after admonition you will not rise agayne that wil make vs to maruel to pitie your ease as altogether desperate which God forbid whoe conuerte you and saue you and blesse you both soule bodye euen as I wishe to mine owne selfe For a farewel remember the later ende of man the accompte to be made the consequent there of hel or heauen and before all other respectes doe well for his sake that made you redeemed you sanctified you and hath hitherto preserued and enriched you and will hereafter in heauen fully rewarde you if you wil come euen now at the ninth and eleuenth howre Our Lord keepe you Paris 15. Fe. 1580 Your louing frend vndoubtedly G. M. TO MY LOVINGE AND BESTBELOVED SISTERS DEERE Sisters my care my loue of al worldly things next to my good mother my greatest comforte and ioye Vnlesse you did thinke that I doe most hartely loue you you coulde nor alwaies heretofore haue declared your exceeding loue so plentifully towards me for the which almightie God rewarde you This my loue because it is not a naturall affection onely but sincere and true charitie forceth me to wish vnto you my louing Sisters not onelie manie worldlie commodities which God be thanked you lacke not but much more all spirituall treasure and heauenlie riches wherof you can not haue great store because you dwell not where it groweth I know good Sisters that you meane well and moste willing are you to doe that which might please God but in good sooth you are out of the way and therefore the further you hold on the further you are from your iornies end the further from heauen The wise man saith There is a vvay vvhich seemeth to a man right Prouerb 14. but the end therof leadeth to distruction Beare with me if I write bold lie and tell you the truth plainlie I am your brother I loue you as nature bindeth me not onely in worldly respect but much more towardes God Your soules are deare vnto me my harte alwaies mourneth to thinke vpon your dangerous state wherein you stand O good Sisters the paine of hell exceedeth all tormentes and that fier shall burne for euer Happye are they that keepe them selues by God his greate goodnesse within the CATHOLIQVE CHVRCH for out of it there is no hope of saluation And most happy are they that hauing bene out of this Church by the wicked perswasioÌ„s of false preachers wheÌ„ it pleaseth God to send them true teachers will not remaine obstinate but folow good exhortations and holsome doctrine and so returne agayne as obedient children to Christ their father and to the Church their mother who are alwaies redy to receiue them remembring that which a most auncient and learned Father writeth S. AusteÌ„ vpoÌ„ the 88. psal He can neuer accompt God to be his father vvho vvil not haue the Churh to be his mother If you aske me what this Church is that is called CATHOLIKE and how you may know it behold the true and certen markes thereof and your selfe iudge whether you be within it or no. This Church is a congregation of all true christians which began in Christ his disciples at Hierus lem from thence grewe and multiplied throughout the whole world according as it is sayd in the psalme Their sounde speaking of the Apostles is gone out into the vvhole vvorlde psal 18. v. 5. and their vvordes into the ends of the earth The firste mark of the Church is to be visible So that the first marke of the true church is that it must grow and multiply be seene and appeere alwayes as a light in the world and therfore Christ calleth it A Cittie builded vpon a hill Mat. 5. vvhich can not be hid And the blessed Martyr S. Ciprian sayth The Churche beinge lightened with the brightnes of our Lorde doth reache foorth her beames through-out the whole worlde And S. Austen besides manye other places to this purpose compareth Christ and his Church to that stone vvhich vvas cutt out of a hill vvithout mens handes Daniel ca. 2. and after grevv to be a mightye mountayne so that it filled the vvhole earthe For vndoubtedlye this stone whereof the Prophet speaketh is Christ who was borne of a virgin without the helpe of man and is now growne from a few Apostles and disciples to an infinite number of christian people in all countries confessing one fayth and one beleefe and this is the Catholicke Church whereof your Creede telleth and teacheth you to say I beleeue the CATHOLIKE CHVRCH Let vs see nowe whether this marke doth agree to your brethren in England who call them selues Protestants or to vs whom it pleaseth them to cal Papists First they cal theÌ„-selues in their bookes the Englishe church that is to say of that fayth which is professed in England but we are of the CATHOLIKE CHVRCH that is of such a fayth as is professed in Fraunce in Spaine in