France For they ever held their Kings if not for the Head of their Church yet surely for the principall and most sound member thereof Which is the reason that the opening or Overture of their most ancient Councels under the first and second that is the Merovingian and Caroline line was ever by the power and authority and sometimes the presidencie of their Kings and Princes And my Authour quarrels very much the Monk Gratian for attributing to Isidore of Spain rather then to a Nationall Councell of France held in the yeare 829 that brave and excellent saying Principes seculi nonnunquam intra Ecclesiam potestatis adeptae culmina tenent ut per eandem potestatem disciplinam ecclesiasticam muniant God sometimes imparts secular power to Princes that live in the bosome of the Church that they might imploy this power in preserving ecclesiasticall discipline Saepe per regnum terrenum coeleste regnum proficit The Kingdome of Heaven doth many times take growth and encrease from these Kingdomes upon Earth Cognoscant principes seculi se Deo debere rationem propter Ecclesiam quam à Deo tuendam accipiunt And therefore the Great ones of the world must know that God will one day call them to an account for his Church so tenderly recommended unto them It is true indeed that these words are found in the sixth Councell of Paris lib. 2. c. 2. But it is as true that in my Book Isidore is set down in the Margent as ready to own them And both these will stand well enough considering that Isidore Scholar to Gregory the Great did flourish very neare 200 yeares before the Aera of that Councell and that that Councell by incorporating of these words unto the substance of their Canons doth put a greater lustre and authority upon them as the French Antiquary well observes And according to this doctrine are all those Capitulars or mixt Laws for matters of Church and Common-wealth of Charles the Great Ludovicus Pius Lewis the Grosse Pipine and others gathered by Lindenbrogius And a world of other Capitulaâ—s of the same nature intermingled with the Canons of the French Councells in the late edition of them by Sirmond the Jesuite In a word the very pure Acts and Constitutions of the Synods themselves were in those former times no further valid and binding then as they were confirmed by the Kings of France and entered duly upon the Records of their Palais or Westminster-Hall And yet under favour all Crowns Imperiall must give place in regard of this one flower of ecclesiasticall jurisdiction to the Crown of Great Britannie For as our Prince is recorded to be the first Christian King so is he intimated to be the first that ever exercised ecclesiasticall jurisdiction being directed by Eleutherius the Pope to fetch his Laws by the advice of his Counsell from the Book of God the old and new Testament wherewith to reclaim his subjects to the Faith and Law of Christ and to the holy Church And if Father Parsons shall damne this Letter as foisted and another obscure Papist suspect it to be corrupted let the Reader content himself with these proofs in the Margent of a farre more authenticall averment and authority Sure I am that according to this advice of Eleâ—therius the British Saxon Danish and first Norman Kings have governed their Churches and Church-men by Capitulars and mixed Digests composed as it were of Common and Canon Law and promulged with the advice of the Counsell of the Kingdome as we may see in those particulars set forth by Mr. Lambard Mr Selden D. Powell and others And I do not beleeve there can be shewed any Ecclesiasticall Canons for the Government of the Church of England untill long after the Conquest which were not either originally promulged or afterwards approved and allowed by either the Monarch or some King of the Heptarchy sitting and directing in the Nationall or Provinciall Synod For all the Collections that Lindwood comments upon are as Theophrastus speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but rough and rugged money of a more fresh and later coinage And yet in those usurping times I have seen a Transcript of a Record Anno 1157. 3º Henr. 2. wherein when the B. of Chichester oppos'd some late Canons against the Kings Exemption of the Abbey of Battles from the Episcopall Jurisdiction it is said that the King being angry and much moved therewith should reply Tu pro Papae authoritate ab hominibus concessa contra dignitatum Regalium authoritates mihi à Deo concessas calliditate argutâ niti praecogitas Do you Sr goe about by subtilties of wit to oppose the Popes authority which is but the favour or connivence of men against the authority of my Regall dignities being the Charters and donations of God himselfe And thereupon requires reason and justice against the Bishop for this foul insolencie And it hath been alwayes as the practice so the doctrine of this Kingdome that both in every part and in the whole Laws do not make Kings but Kings Laws which they alter and change from time to time as they see occasion for the good of themselves and their Subjects And to maintain that Kings have any part of their Authority by any positive Law of Nations as this Scribbler speaks of a Jurisdiction which either is or ought to be in the Crown by the ancient Laws of the Realm and is confirmed by 1º Elis. c. 1. is accounted by that great personage an assertion of a treasonable nature But when Sr Edward Coke or any other of our reverend Sages of the Law do speak of the ancient Laws of the Realm by which this Right in ecclesiasticall causes becomes a parcell of the Kings jurisdiction and united to his Imperiall Crown they do not mean any positive or Statute-law which creates him such a Right as if a man should bestow a new Fee-simple upon the Crown as this Scribbler instanceth or any Law which declares any such Right created by any former Law but the continuall practice Judgements Sentences or as this very Report calls it Exercise of the ancient Laws of the Realm which declareth and demonstrateth by the effect that the Kings of England have had these severall flowers of ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction stuck in their Imperiall Garlands by the finger of Almighty God from the very beginning of the Christian Monarchy within this Island For so our Sententiae Iudicum and Responsa prudentum have been termed time out of mind a main and principall part of the Common Law of England And therefore having cleared this point at large I shall easily yeeld to Dr Coal that the Kings Majesty may command a greater matter of this nature then that the holy Table should be placed where the Altar stood and be railed about for the greater decencie and that although the Statute of 1º Elis. c. 1.
had never been in rerum natura But how doth the Dr make it appeare that his most excellent Majestie hath commanded any such matter or that there is as he avows any publick Order for the same And this he must do by Proof Reason Authority nay Demonstrations as one that can endure no modesty of assertion I think I conceive I have heard I beleeve but jeeres at them all I warrant you he shall make it cock-sure with three Apodicticall Demonstrations I It is so in his Majesties Chappell where the ancient Orders of the Church of England have been best preserved and without the which perhaps we had before this been at a losse amongst our selves for the whole form and fashion of Divine service The Chappell of the King being the best interpreter of the Law which himself enacted wherein the Communion-table hath so stood as now it doth sithence the beginning of Queen Elisabeth what time that Rubrick in the Common prayer-book was confirmed and ratified For thus he useth to double and treble his files throughout all his Pamphlet that he may make himself a Body and Grosse of words at least to skarre crowes withall I do confesse that that most sacred Chappell but especially the Saint of that Chappell may for his pletie and true devotion be a moving precedent and breathing example not onely for the Laity and meaner sort of the Clergie but even for the gravest of all the Prelacie to follow and imitate And long may this Relation continue between that Type and Prototype of Majestie Long may he serve God and God preserve him and this Church and State through and by him But yet every Parish-church is not bound to imitate in all outward Circumstances the pattern and form and outward embellishment and adorning of the Royall Chappell And that for these Reasons 1. An Inferiour is bound to yeeld obedience to the outward onely and not to the inward Motion of the mind in his Superior For what the Prince keeps inwardly unto himself in his Will and Understanding hath no reference to the Subject by way of Precept untill it break forth ad motum exteriorem as the Schoolmen call it to some outward overture and declaration relating to the Subject How the King shall adorn and set out his Chappell Royall is a matter imminent and left to his own Princely wisdome and understanding It is a sinne against many precepts to whisper or doubt but that he doth it wisely and religiously But how his Laws and Canons require us to adorn our Churches that is the outward and exteriour moving of his Princely mind which the Schoolmen make the onely Cynosure of our Obedience It is not therefore his Majesties Chappell but his Laws Rubricks Canons and Proclamations that we are to follow in these Outward Ceremonies And this I shall cleare by an instance which we should have heard before from the Doctor but that peradventure he knew it not At. Q. Elisabeths first coming to the Crown a Proclamation indeed was set forth forbidding any man to alter any Ceremonies but according to the Rites of her own Chappell Then I confesse unto you for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and instant of time the Chappell and the Chappell onely was the Rubrick and the Pole-starre we were to saile by in our obedience But this direction was not intended to be long-liv'd it was but a Bush that brave Lady got under to passe over a sudden showre donec de Religionis cultu ex authoritate Barliamentaria statueretur until the Parliament might bring to the World that Statute of Primo whereof we spake so much before As therefore that wise Princesse made shift for a time with her Sisters Seal so did she with her Ceremonies but forsook them both as soon as she could be otherwise provided So as now we are no longer to president our selves in this kind by the Chappell but by the Liturgie of Queen Elisabeth 2. I hope I shall ever live and die in an awfull and reverent opinion of that sacred Oratory the vivest resemblance I know upon the Earth of that Harmony of the Cherubims we look for in Heaven Yet do I trust it will be no offence to any that beares equall devotion to that sacred place if I pluck out this Cumane creature who like a fawning Syâ—ophant thinks to take Sanctuarie in that holy ground from the shadow and shelter of the Royall Chappell Where did the man ever hear of any Chappell in the Christian world that gave forme and fashion of Divine Service to whole Provinces To what use serve our grave and worthy Metropolitanes our Bishops our Convocation-house our Parliaments our Liturgies hedged in and compassed with so many Laws Rubricks Proclamations and Conferences if we had been long before this at a losse in England for the whole form and fashion of Divine Service but for one Dean and so many Gentlemen of the Kings Chappell Here is a riddle indeed Mater me genuit quâ—e eadem mox gignitur ex me I have heard often of a Mother-church but now behold a Mother-chappell When Pius Quintus set forth his new Missall he caus'd it to be proclaim'd claim'd at S. Peters Church and not at the sacred Chappell In the name of God let the same Offices be said in all the Provinces as are said in the Metropoliticall Church as well for the order of the Service the Psalmodie the Canon as the use and custome of the Ministration was the old rule of the ancient Fathers I have read of great diversity heretofore in saying and singing in Churches within this Realm of the Vses of prayer- Salisbury of Hereford of Bangor of York of Lincoln but never untill now of the Vse of the Chappell I have read also of far more ancient Offices then any of all these the Gallicane Course the Scottish Course the Romane Course the Eastern Course the Course of S. Ambrose and the Course of S. Benedict all at once used in severall parts of this Island but never read I of any ordering or directing Course from his Majesties Chappell untill now I pray you good Sir how were the divine Services held up in Christendom for the first 500 yeares in all which time if we may beleeve one of our best Antiquaries we shall hardly meet with the name of a Chappell I le put you a merry Case Most of our Liturgicall Writers the Favourites of the time are of opinion that this word Capella is derived from Capa which signifies a Hood or a Mantle and borrowed from the first Christian Kings in France of the Merovingian line who carried about them in their Armies the Hood of S. Martin as a Relick of much esteem and using to say their Mattins and Vespers in that homely Booth where this Jewell was lodged the place from this Capa was called Capella and the beginning of Chappell 's in these parts of the world My Case then
