two Positions Transubstantiation cannot be proved by the plain and manifest words of Scripture nor can it be necessarily collected from it nor yet confirmed by the consent of the Ancient Fathers In the Lords Supper there is none other Oblation and Sacrifice than of a Remembrance of Christs Death and of Thanksgiving Dr. Madew defended these and Glyn Langdale Sedgewick and Young disputed against them the first day and the second day Glyn defended the contrary Propositions and Peru Grindal Gest and Pilkington disputed against them On the third day the Dispute went on and was summed up in a learned Determination by Ridley against the Corporal Presence There had been also a long Disputation in the Parliament on the same Subject but of this we have nothing remaining but what King Edward writ in his Journal Ridley had by reading Bertrams Book of the Body and Blood of Christ been first set on to examine well the old Opinion concerning the Presence of Christs very Flesh and Blood in the Sacrament and wondering to find that in the 9th Century that Opinion was so much controverted and so learnedly writ against by one of the most esteemed Men of that Age began to conclude that it was none of the ancient Doctrines of the Church but lately brought in and not fully received till after Bertrams Age. He communicated the Matter with Cranmer and they set themselves to examine it with more than ordinary care Cranmer afterwards gathered all the Arguments about it into the Book which he writ on that Subject to which Gardiner set out an Answer under the disguised Name of Marcus Constantius and Cranmer replied to it I shall offer the Reader in short the Substance of what was in these Books and of the Arguments used in the Disputations and in many other Books which were at that time written on this Subject Christ in the Institution took Bread and gave it So that his words The manner of the Presence explained according to the Scripture This is my Body could only be meant of the Bread Now the Bread could not be his Body literally He himself also calls the Cup The Fruit of the Vine St. Paul calls it The Bread that we break and the Cup that we bless and speaking of it after it was blessed calls it That Bread and that Cup. For the Reason of that Expression This is my Body it was considered that the Disciples to whom Christ spoke thus were Jews and that they being accustomed to the Mosaical Rites must needs have understood his words in the same sense they did Moses's words concerning the Paschal Lamb which is called the Lords Passover It was not that literally for the Lords Passover was the Angels passing by the Israelites when he smote the first-born of the Egyptians so the Lamb was only the Lords Passover as it was the Memorial of it and thus Christ substituting the Eucharist to the Paschal Lamb used such an Expression calling it his Body in the same manner of speaking as the Lamb was called the Lords Passover This was plain enough for his Disciples could not well understand him in any other sense than that to which they had been formerly accustomed In the Scripture many such Figurative Expressions occurre frequently In Baptism the other Sacrament instituted by Christ he is said to Baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire and such as are Baptized are said to put on Christ which were Figurative Expressions As also in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the Cup is called the New Testament in Christs Blood which is an Expression full of Figure Farther it was observed that that Sacrament was Instituted for a Remembrance of Christ and of his death which implied that he was to be absent at the time when he was to be remembred Nor was it simply said that the Elements were his Body and Blood but that they were his Body broken and his Blood shed that is they were these as suffering on the Cross which as they could not be understood literally for Christ did Institute this Sacrament before he had suffered on the Cross so now Christ must be present in the Sacrament not as glorified in Heaven but as suffering on his Cross From those Places where it is said that Christ is in Heaven and that he is to continue there they argued that he was not to be any more upon Earth And those words in the 6th of St. John of eating Christs Flesh and drinking his Blood they said were to be understood not of the Sacrament since many receive the Sacrament unworthily and of them it cannot be said that they have Eternal Life in them but Christ there said of them that received him in the sense that was meant in that Chapter that all that did so eat his Flesh had Eternal Life in them therefore these words can only be understood Figuratively of receiving him by Faith as himself there explains it And so in the end of that Discourse finding some were startled at that way of expressing himself he gave a Key to the whole when he said his Words were Spirit and Life and that the Flesh profited nothing it was the Spirit that quickned It was ordinary for him to teach in Parables and the receiving of any Doctrine being oft expressed by the Prophets by the Figure of eating and drinking he upon the occasion of the Peoples coming to him after he had fed them with a few Loaves did discourse of their believing in these dark Expressions which did not seem to relate to the Sacrament since it was not then Instituted They also argued from Christs appealing to the Senses of his Hearers in his Miracles and especially in his discourses upon his Resurrection that the Testimony of Sense was to be received where the Object was duly applied and the Sense not vitiated They also alledged natural Reasons against a Bodies being in more places than one or being in a Place in the manner of a Spirit so that the Substance of a compleat Body could be in a crumb of Bread or drop of Wine and argued that since the Elements after Consecration would nourish might putrifie or could be poisoned these things clearly evinced That the Substance of Bread and Wine remained in the Sacrament And from the Fathers From this they went to examine the Ancient Fathers Some of them called it Bread and Wine others said it nourished the Body as Justin Martyr others that it was digested in the Stomach and went into the draught as Origen Some called it a Figure of Christs Body so Tertullian and St. Austin others called the Elements Types and Signs so almost all the Ancient Liturgies and the Greek Fathers generally In the Creeds of the Church it was professed that Christ still sate on the Right Hand of God the Fathers argued from thence that he was in Heaven and not on Earth And the Marcionites and other Hereticks denying that Christ had a true Body or did really suffer the Fathers
in Controversies of Faith It is not lawful for the Church c. It is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God's Word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another Wherefore although the Church be a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation XXI Of the Authority of General Councils General Councils may not be gathered together without the Commandment and Will of Princes And when they are gathered together forasmuch as they be an Assembly of Men whereof all be governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may err and sometimes have erred even in things pertaining unto God Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture XXIII Of Purgatory The Doctrine of the School-men concerning Purgatory Pardons Worshipping and Adoration as well of Images as of Reliques and also Invocation of Saints is a fond thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture but rather perniciously repugnant to the Word of God XXIV No Man to minister in the Church except he be called It is not lawful for any Man to take upon him the Office of publick Preaching or ministring the Sacraments in the Congregation before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same And those we ought to judg lawfully called and sent which be chosen and called to this Work by Men who have publick Authority given unto them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers into the Lord's Vineyard XXV All things to be done in the Congregation in such a Tongue as is understood by the People It is most fit It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God and the custom of the Primitive Church to have publick Prayers in the Church or to minister the Sacraments in a Tongue not understood by the People and most agreeable to the Word of God that nothing be read or rehearsed in the Congregation in a Tongue not known unto the People which Paul hath forbidden to be done unless some be present to interpret XXVI Of the Sacraments Our Lord Jesus Christ gathered his People into a Society Sacraments ordained of Christ be not only Badges and Tokens of Christian Mens Profession but rather they be certain sure Witnesses and effectual signs of Grace and God's good Will towards us by the which he doth work invisibly in us and doth not only quicken but also strengthen and confirm our Faith in him There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel that is to say Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Those five commonly called Sacraments That is to say Confirmation Penance Orders Matrimony and Extream Vnction are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures but yet have not like nature of Sacraments with Baptism and the Lord's Supper for that they have not any visible Sign or Ceremony ordained of God The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed on or to be carried about but that we should duly use them And in such only as worthily receive the same they have a wholesome effect or operation but they that receive them unworthily purchase to themselves damnation as St. Paul saith by Sacraments very few in number most easie to be kept and of most excellent signification that is to say Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon or to be carried about but that we should duly use them And in such only as worthily receive the same they have a wholesome effect or operation not as some say Ex opere operato which terms as they are strange and utterly unknown to the Holy Scripture so do they yield a sense which savoureth of little Piety but of much Superstition but they that receive them unworthily receive to themselves damnation The Sacraments ordained by the word of God be not only Badges or Tokens of Christian Mens Profession but rather they be certain sure Witnesses effectual signs of Grace and God's good Will towards us by the which he doth work invisibly in us and doth not only quicken but also strengthen and confirm our Faith in him XXVII The Wickedness of the Ministers takes not away the Efficacy of Divine Institutions Although in the Visible Church the Evil be ever mingled with the Good and sometimes the Evil have chief Authority in the ministration of the Word and Sacraments yet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own Name but in Christ's and do minister by his Commission and Authority we may use their Ministry both in hearing the Word of God and in receiving of the Sacraments Neither is the effect of Christ's Ordinance taken away by their wickedness nor the Grace of God's Gifts diminished from such as by Faith rightly do receive the Sacrament ministred unto them which be effectual because of Christ's Institution and Promise although they be ministred by evil Men. Nevertheless it appertaineth to the Discipline of the Church that inquiry be made after * Evil Ministers them and that they be accused by those that have knowledg of their Offences and finally being found guilty by just judgment be deposed XXVIII Of Baptism Baptism is not only a sign of Profession and mark of Difference whereby Christian Men are discerned from others that be not Christned but it is also a sign of Regeneration or New Birth whereby as by an Instrument they that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the Church the Promises of forgiveness of sin and of our Adoption to be the Sons of God by the Holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed Faith is confirmed and Grace increased by virtue of Prayer unto God * The Baptism of young Children is in any wise to be retained in the Church as most agreeable to the Institution of Christ The Custom of the Church for baptising young Children is both to be commended and by all means to be retained in the Church XXIX Of the Lord's Supper The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the Love that Christians ought to have amongst themselves one to another but rather it is a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ's Death Insomuch that to such as rightly worthily and with Faith receive the same the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ and likewise the Cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ Transubstantiation or the change of the Substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord cannot be proved by Holy Writ * but is repugnant to the
who used auricular Confession to a Priest but that all should keep the Rule of Charity every Man being satisfied to follow his own Conscience and not judging another Mans in things not appointed by God After the Priest had received the Sacrament he was to turn to the People and read an Exhortation to them the same we now use only a little varied in words After that followed a Denunciation against Sinners requiring them who were such and had not repented to withdraw lest the Devil should enter into them as he did into Judas Then after a little pause to see if any would withdraw there was to follow a short Exhortation with a Confession of sins and Absolution the very same which we do yet retain Then those Texts of Scripture were read which we yet read followed with the Prayer We do not presume c. After this the Sacrament was to be given in both kinds first to the Ministers then present and then to all the People with these words The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy Body unto Everlasting Life and The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee preserve thy Soul unto Everlasting Life When all was done the Congregation was to be dismissed with a Blessing The Bread was to be such as had been formerly used and every one of the Breads so consecrated was to be broken in two or more pieces and the People were to be taught that there was no difference in the quantity they received whether it were small or great but that in each of them they received the whole Body of Christ If the Wine that was at first consecrated did not serve the Priest was to consecrate more but all to be without any Elevation This Office being thus finished was set forth with a Proclamation reciting That whereas the Parliament had Enacted that the Communion should be given in both kinds to all the Kings Subjects it was now ordered to be given in the Form here set forth and all were required to receive it with due reverence and Christian behaviour and with such uniformity as might encourage the King to go on in the setting forth godly Orders for Reformation which he intended most earnestly to bring to effect by the help of God Willing his Subjects not to run before his direction and so by their rashness to hinder such things assuring them of the earnest zeal he had to set them forth hoping they would quietly and reverently tarry for it This was published on the 8th of March and on the 13th Books were sent to all the Bishops of England requiring them to send them to every Parish in their Diocess that the Curates might have time both to instruct themselves about it and to acquaint their People with it so that by the next Easter it might be universally received in all the Churches of the Nation This was variously censured It is variously censured Those that were for the old Superstition were much troubled to have Confession thus left indifferent and a general Confession of sins to be used with which they apprehended the People would for the most part content themselves Chiefly that Auricular Confession was laid down In the Scripture there was a Power of Binding and Loosing sins given to the Apostles And St. James exhorted those to whom he wrote to confess their faults to one another Afterwards Penitents came to be reconciled to the Church when they had given publick scandal either by their Apostacy or ill Life by an open Confession of their sins and after some time of separation from the other pure Christians in Worship and an abstention from the Sacrament they were admitted again to their share of all the Priviledges that were given in common to Christians But according to the nature of their sins they were besides the publick Confession put under such Rules as might be most proper for curing these ill Inclinations in them and according to the several Ranks of sins the time and degrees of this Penitence was proportioned And the Councils that met in the fourth and fifth Centuries made the regulating these penitentiary Canons the chief Subject of their Consultations In many Churches there were penitentiary Priests who were more expert in the knowledge of these Rules and gave directions about them which were taken away in Constantinople upon the indiscretion of which one of them had been guilty For secret sins there was no obligation to confess since all the Canons were about publick scandals yet for these the devout People generally went to their Priests for their Counsel but were not obliged to it and so went to them for the distempers of their Minds as they did to Physicians for the Diseases of their Bodies About the end of the 5th Century they began in some Places to have secret Penances either within Monasteries or other Places which the Priests had appointed and upon a secret Confession and performing the Penance imposed Absolution was also given secretly whereas in former times Confession and Absolution had been performed openly in the Church In the 7th Century it was every where practised that there should be secret Penance for secret sins which Theodore Arch-bishop of Canterbury did first bring into a Method and under Rules But about the end of the 8th Century the commutation of Penance and exchanging it for Money or other Services to the Church came to be practised and then began Pilgrimages to Holy Places and afterwards the going to the Holy War and all the severities of Penance were dispensed with to such as undertook these This brought on a great Relaxation of all Ecclesiastical Discipline Afterwards Croisadoes came in use against such Princes as were deposed by Popes and to these was likewise added to encourage all to enter into them that all Rules of Penitence were dispensed with to such as put on that Cross But Penitence being now no more publick but only private the Priests managed it as they pleased and so by Confession entred into all Mens secrets and by Absolution had their Consciences so entirely in their Power that the People were generally governed by them Yet because the Secular Priests were commonly very ignorant and were not put under such an association as was needful to manage those designs for which this was thought an excellent Engine therefore the Friars were employed every where to hear Confessions and to give Absolutions And to bring in Customers to them two new things were invented The one was a Reserving of certain Cases in which such as were guilty of them could not be absolved but by the Popes or those deputed by them and the Friars had faculties in the Popes Name to absolve in these Cases The other was on some occasion the use of certain new Secrets by which Men were to obtain great Indulgences either by saying such Prayers or performing such Impositions and these were all trusted to the Friars who were to
