all these books Hence it came that I rashly relying on the slaunders of heretikes and not on the Catholike fayth entituled one of my books Of the cause of my departure and another in Italian The rockes of Christian shipwracke and another A certayne sermon which I filled ful of errours and heresies for the most part in hatred of the holy Roman Church and Sea Apostolike and of those Popes by whom I thought my selfe to haue byn iniured and affirmed those and many other things vvhich before I knew to be false and hereticall and after at least in part my selfe misliked and did whils I wrote in England from my hart detest them because they conteyne open heresyes agaynst the Catholike truth and are contrary to sound doctrine I meane to that which the Catholicke Roman Church hath alwayes held and holds at this day agaynst which whatsoeuer or whersoeuer is written or sayd by me that in al and euery part I do condemne and detest and I will better more at large by Gods help condemne and detest the same in the confutation of my bookes of the Ecclesiasticall Commonwealth other bookes that I haue written agaynst the truth for I submit my selfe and all my bookes to the most holy iudgement and censure of the holy Roman and Apostolicall Sea the mistresse and guide of all other Churches 3. In the meane tyme here in this exchange for a new and sounder resolution I most detest the former of my departure the Infamous Rockes of the shipwrackes of my selfe especially and heretikes but not of Catholikes moreouer the Sermon mentioned neither shall I shame by casting of the garments which I had made for myselfe to shew my nakednes because I was not ashamed agaynst all law and conscience to breake forth into vayne fictions open slaunders and filthy heresies Dioscorides l. 6. c. 44. The sting and poyson of the scorpion by bruzing of the same scorpion that stong hath a present remedy If the voluntary breaking and bruzing of my selfe bring remedy to this poysoned wound in case any so wounded haue repented him himselfe I shall esteeme this my bruzing deiection and mortification for happy let the glory of the Catholike Church and Sea Apostolike stand immoueable yea euen with the greatest losse of temporal goods that can befall me and since that so wickedly I haue gone about to weaken and infring it this course cannot at least before God but be glorious vnto me 4. First therfore I confesse in conscience truly sincerly testify that I wrote that booke of the Cause of my departure and the other two to wit the Rocks and Sermon not out of sincerity of hart not good cōscience not out of vnfeygned faith but that I might cast some colourable excuse on my shamefull departur that I might be the more gratfull and welcome vnto the heretickes to whom like a wretch I went or with whome I did conuerse The ten yeares labour which I bragged of in the book of my departure was not imployed in maturity of deliberation grauity of iudgement discussion of truth but all that vvhile I studyed hovv to finish that vaine fruitles and pernicious worke of the Ecclesiasticall commonwealth coyne bold and hereticall fictions and withall satisfy the impotent force of myne owne rage in so much as that vocation was not deuine but diabolicall not inspired by the holy Ghost but suggested by a bad spirit vexing me worse then it did Saul with the spirit of giddines 2. Reg. 18 v. 10. but for my returne I doubt not but that it is to be ascribed vnto Gods true vocation his diuine spirit calling me backe to my Mother the holy Catholique Church 5. I sayd that the behauiour of the court of Rome was the cause why I should for euer abhorre it I am not ignorant that herein I spake ill for there were not wanting then nor yet are at Rome very many cōspicuous examples of piety all Christian vertues which are able to delight and allure religious or well disposed mynds I sayd that out of the forbidding of hereticall books to be read do spring euill suspitiōs which get credit to the books of heretiks and induce men to belieue somewhat to be in them vvhich Catholikes could not confute and this I acknowledge to haue been spoken by me not without great iniury to the Catholike saith who haue found in their bookes I meane of heretikes false hereticall scandalous and pestiferous doctrine from reading of which least the Faythfull be infected they are worthily to be restrayned for not vnto priuate men who read those bookes but vnto the Pastours the iudgement of fayth hath euer and doth still appertayne that they may know which are poisoned pasturs and remoue their flockes far from them Moreouer the arguments of heretiks are deceytfull sophisticall and haue most easy solutions I affirmed the doctrine of those who oppose themselues to the Church of Rome nothing at all or very little to degenerate from the pure doctrine of the primitiue Church and this also is false for the opinions in which they differ from Catholiks are all of them most cōtrary to those which that Church held nothing can conuince them more certainly of errour thē the authority of the ancient Church frō which they by these noueltyes haue very far departed in so much as for this cause they are condemned as heretikes by the Church of Rome it is therefore to be detested I doe detest that which I sayd Therefore the religion of Protestants to be condemned of the Church because it is contrary to the sense and corrupted manners of the Court of Rome