signing them with a Crosse nowe is it not according to your position medicineable against al Coniuration Enchauntment Sorcerie and Witchcrafte but rather dayly vsed in all these Wherefore your proues be to weake your miracles to no purpose Your Doctoures much like your selfe The Heathen the nevv Indians the Ievve the Apostata Folio 108. These are desirous of the signe of a Crosse These signed themselues vvith a Crosse on the forehead Therefore the signe of the Crosse must be vsed and honoured As lyke as if I sayd These were Idolaters they knewe no true worship the diuel deluded them and therfore we must follow them May I not therfore wyth iuster cause than you complaine and say as you do O tempora O miserable daies O times too licentious when euery Erostratus may become famous by burning of Dianaes temple when euery insolent and ydle brayne if he can inuey agaynst the state of his countrey defame them that in learning and vertue be farre vnlike himselfe shal presume to write and be suffered to print his ignorant allegations and impudent vntruthes to deface the Gospell to set a gogge seditious and newe fangled heads You would haue men iudge no better of vs but that we go about to ouerthrovv the religiō of Christ take avvay the memory of his passiō Fol. 109 a. b. say that there is no Christ at al. This do ye set forth by an example of Andrew Lampugnā which gat an audacitie to slay the duke of Millain by striking ofte his Image and by a similitude of a chambre of presence wherein who so commeth and pulleth downe the cloth of estate or otherwise breaketh Princes armes in pieces he is no loyall and faythfull subiecte Let the world iudge betwixt you and vs who seke lesse the defacing of Christ and his Gospel who would more abolishe the memorie of his death We by continuall preaching of it or you by often paynting of it We by referring al glory vnto God or you by transferring all prayse vnto your selues We by setting forth our state of saluation so as Christ himself hath taught vs saying Search ye the scriptures or you by following the diuels doctrine and peruerting the word affirming That we dayly must gaze vpon pictures There be other meanes to remembre Christ as in the Preface I haue at large declared than by laying .ij. stickes a Crosse or breaking the ayre with a thumb on my forehead Papists deny Christ Nor they deny Christ which affirme him to be God and therefore in Heauen seke him but such as make an Image of him seuering thereby his diuinity from humanitie and only as man vpon earth honour him Wherfore your history is yll applyed Galeatius Maria as your owne authour sayth being duke of Millain Paradinus in symbolis was a wicked tirant a common rauisher of all honest women a violent oppressor of al his subiects therfore God stirred the heartes of some to conspire his death And for the same cause the worde of that armes is vel in ara that God in euery place yea to the altare it selfe pursueth the reuenge vpon the vngodly And therefore the man which otherwise stode in dreade of the Prince was by another meane heartened But God stirreth the hart of none to work any vengeance on Christ his sonne therefore the comparison is not like Agayne Lampugnā gat him the liuely Image of the duke we haue the Image I wote nere of whom sure the Image of Christ it is not but in respect of the abuse a damnable Idoll Then if the striking at the Image of Christ be signe that Christ himselfe is hated consider with your selfe who is more faulty who is more despitefully set herein You or we We pecke at a stone or a piece of wood which hath no likenesse in the world of Christ you burne and butcher the liuely members of Christs owne body the perfect counterfets of him departed hence We pull downe the dumbe and the deafe Idols the instruments of abuse you murder the saincts you destroy the Prophets you spite that any liueth honester than your selues Who nowe I beseche you be more enimies of Christ Who be more like to fall into Apostacie the ouerthrowers of Idols or destroyers of sainctes the myslikers of a dead stocke or stone or murtherers of quicke and liuing men You request me to tell you Folio 109. b. if a man come into a chambre of presence and plucke dovvne the cloth of estate and breake the Princes armes in pieces is it not his intent to haue the Prince deposed In déede