all the doings and meanings of both Parties in those days 37. In the mean time saith he the Duke of Lancaster ceased not with his Fellows to imagine how he might bring to pass that which he had long contrived in his mind to wit for encroaching upon Church Livings and revenging himself against some Bishops and the City of London that stood with them for he saw that it would be hard for him to obtain his purpose the Church standing in her full State and very dangerous to attempt publickly the Laws and Customs of London being in force wherefore he laboured first to overthrow as well the Liberties of the Church as of the City for which Cause he called unto him a certain Divine who many years before in all his Acts in the Schools had inveighed against the Church for that he had been deprived by the Archbishop of Canterbury from a certain Benefice that he unjustly as was said was Incumbent upon within the City of Oxford his Name was John Wickliff who with his Disciples were of the common people called Lollards they went barefooted and basely Clothed to wit in course Russet Garments down to the Heels they preached especially against Monks and other Religious men that had Possessions c. 38. They affirmed that Temporal Lords if they had need might lawfully take the Goods of such Religious Persons to relieve their necessities c. And when he had taught these and many other such Doctrins not only in the Schools in Oxford but also had preached them publicly in London that he might thereby get the favor of the said Duke and others whom he sound prone to hear his Opinions The Duke and Sir Henry Piercy commended highly his said Opinions and endeavored to extol his Learning and honesty of Life above all other Who therefore being thus set forth with their favor feared not to spread his Doctrin much more than before going from Church to Church and Preaching his Opinions whereupon at length the Bishops awakened their Archbishop who sent for this John to come and answer to those things which were spoken of him And the Duke hearing thereof sent for four Doctors of Divinity of every Order of Begging Friars one for unto them Wickliff adjoined himself approving their poverty and extolling their perfection against other Religious Orders that had Possessions whom the Duke advertised that with a natural and old hate he pursued the Religious Persons that had Possessions neither was it difficult to compel the willing Friars to aid him in this Point 39. Hitherto are the words of John Stow. Whereby you may perceive the true Causes of this new Gospel of John Wickliff so highly commended by John Fox who affirmeth his Doctrin to have proceeded from the strong operation of Christs Spirit c. First you see that John Wickliff had for his motion the desire of revenge against the Bishops and Clergy for that he was deprived of a Benefice in Oxford which he had possessed unjustly Secondly was he moved with envy against Monks together with ambition of gaining the Duke of Lancaster and his followers by teaching them that it was lawful to invade Church Livings at their pleasure Thirdly the very same motives of Ambition covetousness and emulation against the Bishops stirred up the Duke and his Adherents and Fourthly both parts as well the Heretics as their favorers were content to use and abuse the infirmity of some emulation between Friars and Monks about matters of Perfection Poverty and Possessions Which pious motives we do read commonly to have been the Causes of all other ancient Heresies from time to time As coming from one and the self same Spirit of him that is the proper Author of all Sedition Schism and Heresie and professed enemy to the Union of Gods only Spouse and Cath. Church Lucifer himself 40. Futhermore Walsingham doth shew how that by this favor and bearing out of the Duke of Lancaster and his Partners both the University of Oxford where Wickliff began was brought to be cold in resisting him and the Prince himself in punishing him And this appeared by two Apostolical Breves written by Pope Gregory XI in the year of Christ 1378. Registred by Walsingham The one to the Vniversity of Oxford reprehending them for their coldness and slackness in resisting the said Heresies And the other to the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of London to deal with the King and Queen and other Nobility to put them in mind as well of their Duty as also of their Negligence hitherto used in this behalf But what followed of this I mean of this negligence in resisting this Sect of Wickliff at the beginning Truly there followed or rather flowed such Seas of Calamities as were never seen in our Country before nor scarce heard of in others 41. For whereas King Edward III had been a most glorious King his end was pitiful his Heir K. Richard after infinite Sedition contention and bloodshed of the Nobility and others was deposed and made away The bloody division of the House of Lancaster and York came in and endured for almost 100 years with the ruin not only of the Royal Line of Lancaster by whom specially Wickliff was favoured at the beginning as you have heard but with the overthrow also of many other noble Princes and Families and most pernicious Wars and Garboils continued both at home and abroad with the losses of all our goodly States Provinces and Countries in France Unto all which the division of hearts minds and judgments brought in by Wickliffs Doctrin did help not a little and the Calamities so continued until the time of the most wise Christian and Catholic King Henry VII Who as he extinguished the Relics of this Wickliffian Seed as may appear by John Fox who setteth out in Print and painting twelve several Pageants of the Popes highest Greatness Honor and Supreme Power in the end of King Henry VII.'s Life so did he happily also extinguish all Temporal Division about the Succession of our Imperial Crown And had not our sins deserved that his Son had opened the gap tho' not perhaps meaning it to other Sects and Divisions of Lutherans and Zwinglians no less malitious and penicious than the former England had been a happy State at this day 42. Well then of these men whom not only the whole universal Church did condemn as Heretics for their wicked Opinions but English Parliaments also that had best cause to know their Lives did Sentence by their public Acts for Hypocrits Seditious and pernicious people in Manners as Fox himself among others confesseth of these I say he maketh up his Church until he come down to Lutherans Zwinglians and other such fresher Sectaries under King Henry VIII and his Children Which Sectaries Fox will needs couple together in one Catalogue and Calendar of Saints appointing Wickliff his Feast upon the second of January with the title of Preacher and Martyr
perturbation of Wars as hath been said were not so well known nor distinctly observed nor deliver'd to Writing in those days as otherwise they might have been yet find I some mention tho' dispersed of three several Apostles of Christ to have Preached there to wit St. Peter St. Paul and St. Simon of Chananee sirnamed the Zealous two Apostolical Men also in these first troubled Times to have been sent thither Aristobulus a Roman whom St. Paul named in his Epistle to the Romans and Joseph of Arimathea a Nobleman of Jury that buried Christ Of all which Five we shall speak somewhat in order 20. And first of St. Peter himself to have been in England or Britanny and Preached Founded Churches and Ordained Priests and Dencons therein is recorded out of Greek Antiquities by Simeon Metaphrastes a Grecian And it seemeth to be somewhat confirmed by that which Innocentius I. Bishop of Rome hath left written above 1200 years agone saying That the first Churches of Italy France Spain Africa Sicilia and the Islands that lie betwixt them were founded by St. Peter or his Scholars or Successors For which cause Gulielmus Eysengrenius in his first Centuria or hundred years doth write also That the first Christian Churches of England were sounded by St. Peter under Nero. Whereunto it may be thought that the foresaid Gildas had relation when expostulating with the Britain Priests of his time for their Wickedness for which the Wrath of God had brought in the English Saxons upon them he objecteth among other things Quod sedem Petri Apostoli inverecundis pedibus usurpassent That they had usurped the Seat St. Peter with unshamefac'd feet meaning thereby either the whole Church of Britanny first founded by him or some particular place of Devotion or Church which he had erected And finally Alredus Rienuallus an English Abbot of the Order of Cisterce left written about 500 years agone a certain Revelation or Apparition of St. Peter to an holy man in the time of King Edward the Confessor shewing him how he had Preached himself in England and consequently the particular care he had of that Church and Nation c. 21. If any man ask What time it might be that St. Peter left Rome and went into Britanny and other Countries round about Cardinal Baronius a famous Learned Historiographer of our time thinketh that it was then when Claudius the Emperor banish'd all the Jews out of Rome as in the Acts of the Apostles it is recorded among whom it is like that St. Peter also being by Nation a Jew retired himself and took that occasion to go into divers Pagan Countries to preach the Faith of Christ that thing belonging especially to his Charge as Head of the Apostles according to his own words of himself Elegit Deus per os meum audire gentes verbum Evangelii credere God hath chosen and appointed that Gentiles shall hear and believe the Word of the Gospel by my mouth This then was the cause why he was so diligent and careful to go and preach every-where Christian Religion to the end he might fulfil and accomplish this Will and Ordination of his Master And this was one cause also to wit his absence from Rome why according to Baronius and other Learned Men St. Paul writing to the Romans did not name or salute him in his Epistle whereof our Heretics do brabble much And thus much of St. Peter 22. Of St. Paul's being in Britanny there are not so many particular Testimonies yet the foresaid Theodoretus doth affirm That from Rome he made certain Exoursions in Hispanias in Insulas quae in Mari jacent into Spain and the Islands lying in the Sea near about And in another place as the Magdeburgians do cite him he writeth expresly That St. Paul Preached to the Britains And the like hath Sophronius Bishop of Jerusalem in his Sermon of the Nativity of the Apostles Venantius also Fortunatus a most Learned and Holy. Man writing above a thousand years agone of St. Paul's Peregrination saith thus Transit Oceanum vel qua facit Insula portum Quasque Britannus habet terras atque ultima Thyle He pass'd over the Ocean-Sea to the Island that maketh a Haven on the other side even to the Lands which the Britains do possess c. For which respect Arnoldus Mirmannus in his Theatre of the Conversion of all Nations affirmeth St. Paul to have pass'd to Britanny in the fourth year of Nero Anno Domini 59 and there to have Preached and afterward to have returned again into Italy And so much of St. Paul who having twelve or thirteen years permitted him by Christ after his coming to Rome before his death for helping St. Peter and for assisting the West-parts of the World and St. Peter himself almost twice as much it is not unlike their Zeal being considered and the state of times weighed but that they made many Excursions as the former Authors do write And thus much of them 23. For the Preaching of the third Apostle Symon Chananaeus sirnamed the Zealous we have the Testimony of Nicephorus out of Greek Monuments to whom agreeth Dorotheus a very ancient Writer as also the Greek Martyrology as testifieth Baronius in his Annotations upon the Roman Martyrology And by this also we see that albeit St. Peter had undertaken to preach to the West-part of the World yet did other Apostles also help him therein as St. Paul in Italy and Spain and this Symon in Britanny and other places and St. Philip in France c. 24. Of Aristobulus also St. Peter's Scholar do testifie in like manner the foresaid Authors Mirmannus Dorotheus Baronius out of the Greek Martyrology that he was sent by St. Peter into Britanny and there made a Bishop And that Aristobulus was a principal known Christian in Rome before St. Paul's arrival there it appeareth by the Epistle of the said Apostle to the Romans where he saluteth him in these words Salute those that be of the house of Aristobulus Nor is it read that ever this Aristobulus came back from Britanny to Italy again And this of him 25. Of Joseph of Arimathea his coming into France and his sending thence into Great Britanny either by St. Philip as some say who preached then in Gaul or as Others hold by St. Peter himself as he passed that way to and from Britanny and how he obtained a place to exercise an Eremitical Life for him and his ten Companions in the Island called Avallonia where Glastonbury after was builded albeit I find no very certain or ancient Writer to affirm it yet because our later Historiographers for two hundred years past or more do hold it have come down by Tradition and namely Johannes Capgravius a Learned Man of the Order of St. Dominick and others after him I do not mean to dispute the matter here but rather to admire and praise the Heavenly Providence and
