inaudita Here is at length some certainty Some truth mingled among to give the better grace and to be as it were the Vehiculum of a lye For Iohn Scory in King Edward his times Bishop of Chichester and after of Hereford was one of those that ordained Doctor Parker and preached at his Ordination But that was the Ordination effected as you call it We are now in that which was not effected but attempted only And here we seek again who were these quidams that laid Hands on Scory We may go look them with Laudasensis the Archbishop of Ireland Well hear the proofs Master Thomas Neal Hebrew Reader of Oxford which was present told thus much to the antient Confessors they to F. Halywood This proof by Tradition as you know is of little credit with Protestants and no marvel For experience shews that reports suffer strange alterations in the carriage even when the Reporters are interested Irenaeus relates from the antient Confessors which had seen John the Disciple and the other Apostles of the Lord and heard it from them That Christ our Saviour was between forty and fifty years of Age before his Passion I do not think you are sure it was so For my part I had rather believe Irenaeus and those Antients he mentions and the Apostles than Father Halywood and his Confessors and Master Neal. But possible it is Mr. Neale said he was present at Matthew Parkers Ordination by John Scory These Confessors being before impressed as you are with the buz of the Ordination at the Nags-head made up that Tale and put it upon him for their Author Perhaps Mr. Neal did esteem Iohn Scory to be no Bishop and so was scandalized though causelesly at that action Perhaps Mr. Neale never said any such Word at all To help to make good this matter he saith It was after enacted in Parliament That these Parliamentary Bishops should be holden for lawful I looked for something of the Nags-Head Bishops and the Legend of their Ordination But the lawfulness that the Parliament provides for is according to the Authority the Parliament hath civil that is according to the Laws of the Land The Parliament never intended to justifie any thing as lawful jure divino which was not so as by the Preamble it self of the Statute may appear In which it is said That divers questions had grown upon the making and consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops within this Realm whether the same were and bâ— duely and orderly done according to the Law or not c. And shortly to cut off Father Halywoods surmises the case was this as may be gathered by the body of the Statute Whereas in the five and twentieth of Henry the Eighth an Act was made for the Electing and Consecrating of Bishops within this Realm And another in the third of Edward the Sixth For the Ordering and consecrating of them and all other Ecclesiastical Ministers according to such form as by six Prelates and six other learned Men in Gods Law to be appointed by the King should be devised and set forth under the great Seal of England Which Form in the fifth of the same Kings reign was annexed to the Book of Common Prayer then explained and perfected and both confirmed by the Authority of Parliament All these Acts were 1 Mariae 1 2 Philippi Mariae repealed together with another Statute of 35. Henry 8. touching the Stile of Supreme Head to be used in all Letters Patents and Commissions c. These Acts of repeal in the 1 Elizabeth were again repealed and the Act of 25. Hen. 8. revived specially That of 3 Edw. 6. only concerning the Book of Common Prayer c. without any particular mention of the Book or form of Ordering Ministers and Bishops Hence grew one doubt whether Ordinations and Consecrations according to that Form were good in Law or no. Another was Queen Elizabeth in her Letters Patents touching such Consecrations Ordinations had not used as may seem besides other general Words importing the highest Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical the title of Supreme Head as King Henry and King Edward in their like Letters Patents were wont to do And that notwithstanding the Act of 35 Hen. 8. after the repeal of the former repeal might seem though never specially revived This as I guess was another exception to those that by vertue of those Patents were consecrated Whereupon the Parliament declares First That the Book of Common Prayer and such Order and Form for consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops c. as was set forth in the time of King Edward the Sixth and added thereto and authorised by Parliament shall stand in force and be observed Secondly That all Acts done by any person about any Consecration Confirmation or investing of any elect to the Office or Dignity of Archbishop or Bishop by vertue of the Queens Letters Patents or Commission since the beginning of her Reign be good Thirdly That all that have been Ordered or Consecrated Archbishops Bishops Priests c. after the said Form and Order be rightly made ordered and consecrated any Statute Law Canon or other thing to the contrary notwithstanding Theâ—e were the Reasons of that Act which as you see doth not make good the Nags-head-Ordination as F. Halywood pretends unless the same were according to the Form in Edward the Sixth's days His next proof is That Bonner Bishop of London while he lived always set light by the Statutes of the Parliaments of Queen Elizabeth alledging that there wanted Bishops without whose consent by the Laws of the Realm there can no firm Statute be made That Bonneâ— despised and set not a Straw by the Acts of Parliament in Queen Elizabeths time I hold it not impossible and yet there is no other proof thereof but his bare Word and the antient Confessors tradition of which we heard before Admitting this for certain there might be other reasons thereof besides the Ordination at the Nags-head The stiffness of that Man was no less in King Edwards time than Queen Elizabeths And indeed the want also of Bishops might be the cause why he little regarded the Acts of her first Parliament For both much about the time of Queen Maryes death dyed also Cardinal Poole and sundry other Bishops And of the rest some for their contemptuous behaviour in denying to perform their duty in the Coronation of the Queen were committed to Prison others absented themselves willingly So as it is commonly reported to this day there was none or very few there For as for Doctor Parker and the rest they were not ordained till December 1559. the Parliament was dissolved in the May before So not to stand now to refute Bonners conceit that according to our Laws there could be no Statutes made in Parliament without Bishops wherein our Parliament Men will rectifie his Judgment F. Halywood was in this report twice deceived or would deceive his Reader First that he would make that exception which
endanger both their own Souls and the Souls of their Flocks And to let them see that he would not lay a heavy Burthen on them in which he would not bear his own share he resolved to part with one of his Bishopricks For though Ardagh was considered as a ruined See and had long gone as an accessory to Kilmore and continues to be so still yet since they were really two different Sees he thought he could not decently oblige his Clergy to renounce their Pluralities unless he set them an example and renounced his own even after he had been at a considerable charge in recovering the Patrimony of Ardagh and though he was sufficiently able to discharge the duty of both these Sees they being contiguous and small and though the Revenue of both did not exceed a competency yet he would not seem to be guilty of that which he so severely condemned in others And therefore he resigned Ardagh to Dr. Richardson and so was now only Bishop of Kilmore The Authority of this example and the efficacy of his Discourse made such an impression on his Clergy that they all relinquished their Pluralities The Arguments that arise out of interest are generally much stronger than those of mere speculation how well soever it be made out and therefore this concurrence that he met with from his Clergy in so sensible a point was a great encouragement to him to go on in his other designs There seemed to be a Finger of God in it for he had no authority to compel them to it and he had managed the minds of his Clergy so gently in this matter that their compliance was not extorted but both free and unanimous For one only excepted they all submitted to it and he being Dean exchanged his Deanery with another for he was ashamed to live in the Diocess where he would not submit to such terms after both the Bishop himself and all his Clergy had agreed to them But the opposition that was given him by the Dean and both his sense of that matter and his carriage in it will appear from the following Letter which he writ concerning it to the Primate which though it be long and particular yet it seemed to me too important to be either stifled or abridged Most reverend Father my honourable good Lord I Cannot easily express what contentment I received at my late being with your Grace at Termonseckin There had nothing hapned to me I will not say since I came into Ireland but as far as I can call to remembrance in my whole life which did so much affect me in this kind as the hazzard of your good opinion For loving and honouring you in Truth for the truths sake which is in us and shall abide with us for ever without any private interest and receiving so unlookt for a blow from your own Hand which I expected should have tenderly applyed some remedy to me being smitten by others I had not present the defences of Reason and Grace And although I knew it to be a fault in my self since in the performance of our duties the Iudgment of our Master even alone ought to suffice us yet I could not be so much Master of mine Affections as to cast out this weakness But blessed be God who as I began to say at my being with you refreshed my Spirit by your kind renewing and confirming your love to me and all humble thanks to you that gave me place to make my Defence and took upon you the cognisance of mine innocency And as for mine Accuser whose hatred I have incurred only by not giving way to his covetous desire of heaping Living upon Living to the evident damage not only of other Souls committed to him but of his own truly I am glad and do give God Thanks that this malignity which a while masked it self in the pretence of friendship hath at last discovered it self by publick opposition It hath not and I hope it shall not be in his power to hurt me at all he hath rather shamed himself and although his high Heart cannot give his Tongue leave to acknowledge his folly his Vnderstanding is not so weak and blind as not to see it Whom I could be very well content to leave to tast