heard Peter preache Christ receaued straightway the holy Ghost Peter himselfe confessed and for his confession hadde the keyes of heauen Math. 16. Zacheus receaued the person of Christ into his house and withal receaued saluation both to him and his whole houshold Luc. 19 What a sinner was Mary which had no lesse in her then vij deuils yet because she set her hart and affectiō vpon that person many sinnes were forgiuen her Luc. 7. The right hand theefe how farre was he from all works of the law yet by faith entred he iustified into Paradise the same day with christ Luc. 23. In like maner although the poore Publicane came to the Church with lesse holines after the law yet went he home to his house more iustified then the Pharisie with all his workes and all by reason of fayth Luc. 18 The parable of the prodigal sonne which was lost yet reuiued agayne Also of the lost groat and of the lost sheepe which went astray and was found againe what do these declare but that which is lost by the lawe to be recouered by faith and grace And how oft doe we reade in the Gospels Thy faith hath saued thee c. Iesus seing their beliefe c. He that beleueth in me I will raise him vp in the last day c. Beleue also in me c. He that beleeueth in me hath euerlasting life c. Without me ye can do nothing c. He that is in me c. He that looueth me c. He that heareth me c. He that abideth in me c. He that receaueth me c. Onles ye eate my flesh and drinke my bloud c. That they may receaue remission of sinnes by their faith in me c. Act. 26. To him al the Prophets giue witnes to haue remission of sinnes whosoeuer beleeueth in his name c. Act. 10. He that beleeueth is baptised Mat. vlt. He that beleueth in me shall do the works that I do greater then these c. And likewise in the writings of S. Paule how often doe we heare the name of Christ almost in euery thirde or fourth line where hee still repeateth In Christo Iesu per Christum Iesum Per Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum c. Qui credunt in ipso c. Omnes qui credunt in eo c. Credentes illo in eum credentes illi in nomen eius in nomine Domini nostri Iesu Christi c. Beleue saith S Paule to the Iaylor in the Lorde Iesus and thou shalt be saued and thy whole house c. Actes 16. Thus then thou seest as the passion of Christ is onely the efficient or personall cause immediate of our saluation so is faith onely the instrumentall or meane cause that maketh the merits of Christ to vs auaileable For as the Passion of Christ serueth to none but such as do beleue so neither doth faith as it is onely a bare qualitie or action in mans minde it self iustifie vnles it be directed to the body of Christ crucified as to his obiect of whom it receueth all his vertue And therfore these ij must alwayes ioyntly concurre together faith and Christ Iesus crucified As for example when the children of Israel were byd of Moses to looke vp to the brasen Serpent neither could the Serpent haue helped them except they had looked vp nor yet their looking vpward haue profited them vnles they had directed their eyes vpon the said Serpent as the only obiect set vp to the same purpose for them to behold So our faith in like case directed to the bodye of Iesus our Sauiour is onely the meanes wherby Christes merits are applied vnto vs and we now iustified before God according to the doctrine of S. Paule who in expresse wordes defining to vs what this faith is and how it iustifieth sayth If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Iesus and beleeue with thy hart that God raised him from death thou shalt be saued c. Rom 10. Besides this what action or qualitie soeuer is in man either hope charitie or any other kinde of faith and beleeuing be it neuer so true except it apprehend this obiect which is the body of Christ the sonne of God it serueth not to iustification And that is the cause why we adde this particle Onely to faith and say that faith Onely in Christ iustifieth vs to exclude all other actions qualyties giftes or works of man from that cause of iustifying for so much as there is no other knowledge nor gift giuen of God to man be it neuer so excellent that can stand before the iudgement of God to iustification or wherevnto any promise of saluation is annexed but onely this faith lookyng vp to the brasen Serpent that is to the body of Christ Iesus for vs crucified As for example when the Turke sayth that he beleeueth in one liuyng God that made heauen earth his beliefe therin is true yet it iustifieth him not because it lacketh the right obiect which is Christ. So when the Iewe saith that he beleeueth in one God maker of heauen and earth and beleeueth also the same God to be omnipotent merciful iust and true of promise and that he hath elected the seede of Abraham true it is that he beleeueth and yet all this serueth him not because Christ the sonne of God is not ioyned to all And though the said Iew should be neuer so deuout in his prayers or charitable in almose or precise in keeping the law beleeued neuer so stedfastly that he is elect to be saued yet he is neuer the neerer to saluation for all this so long as his faith is not grounded vpon y◠head cornerstone which is the person and body of Christ Iesus the true Sauiour After like sort it may be sayd of the Papist when he saith that he is Baptised and beleeueth in the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost three persons and one God and also confesseth Iesus Christ to be the sonne of God which died for our sinnes and rose againe for our righteousnes c. his beleife therin is true indede would saue him if he did stay his saluation in this faith and vpon Christ his Sauiour Onely according to the promise and grace of God and go no farther But that he doth not for neither doth he admit Christ onely to be his perfect Sauiour without the helpe of the patrons heades aduocates and mediatours nor yet permitteth his faith in Christ Onely to be the meanes of his iustification but setteth vp other by meanes as hope charitie sacrifice of the Masse confession penaunce satisfaction merites and pardons supposing thereby to worke his iustification before God contrary to the word of promise to the Gospell of grace to the doctrine of S. Paule whereof we shall see more the Lord willing hereafter And thus much of the
saluation contrary to the working of the holy spirite of God And thus the Church of Rome pretending onely the name of Christ and of his Religion is so farre altered from the truth of that which it pretendeth that vnder the name of Christ it persecuteth both Christ his Religion working more harme to the Church of Christ then euer did the open tirants and persecuting Emperours among the heathen not much vnlike herein to the olde Sinagoge of the Scribes and Phareseis who vnder the name of God crucified the sonne of God and vnder pretence of the law fought against the Gospell and vnder the title of Abrahams children persecuted the childrē of Abraham And as they bragging so highly of the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lorde did in deede destroye the true Temple of the Lord right so these pretensed Catholikes in these dayes after they haue raysed vppe a Catholike Churche of their owne and haue armed the same with lawes and haue gathered vnto them a power of Priestes Prelates Abbats Priors of religious men of Cardinals and also of secular Princes to take their part now vnder the name of the Catholicke Church they persecute the true Catholike church and coloring their procedings still with In nomine Domini most cruelly they put to death which die pro nomine Domini condemning them for heretikes schismatikes and rebles not which deny any part of the creede which they themselues professe nor such whome they can conuince by any Scripture but onely such which will not ioyne wyth their errours and heresies contrary to the honour of God and truth of his worde And lest any should thinke this that we here protest against the corrupt errours manifold deformities of this latter Church of Rome to proceede of any raucor or affection rather then grounded of necessary causes and demōstrations euident my purpose is by the Lordes leaue to take herein some litle paine that as I haue collected a litle before the summe cōtents of S. Paules doctrine where with the old Church of Rome was first seasoned and acquainted so now as in a like summary table to discrye the particular braunches and contents of the Popes doctrine now set foorth to the intent that all true Christian readers comparing the one with the other may discern what great alteration there is betwene the church of Rome that now is and the church of Rome that then was planted by the Apostles in the primitiue time And to the ende to open to the simple reader some waye whereby he may the better iudge in such matters of doctrine not be deceaued in discerning truth from errour first we wil propound certeine principles or general positions as infallible rules or truthes of the Scripture wherby al other doctrines opinions of men being tried and examined as in the touchstone may the more easely be iudged whether they be true or cōtrary whether they make agaynst the scripture or no. ¶ Certeine Principles or generall verities grounded vpon the truth of Gods word ¶ The first principle 1. AS sinne and death came originally by the disobedience of one to all men of his generation by nature so righteousnes and life come originally by the obedience of one to all men regenerated of him by faith Baptisme Rom. 5. ¶ The 2. Principle 2. The promise of God was freely giuen to our first parentes without their deseruing that the seede of a woman should breake the Serpents head Gen. 3. ¶ The 3. Principles 3. Promise was giuen freely to Abraham before he deserued any thing that in his seede all nations should be blessed Gen. 12. ¶ The 4. Principle 4. To the worde of God neither must wee adde nor take from it Deut. 4. ¶ The 5. Principle 5. He that doth the workes of the law shall liue therein Leuit. 18. Gal. 3. ¶ The 6. Principle 6. Accursed is he which abideth not in euery thing that is written in the booke of the law Deut. 27. Gal. 3. ¶ The 7. Principle 7. God onely is to be worshipped Deut. 6. Luc. 4. ¶ The 8. Principle 8. All our righteousnes is like a defiled cloth of a woman Esay 64. ¶ The 9. Principle 9. In all my holy hill they shall not kill nor slay saith the Lord. Esay 11.65 ¶ The 10. Principle 10. God loueth mercy and obedience more then sacrifice Osee. 6.1 Reg. 15. ¶ The 11. Principle 11. The lawe worketh anger condemneth and openeth sinne Rom. 3. ¶ The 12. Principle 12. The end of the law is Christ to righteousnes to euery one that beleueth Rom. 10. ¶ The 13. Principle 13. Whosoeuer beleeueth and is Baptised shall be saued Mat. vlt. ¶ The 14. Principle 14. A man is iustified by faith without workes freely by grace not of our selues Gal. 2. Ephes. 2. ¶ The 15. Principle 15. There is no remission of sinnes without bloud Heb. 9 ¶ The 16. Principle 16. Whatsoeuer is not of faith is sinne Rom. 14. without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. ¶ The 17. Principle 17. One Mediatour betweene God man Christ Iesus 1. Tim. 2. he is the propitiatiō for our sinnes 1. Iohn 2. ¶ The 18. Principle 18. Who soeuer seeketh in the law to be iustified is fallen from grace ¶ The 19. Principle 19. In Christ be all the promises of God Est Amen 2. Cor. 1. ¶ The 20. Principle 20. Let euery soule be subiect to superiour powers gyuyng to Caesar that which is Cesars to God that which is Gods Rom. 13. These principles and infallible rules of the Scripture as no man can denie so if they be granted the doctrine thē of the Popes Church must needes be found not to be Catholike but rather full of errours and heresies as in the sequele folowing remaineth more expressely and particularly by the grace of Christ to be conuinced ¶ Here foloweth a Summary collection of the errours heresies and absurdities conteyned in the popes doctrine contrary to the rules of Gods vvord and the first institution of the Church of Rome Of Faith and Iustification FIrst as touching the onely meanes and instrumentall cause of our iustificatiō wherby the merits of Christes Passiō be applied to vs made ours ye heard before how S. Paule onely ascrybeth the same to faith as appeareth by all his letters especially to the Romanes Where he excluding al kind of works ascribeth al our saluation iustification righteousnes reconciliation and peace with god onely to faith in Christ. Contrary to which doctrine the Pope and his church hath set vp diuers and sondry other meanes of their owne deuising whereby the merites of Christes passion they saye are applyed to vs and made ours to the putting away of sinnes and for our iustification as hope charitie sacrifice of the Masse auricular confession satisfacion merits of Saintes and holy orders the
in an other worke of free iustification by grace And extenuated merits saying that they are no causes efficient of our saluation but onely sine qua non that is to say that workes be no cause of our iustification but yet our iustificatiō goeth not without them For the which his doctrine most sound and Catholicke he was condemned by the Pope an 1324. by the Popes decree extrauagant cap. Licet intra doctrinam Concerning the which man and his doctrine I thought good thus much to commit to history to the entent men may see that they which charge this doctrine now taught in the Church with the note of noueltye or newnes how iguoraunt and vnskilfull they be in the historyes and order of times fore past In the same part of condemnation at the same tyme also was Ioannes de Gunduno an 1330. and contayned also in the foresayd Extrauagāt with Marsilius Patauinus Whiche Ioannes wrote much vpon Aristotle and Auerrois and are yet remayning And no doubt but he wrote also of diuinity but not vnlike that these workes haue bene abolished In the same number and cataloge commeth also Guillermus Ockam who was in the yeare of our Lord 1326. as is afore mentioned pag. 375. and wrote likewise in defence of Ludouicus the Emperour agaynst the Pope and also in defence of Michael Generall of Grayfriers whom the Pope had excommunicated cursed for an hereticke Diuers treatises were by the sayd Ockam set forth whereof some are extant and in print as his questions distinctions some are extinct and suppressed as Ascentius reporteth quoòd essent aliquando asperiora Some againe be published vnder no name of the author being of his doing as the dialogue betwene the souldiour and the clarke wherin it is to be coniected what bookes and workes this Ockam had collected agaynst the Pope Of this Ockā Iohn Sledane in his history inferreth mention to his great cōmendation whose wordes be these William Ockam in time of Ludouicus 4. Emperor did florish about the yere of our Lord 1326. Who among other thinges wrote of the authority of the Bishop of Rome In the which booke he handleth these 8. questions very copiously whether both the administrations of the Bishops office and of the Emperors may be in one man 2. Whether the Emperour taketh his power and authority onely of God or els of the Pope 3. Whether the Pope and Church of Rome haue power by Christ to set and place kinges and Emperors and to commit to them theyr iurisdiction to be exercised 4. Whether the Emperor being elected hath full authority vpon the sayd his election to administer his Empire 5. Whether other kinges besides the Emperor and King of Romaines in that they are consecrated of priestes receiue of thē any part of their power 6. Whether the sayd kings in any case be subiect to their cōsecrators 7. Whether if the sayd kings should admit any newe sacrifice or should take to themselues the Diadeine without any further consecration they shoulde thereby lose their kingly right and title 8. Whether the seuen princes electors geue as much to the election of the Emperour as succession rightfull geueth to other kings Upon these questions he disputeth and argueth with sundry arguments and sundry reasons on bothe sides at length decideth the matter on the parte of the ciuil magistrate and by occasion therof entreth into the mention of the Popes decrees Extrauagant declaring how litle force or regard is to be geuen therunto Trithemius maketh mention of one Gregorius Ariminensis a learned a famous and right godly man who not much differing from the age of this Ockam about the yeare of our Lorde 1350. Disputed in the same doctrine of grace and free will as we doe nowe and dissented therein from the Papistes and Sophisters counting them woorse then Pelagians Of the like iudgement and in the same time was also Andreas de Castro as apeareth super lit 1. Sentent dist 45. and Burdianus vppon the Ethiques of Aristotle which both maintained the grace of that gospel as is now in the church receiued aboue 200. yeres since And what should I speake of the Duke of Burgundy named Eudo who at the same time An. 1350. disswaded the French king not to receiue in hys land the new founde cōstitutions decretall Extrauagant within his realme whose sage counsail then geuen yet remaineth among the French kings records as witnesseth Charol Molinaeus Dante 's an Italian wryter a Florentine lyued in the time of Ludouicus themperour about the yere of our lord 1300. and tooke his parte with Marsilius Patauinus against three sortes of men which he sayd were enemyes to the truth That is the pope Secondly the order of religious men which count thēselues the children of the church whē they are that children of the deuil their father Thirdly the Doctors of decrees and decretals Certain of his wrytings be extant abroad wherein he prooueth the Pope not to be aboue the Emperour nor to baue any right or iurisdiction in the Empire He cōfuteth the Donation of Constantine to be a forged and a fained thing as which neither did stande with any lawe or right For the which he was taken of many for an hereticke He complaineth moreouer very much the preaching of Gods worde to be omitted and in stede thereof the vaine fables of monkes and friers to be preached and beleued of the people and so the flock of Christ to be fed not with the foode of the Gospell but wyth winde The Pope sayeth he of a pastor is made a wolfe to wast the church of Christ and to procure with his Clergie not the word of God to be preached but his own Decrees In his canticle of purgatory he declareth the Pope to be the whore of Babylon And to her ministers to some hee applieth 2. hornes to some 4. As to the Patriarches whō he noteth to be the tower of the sayd whore Babilonicall Ex libris Dante 's Italice Hereunto may be added the saying out of the booke of Iornandus unprinted with the foresaid Dante 's that forsomuch as Antichrist commeth not before the destruction of the Empire therefore such as go about to haue the Empire extinct are forrunners and messengers in so doing of Antichrist Therfore let the Romaines sayth he and their Byshops beware least their sinnes and wickednes so deseruing by the iust iudgement of God the priesthood be taken from them Furthermore let all the prelates and princes of Germany take hede c. And because our aduersaries which obiecte to vs the newnes of our doctrine shall see the course and fourme of this religion now receaued not to haue ben eyther such a newe thing nowe or a thing so straunge in times past I will adde to these aboue recited master Taulerus a preacher of Argentine in Germany An. 1350. Who contrary to the Popes proceedings taught openly against al mennes merites
the obiection before moued Ex Concil Calced cap. 28. Certayne demaundes for the Papistes to answere vnto An argument prouing the Popes of this latter Church of Rome not to be successours of Peter A false consequent of the Papistes Aunswere to this consequent Succession Apostolicall double wise to be considered Testimonies alledged for the principalitie of the Pope Aunswere by a distinction Caput and Princeps haue a double vnderstanding How Peter is Princeps Apostolorum Princeps eloqueÌ„tiae Cicero Princeps Philosophorum Cratippus Petrus Princeps Coryphaeus Apostolorum Causes 13. of aduauncing the sea of Rome This latter Church of Rome differing from the first Church of Rome in forme of gouernement Howe the Church of Christ ought to be gouerned Preposterous gouernement of the Church by the pope A comparisoÌ„ betwene the kingdom of this world and the kingdome of the Pope Seculer Nobillitie compared with ecclesiasticall Nobâ—lâ—tie Ciuile Magistrates coâ—pared with Ecclesiasticall Officers of the temperall court compared with the officers of the spirâ—tuall Court Glory coÌ„pared Power coÌ„pared Richâ—s compared Subtletie compared The difference betweene the Popes regiment and the order of the primitiue Church 2. Cor. 10. Ephes. 6. 1. Tim. 1. The armour proper to Churchmen Horrible abuse of excommunication in the Popes Church The Popes gouerning in matters to them not pertayning The corrupt doctrine of the Popes Church examined and detected The false image of the Popes Church No comfort nor saluation in the Popes doctrine now taught The scope and summe of the Pope doctrine whether it tendeth Papistes neuer lightly afflicted in conscience deepely An horrible thing to thinke of God without Christ. Luther The right fayth of the olde Romanes Cornelius a Romane first baptised of all the Gentiles The church of Rome hath lost the liquor wherewith it was first seasoned The Galathians almost gone froÌ„ fayth in Sainct Paules time 1. Tim. 4. A briefe suÌ„me of S. Paules doctrine deliuered to the Gentiles Saluation by mercy onely and not by merites All fleshe concluded vnder sinne Difference betweene the law and the gospell Iusticia dei Iusticia propria The righteousnesse of God and the righteousnes of man howe they differ in Scripture A true christian knoweth nothing but Christ crucified All men condemned by one All men saued by one Originall sinne originall iustice Rom. 5. Ephes. 2. Itaque iam non es seruus sed filius Gal. 4. Heb. 4. 1. Cor. 3. The glorious state of Christian libertie and spirituall freedome in Christ Iesu. Gal. 4. Colos. 2. Dayes and tymes indifferent Meates indifferent with thaÌ„ksgeuing Mariage lawfull for all men One sacrifice for sinne no more Heb. 9. The vse of the holye communion in auncient tyme of the primitiue church No mo Sacramentes mentioned in S. Paule but the Lordes supper and baptisme The authoritie and office of the ciuill Magistrates The office and aucthoritie of Byshops how farre it doth extend An other brief recapitulation of S. Paules doctrine reduced to fiue poynts Iohn 3. The great mercy of God in Christ. Rom. 5. 2. Cor. 5. Ephes. 2. Rom. 4. Tit. 3. The glory and Maiestye of Christ Iesus set forth in Sainct Paule Ephes. 4. Phil. 2. Colos. 1. Iohn 5. Iohn 13. Iohn 17. Math. vlt. 2. Cor. 1. The 3. braunch The vertue and effect of Christs death and what exceeding benefites proceede thereof Ephes. 1. Esay 53. Collos. 1. Rom. 5. 2. Timo. 1. Heb. 2. Rom. 5. Gal. 3. Ephes. 2. 1. Iohn 2. 2. Cor. 5. 1. Cor. 1. Ephes 3. Collos. 2. Rom. 4. Colos. 2. The fourth braunch Fayth onely the meane cause of saluation and nothing els Phil. 3. The righteousnes of the law The righteousnesse of the gospell Rom. 9. The places of S. Paul Rom. 3. expounded Rom. 3. The righteousnesse of fayth why it is called Gods righteousnes Rom. 3. A lesson out of S. Paules doctrine of all Christians to be obserued Rom. 9. Act. 10. Saluation commeth onely by fayth Math. 16. Luke 19. Luc. 7. Luc. 23. Luc. 28. That which is lost by the law is recouered by fayth Luc. 18. Math. 9. Iohn 14. Iohn 14. Iohn 15. Iohn 6. Act. 26. Act. 10. Mat. vlt. Iohn 14. The writinges of S. Paule full of the name of Christ Iesus Belief onely in Christ saueth Act. 16. The personall cause of saluation The instrumentall cause How fayth iustifieth Christ the onely obiect of faith which iustifieth Example of the brason Serpent What fayth is by Sainct Paule Rom. 10. Faith onely Diuers sorts of beleuing The Turkes fayth The Iewes fayth Euery truth may be beleued but the beleuing of euery trueth saueth not The Papists fayth Onely Hope and charitie be no partes of our iustification nor causes to make the merites of Christ ours The causes of our saluation distincted The causes of our saluation distincted Grace and mercy Election Vocation Christes passion Christian fayth The meaning and cause why fayth onely iustifieth All workes of man excluded from the glory of iustifiyng Ephes. 2. Tit. 3. 2. Timot. 1 Gal. 2. Rom. 4. The exclusiues and negatiues of S. Paule to be marked The fift braunch The true vse and end of good workes Good workes iustifie not but follow the iustified Luke 17. Fayth iustifieth three manner of wayes The office of fayth and the office of the law compared together The workes of man be imparfect and therefore haue nothing to doe with iustification Gal. 2. Deffection of fayth in the Church of Rome A vew of the Popes Catholicke Church The Church of Rome degenerated agayne almost to new paganisme The Popes Church onely in wordes Catholicke in deed heathenish The Religion of the Popes Church proceedeth contrary to the working of the holy Ghost The Church of Rome pretentendeth a fayre face of Religion but is voyd of the efâ—ect therof The old Phariseis and the latter Church of Romanes compared together The Popes Church vnder the name of the Catholicke Church persecuteth the true Catholicke Church of Christ. Contayne generall principles and rules gathered of the scriptures Gene 3. Gen. 12. Deut. 4. Leuit. 18. Gal. 3. Deut. 27. Gal. 3. Deut. 6. Luc. 4. Esay 64. Esay 11.65 Osee. 6. 1. Reg. 15. Rom. 3. Rom. 10. Math. vlt. Gal. 2. Ephes. 2. Heb. 9. Rom. 14. Heb. 11. 1. Tim. 1. 1. Iohn 2. Gal. 5. 2. Cor. 1. Rom. 13. The errours hereâ—ies and absurdities in the popes doctrine The meanes of applying Christes merites vnto vs by the Popes doctrine The taking away of this Article of fayth onely to iustifie is the roote of great inconuenience in Christes Church No heresie to be coÌ„pared to the heresie of Papistes The first inconuenieÌ„ce No condition limitted of God to man for saluation but one Hieroni. in Epist. ad Gal. cap. 1. The 2. incoÌ„uenience What hurt commeth into the Church by taking away the Article of iustification The third inconuenience Obiection of the Papistes aunswered The Papistes doe teach the mercye of God to be vncertayne Mercy of God made certayne by
true causes of our iustification after the doctrine of S. Paule Concerning which causes this distinctioÌ„ furthermore by the way is to be added that as touching the originall causes of our saluation which be diuers and sondry some are externall without vs some are internall and within vs. Of the external causes which are without vs the first and principal is the mercy grace of god Of this foloweth predestination and election TheÌ„ coÌ„meth vocation The last and next cause to vs is the deth and bloudshed of christ wherby we are redemed al these be external causes because they are without vs. Of internall causes that be in man through the gift of God there is but one no mo in scripture apointed that is out faith in Christ which is the gift of God in vs. Beside this there is no gift of God giuen to man vertue work merite nor any thing els that is any part or cause of saluation but only this gyft of fayth to beleeue in Christ Iesu. And this is the cause why we hold that faith onely iustifieth meanyng that amongst all the workes deedes actions labours and operations whatsoeuer man doth or can doe there is nothing in that man that worketh saluation but onely his fayth gyuen to hym of God to beleeue in Christ his sonne following therein the trade of S. Paules teaching who in precise wordes so ascribeth iustification to fayth that he excludeth all other actions of man works of the law And therefore in the same Epystle to the Romanes S. Paule resoning of the glory of iustifiyng asketh this question how this glory is excluded whether by the law of works and concludeth no ascribing onely the glory thereof to the law of faith And consequently vppon the same he inferreth Colligimus enim iustificari hominem per fidem sine operibus legis We hold that a man is iustified by faith without the deedes of the law And how then can that he accounted for any part of our iustification which S. Paule vtterly debarreth and excludeth in that behalfe of which like exclusiues and negatiues the whole course of S. Paules doctrine is full where he still concludeth Sine operibus absque operibus legis non exoperibus Dei donum est non ex operibus ne quis sed secunduÌ„ misericordiaÌ„ glorietur Ephe 2. Non ex operibus iustitiae quae fecimus nos sed secunduÌ„ propositsi suum gratiâ—m c. Titi. 3. Non secundum opera nostra c. Timot 1. That is to say It is the gift of God not of works that no maÌ„ should glory c. Not of the workes of righteousnes which we haue done but of his own mercy c. Not after our workes but after his owne purpose grace which is giuen to vs c. Agayne Gal 2. Non iustificatur homo ex operibus c. That is A man is not iustified by works c. Item Ei qui non operatur credenti auteÌ„ in euÌ„ qui iustificat impium fides imputatur ad iustitiam c. Rom. 4. To him that worketh not but beleeueth in him which iustifieth the wicked his faith is imputed to righteousnes c. By these exclusiues and negatiues in Sainct Paules doctrine what doth he els meane but vtterly to seclude all kinde of mans merits and works of the law from the office dignitie of iustifying And although he expresseth not the word Onely yet vpon his exclusiues and negatiues this exceptiue must needes be inferred For in all Logike the coÌ„nsequent is necessary and formall as one man is suffered to come into the house and no person els is suffered but one Ergo one man only is suffered to enter into the housé And thus much concerning faith in Christ prooued to be the onely meane or instrumentall or conditionall cause of our saluation and no other besides the same alone by the doctrine of S. Paule taught to the ancient Romanes 5. The fift branch which I note in S. Paules doctrine is this that after he hath thus established vs in certeinty of our saluation through faith in Christ then after that he exhorteth vs vehemently and with all instaunce of good workes shewing the true vse and ende of good workes which is first to shewe our obedience and dutifull seruice as we may vnto God who hath done so great thinges for vs. Secondly to relieue our neighbours with our charitie and kindes as God hath bene kinde to vs his enimies Thirdly to stirre vp other by our example to praise God to embrace the same Religion to do the like For requisite it is that as God hath bene so merciful to vs and gratious in eternal giftes we should be merciful likewise to other in temporall coÌ„modities And seeing it hath pleased him of his fatherly goodnes of our partes so litle deserued to call vs to so high a vocation to giue the bloud of his sonne for vs to forgiue vs al our sinnes to deliuer vs from this present wicked worlde to make vs Citizens of heauen yea his children more then seruaunts little then can we doe and well may we thinke those benefites ill bestowed if we forgiue not our neigbours and shewe some thing againe worthy that holy calling wherewith he hath called vs in mortifying our worldly lustes here studying after heauenly things and finally if we being prouoked with such loue kindnes reder not againe some loue for loue some kindnes for kindnes seeking how to walke in the steps which he hath prepared for vs to walke in seruing him so much as we may in holines righteousnes all the daies of our life And though our obedience shall alwaies be imperfect doe the best we can yet reason would that some obedience we should shew as louing children to such a louing father And this is the cause why S. Paule is so vehement vrgent to call vpon good workes not that workes should iustifie but that we being iustified so mercifully tenderly through his grace should not abuse his grace in vayne but endeuour our selues to our vttermost to render our seruice againe to him in such conuersation of life as may most make to his glorye and profite of our neighbour And though the words of our sauiour seme in some places to attribute to our obedience and charitie here in earth great rewards in heauen that is of his owne free grace goodnes so to impute small matters for great deserts and not for vs to claime any meede thereby or thanke at hys hande as by any worthines of our dooings no more then the seruaunt when he commeth from the plough and seruing the cattell in the field serueth first his master at home and waiteth vpon his table the master is not bound saith Christ to thanke his seruaunt therefore and bid him sit downe So you saith he when you haue done that is coÌ„manmanded you say ye
