from Calvin to the Apostles time hardlie one Christian of a thousand could be saved That if the question be touching Histories it is certaine we must begin by the Ancientest and that it belongs to our Adversaries to shew where their Religion was in the time of the Apostles afore they speake of the time before Calvin There they are at a stand and driven to a non-plus and not being able to shew their Religion in the Apostles writings they send us back to an unwritten word which depends on the Popes Authority whom they make judge in his owne cause and make the Church of Rome the Soveraigne Judge of her owne proper duty The principall is that the Christian Church is subject to the Lawes and to the practice of the Church of the Apostles time and not to the example of what was done before Calvin Of whom they speake as of the Inventer of our Religion because he exhorted us to beleeve the holy Scriptures For Calvin gave us not any Lawes We speake not of him in our Sermons we ground not our selves upon his authority we doe not say of him what the Church of Rome saith of the Pope to wit that he could not erre We doe not call our selves Calvinists as our Adversaries acknowledge themselves to be Papists and make glory of that title as * Certe nullo sublimiori gloriae titulo exornare nec certius eos esse Catholicos demonstrare potuissent quà m eos nuncupare Romanos atque Papistas Cardinall Baronius doth in his Martyrologie at the 16 of October where he saith that a man cannot be adorned with a higher degree of glory than to bee called a Papist So that after his account the title of Papist is of as much worth as the name of a Christian This demand is so much the more absurd as it is made unto us For when they aske of us where our Religion was before Calvin they presuppose that the Orthodoxe Church ought to be visible in all ages Which the Scripture saith not but foretels us of great revolts and false Doctors that shall teach men to abstaine from Marriage and from meates which God hath created for to be received with thanksgiving 1. Timoth. 4.3 It foretels us that all the Earth ravished in admiration shall goe after the Beast Revel 13 3. and that when Christ shall come hardly shall he find faith on the earth Luke 18.8 2. Thes 2. Revel 17. It tells us of the Sonne of perdition that shall bee called God and shall doe wonders and of the great harlot cloathed with scarlet who sitteth in the Citty with seaven hills that raigneth over the Kings of the earth which seduceth Kings and makes them drunke and is made drunke with the blood of the Saints and Faithfull It tells us in the twelfth of the Revelation that wings are given to the Church for to flie into the Wildernesse and live there hidden for a time It warnes us that the broad way where the throng of Peoples passeth leadeth into perdition Which things afford us another consideration That is if a Cut-purse asketh him whom hee hath robbed of his purse Where is thy Purse This theefe addeth scoffing and derision to his theft So the Pope who since so many ages hath persecuted to the uttermost the Church of God and endeavoured to abolish it addeth to this violence this derision and scoffing when he asketh Where was your Religion at that time For it were rather his part to informe us where hee had put her himselfe and to what passe he had reduced her In the meane while though we are not bound to answer to such an absurd and injust a demand and which doth not at all concerne Religion and being propounded by men whose Religion is new and that have swerved from the Ancient Christian Religion and who even say that the Pope may add unto the Creed new Articles of Faith Yet we say that it is foure or five hundred years agoe since the Pope persecuteth with fire and sword the Faithfull ones whereof there was a great number in France in the Low countries England Germany Bohemia and Hungaria to whom our Adversaries gave odious nicknames calling them Valdenses Albigenses Sodomites Picards c. And fathering upon them many impious and abhominable doctrines fâ—rre from their beleife Of whom were Massacred in few months by one Domiâ—ick Author of the Order of the Jacobins above two hundred thousand in Languedoe and Gasconie in Pope Innocent the third his time Of these faithfull people we have the Confession agreeable to ours written in their owne Language a residue of which People remaines still in Bohemia Hungaria Moravia and in the Valleys of Angrogne Luzerne Peruse Saint Martin Pragela Merindoles and Cabrieres which Churches have joyned themselves to ours so soone as it pleased God to display in France and the neighbouring Countries the Banner of his Gospell And the sudden alteration that hapned in Luthers time shewed that Europe was full of People that knew the truth and groaned after a Reformation which the Pope promised alwayes but would never suffer it to come to execution And for to specifie some thing touching the age immediatly before Calvin Aeneas Sylvius who in the yeare 1458. attained to the Popedome was a capital enemie to the faithfull of whom in his time Bohemia and Hungaria and the neighbouring Countries were full and was a firebrand of warre for to provoke the Emperours and Popes to persecute them Wherefore his testimony in this point is the more worthy of credit This man in his 130 Epistle describeth his journey to Tabor a City