after admonition you will not rise agayne that wil make vs to maruel to pitie your ease as altogether desperate which God forbid whoe conuerte you and saue you and blesse you both soule bodye euen as I wishe to mine owne selfe For a farewel remember the later ende of man the accompte to be made the consequent there of hel or heauen and before all other respectes doe well for his sake that made you redeemed you sanctified you and hath hitherto preserued and enriched you and will hereafter in heauen fully rewarde you if you wil come euen now at the ninth and eleuenth howre Our Lord keepe you Paris 15. Fe. 1580 Your louing frend vndoubtedly G. M. TO MY LOVINGE AND BESTBELOVED SISTERS DEERE Sisters my care my loue of al worldly things next to my good mother my greatest comforte and ioye Vnlesse you did thinke that I doe most hartely loue you you coulde nor alwaies heretofore haue declared your exceeding loue so plentifully towards me for the which almightie God rewarde you This my loue because it is not a naturall affection onely but sincere and true charitie forceth me to wish vnto you my louing Sisters not onelie manie worldlie commodities which God be thanked you lacke not but much more all spirituall treasure and heauenlie riches wherof you can not haue great store because you dwell not where it groweth I know good Sisters that you meane well and moste willing are you to doe that which might please God but in good sooth you are out of the way and therefore the further you hold on the further you are from your iornies end the further from heauen The wise man saith There is a vvay vvhich seemeth to a man right Prouerb 14. but the end therof leadeth to distruction Beare with me if I write bold lie and tell you the truth plainlie I am your brother I loue you as nature bindeth me not onely in worldly respect but much more towardes God Your soules are deare vnto me my harte alwaies mourneth to thinke vpon your dangerous state wherein you stand O good Sisters the paine of hell exceedeth all tormentes and that fier shall burne for euer Happye are they that keepe them selues by God his greate goodnesse within the CATHOLIQVE CHVRCH for out of it there is no hope of saluation And most happy are they that hauing bene out of this Church by the wicked perswasioÌ„s of false preachers wheÌ„ it pleaseth God to send them true teachers will not remaine obstinate but folow good exhortations and holsome doctrine and so returne agayne as obedient children to Christ their father and to the Church their mother who are alwaies redy to receiue them remembring that which a most auncient and learned Father writeth S. AusteÌ„ vpoÌ„ the 88. psal He can neuer accompt God to be his father vvho vvil not haue the Churh to be his mother If you aske me what this Church is that is called CATHOLIKE and how you may know it behold the true and certen markes thereof and your selfe iudge whether you be within it or no. This Church is a congregation of all true christians which began in Christ his disciples at Hierus lem from thence grewe and multiplied throughout the whole world according as it is sayd in the psalme Their sounde speaking of the Apostles is gone out into the vvhole vvorlde psal 18. v. 5. and their vvordes into the ends of the earth The firste mark of the Church is to be visible So that the first marke of the true church is that it must grow and multiply be seene and appeere alwayes as a light in the world and therfore Christ calleth it A Cittie builded vpon a hill Mat. 5. vvhich can not be hid And the blessed Martyr S. Ciprian sayth The Churche beinge lightened with the brightnes of our Lorde doth reache foorth her beames through-out the whole worlde And S. Austen besides manye other places to this purpose compareth Christ and his Church to that stone vvhich vvas cutt out of a hill vvithout mens handes Daniel ca. 2. and after grevv to be a mightye mountayne so that it filled the vvhole earthe For vndoubtedlye this stone whereof the Prophet speaketh is Christ who was borne of a virgin without the helpe of man and is now growne from a few Apostles and disciples to an infinite number of christian people in all countries confessing one fayth and one beleefe and this is the Catholicke Church whereof your Creede telleth and teacheth you to say I beleeue the CATHOLIKE CHVRCH Let vs see nowe whether this marke doth agree to your brethren in England who call them selues Protestants or to vs whom it pleaseth them to cal Papists First they cal theÌ„-selues in their bookes the Englishe church that is to say of that fayth which is professed in England but we are of the CATHOLIKE CHVRCH that is of such a fayth as is professed in Fraunce in Spaine in Flanders Brabant zelant c. In a great part of Germanie in all Italy and beyond wheresoeuer there be christians and is now preached to the Indians that neuer heard of Christ before and encreaseth wonderfullye And within these fortie yeares in Englande Scotland Ireland Denmarke and