School Divinity was at that time universally received in the Church of Rome taught in all Universities and Schools and by long use become in great measure the Doctrine of the Church The most famous and celebrated Author of this Divinity was S. Thomas Aquinas whose Writings were then in all Mens hands universally applauded and religiously embraced Some few Divines indeed dissented from him and followed the System of Scotus but this Disagreement respected not the Rule of Faith nor indeed any material point of Divinity but only some abstracted Notions and Scholastick Niceties of Divinity The Doctrine therefore of Aquinas is to be esteemed the general opinion of the Divines and Writers of those times It cannot be here objected against the force of our Argument that the same Divinity is yet retained and taught in most Popish Countries although the Doctrine of the Scriptures Sufficiency be rejected The Method of Reasoning and Disputing is now infinitely altered among the Writers of the Roman Church from what it was before the Reformation Before that time they made no difficulty to acknowledge and even urge the necessity of Reformation whereas now the Honour of their Church obligeth them to declare it both unnecessary and unlawful While Scripture was yet looked up in an unknown Tongue and removed from the knowledge of the Laity who were then generally very ignorant they were not ashamed to make confident Appeals for the Truth of their Doctrine to the Holy Scriptures When that Veil was removed the Scriptures translated and the World become more intelligent and inquisitive some other Artifice was to be found out which might preserve the Credit of antient Errors and defend them from the silence and opposition of Scripture To this end no stratagem could conduce more than the constant Artifice of all Innovators in Religion the Plea of Tradition Before that lesser Artifices could hide the Deformity of their Errors and while ignorant Christians could be securely misled with false and sometimes foolish Interpretations of Scripture while Ecce duos gladios was thought sufficient to evince the coercive Power of the Pope over temporal Princes and Arabant boves juxta comedebant asini could effectually perswade the Laity intirely to resign up their Judgments to the Direction of the Clergy there was no need of any desperate Remedy but when persons became so far inquisitive as to inquire into Reasons of Things and demand some better Authority for the belief of Articles imposed on them nothing less than the arrogant pretence of an infallible Tradition could secure and palliate the contradiction of impossible Propositions To prove therefore Aquinas his Doctrine concerning the Rule of Faith to have been intirely agreeable to that of our Author I will go no farther than his Sum of Divinity the most famous and best known of all his Works In the beginning of it laying down the Principles upon which Divinity and the proofs of Religion ought to proceed he saith That this Holy Doctrine useth the Authority of Philosophers as extraneous and only probable but the Authorities of Holy Scripture as properly belonging to her and concluding necessarily or infallibly but the Authorities of other Doctors of the Church as properly indeed belonging to her but concluding only probably For our Faith is founded upon the Revelation made to the Apostles and Prophets who wrote the Canonical Books of Scripture and not upon any Revelation made to other Doctors if any such there be Whence S. Augustin saith in his Epistle to S. Hierom To the Books of Scripture only which are called Canonical have I learned to pay this honour that I should most firmly believe none of their Authors to have erred in any thing in composing them In the two next Articles it is inquired whether Holy Scripture may use Metaphors and contain diverse senses under one and the same Letter In both places the Objections are thus formed These Qualities would be incongruous to a Rule of Faith but the Scripture is the Rule of Faith. This last Proposition is no where reinforced in the Objections but laid down as an uncontroverted Principle Aquinas in answering them no where denies Scripture to be the Rule of Faith but endeavours to take off the incongruity of a metaphorical and ambiguous Style to the Rule of Faith and in answer to both Objections hath these words Although Metaphors and Allegories be found in Scripture yet doth Holy Scripture suffer no detriment or imperfection thereby For nothing necessary to Faith is contained under the hidden sense which Scripture doth not somewhere manifestly deliver in the literal sense Afterwards being about to dispute of God and the Mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation he proposeth this as a most certain and undoubted Principle That we ought to affirm nothing of God which is not found in Holy Scripture either in words or in sense conformably to what the Master of Sentences and Founder of the School Divinity had before taught who inquiring what Method is to be observed in treating of the Trinity answers That it must in the first place be demonstrated according to the Authorities of Holy Scripture whether the Christian Faith teacheth it or not and in what manner But to return to Aquinas he asserteth Scripture to be the Rule of Faith in many other places of his Summ. Thus disputing of the nature and properties of the New Law or Covenant he inquires whether it be a written Law. in resolving of this Question he opposeth not the written Law to Tradition but to the Law written in the Hearts of Men by the virtue and operation of the Holy Ghost and at last concludeth thus The New Law is principally that very Grace of the Holy Ghost which is written in the Hearts of the Faithful but secondarily it is the written Law in as much as those things are delivered in it which either dispose to Grace or respect the use of that Grace Here the very nature of this Question and comparison of the Written with the New Law supposeth that the whole System of revealed Truths is contained in the written Law and lest we should doubt of this supposition the latter part of the Passage now cited plainly determines it But to proceed Aquinas often reneweth this supposition and at last comparing the Old with the New Testament he determines thus All things which are plainly and explicitely delivered to be believed in the New Testament are delivered also to be believed in the Old Testament but implicitely and obscurely And in this respect also as to matters of Belief the new Law is contained in the old But if all matters of Belief in the new Law be contained in the Old Testament and whatsoever is contained in the Old Testament is plainly and explicitly taught in the New Testament then the New Testament doth not only contain all matters of Belief in the New Law but also which is more considerable proposeth them clearly and explicitly He intimates
