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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	answer_v	church_n	scripture_n	1,641	5	5.7721	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02242	A sermon, at the funeral solemnitie of the most high and mighty Prince Ferdinandus, the late Emperour of most famous memorye holden in the Cathedrall Churche of saint Paule in London, the third of October. 1564. Made by the reuerend father in God, Edmund Grindall, bishop of London.	Grindal, Edmund, 1519?-1583.	1564 (1564)	STC 12377; ESTC S103449	21,147	38

right waye to the extirpacion of al supersticion and error and to the true setttng forth and maintenance of sincere religion and to the glory of God who is to be blessed for euer And yet somethyng to aunswer them as concernyng this prince diuers matters may be alledged wherof I will rehearse some which argue that he was not so much addicted to the Romishe religion as some men would haue y e worlde to beleue And herein I will not deale subtilie or craftly as to affirme before this auditorie for a more strength to our cause y t the Emperour afore his death thought in all points of religion as we do for I do not thincke so my self of him onely I will alledge a few thinges which either by the euidēce of the matter or els by good record are manifest to all y e world And first of al it cannot be denied but that he was contēted to be crowned Emperour without a Masse which no Emperour did before him a great many of yeres And if any mā would denie this there be diuers persones here present that were then at Frankford and saw the whole solēnitie of his coronation which was done for more suretie in this case at afternone not afore none as was accustomed Now if the Emperour had so much estemed the Masse as other haue done before him he would not haue suffred it to haue bene left of at his Coronation And if any for excuse hereof should affirme that he was contented at that time to dissēble the matter till he had obteined y e imperiall crowne those vnder coulour of frendship should be his enemies as diffaming him that for ambition sake he would do a thyng cōtrarie to his cōscience whiche who soeuer doth affirme thinketh not honorablie nor as he ought to thincke of so good and so worthy a prince Furthermore I haue heard for a truth that afore his Coronation he faithfull promised the princes Electours that he would neuer be crowned of the Pope and the sequele declared the same verie manifestly to be true for he was neuer crowned of hym in dede remaining so longe in the Empire without the Popes approbation whiche before time was vsed Let it then be indifferently considered whether this was not much derogatorie to the holy sea and whether Saint Peters Prerogatiue was not much touched herein What a schismaticall matter would this haue bene made and what stirres woulde haue ensued if the Emperour Ferdinande had liued in the dayes of Pope Gregory the seuenth who procured the deposing yea and death also of the Emperour Henry the .iiii Or in the dayes of Pope Alexander who set his foote in the necke of the Emperour Fridericus Barbarossa But the Pope is a wise man for although he retaine the same mind that the other his predecessors had yet bycause the tymes do not serue his purpose he dissembleth the matter and is contented rather to take a peece then loose all And surely this one acte is a playne demonstration that this Emperour did not thincke him selfe bound in conscience so much to tender the Popes supremacie as the Canonistes would haue it estemed who make it a matter De necessitate salutis of necessity to saluation For otherwise he would not haue done as he did to haue gayned tenne Empires Besides al this there is extant abroad in printe an Oration pronounced in the late Tridentine Counsell by the Emperour Ferdinandes Ambassadour in whiche Oration there is request made by the Emperour that libertie may be graunted to haue the Communion ministred in both kyndes Wherevpon may very well be gathered that the Emperour was not ignoraunt of the sacrilege of the Romishe Churche in depriuing the people of God of the one halfe of the Sacrament where Christe him selfe instituted both Or els if he had thought the one to be as sufficient as both whiche is the Popishe doctrine what neded he to make any further sute And for further declaration of his earnestnes in this pointe I will adde that whiche I sawe written in Auguste last past by a mā of good credite and estimation that Ferdinandus the Emperour not longe before hys death gaue licence to al his own countreis to haue the vse of y e Sacrament in both kyndes I do not