benefit that may accrew to many by auoiding the desparate malice of some that put themselues to death with their owne hands and blind themselues because they would not behold the Sunne for this were a denying of that which is good to the good man to whom properly it belongeth to preuent an euill man of that ill himselfe seekes Thus farre the same Author proceedes whereupon he concludes that though many abuse the booke of the Reuelations of S. Gertrudis and other such like yet should they not for all this bee prohibited in the vulgar tongue Now if this reason bee of force in such bookes which are replenished with palpable lies and most impudent blasphemies as that is which we formerly mentioned of the espousal of Gertrudis with Christ and that which ensues of her that is to say when Gertrudis was drawing neer to the hour of her death Christ appeared to her clothed inglorious garments the ornaments of an heauenly spouse accompanied with his blessed Mother and S. Iohn Euangelist and an innumerable multitude both of men and women Saints of Celestial Courtiers and inhabitants and in particular the resplendant Armie of virgines all clothed in white who for all the day long continued in the Monastery and that in the same Monastery the Saints men and women conuersed with the Monkes and Nunnes of the Monastery and that the Lord comming to the bed of his spouse and beloued Idem câ—p vltimo del libro 4. de la insinuacion de la diuina piedad hee beheld her with an amorous countenance and shewed to her many fauours and kinde entertainements and she bent her head to Christ who leaning and resting himselfe vpon the bed of the sicke partie with both his hands hee opened his breast The Reader must obserue as hee may perceiue in the Chap. 36. of the same Author that the same was written by the instinct of the holy Ghost which promiseth to them that shal reade it admirable benefits and manifested it to her and sayd I will now free thee from the bandes of the flesh and present thee to my selfe as the treasure and ioy of my heart to enioy thy sweete and pleasing companie c. Wherefore as I said if this reason bee of force in such like bookes who can bee so shamelesse as to denie but that it must needes bee much more preualent in the bookes of the holy Scripture which the holy Ghost himselfe inspired into his seruants the Prophets and Apostles who writte them to open our vnderstandings and make them sacred and holy And now it is time that we come to the other Granada who as it seemes hath conuerted his sweet and pleasant graines into fearefull and thundring bullets not so piercing and mortall to vs as to the Romane Church it selfe For he applies himselfe purposely to refute the vanity of that propounded calumnie with as much vehemency and splene as if his owne life therein concurr'd Granada en el preambulo de la segurda parte de la Introduccion del Symbolo This Author sayes how others obiect that by good reading many take an occasion to runne into many errors To this I make answere That there is nothing so good 〈◊〉 perfect which humane malice may not depraue and abuse What doctrine can be more exact and infallible then that of the Gospels and of S. Pauls Epistles and yet notwithstanding all the heretiques that euer haue beene both moderne and of ancient times haue pretended to ground their heresies vpon this so perfect doctrine whereupon the Apostle S. Peter making mention of S. Pauls Epistles he sayth that there are in them many very difficult things to be vnderstood so that many wicked men tooke occasion out of this to plant their errors And further hee addes that heretiques labour to maintaine themselues out of all the bookes of the holy Scriptures wreathing and wresting them to colour and cloake their errors And besides this what is there in humane life so necessary and profitable but if wee forecast some inconueniences that may ensue wee may thinke it fit to be reiected Thus fathers should neuer marrie their daughters because many wiues die in childbed and other some are cut off by the crueltie of their husbands let there be no Physicke nor Physicians because many times both they and their medicines kill there must be no swords nor armes seeing men euery day kill one another men must not crosse the Seas in that there happen euery day so many shipwrackes both of men and goods all study in Theologie must be laid apart because all heretiques abusing and adulterating of the same take occasion to ground their heresies and errors thereupon But what do I speake of earthly things seeing euen those heauenly are not exempted from their inconueniences What can be more expedient and requisite for the vse and gouernment of this world then the Sunne and yet how many men haue dyed growen sicke through the immoderate heate thereof But why doe I insist in these things when euen from the goodnesse mercy and passion of Iesues Christ our Sauiour which are the fundamentall causes of all our happinesse euill men presume to perseuere and continue in their sins Vnto all that formerly deliuered I will annexe this one thing of great consideration