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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68090	An apology or defence for the Christians of Frau[n]ce which are of the eua[n]gelicall or reformed religion for the satisfiing of such as wil not liue in peace and concord with them. Whereby the purenes of the same religion in the chiefe poyntes that are in variance, is euidently shewed, not onely by the holy scriptures, and by reason: but also by the Popes owne canons. Written to the king of Nauarre and translated out of french into English by Sir Iherom Bowes Knight.; Apologie ou défense pour les chretiens de France de la religion reformée. English	Gentillet, Innocent, ca. 1535-ca. 1595.; Bowes, Jerome, Sir, d. 1616.	1579 (1579)	STC 11742; ESTC S103023	118,829	284

part of this sentēce seemeth to forbidde a good deed for it sayth receyue not the sinner Vnderstand therefore that this is spoken by a figure taking the sinner for the sin to the ende that thou admit not any sinne Thus haue you heard the very wordes of S. Augustine which doe very well declare vnto vs as well by the rule as by the first example which he setteth downe that the eating of the flesh and bloud of christ in his supper ought to be vnderstoode spiritually sacramentally and not after the manner of the cannibals which is vtterly voyd of all humanity and good manners as those transubstantiatiers would make vs beleue And whereas the catholickes vphold that this sacramēt ought not to be distributed vnto the lay people but by halfes which they doe terme vnder one kinde the same is expresly cōdemned by their owne canons as hie treason towardes god For you shall here what a canon sayth which is taken out of the decrees of Pope Gelasius It is done vs to vnderstand that some hauing receyued the holy sacrament of the body do abstayne from the cup of the holy bloud which thing they ought not to do for in asmuch as it is euident that in so doing they entangle themselues in I wot not what a kind of superstition they ought to receyue the sacrament whole togither or els to abstayne from it altogither For the deuiding a sunder of one selfe same mistery can not be done without great trechery And furthermore where as the most part of the lay catholikes do content themselues with the receyuing of the sacrament onely once a yeare which is at Easter they are condemned by the canons which declare that those are not to be taken for catholikes which receyue not three times in a yeare These be the very wordes of a cannon taken out of the councell of Agatha The laye people which receyue not the Lordes supper at Christmas at Easter and at whitsontide let them not bee taken ne reputed for Catholikes Thus may all men perceyue iudge with what manner of passion these catholikes are caried away which do so boldly condemne the Protestants as heretiques for their doctrine concerning this poynt of the supper of the Lord and so do spitefully name them Sacramentaries as though they denied this sacramēt For in so doing they do also vnawares condemne their owne cānons which otherwise they esteme so greatly that many of them do attribute more authority vnto those Cannons than to the holy scripture saying that they be the determinations of the holy mother church wherunto they ought to sticke bicause the scripture is to obscure and may be taken both wayes But indede it is nothing so for the scripture hath but one sence which is easy to be found out of a man that is willing to learne by conferring one text with another But the cannons are in many cases quite contrary one to another I know full well that too shift off these contrarieties the schole men say that we must always hold vs to those that were last made But I answer them that that is asmuch to say as we must alwayes hold vs to the worst For euery man of sound iudgement may always easely perceyue that the ancient cannons are better than those of latter tyme. And further to abate the authority of their canōs by their canōs thēselues I say that the cannons do will vs to serch the vnderstāding of the obscure textes of the scripture in the scripture it selfe And those which seeke it elsewhere are the very scholemasters of errour These are the very wordes of a cannon What is more vngodly than to hold an vngodly doctrine and not to beleue those that are most wise and learned But all such do fall into this kind of ignorance as make not their recourse to the wordes of the Prophets to the writing of the Apostles and to the authority of the Euangelistes to learne the knowledge of the truth in any obscure poynt but will needes trust to their own wit And therefore they become scholemaisters of errour because they list not to be disciples of the truth Which cannon in very deede doth deeply in few wordes condemne the scholedeuines that make more accompt of the authority of the Cannons and doctors of the church than of the very text of the scripture which they accompt to be to obscure And true it is that some textes of the scripture are in some places very darke howbeit there is no text so obscure but it may be made playne by other textes of the same scripture Specially if they resort not to the cannons and decretalls but to the Hebrue text for the the olde testament and to the Greeke text for the new testament as S. Augustine doth teach vs who sayth in this wise Such as vnderstand the latine tongue must for the better vnderstanding of the