crosse or his profession as Bellarmine the Antididagma of Coleine Catharinus and Estius As you may see more at large in the learned Bishop Fourthly and lastly I do observe that all Antiquity besides these do not in the exposition of this Text reflect in any kind upon the materiall Altar Chrysostom expounds it of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the things professed here amongst us Oecumenitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tenets as it were of Christian men Peter Lombard of Christs body Aquinas of the Crosse Gorran of the Incarnation and Lyra of the Passion of our Saviour Not any one ancient Writer beside Sedulius that next his heart as it were and in his first exposition did ever touch upon this materiall Altar I do not except Oecumenius or Haymo mistaken herein by a learned Doctour And therefore good Doctour unlesse you mean to turn Jesuite leave off your cracking to your Novices of this place untill you be able to back it with better Authoritie then your poore conceptions For above all indeed S. Paul in his HABEMVS ALTARE is least of all for your materiall Altars And behold he hath not done yet with the Act of State but will needs have another bout with it For although the Law and the Sacrifices thereof be both abolished and consequently the form of these Altars should be abolished yet that doth not reach at their Altar which lyeth along the wall but at our Communion-Tables that are in the Body of the Church or Chancell as the Jewish Altars stood in the old time Vah quantum est sapere It is an excellent thing to be a judicious Divine But the King and the Lords do not say that the Jewish Altars are abolished for us to put other Altars in the body of the Church or Chancell or for you to fasten them all along the wall but that the form of such Altars should cease to be erected in any place whatsoever in the English Church And having a reasonable guesse how those old Altars under the Law came to be placed in the midst of the Priests Court and outward Temple to wit that it was so done by Gods appointment I pray you forget not to tell me in your next Book where God or his blessed Sonne or the Apostles or the Fathers after them or any Councell or any Canon-law or so much as a Popes Bull hath commanded any Christian Church to set their Altars all along the wall But I shall have occasion to tell you many things more then you know about that particular in the last Section For a full Answer to this Quillet I do reade in Antiquitie that the form and situation of the holy Table in the Christian Church was not exemplified from the Square Altars but from the long Table of the Shew-bread which stood in the Temple And if we can make good our fashion and situation according to this pattern we saw in the Mount we care not how Altars stood either in the Jewish or Popish Church our holy Tables being quite of another race and no descendants from any of them One Benjamin a Jew fell upon Isidorus Pelusiota a reverend Prelate as ancient very neare as S. Chrysostâ—m and charged him with the boldnesse of this new Oblation and Sacrifice of Bread as he term'd it invented by the Christian Church without any pattern or precedent from her Mother the Synagogue To whom the ancient Father returns this Answer That there were two Oblations in the Synagogue The one upon an Altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the outward Court perform'd in bloud and steaming vapours and visible to all The other was upon a Table perform'd in Bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within the Temple hid from the Vnderstanding of the old and reserved for the Faith of the new people And of those former saith he thou art one thy self that couldst not see the truth of this Mystery hid so long in the Law and revealed so clearly to us in the Gospel It will be long yer you will bring us so clear and ancient an extraction for the form and fashion of the Altars in Christianitie Yea but say you this Table was not made to eat upon The Figure indeed was not but the verity was that is the verity then hid but now revealed And yet David tâ—ough no Priest did eat of that which was upon it to let us know that omnes justi Sacerdotalem habent ordinem All we that are justified in Christ have a Priestly interest in this holy Bread saith Irenaeus Davids eating was a figure that the meat of the Priest should one day be improved to be the meat of the people Because all the children of the Church are perfect Priests By reason that we are anointed unto a holy Priesthood offering up our selves as spirituall Sacrifices to Almighty God This Type teaching us thus much that one day in the Body of Christ food should be provided for true Believers saith S. Ambrose most excellently So that there is just that difference between the Shew-bread and the Body of Christ in the Sacrament as there is between the shadow and the body the representation and the verity the patterns of future things and the things themselves prefigured by these patterns saith S. Hierome And so said Origen long before The Commemoration and Remembrance of the 12 Tribes by those 12 Loaves doth relate to those words of our Saviour Do this in remembrance of me And therefore if you mark well these mysteries of the Church you shal be enabled to observe the truth of the Gospell in the dark mysts and Riddles of the Law I will adde to these and other Testimonies of the most ancient Fathers which you shall by and by finde in the Margin the conceits of two Iewish Rabbins somewhat tending to our purpose Ezek. 4. 22. it is thus written And he said unto me This is the Table before the LORD Meaning without doubt the Altar of Incense The Question then grows why the Altar is here call'd a Table I have heard this given as a Reason of it saith R. Shelomo That at this day the Table performs what the Altar was wont to do R. Iohanan and R. Eliezer give the like reason That while the Temple stood the Altar of God but sithence the destruction thereof the Table of a man is become the place of Sacrifice and propitiation But I leave these Rabbies to Rabbi Coal's consideration whether he shall reject them for their conceipt of the Table or let them passe on for maintaining the Sacrifice However to conclude this point I finde the Iesuits themselves of Opinion that the Table of the Temple was the true Type and prefiguration of the Communion-Table And no great wonder they are of that conceipt considering that Hymne inserted in the Body of the Masse Sacerdotes sancti incensum et panem offerunt Domino That is The holy Priests from thence
Offer bread and incense And therefore we have borrowed nothing at all from the square Altars of the Law but leave that form to the Papists requir'd of them in their Canons but the onely Vtensill we relate unto is the Long-square Table of the Incense Yet will not this man be got off by any means from the King and the Counsell He saith that a small measure of understanding is sufficient to avoid offence at an Altar howbeit he prayeth heartily to God there may be but such a measure found in Kings and Bishops houses of which he either is over-carefull or hath a very base conceit and that they have had now 80 yeares to become better edified towards Altars Lastly if that they still continue scandalized thereat they are rather Head-strong then strong enough as was said of the Puritanes in the Conference at Hampton-Court The Puritanes mov'd then for an Abrogation those that are scandalized with your new Altars move onely for a Confirmation of the ecclesiasticall Laws and the practice of them as they have beene these last fourescore yeares generally executed So that your quotation of that Conference is a fine new Nothing The Act of Counsell made for this Reformation doth say peremptorily in two severall places That the form of a Table shall more move the simple from the Superstitious Opinions of the Popish Masse and that this superstitious Opinion is more holden in the mindes of the simple and ignorant by the form of an Altar then of a Table And therefore they did not intend to make a provision to prevent this inconvenience in the Church of England for foure-score yeares onely but for ever And accordingly they went to work caus'd their Liturgie to be mended in this particular the word Altar to be left out the word Table to be put in in their Rubricks for that purpose Nor rested they there but confirmed this corrected Liturgie by Act of Parliament revived againe by another Act of Parliament confirmed by the Proclamation of the late King of famous Memorie which was revived with his other Proclamations by his most excellent Majesty in the very beginning of his happie Reign And what is the sonne of your father to dare to offer limitation of time to a Law so absolute and Authenticall But this Counsell-order doth not appeare to have beene transmitted to any other Diocese beside Bishop Ridley's This Quiblet is grounded upon a mere Errour of the Printer by not putting a Period where he should and putting it where he should not The words rightly pointed run thus Anno 1550. other Letters not a Letter likewise were sent for the taking down of Altars in Churches and setting up the Tables in stead of the same And here the full point should be Vnto Nicolas Ridley made Bishop of London in Boners place Here is a Period in the new but a Comma onely in the old Book the Copie and contents of the Kings Letters are these as followeth So that Letters were written to all but Iohn Fox having accesse to the Bishop of Londons Registry prints onely the Copie of those which were sent to Bishop Ridley So that this is a subtilitie indeed a subtilitie in Print as they use to say But the next is more grosse and down-right That he saith that both parties that strove about the placing of their Tables in Bishop Ridley's Visitation were left to follow their own affections and the thing left at large and not determined There fell out about the yeare 1605 a great Controversie between M. Broughton and M. Aynsworth that troubled all the Diers in Amsterdam Whether the lining of Aarons Ephod was blue or sea-water-green And M. Aynsworth poore man was put to print a large Apologie in that businesse But had the Question been of the colour of this Tale told here by D. Coal it might have been resolved in one word It is a blue and perfect blue Tale. For Bishop Ridley there resolves these Questionists That the Situation most conformable to Scripture to the usage of the Apostles to the Primitive Church to the Kings proceedings was not to lay the holy Table all along the wall and therefore in Pauls Church he brake down the wall standing then by the high Altars side nor to lay it onely in the right form of a Table as this mus Ponticus as he said of Marcion this nibbler at all Quotations doth mis-recite the Text but to lay it in the form of a right Table that is a long Table or as your own Index doth interpret the word not Altar-wise but as a Table So that by this impudency of yours which put us to this narrow search we have met with two particulars very pertinent to the present dispute First that upon the taking down of the Altar the Table is not directed to be set up in the place where the Altar stood but in some convenient part of the Chancell That 's the first And secondly that the meaning of the Kings proceedings better known to this Bishop then to you was that the Table should not be placed and disposed Altar-wise which is the Question now before us Soone after D. Coal begins to relent and could finde in his heart to bestow half a Vicaridge upon the Writer of the Letter for saying That in the old Testament one and the same thing may be call'd an Altar in respect of what is there offered unto God and a Table in respect of what is there as he hath it participated by men See what it is to put a man into a peevish humour Velle tuum nolo Dindyme nolle volo Now I would not give the Writer a Peas-cod for that distinction nor do I beleeve he ever dream't of it He said that an Altar might be call'd a Table in what was Thence not there participated by men For it is a thing notoriously known saith Casâ—â—bon that Feasts heretofore were wont to accompany all solomn Sacrifices And that they did eat their good Cheer not upon but from the Altars And so saith Theophraâ—â—s that they did first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 offer up their Sacrifices and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lay it on in entertainments But if they did the one then necessarily the other For if I did Sacrifice then surely I did eat saith Apollonius Tyaneus in his Apologie to Domitian The first they did at the Altar the second at their houses Sacrificant Me ad se ad prandium â—oâ—ant They never offer a Sacrifice saith the Parasite but they invite me to dinner to their houses And this custome was no stranger to the people of God For so we reade that Samuel did blesse the peoples Sacrifice in the high place but Feasted his strangers with his portion of that Sacrifice in his own Parlour So they that wait upon the Altar are partakers with the Altar And because their provision came from the Lords Altar as
