wordes and doth her toothles mouth disclose And then forsooth all the company makes a buz on her side and the audience barkes out against vs yea and some of our owne institute ioyne with theâ—… being both the detractors and the detracted Against vs they haue tongue inough but they are dumbe in finding fault with themselues as if eueÌ„ they were also any other thing then Monkes and that whatsoeuer is spoken against Monkes did not redound vpon Priests who are the fathers of Monks The losse of the sheep is a reproach to the shepheard as on the other side the life of that Monke deserues praise who reuerences the Priests of Christ and detracts not from that order whereby he is made a Christian I haue said thus much to you O daughter in Christ not doubting of your purpose for you wolud neuer haue desired my letters of exhortation if you had made any question of the good of single marriage but to the end that you might vnderstand the wickednes of seruants who set a price vpon you and the sleights of kinsmen and the pious errour of your father to whoÌ„ though I will easily allow that he loues you yet I cannot grant that it is a loue according to knowledge But I say with the Apostle I confesse they haue zeale but not according to knowledge Do you rather imitate for this I must often repeat that holy mother of yours whom as often as I remember it occurres to me to thinke of her ardent loue towards Christ her palenes through fasting her almes to the poore her obsequiousnes to the seruants of God the humility both of her exteriour and of her hart and her speech which was so moderate vpon all occasions Let your father whom I name with honour and all due respect not because he is of Consular authority and a Seuator but because he is a Christian fulfil the effect of his name Let him reioyce that he begat a daughter not for the world but for Christ or rather let him grieue that you haue lost your virginity in vayne and with all haue not gathered the fruit of marriage Where is the husbaÌ„d which he gaue you Though he had bene amiable though he had bene good death would haue snatched all away and his departure would haue vntyed the knot of flesh and blood I beseech you take speedy hold of the occasion and make a vertue of necessity The beginning of Christians doth not so much import as the end Paul began ill but ended well and the beginnings of Iudas are praised but his end was made daÌ„nable by his trechery Read Bâ—…chiel WhoÌ„soeuer the iust man shall sinne his iusticâ—… shall not deliuer him and the impiety of the wicked shall not hurt him whensoeuer he shall be conuerted from his impiety This is Iacobs ladder by which the Angels ascend and descend from the top whereof our Lord leaning do wâ—…e ward reaches out his hand â—…o such as are weary sufâ—…eyning the weake steps of them who climbe by the contemplatiâ—… of himselfe But as he desires not the death of a sinner but that he may be conuerted and liue so he hates such as are tepid they quickly make him ready euen to cast the gorge She to whomâ—… more iâ—… forgiuen loueth more That vncleane woman who was baptised in the Ghospell in her teares and she who had formerly deceiued many with the haire of her head was saued by wiping the feet of our Lord. She brought not frizled dressings with her nor crackling shooes nor eyes which were smoaked ouer with Antimony So much the fowler she was so much was she the fayrer What should painting white or red doe vpon the face of a Christian whereof the one tels a lye in making red the lips and cheeks the other doth as much in making white the forehead and necks They are fyer to enflame young people they are the entertainments and encouragements of lust and they are testimonyes of an vnchast mind How will such a one weepe for her sinnes whose teares shew her skine and do euen make furrowes in the face This is not an ornament according to our Lord but it is a couering of Antichrist Wâ—…h what confidence can a woman lift vp that face to heauen which the Creator of all thinges knowes not It is impertinent for any to alledge her youth or tender yeares The widow who hath left to please her husband who according to the Apostle is a widow indeed hath need of nothing but perseuerance It is true that she remembers â—…her former pleasure she knowes what she hath lost and wherin she tooke delight but these burning arrowes of the diuell are to be quenched by the rigour of watching and fasting Either let vs frame our discourse according to that kind of life which we seem to lead otherwise or els let vs seem to liue according to the discourse we hold Why do we professe one thing practise another The tongue talkes of chastity and the exteriour of the whole body iust the contrary And this I haue thought good to say of the dressing and habit of the body But the widow who liues in delights is dead euen whilest she is aliue and this is not my saying but the Apostles What is the meaning