and therefore I demand What more efficacious and piercing motiue can there be to conuince all vnderstanding and reduce them to true faith then the resurrection of Lazarus who had lien buried foure dayes and stunke whom the Lord raised vp againe with these words Lazarus come foorth And this was sufficient that neither the gates of death nor the ligatures bands wherewith he was bound could keepe him in his graue What heart can there be so hard and obdurate that will not be mollified and yeeld to the faith and beliefe of that Lord by meanes of this so inexplicable a miracle But O the incredible malice of humane hearts this so wonderfull a miracle is not onely not preualent to subdue the hearts of the high Priests and Pharises but further here-from they were excited to condemne to death the worker of so renowmed a miracle wherewith not being content they sought to kill Lazarus because many by his meanes came to beleeue in the Sauiour Wherefore if humane malice be so implacable as that it here-from assum'd a motiue and stimulation to so great a wickednesse who can produce any argument from that abuse wherewith wicked men alienate and adulterate good things wringing and wresting them to their corrupt and prophane willes that hereby a good should be preuented and cut off To this demaund made by so famous an Author whose reasons all these I haue deliuered were I would faine haue the Romane Antichrist make answere who prohibites the reading of the sacred Scriptures to an innumerable sort of the vulgar depriuing them hereby of infinite many benefits which from the reading of the same doe accrew in that some abuse and alienate them
This Author still prosecutes let all this be spoken that men may discerne and vnderstand that there can be nothing so good but it is exposed to some inconueniences yet procur'd rather by the abuses of men then out of the originall nature and qualitie of things And yet for all this there is no reason that through the disorder and misprision of a few many and good men should loose the fruit and emolument of wholesome doctrine All which our blessed Sauiour plainely intimated vnto vs in the parable of the Cockle where he sayes Matth. â—â— that the other seruants demanding of their master whether they should weed out the bad weeds or no that so they might not be preiudiciall to the good seed hee answered them that they should let them alone because it may well be that in plucking vp the weeds together with the they might irradicate the good eares In which parable hee points out vnto vs that the priuiledge and immunities of the good ought so tenderly to be reserued that many discommodities are to be digested rather then that good men should be hurt or damnified If Christ himselfe taught vs thus much why does the Pope who vaunts himselfe to be his Vicar both teach and practise the contrary Why doeth hee depriue good men of the diuine Scriptures and therein of a treasure inestimable in that some particular bad men vse them ill seeing he is not a vice god vpon earth as with a brasen face hee entitles himselfe but a vice-deuill of hell whose workes he performes and whom men obey in euery thing whereof except he speedily repent hee shall one day receiue the iust reward and recompence But yet let vs proceede a little further with this Author Vnto all this I adde saith hee that sound doctrine is so farre from being a motiue and stimulation vnto errour that rather it is the meanes to confirme and strengthen vs in our faith wherefore I thought good here to insert a thing which a certaine Lord of the holy Inquisition of these kingdomes of Portugall related to me the which is very behoouefull to prooue the benefit of good and discreet reading and the discommoditie that growes from bad and iniudiciall perusing of bookes This Lord therefore reported to mee that a man came to that sacred Court to require mercy who freely confest that applying himselfe to reade corrupt and vicious bookes his true faith was thereby so shaken as that he firmely beleeued hee had no more to answere for but to die like a beast But afterwards vpon a speciall occasion that fell out or rather in that it was so ordained by diuine prouidence he began againe to reade and peruse books of good instruction by meanes whereof he was released of the blindnesse wherein he formerly stood This very Author still annexeth another example of a Moore whose eyes God opened by the helpe of good and commendable reading euen as it happened to the Queene of Ethiopia's Eunuch by reading in the Prophet Esaias Wherefore if the benefites growing from good reading be so diuine and that of corrupt and vicious reading so hurtfull and pernicious let me aske of the Papists one question From whence comes it that bad reading is permitted to all in generall and the good onely to a few in number If they know and beleeue that the Eunuch being one in the ranke of secular men attain'd to the vnderstanding of Christian veritie by reading of the holy Scriptures and that the fore-mentioned Spaniard by the reading of profane bookes lost his faith and became an Atheist how