artificial Rhetorique of a slighting pretermission so stupify the natural logique of every one that is come to the vse of reason as not to see the force of this conclusion He hath killed his father what vvonder is it if he kill his brother They falsify Scripture what marvel if they forge records Hath your custome of vrging light conjectures against the Church of Rome so destroyed the nature of reason in you as not to feele your selfe or to thinke that others doe not feele the weight of an argument à fortiore Records are humane Scripture devine Records are kept in a corner Scripture exposed to the vew of all Records have fevv copies and kept by a few and those of one faction The Christian vvorld is full of Bibles Is it not then lesse against conscience of easier contrivence and further from danger of a shamefull discovery to forge records then to falsify Scripture This is onely to stop you a while from posting with so much speed from this passage In the end of the booke I shal detaine you longer and hould you faster and put a rub to the sliding eloquence you have learned in Holland If you vvil not yet the Reader shall see by vvhat I shal lay clearely before his eyes and shal remit to the judgement of his owne eyes if he be pleased to view and coÌ„fer him selfe what I shal set downe of some and direct him to seeke of other Protestant Ministers in point of grosse wilfull malicious and impudent falsifications of Scripture and Authours whereby he will conclude with himselfe how far he shal thinke fit to give credit hereafter to their sayings or writings and namely and particularly D. Morton called B. of Duresme that Minister of simple truth as he called himselfe in those very bookes which seeme to have bin dictated by the father of lyes and now in his late testimony is not ashamed to speake thus Pag. 15. I could never have made such a speech marke the proofe he adjoyneth seeing I have ever spoken according to my thoughts He may very well have forgot what he once spoke in Parlament seeing he hath forgot what he hath so often writ against his thoughts and cleer knowledge in â—everal bookes But of this mans false writings hereafther Pag. 107. now I returne to your false records being you are resolved to convince all â—hose vvho gainsay them by six doughty arguments which I hope to retortagainst you and by your owne grounds prove the contrary of what you are confident to maintaine 3. Your first argument is that value and respect which the lawes of England do give the Registers The lawes of England were so farre from valuing or respecting these Registers that they did not as much as cite or mention them when Parker and his Colleagues were pressed to â—hew the letters of their Orders being accuâ—ed by our Catholique Doctors that they had â—ever bin ordained And the Parliament 8. Eliz. thought it more for the credit of their protestant Church and Clergy to make them Bishops by a statute then examine the matter which resolution had never bin taken if any witnesses or Records of their consecration at Lambeth could have bin produced in the 8. yeare of Q. Elizabeths reigne But what marvaile is it that the lawes of England should not value your Records when your first superintendents themselves never durst send D. Harding or any of the rest who desired it an authentique Copie of them out of your Registry Or so muchas make mention of the original 4. Your second argument is taken from the credit of the foure publique Notaries who did testify Parkers individual consecration at Lambeth it being observable that these four Notaries were the same who did draw Cardinal Pooles consecration into Acts and attest them This proofe and observation weighs as litle as foure publique Notaries conscience and credit who in Cardinal Pooles time professed one faith and in Parkers an other Men that counterfeit religions will have no difficulty te counterfeit Registers if they be commanded or inclined to do it neither would their testimony be of vndoubted credit in any place of the world if contradicted by so many arguments and circumstances as your pretended consecration at Lambeth But in case these Notaries had bin persons beyond all exception might not their hands be counterfeited as well as the Register What greater difficulty can there be in one more then in the other It s a silly argument that involves in it selfe the same difficulty it ought to cleere Your third and fourth ground of the Queens Commission and of the Act of Parliament 8. Eliz. have bin ansvvered in the former Chapter and are evident proofes that your Records are forged 5. Pag. 115. 116. Your fifth ground is taken from a booke you say vvas printed an 1572. of the lives of 70. succeeding Archbishops of Canterbury vvherin the Author that vvas Archbishop Parker himselfe having described the Confirmations and Consecrations of his fellovves he addeth in the margent These confirmations and consecrations do appeare in the Registers It seemes you learnt from Parker to cite your selfe as a vvitnesse for your felfe Is this the manner of Polemick Writers But why did not Parker or Ievvel remit D. Harding to these Registers wherof M. Parker some seaven yeares after made if vve believe you marginal notes when he so earnestly called for them Confut. Apolog. fol. 57. 59 edit 1566. shevv vs your Registers in the yeare 1566. Then vvas the time for Parker and the rest to cite them and not in the yeare 1572. Yet D. Champney doubts whether any such booke vvas printed of your Archbishops as you pretend Whether it was or no it matters not for the Registers cited in the margent by Parker mentioneth not any place or forme of their consecrations and is as indifferent for the Nagshead Taverne as for the Chapell of Lamheth as you may see in the booke called Antiquitates Britannia edit 1605. into which this forged Register was foisted being a meere novelty and therfore contrary to the drift and title of the booke without connexion to what goeth before or followeth after 6. But how comes it to passe M. Doctor that in this booke and Register are set dovvne as you say the names of your Bishops their Countries their Armes both of their sees and families Pag. 164. their respective ages their vniversities their degrees in Schooles vvith the times but not the place of their several consecrations How comes it to passe I say there should be roome for all these things and none at all for Lambeth which takes vp no more then Ipsvvich Parkers Countrey or Cambridge his vniverfity Is it more material to put in a Register the place of a Bishops nativity or education then the place where he received his caracter or consecration Did he esteeme more the degree of a Doctor then the dignity of a Bishop I could not exact nor expect from M. Parker
translateth in to English that very text of Azor. which himself citeth in the margen The words in latin are Si venit ex loco aliquo peste minimè infecto qui falsò habetur pro infecto Which Morton turnes thus into English if he com from a place infected But truely translated make the case wholy different and are these if he came from a place not infected which falsely is held to be infected But he is not only content to be convicted of vnexcusable falsehood by men that study moralists but even by schoolboys that read Tullies offices in his 90. page he doth so grossely pervert the sense change the words and distroy the whole drift of Tullies discourse l. 3. offic § Regulus and § sed si that it is a wonder to see what impudensy growes from a custom of lying These are but a few examples of the many detected by the aforesaid Treatise of Mitigation and an other called A quiet and sober reckoning with Thomas Morton by the reading wherof and conferring each particular with the bookes cited every one may in a short time and no great trouble judge by his eyes whether I have reason to except against such a witnes in his owne cause and what reason there is to follow so wilfully and wickedly blind leaders But I cannot but wonder at one circumstance that after Morton had gained reputation by this practise he was promoted to the title and profits of a Bishopricke purchasing by a new kind of fimony not with buying but with lyeing a rich benefice I Bellarmin or Perron could have bin convicted of this false and base proceeding either before or after their Cardinals caps what a noyse would have bin when we heare such a clamour vpon that which is not proved but only pretended to be a credulous mistake Yet when I consider John Foxes Acts and Monuments the very Magazin of no lesse malicious then ridiculous lies to have got so honorable a place in Protestant Churches and that not by vulgar