hys owne promises Saluation standeth sure and certayne by Gods promise The place of S. Paule Rom. 4. expounded The 4. inconuenience The 4. principle aboue recited broken Ex Lindano in Epitome doctrinae Euangelicae The first errour of the Papistes touching good workes Hosius in 2. tom confessionis Cap. 1. The second errour of the Papistes in the doctrine of good workes Fayth the roote and cause of good workes Workes are not to be called good but by reason of fayth The office of fayth to iustifie The effect of fayth to bring forth good workes Fides per dilectioneÌ„ operans Gal. 5. The 3. errour of the Papistes touching the end of the law good works The end of the law and good workes peruerted Thom. Aquinas Hosius in 2. tom conses Cap. 1. The diuers opinions of their Catholicke Papistes how faith iustifieth The Popes doctrine agaynst the principles of Scripture The 4. errour of the Papistes touching the imperfection of man in satisfiyng the perfection of the law Agaynst the pâ—inciples of Scripture Precepteâ— and Counsayles Workes of supererogation Mens traditions preferred before the workes of Gods law Agaynst the principle of Scripture Erroneous doctrine of the latter Church of Rome concerning 〈◊〉 Original sinne 〈◊〉 it is Fomes peccati Concupiscentia Original sinne â—â—â—nuated False doctrine of the latter Church of Rome touching penaunce Contrition Confession Satisfaction True doctrine of repentaunce by the scripture Partes of repentance 1. Contrition 2. Fayth 3. New obedience The blinde ignoraunce of the popes Church in not distincting the law from the Gospel A Babilonicall confusion in the Popes doctrine What difference the Papistes put betwene Moses and Christ. Papistes make the Gospell a new law Papistes deuide the law into the law of nature the law of Moses and the lawe of Christ. The Popes Churche blinde in the office of Christ. The time of the law and time of the Gospell distincted Malediction of the law ceaseth in Christ. The vse of the law remayneth Christ and the law can not raygne together Ephes. 4. The power of the law is for a time The power of Christ is eternall Rom. 8. Colos. 2. The malediction of the law geueth place to Christ. The curse of the law is crucified and shall neuer rise agayne Rom. 7. Rom. 6. To be vnder the law and vnder grace expounded What is to be vnder grace Psal. 31. Act. 10. One remedy for remission of sins and no more Auriculer confession no remedy for remission of sinnes Remission of sinnes standeth vpon a generall cause and not particular The law crucifieâ— by Christ. 〈◊〉 meaneth Obiection Aunsâ—â—â— The cause of remission eueâ— one and perpetuall The promise of remission euer perpetuall Remission of sinnes freely promised without limitation of time or number The meanes whereby remission is promised is onely fayth The wordes of promise free and absolute Act. 10. Mans infirmitie impayreth not the grace of Christ but augmenteth it 2. Cor. 12. Rom. 5. Foure thinges concurre in remissioÌ„ of sinnes The Popes errours touching remission of sinnes detected What inconuenience riseth for Jacke of distinction betweene the law and the Gospell Erroneous doctrine of the papistes concerning free will Meritum de congruo Meritum de incongruo False doctrine concerning inuocation Mediator of intercession Mediator of saluation Christ a continuall Mediator by the doctrine of S. Paule Rom. 8. Christ onely being our Mediator of saluation what needeth any other Mediation of Sainctes Saluation falsely attributed to the blessed Virgine Idolatrous adoration of Reliques and Sacramentes Prophanation of the Lordes Supper False mâ—lting by Masses False doctrine touching Sacramentes The number Caâ—â—e finall The operation The application of Sacramentâ— Errours and abuses in Baptisme Baptising of Belles False doctrine of the Popes Churche concerning the Lordes Supper Idolatry coÌ„mitted to the Sacrament The Sacrament turned to an Idole ChauÌ„ging Worshiping Offering Eating Burning the body of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar Absurdities and errours of the popes Churche touching Matrimony 1. Cor. 7. 1. Tim. 3. 1. Tim. 4. Leuit. 18. Single life be it neuer so impure preferred before Matrimony The third part of christendome stopt by the Popes law to marry the Popes doctrine agaynst Priestes maryage and their Children The third part of the yeare exempted froÌ„ the mariage Mariage within the fift or sixt degree by the Popes law Gossippes inhibited to marry by the Popes law What inconueniences come by restrayning of mariage The corrupt doctrine of the Popes Churche concerning ciuile rulers and magistrates Rom. 13. The Phantasies and Antiques of the popes Churche concerning Purgatory Ex Thom. Mono alijs Manifest defection of the Popes Church from the olde fayth of Rome Contrarietie betweene the Religion of Christ and of the Pope briefly noted Christes doctrine is wholly spirituall No outward thing is required in Christes doctrine to make a Christen man but onely Baptisme and the Lordes Supper All doctrine of the Pope standeth onely in outward things A Christen man defined after the Popes doctrine Corporall exercise serueth to small profite Two thinges in this history chiefly to be noted The world The kingdome of Christ in this world The visible Church The Church of Christ deuided in two sortes of people Euseb. Lib. 1. cap. 1. Gods punishment for refusing the Gospel Tiberius Casar moueth the Senate to haue Christ receaued Christ refused of the Senate of Rome The vayne cause why the Senate of Rome refused Christ. Tertul. Apol. cap. 5. Euseb. lib. 2. cap. 3. The Senate and Citie of Rome plagued for refusing of Christ. Ex Suet. in vitae Tiberij Christ suffereth and riseth agayne An. 34. Sainct Paul conuerted An. 35. An. 39. Caesar. Caligula Caligula commaunded hys image to be set vp in the Temple of Hierusalem The abhomination of desolation standing in the holye place Herode miserably dyed in banishment Gayphas deposed An. 43. Ex Gotfrido Viterbiensi part 25 Claudius Nero. An. 56. Domitius Nero. The horrible wickednes and crueltie of Nero. Peter and Paule suffered for Christ. An. 69. Vespasian Emperour and Titus his sonne The destruction of the Iewes A note for all Realmes to marke The Romanes in contemning Christ punished by their owne Emperours Examples of the 〈◊〉 plague of God vpon the Romaine Emperours persecuting and resisting Christ till the time of Constantine Tiberius 〈…〉 Neâ—â— Galbe Ottho Vitelius Titus Domitian Commedus Pertinax Iulianas Seueras Gera. Bassianus Macrinus Deadâ—nerus Helagabâ—lus Alexande Seuerus Maximinus Maximus Barbinus Gordianus Philippus Decius Gallus Volusianus Aemilianus Varelianus Galienus Aurelianus Tacitus Florinus Probus Carus Dioclesianus Maximianus Galerius Maximinus Maxentius Licinius Brittaines Gildas Wickliefe and hys bookes condemned and brent for an heriticke after hys death Gods benefites toward England A caueat for England S. Steuen the first ring leader of all Christes Martyrs S Iames the Apostle brother of Iohn Martyred Act. 12. Hist. Eccle. lib. 2. cap. 9. Ex clemente Septimae Hypolyposeon A notable conuersion of a
Turkes or Infidels or in their doctrine were any Idolatrous impitie or detestable iniquitie in their liues if they went about any deadly destruction or priuy conspiracies to oppresse your liues or by fraudulent dealing to circuÌ„uent you then had you some cause to coÌ„plaine and also to reuenge Now seing in their doctrine ye haue neyther blasphemy idolatry superstition nor misbeliefe to obiect vnto them seing they are baptised in the same beliefe and beleue the same articles of the Crede as ye do hauing the same God the same Christ sauiour the same baptisme and are ready â—s conâ—erre with you in all kinde of Christen doctrine neyther do refuse to be tryed by any place of the scripture how then riseth this mortall malice of you agaynst them If you thinke them to be herâ—tickes then bring forth if ye can any one sentence which they arrogantly hold contrary to the minde of holy scripture expounded by the censure of most auncient Doctours Or what is there in all yâ— scripture to be required but they acknowledge confesse the same See try the order of their liues doinges what great fault find you They serue God they walke vnder his feare they obey his law as men may do and though they be transgressors toward him as other men are yet toward you what haue they done what haue they committed or deserued why you should be so bitter agaynst them What offended the poore habitants of Merindal Cabriers when the bishop of Aix the Cardinall of Turon and other Bishops of France wrasting from Fraunces the French king a commission sent Menâ—rius with his Captayne Iohn de Gay to destroy theyr countrey an 1530. who driuing the poore people there into a barn ful of straw set the barn on fire burned vp men women and children And likewise in a church exercised the like crueltie vpon them where were murdered the same time to the number of a thousand yong and old women children and yong infants besides vii whole townes with the most part of the dwellers thering being murdered burnt in the sayd country of ProueÌ„ce Also before that what offended the Cittizens of Tholouse and Auinion when Pope Gregory the ix set Lewes the French king to warre agaynst them and agaynst Raymundus their Earle without cause where also the sayd kyng died at the siege Or to speake of later yeres what hurt or harme did the poore Protestantes in the towne of Uassy who peaceably being at a Sermon were miserably slayne and cut men women and children by the Duke of Guyes and hys armed souldiours besides other infinite examples almost not to be numbred of like crueltie in Calabria Apulia Bohemia Fraunce and now of late in Flaunders and in other countryes moe But to let other countryes passe let vs turne now to the peaceable gouernment in this realme of England vnder this our so milde gracious Queene now presently reigning Under whome you see howe gently you are suffered what mercy is shewed vnto you how quietly ye liue What lacke you that you woulde haue hauing almost the best rowmes and offices in all the realme not onely without any losse of lyfe but also without anye feare of death And though a few of your Archâ—lerkes be in custody yet in that custody so shrewdly are they hurt that many a good Protestant in the realme would be glad with all their hartes to chaunge rowmes and dyet with them if they might And albeit some other for their pleasure haue slipt ouer the seas if their courage to see countries abroade did so allure them who coulde let them yet this is certayne no dreade there was of death that draue them For what papist haue you seen in all this land to lose eyther life or limme for papistry during al these xii yeares hetherto since this Queenes reigne And yet all this notwithstaÌ„ding hauing no cause to complayne so many causes to geue God thaÌ„ks ye are not yet content ye fret and fume ye grudge and mutter and are not pleased with peace nor satisfied with safety but hope for a day and fayne would haue a chaunge And to preuent your desired day ye haue conspired and rise vpp in open rebellion agaynst your Prince whom the Lord hath set vp to be your gouernour And as you haue since that nowe of late disturbed the quiet and peaceable state of Scotland in murdering most trayterously the gentle and godly Regent of Scotland who in sparing the Queenes life there when he had her in his handes hath now therfore lost his own so with like fury as by your rebellion appeareth would disturbe the golden quiet and tranquilitie of this Realme of England if ye might haue your willes Which the mercifull grace of almightie for Christ his sonnes sake our Lord forfend and vtterly disapoynt Amen Wherfore these premises coÌ„sidered my question is to aske of you know what iust or reasonable cause ye haue of these your vnreasonable doinges of this your so mortall and deadly hatred fury and malice you beare agaynst these your euenchristened of these your tumultes coniurations gaping and hoping rebellions mutteringes murders wherewith you trouble and disquiet the whole world Of all which mischiefes if the true cause were well known the truth would be found doubtles to be none other but onely the priuate cause of the Bishop of Rome that he is not receiued and the dignity of his Church exalted Touching which cause how vnreasonable and vniust it is more shal be sayd the Lord willing in reply according as I shal see theyr answere if it shall so please theÌ„ or any of theÌ„ to answere this question In the meane time this for a briefe note shall suffice that it standeth not with the scripture but contrary to the scripture that the Bishop of Rome should so reuenge his owne priuate cause If his title plantatioÌ„ be good of God why doth he not refer it vnto god And no doubt but if it be so God will maintein it though the whole world sayd no. If it be otherwise it will fall be rooted out though all the world sayd yea yea the greatest argument to proue this plantation of the Popes supremacy not to be of God is that the Pope fighting in his owne priuate cause by outward worldly force seeketh his owne glory Christ our sauior being here refused himselfe yet neither reuenged his cause nor sought his owne glory but only the glory will of his father thus speaking of himself Si ego glorifico meipsuÌ„ gloria mea nihil est pater meus est qui glorificat me c. Ioan. 8. i. If I glorify my selfe my glory is nothing my father is he that glorifyeth me c. Euen so I saye with scripture that if the Popes procâ—edings were planted of God he would not so wrastle for his glory as â—e doth But forsomuch as he seeketh by such cruelty and bloudshed to exalt himselfe
no doubt is preferred aboue the Apostles and aboue Cephas also Moreouer as the dignitie of the wife is aboue the seruant so must needes the honour and worthines of the Churche being the spouse of Christ surmount the state of Peter or other Apostles which be but seruants to Christ and to the Churche yea and though they were Princes of the Church yet after the minde of Baldus Magis attenditur persona intellectualis quà m organica Otherwise if by this word charge he ment only the office and diligence of teaching to that I aunswere The same Lord that sayde to Peter feede my sheepe said also to the other go preach this Gospell to al nations And he that said to Peter what soeuer thou loosest said also to the other whatsoeuer ye remit in the earth Moreouer if the matter goe by preaching Paul the Apostle laboured more therin then euer did Peter by his owne confession Plus laboraui also suffered more for the same Plus sustinui neither was his doctrine lesse sound Yea and in one point he went before Peter was teacher and schoolmaister vnto Peter whereas Peter was by him iustly corrected Gal. 2. Furthermore teaching is not always nor in all things a point of maistership but sometime a point of seruice As if a Frenchman should be put to an Englishman to teach him French although he excelleth him in that kind of facultie yet it followeth not therefore that he hath fulnes of power vpō him to appoint his diet to rule his houshold to prescribe his lawes to stinte his lands and such other Wherfore seing in trauail in teaching in paines of preaching in gifts of tongs in largenes of commission in operation of miracles in grace of vocation in receauing the holy Ghost in vehemencie of tormentes and death for Christes name the other Apostles were nothing inferiour to Peter Why Peter then should claime any special prerogatiue aboue the rest I vnderstād no cause As in deed he neuer claimed any but the patrons of the Apostolicall sea do claime it for him which he neuer claimed himself neither if he were here would no lesse abhorre it with soule and conscience then we do now yet our abhorring now is not for any malice of person or any vantage to our selues but only the vehemencie of truth zeale to Christ and to his congregation Moreouer if these men would needes haue Peter to be the Curate and ouersear of the whole vniuersall Church which was too much for one man to take charge vpon and to be Prince of al other Apostles then would I faine learne of them what meaneth Dextrae societatis the right hand of societie betwene Peter Paul Barnabie mentioned Gal. 2. What taking of hands is there betwene subiects their Prince in way of fellowship Or where fellowship is what maistership is there Or againe what state of maistership is it like that Christ would geue to Peter who beyng in deede maister of all tooke such little maistership vpon himselfe and that not only in inward affection but also in outward fact Although I am not ignorant that Peter in places of the Gospell hath his commendation neither doe I denie Peter to bee worthy of the same But yet these wordes of commendation geue to him no state of superioritie or iurisdiction vpon all other to haue all vnder his subiection As if a Schoolemaister should haue more special charge to some one of his scholers for his riper towardnes yet this geueth him no fulnes of authoritie or power coactiue vpō the rest vnlesse by special admission he be deputed therunto Whereof nothing can be gathered of Peter for if it bee true that S. Augustine saith that such things as were spokē to Peter haue no lightsome vnderstanding except they be referred to the church wherof Peter did beare a figure thē hath the person of Peter nothing to claime by these woordes but all redoūdeth to the church which being ment by Peter hath power by this reason both ouer the person of Peter and all other persons in the Lord. But here stumbleth in an argument of our aduersarie againe which he in the margent of his book calleth an inuincible argument drawen out of the bowels of S. Iohn Chrisostome Lib. 2. De Sacerd. Wherby he supposeth to haue giuen a shrewd blow to the Protestants and to haue gotten Hectors victory vpon a certaine English prisoner taken in plain field and of all such as take his part The text onely of Chrysostome he reciteth but maketh no argument albeit he maketh mention of an inuincible argumēt in the margent But because he either wist not or list not to shew his cunning therein I wil forme that in argumēt for him which he would haue done but did not and so will forme it the Lord willing as he himselfe must of necessitie bee driuen to do if the matter euer come to the triall of act and not to the trifling of wordes First he taketh his text out of Chrysostome as followeth for what cause I pray you did Christ shed his bloud Truely to redeeme those sheep whose charge he committeth to Peter and to Peters successours Upon this place of Chrysostome this Clarke taketh his medium Christes suffring His conclusion is that all which Christ died for were committed to Peter Wherfore the forme of the argument must needes stand thus in the third figure Christ suffred for all men Christ suffered for them whome hee committed to Peter Ergo All that Christ dyed for were committed to Peter If this be the forme of his insoluble argument as it seemeth to be by the order of his reasoning also must needs be taking that medium and making that conclusion as he doth for els in the first figure and first moode the text of Chrisostome will not serue him then must the forme and violence of this inexpugnable argumēt be denied for that it breaketh the rules of Logike making his conclusiō vniuersall which in that figure must needes be perticular either affirmatiue or negatiue And so this argument inuincible falleth into one of these two straites either cōcluding thus the forme wil not serue him or cōcluding in another figure the wordes of Chrysostome will not aunswer to his purpose to proue that all the world was committed to Peter Which proposition as it is strange in scripture so neither is it the proposition of Chrysostome And though it were yet both without inconuenience might be graunted of vs and being graunted serueth his purpose nothing so long as the proposition is not exceptiue excluding other Apostles For the words of Chrysostom do not so sound that the whole world was committed to Peter onely and to none other Likewise then as it may be well affirmed of vs that the world was committed to Peter so can it not be denied of them that the world was also committed to Iohn Iames Bartholomew Paul Barnabe and other all and
with vij or viij heynous crimes as blasphemy Idolatry heresie superstition absurditie vanitie crueltie and contrarietie as which neither agreeth with the old learning of their forelders nor yet with thēselues in sundry points yet after a more temperate sort to passe this matter wyth them these ij things I will dare boldly affirme that in this doctrine of the Pope nowe taught in the Church of Rome is neither any consolation of conscience nor saluation of mans soule For seeing there is no life nor soule health but onely in Christ nor any promise of saluation or comfort made but only by faith in the sonne of God what assurance then can there be of perfect peace life or saluatiō where that which onely maketh all is least made of and other things which make least are most esteemed For to say the simple truth what els is the whole course and body of the popes law now set foorth but a doctrine of laws a heape of ceremonies a teaching of traditions a meditation of merites a foundation of new Religions al which conferre not one iote to the iustification of our soules before the terrible iudgement of God And therefore as it may be truely saide this doctrine of the Pope to be voyd of all true comfort and saluation so likewise it seemeth that these which addict themselues so deuoutly to the popes learning were neuer earnestly afflicted in conscience neuer humbled in spirite nor broken in hart neuer entred into any serious feeling of Gods iudgement nor euer felt the strength of the law of death For if they had they shoulde soone haue seene their owne weakenes and be driuen to Christ then should they haue seene what a horrible thing it is to appeare before GOD the father or once to thinke on him as Luther saith without christ And on the contrarye side then shoulde they know what a glory what a kingdome what liberty and life it were to be in Christ Iesus by faith holding their inheritance not with the bondsonne of Agar but with the free sonne of Sara by promise and not by the law by grace and not by works by gift and not by deseruing that god onely might be praysed and not man And thus were the olde Romaines first taughty by S. Paule writing to the Romanes The same did Cornelius the Romaine and first that was Baptised of all the Gentiles learne of S. Peter when he receaued the holy Ghost not by the deedes of the law but onely by hearing the faith of Iesus preached And in the same doctrine the sayd Church of the Romaines many yeares continued so long as they were in affliction And in the same doctrine the byshop of Rome with his Romanes now also should still remayne if they were such auncient Catholickes as they pretende and woulde follow the old mother Church of Rome and holde the first liquor wherewith they were first seasoned But the sweete verdor and sent of that liquor and pleasant must is nowe cleane put out through other vnsauery infusions of the Popes thrusting in so that almost no tast nor peece remaineth of all that primitiue doctrine which S. Paule and other Apostles first planted among the Gentiles And what maruell if the Romanes now in so long tract of time haue lost their first sap seyng the Church of the Galathians then in the very time of S. Paule their Schoolemaister he being amongst them had not so soone turned his backe a little but they were all turned almost from the doctrine of fayth and had much a doo to be recouered againe Of this defection and falling from faith S. Paule expressely foretelleth vs in his letters both to the Thessalonians and also to Timothe where he sheweth that a defection shall come and that certaine shall depart from the faith attending to spirits of errour c. 1. Tim. 4. And to know what errours these shall be the circumstance plainly leadeth vs to vnderstande in the same place where the sayd Apostle speaketh of marked consciences forbidding men to marry and to eate meates ordeined of God to be taken with thankes giuing for mans sustenance most euidently as with his finger pointeth out vnto vs the church of Rome which not in these pointes onely but also in all other conditions almost is vtterly reuolted from the pure originall sincerity of that doctrine which Saint Paule planted in the Churche of the Romanes and of all other Gentiles ¶ The Summe of S. Paules doctrine deliuered to the Gentiles 1. FIrst the doctrine of S. Paule ascribeth all our iustification freely meerly to faith onely in Christ as to the onely meanes and cause immediate whereby the merites of Christes passion be applyed vnto vs without any other respect of worke or workes of the law whatsoeuer and in this doctrine the Church of the Romanes was first planted 2. Secondly the same doctrine of S. Paule cutting of and excluding all glory of mans deseruing stayeth onely vpon Gods promise and vpon grace not mans merites vpon mercy not mans labouring or running vpon election and calling not mans willing c. 3. Thirdly the same doctrine casting downe the strength of man and his integra naturalia as the scholes doe terme them concludeth all fleshe vnder sinne and maketh the same destitute of the glory of God 4. Item it maketh manifest difference betweene the law and the Gospell declaring the vse and ende of them to be diuers the one to kill the other to quicken the one to cōdemne the other to iustifie the one to haue an ende and a tyme the other to be perpetuall c. 5. Item the same doctrine of S. Paule as it sheweth a difference betweene the law and the Gospell so it maketh no lesse difference betweene Iusticia Dei and Iusticia propria that is the righteousnes of God and the righteousnes of man abhorryng the one that is man 's owne righteousnes comming by the law and works and embracing the other which God imputeth freely and graciously to vs for Christ his sonnes sake in whom we beleeue 6. Item it wipeth away al traditions and constitutions of men whatsoeuer especially from binding of conscience calling them beggerly elements of this world 7. Likewise it reiecteth and wipeth away al curious subtilities and superfluous speculations knoweth nothing els but Christ onely Crucified which is onely the obiect whereunto our faith looketh 8. Furthermore as the same doctrine of S. Paule defineth al men to be transgressours by disobedience of one Adam though they neuer touched the Aple comming of his stocke by nature so doth it prooue all men to be iustified by the obedience of one though they did not his obedience being likewise borne of him by spirituall regeneration and faith 9. And therfore as all men comming of Adam be condemned originally before they grow vp to commit anye sinne agaynst the law so all men be saued originally being