comes it that the Lords Inquisitors after hereticall errors doe not consent that there one onely booke of the diuine Scriptures may be publisht in the vulgar tongue that so secular men like to that Eunuch may daily reade in it whereas they tolerate an infinite company of obscene and vicious bookes permitting them to come into euery mans hands If they take away the holy Scriptures from the popular sort which might be very profitable for many and no preiudice to any except they assume it from their owne corruption and blindnesse vnder colour and pretext that some ground their errors out of them how is it that they suffer so many bad and profane bookes that can benefite none but as experience continually teacheth are the instruments of many euils I cannot conceiue what answere the Papists will returne hereunto but this I am assured of that as the Pope the Inquisitors and great Prelats know well that the vulgar sort can neuer possibly come to the sense and feeling of that miserable seruitude whereunto they haue reduced them by the meanes of depraued and petulant bookes they therefore indifferently permit them to be read of all men making no account of the errors and vices that encrease through the reading of such bookes in that they speake not against the Authoritie of the Pope nor of the Inquisitors But by reason they know that the holy Scripture is a cleare and manifest light that will reueale their workes and false doctrine they vse all the care and circumspection possible that the vulgar sort may not reade them and so come to discerne the insupportable yoke they haue laide vpon them This out of all doubt is the true reason why they suppresse the reading of holy Scriptures and tolerate those that are corrupt and bad And that this may the more clearely appeare I thought fit here to set downe somewhat of much which diuers Spanish Doctors haue vtter'd against prophane bookes and the great preiudice that euery day growes in Spaine by the reading of them Father Torres amongst other things affirmes Torres en la Filosofia de principes pag 943. that many of those bookes vsually read at this day throughout all Spaine are obscene and dishonest and are good for nothing else but to make Pandors and secret Bawdes teaching them to sinne and to send many soules into hell These pernicious bookes haue a number of followers and well-willers but good writings that treat of vertue and pietie he close hid vp in corners for these ill bookes like a canker enter and seaze vpon all parts of the mind and so irradicate and plucke vp the root and ground of all vertues but the Lords Inquisitors winke at all this Father Ioseph de Iesus Maria is very admirable vpon this subiect Fr. Ioseph cap. 13. del lib. de la castidad exhibiting vnto vs many strong and vnanswerable reasons wherewith to subdue and ouercome our aduersaries First of all therefore hee sayes that in many bookes which are much read in the vulgar tongue and come into the hands of the common people in Spaine they vse idolatrous speeches and phrases wherein the Christian Faith and Religion is scandaliz'd and the religious and godly customes of Catholike people That bookes of Poetrie are full of blasphemies and vent more error then euer the Gentiles did in their writings All this the same Author affirmes and daily experience shewes
no lesse which the Lords Inquisitors know well enough and yet notwithstanding all this they permit vnto all and except none the reading of such bookes but to reade the word of God in secular men they repute it for a crime worthy of death and as an offence of that nature they punish it This very Author sayes further That in those bookes there are not onely found many violent instigations to vice but also masters and skilfull pedagogues who teach and instruct how to attempt and prosecute them yea which is more they make a bed for heresies But this last though it be infallibly true he confirmes with a very grosse and explodible lie speaking thus When impious Luther saith hee began to disperse his poyson in Germanie Sathan being desirous to bring into France likewise this heresie when he found so maine a resistance in that most Christian kingdome he laboured with subtill policie to haue the Fables of Amadis of Gaule translated into French that they might infect and taint the minds of Noble people they being best read and most curious in reading and to prepare them for the embracing of heresies and so by the tickling delight of lasciuious loues of fabulous feats of Armes and magicall Incantations the mindes of men in a small time were so poisoned and defiled that no discourse passed among ingenious and curious people but of matters ridiculous and fabulous And that when the deuils ministers perceiued how this Translation was so well receiued and entertained they returne againe to sow abroad other dreames and Fables translating daily more immodest and fabulous bookes which did so obfuscate and darken young wits and so notably polluted and stained their willes that men retir'd themselues from the reading of good books and diuine Histories and euen the Name