simplicity but by publick authority not by connivence or negligence but vpon designe and by command when I see this abomination hath stood so long in the holy place I wonder no more at Mortons promotion nor at whole Nations deceaved by Mahomets Alcoran If I should insist vpon the number of those that by commaund or concurrence are guilty of the falsehood of Foxes booke I should accuse many more then I am by this present occasion obliged but the Ministers I cannot excuse vpon any title for although they be of meane learning and no extraordinary reading yet the falsities are so numerous and obvious that it is impossible but many should have fallen under the observation of most And by the booke of the three Conversions of England and the Examen of Foxes Calender which have bin printed almost threescore yeares since and have come to the hands of many Protestant Ministers this Foxes fowle worke hath bin so plainly discovered that those who have seen it if they had least zeale or love or care of truth ought to have informed their Brethren and not to have permitted any Christian Religion to be longer prophaned with so publick a slaunder and shame of Christianity Should a renegate Captive tell his maister that the sect amongst Christians which he had bin taught was maintained by such false and shamfull practises he would easily gaine Credit of a true Proselite turned Turke vpon conscience and not convenience I need not set downe Foxes impostures for you shall see them in the forsaid bookes so grosse and thick set one by another that it will be harder to make a way through them then find the way to them I will passe my word the Author does him no wrong and the reader vpon his owne examination will take my word in an other occasion But to returne to Morton now with a white Rochet on his backe but with as little ingenuity and candour of mind as before The imposition of those unhallowed hands hath not imprinted the least marke of grace in his soule or shame in his forehead In the grand imposture writ by him then B. of Cov. and Lichf pag. 85. edit 2. he sets doune a large and lying description of the Inquisitions cruelty and addes So your Authour And who do you thinke is this Author but Cornellius Agrippa a Magitian as himself confesseth of himselfe And where doth he write what heer is alleaged against vs In a booke condemned by our Church Not a word of these circumstances but only that he is our Author to make the Reader believe he is one we have no reason to except against You had better take him to your selfe for his blacke art is of the same colour with yours and taught by one maister who esteems you the better scholler having done more mischiefe with your false jugling then Agrippa with his conjuring Now pag. 388. the same jugling trick over againe Marke the ensuing words Els why is it that your owne Thuanus speaking of this separation Viz of Luther sayd that some in those days layd the fault vpon the Pope Leo More fully your Cassander an Author selected in those days by the King of the Romans as the chiefest divine of his And pag. 385. He cals Thuanus our noble Historian Who knows nothing of Thuanus but by this mans relation would take him to be not only a sound unsusspected Catholique but of special regard amongst vs wheras both our common opinion and his owne Annals prove him a Hugonot But besides falsely reporting him for a Catholic he is plainly falsified in these very places alleaged In the first he speaks not of Luthers separation but of the election of Prelats in France and in the 2. where he speaks of benefices Morton makes him speake of Indulgences in both places evidently against his cleere words which read as they stand in Thuanus have not the least shadow of ambiguity But the makeing Cassander ours and our chiefest Devine being listed in our Index of forfidden bookes amongst the Heretiques of the first ranke and his owne writings accusing him not only of the general heresies of these times but of others also particular to himself is not only a shamles but senseles imposture It is a labour too loathsom to dig any longer in this filthy dunghil of corruptions And it is a madnes in any man that already knowes Morton by his notoriously impudent lying bookes or before he take knowledge of him vpon this admonition to give the lest credit to any thing he shal say write signe or sweare concerning Religion as being convicted by his owne writings to have lost all remorse of conscience all feare of reproach from men or punishment from God Did he believe there is a God who hath prepared a Hel of torments for those who maintaine a division in the Church by so many wilfull impostures and seriously intended to prevent the scourge of his heavy hand could he stand gazing vpon his grave at
so nigh a distance without repenting or can he truly repent without recanting Be not amazed that he remains without feeling for no Pharaos no Anthiochus pride and cruelty doth so harden the hart of a Reprobate as a long custome of denving and belying the known truth which Morton hath done for many yeares For albeit his blindnes were so great as not to see the manifest truth of our Religion yet impossible it is he should not see the false calumnies false translations and false allegations he bringeth against our Authors whome he hath read with his owne eyes Let any man marke his manner of perverting them he shall cleerly perceave that it could not be so done without haveing seene the very places and read them at leasure But this hath bin the continual practise of defenders of heresy in all ages and in this last age and in English writers and in the most eminent of them most conspicuous Let the reader who desirs to be satisfied in this point procure as he may easily the forenamed treatise tending to mitigation where in the 12. chap. he shall find the prime Protestant writers in the begining of Q. Eliz. reigne and in the first place Jewel called B. of Salisb. guilty of most enormous unexcusable untruths He shal heare this impudent Minister braging and braving that we cannot alleadge one Author one Doctor one sentence no not two lines in behalf of any one of the 28. articles he attributeth to vs wherin are contained the real presence private Masse images the Popes primacy offering vp of Christ in sacrifice common prayer in a strange language c. Whether we have sufficient authority for these Tenets is not the present question but whether we cannot find one ancient Doctor or two lines in favor of any one oft them He shall heare him cite S. Austin as allowing mariage after vowes made of chastity in his booke de Bono viduitatis the drift of which booke being wholy and plainly to the contrary He shal heare him cry downe another S. Austin the Apostle of Engl. not only against the authority of ancient History but even against the confession of John Foxes Acts and Monuments He shal heare so much that he will not need to goe further to Seeke Harding and others who have at large discovered the false lustre of this counterfeit Jewel this pretious stone layd in the fundation of the English Babilon He shal find the like false dealing of Casshill Clarke and Perkins As for John Foxe the Reader after a short tast of his knavery is remitted to the third part of the three conversions of Engl. where in one chap. are sett downe severally above a hundred and twenty wilfull lyes vttered by Foxe in less then three leaves of his Acts and Monuments and those such as no ways may be excused eyther by ignorance or error but must needs proceed from voluntary fraud and malice himself knowing that it was false which he related I omit what is further alleadged of malicious fraud in the writings of Sir Francis Hastings and Sir Edoard Cooke but a word I must ad of Sir Philip Plessis Mornay a frenchman to shew that it is not a national inclination of the English but of any nation infected with heresy to maintaine heretical errours with voluntary falshood The french Jansenists of late make good my assertion and this french Calvinist will make it better In a booke of his full of authorities against the Masse he was charged by Peron then B. of Eureux after Cardinal with five hundred wilfull falsifications and vpon suite made to Henry the fourth by the said Peron it came to a publick trial in presence of the King of France and great part of his Nobility on the 4. of May 1600. Of these five hundred were exhibited threescore to Plessis to take his choise for the first dayes tryall who tooke nineteene of those which he thought himself best able to excuse Now the straitnes of time permitting only nine to be examined he was both by his owne Protestant Judges and the