hadde ordayned to mayntaine the good discipline in the church The chiefe point indeed that grieued Viretus as there it appeareth at large was this because Princes by that meanes had drawen their necks frō vnder the yoke of discipline A matter so much misliked by them as that he is flatte of opinion that it had beene better for the Church to haue kept the old Pope still then by abrogating of the Canon law and in giuing to Princes so great authoritie in causes ecclesiasticall so to haue subiected her selfe to a new kind of papacie
euerie king prince being as he saith a new Pope by that meanes much worse then the olde So that hereby you see what is the drift of our factious cōsistorians in laboring to make the name of the Canō law odious You may not think that they differ in substance frō their M. Viretus but they are growē more crafty The matter that pincheth thē is this that in the acts of Parliament which are in force there is euer a Prouiso that nothing therof shal be in force which is contrary to the laws of this Realme or to the prerogatiue roiall of the prince If euer anie K. in England should be so far seduced as that he would yeald to establish their counterfeit elderships in this Realme with all the royall authoritie which they challenge of right to belong vnto thē changing the two former prouisoes should enact it that all the canō-law shold be in force sauing so much as should bee contrary to the orders prerogatiue of their elderships If I shold then be aliue as I trust I shall not I durst before hand hazard a great wager vpon it that they would most readily with a great applause receiue it almost worship it For as I said you may not imagine but that Viretus hath disclosed their verie hartes You know there is in euery church for the most part a distinctiō of places betwixt the cleargie the laity We terme one place the chauncell the other the bodie of the church which manner of distinctiō doth greatly offend the tender consciences forsooth of the purer sorte of our reformers Insomuch as M. Gilby a chiefe mā in his time amongst thē doth tearme the Quire a cage reckoneth that separatiō of the ministers from the congregation one of the hundred points of popery which hee affirmeth do yet remaine in the church of England Howbeit admit but of their elderships into euery parish thē you haue thē who will proue it out of the word of God that there ought to be such a separation of their Aldermen euery one of thē though he be but a Cobler from the rest of the Idiots that is all the other parishioners of what state soeuer Hic or do in ecclesia seruetur c. Let this order be obserued in the church saith Danaeus he sendeth vs the rule frō Geneua that these who do beare any office in the church distinguātur et separentur a reliquo populo may be distinguished separated frō the rest of the people c. It a fieri decorū est et vtile For it is decēt profitable that it should be so The Bishop he meaneth euery minister must stand or sit eminente loco alofte c. and let the elders sit by him tum vt populo appareant that the people may beholde them tum vt ministri concionantis doctrinam facilius intelligant et obseruent and that they maye the more easily heare the doctrine of the Minister preaching and the better marke it For of likelihood they are to be the preachers Censors You wil saie peraduenture wher there is some L. Maior some Councellor of state or some other great Magistrate Nay the King himselfe for he must bee of some parish where shall he or anie of them sit That is wiselie prouided for I warrant you For how should it otherwise be seeing the Prouiso commeth from Geneua Magistratus pius c. Let the godly Magistrate who is an honorable member of the Church sit in an honourable and perspicuous place where the Church may neither seeme to fauoure the arrogancy and pride of men nor the contempte of Magistrates And great discretion therein surely If the Magistrate should sit too high it would make him proude if too low it would bring him into contempt Ergo modus in loco illi concedendo seruetur c therefore let a mean be kept in appointing of a place vnto him Knight Lorde Earle Duke King or Emperour the holie Discipline respecteth no mens persons that he may both vnderstand he is preferred before the rest and yet withall that he hath no dominion ouer the word of God In deede excesse in anie thing is nought Sedeat itaque inferiori subsellio let him therfore sit in a lower seat then the preacher of the word of God and the Prophet that he may both see and acknowledge himselfe to be subiect to the threats of the word The parson or Bishop of euerie parish with his Artizan Elders must sitte in the highest place that the people may feede themselues with the sight of them the ciuile Magistrates of what degree soeuer must content themselues with inferior roomes and the rest of the people are to sit super mattas sedilia inferiora vppon pesses and little lowe formes I am perswaded it would greatlie trouble the subiects of England to see such a Metamorphosis in her Maiesties Chappell But see what a notable thing Discipline is and how the Ministers of Geneua can plaie the Herralds in marshalling of euerie state into their due places according to their callings If these men were then in England and should suruey our Quiers I suppose nothing would offend them but that that they are too low The place where the Roode-loft was would bee thought peraduenture more sutable for their Elders Indeed there the people might best behold them Lastlie because I will end this Chapter if Cartwright can get but one Scholiaste that doth in shew make for anie thing he liketh it is notable to see what reuill hee maketh with it And in like sort Maister Beza when the Fathers do fit him as in some points they doe against Erastus then these manner of phrases are common Rectè obseruauit Augustinus Augustine wel obserued it c. Againe an vero Chrys. c. what doe you thinke that Chrysostome and all the old Churches not one excepted saw not this Againe Hic te obtestamur frater c. we do here besech you brother that you would wel consider in whose behalfe and against whom you dispute cum rem ipsam ab vsu non distinguas when you distinguish not the thing it selfe from the abuse of it Againe Haec Chrysostomus quae tibi satisfacere rectè debent These thinges Chrysostome affirmeth which ought to satisfie you fully Again Nunquam aliter fuit hic locus in Ecclesia explicatus This place was neuer otherwise expounded in the Church And againe A temporibus Apostolorum ad haec vsque secula nunquam illa caruerunt Ecclesiae From the Apostles times euen vnto the age wherein we liue the Church did neuer want autoritie of Excommunication And as at times they are content to accept of the Fathers so will they also vpon the like occasion allow of generall Councells Whereas certaine persons in Transiluania beganne to reuiue diuerse old Heresies about the person of Christ Maister Beza writeth in this sorte An non in
mentem vobis veniebat amplissimus ille Nicenae c. Did you not remember the moste worthy assemblye of Nice of Ephesus of Calcedon quo nihil vn quā sanctius nihil augustius ab Apostolorum excessu sol vnquam aspexit The Sonne it selfe hath neuer beheld since the Apostles departure out of this world any thing that was more holy or more excellent then those assemblies were Thus I say both Beza Cartwright and the rest of the Disciplinarie humor doe write both of the auncient Fathers and of the olde Councels when they please them in any matter But otherwise let anie of them all naie iointlie al of them together impugne anie part of the new pretended Discipline or crosse them there Oh they touch the apple of euerie one of their eies they care not for their authorities they despise their decrees they cannot endure them as now it shall be shewed in the next Chapter following CHAP. XXVII How they deale with the auncient Fathers Ecclesiasticall Histories and generall councels when they are alledged against them WHen for the proofe of sundrie matters impugned by them they are vrged with the testimonies of the auncient Fathers and of the Ecclesiasticall Histories they either shift them off with their owne false gloses or if that serue not their turne they disgrace them as much as they can and so reiect them Where Ignatius ascribeth verie much to a Bishop as that nothinge should bee done in the Church without his consent and saith that hee hath a principality and power ouer all ascribing vnto him in that respect the title of Prince of Priestes they expound the word Priestes to signifie both Ministers of the word and ruling Elders the saide power ouer all to extend but onelie to the saide kindes of Priests in one parish and the name Prince to meane no more but as it were a moderator chosen out of those Ministers for one meeting onlie to propound such matters as were then to be handled to collect the voices and to moderat that action Which interpretation is onely framed according to the practise of Geneua and such great Churches as Cartwright tearmeth them which haue saith he diuerse Ministers and ruling Elders in them and is God knoweth as far from Ignatius meaning and words as falshoode is from the trueth And yet either thus he must speake or els if you presse them further then they shall well like of the poore old Father is straight way reiected as