whole Scriptures haue the knowledge of two other languages more that is to wit of the Hebrue and of the Greek to the end they may haue recourse to the very fountayne of the originall coppies when the diuersitye of the Latin rranslations doth breede any doubte And hereto accordeth a Canon which sayth thus Like as the trueth of the things that are contayned in the old Testament ought to be examined by the Hebrue books Euen so the truth which is written in the new Testament ought to be made playne and cleere by the Greek bookes I besech you what can be braied aagaynst this Canon by the whole herd of these Asses which are so bold as to say that the Hebrue and Greeke tongues be the Languages of Heritickes and therefore doe vtterly reiect and condemne them Do they not by the same meanes condemne the canons and auncient doctors And if they condemne them Are they to bee holden for good Catholickes Well let vs come now to speake of the Masse Of the Masse The viii Chapter THe difference betwixt the Masse and the Supper of our Lord is great For the Catholick schoolemen which vnderstand what the masse is for all of them vnderstand it not doe say that it is a Sacrifice whereby the Priest offereth vp the body and the bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ vnto God for the soule health both of the quick and of the dead Which Sacrifice is accompanied with diuers other parcels as accessaries that is to say with diuers prayers and diuers texts taken out of the gospels and epistles of the new Testament and with divers verses taken out of the Psalmes of Dauid and other bookes of the olde Testament and interlarded throughout with many and diuers Ceremonies And this goodly omnigatherū hath bene patched together at many Sondry tymes by dyuers Popes And that is the cause why the Catholickes do put the masse among the cōmaundementes of their holy mother Church For this commaundement Thou shalt heare masse vpō the Sondayes and vpon other feastfull dayes inioyned is the first

sent To beate his Rampires and his Bulwarkes downe In force wherof he weares his tryple Crowne The time is come to thine immortall prayse That this same Kaytiffe being battered sore With these same Canons of his own decayes And sinking vnder truth to rise no more Lyes beaten down with shame for euermore From day to day forgoing still his strength Vntill his State be wanzd away at length FINIS ¶ THE AVTHOR TO his Booke YE braying Canones which so grounded be Vpon the word of him that raignes on high With thundering noyze let fly your bullets free That men may heare them roaring to the sky But as for you ye Canons whom we see From mouth of brasse to spit out fiery flame Of Vulcanes smoky Forge holde you your peace You bring our Realme to ruine and to shame The others force fond ignorance to cease FINIS AN APOLOGIE FOR the Protestantes IT is well knowen that in these daies there are in Fraunce two sorts of catholickes which are of the Romish Religiō For there are of them that be tractable and desirers and louers of the peace and quietnes of this Realme and such as will not condemne the reformed religion nor those that make profession therof without hearing and vnderstanding them as the others doe but can well finde in their hartes to liue in frendship and fellowship with them and not trouble them in the exercise of their Religion but tary the time vntil God through his grace haue inlightned them and made them to know the errors and abuses which may be in the one in the other and make vs Frēchmen which are now a dayes to wilfully bent apte and willing to yealde vnto reason And there are other some so wilfull and so far run into hatred and enmitie against the reformed Religion and the professors of the same that they preferre their own vnreasonable humors before the peace common quyet of their countrey Yea and euen before the preseruation of the state of the Prince These be they to whom I speake in my Apologie And also to all that are desirous to know in what poynt and for what cause the Protestants do stande in controuersie for Religion against the Romish Catholickes First therfore I desire them all to presuppose that to iudge of a matter before they vnderstand it and to condemne a man without hearing his answere is a thing that ill becommeth not only all Christians but also any other reasonable person For by the law of nature as witnesseth the Ciuil law we ought to heare their reasons and defences whose cause we haue to iudge of therein to doe as we would be done vnto as Nature willeth and commandeth vs And therfore these ouerangry Catholickes which condemne hate and persecute the professors of the reformed religion without vnderstanding it or without hearing them do wel bewray therby that their panges and passions are very strange for that they haue such force as to cause them to forget the law of Nature the knowledge wherof God hath imprinted in the hartes of all men euen from their creation Truly it is a lamentable and beastly thing that a man shold so yealde himselfe to the humor of hatred rancor enuy desire of reuenge such like frenzes as that he should rob himselfe of his naturall wit and cause himselfe to forget the right vse of reasō as you may well see by the doinges of those heady persons I know right well that they haue been accustomed to cloake these passions by saying that the Pope the Counsel of Trent and the Sorbonistes haue long agoe condemned the