learnedly proved beside what we learn out of S. Paul out of Origen and Arnobius if you do but reade a Book that is in your Church Jewel against Harding of private Masse Artic. 3. pag. 145. And whether this name of Altar crept into the Church in a kind of complying in phrase with the people of the Jews as I have read in Chemnitius Gerardus and other sound Protestants yet such as suffer Altars to stand or that it proceeded from those Oblations made upon the Communion-tables for the use of the Priest and the poore whereof we reade in Justine Martyr Ireneus Tertullian and other ancient writers or because of our Sacrifice of praise and Thanks-giving as Archbishop Cranmer and others thought Act. Monum pag. 1211. the name being now so many yeares abolished in this Church it is fitter in my judgement that your Altar if you will needs so call it should according to the Canons stand Table-wise then your Table to trouble the poore Town of Gr. should be erected Altar-wise Lastly that your Table should stand in the higher part of the Chancell you have my assent in opinion already And so was it appointed to stand out of the Communion Orders by the Commiss for causes ecclesiasticall 1561. But that it should be there fixed is so farre from being the onely Canonicall way that it is directly against the Canon For what is the Rubrick of the Church but a Canon And the Rubrick saith It shall stand in the Body of the Church or in the Chancell where Morning prayer and Evening prayer be appointed to be said If therefore Morning prayer and Evening prayer be appointed to be said in the Body of the Church as in most Countrey-churches we see it is where shall the Table stand in that Church most Canonically And so is the Table made removeable when the Communion is to be celebrated to such a place as the Minister may be most conveniently heard by the Communicants by Qu. Elis. Injunct 1559. And so saith the Canon in force that in the time of the Communion the Table shall be placed in so good sort within the Church or Chancell as thereby the Minister may be most conveniently heard c. Canon 82. Now judge you whether this Table which like Daedalus his Engines moves and removes from place to place and that by the inward wheeles of the Church Canons be fitly resembled by you to an Altar that stirs not an ynch and supposed to be so resembled most Canonically And if you desire to know out of Eusebius St Augustine Durandus and the fifth Councell of Constantinople how long Communion-tables have stood in the midst of Churches read a Book which you are bound to reade and you shal be satisfied Jewel against Harding Of private Masse Artic. 3. pag. 145. The summe of all is this 1. You may not erect an Altar where the Canons admit only a Communion-table 2. This Table without some new Canon is not to stand Altar-wise and you at the North-end thereof but Table-wise and you must officiate on the North-side of the same by the Liturgie 3. This Table ought to be laid up decently covered in the Chancell onely as I suppose but ought not to be officiated upon either in your first or second service as you distinguish it but in that place of Church or Chancell where you may be most conveniently seen and heard of all 4. Though peradventure you be with him in Tacitus Master of your own yet are you not of other mens Eares and therefore your Parishioners must be Judges of your Audiblenes in this case and upon complaint to the Ordinary must be relieved 5. Lastly whether side soever you or your Parish shall first yeeld unto the other in these needlesse controversies shall remain in my poore judgement the more discreet grave and learned of the two And by that time you have gayned some more experience in the Cure of Soules you shall finde no such Ceremony to Christian charity Which I recommend unto you and am ever c. Now if you desire to know why I have been so tedious in stating thus the Cause with all the Circumstances thereof I answer with the Poet that it is to ease you if you please of further Tediousnesse Vi si malueris lemmata sola legas That if you be so disposed you may end the Book with this first Chapter For the true stating is the concluding of the Question we have in hand I dare here appeale without any further defence to any indifferent Reader what notorious want of Learning what disaffection to the Church what malice to Cathedrals what inclination to Puritanisme what approving of sedition what popular affectation this filia unius noctis this paper huddled up upon this occasion in one night can argue either in the Writer whosoever he be or in us that were the approvers of the same And particularly I appeale to you that have read the Libell written against it whether it hath any way answered your expectation or whether Carbonem ut ajunt pro the sauro invenistis this Coal of a sinner doth not rather appeare to have been fetcht from a Smiths forge then a sacred Altar CHAP. II. Of the Regall power in ordayning publishing and changing Ceremonies as also in all Causes Ecclesiasticall And whether that power was ever used in setling the Communion-table in form of an Altar IF Alexander was afraid to commit the proportion of his body to every ordinary statuary requiring that none but a Lysippus should effigiate the same and that Apelles himself could never set forth the outward beauty of his face but slubbered and farre short of the native vivacity how carefull ought Soveraigne Princes to be not to permit their Regall power and prerogative the very visage of their persons and majestie of their visage to be prophaned by every Bungler and to be slubbered up as here it is with a base Coal upon the walls of this ugly Pamphlet Thus it is when Coblars will be stretching up their Pia-maters above their own Shop-lasts and Chaplains to shew how ready they are at the very first call to be dealing in matters of State will be puddling in studies they do not understand Dr Coal hath here by his exquisite knowledge in the Can-none and Common or triviall law committed a kinde of merry treason in presuming to give a man a call to be a Judge who died but an Apprentice at the Law Which was more then the L. Keeper of the great Seal without his Majesties licence durst have done And mends it by and by with a kinde of sacrilege by taking away from a noble Gentleman his name given him at the Font in Baptisme Whereas had this doughty Doctour left his Littleton and kept him to his Accidence he could not have forgotten that Edvardus was his proper name Yea but though he fails in names he hits in matter and shews you deep
Mysteries of State how this question of Ceremonies doth relate unto the King and that the Statute of 1º Elis. cap. 2. which by long search and study he found in the very first leaf of his Common prayer Book was not a power personall to the Queen onely but to be continued unto her Successours and that the Kings most excellent Majesty may safely and without any danger at all command the Table to stand as the Doctour would have it and to be rayl'd about These are high matters indeed if they be well proved That they shall be to a hair For this old Lawyer and new-created Judge doth tell us that if a Fee-simple be vested in me and I passe it unto the King the Fee-simple doth passe without these words SUCCESSOURS and HEYRES as it doth to a Major a Bishop or any other meaner Corporation as you have it there at large Well said Doctour His Majesty is much beholding unto you and those about him to take speciall care of your speedy preferment You have not in most of your scribble given a Bishop any more prerogative then to the Vicar nor the King in this Allegation then to the Alderman of Grantham Peradventure not so much For by perusall of your Authour I finde the Alderman ranged in the third place but the King and the Bishop jumbled up together as in a bagge after Chesse-play and so thrown into the fourth place But I pray you good Doctour where upon earth was this power of ordering matters ecclesiasticall vested before it pass'd away as a piece of land held in Fee-simple unto his Majestie by the Statute of Imo Elis. cap. 2 Quis est tam potens cum tanto munere hoc Was it in the Pope in the people in the Clergie in the Convocation in the Parliament or peradventure was it in Abeyance Away Animal I tell thee The Power in matters ecclesiasticall is such a Fee-simple as was vested in none but God himselfe before it came by his and his onely donation to be vested in the King And being vested in the King it cannot by any power whatsoever no not by his own be devested from him The donour in this Feoffment is God and God onely the Deed a Prescription time out of mind in the Law of nature declared more especially and at large by that Statute-law which we call the Word of GOD. So that Doctour you deserve but a very simple Fee for your impertinent example of this Fee-simple But what do you merit for your next prank where you say most ignorantly and most derogatorily to his Majesties right and just prerogative that that Statute of 1º Elis c. 2. was a Confirmative of the old Law What and was it not good until it had pass'd the upper and lower house of Parliament was not God able enough the King his bright Image upon earth capable enough the Deed of Nature and Scripture strong enough but that like a Bishops Concurrent Lease it must receive a Confirmation in that great Chapter Your Authour a deep learned man in his faculty hath it otherwise and rightly It was resolved by the Judges that the said Act of the first yeare of the late Queen concerning Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction was not a statute introductory of a New Law but declaratory of the Old Parliaments are not called to confirm but to affirm and declare the Laws of God Weak and doubtfull Titles are to be confirmed such cleare and indubitate Rights as his Majestie hath to the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction are onely averred and declared by Acts of Parliament And all declarations of this kind are as the stuffe whereof they are made to last forever and no Jonas Gourds to serve a turn or two and so expire as those Probationers did which peradventure some Justice his Clerk might tell you of Yea but your meaning is that this Jurisdiction was intruth or of right ought to be by the ancient Laws of the Realme parcell of the Kings Jurisdiction and united to the Crowne Imperiall Still you are short and write nothing like a Divine I tell you man It is the Kings right by the ancient Law of God and a main parcell of the Kings jurisdiction although the Laws of the Realm had never touched upon it Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester in his Oration of true Obedience saith that by the Parliaments calling of King Henry the Eighth Head of the Church there is no new invented matter wrought onely their will was to have the power pertayning to a Prince by Gods Law to be the more clearely expressed with this sounding and Emphaticall Compellation So likewise in that Book set forth by the King and Convocation called The Institution of a Christian man in the Chapter of the Sacrament of Orders it is thus written Vnto Christian Kings and Princes of right and by Gods Commandment belongeth specially and principally to conserve and maintain the true doctrine of Christ and all such as be true Preachers and setters forth thereof and to abolish all abuses heresies and Idolatries c. And John Beckinsan speaking of these particulars in hand to wit Ceremonies and Traditions not commanded by God but recommended by Clergy-men to stirre up the people to pietie and devotion saith That however they mayor ought to be maintained by the Bishops yet can they not be established as a Law otherwise then by the Authority of the supreme Magistrate And these are all Papists not Protestants who may be suspected to collogue with their Princes Nor is this Right united to the Crown of England onely as this Scribbler seems to conceive but to all other Christian Crowns and challenged by all Christian Princes accordingly For the Romane Empire one of the former Authours doth instance in Justinian that with the approbation of all the world he set forth those Laws of the most blessed Trinity the Catholick Faith of Bishops Clergie-men hereâ—icks and the like For the most ancient Kingdomes of Castile Leon Toledo and others of Spaine famous is that great work of the seven Partidas or Sections of Laws advanced by Ferdinando the third otherwise called the Saint in whose long reign of 35 yeares there was no touch of hunger or contagion but finished and compleated by his Sonne Alfonso the tenth in the first Partida or Section whereof he speaks wholy of matters pertaining to the Catholick faith which directs a man to know God by way of credence or beliefe Nor were those Volumes so composed and collected in those seven yeares imployed in that service to be afterward disputed of in Schools and Vniversities onely but for the decision of Causes and the doing of justice in all those Kingdomes and Dominions And how many Kings before this had made Laws to the same effect in those Countreys God knoweth For these Partidas were for the most part but a Collection of the ancient Laws And no otherwise have these matters been carried in the Kingdome of