sir if the Prince haue set it vp and giue commaundement that it shall there stande it is too great an offence to breake it But if the Prince haue proclaymed the contrary that none shall presume to drawe his armes or set vp any cloth of estate for him and yet notwithstanding some in despite or mockerie shall hang vp a beggerly and stinking clout or in steade of his royall armes erecte some monument of reproufe and shame if I came in place I would pull it downe and be the faythfuller subiecte for that And this is the very state of our cause Christ and his Apostles as I haue proued before haue vtterly forbidden Images there is no Crosse that hath any likenesse of our redemer on it Christ hath taken order onely by his worde to be set forth vnto vs. Therefore the Crosse of woode stone or metall may wythout offence be remoued of vs. For it is not the cloth of estate of his the armes and recognisance of his kingdome It is a wicked inuention of the Papistes a crafty delusion of the diuell to supplant Christ to take away the knowledge and true seruice of him Alexander as Horace sayth Edicto vetuit Episto lib. 1. ne quis se praeter Apellem pingeret aut alius Lysippo duceret aera fortis Alexandri vultum simulantiae gaue charge that but Apelles none in colours should him dresse Or but Lysippus should in brasse his countenance expresse Then if a simple botcher had attempted to draw him contrary to his commaundement should he not haue committed pety treason trowe you On like sorte Christ hath gyuen out his worde whereby he hath witnessed of himselfe Ioan. 4. he hath strayghtly enacted that whosoeuer worship him Ioan. 5. in spirite and veritie they shall worshippe they shall not more symplie conceyue of him than of the Maiestie of a God the seconde person in Trinitie wyth our fleshe caryed vp into Heauen with him Nowe commeth the workeman with his tooles and maketh a corporall and lying shape to bring an outwarde and earthly worship Alexander the Coppersmyth cryeth out for his aduauntage Rom. 1. Epi. 1. ca. 5. Simon Magus the Sorcerer contendeth for hys share S. Paul is against it S. Iohn condemneth it What shall we nowe doe goe to the lying Image and forsake the true forbyd the worde and bring in a picture haue our heartes here
Idolatry as Augustyne playnly reporteth Yet were they nothing the lesse Idolatrers For thys he sayth of them In psa 113. Videntur autem sibi purgatioris esse religionis qui dicunt nec Simulachrum nec daemonium colo sed per effigieÌ„ corporalem eius rei signum intueor quam coiere debro They séeme to be of more pure religion which say I neyther worship the Image nor the power thereof but by the corporall lykenesse I beholde the signe of the thyng which I ought to worship Yet notwithstanding bicause they called their Idols by the names of Vulcanus and Venus as we our Images by the name of Christ and of our Lady bicause they dyd some outwarde reuerence to their Idols as we vnto our Images both for them and vs as Augustyne sayth Apostoli vna sententia poenam damnationemque testatur One sentence of the Apostle witnesseth our punishmente and condemnation And what sentence is that Qui transmutauerunt veritatem Dei in mendatium colürunt seruierunt creaturae potius quam creatori qui est benedictus Deus in secula Which turned the trueth of God into a lye and worshipped and serued the creature forsakyng the creator which is the blessed God for euermore But how is the truth turned to a lye and the creature rather serued than the creator It foloweth in the place alleaged Effigus à fabro factas appellando nominibus earum rerum quas fabricauit deus transmutaÌ„t veritatem Dei in meÌ„datium res autem ipsas pro dijs habeÌ„do venerando seruiunt creaturae potius quam creatori By calling the pictures made of the workeman by the name of those thinges which God hath made they change the truth of God into a lye And when they repute and worship the thynges themselues as Gods they serue the creature rather than the creator Wherefore Augustine noted very well that Paul priore parte sententiae simulachra daÌ„nauit posteriori autem interpretationes simulachrorum in the firste parte of hys sentence condemned Images and in the latter the interpretation and meaning of them So that if your cause be all one with the Gentiles and excuse one and yet both of them condemned