submitting the Decrees and Doctrine of the Church to the examination of every private man how strongly he contends that God can reveal nothing contrary to our reason or oblige us to the belief of it that he rejecteth the authority of Tobit and Susanna as being Apocryphal Books that a Divorce and Separation of the Clergy from their Wives after Marriage once contracted in unlawful that the Council of Nice condemned that Separation and consequently prohibited not to the Clergy the use of Marriage in the third Canon that the Church hath no more authority of interpreting Scripture and proposing it to the faithful than hath every private Housholder of proposing it to his Family every Divine to his Hearers every Learned Man to ignorant persons or no more than a Judge hath of expounding the Laws or a Grammarian the Rules of Grammar I will not so far presume upon the Judgment of the Reader as to make an Apology for the old and obsolete stile of our Author If it wanteth the Elegance and Beauties of our modern Language that must be imputed to the fault of the Age not any deficience of the Author I had once intended to represent his Arguments in our modern Language and publish both together in distinct Columns but the fear of inlarging these Papers too much deterred me from pursuing that design However I have drawn up an Alphabetical Catalogue of the more obsolete and unusual words and affixed their significations to them which the Reader will find at the end of the Book and may consult upon occasion A Treatise of REGINALD PEACOCK Bishop of CHICHESTER before the Reformation In the Year 1450. proving that Scripture is the only Rule of Faith. CAP. I. I. DEsiring for to wynne the Lay Children of the Churche into Obedience whiche undir greet perel of ther Soulis thei owen paie and holde to the Clergie y entende and propose in this present Booke for to mete agens suche unobediencers bi an open wey and in a nother manner and bi meene which the lay persoonys wole admitte and graunte which meene is this That we owen to bileeve and stonde to sum Saier or Techer which may feile while it is not knowne that thilk Seier or Techer thereyne failis And so for to move and convicte them into obedience never the lesse and never the latter to the Clergie in leernyng their feith thoug it were so that the Clergie mygte solempnely determyne agens trew feith II. Twey thingis be the principal causis of Heresie in the lay yeple Overmyche leenyng to Scripture and in such manner wise as it longith not to holi Scripture for to receyve And the seconde is this Setting not bi for to followe the Determynatiouns and the Holdingis of the Churche in mater of Feith III. The Feende hath broughte in so greet a sleigte in the Secte of the Sarrasenes that thei ben ful wondirful violenti settid for to geve audience to eny proofe making for Christen Feith or making agens Sarrasene Secte For whi thilk wickid Man Mahumet whiche brought in their Secte or sum Prelate after him made as for a poâ—nt of his Law that no persoone of his Secte schulde heere eny Declaracioun or evydence agens his Sect and that under peyne of passing cruel deep But O thou Lord Iesu God and Man heed of thi Christen Churche and Techer of Christen Bileeve y beseeâ—he thi mercy thi pitee and thi charite fer be this seid perel fro the Christen Churche and fro ech persoon thereyne conteyned and schilde thou that this Venom be never brougte into thi Churche and if thou suffre it to by eny while brougte in y beseche that it be soon agen out spet but suffre thou ordeyne and do that the Law and the Feith whiche thi Churche at eny tyme kepith be receyved and admitted to fall under this examinacioun whether it be the same verri Feith which thou and thi Apostlis taugten or no and that it be receyved into examinacioun whether it hath sufficient evydencis for it to be verry feith or no and ellis it mygte be holde aghe and it were a full suspect thing to alle them that schulde be convertid therto and ellis also it were a ful schameful thing to the Christen Churche for to holde such a feith for a substaunce of her salvacioun and yitt dursten not suffre it to be examined whether it is worthi to be allowid for trew feith or no. And it were a vilonye putting to Crist that he schulde geve such a feith to his peple and into which feith he wolde his peple turne alle other peple and yitt he wolde not allowe his feith to be at the ful tried and that he durste not be aknowe his feith to be so pure and so fyne fro al falsehede that it mygte not by strenghe of eny evydence be overcomen And therefore Lord Almygti thou forbid that eny such prisonyng of thi feith be maad in thi Churche And also this is worschip ynoug for Cristen Feith that it may withoute feere be avowed and be publischid and be profred to be examyned bi eny wit under Heuene in such maner of examynacioun now bifore seid as vi which ech pretense feith ougte to be examyned whether it be trew feith or no. And yitt ferthemore to this now seid may evydence be this that ellis Crist wolde have gove such a Lawe to be hadde and to be contynued in his name of whiche Law sum of our feith is a party ne were that it mygte abide the fier of triel and of examynacioun of ech creaturis resoun so the examynacioun be such as ougte to be taken and usid for to examine and prove whether a feith pretense be trewe feith or no as ferforth as eny Goldsmyth wole avowe and warante his Gold which he desyneth to be tried and examyned by all manner of fier of this wordli brennyng IV. And ferthemore y wole Clerkis to have in consideracioun that not for a thing is famed to be an Article of Feith therefore it is an Article of Feith but agenward for that it is an Article of Feith and proved sufficiently to be such therefore it is to be bileeved bi feith So that an Article to be bileeved bi feith is dependant on this that it is bifore proved sufficiently to be feith And an Article to be an Article of Feith is not dependent of this for that it is bileeved as an Article of Feith V. The Clergy shall be condemned at the last day if by cleer witt they drawe not Men into consent of trew feith otherwise than by fier and sword or hangement Although I will not deny these second means to be lawfull provided the former be first used VI. Thomas had thanne these same evydences of Christis Resurrection in as good maner or in better than we hau now for us For whi he herde the Apostlis denounce Christis Resurreccioun to him bi ther owne mouthe the that denouncen the same to us bi their