of this She is dead euen whilest she is aliue She seemes indeed to liue in the eyes of ignorant people and not to be dead in Christ from whome no secret is concealed The soule which sinnes the same shall dye Some mens sinnes are manifest precede their iudgment but some other â—…ena sinnes follow it And so also good deedes are manifest and such as are not good cannot lye hid He speakes therefore to this effect There are some who sinne publikely and so freely that so soone as you see them you presently vnderstand them to be sinners but others who hide theâ—… sinnes with 〈◊〉 are knowne afterward by their conuersation and in like manner the good deedes of some are very publike and they of others are not knowne to vs but only by long experience afterward To what purpose is it therefore that we stand bragging of chastity which is not able to wine credit foâ—… it selfe without her companions and accâ—…ssaries which are A lâ—…st 〈◊〉 Thirst The Apostle macâ—…rares his body 〈◊〉 bringes it vnder the subiection of his soule for feare leasâ—… otherwise he should not find that to be in himself which he had inioyned to others And shall a young woman whose blood is boyling vp with meat be secure concerning her chastity â—… Neither yet whilest I am saying this do I condemne those meates which God hath created to be vsed by vs with thankesgiuing but I take from young people maides the motiues and intertainments of pleasure They are not the firâ—… of Aetnâ—… nor that land of Vulcan nor eyther 〈◊〉 or Oâ—… which boyle vp in so huge â—…heat as do the most inward â—…ines of young people when they are full of vâ—…ine
widowes and virgins imitate her let marryed woemē reuerence her let such as are faulty feare her and let Priests looke with much respect vpon her Saint Hierome to Marcella by occasion of the sicknes and true conuersion of Blesilla ABRAHAM was tempted concerning his sonne and was found so much the more faithfull Ioseph was sould into Aegypt that he might feed his Father and his brethren Ezechias was frighted by the sight of death at hand that so pouring himselfe forth in teares his life might be prolonged for fifteen years The Apostle Peter was shaken in the Passion of our Lord that weeping bitterly he might heare those wordes Feed my sheepe Paul that rauening wolfe and who withall grew to be a second Beniamin was blinded in an extasis that so he might se afterwards being compassed in by a sudden horrour of darkenes he called vpon God whom he had persecuted long as man And so now O Marcella we haue seem our Blesilla boyle vp for the space of almost thirty dayes in a burning feauer to the end that she might know that the Regalo of that body was to be reiected which soon after was to be fed vpon by worms Our Lord Iesus came also to her and touched her hand and behould she rises vp and doth him seruice She had some little tincture of negligence being tyed vp in the swathing bāds of riches she lay dead in the sepulchre of this world But Iesus groaned deepely and cryed out in spirit saying Come forth Blesilla As soon as she was called she rose and being come forth she eates with our Lord. Let the Iewes threaten and swel let them seeke to kill her who is raised vp to life and let the Apostles onely reioyce at it She knowes that she owes him her life who restored it to her She knowes that she now imbraces his feet of whose iudgment she formerly was affrayd Her body lay euen almost without life and approaching death did euen shake her panting limmes Where were then the succours of her friends Where were those words which vse to be more vayne then any smoke She ows nothing to thee O vngratefull kinred of flesh and blood she who is dead to the world who is reuiued to Christ. Let him who is a Christiā reioyce and he who is offended at this declares himselfe not to be a Christian. The widow who is free from the tye of marriage hath no more to do but to perseuer But you will say that some will be scandalized at her browne coat Let them he scādalized also at Iohn thē whome there was none greater amōgst the sonnes of men who being called an Angel baptized our Lord himselfe and was clad with a camels skinne and was girt in by a girdle of haire If meane fare displease them there is nothing meaner then locusts Nay let Christian eyes be scādalized rather at these woemen who paint themselues with red and whose plastered faces being deformed euen with extreme whitenes make them like Idolls from whome if before they be aware any drop of teares breake out it makes ◅ furrow in their cheeks whome euen the number of their years cannot teach them how old they are for they strew their crowne with strange haire and they dresse vp their past youth in wrinckles of their present age and in fine though they trēble with being so old yet in presence of whole troupes of their grand-children they will still be tricked vp like delicate and tender maides Let a Christian woman be ashamed