worthye their vocation to laye downe their olde conuersation to gyue theyr members seruauntes of ryghteousnes to offer their bodyes vppe to God a liuelye Sacrifice c. The like example of whose teachyng if the Churches nowe reformed doe not folowe let their Sermons their Preachynges wrytinges exhortynges and lyues also beare recorde who although they can not say with Christ. Which of you can blame me of sinne yet they may say to the aduersaryes whosoeuer of you is wythout fault cast the fyrst stone of reproch agaynst vs. Wherefore Hosius Pighius wyth their fellowes doe them open wrong and slaunderously belye them in comparing them in this behalfe to Aetius Eunominus and other heretikes called Anomaei who taking the good sentences of S. Paule did abuse the same to filthy licence of the flesh and corruption of wicked life c. But to let these slaunders passe nowe what the errours be of the Church of Rome touching this part of doctryne remayneth to be declared Whose errour first standeth in this that they mysunderstanding the definition of good workes doe call good workes not such as properly are commaunded by the lawe of God but such as are agreable to the Popes law As buylding of Abbayes and churches gyuing to the high altar founding of trentales fynding of chauntries gylding of Images hearing of Masses going on pilgrimage fyghting for the holye crosse keeping of vowes entryng to orders fastyng of vigiles creepyng to the Crosse praying to Saintes c. All which are not onely reputed for good workes but so preferred also before all other workes that to these is gyuen pardon from the Pope double and triplefolde more then to any other good worke of charitie commaunded in the law of almightie God An other errour also may be noted in the Papists touching the efficient or formall cause of good workes For albeit they all confesse in their bookes that Gratia dei gratis data is the chiefe principall cause thereof and worketh in vs iustitiam primam as they call it yet the good workes after regeneration they refer to other subordinate causes vnder God as to fre wil or to habitum virtutis or ad integra naturalia nothing at all to faith when as faith onelye next vnder God is the roote and fountaine of all well dooyng as in the fruites of a good tree albeit the planter or the husbandman be the principall agent thereof and some cause also may be in the good ground yet the next and immediate cause is the roote that maketh the tree fruitefull In like maner the grace of God in a soft repentaunt mollified hart planteth the gift of fayth Fayth as a good roote can not lye dead or vnoccupied but springeth foorth and maketh both the tree fruitefull and also the tree thereof to be good which otherwise had no acceptatiō nor goodnes in them were it not for the goodnes of the roote from whence they spring So Paule although he had certeine workes in him such as they were before his conuersion yet had he no good workes before the grace of Christ had rooted fayth in him So Mary Magdelene the sinner and Zacheus the Publicane So all the nations of the Gentiles began to bryng foorth frute and especially good fruit when they began to bee ingrafted in Christ and to receaue the roote of hys fayth whose fruites before that were all damnable and vnsauery As touchyng the cause therefore of good workes there is no other in man but fayth whose office as it is to iustifie vs in heauen so the nature of it is here in earth to worke by loue as the roote worketh by the sappe For as a man seeth and feeleth by fayth the loue and grace of God toward him in Christ his sonne so begynneth he to loue agayne both God and man and to doe for his neyghbour as God hath done to him And hereof properly springeth the runyng fountaine of al good works and deedes of charitie Thirdly as they erre in the cause of good works so do they erre much more in the ende of the lawe and of good workes for where Saint Paule teacheth the lawe to be gyuen to thys vse and ende to conuict our transgressions to prooue vs sinners to shewe and condemne our infirmitye and to dryue vs to Christ they take and applye no other ende to the lawe but to make vs perfect to keepe vs from wrath and to make vs iust before God And likewise where Saint Paule prooueth al our good works to be vnperfect and vtterly secludeth them from the ende of Iustifying they contrariwise doe teache as though the ende of good workes were to merite remission of synnes to satisfye vnto God to deserue grace to redeeme soules from Purgatory and that by them the person of the regenerate man doth please God and is made iust before God For so they teach most wickedly and horribly saying That christ suffered for originall sinne or sinnes going before Baptisme but the actuall sinnes which followe after Baptisme must be done away by mens meryts And so they assigne to Christ the begynning of saluation or obteyning of the fyrst grace as they call it but the perfection or cōsūmation of grace they giue to works our own strēgth Neither can they in any case abide that we be iustified frely by the mercy of God through fayth onely apprehending the merites of Christ. Howbeit neyther doe all Papistes in this their erroue agree in one For some make distinction and say that we are iustified by Christ principaliter .i. principally minus principaliter .i. lesse principally by the dignitie of our owne deedes contrary to the eight principle before mentioned page 24. Other holde that we are made ryghteous before God not by works that go before fayth but by our vertues that follow after Some againe do thus expound the saying of Saint Paule We are iustified by faith that is say they by fayth preparing vs or setting vs in a good way to be iustified Other expoūde by it the figure Sinecdoche that is by faith conioyned together with other vertues Other thus by faith that is being formed with charytie c. Thus all these doe derogate from the benefite of Christ and attribute vnto works a great or the greatest part of our iustification directly against the true veine of Saint Paules doctryne and first institucion of the auncient Church of Rome and against all the principles of holy Scripture Furthermore as touching the sayde doctryne of the lawe and good workes they erre in misunderstanding the nature of the lawe and workes For where Saint Paule disputeth that the lawe is spirituall and requireth of vs perfect obedience of the whole power of man which wee beyng carnall are neuer able to accomplish they affirme otherwise that the lawe doth require but onely outward obedience of man and therewith is contented And this obedience they say man is not onely able
not synners because they should sinne so neither doth infirmitie of falling diminish the grace of Christ but rather doth illustrate the same as it is written My strength is made perfect in infirmitie 2. Cor. 12. and againe Where sinne aboundeth there superaboundeth also grace In remission of synnes therefore these foure thinges must concurre together the cause that worketh which is the sacrifice of Christes body 2. the promise that offereth 3. fayth that apprehendeth 4. the repenting sinner that receaueth And although sinnes daily do grow which daily prouoke vs to craue remission yet as touching the cause that worketh remission of our daily sinnes the meanes which apprehendeth and applieth the sayd cause vnto vs they remayne alwaies one perpetuall besides which no other cause nor meanes is to be sought of man So that to them that be repenting sinners be in Christ Iesu there is no law to condemne them though they haue deserued condemnation but they are vnder a perpetual kingdome and a heauen full of grace and remission to couer their sins and not to impute their iniquities through the promise of God in Christ Iesu our Lord. And therefore wicked and impious is the doctrine of them fyrst which seeke any other cause of remission then onely the bloud of our Sauiour Secondly which assigne any other meanes to apply the bloudsheding of Christ vnto vs besides onely faith Thirdly and especially which so limite and restraine the eternall priuiledge of Christs passion as though it serued but only for sinnes done without and before faith and that the rest after Baptisme committed must be done away by confession pardons and satisfactory deedes And al this riseth because the true nature of the law of the Gospell is not knowen nor the difference rightly considered betwene the times of the one and of the other Neither againe doe they make any distinction betweene the malediction of the law and vse of the law And therfore whensoeuer they heare vs speake of the law meanyng the malediction of the law to be abolished therevpon they maliciously slaunder vs as though we speak against the good exercises of the lawe and giue liberty of fleshe to carnall men to liue as they list Whereof more shal be sayd by the Lordes grace as place and time shall hereafter require Of free will COncerning free will as it may peraduenture in some case be admitted that men without the grace may doe some outward functions of the law and keepe some outward obseruaunces or traditions so as touching thinges spirituall apperteining to saluation the strength of man being not regenerate by grace is so infirme and impotent that he can performe nothing neither in dooing well nor willing well Who after he be regenerated by grace may worke and doe wel but yet in such sort that still remaineth notwithstanding a great imperfection of flesh a perpetuall repugnaunce betwene the flesh and spirit And thus was the originall Church of the auncient Romanes first instructed From whome see now howe farre this latter Church of Rome hath degenerated which holdeth and affirmeth that men without grace may performe the obedience of the law prepare themselues to receaue grace by working so that those works may be meritorious and of congruitie obteine grace Which grace once obteined then men may say they perfectly performe the full obedience of the law and accomplish those spirituall actions and workes which God requireth and so those workes of cōdignitie deserue euerlasting life As for the infirmity which still remaineth in nature that they nothing regarde nor once speake of Of Inuocation and Adoration OUer and besides these vncatholike and almost vnchristian absurdities and defections from the Apostolicall faith aboue specified let vs consider the maner of theyr Inuocation not to God alone as they should but to dead men saying that saintes are to be called vpon tanquam mediatores intercessionis as Mediatours of intercession Christum vero tanquam mediatorem Salutis and Christ as the Mediator of Saluation And affirme moreouer that Christ was a Medyatour onely in time of his Passion Which is repugnaunt to the wordes of S. Paule writing to the old Romanes chap. 8. where he speaking of the intercession of Christ Which is saith he on the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for vs c. And if Christ be a Mediatour of saluation what needeth then any other intercession of the Saintes for other sutes for saluation being once had what can we require more or what lacketh he more to be obtained of the Saintes which is sure to be saued only by Christ And yet in their Catholicke deuotions why doe they teach vs thus to pray to the blessed virgine Salua omnes qui te glorificant i. Saue all them that glorifie thee c. if saluation onely belong to Christ vnles they study of purpose to seeme contrary to themselues Hetherto also perteineth the worshipping of reliques and the false adoration of Sacramentes that is the outward signes of the things signified cōtrary to the 7. principle before page 24. Adde to this also the prophanation of the Lordes Supper contrary to the vse for which it was ordeined in reseruing it after the Communion ministred in setting it to sale for money and falsely perswading both them selues and other that the Priest doth merite both to him selfe that saith and to him that heareth Ex opere operato sine bono motu vtentis c. That is Onely by the meere doing of the worke though the partie that vseth the same hath no good motion in him c. * Of Sacramentes Baptisme and the Lordes Supper AS touching Sacramentes their doctrine likewise is corrupt and erroneus 1. First they erre falsely in the number For where the institution of Christ ordeineth but two they contrary to the fourth principle aboue prefixed haue added to the prescription of the Lords worde fine other Sacraments 2. Secondly in the cause finall they erre For where the word hath ordeined those Sacraments to excite our faith and to giue vs admonitions of spiritual things they contrariwise doe teach that the Sacramentes doe not onely stirre vp faith but also that they auayle and are effectuall without faith Ex opere operato sine bono motu vtentis c. as is to be founde in Thom. Aquine Scotus Catharinus and other moe 3. Thirdly in the operation effect of the Sacramentes they faile where the contrary to the minde of the Scriptures doe say that they giue grace not onely do signifie but also conteine and exhibite that which they signifie to wytte grace and saluation 4. Fourthly they erre also in Application applying their Sacramentes both to the quicke and the dead to thē also that be absent to remission of sinnes and releasing of payne c. In the Sacrament of Baptisme they are to be reprooued not onely for adding to the simple wordes of Christs
In the which functioÌ„ he ministred the terme of xvj yeares Eusebius Lib. 6. cap. 35. Of this Heraclas writeth also Origene himselfe that he although beyng Priest yet ceased not to read ouer and peruse the bookes of the Gentils to the intent he might the better out of their owne bookes confute their errour c. After Heraclas succeeded Dionysius Alexandrinus in the bishoprike of Alexandria like as he succeded him in the schole before Which Dionysius also writeth of the same Heraclas vnto Philemon a Priest of Rome thus saying Hunc ego canonem typum a beato Heracla Papa nostro accepi c. that is This Canon and type I receaued of blessed Heraclas our Pope c. This Heraclas was no Martyr which dyed 3. yeares before Decius about the yeare of our Lord 250. After whom succeeded next in the same seat of Alexandria Dionysius Alexandrinus who also suffered much vnder the tiranny of Decius as hereafter shal be shewed Christ willing when we come to the tyme of Valerian Nicephorus in his fift booke and other which write of this persecutioÌ„ vnder Decius declare the horriblenes therof to be so great and so innumerable Martyrs to suffer in the same that he sayth it is as easie to number the sandes of the sea as to recite the perticular names of them whoÌ„ this persecution did deuour In the which persecutioÌ„ the chiefest doers and tormenters vnder the Emperour appeare in the history of Vincentius to be these Optimus the vnder Consull Secundianus Verianus and Marcellianus c. Although therfore it be hard here to inferre all and singular persons in order that dyed in this persecution yet such as remayne most notable in stories I will briefly touche by the grace of him for whose cause they suffred In the former tractation of the fift persecution mentioÌ„ was made before of Alexander bishop of Hierusalem and of his troubles suffred vnder Seuerus and how afterward by the miracle of God he was appointed bishop of Hierusalem where he continued a very aged man aboue the terme of 40 yeares gouernour of that Church til the tune of the first yeare of Decius At what tyme he being brought from Hierusalem to Cesarea into the iudgement place after a constant and euident confession of his fayth made before the Iudge was committed vnto prison and there finished his lyre as testifieth Dionysius Alexandrinus in the sixâ— booke of Eusebius After whome succeeded in that seate Mezabanes the xxxvj Bishop of that Citie after Iames the Apostle Mention was made also before of Asclepiades Bishop of Antioch who succeeded after Serapion and in the persecution of Seuerus did likewise perseuer a constant confessor and as Vincentius testifieth in his xj booke suffered Martyrdome at last vnder this Decius But this computation of Vincentius can in no wise agree with the truth of tyme for as much as by probable writers as Zonaras Nicephorus and other the sayd Asclepiades after Serapion entred the bishops seate of Antioch an 214. and sate vij yeares before the tyme of Gordianus After whom succeeded Philetus an 221. gouerning the function xij yeares And after him Zebinus followed an 232. and so after him Babylas which Babylas if he dyed in this persecution of Decius then could not Asclepiades also suffer in the same tyme who dyed so long before him as is declared Of this Babylas bishop of Antioche Eusebus and Zonaras record that vnder Decius he dyed in prison as did Alexander bishop of Hierusalem aboue rehearsed We read in a certaine treatise of Chrysostome intituled Contra Gentiles a notable and a long history of one Babylas a martyr who about these times was put to death for resistyng a certaine Emperour not suffring him to enter into the temple of the Christians after a cruell murder coÌ„mitted the story of which murder is this There was a certaine Emperour who vpon conclusioÌ„ of peace made with a certain nation had receiued for hostage or suretie of peace the sonne of the king beyng of yong and tender age with conditions vpon the same that neither he should be molested of them nor that they should euer be vexed of him Upon this the kings sonne was deliuered not without great care and feare of the father vnto the Emperour whom the cruell Emperor contrary to promise caused in short tyme without all iust cause to be slayne This fact so horrible beyng committed the tyrant with all hast would enter into the temple of the christians Where Babylas beyng bishop or minister withstoode him that he should not into the place approch The Emperour therewith not a litle incensed in great rage commaunded him forthwith to be laid in prison with as many irons as he could beare from theÌ„ce shortly after to be brought forth to death and execution Babylas going constantly and boldly to his Martyrdome desired after his death to be buried with his irons and bands so he was The story proceedeth moreouer and saith that in continuaunce of tyme in the raigne of Constantinus Gallus then made the ouersear of the East partes caused his body to be translated into the suburbes of Antioch called Daphnes where was a temple of Apollo famous with diuelish Oracles answers geuen by that Idole or by the deuill rather in that place In the which temple after the bringing of the body of Babylas the idole ceased to geue any more Oracles saying that for the body of Babylas he could geue no moe answers but complaining that that place was woont to bee consecrated vnto him but now it was full of dead mens bodies And thus the Oracles there ceased for that tyme till the comming of Iulianus who inquiring out the cause why the Oracles ceased caused the bones of the holy Martyr to be remooued agayne from thence by the christians whom he then called Galileans They commyng in a great multitude both men maydens and children to the tombe of Babylas transported his bones according to the commaundement of the emperour singing by the way as they went the verse of the Psalme in wordes as followeth Confounded be all that worship Images and all that glory in Idoles c. which comming to the Emperours â—ares set him in great rage against the Christians stirring vp persecution against them Albeit Zonaras declareth the cause something otherwise saying that so soone as the body of him and other Martyrs were remooued away incontineÌ„t the temple of the Idole with the Image in the night was consumed with fire For the which cause sayth Zonaras Iulian stirred vp with anger persecuted the Christians as shall be shewed Christ willyng in his order and place hereafter And thus much of Babylas which whether it was the same Babylas Bishop then of Antioche or an other of the same name it appeareth not by Chrysostome which neither maketh mention of the Emperours name nor of the place where this Babylas was bishop Agayne the stopping out of the
with the rest of the multitude and perswading them what they should do and what had bene obteined for theÌ„ caused them to void the citie and not onlie them but also a great number of other mo who perswaded by him vnder that preâ—ence changing themselues in womens apparell or faming some impotencie so escapeh out of the citie At whose comming out Eusebius on the other side was readie to receiue them and refreshed their hungrye and pined bodies whereby not onelye they but the whole Citye of Alexandria was preserued from destruction Eusebius lib. 7. cap. 32. By this little historie of Eusebius and Anatholius described in the vij booke of Eusebius cap. 32. and briefly here set foorth to thee gentle Reader thou mayest partly vnderstande the practise of the Prelates what it was in those daies in the church which was then onlie imploied in sauing of life and succouring the common weales wherein they liued as by these two godly persons Eusebius and Anatholius may wel appeare Unto the which practise if we compare the practise of our latter prelates of the church of Rome I suppose no little difference will appeare The next Emperour to Florianus as is said was Marcus Aurelius Probus a Prince both wise and vertuous and no lesse valiant in martial affaires as fortunate in the successe of the same During his time we reade of no persecution greatly stiring in the church but much quietnes as well in matters of religion as also in the common wealth In so much that after his great and manye victories such peace ensued that his saying was there needed no more souldiers seing there were no moe enimies to the coÌ„mon wealth to fight against It was his saying also that hys souldiers nede not to spend corne and victuale except they laboured to serue the common wealth And for the same cause he caused his souldiers to be set a worke about certayne mountaynes in Syrinia in Messia to be planted with vines and not so much as in winter suffered them to be at rest therfore by them at length he was slayne after he had reigned the space of vj. yeres and 4. moneths an 284 Eutrop. Carus with his two sonnes Carinus and Numerianus succeeded next after Probus in the Empire the raygne of which Emperors continued in all but iij. yeares Of the which three first Carus warring agaynst the Persians was slayne with lightning Of Numerianus his sonne beyng with his father in his warres against the Persians we finde much commendation in Eutropius Vopiscus and other writers which testified to him to be a valiaunt warriour an eloquent orator as appeared by his declamatioÌ„s and writinges sent to the Senate Thirdly to be an excellent Poet. This Numerianus sorrowing lamentyng for the death of hys father through immoderate weeping fell into a great sorenes of his eyes by reason whereof he keping close was slaine not long after of his father in lawe named Aper who traiterously aspiring to the Empire dissnnuled his death with a false excuse to the people asking for him saying for the payne of his eyes he kept in from the wind and weather til at length by the stinch of his body being caried about his death was vttered In the life of this Emperor Carus aforesaide written by Eutropius in the later edition set forth by Frobenius I finde whiche in other editions of Eutropius doth not appeare that Numerianus the sonne of this Carus was he that slewe Babylas the holye Martyr whose history before wee haue comprehended But that seemeth not to be like both by the narration of Chrysostome and also for that Vrspergensis declaryng the same hystorie and in the same wordes as it is in Eutropius saith that it was Cyrillus whome Numerianus killed the story whereof is this what time Carus the Emperour in his iourney going toward the Persians remayned at Antioche Numerianus his sonne would enter into the church of the christians to view and behold their misteries But Cyrillus their bishop would in no wise suffer him to enter into the church saying that it was not lawfull for him to see the misteries of God who was polluted with sacrifices of Idoles Numerianus full of indignation at the hearing of these words not suffering that repulse at the hands of Cyrillus in his fury did slay the godlye Martyr And therefore iustly as it seemed was he himselfe slayne afterward by the hands of Aper Thus Carus with his sonne Numerianus being slaine in the East partes as is declared Carinus the other sonne raigned alone in Italye where he ouercame Sabinus striuyng for the Empire and raigned there with much wyckednes till they returning home of the army againe from the Persians who then set vp Dioclesian to be Emperor by whome the foresayde Carinus for the wickednes of hys life being forsaken of his host was ouercome at length slayne with the hande of the Tribune whose wyfe before he had defloured Thus Carus with his two sonnes Numerianus and Carinus ended their liues whose raigne continued not aboue three yeares All this meane space we reade of no great persecution stirring in the Church of Christ but was in meane quiete state and tranquilitie vnto the xix yeare of the raigne of Dioclesian So that in counting the time from the latter ende of Ualerian vnto this foresaid yeare of Dioclesian the peace of the church which God gaue to his people semeth to continue aboue 44. yeares During the which tyme of peace and tranquilitie the church of the Lord did mightely increase and florish so that the more bodies it lost by persecution the more honor and reuerence it wan daily among the Gentiles in al quarters both Grekes and barbarous in so much that as Eusebius in his vij booke describeth amongst the Emperours themselues diuers there were which not onely bare singular good will and fauor to them of our profession but also did commit vnto them offices regiments ouer countries and nations so well were they affected to our doctrine that they priuileged the same with liberty and indemnitie What needeth to speake of them which not only liued vnder the Emperors in libertie but also were familiar in the court with the Princes themselues entertained with great honour and speciall fauour beyond the other seruitures of the court as was Dorotheus with his wife children and whole family highly accepted aduaunced in the palace of the Emperour Also Gorgonius in like maner with diuers other mo who for theyr doctrine learning which they professed were with theyr Princes in great estimation In like reuerence also were the bishops of cities and Diocesse with the Presidentes and rulers where they liued who not onely suffered theÌ„ to liue in peace but also had them in great price and regarde so long as they kept themselues vpright and continued in God his fauour Who is able to number at that time the mighty
subiect In the which Parliament time was prefixed for taking their iourney which shoulde be after the feast of S. Iohn Baptist the next yeare insuing Also they that were croysed were sworne to persist in their purpose and sentence of the popes great curse denouÌ„ced to all them that went from the same Parisiens fol. 211. Furthermore for the better speede in his iourny the king through al his realme caused it to be proclaimed that if any marchaÌ„t or other had bene iniured at any time by the kings exactours either by oppression or borowing of money let him bring foorth his bil shewing how or wherein and he should be recompensed At which time William Longspatha a worthy warriour with the Bishop of Worcester and certain other great men in the Realme of England mooued with the example of the Frenchmen prepared themselues likewise to the same iourney The next yere after thys ensuing which was 1248. the French king yet still remaining in hys purposed iourney Lady Blanche hys mother also the Byshop of Paris hys brother with the Lordes of his counsaile other nobles and his speciall frends aduertised him with great perswasions to alter hys minde touching that so aduenturous and so daungerous a iourney for that his vow sayd they was vnaduisedly made and in time of his sicknesse when hys minde was not perfectly stablished and what ieoperdies might happen at home it was vncertaine the king of England being on the one side the Emperor on the other side and the Pictauians in the middest so fugitiue and vnstable and as concerning his vow the pope shuld frendly dispense with him considering the necessitie of his realme and weakenesse of his body Besides all thys his mother vppon her blessing required him hys brethren of all loues desired him to stay at home and not in his person to adueÌ„ture other might be sent in his roume with no lesse furniture to atchieue that enterprise and to discharge him of his vow especially seeing at the making thereof his senses were feeble hys body weake and reason through sicknesse and very death almost decaied To whome the K. againe for so much sayde he as you say that for feeblenes of my senses I tooke this vow vpon me loe therfore as you here wil me I lay downe the crosse that I tooke and putting his hand to his shoulder tare of the badge of the crosse saying to the Byshop here syr I resigne to you the crosse wherew t I was signed At the sight wherof there was no smal reioysing to all that were there present To whome the king then both altering his countenance and hys speach thus spake My frendes sayde he whatsoeuer I was then in my sicknes now I thaÌ„ke god I am of perfect sense and reason souÌ„d and now I require my crosse again to be restored vnto me Saying moreouer that no bread shuld come in his head before he were recognised again with the same crosse as he was before At the hearing whereof al there present were astonied supposing that God had some great matter to worke and so mooued no moe questions vnto him Upon this drewe nie the feast of Iohn Baptist which was the time set for the setting foorth And nowe being in a readines the king in few dayes after was entring his iorney But yet one thing lacked For the King perceiuing the mortal variance betwene the pope and good Frederick the Emperour thought best first before his going to haue that matter appeased wherby his way both might be safer through the Emperours countries and also lesse ieoperdy at home after hys departure and therefore vpon the same tooke first his way to Lyons where the Pope was partly to take his leaue but most especially to make recoÌ„cilement betwene the Emperour and the Pope Where is to be noted by the way that as touching the good Emperour there was no lette nor staie Who rather sought all meanes how to compasse the popes fauor neuer could obteine it In so much that before he shuld be excommunicated in the Councel of Lyons he not onely answered sufficiently by Thadeus his atturney discharging himselfe against whatsoeuer crimes or obiections could be brought against him but so farre humbled himselfe to the Pope and the Councell that for all detriments damages losses or wrongs done of hys part what amendes soeuer the Pope could or would require he would recompence it to the vttermost This would not be taken Furthermore if the Pope hee sayde coulde not abide his tarying in his owne dominions and Empire he wold goe fight against the Saracens and Turkes neuer to returne into Europe againe offering there to recouer lands kingdomes whatsoeuer did at any time belong to Christendome so that the Pope onely would be contented that Henry his sonne which was then nephew to king Henry here in England should be Emperour after him Neither could this be admitted Then he offered for trueth of hys promise to put in the French king and the king of England to be his Suerties or els for triall of his cause to stand to their award and arbitrement Neither would that be graunted At least he desired that he might come himselfe and answere before the councell But the proude Pope in no case would abide that saying that he did not yet finde himselfe so ready and meete for Martyrdome to haue hym to come thether to the Councell for if he did he would depart himselfe c. Ex Math. Paris fol. 187. An. 1245. This obstinate rancor and deuiâ—ish malice of pope Innocent and hys predecessour against that valiant Emperor and against the Grecians what disturbance and mischiefe it wrought to the whole Churche what strength it gaue to the Saraceus and Tartarians howe it empaired Christian concorde and weakened all Christen lands not only the host of the French king did finde shortly after but christendome euen to this day may and doth feele and rue Neither can in stories be founde any greater cause which first made the Turks so strong to get so much grouÌ„d oner christendom as they haue then the pestileÌ„t working of this pope in deposing excommunicating this worthy Emperour For as there was neuer no Emperour of long time which more victoriously preuailed in bridling and keping vnder these enemies of Christ or would haue done more against them then the said Fred. if he might haue ben suffered so after the deposing excommunicating of him when the French king neither woulde abide at home as he was counselled neither was yet able wtout the help of other to withstand the force and multitude of the sayd SaraceÌ„s and Tartarians being now ioyned together neither yet could the Emperour be suffered by the pope to rescue the king it followed thereof that the good king being taken prisoner all his army destroied the Turkes thereupon got such a hand and such a courage against the Christians that euer since