Treatise which I now publish require me to descend lower and demonstrate that even in latter Ages it was the commonly received Opinion of the Church that Scripture is the Rule of Faith. And this alone will as evidently overthrow the Plea of Tradition as if the Consent of all Ages herein were demonstrated For since Tradition is the perpetual Succession of any Doctrine conveyed down in the Church by word of mouth from the Apostles to this present time if this Succession were in any Age whatsoever interrupted it can no more claim the Title of Tradition than if it had never been believed So that if it can be proved the Doctrine of Tradition being the Rule of Faith was in any Age of the Church disbelieved not only the proof of this Article from Tradition will fail but even the Article it self will appear to be evidently false For it is not possible that Tradition should be the Rule of Faith if that very Article that Tradition is the Rule of Faith were not delivered down by an uninterrupted succession of Belief for then it would not be the Rule of that very Article Besides it is absurd that the Church of any Age should have power of declaring what the Tradition of Faith is and consequently of fixing the Rule of Faith and yet be so far from being conscious of any such power inherent in her that she disbelieved it Not to say that if at any time Tradition was not believed by the Church to be the Rule of Faith and yet at the same time divers Articles of Faith were defined by the Church Tradition must necessarily ever since have ceased to be the Rule of Faith since otherwise all Definitions of the Church must indifferently be admitted made by her both when she followed and when she deviated from the Rule of Faith and consequently the Faith of all private Christians must be subjected to infinite uncertainty Now to prove that the Tradition of this Article was in any Age of the Church interrupted and discontinued it is not necessary that all members of the Church should then agree in the disbelief of it that no Doctors should believe Tradition to be the Rule of Faith or none maintain the Insufficiency of Scripture It is sufficient that some Divines of great name who lived and died in the Communion of the Church were ever held in great esteem both for Piety and Learning and never censured by the Church for any erroneous Opinions much less for Hereticks that some such I say disbelieved this Article and maintained Scripture to be the Rule of Faith. For if any such were then the contrary Opinion could not be the belief of the universal Church much less an Article of Faith. That there were such Doctors I shall immediately prove by producing their own Words and thereby demonstrate my intended purpose And not only so but farther shall therewith render it highly probable that it was the generally received Opinion of the Church at that time that Scripture not Tradition is the Rule of Faith by all those Arguments which a question of this Nature will admit I mean by the authority of the most eminent Writers and publick practice of the Church in Councils For it cannot be imagined that so many Learned Persons esteemed as it were the Oracles of their Times and Pillars of the Church should either be ignorant of the Doctrine of the Church touching the Fundamental Principle of Faith or if willfully opposing it should obtain or conserve to themselves so great a Reputation or that the General Councils of that time should in their Sessions and Disputations permit the Sufficiency of Scripture to be laid down as an uncontroverted Principle without giving some check to so grand an Error That the Church therefore in the fifteenth Age did generally believe the Scripture to be the Rule of Faith and contain all things necessary to Salvation may be evidently demonstrated from this Treatise which I now publish The Author of which was far the most Eminent and Learned Bishop of the Church of England in his time a person who as himself assures us had spent more than twenty years in writing Controversial Books against the Lollards when he composed this Treatise and who every where giveth manifest proof of his great Learning So eminent a person cannot be supposed to have been ignorant of the general Belief of the Church in his time concerning the Rule of Faith nor will his apparent zeal for the Interest of the Church permit us to believe that he wilfully opposed the Doctrine of the Church in whose Service he employed the greatest part of his life or that when he so zealously pleaded the Cause of the Church against the Lollards he should himself depart from the Church in her principal Article and therein become a Lollard Since therefore he plainly asserts and teacheth that Scripture is the Rule of Faith this undeniably proves that the belief of this Proposition was not in the time of our Author accounted any part of Lollardism or supposed Heresie but rather esteemed an Article of Catholick Belief at least an Article which might be freely disputed without violating the Definitions or dissenting from the universal Belief of the Church And indeed our Author in the beginning of this Discourse assureth us that the Doctors of his time disagreed in determining whether the Church or Scripture were chiefly to be respected in the resolution of Faith. One thing may be objected against the Authority of our Author That he was forced by the ruling Clergy to recant several Opinions and Doctrines taught by him as erroneous and consequently that he cannot be esteemed a Doctor of the Church But here not to say that the sentence of two or three partial Bishops for no more condemned him is not to be accounted the Judgment of the Church of England this very Recantation addeth no small strength to our Argument For when the malice of his Enemies obliged him to recant all those Doctrines which they esteemed to be erroneous they took no notice of his having asserted Scripture to be the only Rule of Faith nor obliged him to recant that Proposition a manifest Argument that it was not then accounted either heretical or erroneous or contrary to the received Doctrine of the Church since otherwise they would not have failed to place it in the front of his Recantation as an Error of an higher degree and greater contagion than any of those for which he stood condemned which in truth were so far from being Heresies that they were all at that time maintained by many eminent Divines who never were censured by the Church and some of them so far true that no Learned Man of the Church of Rome will at this day deny them And this also fully clears our Author from any suspicion of Lollardism or secret inclination to it That he was not singular herein defended no Paradox nor opposed any Doctrine of the Church I come next to prove The