if she would compell Nature to make her handsome if she fullfill the care of her flesh towardes concupiscence for they who rest in that cannot please Christ as the Apostle sayth Our widow formerly would be dressing her selfe with a stiffe kind of care would be inquiring all day long of the glasse what it might be that she wanted And now she confidently sayth But all we contemplating the glory of our Lord with a cleare face are transformed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of our Lord. Then did her maides marshall her haire in order and the crowne of her head which had made no fault was imprisoned by certaine Coronets crisped with irons But now her head is so much neglected as to know that it carryes inough if it be but vayled In those dayes the very softnes of downe would seeme hard and she would scarce be content to ly in beds when they were euen built vp to giue her ease but now she ryses vp full of hast to pray and with her shrill voice snatching the Allelluia out of the others mouthes her selfe is the first to prayse her Lord. Her knees are bent vpon the bare ground and that face which formerly had beene defiled and daub'd with painting is now often washed with teares After prayers they rattle out the Psalmes and her very necke her weake hammes and her eyes pointing towardes sleep can hardly yet through the excessiue ardour of her mind obtaine leaue that they may take rest Her browne coat is least fowled when she lyes vpon the ground She is poorely shod and the price of her former guilded shooes is now bestowed vpon the poore Her girdle is not now distinguished by studdes of gold and precious stone but it is of woll as simple poore as can be made such as indeed may rather tye in her cloathes then gird her body If the serpent enuy this purpose of hers and with faire speech perswade her to eat againe of the forbidden Tree let him be stricken with an Anathema let it be sayd to him as he is dying in his owne dust Goe backe Sathan which by interpretation is aduersary For an aduersary he is of Christ and he is an Antichrist who is displeased with the Precepts of Christ. Tell me I pray you what such thing euer did we as the Apostles did vnder the colour whereof men should be scandalized at vs They forsooke an old Father and their nets and ships The Publican ryses from the custome-house and followes our Sauiour one of the Disciples being desirous to returne home and declare his purpose to his friends is forbidden by the commandment of his Master Euen buriall not giuen to one by his Father and it is a kind of piety to want such piety for the loue of our Lord. Because we weare no silke we are esteemed to be Monkes because we will not be drunke nor dissolue our selues in loud laughter we are called seuer and sad people If our coat be not faire and white we are presently encountred with the by-word of being Impostours and Greekes Let them slander vs with more sly cunning if they will and carry vp downe their fat-backes with their full panches Our Blesilla shall laugh at them nor will she be sory to heare the reproaches of these croaking frogs when her Lord himselfe was called Belzebub Saint Hierome to Pope Damasus BECAVSE the Eastern part of the world being
supple then oyle and yet they are dartes withall And more clearely in Ecclesiastes As the serpent bites secretly so doth he who detracts priuatly from his brother But you will say I detract not but if others doe how can I help it We pretend these thinges for the excuse of our sinnes Christ is not to be ouerreached by trickes It is no sentence of myne but of the Apostles Be not deceaued God is not â—…nocked He lookes into the hart we looke but vpon the face Salomon sayth in the Prouerbs A Northern wind scatters the clouds and so doth a sadd countenance detracting tongues For as an Arrow if it be shot against a hard obiect doth oftentymes returne vp on him who sent it forth and woundes him that wounded it and that is then fullfilled They are made as a crooked Bow to me And elsewhere He who throwes a stone vpon high it shall returne vpon his owne head So the detracter when he sees that the face of his hearer is sad or rather of him who should not be his heareâ—… but the stopper of his eares least he chance to heare the iudgment of blood is presently put to silence his countenance growes pale his lips will not part his mouth is dryed Whereupon the same Wise man sayth Doe not mingle thy selfe with detracters for suddenly their perdition will arriue and who knowes the ruine of them both That is it to say both of the speaker and of the hearer Truth seekes no corners nor doth it desire any whisperers It is sayd to Timothy Be not easy in receauing an accusation against a Priest But if indeed he sinne reproue him publikely that others also may be affrayd You must not be light in belieuing any thing of a man in yeares who is also defended by the fame of his former life and who receaues