a counterfaite and a vaine man It being shewed according to Ireneus wordes vz. that the Apostles committed the Churches in euery place to the Bishops and that euerie one of the Apostles seuerally did appoint Bishops in those Churches which they had planted as S. Paul did at Ephesus and Creta Cartwright answereth thus For the explositiō of Ireneus which interpreteth They euery one seuerally if they seuerally ordained Bishops euery one in his circuit so it be vnderstood with the Churches consent as is before declared I am well content Are yee so Surely it is great ioy of you And what is before declared Forsooth Maister Beza in effect saith that the Apostles did not appoint any Bishops that is any Pastor Doctor or ruling Elder by their owne authority but the choise of euery Church-officer being first made by consent of the whole parishe Then any Apostle that was present did consecrat the saide partie so chosen vnto the Lorde by laying his handes vppon him nomine Presbyterij in the name of the Presbyterie This is then the issue that Ireneus must stande to Except hee will frame his speach after the newe cutte euen according to Bezaes pleasure Cartwright you see will not allowe him If he were now aliue hee might well thinke scorne to be thus vsed by either of them both contrarie to his owne meaning Iustinus Martyr being brought to witnes for Bishops and their authoritie in his time about the yeare 130. which was some nine yeares after Sainct Iohns death where he calleth euerie such B. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is prelate because the ruling of the Ministerie people within his circuit appertained chiefly to his charge Cartwright termeth this seeking into the fathers writings to find out the historical truth of this cause so much by him impugned a raking in Ditches and laboureth in this sort to rid his handes of him saying First this Prelate was but as a moderator to propound matters c. Secondly that he was Prelate of the people not of the Ministers which is contrarie to his first exception except he will say the people had then the gouernment of the Churche amongest whom he should be moderator Which being obserued as I thinke by Beza he alledgeth this place of Iustinus to prooue Timothy in Ephesino Presbyterio fuisse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Antistes vt vocat Iustinus to haue been Prelate in his pretended Eldershippe at Ephesus Cartwright hath also a thirde aunswere in his second Booke bee it graunted that Iustinus president had superioritye ouer the Ministers yet how fondlye is it concluded that it is lawfull because it was But his maine Barricado for defence is this in the daies that Iustine liued there began to peepe out in the Ministerye some thinges which went from the simplicitye of the Gospell as that the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was common to the Elders with the Ministers of the word was as it seemeth appropriated vnto one For the proofe of the antiquitie of Bishops Ieromes testimonie is brought that at Alexandria from Saincte Marke the Euangelist there was a Bishop placed in a higher degree aboue Priestes as it were a Captaine ouer an Army About which wordes they busie themselues wonderfully First saie they thinges being ordered then by the suffrages of the Ministers and Elders it might as it falleth out oftentimes bee done without the approbation of Sainct Marke How it falleth out amongest them it is no great matter That they should euer agree were more to bee maruailed But to laie such an imputation vppon that church Sainct Marke himselfe being present I thinke it a lewd part and too full of presumption Besides Saincte Marke might haue appealed by their conceites vnto some Classis if hee had disliked that ordinaunce But if this shifte will not serue then they haue another that the wordes from Sainct Marke may be rather taken exclusiuely to shutte out Sainct Marke and the time wherein he liued then inclusiuely to shut him in the time wherein this distinctiō rose Wherein he sheweth his ignorance for Ierome calleth Saint Marke the Bishop of Alexandria In the ende he vseth this fond quirke It is to bee obserued that Sain ct Ierome saith it was so in Alexandria signifying thereby that in other Churches it was not so and we are rather to follow Ierusalem that kept Christes institution then Alexandria that departed from it
is so auncient and that the originall thereof is not founde it should seeme to haue come from the Apostles They tearme the bringing-in of these authorities the mouing summoning of Hell they saye those tymes were not pure and virgine-like but departed from the Apostolicall simplicitie and doe treade them all vnder theyr feete with as great facilitie as may be Clement Anacletus and Anicetus are discharged for rogues and men branded in the foreheads Epiphanius wrote according to the time he liued in about 380. and though the name of Archbishop was in his time amongst Grecians yet it followeth not thereby that it was in vse amongst the Latines For Ambrose when Cartwright writte his first Booke and that they were not so throughlie angred as now they are hee onely gaue him this brande Ambrose holdeth other thinges corruptlye and then hee expoundeth him that of likelyhoode the Archbishop hee speaketh of was no other then he which for the time ruled the action when Bishops were ordayned and after the action ended hadde no more authoritie then the rest But since his choller increasing first hee beganne as he sayth in his second booke to suspect the place alledged out of his booke de dignitate Sacerdotum to be corrupted whereuppon within a short time after he grew to bee so hardened against him by finding some other things also in the saide booke which hee misliked that he hath bored him in the eare for a Roge likewise and sent him a rouing amongst his fellowes making the author of that booke a false Ambrose which is an vnlearned shift Sozomenus and Volusianus they writt not according to that which was but according to the custome and manner of the age wherein they wrotte As though he should saye they lied And as touching Augustine his sentence is approued say they vnaduisedly and that thereby a windowe is open to bring in all poperie Which is a lewde reproch For the antiquitie of the name of Archdeacon are alledged by D.W. the testimonies of Damasus Ierome Sixtus Sozemene Socrates To whose authorities their answere is two of them are counterfeits Damasus spake in the Dragons voice Amongst men the best ground beareth thistles those times were corrupt And yet Sixtus liued Bishop of Rome about the yeare 265. and was a godly martyr A number of authorities being cited which affirme that Timothie was Bishop of Ephesus as Eusebius Dorotheus Nicephorus Ierome Isidorus Dionysius Areopagita Epiphanius Ambrose Chrisostome Oecumenius Theodoret c. Their aunswere is They esteeme him a Bishop indeed and not an Euangelist But what then if they were for one a hundred they cannot counteruayle much lesse beare downe the testimony of the Apostle As though they euer purposed anye such matter But it goeth hard when for a matter of historie all these worthie Fathers can find no better credit If Timothy were Bishop of Ephesus I trust he will not say that the Apostle is ouerborne And that he was Bishop all these affirme it who liuing neerer to the Apostles times shold know aswell as Cartwright what was in fact then and being both as religious and as learned as he wold pretend to be could as easily haue espied what repugnāces there was betwixt that practise and the Apostles writings and would as earnestly haue reprooued it if there had beene any as hee Sainct Ciprian and Sainct Ierome are of opinion nay S. Ierome saith it was the opinion and the iudgement of the whole catholicke Church for so I interprete his words the whole worlde that for the auoyding of schismes and heresies it was necessarie that there should be one Bishop in euery Diocese as our learned writers haue thought of those places writing against the Papists to gouerne and ouer-rule the rest of the Priestes within their charge least otherwise as by experience it was found amongst the Corinthians there would be in short time as many schismes altars as there were priests and heades and that euery one might not carry his schollers after him and so following their own fancies teare in pieces the Church of Christ. With them in like manner all the godly generall Councels since that time haue agreed finding daily new mischiefs to arise which were not before hatched haue for the meeting with them increased accordinglye the authoritie of Bishops and so kept the church in good order at the least for aboue fiue hundred yeares Since which time although the Pope with extreme iniurie to all other Bishops hath lifted himselfe by a false title aboue not only thē but aboue al kings Emperors in like manner neuer ceasing till he hath set himselfe in the seate of the beast yet with many other points of Christianitie this also hath beene preserued that the gouernment of the church by Bishops in euery Kingdome prouince and Dioces is Apostolical and not only in that respect to be for euer continued but necessary also in regarde of the causes before mentioned But now all this is reckoned nothing There are some two or three that do take vpon them to prooue forsooth