by the Scripture and conuinced by authoritie It foloweth that no Roode nor Crucifixe in the Church oughte to be suffered for it is Idolatrye Of the same metall that the Crosse is made we haue the candlestickes we haue the censors yet they which most do thinke that God is serued with candlestickes censors attribute not that honor vnto them that they do to the Crosse What is the cause S. Augustine declareth Illa causa est maxima impietatis insanae quod plus valet in affectibus miseroruÌ„ similis viueÌ„ti forma quae sibi efficit supplicari quam quod eam manifestuÌ„ est noÌ„ esse uiuentem vt debeat à viuente contemni Plus enim valent simulachra ad curuaÌ„daÌ„ in foeliceÌ„ animaÌ„ quod os habeÌ„t oculos habent aures habent nares habeÌ„t manus habeÌ„t pedes habent quam ad corrigendaÌ„ quod non loquentur nón videhunt non audient noÌ„ odorabaÌ„t noÌ„ coÌ„trectabuut non ambulabunt Thys is the greatest cause sayeth he of thys mad impietie that the lyuely shape preuayleth more wyth the affections of miserable men to cause reuerence to be done vnto it than the playne sight that it is not liuing is able to worke that it be contemned of the lyuyng For Images are more of force to crooke an vnhappy soule in that they haue mouthes eyes eares nosthrels handes and feete Then otherwyse to strayghten and amende it in that they shall not speake they shall not sée they shall not heare they shall not smell they shall not handell they shall not walke And so farre Augustine Which wordes myght vtterly dehorte vs from Imagery and dryue both the Roode and the Crosse out of the Church Psa 134. if we were not such as the Prophete speaketh of become in most respect lyke them For with open and feling eyes but with closed and dead myndes we worship neither séeing nor liuing Images More could I cite aswel out of hym as out of the rest before alleaged for confirmation of thys trueth of myne I could sende you to the .4 boke of Aug. de ciuit Dei ca. 31. Where he commendeth the opinion of Varro that affirmed God myght be better serued wythout an Image than wyth one I coulde alleage hys boke de haeres ad Quod yult deuÌ„ Where he meÌ„tioneth one Marcellina whose heresy he accompteth to be thys that she honored the pictures of Christ and other I could referre you to hys boke de Con. Euan. Li. 1. Ca. 10. where he sayeth Omnino errare merueruÌ„t qui ChristuÌ„ noÌ„ in saÌ„ctis codicibus sed in pictis parietibus quaesicruÌ„t They haue béen worthy to be deceiued that haue sought Christ not in holy bokes but in paiÌ„ted walles These I say with diuerse other I could bring forth but that I thinke that thys suffiseth to proue that the fathers wer not so foÌ„dly in thys case affected as you would haue it appeare to other Folio 4 4. Concerning Paulinus I wyll not greatly contende wyth you but that in his dayes which was .448 yeare after Christ there was in some Churches the signe of the Crosse erected Epi. 3. ad Aprium But as I sayd before it suffiseth not to say Thys vvas once so But proued it must be that Thys was wel so Paulinê° coÌ„mendeth the woman that separated her selfe froÌ„ her own husbande without consent vnder cloke of religioÌ„ And hath the word of God the lesse force therefore which sayth Whom God hath coupled together Mat. 19. Ad Cithe rium let no maÌ„ put a suÌ„der Paulinus affirmeth that the boke of the Epistles which the Apostles wrote layd vnto diseases headeth them and shall we thynke that in vayne it is that the Lord hath created medicines of the earth Eccle. 38. He that is wyse wil not abhorre theÌ„ He that wyll folow whatsoeuer hath bene is a very foole I know that IustiniaÌ„ taketh order which is yet but politique that no man build a Church or monastery but as reasoÌ„ is by consent of the bishop and that the byshop shall set hys marke which by hys pleasure shoulde be a Crosse But what is thys say I to the Roode or Crucifix in places consecrate where God is serued The same answer that I made before to the Synod which was kept at Orleance may serue to thys Emperoures constitutioÌ„ although it be not preiudiciall to truthe if he that lyued by your wise computatioÌ„ a thousand yeare after Christ in dede fyue hundreth thirtie at the least in tyme of great ignoraunce and barbaritie In catalogo post prefationeÌ„ Folio 45. should enact a thyng contrary to a truthe Yet to say the truth I sée no cause why I should not admyt his graue authorite since he neyther speaketh of