Catholick Judges on the other side condemned of falsification and untrue dealing in all nine after he had bin permitted to say what he could in his defence And Peron further pressed him to returne to the like trial of the rest of the five hundred but Plessis could not be brought to it This publique trial is largely related and defended in the end of the first tome of the 3. part of the three Conversions of England and appeares in the Kings owne letter in print as also by the publick Acts set forth by the approbation of the said King and his counsel If I should proceed on with the vnchristian and vnhuman proceeding of our English Ministers in their shamfull calumniations and falsifications it wold be an endles worke I shall remit the reader to a booke intituled a search made into matters of Religion by Francis Walsingham Deacon of the Protestant Church before his change to the Catholick where he may find such foule dealing of so many English Protestant Ministers Bel Doves Jewel Sutclif c. that with conferring the praces by his owne industry he will never need to informe himself more by the relations of others Let him but read the Discussion of D. Barlows answer togeather with the suplemēt and adjoynder he shall know the lying spirit of Barlow Reynolds Dunnes and Andrewes and this man 's not only falfities but follies in his answer to Card. Bellarmines Apollogy Infelix puer atque impar Achilli I cannot conceave what excuse a Protestant that hath any sense of Religion can alleadge why he should not endeavour to rectify his judgment vpon so easy conditions The bookes are not hard to be got the places are easy to be found and examined there is no more exacted of him but to beleeve what he sees And in case he be a Protestant of the moderne prelatique fashion who by an indifferency to any Religion whereunto the Apostles short Creed admitted by Arrians Macedonians Nestorians Eutichians Pelagians may be applyed hath little or no regard of any Religion at all yet to satisfy himself in point of curiosity or Policy concerning Religion methinks he should be desirous to try by his own experience whether men by facing about with inconstancy of enterchanging opinions and facing it out with impudency of manifest lies and calumnies may build and vphold an imaginary Church in the fancies of ignorant and careles peeple I can assure him that he shall discover in the practise of Protestant writers more admirable effects of knavery then in the precepts and presidents of his only admired and adored Apostle Machiavel He will prefer English men in this point of wit which he esteems the highest before the Italians for Machiavel the sole Italian he admires could never make such resolutions in Italy although it was the marke he aimed at as English Ministers have made in England Vnles it were not the want of wit in the Minister
for some exterior shew of a ceremony to amuse the world and raise them in the vulgar opinion to the degree of Bishops Amongst other proofes of this story was produced the credible and publique testemony of a person of honor and ingenuity who declared to many persons of prime quality that he perfectly remembred a speech made by D. Morton called Bishop of Duresme in Parliament wherin hee derived their Episcopal succession from the ordination at the Nagshead This smal scrap D. Bramhall snatcheth vp very greedily as though it were a matter of substance and able to maintaine their decaying Episcopacy He hath obtainedof Morton to disavow the speech and of six others of the same calling to say they doe not remember it and withall a testimony of the lords who also confesse they can not call to memory some antecedēt circumstances of that speech and hereof makes flourishes and triumphs as if forsooth he had got the victory in the maine point or as if vpon à mistake if it were such in so smal and inconsiderable à circumstance depended the matter which is in hand Have patience a while you shall see how much you have got by the bargaine You shall find there was more reason to believe it and publish it then you are aware of and that this stirr you have made and was foreseene you wold make hath raised the dust in your owne eyes VIII But I will first cleerly and briefly refute your exceptions against my chiefe arguments and contrary to your method beginne with and insist vpon that which is most material But I can not omit in a word or two to put you in mind of some of your many impertinent digressions as farre from the truth as from the purpose You frame to your selfe tvvo opponents as if eyther the argument or you the adversary required a concurrence of endeavours You are much mistaken one hand was more then sufficient and no more was imployed Pag. 4. You seeme to be troubled vpon a report of a foile you received vvhich I never knew but by your booke and I wonder your long experience made you not reflect that such things might be maliciously told you therby to sharpen your passion and pen. For my part I never conceived you so forward as to put your selfe into any such danger Pag. 5. Methinks a man of your coate should not blame mingling the interest of religion with matters of state vnlesse it be that some other speakes heere by your pen or that by a secret instinct you vnavvares vtter the hidden mystery of your protestant prelacy vvhich vvas introduced and maintained in England not for religion but reason of state Some late passages you mention I suppose rather vpon instigation of others then your owne inclination however it had bin more for your credit to have donne it vpon better information of the truth and with more connexion to the subject of your booke Pag. 4. in fine for my part while I followed you wandring out of the way both of truth and method about you doe not knowe what imputed to me I was in feare at every step to meete with the ridiculous story Cardin. Bleho of an imaginary Cardinal layd to my charge who hath more affinity with a matter of ordination Pag. 4. then the late Governor of the Lowcountries IX You are much bragging of the learning of your Prelatical English Clergy Pag. 144. 216. and vvill cope vvith our greatost Doctors and feare not to make paralells and other such fond bravados vvhich obligeth me to tell you against my vvill vvhat you are not vvilling to heare I vvould gladly knouvv hovv many Prelatiques have made knovvne to others nations that afther Haeresy came into England there remained any marke or footstep of Divinity or Philosophy Withaker I grant vvas not vnskilful in matters of controversy and could speake in a language vnderstood by schollers of forraine countries but he speakes far from the principles of prelatique Protestancy from that vvhich is called the Church of England Was there ever any amongst you that deserved to carry the bookes after Alensis Scotus Bacon Mediavilla or Midleton Ocham Holcot Waldensis and others not to goe out of our owne Ilands It is no wonder yow burnt their bookes publiquely in the Vniverfity to be rid of so publicke reproachers of your ignorance Some of late I grant have contributed much to the advancement of knovvledge each one in their kind as Gilbert Verulam Harvey but these vvere laymen and medled not vvith any matter of Divinity What can you allege in point of learning amongst you but that which meerly belongs to memory and even that patched vp of rotten rags of corrupted history and smal shreds of scattered collections mingled and mangled turned inside out to make the ancient Fathers in a fevv obscure vvords speake contrary to what they have cleerly delivered in vvhole homilies and bookes If but in this part rather of reading then learning rather memory then vvit you had come to any degree of perfection vvhat need had there bin to have made so much of Casaubon for impugning Baronius and in a later ocasion of an other stranger Salmasius And vvhen out of meere shame one of yours vvas forced to reply to him that answered Salmasius you see vvhat a piece of stuffe was vvouen not only thredbare in point of learning but stained with so many foule Barbarismes and Solecismes that it is a pitty to see what a sport vvas made of it by the adversary and yet there is more reason to thinke that many hads concurred to it then to the booke you vndertake to refute I expect you should attribute al those grosse faults to Erratas of the printer Pag. 175. as you doe the mistake of Bedford for Dover and one moneth for an other or of the Transcriber as Richard for Iohn in another place Pag. 89. to reconcile the contradictions of your solemne consecration as Lambeth And yet forsooth these scrapers of rude indigested rubbish of incoherent historical Notes must be set forth in the false disguise of Doctors of Divinity vvhom this Epithete becomes as much as a Bricklayer or Davvber the name of an Architect I am sure S. Gregory Nazianzen amongst the Fathers and Plato amongst the Philosophers purchased the title of Devines at a higher rate vvith expense of their labour in higher matters X. And it is vvithout doubt vpon the diffidence of their learning that you spread so broad your skill in Conge d'eslires Premunires Actuaries Notaries Signet offices Deane of the Arches Court of Faculties c. Whervvith you vvould blind ignorant Readers of your booke to a persuasion of your misterious knovvledge as either you or your brethren are vsed to doe in sermons and marginal notes with scantlings of Greeke and Hebrew words You shall find that your Conge d'eslires and Actuaries vvill helpe little to cleere your Records from plaine forgery and that you spill your skill to