that all the said Fathers of the primatiue Church all Councells and all whosoeuer that haue liked that ordinaunce haue been deceaued in their iudgements in that they haue accounted the institution of Bishops their gouernment to be a means for the auoiding of schismes or for the maintenaunce of the peace of the Church But how they prooue it I will not stand now vppon that poynt It is forsooth in a worde by discourse of reason whereof Cartwright braggeth and for that as they saie there were great controuersies in the church notwithstanding their institution c. And now it is their Eldership must weare the Crowne and reforme all that is amisse Well what wee are to thinke of their Elderships we partly haue seene and yet shall heare more before I haue done In the meane time it is euident how they oppose their owne iudgement to all the world since Christs time Cyrillus for calling the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 high priest as Ignatius hadde done in effect before the prince or chiefe of priests and Tertullian also Episcopus est summus Sacerdos the Bishop is the high priest is wonderfully censured Hee that bringeth in a priest into the church saith Cartwright goeth about to burye our Sauiour Christ. And as for him that bringeth in an high priest into the church hee goeth about to put our Sauiour Christ out of his office This that he affirmeth here toucheth not only Cyrill but the most I am sure of all the auncient Fathers who were as carefull for the office and prerogatiue of Christ and haue written as manye notable woorkes against such Hereticks as haue impugned his Soueraigntie in any respect as euer he or his Sectaries haue written or I thinke will doe But his breath maye well blast himselfe they I doubt not are in heauen and
it cannot touch them Wee vppon earth are to honor theyr memories and for all proude and wicked censure are to learne from them that such names not being giuen to anie minister in respect of anye office peculiarlie belonging to Christ may lawfullie bee retayned in the Church of God Whereas to approoue the lawfull vse of some holydaies allowed and appointed to bee kept in the Church of Englande amongst diuerse reasons this is one the continuance of them in the times of Ignatius Tertullian Ciprian Ierome Augustine and sondrie others together with theyr good lyking and approbation of them They complaine that trueth is measured by the crooked yarde of time and therefore doe appeale from these Examples vnto the Scriptures and to the Apostles times As though the saide auncient Fathers the churches in their times had not knowen the scriptures aswell as he or his Sectaries and that notwithstanding the fourth commaundement it was lawfull for the church to appoint obserue such daies which vpon that only ground contrarie to the practise of the whole church since the Apostles times he vtterly denieth to be lawful induced therunto no doubt because Geneua hath abolished theÌ„ vz. Christmas-day Easter-day Ascention-day Whitsontide with all the rest A fact that in the time of the ancient fathers would surely haue beene accounted a tricke of Paganisme Iustinus Irenaeus Tertullian Ciprian Ambrose Ierome Basile Augustine Socrates Sozimene the Counsell of Auricanum of Neocaesaria of Nice of Gangrene of Orleaunce being cited to prooue the churches authoritie in things of indifferencie and for the obseruation of many thinges accordingly not mentioned in the scriptures Cartwright first complaineth that he is so pestred with such kinde of authorities in steed of Esay Ieremy S. Paule S. Peter and then he shaketh theÌ„ off altogether because the things which they affirm are now called into questioÌ„ vz. by him his fellows So as wheÌ„ it pleaseth theÌ„ to call any thing into questioÌ„ that all the fathers held away they must there is no remedie Cirill affirming that the lawe of Moses for punishing adulterie by death is not now in force Cartwright answereth as for Cirill I can at no hande allow his opinion his sentence is corrupt Chrisostome Oecumenius doe vnderstand the place of Timothy for the imposition of handes there mentioned of Bishops not of Priests Cartwright therunto saith I aunswere at once that it seemeth violent Eusebiâ—s giuing Iosephus this great commendation that hee was Historicorum qui sunt apud Iudeos facilè Princeps the principall man amongst the Iewes for a writer of histories Maister Beza disgraceth him in this sort in his oration when he was first chosen to be Rector of the Schoole at Geneua Iosephum c. I doe reckon Iosephus not onelye amongst the prophane but also in the number of ridiculous and foolish writters And whereas Origene Chrisostome the Creeke scholiast Theodoret Theophilact Ambrose and Ierome doe expounde Rom. 12.8 He that distributeth let him doe it with simplicitie not of Deacons that giue other mens almes but of all christians generally such as do giue almes théselues Cartwright disliking this exposition determineth of them after this sort They often strayne the text to drawe them to the present vse of theyr churches by reason whereof in steed of milke they somtimes draw blood He measureth the Fathers by his own falsehood When they are told that the auncient histories are against theÌ„ concerning a point by them denied about the chosing of BB. in Ciprians time they confesse it that they are so indeed and thus they auoyd them that except it can be shewed out of some ecclesiasticall history of like auncientie with Ciprian it is nothing By which one blowe all the ecclesiasticall histories that are now extant of name since Christs time so far as I do presentlie remember except it be Philo Iudeus are quight cut off as insufficient witnesses of any thing before their own times that is of any thing for the space of 300 yeares at the least after Christ. There were Ecclesiasticall writers before as it may appeare in diuerse places of Eusebius out of whom both he and others after him borrowed much but now they are lost and we haue them not Where it was saide in the behalfe of the auncient Fathers and generall Councelles for the first 500. yeares being charged with corruption and I wotte not with what building working to make a way for Antichrist c that they laboured to keepe out Antichrist c they aunswere the Fathers imagined fondly of Antichrist they dealt like ignoraunt men they were ouer-mastered of their affections they had many errors c. And all this is spoken by a man much more fond ignoraunt affectionate and erroneous as I am perswaded then they were But yet heare the man and his maister a little further It is a daungerous thing to ground our order or pollicy of the Church vppon men Again Although the louuer of this Antichristian building was not then sette vp yet the foundation thereof being secretely laide in the Apostles times you might easily know that in those times the building was wonderfully aduaunced and growen verie high And Beza also The Fathers in the Councell of Nice vnderlaide the seate of the Harlot that sitteth vppon seauen mountaines Againe Maister Cartwright Those times were not pure nor virgin-like the Churches were then much departed from the singlenes wherein the Apostles had left them Lastlie Examples cannot be without great daunger set from those times And thus all but Caluin Beza and himselfe are men there is no good building but their owne nor anie purity to be found but in them their fauourers their deuises and platformes It is alleadged out of Theodoret that Sainct Chrisostom being Bishop of Constantinople had the care not onely of that Church but of the Churches also in Thracia in Asia and in Pontus and out of Sozemenus that he deposed thirteen Bishops for Simonie in selling of benefices Vnto which testimonies they aunswere First that this care was no other then such as euery godly Minister ought to haue ouer all the Churches in Christendome For example as Beza hath of the Churches in Fraunce and so Chrisostom was Bishop onely in the Church of Constantinople and hadde an eie and care to those other Churches Which aunswere proceedeth from grosse ignorance or malice Secondlye that if Chrisostome had charge ouer all those Churches he had as large a dominion as euer the Pope had Wherein also he sheweth his grosse ignorance in taking Asia there for the third part of the world Thirdly that if he hadde any such authority he was guilty of the breach of many Canons and Councels Fourthly that he could saie he was a prowde man Fifthlie that it might be aunswered that Chrisostom deposed the said Bishops not by his authority but by his