the Fruit of it also without being further troublesome to your Grace save that I do not despair but your Grace's Authority will pull him out of the snare of Satan whose instrument he hath been to cross the Work of God and give me more occasion of joy by his amendment than I had grief by his perversion and opposition Your Grace's Letters of Aug. 23. were not delivered to me till the 29th In the mean space what effect those that accompanied them had with Mr. Dean you shall perceive by the inclosed which were sent me the 28th the Evening before our Communion I answered them the next Morning as is here annexed As I was at the Lord's Table beginning the service of the Communion before the Sermon he came in and after the Sermon was done those that communicated not being departed he stood forth and spake to this purpose That whereas the Book of Common Prayer requires That before the Lord's Supper if there be any variance or breach of charity there should be reconciliation this was much more requisite between Ministers And because they all knew that there had been some difference between me and him he did profess That he bare me no malice nor hatred and if he had offended me in any thing he was sorry I answered That he had good reason to be sorry considering how he had behaved himself For my part I bare him no malice and if it were in my power would not make so much as his Finger ake Grieved I had been that he in whom I knew there were many good Parts would become an instrument to oppose the Work of God which I was assured he had called me to This was all that passed He offered himself to the Lord's Board and I gave him the Communion After Dinner he preached out of 1 Joh. 4.10 And this Commandment have we from him that he that loveth God c. When we came out of the Church Dr. Sheriden delivered me your Grace's Letters And thus Mr. Dean thinks he hath healed all as you may perceive by his next Letters of August 30. Only he labours about Kildromfarten Whereabouts I purposed to have spoken with your Grace at my being with you but I know not how it came not to my mind whether it be that the Soul as well as the body after some travel easily falleth to rest or else God would have it reserved perhaps to a more seasonable time It is now above a Twelvemonth the Day in many respects I may well wish that it may not be reckoned with the dayes of the year that your Grace as it were delivered to me with your own Hands Mr. Crian a converted Fryer To whom I offered my self as largely as
Courts my self and set some good order in them And to this purpose I have been at Cavan Belturbet Granard and Longford and do intend to go to the rest leaving with some of the Ministry there a few Rules touching those things that are to be redressed that if my health do not permit me to be always present they may know how to proceed in my absence I find it to be true that Tully saith Justitia mirifica quaedam res multitudini and certainly to our proper work a great advantage it is to obtain a good opinion of those we are to deal with But besides this there fall out occasions to speak of God and his presence of the Religion of a Witness the danger of an Oath the purity of a Marriage the preciousness of a good name repairing of Churches and the like Penance it self may be enjoyned and Penitents reconciled with some profit to others besides themselves Wherefore albeit Mr. Cooke were the justest Chancellour in this Kingdome I would think it fit for me as things now stand to sit in these Courts and the rather sith I cannot be heard in the Pulpits to preach as I may in them Albeit innocency and Iustice is also a real kind of preaching I have shewed your Grace my intentions in this matter Now should I require your direction in many things if I were present with you But for the present it may please you to understand that at Granard one Mr. Nugent a Nephew as I take it to my Lord of Westmeath delivered his Letter to Mr. Aske which he delivered me in open Court requiring that his Tenant might not be troubled for Christnings Marriages or Funerals so they pay the Minister his due This referred to a Letter of my Lord Chancellors to the like purpose which yet was not delivered till the Court was risen I answered generally That none of my Lord's Tenants or others should be wronged The like motion was made at Longford by two or three of the Farralls and one Mr. Fagarah and Mr. Rosse to whom I gave the like answer and added That I would be strict in requiring them to bring their Children to be Baptized and Marriages to be solemnized likewise with us sith they acknowledged these to be lawful and true so as it was but wilfulness if any forbare Here I desire your Grace to direct me For to give way that they should not be so much as called in question seems to further the Schism they labour to make To lay any pecuniary mulct upon them as the value of a Licence for Marriage three Pence or four Pence for a Christning I know not by what Law it can be done To Excommunicate them for not appearing or obeying they being already none of our body and a multitude it is to no profit nay rather makes the exacerbation worse Many things more I have to confer with your Grace about which I hope to do coram as about the re-edifying of Churches or employing the Mass-houses which now the State inquires of about Books Testaments and the Common Prayer Book which being to be reprinted would perhaps be in some things bettered But especially about Men to use them and Means to maintain them now that our English have engrossed the Livings About the printing the Psalter which I have caused to be diligently surveyed by Mr. James Nangle who adviseth not to meddle with the Verse but set forth only the Prose Which he hath begun to write out fair to the Press Mr. Murtagh King I have not heard of a long time I hope he goeth on in the Historical Books of the Old Testament Mr. Crian was with me about a Forthnight after I came to Kilmore since I heard not of him Of all these things if by the will of God I may make a journey over to you we shall speak at full As I was closing up these this Morning there is a complaint brought me from Ardagh That where in a cause Matrimonial in the Court at Longford a Woman had proceeded thus far as after contestation the Husband was enjoyned to appear the next Court to receive a Libel one Shaw-oge Mr. Ingawry the Popish Vicar General of Ardagh had excommunicated her and she was by one Hubart and Mr. Calril a Priest upon Sunday last put out of the Church and denounced excommunicate Herein whether it were more fit to proceed against the Vicar and Priest by vertue of the last Letters from the Council or complain to them I shall attend your Graces advice And now for very shame ceasing to be troublesome I do recommend your Grace to the protection of our merciful Father and rest with my respective salutations to Mrs. Usher Kilmore Feb. 15. 1629. Your Grace's in all duty Will. Kilmore Ardaghen The other Bishops did not stand by our Bishop in this matter but were contented to let him fall under Censure without interposing in it as in a cause of common concern Even the excellent Primate told him The tide went so high that he could assist him no more for he stood by him longer than any other of the Order had done But the Bishop was not disheartened by this And as he thanked him for assisting him so long so he said he was resolved by the help of God to try if he could stand by himself But he went home and resolved to go on in his Courts as he had begun notwithstanding this Censure For he thought he was doing that which was incumbent on him and he had a Spirit so made that he resolved to suffer Martyrdome rather than fail in any thing that lay on his Conscience But his Chancellour was either advised by those that governed the State to give him no disturbance in that matter or was overcome by the authority he saw in him that inspired all people with reverence for him For as he never called for the 100 Pound Costs so he never disturbed him any more but named a Surrogate to whom he gave order to be in all things observant of the Bishop and obedient to him So it seems that though it was thought fit to keep up the Authority of the Lay Chancellours over Ireland and not to suffer this Bishop's practice to pass into a Precedent yet order was given under hand to let him go on as he had begun and his Chancellour had so great a value for him that many Years after this he told my Author That he thought there was not such a Man on the face of the earth as Bishop Bedell was that he was too hard for all the Civilians in Ireland and that if he had not been born down by meer force he had overthrown the Consistorial Courts and had recovered the Episcopal Jurisdiction out of the Chancellours hands But now that he went on undisturbed in his Episcopal Court he made use of it as became him and not as an Engine to raise his power and dominion but considering that all Church power was for Edification and
not for Destruction he both dispensed that Justice that belonged to his Courts equally and speedily and cut off many Fees and much expence which made them be formerly so odious and also when scandalous persons were brought before him to be censured he considered that Church-Censures ought not to be like the acts of Tyrants that punish out of revenge but like the Discipline of Parents that correct in order to the amendment of their Children So he studied chiefly to beget in all offenders a true sense of their sins Many of the Irish Priests were brought oft into his Courts for their lewdness and upon that he took occasion with great mildness and without scoffing or insultings to make them sensible of that tyrannical imposition in their Church in denying their Priests leave to marry which occasioned so much impurity among them and this had a good effect on some This leads me to another part of his Character that must represent the care he took of the Natives he observed with much regret that the English had all along neglected the Irish as a Nation not only conquered but undisciplineable and that the Clergy had scarce considered them as a part of their Charge but had left them wholly into the hands of their own Priests without taking any other care of them but the making them pay their Tythes And indeed their Priests were a strange sort of people that knew generally nothing but the reading their Offices which were not so much as understood by many of them and they taught the people nothing but the saying their Paters and Aves in Latin So that the state both of the Clergy and Laity was such that it could not but raise great compassion in a Man that had so tender a sense of the value of those Souls that Christ had purchased with his Blood therefore he resolved to set about