interest and makes it his profession to advance his ovvne and other mens interest by cheating Policy or foolish knavery then you had done a deed of Christian Charity by teaching me this lesson of your Stoical Philosophy CHAP. I. My first and second reason defended against the Doctors objections 1. TO the first argument deduced from the authority of our Catholique Doctors charging in their printed bookes your first superintendents vvith vvant of Episcopal consecration some five or six yeares after you pretend it vvas so solemnly performed at Lambeth you give no other ansvver Pag. 167. but that you regard not their judgment and authority beause they give no cause or reason of their Knovvledge Ipray Mr. Doctor vvhat greater cause of Knovvledge can ther be of the not being of a visible and publicque solemnity then the not being seene or heard of by knovving parsons vvho made it their busines to inquire after it in the very same time and place vvherin its pretended to have bin acted To say that D. Harding Stapleton Bristovv Reynolds and others should object in print against your protestant Bishops vvant of ordination vvithout inquiring and examining vvhether they vvere ordained or no is in equivalent termes to call them fooles and Knaves Pag. 207. hovvever averse you pretend to be from so unmanerly language your attributing the obiections of these great Doctors to credulity and preiudice doth rather increase then diminish the jury for you ought to knovv that credulity contradicted by publique and obvious evidence is of the grosser sort of foolery and prejudice that makes men slight such evidence is the most malicious knavery neither of both can be layd to the charge of so learned and honest persons as the foresaid Doctors who would never presse Parker and his fellovves to shevv the register and hovv and by vvhom they received Episcopal Orders if there had bin in those days as publique and authentique registers as now yee pretend 2. To this you say that none of our Doctors did ever vrge any such thing as required that yee should cite the registers in prudence And that the â—…re vvas no pressing to produce Registers What theÌ„ Doe not men in à suite of lavv produce what is for their manifest advantage of their ovvne accord I am sure you bring many things you thinke advantagious which neyther any person nor reason pressed you to doe But that they were pressed immediately after you may learne out of D. Harding We say likvvise to you M. r Ievvel Confut. apol fol. 57. 59. edit an 1566. and to each of your companions shevv vs the register of your Bishops c. Shevv vs the letters of your orders But order you have not for vvho could give that to you of all these nevv Ministers hovv soever else you call them vvhich he hath not himselfe Yet I must confesse it vvas prudence in your first Bishops not to cite the registers though D. Harding called for them because it was better by their silence to acknowledge the want of registers then to prove themselves impostors by producing them in a time wherin their forgery had bin discovered by thousands of witnesses incase they were forged then and not afterwards when ordination was growne into more credit And as I commend the prudent silence of your first Bishops so I must condemne your silly answer in averring that the registers or records vvere cited in print Pag. 112. and alleaged by the Parliament in the publique lavves of the Kingdome of which our Doctors that desired to see some evidence of Parkers consecration could pleade no ignorance wheras it is notorious that the act of Parliament 8. Eliz. which as yow pretend but without any grovvnd as shall be proved here after makes mention of the records of Parkers consecration at Lambeth vvas made at least à yeare after your Register was called for and our Doctors had objected to your Bishops the nullity and illegality of their ordination and the booke of the 70. Archbishops of Canterbury was printed 1572. seven yeares after that D. Harding had called for the same Register and Letters of their Orders Though he was a wise man I hope he might pleade ignorance of what then vvas not as much as thought of vvhen he vvrit nor indeed ever after by any but your selfe vvho confounds the records of Kings and Queens letters patents vvith the registers of the Archbishops of Canterbury 3. Another reason against the pretended consecration of your first protestant superintendents vvas the contradictions of your ovvne Authors vpon this subject disagreeing in the persons of the consecraters and in the time of their consecrations These contradictions you call innocent mistakes and thinke to excuse them by the retractation of the Authors who desired that they might be corrected by Mr. Masons newfound registers Pag. 176.177 178. which you compare to the sun diall wherby all clockes and Clerks must be regulated when the sun shineth out It seemes Mr Doctor that the sun never shined vpon your church vntill Mr Masons tecords were printed for if it had Mr Goduin Mr Sutcliffe and Mr Butler three of the most famous Clerks amongst you infallibly vvould have consulted the sundial and their judgements and bookes concerning your consecrations had not bin so different How comes this sun to be more then fifty yeares vnder a cloud if it vvas not that your new registers might participate in some measure of the ould invisibility of your Church Doe yow imagine that learned and sober men would venture to write and publish to the world a matter of such importance as the consecration of your first Bishops vvithout consulting the registers therof if any such had bin exstant or visible when they vndertooke the worke were they paradventure ignorant of the place where this sun did shine Or were they negligent in setting their clocks to it Nheiter can be presumed of so eminent persons as you make them But your comparison of Masons records to the sun or sundial is very improper for if the suns motion were as irregular as those registers are incoherent the sun would be as unfit for a measure of time as those are for a proofe of truth But if one should mistake for the sun à false Meteor called a Parhelion and set his clock by the light of a cloud he would guide the towne as you do your Church and men of understandingh would be as litle regulated by such a dial or clock as Fitzherbert was perswaded by Masons registers at their first appearance who suspected them of forgery by the latenesse of their discovry as you may see in his booke of D. Andrevvs absurdities falsities lyes c. 4. Pag. 158. But yovv regard not Mr Fitzherherts suspicions at all What are the suspicions of a private stanger to the vvel knovvn credit of a publique register If you Mr Doctor had not bin a stranger to such pious and learned bookes as Policy and Religion and