your letters or by any other indulgences to what persoÌ„ or persoÌ„s soeuer of what estate dignity or place soeuer vnder any maner or forme of words grauÌ„ted hereafter by the sea Apostolicke by the which indulgences the effect of the said prouision may be by any maner of waies hindered or deferred yet of our certayne knowledge we will that they shall want theyr strength in the prouision made or to be made for the sayd Frederick in the Church of Lincoln And if any vpon the premisses or any of them shall alleadge agaynst the foresayd Fredericke or his procurator That you will cause them to be cited on our behalfe so that they being cited peremtorily shal within the space of two monethes of your citation personally appere before vs there according to the law to make aunswere to the sayd Fredericke vpon the premisses Any priuiledges or indulgeÌ„ces what soeuer geuen and graunted either generally to the king dome of England or peculiarly to any other person of what state degree and place soeuer graunted by the foresaid sea vnder what soeuer maner forme of words for them not to be called vp beyond the sea or out of their owne City or Dioces by letters Apostolicall vnder whatsoeuer forme of wordes obtayned to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding All which priuiledges and indulgences we will in no case shall stand in any force or effect to the sayd partes Moreouer the day and forme of the citation we will that ye faythfully do intimate vnto vs by your letters containing the tenor therof And if both of you can not be present at the execution hereof yet we will notwithstaÌ„ding that one of you do execute the same without fayle Dated the 7. Kal. Febr. the 10. yeare of our Popedome As theâ—e is no maÌ„ which hath any eies to see but may â—asely vnderstand in reading this letter of the Pope how vnreasonable his request is how impudently he commauÌ„deth how proudly he threatneth how wickedly he oppresseth and racketh the Church of God in placing boyes and straungers in the ministery cure of soules also in making them his prouisors to rauen vp the Church goodes So is it no great maruell if this godly Bishoppe Robert Grosted was offended therwith who in my mind deserueth herein a double commendation not onely that he so wisely did discerne error from sincerity and truth but also that he was so hardy and constant to stand to the defence therof agaynst the Pope according as in this his answere to the Pope agayne may appeare as foloweth The aunswere of Robert Grosted SAlutem Pleaseth it your wisedome to vnderstand that I am not disobedient to any the Apostolicke precepts but both deuoutly reuerently with the natural affectioÌ„ of a sonne obey the same And also am an vtter enemy to al those that resist such Apostolick precepts as a childe zelous of his fathers honor And truly I am no lesse then bound therunto by the precept and coÌ„mauÌ„dement of God For the Apostolick preceptes are none other nor can be then consonant and vniforme to the doctrine of the Apostles and of our Sauiour Christ being the maister and Lorde of all the Apostles whose type and person specially in the consonant and vniforme hierarchie of the Church the Lord Pope semeth to beare the same our Lorde and Sauiour Iesus Christe saying whosoeuer is not with me the same iâ— agaynst me Therefore agaynst him neither is nor can be the most diuine sanctitye of the sea Apostolicall The tenour then of â—our foresayd Apostolicall letter is not consonant to true sanctity but vtterly dissonaÌ„t and disagreeing to the same First for that vpon the clause of this your letter many such other letters like which clause alwayes ye so much do vrge Non obstante induced and brought in vpon no necessity of any naturall law to be obserued doth swarme and floweth with all inconstancy boldnes pertinacy impudency lying deceiuing and is also a sea of mistrust in geuing credit to no man Which as it swarmeth with these so in like maner with innumerable other vices which hang and depend vpon the same mouing and disturbing the purity of Christian religion and lyfe agreable to the same as also the publique tranquility of men Moreouer next after the sinne of Lucifer which shal be in the latter time to wit of Antichrist the childe of perdition whome the Lord shall destroy with the breath of his mouth there is not nor can be any kinde of sinne so repugnant and contrary to the doctrine of the Apostles â—nd holy scripture to our sauiour Christ himselfe more hatefull detestable and abhominable then to destroy and kill mens soules by defrauding them of the mistery of the pastorall office which by the ministery of the postorall cure ought to saue and quicken the same Which sinne by most euident places of the Scripture such men are discerned knowne to commit which being in the authority of the Pastorall dignity do serue their owne carnall desires and necessaries with the benefit of the milke and wooll of the sheep and flocke of Christ and do not minister the same Pastorall office and charge to the benefite and saluation of those theyr sheep The same therefore by the testimony of the Scripture is not the administration of the Pastorall ministery but the killing and destruction of the sheep And that these two kinde of vices be most vile and wicked although after a differryng sorte and farre exceeding all other kinde of wickednesse hereby it is manifest For that the same are directly contrary to two vertues most chiefely good although differring in themselues and vnlike together For that is called most wicked which is contrary to a thing most best So much then as lyeth in the offenders the one of their offences is directly agaynst the deity which of himselfe is alwayes essentially and supernaturally good The other is agaynst the deification and the Image of God in man which is not alwayes but by the participation of Gods lightsome grace essentially and naturally God And forasmuch as in thinges being good the cause of good is better then the effect like as againe in euill things the cause of euill is worse then the effect of euil proceeding therof hereby it is manifest That the inducers of such wicked destroyers of Gods Image and deification in the sheep of Christ that is the church of God are worse theÌ„ those chief destroiers to wit Lucifer Antichrist And as in these degrees of wickednes how much more excellent such be who hauing a great charge committed to them of God to edifâ—ication and not to destruction are more bound to keep away and exclude such wicked destroyers from the church of God So much is it also of that that this holy seat Apostolicall to whom the Lord Iesus Christ hath geuen all maner of power to edification as the Apostle sayth and not to destruction can commaund or will to goe about
decided in iudgemeÌ„t contradictory many of the Barons dissenting not coÌ„seÌ„ting therunto is much therby confirmed This custome I say of the church hath bene fast established by the coÌ„sent and assent of the Prelats and then confirmed by the kings of FrauÌ„ce your predecessors and so peaceably obserued of the Church And yet may the church chalenge this by prescription For that there are but 3. things which are required in prescription that is to say title true dealing and continuance of time And it is without doubt that the Churches both purely hath and in time past had a good title as appereth by thy priuiledge grauÌ„ted of Theodosius the Emperor confirmed by Charles Who gaue in commaundement to keepe the same inuiolably which title it hath both by diuine natural and humaine law as before is mentioned Wherfore it must needes haue true dealing when so many great and cleare titles are knowne to condescend therunto Also concurreth such continuance of time that euen against Ius fisci it is prescriptible For it hath not onely continued by the space of 100. yeares but also more then 600. yeares last past Neither is this alwayes true that this law is imprescriptible especially of the church the which in as much as it appertayneth to the spiritualty is not subiect to the king but is much more noble and farre excelleth Euen no lesse then the Sunne doth the Moone golde lead and heauen the earth And this is certaine and no lesse reason that the higher equall may duely prescribe law against him that is either equall or lower in degree As one king may do to another Wherfore it appeareth that the church may prescribe this although it were Ius fisci as in deed it is not Finally this is proued by priuiledge grauÌ„ted by Carolus the great king of Fraunce as before by Ludouicke the second and by Philipp your vncle and Ludouike and Philip your kinsemeÌ„ which priuiledges we haue here redy to shew But perhappes you will say that these things cannot agree that the Church hath this iurisdiction both by law custome priuiledge which all cannot well hang together For if the church haue it by one of these it should folow that the church lacketh it by another But this may I answere two maner of wayes First that the priuiledge may be double one as a bringer in of a new law thus it cannot be reconciled The other as a confirmatiuâ— and declaratiue of the old law and this way it may well be agreed which distinctioÌ„ may also take place in custome Wherfore it may thus be answered that although this incudiction is due vnto the Church by lawe it appertaineth also vnto the same by priuilege and custome but yet not by suche kind of custome and priuiledge which induceth new law but which declareth and confirmeth the olde law And â—any will reply demanding wherfore the church of Fraunce shuld more chaleÌ„ge this then any other churches in other realmes which haue no such prerogatiue I can soone answer them If the kings of Fraunce whome God wyth singular grace honour and priuilege farre aboue al other Princes hath blessed and endued them for 3. speciall causes to wit for their great faith deuotion vnto God for their honor reuerence to the Church and for theyr good iustice shewed vnto the people hath graunted to the church special liberties or haue permitted those which before wer graunted peaceably to be kept and obserued Why then they should haue them it is no meruaile Yea and further theyr deuotion vnto the Church hath bene suche that the nearer the Churches were vnto them the more liberties they enioyed and yet had these princes neuerthelesse therfore but rather the more whych is euident and redoundeth to the great honor and nobilitie both of the king and his realme I haue oftentimes heard of other howe that 4. or 5. things doth especially habilitate and adorne this realme First their sincere and inuiolable faith for it was at no time red that the kings of Fraunce since the receiuing of the faith did euer swarue from the same Secondly the nobility of bloud which descended from Priamus the king of the Troianes and successiuely from Carolus and other royall kings Thirdly the vnitie and peace of concord which especially aboue all other raigned and florished in the Realme of Fraunce Fourthly the solemnity and pompe of the prelates and Clergie Fiftly the good disposed readinesse of the Barons and subiects to obey If therfore the prelates of this realme shâ—â—ld not haue this law and priuiledge but shuld be depriued therof then should the king his realme lose one of hys noble estates wherby they are highly magnified I meane the brauerie solemnitie royaltie of the prelates For then they should not onely be neither poÌ„peous nor royal but more beggerly miserable then any other the most part of their liuing consisting herein I do coÌ„clude therfore to be proued both by deuine law natural law canon law ciuil law custome and priuiledge that the right of determining such teÌ„porall matters of the Churche may of right appertaine to the Church of Fraunce and soâ—â— returne the Lorde Peters theame against himselfe Besides this will I propounde that which is most plaine and manifest that what so euer thynges be offered vp to the Church and are conuerted to the dominion and property of the same be Gods appertaineth to him For so much as they are saide to be dedicacated sanctified by hym as sufficiently throughout the Leuites may appeare as is declared in the 21. cap. 1. Regum concerning the bread offered to God where it is sayde I haue no common bread vnder my handes to eate but holy bread Wherfore it was not lawfull for the Laity to eat of the same bread but in time of great neccesity which is also proued in Daniel 5. chapter where it is read Because king Balthazar and his Lordes with his Queen â—ronke in the golden and siluer vessels which his father Nabuchodonoser had taken out of the temple of Ierusalem In the same very hour there appeared fingers as it had bene of a mans hand writing right ouer the candle sticke vpoÌ„ the playne wall in the kinges pallace And the King saw the palme of the hand that wrote and that which was writteÌ„ was Mane Thetel Phares the interpretation wherof is this as there it appeareth Mane God hath numbred this kingdome and brought it to aâ—end Thetel thou art weyed in a ballaunce and art found to light Phares thy kingdome is delt in partes and geuen to the Medes and Perses The very selfe same night was Balthazar the king of the Caâ—des slayne and Darius succeeded in the kingdome of the Medes the Monarchy of the Assirians being then trâ—â—slated vnto the Medes Whereby it appeareth that these things which are offered vp to the church belong to God so dedicated to him that
the liberties graunted by his forefathers and predecessours he shall not be of his Realme beloued as it appeareth by Roboam in the 11 chap. of the 3. Reg. All which likewise is to be seene in the Chronicles how that by these meanes many kingdomes and dominioÌ„s were translated from nation to nation and from their owne natiue regiment to the rule of strauÌ„ge people And now for this time certayne it is that your graunde predecessors Charles the great S. Ludowick Philip the fayre Ludowick and Philip his sonnes with many others haue sealed and confirmed this liberty of the Church Wherfore for a man to councell perswade your highnesse to spoile the Church of any thing it is euen the next way to spoyle and vndoe your self and to bereue you of that by which your dominion is beloued And for this cause I thought good to put your grace in remembraunce of the 20. of Math. where it is written Remember the workes of your forefathersâ— which they haue done in their generations and you shal receiue great glory and renowne for euer Note here your highnesse by the way how that king Philip graundfather to S. Lewis fostered and kept in his Realme S. Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury who for that he stoutly defended the libertyes of his Church was banished out of England How much more therefore are you bound to defend and mayntayne your owne Prelates in their liberties ratified and confirmed by your graces predecessors according to the saying of Gregory in 25. quaest cap Si. If I should destroy and put downe those thinges which my predecessours haue built and ordeined I should not be called a builder and maker but iustly acompted a â—â—roy good and puller downe as the voyce as the Lord sayth Euery kingdome deuided within it selfe shall be confouÌ„ded All knowledge and learning deuided one agaynst the other shall be destroyed In an other place he sayth It is ouer sharpe and agaynst all good maner and ciuility vpon what reason and excuse so euer to breake and subuert those thinges which are well ordayned or by his example to teach other at theyr pleasures to dissolue olde constitutions Marke here a story about a Castle which was geuen to Saynt Romige to the Churches vse by Clodoui the Kyng which afterwarde King Pipine desired to haue by exchaunge and recouery To whome the sayd Saynte Remige appeared in hys dreame and highly blamed him therefore saying a better man then thou gaue it me and yet wilt thou take it away from me And with that he smote him who the next day was founde all blacke Since whiche tyme no Kyng of Fraunce durst euer lye in that Castle Uerely therefore he doth not honour the Kyng which geueth him counsell to passe the olde limittes that his olde Fathers did set Yea rather the Kinges Maiesty ought to say vnto them whiche is written in Saynt Iohn 8. chapter I do honour and glorify my Father that is in keepyng the libertyes of the Church as they did which graunted them but you haue dishonoured me in counselling me that which seemeth best to please your selues as it is written in Ecclesiast 4. The worship of a mans father is his owne worship and where the father is without honor it is the dishonor of the foâ—ne Secondarily I say that he truely doth honor the king who counselleth him whereby his power and dignity is not diminished For as it is great honour to the Kynges highnesse to encrease and augment his power so is it as much dishonour for him to diminish any iote thereof And therefore the Emperours were wont to call themselues victorious of augmenting and encreasing theyr common wealth And to say that you and your predecessours could not graunt these things to the Churche it were to too absurde and to the too muche derogation of your Maiesties most honourable estate And therfore you most soueraign Lorde who holde and possesse so ample right and title in the realme of Fraunce both by election and inheritaunce not to graunt and leaue thys to your posteritie it were to the great debasing of your Maiesties honour crowne and dignitie Yea if it were as God forbid it wold folow that your predecessours liued continually in sinne yea and further it were as much to say which were too vile that blessed S. Lewes by whome all Fraunce is beautified could not be iustly canonized For as the Lord speaker declared if he tooke his othe at his coronation both to alienate nothing and also to call in that which was before alienated which is inseparable froÌ„ the Crowne it should followe that he was forsworne and consequently committed deadly sinne and so coulde neuer be canonized which is to to absurde to be talked of And if reply be made that hee might haue repented It is soone to be answeared That his sinne is read of but of hys repentaunce it is not founde as is sayde of Salomon But put case it be true that the Lord Peter sayd then it must needes folow that your grace could bestow nothing neither couÌ„trey towne nor tower And yet there be few whych willingly would not receiue them notwythstanding their allegiaunce and homage which they pretend to your hyghnes Kepe therefore confirme most renowned Prince that which was graunted by your noble progenitors otherwise your royall honor shall decrease that it may be verified in you which is read of in the 11. to the Rom. I wil honor my ministerie Thirdly I doe affirme that he rightfully honoreth the king which perswadeth him that whereby his honor and renowne is preserued For in matters of weyght and of great importaunce next after conscience we must haue regarde to name and fame as it is wrytten the 22. of Prou. It is better to haue a good name then riches A good name farre passeth all things and is aboue siluer gold And S. Augustine sayeth two things are necessary for thee conscience name Conscience for God and name for thy neighbour And therefore it is wrytten in the 4. chapt of Eccles. Labour to get a good name for that will continue surer by thee then a M. great treasures of golde A good life hath a number of dayes Which renowne name the Lord who annoynted your grace with the oyle of gladnes hath in so litle time more aboundantly blessed you wythall then any other Prince wherfore you ought to be more vigilant and carefull howe to kepe and enioy the same still For it is no lesse vertue to seeke and gette then to keepe that whych is gotten whereby not onely while you lyue but also when you are dead your gloryous renowne may liue for euer yea and farther that by you nothing be done wherby any blotte or foyle shoulde creepe into that your so great renowne alluding that to your grace which is sayde in the tenth of the Prouerbes c. The memoriall of the iust shall haue good report c.
honour and their liues who otherwise if he intended that way were in great daunger But the bishop youthfull and hauty taking occasion by their humblenes to swell the more in himselfe answered that he woulde not be taught by their counsaile but that he wold haue it done though all the commons whome he named Ribals sayd nay Also rebuked the Mayor and his brethrē for mecockes and dastardes for so fearing the vulgar sort of people The citizens perceauing the wilfull stoutnes of the bishop meekly answering againe sayde they minded not to resist him but to let him doe therin what he thought good onely desired him that he would licēce them to depart and hold them excused for not wayting vppon him conducting hym out of the town with that reuerence which he required For if they should be seene in his company all the suspicion thereof would be vpon them and so should they be all in daunger so much as theyr liues were worth The Byshop not regarding their aduise and counsaile commaunded one of hys men to take the rod borne before the Mayor to cary the same before him Which being done perceaued of the commons the Byshop after that maner went not farre but the rude people rūning to shut the gates came out with their bowes some with clubbes and staues soome with other instrumentes some with stones let driue at the Bishop and his men as fast as they might in suche sort that both the bishop his horse vnder him with most part of his men were hurt wounded And thus the glorious pride of this iolly prelate ruffling in hys new scepter was receaued and welcomed there That is was so pelted with battes and stones so woūded with arrowes and other instrumentes fit for such a skirmishe that the most part of his men with hys mace bearer all running away frō him the poore wounded bishop was there left alone not able to keepe hys old power which went about to vsurpe a new power more thē to hym belonged Thus at is cōmōly true in al so is it wel exemplified here which is commōly sayd and as it is commonly seene that pride will haue a fall and power vsurped will neuer stand In like maner if the Citizens of Rome following the example of these Lēnam men as they haue the like cause and greater to doe by the vsurped power of theyr Byshop would after the same sauce handle the pope and vnscepter him of hys mace and regalitie which nothing pertaineth to him They in so doing both should recouer theyr owne liberties with more honour at home and also win muche more commendation abroad Ex chron mon. D. Albani This tragedy with all the partes thereof beyng thus ended at Lennam whiche was little after Easter as is said about the month of April an 1377. the same yeare vpon the 12. day of the moneth of Iune next after dyed the worthy and victorious Prince king Edward the 3. after he had raygned yeares 51. A prince no more aged in yeares thē renoumed for many snguler heroicall vertues but principally noted and lauded for his singuler meekenes clemency toward his subiects and inferiors ruling them by gentlenes and mercy without all rigour or austere seueritie Among other noble and royall ornamentes of his nature worthely copiously set forth of many thus he is described of some which may briefly suffice for the comprehēsion of all the rest Orphanis erat quasi pater afflictis compatiens miseris condolens oppressos releuans cunctis indigentibus impendens auxilia opportuna That is To the Orphans he was as a father compacient to the afflicted mourning with the miserable relieuing the oppressed and to all them that wanted an helper in time of neede c. But chiefly aboue all other thinges in this Prince to be commemorate in my mynde is thys that he aboue all other Kinges of this Realme vnto the time of king Henry the eight was the greatest brideler of the popes vsurped power and outragious oppressions during all the time of whiche king neyther the Pope could greatly preuayle in thys Realme and also Iohn Wickliffe was maintained with fauour and ayde sufficient But before we close vpp the story of this king there commeth to hand that which I thought not good to omit a noble purpose of the king in requiring a viewe to be taken in all his dominions of all benefices and dignities ecclesiasticall remayning in the handes of Italians and Alious with the true valuation of the same directed down by commission in the time of king Richard the second wherof the like also is to be found the tenour of which commission of king Edward I thought here vnder to set down for worthy memory The king directed writtes vnto all the Byshop's of England in this forme EEdward by the grace of God king c. To the reuerend father in Christ. N. By the same grace Bishop of L. greeting Beyng willing vpon certayn causes to be certified what and how many benefices aswell Archdeaconries other dignities as vicaradges personages Prebendes and Chappels within your dioces be at this present in thandes of Italions and other strangers what they be of what valour and how euery of the sayd benefices be called by name And how much euery of the same is worth by the yere not as by way of Taxe or extent but according to the true valor of the same likewise of the names of al singuler such strangers being now incombentes or occupying the same and euery of thē moreouer the names of all them whether Englishmen or Straungers of what state or condition soeuer they be whiche haue the occupacion or disposicion of any such benefices with the fruites and profites of the same in the behalfe or by the authoritie of any the foresayd Straungers by way of ferme or title or procuration or by any other wayes or meanes whatsoeuer and how long they haue occupyed or disposed the same and withall if anye the sayd straungers bee nowe residents vppon any benefices commaunde you as wee heretofore commaunded you that you sende vs a true certificat of all and singuler the premisses into our high Court of chauncerie vnder your seale distinctly and openly on this side the feast of thascention of our Lord next comming without farther delay returning vnto vs this our writte withall Witnesse our selfe at Westminster 16 day of April in the 48. yeare of our Reigne of England and ouer Fraunce the 35. yeare BY vertue hereof certificat was sent vp to the king into his chauncerie out of euery dioces of England of al such spiritual liuings as were then in the occupation eyther of Priors Aliens or of other straungers whereof the number was so great as being all set downe would fill almost halfe a quyer of paper Whereby may appeare that it was highe time for the king to seeke remedie herein either by treatie with the Pope