of the Rule of Faith and therefore the first Principle of the Christian Religion For thus he argues But that the aforesaid Article the existence of one holy Catholick Church is the first of all others into which all others are resolved is manifest For if any doubt arise concerning any other Articles recourse is immediately made by common consent to the Holy Scripture as to a most certain and invariable Rule and according to the Testimony of Scripture the Truth is cleared and all Doubts removed For unless the Existence of the Church be known Scripture hath no Authority Whether this Argument be valid and conclusive concerns not my present purpose It is sufficient that he assumes this Proposition Scripture is the Rule of Faith as an undoubted Principle common to both Parties However if by a Church in this place he meant no more than a Society of credible Persons whose unanimous attestation of a matter of Fact ought to be received the Argument will be good and valid And that he meant no more I am induced to believe because immediately after disputing of the Authority of a Church properly so called he acknowledgeth the proof of this Article is to be taken from Holy Scripture However these words cannot infer the Doctrine at this day received in the Church of Rome since they expresly assert the Scripture to be the Rule and Judge of all Articles of Faith saving this one of the Existence of the Church and attribute to the Church no more than the power of bringing us to the knowledge of the Scripture which thenceforward is to be used as our only Rule and Guide He proceeds to lay down several Suppositions as Foundations and Postulates of his subsequent Determinations Of these the sixth is conceived in these words Faith and all things necessary to Salvation as well Matters of Belief as of Practice are founded in the literal sense of Holy Scripture and from thence only may Arguments be drawn to prove those things which are of Faith and of necessity to Salvation The seventh Supposition is this Holy Scripture in the literal sense well and soundly understood is the infallible and most sufficient Rule of Faith. This he doth not only suppose but also proveth with divers Arguments of which the second is this If Holy Scripture were not a sufficient Rule of Faith it would follow that the Holy Ghost who is the Author of it had insufficiently delivered it which is by no means to be thought of God all whose works are perfect Besides if Holy Scripture were deficient in some things necessary to Salvation then those things which are wanting might lawfully and meritoriously be superadded from some other Principle or if any things were superfluous in it they might lawfully be diminished But this is forbidden by S. John the Evangelist in the last of the Revelations where he saith If any one add to this Book c. From which words of John the Evangelist it is clearly proved that nothing is deficient or superfluous in Holy Scripture which is also consentaneous to the Author of it who is the Holy Ghost as was before said to whose Omnipotence it agreeth that he give us a System of Wisdom neither deficient nor superfluous and that he should deliver it in a method agreeable to our necessity of Salvation In the Council of Florence however the Greeks and Latins differed in all other things till the former were forced into a complyance by the Commands and Threats of their Emperor yet in this they agreed in laying down Scripture to be the only Rule and Principle of Faith although they dissented in determining how far it might be explained by the Church The Controversie was occasioned by the addition of FILIOQVE to the Nicene Creed this the Greeks maintained to be unlawful because the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son is not in express Terms taught in Scripture which they held to be the only Rule of Faith. The Latins denyed not this but only asserted that it was sufficient this procession was taught in the Scripture in implicit Terms the Church having authority by explanation of those obscure Passages to constitute Articles necessary to be believed and add them to the Creed although but implicitly contained in Holy Scripture the Rule of Faith and consequently that to insert FILIOQVE in the Creed was no addition to the Faith since that Article is implicitly contained in Holy Scripture The Opinion of the Greeks is thus represented by Bessarion Archbishop of Nice who was chosen by the Greeks to manage and defend their Cause We derive and receive all Articles of Faith from the Fountains of Holy Scriptures which are the Principles and Foundations of our Faith. Nothing was ever added to them accounted necessary to be believed which is not contained in them nor may any thing ever be added to them neither by us while we are our selves nor by any other Christians And when the Latins recurred to their wonted refuge of Explanation or Declaration made by the Church of what is implicitly contained in Scripture Bessarion replyed That it is undeniable that although any thing were added by way of Declaration it was still an addition which seemeth to be forbidden and consequently the addition of this word FILIOQVE is forbidden But whereas ye alledge the Actions of the Fathers in Councils wherein some things seem to be thus explained this reacheth not our Question For that any thing should be added to the Faith it never was nor ever will be lawful The Bishop of Friuli was chosen by the Latins to answer the Arguments of Bessarion and defend the addition of the word FILIOQVE This he doth not by denying Scripture to be the Rule of Faith but endeavouring to prove that the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son might be deduced from the Principles of Faith viz. from the Holy Scriptures Ye grant saith he that Articles of Faith are taken from the fountain of Scriptures which are the Principles of Faith. From this Proposition we infer that a Declaration Expression and Explication which is made concerning an Article of Faith or of the Creed by the Writings of the Gospel the Epistles of Paul and the Booke of the Old and New Testament is by no means to be accounted extraneous or a Doctrine of another kind since it is the Doctrine of God and of the Church For then only is a proof to be accounted extraneous when it is made not by the proper Principles of that Doctrine but by the Principles of some other kind of Science As if a Physical Conclusion should be proved by a Mathematical Principle But according to you the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the Principles of Faith. Therefore a Proof and Declaration which is made by these Scriptures is plainly made by the proper Principles of Faith and intrinsecal Principles of our Religion Yea this ought not properly to be called an addition