against him doth traÌ„slate for dioces parish as in this place he doth it with a most brasen forehead The councell of Nice of Antioch of Carthage and of Sardis directly prouing that Bishops only had authority to excommunicate Cartwright giueth no other answere vnto them but this that Maister Caluin saith how Bishops in excommunicating after that manner dealt therein ambitiously Athanasius saith that Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria had the Churches of Pentapolis committed to his care Cartwright saith that care importeth not iurisdiction and so as to the Councell of Nice and of Antioch Cyprian saith the cause of heresies and schismes is this that Priests wil not obey their BB. Cartwright that answereth that is iu effect if his vnpreaching Aldermen will not obay their Pastors Epiphanius speaking of one Peter a Bishop of Alexandria saith this is the custome that the Bishop of Alexandria should haue the Ecclesiastiasticall gouernment of all Egipt Thebais Mariota Libia Ammonica Mariotes Pentapolis Whereupon Cartwright gloseth thus that is besides his own church he procured the good of other churches rouÌ„d about him Again Epiphanius of one Miletus an Archbishop that he was subiect or vnder the said Peter Archbishop of Alexandria Cartwright saith that euery Bishop of name was called an Archbishop And where it is said Miletus was vnder Peter that is vnder him in honour and not subiect vnto him saith Cartwright contrary to the manifest words and meaning of the author Theodoret Bishop of Cyprus saith of himself that he had the gouernment ouer 800. Churches Cartwright saith in effect that he lied that his words coÌ„cerning his care in gouerning those churches being spoken of himselfe want not suspition and that hee was condemned for writing against Cirill neuer mentioning how hee was wrongfully condemned in his absence and afterward restored I omit a number of their other shifts and presumptuous dealings with the fathers As of Epiphanius For him it is knowen of what authority he is c. it were better to laie his words against Aerius vpon some counterfaite and false Epiphanius to spare his credit Likewise of Ambrose Many errors corrupt expositions are found in his works in his exposition vpon the place to the Philippians a child may see how violently he forceth the Text. And also their reiecting of Councels by heaps c. wher they haue no coulor how they may peruert them But yet I may not let this escape my fingars that Cartwright whether for his owne glory or else that God would haue him to be the instrument of his owne shame is well content rather then he will want testimonies to encounter with the authority of Bishops to sort both himselfe all his followers in the number of those that euer since the Apostles times haue repined at that authority thereupon haue beene ouerruled by all the auncient Fâ—thers and Councels as busie bodies Schismaticks You shall heare his wordes and then iudge whether I haue mistaken them To what ende both in the Nicene councell and in many other holden more then two hundred yeares after are there found so manie canons for the acknowledging of the authority of one Metropolitane in euery Province for the honor which he should haue the name he should be called by for the place where hee should sit at their meetings for the bounds of their circuit Doe not all these declare that there were some which were ennemies to that authoritye c. To this I might adde his defence to Aerius and his confutation of Epiphanius not without some discredit to Sainct Augustine Lastlie whatsoeuer is saide or may be said hereafter out of all the auncient Fathers and Histories and out of all the generall Councels concerning the saide gouernment of the Church by Bishops Archbishops and Patriarches of their institution authority title circuites and prerogatiues Cartwright doth take vpon him most boldlie most falsly to prescribe vnto vs certain rules how we must vnderstaÌ„d them or otherwise there is not one of them that will be allowed of I blush in his behalfe I assure you to sette it downe and am ashamed that anie man bearing the name of a Christian shoulde deale so like an Impostor But this it is That it maye appeare saith he what the Fathers and Councelles doe mean when they giue more to the Bishop of anye one churche then to the Elder of the same church and that no man bee deceaued by the name of Gouernour or ruler ouer the rest to fancy any such authority and domination or Lordship as wee see vsed in our church it is to bee vnderstoode that amongest the Pastors Elders and Deacons of euery particular church and in the meetings and companies of the Ministers or Elders of diuerse churches there was one chosen by the voyces suffrages of them al or the most part which did propound the matters that were to be handled whether they were difficulties to be soluted or punishments censures to be decreed vppon those that had faulted or whether there were elections to be made or what other matter so euer occasion was giuen to intreate off the which also gathered the voyces reasons of those which had interest to speake in such causes which also did pronounce according to the number of the voyces which were giuen which was also the mouth of the rest to admonish or to comfort or to rebuke sharply such as were to receaue admonishment consolation or rebuke which in a worde did moderate that whole action which was done for that time they were assembled c. And must we thus vnderstande the Fathers generall Councels Hee might as truely saie that the present forme of our ecclesiasticall gouernment in England vnder her maiestie by Archbishops and Bishops is euen the very same maÌ„ner of church-gouernment that he his followers looke for the right platform of those Elderships which haue so mightely bewitched them Men that once haue passed the limits of modestie may afterwards saie write what they list The ancient Fathers haue deserued farre otherwise of the Church of Christ then that for the maintenaunce of such a forgery as the pretended form of discipline is they shold be vsed after any such manner I would wish all men that are of this proud presumptuous humor to peruse the books which S Augustine hath written against Iulianus the Pelagian There they shall find the very same contemptuous spirit in Iulianus that raigneth in theÌ„selues exalteth it selfe so greatly against the godly learned fathers as also on the other side they shall there see the fruites of Gods spirit vz. in what reuerend account verie high estimation S. Augustine had such worthy holy men by name as here you haue heard very contumeliously disgraced childishly neglected disdaynfully contemned and most proudlie reiected Ita intellexit Ambrosius ita Cyprianus ita Gregorius c. So Ambrose vnderstood such a place of the
scriptures So Cyprian so Gregory c. did carry some weight in S. Augustines opinion Those things which diuerse notable men haue alledged out of the auncient Fathers for the iustification of the present ecclesiasticall gouernment in the church of England ought not so lightly to bee regarded with euery princox What the Fathers haue written that agreeth not with our Phantasticall giddye headed fellowes pleasures they write it not of parciality either to grieue them or to gratifie vs but as trueth led theÌ„ Quod inuenerunt in ecclesia teneruÌ„t quod didiceruÌ„t docueruÌ„t quod a patribus acceperunt hoc filiis tradideruÌ„t that which they found in the church saith Augustine they held that which they had learned they taught that which they had receaued of theyr fathers they deliuered to theyr children Though Cartwright his companie do carrie so base a conceit of those times wherein the auncient fathers liued yet the Fathers themselues did not so thinke of theÌ„ Iulianus the heriticke did speake as it seemeth insuch a scornfull sorte of theÌ„ as our Sectaries do But S. Augustine laieth it to his reproch as an apparant argument of his great folly presumptioÌ„ thinking it a most absurd point for him so to vse them Vsque adeò permiscuit imis summa longus dies c. hath time so confounded all things saith Augustine is darknes growen to bee such light and is light it selfe turned into such darknes vt videant Pelagius Celestinus Iulianus et caeci sunt Hilarius Cpyrianus Ambrosius that Pelagius Celestinâ—s and Iulianus can see and Hilary Cyprian and Ambrose are become blind And surely I do not perceaue why I may not without offence applie the same wordes to those men in these daies which treade in the saide fellowes steppes concerning this their contempt pride Were there neuer learned men before you were taught the principles of the Geneua discipline was wisdom dead till you were borne Doe you know what was in the Apostles times better then they did who succeeded the Apostles were the auncient Fathers able to defende the greatest misteries of our saluation against so many pestilent heretiques and were they ignorant in the matters of the externall gouernment of the church Knew they the distinction of the three persons in the blessed Trinitie could they not find what difference Christ allowed off to be continued in his Church betwixt a Bishop and a priest Is the darknes which pride carieth with it groweÌ„ to be so light and is the light that shewed it selfe so many waies in the ancient fathers as in their singular learning great humilitie become such darknes that Cartwright Trauerse Fenner and such like but the shadows of learned men in respect should be thought so clearly sighted shall Ireneus Tertullian Cyprian Ambrose Hierome Chrysostome Augustine Gregory Hilarye and all the rest of those worthie men be reckoned blind Surely he is a bussard that thinketh so And therefore I will coÌ„clude this chapter with another saying of S. Augustines against such busie innouators as you are oportet vt populi christiani vestris prophanis nouitatibus anteponant c. It is meet that all christian people should preferre the auncient fathers before your nouelties eisque potius adherere quà m vobis rather sticke fast to their iudgements then to runne after your phansies CHAP. XXVIII Theyr