Germanie there was no other faith openly professed but ours And now also in all these countries how many are there thinke you of secret catholickes that wish for the olde religion againe with all their hart and folow the new onely for feare Nay how many are there especially in England that doe yet openly professe the CATHOLIKE FAITH Aske good Sisters aske and you shall learne that all the prisons not only of London but of England are full of them because they will not yeeld to these new proceedings nor contaminate their soules with this newe seruice and leaue the olde true and Catholicke fayth besides a number of sundrye degrees which are deade in prison namely twentie three Bishops all depryued of their liuing these tweÌ„tie three yeres now but two of them alyue I omit Doctors Deanes Archdeacons Krights Squires partlie in prison partly departed the Realme and forsaking all rather then they will forsake God and his moste true and vndoubted religion This is true good Sisters as knoweth God you seldome heare of these things and therfore you thinke either their is no other religion but that could seruice with-out all comfort and deuotion which you see in your parish church or you thinke that must needes be the best because you are not taught anie other whereas you see if you beleeue me that all christendome almost is of an other religion And therfore this is the CATHOLIKE CHVRCH and yours is worthily called by your owne ministers the church of England But this shall better appeere The second marke is successiou if I geue you an othâ—r marke of the true Catholicke Church which is that it must continew for euer and from the first beginninge which was in Christ and
the later end of King Henry his time Then you were expreslye commaunded to beleeue that vnder each kind of bread and wine are conteyned the body and bloud of Christ now it is petty treason to fay so I speake not here of Dermarke of Geneua of other cities in Germanve who are all Protestants and all differing among them selues and from you I haue onely declared how great diuersitie and disagreeing their is amonge your Protestantes at home within one little Ilande which is so euident and so farre from good christianitie that it may be vnto you a very certen and suer token that the true fayth can not be amonge them which hitherto can not agree in one fayth each condemning the others opinion Thus derely beloued and my very louinge Sisters I haue geuen you certen generall Markes to learne the true Church To wryte all were infinite because all bookes are full of our religion I trust hereafter to instructe you in euery pointe as you would desire and I pray God geue you grace that you may desire it All at once woulde be to tedious In the meane time remeÌ„ber these two things VVhen your religion began and by vvhom and how it came at length into England This is the yeare of Christ a thowsand fiue hundred eyghty and three Luther began to preache with-in these fiftye yeares If he preached the truth and all before him were deceaued where was the Church of Christ in all the worlde for a thowsande and fiue hundred yeares before and how is Christ â—â—ue of his promis that sayd I vvill remayne vvith you for euer and the holy Ghost shall teach you all truth and the gates of hell shall not prcuâ—â—ile against it But for out Church that is to say the CATHOLIKE CHVRCH we can shew how it is grown and continued from the Apostles vntill this day and neuer fayled We can reccon you from time to time Councels Bishopps Doctors infinite numbers of good christians of all ages that were all of our fayth and of our Church Can your Ministers denye but that S. Chrisostome alloweth praying to Saints or that S. Ierome calleth the Bishoppe of Rome Supreme head of the vvhole Church vnder Christ or that S. Austen prayed for his mother being dead or that he honored the Reliques of S. Steuen or that S. Gregory sayd Masse or that S. Ambrose sayeth hefore the vvords of consecration it is bread and vvine but after the vvords are spoken by the preist it is the very body and bloud of Christ or that all christians in S. Austens time did vvorship the blessed Sacrament or that the second Councell of Niceâ— did many hundred yeares agoe allovve the vse of Images for the memorie and representation of Christ and his sayntes condemning Image breakers or that S. Barnerd was an Abbot and had monkes vnder him as in catholike countryes now a dayes can they deny but that all this is true and dare they deny these vertuous Fathers and Doctors of the Church to be now Saints in heauen O my good Sisters that you could vnderstand their books and their writinges that you might your selues see what they say and what wonderfull men they were endued with the spirit of God exceedingly aboue other euen good men much more then your licentious leaders I doubt not but you would suspect your new doctors and folow these you should perceaue they had the scriptures at their fingers eds they knew right well the