Cùm jam varia grassentur quasi factiones opinionum c. Whereas every where now-adays divers factions of Opinions grow up among them that profess the Gospel there are some among others who by certain Philosophical Reasons go about to evacuate or make void the Testament of our Lord so as they would remove the Presence of the true Body and Blood of Christ from the Communion and would by a certain strange perplexity of words deceive the people against the most clear the most evident the most true and the most potent words of our Savior himself Wherefore your Majesty must principally look to this point and provide that the Articles of our Faith be kept without such Pharisaical Leaven and that the Sacraments instituted by Christ be restored without all corruption and adulteration Thus far the Magdeburgians to her Majesty by which you may perceive why I call them Fox his Masters in lying but not his Mates in believing 7. To come therefore now to our purpose I might as before hath been said if it were not over long use two ways for this positive Proof That these Articles deny'd by Fox and his Scholar were heard of and acknowledged in Eleutherius's time The first by citing the places themselves out of the principal Doctors that then lived but this as I have said would be over-long Yet one place I cannot omit of Irenaeus in the very Age we speak of and written while Eleutherius yet lived The words are these Maximae antiquissimae Ecclesiae c. We shewing the Tradition of the greatest and most ancient Church of Rome known to all the World as founded by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul which Tradition and Faith she receiving from the Apostles hath preached and delivered unto us by Succession of her Bishops from time to time unto our days do confound thereby all those Heretics which by any ways either through delight in themselves or vain-glory or blindness of understanding do gather otherwise than they should For that unto this Church in respect of her more Mighty Principality it is necessary that all Churches must agree and have access that is to say all faithful people wheresoever they live In which Church the Tradition that hath descended from the Apostles hath ever been kept by those that live in any place of the World. 8. And again a little after having for proof of his Faith and confirmation of Apostolical Tradition recounted all the Bishops of Rome from St. Peter to his days he saith Nunc duodecimo loco c. Now in the twelfth place from the Apostles hath Eleutherius that Bishopric and by this Succession of the foresaid Roman Bishops is the Tradition of the Apostles conserved in the Church and the Preaching of the Truth hath come down unto us and this is a most full Demonstration that one and the same lively Faith hath been conserved in the Church from the Apostles time and delivered unto us in Truth c. 9. Lo here Tradition of the Apostles delivered and conserved by the Succession of the Bishops of Rome Lo here the Church of Rome called so long ago the Greatest and most Ancient of all other Churches her Principality both named and confirmed Behold the Obligation of all other Churches of the World yea and of all faithful Christians to agree and have access to Her See here all vainglorious and self-will'd Heretics confounded by Irenaeus with the only Tradition and Succession of this Church of Rome and her Bishops even from St. Peter's time to Eleutherius that lived with Irenaeus What Catholic man could say more at this day And will any jangling Fox or Sir Francis avouch yet without shame that none of these points were ever known or heard of in Eleutherius's time 10. Well then this is one way to confound them if I would follow it But being over tedious I mean to take another and shew out of their own Historiographers the Magdeburgenses that all these Doctrins deny'd by Fox and his Follower here were known and in ure among the chiefest Writers in the primitive Church and first Ages after Christ And first of all to begin with this very matter first named by them Of the Primacy of the Pope and Church of Rome The Magdeburgians have an especial Paragraph thereof De primatu Ecclesiae Romanae under the foresaid Title of the incommodious Opinions Stubble Straw and Errors of the Doctors that lived within the first 200 years after Christ And in that Paragraph they not only do alledge for Stubble this last Authority of Irenaeus by me cited tho' they alledge it so miserably maimed as of six parts they leave out more than five but also another place of St. Ignatius that lived in the first Age with the Apostles themselves to the same purpose which they cite in like manner under the same Title of Straw and Stubble and incommodious Opinions And then passing to the third Century or second Age after that of Christ they cite Tertullian for the same incommodious Opinion about the Primacy of the Roman Church and Bishop saying of him Non sine errore sentire videtur Tertullianus claves soli Petro commissas Ecclesiam super ipsum structam c. Tertullian doth seem not without Error to think that the Keys of the Church were given only to St. Peter and that the Church was built but on him 11. They cite also four or five places out of St. Cyprian where he holdeth the same with Tertullian and so they are both confuted for Stubble-Doctors together Yet go they further with St. Cyprian citing divers other places out of him to the same effect for the Bishop and Church of Rome all which they take for Stubble as where he saith One God one Christ one Church one Chair builded upon the Ark by the Word of our Savior and three or four like places more which for brevity I omit and finally they say of him and three other Fathers of his time Cyprianus Maximus Vrbanus and Salonius do think that one Chief Bishop must be in the Catholic Church c. Lo four old Fathers that lived almost 1400 years agone and were the Lights of that Primitive Church rejected here by four drinking Germans gathered together in some warm Stow of Magdeburg tippling strongly as a man may presume and judging all the World for Stubble besides themselves for which cause the third person in this Quaternity is called perhaps Mattheus Judex But let us go forward 12. They are not content with this rejection of St. Cyprian but they fall upon him again in these words Cyprian affirmeth expresly without all foundation of holy Scripture that the Roman Church must be acknowledged by all Christians for the Mother and Root of the Catholic Church And further yet in another Treatise That this Church is the Chair of Peter from which all the Vnity of Priesthood proceedeth And finally Cyprian say they hath
the first an earnest Lutheran the other two Zwinglians 14. All these demonstrations I say King Henry made this year of his Catholic Opinion and Judgment in all points except in matter of Supremacy which was his own Interest And for the other six years which he lived afterwards he vary'd not from this but rather confirm'd the same as we may see by his burning of Anne Askew for denying the Real Presence in the Sacrament not many months before his death and by his own hearing of Mass in his bed and receiving the blessed Sacrament on his knees when he was not able to stand on his feet but especially by that which Bishop Gardiner testified while he lived and preached the same in a public Sermon at Paul's Cross that the said King not long before his dying day when he sent him Embassador to a Diet in Germany gave him special Commission in secret to procure by the means of some Catholic Princes and of the Pope's Legat and Nuntio there some honorable condition for his Majesty's reconciliation with the Pope and See of Rome again which tho' God of his secret Judgment permitted him not to effectuate by the shortness of his life yet appeareth it by this what his sense in matters of Religion was 15. So then now we have that Catholic Church and Religion continued in England during King Henry's Reign both in Prince and People tho' much turmoil'd by Faction Schisms and Heresie wherein notwithstanding she no more lost her possession and continuance than she did in time of the raging Arians Donatists or other Sectaries that prevailed in power for the present time either generally or in some particular Provinces as Lutherans and Zwinglians also did in King Henry's days in divers places or do at this day which yet was and is so as they are easily distinguished from the other not only by the Divisions and Differences among themselves but also for that the Union of the Catholic Religion doth ever shew it self in some Regions adjoyning yea commonly also even in those very places where these Sects do range and bear most rule some Catholics do remain to contradict them openly and to plead for their old possession and the greater the Persecution is the greater and more eminent is this Catholic contradicting part stirred up and increased by the very Power and Vertue of the Cross of Christ in Persecution as before hath been noted 16. And this was the state of Catholic Religion in King Henry's Reign to wit that it was held and defended publicly except only the Article of Ecclesiastical Supremacy denied to the Pope whereunto notwithstanding many thousands of the Realm never agreed and consequently were truly Catholics Heretics also were punished especially those three Sects that principally ranged at that time to wit Lutherans Anabaptists and Zwinglians all three taking their Origin from Luther so as of all these three Sects King Henry burned many and albeit of the fourth sort of men that opposed themselves against him to wit Catholics he put divers also to death under the name of Papists yet both this very Name as also the different manner of their Deaths but above all the nature of their Cause doth evidently distinguish them from the other and shew that their Deaths were true Martyrdoms and the others due Punishment for their Wickedness 17. For first the name