bee that doo not care for anie Religion who yet notwithstanding would be loth to ioyne with the Pope for manie good causes in respect of their ciuil estate heere come you in againe after your wonted maner charging mee to say that this onely reason of State holdeth many on our side froe froÌ„ comming to you who otherwise in conscience would haue no scruple at all and therewithal you wonder that euer my Lord Archbishop would let such a confession to passe in print As though I had eyther plainelie professed or couertlie insinuated thereby that such as doo imbrace this religion especially doo it not in respect of religion it selfe but in some wordly respect onelie Which how foolish a cauill it is it selfe alone sufficiently declareth But then that you leese no time while your hande is in you go further and are bolde to say that though this poore Minister to terrifie the common people say you but these bugs terrifie your papacie more deuiseth bugs vppon the Ecclesiasticall authoritie of the Bishop of Rome yet your conclusion is that it is verie plaine and palpable that there is no such inconuenience But soft I pray you Did this poore Minister thinke you indeede deuise these bugs Were they neuer heard of before Are there no histories that you haue read or can beleeue that make mention of them Would you so faine so slily passe ouer the great complaints that the countries here-abouts as England France and Germanie continually haue made at home and abroad of this matter As for the examples of priuate men although they be infinite and of al sorts and degrees verie manie yet beeing but priuate and of seuerall persons it is not vnlikely but that such an one as professeth such blindnes as you do would readily say he saw none of them all But Fraunce and Germanie if you looke abroad are great States and England likewise if you can content your selfe at home And as for the two former of these three neither of them is so farre off nor in these your wilfull and graceles wandrings so vnknown vnto you but that you might easily know could you as readily acknowledge it when you do see it that in Fraunce Lewis the ninth Philip the faire Charles the fift sixt and seuenth did all prouide by publike authoritie against the couetousnes extortion ambition and pride of the Sea of Rome and that although Lewis the eleuenth in latter time was content at the Popes request to abolish the Pragmaticall sanction and other lawes that they had made to that purpose yet diuers Bishops the students of Paris and Iohannes Romanus the Kings Atturney a wise a learned an eloquent man would in no wise consent to the abolishing of them In Germany likewise the nobles and commons did earnestly sollicite Frederike of Austrich the Emperour both before his coronation and after for the redresse of those matters in such manner as Fraunce before had done and beeing at that time defeated by the wicked counsel of Aneas Siluius did neuertheles stil hold on the same endeuour whensoeuer opportunitie serued and to that ende put vp a supplication to Maximilian of ten speciall greeuances and an other of an hundred in the session of Noremberg to the Pope himselfe And for the other being an English-man though but a bad one in the quarrel that now you sustain neuer heard you what great stickling and busines about these matters there was betwixt William Rufus and Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury betweene Henry the first and not onely Anselme but Thurstan also the Archbishop of Yorke and betweene Henry the second and Thomas Becket that proud and arrogant and head-strong traitor Nor how Edward the third did to that end not onely reuiue the statute of Praemunire made before by Edward the first but also would in no wise abrogate the same though hee were much sollicited vnto it by Gregorie the eleuenth nor how Richard the second by publike authoritie likewise both reconfirmed and further strengthened the same nor howe though it was againe attempted to bee abolished in the raigne of Henry the sixt by the earnest intreatie of Martin the fift yet was it not obtained but still stood in force euen to this praesent age of ours If these thinges were straunge or but seldome heard of I would with good will haue noted vnto you the stories them-selues more at large and the places whence they are taken but being so euident and knowne as they are in is but lost labour to deale any further but onely to put you in mind of them How is it then that you goe about to perswade your reader that these are but bugs by mee deuised to terrifie the common people Haue you the face so to dissemble the weakenes of your cause to lay off the same you care not how vppon anie others Then are they vnwise that knowing this will heereafter be deceiued by you But to proceed is it the Ecclesiasticall authoritie of the Bishop of Rome whereon these bugs as you say are deuised Is that Ecclesiasticall authoritie of his of that nature that it can meddle with ciuill causes so manie so great and so verie much And are you sure that neither the Empire nor the kingdoms of Spaine Fraunce Poloâ—an nor others nor the auncient Princes of this realme of England euer found the inconuenience that now we speake of that the Princes of England were for so manie ages togither more potent and glorious than they haue beene since the suppression thereof and that the matter you speake of is in it selfe so plaine and palpable Certainely whosoeuer it is that can so boldlie affirme these wee haue no great occasion to hope that hee wil make conscience of anie thing else and there is an other Note-this for you to put in your margent because you are faine to fetch them so farre for want that you haue them not so neere as you would After this you come to an other as proper a shift as most of those that are gone before For whereas I had saide before that it was the safest way to rest in Christ alone for the whole woorke of our redemption and that in such sort as that wee sought no helpe of Angell or of Saint of our owne or other folkes merits heere come you in with a fonde collection and childish cauill that by this reason such as should neuer pray nor desire others to pray for him hee that should neuer fast nor doo other good deede but should rather defie the same and lay all vpon the passion of Christ should be the neerest to that aduauntage But can you in good sadnes no better perceiue how these two may stand togither both for to rest in Christ alone for the whole woorke of our redemption and yet to be occupyed therwithall in such woorks as God hath prepared for vs to walke in Or if needes you would carpe here at might you not by the like reason haue carped at many places of
them what other way is left vnto them but to establish his throne only in such as wil beleeue whatsoeuer they say neuer make any question of it Of which kind of out-facers liberal speakers because this aduersary of mine is one and so doth shew himself very plainly in this which he hath doone against me although the matters be not great that in this priuate quarel of his do lie betwixt vs yet because it may serue well inough to shew their maner of dealing in such quarrels as they vse against vs I saw no cause to refuse the occasion that himself hath offered and so to put him in mind of his doings therin that others also may so much the better see what to think of the lauish speeches high wordes and great out-cries of him and his fellowes for these matters And the more angry that he and his fellowes do now shew themselus to be and the more impatiently that they do whatsoeuer they doe the plainlier do they bewray themselues vnto those that can rightly decypher whence it proceedeth that is from an euill a desperate cause Leesers I grant are by common prouerbe allowed to haue their words yet when they are so very impatient that for the veriest trifles that are it is a faire and likely coniecture both that their wine in spent already when as now they draw forth nothing but lees and that they haue but smal store of breade when as they eate Akorns so fast hungerly as they doe Which that thou maist the better perceaue in this aduersary of mine in this quarel which he hath taken vp against me I haue made him this answer that now I do present vnto thee it may be not in so large and ample maner as some would require but I trust both sufficient to note the matter aforesaid strong inough for mine own defence in those my doings The controuersies of purpose I haue euer auoided I meane for any set Treatice of them but only so far as did appertain vnto mine own needful defence both because I am wel eased already therof by many that can dyscusse them much better then I and for that the partie himselfe that of purpose doth still enterlace them with other matters yet himselfe will neuer seeme to haue it his purpose to medle with them And yet in truth it seemeth to be the only cause why he woulde seeme so to deale in matters of godlines that so wher as otherwise by learning himselfe dooth know that he could neuer be able yet vnder pretence of treating but only of godlines of life he might win some credite to those popish errors that hetherto for their pompe and bellies they haue sought to defend And therfore lesse maruell that he was so maruelous angry that I wiped out those his popish coruptions out of the former booke so much as I did because it crossed his secrete purpose did not suffer him so quietly to enioy that silly help that now he thought meetest whereby to let in their naughty errors Insomuch that heerby they teach vs to beware of their Poperie not only in such bookes of theirs as wherein they professe to treat of those matters but in the residue to wherein they would in no wise seeme to medle with them but for to treat of godlines only And to the end that thou mightest the better perceaue what are those places wherin he findeth himselfe so much greeued for this cause I haue praefixed those bookes againe before this myne answer and in the margent of those places against which he inueigheth haue noted vnto thee in what part or Section of this myne Answer I haue treated therof That so thou mayst the more readily find both what grounds he hath taken of this his quarell and how weake they are to beare the burthen that theron he hath layd This is the effect of my Answer vnto him which also thou hadst had the last Sommer but that the Printer after that it was deliuered into his hands desired for one matter therunto appertaining a further respite But I trust that now also it commeth not out of season and such as it is that do I now commend to thy fauorable censure interpretation and so bid thee hartily wel to fare in Iesus Christ. From Bolton-Percy in the auncienty of Yorke 1589. Edm. Bunny The answer of Edm. Bunny vnto the Praeface and Annotations of R. P. I Haue at the length with much adoo got sight of that which by others before I had heard you had doone against mee Wherein you haue so far discouered your selfe that for a time after that I had pērused your dooings I thought it needles to make any further answere vnto you partly because that such a quarrell is more priuate then that it needeth to bee imparted to others but especially for that the matter that you bring is so weake as that it needeth none to cast it downe but doth easily fall of it selfe without any further impugning of it But when I had further considered withall howe confidently you are woont to speake on your owne behalfe when you haue no iote of truth to beare you out and howe readie some others are to beleeue whatsoeuer you say in this respect I thought it best to make you answer that so both your selfe and others also may better perceiue that oftimes you complaine without any cause and that when as you make most a doe there is not alwaies any great matter to occasion the same And so I must giue you to vnderstand that although in these your dooings you deepely charge me yet haue I giuen you so little cause so to do as that whatsoeuer contempt and reproch you did meane to cast vpon me and by that occasion vpon others also the same is like all to bee yours and to redound vnto your selfe the author of it and that not onely in those things wherein you haue directed your stile against mee and others but also in that which in this edition you haue otherwise brought vs. 2 Against me you haue directed your stile first about certaine matters going before and then about certain others that appertaine to the books themselues Concerning those things that go be-before first you take in hand the title that you set downe in so cunning manner to your best aduantage as that although you do not in plaine speech charge me with any thing yet seemeth it therby that you could be content to induce your readers to thinke that I would gladly haue crept into the credit of it as though it had beene mine owne doing Howbeit I did plainly set down the supposed author of it so far as out of the booke it selfe I was able to gather further then the title it selfe did lead For wheras I did thus set it down A book of Christian exercise appertaining to Resolution that is shewing how that we shuld resolue our selues to become Christians indeed by R.