trade with them and bring all the Money they could gather by that means to Rome They being bred up to a voluntary Poverty and expecting great Rewards for their Industry sold those Secrets with as much cunning as Mounte-banks use in selling their Tricks only here was the difference that the ineffectualness of the Mountebanks Medicines was soon discovered so their Trade must be but short in one Place whereas the other could not be so easily found out The chief Piece of the Religion of those Ages being to believe all that their Priests taught them Of this sort the Reader will find in the Collection an Essay of Indulgences as they were printed in the Hours after the use of Sarum Collection Number 26. which were set down in English though the Prayers be all Latine that so all the People might know the value of such Ware Those had been all by degrees brought from Rome and put into Peoples Hands and afterwards laid together in their Offices By them Indulgences of many years Hundreds Thousands and Millions of years and of all sins whatsoever were granted to such as devoutly said such Collects but it was always understood that they must confess and be absolved which is the meaning of those Expressions concerning their being in a state of Grace And so the whole Business was a Cheat. And now all this Trade was laid aside and Confession of secret sins was left to all Mens free choice since it was certain that the Confession to a Priest was no where enjoyned in the Scriptures It was a reasonable Objection that as secret Confession and private Penance had worn out the primitive practice of the publick censuring of scandalous Persons so it had been well if the reviving of that Discipline had driven out these later Abuses but to let that lie unrestored and yet to let Confession wear out was to discharge the World of all outward restraints and to leave them to their full liberty and so to throw up that Power of Binding and Loosing which ought to take place chiefly in admitting them to the Sacrament This was confessed to be a great defect and effectual endeavours were used to retrieve it though without success and it was openly declared to be a thing which they would study to repair But the total disuse of all publick censure had made the Nation so unacquainted with it that without the effectual concurrence of the Civil Authority they could not compass it And though it was acknowledged to be a great disorder in the Church yet as they could not keep up the necessity of private Confession since it was not commanded in the Gospel so the generality of the Clergy being superstitious Men whose chief influence on the People was by those secret Practices in Confession they judged it necessary to leave that free to all People and to represent it as a thing to which they were not obliged and in the place of that ordered the general Confession to be made in the Church with the Absolution added to it For the Power of Binding and Loosing it was by many thought to be only Declarative and so to be exercised when the Gospel was preached and a General Absolution granted according to the Ancient Forms In which Forms the Absolution was a Prayer that God would absolve and so it had been still used in the Absolution which was given on Maundy-Thursday but the Formal Absolution given by the Priest in his own Name I absolve thee was a late invention to raise their Authority higher and signified nothing distinct from those other Forms that were anciently used in the Church Others censured the Words in distributing the two kinds in the Lords Supper the Body being given for the preserving the Body and the Blood of Christ for preserving the Soul This was thought done on design to possess the People with an high value of the Chalice as that which preserved their Souls whereas the Bread was only for the preservation of their Bodies But Cranmer being ready to change any thing for which he saw good reason did afterwards so alter it that in both it was said Preserve thy Body and Soul And yet it stands so in the Prayer We do not presume c. On all this I have digressed so long because of the importance of the matter and for satisfying the Scruples that many still have upon the laying aside of Confession in our Reformation Commissions were next given to examine the state of the Chantries and Guildable Lands The Instruction about them will be found in the Collection of which I need give no abstract here Collection Number 27. for they were only about the Methods of enquiring into their value and how they were possessed or what Alienations had been made of them The Protector and Council were now in much trouble The War with Scotland they found was like to grow chargeable since they saw it was supported from France There was a Rebellion also broke out in Ireland and the King was much indebted nor could they expect any Subsidies from the Parliament in which it had been said that they gave the Chantry Lands that they might be delivered from all Subsidies Therefore the Parliament was prorogued till Winter Upon this the whole Council did on the 17th of April unanimously resolve that it was necessary to sell 5000 l. a year of Chantry Lands for raising such a Sum as the Kings occasions required and Sir Hen. Mildmay was appointed to treat about the Sale of them Gardiner falls into new Troubles The new Communion-Book was received over England without any opposition Only complaints were brought of Gardiner that he did secretly detract from the Kings Proceedings Upon which the Council took occasion to reflect on all his former behaviour And here it was remembred how at first upon his refusing to receive the Kings Injunctions he had been put in the Fleet where he had been as well used as if it had been his own House which is far contrary to his Letters to the Protector of which mention has been already made and that he upon promise of Conformity had been discharged But when he was come home being forgetful of his Promises he had raised much strife and contention and had caused all his Servants to be secretly armed and harnessed and had put publick affronts on those whom the Council sent down to preach in his Diocess for in some Places to disgrace them he went into the Pulpit before them and warned the People to beware of such Teachers and to receive no other Doctrine but what he had taught them Upon this he had been sent for a second time but again upon his Promise of Conformity was discharged and ordered to stay at his own House in London That there he had continued still to meddle in publick Matters of which being again admonished he desired that he might be suffered to clear himself of all misrepresentations that had been made of him in a Sermon
unless they were put under more Artificial Rules and dressed up with much Ceremony Gregory the Great was the first that took much care to make the Church Musick very regular and he did also put the Liturgies in another Method than had been formerly used Yet he had no such fondness of his own composures but left it to Austin the Monk whom he sent over into England when he consulted him in it either to use the Roman or French Rituals or any other as he should find they were most likely to edifie the People After this in most Sees there were great variations for as any Prelate came to be Canonized or held in high esteem by the People some private Collects or particular Forms that he had used were practised in his or perhaps as his Fame spread in the neighbouring Dioceses In every Age there were notable Additions made and all the Writers almost in the 8th and 9th Centuries employed their Fancies to find out mystical significations for every Rite that was then used and so as a new Rite was added it was no hard matter to add some Mystery to it This had made the Offices swell out of measure and there was a great variety of them Missals Breviaries Rituals Pontificals Portoises Pies Gradualls Antiphonalls Psalteries Houres and a great many more Every Religious Order had likewise their peculiar Rites with the Saints days that belonged to their Order and Services for them and the understanding how to officiate was become so hard a piece of the Trade that it was not easie to learn it exactly without a long practice in it So now it was resolved to correct and examine these It was resolved there should be a new Liturgy I do not find it was ever brought under consideration whether they should compose a Form for all the Parts of Divine Worship or leave it to the sudden and extemporary heats of those who were to officiate which some have called since that time The worshiping by the Spirit Of this way of serving God they did not then dream much less that the appointing of Forms of Prayer was an encroaching on the Kingly Office of Christ but thought what ever praying in the Spirit might have been in the Apostles time where yet every Man brought his Psalms which are a sort of Prayers as well as Praises and these look like some written Composures as St. Paul expresses it that now to pray with warm affection and sincere devotion was Spiritual Worship and that where it was the same thing that was to be daily asked of God the using the same expressions was the sign of a steady devotion that was fixed on the thing prayed for whereas the heat that new words raised looked rather like a warmth in the fancy Nor could it agree with the Principles of a Reformation that was to devest the Church-men of that unlimited Authority which they had formerly exercised over Mens Consciences to leave them at liberty to make the People pray after them as they pleased this being as great a resignation of the People when their devotion depended on the sudden heats of their Pastors as the former Superstition had made of their Faith and Conscience to them So it being resolved to bring the whole Worship of God under set Forms they set one General Rule to themselves which they afterwards declared of changing nothing for novelties sake or meerly because it had been formerly used They resolved to retain such things as the Primitive Church had practised cutting off such abuses as the later ages had grafted on them and to continue the use of such other things which though they had been brought in not so early yet were of good use to beget devotion and were so much recommended to the People by the practice of them that the laying these aside would perhaps have alienated them from the other changes they made And therefore they resolved to make no change without very good and weighty reasons In which they considered the practice of our Saviour who did not only comply with the Rites of Judaism himself but even the Prayer he gave to his Disciples was framed according to their Forms and his two great Institutions of Baptism and the Eucharist did consist of Rites that had been used among the Jews And since he who was delivering a new Religion and was authorized in the highest manner that ever any was did yet so far comply with received Practices as from them to take those which he sanctified for the use of his Church it seemed much fitter for those who had no such extraordinary warrant to give them Authority in what they did when they were reforming abuses to let the World see they did it not from the wanton desire of change or any affectation of novelty and with those resolutions they entred on their Work In the search of the former Offices they found an infinite deal of superstition in the Consecrations of Water Salt Bread Incense Candles Fire Bells Churches Images Altars Crosses Vessels Garments Palms Flowers all looked like the Rites of Heathenism and seemed to spring from the same Fountain When the Water or Salt were blessed it was expressed to be to this end that they might be health both to Soul and Body and Devils who might well laugh at these tricks which they had taught them were adjured not to come to any place where they were sprinkled and the Holy Bread was blessed to be a defence against all Diseases and snares of the Devil and the Holy Incense that Devils might not come near the smoak of it but that all who smelled at it might perceive the Vertue of the Holy Ghost and the Ashes were blessed so that all who were covered with them might deserve to obtain the remission of their sins All those things had drawn the People to such confidence in them that they generally thought that without those harder terms of true holiness they might upon such superstitious observances be sure of Heaven So all these they resolved to cast out as things which had no warrant in Scripture and were vain devices to draw Men away from a lively application to God through Christ according to the method of the Gospel Then the many Rites in Sacramental Actions were considered all which had swelled up to an infinite heap And as some of these which had no foundation in Scripture were thrown out so the others were brought back to a greater simplicity In no part of Religion was the corruption of the former Offices more remarkable than in the Priests granting Absolution to the Living and the Dead To such as Confessed the Absolution was thus granted I absolve thee in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost To which this was added And I grant to thee that all the Indulgences given or to be given thee by any Prelate with the Blessings of them all the Sprinklings of Holy Water all the Devout Beatings of thy Breast the
be eaten therefore they saw no necessity because of a former abuse to throw away Habits that had so much decency in them and had been formerly in use In the compiling the Offices they began with Morning and Evening Prayer These were put in the same Form they are now only there was no Confession nor Absolution the Office beginning with the Lords Prayer In the Communion Service the Ten Commandements were not said as they are now but in other things it was very near what it is now All that had been in the Order of the Communion formerly mentioned was put into it The Offertory was to be made of Bread and Wine mixed with Water Then was said the Prayer for the state of Christs Church in which they gave thanks to God for his wonderful Grace declared in his Saints in the Blessed Virgin the Patriarchs Apostles Prophets and Martyrs and they commended the Saints departed to Gods Mercy and Peace that at the day of the Resurrection we with them might be set on Christs Right Hand To this the consecratory Prayer which we now use was joyned as a part of it only with these words that are since left out With thy Holy Spirit vouchsafe to Ble †ss and Sanc †tifie these thy Gifts and Creatures of Bread and Wine that they may be unto us the Body and Blood of thy most dearly beloved Son c. To the Consecration was also joyned the Prayer of Thanksgiving now used After the Consecration all Elevation was forbidden which had been first used as a Rite expressing how Christ was lifted up on the Cross but was after the belief of the Corporal Presence made use of to shew the Sacrament that the People might all fall down and worship it And it was ordered That the whole Office of the Communion except the Consecratory Prayer should be used on all Holy-days when there was no Communion to put People in mind of it and of the Sufferings of Christ The Bread was to be unleavened round but no print on it and somewhat thicker than it was formerly And though it was anciently put in the Peoples Hands yet because some might carry it away and apply it to superstitious uses it was ordered to be put by the Priest into their Mouths It is clear that Christ delivered it into the Hands of the Apostles and it so continued for many Ages as appears by several remarkable Stories of Holy Men carrying it with them in their Journeys In the Greek Church where the Bread and Wine were mingled together some began to think it more decent to receive it in little Spoons of Gold than in their Hands but that was condemned by the Council in Trullo Yet soon after they began in the Latin Church to appoint Men to receive it with their Hands but Women to take it in a Linnen Cloath which was called their Dominical But when the belief of the Corporeal Presence was received then a new way of receiving was invented among other things to support it The People were now no more to touch that which was conceived to be the Flesh of their Saviour and therefore the Priests Thumb and Fingers were particularly anointed as a necessary disposition for so holy a Contact and so it was by them put into the Mouths of the People A Letany was also gathered consisting of many short Petitions interrupted by Suffrages between them and was the same that we still use only they had one Suffrage that we have not to be delivered from