But what of this for euerie thing of which a good meanyng may be gathered is not of necessitie to be obserued of vs. To communicate with Christ our head and his mysticall bodye is a thing most necessarie if we thinke to receiue hym worthelie but to haue a particular communion as you terme it although it be very laudable yet is it not necessarie and the institution of Christ doth not requyre it of vs. For if his blessed will had ben as you do seme to interprete it that there should be a visible company to receiue togeather at his table that the beholding of one the other might lyuelie represent the vnitie which Christ with them and thei haue with Christ and that without this particular coÌ„munion there might be no receiuing of the sacrameÌ„t woe then vnto poore blynde folkes which can not see how many receiue with them Whom if the mercy of our Sauior hath not excluded from commyng to his table it must folow then necessarilye that it was not Christ his institution and commaundement that without a visible cumpany of communicantes his sacramentes could not be ministred And as such a coÌ„maundement dyd not become his wysedome and his bountefullnes so would it haue ben a greate foyle and discoÌ„fort vnto his church if the neighbors slacknes should haue letted the deuotion of the well willing persons or if no receiuyng at all might be suffred without a particular coÌ„munion whereas any one Christian receiuing all alone doth yet therein communicate with Christ his whole mysticall body Now because this generall coÌ„munion of which we speake doth greaue you very sore which loue to make partes and separations you complayne that excommunication seemeth to be taken awaie by this our deuise as you call it of a coÌ„munion betweene such as are absent and distant But as you are allwaies very discrete and wittye so you geaue a reason hereof to excuse you from folye And what reason is that Marye After your deuise a priest that is excommunicated of the Byshopp maye saye masse in his chamber and affirme that he wyll coÌ„municate with hym whether he will or no. Yf you thinke as you say you be very dull of vnderstanding or short of memorie because our opinion proueth the cleane contrarie For whereas we tell you that he which receiueth alone doth communicate yet with the rest of the bodye of which he is a parte how farr and wyde so euer the whole be dilated so he which is separated by excommunication from the body coÌ„municateth with no parte of it whether he receiue alone or receiue with many But if your sentence were true as concerning particular communion then would it straitwaies be very hard to haue any excommunication For if England would not receiue one he might seeke after the congregation of Scotland If thei would reiect hym he might seeke many corners of Germany and Hungary If Lutherans would defye hym he might be intertayned of the Zuinglians If thei both were to honest for hym he might receiue after the institution of Christ as thei would saie with Anabaptistes Arrians and such other But with vs how can it come to passe by any deuise of yours that he which is excommunicated by the Byshop and therefor quyte separated from the communion of all Sainctes and Catholikes should communicate with the Byshop or any other whether thei would or no Naye truly Syr if Christ his institution had specially commaunded a particular communion as you saye it doth so in deede if the Bishope should excommunicate you yet you might call halfe a dozen of good fellowes vnto you and in chamber orcharde groue denne stable or vnder hedges celebrate a memory of Christ his passion and challendge vnto your selfes the folowing of his institutioÌ„ which institution whilest you vnderstand so grossely as you doe you must further expounde vnto vs in what quantitie of numbre tyme and place a communion may be celebrated And if for al your fancying of particular communion you haue no ioye to speake of such particular cases albeit you may tell vs that you haue weightie matters in hand and can not therfore dallie yet we see playnelie that you haue not what to answer vs lest you should be dryuen vnto many absurde folyes And therefor to shifte your handes of those questions in which your spirites might be tryed you tell vs that you see in the Euangelist and S. Paule that Christ tooke bread brake it gaue it c. and that he did his thinges in conuenient tyme and place and that he had coÌ„pany which if we either did not know either would denie vnto you then had you said somewhat But our principall question is whether such a company and numbre as he vsed be necessarie or no as yourselfe haue before confessed that the obseruation of place and tyme which Christ vsed is not necessarie And because you styffelie holde that cuÌ„pany is necessarie we would vnderstande your mynde further within how greate and how small numbre that necessarie company consisteth For it is written in the Englysh seruice that without three no communion maye be celebrated except vpon the speciall request of the syck person and in tyme of plagues when one maye receiue with the priest alone But yet I trow the institution of Christ doth permit well inough two alone to receiue togeather at all tymes Now if you be to seeking for your answeres in such questions which would declare vnto us the full meaning of your opinioÌ„s how dare you