you alledge are The first was that wheras you talked as you say of Catholike priests that heare confessione I made you to say men that be skilful to giue counsell And true indeed that whereas you had so framed your speech as best might serue you to restraine the wife comfortable handling right managing of a christian soule only to those whom you vntruly cal catholike priests withall to establish that lewd deuise of your auricular confession to make it a sacrameÌ„t too I on the other side leauing those your contentious brablings quietly exprest the matter you had in hand in such other tearms as might sufficiently expresse the thing it selfe not leane to any of those corruptions neither But as I forbare to name you so may you see that I tooke not the place to our selues Though I 〈◊〉 out that vnruly and disorderly companie of yours whome you would so faine commend vnto vs vnder the name of Catholike Priests then the which they are nothing lesse yet did I not so fraâ—â—â— it as that it might seeme to import none but our selues by putting in the Ministers of the Gospell into their roomes but left the description 〈◊〉 indifferent to you if so you could imploy yourselues as I did vnto vs. This is the partialitie that heere I vsed and the like might bee saide of both the others 13 Concerning the cause that you haue in hand the matter that you chiefly charge me withall is partly for that I haue put thereto somewhat of mine owne but especially for that I haue taken so much out of yours That which I put to â—â— mine owne was so little in it selfe and so indifferently and sparingly done that as you haue taken it nothing so greeuously as the other so in much you needed to haue found no fault at all And yet notwithstanding I will not denie but that in this point you had the aduantage against mee if there were anie thing materiall therein because that the mention thereof was omitted in my prâ—face to the Reader and the additions themselues in som few places no better distinguished But now that your selfe haue made the search let vs see what it is that thereby you haue found The places that your selfe haue gotten and wherein you find your selfe most greeued in this kind are in al but three and those of no speciall importance but that well they might haue beene omitted by me sauing onlie that thereby you might better perceiue howe little cause you had to bee offended in this also First you charge mee that whereas you had set downe that our Sauiour beeing demaunded by a certaine Prince how he might be saued would giue him none other hope but onely by keeping the Commandements saying If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandements there doo I helpe the matter with a parenthesis saying he would giue him none other hope so long as he sought saluation by his works but keepe the Commandements The next is that whereas you alledged out of Saint Paul and out of the Reuelations that men shall be crowned in heauen according to their fight in his life I bodged in as you say this parenthesis in some good measure thereby to limit the Holy Ghost in his meaning The third and last is that whereas you alledged plainly the words of Scripture No man knoweth whether he be woorthie of loue or hatred in Gods sight I added this parenthesis by outward thinges These are all the places that you charge me withall I likewise do willingly acknowledge that for the first last it is true but as touching the second I say that there you haue somewhat depraued my wordes from the sense that I had giueÌ„ them And now as touching my dooings herein it was meet that seeing you labour so much to establish your owne righteousnes as to make a way to saluation thereby and to keepe men alwaies in doubt of the fauour of God towardes them so to make your owne wares more saleable to all and to that end peruerted these places of Scripture the better to shrowd those naughtie errours but gainefull â—â—to you vnder the cloake and shewe of truth I on the other side should bee as carefull that no 〈◊〉 tooke occasion of error by either of them Which how could I on your behalfe more easily haue doone than by giuing so briefe an interpretation vppon those places especially when as my interpretation is such as is not mine but borrowed of others greater than I as your selfe doeth or may knowe and verie agreeable vnto the truth of the places themselues But as touching this place of Ecclesiastes which also you haue not rightlie quoted whereas it pleaseth you to say that you plainely alledged the woordes of that place as plainely as you haue doone it yet notwithstanding if you will take the paines to consider of your dooinges againe you may plainely perceiue first that you haue added three woordes in the ende more than the text it selfe dooth yeelde by anie translation whatsoeuer though yet notwithstanding it stand well ynough with the sense of the place then also these woordes hee bee woorthie whereon the chiefe strength of your sense consisteth are not found in the Hebrew it selfe nor in Saint Ierome when of set purpose hee interpreteth the place although I denie not but that in your common vulgar translation which gladlie you would father vppon him it bee there for this point as corruptly interpreted as it is heere alledged by you So likewise more specially to consider of that other place of yours where you say that I bodged in that parenthesis in some good measure if you marke the place better you shall finde that I did not adde these woordes vnto the affirmatiue as you haue framed them to your better aduauntage which indeed had beene more obscurely spoken and that you haue corruptly cited both my woordes and yours also For you saide before that none should bee crowned there in the life to come but according to the measure of his fight in 〈…〉 and thereunto cited those places of Scripture which yeeld no such matter vnto you but onely that such as striue heere shall ouercome and bee crowned there without anie apportioning of it according to their measure of striuing as you had framed it Whereas therefore you had further gone than those places did warrant and would gladly abuse that also to the mainteinance of some of your errours not eating in the meane season howe you tormented a weake conscience which way could I in fewer wordes and with lesse alteration of those that you had giuen mee both haue answered those places you cited and prouided for the broken heart against such discomfortable doctrine as you would gladlie haue forced vppon it out of the same Weigh then the matter a little better and you shall see the bodging that you speake of to be so bound with the baâ—â—bias that you put on it that needes it must holde the contrarie course to
otherwise abuse them to your owne fancie was it not meet that they should be deliuered from such ill dealing Your workes of merite hire labouring for reward gaining of heauen and the facilitie that you suppose therein doo 〈◊〉 remaine which also you complaine to bee strooken out So are they indeed For what reason was there to let them stande Is it not inough for you to haue heauen offered vnto you but that you must haue it by your owne purchase also Or being your selfe so vainely perswaded of the righteousnes that is in man must we needs let the same stand to the dishonour of God and ouerthrow of others If needs you will thinke so well of your selues of your owne three-halfepeny works yet there let it die and go no further let not others be troubled with it nor haue the infection of so dangerous vaine an opinion brought before them Works are good when they are doone for the seruice of God to glorifie him or to benefit others but if you doo them to gaine heauen you haue made them odious to God and your selfe is an hireling also 15 Those that varie from the nature of these others going before and take vnto them an other course not charging me now with corrupting falsifiyng and such like but onely with want of wit discretion or grace are such as you gather out of my Annotations of which you say some are fond others absurd and a third sort wicked Howbeit as fond as I am yet thus much haue I marked withall that althogh you do reply to certaine of them where you thinke that they haue some matter for you yet on the other side where you are able to say nothing against that which I haue noted which we may find in manie of them you do not there acknowledge your ouersight but only passe it ouer with silence and still holde on your wonted course loath to amend it though you see that you cannot defend it But to consider of those wherein you thinke that you haue the aduantage and first as touching those that are fond whereas I haue giuen a note of a point wherin Philosophers were long since deceiued and out of which certaine of our deuines had taken occasion of errour also you crie out a-maine that I charge you and your fellowes to hold that errour Whereas notwithstanding I neuer meant neither you nor your fellowes neither and my words are cleere inough in themselues because I spake of Philosophers and not of you and of the diuines of a time past and not of the time that now is present And seeing you cannot but know as I do take it propter summam doctoris authoritatem vrbis but that most of the ancient Philosophers do holde that anima sequitur temperaturam corporis and that not onely diuers of our Phisitians in times past that stucke so much to natural reason doubted of the soules immortalitie but certain of our diuines also that were woont to take their light so much from Philosophie were somwhat likewise deceiued hereby how commeth it to passe that none of these considerations nor altogither could help you to vnderstand that I meant neither you nor your fellows For notwithstanding these considerations and the euidencie of the place it selfe see now how far the desire of contentiō hath blinded your eies that it could not with any indifferencie be wrested to this supposed sense of yours yet as though the matter were cleere could not be otherwise you therupon take it maruelous hotly call it patching cobling lying fondnes But the lesse that you finde any such thing in that which is there set down by me the more must it rest on that which thereon is so vnaduisedly gathered by you and considering how wide you were in this matter what letteth now but that ye might well take home again some of those your toyish speeches aduising your self a litle better who now it is that hath affirmed that which is neither so nor so whether it bee you or I that is that good man that vnderstandeth not what he dooth say or his aduerse-part doth hold albeit if yee beleeue him he hath studied the schoolmen And but that you are possessed alredy with so inordinate affectiōs as many waies you shew your selfe to bee you could neuer so far mistake this as you did vnles you haue som priuy gal in your profession that belike was a litle rubd therby As in this you haue mistakē me so bicause in another place you haue mistooke your self seing no reason in the death of Christ and I tooke you with it alledging there was great reason in it that Christ should die here you can in no wise take it in another sense but that I would make the mystery of our redemption no matter of faith but onlie of reason So that whereas before by declaring that you saw no reason in it you made it knowne that you litle vnderstood the mystery of our saluation in him so cōsequently could minister but cold cōfort to others for that matter in time of need so by this your interpretation of my admonition theron you shew your self not desirous to learn any better nor in good part to take it being offered 16 Then concerning those that you cal absurd first you come to my note of the knowledge that we shal haue one of another after our resurrectiō in the kingdome of God which you holde to bee such as shal cōsist of that earthly knowledge that we now haue in this life and altogither omitting the reasons that I alledged you content your selfe with the ods of the persōs that you wold seem to haue conceiued and there you rest Howbeit you were to haue knowne both that Cyprian in that his sermon by occasion of the pestilence that then so raged in those partes endeuoring himselfe to imbolden the people to bee willing to die if God should cal them might verie wel vtter in the way of perswasion many thinges whereon it were not good to build any generall doctrine and that all the opinions of the learned either of him or anie other are not alwaies to be receiued Then also that you would seeme to set so much by Cyprian it is no more but your wonted vanitie as vppon disdaine you do in like sort make light of others You would gladly shrowd your selues vnder the credit and reuerend estimation of the godlie Fathers but in truth you esteeme of none of them all but so farre as you hope to wrest them to your owne naughtie purpose So that although Cyprian were indeed as fully on your side as you face vs out that he is yet notwithstanding there is no iust cause for you to make it so cleere a matter as that there may be no question of it But nowe in truth there is no such matter as you pretend For whereas you did speake of our naturall parentes kinsfolke and freendes as