of Christ came to be lesse called vpon Thus farre extend the words of that Author wherein first matter is ministred to vs of no slender laughter in his imputing to the Protestants of France whom hee calls heretickes that which iustly at this day may be rather imposed on the Papists and those practises currant and in vse amongst them as the same Author himselfe complaines together with many others and dayly proofes and trials would informe vs though they had beene silent For who is ignorant that in the Papacie diuine Histories are exil'd and banisht and prophane and fabulous Romances brought in in their stead No man there mentions the calling on the Name of Christ but vpon some image of stone or wood of his Mother or some other Saint And who knowes not that throughout all the reformed Churches they are conuersant generally in reading freely the holy Scriptures and that onely the sacred Name of Christ is in euery place and of all men called vpon and therefore in this respect the Pope and the Inquisitors prosecute them with fire and sword endeauouring that those Saints by them canoniz'd should bee prayed vnto and Christs holy Name quite and cleane forgotten But leauing this for another place let it be lawfull for vs once more to demand of the Papists What is the reason that they vnderstanding how these fantasticall and idle bookes brought so much detriment and hurt to the faithfull in France that as wise men whose propertie it is as wee say in our Spanish tongue Escarmentar en cabeca agena To bee afraid by other mens harmes they doe not banish out of the Papacie the originall and cause of so many euils yet this they not onely not doe but euery day they bring in and multiply these brutish and sordide bookes For labouring so industriously and studiously to remooue out of Spaine the holy Scriptures in the vulgar tongue the same being reuealed by God neither conteining so much as one letter that iustly demerits either blame or reprehension but being written onely and wholly for our instruction and benefite wherefore I say vsing such rigor and seueritie to this diuine Booke doe they indifferently and generally permit all men to reade an infinite number of base and pernicious bookes replenisht and stufft with blaspheraies and implying many Heresies whereunto they attract and drawe the most godly and zealous as our Aduersaries themselues frankly confesse and acknowledge Till our Aduersaries giue a full answere to this demand it will not bee altogether vnfit here to set downe what learned Doctor Leon saith after hee hath complained that one of the greatest calamities of our times was that men are growen to such an inclination and disposition hee speakes of the Papists and more particularly of the Spaniards that the holy Scriptures which at other times were wont to be a cure and remedy Leon en el prologo de lot nombres de Christo are become an infectious poyson for this preiudice he sayes they haue wrought that by the presumption and pride of the vulgar they haue made the reading of the Scriptures vnprofitable for them and so another discommoditie ensues I cannot tell whether I may iustly say a worser for they betake themselues without any bridle or restraint to the reading of many bookes not onely vaine and friuoulous but importantly obnoxious and hurtfull the which as by the Art of the deuill haue in number encreast more in our age then any other for want of such as were good and vertuous and the same hath happened to vs as many times it doth with the earth which when it cannot bring forth corne it produceth thornes and I affirme that this second dammage doth in some sort surmount the other because in the sacred Scriptures men onely lose a great Instrument and meanes to be good but in these profane Authors they finde the occasions to be euill and wicked for in the first onely the Rudder and Sterne of good gouernment is taken away and in the other fomentation and nourishment is exhibited to vices For as S. Paul alleadgeth euill wordes corrupt good manners and an obscene and vnpure booke which is dayly before the eyes of him that reades it what will it not effect or how is it possible hee should bee cleare from grosse and vnwholsoâ—e blood that is maintained with nothing but corruption and poyson And in trueth if wee doe but intentiuely obserue it and bee iust and vpright iudges wee cannot but giue sentence that the greatest part of our deprau'd and debausht customes which wee dayly see and meete withall proceedes from the continuall reading of these profane and scurrillous bookes with a relish of Gentilisme and Insidelitie which those that are Zealous of Gods seruice finde in them and I knowe not whether in any age amongst Christian people a greater plague hath been prooued In my iudgement the beginning the roote and the absolute originall of these euils consists in these bookes This and much more the same famous Doctor writ vpon this particular and questionlesse would haue spoken much more and farre more significantly had it not been for that same cruell barbarous and inhumane Inquisition of Spaine in which