this being once granted viz. That it may be evidently deduced from the proper Principles of Faith that is from the Holy Scriptures This manner of Disputation in defending the Article then in question sufficiently manifests that the pretence of Oral Tradition however entertained by some private Men had yet gained no general applause in the Western Church From Councils I return to private Writers but those of so great Repute and Authority that their Opinion can be esteemed no other than the general Doctrine of the Church at that time Of these I shall produce only two more Cardinal Panormitan and Antoninus Archbishop of Florence the first accounted by all the greatest Canonist of his Age and by many the greatest of all Ages and which is more considerable who had been to the Council of Basil what Gerson was to that of Constance an Oracle and Dictator the second a person of so great Authority in the Church that in the Judgment of Pope Nicolas he deserved to be Sainted whilst alive and was really Sainted when dead Panormitan therefore proposeth his Opinion in these words In Matters pertaining to Faith a Council is above the Pope Yet I suppose that if the Pope were induced with better Reasons and Authorities than the Council that his Determination were rather to be embraced For a Council also can err as it hath sometimes erred For in matters relating to Faith even the opinion of one private Man were to be preferred to the Determination of the Pope if he were induced with better Reasons of the Old and New Testament than the Pope Here Panormitan not only asserteth the Old and New Testament to be the Rule of Faith but also allows to every private Man a power of interpreting that Rule and even of rejecting the Definitions of Popes and Councils if he thinks them not consonant to it Antoninus hath transcribed those words into his Summ of Divinity and proposeth them as his own Opinion And not only so but also in another place declareth his Judgment no less plainly in these words God speaketh in the Scriptures and so fully as S. Gregory explaineth in the twenty second Book of his Morals upon Job that it is not necessary God should any other way reveal any thing necessary to us since all things necessary may be had there After so many and so great Authorities it cannot reasonably be doubted what was the general Belief of the Church in that Age touching the Rule of Faith I mean not that then the Sufficiency of the Scripture was asserted by all and denied by none but only that it was maintained by the greater and more considerable part of the Church as the Practice of General Councils and Positions of the most famous Writers of that Age do manifestly evince Many indeed had for some Ages before asserted the existence of some necessary Articles not contained in Scripture but conveyed down to us by Tradition only but they equalled not the Followers of the former Opinion either in number or Reputation And therefore Occam in the preceding Age representing the Arguments and Reasons of both Opinions proposeth that of the Sufficiency of Scripture in the first place as the most common and more generally received Opinion and Ioannes de Neapoli a Dominican and Doctor of the Sorbon disputing of the Science of Faith doth all along suppose that whole Science to be contained in Scripture and lest we should doubt of his Opinion doth in more than one place positively assert it Not to say that Nicolas de Lyra in his Glosses upon the whole Bible doth every where suppose it and in his general Preface most expresly maintain it And of what Repute his Gloss was formerly in the Church of Rome may appear from that vast number of Manuscript Copies of them which may be found in our ancient Libraries But I will not any longer insist upon the Writers of this Age having intended to confine my Discourse to the fifteenth Age the general Belief of which concerning the Rule of Faith I have already manifested It remains that I say somewhat more particular of the Treatise here published and of the Author of it He was born in Wales and bred in Oriel College in Oxford where he was created Doctor of Divinity and obtained a great esteem for his rare Eloquence and extraordinary Learning He was soon taken notice of by that great Patron and Protector of Learning and Virtue Humphrey Duke of Glocester at that time Protector of the Kingdom by whose Favour he was promoted to the Bishoprick of S. Asaph in the year 1444 translated to Chichester in the year 1450. His singular Learning appears not only from this Discourse which if put into modern English would appear to the meanest Reader both rational and elegant but also from many other plain and manifest Indications He had read the Works of the Fathers with no small care and diligence and as it should seem from what he says upon the Article of Christ's Descent into Hell had made Critical Observations on them far beyond the Genius and vulgar Learning of that Age. He was not unacquainted with the Genuine Epistles of Ignatius and in the first Part of that Work whereof this Treatise makes the second citeth the Acts of his Martyrdom writ by his contemporary Philo and published in this Age by the Learned Bishop Vsher. As his Learning enabled him so his Zeal prompted him to write divers Books of Controversie in defence of the Church against the supposed Hereticks of that time the Lollards whom he endeavoured by all means possible to reduce into the Communion of his Church to which Work as it should seem from divers Passages in the first part he had dedicated his whole Life He mentions many of them in this Work which are these The just apprising of holi Scripture The just apprising of Doctours Of faith in Latyn Of Presthode The Donet The folower to the Donet The Represser The forcrier The book of Cristen Religion The provoker The book of signis in the Church clepid also the boke of Worschiping The boke of Leernyng The boke of filling the IV. Tablis This present book of Feith Of the Churche in Latyn Beside these already mentioned Bale reckons up The Defender The Follower of it The Declaratory Of the Creed To Godharde the Franciscan Of Divine Offices A Manual Of the Providence of God. Of the Liberty of the Gospel Of the Power of Seculars Against Constantines Donation Of the equality of Ministers Of the Laws and Doctrines of Men. Of Communion under both kinds Against unlawful Begging An Account of his own Recantation The greatest part of these Books are lost being studiously suppressed by his Enemies and also burnt at his Recantation However I have seen his Represser in a fair Manuscript in the publick Library of the University of Cambridge in Quarto It is intituled The Repressour of over much blaming the Clergy wherein he passeth through