dealing with all the new writers and many reformed churches when they make against them THis is a grounde layde downe by Cartwright that few men that are of any stayde or sounder iudgement in the scriptures and haue seene or read of the gouernment and order of other churches are against them in such matters as they haue broched vnto vs. And agreablie to this ground his answeres are framed when any thing is vrged against him out of anie of the new writers except Caluin and BeZa If either of them do happen to crosse him it is strange to see how he doubleth shifteth As for any other they are but a puffe with him hee careth not greatly howe hee handleth them Pellicane Bucer Bullinger Illyricus and Musculus affirming with all the auncient Fathers that Timothye was Bishop of Ephesus what then sayth Cartwright If they were for one a hundred they could not beare downe the Apostle As though they hadde euer ment it Luther expoundinge a place of Zacharie contrarie to his liking his exposition sayth Cartwright is out of season Musculus affirmeth that the places 20. of Sainct Mathew 10. of sainct Marke and 22. of sainct Luke vos autem non sic doe not condemne Superioritie but an ambitious desire and tyrannicall vsage of it but Caluin as learned as hee sayth Cartwright is of my iudgement Bucer holdeth that the sayde 20. of Mathew doth propound a generall rule to all magistrats and christians Where Cartwrights extenuating the authoritie of man braueth out Bucer with this that his iudgment hath counterpoise of other as learned Whereas Peter Martyr Bullinger and Gualter do bring diuerse reasons for the lawfull vse of the surplise and such other apparrell as is appointed with vs for Ministers Cartwright is so farre from being moued with their authoritie as that he aduentureth to confute their said reasons after his manner very sophistically affirming in effect but falsely that either they vnderstoode not auncient fathers alleadged by them for that purpose or that they peruerted their meaning Bishop Ridly and Maister Bucer approouing that where there are no preachers there should bee godly learned homilies read in those Churches Cartwright thus dismisseth Bishop Ridley being a partie in this cause hee ought to be no witnesse And for Maister Bucers wordes he saith they are not to be weighed insinuating that his booke concerning his iudgement in king Edwardes daies vppon the communion booke is counterfeited Againe of maister Bucer for his allowing of priuate baptisme and of the signe of the Crosse likewise of the ring in marriage and that the parties married should receiue the communion he saith Bucer hath other grosse absurdities to this authoritie I could oppose other men of as great authoritie sometimes Homer sleepeth his reasons are verie ridiculous verie slender and colde and sauour not of the learning and sharpnesse of the iudgement of maister Bucer Maister Fox in like sorte setting downe his full approbation of the present state ecclesiasticall that Archbishops should be in degree aboue Bishops and Bishops in degree aboue other Ministers and relying for this his iudgement partly vpon the scriptures and partly vppon the primatiue Church and concluding that this is to keepe an order duely and truely in the Church according to the true nature and definition of order by the authoritie of Augustine he is I say thus censured Maister Fox writing a storie doth take greater paine and looketh more diligently to declare what is done and in what time and by whome then howe iustly or vniustly how
name to all ministers of the vvord and sacraments vvithout distinguishing thereby any one of them from another or vvas it not euer vvithin the time limited taken and vsed only in the said distribution for one amongst the ministers of the vvord and sacraments that gouerned the rest both of the ministers and people vvithin their circuits limited vnto them This question with the rest was sent to maister doctor Raynolds in Oxford to the intent he might returne his opinion of them which he forbare at that time to do in respect of certain other businesse that he had in hand Howbeit maister doctor Robinson his especial most familiar friend being acquainted as it seemeth with the sayd questions hath written in this sort vpon another occasion not dissenting therein as I take it from maister doctor Reynolds I haue sayth he mainteined it in the pulpit that the titles of honour vvhich vve giue to bishops are no more repugnant to the vvord of God then it is for vs to bee called vvardens presidents prouosts of colleges And in my iudgement they may vvith as good conscience be gouernours of their diocesse as vve being ministers may be gouernours of colleges of ministers Neither do I thinke that this vvas a late deuised policie For I am persuaded that the angell of the church of Ephesus to vvhom S. Iohn vvriteth vvas one minister set ouer the rest For seeing there vvere many pastors there vvhy should S. Iohn vvrite to the angell of the church of Ephesus and not rather to the angels if there had bene no difference amongst them And if this presidencie had had that fault vvhich is reprooued in Diotrephes as S. Ierome proueth that the Ievves had not corrupted the originall text before Christ his comming Quod nunquam dominus Apostoli qui caetera crimina arguunt in Scribis Phariseis de hoc crimine quod erat maximum reticuissent So I may say neither vvould our sauiour vvho by his seruant reproueth those disorders vvhich he found in the seuen churches haue passed ouer this great fault in silence Therefore as Titus vvas left to reforme the churches throughout the vvbole Iland of Crete so I am persuaded that in other places some of that order of pastors and teachers vvhich is perpetuall in the church euen in the time of the Apostles had a prelacie amongst their bretheren and that this preheminencie is approoued by our sauiour And if vve come any lovver though the vvord Episcopus signifie that care vvhich is required of all in scripture be applied to all that haue charge of soules yet I do not remember any one ecclesiasticall vvriter that I haue read vvherein that vvord doth not import a greater dignitie then is common to all ministers Neither do I thinke that any old vvriter did vnder the name of Bishop meane the pastor of euery parish VVhen the emperors vvere persecutors vve read of seueral elders but neuer of more then one bishop at once in Rome the like is to be sayd of other great cities and the churches neere adioining And to meet vvith that offence vvhich is taken at the name of Archbishop because that name is so appropriated to Christ in scripture that it is no vvhere giuen to any other I take it that there is no substantiall difference betvveene archbishop and archbuilder Either therfore the Apostle offended in taking too svvelling a title vvhen hee called himselfe an archbuilder or cheefe builder or it must be graunted that this title may in some degree be giuen to men vvithout derogation to Christ. And thus farre doctor Robinson with whom if maister doctor Reinolds do agree I see not whither the factioners will turne them for as I take it they will not reiect his opinion They haue bragged much of him indeed and of his iudgement in sundrie of their writings as though he were wholy on their side and that they held nothing but he would iustifie it Howbeit they haue done him therin I doubt not exceeding great iniurie For requitall wherof I would wish him neuer to seeke any other reuenge but to turne them to his booke against Hart where hee hath written his mind as touching this point now in hand In the Church of Ephesus sayth he though it had sundrie elders and pastors he vseth these two words in one signification as by the sentence going before it is manifest to guide it yet amongst those sundrie vvas there one cheefe vvhom our sauiour calleth the angell of the church and vvriteth that to him vvhich by him the rest shâ—uld â—novv And this is he vvhom aftervvards in the primitiue church the Fathers called bishop For c. the name of Bishop common before to all elders and pastors of the church vvas then by the vsuall language of the Fathers appropriated to him vvho had the presidentship ouer elders Thus are certain elders reproued by Ciprian Bishop of Carthage for receiuing to the communion them vvho had fallen in time of persecution before the bishop had aduised of it vvith them and others Here then you haue two for Oxford touching the language of the ancient fathers when they speake of bishops Now you shal haue a Cambridge mans opinion no moe but of one I tell you at this time marry he shall be such a one as the brotherhood if they bee of the painters mind before mentioned in the chapter may well bee compared with the other two seeing his iudgement is layd in equall ballance there both with Caluins and Bezaes and that without any disparagement vnto them you know whom I mean it is maister doctor Fulke who in his confutation of the Rhemish notes vpon the new testameÌ„t writeth thus Amongst the clergie for order and seemly gouernment there was alwaies one principall to vvhoÌ„ by long vse of the church the name of Bishop or superintendent hath bene applied vvhich roome Titus exercised in Creta Timothie in Ephesus others in other places Therfore although in the scripture a bishop and an elder is of one order and authoritie in preaching the vvord and administration of the sacraments as Hierome doth often confesse yet in gouernmeÌ„t by ancient vse of speech hee is onely called a Bishop vvhich is in the scriptures called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ro. 12. 8. 1. Tim. 5. 17. Heb. 13.17 that is cheefe in gouernment to vvhom the ordination or consecration by imposition of bands vvas alvvaies principally coÌ„mitted c. VVhich most ancient forme of gouernment vvhen Adrius vvould take avvay it vvas noted amongst his other errors Hitherto doctor Fulke so as hereby I trust it may appeare to maister Cartvvrights reproch and to all their shames that shall pretend any authoritie froÌ„ the ancient fathers to impugne the right honorable lawful calling of Bishops not parsons in euery parish but Bishops in their diocesse and prouinces appointed in the Apostlestimes for the right order and gouernment of