the honour of any eminent title But because we are men and sometymes we dishonour our mature yeares by falling into the errours of children therefore if thou wilt correct me when I offend reproue me publickly and only do not bite me behind my backe The iust man will correct and reproue me in mercy but let not the oyle of the sinner bedaube my head And our Lord cryes out by Isais O my people they who say you are happy seduce you and supplant your steppes For what doth it profit me that thou relate my faults to others if whilest I know nothing of the matter thou woundest another with my sin or rather with thyne owne detractions and when thou makest hast to recount it to all the world thou speakest it so to euery one as if thou hadst not sayd it to any other This is not to reforme me but to humour thy selfe in thyne owne sinne Our Lord commandes that sinners should be secretly admonished face to face or els before witnesse if they refuse to obey that account should then be giuen of it to the Church and that if they would be obstinate in doing ill they should be held for Publicanes and Pagans I haue beene the more expresse in this to the end I may free my young man from the itch both of eares and tongue and that so being regenerate in Christ I may exhibite him without wrinkle or spot like a modest virgin who is chast both in body and mind Least els he should glory in the only name he beares and then his lampe being extinguished for lacke of the oyle of good workes he should be excluded by the spouse You haue there the most holy and learned Bishop Proculus who will excell these letters of ours with his admonitions by word of mouth and will direct your course by his daily directions and not suffer you by declyning on either hand to forsake the Kinges high way Israel hastening to the land of repromision assures him that he will go And I pray God that voice of the Church may be heard O Lord graunt vs peace for thou hast giuen vs all thingeâ—… God graunt that our renouncing the world bean act of our will and not of necessity and that our pouerty being desired by vs may haue glory and not that being imposed it may giue torment But after the rate of the miseries of these tymes and the swords which are euery where vnsheathed he is rich inough who hath bread to eat he is but too powerfull who is not constrained to be a slaue Holy Exuperiuâ—… the Bishop of Tolosa the imitatour of that widow of Sarepâ—…a feeds others though himselfe be hungry and hauing his face pale with fasting he is tormented with the hunger of others hath bestowed his whole substance vpon the bowells of Christ. There is nothing richer then this man who carryes the body of our Lord in a basket made of little twigs his blood in a glasse who hath cast auarice out of the Temple without any whip or reproofe hath ouerthrowne the chaires of them that sould doues that is to say the gifts of the holy Ghost and the tables of riches and hath dispersed the money of the changers That the house of God may be called the house of prayer and not a denne of Theeues Follow the steps of this man close at hand and of the rest who are in vertue like him whome Priesthood makes humbler and poorer then he was before If you desire to be perfect go with Abraham out of your owne countrey and from your kindred and go forward without so much as knowing whither If you haue an estate sell it and giue it to the poore if you haue none you are already rid of a great deale of trouble Be naked in following Christ who is nacked It is heauy it is high it is hard but the rewardes are great S. Hierome against Vigilantius the Heretike THERE are many Monsters brought forth in the world Centaures and Syrens Harpyies and other prodigious birds are mentioned in Esay Leuiathan and Behemoth are described by Iob in a mysticall kind of language The Poets in their fables speake of Cerberus and the Stymphalides the Boare of Erymanthus the Nemaean Lion the Châ—…maera and the Hydra of many heades Virgil describes Cacus and the countryes of Spaine haue shewed vs that three formed Geryon France alone hath brought no Monsters but hath euer abounded with most valiant and most eloquent men Only Vigilantius is suddenly start vp who more truly may be called Dormitantius since he fights with his impur spirit against the spirit of Christ and Denyes that veneration is to be exhibited to the tombes of Martyrs He sayth also That Vigills are to be condemned that Allelluia is neuer to be sung but at Easter That Continency is heresy and chastity but a seminary of lust And as Euphorbus is sayd to haue beene reuiued in Pythagoras so is the wicked mind of Iouinian risen vp againe in this man so that we are constrayned to answere to the sleights and subtilties of the Diuell in the person both of that man and this to whome it may