I said that in Rome by extreme violence were coyned new articles of beliefe and this truly I did say both agaynst my knowledge and conscience for I neuer saw any such matter nor any man else as most certainly I know for none can say that there are new articles coyned when there are only added the true declaratiōs explicatiōs of the true articles those gathered out of the holy scripturs traditiōs of the Fathers very rules of religion Againe I endeuored to depriue the Roman Church of the titles of Catholike and Vniuersall wherin I exceedingly erred for by the Roman Church is not vnderstood that speciall and particuler Church alone which is at Rome but the collection of all other Churches adhering to the Roman in vnity of the same fayth and subiection to the same chiefe Bishop wheresoeuer they be albeit in the vttermost coastes and corners of the earth And doubtles this is most true of me both by word of mouth as England it selfe can testify and in my written treatises of the Eccleclesiasticall commonwealth and in that part which last of all I heare is printed in Germany I haue euinced that there is no other Catholike Church but the Roman vnderstanding thereby that particular with the other adhering thereunto wheras all other companies of Christians are defiled
hold and professe the contrary to these heresies defined by the same for it is most certayn that in the decrees of the holy Roman Church reason is not seuered from authority the schoole doctrin especially in articles religion to be altogether conformable to the sense or doctrine of the holy Fathers This further I confesse that I haue without cause complained in my books of the Court of Rome as if it had vsurped authority belonging to others for vnles that Church out of her lawfull authority ouer Archbishops Bishops keep them both in order the violating of all lawes will easely follow by their dissension It is truly the greatest happines of the Church when her inferiour Pastors vnder one most vigilāt Pastour receaue and execute from him who hath supreme authority ouer all reformation of life and the charge of sound and sincere doctrine And truly should not the mild and Fatherly care of the holy Inquisition watch attentiuely ouer our Lords flocke the scabbed sheep would find no cure and that most wicked infectiō would soone farre neere spread it selfe The ordinary armour of that tribunall are sound doctrine and instruction full of charity and not these others which I out of my exulcerated mind haue with so many falsityes and slaunders exaggerated but in case the festered soares doe not yield to lenitiue medicines then is it both fit and necessary that the Phisitian apply more sharp and corrosiue plaisters 7. But now euen the inward fyre of the diseases of my mynd did rage almost by miracle after the entrance of Gregory the fifteenth to the gouernment of the Church whose eminēt piety singular wisdome and continuall sanctity of a most innocent life I indeed belieued to haue aduaunced him to that high honour I began to thinke of some more healthfull course the holy ghost enlightning me with the beames of his grace in so much that now the dangers of my soule in the state I liued in beganne to shew themselues euery day more cleerly vnto me and I now wōdered that I had gone so farre in folly and errour that I would conioyne my selfe with them who were heretikes playne and absolute scismaticks Such in tymes past was the guilefull deceite of a few Arrians in the Councell of Arimini that by secret collusion they had as it were drawne almost all the Catholikes into Arianisme tunc sayth S. Hierome Hieron cōtra Luciferianos totus mundus ingemuit miratus est se esse Arrianum then all the world groaned and merueyled to see it selfe become Arrian so alas much worse it befell me that I saw wondered and lamented my selfe an heretike amongst heretiks scismatick amōg scismaticks And that the Englishmen cōplayne not of me that I doe them wrong but that they may know my departure from thē return to my mother the holy Catholike Church to haue been lawful for iust cause I am constrained to lay open their heresy and schisme with which it was no way cōuenient that I should be further entangled or taynted 8. In England if we speake of Religion are many sects there are Puritās or rigid Caluinists there are more moderate who call themselues only Protestants Reformed there are Anabaptists those deuided into diuers sects neither want there Arrians Photinians such like raffe of lewd mē who albeit they be not allowed openly to professe their errours yet are they not banished the land nor punished at home but are tolerated whiles in the mean time they spread their poyson infect others that the Anabaptists hold many heresies none that is not an Anabaptist will deny but they in Englād freely haue their conuenticles and his Maiesty himselfe one day told me that lately in London at the assēbly of the Anabaptists a woman had made a sermon ministred their Sacramēts The heresies of the Puritans are notorious to wit that there is no free will God to be Author of sinne God merly because so it pleaseth him to damn many Christ not to haue dyed for al to haue vndergon the punishment of hel that infants baptized be dāned c. the more moderate Protestants although they goe about touching points of doctrine to free themselues in some sort from heresy because they doe not admit entirely the heresies eyther of