our profession and frame them to speake euen as Iohn Caluin speaketh in all matters of controuersie or rather as that good man for the time would haue them speake vnto whose hands the last edition of such works should bee committed all this is so much as concerneth vs but a vain causles out-crie and so much as concerneth you a false and a foolish Tesuiticall out facing of that which you know to be nothing so For what cause haue I giuen you either in this sort to charge me or for my sake so impotently to run vpoÌ„ others to poure forth vpon them so plentifully what the distemperature of your vnquiet braine can imagine or the volubilitie of your slanderous tong can vtterâ— Haue you herein any cause to complaine that we haue no honest meaning no fidelitie no conscience no regard of God or man Are not these very greeuous accusations And must it of necessitie follow that either you haue in this dealing of mine some special cause so far to complain or els that you make no conscience at all falsly to accuse and to beare â— shew as though you had much matter against vs wherein notwithstanding you knowe you haue none And so because it is euidently seene that heerein you haue no such cause to complaine as you would seem by such an out-crie to haue euâ— in the iudgement of your owne adhaerents therefore haue you now euen in this onely though we had no other proofe at all against you as indeede we haue very much sufficiently declared both that such complaintes of yours doo not euer import any fault in vs and that this heauie charge of yours of no honest meaning no fidelitie no conscience no regard of God or man finding no place to light vpon vs returneth home to your selfe againe as to the proper owner of it 19 To say somewhat particularly both of my faultines in this matter especially of the innocencie that you claim to your selues haue I herein so much as attempted to make the booke that I did publish to seeme to be yours in such sorte as I had published the same Did I not both in the Title briefly and in the Praeface more at large plainly praemonish and acknowledge what I had doone for that matter Did I not perswade my selfe thinke you that if therein I had left you anie aduantage against me you wold haue bene readie to take hold of it haue not your selfe verified that coniecture of mine that so mightily storme for nothing at all And though I had not regarded you yet for mine own credits sake I might in no wise haue set it forth in such sort as I did and withal beare the world in hande that so it was set out by you For who would haue beleeued that one of the adhaerents of the Church of Rome a wilful exile from his country for that forrain preâ—ates sake and of blinde zeale or vaine hope or for impunitie a professed Frier as it is thought would euer publish anie such booke so litle infected with their owne vnsauerie opinions All men know wel inough in what maner you speake and what ye write nothing at al when you are in your proper vaine but contentious brablings or traiterous libels or when you come foorth vnder a viâ—ard borrowing for a purpose the shewe of some godlines to make it a packe-horse to carrie foorth your poperie by it If I therefore should haue giuen foorth the same as yours I had not onely giuen forth an vntruth of you but also I had discredited my selfe for that no bodie would haue beleued that so corrupt branches as you and your fellowes are knowne to bee could euer bring foorth any fruit that is so little corrupted And as for your selfe you need not to feare that it would bee altogither accounted yours vnles you were sure that there be none that can set downe such a petigree of it as that they leaue a verie small portion thereof to be yours but those brabling points of popery onely I haue heard long since and not sought out by mee by one that hath trauailed in those parts that your selfe did but translate the Booke that nowe you call yours and added vnto it most of those points of popery and not much besides that the Booke was before in the Italian toong and in Italy commonly solde and by the reporter read there But whether it be so or not I cannot say nor will not ground vpon report If it bee so your self best knoweth and then there is the lesse cause why you should take this matter so hotely Sure I was when first I read it that a latter had busilie added vnto the doings of the former and that chiefly in matters of popery as in my preface before I noted And since I saw your latter booke I was therby much more strengthened to thinke that whose soeuer the better part of the forine booke was without all quaestion it was none oâ— yours But to returne to my selfe againe seing that I had sufficiently acknowledged and published to all that it was not doone by you in such sorte as it was set foorth by me you haue no cause hereby to gather that we are so voide of honest dealing fidelitie conscience and regard of God and man that if wee had the keeping and setting out of the Fathers as you haue had we would lop them and circumcise them and make them to speake as our selues would I haue doone no more yet but onlie that I would not suffer you to traile them in against their wils and to make them speake as you would haue them I haue not laboured to make them speake as we would haue them 20 And so nowe to come to your selues that haue had those monuments of antiquitie so long in your keeping and haue as you would fayne haue the world perswaded so truly kept them so faithfully set them foorth to others heerein you discouer your vnshamefast and graceles nature so far that no bodie needeth to lay you more open than you do your selfe For what man that hath anie honest shame can so confidently beare the world in hand in that which himselfe doth know to be most vntrue and that not onely for the time that is past but also for this time that now is present For as touching the time that is past howe can you be ignorant would you neuer so faine of the great corruptions and forgeries that your Church of Rome hath euer vsed Immediately after that persecution was ceased and that you had gotten a litle rest beginning to deuise for your owne aduauncement did you not labour to haue corrupted the Nicene councell and that so grosly that you were manifestly taken withall by the whole councell of Carthage S. Augustine himself beeing one of the Fathers that tooke you with it And when you were taken with the manner did you then acknowledge your fault and aske forgiuenes that we might conceiue hope of
that credite with them as it was then thought meet for those that should bee the dealers in that matter But I trust that you will not denie but that since that time it is come vnto your knowledge that so they haue doone If it be so what face haue you then that could so boldly lay that to my charge and to the charge of others besides that neyther in mee nor in anie of vs you are able to finde and that which you knewe might bee found in your selues in the highest degree Were you perswaded that by crying out so lowd against such dealing you could haue vs to beleeue that your selues did so much detest it that wee might doubt no such thing in you Indeede we doo not doubt it now for our selues doo plainely see it If you did not know so much before then by all likelyhood you wil soone leaue them now when as you find that same in them in so plentiful maner that supposing to be in vs you haue shewed your selfe so much to mislike vnles you had rather that in your self it should appeere by this one example in steed of the rest that neyther your profession nor your other dooings thervnto appertaining are in truth any other but such as your selues beeing better aduised do euer mislike and of your selues graunt to be naught 24 Then comming to my Treatise of Pacification although you catch heere and there at 〈◊〉 yet whosoeuer it is that considereth howe little fault you were able to finde after that once you had giuen your selfe to doo what you could may soone espie that in effect you haue iustified all And indeede there is nothing at all that for this matter you haue laid to my charge but only that which is either of no importāce but very trifling or els if the matter bee in it selfe of some weight then is the place first by you depraued and after that obiected to me as mine Insomuch that there is no point at all that you charge mee with but may easily bee sorted to one of those two that is either trifling or els depraued Of the former sort are these two that first you charge me to haue offered you so great iniurie in that your booke that I thereby haue cut off all hope of agreement the other that you carpe at my method and say that all things there run in couples of the latter are al the rest That you charge mee to haue offered so great iniurie vnto you that thereby the way to agreement is praeuented it lieth vppon a matter of controuersie that is betwixt vs. If you had set downe no more in the booke that nowe you call yours then that which standeth with the truth then might you iustly complaine that I had done you wrong therein but if you haue put in more and wickedly mingled the truth of God with your lies as it is certaine that you haue done and I doo charge you where then is this wrong that you do complaine of As for my methode what cause haue you at all to complaine but onely that you thinke that you are wrong if you carpe not at all Haue you neuer read tables ere now And do you not knowe that the fewer members that anie thing is reduced vnto the better it is thereby diuided If I haue laboured to reduce all to fewer members and therby gotten the method so much the better both for the plainnes and certaintie of it must this needes bee so offensiue vnto you that you could not passe by before you had snatched at it also Was it not inough for you to go vntouched for the loose and negligent diuisions that you haue made if so bee I may trulie call them yours but that you must be finding fault with an other in that which your owne doings do iustifie Or haue you the face to say that