is this That if all the Churches in France had been to take the pattern of their Ceremonies from King Clouys his Chappell they must have had every one of them a Hood of S. Martins to officiate over which would necessarily imply that this one Saint had a fairer Wardrobe then all the Saints in the Martyrologie put together And many yeares after King Clouys Chappell 's in France and the bordering Countreys were allowed but Portative when all the Churches had fixed Altars so as the former could not in our particular give Law to the later I will now lead you from France into Spaine to see if any Countrey can yeeld you satisfaction and let you understand that in the Kingdom of Toledo and the famous Universitie of Salamanca Services in happells are quite differing from those in Parish-churches the Mozarabique pen'd by Isidore Leander being to this very day in use in the one but the Romane Office commanded in the other Teach not the Daughter therefore against all Antiquity to jet it our before the Mother But rather give us leave to steere our selves by the Kings Laws and we shall honour as much as you the comelines and devotion of the Kings Chappell 3. Lastly I would you had not named at all the beginning of Queene Elisabeth For when the Rubrick and Common prayer was confirmed and ratified there was an Altar in that Chappel and the very old Masse officiated thereupon When the Act of Parliament was passed assented unto and printed or proclaimed the Altar was removed and the Table placed and as both parties conjecture for they were neither of them the Inigo's or Masters of the work at that time in the very room that was filled up with the former Altar And this may be for ought the one knoweth to make use of the rich Covers and ornaments which fitted that room But the other as resolute as Bacon the Carmelite enduring no Guessing or May-bees in this subject holds it for a thriftie dream and a poore conjecture Better a great deal the Chappell 's and Churches were left to their own ability to provide themselves of convenient ornaments without being any way beholding to their former Altars And if so learned a man had not delivered it I should have held this opinion to be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Pinder of another in that kinde the very dream of a shadow or the shadow of a dream that the State should throw away more rich furniture for trying of conclusions then the revenues of many Churches in the Kingdome are worth But there might be other reasons of this posture of that Table then either party hath hitherto touched What if it was to hold besides fair Candlesticks embossed Plate and Books of Silver which must have a back or wall to rest upon What if there stood in the middest thereof a massie Crucifix What if all her Chappell was thus set forth to comply with forreigne Princes and to make them beleeve she was not so farre esloigned from the Catholick Religion as was bruited abroad Were all the Churches in England to take pattern by this who might not possesse a picture in this kinde no not any of the Subjects in their private houses Let Dr Coal kindle as red as he pleaseth I dare not be too peremptory in these Assertions no more then Aristotle durst be in his morall Philosophie But I leave him to peruse my Margin a little where he shall finde two or three Frenchmen who out of the Freedome of the Nation will be sure Parler tout and to conceal nothing that ever they heard of And this is my Answer to the first Argument 2. The Queens Injunctions were se◠our for the reiglement and direction of all the Churches in this Kingdom and it is said in them that the holy Table in every Church shal be decently made and set in the place where the Altar stood and there commonly covered as thereto belongeth there is added which he leaves out and as shal be appointed by the Visitours and if so then certainly without any ifs and ands it must stand along close by the wall because the Altars alwayes stood so that is generally and for the most part And himself affirms that placing of the Table where the Altar stood which he no where affirms terminis terminantibus but as before in the place of the Chancell where the Altar stood is the most decent situation when it is not used and for use too where the Quire is mounted up by steps c. which might have easily been done Howbeit afterwards like a curs'd Cow Quo teneam nodo he throws down all the milk he hath given for when he had desperately written before that he thought somewhat might be said why the Table should stand in that place of the Chancell where the Altar stood he saith now that if by Altar-wise is mean't that it should stand along close by the wall then he believeth not that ever it was so placed unlesse by Casualty in Countrey-churches So that confessing all this and that as he guesseth the Queenes Commissioners were content that the Altars themselves should stand in the Injunctions 1559. we have that great advantage which Tully speaks of Confitentem reum were we but sure to tie a knot upon him For he is a slippery youth Ps. Quid cùm manifestò tenetur Ch. Anguilla'st elabitur So that as the former Argument was taken from the Queens Chappell so is this from the Queens Injunctions and I confesse the more pertinent of the twayn if it had a Cube or any solidity to rest upon I answer first That though I may grant the Queens Injunctions to have been an Ecclesiasticall Law yet shall I ever hold them to have been Laws of England and not of the Medes and Persians And the Kings of England have a power from God himselfe not onely to make Laws but to alter and change Laws from time to time for the good of themselves and their Subjects as I shewed before Especially those parts of the Injunction which like trees breed the Worms in the Body of them which in a short time must needs destroy them cannot but be subject to alteration And this Injunction for Tables in the Church is clearely of that nature That the holy Table should be set in the place where the Altar stood and there commonly covered as thereto belongeth and as shal be appointed by the Visitours Which last words this false-fingerd gentlemen left out in his Quotation as I noted before So that this Injunction is but as he said of Saul the sonne of one yeare and being set forth in the end of Primo referres the placing and adorning of the Table to the Commissioners which concluded both these particulars in their Orders of Tertio That the Table should stand where the steps within the Quires and Chancells stood and should be
the first The second is to the same effect The other is the common name customably used of the common people who will not be taught to speak by you or any man but keepe their accustomed names and terms Though you will go neare to tell him for his good advice that this was but his Helena to please the people Well if one should invite the good Gentlewoman your wife to dinner and bid her sit down at the side meaning in your property of speech at the End of the Table he might upon the very naming of this word side find his Gossip peradventure in the Top of the house But to dally with you no longer learned men in these very particular Ceremonies we have in hand have appropriated the word sides to the long and the word End to the short length of an Oblong square So as they cannot now be otherwise but improperly used What say you to Gregory the 13th who renewed the Calendar I hope he had about him all the best Mathematicians of Europe that could inform him what was properly to be called a side And yet in his Pontificall he makes no more sides of an Altar then of a man to wit a right side and a left side calling the lesser squares the anteriour and posteriour part thereof What think you of Archbishop Bancroft and the Composers of our Canons now in being Did they use in those Canons a property of speach Surely they were much too blame if they did not And they require as we heard before That the ten Commandments should be set upon the East-end not the East-side of every Church and Chappell And for the words of the Latin Liturgie of 2â— of the Queen that translates it ad mensae Septentrionalem partem which Mocket likewise follows in his Book it helps the Doctour nothing at all but to shew his want of Logick and learning For beside that that Book is recommended onely to a few Colleges and not unto the Church of England and was never confirmed by Act of Parliament or King Iames his Proclamation Walter Haddon or whosoever else was the translatour thereof in his Rhetoricall vein useth in his rendring of these words the Genus for the Species which in an Argument will by no means endure a Reciprocation as freshmen know in the Universities I do presume gentle Doctour that no man of reason can deny but that every End is a Part but I hope a man may stoutly deny that every Part is an End and yet with the help of a warm Night-cap keep his Reason safe enough Every side of a man is a part but he that will say that every part of a man is a side hath neither head nor brains of his own nor hath he ever studied Vesalius his Anatomy So that your Argument is troubled with a Pleurisie and some stitches in the side which must be cur'd otherwise you have reason Sr to expect yeâ— long to heare some news from the trimme Gentleman Your Eve Sr Illa tuum Castrice dulce latus was taken from your side And thereupon by the Phrisians and Sicambrians a Wife is to this day call'd a side But she was not taken from everypart of a man Tell her that she was taken from your Heels you shall quickly find her if she be metall'd about your Eares So in this particular when you officiate at the end of the Table you may officiate at a part and well enough for ought the writer of the Letter saith to the contrary but you cannot officiate at that part of the Table to the which by the Rubrick confirmed by Act of Parliament you are literally directed and appointed Besides that there is in this Latin translation more to be considered then you are aware of The Calendar there is full of Saints and some of them got into red scarlet there is an innovation in the Obits and Exequies which is fain to be warranted with the Queens especiall Non obstante And what needed this to yong Scholars that mean't not to die so fast but desired no more then leave to pray in Latin to be better acquainted with books in that Language Lastly there were so few Copies of this Latin Liturgie printed at the first that Dr Whitaker when he was but yet a very yong man was imployed by his Vncle the Dean of Pauls to translate it again into Latin Which had never been unlesse the other version was at that time either exhausted or misliked Set all these together and compare the yeare of 3â— and 4â— of the Queen for so long it may be yer the Book was printed with the doings at the Councell of Trent with the Popes endeavours to excommunicate and the Emperours to protect this yong Princesse and you shall finde a probable reason that this Liturgie should be translated rather to complie with the forreign then to reigle and direct the English Churches And so much by way of Answer to the second Argument 3. The third and main Argument of Dr Coal is this That his sacred Majestie whom God long preserve hath hereupon already declared his pleasure in the Case of S. Gregories and thereby given encouragement to the Metropolitanes Bishops and other Ordinaries to require the like in all the Churches committed to them If this were true it might very well serve for a Wall of brasse to keep off the tongues and pens of all the Clergie and Laity of England from intermedling in this Theme or Question any more For who could have so steely a brow as to outface such a sacred Sentence especially in a matter of a nature indifferent acknowledged by all Laws divine and humane to depend immediately upon the Royall decision But it is most untrue that his Majesty hath declared in that Act one word of his pleasure Hereupon that is against the Contents of this Letter although it was if I be rightly informed either punctually read or opened very fully unto his most excellent Majesty at that Hearing But this Pamphleter whose whole book is but a Libel against a Bishop and every page thereof a malicious falsification of some Authour or other had this height of impudency onely left to ascend unto in the Conclusion of his work ponere os in coelum to outface heaven it self and misreport the justice of so divine a Majestie For if you abstract from this Declaration which this bold man hath printed for an Act of Counsell the Allegations which he calls the Relations of both parties and his Majestâ—es just pleasure for the dissolving of the Appeal the remainder will prove a full confirmation of this Letter he so much frets against and a most condigne reprehension of that Squirrelheaded yong man that without consent of his Fellow minister and in contempt of his Diocesan and all that populous Parish would throw the Communion-table out of doores and build him a close Altar out of faction and