of Papists that signifieth them to hold with the Pope as Supreme Head of their Church importeth no more hurt or offence than if any Sedition moved within any Realm those that hold with the King should be called Kinglings or those for example that hold part with the Mayor of London when any Apprentices would raise Rebellion against him should scornfully be called Mayorists and generally for a man to hold with his Lawful Superiour cannot be termed a Faction and much less an Heresie 18. Secondly the very difference and manner of punishment used by King Henry towards both parts the one by Fire the others by Beheading and Hanging doth evidently shew what difference he made of them the one as of Heretics and the other as of men offending against his State and Person after he had made the Supremacy Ecclesiastical to be a matter of his State and of his Royal Dignity whereby also he shewed that he was no Gospeller 19. But now for the third point which is the most important of all the rest to shew the difference in these mens Causes and that the Catholics suffered innocently for their Conscience and consequently were true Martyrs and that the other sorts of Sectaries were punished deservedly as Malefactors it is not hard to prove to him that is of any mean consideration or indifferency in matters For first who will not grant but that he that is an honest and good man when he goeth to bed for example cannot easily be made an evil man in his sleep without any motive of his affection or free will at all And again He that is a good and true Subject towards his Prince and Countrey this day how can he well to morrow be judged a Traytor the highest sin of all other if in the mean space he change not his mind nor do any act of word or deed contrary to that he did before And yet this was the Cause of the Catholics put to death under King Henry for the Supremacy 20. As for Example Sir Thomas More was Prisoner in the Tower of London upon some displeasure in the year 1534 where he attending only to his Prayers as himself testifieth and to the Writing of some Spiritual Books pertaining to the contempt of this present transitory World there passed in the mean time a Statute in the Parliament-house appointing that whomsoever did not believe the King's Majesty to be Supreme Head of the Church of England in causes Ecclesiastical should be a Traitor and suffer death for it which seeming a new and strange thing unto him and contrary to the belief of all his Forefathers he could not so soon conform himself thereunto and consequently refused when he was demanded to subscribe to the Statute and to make so great a change in his Faith upon the change of others for which soon after he was put to death not for that he had attempted altered or innovated any thing as you see but for that he would not alter and make innovation And this was the proper true cause of all Catholics that suffered for the Supremacy under King Henry VIII 20. But on the contrary side the others that were put to death by him as Sectaries did wickedly and presumptuously alter and innovate of their own heads many things about Belief and Doctrin different from that which they had received and contrary to the Belief of all their Forefathers ancient Christians for many Ages together and that with such obstinacy as no Reason Authority Discipline or Order no Witness Human or Divine could prevail with them and albeit for this obstinacy
be altered it must be done by the same Authority by which it was delivered to them to wit by the whole Church Councils and General Pastors thereof 26. This was the Defence and Pleading of Catholics under King Henry the Eighth to excuse themselves from Treason objected against them for holding the Popes Supremacy wherein you see divers notorious differences between the Defence of the Sectaries and them for that amongst the Sectaries every one held what himself thought best of things invented by themselves every one cited Scriptures and interpreted them as he listed without Authority President or Example of former Ages and consequently they are justly called Heretics that is to say choosers For that they chose to themselves what to believe in every Sect and reduced the last and final resolution of all things to their own Wills and Wits which in matters of belief is the highest Crime that against God and his Church can be committed 27. But on the other side the state and condition of the Catholics and their cause is quite opposite to this for that they stick to Authority Obedience Integrity Example of their Ancestors they bring nothing of their own they invent or innovate nothing They stand only upon that which they have found Established to them not by this or that Man or by this or that Author of any Sect or by this or that particular Congregation fellowship or Faction or by this or that Town City Province Kingdom or Country but generally by the whole universal Church and Pastors thereof and therefore properly and truly are called Catholics which is to say Vniversal and general 28. And this shall suffice to shew the difference between the Catholic Martyrs and Heretical Malefactors put to death in King Henries time whereof yet we shall Treat more largely in the third part of this Treatise where we are to handle the particular Stories of Fox his Calendar-Martyrs and to compare and paralell them with ours shewing that yet never Dogs and Cats nor yet Sampsons Foxes did ever so disagree in natures and conditions as these good Martyrs did in Faction and contrariety of opinions amongst themselves and consequently could not be Martyrs or witnesses of any one Faith whatsoever 29. And with this also will we end the Discourse of King Henries Life having sufficiently shewed as to me it seemeth that the Catholic Religion held her footing and continuance also under ther Reign of this King no less perhaps than before yea she shewed her self much more to the World by the Persecution which then she suffered than before in the time of peace for that the Famous and Illustrious Martyrdoms of such excellent Men as were Bishop Fisher Sir Thomas More Dr. Forest and many other such Worthies that suffered Martyrdom in those days did more Illustrate her and made extern Nations to talk more of the Zeal and Constancy of English Catholics than ever they would have done if that Persecution had not fallen out and the like success hath happened since both under King Edward the Sixth and her Majesty that now is as briefly we shall here declare 30. And as for King Edwards Reign as it was but short and the first passage from Catholic Religion to open Profession of Heresie So was it not so sharp for effusion of Blood as under King Henry For that the King being very young and those that Governed in his Name not thorowly settled in their States and Affairs troubled also with much Division and Emulation among themselves could not attend to prosecute matters so exactly against Catholics as some of their desires and Appetites were yet began they very well as we may see by the most unjust Persecutions and Deprivations of two principal Bishops Gardiner of Winchester and Bonner of London by such violent Calumnious manner as was proper for Heretics to use The particulars whereof John Fox doth set down at large whereby a Man may take a taste what they meant to have done if they had had time For that Cranmer and Ridley that had been Bishops in King Henries time and followed his Religion and humor while he lived being now also resolved to enjoy the Preferment and Sensuality of this time so far as any way they might attain unto getting Authority into their hands by the Protector and others that were in most Power began to lay lustily about them and to pull down all them both of the Clergy and others whom they thought to be able or likely to stand in their way or resist their inventions 31. And hereupon divers were laid hands on and Imprisoned divers fled over Seas sundry most Captious and Calumnious Questions and Demands were devised to entangle Men As Namely Whether a King of one year old were not as truly a King as at Forty or Fifty which if you did grant concerning the Title and Right of his Crown which is true then presently they inferred that King Edward being but Nine years old wanting yet discretion might also be lawful Head of the Church and determine Controversies of Religion yea change the Faith and Religion which his Father and all his Ancestors Kings and Princes of England all Parliaments Synods and Councils before his days had left unto him for the space of a Thousand years and more And albeit he had not sufficient judgment to understand what Religion meant yet was he made judge thereof by vertue of his Birth and Succession to the Crown And this Point was wonderfully urged by the Protector Seymor to all Preachers Prelats and Bishops of that time that they should inculcate the same to the people in their Sermons to the end that himself taking all the said Child Kings Authority upon him might be Head and Judge in his place Whereunto that he might seem the more fit and able for his excellent learning John Bale the Apostata Friar that lived under him was not ashamed to Publish in Print and place him for a Learned Author amongst his Illustrious British Writters for that some Proclamations perhaps passed by his hands tho' otherwise he was known to be so unlearned as he could scarce Write or Read. 32. But yet as I said this Doctrin or rather Paradox of the Child Kings supereminent ability high Authority and Supreme Ecclesiastical Power to determin alter change and dispose of matters of Religion at his pleasure tho' he were but of one year old was sounded in Pulpits every where at this time whereof Sir John Cheke the Kings School-master amongst others Wrote a several Treatise besides the large Message sent in the Kings Name but of his Writing to the Catholic people of Devonshire as after shall be shewed The same also was objected grievously against Bishop Gardiner and Bishop Bonner by Name that they had not in their Sermons appointed unto them by the Protector so sufficiently urged this Point of the Kings Ecclesiastical Power in his Nonage as was required And this especially for that the people in