it confoundeth memorie to haue all reduced vnto a couple of principall heads and the subdiuisions to the same belonging to be sorted withal to their proper places and yet that it confoundeth no memorie in yours to leaue thē at large to foure fiue six seuen eight and mo and to take them hand-ouer-head that first that should bee last and that last that should be first But such is the vanitie of our Iesuits now and belike a peece of their order that they must find fault with al others and neuer like of any but themselues and euer they are to mislike the manifestation of the truth not onelie as touching the thing it selfe but also whensoeuer any do labour to set it downe more distinctly or in plainer maner that so it might bee so much the better perceiued by others 25 Those that you haue first depraued after that obiected vnto me are very manie yet to so little purpose withal that it is in a maner but lost labour to go against them they do so easily fall of themselues But that you may see your vanitie the better I will not sticke a little to holde the glasse vnto you so that you also wil looke better into it and bee content to acknowledge those spots that so you may find And first concerning Religion whereas I say that it hath pleased God to blesse this age of ours with so cleere and singular a light of the truth as to our knowledge hee neuer yet bestowed on others heere doo you full wiselie charge me that I exclude all your companie and claime to haue that light alone among our selues And yet it is as cleere as the sunne that I spake it onely of this Age generally and not of the parties that are diuided not of our selues more than of you but indifferently of both togither and all others besides But otherwise you could not tell how to bodge in those impertinent complaintes that therupon you infer to ease your stomake of the boyling of them Immediatly after taking vpō you to recite the chiefe principal points of that my Treatise you begin so ilfauoredly that therby only you put vs out of hope after-ward to finde good dealing with you Whereas therefore I said that you ought to ioine in profession with vs for that it becommeth and behoueth the Church of God in many respects to bee at vnitie in it selfe and yet the case so standeth in this matter that wee are not able in our profession to yeelde vnto you but you verie wel may and of dutie ought to accord vnto vs heere come you in and say that to prooue that you should ioine with vs I alledge that the Church should bee at vnitie in it selfe Which reason say you how farre it prooueth his purpose let the Reader consider Yea verily the Reader may very well consider that your cause is verie weake whē as you can get out no greater matters to cauill at and yet are faine in them also to leane so much to vntruth besides Afterward againe whereas I denie not but that diuers there may
the place that you alledge out of the third section and either out of the foureteenth or fifteenth page there do I giue no cause at all why I wrote this Treatise neither yet do I directly set downe But by way of supposall that which so greedilie you catch for your purpose to cheare you withall For my wordes are plaine that we also will bee content to set by Religion for a season c and now consider of those things alone that do concerne our ciuille-state againe Be it therfore that whatsoeuer their profession be yet shal they haue many of those that now are with vs to ioine with them if in this point there be found no lawfull impediment or matter to stay them And now Sir I pray you if you would needs haue taken vpō you out of mine own words to declare vnto others what moued me to write this treatise ought you not rather to haue taken it out of one of those places before recited where I dealt in the selfe-same matter then out of this other alledged by you where I speake nothing at all of anie such thing And if you had ment honest plain dealing would you not haue taken the course that I speake of But put-case that that also were some part of the cause could you yet haue the face altogither to set by Religion and matters of faith which I set by but for a time whilst that I reasoned of the other then tel your reader that the consideratiō of our ciuil estate was the only matter that by mine own confessiō that my selfe confessed that indeed now I perceiued that me held with vs rather for respect of state ciuil cōmodities than of conscience beleefe Did I any where confesse this Haue you no shame to charge me with so manifest an vntruth Dooth your religion giue you that libertie Haue you so throughly digested that new lesson of yours to keep no faith to those that professe the gospel that now you regard not what you say of them nor how you charge them But the qualitie of your cause being better considered the matter is lesse that by you it is accordingly handled But you ad hereunto that regard of temporal commoditie in verie truth is the only reason or bait that wee can lay before you at this time wherby to moue you to come to our part and withall that our Lord knoweth how bare brickle a thing it is how long or litle while it may indure In the former wherof you seem now to discouer the reason to vs why you would before haue made your reader beleeue that I made this Pacification for no cause els but for that now I perceiued that mē held with vs rather for respect of ciuil commodities than of conscience and beleefe For if there were on our parts no other groundwork of persuasion but onlie the regard of temporall cōmoditie then without questiō I could haue had to this purpose no other matter at al to write of so consequently needes must I haue made the treatise only for it Therfore do but proue that to your gentle reader the other wil follow vpō it hard at the heels In the latter of thē wherin you talk of the bricklenes of it how litle it may endure althogh you cast in certain other speches besides to shadow the matter so far as to your purpose shuld be needful for the time yet considering your attempts since against the person of her Ma. the State it self it may wel be both that your self were priuy to thē that if so they had falne out you had laide thereby a pretie foundatiō to win the credit of a Prophet among you as one of your fellowes lately did in England We know as wel as you that al erthly prosperitie subiect to mutabilitie and that no man knoweth the time or season howe long or how little it is to continue And if it shall please God to enter into anie such triall of vs as you would fainest see we◠trust that we shal be in a readines to obey his wil and that it also shall be both to our great benefit and good of the Church and to the further ouerthrow both of your selues and of your profession now in this declining estate of your wicked pope-dome I also graunt as touching these speeches of yours if otherwise the cause be good and the persons be not suspitious such speeches as these may well be vttered without offence But I ad withall both that it is a false slaunder of you to charge vs that we relie vpon it and yet neuertheles are wee of dutie verie much bound heerein to acknowledge the goodnes of God towards vs and that so much the rather as wee see the same so much to greeue you and so firmly to be continued hitherto vnto vs notwithstanding so many vile attempts of yours to the contrary and that it is likely considering the qualitie that you are of that in these verie wordes you shewed your selfe to some purposes in couert manner but otherwise plainely ynough not onely how to lay in wait for the same but also that you had already conceiued an vndoubted hope to preuaile wherein notwithstanding hitherto God bee thanked you are cleerely defeated And our trust further is that seeing you are now so farre past not only religion but all honestie too as witnes these your vile and naughtie practises continually iterated one after an other both that God will still bee against you and that the most of your wonted adhaerents considering into howe reprobate waies they may easily finde you hereby to bee giuen will nowe begin euerie where to see how much you haue abused them daily forsake you more and more That Strumpet you know that sometimes hath beene in that honour and estimation with the Princes and people of the earth and with whome they haue liued in fornication being by her inchantments deceiued is at length to bee forsaken and hated of them to be stript naked and burned also And it may bee that GOD will vse this extreame wickednes of yours to make others both better to know you the more to detest you also so to make the readier way to those his iudgements which we besech him to hasten to his good pleasure for his names 〈◊〉 and for the comfort of all his people that soone should haue a readier way to their saluatiō if that great stumbling blocke were once remooued out of the way 32 As touching the hope that before hand you giue vs of that new Booke that perhaps heereafter may be taken in hande you haue in such sorte set downe the argument therof already that althogh it may be that some of you could giue the aduenture of such an attempt yet to deale plainly with you I must needes giue you to vnderstand that it is such a matter as that none of you all nor altogither are able to performe no nor to
two things that you speake of were doone but onely on friday Wheras therfore I pag. 281. left out your thursday set them on the head of friday only yet you in your headstroÌ„g course haue put in thursday againe as it was before After that again handling the vanitie of worldly pleasures you bring in pag. 322. a text of Scripture wroÌ„g quoted also both for the booke chapter that the linage of king Baasa was destroied for that they prouoked god in their vanities In which place by those their vanities hee meaneth their idolatries as by the place it selfe is apparant and by the best interpreters thereon olde and newe And Iohannes Benedictus a Diuine of Paris and one of your owne companie taking his direction as himselfe professeth out of Ierome Augustine Ambrose Gregorie Hilary Chrysostom and all the best approoued writers that antiquitie yeelded as appeereth in his Epistle Dedicatorie in his Concordance vpon the word vanitas doth plainely so interprete that verie place Wheras therfore I left it out as not appertaining to the matter you had in hande you notwithstanding haue put it in again and as wrong quoted as it was before Belike at the first you followed some table and whatsoeuer place you found to talke of vanitie that did you think to be for your purpose and in that perswasion persist as yet But whether that were in you a vanitie or not you may at leisure resolue if it please you So likewise euen with the common sort do you plainly mistake that place of the Hebrews concerning Esau saying that God would not forgiue him though he demanded it with teares â—â— Wherein although I will not denie but that you may haue some other that dooth so expoundit yet is the stone it selfe a sufficient interpreter of that place against all And your owne fellowes of Rhemes in their note on that place doo plainelie say that it is not meant that Esau could not finde remission of his sins at Gods hands which is the sense that you haue gathered but that hauing once folde and yeelded vp the right of his first-birth vnto his yonger brother it was too late to be sorie for his viâ—â—â—uised bargaine In which latter part of their note although if they had better heeded the storie whence it was taken they might haue interpreted the same somewhat better of the blessing that was past to an other yet is the former very sound