sett vpp a religion which know not the partes of your owne religion and can not tell how faâ—r you maie graunt or how much you maie denie As coÌ„cerning accidences without their subiectes and other such true consequeÌ„cies which doe folow necessarylie vpon other principles of the Catholike fayth we are able to proue them if you were able to vnderstand them Of which thinges we are not ashamed because thei haue ben openlie declared and beleiued in all the Vniuersities and diuinitie scholes of Christendome many faier yeares before your diuinity was published and if theâ— might be any offence taken of them or else not sufficient defence made for them if your syde should be iudge yet the questions are so subtile and curyous that a good Bysshop might with honesty saie that he needeth not to proue them But you which are the fynders out and founders of the ghospell â–ª the controllers of Christendome the speciall vessells of God and reformers of the perfect and Apostolike religion in so plaine and sensible a matter as place number and tyme is for theÌ„ which will communicate to runne into corners and fayne that you haue weightie matters in hande and coÌ„maund your aduersaries to silence and not to trouble your grauities with any particular questions it is much against your worship and honestie which would be accepted of priuie counsell with God and Christ as coÌ„cerning the ordering of sacramentes Also that accidences may be coÌ„prised without
haue shortlie declared what a sacrifice is And that one is internall an other externall And that vnder the name of internal sacrifice all pietie and deuotion of the hart is coÌ„teined in to how manie kindes so euer it may be deuided And that all good externall actions done in respect of God are comprehended vnder the name of externall sacrifice with all the varietie and number of them be they neuer so diuerse and manie In which kind of externall sacrifice I haue putt the sacrifice of the churche geauing warning vnto you in what sense the church doth call it a sacrifice And now therefor to returne vnto your diuision of sacrifice you maie lerne hereafter to doe your thinges in better order For the oblations which the people made of bread wine and other victualls likewise the praying for all states in the tyâ—e of celebrationâ— thirdlie euerie good act and consequentlie the action of the priest at the aultar should haue ben putt of you vnder the title or member of externall sacrifice And then you should haue spoken sumwhat of internall sacrifice And before you had come vnto that you should haue defined vnto vs what a sacrifice had ben that we might haue a little perceaued your good iudgement in the doctors But let vs forgeaue you this vnskillfullnes and consider now whether that which you haue spoken without order be not spoken allso of you without trueth or reason First we agree with you that the people made such offeringes as you speake of But we denie that the offering of the people was cause vnto the holie fathers that they should geaue the title of sacrifice vnto the sacrament For it is vnreasonable that the Sacrament should borow the name of oblation of the peoples offering and not rather the peoples wine and bread be honored with that title â–ª because of the Sacrament For in euerie kind of thing the first and cheifest in that kind is first and formest to be accompted As for example the offering of Christ which he made of hymselfe vpon the crosse because it was the most perfectest and best that euer was made you should not therefor saie that by the example taken of the offering vpp of calues sheepe or lambes Christ is saied to be offered but rather because of his principal sacrifice all other must from thence haue and borow their name And so because the oblation which ys made in the misteries is of more excellencie and of higher degree then the offeringes of the people no doctour of the church wold be so vnlike hym selfe as to call that which the priest coÌ„secrated at the aultar by the name of sacrifice because it was a selected portion out of the peoples offering Againe yf yt were true that in respect that the bread and wyne was taken out of the peoples offering therfor the bread and wine consecrated should haue the name of an oblatioÌ„ yet you could neuer call the priest an offerer except for some action in which his offering might be perceaued And this shall be the better proued by considering of your example which to shewe your purpose you bring out of S. Irenei which speaking of the bread and wine of which Christ saied Thys ys my bodie thys ys my bloud witnesseth that Christ therein taught them not vs as you conster it but the Apostles first and after them and by them vs a new oblation of the new testament which the church taking of the Apostles offereth vpp to God in all the world Here loe in this sentence if it were possible that the terme oblation should be applied not properlie vnto the sacrament but in respect as you thinke of the oblation of the people yet how doth the church offer when by your saying there is nothing to offer But consider for shame the wordes of S. Irenei He taught saieth he the Apostels a new oblation of the new testament Yf Christ taught them thei were to lerning of it if he taught them a new oblation it was such as thei neuer had before Yet of the offering of bread and wine