reformed Religion as erronious and hereticall and that therfore it is to be holden for a resolution that it is naught and to be condemned without farther inquirie of the matter and without any other forme or processe of Law. But hereunto it hath euer been answered as we do still that those which haue thus condemned our Religion haue alwayes been both Iudges and parties And that the professors of the reformed Religion haue not been heard in their lawfull defences So that those which will needes make a president of such condemnations geuē against the parties vnheard be suspected and vncompetent Iudges and do stil fal back agayne into the former fault of condēning men vnheard a thing contrary to the law of nature and shew themselues to be parciall and fond Iudges in that they will needs geue sentence of the thing which they vnderstand no more than a blind man can iudge of colors therfore are worthely noted in way of scorne by that common prouerb That good king of France Lewes the twelfe surnamed the father of his people will neuer be forgotten who being importunatly called vpon by the Bishops and Cardinals of his time to cause a bloudy execution to be done vpon the people of Cabriers and Meryndoll in Prouince who had neither masses nor Images in their churches and were as a remnant of the auncient breede of the Albigions and of the pore men of Lyon which had been all condemned for heretickes did make this worthy wise answere I am a king quoth he ouer my people to minister iustice vnto them which I cannot do without hearing such as are accused I will therfore heare them before I condemne them though they were Turks or Deuils Hereupon it was told the Kinge that the religion which those of Cabryers and Meryndol did professe had bin often before that time condemned for hereticall and wicked specially in the Councell of Laterane Anno. 1179. Vnder Pope Alexander the third in the time of king Philip Augustus and by the Emperor Frederick the second Pope Honorius the third about the yeare 1217 and by Pope Gregory the ninth who entered into the Papacie Anno 1227. But notwithstanding all these shewes and prouocations this good king would not be led from his determination Saying that he would not stretch his conscience so far as to make a president of the iudgements and decrees of those Popes King and Emperor but would heare the answers of the parties accused before he condemned them And thereupon he gaue audience to the Comissioners of Cabryers and Meryndol And when he had heard thē he sent thether Adam Fume his Master of requestes and Ihon Paruyz his Cōfessor to informe him of their life and doctrine Who made report to his maiesty that it was true that those of Cabryers and Meryndol had neither masses nor Images in their churches but that otherwise they were all well instructed yea euen the very litle ones in the articles of the fayth and in the commaundementes of God and that they vtterly abstayned frō al blasphemous othes and whoredome keping holy the Sabaoth day and greatly reuerensing the supper of our Lord baptisme and maryage Which when the king thus vnderstoode he did not only not condemne them of heresie as he was intysed to haue done but also quite otherwise did pronounce with his owne voyce

them euidently that it is not so when we come to the scanning of euery poynt particularly that is in question And for proofe and demonstration of our sayinges we will take for our grounde three Maximes or generall rules which are very certayne and true whereby euery man shall easely be able to iudge whether the same religion is to be reckned wicked new and hereticall or no. The three Maximes are these The first is that that doctrine of Religion whereby God is most honored is the best The second is that that Doctrine which is best builded vpon the worde of God is the moste auncient and true The third is that the Romish Catholickes cannot well accuse that doctrine of heresie which is approued by their own Canones Which three rules or maximes be so cleere euident of them selues that in mine opinion the day or the Sun is not clearer For seeing that Religiō is no other thing than the duty which we owe vnto god It doth folow that that doctrine which teacheth vs to yeld vnto him all dutye and honour and to rob him of no part thereof is a good and true doctrine and that there can be no better Likewise it is certayn that the doctrine which is builded vpon the only word of God ought not to be called new but that we may rather say that it is as olde as the world it selfe In so much that they which doe call it new may not nor cannot so call it in respect of it selfe but onely in respect of their own ignorance for to the ignorāt euery thing that they vnderstand not is new Neither is it to be douted but that it is most true because that God who is the author therof is the truth it selfe and the fountayn of light and wisdome In like maner I thinke that al mē will easily graunt that euen the earnestest Catholickes of Rome can not dispence so much with them selues as to accuse that Religiō of heresie which is approued by their own Canones because the Canones be authorysed by the Popes themselues For the decrees of Gracian from whence I intend to draw the most partes of the Canōs which shal be alleaged were ratifyed authorised by Pope Euginie the third who commaunded that they should be red in the Vniuersytyes and vsed in iudgemēt as they haue bene euer