others composed by F. Fitzherbert and had informed your selfe how long he lived you would not have spoken so strangely and ignorantly of his Knowledge in his owne countreys affairs nor so contemptibly of his discovery of Andrevvs absurdities But you say his suspicions can vveigh no more then his roasons that is just nothing Doth it weigh nothing in your judgement that this register should be called for so frequently and earnestly in the beginning of Queen Elizbeths reigne when some evidence was desired by the Catholique Doctors of your first Bishops consecration and that neither it selfe should be cited nor any other authenticall proofe therof produced by Parker Ievvel or any of the rest and that after fifty yeares it should appeare when none called for it and they were dead whom it most imported and the time of your Protestant Prelatique Church was more then halfe expired do you call this obscure and forged scroll a well known and publique register I am confident that in any prudential balance the suspicion and reasons of Fitzherbert will weigh more then your judgement and that every one who reads his discovery of Andrevvs absurdieies will confess that he hath layd him not only in the dust as you vainely brag Andrevvs hath donne to our greatest Champions but also hath buried him in the dirt of his own lyes Pag. 159. the fittest monument for so notorious an Impostor I shall in the end stir vp in the reader a curiosity te examin Andrewes impostures by what I shall note out of Morton and others V. Yet we need not any discoverer of yours but your selfe you tell vs that the imprisoned Priests Pag. 130. and Iesuits vievved your register turned it over and over perused it as much as they pleased and in conclusion gave this sentence of it that the booke vvas beyond exception If they perused it as much as they pleased why do you achnowledge that afterwards they desired toperuse it more fully and that their request was not granted What a silly excuse you bring for not permitting them te see the register againe that forsooth such Records may not goe out of the presence of the Keeper Why could not the Keeper goe along with the Records or the Fathers come with their Keepers to the Registri Ceertainely there was lesse difficulty then in F. Olcornes perusing the records who was furtherof as being prisoner in Worcester Pag. 128. Whom you make also an approveÌ„r of the same records vpon your owne bare assertion And yet forsooth Polemique writers must cite no witnes of their owne party though you be so bould as to cite your selfe But it is more then bouldnes to bring in My lord of Calcedon as confessing it Pag. 129. whereas he onely lets it passe vpon your word not granting it so as having any knovvledge of it from another hand but in case it were so as you say that it maketh not much to your purpose But the truth is the imprisoned Iesuits did never allovv your Records as those yet living and then living in England and at least in this matter belonging to their ovvne people may know as much as you or My Lord of Calcedon wil testify One as being on this side the sea I may name to you without danger and stop your mouth alwayes crying against nameles witnesses It is the R. F. Henry More novv Rector of the Seminary of S. Omers whose word in any matter of fact will be taken as soone as yours even by the persons of your owne party and sooner in this particular as having more reason to know it What if M. Wadsvvorth say he read Paockers consecration in the registers doth that make your registers good against so many signes of forgery Nay put the case he and some few should have bin something moved at the sight of them it argues no more then their ignorance of the manifold arguments I bring to convince them of falsood As for your other witnesses I must take them vpon your word which I have found so palpably faile in the former and shall take occasion in another chapter to examine them and what you say of them CHAP. II. The fabulous Consecration at Lambeth and the forgery of its records proved by the Statute 8. Eliz. 1. and by the Queenes letters patents and Commission 1. BVt if your Register be not forged and all was so legally performed at Lambeth as it relates vvhy should our Doctors object to your first Bishops not only nullity but also illegality of consecration contrary to the statutes and lawes of the land Why did the Queene make good by act of Parliament 8. Eliz. 1. not only the forme of Ed. 6. ordination But also all Actes and things had made or donne by any person or persons in or about any consecration confirmation or investing of any person or persons elected to the office or dignity of Archbishops or Bishops by vertue of the Queenes letters patents or commission sithence the beginning of her reigne If Parker and the rest had bin consecrated according to the forme of Edward 6. as your Records and Writers pretend what need had there bin of this Act of Parliament This is so cleere against your forged Registers and feigned solemnity at Lambeth that you thought fit to omit in your answer to this objection the words of the statute Pag. 146. 147. and only say that I repeate the vvords of apart of the statute and thence conclude by which act appeares that not only King Edvvards rite but any other vsed since the beginning of the Queenes reigne vpon her commission vvas enacted for good and consequently that of the Nagshead might passe Cujus contrarium verum est The contrary to vvhat these Fathers inferre doth follovv necessarily from these vvords vvhich the Fathers cite The vvords of the Act are these By vertue of the Queenes letters patents or Commission I pray Mr Doctor have a better opinion of your Readers then to thinke they are so mad as to be perswaded by you that men should cite only these words of a statute By vertue of the Queenes letters patents or Commission to prove the nulâ—ity or illegality of your protestant consecraâ—ion Is it the manner I do not say of Polenick but even of honest Writers to conceaâ—e and mangle the words wherupon the Adâ—ersary grounds the force of his argument 2. But yow are as unfortunate in citing these few words By vertue of the Queenes letters patents or Comission as your Reader must be unsatisfied of your ingenuity for concealing the others to wch they relate Pag. 88. The Queenes letters patents which yow cite declare expressly that the reason why by her supreme authority she dispensed with all invalidities of the persons condition state and faculty and with all illegalities against the Canons of the Church and statutes of the land was not her Majesties extraordinary care least some circumstance in the politicall part might be defective in some punctitilio of
mysteries signified vvithout which formes neither of these Orders can be validly conferred This is the best vvay to reconcile the Greeke and Latin formes of ordination and the ancient and modern Rituals though in every one is expressed the particular function of a Priest or a Bishop Only yours because it vvas composed vvhen Zuinglianisme prevailed in England makes no mention of either in any forme or any thing like a forme But if you vvold be pleased to read Morinus a late Author de Ordinationibus sacris who may instruict both Polemick and Scholastick writers in this matter you will find how dangerous it is for particular persons or Churches to alter the present aÌ„d approved vse in the administration of the Sacrement of Order or even to resume the practise of ancient Rituals canonically abrogated much more when like malicious or ignorant surgeons the Swinglian heretiques cut away nerves and arteries and the very substance vnder pretext of superflous excrescences You will find the danger of neglecting the vsual matter and forme notwithstanding these termes were not so vsual in all ancient times Nor that your recourse to the grecian practise although it vvere like yours as it is not vvill secure you as it doth them and you vvill find the Greeke and Latin vse much better reconciled by him then by vulgar Authors of your or our profession even better then by Arcudius who gave some light to schoolemen in this particular You will find the Roman Church to vse the most assured way that can be imagined and never tooke away any thing that might give the least scruple either for the change or the povver or manner of changing You vvill find you have put a most satisfactory discourse conncerning the buisines of Formosus Pope and his succeeding enemies To transcribe all this at large â—s neyther vsefull to the ignorant who will vnderstand very litle nor needfull to the learned who may see the author nor proper to this â—hort trectise which without all this doth evinâ—e the Nullity of your Clergy and according to the most favourable opinion of any tolerable Devine makes your Ordinaion in a high degree vncertaine 4. Pag. 232. But you deny that Zuinglianisme preuailed in England in Edvvard the 6. time vvhen the 12. or 7. learned men forsooth in the lavv of God and the land made your formes of Ordination I hope you do not take vs to be as ignorant in the History of England as one of your chiefe Doctors did a Gentlewoeman lately in Paris when hearing of her inclinations to Catholique religion he dissuaded her from it by assuring her that it vvas not the ancient faith of England nor ever professed in that Kingdome before Henry the 8. time Do not all vnpartial vvriters mention the Protector Seamours perfidiousnesse in establishing Zvvinglianisme in England during the minority of Edvvard the 6. contrary to his promise and engagement to Henry the 8. Is it not notorious that in the