that Apostolical work of converting the Natives with the zeal and care that so great understanding required He knew the gaining on some of the more knowing of their Priests was like to be the quickest way for by their means he hoped to spread the knowledge of the reformed Religion among the Natives or rather of the Christian Religion to speak more strictly For they had no sort of notion of Christianity but only knew that they were to depend upon their Priests and were to confess such of their actions as they call sins to them and were to pay them Tythes The Bishop prevailed on several Priests to change and he was so well satisfied with the truth of their conversion that he provided some of them to Ecclesiastical Benefices which was thought a strange thing and was censured by many as contrary to the interest of the English Nation For it was believed that all those Irish Converts were still Papists at Heart and might be so much the more dangerous than otherwise by that disguise which they had put on But he on the other hand considered chiefly the duty of a Christian Bishop he also thought the true interest of England was to gain the Irish to the knowledge of Religion and to bring them by the means of that which only turns the heart to love the English Nation And so he judged the wisdom of that course was apparent as well as the piety of it Since such as changed their Religion would become thereby so odious to their own Clergy that this would provoke them to further degrees of zeal in gaining others to come over after them And he took great care to work in those whom he trusted with the care of Souls a full conviction of the truth of Religion and a deep sense of the importance of it And in this he was so happy That of all the Converts that he had raised to Benefices there was but one only that fell back when the Rebellion broke out And he not only apostatized but both plundered and killed the English among the first But no wonder if one murderer was among our Bishop's Converts since there was a traitor among the twelve that followed our Saviour There was a Covent of Fryers very near him on whom he took much pains with very good success That he might furnish his converts with the means of instructing others he made a short Catechism to be printed in one sheet being English on the one Page and Irish on the other which contained the Elements and most necessary things of the Christian Religion together with some forms of Prayer and some of the most instructing and edifying passages of Scripture This he sent about all over his Diocess and it was received with great joy by many of the Irish who seemed to be hungering and thirsting after Righteousness and received this beginning of knowledge so well that it gave a good encouragement to hope well upon further endeavours The Bishop did also set himself to learn the Irish Tongue and though it was too late for a Man of his years to learn to speak it yet he came to understand it to such a degree as to compose a compleat Grammar of it which was the first that ever was made as I have been told and to be a Critick in it he also had Common Prayer read in Irish every Sunday in his Cathedral for the benefit of the Converts he had made and was alwayes present at it himself and he engaged all his Clergy to set up Schools in their Parishes For there were so very few bred to read or write that this obstructed the conversion of the Nation very much The New Testament and the Book of Common Prayer were already put in the Irish Tongue but he resolved to have the whole Bible the Old Testament as well as the New put also into the hands of the Irish and therefore he laboured much to find out one that understood the Language so well that he might be imployed in so sacred a work And by the advice of the Primate and several other eminent persons he pitched on one King that had been converted many years before and was believed to be the elegantest Writer of the Irish Tongue then alive both for Prose and Poetry He was then about seventy but notwithstanding his age and the disadvantages of his Education yet the Bishop thought him not only capable of this Imployment but qualified for an higher character therefore he put him in Orders and gave him a Benefice in his Diocess and set him to work in order to the translating the Bible which he was to do from the English Translation since there were none of the Nation to be found that knew any thing of the Originals The Bishop set himself so much to the revising this Work that alwayes after Dinner or Supper he read over a Chapter and as he compared the Irish Translation with the English so he compared the English with the Hebrew and the Seventy Interpreters or with Diodati's Italian Translation which he valued highly and he corrected the Irish where he found the
granted them for consulting their Divines in Germany And at last Letters were brought from thence concerning their Exceptions to Communion with that Church Because the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament was not explained in such a manner as agreed with their Doctrine The Archbishop of Dublin sent these to our Bishop that he might answer them and upon that he writ so learned and so full an answer to all their Objections and explained the matter so clearly that when this was seen by the German Divines it gave them such entire satisfaction that upon it they advised their Countreymen to join in Communion with the Church For such is the moderation of our Church in that matter that no positive definition of the manner of the Presence being made Men of different sentiments may agree in the same acts of Worship without being obliged to declare their Opinion or being understood to do any thing contrary to their several Perswasions His moderation in this matter was a thing of no danger to him but he expressed it on other instances in which it appeared that he was not afraid to own it upon more tender occasions The Troubles that broke out in Scotland upon the account of the Book of Common Prayer which encreased to the height of the swearing the Covenant and putting down of Episcopacy and the turning out of all Clergy Men that did not concur with them are so well known that I need not inlarge upon them It is not to be denyed but provocations were given by the heats and indiscretions of some Men but these were carried so far beyond all the bounds either of Order in the Church or Peace in the State that to give things their proper names it was a Schismatical rage against the Church backt with a rebellious fury against the State When the Bishop heard of all these things he said that which Nazianzene said at Constantinople when the stir was raised in the second General Council upon his account If this great tempest is risen for our sakes take us up and cast us into the Sea that so there may be a Calm And if all others had governed their Diocesses as he did his one may adventure to affirm after Dr. Bernard That Episcopacy might have been kept still upon its Wheels Some of those that were driven out of Scotland by the fury of that time came over to Ireland among these there was one Corbet that came to Dublin who being a Man of quick Parts writ a very smart Book shewing the parallel between the Jesuites and the Scotch Covenanters which he printed under the Title of Lysimachus Nicanor The Spirit that was in this Book and the sharpness of the stile procured the Author such favour that a considerable Living falling in the Bishop of Killala's Gift he was recommended to it and so he went to that Bishop but was ill received by him The Bishop had a great affection to his Countrey for he was a Scotchman born and though he condemned the courses they had taken yet he did not love to see them exposed in a strange Nation and did not like the Man that had done it The Bishop was a little sharp upon him he played on his Name Corby in Scotch being a Raven and said it was an ill Bird that defiled its own Nest. And whereas he had said in his Book That he had hardly escaped with his own life but had left his Wife behind him to try the humanity of the Scots he told him He had left his Wife to a very base office Several other things he said which in themselves amounted to nothing but only expressed an inclination to lessen the faults of the Scots and to aggravate some provocations that had been given them Corbet came up full of wrath and brought with him many Informations against the Bishop which at any other time would not have been much considered but then it being thought necessary to make examples of all that seemed favourable to the Covenanters it was resolved to turn him out of his Bishoprick and to give it to Maxwell that had been Bishop of Rosse in Scotland and was indeed a Man of eminent parts and an excellent Preacher but by his forwardness and aspiring he had been the unhappy instrument of that which brought on all the disorders in Scotland A Pursevant was sent to bring up the Bishop of Killala and he was accused before the high Commission Court for those things that Corbet objected to him and every Man being ready to push a Man down that is falling under disgrace many designed to merit by aggravating his faults But when it came to our Bishop's turn to give his Sentence in the Court he that was afraid of nothing but sinning against God did not stick to venture against the Stream he first read over all that was objected to the Bishop at the Barr then he fetched his Argument from the qualifications of a Bishop set down by S. Paul in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus and assumed that he found nothing in those Articles contrary to those qualifications nothing that touched either his Life or Doctrine He fortified this by shewing in what manner they proceeded against Bishops both in the Greek and Latin Churches and so concluded in the Bishops favour This put many out of countenance who had considered nothing in his Sentence but the consequences that were drawn from the Bishop's expressions from which they gathered the ill disposition of his mind so that they had gone high in their Censures without examining the Canons of the Church in such Cases But though those that gave their Votes after our Bishop were more moderate than those that had gone before him had been yet the current run so strong that none durst plainly acquit him as our Bishop had done So he was deprived fined and imprisoned and his Bishoprick was given to Maxwell who enjoyed it not long For he was stript naked wounded and left among the dead by the Irish but he was preserved by the Earl of Tomond who passing that way took care of him so that he got to Dublin And then his Talent of Preaching that had been too long neglected by him was better imployed so that he preached very often and very much to the edification of his Hearers that were then in so great a consternation that they needed all the comfort that he could minister to them and all the Spirit that he could infuse in them He went to the King to Oxford and he said in my Author 's hearing That the King had never rightly understood the innate hatred that the Irish bore to all that professed the true Religion till he had informed him of it But he was so much affected with an ill piece of News that he heard concerning some misfortune in the King's affairs in England that he was some hours after found dead in his Study This short digression I hope may be forgiven me for the person was very extraordinary