all points in Controversie between the Church of Rome and the Lollards and largely endeavours to confute the latter But as his zeal induced him to plead the Cause of the Church so copiously so his Learning enabled him to discover the Follies and gross Superstitions practised in that Age which when once discovered his Piety inforced him to detest Religion had now passed through so many ignorant and barbarous Ages the means of greaterknowledge had been so studiously hidden from the People and the ignorance of the Laity was so advantageous to the interest of the Clergy that the true Spirit of Christianity seemed to be wholly lost and had degenerated into Shews and Ceremonies many of which were unlawful but almost all unuseful And not only this fatal stupidity and idle Superstition had generally possessed the minds of Men but all Remedies were detested and all Artifices made use of to continue the Disease Many good and Learned Men endeavoured the Reformation of these Abuses without departing from the Communion of the Church but were attended herein with the usual Fate of the Opposers of inveterate Evils who seldom escape the Persecution but never the hatred of those who are engaged both by zeal and interest in the continuance of those Evils Our Learned Bishop was of the number of those brave and generous persons who while he earnestly invited the Lollards into the Communion of his Church no less vehemently opposed the Superstitions of his own Party Some Footsteps and Marks of this Disposition may be found in this Treatise which prove his Integrity to have been equal to his Zeal and neither inferior to his Learning The Authority of the Church and Infallibility of her Definitions had of late been set up as the most successful Engine against the prevailing growth of supposed Hereticks To refute the Arguments of Wicleff and convince his Followers with solid Reasons neither the Ignorance of the Clergy nor the Badness of their Cause did then permit It was accounted too great a Condescension in the Governors of the Church to confute the Mistakes and inform the Judgments of their seduced People Yet somewhat at least was necessary to dazle the eyes of the unthinking multitude and at once convict all their Adversaries of the Charge of Heresie Nothing could be more effectual to this end than the pretence of Infallibility which alone might satisfie the Scruples and command the assent of credulous persons For this reason ever since Heresie began to be punished with death it was thought sufficient to oppose the Infallibility of the Church to the Arguments and Reasons of condemned Hereticks and the maintenance of this pretence was esteemed the great Bulwark of the Church However our Bishop easily discovered the vanity of these pretences and in this followed the Opinion of the most Learned Writers of his Age that the Representative Church or General Councils were not only fallible but had sometimes actually erred that the Decrees and Definitions of the Church ought to be submitted to the Examination of every private person that no Article of Faith was to be received which was repugnant to the Principles of Reason and that not the Belief and Acceptation of the Church caused any Doctrin to be accounted true and an Article of Faith but the presupposed Truth of the Doctrine rendred the Belief of it rational and justifiable Indeed the Doctrine of the Churches Infallibility had by some Men in this Age been advanced so far that nothing less than a fatal credulity or no less fatal ignorance could excuse the admission of it Our Author assureth us in the first part of this Book of Faith that many Divines in his time argued from those words of S. Paul If we or an Angel from Heaven should teach any other Dâ—ctrine than that which ye have received let him be anathema that if it should happen that the Church militant and the Church triumphant disagreed in an Article of Faith the Determination of the Church militant were rather to be followed Such crude Positions might raise the admiration of fools but deserved the indignation of wiser Men. Our Author chose to do justice unto Truth in owning and asserting the Fallibility of Church and Councils and yet not to quit the specious pretence of the Churches authority in pleading her Cause and confuting the Lollards This therefore he proposed in a more plausible way confessed the Church might err and that even in matters of the greatest moment however that it would be most safe and rational for ignorant Laymen intirely to submit their judgment to the Direction of the Clergy that by this submission indeed they might possibly be led into Error and mortal Heresie but that this would be no disadvantage to them since in that case God would reward their submission and docility although to them the occasion of most grievous Errors no less than if they believed the Christian Faith intire and incorrupted and would even bestow upon them the Crown of Martyrdom if they laid down their lives in testimony of their Errors And since in that Age the Laity were generally very ignorant of the true Principles of Religion and devoid of all sort of Learning he included them all in the number of those whose duty and interest it was to pay an implicit submission to the direction of the Clergy But not only did he disown the Infallibility of the Church but also disallowed and condemned her practice of burning Hereticks He desired rather to win them to her obedience by gentle methods and thought it more noble to convince them by Reasons and Arguments than by Racks and Fires This moderation could not but displease his Fellow Bishops who chose rather at that time to satisfie their Malice by the punishment than serve the Church by the conviction of supposed Hereticks But our Author was acted with more noble and generous Principles he endeavoured to remove their Errors but refused to practise upon their Lives and which perhaps was no small part of his Crime neglected to thunder out his Curses against them and scorned to treat them with opprobrious Titles Rather in the first part of this Work he giveth to them an honourable Character and confesseth them to have been generally persons of good Lives and exemplary Conversations The incredible Fables of Legends and incurable itch of Lying for the Honor of their Saints and Patrons which then reigned among all the Monastick Orders and was fondly received by the credulous multitude were one of the greatest scandals and most pernicious abuses in the Church at that time The greater and more necessary Articles of Faith and all genuine and rational knowledge of Religion had generally given place to fabulous Legends and Romantick Stories Fables which in this respect only differed from those of the ancient Heathen Poets that they were more incredible and less elegant These our Learned Bishop feared not to oppose and disesteem arraigns them of Error Heresie and Superstition proclaims their falseness and