for a time Brentius as appeareth in his Confession of Wittemberg and some others of that Sect. But this Opinion of Luther did not long please his Followers for that Ph. Melancthon his chief Scholar did soon after teach the contrary viz. That the Church was visible to the eyes of men also And the Magdeburgians do hold the same defining every-where the Church to be a visible Company of Men. Which going back of the principal Lutherans in this point it being done by a certain Consultation had thereof among themselves as Fredericus Staphylus the Emperor's Counsellor that had been one of them affirmeth was some Cause perhaps that Calvin coming presently after them took upon him to defend the same Doctrin again saying Nobis invisibilem c. We are forc'd to believe the Church to be invisible and to be seen only by the eyes of God. Lo Calvin putteth necessity in this point of Belief 13. The Causes that moved the chief Lutherans to go back from their first Opinion about the invisibility of the Church were principally the apparent Evidences and Demonstrations which Catholics do alledge both out or Scriptures Fathers common sense and reason for overthrow of that most fond and ridiculous Paradox And first out of holy Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament these men being not able to alledge any one place where the Name of God's Church is applied to an Invisible Congregation the Catholics on the contrary side pressed them with many most evident Texts of Scripture where it was and is used for a visible Company of Men as that in the Book of Numbers ch 20. Cur eduxisti Ecclesiam Domini in solitudinem Why hast thou brought the Church of God into the Desart And again in 3 Kings ch 8. Convertitque Rex faciem suam benedixit omni Ecclesiae Israel omnis enim Ecclesia Israel stabat c. The King turning his face about did bless all the Church of Israel for that all the Church of Israel was present c. Which places and many the like cannot possibly be understood of an Invisible but of a Visible Company 14. And much more if we consider the speeches of Christ and his Apostles in the New Testament as these words of Christ Dic Ecclesiae si Ecclesiam non audierit c. Tell the Church and if he hear not the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen or Publican But if the Church were invisible neither could a man complain to the Church nor hear the Church Moreover St. Paul exhorteth the chief Pastors of the Ephesians to attend diligently to their charge Acts 20. In quo vos Spiritus Sanctus posuit Episcopos regere Ecclesiam Dei In which the H. Ghost hath placed you as Bishops to govern the Church of God. But how could they being visible men govern a Company that was invisible not to be seen 15. And yet further when St. Paul and St. Barnabas went up from Antioch to Jerusalem the Scripture saith Deducti sunt ab Ecclesia c. They were brought on their way by the Church of Antioch and when they came to Jerusalem suscepti sunt ab Ecclesia they were received by the Church And yet further ascendit Paulus salutavit Ecclesiam Paul went and saluted the Church c. All which places cannot agree possibly to an invisible Church and yet that this was the true Primitive Church of Christ no man can deny 16. And finally when St. Paul doth teach Timothy his Scholar 1 Tim. 3. Quomodo oporteat conversari in Domo Dei quae est Ecclesia c. How he should converse and govern the House of God which is his Church Columna Firmamentum Veritatis the Pillar and Firmament of all Truth Ibid. All this I say had been spoken to no purpose if the true Church of Christ were invisible for how can a man converse in a Congregation which he cannot see or know or how can the Church be a Pillar and sure Firmament of Truth to resolve all Doubts and Questions that may fall out about Scriptures Articles of Belief and Mysteries of Christ's Religion if it be an invisible Congregation that no man seeth discerneth or knoweth where or how to repair unto it nor who are the persons therein contained 17. And lastly not to stand longer upon this matter that is so evident in it self and plain to common sense and reason if the true Church of Christ be a Society not of Angels Spirits or Souls departed but of Men and Women in this life that must be governed or govern therein how can they be invisible And if they must have Communion together in external Sacraments and namely in Baptism and participation of the Body of Christ if they must profess the Name and Doctrin of Christ externally to the World as also to be persecuted and put to death for the same if all men must repair unto them and those that be out of the Church to enter and be received therein and those that be in her to be resolved of their doubts to lay down their complaints to be governed and directed by her and finally to obey her under pain of Damnation how can all this be performed if she be invisible to man's eyes and only seen by the eyes of God 18. To alledge Fathers and Doctors in this behalf were both endless and needless for that all of them every-where almost are occupied in setting forth not only the Visibility but the Splendor also and Greatness yea the multitude and external Majesty of Christ's Church throughout the World in their days and only St. Augustin may serve for all who dilateth himself every-where in this Argument shewing how the little Stone prophesied by Daniel was grown to be a huge Mountain and terrible to the whole World and that the Tabernacle of Christ which is his Church was placed by him in the Sun to be seen of all and that it was a City upon a Mountain which none could be ignorant of and other like Discourses founded on evident Scriptures Whereby is refuted not only the first shift of Luther and Calvin making the true Church of Christ invisible but also the second of these latter Lutherans who tho' overcome with the former proofs do grant the Church to be a visible Company yet do they deny it to be that external conspicuous Succession of Bishops and Councils which have been most eminent in the known Christian Church from the Apostles downward but rather to be some few obscure and contemptible people which they call the Elect that have lived or lurked from time to time in shadows and darkness and known to few or none 19. But this second device is more fond than the former for where shall a man seek out these hidden Fellows to treat with them or to receive Sacraments at their hands how shall they be known how may they be trusted whence have they
other Church or Chappel of the Devil to deface and malign the same necessary it is that the difference between them both be seen and the descent of the right Church to be described from the Apostles time c. 26. Here we see all John Fox his drift laid down First he meaneth to contradict all former Writers that have magnified the Church of Rome and the Greatness and Glory thereof which he calleth the Devil's Chappel And in this he must contradict all the ancient Fathers and Writers for divers hundred years after Christ as Irenaeus Tertullian Augustin Optatus and other Writers that bring down the descent of the true Church of Christ by the Succession of the Bishops and Church of Rome as before you have heard And secondly Fox meaneth to set out another Christian Church trodden under foot before neglected in the World not regarded in Histories and almost scarce visible or known and yet was and is forsooth the only true Church of Christ keeping some spark of his true Doctrin and Religion he doth not say that all was true which she held nor that all Christ's Doctrin was taught in her but only some sparks or scraps of true Doctrin And further he promiseth that he will describe the descent of this Church from the Apostles time 27. This is John Fox his promise and we accept thereof And tho' it be scarce worth the performance to shew us a hidden obscure and trodden down Church in every Age that keepeth some sparks of true Doctrin and Religion for that every Sect and Heresie not denying Christ and his Doctrin wholly doth so yet shall we accept and exact the same being never so miserable and beggarly as we go over the whole course of Times and Ages from Christ downward following therein the distribution it self that John Fox hath appointed to be observed in his Story to wit from Christ to Constantine 300 years from Constantine to S. Gregory as much from S. Gregory and S. Augustin our Apostles to the Conquest 400 and odd years from the Conquest to Wickliff other 300 years from Wickliff to Luther about 240 from Luther's time to ours somewhat less than a hundred In all which variety of Times we shall examin briefly Whether John Fox his Church were on foot or no What Continuance or Succession it may be said to have had Where when and by what men it was begun continued and acknowledged What Doctrin it held and whence and with what Vnion or Conformity with it self or with the Catholic Roman Church Which Catholic Church being shewed and declared in the first Part of this Book to have been founded by the Apostles and conserved visibly from that time hither by Succession of Bishops and Prelates Governors and Professors thereof will easily also bring in the Notice and Certificate of John Fox his opposite Church whereof now we begin to treat CHAP. II. The particular Examination of the Descent or Succession of John Fox his Church in England or elsewhere for the first Three Hundred years after CHRIST to wit unto the time of Constantine the Emperour And whether any such Church was extant then in the World or no and in Whom HE that will consider the proportion of John Fox his Book of Acts and Monuments in the latter Edition he shall find it the greatest perhaps in Volume that ever was put forth in our English Tongue and the falsest in substance without perhaps that ever was published in any Tongue The Volume consisteth of above a thousand Leaves of the largest Paper that lightly hath been seen and every Leaf containeth four great Columns and yet if you consider how many Leaves of those thousand he hath spent in Deduction of the whole Church either His or Ours and the whole Ecclesiastical Story thereof for the first thousand years after Christ they are by his own account but threescore and four to wit scarce the thirtieth part of that he bestoweth in the last five hundred years 2. And further if this his thousand years Story containing threescore and four leaves be sifted and examined what it containeth not four of them do appertain to that which he should handle which is the visible Deduction of his Church as we shall endeavor briefly to shew dividing the whole thousand and threescore years from Christ to William the Conqueror into four distinct Times or Stations appointed out by John Fox himself in his Book to wit the first from Christ to Constantine containing 300 years the second from Constantine to K. Ethelbert's Conversion by St. Augustin containing other 300 years the third from King Ethelbert and other six Kings of England reigning jointly with him unto King Egbert the first Monarch of the English Nation which space is somewhat more than other 200 years and the fourth from King Egbert to William the Conqueror containing the same or some few more years 3. Let us now follow I say John Fox throughout all these Ages and different stations of times and see out of what Holes or Dens he will draw his little hidden trodden down Church different from the Roman Visible Church and yet endued notwithstanding from time to time with some little sparks of Truth which he promiseth to bring down from the Apostles to our time In the first 300 years then from Christ to Constantine whereas all other Ecclesiastical Writers and St. Luke amongst the rest in his Acts of the Apostles ch 2 3 4 c. do set down the visible beginning of Christ's Church by his Apostles and Disciples their strengthening and confirmation by the coming of the Holy Ghost their preaching and converting of others their great and many Miracles and thereby the establishing and wonderful increase of the said Church throughout the World and continuance of the same downward by Succession of Bishops but namely and specially of the Bishops of Rome as before hath been declared and is to be seen in the Writings of Dionysius Areopagita Josephus Justinus Egesippus Clemens Irenaeus Tertullian Origenes Julius Africanus Cyprian Eusebius and others of these Ages John Fox followeth no such order at all nor ever so much as mentioneth any descent of Bishops of His Church or Ours but only to spend time and fill up Paper taketh upon him to translate out of Eusebius and other Authors the Martyrdoms of such as suffered for Christian Religion in the ten general Persecutions of these first 300 years setting the same forth also in painted Pictures for no other purpose as it seemeth but only to entertain his Reader with some strange and delightful Spectacle and afterward so to joyn his Protestant burned Martyrs with those of the Primitive Church as the Painting being somewhat alike the simple Reader might thereby be induced to think that there was no great difference either in their Persons or Cause of suffering 4. But I would ask John Fox To what purpose of his was the bringing in of all these Martyrs of the Primitive