most stinking and obscure prison hee remained seuen yeeres in the Towne of Valladolid where as all the world knowes hee vnderwent great troubles afflictions and torments because hee vttered in a Sermon a Proposition that was not pleasing to the Pope of Rome though it was but Christian and true whereof peraduenture wee will intreate more at large in another booke Now it remaines we only obserue how the sacred Scriptures are not prohibited the faithfull to containe them within a certaine moderation and gouernement because this impertinent and seuere prohibition as the Papists themselues well knowe is a cause of greater and more pernicious Inconueniences And who can bee so credulous as to beleeue that to make bad men good they must needes depriue them of the holy Bible which is the onely Instrument to make them good when they freely permit dishonest and immodest bookes which are the proper Instruments of sinne and impietie Surely hee cannot but bee a foole that beleeues this But let vs grant that they who tooke from the vulgar the vse and reading of the Scriptures pretended herein to remooue occasion and meanes of breeding errours yet when long experience had taught them that Inci erunt in scillam cupientes vitare Caribdim which is that studying to preuent one preiudice they brought in a thousand seeing through default of the holy Scriptures profane bookes crept in why I say Dato vno absurdo miltae sequuntur did they not labour to suppresse so pernicious a pâ—ague by restoring them and excluding the other seeing naturall reason informes vs that of two necessary euils we should euer imbrace the least how much more in that the holy Scriptures are good of themselues and remote from all euill There is no doubt but if that prohibition simply aymed at the good and benefit of the faithful they would haue beene so but there 's all the matter in that they do not so much seeke the profit and benefit of the faithfull but rather their owne particular ends and interests the which consists mainely inconcealing from the people the knowledge of trueth which they might attayne vnto by meanes of the holy Scriptures and that they should not seeke and affect to vnderstand it they haue alwayes entertained them with the scumme and dregges of idle and profane bookes the reading whereof is not onely frankely permitted them but further it is a cause that opposite to the willes and desires of good men they are perused and read ouer by all of which amongst others the former mentioned Father Ioseph complaines in these wordes Fr. Ioseph ibid. fol. 796. The abusiue and poysonable practise of euill bookes allowed of in Spaine from whence the greatest part of corrupt customes proceedes comes not from the allowance and toleration of the Lawes nor from the King because they haue ordained sufficient remedies against this dammage and preiudice but rather from the negligence and carelesnesse of Iudges both Secular and Ecclesiasticall in executing such iust and good Lawes and they whom this most of all did concerne were the Bishops and Prelats of the Church who being to giue daily notice hereof to Kings and temporal Lords that they might helpe and ioyne together for the banishing out of the Commonwealth these fountains of pollution and vncleannesse they did not only not do it but Kings Princes exhorting them to purge and cleanse the Kingdome of this letiferous poyson they yet liue and perseuere in the same with most pernicious carelesnesse and forgetfulnesse not with out speciall and singular danger to their owne consciences and the soules of their poore subiects A little after the same Authour sayes it is a lamentable pitie that so many sage and wise considerations hauing bene entred into to establish these iust Lawes which was to remooue out of their Studies and Libraries these hurtfull bookes so many Petitions preferred by the Sollicitors of the Kingdome so many meetings and consultations with the Lords of the Counsell with such a number of manifestations written and published touching the Kinggs pleasure in this behalfe it could neuer bee once put in execution the vrgent necessitie of this execution being so materiall and important what shall wee say to this but onely that the Pope Bishops and Fathers of the Faith conniue at this perdition seeing neither the King nor the whole Kingdome can so far preuaile with them as to execute such iust behoofefull and beneficiall Lawes in all other respects they being so sedulous industrious and circumspect in purging as they say the bookes and writings of the holy Doctors of the Church not exempting herein the Scriptures diuine as appeares in a publisht booke called Index expurgatorius All this wee haue produced by reason of that which Father Granada sayes he heard from an Inquisitor and hee himselfe alleadgeth it to shew the great dammage that proceedes from bookes of corrupt doctrine and instruction and the inexplicable emolument profit deriuing from bookes of good and vertuous Argument it now remaines that we should conclude and shut vp this discourse with the very words which the same Granada vseth in