and such like thei had not onlie hard of before but were allso offerers of it them selues because all the nation of Iewes had example or commaundement of it in the law Againe if it were a new oblation of the new testament it is plaine it was more worth and more royall and more true then any of the old law what tyme all thinges chaunsed vnto theÌ„ in figures and were done for vs which lyue now in the later end of the world And therefor if in the old law the priests oblations were true oblations and had not that name or title because thei were offered vp before of the people what a vile reproche is this to the euerlasting and new testament to saie that when the Doctours do speake of the oblation made at the masse thei meane thereby that the common people made offeringes of bread and wyne to serue therewith the aultar the priests and poore beggars Allso this holie father saieth That the church receauing that oblation of the Apostles doth offer it vpp to God in all the world Furthermore he bringeth in the testimonie of the Prophete Malachie to proue that the sacrificies of the old law should be abolisshed and one pure and cleane sacrifice succede them and please God more then all thei had done I haue no mynd to you saieth God by the Prophete vnto the Iewes as coÌ„cerning their sacrificies because from the East to the weast my name is greate emong the Gentiles and in all places there is sacrificed and offered vpp vnto my name a pure oblation or offering because my name is greate emong the Gentiles This testimonie of the Prophete S. Irenei alleageth to proue the new testament of which he spake And by all this which the church hath receaued the Apostles haue delyuered the Sonn of God hath taught the Prophete hath forshewed the whole world doth celebrate is this trow you vnderstanded that the people should in the tyme of the new law and kingdome of Messias come in to the churches with bread wyne butter egges and cheese and other good victualls that of the bread and wine which thei offer a portion should be taken to serue at the communion I will be short with you we the Christians either haue no externall sacrifice and then we be in more worse and discumfortable case then euer any before haue ben in any kind of religion or els we haue an excellent oblation delyuered vnto vs as the Prophete Malachie foreshewed and Christ exhibited and the church obserueth But this excellent oblation and so much spoken of is not the oblation which the people make for the offering of come wyne and victualls was more largelie and plentifullie vsed emong Iewes and Panimes both then it is with vs Ergo the Prophete Malachie spake of an other and better kind of offering Ergo allso S. Irenei dyd not meane in his sentence
is the worse for your handeling We therefore doe not straitwaies looke for a priest at an aultar but first we take your confessyon that sole receiuing is lawfull as being vsed in the primitiue church and then we inferr that Christ his institution doth not requyre of necessitie a numbre to receiue allwaies togeather Ergo then Christ his institution is not broken when a priest alone by hymselfâ— receiueth Ergo you should amend your needeles appealing vnto that institution which you doe not vnderstand and confesse that there is no impedimeÌ„t wherfor a priest maye not saie masse and receiue alone For if it had ben a substaÌ„ciall point of Christ his institution to haue coÌ„municantes no necessitie might haue made for sole receiuing but in the primitiue church ther was sole receiuing Ergo that which you terme particular communion is not of the necessitie of Christ his commaundement For as concerning the persecutions of those tymes which caused that the ChristiaÌ„s could not come togeather thei serued well to delyuer mens coÌ„sciencies from the scruples which thei might haue had for not receiuing but thei doe not liceÌ„ce them to receiue against Christ his institution As for example at an Easter tyme when all Christians do receiue of dutie if through persecution certaine of them were dryuen vnto such extremytes that thei could haue neither wheaten breade nor wyne nor priest to minister the communion vnto them this necessitie doth not make it laufull that thei celebrate in oten cakes and whey or that with their laycall handes thei take blesse and receiue in the remembrance that Christ dyed for them and be thankefull but only it maketh for their quyetnes of mynde and conscience that thei thinke not them selfes to haue transgressed the law of the church because of the present necessitie which hath none other remedye but pacience And so lykewise if thâ— Bishopes which gouerned the church in those persecutions had thought it to be â—f the substance of Christ his institution that without your particular coÌ„munion the sacrament might not haue ben receiued thei would not haue sent it home to Christians howses there to be receiued of them priuately but thei would rather haue exhorted them not to be discomforted for all the lack of the visible sacrameÌ„t and willed them to praye for a quyet and good tyme in which thei might coÌ„municate after Christ his institution But for all the trobles of persecution thei did not so Ergo it is plaine to perceiue that thei thought not as you do of Christ his institution And this being once confirmed that the institution of Christ doth