meaning and sense thereof night and day by fasting and prayer and chast lyfe beseeching God that they might vnderstand and truly expound his word O what a difference is there betweene them and these new Preachers Sisters I appeale to your consciences whither wil you or ought you to truste in the expounding of Scripture your yong vnlearned fleshly Ministers or these auncient most skilfull and most vertuous Fathers When Christ sayed Mat. 26. Take eate this is my body Al these Fathers say and agree that it was his bodye in verye deede Your ministers tell you it was but bread and wine Mat. 16. When Christ sayed to Peter thou art Peter that is a rocke and vpon this rocke vvill I build my Church These Fathers say that Peter was made Head of the Church and after him all his successors in the See of Rome where Peter was the first Bishopp Your Ministers tell you that Peter had no more preheminaunce then the other Apostles therfore the Bishop of Rome hath no more authoritie then an other bishop hath When Christ sayed to his Apostles Receaue ye the holy ghost Io. 20. vvhat soeuer ye doo loose in earth shal be loosed in heauen and vvhat soeuer ye doe binde in earth it shal be bounde in heauen These Fathers saye that Christ gaue to his Church authoritie to remit sinne by the ministrie of the preist to all such as doe truely repent and therefore will haue the people goe to Confession Your ministers haue taken that comfortable SacrameÌ„t of penance away altogether WheÌ„ Raphael the Angel sayth in the twelfth chapter of Tobias That he did offer vp Tobias prayer to almightie God And when in the second booke of Macchabees the fifteenth chapter Onias the priest saith of Ieremie being dead This is he that prayeth much for his people and for the holie citie these fathers say that the Angells and Sainctes doo praye for vs and that we may pray to them your ministers doe not stricke to say that these books of Tobie the Macchabces are scant good scripture Many other things lyke vnto these I could reccon but I should be to loÌ„g fearing least I should werie you these fewe are sufficient to geue you to taste of such marks as may shew you the CATHOLIKE CHVRCH These and many other great reasons doe keepe all good christians within the Church These thinges make so many catholiks partly to haue suffred death partly to haue died in prison partly to continew in prison so many yeares partly to forsake their pleasant countrie their dere frends and to liue to their conscience among strangers being thought of many worldly men to be very fooles for so doing but they know right wel that the wisdome of this worlde is foolishnes before God Mat. 10 And Christ sayth He that loueth father and mother sister and brother better then me is not vvorthie of me Sisters geue me leaue to tell you some-what of my selfe not for anye bragge but the more to moue you and to geue God all the praise for his great goodnes towardes me It pleased my parentes to bring me vp in learning as you know as I was not the best so I was at al times not compted the worst among my felowes and companions some small estimation I had in Oxforde aboue my desert more afterwards wheÌ„ it pleased the Duke to make me though vnworthy Tutor to the Erle his sonne as long as his grace did prosper I liued in his howse to my conscience without
Peter in steed of precious â—â—nes to stande in my golden crovvne This â—euotion proceding of that cause and â—eferred to that end which is the worâ—hip and glory of Christ is the very â—round of honoring Relicks and conâ—equentlye the cause of Pilgrimage The glory of Christ I say 1. cor 3. For vvhat is Paule vvhat Apollo vvhat Peter but his â—inisters and seruantes in vvhom vve beâ—eeue Our Sauiour sayeth he that geneth a cuppe of could water to one of his litle ones tantum in nomine discipuli onely in the name of a disciple and 〈◊〉 S. Marke expresseth it Cap. 9. quia Christi sunâ— because they belong to Christ he shall not loose his rewarde And he that receaueth a Prophete in nomine Propheta because he is a Prophete not for anâ— other worldly consideration he shall haue a rewarde answerable to the dignitie of a Prophete Li. 4. cap. 4. We reade in the bookes of Kinges that the welthy woman of Suna hauing entertayned Eliâ—eus at length sayed to her husband I perceaue this is a holy man of God vvhich passeth by our hovvse so often let vs therefore prouide a litle chamber for him and set a hed in it a table a stoole and a candlesticke that he may rest vvith vs vvhen be commeth Therefore sayeth she let vs doe it because he is a holy man of God A goodly reason and godly consideration But what rewarde had she Being barren before now she had a sonne the sonne dyed and was restored to lyfe agayne that after sorow her ioy might be greater In the greate dearth that then happened she was well prouided for in an other countrye and after seuen yeres receaueth all her possessions agayne and the rents for the tyme that she was absent by the Kings commaundment