second Parliament of K. Edvvard 6. Convers of England part 2. pag. 607. pag. 611. begun the 4. of November 1548. vvherin your booke of common praier and administration of Sacraments being imposed by Zuinglian heretiques chosen by the Protector and his faction vvas confirmed there vvas a great contention vvhether the Kingdome should be Lutheran or Zuinglian in religion and that after foure monthes debate the Zuinglians did overbeare the other side by some voices And hovv Peter Martyr and Bucer vvere inspired by the posts that brought newes of the Parliaments resolution from London to teach publiquely in the Vnniversities that Christ vvas not present in the Sacrament of the alter and that this is my body was no more then this is the signe of my body Is it not evident by Iohn Fox an Author of your own his Acts and Monuments Part. 3. Convers pag 372. eait 1604 that the far greater part of all your Protestant Saints and Martyrs were put to death for denying the real presence and not only transubstantiation Do not the bookes which our Catholique Doctors writ against your first superintendens demonstrate that these were of the same opinion with your Martyrs But vvhat need we go farther then the 25. of your 39. articles and translations of Scripture to prove your Zuinglian Tenet in matter of holy Orders They who thrust out of Scripture in the English versions the words Priest and Bishop putting insteed therof Elder and Superintendent were not likely men to put them or expresse their function in your formes of ordination But you say that in the Preface yee maintaine to all the vvorld that the three Orders of Bishops Priests Pag. 232. and Deacons have bin ever from the beginning in the Church of Christ Are men ordained by your Preface or because in your Preface it is maintained that the Church of Christ had alvvayes the said Orders doth it follow that the English Church in those times was the Church of Christ Call them Svvinglians call them Lutherans call them what you plaese their Creed their versions their writings show they contemned Consecration and were content with election and when they vsed some thing like consecration it was to satisfy the people not themselves And that Whitaker and Fulke whom you cite pag. 233. never admitted the necessity of consecrated Bishops no the very state of the question disputed in those times betweene our English sectaries was not about consecrated or not consecrated Bishop but whether one Minister was to be elected to Lord it over the rest Most of the Ministers misliked it but the Prince approved it for reason of state thereby to Keepe the Clergy in awe and to have so many mercenary Votes in the house of Lords 5. At length you tell vs that if your ancestours have pared away any thing out of mistake from ordination Pag. 235. that is either prescribed or practised by the true Catholique Church let it be made appeare evidently to you and you are more ready to vvelcome it againe at the fore dore then your Ancestours were to cast it out at the back dore Errare possumus haeretici esse nolumus Your Church hath so many times changed its Tenets and is so indifferent for any beneficial addition or subtraction of doctrine that it seemes to be composed of nothing but back dores and starting holes wherby you cast out and welcome in whatsoever is gratefull or not gratefull to the humor of the Prince or prevailing faction Now seing it hath bin made appeare that your Ancestours valued not episcopal consecration admitted no priesthood but baptisme and denied the real presence I hope you can not imagine that these men would compose formes of Ordination contrary to their owne Tenets and profession or that a Zuinglian Parliament would confirme your booke of administration of Sacraments and rites before they had vvell examined whether it contained any thing contrary to their owne conscience and reformation And if they had bin Lutherans you gaine litle seing
but the too much wit of the schollers Perhaps Machiavel durst not presume to find peeple in his countrey apt to beleeve that of a number of Popes for many ages could be forged one monstrous man called Antichrist He could not imagine that Italians would kill one another in good earnest vpon hopes to destroy this imaginary Monster nor that Tinkers and Coblers brains could be so far past mending that they would be cast into the fire in defence of the fond inventions of a fewlewd and lying Apostatas or that the folly of these brainsike Idiots would serve for a testimony to men in their wits Machiavel had read as much history as John Foxe or his Dutch Maisters the Magdeburgeans and could have made Acts and Monuments with as many falsities and fewer follies yet he had a better conceit of his Nation then to hope that such a booke should be placed in Churches by publicke authority and stand so long by the shamles malice of some and careles stupidity of others He knew his countrymen had seene many peeces of ancient Architecture that they would not be easily persuaded to pray with security in a Chappel supported by such a pillar They had heard so much of the Buls sacrificed to Jupiter Capitolinus that it would be hard to make them beleeve that the praying before the Picture of Christ was in effect the old Idolatry of the Romans The Crosses and Images they had seen in the grots of the ancient Martyrs freed them from the suspicion of superstitious Novelty Machiavel knew better then Ministers the vices and abuses of the Roman Clergy and desired no lesse to decry and destroy it yet he was far from expecting that Carters and Catchpols Porters and Pedlers would be heard with patience in Italy prate Non-sence out of pulpits and take vpon them to reforme and pull downe Pope and Prelates and much lesse that the successours of these should be respected as priests meerly by their wearing long coats without any evidence produced of their vocation consecration and Jurisdiction besides what they received from a woeman dispensing with the very State and condition of the Consecraters beyond all that hath bin practised or pretended by the Vicar of Christ He could not suspect that wary and jealous Italians would confesse their hidden sins to men who had no other key of power nor locke of Secrecy but of a Woemans making Machiavel could have forged a new Bible with false translations and knew fullwell that destruction is caused by Division and no better way to divide Religion in to innumerable sects then to make every mans fond faney the Judge of a falsified Rule of Religion he had got what he sought and by contrary senses of Gods word had abolished all sense of God and goodnes had he thought that Italian Bibles would doe what the English have done but being by office a Secretary he was afraid to be proved a notorious falsary He knew that by abusing scripture as our English translaters have done both he and all those who should conspire with him would forfeit their credit and become infamous after so many so grosse so palpable discoveryes of their false dealing I shal note a few and direct the Reader for many more to be found in Gregory Martins discovery of the manifold corruptions of holy scriptures by the Heretiques of our dayes especially the English Sectaries In the Bible of the yeare 1562. closse vpon the time of the pretended solemne and Canonical Consecration at Lambeth by imposition of hands and other things requisite they make the Scripture speake in those termes Act. 14. v. 23. When they had ordained Elders by Election in every Congregation and the same words are kept saving the Change of Congregation into Church in the Bible 1628. vpon this place I have two things to note first the wresting of the word Chirotonia from the Ecclesiastical to the profane sense of election by stretching forth the hand according to the use of the Atheniens and against the interpretation of S Hierome who in cap. 58. Isai interprets Chirotonia Clericorum ordinatio not Electio and against S. Paul 1. Tim. 5. v. 22. where speaking of ordination he saith lay hands suddainely on noe man The second that both in those first times and also in these later they declared by their version of Scripture their opinion concerning orders by election and not by consecration which includes imposition of hands Now you shal see how the Scripture is made to speake to the tune of the Princes humour notwithstanding they preach so lowd that all men both Kings and Popes must be put in tune by the sound of the letter During King Edward the sixt his reigne the onely translation of this place 1. Petr. 2. v. 13. which in the original Greeke is submit yourselves vnto every humane creature for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as excelling or c. was then submit your selves vnto all manner ordinauce of man whether it be to the King as into the chiefe head or c. But vnder Q. Eliz. who as Cambden in her lise relateth would not be called head of the Church but supreme gouvernor To the King as having preheminence Bible 1577. and To the King as superior Bible 1579. But in King Iames his time who pressed much the oath of supremacy To the King as supreme Bibles 1012. 