Crosse were able now to do the lyke I would admit youre case the rather though absolutely as I sayd before miracles do not enforce a doctrine The woman of which Epiphanius reporteth when she was in the bathes felt one Li. 1. Her 30 by inchantment touche her whome she sawe not and made the signe of a Crosse which was no cause of her preseruation but wytnesse of hir fayth that dyd preserue hir And thys Epiphanius hymselfe testifieth Signauit se in nomen Christi vt quae Christiana esset She signed hir selfe into the profession and name of Christ as who was a Christiā And after he sayth not that the signing serued hir But per signa ulum fidem By the signe of Christ and by fayth the woman receyued helpe And fayth doutlesse without the signe had bene able to haue wrought asmuch as that but that it pleased God to shew a miracle which to an other end he would by some visible signe to be expressed The ende was to shewe the vertue of beliefe in Christ and to conuert an heathen man which could not sée the secret fayth that so preuayled against inchantmente and therefore stode in nede of an outwarde signe Lib 1. Tom. 2. Her 30. Wherfore Epiphanius in the same place concludeth Hoc tertium instructionis ad fidem opus Iosepho contigit Thys thirde worke happened vnto Ioseph for instruction of hys fayth So that when it pleased God to vse a miracle for cōuersion of an infidell we must not gather that he hath left an example for vs to do the lyke yet is not such power ascrybed to the signe as you collect but the vertue remained in the name of Christ Notwithstanding as oft in the Scripture causa per effecta fides per opera declaratur the cause is declared by the effectes as the fayth by workes so many tymes and specially for the worldes instruction the inwarde puritie and persuasion is notified to men by the outwarde fact which fact nedeth not now to be the signe of the Crosse since we lyue not amōg Turkes and Sarazins but al mē without it know of whom we holde in whom we doe beleue Thus haue I aunswered the place of Epiphanius and by thys you may learne neuer to alleage a place but to consider better the circumstaunce of the same I thinke a man should haue much a doe with you if ye were able at this day to shew the lyke vertue and effect of a crucifix as hath bene of olde reported Yet thys oughte to be approued afore we do confirme the necessary vse therof A catholique of yours for all hys confidence in the Crosse would be loth to aduenture hys daughter in a common brothell house as your tale is Foli 104. a. of the woman of Corinth although he had taught her neuer so much to Crosse her Peraduenture she might be as good a maid as she that toke such pleasure in Massing and in Crossing that oute of the Churche she would neuer come vnlesse it were to a mans bed Only I maruell if the signe of the Crosse be so souerayne a medecine to preserue chastitie Why papistes are more licētious and aduouterous than other why so many of your order that most delyte therin make stewes as it were of theyr own houses none so great lechers as the superstitious none more incontinente than popishe priestes And they thynke they haue warrant of your religion for it For in that tyrānous interraigne of Antichrist .viij. yere a go when a priest of Oxforde was accused to Cardinall Pooles cōmissioners of an horrible offence not to be named of a Christian but commonly practised among the papistes Nefas est accusare sacerdotem cryed out the Datary It is a wickednesse to accuse a Priest of such cryme or such But the matter was euident the parties confessed it And what was awarded hym forsoth to aske hys fellow whether he were a thefe to tell a tale in an others eare which was as good as himselfe So that confession salued that sore strayght About the same tyme an olde fornicator in red Crosse streate in London declared the effect of your religiō which is to bréede a securitie in synne for beyng taken in adultery by such as are yet alyue and haue good cause to remember it he sped hymselfe as fast as he could to Church would nedes haue a Masse whē he had heard it he came home agayne Hys wyfe layed the matter bitterly to hys charge his frēds most greuously dyd expostulate with hym when he had nothing to excuse hymselfe