Flanders Brabant zelant c. In a great part of Germanie in all Italy and beyond wheresoeuer there be christians and is now preached to the Indians that neuer heard of Christ before and encreaseth wonderfullye And within these fortie yeares in Englande Scotland Ireland Denmarke and Germanie there was no other faith openly professed but ours And now also in all these countries how many are there thinke you of secret catholickes that wish for the olde religion againe with all their hart and folow the new onely for feare Nay how many are there especially in England that doe yet openly professe the CATHOLIKE FAITH Aske good Sisters aske and you shall learne that all the prisons not only of London but of England are full of them because they will not yeeld to these new proceedings nor contaminate their soules with this newe seruice and leaue the olde true and Catholicke fayth besides a number of sundrye degrees which are deade in prison namely twentie three Bishops all depryued of their liuing these tweÌ„tie three yeres now but two of them alyue I omit Doctors Deanes Archdeacons Krights Squires partlie in prison partly departed the Realme and forsaking all rather then they will forsake God and his moste true and vndoubted religion This is true good Sisters as knoweth God you seldome heare of these things and therfore you thinke either their is no other religion but that could seruice with-out all comfort and deuotion which you see in your parish church or you thinke that must needes be the best because you are not taught anie other whereas you see if you beleeue me that all christendome almost is of an other religion And therfore this is the CATHOLIKE CHVRCH and yours is worthily called by your owne ministers the church of England But this shall better appeere The second marke is successiou if I geue you an othâ—r marke of the true Catholicke Church which is that it must continew for euer and from the first beginninge which was in Christ and
saintes Relikes That by al reason did much more increase this desire inflame this deuotioÌ„ multiplye Pilgrimes and Pilgrimages This was it that made the Princes of the earth bowe their crownes to the shrynes of the Apostles and Martyrs When they saw the deuels rore there wicked spirits cast out the blind to see the lame to go the dead to rise agayne Ipsi videntes sic psal 47. abmirati sunt conturbati sunt commoti sunt tremor apprehendit eos They seeyng such wonderful works were amased astonyshed apawled trembled to consider it sayng that that goeth before in the same psalme Magnus Dominus laudabilis nimis The lord is great and exceeding prayse worthy And agayne For the credit of myracles Nimis honorati sunt amici tui Deus Thy frendes O God are become very honorable But doubtest thou Reader whether euer anye such thinge hath bene done or no No maruayle in this our faythlesse age wherein is veryfied the saying of our Sauiour Luc. 18. Putas cum venerit filius hominis inueniet fidem in terra Shall the sonne of man thinkest thou finde any fayth vpon the earth when he cometh But thou art a reasonable man thou wilte beleeue those that in thyne owne iudgemente are worthye of credit if they tell it thee To omit S. Ambrose Chrisostome Hierome and others whose testymonyes are verye playne and very many let S. S Austens testimonie of sundrie myracles Austen suffice in this my breuitie for all the reste a man so farre from all superstition as he is from fayning or forginge from both so farre as the grauest wisest best learned Doctor of the Church muste needs be Read at thy leasure the eight chapter of his twentye two booke de Ciuitate Dei through out In the maene tyme I chose out these his wordes for thee to waye indifferently Miraculum quod Mediolani factum est cum illic essemus The miracle that vvas vvroughte at Millan vvhen vve vvere there at vvhat tyme a blynd man vvas made to see might vvel come to the knovvledge of manye because it is a great cittie and the Emperour vvas there at the same tyme and the thinge vvas done before a greate concurse of people to beare vvitnesse thereof that ranne by heapes to the bodyes of the Martyrs Geruasius and Protasius vvhich bodies hauing bene longe so hid that no man could tell of them Amb. ser 91 nameth the man his occupation vvere founde by a reuelation that Ambrose the Bishoppe had in his sleepe At the vvhich very place the same blynd man vvas deliuered from his olde darknes and savve the daye lighte He telleth moreouer of a yong man so horribly possessed of an euill spirite that he lay for dead from the which he was delyuered and restored also to his eye that by force of the spirite departing from him hanged downe vpon his cheeke And this was done at