Bonner laid against the First Parliament in Queen Elizabeths time to be true of all the rest Then that he accounts Bishop Bonner to have excepted against this Parliament because the Bishops there were no Bishops as not canonically ordained Where it was because there was no Bishops true or false there at all His last proof is That Dr. Bancroft being demanded of Mr. Alablaster whence their first Bishops received their Orders answered That he hoped a Bishop might be ordained of a Presbyter in time of necessity Silently granting That they were not ordained by any Bishop And therefore saith he the Parliamentary Bishops are without order Episcopal and their Ministers also no Priests For Priests are not made but of Bishops whence Hierome Quid facit c. What doth a Bishop saving Ordination which a Presbyter doth not I have not the means to demand of D. Alablaster whether this be true or not Nor yet whether this be all the answer he had of Dr. Bancroft That I affirm that if it were yet it follows not that D. Bancroft silently granted they had no Orders of Bishops Unless he that in a false Discourse where both Propositions be untrue denies the Major doth silently grant the Minor Rather he jested at the futility of this Argument which admitting all this lying Legend of the Nags-head and more too suppose no Ordination by any Bishops had been ever effected notwithstanding shews no sufficient reason why there might not be a true consecration and true Ministers made and consequently a true Church in England For indeed necessity dispenses with Gods own positive Laws as our Saviour shews in the Gospel much more then with Mans And such by Hieroms Opinion are the Laws of the Church touching the difference of Bishops and Presbyters and consequently touching their Ordination by Bishops only Whereof I have treated more at large in another place for the justification of other reformed Churches albeit the Church of England needs it not To confirm this Argument it pleaseth F. Halywood to add That King Edward the Sixth took away the Catholick Rite of Ordaining and instead of it substituted a few Calvinistical Prayers Whom Queen Elizabeth followed c. And this is in effect the same thing which you say when you add That Coverdale being made Bishop of Exceter in King Edward 's time when all Councils and Church Canons were little observed it is very doubtful he was never himself canonically consecrated and so if he were no canonical Bishop he could not make another Canonical To F. Halywood I would answer That King Edward took not away the Catholick Rite of Ordaining but purged it from a number of idle and superstitious Rites prescribed by the Popish Pontifical And the Prayers which he scoffs at if they were Calvinistical sure it was by Prophecie for Calvin never saw them till Queen Mary's time when by certain of our English Exiles the Book of Common Prayer was translated and shewed him if he saw them then Some of them as the Litany and the Hymn Veni Creator c. I hope were none of Calvin's devising To you if you name what Councils and Church Canons you mean and make any certain exception either against Bishop Coverdale or any of the rest as not Canonical Bishops I will endeavour to satisfie you Mean while remember I beseech you That both Law and Reason and Religion should induce you in doubtful thingâ— to follow the most favourable sentence and not rashly out of light surmises to pronounce against a publick and solemn Ordination against the Orders conferred successively from it against a whole Church Wherein I cannot but commend Doctor Carriers modesty whose Words are these I will not determine against the succession of the Clergy in England because it is to me very doubtful And the discretion of Cudsemius the Jesuite which denies the English Nation to be Hereticks because they remain in a perpetual succession of Bishops And to take away all doubt from you that some of these Ordainers were only Bishops elect and unconsecrated besides Miles Coverdale in King Edward's time Bishop of Exceter cast in Prison by Queen Mary and released and sent over Sea to the King of Denmark know that William Barlow was another in King Edward's days Bishop of Bath and Wells in Queen Mary's beyond the Seas in the company of the Dutchess of Suffolk and Mr. Bertie her Husband at the time of Dr. Parker's Ordination Elect of Chichester A third was Iohn Scory in King Edward's time Bishop of Chichester and at the time of the said Ordination Elect of Hereford A fourth was Iohn Hodgeskin Suffragan of Bedford And these four if they were all ordained according to the Form ratified in King Edward's days were presented by two Bishops at least to the Archbishop and of him and them received Imposition of Hands as in the said Form is appointed One Scruple yet remains which you have in That these Men did consecrate Doctor Parker by vertue of a Breve from the Queen as Head of the Church who being no true Head and a Woman you see not how they could make a true Consecration grounded on her Authority But to clear you in this also you must understand the Queens Mandate served not to give Power to ordain which those Bishops had before intrinsecally annexed to their Office but Leave and Warrant to apply that Power to the person named in that Mandate A thing unless I have been deceived by Reports used in other Countrys yea in the Kingdoms of his Catholick Majesty himself Sure I am by the Christian Emperors in the Primitive Church as you may see in the Ecclesiastical Histories and namely in the Ordination of Nectarius that I spake of before Yea which is more in the Consecration of the Bishops of Rome as of Leo the Eighth whose Decree with the Synod at Rome touching this matter is set down by Gratian Dist. 63. c. 23. taken from the example of Hadrian and another Council which gave to Charles the Great Ius potestatem eligendi Pontifâ—cem ordinandi Apostolicam Sedem as you may see in the Chapter next before See the same Dist. c. 16 17 18. and you shall find that when one was chosen Bishop of Reate within the Popes own Province by the Clergy and people and sent to him by Guido the Count to be consecrated the Pope durst not do it till the Emperors Licence were obtained Yâ—â— that he writes to the Emperour for Colonus That receiving his Licence he might consecrate him either there or in the Church of Tusculum which accordingly upon the Emperours bidding he performed Yet another Exception you take to the making our Ministers That we keep not the right intention First Because we neither give nor take Orders as a Sacrament By that Reason we should have no true Marriages amongst us neither because we count not Matrimony a Sacrament This Controversie depends upon the definition of a Sacrament
Bishop of Ostuna interpretâ— Sacrificia pro populo tâ—o immaculata perficiat Marvel that he added not tam pro vivis quam pro defâ—nctis Sure if S. Paul Rom. 15.16 had not added the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he had sacrificed also This was the antient and Apostolick manner of Ordination if the Author be worthy of credit But that ye may perceive what tampering there hath been to bring Ordinations to the Form which the present Pontifical prescribes consider with me the Words of Amalarius Bishop of Triers in his second Book de Ecclesiast Officiis where in the Office of the Subdeacon he thus writes Miror quâ de re sumptus usus in Ecclesia c. I marvel whence the use was taken in our Church that very often the Subdeacon should read the Lesson at Mass since this is not found committed unto him by the Ministry given him in Consecration nor by the Canonical Writings nor by his name And streight after Nam primaevo tempore For in antient time the Deacon read not the Gospel which was not yet written but after it was enacted by our Fathers That the Deacons should read the Gospel they appointed also that the Subdeacon should read the Epistle or Lesson It appears then that in Amalarius time who lived with Charles the Great and Lewis his Son that ridiculous Form was not in the Pontifical where the Book of the Epistles is given to the Subdeacons and power to read them in the holy Church of God as well for the Quick as the Dead The same Author coming to speak of Deacons telleth of their consecration by Prayer and imposition of Hands and confuteth that in the present Pontifical which he saith he found in a little Book of Holy Orders made he knows not by what Author That the Bishop alone should lay Hands on the Deacon At last he adds There is one Ministry added to the Deacon viz. to read the Gospel which he saith doth well befit him quia Minister est But of the delivery of the Book of the Gospels with authority to read the Gospel for the Quick and Dead not one Word In the next Chapter of Presbyters he expounds their name and saith further hunc morem tenent Episcopi nostri Our Bishops have this Fashion they anoint the Hands of Presbyters with Oyl which Ceremony he declares touching imposition of Hands upon them he remits us to that he said before in the Deacon Then he shews out of Ambrose and Hierom That these are all one Order with Bishops and ought to govern the Church in common like Moses with the seventy Elders As for delivery of Chalice and Wine or Paten and Host with power to sacrifice so well for the Quick as the Dead he makes no mention Judge you whether these were thought to be the matter and essential Form of Priesthood in his time Yet one Author more will I name in this matter not only because he is a famous Schoolman and one of Luthers first Adversaries and therefore ought to be of more account with that side but because he professeth the end of his writing to be circa Sacramentum ordinis cautos reddere ne pertinax quisquam aut levis sit circa modum tradendi aut recipiendi ordines It is Cardinal Cajetane in the second Tome of his Opuscula Tit. De modo tradendi seu recipiendi Ordines Read the whole where these things I observe for our present purpose 1. If all be gathered together which the Pontificals or which Reason or Authority hath delivered the nature of all the rest of the