And if any Reformation of the name the situation or use of the Communion-Table were seriously in hand what man of the least discretion but would take the Magistrate along with him The bounden dutie of Subjects is to be content to follow Authoritie and not enterprising to run before it For if you let every Minister do what he list speak what he list alter what he list as oft as him list upon a general pretense of a Good work in hand or the Pietie of the times you shall have as many kinds of Religion as there be Parishes as many Sects as Ministers and a Church miserably torn in pieces with mutability and diversity of opinions But there is much you say to be said in defence thereof out of the Acts Monuments some Acts of ParliameÌ„ts Much good do it you with that Much so as you eat cleanly and do not slubber slabber your Quotations of those Books in which all sorts of men are thorowly versed First Jo. Frith calls it The Sacrament of the Altar Doth he so Then surely it was long before the Reformation and when every man call'd it so For he was burned 4º Julii 1533. But where doth he so call it Yes he saith in his Letter They examined me touching the Sacrament of the Altar Why man they cal'd it so not he Those words are the words of the Article objected against him They are their words not his He doth not once call it so in all his long discourse Turn but the leaf and you shall heare him interpret himselfe I added moreover that their Church as they call it Their Church as they call it Their Sacrament of the Altar as they call it If you will know how he cals it in that dawning of the Reformation look upon the Books pen'd by himself not the Interrogatories ministed by Sr Tho. More or some others He calls it every where The Sacrament of Christs body Nay he is not there content but desires that all the Church had call'd it otherwise I would it had been call'd as it is indeed and as it was commanded to be Christs Memoriall And to call it a Sacrifice is saith he just as if I should set a Copon before you to break-fast when you are new come home and say This is your Welcome-home whereas it is indeed a Capon and not a Welcome-home And if you will beleeve his Adversary Sr Thomas More None spoke so homely of this Sacrament as Jo. Frith no not Friar Barnes himself Making this Bridegrooms ring of gold but even a proper ring of a rush So that vouz avez Jo. Frith Let him in Gods name come up to the Barre The next man is Jo. Lambert And he saith I make you the same Answer to the other six Sacraments as I have done unto the Sacrament of the Altar But tell me in my eare I pray you How doth he begin that Answer to the Sacrament of the Altar It is but 14 lines before in your own Book Whereas in your sixth Demand you do enquire Whether the Sacrament of the Altar c. All these words of enquiâ—y are theirs man not his What is his Answer I neither can nor will answer one word And so Jo. Lambeâ—t answers there not one word for you Yea but he doth in another place That Christ is said to be offered up no 〈◊〉 every year at Easter but also everyday in the celebraâ—â— on of the Sacrament because his oblation once 〈…〉 made is therby represented This likewise is 〈…〉 to be spoken long before any Reformatâ—â—◠〈◊〉 hand For Lambert was also martyred 〈…〉 But are you sure these words are his I am sure you know the contrary if you have read the next words following Even so saith S. Augustine The words are the words of an honest man but your dealing in this kind is scarce honest John Lambert doth qualifie them afterward that S. Augustines meaning was That Christ was all this in a certain manner or wise He was an Oblation as he was a Lion a Lambe and a doore that is as we said before a Metaphoricall and improper Oblation which never relates unto an Altar Vouz avez an honest man John Lambert But stand you by for a Mountebank John Coal The next is the most Reverend and learned Archbishop who notwithstanding his opposition to the Statute of the 6 Articles yet useth the phrase or term of Sacrament of the Altar as formerly without taking thereat any offence Pag. 443. And are you sure he doth so in that page Are you sure of any thing I am now sure he names not that Sacrament at all either in that page or in any other near unto it The Treatise there set down is of Jâ—hn Fox his composition and set forth in his own name It mentioneth indeed in the Confutation of the first Article the Sacrament of the Altar but with such a peal after it as none but a mad man would cite him for this purpose This monstrous Article of theirs in that form of words as it standeth c. And so the Lord Archbishop saith as much as John Lambert that is not one word for him The next in order is John Philpot whose speach this cruell man hath sore pinch't upon the rack to get him to give some evidence on his side He wriggles and wrests all his words and syllables that the Quotation is very near as true a Martyr as the man himselfe I am sure he hath lop't off the Head that had a shrewd tale to tell and the feet of his Discourse which walk a quite contrary way to Dr Coals purpose leaving the Relation like Philopoemenes his Army all Belly The Head is this I must needs ask a Question of Dr Chedsey concerning a word or twain of your supposition yours not his owne that is of the Sacrament of the Altar What he meaneth thereby and Whether he taketh it as some of the Ancient Writers do terming the Lords Supper the Sacrament of the Altar for the Reasons there set down and mentioned by Dr Coal or Whether you take it otherwise for the Sacrament of the Altar which is made of Lime and Stone over the which the Sacrament â—hangeth And hearing they meant it this later way he declares himself Then I will speak plain English That the Sacrament of the Altar is no Sacrament at all How like you John Philpot You shall have more of him St Austinwith other ancient Writers do call the holy Communion or the Supper of the Lord The Sacrament of the Altar in respect it is the Sacrament of the Sacrifice which Christ offered upon the Altar of the Crosse The which Sacrifice all the Altars and Sacrifices upon the Altars in the old Law did prefigure and shadow The which pertaineth nothing to your Sacrament hanging upon your Altars of Lime and stone Christoph. No doth I pray you what signifieth Altar Philip. Not
the publick Liturgie thereof before the Liturgie was penn'd and approv'd in Parliament But I will endeavour to give this undated Letter a truer Date Archbishop Cranmer writes for Bucer to come over 2º Octob. 1549. He desir'd Calvin who was no doubt a Polypragmon and made his Letters to fly to all the Princes in the world that did but look towards a Reformation to write by him to the Protectour and to perswade him to a serious Reformation in generall Calvin in this Letter tell 's him he had written to the Protectour a Letter not the Letter Printed bearing Date two yeares before and bids him if he could procure Audience a signe he had not been here as yet deal with him roundly himself and take heed of his old fault as he terms that most admired prudence and wisdome of that learned man to be ever inclining mediis Consiliis to peaceable and moderate Advices And this Letter must be written unto him about the Spring 1549 when he was ready to come for England Where we finde he was safely arrived and repos'd himself at Canterbury in Iune following Now although he had considered of the Book of Common Prayers before as well as he could per interpretem by the help of an Interpreter and approv'd it as in nothing candidly construed repugnant to the word of God yet did he never make Notes and Censures thereupon untill he was required thereunto by Archibishop Cranmer two yeares after this to wit Anno 1551 Nor could he tell Tales to Calvin thereof being then bedrid and dying within 25 dayes after some two moneths before the Alteration of the Liturgie especially not any Tale against the Altar having suffer'd Auricular Confession Oblations and Altars though termed Boords or Tables to stand in the Reformation at Cullen and not taking the least exception against the word in his Censure of our Liturgie I am therefore strengthened in my former Opinion That it was the King the Lords and the State rather then any incitement of Martin Bucer that made this Alteration in our Liturgie in the point of Altars Then for Calvin no man can conceive him to be more pragmatically zealous in point of Reformation even in those Countreys which cared least for him then I do Yet do I hold him a most innocent man and our famous Liturgie sorely wounded through his side by this audacious Companion in this particular concerning Altars The Letter to the Protectour that D. Coal relies upon bears Date Octob. 22 1546. which according to forreign Accompts is a yeare before K. Edward came to the Crown But compute it as you please it must be three full yeares before the moneth of March 1549. At what time I finde that this former Liturgie was first printed And if you relie upon his Character the Letters placed before and behinde this to the Protectour are of the same Date 1546. And yet would this Companion have his courteous Readers to swallow this Gudgeon without so much as champing or chewing on it And in this Letter Calvin toucheth onely upon 4 particulars which Bucer himself doth likewise censure Chrisoms oyl in Baptisme Commemoration of the dead and the abuse of Impropriations but not one word of the Altars And good reason for it For Beza confesseth that at Lausanna where Calvin taught before he came to Geneva there was a Marble-Altar used for a Communion-Table which from thence was removed to Bearn where Calvin also sometimes taught and is so there used as a Communion-Table abstracted from all former relations to a Sacrifice unto this day Which I therefore note to let you see that Calvin was not so strait-lac't in this particular Yea but he findes great fault with the Commemoration of the dead And doth he so And I pray you what doth K. Iames declare the generall Opinion of our Church to be for these Commemorations in the time of the Communion in that most exact Answer of his to Cardinal Peron This is a rite saith he which the Church of England though it doth not condemne in the first ages of the Church yet holds unfit to be retained at this day for many and weightie causes and reasons which you may read most excellently pressed in that Book Besides that Calvin acknowledgeth as he wanted to wit to understand how the world went with him abroad that he had no such credit with the Conformable partie here in England as within two or three yeares after this he confesseth openly in one of his Letters Lastly which is the main Answer of all the Protectour was of no power in the State when this Liturgie was reformed which was not altogether unknown to Calvin having an hint from Archbishop Cranmer to addresse his Letters to the King himself But for the Lord Protectour he had his crush a yeare and a half before never restor'd again to his Power or Office admitted onely by a New oath to serve but as a Counseller at large and in the first sitting of this Parliament which altered the Liturgie he was attainted and condemned and presently executed having been in no case or place of a long time to make Alterations to gratifie Calvin And for Archbishop Cranmer it is true the foresaid Active man writes unto him from Geneva a couple of Letters and offers his service in person to make up our Articles of Religion and to state the Controversies in Divinity another project it seems the learned Archbishop had then in hand when he gives him a generall touch of the residui surculi the remaining stumps and roots of Popery together with the cause thereof as he conceived the Lay-mens swallowing of the Impropriations But hath not in all the two Letters so much as one syllable of Altars or amendment of Liturgies And what Date these Letters were of God knoweth for they have none a all in the Book But the Date seems to be much before Ann. 1551. which is D. Coal's conjecture For in the first Letter he presents his Grace with the news of Osianders troubles which he stirred up in the yeare 1549. And in the second he tells him of a chanting of Vespers in an unknown tongue here in England which was inhibited in this Kingdom by Act of Parliament full two years before the Altering of the Liturgie Nor doth it seem that Calvin had any great acquaintance with the Archbishop who neither accepted of his Offer in the Agreeing of the Articles nor for ought appeares ever wrote unto him back againe but sent him a Message by one Nicolas wishing him to write to the King himself about the Restoring of the Impropriations I say it doth not seem they were much acquainted by that first Letter that Calvin writes unto him For in that he rails most bitterly upon yong Osiander a Divine very near allied unto the Archbishop But if Calvins Letter to the Protectour himself be misdated as like enough it is