derides their folly This denial of Infallibility moderation towards the Lollards and disesteem of Legends drew upon him the envy and hatred of the Clergy to which may be added his favour with and faithful adherence to his Patron Duke Humphrey who had always manifested a moderation towards the dissenting Lollards and aversion from the superstitious practices of the Clergy No sooner was the Duke oppressed by a contrary State Faction but his Client the Bishop was attempted and his ruin designed Several Passages were taken out of his Writings which his Enemies accused of Heresie at least of Error Hereupon in the year 1457. he was cited to appear at a Synod held at Lambeth by Thomas Bourchier Archbishop of Canterbury attended with the Bishops of Winchester Lincoln and Rochester and 24 Divines by whom after a short hearing he was condemned of Heresie and injoyned to recant his heretical and erroneous Opinions publickly at S. Paul's Cross. The Recantation he performed on the fourth day of December when his Books were also publickly burnt His Fortunes after that time are very uncertain Some relate him to have been made away in prison others to have been kept prisoner in his own Episcopal Palace until his natural death and lastly some that he had a small pension assigned to him out of the Revenues of the Bishoprick and retired into a Monastery where he ended his days in a short time The Opinions which he was forced to recant as they are represented by Bale Bishop Godwin and Fox are these I. That it is the Office of a Christian Bishop before all other things to preach the Word of God. II. That human Reason is not to be preferred to the Holy Scripture III. That the modern use of the Sacraments as attended with so many superstitious Ceremonies and Customs was lâ—ss advantageous than the use of the Law of Nature IV. That Bishops buying their Admissions of the Bishop of Rome do sin V. That no man is bound to believe and obey the Determination of the Church of Rome VI. That the Revenues of Bishops are by Inheritance the Goods of the Poor VII That the Apostles composed not the vulgar Creed VIII That the Article of Christ's Descent into Hell was not formerly in the Creed IX That no other sense is to be attributed to Holy Scripture but the first and genuine sense X. That it is not necessary to Salvation to believe the Body of Christ is materially in the Sacrament XI That the Universal Church in a General Council may err even in Matters of Faith. XII That it is not necessary to believe in the Holy Catholick Church XIII That it is not necessary to believe the Communion of Saints XIV That the voluntary begging of the Mendicant Friars was unprofitable and no ways meritorious It must not be imagined that these Articles were generally at that time accounted erroneous and heretical in the Church For if we examine them we shall find that many of them were taught and believed by the greatest Divines of the Church at that time some at this day allowed to be literally true by the Learned Writers of the Church of Rome and in fine that our Author knew the Doctrine of the Church far better than his Judges and although condemned by them was no less Orthodox than they As for the twelfth and thirteenth Articles which seem to be most odious they are meer Calumnies as appears from this very Treatise For towards the end of it he acknowledgeth it to be necessary to believe the existence of the Holy Catholick Church and of the Communion of Saints but yet unnecessary to believe on them that is as himself explains it to give a blind assent to all their Determinations The seventh and eighth Articles are known to be literally true by all Learned Men. For no proof can be brought that the Apostles composed this Form of Creed which we now use and it is most certain that the Article of Christ's Descent into Hell was found in none of the Ancient Creeds for the first 400. years except in that of the Church of Aquileia The first second sixth and ninth Articles if candidly interpreted cannot be denied to be true by any sober Romanist and whosoever considers the gross Ignorance and Superstition of those times will not deny the third The fourth Article may be justified by the Opinion of many great Canonists who define all such payments to be Symony and the Church of France hath all along decried and disapproved them The fourteenth was defended by Richard Archbishop of Arniagh Gulielmus de S. Amore and many other great Divines of the Church of Rome The eleventh and consequently the fifth Articles were believed and maintained by Occant Peter de Alliaco Cardinal of Cambray Thomas Waldensis Panormitan Antoninus Cardinal Cusanus Clemangis and many others in this Age. Lastly the tenth Article may be defended from Peter Lombard Peter de Alliaco Scotus Tonstal Bishop of Durham and others who believed indeed the Truth of the Article but denied it to be necessary to be believed That Treatise which I here publish and which gave occasion to the present Discourse was by me transcribed out of a Manuscript extant in Trinity College in Cambridge which seemeth to have been written with Bishop Peacock's own hand as may be conjectured from the frequent Emendations and Additions inserted in the Margin and bottom of the Pages by the same hand The whole Work was intituled by the Author A Treatise of Faith however in the Front of it this Title is affixed by a later hand Reginald Peacock Bishop of Chichester 's Sermons in English whereas the whole Treatise is a Dialogue between the Father and the Son divided into two Books whereof the first proposeth to treat of the most probable means of reducing the Lollards to the Church which he assigns to be an intire submission of Judgment to the Decrees of the Church although supposed fallible The second treateth of the Rule of Faith. The first Part is chiefly taken up with a long Digression proving that Faith is only probable not sciential or that the Truth of the Christian Religion cannot be proved by demonstrative but only by probable Arguments This Dispute is managed in a Scholastick Way full of Subtleties and Niceties of Philosophy and School Divinity and very obscure which therefore I thought not worthy either my transcribing or the Readers perusal However I transcribed some considerable Fragments or Excerpta which seemed to me more remarkable and worthy of notice which I here present to the Reader The second Book or Treatise of the Rule of Faith I have published intire as far as the Manuscript Copy permitted me For which is much to be lamented some few Leaves were wanting in the end Besides what I have already mentioned many things may be here found worthy a particular Observation as with how great ardor he impugns the refusal of