Orders except Priesthood only will appear very uncertain 2. The lesser Orders and Subdeaconship according to the Master of the Sentences were instituted by the Church 3. The Deacons instituted by the Apostles Acts 6. were not Deacons of the Altar but of the Tables and Widows 4. In Deaconship there seems to be no certain Form for according to the old Pontificals the laying of Hands upon the Deacon hath no certain Form of Words but that Prayer Emitte quaesumus in eos S. Sanctum Which according to the new Pontificals is to be said after the imposition of Hands For the giving of the Book of the Gospels hath indeed a form of Words but that impresseth not the Character for before any Gospel was written the Apostles ordained Deacons by imposition of Hands 5. In the Subdeaconship also there is no Pontifical which hath not the matter without Form viz. the delivery of the empty Chalice c. These things with more which he there sets down he would have to serve to the instruction of the learned touching the uncertainty of this whole matter to teach Men to be wise to sobriety that is every Man to be content with the accustomed Pontifical of the Church wherein he is ordained And if ought be omitted of those things which be added out of the new Pontificals as for example that the Book of the Epistles was not given with those Words Take Authority to read the Epistles as well for the Quick as the Dead there is no need of supplying this omission by a new Ordination for such new additions make no new Law Learn then of your own Cajetane that the new additions of delivery of the Chalice with Wine and Paten with Hosts and authority to offer sacrifice for the Quick and the Dead make no new Law Learn to be content with the Pontifical of the Church wherein you were ordained Wherein first is verbatim all that which your Pontificals had well taken out of the holy Words of our Saviour Accipe Spiritum Sanctum quorum remiseris peâ—cata remittuntur eis quorum retinueris retentâ— sunt Which methinks you should rather account to contain the essential Form of Priesthood than the former both because they are Christs own Word and joyned with that Ceremony of laying on Hands which antiently denominated this whole action and do express the worthiest and principallest part of your Commission which the Apostle calls the Ministry of Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18 19. Then because this Office is not only deputed to consecrate the Lords Body but also to preach and baptize which in your Pontifical is wholly omitted in a larger and more convenient Form is added out of S. Paul 1 Cor. 4.1 and be thou a faithful Dispenser of the Word of God and of his holy Sacraments In the name of the Father c. As to that you add That we offer no Sacrifice for the Quick and Dead and therefore well may be called Ministers as all Lay-men are but are no Priests I have met with sundry that pull this Rope as strongly the other way and affirm that because by the very Form of your Ordination you are appointed Sacrificers for the Quick and the Dead well may ye be Mass-Priests as ye are called but Ministers of the New Testament after S. Paul 's Phrase ye are none For that Office stands principally in preaching the Word whereof in
late King He communicated to him the inwardest thoughts of his Heart and profesed that he had learnt more from him in all the parts of Divinity whether Speculative or Practical than from any he had ever conversed with in his whole life So great an intimacy with so extraordinary a person is enough to raise a Character were there no more to be added P. Paulo went further for he assisted him in acquiring the Italian Tongue in which Bedell became such a Master that he spoke it as one born in Italy and penned all the Sermons he then preached either in Italian or Latine in this last it will appear by the productions of his Pen yet remaining that he had a true Roman Stile inferior to none of the Modern Writers if not equal to the Ancients In requital of the Instruction he received from P. Paulo in the Italian Tongue he drew a Grammar of the English Tongue for his use and for some others that desired to learn it that so they might be able to understand our Books of Divinity and he also translated the English common-Common-prayer Book into Italian and P. Paulo and the seven Divines that during the Interdict were commanded by the Senate both to preach and write against the Popes authority liked it so well that they resolved to have made it their pattern in case the differences between the Pope and them had produced the effect which they hoped and longed for The intimacy between them grew so great and so publick that when P. Paulo was wounded by those Assassinates that were set on by the Court of Rome to destroy so redoubted an Enemy upon the failing of which attempt a Guard was set on him by the Senate that knew how to value and preserve so great a Treasure and much precaution was used before any were admitted to come to him Bedell was excepted out of those rules and had free access to him at all times They had many and long discourses concerning Religion He found P. Paulo had read over the Greek New Testament with so much exactness that having used to mark every Word when he had fully weighed the importance of it as he went through it he had by going often over it and observing what he past over in a former reading grown up to that at last that every word was marked of the whole New Testament and when Bedell suggested to him critical explications of some passages that he had not understood before he received them with the transports of one that leapt for joy and that valued the discoveries of divine Truth beyond all other things During his stay at Venice the famous Ant. de Dominis Archbishop of Spalata came to Venice and having received a just character of Mr. Bedell he discovered his secret to him and shewing him his ten Books De Republica Ecclesiastica which he afterwards printed at London Bedell took the freedom which he allowed him and corrected many ill applications of Texts of Scripture and Quotations of Fathers For that Prelate being utterly ignorant of the Greek Tongue could not but be guilty of many mistakes both in the one and the other and if there remain some places still that discover his ignorance of that Language too plainly yet there had been many more if Bedell had not corrected them but no wonder if in such a multitude some escaped his diligence De Dominis took all this in good part from him and did enter into such familiarity with him and found his assistance so useful and indeed so necessary to himself that he used to say he could do nothing without him A passage fell out during the Interdict that made greater noise than perhaps the importance of it could well amount to but it was suited to the Italian Genius There came a Jesuite to Venice Thomas Maria Caraffa who printed a Thousand Theses of Philosophy and Divinity which he dedicated to the Pope with this extravagant Inscription PAULO V. VICE-DEO Christianae Reipublicae Monarchae invictissimo Pontificiae Omnipotentiae conservatori accerrimo To Paul the U. the Uice-God the most invincible Monarch of the Christian Common-wealth and the most zealous asserter of the Papal Omnipotency All people were amazed at the impudence of this Title but when Mr. Bedell observed that the numeral Letters of the first Words PAVLO V. VICE-DEO being put together made exactly 666. the number of the Beast in the Revelation he communicated this to P. Paulo and the Seven Divines and they carried it to the Duke and Senate it was entertained almost as if it had come from Heaven and it was publickly preached over all their Territories that here was a certain evidence that the Pope was Antichrist And it is like this was promoted by them more because they found it took with the Italians than that they could build much upon it though it was as strong as the like computation from the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon which some of the Ancients laid some weight This flew so over Italy that lest it should take too much among the people the Pope caused his Emissaries to give it out every where That Antichrist was now born in Babylon and was descended of the Tribe of Dan and that he was gathering a vast Army with which he intended to come and destroy Christendome and therefore all Christian Princes were exhorted to prepare all their Forces for resisting so great an Invasion And with this piece of false news that was given out very confidently the other conceit was choaked But though Mr. Bedell makes use of it in his Book against Wadsworth yet he was too modest a Man to claim the discovery of it to himself but Sir Henry Wotton assured King Iames That he first observed it Here I must add a passage concerning which I am in doubt whether it reflected more on the sincerity or on the understanding of the English Ambassadour The breach between the Pope and the Republick was brought very near a Crisis so that it was expected a total separation not only from the Court but the Church of Rome was like to follow upon it It was set on by P. Paulo and the Seven Divines with much zeal and was very prudently conducted by them In order to the advancing of it King Iames ordered his Ambassadour to offer all possible assistance to them and to accuse the Pope and the Papacy as the chief Authors of all the mischiefs of Christendome The Prince and Senate answered this in words full of respect to King Iames and said That they knew things were not so bad as some endeavoured to make the World believe on design to sow discord between Christian Princes and when the Popes Nuncio objected That King Iames was not a Catholick and so was not to be relyed on The Duke answered The King of England believed in Jesus Christ but he did not know in whom some others believed Upon which P. Paulo and the Seven Divines pressed Mr. Bedell to move