Caluin or Luther if they follow the pure doctrine of the English Church which they call Reformed yet can they not so escape or rid their hands from Puritans and Anabaptists with whome they fully communicate and if any Anabaptist or Puritan come to their Ecclesiastical Conuenticles they neither auoid him nor exclude him yea almost all the Puritan Ministers handle and minister the very Sacraments of the false English Church vnto all commers at least vnto all Caluinists And if Acacius of Constantinople for that he had communicated with Peter Mogge an heretick of Alexandria if all the East Church for persisting in communion with Arrius was separated by a long anathema or curse from the Roman and West Church how much more are the Protestants of England to be esteemed for heretikes because they continually communicate which heretikes neyther do they cōdemne them or deny them their company but rather admit them al that will communicate in their ceremonies rites and Sacraments with the English Church Doth not the deformed Church of England publickly and plainly professe cōmunion Ecclesiastical league or fryendship with Geneua the mother of Puritans and all other forrayn Caluinists Are there not euen in London the Kinges Citty and that by publicke graunt of the King Churches of the French Flemish and Italian Caluinists which hate and abhorre the doctrine profession rites of England yet are most deerely beloued sisters of the English Synagogue And by them Puritanisme is especially maintayned and set forward in Englād Moreouer with the Lutherās polluted with very many heresies the English Sinagogue is most ready to communicate and labours all that it can to the end that these mōsters of many heads may like Hercules hydra agree in one body and a vnion as they terme it be made of all the reformed Churches but of purging the faith and doctrine of these different sects rooting out their heresies no care is had yet the Lutherans hate the Sacramentaries cane peius angue Other heresies of Englishmen concerning faith good workes and iustification as also the B. Sacrament priuate Masses Merits of good workes praying vnto Saints worshipping of holy Images holy rites and ceremonyes the soules of the departed and the like which they out of an hereticall spirit doe condemne and abolish and which I with the same spirit in part haue once condemned and abolished I meane not now further to discusse somewhat I meane as much as this place requires I shall after touch and more els where in a larger worke I come to their schisme 9. Sure I am that the English Sect which the deformed English men call the Reformed
performed And this perpetuall custome of the Church of Inuocating Saints that they pray for vs and help vs with their prayers was neuer so much as found fault withall but rather the contrary errour was condeÌ„ned by S. Hierome in Vigilantius which condeÌ„natioÌ„ the whole Church allowed and therefore our new Vigilantians are to be condemned by the iudgement of the whole Church whose temerity in making our Inuocation to be idolatry is very singular neyther haue these Vigilantians any thing of moment that they can oppose their obiections I haue elsewhere fully refuted and I thinke that in another worke I haue fully defended the reuerent regard of holy Reliques which God himselfe as most pleasing vnto him hath confirmed by most manifest miracles 19. But our Aduersaryes bouldly affirme that in worshipping of holy images we commit idolatry and from hence they will haue their departure froÌ„ vs to be lawfull but this also is a most vayn pretext of theirs neyther can they thereby free themselues from the infamous note of most filthy schisme for in case we honour images with a proper peculiar honour worship which is exhibited to the thing it selfe represented by the image that is not supreme honour and worship nor that true adoration which alone is due vnto God whereas therefore we doe most playnly professe diuine honour and supreme worship not to be due eyther vnto Saynts or to their Reliques much lesse to their Images why doe they obiect Idolatry vnto vs The vse of Images belongs to Ecclesiasticall rites and in these the sure certayne and infallible rule to know whether they be lawfull and to be approued is the practise and vse especially of the primitiue Church In so much as they are to be esteemed good and lawfull rytes which eyther the Apostles or some Apostolicall men haue ordayned or haue eyther silently or expresly approued and it is most certaine yea most vncontrollable the Christian Church euen most auncient whole and vniuersall with ioynt and singular consent without all opposition or contradiction to haue reuerenced or worshipped holy Images eyther paynted or kerued S. Iohn Damascen hath collected in his three Orations which he wrote for Images most aboundant testimonyes The Fathers of the seauenth Generall Councell haue done the like and after these many others of our Church What ignorant companion then dare condemne that which the most holy and most learned Fathers haue commaunded haue taught haue practized that which the Catholike Church taught by the Apostles hath alwayes obserued that which God himselfe by mamiracles hath confirmed Are they not then accordinge to the verdict of S. Augustine August Epist 118. most insolent mad men who retayne not the vse of Images nor deuoutly keepe them with that peculiar honour due vnto them