and crosseth you as directly as may be And wheras I had so mended it to your handes you neuerthelesse come in with it againe as you did before so well seene belike in the woord of God in those matters that are of deeper iudgement or fore-stalled with som vnaduisednes or ignorant preiudice that as you can readily erre with the ignorant and common sort so likewise can you as little perceiue it when as you are gently admonished of it The like might be said of manie others but these I trust may be sufficient for this matter And yet I will acknowledge withall that some few of them you haue some-what amended much like as you had direction from mee As for example whereas before your woordes were that Christ complained greeuously by the Prophet that sinners built vpon his backe and prolonged their iniquitie 348 which indeed doth not stand with the sense of the place as I had noted 330 and therewithall holpe the place by saying that Christ might so complaine you perceiuing some-what your former mistaking haue thus far holpen it that our Sauiour seemeth to complaine c. Againe whereas you said before that Christ went foorth into the streets twise in one day to reprehend those that were idle and I perceiuing tâ—â—o faultes therein amended them both saying that Christ in his parable still reprehended greeuously those that stood idle c. you perceiuing now that it was not Christ himselfe that went forth to reprehend the idle but that he put the parable of another that did haue nowe thus farre mended it that you say that Christ in his parable went forth into the streetes twise in one day c. But as for that other slip of yours that you talke so praecisely of twise in one day that haue you mended nothing at all and it may be not perceiued it neither And yet the text it self that you do speake of Mat. 20. 17. doth plainly say that first he went forth earlie in the morning then afterwards againe at the third sixt ninth eleuenth houres of the day In somuch that it is the more maruell that finding him still as you say which notwithstanding wee read but of once to rebuke those that were idle you neuer fouÌ„d him notwithstanding at any time to rebuke this your idle reading and regarding of his holy worde The sense also of diuers places of Scripture which you out of others sometimes had corruptly set down alledging it for the sense of the place which was either but an alluding vnto it or els not so good I had one way or other either amended or made more tollerable which you notwithstanding haue broght in again as far wide as they were before I am not ignorant but that by one of those foure waies which you take vpon you so coÌ„monly to vse wherof sometime there is some vse in deede in the expounding of holy scripture there may be some colour pretended for such wanton wandring expositionsâ— that diuers there be of reuerend accouÌ„t otherwise that therein haue not a little offended But in this light of the Gospell those that so dally with the word of God are worthy rather to bee hissed out than to bee repressed by admonition Last of all wheras you had ofteÌ„ vsed those profane speeches of hap chance fortune perhaps perchance and I had not onely left them out put others in their place such as gaue no such way to offence yet serued the place as well as the other but also did bring in Augustine against them you neuertheles haue taken them freely in again as one that is â—oth ouermuch to amend or litle regardeth what offence by his speech he may giue vnto others 35. That there is good cause why you should not trust to your self so much as you do might eaâ—y be gathered throughout your whole book But first as touching all such matters as belong to the controuersies with those as I said I will not meddle because that whatsoeuer slip you make therein yet it is hard for you to perceiue it much more to acknowledge it so long as you are perswaded that you are in the truth or doo but retaine the mind that you do so wilfully winking at the manifest light so hardning your harts against this gratious calling of God Then also certaine other thinges there are that are no controuersies them selues and yet notwithstanding so neere allied to them that therin also I may not deale with much better hope than in the other For therin also you
notwithstanding neuer being able to auoide the reward of this your infidelitie that of course befalleth vnto you from the hande of the Lord that when you haue doone you shall lie downe and sleepe in sorrow 37 And so hauing now thus farre examined those things that you haue laid to my charge and trusting that I haue sufficiently satisfied if noâ— your selfe yet the indifferent reader therein nowe to draw to an end for these matters I wold wish you to consider how like to Laban you haue delt with mee and so take it in better part if I vse for my self the same defence that Iacob did For now that you haue so hotely followed vpon mee as it were with hue and crie or rather in most hostile manner when you haue charged mee with open mouth with so great iniurie doone vnto you vnto the Fathers and Scriptures themselues when you haue made the best search that you can and turned all thinges vp-side-downe that nothing at all might escape vnespied what is there nowe that for all this you haue found where-with you may be able to charge me or wherin haue I made any such fault against the Scriptures the Fathers or your self that deserueth so much as the tenth part one halfe of those out-cries and outragious speeches that you haue blustered foorth against mee What I had doone I haue fully acknowledged how greeuously you haue taken it that haue I also in some part declared but not so fully And now as Iacob said vnto him so doo I say vnto you likewise let it here be laid in the sight of al men and abide the triall both of your brethren and mine He charged Iacob that he stale away without his knowledge and tooke away his daughters with him But were not his daughters the wiues of Iacob and might not Iacob lawfully take them And had hee first made Laban priuie vnto it may wee thinke that Iacob might haue had his consent so to haue done He charged him also to haue taken away his idols with him and indeede they were gone but Iacob was wrongfully charged withall and could not tell which way to helpe him vnto them againe Your idols likewise I graunt are gone but why should you be so angrie with mee The truth it selfe hath made them to hide their faces for shame and I am not able would I neuer so faine to shewe you how to get them againe So that although Labans idols indeede were gone yet was there nothing that hee was able iustly to lay to the charge of Iacob insomuch that at length he thought he had stirred too much alreadie and there-vpon drew into amitie with him And although that the latter of them bee a greater matter than you are able to reach vnto of any man els expecteth of you yet would it not bee amisse that at your leisure you should consider indifferently whether you haue not stirred herein a great deale more than either the cause it selfe required or els was wisedom on your owne behalfe for you to do For first as touching the ill dealing and great iniurie that your complaine of it is such as either chiefly respecteth your selfe in these your labours or else the cause that you haue in hande Concerning your selfe you charge me with altering the title so as if you would perswade your Reader that my selfe would haue had the glorie of it and yet you are faine to set downe the same to your owne aduantage otherwise than you had it of mee and quite to leaue out that which you sawe discharged mee of it You complaine of great corruption mangling falsifiyng and what not And yet you bring foorth nothing at all to any purpose to discharge your credite therein When I charged Philosophers and some Diuines of olde to haue had their errours about the immortalitie of the soule that tooke you as meant of your selfe and your fellowes and there-vppon are passing angrie for it and yet was it but your owne ouersight that so did take it and in no wise can bee ascribed to mee Yet these are the iniuries and a few others of lesse importance that are so great as that there is nothing but open hostilitie may rise vppon them Concerning the cause that you haue in hande you are highlie offended that I haue left out your Purgatorie Auricular confession Satisfaction idle Munkerie forced Virginitie wilfull Pouertie Apparitious friuolous Chastening of the bodie watching weeping abstinence and fasting after your manner and merits and yet neither haue â—taken them from you but refused our selues so to take them neyther is it in mee to allowe so honest a place vnto anie such matters as the truth hath nowe so plainelie declared the best of them all as you doo vse them to bee so wicked or at least but vaine That the blessed Virgin is altogither without sinne is a late errour of yours and because that vnder it faine you would shrowd your woonted idolatrie to her committed you cannot abide that it bee crossed neuer so little Because I cannot allowe that a speciall commaundement that was particularly giuen vnto some should stande as a generall rule vnto all nor that men may at any time leaue their calling nor married folkes parte asunder without consent therefore do I both discredite Saint Anthonies calling and call in question S. Augustines conuersion and yet must may Annotation theron bee dismembred also to helpe out that conceit of yours Not so content I meane to complaine so much as you doo without arâ—â—â— cause to make so great outcries for such thingâ— as you might much better haue passed with silence that yet you may much better shewe your selfe what you are is it not a proper dalliance that you make of the armes of the Archbishop and Church of Yorke ioined togither Doo you not thinke that you were full grauely occupyed in so serious matters as these But that was no sufficient way for you to shewe what you are and what is in you but that needes you must make your selfe â— partie likwise in that late wicked practise against him as though it were of some great importance what part you tooke in that action or your partaking could giue some credit either to the cause it selfe or vnto those that helpe it forward But in the meane season you haue made it a likely matter in reason that you would bee loath that anie should haue such a matter in hand and not allow you to make one among them and seeing you haue made such choise of your companions wee are nowe so much the rather to acknowledge the old prouerbe true that like will to like whensoeuer wee see you knowe whome and the Frier so met togither For as for other thinges that belong vnto vs whrewith you would so gladly find fault they goe so skant with you that you are faine to carp at the assurance that the Scriptures do teach vs to haue in God because it hindreth your markeâ— with vs and that marriage is