the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities In Baptism there was besides the Forms which we still retain a Cross at first made on the Childs Forehead and Breast with an adjuration of the Devil to go out of him and come at him no more Then the Priest was to take the Child by the Right Hand and to place him within the Font there he was to be dipt thrice once on the right side once on the left and once on the Breast which was to be discreetly done but if the Child were weak it was sufficient to sprinkle Water on his Face Then was the Priest to put a White Vestment or Chrisome on him for a token of Innocence and to anoint him on the Head with a Prayer for the Unction of the Holy Ghost In Confirmation those that came were to be Catechised which having in it a formal engagement to make good the Baptismal Vow was all that was asked The Catechism then was the same that is now only there is since added an Explanation of the Sacraments This being said the Bishop was to Sign them with the Cross and to lay his Hands on them and say I Sign thee with the Sign of the Cross and lay my Hands on thee in the Name of the Father c. The Sick who desired to be anointed might have the Unction on their Forehead or their Breast only with a Prayer that as their Body was outwardly anointed with Oyl so they might receive the Holy Ghost with Health and victory over Sin and Death At Funerals they recommended the Soul departed to Gods Mercy and prayed that his sins might be pardoned that he might be delivered from Hell and carried to Heaven and that his Body might be raised at the last day They also took care that those who could not come or be brought to Church should not therefore be deprived of the use of the Sacraments The Church of Rome had raised the belief of the indispensable necessity of the Sacraments so high that they taught they did ex opere operato by the very action it self without inward acts justifie and confer Grace unless there were a barr put to it by the Receiver and the first rise of the Questions about Justification seems to have come from this For that Church teaching that Men were justified by Sacramental Actions the Reformers opposed this and thought Men were justified by the Internal Acts of the Mind If they had held at this the Controversie might have been managed with much greater advantages which they lost in a great measure by descending to some minuter subtleties In the Church of Rome pursuant to their belief concerning the necessity of the Sacraments Women were allowed in extream Cases to Baptize and the Midwives commonly did it which might be the beginning of their being licensed by Bishops to exercise that Calling And they also believed that a simple attrition with the Sacraments was sufficient for Salvation in those who were grown up and upon these Grounds the Sacraments were administred to the Sick In the Primitive Church they sent Portions of the Sacrament to those who were sick or in Prison and did it not only without Pomp or Processions but sent it often by the hands of Boys and other Laicks as appears from the famed Story of Serapion which as it shews they did not then believe it was the very Flesh and Blood of Christ so when that Doctrine was received it was
and indeed all England over the Book was so universally received that the Visitors did return no complaint from any corner of the whole Kingdom All received the new Service except the Lady Mary Only the Lady Mary continued to have Mass said in her House of which the Council being advertised writ to her to conform her self to the Laws and not to cast a reproach on the Kings Government for the nearer she was to him in Blood she was to give the better example to others and her disobedience might encourage others to follow her in that contempt of the Kings Authority So they desired her to send to them her Comptroller and Dr. Hopton her Chaplain by whom she should be more fully advertised of the King and Councils Pleasure Upon this she sent one to the Emperor to interpose for her that she might not be forced to any thing against her Conscience At this time there was a Complaint made at the Emperours Court The Ambassador at the Emperors Court not suffered to use it of the English Ambassador Sir Philip Hobby for using the new Common-Prayer-Book there To which he answered He was to be obedient to the Laws of his own Prince and Country and as the Emperors Ambassador had Mass at his Chappel at London without disturbance though it was contrary to the Law of England so he had the same reason to expect the like liberty But the Emperor espousing the Interest of the Lady Mary both Paget who was sent over Ambassador Extraordinary to him upon his coming into Flanders and Hobby promised in the Kings Name that he should dispense with her for some time as they afterwards declared upon their Honours when the thing was further questioned though the Emperor and his Ministers pretended that without any Qualification it was promised that she should enjoy the free exercise of her Religion The Emperor was now grown so high with his success in Germany A Treaty of Marriage for the Lady Mary and that at a time when a War was coming on with France that it was not thought advisable to give him any offence There was likewise a Proposition sent over by him to the Protector and Council Cotton lib. Galba B. 12. for the Lady Mary to be married to Alphonso Brother to the King of Portugal The Council entertained it and though the late King had left his Daughters but 10000 l. a-piece yet they offered to give with her 100000 Crowns in Money and 20000 Crowns worth of Jewels The Infant of Portugal was about her own Age and offered 20000 Crowns Jointure But this Proposition fell on what hand I do not know She writ to the Council concerning the new Service The Lady Mary writ on the 22d of June to the Council that she could not obey their late Laws and that she did not esteem them Laws as made when the King was not of Age and contrary to those made by her Father which they were all bound by Oath to maintain She excused the not sending her Comptroller Mr. Arundel and her Priest the one did all her business so that she could not well be without him the other was then so ill that he could not travel Upon this the Council sent a peremptory Command to these requiring them to come up and receive their Orders The Lady Mary wrote a second Letter to them on the 27th of June in which she expostulated the matter with the Council She said She was subject to none of them and would obey none of the Laws they made but protested great Obedience and Subjection to the King When her Officers came to Court they were commanded to declare to the Lady Mary that though the King was young in Person yet his Authority was now as great as ever that those who have his Authority and act in his Name are to be obeyed and though they as single Persons were her humble Servants yet when they met in Council they acted in the Kings Name Who required her to obey as other Subjects did and so were to be considered by all the Kings Subjects as if they were the King himself they had indeed sworn to obey the late Kings Laws but that could bind them no longer than they were in force and being now repealed they were no more Laws other Laws being made in their room There was no exception in the Laws all the Kings Subjects were included in them and for a Reformation of Religion made when a King was under Age one of the most perfect that was recorded in Scripture was so carried on when Josiah was much younger than their King was therefore they gave them in charge to perswade her Grace for that was her Title to be a good example of obedience and not to encourage peevish and obstinate Persons by her stiffness But this Business was for some time laid aside And now the Reformation was to be carried on to the establishing of a Form of Doctrine which should contain the chief Points of Religion In order to which there was this Year great enquiry made into many particular Opinions The manner of Christs Presence in the Sacrament examined and chiefly concerning the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament There was no Opinion for which the Priests contended more ignorantly and eagerly and that the People generally believed more blindly and firmly as if a strong Belief were nothing else but winking very hard The Priests because they accounted it the chief support now left of their falling Dominion which being kept up might in time retrieve all the rest For while it was believed that their Character qualified them for so strange and mighty a Performance they must needs be held in great reverence The People because they thought they received the very Flesh of Christ and so notwithstanding our Saviours express Declaration to the contrary that the Flesh profiteth nothing looked on those who went about to perswade them otherwise as Men that intended to rob them of the greatest Priviledge they had And therefore it was thought necessary to open this fully before there should be any change made in the Doctrine of the Church The Lutherans seemed to agree with that which had been the Doctrine of the Greek Church that in the Sacrament there was both the Substance of Bread and Wine and Christs Body likewise Only many of them defended it by an Opinion that was thought a-kin to the Eutychian Heresie that his humane Nature by vertue of the union of the God-head was every where though even in this way it did not appear that there was any special Presence in the Sacrament more than in other things Those of Switzerland had on the other hand taught that the Sacrament was only an Institution to commemorate the Sufferings of Christ This because it was intelligible was thought by many too low and mean a thing and not equal to the high expressions that are in the Scripture of its being the Communion of the Body
and Blood of Christ. The Princes of Germany saw what mischief was like to follow on the diversity of Opinions in explaining the Sacrament and as Luther being impatient in his temper and too much given to dictate took it very ill to see his Doctrine so rejected so by the undecent way of writing in matters of Controversie to which the Germans are too much inclined this difference turned to a direct breach among them The Landgrave of Hesse had laboured much to have these diversities of Opinion laid asleep since nothing gave their common Enemies such advantage as their quarrelling among themselves Martin Bucer was of a moderate temper and had found a middle Opinion in this matter though not so easie to be understood He thought there was more than a Remembrance to wit a Communication of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament that in general a Real Presence ought to be asserted and that the way of explaining it ought not to be anxiously enquired into and with him Calvin agreed that it was truly the Body and Blood of Christ not figuratively but really present The advantage of these general Expressions was that thereby they hoped to have silenced the Debates between the German and Helvetian Divines whose Doctrine came likewise to be received by many of the Cities of the Empire and by the Elector Palatine And among Martin Bucers Papers I met with an Original Paper of Luthers Collection Number 34. which will be found in the Collection in which he was willing to have that difference thus setled Those of the Ausburg Confession should declare that in the Sacrament there was truly Bread and Wine and those of the Helvetian Confession should declare that Christs Body was truly present and so without any further curiosities in the way of explaining it in which Divines might use their liberty the difference should end But how this came to take no effect I do not understand It was also thought that this way of expressing the Doctrine would give least offence for the People were scarce able to bear the Opinion of the Sacraments being only a Figure but wherein this Real Presence consisted was not so easie to be made out Some explained it more intelligibly in a sense of Law that in the Sacrament there was a real application of the Merit of Christs Death to those who received it worthily so that Christ as crucified was really present and these had this to say for themselves that the Words of the Institution do not call the Elements simply Christs Body and Blood but his Body broken and his Blood shed and that therefore Christ was really present as he was crucified so that the importance of Really was Effectually Others thought all ways of explaining the manner of the Presence were needless curiosities and apt to beget differences that therefore the Doctrine was to be established in general words and to save the labour both of explaining and understanding it it was to be esteemed a Mystery This seems to have been Bucers Opinion but Peter Martyr inclined more to the Helvetians There were publick Disputations held this Year both at Oxford and Cambridge upon this Matter Publick Disputations about it At Oxford the Popish Party did so encourage themselves by the Indulgence of the Government and the gentleness of Cranmers temper that they became upon this Head insolent out of measure Peter Martyr had read in the Chair concerning the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament which he explained according to the Doctrine of the Helvetian Churches Dr. Smith did upon this resolve to contradict him openly in the Schools and challenge him to dispute on these Points and had brought many thither who should by their Clamours and Applauses run him down yet this was not so secretly laid but a friend of P. Martyrs brought him word of it before he had come from his House and perswaded him not to go to the Schools that day Antiq. Oxon. and so disappoint Smith But he looked on that as so mean a thing that he would by no means comply with it So he went to the Divinity Schools on his way one brought him a Challenge from Smith to dispute with him concerning the Eucharist He went on and took his place in the Chair where he behaved himself with an equal measure of courage and discretion he gravely check'd Smiths presumption and said he did not decline a dispute but was resolved to have his Reading that day nor would he engage in a publick Dispute without leave from the Kings Council Upon this a Tumult was like to rise so the Vice-Chancellor sent for them before him P. Martyr said he was ready to defend every thing that he had read in the Chair in a Dispute but he would manage it only in Scripture-Terms and not in the Terms of the Schools This was the beating the Popish Doctors out of that which was their chief strength for they had little other Learning but a slight of tossing some Arguments from hand to hand with a gibberish kind of Language that sounded like somewhat that was sublime but had really nothing under it By constant practise they were very nimble at this sort of Legerdemain of which both Erasmus and Sir Tho. More with the other learned Men of that Age had made such sport that it was become sufficiently ridiculous and the Protestants laid hold on that advantage which such great Authorities gave them to disparage it They set up another way of disputing from the Original Text of the Scripture in Greek and Hebrew which seemed a more proper thing in matters of Divinity than the Metaphysical Language of the School-men This whole Matter being referred to the Privy-Council they appointed some Delegates to hear and preside in the Disputation but Dr. Smith being brought in some trouble either for this Tumult or upon some other account was forced to put in Sureties for his good behaviour he desiring that he might be discharged of any further prosecution made the most humble submission to Cranmer that was possible and being thereupon set at liberty he fled out of the Kingdom it is said he went first to Scotland and from thence to Flanders But not long after this Peter Martyr had a Disputation before the Commissioners sent by the King who were the Bishop of Lincoln Dr. Cox then Chancellor of the University and some others in which Tresham Chadsey and Morgan disputed against those three Propositions 1. In the Sacrament of Thanksgiving there is no Transubstantiation of Bread and Wine in the Body and Blood of Christ. 2. The Body or Blood of Christ is not Carnally or Corporally in the Bread and Wine nor as others use to say under the Bread and Wine 3. The Body and Blood of Christ are united to the Bread and Wine Sacramentally Ridley was sent also to Cambridge with some others of the Kings Commissioners where on the 20th 24th and 27th of June there were publick Disputations on these
