Sidon they had long since don pennance in sackcloth and ashes The works which I have don in my Fathers name beare witness of me And though you believe not me believe my works And again We know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no man could do these miracles thou dost except God were with him And the reason why miracles oblige vs in conscience to believe the doctrin by them confirmed is because they are a sufficient and moral evidence of Gods authority and as it were the great Seal wherwith he warrants his Ministers and the Church to preach and propose his doctrin and Commands Now if he could put this seal to any fals doctrin or therby authorize an erroneous Church men might prudently doubt whether he doth not do so now de facto and in every particular but with such a prudent doubt none is bound to obey any Church authority and by consequence there could be no obstinacy heresy or infidelity against Gods revelations and veracity how ever so authentickly and sufficiently proposed by miracles which are the signs and badges of divin authority and the most authentick marks of the true Church To that ordinary objection of Anti-Christs miracles which though fals and feigned yet will seem so true to many that most of the world will be seduced we answer 1. That there will be an apparent difference between Anti-christian and our Catholick miracles though for want of due reflexion prudence and piety men will not consider the difference nor compare his miracles with ours 2. Christs words and warning of Anti-Christs feigned miracles is a sufficient evidence of their falshood becaus we must not credit our selves or any outward appearances against the express words of Christ. This is the reason why in the Sacrament of the Altar we are not deceived by the Species or appearance of bread and wine Though there were no other argument that Anti-Christs miracles are fals but this that the miracles of the Church both in the old and new Testament are first and that we have a Caveat to beware of such miracles and miraculists as shall come afterwards to confirm contrary doctrin whosoever is moved by Anti-Christ or his fore-runners to forsake the ancient faith and signs of the Church for novelties how ever so plausibly or prodigiously confirmed deserve damnation For there are two qualities that oblige men in reason and conscience to preferr one thing before another how ever equall they both may seem to be in other respects 1. priority of time 2. present possession We see what priviledges and prerogatives are given by the law of nature and Nations to such as are antienter by birth or nobility then others and how possession is sayd to be eleven points of the law These qualities are most properly found in our Roman Catholick doctrin it is most antient and always hath had the precedency of all pretended Reformations both in time and in the possession of the hearts of the faithful The same we say of our Catholick miracles Therfore we ought to preferr them before any others that shall appear afterwards in opposition to them Besides those miracle so credibly reported that no man can deny them without being guilty of obstinacy and rashness and besides those others continualy visible as that of St. Januarius there is an other kind of true miracles seen but not observed by every Protestant vpon which if they did reflect as many of them as mean well would become Roman Catholicks The difference between true and fals miracles is that true miracles are works besides or against the order of nature and of secundary causes and therfore may be don only by the divin power as to receive the dead to cure diseases of the body and distempers of the mind without the application of any natural means or remedys And becaus the Devil hath less power over souls then over bodys the cure of a distemper of the mind wherof no natural cause appeareth is a greater and more authentick miracle then any cure of the body how ever so prodidious Fals miracles are only such as may be don by the application of natural causes and remedies as that of Vespasianus of whom Suetonius recounts that he restored sight to a blind man and the vse of his feet to a lame man But Cornelius Tacitus doth acknowledge lib. 4. Hist. that the Physitians being consulted did answer those diseases were not incurable and Tertullian in Apologetico cap. 22. saith that both the disease and the cure was a work of the Devil Anti-Christs miracles also will be such as as may be don by the cours and concurrence of natural causes That miracles don vpon mens minds are greater then any â—â—res or changes wrought vpon the body is granted by our Adversaries and St. Bernard recounts as one of the greatest miracles of St. Malacâ—ius that he converted an obstinat soul to recant his opinion against the real presence of Christs Body in the Sacrament And