affirme this but of reporte But surely if it bee true I do not doubt but that God reueled vnto hym other partes of religion also whiche we haue not yet heard of But as I haue sayd we will commende that matter vnto God And what soeuer hys religion was thys solemne action for memoriall of him may very well bee vsed notwithstanding And beyng fallen into y e mention of thys publique action and solemnitie it shall not be amisse somewhat to saye of the true vse meanyng and purpose of the same for the better satisfaction of doubtfull mindes For there is no doubte but there will bee two contrarye iudgementes concernynge the same The one parte wyll saye there is to lytle done the other will saye there is to muche The first parte wyll alledge that althoughe they cannot but confesse the action to bee done very honorablye and with muche magnificencie yet the principall matter of all is wantyng wyll they saye for here is an honorable memoriall of the Emperour Ferdinandus but here is saye they no prayer for the soule of Ferdinandus To those I aunswere that the holye Scriptures the woorde of God is the candell and the lanterne for our steppes By it we ought to directe our steppes if we will please God without it we walke in darkenesse and knowe not whether we go But first of all in the Scriptures we finde no commaundemente to praye for the soules departed vnlesse they will cite the place of the booke of Machabees And then Sainte Ierome shall make them aunswere who permitteth in deede these bookes of Machabaees to bee read 〈◊〉 but bycause they bee not of the Canon of the Scriptures they be not sayth Saint Ierome sufficient of thē selues to establishe any doctrines in the Church of God Secondarily we haue no example in y e canonical Scripture of any inuocation for the dead for we read in the olde Testament that the fathers as Iacob and others were buried with mourning and with much honor for a testimonie of the resurrectiō which is here also ment but that any prayers was vsed for them we read not Likewise we read in the new Testament of Stephen and other but of no prayer for thē or any others after their death read we any where in the old Testament or in the new Thirdly where in the olde Testament be Sacrifices and expiatiōs appointed for many and sundry thinges wherof some semed small offences yet was there neuer any Sacrifices appointed for any purgation or expiation of y e dead And therfore if Iudas Machabaeus offred a Sacrifice for the dead seyng none suche is prescribed in the law of Moses in that doyng he added to

y e law and so offended God and is no more in this pointe to be followed then Loth and Dauid beyng otherwise godly men are to be folowed in their euill actes nor the author of that booke more to be credited in this sentence without the Scripture then in his commendyng of one in the same storie who did kill him selfe contrarie to the Scriptures Besides that diuers of the oldest written copies of the storie of the Machabaees in Greke haue no mēcion at al of the prayeng for the dead So that that place is suspected to haue ben corrupted of purpose by some addition put to many yeares after For most certaine it is if prayer for the dead had ben so necessarie as manie now a dayes would haue it seme it had not lacked all authoritie and example of the Canonical Scriptures as it doth Nowe if they shall alledge that the auncient doctours make for them for Scripture other then afore is alleged they haue none that maketh any thynge for the purpose fyrste it is to be sayde that mens writinges alone are not sufficient in matters of faith and religion It cannot be denyed but from Gregories tyme when the corruption of religion increased very much the doctrine of purgatorie and praying for the dead hath gone with full saile being mainteined principally by fayned apparitions visions of spirits and other like fables contrary to the Scriptures But the the eldest writers and doctours of the Churche for Dionysius euen by the Iudgement of Erasmus is not so olde as they make hym speake not at all of praying for the dead And although in Chrisostome Saint Ambrose sometyme there is mencion of praying for the dead yet it is in a farre other meanyng with them then the scoolemen and other of the latter tyme beyng men ignoraunt in the tounges and other good learnyngs haue collected and gathered of them For it is manifest that those holy fathers ment nothynge lesse then by praying for those y t were departed to establish Purgatorie or thirde place without the whiche neither the Pope hym selfe nor any of his clergy woulde any thyng at al contend for praying for the dead For y e