be iustly sayd O thou wicked seed prepare thy children to be slaine by the sinnes of thy Father The former man being condemned by the authority of the Church of Rome is not so properly to be sayd to haue giuen vp his Ghost as to haue cast it out in the middest Pheasants Swines flesh but this Tauerne keeper of Callagura who by nickename in respect of the towne where he was borne was called the dumbe Quiâ—…tilian sophisticates his wine with water and out of the stocke of that ancient fraud he striâ—…es to mingle the poyson of his perfidious doctrine with the Catholike fayth to impugne virginity to hate chastity and at the full table of secular persons to declaime against the fasting of Saints whilest himselfe is playing the Philosopher among his cuppes and feeding licorishly vpon 〈◊〉 cakes he will needes be stroked with the sweet finging of Psalmes In such sort as that in the middest of his bankets he voutchsafes not to heare any other songes then of Dauid Idithus Asaph and the sonne of Chorah These thinges do I vtter with a sad and griâ—…ued mind not being able to containe my selfe nor to passe by the iâ—…iuries which are done to the Apostles and Martyrs with a deaâ—…â—…eare O vnspeakable abuseâ—… he is sayd to haue found Bishops who are partakers with him of his crime if they may be called Bishops who ordaine no Deacons but such as first haue marryed wiues not belieuing that any vnmarryed man can be châ—…st and shewing thereby how holily themselues liue who suspectiall men of ill and vnles they see that Priests haue wiues with great bellyes and that their children be crying in their Mothers armes they giue theÌ„ not the sacraments of Christ. But what shall then become of the Orientall Churches What of the Churches of Egypt of the Sea Apostolike which receiue men to Priesthood either before they are marryed or when then are widowes or if still they haue wiues yet they leaue to do the part of husbandes But this hath Dormitantius taught releasing the raynes to lust and doubling by his exhortations that ardour of flesh and blood which vsually boyles vp in youth or rather quenching it by the the carnall knowledg of woemen That so now there may be nothing wherein we differ from horses and swine and such brute beasts of whom it is written They runne towardes woemen as horses which are mad with lust do to their kind and euery man goeth euen neying after his neighbours wife This is that which the Holy Ghost sayth by Dauid Do not grow like the horse and mule in whome there is no vnderstanding And againe he sayth of Dormitantius and his companions Keep in with the bridle and bit the iawes of them who draw not neere to thee But now it is tyme that setting downe his owne words we procure to make them a particular answere For it is possible otherwise that some maligne interpreter or other will againe alleadge that my selfe haue deuised matter to which I may answeare with a Rhetoricall kind of declamation like that which I wrote into France to the Mother and Daughter who were in discord The holy Priestes Riparius and Desiderius are the occasions of this Epistle for they write that their Parishes were infected by the neighbourhood of this man and by our brother Sesinnius they haue sent vs those bookes which snorting vpon a surfet he hath vomited out And these men affirme that many are found who fauouring the vices of his life are content to heare the blasphemies of his doctrine The man is ignorant both in knowledge and wordes he is of vngratefull speech and who cannot so much as defend a truth but yet in regard of worldly men and poore woemen who go loaden with their sinnes and who are euer learning and neuer arriue â—…o the knowledge of the truth I wil make answeare to his trash in this one single sitting vp at night least otherwise I might seeme to despise the letrers of those holy men who haue entreated me to do thus much But this man followes the kind of which he comes as being descended from murdering theeues and from a people made vp of many natioÌ„s Whome Cneius Pompeius hauing conquered Spayne and hastening to celebrate his triumph thrust downe from the top of the Pyrenean hills and gathered them together into one towne whereupon the Citty was called by no other name but of Conuenae that is to say of People gathered together Thus farre doth he reach now in exercising murdering thefts vpon the Church of God and descending from the Vectonians the Arabatians and Celâ—…iberians he ouerrunnes the Churches of France not carrying in his hand the ensigne of Christ but the standard of the Diuell Pompey did the same in the Easterne parts also And the Cilician and Isaurian Pirates murdering theeues being ouercome he built a Citty for them betweene Cilicia and Isauria bearing his owne name But that Citty doth still liue vnder the lawes of their forefathers and no Dormitantius is sprung vp there The Countreyes of Fraunce haue a domesticall enemy and now they see a man of a troubled brayne and fit to be bound vp as Hipocrates directed that mad men should be hauing a seat in the