the finishing of his discourse Lawes and iust Tribunalls looke not so much vpon particulars as to generalls that is to say not what may happen to particular persons but what generally concerneth the good of all who in no reason ought to perish through the abuse and disorder of some neither in like manner doe they aime at the particular preiudice which things procure if the generall benefits bee greater then the preiudices as we may perceiue in Nauigation at Sea for if the dammages of shipwracke be great and important yet the benefits of Nauigation are farre greater These are the principall reasons which our Aduersaries produce against the publicke vse and reading of the holy Scriptures the rest are so weake and friuolous as they deserue not to haue any more time spent in propounding them for that would bee as much as to refute them and so the time wee should spend in them will be better gain'd in setting downe two reasons which besides the other before alleadged shew plainely to our view and as it were with the pointing of a finger that the Pope depriues not the vulgar of the Bible to doe them good but rather to auoyd and shunne his owne precipice with which wee will close and shut vp this Treatise The first reason is because as Father Luys de Granada sayes all the studie and care of our capitall enemie is Granada en el preambulo de la 2. parte de la introduceion del Symbole to bereaue vs of this light of the word of God and hee confirmes it thus The first thing the Philistines performed when they had Sampson in their power was to plucke out his eyes and when they had done this they found no difficultie in doing whatsoeuer else they meant to lay vpon him euen to the making of him grinde in a Mill. And this Authour addes of the same
for the Protestant Religion together with his mother brothers and sisters and a Knight of speciall good quality called Don Carlos as also the Marques of Poza sonne and many others were exceedingly afflicted and persecuted the house whither they vsed daily to repaire to heare the word of God was rased downe and sowed with salt that it might neuer be reedified and in the middest of this house This Columne I haue seeene with mine owne eyes they set a marble pillar for a memoriall that there faithfull Christians whom they call Hereges Lutheranos were woont to assemble Constantino also was a Doctor of as profound and great learning as Spaine in many ages had brought forth Hee was preacher and Confessor to that renowmed Emperour Charles the fift and by this meanes if he had affected it he might haue risen to very eminent dignities but all this he reiected and contemned as a man that made no account of these worldly honours and went to Seuilla where he was taken by the Inquisition and dying there his body was afterwards burned by order of the same Inquisition His followers whom this Author specifies were very rare men both for their learning and liues who opposed themselues and in Pulpits publikely preacht against the tyranny doctrine and proceedings of the Pope and the Inquisitors explaining sincerely to the people the trueth of Christs sacred Gospel to such wonderfull benefit and emolument of all the faithfull that in the same time aboue eight hundred were taken and imprisoned for this cause by the Inquisition onely within the compasse of the Citie of Seuilla Some of them were rich people and of very good quality both men and women among which number was Don Iuan Ponce de Leon brother to the Counte de Baylen and cousin to the Duke of Arcos a Gentleman questionlesse of singular pietie and integritie and the Lady Ioana wife to the Lord of Higuera whom presently after her child-bearing the Inquisitors expos'd to a torment called del Burro in the castle of Triana and the torment was so great that she died thereof for the cords pierced euen to the marrow bones of her armes her thighes and legges and in this her affliction and torment they caried her backe againe to prison in a maner dead she vomiting blood out of her mouth in great abundance her very entrailes being rent and torne in the end some eight dayes after these torments she died hauing no body neere or about her no not so much as a damosell who a few dayes before was cruelly handled and tormented as her selfe was Many of this number thus imprisoned and taken were afterwards burned which they did by twentie and twenty at a time the rest were most barbarously and inhumanely entreated the house where they congregated was defac't and vsed after the same maner as that of Cazalla was in Valladolid Let the courteous Reader peruse that religious and learned mans worke Cyprian de Valera in his peculiar Treatise of the Authoritie of the Pope where he relates these persecutions more at large And to a booke entituled Inquisitto Hispanica written first by a Spaniard in Latine afterwards translated into English where both these and many other sorts of torments are described wherwith they persecute the faithfull in Spaine But that which hath been deliuered shall suffise me at this time whereby it may appeare that if it were not for the strictnesse