for the most remarkable miracle of St. Bernard himself it is recorded how with the blessed Sacrament in his hand he did so terrify William the prowd Duke of Aquitain that he fell prostrate at his feet and he whom the most powerfâ—ll Monarchs of Christendom could not rule submitted himself to the disposal of a poor Monk becaus he threatned him with that which in appearance seemed to be and Protestants hold to â—e no more in reality or in substance then a wafer cake These things supposed as vndeniable in Philosophy and Divinity it may be easily proved that every Protestant doth or at least may see true miracles in confirmation of our Roman Catholick â—aith For without question it is either a miracle of God or of the Devil that all the Roman Catholicks not only now but for so many ages past should contrary 〈◊〉 the evidence of sense and to our natural inclination of judging according to that evidence adore for our Savior JESUS Christ that which in appearance is but a wafer cake or a Cup of wine We are either abused and seduced by Sathan or inspired and enabled by the Holy Ghost to contradict our senses which contradiction being in a matter so long and so much controverted in publick schools and general Councells and a thing wherupon depends our Salvation we can not â—e presumed if we err that we err for want of examining and comparing the reasons of both sides Catholick and Protestant especialy if we consider the number learning and integrity of the Roman Catholick Examiners and the great difficulty which they as well as all other men find in believing or judging against the evidence of sense and in denying that to be bread or wine which doth smell look tast feel and feed like bread and wine Now if we prove that this marvellous and vnanimous contradiction of our senses can not be a miracle of the Devil protestants must grant it is a miracle of God and from thence may
since the Apostles then to take the bare word of Cranmer a man who married and vnmarried K. Henry 8. to as many women as his Majestie lik't or dislik't dissolving the holy Sacrament of Matrimony as often as the King seemed to be weary of a wife a man whose religion was nothing but his conveniency and incontinency and therfore did alter his faith as often as the tyms changed and factions prevailed and sided with every Rebel against his Prince and was so carnaly given that even in Henry 8. days when Priests were not permitted to have wives he kept a wench so constantly that he carried her about in his Visitations Let any Christian I say be judg whether this man together with Ochinus a Jew Bucer an Atheist Peter Martyr so indifferent for any doctrin that he framed his faith at Oxforâ— according to the news from London and the Parliament Diurnals Hooper Rogers and Latimer ambitious and discontented Presbiterians Bâ—le and Coverdale two lewd and runigad friars whether I say these men ought to be believed in this important point of salvation rather then the holy Fathers and Councels who as hath binâ— said hertofore cal the Mass the visible Sacrifice the true Sacrifice the dayly Sacrifice the Sacrifice according to the Order of Melchisadech the Sacrifice of the Body and Bloud of Christ the Sacrifice of the Altar the Sacrifice of the Church and the Sacrifice of the new Testament which succeeded all the Sacrifices of the old Testament Must the word of Cranmer and his fellows be a sufficient ground for prudent men to believe as an Article of Religion that the doctrin delivered as Catholick by the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church are but fables and themselves but a company of Cheats The 32. Article was made by Cranmer and his Camerades to excuse their lewdness legitimat their bastards and make their wenches wives The second Parliament of King Edward 6. had bin so importuned by Apostata Priests and Friars who had coupled themselves with women that their petition having bin rejected by the first Parliament Edward 6. at lengh against the inclination and judgment of both houses they obtained now by meer importunity an Act to take away all positive Laws of man made against the marriage of Priests statut an 2. Edward 6. cap. 21. But then they are told in the very Act that it were not only better for Priests to live chast sole and separat from the company of women c. but that it were most to be wished that they would willingly and of themselves endeavour to keep a perpetual chastity and abstinence from the vse of women And 1400. years before that Origen Hom. 23. lib. 8. contra Celsum declared the doctrin even of the Greeck Church in these words Jt is certain the dayly Sacrifice is hindred in them who serve the necessities of mariage therfore it seemeth to me that it appertaineth only to him to offer the dayly Sacrifice who hath vowed himselfe to dayly and perpetual chastity with whomâ—agree the other Fathers S. Jerom in Apologia ad Pamachium cap. 3. desires them who like not of this doctrin not to be angry with him for telling them of it but with the holy Scriptures vvith all Bishops Priests c. vvho know they cannot offer Sacrifice if they vse the Act of mariage and said to Vigilantius c. 1. who in this point also was a Protestant and seemed to confess his owne frailty What do the Churches of the East of Egipt and of the Apostolick Sea vvho receive none but unmarried or continent Priests or if they have vviues they must cease to be Husbands And against Iovinian cap 19. 