anie liking of that which is the head-stone of the corner And if there bee no remedie but that needes you will holde on the course you are in walking in darknes in the midst of light abiding in bondage when you may bee free and disposed to perish when saluation is offered what can we doo better than as Christ in the like case did fully content settle our selues in such iudgements of God the causes whereof are euer iust howe secret soeuer they bee vnto vs. His name therefore be euer blessed and glorified of all those that are his that to the glorie of his holie name and to the further manifestation of his great and vnspeakable mercies to his chosen people it hath pleased him to hide those things from the wise and learned and to open the same vnto babes Euen so bee it for so it standeth with his good pleasure Among you all we trust there are some that doo appertaine to the secret election and are to be called in their time Now is the time when they may as plainly perceiue howe far they are falling if they should go on still with you as euer they or anie others might since the world began God giue them grace so to perceiue it and so to with-draw themselues from your naughtie waies and that while they haue this acceptable time before that euer it be too late that with you they be not partakers of those heauie iudgements that are already prepared for you and of which in the course that now you are in you shall one day tast and cannot escape would you neuer so faine FINIS The occasion of this myne Answer That the Aduersaries haue it their common maner to make much a doe about nothing This aduersarie of mine to folowe the same course likewise In what maner this my answer in framed vnto him 1 Not thinking at the first to make any answer here vnto by what reason I was after induced vnto it Of that which he had doone against me Of the Title of the booke wherein he would charge me to haue bin desirous to haue crept into the credit of it First by altering the maner of it to his best aduantage Then by striking out a word that made against him How hee hath altered my name either of grosse negligence or some foolish mysterie Of the sentence of scripture What fault he findeth in mee about it What aduantage therein he hath left against himselfe How indistinctly therfore ilfauoredly he setteth down that text of scripture How resolutely hee setteth down that which the fathers before nor the learned now could so fully agree on His idle caueling about the first page a sufficient pattern of all the rest A friuolous slander of the keies crown vpō the Archbishop of Yorke his Armes As good title thereunto onely by coupling their armes togither as they haue any by the word of God His printers Alphabet fit for the matter hee hath in hand Vpon the Epistle Dedicatorie he associateth himselfe to an The great lewdnes of his own fellowes in that kind Le Cabinet du Roy de France Aboue half a score a peece one with another had in bodily abuse by these holy fathers A wilfull ouersight Of the preface Of the foūtains whēce the booke was taken Pag. 2 3. 3 4 5 6 6.7 7 8 9 14 19 25 32 34. 35 37. 25 33. 35 39 41 Ib. Ib. 42 He altereth my words changeth the pointing to make them square better to his purpose Of the want of learning that he in his vanitie doth charge vs withall How the aduersaries euer haue shunned yet doe the triall of learning Hee is so wearie of being so roundly handled in matters of controuersies that now hee braggeth vs with an other argument to till vs aside frō dealing any longer in this Iudges 9. How arrogantly he challengeth to him selfe and his fellows that which is the farthest of frō them of al others How properly they themselues are occupyed in writing bookes of deuotion pietie and contemplation Of the faults that he findeth in the Resolution How iniustly he chargeth mee with corrupting falsifiyng c. Being takē in the maner himself he thinketh best with opē mouth to lay it on others Vpon how weake a ground-worke he buildeth this greeuous charge The places that he specially toucheth doe readily turn to his owne reproch Of the seared conscience Of sinning wilfully in their owne conscience Acts and monumēts out of Hen. Pantal. lib. 19. an 1543. in the storie of Mollius one of the Italian Martyrs Athanasius abused and falsified That he is made to speake like a good Minister of the Church of England How little cause hee hath to cōplaine of those few parentheses that I had added Of those follies and errors of his that I left out Purgatorie Auriculat confession Satisfactiō Moonks Virginitie Wilful pouertie Apparitiōs Chastising of the body Watching weeping abstinence fasting Merit Of my Annotations Of those that he calleth fond A note of Philosophers taken to himselfe and his fellowes Whether there be any reason or not why Christ should die if we shuld be saued Of those that he calleth absurd Of the maner of our knowledge one of another in the world to come The place of Cyprian abused S. Augustines rule Augustine Possidonius both abused togither What Saint Augustines rule was generally What it was more specially as touching wiuing Good reason why S. Augustine should refuse to cohabite with women yet that to be no rule vnto others that are not in the like case with him Forgetting how farre themselues are polluted with all vncleanes hee condemneth lawful marriage in vs. My Annotation depraued Of the assurāce that we haue in God Of those that he calleth wicked The conuersion of S. Anthony The conuersion of S. Augustine My Annotation dismembred The silence of the blessed Virgin Of his vain and friuolous illation vpon the premises How little cause was giuen by me that so he should charge vs. How faithfully the later church of Rome hath kept the monuments of antiquitie The Nicene Councell Decretall Epistles Constantines gift The Fathers S. Ierome S. August Particular examples M. R. in his confer cap. 5. diuis 2. De doctrin Christ. lib. 2. cap 8. Dist. 19. In canonicis (a) li. 4. dist 10. (b) de consecr dist 2. Prima quidem (c) parte 3. Quest. 75. Art 1. (d) super can missae lect 39. A. M. Reinolds in his praeface of the Confer to the Seminaries pag. 23.26 In praef ad lect in Indicem Expurg Of the treatise of Pacificatiō Of those that are trifling Of the iniurie that he saith I haue offered vnto him to the ouerthrowe of al agreement Of my methode Of those that are by him depraued in that which I had set downe to persuade others Cōcerning Religion That I shuld seem to vaunt of our owne proper lerning aboue all others He gibeth at the consequence after that first he hath taken away one halse of that whereon it depēdeth That I shuld seem to graunt that there is no cause why men should ioin with vs in respect of Religion but in respect of Policie onely The I deuise bugs on the Ecclesiastical authoritie of the B. of Rome That because I teach that we ought to rest in Christ alone for the whole worke of our redemption therefore I abolish works and that we all are little occupied in any good woorks Concerning our ciuil estate That I shuld seeme to exempt our profession from temporall calamities and that our superiors conuey our treasure out of the land to forraine vses Of the peace of the church Of carying out our treasure Other places by him depraued in that which I brought for the remouing of certain impedimentes that hinder others He first depraueth then derideth Christs descending into hell That I should grant that their faith and ours is all one About my treatise of the church Taking in hand that which I set downe first some part of it he dismembreth some he falfifieth After he dallieth thereupon That I shuld seem in such sort to graunt them to be of the church as that it were no great matter of whether religion a man were of theirs or ours How they are of the Church Rob. Bellar tom 1. com 3. lib. 3. cap. 13. cō 4. lib. 4. cap. 16. Quest. 11. ad Algasiū De Ciu. Dei lib. 20. ca. 19 How they are of that Church that is true Catholike Apostolike yet themselues nothing at all the better thereby Vpon what cause hee would haue it to seeme that I did grant them this curtesie Not so careful to keepe them in as that they should not thrust out others What it is that for this matter they are to do Two other matters of another kind Why I shuld write this Pacification That regard of temporal commodities is all that we haue to mooue others to our profession as he wold haue it Of the hope that he giueth vs of a certaine new worke to be taken in hande which none of them all nor altogither can euer perform He forgat himselfe when hee laid this vnto vs. Of the residue that he hath otherwise broght vs. Of the whole booke generally Of the Title of it The Troian horse The monks hood Acts and mon. 1209. Of the matter of it Of a few particulars That he is loath to amend that hee hath done amis Apothrypha Canonicall like Scripture with him and why Corrupt translations stil continued against the Fathers Corus That fowly he erreth in manie things In the ods that he conceiueth betwixt faith and works Pref. 7. in the book it selfe 315. In defining of a true Christian. Part. 1. c. 5. In comforting sinners against dispaire Part. ◠cap. 1. Miserable comforters all the sort of them In certaine others that do nothing belong to anie controuersie Isaac was but a child with him when he was fortie yeeres old Pag. 16. Fiftie gentlemen for two hundred and fiftie pa. 70. Iephthes sacrificing of his daughter Pag. 78. Of the time when Abraham liued pa. 143. Of the time of their bondage in Aegypt Pag. 144. The first part of the conclusion beginning with a brief recitall of the whole First generally that he dealeth herein as Laban som time dealt with Iacob Gen. 31. Then more specially in the particulars The second part of the conclusion ending with a short admonition of the iudgements of God
P. then a certaine space after that Perused accompanied now with a Treatise tending to Pacification by Ed. Bunny so distinguishing the one from the other and putting mine owne name to no more than was mine setting those two letters vnto the other that I found in the end of the praeface following you haue told your gentle Reader that I haue giuen it this title A booke of Christian exercise c. Perused and accompanied with a Treatise tending to Pacification by Edm. Bunny Wherin although you durst not be so bold as plainly to charge me that I would seeme to take vpon mee more than was mine yet in couert maner you go very neere it in suppressing those letters that I put to the former part of the title and by setting my name in such sort in the end of the latter as that it might seeme to haue bene set by me to them both The seely help that you haue for your self is in your miserable c. but plain dealing had bene much better And that you ment to giue the occasion that others might think that I had vsed so indirect dealing another thing also doth very much boad if it do not cleerly proue it that is when you came to recite the latter part of the title as I had set it ther because you saw the maner of it was such as that it would not take it well that you should so vse me therfore did you therwithal cut his toong out of his head that it might not bewray you For whereas I had noted in the title that nowe that book of Resolutiō was accompanied with that other Treatise of mine tending to Pacification because that it did plainely import that that booke of Resolution was before and none of mine therfore you strooke out that worde Now that others might the more easily conceiue that opinion of mee that therein you laboured to cast vpon mee If in truth you were persuaded that you had such aduantage against me in those things that follow as afterward you would seeme that you are you might well haue spared this kind of dealing and either you should haue set downe the whole as I did so to affoord me my iust defence or else you should haue suppressed that togither with the other which being seuered from that other might for your sake seem to charge me with that which I did not Now that herein you doe leaue out one of the letters of my name and not onely here but continually after almost throughout your whole booke I know not well what to say vnto it If you haue done it of set purpose belike you haue some mysterie in it if it be so then bring it foorth and accordingly you shall heare from mee againe