if an unmeasured ambition had not much defaced his other great abilities and excellent qualities The old degraded Bishop Adair was quickly restored to another Bishoprick which came to be vacant upon a dismal account which I would gladly pass over if I could for the thing is but too well known One Adderton Bishop of Waterford who as was believed had by a Symoniacal compact pâ—ocured such favour that he was recommended to that Bishoprick and had covered his own unworthiness as all wicked Men are apt to do by seeming very zealous in every thing that is acceptable to those who govern and had been in particular very severe on Bishop Adair came to be accused and convicted of a crime not to be named that God punished with fire from Heaven and suffered publickly for it He expressed so great a repentance that Dr. Bernard who preached his funeral Sermon and had waited on him in his Imprisonment had a very charitable opinion of the state in which he dyed Upon this Adair's Case was so represented to the King that he was provided with that Bishoprick From which it may appear That he was not censured so much for any guilt as to strike a terrour in all that might express the least kindness to the Scotch Covenanters But our Bishop thought the degrading of a Bishop was too sacred a thing to be done meerly upon politick Considerations Bishop Bedell was exactly conformable to the Forms and Rules of the Church he went constantly to Common Prayer in his Cathedral and often read it himself and assisted in it always with great reverence and affection He took care to have the Publick Service performed strictly according to the Rubrick so that a Curate of another Parish being imployed to read Prayers in the Cathedral that added somewhat to the Collects the Bishop observing he did this once or twice went from his place to the Reader 's Pew and took the book out of his Hand and in the hearing of the Congregation suspended him for his presumption and read the rest of the Office himself He preached constantly twice a Sunday in his Cathedral on the Epistles and Gospels for the Day and catechised alwayes in the Afternoon before Sermon and he preached always twice a Year before the Judges when they made the Circuit His Voice was low and mournful but as his matter was excellent so there was a gravity in his looks and behaviour that struck his Auditors He observed the Rubrick so nicely that he would do nothing but according to it so that in the reading the Psalms and the Anthems he did not observe the common custome of the Minister and the People reading the Verses by turns for he read all himself because the other was not enjoyned by the Rubrick As for the placing of the Communion Table by the East wall and the bowing to it he never would depart from the Rule of observing the Conformity prescribed by Law for he said That they were as much Nonconformists who added of their own as they that came short of what was enjoyned as he that adds an Inch to a measure disowns it for a Rule as much as he that cuts an Inch from it and as he was severe to him that added Words of his own to the Collect so he thought it was no less censurable to add Rites to those that were prescribed When he came within the Church it appeared in the composedness of his behaviour that he observed the Rule given by the Preacher of Keeping his Feet when he went into the House of God but he was not to be wrought on by the greatness of any Man or by the Authority of any persons example to go out of his own way though he could not but know that such things were then much observed and measures were taken of Men by these little distinctions in which it was thought that the zeal of Conformity discovered it self There is so full an account of the tenderness with which he advised all Men but Churchmen in particular to treat those that differed from them in a Sermon that he preached on those Words of Christ Learn of me for I am meek and lowly that I am assured the Reader will well bear with the length of it It was preached soon after some heats that had been in the House of Commons in the Parliament of Ireland in which there were many Papists and in it the sense he had of the way of treating all differences in Religion whether great or small is so well laid down that I hope it will be looked on as no ordinary nor useless piece of Instruction IS it not a shame that our two Bodies the Church and Commonwealth should exercise mortal hatreds or immortal rather and being so near in place should be so far asunder in affection it will be said by each that other are in fault and perhaps it may truly be â—aid that both are the one in that they cannot endure with patience the lawful superiority of the worthier Body the other in that they take no care so to govern that the governed may find it to be for their best behoof to obey until which time it will never be but there will be repining and troubles and brangles between us This will be done in my Opinion not by bolstering out and maintaining the errours and unruliness of the lower Officers or Members of our body but by severely punishing them and on both sides must be avoided such Men for Magistrates and Ministers as seek to dash us one against another all they may And would to God this were all but is it not a shame of shames that Mens emulations and contentions cannot stay themselves in matters of this sort but the holy profession of Divinity is made fuel to a publick fire and that when we had well hoped all had been either quenched or raked up it should afresh be kindled and blown up with bitter and biting Words God help us we had need to attend to this Lesson of Christ Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in Heart or to that of the Apostle It behoves the servant of God not to contend but to be meek towards all instructing with lenity those that be contrary affected waiting if at any time God will give them a better mind to see the truth 2 Tim. 2.25 And here give me leave R. W. and beloved Brethren and Sisters to speak freely my mind unto you I know right well that I shall incur the reproof of divers yet I will never the more for that spare to utter my Conscience I hope wise Men will assent or shew me better For my part I have been long of this mind that many in their Sermons and Writings are to blame for their manner of dealing with the adversaries of their Opinions when they give Reins to their Tongues and Pens to railing and reproachful Speeches and think they have done well when they exceed or equal them in this Trade wherein to
participant each of other Rather I concluded that seeing many of the best learned Protestants did grant The Church of Rome to be a true Church though peradventure faulty in some things And contrarily not only the Catholicks but also the Puritans Anabaptists Brownists c. did all deny the Church of England to be a true Church therefore it would be more safe and secure to become a Roman Catholick who have a true Church by consent of both parties than to remain a Protestant who do alone plead their own cause having all the other against them For the testimony of our selves and our contraries also is much more sufficient and more certain than to justifie our selves alone Yet I resisted and stood out still and betook my self again to read over and examine the chiefest Controversies especially those about the Church which is cardo negotii and herein because the Bearer stayes now a day or two longer I will inlarge my self more than I purposed and so I would needs peruse the Original quotations and Texts of the Councils Fathers and Doctors in the Authors themselves which were alledged on both parts to see if they were truly cited and according to the meaning of the Authors a labour of much labour and of travel sometime to find the Books wherein I found much fraud committed by the Protestants and that the Catholicks had far greater and better armies of evident Witnesses on their sides much more than the Protestants in so much that the Centurists are fain often to censure and reject the plain testimonies of those Ancients as if their new censure were sufficient to disauthorize the others ancient sentences And so I remember Danaeus in Commentariis super D. Augustin Enchirid. ad Laurentium Where S. Augustin plainly avoucheth Purgatory He rejects S. Augustines Opinion saying hic est naevus Augustini But I had rather follow S. Augustine's Opinion than his Censure for who are they to control the Fathers There are indeed some few places in Authors which prima facie seem to favour Protestants as many Hereticks alledge some Texts of Scriptures whose sound of Words seem to make for their Opinions But being well examined and interpreted according to the Analogy of faith and according to many other places of the same Authors where they do more fully explain their Opinions so they appear to be wrested and from the purpose In fine I found my self evidently convinced both by many Authorities and by many Arguments which now I do not remember all nor can here repeat those which I do remember But only some few Arguments I will relate unto you which prevailed most with me besides those aforementioned First therefore I could never approve the Protestants evasion by Invisibility of their Church For though sometime it may be diminished and obscured yet the Catholick Church must ever be visible set on a Hill and not as Light hid under a Bushel for how should it enlighten and teach her Children if invisible or how should Strangers and Pagans and others be converted unto her or where should any find the Sacraments if invisible Also the true Church in all places and all Ages ever holds one Vniformity and Concord in all matters of Faith though not in all matters of Ceremony or Government But the Protestants Church hath not in all Ages nor in all places such uniform concord no not in one Age as is manifest to all the World and as Father Parsons proved against Fox's Martyrs Wickliffe Husse and the rest Ergo the Protestants Church not the true Church Again by that saying Haereses ad originem revocasse est refutasse and so considering Luther's first rancor against the Dominicans his disobedience and contempt of his former Superiours his vow-breaking and violent courses even causing rebellion against the Emperour whom he reviles and other Princes most shamefully surely such arrogant disobedience Schism and Rebellions had no warrant nor vocation of God to plant his Church but of the Devil to begin a Schism and a Sect. So likewise for Calvin to say nothing of all that D. Bolsecus brings against him I do urge only what Mr. Hooker Dr. Bancroft and Saravia do prove aganst him for his unquietness and ambition revolving the Commonwealth and so unjustly expelling and depriving the Bishop of Geneva and other temporal Lords of their due obedience and ancient inheritance Moreover I refer you to the stirs broils sedition and murthers which Knox and the Geneva-Gospellers caused in Scotland against their lawful Governours against their Queen and against our King even in his Mothers Belly Nor will I insist upon the passions which first moved King Henry violently to divorce himself from his lawful Wife to fall out with the Pope his Friend to marry the Lady Anne Bullen and soon after to behead her to disinherit Queen Mary and inable Queen Elizabeth and presently to disinherit Queen Elizabeth and to restore Queen Mary to hang up Catholicks for Traytors and to burn Protestants for Hereticks to destroy Monasteries and to pill Churches Were these fit beginnings for the Gospel of Christ I pray was this Man a good Head of Gods Church for my part I beseech our