so as the supreme be not giuen them but rather abuse prophane and sacrilegiously cast them away 20. Two thinges especially doe our Aduersaryes vrge agaynst this our worshippinge of holy Images by which they contend that we cannot auoyd this charge of Idolatry and by â—he same they ground themselues in â—heir schisme as if it were lawful One is Gods coÌ„mandement which forbiddeth â—ll Images to be made the other that they cannot be excused from true externall idolatry who adore the true God in any exteriour signe that is a meere creature These men with Caluin will haue the golden calfe to haue beene vsed by the children of Israel to represent the true God and in this aboue all others doth Reynolds the English Puritan settle and ground his Treatise of the Idolatry of the RomaÌ„ Church but with me there is no doubt neyther can there be with our aduersaries but the most auncient Fathers and Catholike Church to haue known the ten Commandements and the history of the Calf and yet without all difficulty and scruple they vsed holy Images with honour and reuerence but neyther doth this disputation beseeme this short discourse the tyme wil come when I shal haue opportunity to to refute this booke of Reynolds Of the Idolatry of the Church of Rome on which England doth most of all maintayn her schisme Now to deale briefely I call to their remembrance the doings of Salomon who endewed with diuine wisdome not only adorned his temple with those Images and workes of art which God had caused to be made as were the Cherubims c. but added of him selfe so many shapes and kerued pictures of trees and beastes as we read in Scripture 3. Reg. 10. 19. 20. for there were brazen Oxen Palmes Pomegranats c. and his Throne he set out with great little golden Lyons Doubtles Salomon vnderstood this commaundement of not making Images hath by his own fact explicated the same vnto vs sufficiently to wit that it was not commanded for all tymes nor that it was of the diuine natural law but so farre forth as it denyed supreme worship to be giuen vnto them but only of the diuine positiue law Temporall and Conditionall then and so long to be obserued when and how long there should be danger least the picture should be cause and occasion of Idolatry wherfore seeing in vs now so well instructed there is no danger of committing idolatry by Images that prohibition of the law which forbiddeth pictures to be made hath no place with vs and therefore the Image-breakers abolishing the vse of Images breaking them in peeces and vnworthily handling theÌ„ haue alwaies been esteemed of the Church held for most wicked hereticks nuÌ„bred amoÌ„g the enemies of Christian Religion 21. The children of Israel in adoring the Calfe to haue coÌ„mitted Idolatry is a thing most euident neither will I euer grauÌ„t that this Calfe represented to theÌ„ the true God it is most false against the true sense of the Scripture to say the Israelites in that Calf to haue adored the true God they adored the same golden Calfe which they erring most beastly thought to haue had in it the diuinity of the true God this as I hope in due place time I shal coÌ„uince out of most cleere passages of the holy Scripture shal refute the light argumeÌ„ts of Caluin Reynolds Latria shew theÌ„ that God himselfe may be adored with highest honour in corporal signes without al danger of committing Idolatry and that the English rely on a most filthy errour whiles they dreame out of Reynolds follyes to triuÌ„ph ouer the Roman Church as if it were truly Idolatricall therfore by them lawfully reiected and forsaken In our vse of holy Images wheras euery ill circumstance all scandall are ordinarily wanting because we lyue not amongst Idolaters and are or may be well instructed touching the lawfull worship of Images most farre off from the supreme worship giuen vnto God therfore we may lawfully kneele before an Image and so adore the person represented therby with supreme honour in case he be capable therof So did the children of Israel adore God in the cloud
effect cannot goe before the cause I endeauour to shew that they made a schisme without cause hence I knew them to be true schismatiks and for that I departed from them And further these very Articles which they call new can euidently be demonstrated out of the Scriptures tradition and Fathers and the contrary decreed by themselues to be conuinced of open heresy if we will follow the iudgement of Antiquity howsoeuer some latter Protestants taking a more mild moderate course are wont to bring for some poynt such fauourable explications of which my selfe haue heard many as they seemed not to differ much from the Catholicke opiniō these seeme to admit some pious agreemēt who then without pernicious errour yea true heresy wil place his saluation on only Faith and exclude the necessity of Good works Who will absolutely deny our Merits and that iust men cannot loose their grace and that they are impeccable and cannot sinne And such as stiffly hould these and the like to be Articles of fayth and the contrary to be heresies they vndoubtedly doe erre in matters of fayth and shew themselues to be heretiks and consequently to be well and worthily by the Catholike definitions placed amongst such no heresy therefore of the Church of Rome no Idolatry open or hidden could giue occasion to the schisme of Protestants Neither can they obiect Schisme to the same Catholike Church