nothing to lessen the fault withal he sayd There is none of you all though you would sée me hāged but knowes I beleue in the Sacrament of the altare well then I beleue well I thanke God of that Yet he thought hys beliefe in the Sacrament of the altare was inough for hym though otherwyse he played the varlet egregiouslye You thynke that a signe of a Crosse suffiseth as it dyd for Luciā and the Iew though no fayth in Christ no goodnesse do come with al. And thys may be supposed to haue encoraged your deuoute fathers to lyue so licentiously as they haue done Wherein if I had lewes Euans hys vayne I could with truthes make those eares to glowe which now do glory in hys shamelesse lyes The signe of the Crosse say you maketh that harlots vvould liue chast Fol. 116. a. What chastitie in crossing papistes How happens it thē that a frende of yours a bastard or bishop or both was peraduenture which is not I warrāt you without a Crosse or twayne should haue from hys bedsyde a priuy posturne Not that when hys Bacchus had bathed hym hys Venus might warme him How falleth it out that a chiefe maintayner of your saction that ioyeth asmuch in the Crosse signe as you lothed alwayes hys lawfull dyet and delyted moste in stolen venery What happe was thys that sometyme a warden of your colledge the daily deuoutly would knele before the siluer Crosse attempted as earnestly to bryng al Christians to the wodden Crosse should kepe both the mother and the daughter in Oxforde and after for periurye weare a paper in Windsore I wyl no further offēde chast eares with rehearsing the shame of your vnchast generatiō Only wyll I say and if ye further vrge me in particularity wyll proue that as I am now entreating of miracles so euer in my tyme it hath bene greatest miracle to sée a chaste votary But to returne to your allegations if ye wyll haue vs credite you in your doctrine then let vs sée the fruites let miracles be wrought let the Crosse make you honeste and I wyll verily affirme it a miracle If the signe of a Crosse do heale diseases and kyll dragons if it kepe vs frō the fall of trées and make our enimies stande styll before vs Then fare well physicke I wyll occupye no weapons Miracles past no proufe of present vse In
oftē giuen so straghtly enioined Thou shalt make to thy self no likenesse of any thing Suppose they be so strengthened in fayth so assisted by grace that how great soeuer the daunger be yet they fall not in it they kepe themselues vncorrupt from Idolatry shall that be sufficient excuse for them if they leaue occasion of such offence to other Shal their learning and wysedome be cause of folly and deceyt to the simple Shal they haue such regard of their own fāsie which is to no purpose but only to gaze on wtout a cōmaundement as they thēselues confesse that the silly flocke shal be scattered therby and the more multitude being simple perish for whō Christ payed as deare a ransome as for the greatest the wisest the best learned of the earth The Scripture is cōmaunded to be knowen of al men Gather sayth Moses the people together Deute 31. men wemen children the straunger that is within thy gates that they may heare and that they may learne and feare the Lord your God kepe and obserue al the words of hys law Likewyse in the new testament the lyke cōmaundement is giuē by Christ to search the Scriptures Which words if any mā think Iohn 5. do appertaine only to the Iewes of the old tyme or to that Cleargy now by the same reasō as Augustine doth wel proue he may say the Christians ought not to know Christ De verb. Domini Ser. 45. nor be knowen of Christ Notwithstanding the Scriptures contrary to Gods wil haue bene for a policie forbidden to be red least the ignoraunt myght fal into error by thē And shal not the pictures forbidden banished out of Gods seruise breding a most vile affection of Idolatry be remoued rather out of the tēple aswel in respect of the precept as peril I haue shewed what these Images do describe pryde auarice wantonnesse and nothyng else If a man say thys Sainct in hys lyfe tyme despysed hys lyfe to lyue with God cōtinued in pouerty to be rich in Christ reiected the pleasures lustes of the fleshe to subdue the same to the good guiding spirite hys Image by by controls hym of a lye For he séeth a most chereful stately loke a gorgious rich attire an