1618. Doe you not see these fawning Parasites make sport vvith the Scripture to please their Princes Whilst liberty was cried downe where they should have put he gave them power exusian to be made the sonnes of God Io. 2. v. 12. they place Prerogative Bible 1558. but novv since liberty is come into credit they have restored the vvord Power Bible 1628. Is this to follow Scripture or rather force Scripture to follow themselves But to be sure their wives may follovv them they make S. Paul vvandring about the vvorld like a German Souldier with his vvife behind him 1. Cor. 9. v. 5. Have not we power to lead about a wife being a sister Bible 1580. and this remaines vnchanged even in the Bible 1628. and is like to remaine till Ministers be weary of their wiues Notwithslanding S. Paul a litle before c. 7. v. 8. sufficiently giveth to be vnderstood he was not married Notwithstanding S. Hiorome interprets it and S. Austin proves it to be not wife but woeman and the Greeke fathers most expressely Notwithslanding these very Bibles a litle before c. 7. v. 1. translate woeman not wife vpon the same Greeke word and without any article or particle of difference betwixt the same word in both places saving that it was not for their purpose to make S. Paul say it were good for aman not to touch a wife Notwithslanding that all who know Spanish Portugues Italian French Hebrew High or Low dutch in which languages the same word no lesse then in Greeke signifies both woeman and wife are not ignorant that wheresoever there is no
more determinative signes then in the text of S. Paul it is generally vnderstood for a woeman not wife And this their lewd humour makes them have such a spite against the ever Virgin Mother of God They could translate Helcomenos full of sores Luc. 16. v. 20. speaking of Lazarus but Kecharitomene Luc. 1. v. 28. must not be full of grace but freely beloved Bible 1628. because it was spoken of the Virgin Mother and in the margen is put received into favour as if the Greeke word were capable of many senses but by no meanes of that sense which might signify that the mother of God being à Virgin should befull of grace So much she hath lost in the opinion of these lewd fellowes vpon the prerogative of her Virginity After their fraud occasioned by a false pretence of ambiguity they fall vpon downe right falsity Where both the Greeke and Latin have 1. Cor. 11. v. 27. Who so ever shall eato this bread or drinke the cup They put and insteed of or Bible 628. to persuade the ignorant that Catholickes gainesay the Scripture in not giving allwayes the communion vnder both kinds But it is no marvel they sould change or into and when Beza had changed as into signifies and the German heretiques solum for soli to make David say I have nothing els but sinned in lieu of To thee alone I have sinned Ps 51. And Luther added the word alone to faith and said it should stand in spite of all that opposed it But what are these changes to the making whole bookes Apocryphal because prejudicial to their errours The Machabees thrust out vpon account of Purgatory Ecclesiasticus of liberty Toby of the assistance of Angels For as to their having bin questioned it is a vaine excuse seing the Apocalypse no lesse questioned is held for good because it serves the Ministers to foole the people with the hornes of the beast planted on the Popes head which would become their own much better But it is ridiculous to see these petty Grammarians so Critical in the Etymological sense that Baptisme must be washing Priest Elder Beelzebub Lord of afly Catholique Vniversal and yet Paradosis must not be traditions 2. Thess 2. v. 15. but instructions Bible 1628. or ordinances preachings institutions or any thing but what it should be yet where mention is made of reprehensible traditions you shall be sure to have this word to English the same Paradosis as Matt. 15 v. 2. 3. of the same Bible Nay you shall have Traditions where the Greeke word is neyther Paradosis nor any thing like for Col. 2. v 20. by Tidogmatizesthe any one that knowes the Greeke language is rather put in mind of Decrees Doctrines or opinions then Traditions but to make them odious they are left where any thing is spoken to their commendation although the original Greeke deliver them in their proper word and here they are thrust in by head and shoulders where the Greeke hath a word very different and this not onely in the old Bible 1579. are you led with traditions but in a later 1628. are you burdened with Traditions The Greeke having no word proper to Traditions much lesse to burdening I wonder the translater of this late Bible was not ashamed here as in another place for 2. Cor. 6. v. 16. he puts as he ought what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols not daring to be so impudent as to follow the Bible 1567. How agreeth the Temple of God with images being a thing known that ever the Iews Temples wanted not images Much more of this kind and even more shamefull profanation you may see M. Bramhall in Gregory Martin whose authority though you slight yet you ought not to slight the manifold and manifest examples he brings Perhaps the authority of your Brethren the Puritans whom you now and then find occasion to flatter in your bookes vvill be of more weight with you or at least with others In a petition directed to her most excellent Majesty c. pag they speake in these termes Our translation of the Psalmes comprised in the booke of common prayer doth in addition subtraction and alteration differ from the truth of the Hebrew in two thous and places at least And M. Carliele a Protestant in his booke that Christ descended into Hell sayth of the English translaters that they have depraved the sense obscured the truth deceaved the ignorant Now Sir I hope you vvill be pleased or forced to take notice of the argument which before you passed by vvinking as if it were vnworthy to be regarded Ministers falsify Scriptures no wonder if they forge records They are so deprived of conscience and shame that they conspire to maintaine their religion with John Foxes most false and foolish stories with most impudent falsifications of Scripture of ancient and moderne Authors which any man that will take the least paines may evidently see to be wilfull vnconscionable vnexcusable therefore no marvel if they give false attestations of a matter not extant in writing and which may after so long a time have bin forgot by some and remembred by others who are not pressed to testify their remembrāce as being a thing needles to the cause and dangerous to their persons You thought that as one mans yawning makes others yavvne so your winking at this argument would make others winke and not marke the force of it You hoped to persuade the Reader that you might as lawfully reject my Authors as I yours As if there were no difference bewixt men of true and false dealing Let any man judge that is acquainted with Stapleton Belarmine Parsons Peron shew in any of them such fowle and wilfull cheating as manifestly appeares in Jewel Morton Andrews Barlow and generally in the rest of the prime Protestant Ministers or if he be not acquainted with our writers let him but pervse the aforesaid Walsinghams search into Religion or the Quiet and sober reckoning with M. Thomas Morton where he shall find Protestants never more false then in their imputation of falsood to our Authors In whom I could never discover any wilfull corruption in defense of our Religion against heretiques and the Author of the Treatise tending to Mitigation a man well versed in the writings of both sides hath c. 12. pag. 489. long since challenged Morton to bring forth any Catholicke Authors whatsoever that wrote against Protestants since these heresies began that hath bin taken in this impiety I meane that hath set downe in print any such falsity as can not be excused eyther by iguorance oversight negligence error of print translation diversity of editions or the like but that it must needs be presumed that he knew the vntruth and yet would set it forth of this kind I say let him shew but one example among all Catholicke writers of our time and I will in my conscience