Writing and also he knewe by experience the treuthe and the sadnesse and the unbigilefulnesse of hise felowis where that we knowen it by liklihode oonly thoug so likeli that to the conttary we have noon evydence so likeli VII Sone y seid bifore that there ben two maners of feith oon is opinial feith and this is the which we and alle Cristen hau bi the comon lawe of God whilis we lyven in this lyf Another feith is sciencial feith and thoug this feith may be had bi specialte in this lyf yitt it is not commonli had in this lyf but it is had in the Blisse of Hevene VIII Wherefore he the Church knowith not himself neither ougte know himself for to teche authentikli or bi authorite of maistrie to eny persoon ni lasâ—e than he knowe himself to have receyved the same feith fro God in maner of arguyng bifore seid by oon of these Meenes of which oon is this Holi Scripture witnessith and denouncith this Conclusion Another is this Holi Church for Feith hath bileeved this in tyme of the Apostlis fro thens contynueli hidirto Another is this Myracle is doon unto witnessing of it IX Resoun which is a sillogisme well reulid aftir the craf taugt in Logik and having two Premyssis openli trewe and to be grauntid is so strong and so mygti in al the kindis of maters that thoug alle the Aungels in Hevene wolden feie that this Conclusion were not trewe yitt we schulde leeve the Aungels seing and we schulden truste more to the profe of thilk sillogisme than to the contrari seiyng of alle the Aungels in Hevene For that alle Goddis creaturis musten nedis obeie to doome of resoun and such a sillogisme is not ellis than doome of resoun If the Church in erthe determines agens it what such a sillogisme concludith we schulen rather trowe and holde us to thilk sillogism than to the determynacioun of the Church in erthe X. Every Man is bound to obey the determination of the Church but if he can evidentli and openli without eny dowte schewe teche and declare that the Churche bileeveth or hath determyned thilk Article wrongli and untreuli or ellis that the Churche hath no sufficient ground for to so bileeve or determyne yhe thoug the Churche schuld bileeve or deterymne amys yet thereof schulde not this persoon be blamed of God but schuld be ful excused XI Sithen it is here bifore undoutabili proved that bi thi obedience to the Clergie in case of the Clergies erring whilis thou it not knowist neither desirist neither makist noon hurte schal come but the same good which schuld to thee therebi come if the Clergie in thee teaching not errid is not this ynoug to thee what maist thou loke aftir eny more XII If a Parish Priest should teach his Parishioner some grosse Heresy instead of an Article of Feith it were his Duty to receive and would not only be excusable before God but would be as meritorious and equally rewarded with the belief of any true Article Nay if that Man should lay down his life for defence of this Heresy imagining all this while that it is the Doctrine of the Church he would be a true and undoubted Martyr XIII If you seie to me thus I have leernyd that holi Writte is so worthi a ground and fundement of oure Feith that noon othre ground or fundement passith it or is surer to be eleven to than is it Wherfore Sir it wolde seem that if y cleve to holi Scripture to take of it my Feith y am not to be blamed but y am thereyne thank-worthi forasmuch as I conforme me to thilke reule which God hath purveied for to be oure reule in mater of feith and whom no other reule in erthe passith Sir that this is trewe y graunt wee l namelâ—â—l as anentis al the feith which holi Writt techith For that this be trewe shall be shewed wel in the Book of Feith in Latyn or ellis in the Book of the Churche in Latyn as God wole graunte PARS II. Fadir ye hau seide in the X. Chapter of the first parti of this present Book to alle tho lay men whiche ben obstinat to the feith of the Church that holi Writt is the chief principal ground of all the feith which is conteined in holi Writt And treuli fadir y can not undirstonde as yitt but that nedis ye must have so seid to them yf it mygt be holde for trew in eny wise nameliehe sithen ye hau seid to them as ye musten nedis seie to them and it mygten not be left unseid that the dewe and rigt literal undirstonding of holi Writ for trewe feith to be had laymen musten fetche at the Churche that is toseie that the al hool Clergie of Dyvynite or of the more and wittier party thereof And redily y know so moche of her wittis and of her counseilis that ellis if ye hadde not so seid to them ye schulden labour in vain as for to bringe them into the obedience into which ye ben about by writing of this present Book Also resoun thereto money thus The Churche or the Clergie in delyvering to peple feith which is in holi Writt alleggith for thilk delyverance holi Writt and expowneth holi Writt into thilk feith so delyvered Wherefore the Churche in that biknows that he hath thilk feith of holi Writ and so not of him silf principali Forwhi not of him silf originali or groundeli but of the seid holi Writ eer and bifore and therefore of holi Writ originali and groundeli And so as anentis al feyth conteynyd in holi Scripture the same Scripture schulde be principal bifore the Churche Confirmacionn to the same may be this If the Churche hadde of him silf principali groundeli and foundamentali al the feith which is conteynyd in holi Writt the Churche wolde not and ougte not for to leene to holi Writt as for grounding and foundamental teching of thilke feith neither wolde sende eny askers into holi Writt or wolde labore to expowne holi Writt to them into thilk feith But the Church wolde and ougte to seie to such askers of rigt feith Bileeve ye to me for that I seie this to be rigt bileeve And the Churche wolde not fetche to such askers auctorite of a thing longer and of lasse auctorite to the purpos than the Church is Wherfore the Church as it seemeth bi his owne pretencioun or interesse to expowne holi Writt in to teching which is trewe feith must nedis knowleche that he takith holi Scripture for his better worthier higer and groundier foundament of the Feith which Feith the Churche techith by holi Writt and bi the exposicioun of the same holi Writt And therfore opene it is that ye have not seid amys in this youre now spoken seiyng to laymen Into the othre contrarie side Fadir manye skilis now be maad that the