Lord bless me from being a Member of such a Head or such a Church I come to France and Holland where you know by the Hugonots and Geuses all Calvinists what Civil Wars they have raised how much Blood they have shed what Rebellion Rapine and Desolations they have occasioned principally for their new Religion founded in Blood like Draco's Laws But I would gladly know whether you can approve such bloody broils for Religion or no I know Protestants de facto do justifie the Civil Wars of France and Holland for good against their Kings but I could never understand of them quo jure If the Hollanders be Rebels as they are why did we support them if they be no Rebels because they fight for the pretended liberty of their ancient Priviledges and for their new Religion we see it is an easie matter to pretend Liberties and also why may not others as well revolt for their old Religion Or I beseech you why is that accounted Treason against the State in Catholicks which is called Reason of State in Protestants I reduce this Argument to few Words That Church which is founded and begun in Malice Disobedience Passion Blood and Rebellion cannot be the true Church but it is evident to the World That the Protestant Churches in Germany France Holland Geneva c. were so founded and in Geneva and Holland are still continued in Rebellion ergo They are not true Churches Furthermore where is not Succession both of true Pastors and of true Doctrine there is no true Church But among Protestants is no succession of true Pastors for I omit here to treat of Doctrine ergo no true Church I prove the minor where is no consecration nor ordination of Bishops and Priests according to the due Form and right intention required necessarily by the
Church and ancient Councils there is no succession of true Pastors But among Protestants the said due Form and right intention are not observed ergo no succession of true Pastors The said due Form and right intention are not observed among Protestants in France Holland nor Germany where they have no Bishops and where Laymen do intermeddle in the making of their Ministers And for England whereas the Councils require the Ordines minores of Subdeacon and the rest to go before Priesthood your Ministers are made per saltum without ever being Subdeacons And whereas the Councils require three Bishops to assist at the consecration of a Bishop it is certain that at the Nags-Head in Cheapside where consecration of your first Bishops was attempted but not effected whereabout I remember the controversie you had with one there was but one Bishop and I am sure there was such a matter And although I know and have seen the Records themselves that afterward there was a consecration of Dr. Parker at Lambeth and three Bishops named viz. Miles Coverdal of Exceter one Hodgeskin Suffragan of Bedford and another whose name I have forgotten yet it is very doubtful that Coverdal being made Bishop of Exceter in King Edward's time when all Councils and Church-Canons were little observed he was never himself Canonically consecrated and so if he were no Canonical Bishop he could not make another Canonical And the third unnamed as I remember but am not sure was only a Bishop elect and not consecrated and so was not sufficient But hereof I am sure that they did consecrate Parker by vertue of a Breve from the Queen as Head of the Church Who indeed being no true Head and a Woman I cannot see how they could make a true Consecration grounded on her Authority Furthermore making your Ministers you keep not the right intention for neither do the Orderer nor the Ordered give nor receive the Orders as a Sacrament nor with any intention of Sacrificing Also they want the Matter and Form with which according to the Councils and Canons of the Church holy Orders should be given namely for the Matter Priesthood is given by the delivery of the Patena with Bread and of the Chalice with Wine Deaconship by the delivery of the Book of the Gospels and Subdeaconship by the delivery of the Patena alone and of the Chalice empty And in the substantial form of Priesthood you do fail most of all which Form consists in these Words Accipe potestatem offerendi Sacrificium in Ecclesia pro Vivis Mortuis which are neither said nor done by you and therefore well may you be called Ministers as also Laymen are but you are no Priests Wherefore I conclude wanting Subdeaconship wanting undoubted Canonical Bishops wanting right intention wanting Matter and due Form and deriving even that you seem to have from a Woman the Head of your Church therefore you have no true Pastors and consequently no true Church And so to conclude and not to weary my self and you too much being resolved in my understanding by these and many other Arguments That the Church of England was not the true Church but that the Church of Rome was and is the only true Church because it alone is Ancient Catholick and Apostolick having Succession Vnity and Visibility in all Ages and Places yet what Agonies I passed with my Will here I will over-pass Only I cannot pretermit to tell you That at last having also mastered and subdued my will to relent unto my understanding by means of Prayer and by God Almighty's Grace principally I came to break through many tentations and impediments and from a troubled unquiet Heart to a fixed and peaceable tranquillity of Mind for which I do most humbly thank our sweet Lord and Saviour Iesus before whom with all reverence I do avouch and swear unto you as I shall answer it in the dreadful Day of Judgment when all Hearts shall be discovered That I forsook Protestant Religion for very fear of Damnation and became a Catholick with good hope of Salvation and that in this hope I do continue and increase daily And that I would not for all the World become a Protestant again And for this which here I have written unto you in great hast I know there be many Replyes and Rejoynders wherewith I could never be satisfied nor do I desire any further Disputation about them but rather to spend the rest of my life in Devotion yet in part to give you my dear good Friend some account of my sel◠having now so good an occasion and fit a Messenger and by you if you please to render a reason of my Faith to Mr. Hall who in his said printed Epistle in one place desires to know the Motives thereof I have thus plainly made relation of some Points among many Whereunto if Mr. Hall will make any Reply I do desire it may be directly and fully to the Points and in friendly Terms upon which condition I do pardon what is past and of you I know I need not require any such circumstances And so most seriously intreating and praying to our gracious Lord to direct and keep us all and ever in his holy Truth I commend you unto his heavenly Grace and my self unto your friendly love Your very affectionate and true loving Friend James Waddesworth Sevil in Spain April 1. 1615. ✚ To the Worshipful his respected Friend Mr. William Bedell at his House in S. Edmundsbury or at Horinger be there delivered in Suffolk Kind Mr. Bedel MIne old acquaintance and Friend having heard of your health and worldly well-fare by this Bearer Mr. Austen your Neighbour and by him having opportunity to salute you with these few Lines I could not omit though some few years since I wrote you by one who since told me certainly he delivered my Letters and that you promised answer and so you are in my debt which I do not claim nor urge so much as I do that in truth and before our Lord I speak it you do owe me love in all mutual amity for the hearty affectionate love which I have and ever did bear unto you with all sincerity For though I love not your Religion wherein I could never find solid Truth nor firm hope of Salvation as dow I do being a Catholick and our Lord is my Witness who shall be my Judge yet indeed I do love your person and your ingenuous honest good moral condition which ever I observed in you nor do I desire to have altercations with Mr. Ioseph Hall especially if he should proceed as Satyrically as he hath begun with me nor with any other Man and much less would I have any debate with your self whom I do esteem and affect as before I have written nor would I spend the rest of my life which I take to be short for my Lungs are decaying in any Questions but rather in Devotion wherein I do much more desire to be hot and
East in Asia now of the South in Africk And he was in as ill conceit with Cyprian for his breaking good order and communicating with Basilides and Martialis justly deprived in Spain as Saint Cyprian was with him when he stiled him a false Christ and a false Apostle But that holy Martyr was of a more patient and calm spirit than to be moved with such reproaches nay he took occasion as it should seem thereby to write of patience From this mildness it was that he so closely taxed the presumption of him that made himself Bishop of Bishops and by terror which what it was Firmilianus's Epistle shews threatning Excommunication would compel his Colleagues to his own opinion None of us saith he doth thus As the Apostle we preach not our selves we commend not our selves We are not as many that adulterate the Word of God c. Bellarmine takes the first kindly No marvel saith he for this is the Bishop of Rome's due But they go together he must be content to take both or leave both Such another place there is in Saint Augustine Epist. 