Church and among other wordes of blasphemy deliuering also these To what purpose is it for thee with so great respect not only to honour but to adore also that I know not what I should call it which thou worshippest in that little portable violl And againe in the same booke VVhy doest thou adoringly kisse that dust wrapped vp in a little cloath And afterward VVe see that almost after the manner of the Gentils it is introduced into our Churches vnder the pretence of Religion to light huge heapes of waxen tapers and euery where they kisse and adore I know not what little dust in a little violl wrapped about in some pretious linnen cloath Such men as these do doubtles impart great honour to the most blessed Martyrs in thinking that they may be illustrated by those most base waxe lights whome the Lambe who is in the middest of the Throne doth illuminate with the whole brightnes of his Maiesty But who O you mad headed man Did euer adore the Martyrs Who thought that a man was God Did not Paul and Barnabas when they were thought by the Lycaonians to be Iupiter and Mercury and had a mind to offer them sacrifice teare their garments and declare that they were but men Not but that they were better then Iupiter or Mercury who were dead long before but because vnder the errour of Paganisme the honour which was due to God was deferred to them This we also read of Peter who when Cornelius desired to adore him raysed him vp by the hand sayd Rise vp for I am also a man And dare you say That same I know not what which you worship in that little violl to be carryed vp and downe What is that thing which you
because we once worshipped Idols we should not now worship God least we may seeme to exhibit the same honour to him which formerly we exhibited to Idols That was done to Idols and therefore it was to be detested but this is done to Martyrs and therefore it is to be receaued But abstracting frō Martyrs Relickes there are tapers lighted through all the Churches of the East when the Ghospell is to be read how brightly soeuer the Sunne then shine Not forsooth to driue away darkenes but to declare our ioy by that testimony Wherupon those Euangelicall Virgins haue their lampes euer lighted And it is sayd to the Apostles Let your loynes be girt your lampes burning in your handes And of Iohn Baptist it was sayd that He was a lampe which did both burne and shine that vnder the tipe of visible light the other light might be shewed wherof we read in the Psalme Thy word O Lord is a lanterne to my feet and a light to my steps So that the Bishop of Rome doth ill who ouer the bones of the dead men Peter and Paul which according to our beliefe are venerable and according to you are vile poore ◅usi doth offer sacrifices to our Lord and holdes their tombes to be the Altars of Christ. And not only he of one Citty but the Bishops of the whole world erre who contemning this Tauerne-keeper Vigilantius enter into the Churches of these dead men wherein this most base dust and I know not what kinde of ashes lyes wrapped vp in linnen that it selfe being defiled may defile all thinges els and which are like those Pharisaicall sepulchres exteriourly adorned when within the ashes being impure according to you all other thinges may be also vnsauoury and impure And then casting vp that base vncleanes out of the profound hell of your stomach you dare say thus Therfore belike the soules of Martyrs loue theyr ashes and houer about them and are euer present with them least perhaps if some petitioner might come thither they should not be able to heare them if themselues were absent O prodigious Monster fit to be posted away into the ◅urdest root of the whole earth you scoffe at the Relickes of Martyrs together with Eunomius the authour of this heresy you procure to cast a scandall vpon the Churches of Christ Nor are you frighted by finding your selfe in such company as that you speake those very things against vs which he spake against the Church For none of his followers will go the Churches of the Apostles and Martyrs that forsooth they may adore the dead Eunomius whose bookes they esteeme to be of more authority then the Ghospells and in him they hold the light of truth to be as other heresies affirmed that the holy Ghost came into Montanus yea and they say that Manichaeus is that very holy Ghost That most learned man Tertullian that you may not vaunt your selfe to be the first finder out of this wickednes writes against this heresy of yours which broke out long ago against the Church an excellent booke which he termed Scorpiacum vpon a most iust reason because by a circling kind of wound that Heretike spread his poison vpon the body of the Church by that heresy which anciently was called of Cain and which sleeping or rather lying buryed a long tyme is now by Dormitantius raised to life It is a marueile you say not that Martyrdomes are not to be endured because God doth not seeke the blood