14. ad Pamachium Apol. cap. 8. Truly thou dost acknowledg that he cannot be a Bishop vvho in that state getts children if he be convicted therof he vvil not be taken for a Husband but condemned as an Adulterer But it seems out Protestant Bishops know the Scripture and the doctrin and disciplin of the primitive Church better then S. Hierom Origen and all the ancient Fathers and Councels both of the East and West Since the King 's most happy restauration they were not content to enjoy their wives and see the legitimacy of their children approved of but in the first Parliament wherin they were permitted to vote as I have bin credibly informed they atâ—empted the house of Lords should declare their spiritual peerage did communicat the same honours and privileges to their Ladys that the law doth give to Baron's wives but seing the house smile at the motion and one of the first Peers begin to rally according to his witty way vpon a subject so proper for his genius one of the Bishops not so much concerned in the suit because he was not married in the name of all the rest waved the pretention by saying there had bin a mistake in the motion Jn the two following articles they would fain prevent diversity of opinions and schisms among the Protestants of the Church of England and gain authority for the Prelats therof and reverence for their ceremonies and censures But this design is frustrated by maintaining the lawfulness of their own revolt and separation from the Church of Rome as also the Roman Catholick fallibility and fal from the true Apostolick Religion without any farther proofe or evidence of so great a fault or frailty then the fancy and privat interpretation of Scripture of some discontented and dissolute persons pretending divine inspirations and illuminations for the same and for their warant to depose their spiritual Superiours and to reform the doctrin of the whole visible Church which reformation they also introduced in so tumultuous and seditious a manner that none who considers the principles practises and circumstances of the chang can prudently commit his soule to the reformers charg or condescend to any spiritual jurisdiction and authority in their Successours For besids that they have nothing to shew for their presumption and intrusion but obscure texts of Scripture interpreted by them selves in a sense contrary to that of the whole visible ancient Church that hath bin confirmed by continual and vndeniable Miracles they can give no assurance or probability of them selves being or continuing in the right way of saluation because if all the Roman Catholick Churches did err in doctrin how can their reformations pretend not to be subject to the same mis-fortun or mistake And if the supposed frailty and fallibility of the Church of Rome be a sufficient cause to question and condemn it's authority how can the Church of England or any other Protestant congregation exact from their Sectaries greater respect and obedience then the first reformers gave to their Roman Superiours Presbiterians Independents Quakers Anabaptists c. pretend to as pure doctrin as Divine a Spirit and as much Scripture against Prelaticks as Prelaticks do against Papists and thinck there is as much reason for them to be Iudges of the truth of
evidently followeth that if it be lawful to deal thus with spiritual Superiours it must be as lawful a fortiori to deal after the same manner and vpon the same grounds of every privat man's interpretation of Scripture with temporal Superiours To imagin therfore that by a particular article of Religion or by an Act of Parliament against Presbiterians Quakers Anabaptists c. in favour of the subject's property to temporal goods or of the King's prerogatives and soveraignty such mens minds or mouths wil be stopt from raising tumults and runing into a rebellion so cleerly waranted by the fundamental principle of the Protestant Reformation is but a fancy not to be rely'd vpon by any discreet person Dudly Earl of Waâ—vvick and afterwards Duke of Northumberland observing that by this foundation of Protestancy the very ground of Alegiance and Obedience not only to the spiritual but also to the civil Magistrat is vndermin'd resolved to make his son King of England and in order therunto