Catholic Church had all Truth in it that was revealed by Christ and not some sparks only as Fox requireth in his Church and that it had continual Succession of multitudes of true Teachers without interruption and not one starting up in one Age and another in another wherewith Fox seemeth to be contented for the continuation of his Church 25. And finally if Fox coming at length to be asham'd of his former definition of an obscure and trodden-down Church and of the sparkled Doctrin of Truth therein taught should leave the same and offer to lay hands on the Great Illustrious and Visible Church of the first 300 years saying that this was His which yet you have seen by many Arguments demonstrated that it cannot be I shall be content to admit so ridiculous a pretence for a time with condition that he will stand to it and go forward with this Church in the sequent Ages and not to disclaim from Her to his hidden Church again Which if he yield unto then have we now a Visible and Eminent True Church on foot by confession of both Parties which we must follow to the Worlds end for that she cannot perish again as before we have declared For which cause I am to prosecute the same from Age to Age in this Treatise from this time downwards to our days in the Chapters that do ensue where we shall see who sticketh to her and who flieth from her who followeth her constantly or who giveth the slip for that she being now once so Potent Notorious and Illustrious as both Parts do confess if he will stand to it in earnest that she is his Church also it is not possible that she should be lost shrink or fade away again but that all the World must see it How Where When and by Whom so great an Accident should fall out neither can Fox and his People being now once in Her and of Her by his own pretence be found out of her afterward but only by Apostacy or Heresie and running away This then let us examin in the Ages following CHAP. III. The prosecution of the same matter to wit of the Descent of the Catholic and Protestant Church for other Three Hundred years that is from Pope Sylvester and Constantine to Pope Gregory and Mauritius the Emperour And where John Fox his Church lay hid in this time AND thus having run over the first three Ages after Christ we must now pass to the second station which is for other 300 years beginning from Constantine the Emperour downward unto the time of St. Gregory under whom St. Augustin came into England in which space of time the Catholic Christian Church spread over all the World as before you have heard did grow and confirm it self powerfully especially after Persecution did cease as by all Stories appeareth having had thirty-two Popes between Sylvester and Gregory whereof thirty were holden for great Saints and three or four were Martyrs 2. The Fathers and Doctors also of these three Ages were most excellent men both Grecians and Latins and it seemeth that what wanted in these three Ages from the former three in the Glory of Martyrdom it was supply'd by the Excellency of Learning As for Example in the fourth Age after Christ which is the first of the second three did flourish Eusebius Lactantius Rheticius Juvencus Athanasius Hilarius Optatus Climacus Basil Nazianzenus Ambrose Prudentius Hierom Chrysostom Epiphanius Cyril and divers others In rhe fifth Age St. Augustin Possidonius Sulpitius Orosius Cassianus Prosper Vincentius Lyrinensis Falgentius and many more And in the sixth Age Cassiodorus Emisenus Procopius Fortunatus Venantius Evagrius Gregorius Turonensis and Gregory the Great All which filled the World with their excellent Books both Greek and Latin besides many General National and Provincial Councils whereof five were Universal the first of Nice the second of Constantinople the third of Ephesus the fourth of Chalcedon wherein there were 630 Bishops and the fifth was of Constantinople the second time but of Provincial and National Councils there are receiv'd to the number of almost seventy to have been held in this time 3. By all which concourse of Testimonies the Force and Unity of Catholic Faith is shewed to wit that these Fathers Doctors Popes and Councils agreeing together all throughout the World in one and the self-same Faith and Religion and continuing the same from Age to Age with so great Authority of Respect and Majesty as not only all Ecclesiastical Persons of what Nations soever and other Christian People but all Temporal Princes Kings and Emperours in like manner except such as were noted with any particular Heresie as some Emperours of the East did wholly submit themselves with one consent Whereby this visible Illustrious Roman Church was made so Great and Universal notorious and known embracing all Christendom as it is wholly impossible for John Fox to find out any creeping hidden Church bearing the name of Christian in these three Ages and yet different from this visible and splendent Church of Rome which he calleth the Devil's Chappel And much more hard will it be for him to find out this in these latter three hundred years than in the former for that the external Glory of this Church was increased much more in these three Ages than in the first three before treated of which passed all in Persecution 4. The Heresies also and Sects of this time being above Fifty in number were beaten down more strongly by the foresaid Fathers Bishops and Councils than before by reason they had more time and leisure from Persecution to attend unto them than had those of the former three Ages The principal Heresies of this fourth Age were Meletians Donatists Arians Novatians Macedonians Luciferians Aërians Eunomians Apollinarians Aetians Priscillianists Jovinians Vigilantians Collyridians Helvidians Antimarians and other the like And in the fifth Age were Pelagians Nestorians Eutychians and other such Rabble And in the sixth Age Severians Monothelites Chrystolytes Agnoites Sadduces Theopaschites and the like Out of which Synagogues and Congregations of wrangling Spirits which succeeded one another in divers Times Places and Countries and opposed themselves maliciously out of their obscure corners against the shining Light of the foresaid Catholic Church if John Fox will frame his poor and beggarly Church which yet he holdeth for the only true Church of God oppressed and trodden down as he saith and almost scarce visible to worldly eyes he may do it with great probability for that these Fellows were neglected and trodden down indeed by the other opposite Roman Church and yet did they as John Fox requireth for the Succession of his Church continue and rise up from time to time tho' by no orderly Succession of Bishops or Doctrin as hath been said yea they had that other quality also proper to John Fox his Church that they always kept some sparks of true Doctrin and Religion together with their Heresies So as in this
West by the foresaid Pope Leo III. And during this Race of time the said Universal Church flourished greatly by Learned Men and Holy Bishops whereof the principal were St. Isidorus Archbishop of Sevil Sophronius Leontius Theodorus Archbishop of Canterbury Venerable Bede Johannes Damascenus Paulus Diaconus Alcuinus our Countrey-man Vsuardus and others 4. This time had many Learned Councils also whereof two were General the one being the third of Constantinople the other the second of Nice Whereby were beaten down all the Heretics of those days the principal whereof were the Jacobites the Armenians Monothelites Neophonites Lampetians Agnychites Iconomachians or Image-breakers and other the like Besides all this there was added to the Greatness of this Church the new Conversion of many Countries from Paganism to Christian Religion Amongst which may principally be recounted our English Saxons as also by their means divers Provinces afterward of High and Low Germany And this for the continuance and going forward of the Christian Catholic Church in general planted by Christ and brought down by Succession from the Apostles time 5. But if you will talk of our new English Church planted in this mean space and inserted or united to that General Catholic Church as a Branch or Member to the whole Body and as a new Daughter subordinate to her Mother we shall see her progress to be conform thereunto to wit that she multiplied mightily in these 200 years both in Number Doctrin and great Piety of Life which John Fox himself is forced to confess in that he having told us of the Conversion of seven English Saxon Kingdoms within the compass of this time he setteth down divers Tables in the end of all whereof one is of seventeen Archbishops of Canterbury from Augustin to Celnothus that lived with King Egbert and another Table of thirty Cathedral Churches Abbies and Nunneries builded and abundantly endowed by Christian English Kings Queens and Bishops of that time and a third Table of nine several Kings besides many more of chief Nobility both Men and Women who leaving the World and their Temporal States entred into a Religious Life the more strictly to serve Almighty God. All which John Fox is forc'd to recount against himself and findeth no one in all this time of 200 years and much less any company on whom he dareth lay hands to build up his hidden Church in England withal 6. And it is to be noted by the Reader and by us to be repeated again for better memories sake that which before we admonished to wit that Fox findeth these 200 years of our first English primitive Church so barren of matter for his purpose as in the whole story thereof he spendeth only eight Leaves of Paper and these rather in deriding and scoffing the same and principal Pillars thereof than writing any Ecclesiastical History For which cause you shall find these Notes and Titles commonly written over the heads of his Leaves and Pages Augustin's arrival in Kent Gregory the basest Pope but the best Proud Augustin Lying Miracles Shaven Crowns Beda his Birth and the like Of which Learned Holy Man's Story I mean St. Bede he maketh so little account as in the same place reciting a Letter out of him written by a holy Man Ceolfride Abbot of Sherwyn in Northumberland to Naitonus King of the Picts he saith thus The Copy of which Letter as it is in Bede I have annexed not for any great reason therein contained but only to delight the Reader with some pastime in seeing the fond Ignorance of that Monkish Age c. Whereby we may see the drift of this pleasant Fox in these his Acts and Monuments which is to discredit that whole Time and all our Primitive Church 7. But yet to the end that the saying of Christ may be fulfilled in him Ex ore tuo te judico Serve nequam I do judge thee out of thy own mouth thou wicked Servant I shall here set down two National Synods gathered in England in these two Ages by two famous Archbishops of Canterbury the one Theodorus in the year of Christ 680 and related by Beda and the other St. Cuthbert in the year 747 related by William of Malmsbury after Bede's death and both of them set down by Fox And by viewing the Decrees of these two Synods you will see whether those Ages were so fond in Ignorance as Fox maketh them Out of the first Synod held at Thetford Fox gathereth ten Decrees in these words 8. I. That Easter-day should be uniformly kept and observed throughout the whole Realm upon a certain day viz. prima 14 Luna Mensis primi II. That no Bishop should intermeddle within the Diocese of another III. That Monasteries consecrated unto God should be exempt and free from the Jurisdiction of Bishops IV. That the Monks should not stray from one place that is