in Bohemia and the Religion of the Inhabitants and the Conferences he had with them Their sect saith he is pestilentious and abhominable and worthy of the uttermost punishment They will not admit the Church of Rome to have the Primacy nor that the Clergie should have any thing in propriety They pull downe the Images of God and of his Saints They deny Purgatory They hold that the Prayers of Saints which raigne with Christ availe nothing unto men They observe no holy day but the Lords day and Easter Contemne fasting and the Canonicall Prayers They give the Eucharist under the kindes of bread and wine even to little Children and to madde men When they consecrate the Sacrament they say nothing but the Lords Prayer and the words of Consecration They change no habits and take not any ornaments Yea some of them are so madde as to hold that the very body of Christ is not in the Sacrament of the Altar but that it is onely the representation thereof being wandring Sactators of Berengarius unconverted Among the Sacraments of the Church they admit the Baptisme and the Eucharist and Marriage and Orders But as for the Sacrament of Penance they make little account of it But of Confirmation and extreame Vnction they make no reckoning at all They are very opposite to the Religions of Monkes and affirme they be diabolicall
them are a thing whereof no trace is to be found in all Antiquitie As also the taxe of the Papall Chauncerie wherein the Absolutions for * Cap. de absolut oÌ„ibus Absolutio pro co qui interfecit patrem matrem gros 7 Absolut io pro eo qui falsificavit litteras Apostolicas grossos 15. Murther for Parricide Inceste Perjury are taxed at a certaine rate of money So many groats or so many Ducats for a man that hath killed his Father so much for him that hath lyen with his Mother A Roman Jesuit called Silvester Petra sancta wrote lately a Booke against me wherein he teaches us a thing which we knew not before He saith in the thirteenth Chapter that during the time of Advent and Lent the Pope permits not a man in Rome to passe the whole night in a bawdy house that would be thought 〈◊〉 violating of the holynesse of Lent Wherefore in those dayes of devotion it is onely permitted to passe the whole day and a part of the night in the Bawdy-house Can such Lawes be found in the Ancient Church Briefly it is a very new Religion and a heape of doctrines and Lawes unheard off in all Antiquitie expressly invented for gain and for the raising of the Popes Empire and building up that Monarchie which was not in the first ages of the Church And for to keepe the People in ignorance least they should discover these Mysteries For example Indulgences Privâ—â—â— Masses Masses and Sâ—ffrage◠〈…〉 dead are very lucrative 〈…〉 to the Pope and 〈…〉 Auriculâ—◠〈…〉 the 〈…〉 Conscienâ—◠〈…〉 jection 〈…〉 is not givâ—◠〈…〉 and satisâ—â—◠〈…〉 Monkes serve to fill up that Spirituall Treasure of the Pope whereof he carries the keyes distributing these satisfactions to the people by his Indulgences so lucrative and profitable to the Pope and his Clergie By Absolutions the Priests make themselves Judges of Soules and Judges in Gods cause In reserving to themselves and unto Kings the communion of the Cup they make themselves companions unto Kings and exalt themselves above the People By the single life of Bishops and other Clergie men the Pope keepes the Ecclesiasticall goods from being wasted and consumed and from being diverted and turned to the reliefe and enriching of the Children In painting God the Father dressed like a Pope they plant this opinion in the minde of the People that the Pope is like unto God and that God makes great account of the Pope since he borrowes his habit By Canonizing of Saints the Pope makes the People to worship his groomes and gives the title of Saint for a recompence of Services By the Sacrament of Penance the Pope and his Priests usurpe the power of imposing corporall and pecuniary punishments * Thus caused he Henry the second of England to be whipt by a troope of Monkes As is to be seene in Matth. Paris and in West monasteriensis so farre as to cause Kings to â—e whipt By the Service in the Latin â—ongue hee entertaines the People in â—gnorance and giving them his tongue planteth in the midst of them a marke of his Empire He gives them the Roman Language for to came and inure â—hem to the Roman Religion The Popes power to unthrone Kings makes him King of Kings and exalts him on an Empire above all the Greatnesse that is in the World Images which are called ignorant mens Books accustome the People to forget and be without the Scriptures which in those Countries where the inquisition raignes is a Booke altogether unknowne among the People By Transubstantiation Priests make Christ and have him in their owne power By Holy-dayes that the Pope ordaines he rules the Civill Government causing the Shops to be shut up and the Seates of Justice and of the Kings Counsell to cease When the Merchants shop shutteth the Clergie-mens shop openeth For then doe the People goe to gaine Pardons as they tearme it and visit Reliques and alwayes the Bason is by By the distinction of meates and fasting dayes the Pope rules the Markets and bellies and Kitchins and Kings and Peoples tables And the more prohibitions there is the oftner come they to the Pope and to the Prelates for to have dispensations