appealed in that to the Testimony of Sense as Infallible And St. Austin giving Rules concerning Figurative Speeches in Scripture one is this that they must be taken Figuratively where in the literal sense the thing were a Crime which he applies to these Words of eating Christs Flesh and drinking his Blood But that on which they put the stress of the whole cause as to the Doctrine of the Fathers was the reasoning that they used against the Eutychians who said that Christs Body and Humane Nature was swallowed up by his Divinity The Eutychians arguing from the Eucharists being called Christs Body and Blood in which they said Christs Presence did convert the Substance of the Bread and Wine into his own Flesh and Blood so in like manner said they his Godhead had converted the Manhood into it self Against this Gelasius Bishop of Rome and Theodoret one of the learnedest Fathers of his Age argue in plain words That the Substance of the Bread and Wine remained as it was formerly in its own Nature and Form and from their Opinion of the Presence of Christs Body in it without converting the Elements they turned the Argument to shew how the Divine and Humane Nature can be together in Christ without the ones being changed by the other Peter Martyr had brought over with him the Copy of a Letter of St. Chrysostomes which he found in a MS. at Florence written to the same purpose and on the same Argument which was the more remarkable because that Chrysostome had said higher things in his Sermons and Commentaries concerning Christs being present in the Sacrament than any of all the Fathers but it appeared by this Letter that those high Expressions were no other than Rhetorical Figures of Speech to beget a great reverence to this Institution and from hence it was reasonable to judge that such were the like Expressions in other Fathers and that they were nevertheless of Chrysostomes mind touching the Presence of Christ in this Sacrament That Epistle of his does lie still unpublished though a very learned Man now in France has procured a Copy of it but those of that Church know the consequence that the printing of it would have and so it seems are resolved to suppress it if they can From all these things it was plain that though the Fathers believed there was an extraordinary Vertue in the Sacrament and an unaccountable Presence of Christ in it yet they thought not of Transubstantiation nor any thing like it But when darkness and ignorance crept into the Church the People were apt to believe any thing that was incredible and were willing enough to support such Opinions as turned Religion into external Pageantry The Priests also knowing little of the Scriptures and being only or chiefly conversant in those Writings of the Ancients that had highly extolled the Sacrament came generally to take up the Opinion of the Corporal Presence and being soon apprehensive of the great esteem it would bring to them cherished it much In the 9th Century Bertram Rabanus Maurus Amalarius Alcuinus and Joannes Scotus all writ against it nor were any of them censured or condemned for these Opinions It was plainly and strongly contradicted by some Homilies that were in the Saxon Tongue in which not a few of Bertrams words occur particularly in that which was to be read in the Churches on Easter day But in the 11th or 12th Century it came to be universally received as indeed any thing would have been that much advanced the Dignity of Priesthood And it was farther advanced by Pope Innocent the third and so established in the fourth Council of Lateran That same Council in which the rooting out of Hereticks and the Popes Power of deposing Heretical Princes and giving their Dominions to others were also decreed But there was another curious Remark made of the Progress of this Opinion When the Doctrine of the Corporal Presence was first received in the Western Church they believed that the whole Loaf was turned into one entire Body of Jesus Christ so that in the distribution one had an Eye a Nose or an Ear another a Tooth a Finger or a Toe a third a Collop or a piece of Tripe and this was supported by pretended Miracles suited to that Opinion for sometimes the Host was said to bleed Parts of it were also said to be turned to pieces of Flesh This continued to be the Doctrine of the Church of Rome for near 300 Years It appears clearly in the Renunciation which they made Berengarius swear But when the School-men began to form the Tenets of that Church by more artificial and subtil Rules as they thought it an ungentle way of treating Christ to be thus mangling his Body and eating it up in Gobbets so the Maximes they set up about the Extension of matter and of the manner of Spirits filling a space made them think of a more decent way of explaining this Prodigious Mystery They taught that Christ was so in the Host and Chalice that there was one entire Body in every crumb and drop so that the Body was no more broken but upon every breaking of the Host a new whole Body flew off from the other parts which yet remained an entire Body notwithstanding that diminution And then the former Miracles being contrary to this conceit were laid aside and new ones invented fitted for this Explanation by which Christs Body was believed present after the manner of a Spirit It was given out that he sometimes appeared as a Child all in Raies upon the Host sometimes with Angels about him or sometimes in his Mothers Arms. And that the Senses might give as little contradiction as was possible instead of a Loaf they blessed then only Wafers which are such a shadow of Bread as might more easily agree with their Doctrine of the accidents of Bread being only present and least a larger measure of Wine might have encouraged the People to have thought it was Wine still by the sensible effects of it that came also to be denied them This was the Substance of the Arguments that were in those Writings But an Opinion that had been so generally received was not of a sudden to be altered Therefore they went on slowly in discussing it and thereby did the better dispose the People to receive what they intended afterwards to establish concerning it And this was the state of Religion for this Year At this time there were many Anabaptists in several parts of England They were generally Germans Proceedings against Anabaptists whom the Revolutions there had forced to change their Seats Upon Luthers first preaching in Germany there arose many who building on some of his Principles carried things much further than he did The chief Foundation he laid down was That the Scripture was to be the only Rule of Christians Upon this many argued that the Mysteries of the Trinity and Christs Incarnation and Sufferings of the Fall of Man and the Aids of Grace were indeed
Church received that Sacrament frequently and in both kinds To the sixth Baptism in Cases of necessity was to be administred at any time but out of these Cases it was fit to do it solemnly and in the Ancient Church it was chiefly done on the Eves of Easter and Whit-Sunday of which usage some Footsteps remained still in the old Offices To the seventh these were late superstitious devices Images were contrary to the Scriptures first set up for remembrance but soon after made Objects of Worship To the eight The old Service had many ludicrous things in it the new was simple and grave If it appeared ridiculous to them it was as the Gospel was long ago foolishness to the Greeks To the ninth The Scriptures say nothing of it it was a superstitious Invention derogatory to Christs death To the tenth The Scriptures are the Word of God and the readiest way to confound that which is Heresie indeed To the eleventh These were ignorant superstitious and deceitful Persons To the twelfth Pool had been attainted in Parliament for his spiteful Writings and Doings against the late King To the thirteenth It was foolish and unreasonable one Servant could not do a Man's business and by this many Servants would want employment To the fourteenth This was to rob the King and those who had these Lands of him and would be a means to make so foul a Rebellion be remembred in their Prayers To the fifteenth These were notorious Traitors to whom the Kings Council was not to submit themselves After this they grew more moderate and sent eight Articles They make new Demands 1. Concerning Baptism 2. About Confirmation 3. Of the Mass 4. For reserving the Host 5. For Holy Bread and Water 6. For the old Service 7. For the single Lives of Priests 8. For the Six Articles and concluded God save the King for they were His both Body and Goods To this there was an Answer sent in the Kings Name on the 8th of July so long did the Treaty with them hold in which Which were also rejected after Expressions of the Kings affection to his People he taxes their rising in Arms against him their King as contrary to the Laws of God He tells them That they are abused by their Priests as in the Instance of Baptism which according to the Book might necessity requiring it be done at all times that the Changes that had been set out were made after long and great consultation and the Worship of this Church by the advice of many Bishops and Learned Men was reformed as near to what Christ and his Apostles had taught and done as could be and all things had been setled in Parliament But the most specious thing that misled them being that of the Kings Age it was shewed them that his Blood and not his Years gave him the Crown and the state of Government requires that at all times there should be the same Authority in Princes and the same Obedience in the People It was all penned in a high threatning Style and concluded with an earnest Invitation of them to submit to the Kings Mercy as others that had risen had also done to whom he had not only shewed Mercy but granted Redress of their just grievances otherwise they might expect the utmost severity that Traitors deserved But nothing prevailed on this enraged Multitude whom the Priests inflamed with all the Artifices they could imagine and among whom the Host was carried about by a Priest on a Cart that all might see it But when this Commotion was thus grown to a Head The Rebellion in Norfolk headed by Ket a Tanner the Men of Norfolk rose the 6th of July being led by one Ket a Tanner These pretended nothing of Religion but only to suppress and destroy the Gentry and to raise the commons and to put new Councellors about the King They encreased mightily and became 20000 strong but had no Order nor Discipline and committed many horrid outrages The Sheriff of the County came boldly to them and required them in the Kings Name to disperse and go home but had he not been well mounted they had put him cruelly to death They came to Moushold Hill above Norwich and were much favoured by many in that City Parker afterwards Arch-bishop of Canterbury came among them and preached very freely to them of their ill Lives their Rebellion against the King and the Robberies they daily committed by which he was in great danger of his Life Ket assumed to himself the Power of Judicature and under an old Oak called from thence the Oak of Reformation did such Justice as might be expected from such a Judge and in such a Camp The Marquess of Northampton was sent against them but with Orders to keep at a distance from them and to cut off their Provisions for so it was hoped that without the shedding much Blood they might come to themselves again When the news of this Rising came into York-shire the Commons there rose also A Rising in York-shire being further encouraged by a Prophecy That there should be no King nor Nobility in England that the Kingdom should be ruled by four Governours chosen by the Commons who should hold a Parliament in commotion to begin at the South and North Seas This they applied to the Devon-shire Men on the South Seas and themselves on the North Seas They at their first rising fired Beacons and so gathered the Country as if it had been for the defence of the Coast and meeting two Gentlemen with two others with them they without any provocation murdered them and left their naked Bodies unburied The French fall into the Bullognese At the same time that England was in this Commotion the News came that the French King had sent a great Army into the Territory of Bulloigne so that the Government was put to most extraordinary straits A Fast at Court where Cranmer preached Ex MS. Col. C. C. Cantab. There was a Fast proclaimed in and about London Cranmer preached on the Fast-day at Court I have seen the greatest part of his Sermon under his own Hand and it is the only Sermon of his I ever saw It is a very plain unartificial Discourse no shews of Learning or conceits of Wit in it but he severely expostulated in the Name of God with his Hearers for their ill Lives their Blasphemies Adulteries mutual Hatred Oppression and Contempt of the Gospel and complained of the slackness in punishing these sins by which the Government became in some sort guilty of them He set many Passages of the Jewish Story before them of the Judgments such sins drew on and of Gods Mercy in the unexpected deliverances they met with upon their true Repentance But he chiefly lamented the scandal given by many who pretended a zeal for Religion but used that for a Cloak to disguise their other Vices He set before them the fresh Example of Germany where People generally
Addition was also made upon good consideration in the Office of the Communion to which the People were observed to come without due seriousness or preparation therefore for awakening their Consciences more feelingly it was ordered that the Office of the Communion should begin with a solemn pronouncing of the Ten Commandments all the Congregation being on their Knees as if they were hearing that Law a-new and a stop to be made at every Commandment for the Peoples devotion of imploring mercy for their past offences and Grace to observe it for the time to come This seemed as effectual a Mean as they could devise till Church-penitence were again set up to beget in Men deep reflections on their sins and to prepare them thereby to receive that Holy Sacrament worthily The other Changes were the removing of some Rites which had been retained in the former Book such as the use of Oyl in Confirmation and Extream Unction the Prayers for Souls departed both in the Communion-Service and in the Office of Burial the leaving out some Passages in the Consecration of the Eucharist that seemed to favour the Belief of the Corporal Presence with the use of the Cross in it and in Confirmation with some smaller variations And indeed they brought the whole Liturgy to the same Form in which it is now except some inconsiderable variations that have been since made for the clearing of some Ambiguities An Aâ—count of kneeling in the Communion In the Office of the Communion they added a Rubrick concerning the posture of kneeling which was appointed to be still the gesture of Communicants It was hereby declared that that gesture was kept up as a most reverent and humble way of expressing our great sense of the Mercies of God in the death of Christ there communicated to us but that thereby there was no adoration intended to the Bread and Wine which were gross Idolatry nor did they think the very Flesh and Blood of Christ were there present since his Body according to the nature of all other Bodies could be only in one place at once and so he being now in Heaven could not be corporally present in the Sacrament This was by Queen Elizabeth ordered to be left out of the Common-Prayer-Book since it might have given offence to some otherwise inclinable to the Communion of the Church who yet retained the belief the Corporal Presence But since his present Majesties Restoration many having excepted to the Posture as apprehending some thing like Idolatry or Superstition might lie under it if it were not rightly explained that Explication which was given in King Edwards time was again inserted in the Common-Prayer-Book For the Posture it is most likely that the first Institution was in the Table-gesture which was lying along on one side But it was apparent in our Saviours Practice that the Jewish Church had changed the Posture of that Institution of the Passover in whose room the Eucharist came For though Moses had appointed the Jews to eat their Paschal Lamb standing with their Loins girt with Staves in their Hands and Shooes on their Feet yet the Jews did afterwards change this into the Common-Table-Posture of which change though there is no mention in the Old Testament yet we see it was so in our Saviours time and since he complied with the common Custom we are sure that Change was not criminal It seemed reasonable to allow the Christian Church the like Power in such things with the Jewish and as the Jews thought their coming into the Promised Land might be a Warrant to lay aside the Posture appointed by Moses which became Travellers best so Christ being now exalted it seemed fit to receive this Sacrament with higher Marks of outward respect than had been proper in the first Institution when he was in the state of Humiliation and his Divine Glory not yet so fully revealed Therefore in the Primitive Church they received standing and bending their Body in a posture of Adoration But how soon that Gesture of kneeling came in is not so exactly observed nor is it needful to know But surely there is a great want of ingenuity in them that are pleased to apply these Orders of some later Popes for kneeling at the Elevation to our kneeling when ours is not at one such part which might be more liable to exception but during the whole Office by which it is one continued Act of Worship and the Communicants kneel all the while But of this no more needs to be said than is exprest in the Rubrick which occasioned this Digression Thus were the Reformations both of Doctrine and Worship prepared To which all I can add of this Year is Some Orders given to the Kings Chaplains that there were six eminent Preachers chosen out to be the Kings Chaplains in Ordinary two of those were always to attend at Court and four to be sent over England to preach and instruct the People In the first year two of these were to go into Wales and the other two into Lancashire the next year two into the Marches of Scotland and two into York-shire the third year two into Devon-shire and two into Hamp-shire and the fourth year two into Norfolk and two into Kent and Sussex These were Bill Harle Pern Grindal Bradford the Name of the sixth is so dashed in the Kings Journal that it cannot be read These it seems were accounted the most zealous and readiest Preachers of that time who were thus sent about as Itinerants to supply the defects of the greatest part of the Clergy who were generally very faulty The Business of the Lady Mary was now taken up with more heat than formerly The Emperors earnest sute The Lady Mary continued to have Mass said in her Chappel that she might have Mass in her House was long rejected for it was said that as the King did not interpose in the matters of the Emperors Government so there was no reason for the Emperor to meddle in his Affairs Yet the state of England making his friendship at that time necessary to the King and he refusing to continue in his League unless his Kinswoman obtained that favour it was promised that for some time in hope she would reform there should be a forbearance granted The Emperors Ambassadors pressed to have a License for it under the Great Seal It was answered That being against Law it could not be done Then they desired to have it certified under the Kings Hand in a Letter to the Emperor but even that was refused So that they only gave a Promise for some time by word of mouth and Paget and Hobby who had been the Ambassadors with the Emperor declared they had spoke of it to him with the same limitations But the Emperor who was accustomed to take for absolute what was promised only under conditions writ to the Lady Mary that he had an absolute Promise for the free exercise of her Religion and so she pretended this when she