of so much as goates or bulles and much lesse will he require that of men Which when you shall haue sayd yea although you shall not say it you shall be so accounted of as if you sayd it For he who affirmes that the Relicks of Martyrs are to be troden on forbids that blood to be shed which is vnwor◅hy of any honour Concerning Vigils and sitting vp at night which are often to be celebrated in Martyrs Churches I haue giuen a briefe answere in another Epistle which I wrote almost two yeares since to Riparius the holy Priest If therefore you thinke that they are to reiected least otherwise we may seem to celebrate many seuerall Easters and that we keep not solemne Vigils at the end of euery yeare by the same reason no sacrifices should be offered to Christ vpon the Sundaies least we should seeme to celebrate the Easter of the Resurrection of our Lord often so we should not haue one Easter but many Now that abuse and fault which is many tymes committed in the night betweene young men and the basest sorte of woemen is not to be imputed to deuout persons because some such thing is many tymes found to be committed euen in th◅ Vigil the Easter but now the fault of few must not preiudice this Act of Religion For euen without Vigils men may commit that sinne either in their owne or others houses The treason of Iudas destroyed not the fayth of the Apostles and so the ill Vigills of others must not destroy our Vigils but rather let them be constrained to watch to chastity who sleep to lust For that which was good being done once cannot be euill if it be done often And if it be culpable through any fault it is not culpable because it was done often but because it was done at all Let vs not therfore belike watch at Easter least the long entertained desire of some adulterer may chaunce to be fullfilled then least the wife find occasion of committing sinne least she exempt her selfe from being shut vp by her husbandes keye Whatsoeuer is rare is so much the more ardently desired I cannot runne ouer all those particulers which are mentioned in the letters of those holy Priests but some I will produce out of his owne bookes He frames arguments against those wonders and miracles which are wrought in Martyrs Churches and he sayth they are good for vnbelieuers but not ◅or belieuers As if now the question were for whose sake and not by what power they are wrought But well let Miracles be wrought for Infidells who because they would not belieue speech and doctrine may be brought by Miracles to the fayth Our Lord wrought Miracles for such as were yet incredulous and yet the Miracles of our Lord are not be taxed because they were for Infidels but they were to be admired so much the more because they were of so great power as to tame euen the stifest mindes and oblige them to imbrace the fayth Therfore I will not haue you tell me that miracles are for Infidels but answere me how there comes to be so great a presence of wōders and miracles in most base dust and I know not what kind of ashes I find I find O you the most vnhappy of all mortall men what grieues you and what frights you The impure spirit which compels you to write those thinges is often tormented with this most base dust yea and is tormented this very day and he who dissembles the wounds which
he giues to you confesses those which he giues to others Vnles perhaps after the manner of Gentiles and prophane persons such as P◅rphyrius and Euuomius were you will pretend that these are but trickes of the Diuells and that indeed the Diuells cry not out but only that they fayne themselues to be in torment Take my counsaile goe to the Martyrs Churches and you shall be one day dispossest There shall you find many of your fellowes and you shall be burnt not by the tapers of Martyrs which displease you but by inuisible flames and then you will confesse what you now deny you wil freely publish your owne name though now you speake in the name of Vigilantius and say that either you are Mercury for your desire of money or Nocturnus according to the Amphitryo of Plautus who sleeping in adultery with Al◅mena Iupiter made two nights of one that Hercules might be borne full of strength Or els that you are Father Bacchus for your drunken head and you tankard hanging at your backe and your face euer red your lips foming and your vnbridled tongue rayling Whereupon there being a sudden earth-quake in this Prouince which raysed all men from their sleep you being the most discreet wise of mortall men were praying naked and represented to vs an Adam and an Eue as they were in Paradise Sauing that they hauing their eyes open and seeing themselues naked did blush and couer their secret partes with leaues of trees but you being as naked of cloathes as voyd of vertue and frighted with a sudden feare hauing somewhat in you of the surfet of the former night did expose the obscene parts of your body to the eyes of the Saints that you