greatly mistrust and discredit the Author whether it be another or my selfe But if he shew me two or three in any writer of this kind I shall never be able to beleeve him more Thus he Certainely if we were given to this practise it vvould have bin discovered in the innumerable citations of Bellarmine or of the Author of the Protestants Apology vvho hath collected the sayings of all Protestant vvriters he could possibly find We have vsed faire dealing in the edition of Scripture we follow as having bin in vse many ages in the Church before these Controversies and therefore not fraudalently chosen much lesse falsely changed to favour our doctrine which D Covel Protestant in his answer to M. John Burges pag 94. confesseth to have bin vsed in the Church a thous and three hundred yeares agoe where he prefers it before others and pag. 91. prefers amongst English translations that vvhich comes neerest it Which is highly commended by Beza in his Annot. in c. 2 Luc. v. 1. and by Molinaeus the famous french Calvinist is more esteemed then the translation of Erasmus Bucer Bullinger Tigurines and of Calvin himselfe and all others To conclude what Protestant so ever will not take the paines to confer the doctrines and Doctors of both parties but vvill take M. Bramhals empty words for found arguments his pretermissions for solutions his prevarication or presumption for a serious and solid defension his Rhetorical Tropes for rational ansvvers his negative attestations about a smal accessory for a positive Vindication of the principal charge made against his Clergy scraps of History for Christian Theology a deceitfull appearance of long coates and surplesses for a sufficient evidence of Priestly character to such a one I say that he neyther deserves a more faithfull champion to rescue him in his dangers nor a more skilfull Devine to resolve him in his doubts nor a more lawfull Priest to absolve him from his sins FINIS
Luther himselse in the places alleadged in the next chapter maketh all Christians Priests by baptisme 6. But suppose it had not bin evident but only probable that your Ancestors pared avvay some part of the essential forme or matter of Ordination is it part of your Case Theology to contemne prudent doubts in a matter of fo greate importance and of absolute necessity for the being of a Church There is not a more infallible marke of heresy then to exact cleere evidence for obscure mysteries or to contemne ancient publique ceremonies vpon the warrant of a moderne private spirit as you might have seene and ought to have refuted if you could in the Treatise of Catholique faith and heresy But it seenes you regard not what is thought of your Heresy provided you may seeme to maintaine your episcopacy and that yee are content to vndergo the infamy of sectaries so vee retaine the titles of Lords and Bishops Pag. 234. You say we have such an eye at your Order and vniformity that wee can not let your long cloakes and surplises alone As for vniformity yee never had any and your vvant of Orders makes vs take notice of the superfluity of your long cloakes and surplisses The old Protestant cut would become yee much better and I believe yee will returne to it and welcome it at the fore dore of your Church alvvayes open for any advantage if the puritan or presbyterian faction prevaile CHAP. VI. That the Pope did not confirme Edward 6. forme of Ordination and that all sectaries admitted no priesthood but baptisme and that in Henry the 8. reigne and Edvvard the 6. men played the Bishops though never consecrated and so did Barlovv 1. TO my first reason you answer nothing to the purpose Pag. 63. but only that King Edvvards forme of ordination vvas judged valid in Queene Maries days by all Catholiques and particularly by Cardinal Pole then Apostolicall legate in England and by the then Pope Paul the 4 and by all the Clergy and Parliament of England This you prove by Cardinal Poles dispensation vvhich the Pope confirmed to all those that were ordained Praetensa authoritate supremitatis Ecclefiae Anglicanae pretending the Authority of the English supremacy I perceave by your other bookes you are well versed in Foxes Acts and monuments and some what in the Dutch Centurists vvith the story and statutes of England whence you gather what in passion hath bin done against the Popes authority vpon certaine abuses The attention to that made you not reflect vpon this decree or article as Fox calls it of Q. Maries made by the consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal Fox pag. 1295. Item touching such persons as vvere heretofore promoted to any Orders after the nevv sort and fashion of Orders considering they vvere not ordered in very deed the Bishop of the Diocese finding othervvise sufficiency and ability in these men may supply that thing which vvanted in them before and then according to his aiscretion admit them to Minister I hope this Article or Decree made vvith the consent and advise of Cardinal Poole and of the Lords spiritual and temporal of England doth sufficiently declare that his Dispensation and the Popes confirmation vvas intended and extended only to such as had bin ordained after the ancient and Catholique manner in the time of schisme Of others promoted to any Orders after the new fashion and forme of Edvvard the 6. its declared they vvere not ordered in very deed and therfore the Bishop ought to supply their want of ordination And yet you are so confident as to say that the question in Q. Maries dayes vvas not about the validity or invalidity of your Orders but about the legality or illegality of them I pray you not to be ordered in very deed is it only an illegality 2. The ill successe you had in recurring to King Edwards forme and Bishops doth force you appeale to Henry the 8. times wherin you imagine that neither Barlow nor any other durst play the Bishop if not cōsecrated because forsooth Henry the 8. was not a Baby to be ieasted withall Pag. 186. We know M Doctor that Henry the 8. was no Baby but you also ought te have knowen that he was a man more led by passion then by reason or religion After that he perceived how the Pope was resolved not to declare voyd his marriage with Q. Chatharine of Spaine he did so persecute his adherents and authority vvithout regard to conscience or even to his owne statuts that his principal care was to countenance heretical Preachers and principles as far as they concurred to maintaine his headship of the Church to enrich him with the spoiles therof to vex and endommage the Pope * Luther tom 2. de Min Ecclesiae instituendis fol. 368. seq de abroganda missa privata to 2. fol. 249. in lib. de capt Babylon C. de ordine Peter Martyr in 1. Cor. 11. vers 5. Zuinglius tom 1. explanat a. 17. fine D. Horne and the first protestant Bishops in the Harborough an 1559 H. 2. Three Cōvers of England part 2. pag. 570. 571. Now heretiques generally in those days did agree in this principle that there is no other priestshood in the lavv of grace but baptisme and therfore all Christians both men and women were Priests and might preach and Ministers all Sacraments though to avoyd confusion the exercise of Priestly authority ought to be committed to some either by election of the Magistrate or by the letters patents of the Prince This doctrine they grounded vpon 1. Pet. 2. Apoc. 1. Christ made vs all a holy nation a royal priesthood and Priests to his father This principle vvas so sutable to Henry the 8. designe of making himselse supreme head of the Church in spirituall affaires and of possessing himselse of its temporalities that he was well pleased to winke at the practise of all heretiques who pretended to be Bishops though they never had bin consecrated Archbishop Cranmer to whom all such matters were remitted being himselfe a prime heretique and in so greate favor with the King that romvvel before his fall sayd vnto him See Fox pag. 1694 1695. being accused of denying the real presence My Lord of Canterbury you are most happy of all men for you may doe and speake vvhat you list and let all men speake against you vvhat they can the King vvill never believe one vvord to your detriment or hinderance c. There was no such danger of Premunires as D. Bramhall pretends who would have vs take his word against the evidences cited in the margen that only Anabaptists Pag. 196. and not Zvvinglians rejected ordination 3. They who forged Masons Register thought fit to name among Parkers Consecraters Barlovv and Hodgkins both pretended Bishops in King Henry the 8. reigne not doubting therby to make it credible that they both and consequently Parker were validly consecrated though Scory