the memory only that is to saye some litle Relike of the forsayed Martyrs farre from Millan where the bodyes lye in Africke at a towne called Victoriana lesse then thirtie myles from S. Austens bishoppricke Note by the waye that of one Martyr there were dyuers memories S. Steuens relikes in sundrie places that is some Relike or other of him in sundry places As of S. Steuen he reconeth vp seuen or eight at all greate myracles wrought At the one a blynd woman saw at an other the Bishop that caried the Reliks was immediatly healed of a fistula at another a Preist cured of the stone or grauell per memoriam supradicti Martyris by the Relike of the forsayed Martyr Agayne a man of worship that was a verye Infidell made an earnest Christian by the feruent prayer of his sonne in lawe ad memoriam Martyris at the Martyrs Reliks At another a yong chylde and a nonne raysed from death to lyfe and many other besids at other places reuyued whom he there recyteth At length he concludeth thus Quid faciam VVhat shall I doe My promise to ende this booke forceth me that I can not rehearse all vvhich I knovve And vvithout doubt moste parte of our countrye men vvhen they shall read these vvill be sory that I haue omitted so many thinges vvhich they knovve as vvell as I of vvhom I craue pardon Myracles in many places by S. SteueÌ„s Relikes For to let passe other if I vvould vvryte the myraculous cures onely that haue bene done by this Martyr to vvit Steuen that moste glorious saynte at Calamnes and vvith vs I mighte make many bookes In the ende he telleth at large a wonderfull cure donne vpon one Paule and his sister Palladia in his owne Church at S. Steuens Reliks wheÌ„ him selfe was present Tam clarum atque illustre miraculum vt nullum arbitrer esse Hipponensium qui boc non vel viderit vel didicerit nullum qui obliuisci vlla ratione potuerit So euident and famous a miracle sayeth he that I thinke there is none in al Hippo but he saw it or hath heard of it none that can possibly forget it His conclusion to shut vpp the matter is that which I make the principall ground of all these Pilgrimages the honor of Christ in his sayntes Exultabant in Dei laudem voces c. There vvas such a sound of their voyces that coulde not speake for ioy in the prayse of God that our eares might hardly abyde it Quid erat in cordibus exultantium nisi fides Christi pro qua Stephani sanguis effusus est VVhat vvas there in their hartes that so reioysed but the fayth of Christ for the vvhich Steuen shed his bloud And are there yet Christian men in the worlde that doe discredite the mighty power and glorious workes of Christ in his sayntes Agaynst faythles heretikes that discredit myracles Yea God wot there are yet Eunomians and Porphirians that saye these were but delusions of noughty spirites Hiero. aduc Vigil and that they did not rore in very dede but fained as though they suffered intollerable tormentes Yet there are stubburne Arians that is to say heretickes who as Ambrose telleth would in no wyse confesse that the martyrs Geruasius Protasius did vex the diuels or make the blynd man see Sermo 91. whereas the spirites them selues confessed it and of the man named Seuâ—rus it was a thing famously knowen yet there are Iewishe Scrybes that saye of Christ and his saynts In nomine Belzebub eiiciunt daemonia In the name of Belzebub they cast out diuels Yet there are hypocriticall Pharises that preteÌ„d as though they gaue all the honor to God which they detracte from his saynts and their Reliks lyke to the Iewes that sayed to the blynde man whom Christ had cured Da gloriam Deo Geue God the prayse good felow yea a lamentable case to consider yet there are among Christian men as farre from beleeuing the miracles done by Sayntes To discredit miracles is plaine paganisme as were
infallible testimonies so cleare as none dayes that the best of our aduersaries shal be no more able to looke aganst it although he take Caluins spectacles theÌ„ the owle or the bastard-egle agaynst the sunne beames not because I can doe much or any thing at all of my self the meanest studâ—ent of catholike diuines but because it is very much to haue learned of them that can doe exceading much if they were in place how much the catholike Church is able to aledge as for al the rest so for this article also That church wherof the psalme sayth Gyoriosa dicta sunt dete ciuitas dei Psalm 86. Glorious things are reported of thee O citty of God agaynst that synagoge of the which is sayd â—salm 136. Filia Babilonis misera the daghter of Babylon is a wreched one Blessed is he that taketh her vngratious chil dren al heretikes and scismatikes and squiseth them aganst the Rock which is the present fayth of the