for it hath made no schisme but suffered it From her hath Luther from her Caluin from her haue their first followers separated themselues whiles stubbornly they refused to stand to her iudgement these haue made a schisme these haue deuided the garmēt of Christ these haue erected altar against Altar finally these haue left and forsaken the Catholike Church 25. Besides the former alleadged and discussed causes they pretend another of Reformation forsooth needful to be made but I amongest them scant euer saw any reformation or to speake more truly saw none at all but as for Deformations I saw many amongst thē For the most part all care of conscience is cast away they are not there excepting a very few of them troubled with any scruples for adulteries robberyes or deceauing theyr neighbours and in like manner for coosenage deceypts and vsuries for they haue wickedly abolished auricular Confession fasting pennance and the like holy meanes for our amendment and if these men had found amongst vs somewhat amisse in conuersation in actions in gouernement in direction and the like that had not argued any defect of the Church but the errours of particuler men which of Catholikes are not allowed but mysliked neyther for these lesser a matters as manners of life and that not in all but some were they to to make this most vgly schisme There remaines in the Roman Church a soūd an immoueable and constant foundation and suppose it were true 1. Cor. 3. that we buylt thereon wood stubble hay yet were we not therby debarred from saluation but the Protestāts haue departed from the foundatiō it self they haue forsaken it and except they build vppon the foundatiō which is Christ gold siluer pretious stones which foolishly they boast to be theirs all are proiecta viliora alga wast weedes all fruiteles labours and nothing auay leable to saluation There is one foūdation not two one Church not two one Christ not two if Christ be our foūdation which they cannot deny he is not certaynly theirs they haue made themselues a new Church deuided and separated from ours and that also cannot be a Church because the Church is one not two he who wil be of their Church he must needes be out of the true Church of Christ 26. I confesse that I was deceaued by the English Protestants before I had considered diligently the nature of schisme for when I obiected this fault vnto them some of them replyed that it was not their fault that they communicated not with the Church of Rome who were ready to make vnion and accorde but that the Pope would not receaue them into communion whom he had cut of from him and his by excommunicatiō This excuse for a while seemed vnto me lawfull and reasonable yet when afterwards vppon this ground I beganne in priuate disputes and publick sermons to vrge an vnion which I tooke not to be farre off from making and whiles I striued to put my finger deeper into this festered vlcer I perceaued in England not the English Cōfession which they commended vnto me as modest but the Confession of Caluin and many doting dreames of Luther to be the common rule of their fayth this I perceaued more clearely by the counterfeyt Synod of Protestants at Dort in the which the opinions of the rigid Caluinists by consent and concurrence of the English sect by their ministers sent thither were confirmed which opinions of the rigid Puritans if the confession of the English Church deuided into certain Articles doe not as they pretend include then why vnder the name of the English Profession did the aforesayd Ministers yield their consent and set their hands to these Caluinian excesses How can it be that those who professe themselues most eager enemies of the Church of Rome should be thought to desire vniō with the same Church and the defect thereof not to proceed from their fault How can they cast the fault of their schisme vppon the Tridentine excommunications who before these Anathema's had deuided themselues by schisme from the Catholicke Church and truly by a schime in some sort farre more worse and foule then was the schisme made by Luther and after confirmed by the instigation of Caluin Because England in the begining refrayned from the opinions of Luther and Caluin and charged not the Roman Church with heresy or Idolatry as Lutherans and Caluinists did to couer their schisme withall and yet notwithstanding long after not with so much as any apparent cause it yielded to the common schisme of heretiks The Englishmen now for the most part doe prayse and defend the diuision and separatiō that is made for that they striue for that they fly vnion for that they cast away Charity they labour all they can that agreement doe not succeede and fraternall vnity be fast knit in the bands of peace and many of them say that they would more willingly and more easily haue vnion society with the Turkes then with Papists Is this to be ready to make concord Is this the truth of their wordes when they sayd that it was not their fault they communicated not with the Church of Rome Truly it cannot possibly be that any vnion which I thought might easily haue beene atchieued be made vnlesse they detest all heresies and heretiks and beleeue aright with the Catholike Roman fayth and be vnited vnto the same by perfect Charity 27. Henry the 8. had in manner only contention with the Pope and out of an hereticall spirit denyed his Supremacy and tossed with many discomposed passions