might shew how discreet a man you were Such enemyes as these hath the Church These are the Captaines who fight against the blood of Martyrs such Oratours as these thunder out against the Apostles or rather such madd Dogs as these barke against the disciples of Christ. I confesse my feare least perhaps in your opinion it might seem to grow from superstition When I haue bene angry when I haue had any ill thought in my mind and haue beene deluded by any imagination in the night I dare not goe into the Martyrs Churches I doe all so tremble both in body and minde Perhaps you will scoffe at me for this as if it were the dotage of some old woman But I blush not to hold fast the fayth of those woemen who were the first in seeing our Lord after his resurrection who were sent to his Apostles and who in the person of the Mother of our Lord sauiour were recomended to the same holy Apostles Go you belching on with the men who lead a worldy life I will fast with those woemen yea and also with those Religious men who carry chastity euen in their countenance and hauing their faces pale through continuall abstinence declare the modesty of Christ. Me thinkes you also seem to be troubled at another thing and that is least if chastity sobriety and fasting should continue to take deep footing in France your Tauernes would make little gayne and so you should not be able to continue those Vigills of the Diuel those drunken feasts all night lōg It is related to me besides in the same letters that you forbid men to be at any charge for the vse and comfort of those holy men who liue at Ierusalem against the authority of the Apostle Paul yea and of Peter also and of Iames and Iohn who gaue handes to Paul and Barnabas in testimony of their consent with them and required them to be mindefull of the poore But now if I should answere these thinges you would presently barke out and say that I am pleading myne owne cause you who haue been so liberall to all the world as that if you had not come to Iesuralem had not powred forth your own money or that of your Patrons we should all forsooth haue bene in danger to starue For my part I will but say that which the blessed Apostle Paul deliuers almost in all his Epistles and enioyneth the Churches which had bene conuerted among the Gentiles namely that vpon the first day after the Sabboth that is to say vpon the Sunday men were all to conferre about that alms which should be sent to Hierusalē either by their disciples or by others whome they should appoint and that if it proued to be of moment himself might either carry or send it In the Acts of the Apostles speaking to Foel◅x the Gouernour he sayth thus After many yeares being to giue much almes to the men of my nation and to make oblations and vowes I came to Ierusalem where they found me purifyed in the Temple But had he not also power to dispose of some part of that which he had receaued of others vpon the Churches in other parts of the world which growing to be Christian he had instructed by his preaching But yet he desired to impart the almes to the poore of those holy places who leauing their fortunes for Christ had deuoted themselues wholly to the seruice of our Lord. It were a long businesse if I would reflect vpon all the testimonies which might be brought out of euery one of those Epistles wherein the Apostle endeauours and with his whole affection makes hast to ordaine that money should be addressed to the faythfull at Hierusalem and to the holy places not to satisfy couetousnes but for their necessary comfort not for the gathering together of riches but for the vphoulding of their weake bodies and for the auoyding of hunger and cold this custome continuing in Iury euen to this day not only among vs Christians but among the Iewes also that they who meditate vpon the lawes of our Lords day and night and who haue no Father vpon earth but only God should be cherished by the charities of the Synagogues of the whole world with a fit equality not that some should be at ease and some in misery but that the aboundance of some might serue to supply the wāt of others But you will answere that euery man may do this in his owne country and that poore people will not be wanting to be mainteyned vpon the charity of the Church And so also neither doe we deny but that almes is to be giuen to all kind of poore people yea though they be euen Samaritans and Iewes if there be enough for all But the Apostle directeth indeed that we should giue almes to all but especially to them of the houshold of fayth in respect of whome our Lord sayd in the Ghospell Make your selues friendes by the Mammon of iniquity who may receaue you in the eternall Tabernacles Now I pray you can those poore people who among their rags and corporall mi◅eries haue burning lust ruling ouer them can they I say haue any eternall Tabernacles who possesse neith◅r present nor future thinges For not absolutly such as are