if neede so require If not that is if you haue no mysterie in it then is your negligence very apparant that hauing it set down right vnto you you haue so very often missed it when you were to set it downe againe And wheresoeuer such negligence reigneth belike the matters are not great that there we may looke for But because that this matter was but of small importance wee will bee perswaded that you made store of your diligence heere and would not gladly spende anie part of it now that so you might haue the more in a readines for that which followeth 3 After the title you take in hand the sentence of Scripture which I did set vnder the same Iesus Christ yesterday and to day and the same for euer Heb. 13.8 and therein you charge me two special wayes and yet notwithstanding you leaue vnto me greater aduauntage against you therein then you haue any against me in any part of the whole whatsoeuer But belike the sentence it selfe being so pregnant as it is against the very sinewes and marrow of your profession did at the first euen at the verie sight thereof so offend your eies that afterward you could not deale peaceably with it First you say you see not to what purpose I should place that sentence there you cal it a mysterie and you thinke it were hard for other men to coniecture why I did it What if you knowe not why it was done What need that offend you So that the sentence it selfe be good what neede you be greeued that you finde it there Are your gatherings or gleanings of that nature that such a sentence may not bee allowed such place among them But because you cannot coniecture nor others neither as you suppose what reason I had there to place it I will not sticke my selfe to tell you that which may satisfie you and those others You must know I had to deale with that which did not in diuers pointes agree with the truth it selfe in Iesus Christ which when I laboured to take away it might be notwithstanding that I left some vnespied of mee In which respect euerie one may plainely see that it did very fitly appertaine to the purpose both to be a defence vnto me for such corruptions as I tooke from it and to be a preseruatiue withall against such corruptions as remained if any such were shewing therby that I meant not to commend or leaue any other vnto them but only Iesus Christ our Sauior And if you had not blind-folded your selfe before you came to it with a setled purpose to catch at whatsoeuer you might get any holde of your selfe no doubt must needs haue seene it so fitlie it doth agree with the purpose that I had in hād and the argument it selfe doth so plainely witnes the same Then you proceede to a further matter and deale more hardly both with mee and the text it selfe The text you would haue supposed to be not onely in it selfe harde or obscure but also one of those Obscure sentences or places wherewith The holie Fathers noted the ancient heretikes to delight themselues and deceiue others and then comming to mee that I haue to that ende brought it in that is to delight my selfe deceiue others Wherein that you may preuaile the better in your margēt you send vs to Epiphanius Augustine after a sort to S. Peter too as thogh we should find the same in them Who knoweth not I pray you that heretiks were wont as plainly appeereth now in your selues to vse certain sentences of scripture to establish their errours withall But what is that to this purpose Haue you anie dowt of any such dealing in this must Iesus Christ yesterday to day the same for euer be now so obscure so apt to deceiue so ready a tricke for an heretike I know what you mean and if you durst for shame you would speak plainlier than you do If Iesus Christ be the only Sauior for al the ages already past for the time present for the time to com you see not well where to cog in those other deuises mony-doctrines that you haue of your owne For this cause therfore
needs must this also be an obscure sentence apt to deceiue to vse the same the tricke of an heretike But doe you thinke that Epiphanius or Augustine would sooth you herein or that S. Peter meant of any such matter If they would find it set it down if not how is it then marke whence you are falne that you are not ashamed so fowly to wrest them The aduantage that herein you haue left to me against your self is in comparisō no great matter yet such as I saide such as it is needs must you heare of it because you are so ready to catch at others It resteth therfore in these 2. points one that you do the sentence some wrong to set it down so negligently cōfusedly as you do not distinguishing the members thereof by orderly pointing as you had it of me as it is witnes your selues in the text it self the other that twise togither you do so resolutely ascribe it to S. Paul Touching the first it may be but the ouersight of you or your printer howbeit both of you ought to haue vsed more diligēce in it The sentēce is to good purpose it is weightie and of great importance you ought to haue seene better vnto it both he for his part and you for yours But I doubt very much that your Printer hath doone but as you your selfe set it downe vnto him and that you haue doone it of purpose nothing at all regarding how confusedly nor how ill-fauoredly you serue vs with the word of God But we will not so take it at your handes With ill will you are brought at length to haue some dealing with the written worde of God and very shame hath woon at your hands not so far to abandon your selues from the scriptures as otherwise full gladly you would And nowe that you must for shame doe somewhat you would gladly do it as ill-fauouredly as you might that so wee might find neither life nor comfort nor sense therin But you shall not so abuse the word of life you shall not shrinke from it and yet you shall not sliue it neither Whereunto if we may be so bolde as to adde that your selfe is one of these Iesuite-friers that late ofspring of that ruinous Popedom as that R. P. that is thought to bee the authour of this booke is said to be you haue done well so to let the world vnderstand and you may do well to marke it your selfe what ill accord there is betwixt Iesus and Iesuites whensoeuer they meete You had no sooner espied him to be in place but by and by your stomake rose against him and some way or other must you needes shewe your gall there was no remedie As touching the latter of them I denie not but that it is the iudgement of diuers of the ancient fathers that it might bee the Apostle Saint Paul that wrote it and of some that it was and so likewise of the writers nowe But yet you cannot bee ignorant withall that the matter was then in question among them yet is with the learned now What ground therefore can you haue to affirme so resolutely that which the fathers of olde and the learned now haue not yet so throughly decided If you alledge the determination of the church of Rome we hold it for nothing in these matters now since the time that you are departed away from the faith in so manie things as you are and haue banded your selues against the Lord and his annointed And if needs you will looke to be allowed this libertie that you may so determine vpon it as you thinke good you had need first to see how those reasons may be answered that are to the contrarie rather than so seruilely to cleaue to the bare iudgement of those that set it downe as themselues list I speake it but of your owne companions nowe without regarding vnto what side the strongest reasons incline Seeing that we do all agree that it is Apostolical and the vndoubted word of God it can be no derogatiue vnto it soberly to harken further of him that wrote it neither yet to doubt in such a point of an opinion but so farre receiued so long as wee see not the reasons cleared that are to the contrarie But it may be you wil thinke that these things are so small in themselues that the aduantage that therein you haue left vnto mee was not to be regarded nor so to be laide to your charge Whether it be litle or great it forceth not now but this may I plainely set downe vnto you that the lesser of them both is of that importance that therein as I said you haue giuen greater cause or iust reproofe than I did to you or any other not onely for setting downe the sentence it selfe in such sort as I did but also in all the rest that followeth When you were so readie to reproue another vpon your owne surmise without any sufficient ground for your perswasion therein you should haue taken such heed to your selfe as that wherein you condemned another your selfe were not found more faultie than he 4 Being come thus far your conclusion is And this for the first Page Yea verily your dealing about my first Page onely may bee sufficient to teach vs all how ready you are to pick som quarrel or other what indifferencie or plain dealing we may looke for at your hands in al the rest And I will assure the Reader togither with you that such as this your beginning is such none other is that which followeth in the one you haue giuen a tast of the other For such occasiō as I gaue you in the disposing of the title in prefixing the sentence aforesaid so to inueigh against me as you do such haue I giuē you in that which followeth as you deal in these things against me as if there were a fault cōmitted when as notwithstanding you haue found none do not nor can not lay any to my charge euē so do you in the rest likewise as I trust the indifferent Reader shall soon perceiue And so you haue done very well so distinctly to point your finger as you doe to this your woorthy handling of those matters that you met withall in the first page I am content if so you wil haue it that it shall stand for a right pattern of al the rest Be it now whatsoeuer it can be such as this is such is the other any man that will may in this beginning see the whole course that you do hold vntill the ending 5 Which that your self may better declare as you haue ended with this your first page so haue you a fresh begū with the next For there by placing the arms of the church of York the Archbishop that now is togither you readily infer a conclusion no doubt that followeth on the premisses passing wel that it is with vs Good doctrine