not requyre of necessitie coÌ„municantes we doe rightly inferr that a priest maye receiue alone without any iniuire done to the institution of our Sauyor But good Lord how miserablie are you tormented within your selfes as it maye seeme You graunt sole receiuing in some case you confesse it to haue ben vsed in the primitiue church and yet you saye that Christ his institution doth allwaies require company To denie the authoritie of the primitiue church you dare not and reuoke your owne comment made vpon Christ his institution you will not What will ye doe poore soules you turne and wâ—nde your selfes loth to refuse the aucthoritie of the primitiue church and sorye that you can not make it agree with Christ his institution as you expound it And therefore not withstaÌ„ding your former graunt that sole receyuing was vsed in the primitiue church yet now you temper the matter signifying that it was then either tolerable or pius error but that now it shold be intolerable and impia prophanatio As who should saye In deede it can not be denyed but that in the primitiue church sole receiuing was vsed vndoubtedly against the institution of Christ and example of S. Paull in his epistle to the Corynthians but yet we must not saye so expreslie for then we shall marr all but coÌ„fesse the matter making the best that we can of it and saying that it was tolerated and not alowed or a certaine good and harmeles error in the people and not a wycked prophanation of Christ his coÌ„maundement But whether this be true or no that in the primitiue church a playne transgressing of Christ his commaundement in the substance of the sacrament would haue ben tolerated of the blessed clergiâ— of that age or that they would haue smyled at the breach of Christ his institutioÌ„ and called that fault by no worse name then pius error it will easely appeare by this that sole receyuing at home was neuer yet thought vntolerable and wicked Yes saye you Hyerome against Iouinian mencioneth that in his tyme some vsed to receyue in their houses but he earnestly inueigheth against that maner Why sayeth he doe they not come into the church Is Christ sometyme abrode in the common place sometyme at home in the howse Beleiue not euery spirit sayeth the Apostle but trye them whether thei be of God But alas how shall he vvhich knoweth none other tongue then his English trye the truth of his sayinges which speaketh vnto hym out of Latyne authors But if the simple can not or should not rather examyne these matters let the indiffereÌ„tlie learned take an example by this one place with what coÌ„science and honestie you alleage and abuse the doctors Might not a man thinke which had neuer read S. Hierome against Iouinian that he expreslie condemneth the receiuing at home out of the church Yet he sayeth nothing lesse which to make more playne vnto you consider the occasion of Saint Hierome his wordes in that place Iouinian the heretike would haue no excellencie to be in virginitie aboue mariage S. Hierome coÌ„futeth hym at large vsing emong other argumentes that weddlock is not so great a good thing seeing that prayer is hyndred by it the Apostle saying Doe ye not defraude one the other except it be vpon consent for a tyme that ye maye entend to praye He said also what maner of good thing call you that which letteth a man froÌ„ the receiuing of Christ his bodye For he presupposeth that if the Israelites did abstaine from their wyues three dayes before thei receiued the law and if Dauid the kyng with his cumpanye were examined whether they had layen with their wyues latelie before wheÌ„ they desyred to haue some of the loeues which are called propositionis panes much more a Christian should absteyne a certayne tyme from his laufull wyfe before he did presume to receiue Christ his bodye Yet saieth S. Hierome I know that this custome is in Rome that the faythfull doe at all tymes receyue the bodye of Christ which thing I doe neither reproue neither allow for euery man abundeth in his owne sense But I aske of theyr consciencies which doe communicate the same day after they haue had carnall knowledge of theyr wyues iâ—xta Persium noctem flumine purgant wherefore they dare not goe vnto the Martyrs
night or in the morning or thrise in the yere or ones in all our liffe so that the church be obeied And now we will come to an other part of this third chapiter in which you do excedingly reproue the Catholike because of the similitude of a taull man and infant which he vsed to the openyng of his purpose and confounding of his aduersarie Which so much displeaseth you that you saie I assure you it was neuer inuented without the spirite of Antichrist nor can not be mainteined withowt blasphemye agaynste Christ and singular reproch of his Apostells and their successors Syr I beseche you to pacifie yourselfe and to vse the matter so calmelie and quietly as you promised to do in the end of the .ij. chapiter Consider I pray you first whether the Catholike hath such a meaning as yon make sense vpon hym Let vs reherse faithfully the wordes of the Catholike and then as farr as your grammar rules will suffer you make your construction vpon them He had spoken before of the coÌ„mones of all thinges in the Primitiue church of miracles of couering of womens faces of temporalties of Bisshopes of receiuyng after supper of eatyng