from one Monastery to another without the license of their Abbot also to keep the same Obedience which they promised at their first entring V. That no Clergy-man should forsake his own Bishop and be received in any other place without Letters Commendatory of his own Bishop VI. That Foreign Bishops and Clergy-men coming into the Realm should be content only with the benefit of such Hospitality as should be offered them neither should they intermeddle any further within the Precinct of any Bishop without his special permission VII That Synods Provincial should be kept within the Realm at least once a year VIII That no Bishop should prefer himself before another but must observe the time and order of his Consecration IX That the number of Bishops should be augmented as the number of People increased X. That no Marriage should be admitted but that which was lawful no Incest to be suffered neither any man to put away his Wife for any cause except only for Fornication after the Rule of the Gospel And these be the principal Chapters of that Synod c. 9. Out of the second Synod held at Clonisho Fox gathereth thirty-one Decrees as followeth I. That Bishops should be more diligent in seeing to their Office and in admonishing the people of their faults II. That they should live in a peaceable mind together notwithstanding they were in place dissevered asunder III. That every Bishop once a year should go about all the Parishes of his Diocese IV. That the said Bishops every one in his Diocese should admonish their Abbots and Monks to live regularly and that Prelates should not oppress their Inferiors but love them V. That they should teach the Monasteries which the secular men had invaded and could not then betaken from them to live regularly VI. That none should be admitted to Orders before his Life should be examined VII That in Monasteries the reading of Holy Scripture should be more frequented VIII That Priests should be no disposers of secular business IX That they should take no money for baptizing
other ancient extern Authors before mentioned So as here is neither place nor time left for Joannes Anglicus to have come between them 27. And all these Authors did write as hath been noted either before or with Martinus Polonus who is taken to have been the first Relator of this Fable And tho' in some printed Copies of the Chronicles of Marianus Scotus and Sigebertus somewhat elder than Martinus Polonus there be mention in a word or two of this Tale with this ground ut ferunt as men say yet in more ancient Manuscript Originals found in Flanders and other places no such thing is seen but rather to the contrary with divers evident signs and conjectures that those few words now found in the printed Copies were added by others afterward in Germany where the Work lay for many years during the Contention of the German Emperours against the See of Rome 28. But besides all this there ensueth another Argument more evident in my Opinion than any of the rest hitherto alleged for overthrowing of this Fable which is That about 170 years after this devised Election of Pope Joan to wit upon the year of Christ 1020 the Church and Patriarchs of Constantinople being in some Contention with Rome Pope Leo IX wrote a long Letter to Michaell Patriarch of Constantinople reprehending certain abuses of that Church and among other that they were said to have promoted Eunuchs to Priesthood and thereby also a greater inconvenience fallen out which was that a Woman had crept in to be Patriarch which yet he saith that for the horror of the Fact he would not believe Absit saith he ut velimus credere quod publica fama non dubitat asserere c. God forbid we should believe that which public Fame doubteth not to affirm which is that the Church of Constantinople by promoting Eunuchs to Priesthood against the Canon of the Council of Nice promoted once a Woman to the Bishops See which is so abominable a thing as the horror thereof doth not permit us to believe it c. 29. Thus wrote he which no doubt he would never have dar'd to do if the Patriarch of Constantinople might have returned the matter back upon him again and said This was but a slanderous report falsly raised against the Church of Constantinople but that a Woman indeed had been promoted in the Roman Church How could Pope Leo have answered this Reply Wherefore most certain it seemeth that at this time there was not so much as any rumour or mention of any Woman Pope that ever had been in the Roman Church this being 250 years before Martinus Polonus wrote for which cause also it is thought very probably that this rumour of the Church of Constantinople might be the occasion of the Tale raised after against Rome for that Martinus Polonus being a very simple Man and living so long after as hath been said and hearing an uncertain fame of a Woman promoted to Chief Priesthood might ascribe that to Rome which belonged to Constantinople which being once written by him passed to others after him and so came to our Heretics 30. Finally howsoever this be of the first occasion or invention of the Fable certain it is that most evidently it is a Fable and that if other Arguments failed yet there be so many Incongruities Simplicities Absurdities Varieties and Contrarieties in the very Narration it self as it discovers the whole matter to be a meer Fable and Fiction indeed and a rumour of vulgar people without ground For Martinus Polonus beginneth his Narration thus Post Leonem sedit Joannes Anglus Natione Margantinus After Leo III. sate John English by Nation a Margantine but where this Country of Margantia is no man can tell And it followeth Quae alibi legitur fuisse Benedictus III. which other where is read to be Benedictus III. So as this man seemeth to confound him with Benedict and consequently ascribeth to him the same time of his Reign that is assigned to Benedictus to wit two years and five months and yet presently after he saith That Benedictus was a Roman Son to Pratolus c. 31. Platina that took it out of this Man to make the Tale somewhat more probable beginneth thus Joannes Anglicus ex Maguntiaco oriundus c. John of England born at Maguntiacum c. Then how could he be John or Joan of England if he were born at Maguntiacum and where is this Maguntiacum and how doth it agree with Margantinus used by Polonus But then come in the Magdeburgians and say contrary that he was Moguntinus oriundus ex Anglia of Moguntia in Germany born in England And contrary to this Bibliander another German Sectary contradicteth that again saying in his Chronicles That he was not born in England but brought up and studied there And so you see their contradiction about the place both of Birth and Country 32. But besides this there are infinit other disagreements and inconveniences in this Story for that some do feign him to be Joannes VIII some IX John Fox saith That she was called Gilberta before and that she went with an English Monk out of the Abbey of Fulda in Germany to Athens and there studied in Mans Apparel whereas it is known that Athens at that time had no School in it all nor in any many years before If she were bred also or brought up in England or went in an English Monk's Company as Fox saith and if she were an English Priest's Daughter as the Magdeburgians devise it is like that Prince Alfred or some of his Train residing then in Rome as before hath been said would have heard or known of the matter 33. But John Fox goeth further and telleth us out of his fingers ends That the Cardinals forsooth met solemnly after the death of Leo IV. said their Mass of the Holy Ghost and so proceeded to their ordinary Election and brought forth Gilberta c. But this is all scoffing Foolery for that Cardinals had not the Election of Popes at that time And he that will read the foresaid Anastasius Bibliothecarius that was present at the Election of Pope Benedictus and describeth the particulars thereof shall see another manner of Election in use at that day by the whole Clergy Moreover he shall see that the Custom was not to choose at that time any but such as were known and try'd men and such as had lived for the most part of their Life in Rome it self and had given great satisfaction in their Manners and behav'd themselves well in other inferior Ecclesiastical Charges laid upon them 34. All which being so let any man of reason tell me how it is possible to imagine that men of those times were so fond and absurd as to choose to so high a Dignity among them an unknown Man or Woman whose Parents and Country were not known nor proof had of their Conversation and much more that
throughout the World for Christ's Church are wicked and rebellious unto God and Acts of the Devil's Synagogue from the time that John Fox assigneth of her Fall and Apostacy and that on the contrary side all the Writings Actions and Gests of all sorts of Heretics against this Church from that time are the Acts and Monuments of the true Church of Christ Supposing all this I say as Fox doth there cannot want matter either on the one side or the other to fill up Volumes And the lower he passeth downward the more matter he findeth for that Sects and Sectaries increasing daily whom he registreth for Saints and Pillars of his Church the Volume of his Book must needs grow greatly And so is it seen by this fourth Book wherein from the Conquest to the latter-end of King Edward III's Reign when Wickliff began containing 300 years to wit from Anno Domini 1066 to 1370 there are spent above 100 Leaves of Paper which is much more than was in the former 1066 years But in the fifth Book from John Wickliff's time to King Henry VIII which are but 140 years are contained upon the point of 200 Leaves and then again from the beginning of King Henry's Reign to the entrance of Q. Elizabeth being but fifty years he spendeth above 600 Leaves And by this you may judge both of the Subject and Substance of John Fox's huge Volume tho' we are to look into the same somewhat more particularly also as we pass it over in this and the ensuing Chapters 3. Well then this being his device and resolution for the present to have no longer patience with our Church but wholly to deny the same his greatest difficulty seemeth to be about the Time and Causes to wit where or when or how or upon what occasion she perished or vanished away for seeing she hath continued by his Confession also for so many Years and Ages and come down unto our days under the self-same Succession of Bishops Pastors and Teachers as before and consequently also with the self-same Doctrin and Religion and with the same external Power and Majesty which it was wont it seemeth a very hard thing upon the sudden either to annihilate so Great and Mighty a Kingdom or which is much more difficult to make so strange a Metamorphosis and Mutation in her as that she having been hitherto the Church of Christ his Spouse his Kingdom his dearest Beloved and beautified with his Graces directed by his Spirit enriched with his most precious Gifts and Endowments and so acknowledged also by Fox ' himself in former Ages that now she should become Christ's Enemy and Adversary upon the sudden and the Kingdom of Satan his Eternal Foe and yet to retain still the Name Place Estimation and external Dignity which she had before professing with no less shew of duty her Obedience and Love to Christ than in former times she was wont This Change and Metamorphosis I say is most wonderful and incredible to all those that believe Christ to be God and to have been able to perform his promise that Hell-gates should never prevail against this Church Wherefore we are to examin somewhat more diligently in this Chapter