The Pope hath made of Matrimonie a Sacrament that he might take away from the civill Magistrates and Judges Secular the right of judging of such causes for it belongs to the Church to judge of Sacraments By Dispensations in degrees of consanguinity which in the Word of God hinders the Marriage the Pope maketh that the Children of Princes for such dispensations are given but to Great ones are obliged to defend the Popes Authority if they will be held for legitimate By Annates or first fruites of Benefices and the sale of Archiepiscopall Cloakes the Pope makes an incredible gaine And there is such a Cloake for which he drawes above threescore thousand Ducats By the power which the Pope assumes to himselfe to change the Commandements of God and to dispense of Vowes and Oathes made unto God he exalts himselfe above God For hee that can free and exempt men from obeying God and being faithfull to him must be greater than God The Invocation of Saints the Adoration of Reliques and the Miracles which are said to be wrought at those Reliques serve to build up many Churches Monasteries which are as so many props to the Papall Domination In sum all the subtilty and policy in the World hath been brought therein Never was there any Empire built with so much craft and cunning The doctrine which teacheth that Christ Jesus by his death hath delivered us from the guilt and punishment of sinnes before Baptisme but as for the sinnes committed after Baptisme that we must beare the punishment for them either in this life or in Purgatory hath clipped Christs benefice for to make place unto their traffick and for to give credit to their Indulgences and Masses for the dead In a word they make profit of all Death it selfe is tributary to the Roman Clergie CHAP. XXIII Answer to the Question made unto us by our Adversaries Where was your Religion before Calvin THis demand which every foot is made unto us by our Adversaries viz. Shew us where your Religion was before Calvin is altogether injust and deceitful For to keepe us from examining the Roman Religion by the holy Scripture they amuse us with humane Histories For this is not a question of Divinity but of History wherein God hath not commanded us to be learned and skilfull that wee may bee saved But hath commanded us to be instructed in his Word At the day of judgement God shall not aske us whether we have beleeved as they did beleeve before Calvin but Saint Paul tels us that God shall judge us according to his Gospell and that men shall be judged by the Law of God Rom. 2.12 16 That if for to be saved it were necessary to know the History of the ages before Calvin mounting upwards
had much paines to discover the falsity of many places and false Workes which are in so great number that if they were taken away the Fathers Workes would bee found diminished of a third part Those among our Adversaries that are well read in the Fathers acknowledge the same with us and passe condemnation in this point Reade Sixtus Senensis about the end of his fourth Booke and the Booke of Cardinall Bellarmin Of Ecclesiasticall Writers where he hath put the Catalogue of the Fathers Works There shall ye wonder to see the multitude of Bookes which he saith to be doubtfull or manifestly counterfeit Which causes men to doubt of the other Workes whose falsitie is not easilie found out For the discovering of these falsities we have beene helped by the Catalogue of the Workes of Ancient Writers which Photius Patriarch of Constantinople who wrote about the yeare of our Lord 878. hath put into his Librarie And by Gennadius a Priest of Marseilles that wrote a Booke of the Illustrious men about the yeare of our Lord 492. Item by the diversity of stile Item by certaine places of the Fathers which are alleadged by Ivo Gratian Burchardus Lombard Thomas and others quite otherwise than they bee found in the editions printed in this last age Item by other places of the same Fathers which say the contrary so that one and the same Father is oftentimes found to contrarie himselfe Even as the ninth Age was the Age wherein the Decretals of the ancient Bishops of Rome were forged under the name of one Isidorus Mercator which was falsely framed for the grounding of the Papall Monarchy which with might and maine was a building in that Age So the eleventh Age in which Berengarius Archdeacon of Angiers withstood and impugned stoutly and vigorously the opinion of the reall presence and Transubstantiation was the Age wherein were forged sundry works in the behalf of that error and divers clauses were chopt into the Books of the ancient Fathers Of this false coyne is the Book attributed to * Bellar. lib. de Script Eccles Sixtus Senensis sub sinem libriquart Cyprian of the Lords Supper which all the learned of the Roman Church acknowledge not to be of his making And the Cathecheses Mystagogicall of Cyril of Jerusalem The Catecheses of Gregory of Nysse are indeed his but horribly corrupted and full of errors which the Roman Church approves not There is mention made there of one Severus an Heretick who is posterior to this Gregory above 150. yeares Of these falsifications and divers others we have entreated more at large in the Book against Cardinal du Perron He that should take away from the works of Cyprian Ambrose Hierome Austin and Athanasius the counterfeit Books should diminish