had yet received of him only 300000 Crowns but he had good security for the rest and the Merchants were bound to pay him 100000 lib. Sterling and therefore he demanded a little more time of them All this was printed soon after at Strasburgh by the English there in a Book which they sent over to England in which both the Address made by the Commons in Parliament and this Answer of the Emperour 's to the Towns is mentioned And that whole Discourse which is in the form of an Address to the Queen the Nobility and the Commons is written with such gravity and simplicity of Stile that as it is by much the best I have seen of this time so in these publick Transactions there is no reason to think it untrue For the things which it relates are credible of themselves and though the sum there mentioned was very great yet he that considers that England was to be bought with it will not think it an extraordinary price In that Discourse it is further said that as Gardiner corrupted many by Bribes so in the Court of Chancery Common Justice was denied to all but those who came into these Designs Having thus given an account of what was done in the Parliament I shall next shew how the Convocation proceeded The Proceedings of the Convocation Bonner being to preside in it as being the first Bishop of the Province of Canterbury appointed John Harpsfield his Chaplain to preach who took his Text out of the twentieth of the Acts verse 20 Feed the Flock He run out in his bidding Prayers most profusely on the Queens Praises comparing her to Deborah and Esther with all the servilest flatteries he could invent next he bid them pray for the Lady Elizabeth but when he came to mention the Clergy he enlarged in the praises of Bonner Gardiner Tonstal Heath and Day so grosly that it seems the strains of flattering Church-men at that time were very course and he run out so copiously in them as if he had been to deliver a Panegyrick and not to bid the Beads In his Sermon he inveighed against the late Preachers for not observing Fasts nor keeping Lent and for their Marriages which he severely condemned Weston Dean of Westminster was presented Prolocutor by the lower House Disputes concerning the Sacrament and approved of by Bonner Whether any of the Bishops that had been made in King Edwards time sat among them I do not know But in the lower House there was great opposition made There had been care taken that there should be none returned to the Convocation but such as would comply in all points But yet there came six Non-compliers who being Deans or Arch-Deacons had a right to sit in the Convocation These were Philpot Archdeacon of Winchester Philips Dean of Rochester Haddon Dean of Exeter Cheyney Arch-deacon of Hereford Ailmer Arch-deacon of Stow and Young Chanter of St. Davids Weston the Prolocuter proposed to them on the 18th of October that there had been a Catechism printed in the last year of King Edwards Reign in the name of that Synod and as he understood it was done without their consents which was a pestiferous Book and full of Heresies There was likewise a very abominable Book of Common Prayer set out it was therefore the Queens pleasure that they should prepare such Laws about Religion as she would ratifie with her Parliament So he proposed that they should begin with condemning those Books particularly the Articles in them contrary to the Sacrament of the Altar and he gave out two questions about it Whether in the Sacrament upon the Sanctification of the Bread and Wine all their substance did not vanish being changed into the Body and Blood of Christ and Whether the natural Body of Christ was not corporally present in the Eucharist either by the Transubstantiation of the Elements into his Body and Blood or by the Conjunction of Concomitance as some expressed it The House was adjourned till the 20th on which day every Man was appointed to give in his Answer to these Questions All answered and subscribed in the affirmative except the six before mentioned Philpot said whereas it was given out that the Catechism was was not approved by the Convocation though it was printed in their name it was a mistake for the Convocation had authorised a number of Persons to set forth Ecclesiastical Laws to whom they had committed their Synodal Authority So that they might well set out such Books in the name of the Convocation He also said that it was against all order to move Men to subscribe in such points before they were examined and since the number of these on the one side was so unequal to those on the other side he desired that Dr. Ridley Mr. Rogers and two or three more might be allowed to come to the Convocation This seemed very reasonable So the lower House proposed it to the Bishops They answered that these persons being Prisoners they could not bring them but they should move the Council about it A Message also was sent from some great Lords that they intended to hear the Disputation so the House adjourned till the 23d There was then a great appearance of Noblemen and others The Prolocutor began with a Protestation that by this Dispute they did not intend to call the Truth in doubt to which they had all subscribed but they did it only to satisfie the objections of those few who refused to concur wtih them But it was denied to let any Prisoners or others assist them for it was said that that being a Dispute among those of the Convocation none but Members were to be heard in it Haddon and Ailmer foreseeing they should be run down with clamour and noise refused to dispute Young went away Cheyney being next spoke to did propose his Objections that St. Paul calls the Sacrament Bread after the Consecration that Origen said it went into the Excrement and Theodoret said the Bread and Wine did not in the Sacrament depart from their former Substance Form and Shape Moreman was called on to answer him He said that St. Paul calling it Bread was to be understood thus the Sacrament or Form of Bread To Origens Authority he answered nothing but to Theodoret he said the word they render Substance stood in a more general signification and so might signifie accidental Substance Upon this Ailmer who had resolved not to Dispute could not contain himself but said the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could not be so understood for the following words of Form and Shape belonged to the Accidents but that only belonged to the Substance of the Elements Upon this there followed a Contest about the signification of that word Then Philpot struck in and said the occasion of Theodorets writing plainly shewed that was a vain Cavil for the Dispute was with the Eutychians whether the Body and humane Nature of Christ had yet an Existence distinct from the Divine
the Ashes were the Body of Christ or what it was that was burnt To all this Harpsfield made a long Answer concerning Gods Omnipotence and the weakness of mens understandings that could not comprehend Divine Mysteries But Cheyney still asked what it was that was burnt Harpsfield replied it was either the Substance of Bread or the Body of Christ and afterwards said it was a Miracle At that Cheyney smiled and said then he could say no more Weston asked whether there was not enough said in answer to these mens Objections Many of the Clergy cried out Yes Yes But the multitude with repeated cries said No No Weston said he spake to those of the House and not to the rude Multitude Then he asked those Divines whether they would now for three days answer the Arguments that should be put to them Haddon Cheyney and Ailmer said they would not But Philpot offered to do it Woston said he was a mad man and fitter to be sent to Bedlam Philpot said he that had carried himself with so much Passion and so little Indifferency deserved a Room there much better Weston neglecting him turned to the Assembly and said they might see what sort of men these were whom they had now answered three days but tho they had promised it and the Order of Disputation did require it that they should answer in their turn three days they now declined it Upon that Ailmer stood up and answered that they had made no such Promise nor undertaken any such Disputation but being required to give their Reasons why they would not subscribe with the rest they had done it but had received no Answer to them and therefore would enter into no further Disputation before such Judges who had already determined and subscribed those Questions So the House was adjourned to the 30th and then Philpot appeared to answer but desired first leave to prosecute his former Argument and urged that since Christ as man is like us in all things without sin therefore as we are restrained to one place at a time so is Christ but in one place and that is Heaven for St. Peter says the Heavens must contain him till the Restitution of all things To this it was answered that Christ being God his Omnipotence was above our understanding and that to shut him in one place was to put him in Prison Philpot said he was not speaking of his Divine Nature but that as he was man he was like us And for their saying that Christ was not to be imprisoned in Heaven he left to all men to judge whether that was a good answer or not Much discourse following upon this the Prolocutor commanded him to come no more into the House He answered he thought himself happy to be out of their Company Others suggesting to the Prolocutor that it would be said the meetting was not free if men were put out of the House for speaking their minds He said to him he might come so he were decently Habited and did not speak but when he commanded him To this he answered that he had rather be absent altogether Weston concluded all by saying you have the Word but we have the Sword Truly pointing out wherein the strength of both Causes lay This was the Issue of that Disputation which was soon after Printed in English and in Latin by Volerandus Polanus Censures past upon it and is inserted at large in Fox's Acts and Monuments What account the other side gave of it I do not find But upon all such occasions the prevailing party vvhen the inequality vvas so disproportioned used to carry things vvith so much noise and disorder that it vvas no vvonder the Reformers had no mind to engage in this Dispute And those vvho reflected on the vvay of proceeding in King Edwards time could not but confess things had been managed vvith much more Candor and Equality For in this very Point there had been as vvas formerly shewn Disputes for a Year together before there vvas any Determination made so that all men vvere free at that time to deliver their Opinions vvithout any fear and then the Disputes vvere in the Universities vvhere as there vvere a great Silence and Collection of Books so the Auditors vvere more capable of being instructed by them But here the Point was first determined and then disputed And this vvas in the midst of the disorder of the Town vvhere the Privy Council gave all possible encouragement to the prevailing Party The last thing I find done this year was the restoring Veisey to be Bishop of Exeter which vvas done on the 28th of December In his Warrant for it under the great Seal it is said that he for some just troubles both in Body and Mind had resign'd his Bishoprick to King Edward to which the Queen now restored him And thus ended this year Forreign Affairs did not so much concern Religion as they had done in the former Reign vvhich as it made me give some account of them then so it causes me now not to prosecute them so fully In the beginning of the next year 1554. Ambassadors sent from the Emperour for the marriage the Emperour sent over the Count of Egmont and some other Ambassadours to make the Proposition and Treaty of Marriage betwixt his Son and the Queen In the managing of this Treaty Gardiner had the chief hand for he was now the Oracle at the Council-board He had thirty years Experience in Affairs a great Knowledge of the Courts of Christendome and of the State of England and had great Sagacity vvith a marvelous Cunning vvhich vvas not always regulated by the Rules of Candor and Honesty He in drawing the Articles of the Marriage had a double design the one vvas to have them so framed that they might easily pass in Parliament And the other was to exclude the Spaniards from having any share in the Government of England vvhich he intended to hold in his own hands The Articles agreed So the Terms on which it was agreed vvere these The Queen should have the vvhole Government of England vvith the giving of Offices and Benefices in her own hands so that tho Philip was to be called King and his Name was to be on the Coin and the Seals and in Writts yet her hand vvas to give force to every thing vvithout his Spaniards should not be admitted into the Government nor to any Offices at Court 1553. The Laws should not be altered nor the Pleadings put into any other Tongue The Queen should not be made to go out of England but upon her own desire The Children born in the Marriage should not go out of England but by the consent of the Nobility If the Queen out-lived the Prince She should have 60000 l. a year out of his Estate 40000 out of Spain and 20000 of it out of the Netherlands If the Queen had Sons by him they should succeed both to her own Crowns and the Netherlands and Burgundy
the Lords but laid aside at that time assurance being given that the Owners of those Lands should be fully secured The Reason of laying it aside was that since by Law the Bishop of Rome had no Authority at all in England it was needless to pass an Act against his Power in that particular for that seemed to assert his Power in other things and since they were resolved to reconcile the Nation to him it was said that it would be indecent to pass an Act that should call him only Bishop of Rome which was the Compellation given him during the Schism and it was preposterous to begin with a Limitation of his Power before they had acknowledged his Authority So this was laid aside and the Parliament ended on the 25th of May. But the Matters of the Convocation are next to be related Those of the Reformation complained every-where that the Disputes of the last Convocation had not been fairly carried that the most eminent Men of their Persuasion were detained in Prison and not admitted to it that only a few of them that had a right to be in the House were admitted to speak and that these were much interrupted So that it was now resolved to adjourn the Convocation for some time and to send the Prolocutor with some of their number to Oxford that the Disputations might be in the presence of that whole University And since Cranmer and Ridley were esteemed the most Learned Men of that Persuasion they were by a Warrant from the Queen removed from the Tower of London to the Prisons at Oxford And though Latimer was never accounted very Learned and was then about eighty Years of Age yet he having been a celebrated Preacher who had done the Reformation no less Service by his Labours in the Pulpit than others had done by their abler Pens he was also sent thither to bear his share in the Debates Some sent to Oxford to disput with Reformeed Bishops Those who were sent from the Convocation came to Oxford on the 13th of April being Friday They sent for those Bishops on Saturday and assigned them Monday Tuesday and Wednesday every one of them his day for the defending of their Doctrine but ordered them to be kept apart And that all Books and Notes should be taken from them Three Questions were to be disputed 1. Whether the natural Body of Christ was really in the Sacrament 2. Whether any other Substance did remain but the Body and Blood of Christ 3. Whetter in the Mass there was a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the Dead and Living When Cranmer was first brought before them the Prolocutor made an Exhortation to him to return to the Unity of the Church To which he answered with such gravity and modesty that many were observed to weep He said He was as much for Unity as any but it must be an Unity in Christ and according to the Truth The Articles being shewed him he asked Whether by the Body of Christ they meant an Organical Body They answering It was the Body that was born of the Virgin Then he said he would maintain the Negative of these Questions On the 16th when the Dispute with Cranmer Cranmer Disputes was to begin Weston that was Prolocutor made a stumble in the beginning of his Speech for he said Ye are this day assembled to confound the detestable Heresie of the Verity of the Body of Christ in the Sacrament This Mistake set the whole Assembly a laughing but he recovered himself and went on he said It was not lawful to call these things in doubt since Christ had so expresly affirmed them that to doubt of them vvas to deny the Truth and Power of God Then Chedsey urged Cranmer with the words This is my Body To vvhich he answered That the Sacrament vvas effectually Christ's Body as broken on the Cross that is His Passion effectually applyed For the explanation of this he offered a large Paper containing his Opinion of which I need say nothing since it is a short abstract of what he writ on that Head formerly and of that a full account was given in the former Book There followed a long Debate about these words Oglethorp Weston and others urged him much that Christ making his Testament must be supposed to speak Truth and plain Truth and they run out largely on that Cranmer answered That figurative Speeches are true and when the Figures are clearly understood they are then plain likewise Many of Chrysostom's high Expressions about the Sacrament were also cited vvhich Cranmer said vvere to be understood of the Spiritual Presence received by Faith Uponthis much time was spent the Prolocutor carrying himself very undecently towards him calling him an unlearned unskilful and impudent Man There were also many in the Assembly that often hissed him down so that he could not be heard at all which he seemed to take no notice of but went on as often as the noise ceased Then they cited Tertullian's words The Flesh is fed by the Body and Blood of Christ that so the Soul may be nourished by God But he turned this against them and said hereby it was plain the Body as well as the Soul received Food in the Sacrament therefore the Substance of Bread and Wine must remain since the Body could not be fed by that Spiritual Presence of the Body of Christ Tresham put this Argument to him Christ said as he lived by the Father so they that eat his Flesh should live by him but he is by his Substance united to his Father therefore Christians must be united to his Substance To this Cranmer answered That the Similitude did not import an equality but a likeness of some sort Christ is essentially united to his Father but Believers are united to him by Grace and that in Baptism as well as in the Eucharist Then they talked long of some words of Hilary's Ambrose's and Justin's Then they charged him as having mistranslated some of the Passages of the Fathers in his Book from which he vindicated himself saying that he had all his Life in all manner of things hated falshood After the Dispute had lasted from the Morning till two of the Clock it was broke up and there was no small Triumph as if Cranmer had been confounded in the Opinion of all the Hearers which they had expressed by their Laughter and Hissing There were Notaries that took every thing that was said from whose Books Fox did afterwards print the account of it that is in his great Volume The next day Ridley And Ridley was brought out and Smith who was spoke of in the former Book was now very zealous to redeem the prejudice which that compliance vvas like to be to him in his Preferment So he undertook to dispute this day Ridley began with a Protestation declaring That vvhereas he had been formerly of another mind from vvhat he vvas then to maintain he had changed upon no worldly consideration but