how this matter could fall out and when and by what occasion come to pass for that so great and rare a Mutation as this is never fell out yet in the World before Tho' Temporal States and Kingdoms have had their changes nay all temporal mutations of Empires Kingdoms States and Monarchies have been made principally to shew the contrary stability and immutable continuation of Christ's Church once planted in the World as in part we have declared before shewing how that in all times and seasons in all variety and variations of States People Countries and Dominions as well in England as elsewhere the Christian Catholic Religion remained one and the same among them all To which effect also is that notable Prophesie of Daniel when foretelling first the breaking and overthrow of all four Monarchies by him mentioned he addeth as a notorious opposition to the same the stability and immortality of Christ's Church and Kingdom once set on foot in these words In the days of these Kingdoms God of Heaven shall raise up a Kingdom that shall never be dissipated neither shall this Kingdom be given to another people This Kingdom shall consume and wear out all the other Kingdoms but it self shall stand for ever 4. Thus saith Daniel and the most of these Points we have seen verified and fulfilled already for God of Heaven hath raised this Kingdom and visible Church of Christ which then seemed a strange matter he hath increased and continued the same for a thousand years and more as Fox will confess which is a longer time than any Temporal Monarchy lightly hath continued without change he hath overthrown in this time and consumed the other Kingdoms and Monarchies mentioned by him Now remain the other two Clauses to be fulfilled in like manner to wit That it shall stand for ever or as Christ expoundeth it usque and consummationem saeculi to to the Worlds end and then quod alteri populo non tradetur that this Kingdom shall not be delivered over to another People from that which possessed it from the beginning The quite contrary whereof teacheth here John Fox affirming this Church that hath been accounted the true Church and Kingdom of Christ for a thousand years past is now no more his Church or Kingdom nor these Popes Bishops and Pastors that are found in her to have come down by continual Succession are now no more the true and lawful Guides or Governors thereof but that it appertaineth to others and consequently this Kingdom of Christ is taken from them and delivered to another People to wit to the Berengarians to the Waldenses to the Albanenses to the Wickliffians Lutherans Zuinglians and other like people of latter Ages 5. This is John Fox his mad Assertion wherein you see he should prove two Points First That our Church is lost and fallen and our Men rightly dispossessed of the Interest thereof And then That his Men to wit these new Sectaries have entred into a just possession of that Name and Title of the true Church Both which Points we deny You shall see how he beginneth to prove the first that is to say the Fall and Overthrow of the Universal visible Church sirnamed the Roman And thus hitherto saith he stood the condition of the Church of Christ meaning the next Ages before the Conquest albeit not without some repugnance and difficulty yet in some mean state of the Truth and Verity till the time of Pope Hildebrand called Gregory VII which was near about the year 1080. and of Pope Innocentius III. in the year 1215. by whom all was turned upside down all Order broken true Doctrin defaced Christian Faith extinguished c. 6. Here you see John Fox to assign two Times and two Popes when and
one Protestant Opinion in his life as we shall shew when we come to his place in the Calendar And as for Bucer and Melancthon they were Lutherans indeed and open Enemies for many years against Zuinglius and Zuinglians that are the Flower of John Fox's Church And tho' Friar Bucer afterward to have the free use of his Woman in England dissembled egregiously in some things to please the Protector for a time and seemed to bear with the Sacramentaries yet told he the Lord Dudley then Duke of Northumberland being asked confidently his opinion of the Sacrament by the said Duke in the presence of the Lord Pagett then a Protestant who testified the same publicly afterward that for the Real Presence it could not be denied if we believe all that the Evangelists do write But whether all be to be believed or no he said merrily that was a matter of more disputation 35. And lastly concerning King Edward VI. set down also by Fox in red Letters for a solemn Confessor of his Religion If we talk of King Henry's time he was a very young Confessor for that he was scarce nine years old when his Father died And it is very probable that the Religion which he at that Age could receive was rather such as his Father had caused him to be taught during his life than such as it pleased Fox to assign unto him afterwards But if Fox mean that he was a Confessor of their Religion after his Fathers death albeit it be hard to say of what Religion the Child would have been if he had lived yet do I think him rather worthy to be accounted a Martyr of Fox's Church than a Confessor Seeing it is probable that the bringing in of that Religion and change of state left by his Father was the cause of his immature death For that if matters had remained as his Father left them and no Protector chosen as he appointed nor Wriothesley the Chancellor put out of his Office nor other Catholic Councellors most faithful to the conservation of the Kings Blood had been disgraced and displaced by that unlucky change like it is that the good young King might have lived many fair years more and his two Sisters never have fallen into those imminent dangers of present destruction which they once saw themselves in by the ambition of the new Gospelling Faction But enough of this and of all the Reign of King Henry VIII Now shall we pass briefly over the rest that remaineth CHAP. XII Whether Fox's Church hath had any Place under King Edward Queen Mary and Her Majesty that now Reigneth and how far it hath been admitted or is admitted at this day ALbeit John Fox did Paint out King Henry VIII in the first page of his Life sitting with his Feet upon the Popes back and the Gospel in his Lap with his Sword lifted up in his right-hand to defend the same as before you have heard yet did he Paint Cromwell and Cranmer staying up the said Sword least it should fall upon the Protestants themselves as we have shewed that in effect it did But now in the first page of King Edward's Reign Fox hath a much more ample and triumphant Pageant for the Child above his Father Who though he were but nine years old yet seemeth Fox to make him a fuller Head of the Church than his Father placing him in a high Throne of Majesty and his stretched out Sword in the right Hand and with the other which is the left he delivereth the Gospel unto the People and Prelates that stand round about him Where Fox writeth in the Margent this Note King Edward delivering the Bible to the Prelates c. As tho' the Bible had taken Authority from the Childs delivering Who being so tender of Age as he was and of likelihood scarce able to read the same and much less to understand it as well he might have delivered them the Poem of Chaucer or the Story of Guy of Warwick or of Bevis of Southampton if it had been put into his Hand to deliver as this was by his Uncle the Protector that knew full near as little of the Contents as the Child himself 2. But besides this Majestical representation of delivering the Gospel there be two or three other Pageants in the same page The first is of pulling down Images with great diligence every where and burning them with this Sentence written under The Temple well purged And then is there a great Ship painted with Men Women and Children carrying their Church-Stuff into that Ship to wit Bells Books Images and Candles and amongst other things also the Blessed Sacrament And over the Ship is written thus The Ship of the Romish Church And on the side this Sentence Ship over your Trinkets and be packing you Papists And thus is John Fox's pleasant Head delighted with these Fancies But who seeth not how childish this folly is Seeing scarce six years after this triumph when Queen Mary came in a Man might have said to him again and his Fellows Ship over your Trinkets and be packing you Protestants 3. But if we consider indeed the different Wares and Trinkets which this Catholic Roman Ship carried away from England at that time and those which the new Protestants Ship brought in soon after from Germany Geneva Switzerland and other Places we shall easily discover whether the loss were greater for our Nation by the departure of the one or by the coming in of the other For that in the Roman Ship was carried away not only the blessed Sacrament as Fox saith and Painteth it out which yet is the highest and most precious Treasure that Christ hath left to Christians upon Earth but with that also all kind of vertue and honesty for the most part For that all Modesty Gravity Learning Piety Devotion Peace Concord Unity and Charity was carried away And in the new Gospelling Ship came in all the contrary Vices namely of Sedition Division Pride Temerity Curiosity Novelties Sensuality Impiety and Atheism And in place of many sober honest and grave men that retired themselves upon this change there came running into England a main number of wanton Apostata Priests and Friars each one with his Mate and Dame at his side hungry and turbulent people as Friar Bale Friar Bucer Friar Coverdale Friar Martyr and other like Who joined with other of their own Sect in England in such a vein of Innovations as quickly brought all upon their own Heads And so tho' after all these foresaid three Pictures and Representations to wit the Bible distributed the Churches spoiled and the Catholic Roman Ship sent away John Fox doth make a fourth fair Pageant of the Protestants kind and comfortable meeting together at their Communion Table and their peaceable breaking of Bread. Yet if you consider what presently ensued in their actions I mean of their changing chopping pulling down and setting up in those few years that it