the writings of these Fathers more than of a third part Wherefore after so many falsities discovered when our adversaries object us some place of a Father we might very justly desire them to proveunto us that that place was not added or depraved by some falsifier aswell as so many others By all manner of reasons if in an writing brought in justice there be found but one falsification the whole instrument loseth all its force and is rejected There is another difficulty that deceiveth such men as are not wel seen in antiquity to wit that the words used in old time have now changed their signification In the Fathers are found these words of Pope of Sacrifice of Oblation of Purging fire of Indulgence of Station of Species of Monke of Penance but quite in another sense than these words are taken at this day Notwithstanding these difficulties and disadvantages whereby our adversaries strive to prevaile against us we refuse not for all that to buckle with theÌ„ For what falsifications soever were made in the Books of Ancient writers yet in them remaines still so many expresse and formall places against Transubstantiation that of the collection of them a man might make a great volume Wee have produced above 500 in the Book of the Novelty of Popery and Mr le Faucheur and Mr Aubertin have laboured lately and taken paines about this subject with a â—ost exact diligence and full of great learning Here wee will content our selves to produce some few places for a taste yet with this protestation that I do not alleadge the Fathers for to be a stay to our cause which is sufficiently propped and established upon the Word of God Goâ— doth not beg the testimonies of men Hâ—â— word is as strong alone as being aâ—companied with humane testimonâ— To goe about to defend it with thâ— testimonies of men subject to errouâ— is as if a man would lighten the Sunâ—â— with a Candle But wee doe alleadgâ— the Fathers for to defend their honour because that against their â—â—tent our Adversaries make them Advocates of a bad cause And for 〈◊〉 condescend and yeeld some thing to the disease of this froward age wherein the holy Scripture hath lost its power and efficacy and which armeth it selfe with human testimonies against the Word of God CHAP. XXVI Places of the Fathers contrary to Transubstantiation and to the manducation of the body of Christ by the corporall mouth TErtullian in his fourth Booke against Marcion chapter 40. disputing aâ—ainst the Marcionites that denyed Christ â—o have a true humane body speaketh â—hus a Acceptum panem distributum discipulis corpus suuÌ„ illum fecit dicendo Hoc est corpus meum id est figura corporis mei Figura autem non fuisset nisi veritatis esset corpus Christ when he had taken the bread â—nd distributed it to his disciples made it â—o be his body saying This is my body â—hat is to say the figure of my body But it were not a figure unlesse it were a true body His reason is because men represent not by figure the things that are not And in the third Booke chapter 19. b Panem suum corpus appellans ut bâ—â—c jam euâ— intelligâ—â— corporis sui figuram paâ—i dedisse Christ called the bread his body that thereby thou mightest understand that he gave to the bread to be the figure of his body Origen upon the fifteenth Chapter of Saint Matthew speaking of that which the Faithfull receive by the corporall mouth in the Eucharist * Quod si quicquid ingreditur in os in veâ—â—e abit in sâ—cessum â—jicitur ille cibus qui sanctificatur per verbit Dei perque obsecratâ—oneÌ„ juxta id quod habet materialein ventrem aâ—â—â— in secessuÌ„ emitâ—itur c. â—â—t haecquidem deâ—ypico symboluoqueâ—orpore If every thing that entereth into the mouth goes into the belly and is sent into the prity this food which is sanctified by the Word of God and by the Prayer as it is materiall gâ—â— into the belly and is sent into the privy And a little after And thus much be said touching the typicall and symbolicall body of Christ Vpon this place
those that would take up Armes against Ladislaus for the defense of the Church This Indulgence being published at Prague many of the people beganne to say aloud and openly that it was indeed the language of Antichrist that promised salvation to those that should spill the Christian blood At which the Magistrate of Prague being angry hee layd hands on some of them and clapped them up into prison But the people gathered themselves together and demanded of the Magistrate the release of these prisoners who fearing an uproare appeased the people with milde words promising that no harme or wrong should be done unto them But so soon as this multitude was separated the Magistrate caused these prisoners to be stabbed with a dagger or pomard in the prison So that the blood ran out in such abundance that it streamed into the very street At the sight of that blood the people being provoked to wrath and fury they caused the Prison doores to be opened unto them and conveyed away the dead corpses and carried them from Church to Church crying aloude These are the faithfull ones that have exposed their bodies fâ—r the Covenant of God The King did consider these things without being much moved at it But the Emperour Sigismond desiring to remedy the disorders of the Papacie and by the same meanes to pacifie the troubles of Bohemia did in such sort by his going and comming