tempore agnoscamus sequamur Haec dum non datur commentari tecum coram quia te vere diligo quia colo sinceriter cum hunc certum haberem nuncium ad te scribere volui Quod magnificum D. Cancellarium meis Verbis diligenter Salutasti gratias ago utinam autem resalutare ille vel hic cum fuit quod usque ad eam Diem quo iterum abiit clam me fuit admittere me ad pium colloquium dignatus esset Tamen rogo salutes illum officiose meis verbis Dominus Jesus qui solus efficit largitur omne bonum donet ut omnia in ipso quaeramus ab ipso expectemus Sic facile nos in ipso agnoscemus complectemur quicquid odiosorum Titulorum Diabolus Membra ejus injiciant In Christo enim nec Mas quidem Foemina Judaeus Ethnicus nedum Lutherani Romani sed omnes unum sunt In hoc bene vale fac pro Chrsti Charitate ut tandem nos aliquando videamus Sancto Colloquio nos mutuo recreemus Optime mi colende atque vere dilecte Cordi meo Groppere Bonn pridie Calendas Februarii 1543. Deditus Tibi in Domino M. Bucerus Praecipuum oblitus eram te per Christum rogo obtestor mone ad huc me versantem in Negotio Christi Debes hoc Christo apud me tuto depones omnia nec unquam frustra monebis Number 20. Questions and Answers concerning the Divorce of the Marquess of Northampton 1. QUid dirimit Matrimonii Vinculum Ex M. S. Dr. Stillingfleet 2. Quas ob causas dirimi poterit 3. An dirimi poterit Conjugium a thoro non a vinculo 4. Quibus casibus possit sic dirimi 5. An exceptio illa excepta Fornicationis causa etiam in Lucae Marci Pauli locis qui de his rebus tractant est subaudienda 6. An etiam Uxor repudiata propter Adulterium alteri poterit nubere 7. An redire ad priorem maritum repudiatae Adulterae liceat 8. An Maritus propter Adulterium ab Uxore casta possit repudiari Ad primam Respondemus Ipso Adulterii facto Matrimonii vinculum dirimi Nam alioquin ob solum Adulterium non liceret viro Uxorem repudiare voluntas viri solicitat judices Judices palam faciunt Ecclesiae virum licite talem repudiare Uxorem Ad secundam Resp Quod ob solam causam stupri dirimitur Matrimonii vinculum cujus ipso quidem facto Conjugii dissolvitur nodus loquimur his qui Sacrosancti Matrimonii jus agnoscunt Ad tertiam Resp Quod non quia Mulier quamdiu vixerit alligata viro Rom. 7. item ne fraudetis vos invicem 1 Cor. 7. item in eodem loco Uxori Vir debitam benevolentiam reddat simpliciter Uxor viro item Vir non habeat potestatem sui corporis sed Uxor similiter nec Vxor habeat potestatem sui corporis sed Vir. Ad quartam patet in responsione ad tertiam Ad quintam Respondemus quod exceptio ista viz. Nisi causa stupri est subaudienda in Luca Marco Paulo alioquin manifesta erit repugnantia inter Matthaeum eos Ad sextam respond Quod repudiata propter Adulterium quia Uxor repudiantis desiit esse ob idque libera est sicut aliae omnes post obitum virorum possunt aliis nubere aequo jure juxta illud Pauli si non contineant contrahant Matrimonium 1 Cor. 7. Ad septimam respond Quod non licet repudiatae Adulterae redire ad repudiantem tanquam alligatae ei Jugi vinculo Matrimonii Ultima Questio Nihil ad Nos Number 21. Injunctions given by the King's Majesty's Visitors to all and every the Clergie and Laity now resident within the Deanry of Duncastre Ex MS. Dr. Item Johnson YOu shall not hereafter in the Pulpit or else-where on the Sunday or any other day give knowledg to your Parishioners when or what day in the Week any of the Abrogate Holy-days were solemnized or kept in the Church but omit the same with silence as other Working-days for the utter abolishing of the remembrance thereof Item You shall teach your Parishioners That Fasting in the Lent and other days is a meer Positive that is to say Man's Law and by the Magistrates upon considerations may be altered changed and dispensed with and that therefore all Persons having just cause of Sickness or other Necessity or being licensed thereto may temperately eat all kinds of Meat without scruple or grudge of Conscience Item You shall every day that an High Mass is said or sung at the High Altar before the same Mass read openly in your Churches the English Suffrages for the preservation and safeguard of the King's Majesty's People and prosperous success of his Affairs Item You shall every Sunday at the time of your going about the Church with Holy Water into three or four places where most audience and assembly of People is for the declaration of the Ceremonies say distinctly and plainly that your Parishioners may well hear and perceive the same these words Remember Christ's Blood-shedding by the which most holy sprinkling of all your Sins you have free pardon And in like manner before the dealing of the Holy Bread these words Of Christ's Body this is a Token which on the Cross for our Sins was broken wherefore of his Death if you will be partakers of Vice and Sin you must be forsakers And the Clarke in the like manner shall bring down the Paxe and standing without the Church Door shall say loudly to the People these words This is a Token of joyful Peace which is betwixt God and Mens Conscience Christ alone is the Peace-maker which straitly commands Peace between Brother and Brother And so long as ye use these Ceremonies so long shall ye use these Significations Item The Church-Wardens of every Parish-Church shall some one Sunday or other Festival day every Month go about the Church and make request to every of the Parish for their charitable Contribution to the Poor and the Sum so collected shall be put in the Chest of Alms for that purpose provided And forasmuch as the Parish-Clark shall not hereafter go about the Parish with his Holy Water as hath been accustomed he shall instead of that labour accompany the said Church-Wardens and in a Book Register the Name and Sum of every Man that giveth any thing to the Poor and the same shall intable and against the next day of Collection shall hang up some-where in the Church in open place to the intent the Poor having knowledg thereby by whose Charity and Alms they be relieved may pray for the increase and prosperity of the same Item The Church-Wardens for the better relief of honest Poverty shall upon sufficient Surety found for the repayment of the same lend to some young married Couple or some poor Inhabitants of their Parish some part of the
Man Elien doth not avail or profit any other but as all good Deeds profit the Congregation and as one Member healed or taking nourishment profiteth another Member And I suppose also Covent Litchfield that the Receiving of one Man doth not avail or profit another but as every good Act or Deed of one Member doth profit to the whole Body The Receiving of the Sacrament Carliolen as it noteth the Act of him who receiveth it may be that it neither availeth or profiteth him who receiveth nor any other but also hurts the Receiver if he presume to take it rashly or unworthily But as touching the thing which is Sacred offered and distributed by the Common Minister in the Mass representing the Holy Church or Mystical Body of Christ and is received both of him and other that will whatsoever the Receiving or Receiver be it availeth and profiteth all present absent Living and Dead No but as the receipt of wholsome Doctrine Roffen the receipt of the Fear of God the receipt of any Godly Gift that is profitable to any one Member of Christ's mystical Body may be said generally to profit the whole Body because there is a mystical Communion and a spiritual Participation amongst all the Members of Christ in all Godliness as there is in the natural Body a natural participation of all natural Affections both good and evil It appeareth by the words of St. Cyprian Bristollen Epist 6. Lib. 3. that it should be profitable and available to others forasmuch as he wrote these words of the faithful Christians which departed this World in Prison and said Quanquam fidelissimus devotissimus frater noster inter caetera solicitudinem curam suam cum fratribus in omni obsequio operationis impertitur qui nec illic curam corporum scripserit ac scribat ac significat mihi dies quibus in carcere beati fratres nostri ad immortalitatem gloriosae mortis exitu transeant celebrentur hic a nobis Oblationes Sacrificia ob commemorationes eorum quae cito vobiscum domine prosperante celebrabimus Ita enim docuit Apostolus Christi unus Panis unum Corpus multi sumus omnes 1 Cor. 1. qul de uno Pane de uno Calice participamus Nec loquitur de his solis qui eo tempore Corinthi conveniebant Sacramentum ab unius Sacerdotis manu recipiebant Verum potius de seipso tunc procul a Corintho agente Corinthiis ipsis omnibusque in Christum credentibus ubi tandem constituti essent quos omnes significat unum esse Corpus qui toto orbe de uno Pane communicantes participarent Meneven The Sacrament profiteth him only that receiveth it worthily like-as it damnifieth him only that receiveth it unworthily Nam qui edit aut bibit indigne judicium sibi ipsi edit ac bibit 1 Cor. 11. Dr. Cox The Receiving of the said Sacrament doth avail and profit the Receiver only and none other but by occasion to do the like Dr. Tyler So much as the Christening of Man profiteth another which after my Opinion profiteth nothing Quest 3. What is the Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ in the Mass Answers Cantuarien THe Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ in the Mass is not so called because Christ indeed is there offered and sacrificed by the Priest and the People for that was done but once by himself upon the Cross but it is so called because it is a Memory and Representation of that very true Sacrifice and Immolation which before was made upon the Cross Eboracen The Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ in the Mass is the presenting of the very Body and Blood of Christ to the Heavenly Father under the Forms of Bread and Wine consecrated in the Remembrance of his Passion with Prayer and Thanksgiving for the Universal Church London Worcester Hereford Norvicen Cicestren Assaven I think it is the Presentation of the very Body and Blood of Christ being really present in the Sacrament which Presentation the Priest maketh at the Mass in the Name of the Church unto God the Father in memory of Christ's Passion and Death upon the Cross with thanksgiving therefore and devout Prayer that all Christian People and namely they which spiritually join with the Priest in the said Oblation and of whom he maketh special remembrance may attain the benefit of the said Passion Dunelm The Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ in the Mass is the presenting of Christ by the Priest in commemoration of his Passion being our eternal and permanent Sacrifice present in the Sacrament by his Omnipotent Word left to us to have his Death and Passion in remembrance with giving thanks for the same and Prayer of the Minister and them which be present that the same may be available to the whole Church of Christ both Quick and Dead in the Faith of Christ Which Oblation commemoration of Christ's Passion Sarisburie giving of Thanks and Prayer taketh effect only in them which by their own proper Faith shall receive the same effect There is properly no Oblation nor Sacrifice Lincoln but a remembrance of the One Oblation of Christ upon the Cross made once for all a giving of Thanks for the same and the Prayer of the publick Minister for the whole Congregation which Prayer only taketh effect in them who by their own proper Faith receive the benefit of Christ And where many of those Authors do say there is an Oblation and Sacrifice they spoke so because in this Sacrament we be admonished of the Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross If Oblation be taken pro re Oblata then Elien as old Ancient Doctors write it Is Corpus Sanguis scil Verum Corpus scil Mysticum If ye take it pro actu offerendi it is a Commemoration and Representation of Christ's Death once suffered upon the Cross with Thanksgiving for the same I suppose the very Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ in the Mass Covent Litchfield is this That after the Benediction that is to say the words of Consecration spoken by the Priest and the divine working of Christ presently by the which there is the very precious Body and the precious Blood of Christ present to be so received then the Priest offereth up the holy Memory of our Redemption to God the Father most humbly praying That as it was once offered up by Christ upon the Cross for the Redemption of Man-kind so it may take effect now and at all times especially in those that with a true Faith with a full Trust and hope shall so worthily receive it The Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ in the Mass is Carliolen even the same which was offered by Christ on the Cross ever and every-where abiding and enduring of like strength virtue and power The difference is That on the Cross Christ being there both Priest and Sacrifice
offered himself visibly and in the Mass being likewise both Priest and Sacrifice offereth himself invisibly by the common Minister of the Church who in the name and stead of the whole faithful Congregation offereth and presenteth as he bid and commanded by Christ The Representation and Commemoration of Christ's Death and Passion said and done in the Mass is called the Sacrifice Oblation Roffen or Immolation of Christ Non rei veritate as learned Men do write sed significandi Mysterio It is in giving Thanks unto the Father Bristollen as Christ did himself at his Supper taking the Bread and Wine into his hands and with the words of Consecration consecrating the same and then making presentation of the very Body and Blood of Christ unto God the Father in the Name of the Church in the memory of Christ's most painful Passion and Death suffered upon the Cross and so worthily receiving the same and with giving thanks again for the same at the latter end as the Gospel saith Hymno dicto but what this Hymn or Prayer was I find no mention Meneven The Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ mentioned in the Mass is a memorial of Christ's only Sacrifice upon the Cross once offered for ever Vnica enim Oblatione perfectos effecit in perpetuum eos qui sanctificantur Heb. 10. Dr. Cox The Oblation of the Sacrifice of Christ in the Mass is the Prayer the Praise the Thanksgiving and the remembrance of Christ's Passion and Death Dr. Tyler There is no Oblation speaking properly but some Ancient Doctors and the use of the Church calleth the receiving of it with the Circumstances then done an Oblation that is to say a Memorial and Remembrance of Christ's most precious Oblation upon the Cross Quest 4. Wherein consisteth the Mass by Christ's Institution Answers Cantuarien THe Mass by Christ's Institution consisteth in those things which be set forth in the Evangelists Matth. 26. Mark 14. Luke 22. 1 Cor. 10 11. Eboracen The Mass by Christ's Institution consisteth in the Consecration and Oblation of the very Body and Blood of Christ with Prayer Thanksgiving and Receiving of the same as appeareth in the Evangelists Matth. 26.27 Mark 14. 15. Luke 22. 23. John 6. 1 Cor. 10 11. Acts 2. London Worcester Hereford Norvicen Cicestren Assaven I think it consisteth principally in the Consecration Oblation and Receiving of the Body and Blood of Christ with Prayers and Thanksgiving but what the Prayers were and what Rites Christ used or commanded at the first institution of the Mass the Scripture declareth not Dunelm The Mass by Christ's Institution consisteth in those things which be set forth by the Evangelists Mat. 26. Mark 19. Luke 22. and Paul 1 Cor. 10 11 12. and Acts 2. with humble and contrite Confession the Oblation of Christ as before the Receiving of the Sacrament giving of Thanks therefore and Common Prayer for the Mystical Body of Christ The Mass by Christ's Institution Sarisburien consisteth in those things which be set forth in the Evangelists Matth. 26. Mark 14. Luke 22. 1 Cor. 10 11. Acts 2 and 13. It consisteth in these things which be set forth Matth. 26. Mark 19. Luke 22. 1 Cor. 10.11 Acts 2. Lincoln The Mass by Christ's Institution Elien consisteth in those things which be set forth in the Evangelists Matth. 