Church of Rome by that commission which Christ gaue to Peter whom he made a rocke and foundatioÌ„ vpoÌ„ whom he built his Church to whom he promised it should not fayle Maâ— 16. and hath performed his promise vntill this day To whom for his excellent gifte and our assured safetye as many as stande vpon this Rocke be all honour and glory for euer Amen A LETTER SENTE BY M. LICENTIATE MARTIN TO A MARIED priest his frende GENTLE M. N. beinge alwaies myndful of your curtesie toward me I haue often thought howe I might beste requite it and because I neither haue temporal abilitie nor you God be thanked haue neede therof I haue purposed many times to communicat with you some spirituall benifite that mighte be to the health of your soule And hauinge differred hitherto this I truste is that good houre which God hath appointed me to tel you and you patiently and willinglye to heare that which if you wel consider is the most necessarie thing for you of all other if you be such a one as I hope you are that looke to be saued To be shorte and to come to the pointe you haue bene a priest manye yeres your selfe for many yeres together neuer imagined that you mighte marrie no more then any other priest made in the like sorte as you were Afterwarde the libertie of the time and the sensualitie of the fleshe and onlye worldly considerations pricking you forward and no good or godly reason as your owne conscieÌ„ce can tel you your fancie fel vpon a woman and to accomplishe your desire you remember how gladly you woulde haue had some authoritie of scripture or doctor to haue soothed you in your fleshlye purpose and when it was tolde you that there was nothing for it but all against it you thought or rather you sayed so for you could not thinke it that you neuer vowed and so you began to flatter your selfe and when that also was shewed vnto you and proued cleane contrarie because all that present them selues to a catholike bishop for orders of subdeacon and so forth by their verie presentation and taking of the orders although no more were saied do make their vow before God because the Church alwaies presupposeth that and admitteth none but with vow this I say standing so you wente farder and hoped the Counsell of TreÌ„t would release the vow or that by your frendes you at the least might obteine a dispensation whereby you declared that your selfe thought it not lawfull without dispensation and howe you could once thinke of a dispensation I doe maruell much wheras there is no example thereof in any priuate mans case such as yours is But when all these means failed yet the deuil blew the coles of concupiscence still spite of the Church of your vow of holy and chast priesthod to match your selfe with a woman not in matrimonie for you wot wel it can be none but in damnable sacrilege worse then any adulterie as S. Austen telleth you if it woulde please you to reade it saing of such as haue vowed Talibus non solum nubere De bono vid. ca. 9. tom 4. sed velle nubere damnabile est To such it is damnable not only to mary but to haue the vvil to mary And this he saith vpon S. Pauls authoritie who writinge of widowes that had vowed and would afterwarde marrie saith 8. Tim. 5 Cum luxuriatae fuerint in Christo nubere volunt habentes damnationem quia primam fidem irritam fecerunt For vvhen they shall be vvanton in Christ they vvill marie hauing damnation because they haue made voyde their first sayth They are damned because they haue broken their firste promis and they brake their first promis because they would marie so that their firste promis was as yours also was not to marrie And therefore S. Austen saith boldly in an other place Eodem â— ca. â—â— that such mariages are not onely adulteryes but worse then any adulterie And beleeue me M. N. as your verie frend that doe rather tender your soule toward Christ theÌ„ feede your carnal humour toward the world beleeue me I say that if S. Ambrose S. Austen S. Chrisostome S. Basill S. Gregorie Nazianzene S. Ierom S. Gregory the great S. Bernard or any other auncient and learned Doctor were aliue to tel you they would plainly say as now their bookes doe say that your state is damnable And what if you did but aske your olde maister and Lorde the last true bishopp of Lichefilde would you not beleeue him and so manie other learned and vertuous prelates of these our dayes Shall fleshe and bloud ouerrule you to doe against your conscience and to your exceeding shame before all your frends and al the good christians of the world Shal not time at the least reclaime you make you consider of your daungerous state At the firste perhaps phantasie and pleasure mighte ouercome you but hath not time and experience