the church of mertock annexed therunto worth by yeare lx.li. Item the Lord Cardinall of Agrifolio is archdeacon of Tawnton in the church of wels and is worth by yeare with the procurations and the Prebend of Mylinerton to the same annexed Lxxx li Like maiter is also found in the time of king Richard the 2. vpon what occasion it is vncertayne But as it seemeth by Recorde of that time A new Pope being come in place he would take no knowledge of anye matter done by his predecessors that might anye way abridge his commoditie And therefore this king was forced to beginne a new as may appeare by this following L. Cardinall of Agrifol is prebendary of the Prebend of Soringhame together with a portion of S. Marye of Stowe to the same annexed the fruits whereof by commoÌ„ estimat be worth by yeare Clxv li Maist. Iohn Uicar of Coringhame and mayster Robert person of Ketelthorpe and W. Thurly be Fermoures L. Cardinall Albanum is Prebendary of the Prebend of Sutton the fruites whereof be commonly esteemed worth by yeare CCCC markes Roger Skyret of Buckinhame and William Bedeford of Sutton do farme the same PrebeÌ„d The L. Cardinal Blandacen is Prebendary of the prebend of Nassington worth by estimacion CCC markes Robert of Nassington and Iohn sonne of Robert of Abbethorpe do occupy the same Prebend L. Cardinal NonmaceÌ„ is parson of Adderbury worth by estimacion C.li. Adam Robelyn clerke is his proctor and occupyeth the same L. Cardinall of S. Prebendary of Thame worth yearely by common estimacion CC. markes Iohn Heyward and Thomas a lay man doe occupye the same Prebend L. Peter de Yeuerino Cardinall is Prebendary of Aylesbury worth yearely by common estimacion lxxx marks Holy Duse of Alesbury doth occupy the same Prebend The Cardinall of S. Angeli hath the Archdeaconry of Suff. and is worth by yeare by common estimation a huÌ„dreth markes L Cardinall Neminacem Treasorer of the Church of Sar. hath the Archdeaconry of Sar. the Church of Figheldon to his dignity annexed which is let to farme to Grace late wife of Edmunde Sawyne deceased paying yearely 1. markes he hath also in the same Archdeaconry and couÌ„tye the sayde Churche of Alwardburye with the Chappels of Putton and Farle to the same annexed which is let to ferme to the L. Pryor of the house of Ederose for the yerly rent of xxiii li he hath also the Prebend of Calne in the said Archdeaconry and County worth by yeare C.ll. and fermour therof is Raymunde Pelegrini L. Cardinall of Agrifolio hath the Archdeaconrye of Berck worth by yeare 120. markes and remayneth in hys owne handes Item he hath the Prebende of worth worth by yeare a hundreth pound Raymund Peregrine is fermour there L. Cardinall Gebanen hath the Prebendes of Wodford and Willeford Countye of Wiltshyre lett to ferme to Iohn Bennet of Sar. worth by yeare xl markes Lord Andomar de Rupy is Archdeaconry of Caunterbury to the which Archdeacon belong the Church of Lymin within the same Dioces worth by yeare after the Taxation of the tenth xx.li. The Churche of Tenham worth by yeare after the sayd taxation Cxxx li.vi.s.viii.d â—he Churche of Hakington neere Caunterbury worth by yeare xx markes The Churche of S. Clement in Sandwitche worth by yeare after the taxation aforesayd viij markes The church of Saint Mary in Sandwich worth by yeare viiij pound of the whiche the sayd Archdeacon receaueth onely vi markes The profites of all which premisses S. William Latimer knight hath receaued together with the profites arising out of the Iurisdiction of the Archdeaconry worth by yeare xx.li. Anglicus of the Church of Rome priest and Cardinall hath the deanry of the Cathedrall Churche of Yorke worth by yeare CCClxxiij li.vi.s.viii.d And the Prebende of Southcane valued yearely at C.lx. markes L. Cardinall Gebauen doth hold the churche of Wermouth and Archdeaconry of Durhame worth by yeare CC. marks And Iohn of Chambre and Thomas of Harington of Newcastell bee the fermors and proctours of the sayd Cardinall Ex Bundello Breuium Regis de An. 2. Rich. 2. parte 1. King Richard the second AFfter king Edward the third succeeded hys sonnes sonne Richard the second beyng yet but yong of the age of eleuen yeares who in the same yeare of his fathers decease in great pompe and solemnitie was crowned at Westminster an 1377. who following his fathers steppes was no great disfauorer of the way doctrine of wickliffe albeit at the first beginning partly through the iniquitie of tyme partly through the popes letters he could not doe that he would NothwithstaÌ„ding something he did in that behalf more perhaps then in the end he had thanke for of the Papistes as more by the grace of Christ shall appeare But as times do chaunge so changeth commonly the cause and state of man The bishop nowe seeing the aged king to be taken away during the time of whose olde age all the gouernment of the realme depended vpon the Duke of Lancaster And now the sayd Byshops agayne seeing the said Duke with the Lord Percy the Lord marshall to geue ouer their offices and to remayne in their priuate houses without intermedling thought now the time to serue them to haue some vauntage against Iohn wickliffe who hetherto vnder the protectioÌ„ of the foresayd Duke and Lord Marshall had some rest and quiet Concerning the story of whiche Wickliffe I trust gentle reader it is not out of thy memory what went before pag. 427. how he being brought before the Byshops by the meanes of the Duke and Lord Henry Percy the councell was interrupted and brake before ix of the clocke By reason whereof Wickliffe at that tyme escaped without anye further trouble Who not withstanding being by the bishops forbid to deale in that doctrine any more continued yet with his fellowes going barefoot and in long frise gownes preaching dilligentlye vnto the people Out of whose sermons these articles most chiefelye at that time were collected That the holy Eucharist after the consecration is not the very body of Christ but figurally That the churche of Rome is not the head of all churches more then any other churche is Nor that Peter hath anye more power geuen of Christ then anye other Apostle hath Item that the Pope of Rome hath no more in the keyes of the Church then hath any other within the order of Priesthoode Item if God be the Lordes temporall may lawfullye and meretoriously take away theyr temporalties from the churchmen offending habitualiter Item if any temporall Lord doe know the Churche so offending he is bound vnder payne of damnation to take the temporalties from the same Item that the Gospell is a rule sufficient of it selfe to rule the life of euery christian man here without any other rule Item that all other rules vnder whose obseruances diuers religious persoÌ„s be gouerned do ad no more perfection to the gospell then
vulgare tounge as in the Latine tounge manifestly and plainly without any curious implication the same hereticall and erronious conclusions so repugnant to the determination of holy Church as is aforesayd to haue bene be condemned and which conclusions also we declare by these our letters to be vtterly condemned And that farthermore you forbid and canonically admonish and cause to be admonished as we by the tenour of these presents doe forbid and admonish you once twise and thrise and that peremptorily that none hereafter hold teach preach or defende the heresies and errours aboue sayde or any of them eyther in schoole or out of schoole by any sophistical cauillation or otherwise or that any admit to preache heare or hearken vnto Iohn Wyckliffe Nicholas Hereford Philip Reppindon Chanon reguler or Iohn Ayshton or Laurence Readman which be vehemently and notoriously suspected of heresie or els any other whatsoeuer so suspected or defamed or that either priuely or publiquely they either aide or fauoure them or any of them but that incontinently they shunne and auoide the same as a Serpent which putteth foorth moste pestiferous poyson And farthermore we suspend the sayd suspected persons from al scholasticall acte till such time as they shall purge themselues before vs in that behalfe and that you denounce the same publiquely by vs to haue bene and be suspended and that yee diligently and faithfully inquire of all their fautours and fauourers and cause to be inquired throughout all the haules of the sayde vniuersitie And that when you shall haue intelligence of their names persons that yee compell all and euery of them to abiure their outragies by Ecclesiasticall Censures and other paines Canonicall whatsoeuer vnder paine of the greater curse the whych against al and singular the rebellious in thys behalfe and disobeying our monitions wee pronounce so that their fault deceit and offence in thys behalfe deserue the same the sayde monition of ours being first sent which in this behalfe we exteeme and allowe Canonicall that then and agayne accordyng to the effect of these our letters c. The Absolution of all and singular such whych shall incurre the sentence of thys instrument by vs sent foorth whych God forbidde Wee specially reserue vnto oure selues exhortyng you the Chauncellour by the aspersion of the bloud of IESVS CHRIST that to the vttermost of your power hereafter you doe your indeuoure that the Clergie and people being subiecte vnto you if there be whych haue strayed from the Catholique faith by such errours may be brought home againe to the laud and honour of his name that was crucified and preseruation of the true faith And further our will is that whatsoeuer you shal do in the premisses in maner forme of our processe in this behalfe to be had and done that you for your parte when you shal be required thereunto plainly distinctly do certifie vs by your letters patents hauing the tenour hereof The conclusions and articles here mentioned in thys letter are aboue prefixed Of which some were cōdemned for hereticall some for erroneous After this within fewe daies the foresayd Archbyshop W. Courtney directed down his letters of admonition to Robert Rigge commissary of Oxford for the repressing of thys doctrine Which yet notwithstanding both then and yet to this day God be praised doth remaine The copie of his monition to the Commissary here out of hys owne Register foloweth ¶ The monition of the Archbyshop vnto the foresayd Chauncellour IN Dei nomine Amen Where as we William by the permission of God Archbyshop of Canterbury Lorde Primate of England and Legate of the Apostolicall sea by the consent of our suffraganes haue caused to be assembled together diuers clerkes both secular and regular of the vniuersitie of Oxford wythin our prouince of Canterbury and other Catholicke persons to informe vs of and vpon certaine conclusions heretical and erroneous generally and commonly preached and published in diuers places of the sayd prouince of Canterbury to the subuersion of the whole state of the Church and our sayd prouince And also mature deliberation had vpon the same by the common counsaile of the said our suffraganes their conuocates it was declared that certain of the sayde conclusions to haue bene and be condemned some for heretical and some for erroneous and notoriously repugnāt to the determinatiō of the church which we also our selues haue declared to be damnable And haue vnderstode by credible information and partly by experience that thou Robert Rigge Chancelor of the vniuersity aforesaid hast doest incline partly to the foresaid damnable conclusions whome also we in thys part haue partly suspected doest intend to molest these our Clerkes aboue specified others adhering vnto vs in this behalf as they ought to do through thy subtill and sophisticall imaginations sondry manifold wayes therfore we admonish thee M. Robert Chauncelour aforesaid the first second and third time and peremptorily that thou doest not greue let or molest iudicially or extraiudicially apertly or priuely or cause to be greued let and molested or procure directly or indirectly by thy selfe or any other as much as in thee lieth to be greued the foresayd Clerks secular or regular or such as fauor them in the premisses in their scholastical acts or in any other condition whatsoeuer And that thou suffer none hereafter to teach maintaine preach or defend any such heresies or errours in the sayde Vniuersitie either within or wythout the scholes Neither that thou do admit I. Wickliffe Nicholas Herford Philip Repindon Iohn Ayshton or Laurēce Redman which are vehemently and notoriously suspected of heresie or any other so suspected or defamed vnto that office of preaching But that thou denounce the sayd persons to be suspended whom we haue suspended from all scholastical act whilest they cleare their innocencie in this part before vs vnder the paine of the greater curse which we here in these wrytings denounce against thy person if thou shalt not obey those our admonitions with effecte as thy crime subteltie and offence in this behalfe shal require according to this our admonition premised which we repute in thys parte for canonicall as well then as now and now as wel as then reseruing the absolution of this sentence excommunicatorie if it happen to light vpon thee as God forbid specially vnto our selues Testified with the handes of the Iurers aboue in the page 410. before specified ¶ The examination of Nicholas Herford Philip Repingdon and Iohn Ayshton THe 18. day of the month and yere aforesaid in the chamber of the preaching Friers afore mentioned before the foresayde Archb. in the presence of diuers Doctours and Bachelers of Diuinitie and many Lawyers both Canon and Ciuil whose names are vnder written appeared M. Nich. Herford Philip Repingdon Iohn Ayshton Bachelers of diuinity Who after a corporal oth taken to shew their iudgements vpon the cōclusions aforesayd were examined seuerally eache one by himselfe before the
declared as it hath bene in times past the which also is done by a maruelous dispensation that through one onely thing both Gods loue iustice should be fulfilled For a while the power of miracles being taken away the holy church appereth the more abiect and forsaken and the reward of good men doth cease which reuerēced the same for the hope of heauēly riches not for any present signes And that the minds of euill men agaynst the same might that sooner be knowne which neglect to folow the inuisible thinges which the church doth promise whiles they be led with visible signes Forsomuch then as the humility of the faithfull is as it were destitute of the multitude and appering of signes by the terrible working of Gods secret dispensation wherby mercy is geuē vnto the good and iust wrath heaped vpō the euill For so much then it is truely said that before this Liuiathan shall playnely and manifestly come pouerty shall go before his face for before that time the riches of miracles shal be taken away from the faythfull Then shall that auncient enemy shew himselfe agaynst them by open wonders That as he is extolled through signes wonders so shall he the more manly be vanquished of the faythfull without any signes or miracles Also in his 16. booke vpon this word which the blessed man Iob sayde who shall reprehend his way before him or who shall cast in his teeth what he hath done whilest he did speake of the body of all euill he sodenly connected his speach vnto the head of all the wicked for he did see that toward the end of the world Sathan should enter into man whom the scripture calleth Antechrist he shal be extolled with such pride he shall rule with such power he shal be exalted with such signes wonders vnder the pretence of holmes that his doing can not be cōtrolled of mē for somuch as his signes tokens are ioined with power terror with a certain shew of holynes Wherfore he saith who shall controll his wayes before him what man is he that dare once rebuke or check him whose looke or countenaunce is he afeard of But notwithstanding not onely Enoc Elias the which are brought as ample for his exprobation but also all the elect do argue reproue his way whiles that they do contemne and by the force and power of their minde resist his malice But for somuch as this thing is not done by their owne power or strength but by Gods helpe and grace therfore is it very well sayd who shall argue or reproue his waies before him who but onely God By whose help the elect are ayded and made able to resist And a little after vpon the same booke of Iob Gregory saith in so much as holy men do withstād his iniquity It is not they thēselues which do so rebuke his wayes but it is he thorowe whose helpe they are strengthened Also in his second booke he sayth now the holy Church doth not regarde but despise the signes and miracles of the heretikes if they do any for so much as the Church doth sufficiently vnderstand that it is no kind of holynes for why the prose of holines is not to make signes or wōders but to loue euery man as him selfe to thinke truely of the very true God to thinke better of thy neighbor then of thy selfe for trew vertue holynes cōsisteth in loue and not in shewing of miracles This the veretie declareth saying hereby shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye loue one an other but he saith not that hereby mē shal know that ye are my disciples because ye worke miracles but contrary wise if ye loue one an other declaring plainly therby that it is not miracles but the mere charitie loue of God which maketh vs the seruants of God Wherefore the chiefe testimony of being Gods disciple is to haue the gift of brotherly loue This thorow out doth S. Gregory write and often times in other places he speaketh verye much of miracles howe that they shall cease amongst the iust and abound amongst the wicked Also Chrisostome in his lv Homily sayth thus it is a common an indifferent woorke betwene the ministers of God the ministers of the deuil to cast out deuils but to confesse the trueth and to worke righteousnes is the onely worke of the saints and holy men therefore whomsoeuer thou doest see casting out of deuils if he haue not the confessiō of the trueth in his mouth neyther righteousnes in his hands he is not a man of God but if thou doest see a man openly confessing declaring the truthe and doing iustice although he do not cast out no deuils yet he is the man of God And it followeth let vs know that like as at the cōming of Christ before him the Prophets and with him thapostles wrought miracles thorow the holy ghost for such as the thing is which is sturred such sent sauor wil proceede frō the same He writeth also vpon the beginning of Mathew The whole world did maruel wōder at three things that Christ rose againe after his deth that flesh ascendeth into heauē that he did conuert the whole world by his xi apostles There is iiii causes which wrought the same That is to say the contempt of riches or money The dispising of pomp and glory The seperation of thēselues from all worldly occupation and busines and the pacient suffering of tormentes Thus much writeth Chisostome also saint Isydore in his first booke and xxv cha De summo bono writeth thus like as in the apostles the maruelous effect power of works was much more cōmendable then the vertue of their signes euen so now in the Church is it much more better to liue wel thē to worke any signes or miracles And the cause why that the church of God doth not at this present worke miracles as it did in the time of the Apostles is this That it was necessary at that time that the worlde should beleue miracles and nowe at this present euery faithful beleuer ought to shine with good workes for to this end were signes miracles then outwardly wrought that their sayth thereby might be inwardly strengthned and stablished for what soeuer faithfull man he be that seketh to worke miracles he seeketh vaine glory to be praysed of mē for it is written miracles are signes and tokens vnto the infidels misbeleuers and not vnto the faythfull Thus muche wryteth Isidore Item Saint Augustine in his Booke of cōfession sayth thus there is no greater miracle amongst mē thē to loue our enemies By these wordes of these holy men a man may easely gather that both in our dayes and in the time to come the disciples of Antichrist both do shall more florish and shewe thēselues by strannge signes miracles thē the disciples of Christ according to
the olde vnto the young namely men of holy Church breken his hest and few Bishoppes pursuen hem therfore The 15. Article is this that I shoulde haue taught to true men of Christ that on no maner they should worship the Image of him that was done on the crosse or the Image of the blessed mayd his mother or of other Sayntes into honor and worship of the same ordeinet in the minde of them And oft sithes the worshipper of such Image he has reprouet saying and strongly affirming that Church men sinnen and done Idolatry This conclusion haue I not sayd in these termes But this I say with protestation that God commaūdes in his law in diuers places Exod. 20. Leuit. 19. 26. Deut. 5. 7. Tobiae 1. Baruc. 6.2 ad Corin. 10. Esay 45. Iere. 2.6.8 10.22 vltimo Sapient 13. 14. 15. Mac. 5. Threnorum 4. postremo that men should not worshippē grauen Images that ben werkes of mens handes And also he bids that mē should not make to hem grauen Images in likenesse of the thinges that bene in heauen to that end to worshippen hem sethen neither God ne Christ by his manhood gaue neuer commaundement to make thes Images ne expresse counsell ne his Apostles in all his law ne to worship such that bene made But wel I wote that by mens owne relation that haue misbeleuet in hem that many mē sinnen in manmetry worshipping such dead Images Notforthy to tho men bene Images good to whom they bene but kalēdars and through the sight of hem they knowen the better and worshippen oft God and his Saints And to such mē they done harme that settē her hope and trust in hem or done any worship to hem agaynst Gods law his hest Vnde ait Gregorius in Registro libro 10. in Epistola ad Serenum Episcopum Si quis imagines facere voluerit minimè prohibe adorare omnino prohibe Sed hoc solicitè fraternitas tua admoneat vt ex visione rei gestae ardorem compunctionis percipiant vt in adoratione totius trinitatis prosternantur These conclusions poyntes and articles that I haue vnder protestation in this booke affirmed I will stand by hem and maintayne hem with the grace of almighty god to the time that the cōtrary be prouet dewly by Gods law And this protestation I make for my fayth and my beliefe as I did the beginning that whensoeuer this worshipfull or any other Christē man shewes me verayly by gods law the contrary of this I will holy forsake hem and take me to the veray trouth and better vnderstanding of wiser men redy to be amended by the law of Iesu Christ and be a true Christen man faythfull sonne of holy church And of these I beseech you all bere witnes where ye commen Subsequenter vero quia fide dignorum relatione recepimus quod idem Gulielmus Swinderby latitabat quo minus posset in propria person a citari ipsum Gulielmum vijs modis per Edictum publicum ad instar albi praetoris in Ecclesia nostra cathedrali Herfordensi parochialibus ecclesijs de Kington Croste Whitney nostrae diocesis vbi idem Gulielmus solebat commorari citari fecimus prout quemadmodum in modo citatorio continetur cuius tenor sequitur in haec verba ¶ The Citation IOhn by Gods permission Byshop of Hereford to his deare sons our Deane of Leamster to the persons of Croft Almaly and Whitney and also to the Vicars of Kingston Iardersley Wiggemore and Monmouth Clifford and of S. Iohns aultar in our cathedrall Church of Hereford and to the rest of the Deanes Parsons Vicars Chapleines parish Priestes and to other whosoeuer in any place are appoynted through our city and dioces of Hereford sendeth greeting grace and benediction We bid and commaund charging you straitly in the vertue of holy obedience that you cite or cause to be cited peremptorily and vnder the payne of excommunication William Swinderby pretending himselfe to be a Priest That he appeare before vs or our Commissaryes the 20. day of this present moneth of Iuly at North Lodebury within our dioces which the continuance of the dayes following in other places also to be assigned vnto him if it be expedient till such thinges as haue bene and shall be layde agaynst him be fully discussed to aunswere more at large to certayne positions and articles touching the Catholicke fayth and the holy mother Churches determination that haue bene exhibited and ministred vnto the sayd William And to see and heare also many thinges that haue openly in indgement before vs and a great number of faythfull Christians by him bene euen in writing confessed to be condemned as hereticall false schismaticall and erroneous And to see and heare positions and Articles denied by the sayd William to be proued by faythfull witnesses and other lawfull trials against the sayd William And to receiue for his false hereticall erroneous and schismaticall doctrine that iustice shall appoynt or els to shew causes why the premisses shoulde not bee done And if the sayd William lieth priuely or els cannot be so cited in his proper person we will that in your Churches when most people shall then come together to diuine seruice you opēly with a loud voyce and that may be vnderstanded cause the said William peremptorely to be cited vnto the premisses certifying the same William that whether he shall appeare the day and place appointed or no we notwithstanding will proceed vnto the premisses agaynst the sayd William according to the canonicall decrees by forme of law in the absence or contumacy of the sayde William notwitstanding We will moreouer if the sayd William shall appeare at the sayd day and place as is aforesayde before vs frendly heare him and honestly and fauorably as farre as we may with Gods leaue deale with him graunting free licence to come and to go for his naturall liberty without any hurt either in body or goods And see that you fully certify vs of the thinges that you or any of you shall do about the execution of this our commaundement and that by your letters patentes signed with your seale autenticall geuing also faythsully to the sayde William or to his lawfull Proctor if he require it a copye of this our present commaundement Geuen at our house of Whitburne vnder our seale the fift day of the moneth of Iuly in the yeare of our Lord. 1391. ¶ The act of the first day On Thursday the xx of Iuly in that yeare of the Lord aforesaid We in the parish church of North Lidebury afore sayd about 6 of the clocke sitting in iudgement after that it was reported vnto vs how the foresayd Williā was personally taken and lawfully cited Caused the sayd William then and there openly in iudgement to be called out to do heare and receiue such thinges wherto he was afore cited to do otherwise
knowledge mee guiltie so as I knew no errour in theÌ„ of which I should be guilty therfore the Byshop sate in dome in mine abseÌ„ce and deemed me an heriticke a schismaticke and a teacher of errours and denounced me accursed that I come not to correction of the Church And therefore for this vnrightfull iugement I appeale to the kinges Iustices for many other causes One cause is for the kynges Court in such matter is aboue the Byshops court For after that the Byshop has accursed he may no feare by his law but theÌ„ mote he sech succour of the kinges law and by a writ of Significauit put a man in prison The second cause is for in cause of heresie there liggeth iudgement of death that dome may not be geuen without the kinges Iustices For the Byshop will say Nobis non licet interficere quenquam That is It is not lawfull for vs to kill anye man as they sayden to Pilate when Christ should be deemed And for I thinke that no Iustice wil geue sodenly vntrue dome as the Byshop did and therfore openly I appeale to hem and send my conclusioÌ„s to the Knightes of the Parliament to be shewed to the Lordes and to be taken to the Iustices to be wel auiset or that they geuen dome The thirde cause is for it was a false dome for no man is an hereticke but he that maisterfully defends his error or heresie and stifly maintaines it And mine auÌ„swere has ben alway coÌ„ditional as the people openly knows for euer I say yet say alway will that if they caâ—nen shew me by Gods law that I haue erret I wil gladly ben ameÌ„det and reuoke mine errours and so I am no hereticke ne neuer more in Gods grace will ben en no wise The fourth cause is For the Bishops lawe that they deme men by is full of errours and heresies contrary to the truth of Christes law of the Gospell For there as Christs law biddes vs loue our enemies the Popes law geues vs leaue to hate them to sley them and grauntes men pardon to werren againe heatheÌ„ men and sley hem And there as Christes lawe teache vs to be mercifull the Bishops lawe teaches to be wretchfull For death is the greatest wretch that meÌ„ mowen done on him that guilty is There as Christes law teaches vs to blessen him that diseazen vs and to pray for him the popes law teacheth to curse them and in theyr great sentence that they vsen they presume to damne hem to hell that they cursen And this is a foule heresy of blaspheme there as Christes law byddes vs be patient the Popes law iustifies two swords that wherwith he smiteth the sheepe of the Church And he has made Lordes and Kings to sweare to defend him and his Church There as Christes law forbiddeth vs lecheâ—y the popes law iustifies the abhominable whoredome of coÌ„mon women and the Bishops in some place haue a great tribute or rent of whoredome There as Christes lawe byddes to minister spirituall thynges freely to the people the Pope with his law selles for mony after the quaÌ„tity of the gift as pardons orders blessing and Sacraments prayers benefices preaching to the people as it is knowne amongest them There as Christes law teaches peace the Pope wyth his law assoyles meÌ„ for mony to gader the people priests and other to fight for his cause There as Christes law forbids swearing The popes law iustifieth swearing and compels men therto Wheras Christes law teacheth his Priests to be poore the Pope with his law iustifies and mayntaynes Priests to be Lordes And yet the 5 cause is for the Popes law that byshops demen men by is the same vnrightfull law that Christ was demet by of the Byshops with the Scribes and with the Pharises For right as at that time they gauen more credens to the 2. false witnesses that witnessed agaynst Christ then they deden to al the people that witnesseden to his true preaching and his miracles so the Bishops of the Popes law geuen more leuen by their law to two hereticks Apostats or two comen wymen that woulden witnesseden agaynes a man in the cause of heresy than to thousands of people that were trew and good And for the Pope is thys Antechrist and his law contrary to Christ his lawe fully I forsake this law and so I reed all Christen menne For thus by an other poynt of this law they mighten coÌ„quere much of this world For whan they can by this law preseÌ„t a man an hereticke his goods shulen be forfet from him froÌ„ his heyres and so might they lightly haue 2. or 3. false witnesses to recorde an heresye agayne what true man so hem liked Herefore me thinkes that whatsoeuer that I am a christen man I may lawfull appeale froÌ„ a false dome of the law to be righteouslye demet by the trouth of Gods law And if this appeale will not serue I appeale opeÌ„ly to my Lord Iesu Christ that shall deme all the world for he I wot well will not spare for no man to deeme a trouth And therfore I pray GOD almighty with Dauid in the Sauter booke Deus iudicium tuum regi da iustitiam tuam filio regis Iudicare populum tuum in iustitia pauperes tuos in iudicio That is O God geue they iudgement to the king and thy iustice to the kings sonne to iudge thy people in iustice and thy poore ones in iudgement c. ¶ A letter sent to the Nobles and Burgesies of the Parliament by M. William Swinderby IEsu that art both God and man help thy people that louen thy law and make knowne through thy grace thy teachinge to all christen men Deare sirs so as we seen by many tokens that this world drawes to an end all that euer haue bene forth brought of Adams kinde into this world shuleÌ„ come togeder at domesday riche and poore ichone to geue accompt and receiue after hys deedes ioy or paynen for euermore Therfore make we our werks good ye while that God of mercy abides and be yee stable and true to God and ye shulen see hys helpe about you Constantes estore videbitis auxilium Domini super vos This land is full of Ghostly cowardes in Ghostly battayle few dare stand But Christ the comforter of all that falleth to that his hart barst for our loue agaynst the fiend the doughty Duke comforteth vs thus Estote fortes in bello c. Be ye strong in battell he sayes and fight ye with the olde adder State in fide viriliter agite c. Wake ye pray ye stond ye in beleue do ye manly and be ye comfortet and let all your thinges be done with charity For Saynt Paule bidds thus in his Epistle that saw the preuetyes of God in heauen Euigilate iusti c. Awake ye that bene righteous men bee yee stable
to grace that they might vnderstaÌ„d truely the truth and haue and vse vertue and prudeÌ„ce and so deserue to be lightned from aboue with heauenly wisedom so that all their words their workes may be hereby made pleasant sacrifice vnto the Lord God and not onely for helpe of their own soules but also for edification of holy Church For I doubt not but all they that will apply them to haue this foresayd busines shall profite ful me kill both to freds foes For some enemies of the truth through the grace of God shall through charitable folkes be made astonied in their conscience and peraduenture conuerted from vices to vertues and also they that labour to know and to keep faythfully the biddinges of God and to suffer paciently all aduersities shall hereby comfort many frendes And the fourth thing that moueth me to write this seÌ„teÌ„ce is this I knowe by my sodein vnwarned apposing and aunswering that all they that will of good hart wtout faining able themselues wilfully gladly after theyr cunning and their power to follow christ paciently traueling busily priuily and apertly in worke and in word to withdraw whom soeuer that they may from vices planting in them if the may vertues comforting them furtheryng them that stand in grace so that therwith they be not born vp in vaine glory through presumption of theyr wisdome nor inflamed with any worldly prosperitie but euer meek and pacient purposing to abide stedfastly in that wil of God suffering wilfully and gladly without any grutching what soeuer rod the Lord wil chastise them with that then thys good Lord will not forget to comfort al such men and women in all their tribulations at euery poynt of temptation that any enemy purposed for to doe agaynst them To such faithfull louers specially pacient followers of christ the Lord sendeth by his wisedome froÌ„ aboue them which the aduersaries of the truth may not know nor vnderstand But through their old and new vnshamefast sinnes those tyrantes and enemies of southfastnes shal be so blinded obstinate in eâ—ill that they shall weene themselues to doe pleasant sacrifices vnto the Lorde God in their malicious and wrongfull pursuing and destroying of innocent mens and womens bodyes which men women for theyr vertuous liuing and for their true knowledging of the trueth and theyr pacient wilfull and glad suffering of persecution for righteousnes deserue through the grace of God to be heyres of the endlesse blesse of heauen And for the feruent desire and the great loue that these men haue as to stand in southfastnes and witnes of it though they be sodeinly vnwarnedly brought foorth to be aposed of their aduersaries the holy Ghost yet that moueth and ruleth them thorough his charitie will in that houre of theyr aunswering speake in them and shewe hys wisedome that all theyr enemies shall not agayn say nor agaynst stand lawfully And therfore al they that are stedfast in yâ— fayth of God yea which through diligent keeping of his commaundementes for theyr pacient suffering of whatsoeuer aduersitie that commeth to them hope surely in his mercy purposing to stand coÌ„tinually in perfect charitie For those meÌ„ and womeÌ„ dred not so the aduersities of this life that they wil feare after their cunning and their power to knoweledge prudently the truth of gods word when where and to whom they thinke their knowledging may profite Yea and though therfore persecution come to them in one wise or an other certes they paciently take it knowing theyr conuersation to be in heauen It is an high rewarde and a speciall grace of God for to haue and enioy the euerlasting inheritance of heauen for the suffering of one persecution in so short time as is the terme of this life For loe this heuenly heritage endles reward is the Lord God hymselfe which is the best thing that may be This seÌ„tence witnesseth the Lord God himselfe where as he sayd to AbrahaÌ„ I am thy meede And as the Lord sayd he was and is the meede of Abraham so he is of all his other saynts This most blessed and best meede he graunt to vs all for his holy name that made vs of naught and sent his onely most deare worthy sonne our Lorde Iesu Christ for to redeeme vs with his most precious hart bloud Amen The examination of William Thorpe penned with hys owne hand KNowne be it to al men that read or heare this writing that on the sonday next after the feast of S. Peter that we call Lammesse in the yeare of our Lord. 1407. I william Thorpe being in prison in the Castle of Saltwoode was brought before Tho. Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury and Chauncellor then of Englande And when that I came to him he stode in a great chamber and much people about him and when that he saw me he went fast into a closit bidding all seculer men that followed hym to go foorth from him soone so that no man was left than in that closet but the Archbishop himselfe and a Phisitian that was called Malueren person of S. Dunstanes in London other two persons vnknowne to me which were ministers of yâ— law And I standing before them by and by the Archbish. sayd to me William I know well that thou hast this xx winters more trauelled about busily in the north couÌ„try and in other diuers countryes of England sowing about false doctrine hauing great businesse if thou might with thine vntrue teaching and shrewd will for to infect poysoÌ„ all this land But through the grace of God thou art now withstanded brought into my ward so that I shall now sequester thee from thine euill purpose and let thee to enuenime the sheep of my prouince Neuertheles S. Paul sayth If it may be as much as in vs is we ought to haue peace with all men Therfore William if yâ— wilt now meckly and of good hart without any feyning kneele downe and lay thy hand vpoÌ„ a booke and kisse it promising faythfully as I shall here charge thee that thou wilt submit thee to my correction staÌ„d to myne ordinaunce fulfill it duely by all thy cuÌ„ning and power thou shalt yet find me gracious vnto thee Then sayd I to the archbishop Syr since ye deme me an hereticke out of beleue will ye geue me here audience to tell my beleue And he sayd yea tell on And I sayde I beleue that there is not but one God almighty and in this Godhead and of this Godhead are three persons that is the father the sonne and the sothfast holye Ghost And I beleue that all these three persons are euen in power and in cunning and in might full of grace and of all goodnes For what soeuer that the father doth or can or will that thing also the sonne doth and can and will and in all theyr power cunning and will the holy Ghost is equall to the
body need to be afrayde though death did folow by one wise or other for to dye out of this world without taking of any Sacrament of these foresayd Christes enemyes since Christ will not fayle for to minister himselfe all Iefull healfull Sacramentes and necessary at all time and specially at end to all them that are in true fayth in stedfast hope and in perfect charity But yet some mad fooles say for to eschew slaunder they wil be shriuen once in the yeare and communed of theyr proper Priestes though they knowe them defouled with slaunderous vyces No doubt but all they that thus do or consent priuely or apertly to such doing are culpable of great sinne since S. Paul witnesseth that not onely they that do euill are worthy of death and damnation but also they that consent to euill doers Also as their slaūderous workes witnesse these aforesayd vicious Priestes despise and cast from them heauenly cunning that is geuen of the holye ghost Wherefore the Lord throweth all such despisers from him that they vse nor do any Priesthood to him No doubt than all they that wittingly or wilfully take or cōsent that any other body should take any Sacrament of any suche named Priest sinneth openly and damnably agaynst all the Trinity and are vnable to any Sacrament of health And that this foresayd sentēce is altogether true into remission of all my sinnefull liuing trusting stedfastly in the mercye of God I offer to him my soule And to proue also the foresayde sentence true with the helpe of God I purposefully for to suffer meekely and gladly my most wretched bodye to bee tormented where God will of whom he will and when he will and as long as he will and what temporall payne he will and death to the praysing of his name and to the edification of his Church And I that am most vnworthy and wretched caytife shall now through the speciall grace of God make to him pleasaunt sacrifice with my most sinnefull and vnworthy body Beseechyng hartely all folke that read or heare this end of my purposed Testament that through the grace of GOD they dispose verely and vertuously all their wittes and able in lyke maner all their members for to vnderstand truely and to keepe faythfully charitably and continually all the commaundementes of God and so than to pray deuoutly to all the blessed Trinitie that I may haue grace with wisedome and prudence from aboue to end my lyfe here in this foresayd truth and for this cause in true fayth and stedfast hope and perfect charitie Amen What was the ende of this good man and blessed seruant of God Williā Thorpe I finde as yet in no story specified By all coniectures it is to be thought that the archbishop Thomas Arundull being so hard an aduersarye agaynst those men would not let him goe Much lesse it is to be supposed that he would euer retract his sentence and opinion which he so valiantly mayntayned before the byshop neither doth it seeme that he had any such recanting spirite Agayne neyther is it founde that he was burned Wherfore it remayneth most like to be true that he beyng committed to some straight prison according as the Archbyshop in his examination before dyd threaten him there as Thorpe confesseth himselfe was so straightly kept that eyther he was secretly made away or els there he dyed by sicknesse The like end also I finde to happen to Iohn Aston an other good folower of Wickliffe who for the same doctrine of the sacrament was condemned by the Bishops And because he would not recant he was committed to perpetuall prison wherein the good man continued till his death An. 1382. ¶ Iohn Puruey FUrthermore in the sayd examinatiō of Williā Thorpe mention was made as ye heard of Iohn Puruey of whom also something we touched before promising of the sayd Iohn Puruey more particularly to entreate in order and processe of time Of this Puruey Tho. Walden writeth thus in his second tome Iohn Puruey sayth he was the Library of Lollordes and gloser vpon Wickliffe He sayde that the worshipping of Abrahā was but a salutatiō And in his third Tome he sayth this Iohn Puruey with Harford a doctour of diuinity were greuously tormented and punished in the prison of Saltwood and at the length recanted at Paules crosse at London Tho. Arundel being then Archb. of Canterbury Afterward agayne he was emprisoned vnder Henry Chicheley Archb. of Canterbury in the yeare of our Lord 1421. Thus muche writeth Walden The workes of this man which he wrote were gathered by Richard Lauingame his aduersarye whiche I thinke worthy to be remēbred First as touching the Sacrament of the last supper the Sacrament of penaunce the Sacrament of orders the power of the keyes the preaching of the Gospell of Mariages of Uowes of possessiōs of the punishing and correcting of the Clergy of the lawes and decrees of the Church of the state and condition of the Pope and the clergy Of all these generally he left diuers monuments grauely and exactly written part whereof here in the end of his story we thought to exhibite being translated out of Latine into English The articles which he taught and afterward was forced to recant at Paules crosse were these hereafter folowing 1. That in the Sacrament of the aultar after the consecration there is not neither can be any accident without the subiect But there verely remaineth the same substaūce and the very visible and incorruptible bread likewise the very same wine the which before the consecration were set vpon the aultar to be consecrate of the Priest likewise as when a Pagan or infidell is baptised he is spiritually conuerted into a member of Christ through grace and yet remayneth the very same man whiche he before was in his proper nature and substaunce 2. Auricular confession or priuate penaunce is a certeyne whispering destroying the libertye of the Gospell newly brought in by the Pope and the Clergye to intangle the consciences of mē in sinne to draw their soules into hel 3. Euery lay man being holy and predestinate vnto euer lasting life albeit he be a lay man yet is he a true Priest before God 4. That diuers Prelates and other of the Clergy do liue wickedly contrary to the doctrine and example of Christ his Apostles Therefore they whiche so liue haue not the keyes neyther of the kingdome of heauen neither yet of hell neither ought any christian to esteme his cēsure any more then as a thing of no force Yea albeit the pope should peraduenture interdite the realme yet could he not hurt but rather profite vs for so much as thereby we should be dismissed from the obseruation of his lawes and from saying of seruice according to the custome of the Church 5. If any man do make an othe or vow to keepe perpetuall chastity or do any thing els whereunto God hath not appoynted him geuing him
offer this my appeale vnto my Lord Iesu Christ my iust iudge who knoweth defendeth and iustly iudgeth euery mans iust and true cause The 22. Article A vicious and naughty man liueth viciously and naughtely but a vertuous and godly man lyueth vertuously and godly I answer my words are these That the deuision of all humaine works is in two parties that is that they be eyther vertuous or vicious For somuch as it doth appeare that if any man be vertuous and godly and that he do any thing he doth it then vertuously and godly And contrariwise if a man be vicious naught that whiche hee doth is vicious and naught For as vice which is called crime or offence and thereby vnderstande deadly sinne doth vniuersally infect or depraue all the acts and doinges of the subiect that is of the man whiche doth them so likewise vertue and godlines doth quicken all the actes and doyngs of the vertuous godly man in somuch that he being in the state of grace is layd to praye and doe good works euen sleping as it were by a certayn meanes working As S. Augustine S. Gregory and diuers other affirme And it appeareth in the sixt chapter of Luke If thine eye that is to say the minde or intention be simple not depraued with the peruersenes of any sinne or offence all the whole body that is to say all the actes and doinges shall be cleare and shyning that is acceptable and grateful vnto God But if thine eye be euil the whole body is darkned And in the second to the Corin. x. Chapter All thinges that you do do them to the glory of God And lykewise in the first Epistle to the Corinthians and last chapter it is sayd Let all your doinges be done with charitie Wherfore all kinde of lyfe and liuing according vnto charitie is vertuous and godly and if it be without charitie it is vicious and euill This saying may well be prooued out of the 23. chapter of Deuteronomy where God speaketh vnto the people that hee that keepeth hys commaundementes is blessed in the house and in the field out goyng and in comming sleeping and waking but he that doth not keepe his commaundementes is accursed in the house and in the fields in goyng out and comming in sleeping and waking c. The same also is euident by S. Augustine vpon the Psal. where he writeth that a good man in all hys doinges doth prayse the Lord. And Gregory saith that the sleep of saints and holy men doth not lack their merite How much more then hys doinges which proceede of good zeale be not weout reward and consequently be vertuous and good And contrariwise it is vnderstanded of hym which is in deadly sinne of whome it is spoken in the law that whatsoeuer the vncleane man doth touch is made vncleane To this end doth that also appertayne which is before repeated out of the first of Malachie And Gregorie in the first booke and first question sayth we doe defile the bread which is the body of Christ when as we come vnworthely to the table and when we being defiled doe drinke hys bloud And S. Augustine vpon the 146. Psalme sayth if thou doest exceed the due measure of nature doest not abstayne from glottony but gorge thy selfe vp wâ— dronkennes whatsoeuer laude or prayse thy tongue doth speake of the grace and fauour of God thy life doth blaspheme the same when he had made an end of this article the Cardinall of Cambray sayd The scripture sayth that we be all sinners And agayne if we say we haue nosinne we deceiue our selues and so we should alwayes liue in deadly sinne Iohn Hus aunswered the Scripture speaketh in that place of veniall sinnes the whiche doe not rtterly expell or put away the habite of vertue from a man but do associate theÌ„selues together And a certayne English man whose name was w. sayd but those sinnes do nor associate themselues with anye acte morally good Iohn Hus alledged agayne S. Augustines place vpon 146. Psalme the whiche when he rehearsed they all with one mouth sayd what makes this to the purpose The 13. article The minister of Christ liuing according to his law and hauing the knowledge and vnderstanding of the scriptures and an earnest desire to edifie the people ought to preach notwithstanding the pretended excommunication of the pope And moreouer if the pope or anye other ruler doe forbid any priestes or minister so disposed not to preach that he ought not to obey him I aunswere that these were my wordes That albeit the excommunication were eyther threatned or come out agaynst hym in such sort that a Christian ought not to doe the commandementes of Christ it appeareth by the wordes of S. Peter and the other Apostles that we ought rather to obey God then man whereupon it followeth that the minister of Christ lyuing according vnto this lawe c. ought to preach notwithstanding any pretended excommunication For it is euident that it is commanded vnto the ministers of the Church to preach the word of God Actes 5. GOD hath commaunded vs to preach and testifie vnto the people as by diuers other places of the scripture and the holy fathers rehearsed in my treatise it doth appeare more at large The second part of this article foloweth in my treatise in this maner By this it appeareth that for a minister to preache and a rich man to geue almes are not indifferent workes but duties and commaundementes Wherby it is further euident that if the pope or any other ruler of the Church do commaund any minister disposed for to preach not to preach or a rich man disposed for to geue almes not to geue that they ought not to obey hym And he added moreouer to the intent that you may vnderstand me the better I call that a pretended excommunication the whiche is vâ—iustly disordered and geuen forth contrary to the order of the law and Gods commaundements For the which the meere Minister appointed therunto ought not to cease from preaching neyther yet to feare damnation Then they obiected vnto him that he had sayd that suche kinde of excommunications were rather blessinges Uerely said Hus eueÌ„ so do I now say again that euery excommunication by the whiche a man is vniustly excommunicate is vnto him a blessing afore God according to that saying of the Prophet I will curse where as you blesse and contrariwise they shal curse but thou O Lord shalt blesse Then the Cardinal of florence which had alwayes a Notary ready at his hand to write such thinges as he coÌ„manded him said The law is that euery excommunication be it neuer so vniust ought to be feared It is true sayd Iohn Hus for I do remember eight causes for the whiche excoÌ„munication ought to be feared Then sayd the Cardinall is there no more but eight It may be said Iohn Hus that there be more The
destroyed This most holy and godly labour O most noble Prince was reserued only for thee vpon thee it doth only lye vnto whome the whole rule and ministration of iustice is giuen Wherfore thou hast established thy praise renowne euen by the mouthes of infants sucking babes for thy praises shall be celebrate for euermore that thou hast destroied ouerthrowne such and so great enimies of the faith The which that thou maist prosperously happely perfourme bring to passe our Lord Iesu Christ may vouchsafe to grant thee his grace help who is blessed for euer euer Amen When this Sermon was thus ended the Procurer of the Councell rising vp named Henricus de Piro required that the processe of the cause against Iohn Hus might be continued and proceed vnto the difinitiue sentence Then a certaine Byshop whych was appointed one of the Iudges declared the processe of the cause which was pleaded long since in the Court of Rome and elsewhere betweene Iohn Hus and the Prelates of Prage At the last he repeated those articles which we haue before remembred amongst the which he rehearsed also one article that I. Hus shoulde teach the two natures of the Godhead and manhead to be one Christ. Iohn Hus went about briefly with a word or two to aunswer vnto euerie one of them but as often as he was about to speake the Cardinall of Cambray coÌ„manded him to hold his peace saieng heereafter you shall answere to all together if you will Then said Iohn Hus how can I at once aunswere vnto all those things which are alledged against me wheÌ„ as I cannot remember them all Then sayde the Cardinall of Florence we haue heard thee sufficiently But wheÌ„ as I. Hus for all that would not hold his peace they sent the officers which should force him therunto Then began he to intreate pray and beseech therâ—â—hat they woulde heare him that such as were present â—ight not credite or beleeue those things to be true which were reported of him But when all this would nothing preuaile he kneeling downe vpon his knees committed the whole matter vnto God and the Lord Iesus Christ for at their handes he beleeued easely to obtaine that which he desired When the articles abouesaid were ended last of all there was added a notable blasphemy which they all imputed vnto Iohn Hus. That is that he saide there shoulde be a fourth person in diuinitie and that a certaine Doctour did heare him speake of the same When Iohn Hus desired that the Doctour might be named the Bishop which had alledged the article said that it was not needefull to name him Then said Iohn Hus O miserable and wretched man that I am which am forced and compelled to beare such blasphemy and slaunder Afterward the Article was repeated how he appealed vnto Christ and that by name was called hereticall whereunto Iohn Hus answered O Lord Iesu Christ whose word is openly condemned heere in this Councell vnto thee againe I do appeale which when thou wast euill intreated of thine enimies diddest appeale vnto God thy father committing thy cause vnto a most iust Iudge that by thy example we also being oppressed with manifest wrongs and iniuries should flee vnto thee Last of all the Article was rehearsed as touching the contempt of the excommunication by Iohn Hus. Whereunto he answered as before that he was excused by his aduocates in the court of Rome wherefore he did not appeare when he was cited and also that it may be proued by the actes that the excommunication was not ratified and finally to the intent he might cleare himselfe of obstinacie he was for that cause come vnto Constance vnder the Emperours safeconduct When he had spoken these words one of them which was appointed Iudge reade the definitiue sentence against him which followeth thus word for word The sentence or iudgement of the Councell of Constance geuen against Iohn Husse THe most holy and sacred generall Councell of Constance being congregate and gathered together representing the Catholike Church for a perpetuall memory of the thing as the veritie truth doth witnes an euill tree bringeth forth euill seuite hereupon it commeth that the man of most damnable memory Iohn Wickleffe through his pestiferous doctrine not through Iesu Christ by the Gospell as the holy Fathers in times past haue gotteÌ„ faithfull children but coÌ„trary vnto the holesome faith of Iesus Christ as a most venemous roote hath begotten many pestilent wicked children whome he hath left behind him successours and folowers of his peruerse and wicked doctrine against whome this sacred Synode of Constance is forced to rise vp as against bastards and vnlawfull children and with diligent care with the sharpe knife of the Ecclesiasticall authoritie to cut vp their errours out of the Lords field as most hurtfull brambles and briers least they should growe to the hurt and detriment of others For somuch then as in the holy generall Councell lately celebrated and holden at Rome it was decreed that the docrine of I. Wickleffe of most damnable memory should be condemned that his bookes which coÌ„teined the same doctrine should be burned as hereticall this decree was approued confirmed by the sacred authoritie of that whole CouÌ„cell neuertheles one Iohn Hus here personally present in this sacred Councell not the Disciple of Christ but of Iohn Wickliffe an Archheretike after and contrary or against the coÌ„demnation and decree hath taught preached affirmed the Articles of Wickleffe which were condemned by the Church of God and in times past by certaine most reuerend fathers in Christ Lords Archbishops and Byshops of diuers kingdomes Realmes Maisters of diuinitie of diuers Uniuersities especially resisting in his open Sermons and also with his adherents and complices in the scholes the condemnation of the said Articles of Wickleffes oftentimes published in the said Uniuersitie of Prage and hath declared him the said Wickleffe for the fauour and commendation of his doctrine before the whole multitude of the Cleargy and people to be a Catholicke man and a true Euangelical Doctour He hath also published and affirmed certaine many of his Articles worthely condemned to be Catholicke the which are notoriously conteined in the bookes of the said Iohn Hus. Wherfore after diligent deliberation full information first had vpon the premisses by the reuerend fathers and Lords in Christ of the holy Church of Rome Cardinals Patriarkes Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates Doctours of â—â—â—nitie and of both lawes in great number assembled and gathered together this most sacred holie Councell of Constance declareth determineth the articles aboue said the which after due conference had are found in his bookes written with his owne hand the which also the said Iohn Hus in opeÌ„ audience before this holy Councell hath confessed to be in his bookes not to be Catholicke neither worthy to be taught but that many of