26. Luke 22. and 1 Cor. 10.11 and Acts 2. The Mass by Christ's Institution Covent Litchfield only expressing the Form of Christ by the Scripture consisteth in the taking of the Bread and giving thanks to God the Father in the Benediction and Consecration in the receiving or distribution and receiving of them to whom the distribution is made by the hands of the Priest as the Eldest Authors affirme in the renewing of the memory of our Redemption by an undoubted Faith and for that to give most humble thanks so calling to remembrance as often as it is thus done the inestimable benefit of our Redemption What Thanks that Christ gave before this most holy Action or what Thanks that he gave after it by the general words of Matthew Hymno dicto are not expressed Chap. 24. So that there appeareth both before this most Holy Action and also after to be a certain Ceremony appointed by Christ more than is expressed Moreover 1 Cor. 11. by the Doctrine of the Apostle it behoveth every Man to be wise and circumspect that he receive not this most blessed Sacrament unworthily and unreverently not making difference betwixt the receiving of the most blessed Body of Christ and other Meats The Mass by Christ's Institution consisteth in Consecrating Carliolen Offering Receiving and Distributing of the blessed Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ according to that he himself did willed and commanded to be done This we have manifested by the Evangelists St. Paul and St. Luke in the Acts. But because Christ was after his Resurrection long with his Disciples communicating and treating of the Kingdom of God what should be done here to come thither it may be well thought that whatsoever he or his Holy Spirit left with the Apostles and they with others after which also the whole Universal Congregation of Christian People useth and observeth most ancient and holy Doctors in like form noteth may likewise be said and taken as of Christ's Institution I am not able to say Roffen that the Mass consisteth by Christ's Institution in other things than in those which be set forth in the Evangelists Matthew Mark and Luke in the Acts and 1 Cor. 10. 11. As I take it the Mass by Christ's Institution Bristollen consisteth in those Things and Rites which be set forth unto us in the 26th of St. Matthew the 14th of St. Mark and the 22 of St. Luke and also as mention is made in the first Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. 10. and 11. and Acts 11. any other Institution I read not of by Scripture Meneven Christ's Institution compriseth no more in the Mass than the Communion of the Body and Blood to be ministred and received under both kinds of Bread and Wine according as is declared by the Evangelists Mat. 26. Mark 14. Luke in the Acts 2. Dr. Cox The Mass by Christ's Institution consisteth in Thanksgiving to the Father in distributing of the Body and Blood of Christ to the Congregation to have the Death and Passion of Christ in remembrance and in the end to laud and praise God Dr. Tyler In giving of Thanks to God the Father and blessing and breaking it and reverently receiving the Holy Sacraments with all such Rites and Circumstances as Christ did in both the kinds Quest 5. What time the accustomed Order began first in the Church that the Priest alone should receive the Sacrament Answers Cantuarien I Think the use that the Priest alone did receive the Sacrament without the People began
not within six or seven hundred Years after Christ Eboracen The accustomed Order that the Priest alone should receive the Sacrament began about the time of Zepherinus who when the common People had left their daily and frequent Communion ordained that they should communicate at the least once in the Year that was at Easter which Ordinance Innocentius the third confirmed London Worcester Herâ—ford Norwich Chichester St. Asaph I know no further Order or Commandment of the Church but what time the devotion of the People was so greatly decayed that they would not come to receive the Sacrament then the Priests were compelled to receive it alone The custom began that the Priest alone should receive the Sacrament of necessity Dunelm when the People falling from Devotion would not come to the Communion but cared more for their worldly Business than for godly receiving the Sacrament for in the beginning they received it daily by fervent Devotion after thrice a Week after on the Sundays only after thrice in the Year at Christmas Easter and Whitsunday after only once in the Year at Easter by coldness of Devotion The time certain is not known most Men ascribe it unto Gregory Lincoln who was more than 600 Years after Christ for that every Bishop of Rome bringing in his Portion some Introitus some Kyrie Eleison some Graduale the Mass in the said Gregory's time was grown to the full quantity it is now of and Mens Inventions began to step before and get ground of Christ's Institution but from the beginning it was not so for Christ did not eat and drink alone at his last Supper but gave the Bread and Cup to all present In the Primitive Church one did not eat alone and the rest look on but they did eat together and drink together as it is to be seen Acts 2. 1 Cor. 11. And Anacletus writes thus Peracta Consecratione omnes communicent qui noluerint Ecclesiasticis caveant liminibus De Conso Dist 1. Cum Episcopus c. The very time I know not but is to be supposed Eli. that that custom crept into the Church by negligence and slackness of the Lay-People who would not so oft receive it as the Priest would for in the beginning the Communion with the Laity was Quotidiane which the Priest observeth still unto this day and not the Laity and there be Canons that bindeth the Priest to the receiving of it as oft as he doth Consecrate and the cause why the Priests did not receive it after they had consecrated should seem to be that there was none to receive it with them which was the occasion of these making of those Canons as I suppose Because Scripture saith Panis quem frangimus Roffen nonne communicatio corporis est c. Likewise de Chalice cui benedicimus and also bibite ex eo omnes And the Canons said to be of the Apostles Can. 10. and 10. and of the Antiochian Council Can. 2. Anacletus in an Epistle commandeth the Sacrament to be received of more than of the Priest alone Dyonise also declareth the same and also long after Chrys St. Ambrose and St. Austin both complain of the slackness of some and earnestly exhorteth the People to the receipt thereof Therefore I suppose that custom that the Priest should receive it alone where it was celebrated openly was not received in the Church of Christ by the space of four or five hundred Years at least after Christ I know no such Order or Commandment of the Church Bristol but what time the Devotion of the People began greatly to decay and would not come to receive the Sacrament then I think the Priests were compelled to receive it alone I suppose not long after the Apostles time Dr. Cox the godly Devotions of the People decaying who at the beginning used to come daily and after that weekly after that thrice in the Year and at last but once in the Year the Priest was forced to receive the Sacrament alone Quest 6. Whether it be convenient that the same Custom continue still within this Realm Answers Cantuarien I Think it more agreeable to the Scripture and Primitive Church that the first usage should be restored again that the People should receive the Sacrament with the Priest London Worcester Hereford Norvicen Cicestren Assaven I would wish that at every Mass there would be some to receive the Sacrament with the Priest Nevertheless if none will come to receive it I think it lawful and convenient that the Priests of this Realm of England may say Mass and receive the Sacrament alone Dunelm It were much convenient that People were exhorted to come to it oftner if they could be brought thereto Nevertheless if none will communicate it is not meet that the Priests stirred to communicate or should forbear for coldness or lack of other Mens Devotion Lincoln Nothing can be better or more wisely devised than Christ did ordain and the Apostles according to his Ordinance did use we ought therefore to captivate our Senses and Understandings to the Wisdom of Christ and think that most convenient that to his Ordinance is most correspondent And as St. Paul notes By eating all of one Bread and drinking all of one Cup we be put in remembrance that we be all one Body in Christ and have received all one Spirit Nevertheless the slackness of some ought not to be prejudicial to the rest nor the refusing of one to be impediment to another Elien If the Lay-Men could be brought to it it were better not to continue but if they cannot it is not convenient that Priests who would communicate for their own comfort should be defrauded by other Mens slackness Roffen I suppose it were best that that Custom should be reformed unto the Rule of Scripture and unto the Patern of the Primitive Church Bristollen I think it were good that at every Mass there were some to receive the Sacrament with the Priest nevertheless if none will come to receive it I think it lawful and convenient that the Priest say Mass and receive the Sacrament alone when he is disposed or by the Christian Congregation desired Dr. Cox I think it not convenient that the said Custom should continue if by any godly Mean the People might be brought to receive the Sacrament with the Priest Quest 7. Whether it be convenient that Masses Satisfactory should continue that is to say Priests hired to sing for Souls departed Answers I Think it not convenient that Satisfactory Masses should continue Cantab. I think that such of the School-men as do write of Masses Satisfactory do define them otherwise than is declared in this Question London Worcester Hereford Norwich Chichester St. Asaph Nevertheless I think that it is not against the Word of God but that Priests praying in the Mass both for the Quick and Dead and doing other things in the Church about
That against Law he held a Court of Request in his House and did enforce divers to answer there for their Freehold and Goods and did determine of the same 8. That being no Officer without the advice of the Council or most part of them he did dispose Offices of the King's Gift for Mony grant Leases and Wards and Presentations of Benefices pertaining to the King gave Bishopricks and made sales of the King's Lands 9. That he commanded Alchimie and Multiplication to be practised thereby to abase the King's Coin 10. That divers times he openly said That the Nobility and Gentry were the only cause of Dearth whereupon the People rose to reform Matters of themselves 11. That against the mind of the whole Council he caused Proclamation to be made concernig Inclosures whereupon the People made divers Insurrections and destroyed many of the King's Subjects 12. That he sent forth a Commission with Articles annexed concerning Inclosures Commons High-ways Cottages and such-like Matters giving the Commissioners authority to hear and determine those causes whereby the Laws and Statutes of the Realm were subverted and much Rebellion raised 13. That he suffered Rebels to assemble and lie armed in Camp against the Nobility and Gentry of the Realm without speedy repressing of them 14. That he did comfort and encourage divers Rebels by giving them Mony and by promising them Fees Rewards and Services 15. That he caused a Proclamation to be made against Law and in favour of the Rebels that none of them should be vexed or sued by any for their Offences in their Rebellion 16. That in time of Rebellion he said That he liked well the Actions of the Rebels and that the Avarice of Gentlemen gave occasion for the People to rise and that it was better for them to die than to perish for want 17. That he said The Lords of the Parliament were loath to reform Inclosures and other things therefore the People had a good cause to reform them themselves 18. That after declaration of the Defaults of Bulloign and the Pieces there by such as did survey them he would never amend the same 19. That he would not suffer the King's Pieces of Newhaven and Blackness to be furnished with Men and Provision albeit he was advertised of the Defaults and advised thereto by the King's Council whereby the French King was emboldned to attempt upon them 20. That he would neither give Authority nor suffer Noblemen and Gentlemen to suppress Rebels in time convenient but wrote to them to speak the Rebels fair and use them gently 21. That upon the 5th of October the present Year at Hampton-Court for defence of his own private Causes he procured seditious Bills to be written in counterfeit Hands and secretly to be dispersed into divers parts of the Realm beginning thus Good People intending thereby to raise the King's Subjects to Rebellion and open War 22. That the King's Privy-Council did consult at London to come to him and move him to reform his Government but he hearing of their Assembly declared by his Letters in divers places that they were high Traitors to the King 23. That he declared untruly as well to the King as to other young Lords attending his Person That the Lords at London intended to destroy the King and desired the King never to forget but to revenge it and desired the young Lords to put the King in remembrance thereof with intent to make Sedition and Discord between the King and his Nobles 24. That at divers times and places he said The Lords of the Council at London intended to kill me but if I die the King shall die and if they famish me they shall famish him 25. That of his own head he removed the King so suddenly from Hampton-Court to Windsor without any provision there made that he was thereby not only in great fear but cast thereby into a dangerous Disease 26. That by his Letters he caused the King's People to assemble in great numbers in Armour after the manner of War to his Aid and Defence 27. That he caused his Servants and Friends at Hampton-Court and Windsor to be apparelled in the King's Armour when the King's Servants and Guards went unarmed 28. That he intended to fly to Gernsey or Wales and laid Post-horses and Men and a Boat to that purpose Number 47. A Letter written by the Council to the Bishops to assure them That the King intended to go forward in the Reformation By the KING RIght Reverend Father in God Right trusty and well-beloved Regist Cran. Fol. 56. we greet you well Whereas the Book entituled the Book of Common Prayers and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church after the use of the Church of England was agreed upon and set forth by Act of Parliament and by the same Act commanded to be used of all Persons within this our Realm Yet nevertheless we are informed that divers unquiet and evil-disposed Persons sithence the apprehension of the Duke of Somerset have noised and bruited abroad That they should have again their old Latin Service their Conjured Bread and Water with such-like vain and superfluous Ceremonies as though the setting forth of the said Book had been the only Act of the said Duke We therefore by the advice of the Body and State of our Privy-Council not only considering the said Book to be our Act and the Act of the whole State of our Realm assembled together in Parliament but also the same to be grounded upon the Holy Scripture agreeable to the Order of the Primitive Church and much to the re-edifying of our Subjects to put away all such vain expectation of having the Publick Service the Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies again in the Latin Tongue which were but a preferment of Ignorance to Knowledg and Darkness to Light and a preparation to bring in Papistry and Superstition again have thought good by the advice aforesaid to require and nevertheless straitly do command and charge you That immediately upon the receipt hereof you do command the Dean and Prebendaries of your Cathedral Church the Parsons Vicar or Curat and Church-wardens of every Parish within your Diocess to bring and deliver unto you or your Deputy any of them for their Church or Parish at such convenient place as you shall appoint all Antiphonals Missals Graylles Processionals Manuels Legends Pies Portasies Journals and Ordinals after the use of Sarum Lincoln York or any other private use And all other Books of Service the keeping whereof should be a lett to the using of the said Book of Common Prayers and that you take the same Books into your hands or into the hands of your Deputy and them so to deface and abolish that they never after may serve either to any such use as they were provided for or be at any time a lett to that godly and uniform Order which by a common Consent is now set forth And if