of that rigorous Inquisition there would exceeding many and faithfull good Protestants daily manifest and reueale themselues and yet notwithstanding the same and all their cruelties vsed there are in many parts some all which may iustly excite a charitable and fauourable construction of those that leaue those Kingdomes and repaire into other Dominions that they may there with all Christian liberty truely worship and call vpon Gods holy Name And let none be ready to reproach vs as many vse to doe with a Bishop of Spalato or some other famous Impostor and subtill Spie for God forbid we should all be made of the same metrall for as the Spanish prouerbe saies Todos los dedos de la mano no son yguales There 's difference betwixt one man and another Besides the many and singular commodities we haue beene ready to leaue and forsake in our owne Countreys and the innumerable troubles pouerties discontentments and distasts that we meet withall in forreine parts yeeld no weake nor slender testimony that God doth graciously intend to finish the good worke he hath already begun in vs. And in my opinion a man hath no reason to forbeare the doing of good to another in that he is fearefull and mistrustfull of his doing ill because in this case we ought not so much to respect the person whom we benefit as him for whose cause we are moou'd to any commiseration or pity and this is God Neither in like maner is it a good and commendable course for the attracting and bringing of a man to any good and to abett and vphold his perseuerance therein to draw backe our hands from his reliefe and succour for this were enough in them vnstable and not inured and habituated in afflictions and calamities to make them murmure with the Israelites in the wildernesse and to cry out againe after the fleshpots of Egypt Although for my part I am confident by Gods affistance and grace notwithstanding all worldly contrarieties that I shall neuer consent or yeeld to so odious a Renunciation as being I thanke God well instructed and prepared and practised and hope so to continue in this maine point and master-peece of Christianitie that per multas tribulationes calamitates oportet nos ingredi regnum Dei To the Christian Reader ALl the beatitude felicity of man consisteth in the not failing to chuse aright that which most cōcerneth him and to discerne what it is he relinquisheth and what it is hee imbraceth and this the Philosophers call prudence which is defined to be recta ratio rerum agendarum and teacheth a man to order all his actions by the rules of reason There is a worldly wisedome and a celestiall wisedome the first hath the earth for its scope and obiect the second aymes at heauen Some mens liues are full of errours and blurres both in corporall and spirituall matters other mens comportments are discreete and commendable the difference floweth from the qualitie of the persons whereof some are prudent others are imprudent the one sort fasteneth on that which is good the others grope euen as blinde men at mid-day If a man erre in temporall things the dammage is not great for all sublunary occurrences are of small consequence and to miscary in a slight affaire imports little For his errour is repairable in that there is another life but if a man erre in matter of eternity which is for euer permanent and incapable of any amendment or alteration this is the greatest detriment a man can incurre For the declining whereof God hath giuen the
Father Gusman recordeth that he wrote to a Father and in another place to a mother Guzman en su libro de los bienes del Innesto trabajo fol 24 that they should enure their daughters to reade and vnderstand the holy Scripture Gregorie Nazianzene saith Father Reynosa aduised out of his great experience Ad laetan de institutione filiae that the Bible should neuer part out of the heart nor out of the mouth Reynosa fol. 87. del maestro Christiano nor out of the vnderstanding nor out of the tongue by reason of the admirable benefits which redounded from the assiduous vse of it S. Chrysostome amongst all the rest of the Fathers is very admirable in this point and particularly in his third Sermon that hee made of Lazarus where he answereth to all the obiections that the Papists at this day make against the free and vulgar vse of the Bible The Reader may please to peruse the Exhortation which most learned and godly Cypriano de Valera made to perswade men to reade continually the holy Scriptures where hee shall find the maine and principall summe collected of whatsoeuer S. Chrysostome deliuers in that place Besides that formerly deliuered we doe prooue the precise necessitie and obligation wherein all the faithfull stand bound to reade the holy Scriptures because in the Primitiue Church and many ages after all sorts of people did so and it was counted a great offence not to reade them and that this reading was very behoouefull and profitable for them the most learned Doctor Leon affirmes most clearely saying Leon en el Prologo de los nombres de Christo In the first ages of the Primitiue Church and many yeeres after