marryed him to the Lady Jane Grey a Protestant of the bloud royal not doubting but that they who had renounc'd all subordination unto their spiritual Superiours vnder the pretext of a reformation would vpon the same score preferr the lady Jane to the Crown before the Princess Mary a Constant Catholick Therfore after that he had beheaded the Protector and poyson'd the King he crown'd his son's wife with the concurrence and applause of the Prelatick Clergy Cranmer Ridly c. and with the consent of the Protestant Nobility and Citty of London But Protestancy not being at that tyme so deeply rooted nor so largly spread in the nation the Catholick Gentry and Commons togeather with Q. Maries great courage and resolution quash't this Polititian's design and brought him to due punishment Vpon the scaffold he declared that he never had bin a Protestant in his judgment and only made use of it's profession and principles for temporal ends as to raise his family c. he advertiss't the people of the new Religion's inconsistency with peace and quiet that it's Clergy were but Trumpets of sedition The substance of his speech is set down by D. r Heylin in these words He admonish'd the spectatours to stand to the Religion of their Ancestors rejecting that of later date which had occasion'd all the misery of the foregoing thurty years and that for prevention for the future if they desir'd to present their souls vnspotted in the sight of God and were truly affected to their Country they should expel those tempests of sedition the Preachers of the reform'd Religion that for himself what soever had otherwise bin pretended he profess'd no other Religion then that of his Fathers for testimony wherof he appeal'd to his good freind and ghostly Father the Lord Bishop of Worcester and finaly that being blinded with ambition he had bin contented to make rack of his conscience by temporising for which he profess'd himself sincerly repentant and so acknowledg'd the justice of his death A Declaration saith D. r Heylin very vnseasonable whether true or false as that which rendred him less pittied by the one side and more scorn'd by the other This is a more Politick then pious observation of D. r Heylin would he not have men confess their faults and profess their â—aith when they are dying and would he have them preferr the vanity of the pitty or scorn of the world when they are to bid the whole world adieu before the satisfaction and salvation of the soule I feare too many of D. r Heylins principles not only deferr until the last houre the profession of the truth but even then dissemble thinking a Declaration and recantation of their errors at that tymâ— either vnseasonable or vnpardonable and preferr the vanity of the world's opinion before the necessity of a conversion vnto the true faith Q. Marys daunger ended not with Dudlys death it lasted as long as ther was any man to head the Protestant party and to put the people in mind of it's principles First the Duke of Suffolck and others plotted the setting up once more of the Lady Jane Grey and began the execution therof by their Proclamations against Q. Marys intended mariage with Philip of Spain this occasioned the Lady Jan's death Other zealots of the Protestant Religion concluded a mariage between the Lord Courtny and the Lady Elizabeth their plot was discover'd as also Wyats Rebellion suppress'd all these things were don by the advice and assistance of the Protestant Clergy that remained in England and were commended by such of them as liv'd abroad D. r John Poinet the last Bishop of Winchester was not only of Wyat's Councel but continued in his camp vntil he perceiv'd the design would not take then he departed telling the Rebels he would pray for their good success Goodman and Knox rayled in their Books against the Queen and Calvin in his Coment vpon Amos termeth her Proserpine Goodman hath this expression Wyat did but his duty and it was but the duty of all others that profess the Ghospel to have risen with him for the maintenance of the same His cause was just and they were all Traytors that took not part with him O Noble Wyat thou art now with God and those worthy men that dyed in that happy enterprise This was the primitive spirit these the first effects of our English Protestancy Not only the Queen out of a zeal to the Roman Catholick Religion but the Privy Councel and Parliament moved with a desire of peace seing it was moraly impossible to govern people protestantly principl'd resolved to restore the ancient doctrin wherwith their Ancestours had so long prosper'd and to suppress the Protestant novelties by the rigour of the laws formerly made against heresies which had bin repeal'd at the instance of the reform'd Preachers and Prelats in K. Edward 6. raign And therfore as D. r Bancroft Arch-Bishop of Canterbury confesseth in his