and all this by the meanes of that Prophete whom she so entertayned Leonides father to Origen that learned Doctor him selfe a great clerke and afterward a Martyr was wonte to kisse his sonnes brest being then a litle boye when he laye sleeping â—useb li. 6 cap. 2. If therefore because he was his prety boy it had bene 〈◊〉 litle fondnes but the storye sayeth Osculabatur tanquam Spiritus sancti habiâ—aculum Hiero. in â—pitaphio He kissed it as the dvvelling or temple of the holy Ghost Paula an honotable widow and religious marrone of Rome comming in Pilgrimage to Bethlehem after many godly meditatioÌ„s at length concludeth thus Here is my resting place because it is the country of my Lord here vvil I dvvell because our Sauioer hath chosen it S. Hierome speking of Origens commentaries vpon the twelue Prophets In 〈◊〉 saith that he esteemed them as much worth as Craesus welth Whye because they were written with Pamphilus the martyrs owne hand Si enim laetitia est c. For if it be great ioye to haue one epistle of a Martyr hovv much more to haue so many thovvsand verses vvhich I imagine as though they vvere dravvne vvith the printes of his bloud This deuotion toward God and his sonne Iesus Christ maketh holy persons to honour all thinges that belong to them The trewe end and purpose of godly pilgrims Prophetes because they are Gods Prophets Mattyrs because they are the matyrs of Christ All monuments of them for their sake Concerning places Bethlehem because our Sauiour was borne there Mount Caluarye because he suffred there Rome because Peter and Paule are buried there there they dyed for Christ there are their bodies their shrynes their chaynes other their glorious memories In this respect to goe to Hierusalem to trauaile to Rome is a very frutefull Pilgrimage Otherwise to goe to see strange countryes gaye buildinges prophane antiquities to learne tongues yea and as â—ome traytours doe to espye faultes â—ometyme it is sinfull and neuer to be â—alled Pilgrimage Socrat. â— 4. ca. 18. It is tould much for â—he prayse of Ammonius an auncionte monke that going to Rome with Athaâ—atius he was so farre from all vayne â—uriositie that he desired to see noâ—hing at all of the stately buildinges â—here but onely Peter Paules Church â—arre contrary to a certen countryeman of ours whoe making large reâ—orts of courtysaÌ„ts what goodly howe 's and how many they had wherin by â—he authority of a traueler he thought â—e might bouldly feyne at his pleasure â—eing demaunded of a wyse man how â—any Churches were there how bewâ—ifull how deuoutly frequented could make no answere Such a wonderfull difference there is betweene a good godly Pilgrime and a worldly wicked traueler In Ep. ad Rom. S. Chrisostome declaring his singuler affection toward Rome hath after his maner these excellente wordes I therefore loue Rome albeit I might prayse it for other causes for largenes for antiquitie for beautie for number of people for the Empyre for ryches for mightye thinges atcheiued in vvarfare but letting passe all these therefore I accompt it a blessed Cyttie because Paule did so loue them vvhen he lyued and preached before them and at length ended his lyfe among them vvhose holy body they haue and therfore that Cittie thereby is made more glorious then by all other thinges And as it vvere a great mightye bodye that had tvvo gliftering eyes so it hath the bodyes of those Saints Peter and Paule The heauens I tell you doe not so shyne vvhen the sunne casteth his beames as doth the Cyttie of Rome vvith these lampes that lighten the vvhole vvorld Consider me I pray you and be amased to thinke vvhat a fight Rome shall see vvhen Paule shall ryse sodenly out of that Coffin of his vvith Peter to meete our Lorde O that I might be so haeppie as to embrace and grype that body of Paule rounde about to be tyed in his graue a vvhyle to see but the duste of that bodye vvhich caried the markes of Christ Tell me gentle Reader when thou hearest this art thou not moued with deuotion towarde the very carcasses of those Apostles and coÌ„sequeÌ„tly toward the Cittie where they are to be seene I confesse vnto thee my folish kind harte in this case As often as I reade it I am redy to melte for ioye But marke as I began to say the cause of his affection towarde Rome to wit the bodies of the Apostles lying there and why the bodies because they caried the markes of Christ This is it that causeth Pilgrimage This consideration The eruenâ— deuotion oâ— pilgrimes whence it procedeth for the loue of Christ and the honour of him inflamed this godly Father and all the beste Christians in the Primitiue Church to loue sacred monumeÌ„ts to be desirous to see them to goe farre and neere vnto them to touch to kisse to licke them to weepe in the place to conceaue such a lyuely imagination of thinges done there by Christ or his Saynts and withall such a sensible feeling of heauenly deuotion that it was a payne to remoue from thence a death to dwell farre of A