being but a Copie from the French wherein the Date was not regarded then came it to the Dukes hands as some Letter from Calvin was then delivered to the Duke by one Nicolas a Tel-tale of M. Calvins that studied in Cambridge in those dayes but in the year 1551 Bucer being dead before which Calvin there takes notice of and the Liturgie newly altered Let us not therefore as we tender the credit of the Church of England suffer such a famous piece as our Common prayer-Prayer-book is to be disparaged in this kinde upon such weak Flams and ridiculous suppositions But if any desire to know the reason of the Alteration let him repaire to the Act it self where he may be fully satisfied He shall finde it was partly the Curiositie of the Ministers and mistakes in the use and exercise of the former Book met withall in the second Book by a clear explanation Of the which curiosity and mistaking whether this removing and placing of the Altar which they found usually so termed in the former Liturgie might not be a speciall branch I leave to the Readers collection out of what hath been already delivered in the examination of the Counsell-Act in that behalf And partly also he shall find the Book was altered for the more perfection thereof or as it followeth in the body of the Act to be made fully perfect Not to gratifie Calvin who was Lecturing in his Chaire at Geneva nor to comply with the Duke of Somerset who was a condemned prisoner looking every day for the stroke of the Ax when this Book was passing the severall Committees in the Upper and Lower house of Parliament And that it seems by any one syllable of the Letter to Farell that Calvin wrote unto the King about the change of the Liturgie is another blue one Reade the Letter and you will be of my opinion Yea but the King in his Answer to the Devonshire-men had formerly affirmed that the Lords Supper as it was then administred was brought even to the very use as Christ left it as the Apostles used it and as the holy Fathers deliver'd it I answer that these Devonshire-men whom the Doctour cloaths in this fair Livery were a sort of notorious Rebells And if a King to avoid shedding of bloud should answer such people clad in steel edictis melioribus in a more passable language then will endure Logicall examination is it fit he should be so many yeares after jeered thus by such a Mushrom here on earth reigning himself without all doubt a most glorious Saint above in Heaven Besides that the Form that Christ left the Apostles used and the Fathers deliver'd the Lords Supper in is never taken by judicious Divines in a meere Mathematicall and indivisible point of exactnesse but in a Morall conformitie which will admit of a Latitude and receive from time to time degrees of perfection But I will not lead you to any woods to borrow shadows for this place the Answer is set down in such capitall Letters that he that runnes by may read it The Rebells in their third Article set on by the Popish Priests do petition for their Masse that is that which we call the Canon of the Masse and words of Consecration as they had it before and that the Priests might celebrate it alone without the communicating of the people To this the King answers That for the Canon of the Masse and words of Consecration which is in nothing altered in the second Liturgie they are such as were used by Christ the Apostles and the ancient Fathers that is They are the very words of the Institution But for the second part of their Demand which was for the Sacrifice of the Masse or the Priests eating alone they must excuse him For this the Popes of Rome for their lucre added unto it So there is a clear Answer to both parts of the Article They should have a Table and a Communion and the words of Consecration as they were used body Christ the Apostles and the ancient Fathers But they should have no Altar nor Sacrifice for these the Popes of Rome for their lucre had added to the Institution being as B. Jewell truly calls them the Shops and gainfull Booths of the Papists And this Answer did nothing like our noble Doctour And therefore from making himself merry with the King by a kinde of Conversion borrowed from father Parsons three Conversions he wheels about and breaks a Lance upon the Parliament That would take upon them to mend a Book which they could not but acknowledge to be both agreeable to Gods Word and the Primitive Church And then he quotes 5º and 6º Edv. 6. cap. 1. as if he should say There 's my Cloak and here 's my Sword and I stand in Cuerpo ready to maintain it I say still that this Agreeablenesse to Gods Word and the Primitive Church is not to be taken in a mathematicall but in a morall point The first Book was in some the second is in more degrees agreeable to those excellent Paterns But what need I say this when the Act of Parliament saith no such matter as is pretended In that part of the Act where these words are mentioned some coertion and penalties were provided for sensuall persons and refractory Papists who forbore to repair to the Parish-Churches upon the establishment of the English Service desiring still to feed upon husks when God had rain'd down his Manna upon them The Parliament according to their deep wisdome in that kinde desirous to include some reason in the Preamble of the smart that comes after in the body of the Act tells the Offenders against this new Law that Prayers in the Mother-tongue is no Invention of theirs as the Priests would make them believe but the direction of the Word of God and the practice of the primitive Church Medling no further with the Liturgie in this part of the Act then as it was a Service in the Mother-tongue And so begins the Act That whereas order had been set forth for Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments to be used in the Mother-tongue agreeable to the Word of God and the Primitive Church c. The thing excepted against was Prayer in the Mother-tongue and this the Parliament avows to be agreeable to Gods Word and the Primitive Church And I hope you are not mounted as yet to that height as to dare to deny it If any Reader can doubt of so clear an explication let him look once more upon the Kings Answer to the Devonshire-Rebells immediately before this Parliament and he shall finde Sun-beams to display all darknesse that can possibly fall upon this point To the 3. Ask for the Service in the English tongue it hath manifest reasons for it If the Service in the Church was good in Latin it remaineth good in English An alteration to the better except Knowledge be worse then Ignorance So
that superfluous work of the 141 Canons Why man Ecclesia Foemina Lana What Countrey of Europe can yeeld you fair if England affords but small Churches And having shot his childish shaft telúmque imbelle sine ictu at the Writer of the Letter he falls once more as Kestrels love to feed on dead things to rake into the ashes of Reverend Iewell The Vicar suppos'd to have but a small Study of Books was desired for his satisfaction That Communion-tables have heretofore stood in the midst of Chancells and Churches to reade some places out of Eusebius S. Augustine Durandus and the fifth Councell of Constantinople in a Book chayn'd in his Church to wit B. Iewell against Harding To the which the Doctour sitting in his Chair that may prove Episcopall one day and making triall how the style and language would now become him he speaks or rather pronounceth in this maner And read him though we have yet we are not satisfied And this is somewhat a strange Case Three great Princes successively the one after the other and foure Archbishops of very eminent parts have been so satisfied with the truth and learning of this Book that they have impos'd it to be chain'd up and read in all Parish-Churches throughout England and Wales and yet careth Gallio for none of these things For we Don Nosotros are not satisfied And why good Gravity are not you satisfied Because Eusebius speaking of the Church at Tyre hath it in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not as Bishop Iewell interprets in the midst of the Church among the people but in the middle of the Chancell in reference to North and South And well sayd Doctour I had thought Eusebius or rather the Panegâ—rist in Eusebius had been describing in that place a brave Chancell set all about with Seats and other Ornaments and that he had placed the Altar in the very midst of that Chancell But I see I am mistaken and so is B. Iewell B. Morton D. Fulk Hospinian Mornay and Monsieur Moulin as well as I. For the Panegyrist it seems is there painting a Sea-card of the Winds or the foure points of Heaven having set down the North and the South he placeth in the middle of these two the aforesaid Altar But the Doctour in this Conceipt is as Sr Philip Sidney calls it Heavenly wide as wide from the true sense as the North of the Heaven is from the South For if this Altar stood along the Eastern Wall and because fixed in the Middle of that Wall is sayd to be in the midst of the Chancell a Grecian would not call such a posture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or understand what you meant when you sayd so but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Euclide himself terms it over-aneanst the middle of the wall as the Septuagint describe the situation of the Altar of Incense which is your own instance in the next line to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over-aneanst the veil of the Temple Nor is it conceivable how this Altar should be in the middle between North and South rather then in the middle between East and West All substantiall bodies here on Earth being equally measureable by those foure postures of the Heavens as the Philosopher tells us But like a child in a sandy bank look what fine structure the Doctour had here built up with one hand he straight-way in the very next words of all pulls down with the other For now the Altar might possibly be plac't in the Middle of the Church in imitation of the Iews with whom this people were mingled Well this Doctour is full of Miracles in his writings I had read of an Altar heretofore suddenly got up from Earth to Heaven but of an Altar so soon toppled down from Heaven to Earth I never read before this time But he had as good let the Altar alone where he had plac't it For it shall not serve his turne For Tyre though it was in Syria yet were the people thereof never mingled with the Iews nor the Iews with them untill their embracing of the Christian Faith after the utter ruine and subversion of that Nation saith Adrichomius Nor was the Altar of Incense in the midst of the Temple as he likewise unlearnedly relates For Herods Temple was sixty cubits long twenty within and fourty without the Veil And this Altar was close unto the Veil as Tostatus and Ribera do fasten it and therefore farre from the midst of the Temple But it stood indeed in another midst in the midst between the Table on the North and the Candlestick on the South thereof saith Philo Iudaeus Nor lastly is any thing observed truly though the refuting thereof be altogether impertinent which this man sets down in all this Section unlesse it be that the word Altar is named in Eusebius It is not true that the Gate or Entrance of this Church is said to be open to the East nor is there any such thing in Eusebius It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a Gate but a Portico or a shady walk nor is it of the Church but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Cloister about the Church To be short there is as I said even now in this passage nothing related sincerely but that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is there indeed But then it is as sincerely to be replied that this Altar is by and by after interpreted to be a Metaphoricall Altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sanctification of a Christian Soul as we heard before And so much for Eusebius The next he takes in hand is the fifth Councell of Constantinople as it is there called by poore B. Jewell that never saw it being indeed the Councell sub Agapeto Menna And how should we have done had we not known under whom this Councell was held and any man would swear that correcting B. Jewell so punctually he should be now in the right But the poore man is abused by some wag that fits him with these Exscriptions Agapetus was dead before this Councell was held And if he had but read any one Action he could not but have found it out Agapetus of blessed memory c. It was held by Menna the Patriarch in the vacancy of the See of Rome between Agapetus and Sylverius as Binius Caranza and Coriolanus do state it Well in this Councell he findes that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot be properly interpreted as B. Jewell would have it round about the Altar but before the Altar as the Noblemen standing before the King may be said to be about the King and the Angels in the Revelation round about the Throne I had thought the Throne in Heaven had been safe enough and had needed no wall to rest upon and that the Angels might be as