book of dangerous positions pag. 63. though Q. Mary was a Princess of nature and disposition very mild and inclined to pittie yet she and her government is taxed with too much severity by them that consider not the nature and consequences of Protestancy If Tinkers Taylors Tapsters Tanners and Spinsters would needs run into the fier for defending the fond inventions of Cranmer and of other known Temporisers who could help it neither patience nor pains was wanting in the Catholick Clergy to reduce them to the truth but their obstinacy and the vanity of dying Martyrs forsooth made them preferr their own privat sence of Scripture before that of the whole visible Church So charitable were the Catholicks that they delay'd the penalties of such as they could not convert and connived at them who endeavored to escape by absenting or concealing themselves And as for Cranmer Ridly Latimer and the other Ringleaders of Protestancy they had liberty given them to maintain their cause in publick disputations with the tyme books and notaries
then by the Churches which they planted Protestants contemn all these rules and because there was never any Church in the world which professed the same faith that any of their Reformers preach't or them-selves now profess they are necessitated to except against all Testimonies of ancient Fathers and Councels and against the continual and common consent of all Christian Churches concerning the proper sense of Scripture delivered to the primitive Christians and will be judg'd therin by none but by them-selves and by their own fancy of Scripture They all follow this rule of Luther the first Reformer which he layd as the foundation of all Protestant Reformations The Governours of Churches and Pastors of Christ's sheep have indeed power to teach but the sheep must judg whether they propose the voice of Christ or of strangers c. Whefore let Popes Bishops Councels c. decree order enact what they please we shall not hinder but we who are Christ's sheep and heare his voice will judg whether they propose things true and agreable to the voice of our Pastor and they must yeeld to us and subscribe and obey to our sentence and censure Luther tom 2. Wittemb cap. de Sacra Script fol. 375. And because B. p Jewel in his challenge thinking that none durst answer or accept it appeal'd to the holy Fathers of the first ages and was thervpon immediatly convicted of hypocrisy and impostures he was grievously reprehended by his own Prelatick brethren as injurious to him-self and as one who had given the Papists too large a scope and after a manner spoyl'd him-self and the Church see Doctor Humfrey in Iewel 's life edit Londin pag. 212. and the same also in Fulk's retentive against Bristow pag. 55. Ever since that foile the Prelatiks have bin more wary and one of their greatest Champions Bilson Bishop of Winchester in his true difference between Christian subjection c. part 2. pag. 353. saith in plain termes The people must be discerners and Judges of that which is taught How contrary to Luther's Reformation was the doctrin of the primitive Church and Fathers we may judg by these words of Gregory Nazianzen in the oration wherin he excuseth him-self for having bin long absent from his flock and not exercised his function Vos Oves nolite pascere Pastores neque super terminos eorum elevamini satis enim est vobis si recte pascimini nolite judicare iudices nec legem feratis legis-latoribus c. Now let any man who hath common sense be Judg whether it be in the least degree probable that not only the illiterat Protestants but even their greatest Doctors and their first Apostles Luther Calvin Cranmer c. should know better the true sense of Scripture that was delivered to the first age then they to whom those of that age told what they were taught by Christ and his Apostles or then the second which told the third what they were taught by the first and so from generation vntill Luther and Calvins tyme. That every age gave this favorable testimony to the subsequent of the sense of Scripture which it delivered can not be denyed otherwise none would have received their sense of Scripture or their doctrin as Divine whether they were sincere in delivering their testimony is the question And because none questions it but Luther Calvin c. and their followers vntill we see be ter evidence and a more cleere cause of their reformed principle and knowledg of the visible Churches apostasy then their privat spirit or Luther and Calvins new and extravagant interpretations of Scripture we dare not condemn the whole ancient visible and Catholick Church nor concurr with it's declared enemies in so rash a judgment as to affirm that the Church betrayed it's trust and posterity which rash judgment is the ground of the Protestant Reformations S. Athanasius in lib. de Decretis Nicen. Synod contra