the church of Christ. The second question before mentioned being as concerning priests or elders was as it followeth VVhether can it be shevved out of any ancient father out of any councell either generall or prouincial or out of any ecclesiastical historie for the space of 1500 od yeares euen frō the Apostles times till of late that in the sayd ordinarie distribution since that time euer vsed of church-officers into episcopos Presbiteros Diaconos Bishops priests and deacons whether I say can it be shevved that the vvord presbyter priest or elder vvas at any time taken and vsed for certain meere lay men as craftsmen husbandmen citizens gentlemen or noblemen such as should be chosen for a yeare or tvvo to be assistants vnto the ministers of the vvord for the better gouernment of the church as to haue authoritie vvith others to ordaine and impose their hands vpon a minister of the vvord and sacraments to bind and lose sinnes c. vsing in the meane time their seuerall vocations as they did before and ceasing after the said one or tvvo yeres vvithout any offence cōmitted by thē to be any longer presbyteri Or vvas it not euer vvithin the time limited taken vsed only in the said distribution for the ministers of the vvord and sacraments Vnto this questiō one hath made this answer The vvord Presbiteri vvas neuer othervvise takē since the Apostles times in that distribution but for the ministers of the vvord and sacramēts as it is most euidēt to any that shal peruse the ecclesiasticall histories or vvill take any paines to read the vvritings of the ancient fathers But of this point before it be long you shall heare more by one who as he hath done euery thing he dealeth with so hath hee handled this very notably Now in the meane while according to the order which hitherto I haue kept it shall be sufficient for me that the three sayd doctors men well accounted of with maister Cartvvright and his adherents and such as will not bee thought to speake any thing partially may deliuer their opinions as touching this matter For to my vnderstanding they are as direct in this point what the word Presbyteri should signifie in the ancient fathers as they were before in the other of Bishops If in the sayd ancient Fathers the name of Bishop be appropriated to one that had a greater dignitie than was common to all ministers and that by the name of Bishops they neuer vnderstood the pastors of euery parish as doctor Robinson sayth If in the primitiue church and in the Fathers language they were called Bishops that were the cheefe and presidents ouer the rest of the priests or elders euen such as our Sauiour himselfe by the holy Euangelist S. Iohn doth call angels as doctor Reynolds affirmeth If by ancient vse of speech he was onely called a Bishop which in the scriptures is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If the elders that were subiect to these gouernours were of one order and authoritie with them in preaching the word and administration of the sacraments as doctor Fulke hath written against the Iesuits doth it not follow most necessarily that all the Clergie being deduced into three degrees vz. of Bishops priests or elders and deacons that by priests the ancient fathers must needs vnderstand the rest of the ministers of the word and sacraments that were no bishops except any will be so impudent as to say that they were none of the clergie He that will doubt hereof let him doubt for me whether the sunne be vp at noone Besides doctor Raynolds sheweth that Ciprians elders did administer the sacraments And for doctor Fulke after he had once incountred with the papists and amongst many other points was come to this whereof I speake concerning the name of priests as it is a distinct degree vnder bishops though before and peraduenture then also hee had a great fancie to the consistoriall Aldermen yet then that hee was driuen to deale directly and truly consider how he was inforced to alter his disciplinarie stile Those priests or ministers that are made among vs are the same elders that the scriptures in Greeke calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the bishops letters of orders they call them by the name presbiteri vvhich tearme though in English you sound it priests elders ancient seniors or ministers it is the same office which is described by the holy ghost Tit. 1. and in other places of scripture Againe VVe refuse not the name priest as it commeth of presbiter c. it is odious to some that knovv not the true Etimologie thereof Againe The name priest as it is deriued of the Greeke vve do not refuse it Again It appeareth by many places of VVicklifs vvorks and namely in his homilie vpon Phil. 1 that hee acknovvledgeth the destinction of bishops and priests for order and gouernment although for doctrine and administration of sacraments they are all one Againe In the fathers Episcopus and Presbiter Bishop and Priest are tvvo distinct degrees And againe In the fathers the vvord Presbiter is one degree only that is subiect to the Bishop Whereas therefore maister Cartvvright with his followers do pretend that they propound nothing which the writers both old and new for the most part do not affirme and the examples of the primitiue churches confirme As that where the ancient fathers and ecclesiasticall histories make mention of bishops and priests they vnderstand by bishops his parish parsons and by priests his counterfeit Aldermen beleeue both him all that glaine after him therein as they deserue and as by the premisses you shall iudge there is cause CAP. XXXI Hovv and vvith vvhat disagreement they vvrest and misconster the scriptures in the behalfe of their pretended discipline ABout the yeare 420 there fell a great contention betwixt the bishops of Affrike and Zosimus the bishop of Rome The point in question was this whether it was lawfull for them of Affrike to appeale from the proceedings of their owne bishops to the bishop of Rome Vpon which occasion partly there was a councel held in Affrike tearmed the sixt councell of Carthage wherein S. Augustine was present The bishop of Rome hearing of this councell and that it was assembled especially about that matter sent thither his factors Faustinus bishop of Potentia with other two priests of Rome Philippus and Asellus In this councell when the sayd question began to be debated the bishop of Romes factors being for their wit and learning three of the especiallest men that Zosimus could find out for such a purpose did deale most expresly against the bishop of Affrike for the prerogatiue and iurisdiction of the see of Rome In all the which contention notwithstanding the sayd factors were such excellēt men vsed the strēgth of al the wit and learning that was in them yet they could not find any one argument in all the
betwixt God and the Diuell A dunghill of such like sayings might be heaped together which they haue cast vp out of the froth of their zeale Where-vpon nowe Barrowe takinge his aduantage doth frame his argumente in this sorte It is not lawfull for the children of God to submit themselues to the gouernement of Antichrist nor to ioyne themselues to those congregations which haue in their seruice nothing but confusion and in the Lordes Supper put no difference betweene God and the Diuell But such is the gouernement of the Church of England and such are their congregations And therefore wee may not submitt our selues vnto that gouernement nor ioyne our selues to their congregations If now the minor were true which he assumeth from the Consistorians you see how the argument would follow So that as Penry some others haue done allready let all the sort of the other crue adde but Barrowes maiors vnto their owne minors and foorthwith in this first pointe they are become meere Barrowistes And as concerning the second point wherein as I sayd we disalow them it is their framing to themselues a new Church platforme Which doth thus farre agree with Cartwrightes that they must haue forsoothe in euerie assembly their Pastors Doctors Elders and Deacons and that the Church new framed after their fashion must haue all the authority that Cartwright doth challenge to his Elderships of dealing in all matters of maners and doctrine and in executing their censures against any person without exception whosoeuer The chiefe differences that are betwixt them are generally two The first is vz that whereas Cartwright could haue been contented to haue