terrour of Purgatorie beyng taken awaye their gayne would ceasse and withall their prayer for the dead inuented for filthy lucre were at an ende For it is confessed of all men that if there be no thirde place prayer for the dead is in vayne for those that be in heauen nede it not those that be in hell cannot be holpen by it so that it nedeth not or boteth not as the olde prouerbe goeth If the auncient fathers therefore when they praye for the dead meane of the dead whiche are already in heauē and not els where then must we nedes by their prayer vnderstande either thanckesgeuyng or elles take such petitions for the dead as they be in deede in some places for figures of eloquēce and exornation of their stile and Oration rather then necessarie groundes of reason of any doctrine But I will make this matter more playne by an example or twaine not entending at this tyme to make any lōger discourse or disputatiō cōcernyng this matter S. Ambrose in his funeral oratiō or Sermō cōcerning the death of Theodosius the Emperour doth much cōmēd his vertues especially he commēdeth him for his great lowlines hūblenes of spirit for that he being an Emperour submitted him selfe to the discipline of the Churche and did publicque penaunce for the murder committed at Thessalonica by hys cōmaundement lamētyng his ouersight therin with abundaūce of teares which few priuate mē in these dayes would be contēted to do In the processe of this oration Saint Ambrose laboureth to persuade all men that Theodosius who had liued so godly was vndoubtedlye saued and at length pronounceth therof playnely vsing these wordes Fruitur nunc Augustae memoriae Theodosius luce perpetua tranquillitatae diuturna et pro hiis quae in hoc gessit corpore munerationis diuinae fructibus gratulatur that is The Emperour ▪ Theodosius of most honorable memorie now enioyeth perpetuall light and continual quietnesse and for those things whiche he did in this body he doth reioyse in the fruition of Gods rewarde How could S. Ambrose haue more plainely expressed his certain persuasion cōcernyng the blessed state of Theodosius And yet within a fewe lynes after he hath these wordes Domine da requiē perfecto seruo tuo Theodosio requiē quā parasti sanctis tuis Lorde geue rest to thy perfect seruaunt Theodosius the rest I meane which thou hast prepared for thy saints First he calleth Theodosius the perfect seruaunt of God But purgatory by the cōfession of the patrones therof is not for the perfecte but for the imperfect And moreouer what nedeth S. Ambrose to praye to God to geue Theodosius rest seyng he hath pronounced afore that Theodosius was already in possession of that rest and therfore not in purgatory where is paine as they teach contrarie to rest It is euident therfore that S. Ambrose in this and lyke places ment not to establish the doctrine of purgatorie or praying for the dead but vseth onely a figure of eloquēce and vehemencie of affection Likewise in the Greke liturgie entituled to Chrisostome are cōteyned these wordes following Praeterea offerimus tibi rationalem hunc cultū pro omnibus in fide quiescētibus maioribus patribus Patriarchis Prophetis et Apostolis praeconibus et euāgelistis martyribus cōfessoribus cōtinentibus et omni spū in fide initiato precipue pro sanctissima immaculata sup omnes benedicta d●a nostra deipara et sēper virgine Maria Moreouer we offer vnto thee this reasonable worship for al y e forefathers resting in faith for the fathers patriarches Prophetes Apostles preachers euangelistes for martyrs confessors cōtinent persons euery spirit endued with faith But chiefly for the most holy immaculate blessed aboue all other our Lady the mother of God and euermore a virgine Marie These are Chrisostomes wordes shall we nowe gather hereof bycause Chrisostome affirmeth the reasonable worshipping at the holy communion to be offred for y e Patriarches for the Apostles yea and for the blessed virgine Therfore the Patriarches Apostles and the blessed virgine are in Purgatorie It is to greate an absurditie This oblation therfore is onely a thankesgeuing to God for the Saints of God departed with the remembraunce of them by name who did in true faith departe out of this worlde These places wel weighed are sufficient to declare y e true meaning of many other lyke places alledged out of y e fathers for praying for y e dead for purgatory But to aunswer to the secōd sort who thinke this to much to come to nere to y e superstitious rites abrogated I would those mē would follow y ● example of y e Israelites in a time of variaunce betwene thē some of their brethrē the storie is cōt●ined the .22 of Iosue y