Euseb. Ecce nos quidem ex Patribus ad Patres per manus traditam fuisse hanc sententiam demonstravimus vos autem O novi Judaei Caiphae filii quos tandem nominum vestrorum potestis ostendere progenitores S. Gregor Nazian ep 2. ab Chelid Absconditam post Christum sapientiam nobis annunciant rem lacrymis dignam si enim triginta his annis fides originem habuit cum quadringenti now 1600. fere anni ab eo tempore fluxerint quo Christus palam conspectus est inane tanto tempore fuit Evangelium inanis etiam fides nostra Martyres quidem frustra martyrium subierunt frustra etiam tales tantique Antistites populo praefuerunt St. August de vtilit credendi cap. 14. saith to the Manichees what we may to the Protestant Reformers Vos autem tam pauci estis tam turbulenti tam novi nemini dubium est quoniam nihil dignum autoritate proferetis Seing therfore the Roman Catholick sense of Scripture hath for the space of 1600. years bin delivered by the visible Christian Church from age to age as the true meaning of God's word and that the Protestant sense of Scripture was never accepted of by any but condemned Hereticks and even in this last age was delivered but by a few turbulent and disagreeing persons and obnoxious â—o many exceptions much diminishing the credibility of their testimony it is at least 16. to one not only in the number but also in the quality of the witnesses that the Roman Catholick sense of Scripture is true and the Protestant false and by consequence the Protestants have no Scripture to maintain the doctrin wherin they differ from Roman Catholicks SECT VI. Protestants mistaken in the Ministery and Mission of their Clergy in the Miracles of their Church in the holiness and honesty of their Reformers ALbeit God was able to call justify and confirm the elect without any mediat means yet as Protestants confess he was pleased not to accomplish the same otherwise then in and by the ministery of his Church Therfore S. Paul tells vs Ephes. 4.11.12.13 that Christ hath placed in his Church Pastors and Doctors to continue to the consummation of Saints till we all meet in the vnity of faith The chief of these Pastors and Doctors are the Bishops vnto whom as the same Apostle testifieth it belongeth to govern God's Church Act. c. 2â— These Bishops must succeed not only in Doctrin but in caracter to the Apostles which caracter is the ordinary ministery or vocation discern'd and received by imposition of Episcopal hands 1. Tim. 4. But because Luther was only a single Priest and Calvin as most say not so much as a Priest and that both despaired of Episcopal and Priestly succession they resolv'd to remedy that want by saying that the caracter of Priests and Bishops was not distinct from that of Baptism and wheras Luther's ordination or ordinary vocation in the Roman Catholick Church was to preach the doctrin which he had receiv'd from that Church and not his new
whom many Mysteries were revealed by God told that in time of Sacrifice he once beheld a multitude of Angels with shining garments compassing the Altar with bowed heads as soldiers do in presence of their King Which attendance of Angells saith he in the next words before was performed by Angels at that wonderful table and compassed it about with reverence in honor of him that lyeth theron St. Nilus relateth how St. Chrysostom almost every day had visions of Angels assisting and adoring the Blessed Sacrament vntill the Sacrifice was finished St. Gregory Nazianzen recounts how his sister Gorgonia was cured of a diseas after shee was past all hopes of recovery by prostrating her self before the Altar and calling vpon him who was honored and worshipped therupon O admirable thing saith he she presently felt herself delivered from her sicknes and so she returned eased both in body and mind c. St. Cyprian reporteth of a certain woman who saith he when she would with vnworthy hands have opened her coffer wherin was retained according to the ancient custom the Blessed Sacrament vnder the Species of bread the holy thing of our Lord fyer did spring vp wherby she was so terrified that she durst not touch it In the Ecclesiasticall History is recorded this example which Evagrius writ as a thing notorious and don in his own time In the time of the Patriarch Menas saith he◠there happned a miracle worthy to be remembred It was an ancient custom in Constantinople when many parcels of the pure and vnspotted body of Christ our God were remaining after Communion litle Children were called out of the Schools and were permitted to eat them It happened that a litle boy whose father was a Jew by profession and a maker of glass by his trade being among the rest did eat also his share of the aforesaid reversion of the Blessed Sacrament but coming somewhat late home and his parents demanding the cause the child told innocently what he had don which the