and bestirring himselfe too and fro that a Councell was called and kept at Constance a City of Suaube in Germanie in the yeare 1414. wherein the three forenamed Popes were degraded of especially John XXIII for having among other things laid to his charge * Concâ—l Constant Sâ—ss X I. maintained openly and obstinately that the soules of men die as the soules of beasts and that there is neither Heaven nor Hell In these three Popes roome was chosen in the Councell Martin the fifth to whom the Emperour Sigismund kneeled downe before the whole Councell kissed his feet and worshipped him This Martin sent some Embassadors to Constantinople to whom hee gave instructions that begin thus Sactissimus et beaâ—issimus qui bahet coeleâ—te arbitriâ—m qui est Dominus in â—erris sucâ—essor Petri Christus Deâ—ini Domiâ—us uniâ—ersi ReguÌ„â—ater orbis â—umen c. The most holy and most blessed who hath the heavenly Empire who is Lord on Earth successor of S. Peter the Christ of the Lord the Master of the Vniversall World the Father of Kings the Light of the World the most high and Soveraigne Bishop Martin by the divine providence commandeth unto Master Anthonie Masson c. These instructions are inserted in the Councell of Siena held a little after Printed at Paris in the yeare 1612. At the same Councell of Constance John Huz and Hierome of Prague were called for to conferre of their doctrine they shewed some unwillingnesse to meet thither fearing some ill usage But the Emperour assured them and gave them by the advice of the Councell a large safe conduct whereby he did promise they should receive no harme there but might with all liberty and freedome propound their reasons and after that returne home in all safety Grounded upon the Emperours faith and promise they resorted to the Councel and propounded their reasons They spake chiefly of the Communion under both kinds But the Fathers of the Councell perceiving they would not yeeld to that which was enjoyned unto them concluded that they should be burned alive The Emperour made some difficulty in it saying he had obliged his faith unto them and that they came under his promise Thereupon that the Emperours conscience might be at quiet * This Canon by which is defined that one is not bound to keepe faith with hereticks is to be seene in the 19 Session of the Councel of CoÌ„stance the Councell framed a Canon wherein is declared and defined that faith must not be kept unto hereticks after men have done what they can for to convert them and that a Prince is not bound to keepe what hee hath promised them This Sentence being pronounced to John Huz he appealed to Christ Jesus They were then executed publickly And Aeneas Sylvius who afterward was Pope and made himselfe to bee called Pius the second speakes thus of them in the 36 chapter of his Historie of Bohemia * Pertulerunt ambo constanti animo neceÌ„ quasi ad epulas invitati ad incendium properaruÌ„t nullam emittentes vocem quae m seri animi esset indicium Vbi ardere coeperunt hymnum cecinere c. Both of them suffered death with a constant courage and made haste to goe to the fire as if they had been invited to a feast without heâ—ring any word come from them that shewed or testified any sorrowfulnesse of minde When they beganne to burne they fell a singing of an Hymne which could hardly be hindred by the violence and noyse of the flames No Philosopher ever suffered death with such magnanimitie as these indured burning Then he alleadgeth an Epistle of Poggius a Florentine that describeth the death of Hierome of Prague who was put to death some dayes after John Huz In that Epistle Poggius speakes as one that was present at the examination and death of the sayd Hierome I confesse saith he I never saw any body who in a cause altogether criminall came neerer the eloquence of the Ancients It was an admirable thing to sie with what words what eloquence what arguments what countenance what confidence hee answered his Adversaries and that too after he had beene three hundred and forty dayes in a deepe and stinking dungeon Then he relates afterwards how a list of heresies that were laid to his charge was read unto him and that upon everie head or point he answered in such sort as hee did shew they were calumnies laid upon him saying he beleeved nothing of all that And being brought to the place of punishment and compassed round about with faggots and straw hee fell a singing of an Hymne or Psalme The Executioner drawing neare for to kindle the fire hehind him he said unto him Friend come neere put the fire here before mee for if I did feare the fire I would not bee here The ashes of these Martyrs were cast into the Lake of Constance for to abolish the memory of them In this Councell was framed a Canon Sessioâ— XII whereby those are declared hereticks and punishable by the secular power who for conforming themselves unto Christ and unto the Ancient Church will have the people to receive the Sacrament under both kindes There also was condemned Wicklefs doctrine to whom in that Councell are falsly attributed impious doctrines and which never came into his minde For example That God ought to obey the Devill That a Prince is no lawfull master while he is in a mortall sinne And that it belongs to the people to chastise their Lords In the like manner was handled John Huz whose doctrine was condemned by