hands the whole piece of Cloth at mid-day willeth you to view and behold it in the Sun removeth all veils pentices and other stoppings of light that may give obscurity or impediment to the manifest beholding handling and discerning thereof Whereas contrariwise the other being a crafty Broker or poor Pedlar having no substantial Wares indeed to sell but such as are false made and deceitfully wrought and taken up also for the most part of the others leavings seeketh by all means possible to sell in corners and to shut out the Sun that it be not well seen or to give you a sight thereof by false lights only neither will he deliver you the whole piece into your hand to be examined throughly by your self but sheweth you one end thereof only different from the rest which he suppresseth And this manner of proceeding shall you find verified on their side throughout this whose Treatise as we have done already I doubt not if you have read it over with attention yet mean I in this place to discover the same somewhat more in particular for an upshot and conclusion of these first two parts of my Treatise 3. Three special differences then I do find between our Adversaries and us concerning the Affair of this Treatise about the finding out of true Religion by the true Church and by the beginning progress and continuance thereof The first is the estimation of the thing it self The second the assigning out or description thereof The third the marks and properties whereby to know and discover the same Of every one whereof I shall speak a word or two in order 4. For estimation of the great importance and singular moment of this matter the difference is evident between us for that we affirm the finding out and holding this Church to be of such weight as that all lieth therein for certainty and security of belief and for determining of all doubts and controversies in all times and places and in all matters of Religion whatsoever even from Christ to the Worlds end For we say with S. Augustin when any difficulty falleth out Quisquis falli metuit hujus obscuritate quaestionis Ecclesiam de illa consulat Whosoever doth fear to be deceived by the obscurity of this Question in controversie let him go to the Church for his Resolution and he shall be secure We say also with Lactantius Firmianus before St. Augustin who was Master and Tutor to Crispus Son to Constantine the Great Sol◠Catholica Ecclesia est quae verum Dei cultum retinet hic autem est fons veritatis hoc domicilium fidei hoc templum Dei quo si quis non intraverit vel à quo si quis exierit à spe vitae ac salutis aeternae altenus est The only Catholic Church is that which hath the true Worship of Almighty God in it and this is the Fountain of all Truth this is the House or Habitation of Faith this is the Temple of God into which whosoever doth not enter or out of which whosoever doth depart he is devoid of all hope of Life and everlasting Salvation 5. Thus wrote Lactantius 1300 years ago and addeth presently these words following whereby he well sheweth the conformity of spirit of those old Heretics with ours at this day Sed tamen singuli quique coetus haereticorum se potissimum Christianos suam esse Catholicam Ecclesiam putant But yet every Congregation of Heretics do think themselves chiefly and principally to be Christians and their Church to be the Catholic Church And do not ours so in like manner at this day But let us go forward to speak a word or two more of the different estimation we make of this matter 6. St. Cyprian that lived more than Sixty years before Lactantius maketh the very same account with him and us that all is lost if we lose or miss this Church Ardeant saith he licet flammis c. Albeit such Christians as are not in this Church should live never so well yea should be so forward and fervous in defence of Christian Religion as they should burn in Flames for the same or be devoured by Beasts yet this should be to them Non corona fidei sed poena perfidiae Not a Crown of Faith but a Punishment for their Perfidiousness Which Doctrin of St. Cyprian St. Augustin as a devout Scholar of his doth often repeat Foris ab Ecclesia constitutus saith he to a Donatist aeterno supplicio punieris etiamsi pro Christi nomine vivus incendereris Thou being out of the Catholic Church thou shalt be punished with eternal torment albeit thou wert burned alive for the Name of Christ 7. And finally not to go from the forenamed holy Man St. Cyprian in this behalf who died for the defence of Christ's Faith and the true Catholic Church and is a most blessed Martyr and Doctor to us all he after a long Discourse made touching a Christian Man that misseth in this Point of finding out and following the true Catholic Church and yet in other things endeavoureth to live well and sheweth great Zeal in God's Cause and desireth in his Mind even to die for the same of this Man he pronounceth this Sentence Nunquam perveniet ad Christi praemia c. Alienus est prophanus est host is est habere non potest Deum Patrem qui Ecclesiam non habet matrem This Man notwithstanding all his other good Works and Endeavors shall never come to enjoy the Rewards of Christ in Heaven he is an Alien he is Prophane he is an Enemy he cannot have God for his Father which hath not the Church for his Mother 8. Thus said St. Cyprian as also all ancient holy Fathers after him whereof I might alledge many Authorities if it were not over long and the same say we that are Catholics and do hold the same Faith and Church with them at this day We do hold I say that the first and principal Point of all other for a Christian Man that meaneth his own Salvation is to seek out the true Catholic Church and to consider whether he be of it or in it or no For if he be not then all other diligence and labor is void and in vain except it be to seek out this and if he be in it then is he in the right way of Salvation not for that all be saved who are within her as in the second Point shall be shewed but for that all those who are out of her shall be certainly damned as now you have heard out of the chiefest Fathers of the ancient Catholic Church And this is the first Point of singular moment for which we esteem this Church so highly for that no Salvation can be had without her 9. But Secondly we esteem also the importance of this matter by the great and excellent helps which in this Church above all other Congregations
answer That the Name Catholic did not import the universality of Nations professing our Christian Faith but the fulness rather of Sacraments which they held to be in their Church and farther they required that the Catholics should prove that all Nations did communicate with them and their Church which thing when the Catholics most willingly admitted and desired of the Judges that they might be suffered to prove it the Donatists presently ran to another Question slipping from this Cause of the Church that was in hand 21 Thus writeth S. Augustin of this matter whereby you see that the Catholics in those days as we in these did urge those Heretics with the force of this Name Catholic and with the signification and possession thereof on their side importing as they inferred the universality of all Nations professing the Faith of Christ so as they in those days assigned the great universal visible and known Church for the true which Church had been gathered by the Conversion of all Nations whereas the Donatists to flie this Argument were forced to say that the Name Catholic signified only the universality or fulness of Sacraments and consequently in what particular Congregation soever this fulness was sound as in theirs forsooth they pretended it was there was the only true Catholic Church which was a plain shift as you see And is not this the self-same manner of proceeding of all our Sectaries at this day Doth not every one of them brag that their Church only hath the fulness and right use of Sacraments and the true Preaching of God's Word Do not the Lutherans say this Do not the Zuinglians Calvinists Brownists and Puritans Preach the like And do not the Anabaptists and Trinitarians affirm the very same This then was a very shift in the Donatists and so it is in our Protestants 22. After this first running from the Cause S. Augustin sheweth that the Donatists full sore against their wills were brought unto it again by Marcellinus the Tribune appointed by the Emperor to assist in that Conference And whereas the Catholics had given up some days before a large Writing shewing by infinite Testimonies of holy Scriptures that the Church of Christ foretold by his Prophets and instituted by himself could not be any particular Church or Conventicle in Africa or out of Africa but an universal visible and illustrious Church spread over all Nations and with which all Nations converted to Christ should communicate in one The Donatists saith S. Aug. after a long Conference and Council held among themselves did answer this Writing of the Catholics by another large impertinent Writing of theirs but quite from the purpose not answering so much as one Text alleged by the Catholics for this Universality of the Church Non solum saith S. Augustin pertractare sed omnino nec attingere voluerunt The Donatists not only would not handle fully or answer these Testimonies alleged by the Catholics for the Vniversality and extern Majesty of the Church but not so much as touch any one of them 23. And then saith he farther Nec aliquod testimonium in tam prolixa epistola sua proferre ausi sunt de scripturis sanctis quo assererent Ecclesiam partis Donati esse praedictam praenunciatam sicut tam multa Catholici protulerunt pro Ecclesia cui communicant quae incipiens ab Hierusalem toto orbe diffunditur c. Neither durst the Donatists in so large an Epistle of theirs which they gave up bring forth any one Testimony of Holy Scripture whereby they might prove that the particular Church of the part or Faction of Donatus was prophesied or foretold by the said Scriptures whereas the Catholics on the other side brought forth many Scriptures for proof of that Vniversal Church with which they communicate which Church beginning from Hierusalem was spread over all the World. And thus writeth S. Augustin of their dealing in that Point 24. And presently after this he sheweth that they fell to the discussion of a third Point to wit whether the true Catholic Church of Christ to whom he promised those singular Graces and Privileges which the Scripture setteth down should consist of good men only as the Donatists held or of the mixture of good and evil in this Life as the Catholics taught wherein the Donatists thought themselves to have a great advantage First for that it might seem to the simple people there present to be a more pious Opinion to hold that only good men were God's Flock and of his true Church Secondly for that they had many places of Scripture that might seem to favor the same for so saith S. Augustin Illud ostendere tentaverunt prolatis multis testimoniis divinarum scripturarum quod Ecclesia Dei non cum malorum hominum commixtione futura praedicta sit They endeavored to shew by many Testimonies alleged out of holy Scriptures that it was not foretold or prophesied of the Church that she should consist of the mixture of good and evil men c. Behold here how old Heretics abounded also in alleging Scriptures as well as ours at this day but all from the purpose for whatsoever the Donatists alleged out of Scriptures for the sanctity and purity of God's Church it was either to be understood of the triumphant Church in the next Life or of the better part of the Church in this Life to wit such as are not only of the external Body of the Church but also of the Soul as this holy Father speaketh that is to say endued and adorned with all necessary Vertues 25. But on the contrary side when S. Augustin and his Fellow Bishops to prove that Christ's Church in this World consisted both of good and bad alleged those evident Parables of our Saviour used about this matter as that of the Net cast into the Sea that comprehended all kind of Fish both good and bad some to be cast away and some to be used That also of the Barn-floor which had in it both chaff and corn the one to be burned the other to be laid up in God's eternal Granary The other also of corn and cockle permitted to grow in one field to the day of Judgment and of the sheep and goats that live in God's Flock under the self same Shepherds in this World but yet the one to be consumed with everlasting Fire in the end thereof and the other to be taken into eternal Joy. When these Parables I say with many other Testimonies of Scripture had been alleged by the Catholics against the Donatists Heresie it was wonderful to see what shifts deceits and tergiversations they used to avoid the same denying some as invented by Catholics others they sought to avoid by false and crafty Expositions and other such shifts which you may read at large in S. Augustin 26. And for that this may be sufficient for a tast to shew the different manner of proceeding between Catholics and Heretics both