Jew his Father vnderstanding he was so enraged that vnawares to his wife he cast his litle son into the burning oven wherin he vsed to melt and frame his glass The mother missing the Child sought for him for three days together but hearing no news of him abroad she returned home with an heavy heart and sitting down at the work-house door she began to bewail the los of her son calling him by his name the boy hearing and knowing his mothers call did answer within the oven wherat the woman starting burst the work-house door and rushing in espied her Child standing amidst the Coals without receiving any harm After coming out being demanded how he escaped burning so long a woman said he came oftentimes vnto me and brought me water to quench the force of the fyer wherwith I was invironed and withall gave me meat as often as I was hungry This accident being told vnto the Emperor Justinian he caused the mother and boy to be baptized which becaus the obstinat father refused to yeild vnto by the Emperors commandment he was hanged vpon a Gibet This and the former example of St. Cyprian shew that God is not displeased with receiving the Communion vnder one Kind and that it was a thing indifferent in the primitive Church To Confirm the Catholick belief of Transubstantiation and the real presence of Christs body and blood in the Blessed Sacrament there are very many miracles recounted in the Ecclesiastical History as that of St. Gregory the great who perceiving that a Roman Matron laught at the time she was to receive the Communion and demanding the cause of her laughter at so vnseasonable a time she answered she could not but laugh to hear him call the bread which her self had made the Body of Christ. She vsed to present the Saint every week with Mass breads St. Gregory vpon this turned himself to the Altar and laying the Blessed Sacrament therupon wished all the people to pray with him that God would be pleased for the confirmation of the Catholick faith to shew vnto the corporal eyes of all that were there present that what the woman took for bread was no bread but flesh And accordingly the consecrated Host appeared visibly to be pure flesh Then beseeching God to restore the Sacrament to the former shew of bread it forthwith appeared as it was at first and the woman acknowledging her error received it with humble and servent devotion Primat Vsher is the only writer I ever read who questioned the truth of this story but quotes not any one Author besides himself that ever doubted therof and to make it seem the more improbable falsifies the Text of Ioannes Diaconus pretending he says that the Roman Matron found the Sacramental bread turned into the fashion of a fingar all bloody wheras Joannes Diaconus only saith it was turned into flesh The same vnsincere dealing he vseth in discrediting the relation of Paschasius Radbertus and divers others concerning a miracle to confirm the same mystery assuring the ignorant Readers that Paschasius takes it out of Gesta Anglorum wheras it is well known and Mr. Vsher confesseth els where that Malmsbury who writ Gesta Anglorum liued almost 300. years after Paschasius To discredit the doctrin of Transubstantiation as well as the authority of that holy and most learned man Lanfrancus Arch-bishop of Canterbury who lived in Berengarius his time and confuted his heresy with convincing arguments from Scripture Fathers and vndeniable Miracles Primat Vsher says Lanfranc was the first that leavened the Church of England with this corrupt doctrin of the carnal presence But his own Protestant Brethren tell him he is mistaken and that Transubstantiation is as ancient in the English Church as Cristianity it being taught by St. Austin the Monk and Apostle of England Let us hear Lanfranc speak for himself against Vsher as well as against Berengarius None saith he though but meanly versed in Ecclesiastical History or the holy Fathers is ignorant how God hath confirmed the Catholick doctrin against Berengarius with many miracles Which writings of Ecclesiasticall History and Fathers saith Lanfranc though they arrive not to that most excellent height of authority that we give to Scripture yet are they sufficient to prove that this faith which we 〈◊〉 profess hath bin the same with that which all faithfull who went before us held from ancient times When this heresy of Berengarius was again revived by Wicleff and the Lollards in England our learned Countrey man Thomas Waldensis who lived in those times tells us how God confirmed the doctrin of the real presence and Transubstantiation in that Kingdom with manifest miracles and of some he was an eye witness Let us relate saith he to the glory of God what happened in our own time and knowledge In Norfolk there dyed lately a devout and godly mayd called of the vulgar sort Ioan Meateless because she was known never