taught you to be wearie thereof Wil you sel heauen for the companie of a woman or gaine eternall paines for so short a pleasure because you are fallen will you neuer rise againe or wil you deferre til God sodenlie take you away in the middes of your filthy sinnes or do you thinke that both stand well together God his fauour and abhominable lecherie O M.N. you should rather be ther where those handes should handle the blessed body of Christ for which they were anointed and coÌ„secrated where those lippes should say ordinarie Mattins Masse and Euensong as you are bouÌ„d also by precepte then to employ your whole bodie vpon the dailie doing of such thinges which good preests dare not thinke once vpoÌ„ but against their wil for feare of sinne Or if you can not be in place to doe as you shoulde yet you may alwaies be in place to refraine from that which you shoulde not doe Good M. N. consider at length the case deepely as it deserueth As it is odious before God and man
the later end of King Henry his time Then you were expreslye commaunded to beleeue that vnder each kind of bread and wine are conteyned the body and bloud of Christ now it is petty treason to fay so I speake not here of Dermarke of Geneua of other cities in Germanve who are all Protestants and all differing among them selues and from you I haue onely declared how great diuersitie and disagreeing their is amonge your Protestantes at home within one little Ilande which is so euident and so farre from good christianitie that it may be vnto you a very certen and suer token that the true fayth can not be amonge them which hitherto can not agree in one fayth each condemning the others opinion Thus derely beloued and my very louinge Sisters I haue geuen you certen generall Markes to learne the true Church To wryte all were infinite because all bookes are full of our religion I trust hereafter to instructe you in euery pointe as you would desire and I pray God geue you grace that you may desire it All at once woulde be to tedious In the meane time remeÌ„ber these two things VVhen your religion began and by vvhom and how it came at length into England This is the yeare of Christ a thowsand fiue hundred eyghty and three Luther began to preache with-in these fiftye yeares If he preached the truth and all before him were deceaued where was the Church of Christ in all the worlde for a thowsande and fiue hundred yeares before and how is Christ â—â—ue of his promis that sayd I vvill remayne vvith you for euer and the holy Ghost shall teach you all truth and the gates of hell shall not prcuâ—â—ile against it But for out Church that is to say the CATHOLIKE CHVRCH we can shew how it is grown and continued from the Apostles vntill this day and neuer fayled We can reccon you from time to time Councels Bishopps Doctors infinite numbers of good christians of all ages that were all of our fayth and of our Church Can your Ministers denye but that S. Chrisostome alloweth praying to Saints or that S. Ierome calleth the Bishoppe of Rome Supreme head of the vvhole Church vnder Christ or that S. Austen prayed for his mother being dead or that he honored the Reliques of S. Steuen or that S. Gregory sayd Masse or that S. Ambrose sayeth hefore the vvords of consecration it is bread and vvine but after the vvords are spoken by the preist it is the very body and bloud of Christ or that all christians in S. Austens time did vvorship the blessed Sacrament or that the second Councell of Niceâ— did many hundred yeares agoe allovve the vse of Images for the memorie and representation of Christ and his sayntes condemning Image breakers or that S. Barnerd was an Abbot and had monkes vnder him as in catholike countryes now a dayes can they deny but that all this is true and dare they deny these vertuous Fathers and Doctors of the Church to be now Saints in heauen O my good Sisters that you could vnderstand their books and their writinges that you might your selues see what they say and what wonderfull men they were endued with the spirit of God exceedingly aboue other euen good men much more then your licentious leaders I doubt not but you would suspect your new doctors and folow these you should perceaue they had the scriptures at their fingers eds they knew right well the meaning and sense thereof night and day by fasting and prayer and chast lyfe beseeching God that they might vnderstand and truly expound his word O what a difference is there betweene them and these new Preachers Sisters I appeale to your consciences whither wil you or ought you to truste in the expounding of Scripture your yong vnlearned fleshly Ministers or these auncient most skilfull and most vertuous Fathers When Christ sayed Mat. 26. Take eate this is my body Al these Fathers say and agree that it was his bodye in verye deede Your ministers tell you it was but bread and wine Mat. 16. When Christ sayed to Peter thou art Peter that is a rocke and vpon this rocke vvill I build my Church These Fathers say that Peter was made Head of the Church and after him all his successors in the See of Rome where Peter was the first Bishopp Your Ministers tell you that Peter had no more preheminaunce then the other Apostles therfore the Bishop of Rome hath no more authoritie then an other bishop hath When Christ sayed to his Apostles Receaue ye the holy ghost Io. 20. vvhat soeuer ye doo loose in earth shal be loosed in heauen and vvhat soeuer ye doe binde in earth it shal be bounde in heauen These Fathers saye that Christ gaue to his Church authoritie to remit sinne by the ministrie of the preist to all such as doe truely repent and therefore will haue the people goe to Confession Your ministers haue taken that comfortable SacrameÌ„t of penance away altogether WheÌ„ Raphael the Angel sayth in the twelfth chapter of Tobias That he did offer vp Tobias prayer to almightie God And when in the second booke of Macchabees the fifteenth chapter Onias the priest saith of Ieremie being dead This is he that prayeth much for his people and for the holie citie these fathers say that the Angells and Sainctes doo praye for vs and that we may pray to them your ministers doe not stricke to say that these books of Tobie the Macchabces are scant good scripture Many other things lyke vnto these I could reccon but I should be to loÌ„g fearing least I should werie you these fewe are sufficient to geue you to taste of such marks as may shew you the CATHOLIKE CHVRCH These and many other great reasons doe keepe all good christians within the Church These thinges make so many catholiks partly to haue suffred death partly to haue died in prison partly to continew in prison so many yeares partly to forsake their pleasant countrie their dere frends and to liue to their conscience among strangers being thought of many worldly men to be very fooles for so doing but they know right wel that the wisdome of this worlde is foolishnes before God Mat. 10 And Christ sayth He that loueth father and mother sister and brother better then me is not vvorthie of me Sisters geue me leaue to tell you some-what of my selfe not for anye bragge but the more to moue you and to geue God all the praise for his great goodnes towardes me It pleased my parentes to bring me vp in learning as you know as I was not the best so I was at al times not compted the worst among my felowes and companions some small estimation I had in Oxforde aboue my desert more afterwards wheÌ„ it pleased the Duke to make me though vnworthy Tutor to the Erle his sonne as long as his grace did prosper I liued in his howse to my conscience without
onely that the people might thinke he did them truly and vnfaynedly For howe shall the people iudge but accordinge as they see and heare If a good meaninge or interpretation would serue Peter might haue sayed as some olde wryters excused him that dicendo Theeph in â— 22. Lu. Nescio bominem illud voluisset Nescio purum hominem sed Dcum bominem factum sayinge I knovve not the man be meant I knovve him not for a pure man but for God Ep. Cleri Roms 31. Apnd. Cyp. made man But Cum totum fidei Sacramentum in confessione Christi nominis intelligatur esse digestum qui fallaces in excusatione peaestigias quaerit negabit Et qui vult videri propositis aduersus Euangelium vel edictis vel legibus satisfecisse hoc if so iam paruit quod videri paruisse se voluit Seeing the vvhole Sacrament of fayth is knovvne to consist in the confession of Christ his name be shall be deemed to deny him that seeketh deceiptfull and vayne shifts for his excuse And he that vvould be compted to haue satified or fulfilled Lavves or statutes promulgated against the Ghospell in that he must be adiudged to haue obeyed them that he vvould haue him selfe seeme to haue done it And there fore constante Eleazarus woulde not eate no not lawfull meates 2. Mac. 6. leste it should be thought he did eate meates vnlawfull I appeale to your conscience onely for what neede I vrge euidente places whether these authorityes doe not concerne you S. Ambrose sayeth Li. 2. of c. 24. Licet â—â—bi silere in negotio duntaxat pecuniario quanquam siâ— constantiae adesse aequitati in causa autem Dei vbi communionis periculum est etiam dissimulare peccatum est non leue It is lavvfull for thee in a monye matter onely to hould thy peace though it vveâ—e the part of a constant man euen therein also to stand in a matter of equity but in the cause of