a Mouse to perform without a good minde prepared before-hand for the fitter accomplishment of that service And these Authours may suffice for a Question that admits of no more difficulty In the Precedents I will begin with Rome it self And first with the famous place called Catacombe a word of a mongrell composition half Greek half Latin and signifying as much as near the Tombs a kind of vaulted Church under the earth in a manner of a semicircular form seated not unhandsomly round about wherein the ancient Bishops of Rome were wont to repose themselves in time of persecution In the very midst whereof there stands a most ancient Altar of Marble under the which lay for a time the Bodies of S. Peter and S. Paul and upon the which it was not lawfull heretofore for any to officiate beside the Pope himself untill Paulus Quintus in our◠memory licensed by a speciall Bull all other approved Priests to do the like That 's for the time past For the present S. Peters Body being removed by Constantine unto S. Peters Church in the Vatican and the great Altar called Altare Maggiore consecrated by Pope Sylvester over the same which is recorded in a Book kept in that Church called Codex S. Petri preserved to this day the posture of this high Altar was in the midst of the Quire and such from the beginning that Clemens Octavus had room enough to erect a new Altar sopra di esso above this former Altar which he consecrated assisted with 38 Cardinals 26. of June 1594. And this very Pope Vrbane the eighth reedifying and enhansing the old Altar did not offer to change the position or situation of the same So that the Pope himself is more tractable in this point then this heady Authour From Rome I must lead you as my Books lead me to Millain and let you see that untill Cardinall Borromaeus made a Saint it seems for this service did demolish them the Altars had an indifferent situation in any part of the Church as under the Pulpit where Gods Word was preached under the Organ-loft whence God was praysed and under the Reading-desk where the Gospell was delivered And this continued thus untill within these threescore yeares And yet in this severe Reformation which that Cardinall made in all the Churches of the State of Millain he doth require that there be left a space of eight Cubits at the least between the high Altar and the Wall to admit the assistance of more Priests and Deacons at Feasts of Dedications and other Appointments of solemne Masses And this is more liberty yet then our Doctour will afford Howbeit this Cardinall was so severe a Prelate that he was once shot at with a Pistoll by some of his Clergie whereas God forbid that any man should discharge ought at D. Coal unlesse it be a Shot of Jests or a Peal of Laughter From Italy my Books transport me to Germany where I heare Witikind the ancient Saxon telling Charles the Great who much endeavoured and at last effected his Conversion to Christianity that be observed a great deal of cheerfulnesse and alacrity in the Emperours face cast down before when he began to approach that Table which was in the midst of the Church And Hospinian tells us that in the Reformation which the Helvetians made at Tigure 1527 they found that of old time the Font had been situated in that very place where the Popish high Altar was then demolished And looking for more I find that Chemnitius notes that Altar in the Vatican we spake of before to be placed ante Chorum before the very Quire which my former Authour had not observed And that Beatus Rhenanus makes a generall observation that these Wall-altars in Europe are nothing so ancient as the Churches but of a much fresher and later Erection Which D. Fulk proves both of our Altars and Chancells here in England by many pregnant conjectures and probabilities In France they do not fasten as I am informed the high Altars to the Wall but the lesser or Requiem-Altars onely In my Books I find a most rich Table in the Abbey-church of S. Denys all of beaten gold encha'st round about with rich and curious precious stones to the beautifying whereof as the Children of Israel to the enriching of the Sanctuary the Kings Princes Prelates and Nobles of that Kingdom parted with the Stones of their chiefest Rings as Sugerius an ancient Abbar who hath recorded all the Curiosities of that religious house doth report at large This Table is not laid along the Wall but stands Table-wise and by the Inscription must needs have been used heretofore for a Communion-table It being this Da pro praesenti Coeli mensâ satiari Significata magìs significante placent That is Let this food us for Heavenly food enable The signifying for signified Table I do reade likewise that the holy Altar in the same Church placed before the Tomb of Charles the Bald stands in a manner in the midst of that Room But these postures are no strangers in that Countrey Now having led you a long round to visit the sites of the Altars in Rome Italy France and Germany I will bring you home again unto your own Countrey and desire you to mark well how Austin the Apostle of the Saxons plac'd his first Altar in the Cathedrall Church at Dover dedicated to S. Peter and S. Paul This Church hath in medio sui penè almost in the very midst thereof an Altar dedicated to the honour of S. Gregory the Pope Vpon the which the Priest of the place doth every Sabbath-day perform the Agends of this Austin and S. Gregory And shall we believe that no Church of all the English Nation did imitate herein her first Metropolis It is impossible it should be so But we may the more reasonably presume the Conjecture for I dare not otherwise propound it of D. Fulk to be worthy of further consideration That if you mark the most part of the old Churches in England you shall plainly see that the Chancells are but additions builded since the Churches Also that some Churches are builded round as one in Cambridge and the Temple in London to which may be added the old Pantheon in Rome call'd by the Moderns Santa Maria Rotunda And many Churches if you mark it which are of the Gothick building have their steeples at the East-end Lastly a number of our old Churches have their Iles of such a perfect Crosse that they cannot possibly see either high Altar or so much as the Chancell A shrewd Argument that the holy Tables in England were not fixed as the Piety of the Times would now have them when these Churches were first erected I will conclude all this discourse with a couple of rich and curious Tables presented unto the two great Mother-Churches of the World Rome Constantinople and leave it to your considerations whether
in Syria might possibly place the Altar in the middle of the Church to comply with and allude unto the Iewish Altars And was not both the Temple at Hierusalem and the Altar there builded toward the West This Doctour may have a good wit because he hath a very bad memory Fifthly the man surely hath not seen the Greek nor observed well Musculus his Translation For neither Socrates nor Nicephorus do say that the Altars were placed to the West-ward or did stand West-ward All these are mistakings Socrates doth not speak at all of any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or position of these Altars but of the Churches onely Nicephorus who copied him out addes besides his Authour the posture of the Altars but presently corrects himself in Socratâ—s his word that his meaning was the same with Socrates that the Altars there did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not stand but look and carry an aspect West-ward where ever they were sited and fixed And this is the true point in Question not where the Altars stood but to what part of the heavens he that officiaâ—ed upon the Altar did bend his looks as Walafridus Strabo though pauper hebésque a poore and heavie Authour did better state it then this Doctour It is true indeed that as these Historians write the Churches Altars must be built 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as the Priest may turn a contrary way to that they do that pray onely to the East And this B. Iewell observes to be used at this day in all the great Churches of Millain Naples Lions Mentz and Rome and in the Church of S. Laurence in Florence the Priest in his service standing towards the West with his face still upon the People howsoever their Altars be standing or placed Sixthly This is utterly against what the man labours for all this while He desires to stand at the North-end of a Table laid Altar-wise all along the Wall looking as that posture requires towards the South and to bring this project to passe he makes or would fain make these two Historians to say that the generall practice of the Church besides a few places in Antioch was to make their Altars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alwayes to looke towards the East Howbeit properly the Altars cannot be said to look at all but those onely that officiate or pray upon these Altars Lastly the Coal being now quite spent that he might be sure to go out with a stench especially in the sense of those Readers that have any Noses doth fain a Tenet to be maintained which is opposed in all the Letter That Communion tables should not stand or be placed towards the East Who ever said so man The Writer of the Letter is but too much for it not allowing the ordinary exceptions of Bellarmine Suarez or Walafridus Strabo before them that it might be otherwise when the Conveniency of the building doth require it It may stand to the East in the body of the Church much more in the body of the Chancell unlesse the man would have it planted in Eden where God planted his Orchard to be sure it stood farre enough in the East I will conclude this Brangle with a better reason then any this doughty scribbler could think of why all the Churches in those parts had their Altars and postures in the same manner that the Temple and Synogogues of the Iews were formerly contrived Because upon every occasion of their Conversion to Christianity the entire Synagâ—gues of the Iews undemolished and unaltered were turned in a trice to Christian Churches as you may read at large in two severall Greek Copies lately printed of a Book written by S. Athanasius under this title De passione Imaginis Domini nostri c. But how indifferent they were in the midst of Rome it self in those primitive times how their Churches should stand the very Titles of the Cardinals preserv'd to this day do clearly witnesse being all of them in a manner converted to sacred use from the habitations of private men Especially that of our Countrey-woman if we may believe our Popish Heralds the Lady Claudia who suffering this part of her patrimony the first lodging of S. Peter in that City to descend upon her daughter by Pudens gave an opportunity to have it converted to a Title and a Church call'd at this day Sancta Pudentiana A blushing Saint to whom this Doctour when his Altar is up and conveniently beautified should do very well to addresse more speciall and peculiar devotions And here I could make an end if the Doctours ignorance would give me leave Which I cannot endure should abuse so mild and patient a Reader as hath held out so long a Discourse of no more use or consequence unto him in the reiglement of his Soule or advantage of his Civill conversation And that is in his foolish definition of the Diptychs in the primitive Church which is this The Diptychs i.e. The Commemoration of those famous Prelates and other persons of chief note which had departed in the Faith A description that no man who could with the help of a Lexicon have but known the meaning of the Greek word would ever have offered in this learned age to have imposed upon his Readers I have seen a naughty boy that having but two leaves of his ABC left being graveld in the one would tear it out and go very pertly to be pos'd of his Master in the other No otherwise doth our Iudicious Divine Sic parvis componere magna solemus behave himself in this place The Diptychs in the primitive Church were two Leaves Tables or Boards bound like an oblong Book in the one Column whereof were written the Names of such worthy Popes Princes Prelates and other men of noted Piety that remained yet alive and in the other a like Catalogue of such famous men as were already departed in their sleep as the Greek or in their pause as the Mozarabick Liturgy terms it This man having heard by some body that there was heretofore out of these Tables a Commemoration of the dead at the time of high Masse or Communion was willing to let the world understand so much and therefore made hast to put it in print But being unskill'd in the other leaf he tore it quite out of his ABC as not bound by any law of God or man to write any more then he knew himself Now the Greek word in generall signifies any thing that is two-fold in the form of a pair of Tables And in this particular was without all Question borrowed for this sacred use from the first Book of Homers Iliads where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signify their laying of a fold or lining of tallow on the one side and another fold of fat or tallow on the other side of the flesh which was to be offered in the Heathen Sacrifice to make it burn the clearer and sooner in