the holy communion And I warne you that you enter into no tauernes with ghestes be not a cōmon cōpany keper For the more a preacher keepeth him frō the company of men the more he is regarded All be it deny not yet your helpe and diligence where soeuer you may profite other Against fleshlye lust preache continuallye all that euer you can For that is the raging beast which deuoureth men for whom the flesh of Christ did suffer Wherfore my heartily beloued I beseech you to flie fornication for where as a man woulde most profite and doe good there this vice vseth most to lurke In any case flie the company of yong women and beleeue not their deuotion For S. Austen sayth the more deuout she is the more procliue to wantonnesse and vnder the pretence of religion the snare and venome of fornication lurketh And this knowe my welbeloued that the conuersation with them subuerteth many whome the conuersation of this worlde coulde neuer blemish nor beguile Admit no womē into your house for what cause so euer it be and haue not much talke with them otherwise for auoiding of offence Finally howsoeuer you do feare God and keepe his precepts so shall you walke wisely and shall not pearish so shall you subdue the flesh contemne the world and ouercome the deuill so shall you put on God finde life and confirme other and shall crowne your selfe wyth the crowne of glory the which the iust iudge shall geue you Amen ¶ This letter of Iohn Hus conteineth a confession of the infirmitie of mans flesh Howe weake it is and repugnant against the spirite Wherein he also exhorteth to perseuere constantly in the truth HEalth be to you from Iesus Christ. c. My deare frend knowe that Palletz came to me to perswade me that I shuld not feare the shame of abiuration but to consider the good which thereof will come To whome I sayd that the shame of condemnation and burning is greater then to abiure and why shuld I feare then that shame But I pray you tel me plainly your minde Presuppose that such articles were laid to you which you knewe your selfe not to be true what would you do in that case Would you abiure Who aunswered The case is sore began to weepe Many other things wee spake which I did reprehende Michael de Causis was some times before the prison with the deputies And when I was wyth the deputies thus I heard him speake vnto the keepers Wee by the grace of God wil burne this hereticke shortly for whose cause I haue spent many Florenes But yet vnderstand that I wryte not this to the intent to reuenge mee of him for that I haue committed to God and pray to God for him with all my heart Yet I exhort you again to be circumspect about our letters for Michael hath taken suche order that none shall be suffered to come into the prisone no not yet the keepers wrues are permitted to come to me O holy God howe largely doth Antichrist extend his power and crueltie But I trust that hys power shall be shortned and his iniquitie shal be detected more more amongst the faithfull people Almighty God shal confirme the hearts of his faithful whom he hath chosen before the costitution of the world that they may receiue the eminall crowne of glory And let Antichrist rage as much as he wil yet he shal not preuaile against Christ which shal destroy him with the spirite of his mouth as the Apostle sayeth And 〈◊〉 shall the creature be deliuered out of seruitude or corruptions into the libertie of the glorye of the sonnes of God as sayeth the Apostle in the wordes following we also wythin oure selues doe grone waiting for the adoption of the sonnes of God the redemption of our body I am greatly comforted in those wordes of our Sauiour◠happy be you when men shall hate you and shall seperate you and shall rebuke you and shall cast out your name as execrable for the sonne of man Reioyce and be glad for beholde great is your rewarde in heauen Luke 6. O worthy yea O most worthy consolation which not to vnderstande but to practise in time of tribulation is a hard lesson This rule sainct Iames with the other Apostles did well vnderstand which saieth count it exceeding ioy my brethren when yee shall fall into diuers tentations knowing that the probation of your faith woorketh patience let patience haue her perfecte worke For certainely it is a great matter for a man to reioyce in trouble and to take it for ioy to be in diuers temptations A light matter it is to speake it and to expounde it but a great matter to fulfill it For why our most patient and most valiaunt champion him selfe knowing that hee shoulde rise againe the thirde day ouercomming his ennemies by his death and redeeming from damnation his electe after his last Supper was troubled in spirite and sayde My soule is heauie vnto death Of whom also the Gospell sayeth that hee began to feare to be sadde and heauie Who being then in an agonie was confirmed of the Aungell and his sweat was like the droppes of bloud falling vpon the ground And yet he notwithstanding being so troubled sayde to his disciples let not your hearts be troubled neither feare the crueltie of them that persecute you for you shall haue me with you alwaies that you may ouercome the tyranny of your persecutours Whereupon those his souldiours looking vppon the Prince and king of glory sustained great conflictes They passed throughe fire and water and were saued and receiued the crowne of the Lord God of the which S. Iames in his canonicall Epistle sayeth Blessed is the man that suffereth temptation for when he shall be proued he shall receaue the crowne of life which God hathe promised to them that loue him Of this crowne I trust stedfastly the Lord wil make mee partaker also with you which be the feruent sealers of the trueth and with all them which stedfastly and constantly doe loue the Lord Iesus Christ which suffred for vs leauing to vs example that we should follow his steppes It behooued him to suffer as hee sayeth and vs also it behooued to suffer that the members may suffer together with the head For he sayeth If any man will come after mee let him denie himselfe and take vp hys crosse and followe me O most mercyfull Christ draw vs weake creatures after thee for except thou shouldst draw vs we are not able to follow thee Geue vs a strong spirite that it may be ready and although the flesh be feeble yet let thy grace goe before vs goe with vs and follow vs for without thee we can do nothyng and much lesse enter into the cruell death for thy sake Geue vs that prompt and ready spirite a bold hart an vpright fayth a firme hope and perfect charitie that we may geue our lyues paciently and ioyfully for
sought to by pilgrimages neither is it lawfull for Christians to bow theyr knees to them neither to kisse them nor to geue them any maner of reuerence For the which Articles the Archbishoppe with other Bishops and diuers learned commoning together first condemned the bookes as hereticall and burned them in fire and then because they thought the said Iohn Claydon to be forsworne and fallen into heresy the Archbishop did proceed to his definitiue sentence against the said Iohn personally appearing before him in iudgement his coÌ„fessions being read and deposed against him after this maner IN the name of God Amen We Henry by the grace of GOD Archbishop of Caunterbury primate of all England and Legate of the Apostolicke sea in a certayne cause of hereticall prauity of relapse into the same wherupon I. Claidon lay man of the prouince of Caunterbury was detected accused and denounced in the sayd our prouince of Caunterbury publickely defamed as by publick fame and common report notoriously to vs hath bene known first sitting in iudgement seat obseruing all things lawfully required in this behalfe do proceed to the pronouncing of the sentence definitiue in forme as followeth The name of Christ being inuocated onely set before our eies forasmuch as by the actes and thinges enacted producted exhibited and confessed before vs also by diuers signes euidences we haue found the said Iohn Claydon to haue bene and to be publickly and notoriously relapsed agayne into his former heresye heretofore by him abiured according to the merites and desertes of the sayd cause being of vs diligently searched weyed and pondered before to the inteÌ„t that the sayd I. Claidon shall not infect other with his scab by the consent and assent of our reuerend brethreÌ„ Richard Bishop of LoÌ„don Iohn Bishop of Couentry and Liechfield Steuen Bishop of S. Dauids and of other Doctors as well of diuinity as of both lawes and also of other discreet and learned men assisting vs in this behalfe do iudge pronounce and declare the sayd I. Claydon to be relapsed agayne into his heresy which he before did abiure finally and definitiuely appoynting him to be left vnto the secular iudgement and so do leaue him by these presentes Thus Iohn Claidon receiuing his iudgement condemnation of the Archbishop was committed to the secular power and by them vniustly vnlawfully was coÌ„mitted to the fire for that the teÌ„porall magistrate had no such law sufficient for them to burne any suche man for religion condeÌ„ned of the prelats as is aboue sufficiently proued declared pag. 523. But to be short Quo iurè quaque iniuria Iohn Cleydon notwithstanding by the temporall magystrats not loÌ„g aâ—ter was had to smithfield where meekely he was made a burnt offering vnto the Lord. an 1415. The burning of Iohn Claydon and Richard Turming Robert Fabian and other Chronologers which folow him adde also that Richard Turming Baker of whome mention is made before in the examination of Iohn Claydon was likewise the same time burned with him in smithfield Albeit in the Register I finde no sentence of condemnation geuen against the sayd Turming neither yet in the story of S. Albons is there any such metioÌ„ of his burning made but only of the burning of Iohn Claydon aforesaid wherfore the iudgement hereof I leaue free to the reader Notwithstanding concerning the sayd Turming thys is certaine that he was accused vnto the bishops no doubt was in their handes bands What afterward was done with him I refer it vnto the authors The next yeare after the burning of these two aforesaid and also of Iohn Hus being burnt at Constaunce whiche was an 1416. the Prelates of England seing the dayly increase of the Gospell and fearing the ruine of theyr papall kingdome were busily occupied with all theyr counsel and diligence to mayntayne the same Wherefore to make their state and kingdome sure by statutes lawes constitutions and terrour of punishment as Thomas Arundell and other Prelates had done before so the forenamed Henrye Chichesley Archbishop of Canterbury in his conuocation holden at London maketh another constitutioÌ„ as though there had not enough bene made before agaynst the poore Lollardes the coppy and tenor wherof he sendeth abroad to the bishop of London and to other his Suffraganes by them to be put in straight execution conteyning in words as foloweth HEnry by the grace of God Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Legate of the chiefest seat to our reuereÌ„d brother in the Lord Richard by the grace of God bishop of London health brotherly loue with continuall increase Lately in our last conuocation in Sayncte Paules Church in London being kept by you and other our brethren and clergy of our prouince we do remember to haue made this order vnderwritten by your consentes When as among many other our cares this ought to be chiefe that by some meanes we take those heretickes whiche like foxes lurke hide theÌ„selues in the Lordes vineyard that the dust of negligeÌ„ce may be vtterly shakeÌ„ from our feete and from the feete of our fellow brethren In thys the sayd conuocation of the Prelats and clergy we haue ordeined and that our fellowe brethren our Suffraganes and Archdeacons of our prouince of Canterbury by theÌ„selues their Officials or Commissaryes in all their iurisdictioÌ„s euery of their charges in theyr country twise euery yere at the least do diligeÌ„tly enquire of such persons as are suspect of heresy And that in euery suche their Archdeaconries in euery parish wherin is reported any hereticks to inhabit they cause three or more of the honestest meÌ„ and best reported of to take their othe vpon the holy Euangelist that if they shall knowe or vnderstand any frequenting either in priuy conueÌ„ticles or els deferring in life or maners froÌ„ the common conuersation of other Catholick men or els that holde any either heresyes or errors or els that haue any suspected bookes in the English tong or that do receiue any such persons suspect of heresyes and errours into theyr houses or that be fauorers of them that are inhabitants in any such place or conuersant with them or els haue any recourse vnto them they make certificats of those persons in writing with all the circumstances wherewith they are suspect vnto the said our Suffraganes or Archdeacons or to theyr Commissaryes so soone with as much speede as possibly they can And that the sayd Archdeacon and euery of their Commissaryes aforesayd do declare the names of all such persons denounced together with all the circuÌ„staÌ„ces of theÌ„ the dioces places secretly vnder theyr seales do send ouer vnto vs the same And that the same diocessans effectually direct forth lawfull proces agaynst them as the quality of the cause requireth that with all diligence they discerne define and execute the same And if perhaps they leaue not such persons
receyued Moreouer the Lord so prospered hys sonnes Uictorinus and Henricus that they subdued their ennemies and kept their estate In so much that when Fredericke the Emperor at Uienna was in custody enclosed by the Citizens Uictorinus did restore and deliuer him out of their hands wherefore the Emperour afterward aduaunced them to be Dukes Also God gaue them sometimes prosperous victory against Mathias as at the City of Glogonia c. After the decease of Georgius Pogiebracius King of Boheme Friderike the Emperor assigned that kingdom not to Mathias vppon whome the Pope had bestowed it before but vppon Uladislaus sonne of Casunirus king of Polonye and of Elizabeth daughter of the Emperor Albert and sister to Ladislaus For the which Mathias being discontented and for that the Emperor had denied him his daughter Runegunda went about to exclude Uladislaus out of Boheme and also proclaimed warre agaynst Fridericke But before he accomplished his purposed preparation death preuented him who wythout issue departed Anno 1490. After the death of Mathias departing wythout issue Uladislaus sonne of Casimirus king of Polonie and of Elizabeth daughter to Albert Emperour and sister to K. Ladislaus maried his wife Beatrix whom Mathias left a widow and with her was elected king of Hungary with this condition made betwene him and Friderike the Emperour that if he died without lawfull issue then the kingdomes of Hungary and of Boheme shoulde retourne to Maximilian sonne to Fridericus But Uladislaus not long after did repudiate his wife Beatrix and depriuing her of her kingdome caused the said Beatrix to swear and to consent to the marying of an other woman whych was the daughter of the French king named Anne procuryng from Pope Alexander a dispensation for the same as is before signified By this Anne Uladislaus had Lewys Anne which Anne afterwarde was maried to Ferdinandus Lewys succeeding after hys father had both the sayde kingdomes of Boheme and Hungarie An. 1492. and maried Mary sister to Charles the 5. Emperour Anne as is sayd was coupled to Ferdinandus c. Of Charles Duke of Burgoine somewhat was before touched who had maryed king Edwardes sister and what troubles by him were stirred vp in Fraunce partly was before notified Thys Charles after hee had besieged the Citie Nussia or Nouasium the space of a whole yere went about to alienate the territorie of Colen from the Empire to hys owne dominion wherefore warre began to be mooued betweene him and Fredericke the Emperor At length through communication had peace was concluded and a marriage appoynted betweene Mary the only daughter of Charles and Maximilian the Emperours sonne Anno 1475. Then from Nouasium Charls leadeth hys armie towarde Heluetia against Renatus or Reinhardus Duke of Lotharing then against the Heluetians Where hee being thrise ouercome first at Granson then at Moratum or Murta in the hier parte of Heluetia at last at the towne of Nanse was ouerthrowne and slain Anno 1477. The procurer of which warres was chiefly Lewys the 11. the French king to the entent hee might compasse the dominion of Burgundie vnder hys subiection whych afterwarde by open wrong and priuie fraude hee brought about defrauding Mary the daughter of Charles of her rightfull inheritance For the whych cause the Burgundians were the more willing to ioyne her in marriage wyth Maximilian sonne of Friderike the Emperour by reason whereof the title of Burgundie was firste ioyned to the house of Austria And thus haue you the miserable vexations and contentions among our Christian Princes heere in Europe described vnder the raigne of thys Fredericke the thyrde Emperour so that almost no angle nor portion of al Christendome whether we consider the state of the Churche or ciuill gouernement was free from discorde tumults and dissentions Thys cankerde worme of ambition so myghtely creepeth and euery where preuaileth in these latter endes of the worlde that it suffereth neither rest in common weales nor peace in the Churche nor any sparckle of charitie almost to remaine in the life of men And what maruaile then if the Lorde seeing vs so farre to degenerate not onely from hys preceptes and counsailes but almoste from the sense and bounde of nature that brother wyth brother vncle wyth nephewe bloude wyth bloude cannot agree in striuing killing and fighting for worldly dominions do send therfore these cruell Turkes vpon vs so to scourge and deuoure vs Of whose bloudy tiranny daily spilling of Christian bloude heereafter by the grace of Christ we will discourse more at large when wee come to the peculiar consideration of the Turkishe storyes In the meane time thys shal be for vs to note and obserue not so much the scourge howe greeuous it is but rather to beholde the causes which being the whippe vpon vs whych is our owne miserable ambition and wretched warres among our selues And yet if this Christian peace and loue left and commended so heartely vnto vs by the mouth of the sonne of God being nowe banished out of Christian realmes and ciuile gouernaunce myght at least finde some refuge in the Church or take Sanctuarie among menne professing nothyng but Religion lesse cause we had to mourne Nowe so it is that as we see little peace and amitie amonge ciuil Potentates so lesse we finde in the spiritual sorte of them which chiefly take vpon them the administration of Christes Churche So that it may well be doubted whether the scourge of the Turke or the ciuill sworde of Prynces haue slaine moe in the fieldes or the Popes keyes haue burnt moe in Townes and Cities And all be it such as be professed to the Churche do not fight wyth sword and targate for dominions and reuenewes as warlike Princes doe yet thys ambition pride and auarice appeareth in them nothyng inferiour to other worldly potestates especially if wee beholde and aduise the doings and insatiable desires of the court of Rome Great argument and proofe hereof neither is hard to be found nor farre to be soughte What realme almost through all christendom hath not only seene with their eyes but haue felt in their pursses the ambitiō intollerable and auarice insatiable of that deuouring church and also haue complained vpon the greuance thereof but neuer coulde be redressed What exactions and extortions haue bene here in England out of bishopricks monasteries benefices deanries Archdeaconries and all other offices of the Churche to fill the Popes coffers and when they had all done yet euery yeare brought almoste some newe inuention from Rome to fetch in our English money and if all the floudes in Englande yea in all Europe did runne into the sea of Rome yet were that Ocean neuer able to be satisfied In Fraunce lykewise what floudes of money were swalowed vp in this sea of Rome it was openly complained of in the councel of Basil as is testified by Henry Token Canon and Ambassadour of the Archbishop of Maidenburge
Queene Elizabeth The trayterous murdering of the Lord Iames Regent of Scotland Martyr The chiefe cause of al these latter persecution in the Church is onely the priuate quarrell of the Bishop of Rome The plantation of the Popes supremacie proued not to be of God Iohn 8. Luke 18. The 3. question Apocal. 13. The two beastes in the booke of ReuelatioÌ„ described The second beast with the hornes like a Lambe The misterie of the first beast rising out of the Sea applied The Image of the beast resembled to the Monarchie of Rome Apocall 13. Of these 42. monethes and the exposition thereof read page 101. The wounded head of the beast in the reuelation what it meaneth The second beast rising out of the land pretending the hornes of a Lambe what it meaneth Apocall 13. The Misterie of the 13. chapter of the Reuelations expounded Ex platina in vita Gregoâ—ij 7. The Image of the old Monarchie reuiued by the Bishop of Rome Power to doe the workes of the beast before his sight Apocal. 13. The 4. question 2. Thess. 2. Religion of Christ spiritual and not corporall The Pope turneth the spirituall religion of Christ to a corporall religion The whole summe of the Popes Catholicke religion set forth in partes A man may be Catholique by the Popes religion without any working of the holy ghost The nature of tâ—ue Christian Religion described Saluation of man standeth onely in fayth of Christ. Fayth in Christ no light matter to fleshe and bloud Many thinges incident to saluation besides fayth but not as causes thereof Workes of sanctification how they come and follow fayth Esay 58. Math. 25. Euseb. lib. 8. cap. 1. Plat. de rep 8. Hippocrates Constantinus erus Ad Martyres Ad deum de inundantibus bellorum procellis Math. 16. Three thinges noted in Christes wordes The order of the disposition of this history 1 The suffering time of the church 2 The florishing time of the Church 3 The declining time of the church 4 The time of Antichrist in the Church 5 The reformation of the Church Church of Rome Foure thinges to be considered in the Church of Rome 1. Title 2. Iurisdiction 3. Lyfe 4. Doctrine The title of the Pope The iurisdiction of the Pope The iurisdiction of the Pope The properties of life in the Romish Clergy The doctrine of the Pope Pope siluester the second Pope Gregory 7. called Hildebrand Pope innocentius the third Pope Bonifatius the eight Equinocé That is in name onely and not in very deede Vutuocè That is both in â—ame and also in definition and effect agreeing with the name The Church of Rome as now it is is not Apostolicall but onely aequiuocè The argument of Pighius Hosius and Eckius for the aucthoritie of the Church of Rome Aunswere Fallacia aquiuoci The minor examined The maior examined A distinction The church of Rome distincted into a double consideration of tymes The 〈◊〉 of Rome how it was commendâ—d of the 〈◊〉 Doctours The principall obiection of the Papistes agaynst the Protestants Aunswere to the obiection The church of Rome reuolted from the Church of Rome An other obiection of the papists An answere to the obiection No man bound to follow the opinions of hys Godfathers in all poyntes vnlesse they be consonant in al things The church of Rome distincted froÌ„ the Church of Rome Two times of the Church of Rome considered and examined The first poynt The enormities of life in the latter Churche of Rome described Policies and practises of Rome to get mony XV. Practises of the newe Churche of Rome to get mony Summa totalis The iurisdiction and power of this new church of Rome examined This â—ewe Church of Rome in three poyntes challenged Nicen. Con. Cap. 6. Victor stopped from his excommunication by Ireneus Boniface the first falsefieth the Councell of Nice The 6. Councell of Carthage Appellations to Rome forbidden in England Appellations to Rome forbiddeÌ„ in Fraunce Ex Annonio de gestis FraÌ„corum Lib 5. Cap. 33. The Popes iurisdiction resisted in Fraunce Pragmatica sanctio The Popes iurisdiction concerning elections examined Platina Sabel Enead 8. lib. 6. ConstaÌ„tine the 4. Emperour of Constantinople The Popes bibliothe carie suspected The constitution of Constantine the 4. Emperour of ConstaÌ„tinople examined Rubrica de ordinatione Episcopi ex Caelestino Papa dist 63. Cap. Cleri Dist. 63. Cap. Sacrorum Libertie graunted to the Clergy and to the people to chuse their Bishop Carolus Magnus Ludouicus Pâ—us The decree Ego Ludocus dist 63. suspected Gratianus Volâ—teranus what ground they haue of their recordes Dist. 63. ca. Ego Ludouicus Election of the Bishop of Rome standeth vpon the coÌ„sent of the Clergy and the people of Rome The decree Ego Ludouicus proued fals Dist. 23. ca. In Nomine Domini The iudiciarie power of the Pope examined Georg. Turonens in Francorum hist. lib. 10. ca. 18. The Popes jurisdiction vsurped in geuing and disposing ecclesiastical promotions 16. q. 7. cap. emnes Basilicae The Councell of Nice cap â— The generall Councell of Antioch cap. 9. 9. q. 3. cap. per singulas Pragmatica sanctio sancti Ludouici Impropriations and first finites of benefices Institutiones canonicae sub Ludouico Pio. The wordes of Prosper Aug. ad Bonifac Vowsons and pluralities of benefices Three points wherein the Popes Church erreth in his iurisdiction 1 Ecclesiasticall iurisdiction falsly restrained impropriate to the Church of Rome which ought to be generally equall to all Churches Christian. 2 Ecclesiasticall iurisdiction abused and extended in the church of Rome further then the word limiteth Christening of Bels. 3 The iurisdiction of the Pope abused and vsurped in temporal matters where he hath nothing to doe Popes submitted in the olde tyme to Emperours Ex cap. 1. de iuramentis calumniat Dist. 97. cap. 1. Plat. in vita Euge. 2. Euidences prouing ecclesiasticall persons to haue bene subiect to their Magistrates in causes both Ecclesiasticall temporall Euidences out of the Scripture Dauid 1. Par. cap. 30.31 Ezechias 4. Reg. 18. The order of Abias was the eight order among the Priests 1. Par. 24. Salomon Iudas Machabeus 1. Mac. 10. 1. Mac. 14. Iosaphat 2. Par. 19. Iohn 19. Rom. 13. Theophilactus Aug. ad Bonifacium Aug. contra CresconiuÌ„ li. 3. cap. 5. Thomas de regim princip li. â— cap. 32. 1. Pet. 2. Gregor ad Maurit Aug. lib. 3. epist. 61. The Pope calleth king Lucius Christes Vicar 23. q. cap. 5. principes cap. Administratores Dist. 97. ca. ecclesiae cap. Victor Dist. 79. ca. Si duo 24. q. 3. cap. De illicita Ex Nouel 5. Iustinian Diuine seruice vsed in the vulgare tongue Clodoueus Concilium Aureliense Carolus Magnus Canonicall Scripture onely to be read in Churches Conc. Cartha 3. cap. 47. Bishops and Priests charged to pâ—each with diligence Superstition in Funerals forbidden Ex. Ansegiso Abbate lib. 1. cap. 76. Ludouicus Pius Ex Ans. lib. 1. cap. 20. Lib. 2. C de
Englande through subiection vnder the church of Rome EnglaÌ„d plagued by the Pope when it needed not The Pope and court of Rome the principall cause of all the publique calamitieâ— through christendome The sicknes of Lewes the freÌ„ch Kyng The superstition of the kynges mother The 〈…〉 The 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 blindeâ— with 〈◊〉 myracle The 〈◊〉 voweâ—â—â— Lewes 〈◊〉 Freâ—◠〈◊〉 The Faâ—â—â— K. crofeâ— go to the holy lâ—â— Great pâ—â— paraâ—ce â— Fraunce â— ward 〈◊〉 vyage Conâ—â—â—â— in Fraunce to the 〈◊〉 vyage The Popâ— maketh â—â— uision 〈◊〉 contribâ—â—â— also in Faâ—â— Anno 1147. The 〈◊〉 the kingâ— age appoâ—â—ted The Freâ—â—â— kyng 〈◊〉 to reâ—â—â—â—xâ— all iniuâ—â— done to iâ— subiecta Willâ—â—â—â—â—spath â—â— other 〈◊〉 Englishâ—â— prepareâ—â— the sameâ—â— age Persâ—â—â— geuen to â— French â—â— to 〈◊〉 â— viage The kings answere to his Lordes laying downâ— takyng â—â— his crosie againe Ann. 1248. The French â—ing setteth â—orth in his â—â—urney The fifth K. â—esireth to â—econcilethe â—ope the â—mperour The Empeâ—oar Fredeâ—ike purgeth himselfe to â—he pope â—ouncell The submisâ—on of the â—mperour The worthy â—ffer of the â—oble Emâ—erour The Empeâ—â—ur offreth â— put in the â—rench king â—nd king of â—ngland to â—e his suerâ—â—es The Empeâ—our desireth â— answere â—r himselfe â—n the counâ—â—ll â—he pestileÌ„t â—ncour of â—ope Innoâ—eÌ„t 4. against â—rederike 2. 〈◊〉 the cause â—f all this â—ischiefe â—hat to this â—ay we sufâ—er by the Turkes The beginning of the Turkes vicâ—ories ouer ChristeÌ„dom Pope Innoâ—eÌ„t 4. would not be recoÌ„ciled with the Emperour The French army relieued by the Emperour Fredericke The french king again enâ—reateth the pope for the Emperour Damiata gotten againe by the Frenchmen The pride of the Erle of Artoys Death of certain of theâ—â—ch captaines in the way Anno. 1250. Victory of the Frenchmen ouer the Saracens Frenchmen discomfited by the Saracens The Frenchmen again well offered by the SoldaÌ„ The Erle of Artoys the popes Legate againe refuse the forâ—e of peace offered Famine misery in the French campe The Frenchmen eate their horses in Lent time The Soldans message deryding the French men Soldan dyeth a worse followeth The Frenchmen desire again the peace offered before coulde not haue it Victories ouer the Templaries and keepers of Ierusalem Causes debated why the Lord did not prosper the Christians fighting against the Saracens The Popes wars neuer went wel forward against the Infidels Frederike the Emperour cursed of the pope blessed of God Templaries set on by the pope to betray the Emperour William Longspath Grudge 〈◊〉 disdaine â—â— tweene 〈◊〉 FreÌ„che◠〈◊〉 the â—nglishe 〈◊〉 ours A boory â—â— ten by the English â—â— diours 〈◊〉 Alexandrâ— A ventrâ— act of Wiâ—â— Longspâ—th William Longspath inriched by Saracens goods William Longspath wronged by the French men Willia◠〈◊〉 the Englishmen depateth to 〈◊〉 The despiâ—efull worâ—s of the kings brother against Englishmen Babilon in Egypt How Damiata was 〈◊〉 of the Christians The keeper or tribune of Damiata wrongfully put to death by the SoldaÌ„ The tribune to 〈◊〉 desireth to be Christened W. Longspath sent for againe commeth The storie howe the French army was ouerthrowen fighting against the Saracens The sayre oâ—fers of the Soldan to the Frenchmen if they had had grace to take it The pope his legate cause of all this mischief The Christians refusing good offers could not haue them when they would A cruell proclamation of the Saracens against the Christians The Earle of Artoys with the 3. part of the Christen army palleth ouer the riuer Nilus W. Longspath Victory of the Christians against the Saracens Good counâ—ell giuen but not followed The despiteful rebukes of Earle Robert to them that gaue him good counsell The answere of the Templaries to Earle Robert The worthy answere of an english knight to Earle Rob. the kinges brother A number of French souldiours sent to Damiata drowned slaine by the way The village and castle of Mansor assaulted by the Frenchmen The FreÌ„chmen discomfited at the siege of MaÌ„sor Earle Robertâ— army incloâ—ed by the Soldan of Babylon The cowardly flying away of the Earle Rob. Earle Rob the kinges brother drowned The manly courage of William Longspath W. Longspath slain in battaile The Frenchmen ouerthrowne The sorowes in the freÌ„ch campe for losse of their brethren The heads and handes of the Christians cut off The bartaile betwene the freÌ„ch kyng and the Soldan The French army ouerthroweÌ„ The pitifull slaughter of the Frenchmen The FreÌ„ch king with his two brethren taken captiue by the Soldan Damiata resigned to the Saracens The summe of the kynges ransome The number of the French men slaine The two Soldans at varianeeâ— bout the FreÌ„ch 〈◊〉 What mischiefe hauâ— come to ChristeÌ„dâ—m by 〈◊〉 meanes How Frederike the Emperor reign haue send in good 〈◊〉 against the Saracens 〈◊〉 the pope would not suffer 〈◊〉 The tyranâ— and deuilâ—d mischiefe is the pope â—gainst the Emperor What horse Fredericke came of What father and mother The time oâ— maner of 〈◊〉 byrth What patiâ—nces hee had The conspiracies of pope Innocent against Fredericke during his minoritie The first coÌ„spiracy The 2. conspiracy The 3. conspiracy The 4. conspiracy The 5. conspiracy Philip slain Variance betweene Otho the pope What learning and knowledge he was of What vertues he was indued with Fred. suspected for his graundfathers sake The coronation of Fredericke The death of Otho The consecratioÌ„ of Fred. the Emperour The liberal munificence of Fre. to the pope and church of Rome Fred. gaue thorough his liberalitie a swword to cut his owne throte â— The canon of proscription graunted confirmed by Fred. Fred. after his consecration directeth his prouinces and dominions Fred. expostulateth the Pope curseth The Emperour replyeth to the popes demaund The Emperour speaketh but rea son howsoeuer it pleaseth the pope to take it The strife betwene the pope and the Emperour for the eleâ—â—ion and deprination of Byshops Authorities for the election of Byshops to be 〈◊〉 he Princes and their subiectes Authorities of eleâ—en of the 〈◊〉 of Ronâ—e is be in the Emperour Gratianus in his distinction repâ—â—red for the election of biâ—â— open be in the Pope The 〈◊〉 Iustinian for the election The Grecian Emperour electours of Byshops The elecâ—â— decreed by 153. byshops in the â—â—cell of Lâ—â—rane to be in the Emperour Stephanus 4. first altâ—â— of this â—â—tion The Bishop Rome the first breaker of the decrees of the councell Lotharius renueth the Lateran decree for election of Byshops â—â—depoâ— Iohn â— 14. and 〈◊〉 a â—â— decree â— election Leo the 5. 〈◊〉 â—â— by Otho â—â— Emper. The election â—nce againe 〈◊〉 to be â— the Emperours iurisdiction Henry the â— and Leo the 9. Henry the 3. and Nicholas the 2. The election â—itherto in â—he Emperours and â—ow beginneth to faile by Hildebrand Henry 4. againe chaâ—ngeth the election Henry the 5. also striueth â—or the election sayâ—leth Priestes accused that take any benefate at the handes of a â—â—y man Henry