erected his Elderships in euery parishe taking them as nowe they are they say the parish assemblies are popish and vnlawfull they would haue them dissolued and they will haue their Elderships set vp amongest no people but first they must enter into a new couenant The other chiefe difference in like sorte I take to bee this that Barrow in all his platforme will haue the people to ioyne with their Elderships further then Cartwright doth allow of And for his opinion heerein hee relyeth altogether in effect vpon Cartwrightes grounds It is not vnknowen what a plausible course our English Disciplinarians haue taken that thereby they might the more easily drawe the people vnto them Hee that will peruse the first admonition which Cartwright maintained and consider withall the places of his bookes that are noted in the margent shall well perceiue howe earnestly they intitle the people to a wonderfull interest in Church matters They tell the people that they are greatly iniuried in this and that that they ought to choose their Ministers that imposition of handes should bee in their names that the censures of the Churche were to bee executed with the peoples consent and what must bee done almost but the people must haue an oare in it Howbeit all this great shewe of gratifying the people notwithstanding Cartwright by snatches heere and there doth so powder his matters that in effect hee giueth them onely an emptie bottell to play withall For his Eldership forsooth must go before the people in all their actions that is as though hee should haue said what the Elderships thinke meete those Angels those interpreters of God those tribunall seates of Christ the people in all reason ought to content themselues with it and to giue their consentes vnto it Now heereupon Barrow proceedeth Hee taketh Cartwrightes reasons in the behalfe of the people but denieth his shiftes to be currant whereby he would take that from them againe which hee had before giuen vnto him And thereupon doth raile vpon him and all the rest of that association for such their dealing and abusing of the people These reformistes saith Barrow for fashion sake giue the people a little libertie to sweeten their mouthes and make them beleeue they should choose their owne Ministers yet euen in this pretended choyce do they coozen and beguile them leauing them nothing but the smoakie winde of election onely Againe The counterfait reformistes they woulde exclude the Church from the censures assuming them onely into their owne handes either into the Priestes handes with his silly presbytery or Eldership which hee ouerruleth at his pleasure in euery particular congregation or else into their Synodes and Councelles which haue power ouer all Churches and euerie member and action thereof to excommunicate and absolue to make depose to ordaine and abrogate without the priuitie or consent of the Churches c. And thus they subuert the libertie of the Church and peruert the ordinance of Christ. And againe Howe vnnaturall are those members which thus separate and seclude themselues yea rather sequester and seclude the whole from them and arrogate and assume the publicke dueties and power of the whole into their owne handes as though God had giuen all giftes vnto them and they had no neede of others And thus puffed vp with preheminence of theyr owne place and excellencie of their owne giftes they despise all the rest as base ignoraunt vnworthye to bee in their consistorie to haue any voyces of consent or dissent there alledging them to bee tumultuous contentious factious vngouerned ignoraunt inclined to the worst c. And this is as I said the second especiall difference as far as I can see betwixt the Elder Consistorians and these new Schismaticks Wherinto how easily a man may fall that hath digested the Geneuian and Cartwrightian pretences made against our Bishops for the peoples interest I commit the consideration of it to your owne discretions So that as I saide I say againe and againe that if good order be not taken this schisme will daily increase and growe to be daungerous But doe I call it a schisme The worde is too milde They are indeed all the sorte of that infection a compounded masse of I knowe not how manie heresies but principally they are Donatistes in some respect and meere Anabaptistes in some other I haue thought vpon it a hundreth times and haue meruailed at it that the now L. Archbishop of Canterbury could foresee so directly what would be the issue of the first admonition If you would bee pleased to read his exhortation before his confutation of that admonition You shall find that what he hath there written long before this monster was hatched in England he could not if he were to write againe wel write otherwise then there he hath done sauing hee might say that the mischiefe which then he foresaw would come to passe by reason of the boulstring of it by those that should haue had more wit and iudgement is now apparantly beginning to shew it selfe to as many as haue eyes and wisdome to see Surely those men that haue bene made instruments heretofore to commend vnto the whole realme I know not what bookes and platforms tending directly to the vtter ouerthrow of the present gouernment of the church of England with the whole forme
Christiā whosoeuer to separat himselfe either from their assemblies or from the receiuing of the Lords supper with them But if any so did he assigneth him his place amongst certain old hereticks Olim duae fuerunt haereticorum sectae c. In times past there vvere sayth he tvvo sorts of hereticks vvhich troubled the Church greatly The one sort of them vvere called Puritans the other Donatists And both of them vvere in the same error that these dreamers are in seeking for a Church vvherein there should vvant nothing that might be desired Therefore they diuided themselues from the vniuersall society of Christians least they should be defiled vvith other mens impurities But vvhat came of it Dominus eos cum tam arroganticoepto dissipauit The Lord himselfe scattered them vvith that their proud attempt Where by the way it is meet to be obserued that a man may sticke so fast to the Geneua discipline as he may prooue himselfe to bee either a puritane or a Donatist or both Maister Beza in like maner by reason of some opposition which hath bene made against the Sauoyan platforme is growne as it seemeth to some kind of moderation For speaking of the pretended necessitie of it hee sayth that the doctrine onely vz. vvhat vve are to beleeue is absolutely necessarie and also further addeth that seeing a man sometimes may be saued vvithout the participation of the sacraments the same may bee sayd much more of the vvant of ecclesiasticall discipline Now verely we are to thanke him he hath done much for vs. We may be saued though the memorie of this discipline were vtterly buried But the point which I chiefely note is this that there is great difference in maister Bezaes iudgement betwixt the necessitie of the first two notes of the church and this third of his own deuise And therein he giueth in effect the flat lye to maister Cartvvright for charging him to hold that all the said 3 notes as they are notes were equally necessarie And Trauers also is checked by his good maister in that he wil needs make as it hath bene said the censures of his cōsistories to be in the same absolute degree of necessity both with the word and sacraments But I wil follow M. Beza whilest I haue him in his good mood The vvhole church vvanted circūcision in the vvildernes saith he vvhilest they vvere in Babylon they neither had temple nor sacrifices and yet neuerthelesse they ceassed not to be the people of God And the same may then be said much more of the ecclesiastical discipline vz. Ecclesias vt illa careant tamen ecclesias verè pias Christianas esse posse si doctrinam praecipuorū dogmatum purā ac sincerā habuerint That the churches that vvant that discipline may notvvithstanding bee indeed godly and Christian churches if they retaine the doctrine of the cheefest grounds pure and sincere Now if Beza will giue this testimonie of a church that wanteth both his discipline and the sacraments hauing but only the principall grounds of religiō what should he say of those churches which haue not onely a better discipline then that which hee vrgeth but also the said sincere grounds with the doctrine true vse of both the holy sacramēts in as great reuerence at the least as they haue them at Geneua You shall heare him what he is driuen to say of the present estate of the church of England The places haue bene cited in the eight chapter to another purpose He must be pardoned to come in with his If because any thing from him that soundeth not after the Geneua tune is very much But if the churches of England sayth he being vnderpropped vvith the authoritie of Bishops and Archbishops do firmely abide as this hath happened in our memorie to that church that shee hath had men of that order not onely vvorthie Martyrs of God but most singular pastors and doctors fruatur sane ista singulari Dei beneficentia quae vtinam illi sit perpetua Let her enioy this singular goodnesse of God vvhich I pray shee may so do for euer And in another place speaking likewise vvith some good tearmes of the Church of England and of our Archbishops and Bishops he turneth