better imitation of the Law in that behalf it is ordered c. f P. 22. g Letter p. 71 h Rubrick before the Communion i P. 26. That onely was put in to shew that he had the Book entituled The Trobles of Francofurt k Pag. 30. l Cambd. Elis. p. 23. m Troubles of Francof p. 23. 24. n Miles Huggard in his book cal'd The displaying of I rotestants Anno 1556. Pag. 81. So the Bishop of Lincoln to Bishop Ridley And yet when your Table was constituted you could never be content in pâ—acing the same now East now North c. Act. Monum vol. 3. p. 497. o Letter pag. 71. 70. p Actor Eccles. Medio sub Car. Borrom part 4. Instructionum fabricae supellectilis Ecclesiastica l. 1. c. 11. q Pag. 11. r pag. 23. s Geometr lib. 12. Can. 2. t Horat. in Arte Poëtica u Geometrae qui se profitentur non persuadere sed cogere Cic. Acad Quaest. l. 4. x 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. de Anima lib. 1. cap. 1. y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. Non suaviter posse vivere juxta Epicurum pag. 1094. z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. ibid. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem ibid. b Porphyrius de vita Pythag. ab Holstenio editus p. 24. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Squares are figures compassed with foure right lines Euclid Element ex Theon comment translated by Dosypodius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Right figures are those that are compassed with right lines Ibid. d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Plato in Menon pag. 418. Pusionem quendam Socrates interrogat quaedam Geometrica de dimensione Quadrati Cic. Tufc qu. l. 1. e M. Blundevils Exercit. 1 Book of the Sphear p. 274. f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. Analyt post l. 1. c. 12. g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. Anal post 1. c. 10. h Iul. Polluc li. 4. c. 21. p. 212. i Opera danda est ut verbis utamur quà m usitatissimis Cio 4. de Finib Vsitata sunt ea quae versantur in sermone consuetudine quotidiana Cic. ad Heren lib. 4. k Dialecticorum quoque verba nulla sunt publica suis utuntur Et id quoque commune omnium ferè artium Cic. Acad. quaest l 1. l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Analyt post l. 1. c. 11. m Les Bigarreures du Seigneur des Accords De Rebus par lettres ch 3. p. 25 26. n Coelius Rhodigin Antiq. lection lib. 18. cap. 34â— Nunquam non Collimitiis pereuntibus Nili exuperantia Hieron Card. Encom Geometr o Cardan ibid. a The ablest Canonist no doubt in the Church of England p. 50. b Post-nat p. 62. c Whitgift in his defence of the admonition tit 9. pag. 134. d Pag. 47. e Bullarii Tom. 2. p. 456. f Pontific Greg 13. Venet. 1582. p. 144. Et thurificat Altare undique ad dextrum sinistruÌ„ latus Et p. 142. In parte posteriori parte anteriori Altaris And it is so likewise in the Pontificall of Pius Quartus printed at Venice 1561. p. 133. Above all this see Act. Monum vol. 2. pag. 700. Of B. Ridley And in the Church of â—oul brake down the wal standing then by the high Altars side And when the Altare Sanctum in S. Denis in France was opened by the Abbat Suger there was found S. James arme en la partie anteritur in the anteriour part S. Stephens at the right and S. Vincents at the left side of the Altar Du Brenl Theatre des Antiquitez de Paris lib. 4. pag. 1102. a Canon 82. b Politia Eccles p. 221. c Quoniam intelligimus Collegia utriusque Academiae Collegium item novum prope Wintoniam Aetonense Q. Letters patents 6. April El. 2. d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Top. 4. c. 1. e Martial epigr. lib. 6. f Martinius in Lexic verbo Latus g Si ex posteriori parte eduxisset nimiò plùs mulier vilis extitisset si ex anteriori quasi viro adversariam effinxisset Gennad 〈◊〉 aten Lippoâ—â— in Gen. c. 7. fol. 74. Nè aut Domina si de Capite aut Ancilla si de Pedibus Hugo de S. Victore h Peculiari â— quaedam in funebribus exequiis deâ—antinda quae Statuâ—o non obstante c. Q. Letter patent i Latinitate donà sse fertur The Book is extent in 8â— omnem rationem publicarum precum totius Liturgiae formam praescriptam Ashtonus in vita Whitakâ—ri Oper. tom 1. pag. 699. k See the History of the Counc of Trent lib. 8. pag. 727. Item Cambd. Elis. pag. 41. l p. 63. p. 65. q Nè quid post illud divinum immortale factum mortale faceret Plin. in Panegyr r pag. 3. s Virgil. Aeneid 1. a A ceromate nos Aphe exce pit Senec. Epist. 57. Haphe pulvis quo inspergebantur luctaturi Muretus in locum Sic Ovid. Ille cavis hausto spargat me pulvere palmis b pag. 2. c pag. 59. d pag. 63. e pag. 9. f pag. 10. g pag. 11. h Title pag. i pag. 48. k pag. 51. l pag. 3. m pag. 4. 28. n pag. 3. o Ovid. Metamorph lib. 3. p Iuven. Satyr q Pallas adest motae que jubet supponere terrae Vipereos dentes Ovid. Metam l. 3. r Vino graves They would know whither Varius Crispinus did drive those Cartloads of Armour Tacit Histor. l. 1. c. 83. according to Gruterus s Bils de perpetua Guberâ—â— 1â— p. 352. t Gratian. parâ— 1. dist 4. u Concil Niceâ— c. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore they may conqueri de judiciis suorum Episcoporum Concil Afric sub Aug. Can. 28. x Exir de Constitut c. 1. y Lindwood in c. Presbyt verbo Iuramento de Majotit Obedient z 25. H. 8. c. 19. a Considerations of the Government of Bishops b Cùm esset Raâ—isponae nec adhuc Episcopus aut Cancellarius dicebat fuisse in arbitrio Regis statuta abrogare ritus novos instituere Calvin in Amos. c. 7. v. 13. c Genes 2. d Lindwood in c. Quia inconveniens e Bils de perpet Eccles Gubern â— 14. p. 341. f D. Field of thè Church l. 5. c. 27. g Preface to his VVorkes h P. 15. i Preface before the Book of Com. Prayer k P. 2. Should we â—ly off from our duty at sight of every new device we should soon find a speedy dissolution both of Church and State l We would not hive our Subiects so much to mistake our Iudgement so much to mistrust our Zeale as though We either could not discern what were to be done or would not do all things in due time K. Edw. Proclam before the CoÌ„mun 1548. m Quid si dubiteâ— subditus utrùm quod praecipitur sit contra Deum vel non Respondeo Debet obedire Summ. Rosell Summ. Angel Summ. Sylvest in verbo Obedientia Quoties subditus convenienti inquisitione certificari non potest obedire debet
prove the onely Holocaust to be sacrificed on the same For you have subscribed when you came to your place that that other Oblation which the Papists were wont to offer upon these Altars is a Blasphemous figment and pernicious Imposture In the 31th Artic. And also that we in the Church of England must take heed lest our Communion of a Memory be made a Sacrifice In the 1. Homily upon the Sacrament And it is not the Vicar but the Churchwardens that are to provide Vtensils for the Communion and that not an Altar but a faire joyned Table Canons of the Convocation 1571. pag. 18. And that the Altars were removed by Law and Tables placed in their stead in all or the most Churches of England appeares by the Queens Injunctions 1559 related unto and so confirmed in that point by our Canons still in force Canon 82. And therefore I know you will not build any such Altar which Vicars were never enabled to set up but were once allowed with others to pull down Injunct 1 mo Elis. For Tables in the Church For the second point That your Communion-table is to stand Altar-wise if you mean in that upper place of the Chancell where the Altar stood I think somewhat may be said for that because the Injunctions 1559 did so place it And I conceive it to be the most decent situation when it is not used and for use too where the Quire is mounted up by steps and open so as he that officiates may be seen and heard of all the Congregation Such an one I am informed your Chancell is not But if you meane by Altar-wise that the Table should stand along close by the wall so as you beforced to officiate at the one end thereof as you may have observed in great mens Chappell 's I do not beleeve that ever the Communion-tables were otherwise then by casualty so placed in countrey-churches For besides that the Countrey-people without some directions before-hand from their superiours would as they told you to your face suppose them Dressers rather then Tables And that Queen Elisabeths Commissioners for causes ecclesiasticall directed that the Tables should stand not where the Altar but where the steps to the Altar formerly stood Orders 1561. The Minister appointed to read the Communion which you out of the Books of Fast in 1 mo of the King are pleas'd to call Second service is directed to read the Commandments not at the End but at the North-side of the Table which implies the End to be placed towards the East great window Rubrick before the Communion Nor was this a new direction in the Queens time onely but practised in K. Edwards reign For in the plot of our Liturgie sent by Mr Knox whittingham to Mr Calvin in the reign of Q. Mary it is said that the Minister must stand at the North-side of the Table Troubles at Frankford p. 30. And so in K. Edwards Liturgies the Ministers standing in the Midst of the Altar 1549. is turned to his standing at the North-side of the Table 1552. And this last Liturgie was revived by Parliament 1º Elis. c. 2. And I beleeve it is so used at this day in most places of England What you saw in Chappell 's or Cathedrall Churches is not the point now in Question but how the Tables are appointed to be placed in Parish-churches In some of these Chappels and Cathedralls the Altars may be still standing for ought I know or to make use of their Covers Fronts and other Ornaments Tables may be placed in their room of the same length and fashion the Altars were of We know the Altars stand still in the Lutherane Churches And the Apologie for the Augustane Confession Artic. 11. doth allow it The Altars stood a yeare or two in the reigne of King Edward as appeares by the Liturgie printed 1549. And it seems the Queen and her Counsell were content they should stand as we may guesse by the Injunctions 1559. But how is this to be understood The Sacrifice of the Masse abolished for which Sacrifice onely Altars were erected these call them what you please are no more Altars but Tables of Stone or Tymber And so was it alledged 24. Novem. 4º Edv. 6. 1550. Sublato enim relativo formall manet absolutum et materiale tantúm And so may be well used in Kings and Bishops houses where there are no people so void of Instruction as to be scandalized For upon the Orders of breaking down Altars 1550. all Dioceses as well as that of London did agree upon receiving Tables but not so soon upon the form and fashion of their Tables Act. and Monum pag. 1212. Beside that in the old Testament one and the same Thing is termed an Altar and a Table An Altar in respect of what is there offered unto God and a Table in respect of what is thence participated by men as for example by the Priests So have you Gods Altar the very same with Gods Table in Mal. 1. 7. The place is worth the marking For it answers that merry Objection out of Heb. 13. 10. which you made to some of your fellow Ministers and one Dr. Morgan before you to Peter Martyr in a disputation at Oxford We have no Altar in regard of an Oblation but we have an Altar that is a Table in regard of a participation and Communion there granted unto us The proper use of an Altar is to sacrifice upon the proper use of a Table is to eat upon Reasons c. 1550. vide Act. Monum pag. 1211. And because a Communion is an Action most proper for a Table as an Oblation is for an Altar therefore the Church in her Liturgie and Canons calling the same a Table onely do not you now under the Reformation call it an Altar In King Edwards Liturgie of 1549 it is almost every where but in that of 1552 it is no where called an Altar but The Lords Boord Why Because the people being scandalized herewith in Countrey-churches first it seems beat them down de facto then the supreme Magistrate as here the King by the advice of Archbishop Cranmer and the rest of his Counsell did Anno 1550 by a kind of Law put them down de jure 4º Edv. 6. Novemb. 24. And setting these Tables in their rooms took away from us the Children of this Church and Common-wealth both the Name and the Nature of those former Altars As you may see Injunct 1559. referring to that Order of King Edw. and his Counsell mentioned Act. Monum pag. 1211. And I hope you have more learning then to conceive The Lords Table to be a new Name and so to be ashamed of the Word For besides that Christ himselfe instituted this Sacrament upon a Table and not an Altar as Archbishop Cranmer and others observe Act. Monum pag. 1211. it is in the Christian Church at the least 200 yeares more ancient then the name of an Altar in that sense as you may see most