since So that to reiect and condemn the Canons were as much in effect as to deny the Pope and all the Romane Religion But full well I know that hereafter when I shall alleadge the Canons those passionate Catholickes will rise vp and say that there be other canons contrary to these and truly I will not deny but that the bookes of the Canon law are ful of cōtraryeties Yet dare I boldly say and assuredly auow that those Canons which I will alleadge in this booke are of the best and most auncient of al the Canon law which haue proceeded from the best springs fountaynes and from such authors as were most principall in skill and holynes as may easely bee iudged by those that will compare them with their bookes Hauing thus set downe these three Maximes the truth whereof is easelie to be perceaued by euery man of common capacitie yea euen of the grossest sort I am now to apply them orderlye to euery particular poynt And first of all we will treate of Prayer ❧ OF PRAYER The second Chapter THe doctrine of the professors of the Gospell touching prayer is verye playne Their opinion is in effect that we ought to offer our prayers vnto God our maker who is able inough to geue vs whatsoeuer we aske gratious in harckening gentlye to our requestes Who also hath manifested his great goodnes in giuing his euerlasting Sonne to the end that by him our manhoode might haue accesse to his Godhead And therefore they say that in praying to God our creator wee muste alwayes vse the credite and intercession of his Sonne our mediator who may boldly goe to the Father because he is God as he is in the selfsame Godhead and being and disdayneth not also to apply himselfe to men and to be an intercessor for them because he is man as they be Nether is this manner of praying vnto God altogether disalowed of the Romain Catholicks but they wil needes adde thereunto that we must haue also other Mediators and Intercessors to God the Father and to Iesus Christ himself That is to wit the hesaints and the shesaintes which are many in number in their times haue done many a faire miracle For say they if a man would be a suiter to a king in any cause or to his eldest sonne he would not at the first dash preace to their presence but goe to some of their seruants or Lordes of their court And so it seemeth a thing very reasonable and meete that when a man is minded to pray to god for any thing he go first to some of the Celestial court to purchase acces to god to Iesus Christ his Sonne by their meanes and that to doe otherwise were a kinde of dispising of the saints who haue the charge from God to pray continually for the Millitante Church and euery particular person of the same Truely it is not to be denied but that these reasons haue some colour and shew of truth if we shall iudge of God as of man. But hereunto the Protestants reply that we may not iudge of God as of a king or as of another mortall mā for there is great difference God is altogether good and inclyned to doe good But men be they kinges or other are naturally euill and disposed to doe euill both against God their neighbors God vnderstandeth our Prayers assoone as they be conceiued in our harts and before our mouthes doe vtter them But to cause a king to vnderstande our suites we must put them in wryting or tell them by word of mouth and therfore we haue neede of Aduocates to lay forth our cases of Maisters of requestes to preferre our petitions to the Prince or to his councell and of the fauor of great Lordes and councellours to get vs audience and dispatch All which thinges haue no place with god So that to compare the maner of praying vnto God with the preferring of suits vnto Princes is a token that we slenderly consider the greatnes of god And here wee haue to note a proper saying of S. Ambrose which he vttereth in these expresse wordes Those which in steede of resorting vnto God repayre vnto creatures are wont to colour their contempt of God with this miserable excuse That by the menes of those to whō they haue recourse they may attayne to the presence of God as men attayne to the presence of a king by meanes of his officers But I pray you is there any man so mad or so careles of his owne life that he dareth yeald the honor to any of the kings seruantes or officers which belongeth

amōgest the Romayne Catholickes the pilgrimage to Ierusalem to visit the holy Sepulchre is highlye esteemed as most holy denoute paynefull and meritorious And yet for all this a certayne Canon sayth It is nothing worth to haue bene at Ierusalem but to haue liued well there These be the very wordes of the Canon taken out of S. Ierom. It is not a thing worthy praise sayth he to haue bene at Ierusalem but to haue liued well at Ierusalem And as touching contemplation whereby the Moonkes woulde cullour and mayntayne their idle life their owne Canons do openly condemne them saying that Moonkes ought to exercise themselues in tilling the land in dressing of gardens in graffing of fruit trees in making of nettes to catch fish in copying of bookes and finally in following the example of the Bee which neuer ceaseth to be doing of somewhat And the same Canons do also witnes that in the monasteries of Egipt they neuer receaued any Moonk but vpon condition that he should labor Not so much for his owne necessitye that he might haue wherof to liue as to keepe their minds from wandring about euill Imaginations In so much that we reade