pope Straight handling of the kings L. Cobham would not obey the beast The confession answer of the L. Cobham newly copyed Cayphas sitteth in consistory Antichrist was here in full power A signe of gods true 〈◊〉 The Sacrament of the Lords â—ody Penaunce Images Pilgrimage The aunswer examined Quarel picked where 〈◊〉 was geuen The Christen aunswere of the Lord Cobham vnto their quarellinges The wolfe was hungry he must needes be fed with bloud A tyrannous whore is that mother His auÌ„swer not to their mindes Antichrist setteth men aboue God The L. CobhaÌ„ resorteth vnto Christ. What could be more reasonably had if they had reasoÌ„ to receaue it A doctrine of deuils to blinde the simple Ex magna professu Thom 4 Arundel The first Article The second Article The third Article The seede of the Serpent The fourth Article He seeth their ignoraunce and malice He putteth his life in Gods hand Ex â—troque exemplari The couÌ„sell of Cayphas The phariseis and Scribes A rable of Antichristes ConciliuÌ„ ma lignansiuÌ„ For a false coulor sweare they All done to deceiue the ignoraunt Lord Cobham commeth againe before them Ex â—etusto exemplari LondineÌ„siuÌ„ The curse of Antichrist Malachi 2. A woluishe after of gentlenesse L. Cobham confesseth himselfe into God Mans law before Gods law preferred â—liere 51. The Christen beliefe of the Lord Cobham Math. 26. Mark 14. Luke 22. 1. Cor. 11. Antichrist alloweth not this faith The sacrament of the aultar Iohn Whithead gone from his opinion All this would not helpe A blasphemous bloode Quarell pickers The sacrameÌ„t of Christes body is both the body and bread Neither will scripture nor reason serue This opinioÌ„ hath S. Augustine Gelasius contra Eutichen The popes diuâ—nitic Materiall Iohn 6. An heresie after the papistes making 1. Cor. 10 The sacrament is called bread The determination of the church must stand whatsoeuer Paule saith A most christen aunswere The iudgement of L. Cobham concerning the determinatioÌ„ of the Church The Doctours consounded in their owne question The L. CobhaÌ„ beleueth not in the Pope An heresie after the papistes Holy church defined Consider him to be then in shrewde handlinge Walden contra Wieleuistas li. ar 2. Cap. 67 How we may iudge or not iudge by the scriptures Math. 7. Iohn 1. Iohn 7. Deut. 16. Psal. 56. Diuersitie of iudgementes A persite aunswere Esay 5. Esay 55. Walden in prafasione doctrina 7. A great aduersary Hieroni. in breniâ—ri im minori Luke 11. Iohn 10. Doctours when the scripture faile they begin to raise The clergie to sit on life or death hath no ground in scriptures Followers of Cayphas 26. Bishops of Rome togeather mat tirs saue one ly 4. A coÌ„parison betwene the martirs and the Popes tyme. A coÌ„parison betwene Christ and the Pope Rome is Antichristes neast Esay 9. Friers proued seditious and yet fouÌ„d no traytors Math. 23. The religió of Bishops Note I pray you how those are counted traitors and sedious that teach or cause Gods truth to be taught Luke 23. Iohn 19. Math. 24. Prophecy Prophecy Priestes Deacons Market this working of Sathan Act. 6. The first article Transubstantiation of bread into the body The L. Cob his beliefe in the sacrament Theâ— Article Confessió of sinne to God onely Malachi 20 The 3. Article Who is next into Peter Succession not of place but of conditioÌ„s maketh Peters heire Antichristes head body taile The 4. Article Pilgrimage What is to be dóe with Images Saintes are becoÌ„e now couetous beggers A whelpe of the same heare Images not to be worshipped The crosse whether it is to be worshipped Galat. 6. The materiall crosse is not materiall to our faith What it is to reioyce in the crosse of Christ. SlauÌ„dered with the truth These meÌ„ seeme to stand onely vpon their estemation amoÌ„gest the people A woluishe offer of gentleness Bloudy muâ— therâ—n Suffered of god as a plague An hereticke foâ— confessing of Christ. Ezec 18. Ezec 35. The wolfe would appeare charitable See if they shew not themselues Ex magno processu Thomae Arund eli That church is an whore A true shepe heareth the voice of a true pastor A colour of deceite As Caiphas did Christ. Christ is condeÌ„ned in his faithful members How spirituall these fathers are Keepe the sepul chre neuer so much yet Christ will rise None office left vndone pertaining to Antichrist What care is here to hold vp their popery Tho. Waldi in susesculo ZizanioruÌ„ Wseleus Richarde Clifford Rob. Mascall Ex â—eroque exemplari Math. 10. Iob. 1. Math. 10. He prayeth for his enemyes Ex â—etusto exemplari LoÌ„dinensiuÌ„ A testimoni all made by his frendes To stop lying lippes A rehersall of his belief In forme of bread but not without bread he meaneth The clergie in hate of the people A practise of false priests These are their coÌ„mon feates Walden in sasesculo zi zansorum Wielens Make from whence this geate commeth Fine worâ—â—â—hip I 〈◊〉 Alas good can thou 〈◊〉 slaundeâ—◠〈◊〉 proue 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 No scripâ—â— haue they to 〈◊〉 Intollera 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 made 〈◊〉 such an 〈◊〉 And this maintaine they still The pope holy bible of papists Marke this haÌ„dling This charge geue they commonly For confirmation of this historie Ex archiuis et Regist. Tho. Arund Archiep. Cant. Polydorus and Edw. Haull deceiued A thing thought right necessary that the L. Cobham should be made out of the way or els not possible for papistry to florish Sir I. Oldecastel in fauour with the kyng The keyes of the church falsely wrasted The L. Cobham excommunicated The L. Cobham cast into the Tower The teres of the Crocadile Popish absolution neglected The Sacrament of the aultar Of penance Of Images Of pilgrimages See whether these men picke quarelles where they neede now Here is no mention made of the worde of God Wolues clothed in 〈◊〉 skins The summe in the poâ—â—â— beliefe Confession The Popes â—â—premacy Pilgrimage Conueneâ—â—â— in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christum 〈◊〉 Psal. 2. The sacrament both body and bread in diuers respectes How confession is to be alowed What honour is to be done to the crosse The pope is Antichrist the Byshops are his members and fryers his tayle The bolde talke of the L. Cobham They cal them selues humble which rule ouer kinges and exercise the tyranny of the world Folowing christes footsteppes cleane contrary The vniuersall church meaning by a figure the part for the whole They call light darknes and darknes light Like will to like So did the Pharisies deliuer Christ vnto Pilate Syr Rob. Morley The L. Cobham returned againe to the Tower Alanus Copus Anglus with his fixe Dialogues Erostratus to get him a fame set Dianas temple on fire Alanus Copus Anglus intemperately abuseth hys penne Copus a barker agaynst dead me ... Answere to Alanus Copus Indifferency of the reader craued Whether the L. Cobham be to be iudged a traytor or a martyr The L. Cobham true and obedient to
the councell whether it be lawfull to appeale to Christ or no. The popishe church derideth Christ. Hus accused for trusting that Wickliffes soule is saued Sedition laid to his charge Hus accused for mouing certaine tumultes against the clergie and deuision in the vniuersitie of Prage A story of popes The cause why Swinco other of the Clergie did flie out of Prage This doctor Naso was counsailer to king Wenceslus A declaration how the Germaines departed froÌ„ the vniuersitie of Prage The penaltie of money was 100. siluer shocke The slauÌ„der of the vnshamefast Sycophant Palletz speaketh against Iohn Hus. Hus coÌ„mitted to custodie Ierome of Prage The Cardinall of Cambray Iohn de Clum The aemperours oratioÌ„ to I. Hus. The answer of I. Hus vn to the Emperour 1. Articles laide to I. Hus. The answer of Iohn Hus concerning his booke of the church S. Paule was neuer any member of the deuill Two maner of separatioÌ„s from the church The members of the church neuer fall finally away The predestinate is alwaies a member of the vniuersal church although not in present iustice To be in the church and a member of the church Predestination Both good and bad in the Church The Church is taken sometime for the congregation of the elect faithful so is the article taken in the Creede Peter neuer was head of the whole vniuersal Church The Church builded vpon Peter how The vicare of Christ how he is to be taken Eâ—â—â—ard ad Eu â—enâ—â—m lib. 4. Prelates making merchandise of holy orders The Pope taketh his originall 〈◊〉 the Emperours 96. disâ— The pope is not the head of any particuler church The popes power vaine Distinction of merite and of office Holynes cómeth not by sitting but by folowing The Cardinalles do count it heresie that they should be compelled to be followers of the Apostles 18. I. Hus condeneth the crueltie of the prelates in seeking the death of heretickes The betraying and condemning of innocents And how coulde this bishop of Cambray vnderstand the bookes of I. Hus being written in BohemiaÌ„ speach which he vnderstoode not 19. The church militant standeth in three partes 1. Ministers 2. Nobles 3. CommoÌ„s 20. Three kinds of obedieÌ„ce 1. Spirituall 2. Secular 3. Ecclesiasticall True obedience ruled by Gods coÌ„mauÌ„demeÌ„t Deut. 24. 21. Appealing vnto Christ. Appealing to Christ forbiddeÌ„ by the Cardinal of Cambray The appeale of Iohn Hus from pope Iohn 23. vnto Christ. The ferlicht coÌ„plaint prayer of christ against wicked iudges After the example of Christ he maketh his prayer to God A godly prayer of Iohn Hus. Chrisostome Andrew of Prage Robert bishop of Lincolne appealed from meÌ„ to christ Iohn Hus complaineth of Michaell de Causis his great enemie The procurator of I. Hus laid in prison at Rome The pope proued to do against his owne canon lawe 22. A knot found in a rushe The tree that is good bringeth forth good fruit 2. Cor. 10. 1. Cor. vlt. Deu. 23. Cardinall of Cambray obiecteth Iohn Hus aunswereth Forbidding to preach whether it ought to be obeyed Act. 5. Preaching almose geuing be not workes indifferent but duties commaundementes To forbid a minister to preach And to forbid a rich man to geue almose is both one How the popes cursinges are blessinges The Cardinall of Florence with his Notarie 8. Causes why excommunication ought tobe feared 24. A minister â—re admitted is more â—â—unde to preach then to doe any other work â—â—in rey the popes proâ—intioÌ„ notâ—â—thstaning Censures of the Popes Churche multiplyeth the Popes â—â—ctousnes Christ inâ—â—dited â—ne but â—rayed for all 1. Pet. 2. Rom. 12. 1. Articles drawen out of the trea tise written against Steuen Palletz The Emperours iudgement of I. Hus. The Cardinall of Cambray The Cardinal of Cambray Articles drawen out of his treatise written against Stanislaus de Znoyma 4. 1. Article Paule how he was both a blasphemer also a member of Christ. 2. Article Predestination 3. Article Who so committeth deadly sinne swâ—â—â—eth from the faith Tit. cap. 1. 4. Article The wordes of Christ for binding and losing vnles they be well vnderstanded minister to much feare or presumption 5. Article Binding loosing chiefly and principally belong to Christ. To true absolution 4. thinges are required 6. Article Ex Gregorio Priestes more geuen to their owne lucre and belly then to the seruice of Christ. 7. Article The Popes power â—oing vngodly is not to be feared 8. Article The Pope doing contrarye to Christ is not the vicare of christ but Antichrist 9. Article I. Hus neede not proue this article the pope will proue it himselfe 10. Article Top reach against the popes commandement 11. Article How farre prelates are to be obeied Isydorus Concilia prâ—ceptâ— 12. Article The clergie and laitie may iudge of the works of their prelates Iudgement double Secret in the coâ—â—â— of coÌ„science Open in the â—â—urt of authoritie 13. Article To Godâ— warde all wicked ministers be suspended 14 Article The laye people supplanted by the Clergy 15. Article The dishonestâ—e of such as gathered falâ—â— accusatioÌ„s against Iohn Hus. 16. Article 17. Article 18. Article 19. Article Articles 19. drawen out by the Parisians against I. Hus. Iohn Gerson Chauncelor of Paris 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. The wordes of the Cardinall of Cambray vnto I. Hus â—er his accusation A double inconuenience for I. Hus to fall in I. Hus aunwereth The Cardinal of Cambray appointeth I. Hus certaine conditions wherby he may be deliuered The answer of I. Hus. The Emperour exhorteth Iohn Hus to recant The Emperour rehearseth the Cardinall of CaÌ„brayes wordes The force of false witnes The Emperour to Iohn Hus. An olde bishop of Pole Obiection of a priest better sed then taught Palletz against Iohn Hus. A new heape of slaunders I. Hus waxeth faint and weary An other quarel against I. Hus touching these three men beheaded at Prage Vide supra pag. 590. I. Hus belied Ex puris affirmatiuis non con sistet argum in 2 figuta Another quarel picked by Englishe men against Iohn Hus The testimonial of Oxford for Wikliff brought to Prage A peece of the stone of Wickliffes sepulchre brought for a relique to Prage The othe of Palletz The othe of Michael de Causis Iohn Hus witnesseth the Lord. I. de Clum doth coÌ„fort Iohn Hus. The Emperours oratioÌ„ to the president of the councell That which god plateth man shall neuer roote vp Hierome of Prage mentioned and promoted by the Emperour 4. Bishops sent to Iohn Hus. The pitifull and louing oration of I. de Clum vnto I. Hus. 〈◊〉 marneâ—as constance of Iohn Hus. That is no 〈◊〉 modeâ—â— that are regardeth to obey 〈◊〉 then manifest veâ—â—â— Iohn Hus answereth The sermon where the â—â—tence The theame His theame confirmed by Aristotle They cannot abide the laitie to rule in any case All the popishe religion lieth in landes lordships and liberties Note here the
the sayd Iohn Wickliffe to be apprehended and cast in prison And that the king and the nobles of England should be admonished by them not to geue any credite to the saide Iohn Wickliffe or to his doctrine in any wise c. ¶ Beside this Bill or Bull of the Pope sent vnto the Archbyshop of CaÌ„terbury and to the Byshop of London bearyng the date 11. Kalend. Iuni. and the 7. yeare of the raigne of the Pope I finde moreouer in the sayd story two other letters of the Pope concernyng the same matter but differyng in forme sent vnto the same Byshops and all hearyng the same date both of the day yeare and moneth of the raigne of the sayd Pope Gregory Whereby it is be supposed that the Pope either was very exquisite and solicitous aboue the matter to haue Wickliffe to be appreheÌ„ded which wrote three diuers letters to one person and all in one day about one businesse or els that he did suspect the bearers thereof the scruple wherof I leaue to the iudgement of the Reader Furthermore beside these letters writteÌ„ to the Uniuersitie and to the Byshops he directeth also an other Epistle bearyng the same date vnto kyng Edward as one of my stories sayth but as an other sayth to the kyng Richard whiche soundeth more neare to the truth forasmuch as in the 7. yeare of Pope Gregory the xi which was the yeare of our Lord. 1â—78 Kyng Edward was not aliue The copy of his letters to the kyng here followeth The copy of the Epistle sent by the Byshop of Rome to Richard kyng of England to persecute Iohn Wickliffe VNto his welbeloued sonne in Christ Richard the most noble kyng of England health c. The kyngdome of England which the most highest hath put vnder your power and gouernaunce beyng so famous and renowmed in valiancy and strength so aboundaunt and flowyng in all kynde of wealth and riches but much more glorious resplendent and shynyng through the brightnesse and clearenesse of all godlynesse and fayth hath accustomed alwayes to bryng forth men endued with the true knowledge and vnderstandyng of the holy Scriptures graue in yeares feruent in deuotion and defenders of the Catholicke fayth The which haue onely directed and instructed their own people through their holesome doctrine and preceptes into the true path of Gods commaundementes but also as we haue heard by the report and information of many credible persons to our great grief hart sorow that Iohn Wickliffe Parson of Lutterworth in the Dioces of Lincolne professor of diuinitie I would to God he were no author of heresie to be fallen into such a detestable and abhominable madnes that he hath propounded and set forth diuers and sundry conclusions full of errours and coÌ„teinyng most manifest heresie the which do tende vtterly to subuert and ouerthrow the state of the whole Churche Of the whiche some of them albeit vnder coloured phrase and speache seeme to smell and sauour of peruerse opinions and the foolishe doctrine of condemned memory of Marsilius of Padua and Iohn of Ganduno whose bookes were by Pope Iohn the 22. our predecessour a man of most happy memorye reproued and condemned c. ¶ Hetherto gentle reader thou hast heard how Wickliffe was accused by the Byshop Now you shall also heare the Popes mighty reasons and argumentes by the which he did confute him to the kyng It followeth Therefore for so much as our Reuerend brethren the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Byshop of London haue receiued a speciall commaundement from vs by our authoritie to apprehend and committe the forenamed Iohn Wickliffe vnto prison and to transporte his confession vnto vs If they shall seeme in the prosecution of this their businesse to locke your fauour or helpe we require and most earnestly desire your maiestie euen as your most noble predecessors haue alwayes bene most earnest louers of the Catholicke fayth whose case or quarell in this matter is chiefly handled that you woulde vouchsafe euen for the reuerence of God and the fayth aforesayd and also of the Apostolicke seat and and of our person that you will with your helpe and fauour assist the sayd archbishop and all other that shall goe about to execute the sayd busines Wherby besides the prayse of men you shall obtayne a heauenly rewarde and great fauour and good will at our hand and of the sea aforesaid Dated at Rome at S. Mary the greater the 11. Kal. of Iune in the 7. yeare of our Byshoprick an 1378. The Articles included in the popes letters whiche he sent to the Bishoppes and to the king against Wickliffe were these as in order do follow The conclusions of Iohn Wickliffe exhibited in the conuocation of certayne Bishops at Lambeth ALl the whole race of mankinde here on earth besides Christ hath no power simply to ordayne that Peter and all his ofspring should politickely rule ouer the world for euer 2. God cannot geue to any man for him and hys heyres anye ciuill dominion for euer 3. All writinges inuented by men as touching perpetuall heritage are impossible 4. Euery man being in grace iustifiyng hath not onely right vnto the thing but also for his time hath right in deede aboue all the good thinges of God 5. A man cannot onely ministratoriously geue any temporal or continuall gift eyther as well to his naturall sonne as to his sonne by imitation 6 If God be the temporall Lordes may lawfully and meritoriously take away the riches from the Church when they do offend habitualiter 7. We know that Christes Vicar cannot neyther is able by hys Bulles neyther by his owne will and consent neither by the consent for his colledge eyther make able or disable any man 8. A man cannot be excommunicated to his hurt or vndoyng except he be first and principally excommunicate by himselfe 9. No man ought but in Gods cause alone to excommunicate suspend or forbid or otherwise to proceede to reuenge by anye ecclesiasticall censure 10. A curse or excommunication doth not simply binde but in case it be pronounced and geuen out agaynst the aduersarye of Gods law 11. There is no power geuen by any example eyther by Christ or by his Apostle to excommunicate any subiect specially for the denying of any temporalties but rather contrariwise 12. The disciples of Christ haue no power to exact by anye ciuill authoritie temporalties by censures 13. It is not possible by the absolute power of God that if the Pope or any other Christian doe pretend by any meanes to bynd or to lose that thereby he doth so bynde and loose 14. We ought to beleue that the Vicar of Christ doth at suche tymes onely bynde and loose when as he worketh conformably by the law and ordinaunce of Christ. 15. This ought vniuersally to be beleued that euery priest righly and duely ordered according vnto the law of grace hath power according to his vocation whereby he may minister the sacramentes and
consequently absolue any man confessing hys faulte being contrite and penitent for the same 16. It is lawfull for kinges in causes licenced by the lawe to take away the temporalties from the spiritualty sinning habitualiter that is which continue in the custome of sinne and will not amend 17. Whether they be temporall Lordes or any other men whatsoeuer they be which haue endowed any Churche with temporalties It is lawfull for them to take away the same temporalties as it were by way of medicine for to auoyd sinne notwithstanding any excommunication or other ecclesiasticall censure for so much as they are not geuen but vnder a condition 18. An ecclesiasticall minister and also the Byshop of Rome may lawfully be rebuked of his subiectes and for the profite of the Church be accused eyther of the Clergy or of the Laitie These letters with the articles inclosed being thus receiued from the pope the bishops tooke no litle hart thinking and fully determining with themselues and that in open profession before their prouinciall Councell that all maner respectes offeare or fauour set apart no person neither high nor low should let them neither woulde they be seduced by the intreaty of any mā nor by any threatnings or rewards but that in this cause they would execute most surely vpright iustice and equitie yea albeit presēt danger of life should follow therupon But these so fierce brags stout promise with the subtile practises of these Byshops which thought them so sure before the Lord against whō no determination of mans counsaile can prenayle by a small occasion did lightly confound ouerthrowe For the day of examination being come a certayn personage of the princes court yet of no great noble byrth named Lewes Clifford entring in among the Byshops commaunded them that they shold not proceed with any diffinitiue sentence against Iohn Wickliffe With which wordes all they were so amased and their combes so cut that as in the story is mentioned they became so mute and speachlesse as men hauing not one word in their month to answere And thus by the wonderous worke of God his prouidence escaped Iohn Wickliffe the second time out of the Byshops hands and was by them clearely dismissed vppon his declaration made of his articles as anone shall follow Moreouer here is not to be passed ouer how at the same tyme and in the sayd Chappell of the Archb. at Lamheth where the byshops were sitting vpon Iohn Wickliffe the story writing of the doing therof addeth these wordes saying Non dico ciues tantùm Londinenses sed viles ipsius ciuitatis se impudenter ingerere praesumpserunt in eandem capellam verba facere pro eodem istud negotium impedire confisi vt reor de ipsorum praemissa negligentia praelatorum c. That is I say not onely that the Citizens of London but also the vile abiectes of the Citty presumed to be so bold in that same Chappell at Lamheth where the Byshops were sitting vppon Iohn Wickliffe both to entreat for him and also to let and stoppe the same matter trusting as I suppose vpon the negligence which they sawe before in the Byshops c. Ouer and beside here is not to be forgotten how the sayd Iohn Wickliffe the same time of his examination offered and exhibited vnto the Bishops in writing a protestation with a declaration or exposition of his owne minde vpon the sayd his articles the effect whereof here followeth The protestation of Iohn Wickliffe FIrst I protest as I haue often before done that I doe minde and intend with my whole hart by the grace of God to be a true Christian and as long as breath shal remayne in me to professe and defend the law of Christ. And if it shall happen that through ignoraunce or otherwise I shall fayle therein I desire my Lord God of pardon forgeuenes And now againe as before also I do reuoke and make retractation most hūbly submitting my selfe vnder the correction of our holy mother the church And for somuch as the sentence of my fayth whiche I haue holden in the scholes and els where is reported euen by children more ouer it is caried by children euen vnto Rome Therefore left my deare beloued brethren should take any offence by me I wil set forth in writing the sentēce and Articles for the which I am nowe accused and impeached the whiche also euen vnto the death I will defend As I beleeue all Christians ought to doe and specially the Bysh. of Rome and all other priestes and ministers of the Church For I do vnderstand the conclusions after the sense and maner of speaking of the scriptures and holy doctours the whiche I am ready to expound And if they shall be found contrary vnto the faith I am ready to reuoke and speedily to call them backe agayne An exposition vpon the conclusions of Iohn Wickliffe exhibited by him to the Byshop ALl the race of mankinde here in earth beside Christ hath no power simply to ordayne that Peter c. This conclusion of it selfe is euident for as much as it is not in mans power to stop the cōming of Christ to hys finall iudgement but he must needes come according to the article of our Creede to iudge both the quick and the dead And then as the scripture teacheth shall surcease all ciuill and politicke rule here I vnderstand the temporall and secular dominion pertaining to men here dwelling in this mortall life For so doe the Philosophers speake of ciuill dominion And although the thing which is terminable hath an end is called sometimes perpetuall yet because in holy scripture and in vse of the Church and in the bookes of Philosophers most commonly that is takē to be perpetuall which hath no ende of tyme hereafter to come according to the which sense the Church singeth Gloria Patri c. nunc perpetuum I also after the same signification do take here this woorde perpetually and so is this conclusion consonant to the principles of the Scripture that it is not in mans power to ordayne the course and voyage of the Church here perpetually to last 2. God can not geue to any man c. ¶ To the second conclusion I aunswere vnderstanding ciuil dominion as in the conclusion before And so I hold that God first by his ordinate power cannot geue to any person ciuil dominion here for euer Secondly by his absolute power it is not probable for hym so to doe For so much as he cānot euer detaine his spouse in perpetual prison of thys life nor alwayes deferre the finall beatitude of hys Church 3. To the third conclusion Many wrytings or chartes inuented by men as touching perpetual hereditage ciuile be vnpossible The verity of this conclusion is incident For we must not canonize all maner of Charts what soeuer as Catholicke or vniuersal for then it were not lawful by any meanes to take away