it was esteemed a great fault in the faithfull not to be often conuersant in the perusing and reading of the Diuine Bookes and Ecclesiasticall men and those whom we call Secular both learned and vnlearned for this reason treated so much of this exercise and study that the carefulnesse herein of the vulgar sort stirred vp in Bishops and Prelates a greater study and practise in the same who ordinarily in their Churches in a manner euery day expounded the sacred Scriptures to the people because the particular reading of them by euery one in their houses by the light of that publike doctrine being illuminated and gouerned as it were by their Masters and Teachers voice might be free from errour and be a cause of the greater and more important benefit which in very deed was so great as that order and gouernment was religious and zealous and the fruit was answerable to their sowing of the seede And Master Prades confesseth as much in this point as Leon in these words In ancient times the holy Scriptures were propounded to the people in the vulgar tongue that so all sorts of people might reade them the which was very profitable and as such approoued of many holy and very learned men That the said Reading of the holy Scriptures prooued very profitable Prades en el Prologo de la adoracion de las imagines many Spanish writers affirme and confesse but amongst all therest Father Torres auerres the same admirably with wonderfull examples of many who were cur'd and reform'd by the same The which I will heere expresse and set downe with all possible breuitie Torres lib. 25. de la Philosophia de Principes Cap. 2. that the propounded veritie may more euidently appeare The first example produced by Torres is of the Eunuch seruant to Candaces Queene of Ethiopia who by the meanes of reading the Prophet Esaias attain'd to the knowledge of Christian veritie The second is of S. Eugenia who desiring to be assur'd of the infallible knowledge of her saluation the Epistles of S. Paul came to her hands this would not haue happened to her if shee had beene in Spaine vpon the doctrine whereof she considering and meditating she in such sort grew to discouer the falsities and deceits of the Gentiles and the veritie of Christian wisedome that she was not onely conuerted to the faith and beliefe of our Lord but further shee was martyred in defence and for the confession of the same The third example that he propoundeth is of that illustrious Domina who was a Martyr of Iesus Christ who being a Gentile no lesse prudent then honourable and being brought vp in the Palace of the Emperour Maximian by chance she met with a booke of the same Epistles and with the History written by S. Luke of the Acts of the Apostles in whose doctrine she discouered the errors of Infidelitie and so becomming a Christian shee embraced a cruell death to keepe possession of that shee had vndertaken To the former examples he addes this other of that most illuminated S. Augustine who being plunged in a thousand doubts and ambiguities it was said vnto him Tolle lege Take and reade and hee obeying this voice not knowing from whom or whence it came hee tooke the Epistles of the Apostle and opening them the first which presented themselues to him were those wordes written to the Romanes Chap. 13. Not in eating and drunkennesse but put yee on our Lord Iesus Christ c. And these reasons so farre preuailed with him that presently abjuring his heresie hee was conuerted to the Lord. The last example propounded by this Author is incomparably beyond all the rest and sufficient to mooue vs neuer to be without the holy Scriptures in our hands which is the same of the most holy Virgine the Mother of him that is Lord of heauen and earth who at the same time when she felt in her sacred entrailes the most diuine mysterie of the Incarnation by the comming of the Angel S. Ambrose sayes that shee was reading and meditating on the Prophesie of Esaias Chap. 7. Ambros lib. 2. in Luc. cap. 1. Ecce Virgo concipiet pariet filium c. whereunto Torres addes That wee may conceiue how the reading of the holy Scriptures was a singular preparation for the receiuing of such a fauour and grace the which he confirmes and this renowmed S. Augustine obserues in the blessed Virgine amongst whose many excellencies hee specifies one namely that she was very well read and conuersant in the Prophets Many other examples the same Father Torres mentions which heere I omit to auoid prolixitie and because these aboue declared euidently demonstrate that the vse and reading of the holy Scriptures hath euer beene common and commendable in all the faithfull and that the perusing of them hath brought foorth wonderfull effects which is the same we aimed at in the beginning and which for more efficacie we now briefly confirme by the example of S. Gertrudis with whom if wee may beleeue the Papists blasphemous fiction our Lord did marrie and moreouer that our Sauiour Christ sayd Masse on the day of his nuptials that they might be the more solemne and authenticall For this blessed Nunne is wonderfully exalted by Master Granada