vs vnderstand whence or from whoÌ„ we haue those things deliuered vnto vs that wee are to beleeue and then make no meÌ„tion at all of the word of God neither of the prophets nor of the Apostles neither of the old Testament nor of the new nor so much as of Christ himselfe but only of the Catholike Church when faith and knowledge are with you masters of so light importance in respect of life and monkes when to this end you tell vs againe that Christ 〈◊〉 the Apostles spake much more of thinges to bee doone than of things to bee knowne of good liuing then of right vnderstanding that few are damned for lucke of knowledge which commonly all men baptised haue sufficient except in time of heresies but many thousands for ill life daily that the parts in man which appertaine to vnderstanding and knowledge were not so hurt by the fal of Adam as the parts appertaining to action to know much of those thinges that appertaine to Religion and the seruice of God for otherwise you wander from the matter you spake of before is a pleasure but to do much is a paine and that the Scriptures and the ancient holy fathers haue made great and long discourses ample volumes and many bookes about this second part of Christian Diuinitie which consisteth in action but if wee supply the other part of your meaning heere out of the former place wherunto your selfe do refer vs as haue written little to speake of in comparison of the other of that which belongeth to faith and knowledge when talking likewise of the reaping of glorie in the life to come you come in so odly with this correction if it bee our good hap to come to it when comming to the ioy that Angels haue in the conuersion of a sinner you put in a parenthesis of your owne that they will not cease to pray for vs while we are reading when as comming to the storm of Isaaks going foorth to meditate or pray what time as Rebecca was comming home vnto him you do not hold your selfe contented with so much as the Scripture setteth downe that at that time so he did but must needs stretch it further alledging that place to shew that he was went also to do it when you so specially tell vs of mortall sin as though that some other sinnes there were which in the iudgements of God deserued not the curse of the law when as you so often and so so plainely set downe that to this end we are sent into this world to serue God in this life and by that our seruice to gaine euerlasting glorie in the life to come and euer teach vs to gaine heauen by our works throughout your whole third chapter and yet but cogd in by your selfe as the place it selfe bewrayeth as before I noted when you restraine the time of our redemption vnto the time of Christs death and passion or rather as you mean vnto the time of his harrowing of hell as though that none by the vertue of his passion following were redeemed before when as you tell vs of the foolish Virgins that they were innocent from sin and yet shut out because they lacked but the oyle of good works when in good sadnes you will seem to make wearing of haire cloth lying on the ground beating of the bodie to be so necessarie and so forcible helpes against sinne cleane for getting in the meane season that faithfully to do the woorke of our vocation euerie one no more but as hee is called is of such power to bring downe the bodie against sinne as that we neede neither those nor anie such other friuolous meanes that are not commaunded in the woorde of GOD but may well passe them ouer eyther to bee talked of of such as you are that are farthest from them or to bee vsed of those that liue idlely and are not occupyed in their calling when as you do so boldly sort into the number of such almes-deedes as are by the worde of God approoued the setting vp of Chaunteries and of such Abbyes Nunries Priories Hermitages and such like as wee had of late amongst vs when besides you tell vs or at least insinuate and would faine haue vs beleeue that those our late cloisterers and chaunterie priests were so holie a people that they left the world and betooke themselues onely to the contemplation of heauenly thinges and in this case make no quaestion but that when those forefathers of ours plucked those thinges from their children and posteritie and bestowed them on because of their owne soules yet were they deedes of charitie notwithstanding when as thereupon you complaine that now adayes men doo not bestow their goodes to the ease of their soules in the life to come when as you teach vs to purchase the prayers of others that by their intercession wee may enioy life euerlasting when as in so fewe pages for you see that I haue not chosen them out but onely taken them as they lie togither you come in with so much such trumperie as this and somewhat more than I haue alledged and holde on that course throughout your whole booke euer lightly the farther the worse so oft as you can find any opportunity so to smite your â—â—â—er rules of godlines with that infectioÌ„ in you can you haue the face to beare vs in hande that these things can in no wise descend of theÌ„ whose fauour and speech wee knowe well inough and whome wee see so fully resembled in this pedlary ware that you haue brought vs But if you were indeed perswaded at least if you did certainly knowe as you would beare vs in hande that you did that there is no reason why it might bee probably thought that a good report of it might very well descend from those Schoolemen that before I spake of it what then is the cause that hauing so cleere aduantage therein here againe you flee so fast to those accustomed shiftes of yours How commeth it to passe that in no wise you wil vnderstand of whome I speake and whome mine owne wordes do plainely describe Or what need had you both to alter my very words to change the pointing of them to your aduantage As touching the former you know well inough that diuiding the ages that haue beene before from the Apostles time to this age of ours into a couple of principall parts the Diuines that wrote in the former ages are generally called the Doctors or Fathers and the others that wrote in the times that were since and yet before this age of ours are generally called Schoolemen like wife as those also that haue written since in this our age the late or newe writers But whereas although that name be generally giuen to al the writers of those latter ages as your selfe dooth know and can giue them none other liue that so you could haue had no cause to cauill yet
because that it is more properly giuen to certaine of them therefore did I in plaine words so distinguish first shewing which sort of them I meant whom you also do know may not denie to treat very often and much of such matters and those not a few of them neither and then sheading out the other sorte of them apart by themselues those that were occupied about the controuersies that were most in question among them which also you know was not ouer straight a limitation for that sorte considering the great controuersies that were in those ages with most of them How is it therefore that this beeing so wonted a thing as it is and the matter it selfe so plain and my wordes directly leading from those that you would haue mee to vnderstand and plainely pointing vnto others whome you set by both by the limitation of these words certaine of them and as they are tearmed which you strooke out and by further description also yet notwithstanding euen thereupon onely you doe so deepely charge me with ignorance not or any thing that my self had said but onely for that which it pleaseth your fatherhood to father vpon mee As touching the latter of altering my woordes and chaunging the pointing or distinguishing of them to make them square better to your purpose lay but my wordes againe before you and compare them with these of yours and soone shall you finde so much as I speake of For whereas I said that it seemed to be most of all gathered out of those that I noted and afterward againe me thought we had in the booke it selfe that which might lead vs to this coniecture you haue put in that I well perceiued c. wheras I did not affirme so much neither so absolutely of the whole although for the most of it very wel I might but limited the same by two seueral speeches first that it was most of all gathered c and then afterward againe especially for the inuention of it you perceiuing that these limitation made the matter to come somwhat short to giue so iust occasiō of quarrell as you would haue had strike them both forth make me to pronounce it absolutely of the whole making me to say that I well perceiued that this booke was gathered c So likewise for the pointing whereas my saying was that it seemed most of al to bee gathered out of certaine of the schoolmen as they are tearmed that liuing in the corrupter time of the church did most of al by that occasion treat of reformation of life c you part this sentence which I made entire one in it selfe into two members the one that it was gathered out of schoolemen the other that they liued in the corrupter time of the church Which although you doo but with a semi-colon which notwithstanding was too much by 2 degrees because there should haue bene there no distinction at all yet by better consideration of your maner of pointing in diuers places vnlesse the printer hath failed therein it seemeth that you meant to put the whole power of a colon or midle distinction then was your fault so much the greater For a rich man they say it is a shame to be a thief If therefore you had such aduantage against mee what need you then so cleane to leaue out that which made against you and to alter and force that which remained so much as you doo If you had not that aduauntage against mee by anie thing that my selfe had set downe till you should haue holpen it and framed it better to your purpose were you yet so desirous to reproch that rather you would breake through vnto it by so hard conditions than let it alone vntill you were iustly occasioned thereto If this be your maner howsoeuer we need to care but litle for your pen yet I see verie well we must needes looke to your fingers 8 In this place you doo not content your selfe thus to haue drawne your hand on mee alone but needes must you ride on others also And first you labour vppon your griefe conceyued against mee and supposing mee to bee my Lord Archbishops chaplaine to load manie of vs togither with the reproch of ignorance setting it downe in plaine speech that much learning is not required to the dignitie of beeing an Archbishops chaplaine Concerning which matter there is no great need to make you answer We are not now to vie our learning God make vs learned vnto saluation He hath learning inough that knoweth Christ and rightly doth vse the learning he hath If you haue gotten so much more than your fellowes that you can charge so manie with ignorance first wee would haue you to giue the glorie to God and then comming home to your selfe againe to take good heed that you carefully keepe within the boundes of sobrietie and modestie notwithstanding all that learning of yours This being done then doe we thinke that it were very meet that you brought it foorth to the helpe of vs and others that want that as heretofore we haue heard of this your learning of your owne mouth more than once or twise as we take it so at the length we might see it also and find wherin wee might iustly account our selues behind you Would you once do that you should not need so oft by wordes to put downe vs and aduance your selfe We would then giue you the place without any more busines you should enioy it without contradiction Thus much also wee would wish you to remember withall that Sathan the old enimie of mankind who first vsed the serpent for his wilines to deceiue the woman to this day also verie much delighteth to make his choise of such serpentine heads that so he may the beter beguile the people of God But I pray you Sir are you in good sadnes perswaded indeed that our Bishops chaplaines are so farre inferiour in learning vnto you and your fellowes Then I on the other side wold wish you not to rippe ouer far in that matter least you find it to fall out in the end that 〈◊〉 but Bishops chaplaines with vs are more learned than Bishops themselues with you But to goe no higher than to your selues what books or writings what disputations or other exercises of learning whatsoeuer in diuinitie in humanitie in the tongs or in historie or whatsoeuer els you can deuise are you able to shew wherin there was found anie want in vs or anie better store in you Or which of the Artes or what good learning is better aduaunced or plainlier taught by those that are of your profession than it is by those that are of ours On the other side you cannot denie but that both you lay wallowing in verie grosse ignorance till you were quickened vp by vs and that in many things we haue made you giue ground alreadie as also it is not vnlike but that if you would haue stood vnto it long ere this you