God vvhere communion or felovvship in â—ayth is in perill euen to dissemble is no small sinne O but it is good wisdome to maynteyne credit in euery worlde and to loose neither welth noâ— estimation I wounder that any wyse man shoulde thinke so Much lyke as Cato Vticensis thought it great manhood to kill him selfe and the secular Poet calleth it Catonis nobile laetum Cato his noble death Whereas S. Austen proueth it to haue bene dastardly cowardnes and womanishe pucillanimitye Ryghte so that worldly wisdome is foolishnes vvith God vnlesse a christiaÌ„ man may say with the vnchristened and prophane Oratour Seruire temporibus sapientis semper est habitum 2. Cor. 3.19 It vvas alvvayes compted vvisdome to apply him selfe to the tyme. And Non idem semper dicere sed idem semper specÌ„tare debemus VVe ought not to speake the same thing advvayes but to approue the same thing still And Quem fugiam scio ad quem fugiam nescio I knovv vvhom I should fly but I knovv not to vvhom to flye O but we are commaunded to obey our Prince I neede not tell you how sarre and in what degrees S. Peter and S. Iohn tell you by their example the case muste be limited I will onely put you in mynd of other worthy men sometyme Prelates in the Church and as it were houlde you the booke to reade howe they haue delt with Princes and potentates Act. 6.19 vpon the like occasion what vehemeÌ„t perswasions how manifestly they resisted for his sake VVho is terrible and taketh avvay the spirit of Princes Psal 75. terrible to the Kings of the earth Theodoretus wryteth thus Ec. histo lb. 4. ca. 17 Cum Praefectus Modestus Caesaream venisset Basilium Magnum accercitum honorificè excipit leui blanda oratione compellat hortatur vt cedat tempori ue propter nimis curiosam dogmatâ—m obseruationem eamque paruo estimandam tot tantasque ecclesias prodat pollicetur se Imperatoris Valentis amicitiam ei conciliaturum beneficiaque multis aliis inde euentura praedicaâ— Cui diuinus ille vir pueris inquit haec quidem oratio conuenit siquidem illi ac sui similes eiusmodi verba auidé arripiunt at qui sunt in sacris literis educati ne vnam quidem sillabam diuinorum dogmatum prodi siaunt sed pro istorum defensione si opus sit nullum non mortis genus libenter amplectuntur quod autem ad Imperatoris amicitiam attinet eam cum pietate iunctam magni aestimo sed si ea careat perniciosum esse dico c. VVhen the Lieutenante vvas come to Cesarâ—a he called for Basill the great and receaued him honorably and by a svveete and gentle speach exhorted him to yelde to the tyme and not vpon to curious obseruation of some poynte of no great vvayght to betray so many and so great churches promising him vvithall to reconcile him to the Emperours fauour and affirming that much good might come thereof to many To vvhom this diuyne man ansvvered that his tale vvere fit to persvvade children and such like vvhich vvould easely lyke of such offers but that those vvhich are brought vppe in holy vvrit can not suffer one fillable of heauenly doctrine and lavves to be betrayed but for defence thereof vvould embrace if neede require any kinde of death As for the amitye of the Emperour if it might be had vvith pietye I much vvould esteeme it but vvithout that I saye it is 〈◊〉 May it please you to reade a litle after the constante confession of the Preists and Deacons of Alexandria Lib. 4. ca. 20. being exhorted by Magnus the Count 〈…〉 fidem â—b Apostolis per Patrum successionem traditam proderent affirmando Valenten Augustinum Imperatorem clementissimum hac re veheme â—ter delectatum iri Postremó cum maxima contentione vocis haec verba protulit O misâ—ri obsequimini Ariani opinioni assentite Nam diuinum numen licet illa quam colitis religio vera sit si non vestra sponte sed necessitate ducti ab ea discedatis veniam vobis daturum est Etenim in his quae necessitate peccantur relinquitur excusationi locus sed cum sua sponte quisquam deliquerit carere reprehensione non potest To betraye their Auncestors fayth receaued of the Apostlis by succession of the Fathers affirming that Valens the moste clemente Emperour vvoulde be much pleased thereby Lastely vvith greate vehemency of speach loude voice be vttered these vvorde O miserable men obey assent to the Arians opinion for though your religion vvere true the diuyne Maiestye vvould pardon seeing you fall 〈◊〉 from it vvillingly but of necessity compelled for their is euer iuste excâ—se to them that offend by necessity though vvhen a man falleth vvillingly he can not be vvithout blame Reade the place and marke how litle they esteemed these Worldly perswasions which I haue therefore recyted at large because the worlde is prone now a dayes not only to vse but also to follow