embracing in death of the which in lyfe he most abhorred Wherfore as Images generally describe a contrary effect to their first paternes as alway they worke a more wicked ende than in religiō is to be admitted so the Crosse it selfe doth not nor cannot leade as to the crucified but estrāgeth our harts frō god the creator to a vile creature And if the commoditie of Images in the Church or Crosses had bene such as you would haue it appeare I maruell the Christ our scholemaster that hys Apostles our teachers toke no order for them Rom. 15 Paul sayth not Quaecūque picta sunt sed quaecunque scriptae sunt ad nostram doctrinā scripta sunt c. Whatsoeuer thinges are painted but whatsoeuer thynges are written are written for our instructiō Not that by Images or gasing stockes 2. Tim. 3. but thorow pacience and cōfort of the Scriptures we may haue hope Nor he sayth All picture but Scripture inspired of God is profitable to teach to reproue to instruct that the mā of God may be perfect furnished to all good workes Then if the Scripture be a commended and commaunded way and the same sufficient to make vs perfect in all pointes I sée not to what vse an Image or a picture is Exo. 20. God gaue the lawe to Moses not set forth with colours but writtē in .ij. tables Iosue Iosu 23.2.4 deliuered the same vnto the people not in Imagery but in worde not glorious to the eye but gladsome to the eare comfortable to the hart so that the meane wherby they would the benefites of God to be kept in remēbrance was not to paint or graue the lykenesse of thē but by faythfull pen report the noble factes so print in the hart a thankfull memory Dauid intreating of the incarnatiō natiuitie passion death resurrection kyngdom of Christ our Sauior which are the proper effectes which you wyl haue set forth in Imagery sayth in the persō of Christ thus Psa 39. In capite libri scriptū est deme In the beginning of the boke it is writtē of me It is not graued in a piece of metal or painted on a wall The Euāgelist sayth Sicut scriptū est in libro Sermonū Esaiae Luke 3. As it is written in the boke of Esaies Esa 52. sermons He spake of sermons and not of signes of a boke and not of an Image The Apostles also of whome it is written beautifull are the fete of those that bryng tidinges of peace preach helth which wēt throwing their sedes with teares planting the fayth of Christ with afflictiō and shal returne agayne hauing their handfull Psa 125. with plentifull increase with ioy for gayne and successe of the gospell sent not a Crosse or history of the passion painted in a table to cities or to nations but their Epistles the certayne witnesses of their myndes their writinges Nor Christ that we reade of conferred on them the art of painting caruing or engrauing wherby they myght conuert the heathen to the fayth or leaue a remembraunce with their disciples after them Luk. 24. Sed aperuit illis dominus sensum scripturarum but the Lord opened the sense of Scripture to them S. Iohn banished into the Ilande Patmos to receyue the secrete and diuine reuelations heard at the Lordes handes Scribe haec in libro Apoc. 1. Wryte these in a boke and not worke thē in stone or metall Wherby we are giuen to vnderstande that the instruction of our fayth the only ayde of a Godly memory must be the Scripture The Crosse with a picture of a mā vpon it with armes stretched body pearced and fete nayled may peraduenture put me in mynde of a man so executed but who it was for what cause it was to what holesome ende and effect it was no picture in the world can tel me If preaching inspired by the grace of God working effectually in the hearts of hearers be not able to turne and conuert the obstinate If the lawful vse of Gods holy instrument pearcing the hearts and striking the conscience can not frame aright and reforme to pietie what shall we thynke of a dumbe senselesse vnlawfull thyng If I sée a fellon a théefe a murtherer hanged before myne eyes haue I not more to consider myne owne estate than if I behelde a wodden roode or siluer crucifix Suppose I know that that picture representeth Christ am I furthered any thyng towarde my saluation or are the mercies of Christ more effectual to me Ephe. 1. vnlesse I know that euen God the father hath also chosen me in Christ hys sonne before the foundations of the worlde were layd that I