himselfe cleane about and sayth that they of Geneua do not prescribe to any church to follovv their peculiar example like vnto ignorant men vvho thinke nothing vvell but that they do themselues Againe also the same maister Beza in his booke which Erastus confuted not in that which Beza hath since published but in the written and true copie of it he speaketh in this sort Nomine ecclesia Geneuensis in the name of the church of Geneua to those that account the Geneuian Eldership to be but humanum commentum a humane deuise Petimus vt quemadmodum patienter ferimus ipsos a nobis c. dissentire VVe desire of them that as vve suffer them patiently to dissent from vs c. so they vvould heare vs modestly refelling their arguments nullo cum ecclesiarum preiudicio quas sibi credit as administrant VVithout any preiudice to those churches that they haue taken the charge of For vvhere some do obiect that vve account those churches that vvant either excommunication or such an eldership to be no churches it is obiected immerito Deus testis est vndeseruedly on our parts God is our vvitnesse and it is much more a slander vvhere it is giuen out that vve do bring a nevv tyrannie into the church nostra velle reliquis obtrudere and endeuor to obtrude our forme of discipline vnto the rest of the reformed churches Non est ita fratres It is not so brethren Furthermore in like manner in the same place afterward Quicunque vero hanc disciplinam in suis ecclesiis non modo inutilem verumetiam noxiam fore iudicant fruantur sane suo sensu c. VVhosoeuer do iudge this discipline not only vnprofitable but hurtfull to their churches let them enioy their ovvn sense They vndoubtedly do see vvhat their flocks will indure neither doubt vve but that men of so great learning and of so great antiquitie our reuerend bretheren in the Lord haue their reasons Et quis nos constituit alieni gregis iudices And vvho hath made vs iudges of other mens flocks He seldome hath vttered a truer speech But how these sayings do agree with that which he hath sayd before in the third chapter you may not curiously scanne it Indeed he should seeme to be farre now from his former opinion when he sayd in effect That it vvas to little purpose for any church to admit of the gospell and to reiect his discipline But he writeth in mine opinion as it hath bene sayd of old time some courtiers in the world do vse to speake that is for the most part as the present occasion serueth their turnes Such companie they may fal into as they wil commend him to the skies whom
Letters And surely I am greatlie confirmed in my former opinion by the examples which such like innouators in Germany doe bring forth Video enim illis hominibus nihil ambitiosius nihil insolentius nihil ineptius fingi posse For whereas there are many thinges most wickedly done by them daily yet they are not ashamed to pretende the zeale of God in excuse of those thinges which contrarie to the worde of God they deuise both wickedly and maliciouslie against the seruauntes of Christ. But as farre as I canne coniecture many by whose counsaile and assistaunce the frame of this Discipline was chiefely erected are nowe ashamed of them But that which Maister Gualter writte the same yeare to Bishop Sands is most pertinent I vnderstand that the strife amongest you procured by certain turbulent innouators doth wax hotte and that they are gone so farre that vnder the plausible title of good order and Discipline they desire the whole gouernement and pollicy of the Church of England to be vtterly ouerthrowen Surely I should meruaile at the immodesty and wilfull desire of contention in these men but that I see the same in practise else-where especiallie in all those places where the authority of the bretheren of Geneua is so greatly esteemed that Geneua is accounted the Oracle of all Christendome God hath indeed adorned that Church with diuerse excellent gifts and the Ministers thereof amongest whom Maister Beza I haue alwaies reuerenced and loued and doe so still But yet I would wish them modestiùs humiliùs sapere and not seeke to draw their shooe vppon euery mans foote c. What hath beene done in the Palsegraues Countrey I writte vnto you before Surely the state there as touching Discipline and the gouernement of the Church all men that come thence doe say it is worse then it was before and it is sure that many doe repent that they euer admitted these mens counsaile But yet the Geneuians doc still endeuour to thrust that their Discipline vppon all Churches And if they shall deny this they may bee sufficiently conuinced by the Booke of Theologicall examples that Beza published this other yeare that they suggest their arguments and councels not onelye to you Englishmen but in like sorte to the Germans Phrisians Polonians and Hungarians whereby amongest those that agreede well together before rixae turbae enascuntur brawlings and quarrels doe arise c. And so hauing signified what troubles the innouators beyond the seas as well as in England doe procure to the Church he moueth the Bishop to doe as he and Maister Bullinger did that is to moderat such busie wittes as they might for a time For saith he spero aedificium hoc nouae Disciplinae breui propria mole ruiturum quando satis constat iam eius pertaesos esse qui priús illud admirabantur I hope the frame of this new Discipline will in short time fall of it selfe considering that many are nowe become wearie of it that had it before in admiration An other likewise a Gantois a very graue and learned man as well acquainted with this Discipline as Maister Cartwright is being desired to write his opinion whether it had brought forth such effectes in Holland as is before pretended it would doe in England for aunswere saieth Is any man able to repeate the monstrous Heresies and errors that Holland doth nourishe c. vnder the shadowe of reformed religion this is aimed at vz. that the turpitude of all blasphemies being couered with this cloake may lie hid and that it may be lawfull without controlement if anie list to recall the old Paganisme or to professe Mahomets Religion or what worse is if there be anie thing worse Againe the Magistrates haue inuaded the Church-goods The Ministers haue little allowaunce There is no respect of the study of Diuinitie The Magistrates doe suspect the forme of Ecclesiasticall gouernement first becāuse they feare least it will degenerate into a worse tyrannie then the Spanishe Inquisition Secondly for that they see a new Senat of Elders in their Townes to exercise with the Ministers a censure of manners without lawes but such as they make themselues and without anie lawfull forme of Iustice. The olde Canon law is abrogated and the Magistrates will allow no new For they feare that the new would prooue worse then the olde Besides they will not committe the fame of themselues and theirs to the arbitrement of ignoraunt men such as for the most parte their Elders are who may abuse their authority rashly and laie such an infamy of adulterie or other grieuous offence vpon a mans backe as hee shall not afterwards easily cast from him The Ministers desire that the Magistrates would punish those that disobey their commaundements which they will neuer doe except they may first by due course of law heare the cause they of that Consistory being either actors or accusers and that the Ministers and Elders refuse to doe c. Besides some of the Ministers themselues that professe the Gospell are not free from those swarmes of Heresie which doe make their hiues there c. And in an other letter speakinge of the generall euent of that kinde of discipline Vereor ne exemplum Geneuensis ecclesiae et quarundam aliarum ecclesiarū quae eam secutae sunt maiorem quà m vulgo creditur perniciem ecclesiae adferat I feare least the example of the church of Geneua and some other Churches that followe her may bring greater mischiefe to the Church then is commonly beleeued One William Hart a minister the preacher not long since at Emden notwithstandinge all their goodly reformation in those partes yet writ in this sort therof vnto his secret friend M. Field Corruption by custome is so strong that none can abide the yoake and wonder you would if you sawe what grosse thinges the best ministers doe cleane deuoure and those of the middle sort doe earnestly stande and pleade for If you did see the confused state of the Churches of these countries you would say that England howe badde soeuer were a paradise in comparison and yet I haue not forgotten the blots and wantes thereof The trueth which he speaketh of the Church of England is to bee imbraced for the rest you may ascribe it vnto his factious humors Furthermore also there are some other countries not yet mentioned where the pretended discipline is in practise and yet there are noe such fruites founde thereof as are ascribed vnto the intertainement of it Be pleased to heare what an espetiall man of some one countrie a minister a gentleman greatly descended a person of chiefe aestimation hath published to the worlde in print Cum priuilegio Regali and procured to be sent abroade into other countries in certaine of his seruauntes names The prophane multitude of this kingdom they disdain the word spitefully There are two sins ioyned in the prophane multitude glottony and bloud They go forward in all course of sin the