86. the words are Petrus etiam inquit Apostolorum Caput coeli janitor Ecclesiae fundamentum Where in the Margent the Divines of Lovaine the overseers of Plantines edition set this note Petrus Ecclesiae fundamentum Why might they not The words ye will say of the Text. But these words of the text be not Saint Augustines whose opinion is well enough known That it is Christ confessed by Peter that is the foundation of the Church but they are the words of an undiscreet railer of the City of Rome against whom Saint Augustine in all that Epistle most vehemently inveighs This arrogant Author endeavours so to defend the Roman custome of fasting on the Saturday as he reproaches all other Churches that used otherwise And that we may see with what Spirit he was led he brings the same text that is brought in Pope Siricius and Innocentius's Epistles against the marriage of Clergy-men Qui in carne sunt Deo placere non possunt and many other Scriptures wrested and far from the purpose at last comes the authority of Peter and his tradition very Pope-like alledged Peter he saith the head of the Apostles porter of heaven and foundation of the Church having overcome Simon the Sorcerer who was a figure of the Devil not to be overcome but by fasting thus taught the Romans whose faith is famous in the whole world I remit you to Saint Augustine's answer to this tradition This I note that where your Censors do rase out of the Margents of former editions such notes as do express the very opinions of the Ancients and in their own words here they can allow and authorize such marginal notes as are directly contrary to their meaning Yea which are earnestly oppugned by them when they seem to make for the authority of the Pope Good sir examine well this dealing and judge if this be not wresting the Fathers and applying them clean from their purpose In fine you found your self you say evidently convinced Perswaded I believe rather than convinced Else if the force and evidence of the Arguments and not the pliableness of your mind were the cause of your yielding methinks they should work like effect in others no less seriously seeking for truth and setting all worldly respects aside earnestly minding their own salvation than your self Which I well know they do not neither those which hitherto have been examined nor those which yet remain to be considered in the rereward CHAP. VIII Of the Invisibility of the Church said to be an evasion of Protestants THE first whereof is the dislike of the Protestants evasion as you call it by the invisibility of their Church Give me leave here to tell you plainly ye seem to me not to understand the Protestants doctrine in this point Else ye would have spared all that The Catholick Church must ever be visible as a City set on a hill otherwise how should she teach her children convert Pagans dispense Sacraments All this is yielded with both hands The Congregations of which the Catholick Church doth consist are visible But the promise made to this Church of victory against the gates of Hell the titles of the house of God the base and pillar of Truth an allusion as I take it to the bases and pillars that held up the veil or curtains in the Tabernacle the body of Christ his Dove his undefiled are not verified of this Church in the whole visible bulk of it but in those that are called according to Gods purpose given to Christ and kept by him to be raised up to life at the last day This doctrine is Saint Augustine's in many places which it would be too tedious to set down at large In his third book De doctrina Christiana among the rules of Tychonius there is one which he corrects a little for the terms De Domini corpore bipartito which he saith ought not to have been called so for in truth that is not the Lords body which shall not be with him for ever but he should have said of the Lords true body and mixt or true and feigned or some such thing Because not only for ever but even now hypocrites are not to be said to be with him though they seem to be in his Church Consider those resemblances taken out of the holy Scripture wherein that godly Father is frequent of chaff and wheat in the Lords floor of good and bad fishes in the net of spots and light in the Moon Of the Church carnal and spiritual of the wicked multitudes of the Church yet not to be accounted in the Church Of the Lilly and the Thorns those that are marked which mourn for the sins of Gods people and the rest which perish which yet bear his Sacraments Consider the last Chapter of the book De Vnitate Ecclesiae and that large Treatise which he hath of that matter Epist. 48. The place is long which deserves to be read for the objection of the Universality of Arianisme like to that of Papisme in these last ages which Saint Augustine answers in the fifth book De Baptismo contra Donatistas cap. 27. That number of the just who are called according to Gods purpose of whom it is said The Lord knoweth who are his is the inclosed garden the sealed fountain the well of living waters the orchard with Apples c. The like he hath l. 5. c. 3. 23. he concludes that because such are built upon the Rock as hear the Word of God and do it and the rest upon the sand now the Church is built upon the Rock all therefore that hear the Word of God and do it not are out of question without the Church In the seventh book cap. 51. Quibus omnibus consideratis Read and mark the whole Chapter Out of these and many more like places which I forbear to mention it appears that albeit
which if it be put to be a sign of a holy thing these be both so and a many more than seven If a Seal of the New Testament so are there but those two which we properly call Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper In which last as to the intention of Sacrificing surely if ye allow the Doctrine of the Master of the Sentences That it is called a Sacrifice and Oblation which is offered and consecrated by the Priest because it is a Memory and Representation of the true Sacrifice and holy Immolâ—tion made on the Altar of the Cross. And that Christ once dyed on the Cross and there was offered up in himself but is daily offered up in a Sacrament because in the Sacrament there is a remembrance â—f that which was onceâ—done which he there confirms by the Authorities of the Fathers cited by Gratian in the Canon Law If this Doctrine I say may yet pass for good and this be the Churches intention we want not this Intention of sacrificing Add to this the Confession of Melchior Canus who saith the Lutherans do not wholly deny the Sacrifice but grant a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving which they call the Eucharist they will have none for sin which they call propitiatory If he had put hereto unless it be a Mysterie he had rightly expressed the Opinion of the Protestants Thirdly You object We want the matter and Form with which Orders should be given Namely for the matter in Priesthood the delivery of the Patena with Bread and the Chalice with Wine In Deaconship the delivery of the Book of the Gospel c. By which reason the seven first Deacons had no true Ordination for then there was no Gospel written to be delivered them Nor those Priests whom the Pope shall make by his sole Word saying Esto Sacerdos Whom notwithstanding sundry famous Canonists hold to be well and lawfully ordained and Innocentius himself saith That if these Forms of Ordination were not found out any other Ordainer might in like manner make Priests with those Words or the like for as much as these Forms were in process of time appointed by the Church And if we list to seek for these metaphysical Notions of Matter and Form in Ordination which at the most can be but by Analogy how much better might we assign the persons deputed to sacred Functions to be the matter as those that contract are by your selves made the matter in Matrimony and the imposing of Hands with the expressing the Authority and Office given to be the Form In Dionysius though falsely called the Areopagite yet an antient Author you shall find nothing else nor which I may tell you by the way any other Orders save Bishops Priests and Deacons And to come to that wherein you say we fail most of all the substantial Form of Priesthood tell me ingenuously good Master Waddesworth how do you know that our Lord Jesus Christ made his Apostles or they other Priests with this Form which hath no mention or footstep in the Gospels or otherwhere in Holy Scripture Nor so much as in the Council of Carthage that from whence the manner of giving other Orders is fetched nor in Gratian nor in any other antient Author that I can find save in the Pontifical only And is the present Pontifical of such Authority with you as the Form of Priesthood the substantial Form can subsist in no other Words than those that be there expressed To omit the late turkesing whereof consider what Augustinus Patritius writes in his Preface before that which at Pope Innocent the Eighth his commandment he patched together That there were scarce two or three Books found that delivered the same thing Quot libri tot varietates Ille deficit hic superabundat alius nihil omnino de eâ re habet raro aut nunquam conveniunt saepe obscuri implicati Librariorum vitio plerunque mendosi And in truth in this your essential Form of Priesthood the old Pontificals before that which he set forth either had other Words at the giving of the Chalice and Paten as may seem or wanted both that Form and the Matter also together The Master of the Sentences declaring the manner of the Ordination of Priests and the reason why they have the Chalice with Wine and Paten with Hosts given unto them saith it is Vt per hoc sâ—iant se accepisse potestatem placabiles Deo hostias offerendi Hugo in like manner Accipiunt Calicem cum vino Patenam cum Hostia de manu Episcopi quatenus potestatem se accepisse cognoscant placabiles Deo Hostias offerendi Stephanus Eduensis Episcopus in the same Words Datur eis Calix cum Vino Patena cum Hostia in quo traditur iis potestas ad offerendum Deo placabiles Hostias So Iohannes Ianuensis in his Summ entitled Catholicon verbo Presbyter If you ascend to the higher times of Rabanus Alcuinus Isidâ—rus you shall find that they mention no such matter of delivering Chalice or Paten or Words used at the delivery and no marvel â—or in the Canons of the fourth Council of Carthage they found none Dionysiâ—s falsly called Arcopagita whom I mentioned before setting down the manner of Ordaining in his time The Priest upon â—oth his knees before the Altar with the Bishâ—ps right-Hand upon his Head is on this manner sanctified by his Consecrator with holy Invocations Here is all save that he saith after he hath described that also which pertains unto the Deacon that every one of them is signed with the Cross when the Bishop blesseth them and proclaimed and saluted by the Consecrator himself and every one of that sacred Order that is present The Greek Scholiast very lively shews the meaning and manner of this proclaiming He saith The Ordainer pronounceth by name when he signeth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such a Man is consecrated from being Presbyter to be a Bishop in the name of the Father c. and so in the Presbyter and Deacon Clemens Romanus if F. Turrian and the rest of the Romish Faction deceive us not or be not deceived themselves in attributing to him the eight Books of the Apostolick Constitutions that bear his name cuts the matter yet more short and without either crossing or proclaiming appoints the Bishop to lay his Hands upon him in the presence of the Presbytery and the Deacons using a Prayer which you may see at length in him for the increase of the Church and of the number of them that by Word and Work may edifie it For the party elected unto the Office of Priesthood that being filled with the operations of Healing and Word of Doctrine he may instruct Gods people with meekness and serve him sincerely with a pure mind and willing heart and perform holy Services without spot for his people through his Christ to whom c. These last Words which are in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Carolus Bovius