plain words of Scripture overthroweth the nature of a â—acrament and hath given occasion to many Superâ—â—itions The Body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper only after an Heavenly and Spiritual Manner And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture and hath given occasion to many Superstitions Since the very Being of humane Nature doth require that the Body of one and the same Man cannot be at one and the same time in many places but of necessity must be in some certain and determinate place therefore the Body of Christ cannot be present in many different places at the same time And since as the Holy Scriptures testify Christ hath been taken up into Heaven and there is to abide till the end of the World it becometh not any of the Faithful to believe or profess that there is a Real or Corporeal presence as they phrase it of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's Ordinance reserved carried about lifted up or worshipped XXIX Of the Wicked which eat not the Body of Christ in the Lord's Supper The wicked and such as be void of a lively Faith altho they do carnally and visibly press with their Teeth as St. Augustine saith the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ but rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the Sign or Sacrament of so great a thing XXX Of both Kinds The Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the Lay-people For both the parts of the Lord's Sacrament by Christ's Ordinance and Commandment ought not to be ministred to all Christian People alike XXX Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross The Offering of Christ once made is a perfect Redemption Propitiation and Satisfaction for all the Sins of the whole World both Original and Actual and there is none other Satisfaction for Sin but that alone Wherefore the Sacrifices of Masses in which it was commonly said That the Priests did offer Christ for the Quick and the Dead to have remission of Pain or Guilt were * blasphemous Fables and dangerous Deceits XXXI A single Life is imposed on none by the Word of God Bishops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by God's Law either to vow the estate of a single Life or to abstain from Marriage Therefore it is lawful for them as for all other Christian Men to Marry at their own discretion as they shall judg thâ— same to serve better to Godliness XXXII Excommunicated Persons are to be avoided That Person which by open Denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the Unity of the Church and Excommunicated ought to be taken of the whole Multitude of the Faithful as an Heathen and Publican until he be openly reconciled by Penance and received into the Church by a Judg that hath Authority thereunto XXXIII Of the Tradition of the Church It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one and utterly alike for at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversities of Countries Times and Mens Manners so that nothing be ordained against God's Word Whosoever through his private judgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and reproved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common Order of the Church and hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak Brethren Every Particular or National Church hath Authority to ordain change or abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by Man's Authority so that all things be done to edifying XXXIV Of the Homilies The second Book of Homilies the several Titles whereof we have joined under this Article doth contain a godly and wholesome Doctrine and necessary for the Times as doth the former Book of Homilies which were set forth in the time of Edward the 6th and therefore we judg them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understood of the People The Names of the Homilies Of the Right Use of the Church Of Repairing Churches Against the Peril of Idolatry Of Good Works c. The Homilies lately delivered and commended to the Church of England by the King's Injunctions do contain a godly and wholsome Doctrine and fit to be embraced by all Men and for that cause they are diligently plainly and distinctly to be read to the People XXXV Of the Book of Common Prayer and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England The Book lately delivered to the Church of England by the Authority of the King and Parliament containing the manner and form of publick Prayer and the Ministration of the Sacraments The Book of Consecration of Arch-Bishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests and Deacons lately set forth in the time of King Edward the Sixth and confirmed at the same time by Authority of Parliament doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and Ordering Neither hath it any thing that of it self is superstitious and ungodly And therefore whosoever are Consecrated and Ordered according to the Rites of that Book since the second Year of the afore-named King Edward unto this time or hereafter shall be Consecrated or Ordered according to the same Rites we decree all such to be rightly orderly and lawfully Consecrated and Ordered in the said Church of England as also the Book published by the same Authority for ordering Ministers in the Church are both of them very pious as to truth of Doctrine in nothing contrary but agreeable to the wholsome Doctrine of the Gospel which they do very much promote and illustrate And for that cause they are by all faithful Members of the Church of England but chiefly of the Ministers of the Word with all thankfulness and readiness of mind to be received approved and commended to the People of God XXXVI Of the Civil Magistrates The King of England is after Christ The Queens Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Cases doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any Forreign Jurisdiction Where we attribute to the Queens Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous Folks to be offended We give not to our Princess the Ministry either of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that only Prerogative which we see to
two several times that is to say the Sundays next following Easterday and St. Michael the Arch-Angel or on some other Sunday within one month after those Feasts immediately after the Gospel FOrasmuch as it appertaineth to all Christian Men but especially to the Ministers and the Pastors of the Church being Teachers and Instructers of others to be ready to give a Reason of their Faith when they shall be thereunto required I for my part now appointed your Parson Vicar or Curat having before my Eyes the Fear of God and the Testimony of my Conscience do acknowledg for my self and require you to assent to the same I. First That there is but one living and true God of infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness the maker and preserver of all Things And that in Unity of this God-head there be three Persons of one Substance of equal Power and Eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost II. I believe also whatsoever is contained in the Holy Canonical Scriptures In the which Scriptures are contained all things necessary to Salvation by the which also all Errors and Heresies may sufficiently be reproved and convicted and all Doctrine and Articles necessary to Salvation established I do also most firmly believe and confess all the Articles contained in the Three Creeds The Nicene Creed Athanasius Creed and our Common Creed called the Apostles Creed for these do briefly contain the principal Articles of our Faith which are at large set forth in the Holy Scriptures III. I do acknowledg also that Church to be the Spouse of Christ wherein the Word of God is truly taught the Sacraments orderly ministred according to Christ's Institution and the Authority of the Keys duly used And that every such particular Church hath authority to institute to change clean to put away Ceremonies and other Ecclesiastical Rites as they be superfluous or be abused and to constitute other making more to Seemliness to Order or Edification IV. Moreover I confess That it is not lawful for any Man to take upon him any Office or Ministry either Ecclesiastical or Secular but such only as are lawfully thereunto called by their High Authorities according to the Ordinances of this Realm V. Furthermore I do acknowledg the Queen's Majesty's Prerogative and Superiority of Government of all Estates and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within this Realm and other her Dominions and Countries to be agreable to God's Word and of right to appertain to her Highness in such sort as is in the late Act of Parliament expressed and sithence by her Majesty's Injunctions declared and expounded VI. Moreover touching the Bishop of Rome I do acknowledg and confess that by the Scriptures and Word of God he hath no more Authority than other Bishops have in their Provinces and Diocesses And therefore the Power which he now challengeth that is to be the Supream Head of the Universal Church of Christ and so to be above all Emperors Kings and Princes is an usurped Power contrary to the Scriptures and Word of God and contrary to the Example of the Primitive Church and therefore is for most just Causes taken away and abolished in this Realm VII Furthermore I do grant and confess That the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Holy Sacraments set sorth by the Authority of Parliament is agreeable to the Scriptures and that it is Catholick Apostolick and most for the advancing of God's Glory and the edifying of God's People both for that it is in a Tongue that may be understanded of the People and also for the Doctrine and Form of ministration contained in the same VIII And although in the Administration of Baptism there is neither Exorcism Oil Salt Spittle or hallowing of the Water now used and for that they were of late Years abused and esteemed necessary Where they pertain not to the substance and necessity of the Sacrament they be reasonably abolished and yet the Sacrament full and perfectly ministred to all intents and purposes agreeable to the Institution of our Saviour Christ IX Moreover I do not only acknowledg that Privat Masses were never used amongst the Fathers of the Primitive Church I mean publick Ministration and receiving of the Sacrament by the Priest alone without a just number of Communicants according to Christ's saying Take ye and eat ye c. But also that the Doctrine that maintaineth the Mass to be a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and the Dead and a mean to deliver Souls out of Purgatory is neither agreeable to Christ's Ordinance nor grounded upon Doctrine Apostolick But contrary-wise most ungodly and most injurious to the precious Redemption of our Saviour Christ and his only-sufficient Sacrifice offered once for ever upon the Altar of the Cross X. I am of that mind also That the Holy Communion or Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for the due obedience to Christ's Institution and to express the vertue of the same ought to be ministred unto the People under both kinds And that it is avouched by certain Fathers of the Church to be a plain Sacrilege to rob them of the Mystical Cup for whom Christ hath shed his most precious Blood seeing he himself hath said Drink ye all of this Considering also That in the time of the Ancient Doctors of the Church as Cyprian Hierom Augustine Gelasius and others six hundred Years after Christ and more both the Parts of the Sacrament were ministred to the People Last of all As I do utterly disallow the extolling of Images Reliques and feigned Miracles and also all kind of expressing God Invisible in the form of an Old Man or the Holy Ghost in form of a Dove and all other vain worshipping of God devised by Man's fantasy besides or contrary to the Scriptures As wandering on Pilgrimages setting up of Candles praying upon Beads and such-like Superstition which kind of Works have no promise of Reward in Scripture but contrary-wise Threatnings and Maledictions So I do exhort all Men to the Obedience of God's Law and to the Works of Faith as Charity Mercy Pity Alms devout and fervent Prayer with the affection of the Heart and not with the Mouth only Godly Abstinence and Fasting Chastity Obedience to the Rulers and Superior Powers with such-like Works and godliness of Life commanded by God in his Word which as St. Paul saith hath Promises both of this Life and of the Life to come and are Works only acceptable in God's sight These things above-rehearsed though they be appointed by common Order yet do I without all compulsion with freedom of Mind and Conscience from the bottom of my Heart and upon most sure persuasion acknowledg to be true and agreeable to God's Word And therefore I exhort you all of whom I have Cure heartily and obediently to embrace and receive the same That we all joining together in unity of Spirit Faith and Charity may also at length be joined together in the Kingdom of God and that
Nature The Eutychians said it was swallowed up by his Godhead and argued from some expressions used concerning the Sacrament as if the presence of Christ in it had swallowed up the Elements against which Theodoret according to the Orthodox Doctrine argued to prove that there was in Christ a humane Nature not swallowed up and said that as in the Sacrament notwithstanding the union of Christ with the Elements they did not depart from their Substance Form and Shape So the humane Nature of Christ was not absorbed by its Union to the Godhead So it plainly appeared this word Substance stood for the Nature of the Elements Moreman being straitned in answering this Philpot said if he had not an Answer ready he would desire him to think on one again their next Meeting upon this the Prolocutor checked him as if he were bragging too soon He insisted on his Argument but was commanded to be silent Haddon upon that proposed another Argument from these Words of our Saviour The Poor you have always with you but Me you have not always That therefore his Body was not in the Sacrament To this the Prolocutor answered that Christ was not to be always with us so as to receive our Alms which is all that was intended by that place But Haddon brought a copious Citation out of St. Austin applying that very Place to prove that Christ's natural Presence was no more on Earth after his Ascension into Heaven To this Dr. Watson opposed another place of St. Austin and some dispute was about those Places After that Haddon read more Authorities of Fathers asserting that Christ was in Heaven and not on Earth the Words of the Institution did plainly express it both because the Sacrament was to be in remembrance of Christ and because it was to continue until his coming again But to this they said he was not on Earth in a bodily manner and they endeavoured to take away the Force of the Argument from the Words until his coming again by some other Acceptions of the Word until But Haddon asked them whether they thought Christ did eat his own natural Body when he instituted and took the Sacrament they said he did Upon that he answered that that was so absurd that he thought it needless to argue more with those who could yield it and so he sate down Philpot argued that Christ could not receive his own Body in the Sacrament since it was given for the Remission of Sins of which he was not capable having no Sin Weston answered he might receive it as well as he Baptized But Philpot answered he was baptized as he said himself to be an example to others So ended this days Dispute On the 25 Philpot who was ordered to begin that Day had prepared a long Discourse in Latin But Weston interrupted him and said He must make no Speech he was only to propose his Arguments and that in English though it had been before ordered that the Dispute should be in Latin Then Philpot went to explain what sort of Presence he would dispute against and what he allowed Here Weston again interrupted him and bid him form his Argument Upon that he fell down on his Knees and begged of the Lords and Privy Counsellors that were present That he might have leave to speak his Mind Which they granted him so he said For their Sacrifice of the Mass he would prove that it was no Sacrament at all and that Christ was no way present in it which if he should not do before the Queen and her Council against any six that would maintain the contrary he should be willing to be burnt before the Court Gates Upon this there was great out-crying that he was mad and talkt idely and Weston threatned to send him to Prison But this noise being laid and he claiming the priviledg of the House for the freedom of Speech was required to go on to an Argument Then he proved that Christ was in Heaven for himself said I leave the World and go to my Father And to prove there was no ambiguity in these words he observed that his Disciples said upon this Now thou speakest plainly without any Parable It was answered by Dr. Chedsey That those words were only meant of his visible Ascension but did not exclude his invisible presence and he cited some words of Chrysostom's That Christ took his Flesh with him and also left his Flesh behind him Weston and the rest said That Authority was unanswerable and for a while would not hear his Answer But Philpot shewed him that Chrysostom's words must be understood in a large sense as Believers are said to be Flesh of his Flesh for that Father applies that also to Baptism from these words As many as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ so the Flesh that Christ left on Earth according to him is not the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament Upon this Pye Dean of Chichester whispered somewhat to the Prolocutor who thereupon said to Philpot That he had disputed enough He answered That he had a dozen of Arguments and they were enjoining him silence before he had got through one of them They threatned to send him to Prison if he spoke more He said That was far from the promise they had made of hearing them fully and from what was preached last Sunday at Pauls That all things should be answered in this Disputation But Pye said He should be answered another vvay Philpot replyed There vvas a Company of them now got together vvho had heretofore dissembled vvith God and the World and vvere now met to suppress God's Truth and to set forth false Devices vvhich they vvere not able to maintain After this Ailmer stood up and brought many Authorities out of Greek Authors to prove that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Theodoret could only be understood of the substance of Bread and Wine and Moreman desired a days time to consider of them Then Peru though he had subscribed vvith the rest brought some Arguments against Transubstantiation for which the Prolocutor chid him since he had before subscribed Ailmer answered That it vvas against the freedom of the House for any to be so chid for delivering his Conscience It was now become late so they adjourned to the 27th Then they again disputed about Theodorets words where Haddon shewed that he said the Symboles retained the same Substance that they had before After that Cheyney fell to argue about those words he acknowledged a real Presence but denied Transubstantiation and pressed Theodoret's Authority so closs that Watson said he was a Nestorian and if Theodoret who was but one was of their side there was above a hundred Fathers against them Upon this Cheyney quoted Ireneus who had said that our flesh was nourished by the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament He also cited Hesychius who said that in the Church of Jerusalem the Symboles that were not consumed in the Communion were burnt afterwards he desired to know whether