that in old tyme there was in Egypte a good Abbot named Serapion which had vnder hys charge ten thousand moonks which is so little allowed and lyked of pouerty as that they be very ful of husbādly ordinances for the well gouerning of the goods and riches belonging to the Monasteries Insomuch that there is a Canon which condemneth a certayne kinde of people for heretickes which tearmed themselues Apostolicall as followers of the examples of the Apostles in making profession to haue nothing priuat of their owne And therfore by this Canon a man might say that all beggers are heretickes And who doth not see the infinite number of abuses which are crept into the order of Monkes in protes of time against the ordinances of the Canones For saith the Canon if thou desire to be a Monke that is to say a solitary person as thou doest name thy selfe What doest thou in the Citie which is no place for solitary people but for such as should haunt company And another Canon following saith thus Let the Monke be contented with his Cloister For like as a fish doth die as soone as he is out of the water euen so doth a Monke when he is out of his Cloyster Therfore let him be solitary and hold his peace for he is dead to the world but aliue vnto God. But yet for all this doe we not see how the Monks are planted in the best and greatest Cities and in the fairest places of them and in exceding Princely and stately houses whereas in auncyent time they were contented to dwell in wild fields and Forrestes and in little Cabonets builded in the corner of some Rock Shal not a man meet them now at all houres in euery streete in markets and pleading places in Innes in fields in townes and in Castles in stead of being within their Cloisters Furthermore the Monkes in olde time of what sort so euer they were did eate no flesh at all but followed the ordinance of the Canon which sayth thus It is not lawefull for anye Monkes eyther to eate or to tast of flesh Not for that we esteeme the creature of God to be ill but for that wee iudge it meete and necessary that Monkes shold abstayne frō flesh excepting onely those which be sick Nowe then if it happen that any Monkes breaking the ordināce of this auncient rule and custome dare presume to eate flesh let him be shut vp and kept as a close prisoner by the space of sixe moneths to do his pennance See now how the Monkes were brideled by their own Canons but the most part of them haue since that time broaken their bittes For now there are none but the Monkes of the charterhouse the Celestines and these new come Capusmes and Smoke Monkes which will obserue that canon and yet their obseruing of it is for the most part but in outward shew and Ipocrisie Truely if there were no more but this to be found fault with in the order of monkery the matter were not great For christian libertie geueth euery man leaue to vse all kinde of meates which God hath created for mannes vse so that he take it moderatly with thankes geuing But the cause that led me to speake of this point among the rest is to shew that the Monkes of these dayes doe not obserue their auncient Canons And by the Canons also in auncient time it was vnlawfull for any Nun to take the vaile and to professe her selfe a Nun vnles she were aboue forty yeres of age But in these daies they be forced to take it vpon them being but thirteene or fourteen yeres olde whereof the world seeth what good huswifery insueth And as touching the pouling of their heads whē they cause thē to take the black veile it is not so small a fault as many esteeme it to be For by the word of God women are commanded to preserue their heire in token of subiection And according hereunto it is forbidden by a Canon taken out of the Councell of Gangra that any woman should poule her head vnder pretence of Religion These are the wordes of the Canon If any woman cause her head to be pouled in respect of Religiō cursed be she as a breaker of the Law of subiection because long heare is geuen vnto women to couer them withal and to put them in minde of their subiectiō And whereas in these dayes it is thought so strange a thing amongest the Romish Catholicks that a monk or a Nun should marry because it seemeth that in their so doing they breake the vow of virginitie which they haue made vnto God they declare herein that they haue not well read their own Canones by the which such mariages are allowed Namely by one Canon taken out of S. Augustine as a witnesse of the Councell which saith thus Some say that those which marry after the taking of the vow be adulterers But I say vnto you that those doe sinne right greeuously which doe seperate such marryed folks Yet notwithstanding we haue seene many Lawes here in Fraunce which haue disanulled the maryages of priestes Monks and Nuns and constrained them to returne to their Cloysters a thing quite contrary to this Canon The selfe same doctor S. Augustine doth also shew that they haue done greatly amisse which haue so highly commended virginitie as to preferre it before mariage saying that virginitie did fill the heauens and mariage the earth which was the cause of the sounding of so many Nunries For he excuseth S. Ciprian and S. Ambr. of their so great praysing and exalting of virginitie saying thus Wheras Ciprian the martir hath written of the behauiour which ought to be in virgines he did it not to intise thē to make vowes of virginitie but Ambrose the Bishoppe