of blouddinges and houseling of infantes of which all he saieth in manner of a conclusion To call such thinges to the state of the Apostles tyme and of the primitiue church againe ys nothing els but to enforce a taule man to come to his swadeling clothes and to crie alarme in his cradel againe These loe be his very wordes in which do your worst and tell vs what fault you find He resembleth the primitiue church saie you to infancie wich similitude you terme as please you an inuention of Antichrist a blasphemie against Christ and singular reproch of his Apostells But see now herein how much you be deceaued The Catholike doth not as you weene saie that alltogeather that church was an infant but in such thinges as he speake of concerning order or dispensation which then was vsed in the church he saieth and saieth it truly that to require that all thinges shold be now in these daies obserued as thei were then vsed it were no more nor better then to bring a taule man to his swadeling clothes againe And yet as though he had made no more of the primitiue church then as if none but boyes had lyued in it so you ful manly reason against hym and proue your selfe to lacke discrâ—â—ion For you saie Yf that tyme were the state of infancie in the church wheÌ„ Christ hymselfe instructed when hys Apostles taught when the holy fathers gouerned next their tyme then we must needes recken Christ the Apostles the fathers to be infantes in religion to be babes in gouernement of the church Yf we must needes do so as you saie then is there no remedie But certenlie it is wonder vnto me how any such necessitie should be concluded yea allthough I would affirme it that not only in a few particular causes but allso coÌ„cernyng the whole state of her the church was then in her infancie For allthough the whole house be full of childerne yet it must not straitwaies folow that the goodman and the goodwiffe must needes be childerne Or if in a schole of one hundred of scholars the best is not come vnto his Catechisme or the institutions of Caluyne in Englisshe bokes which will sone make one a Doctour it must not folow of necessitie that the master vnderstandeth not his accidence The Apostells of our Sauyor Christ before the cummyng of the Holyghost in fierie tonges vpon them thei were allwaies full of imperfection both in will and allso vnderstanding ergo was Christ our master to be reckened for an ignorant person For so runneth your wyse reason that if that tyme were the state of infancie then we must needes recken Christ to be an infaent in religion The Christians allso after the ascension of Christ and preaching of the Apostles were for the most part fraile and weak of which the Apostle had need to saie If a man be preuented in any fault c. And againe I speake gentlie and fauorablie because of the weaknes of your flesshe And vnto the Hebrewes Euerie bodye that is partaker of milke is voyde of the talke of iustice for he is litle one but the sound and strong meate is for the perfect Yet not withstanding the imperfections of the weaker there were many spirituall men apt to instruct others and the Apostle had many thinges to tell his countriemen which could not be well interpreted because thei were vnable to heare hym But you to make your part the stronger do proue that the primitiue Church had vse of reason and wysedome and you goe so farr in the matter that you define vnto vs what the word Infancie doth signifie and you saie that young age ys for no other cause named infancie theÌ„ for that it hath not the vse of tong and can not speake But the primitiue church could speake ergo you would haue vs discredited because we saie that she had her infancie In very deed it had ben better for you if you coulde haue neither spoken neither wryten so childishly For to let that reproufe which you deserue to passe that you doe not rightly coÌ„ceiue hys meanyng whom you would seeme to aunswer you must consider that he which shall compare the tyme of the primitiue church vnto infancy may haue right good meaninges therin such as yourselfe must alow For lyke as to infantes many thinges are permitted which afterwardes shall leisurely be taken awaie so in the primitiue church vnder the sight and gouernement of the Apostells some ceremonies of the old lawe were suffered to continue which now emong all Christians are vtterly abrogated as circuncision purification and absteinyng from certen meates Againe lyke as all thinges are not opened vnto childerne which in further processe of yeres serue for their profit and vnderstanding so the wysedom of God which was abundantly in his Apostells and their successours did not straitwaies put furth in writyng all misteries but as occasion afterward required so it brought furth in to the open knouledge of the church the auncient and Apostolical verities I might allso saie that because the church then was in externall shew both poore and naked and subiect to persequutions therefor it was in her infancie but now wheÌ„ it is so glorious so strong and mightie that she hath the Princes of the world obedient and subiect vnto her and hath noblely spreaden herselfe ouer the cumpasse of the whole world it is no great absurditie I trow if she be said to haue come to a perfect age and stature Which yet if you will call dotage because of many euill maners and enormities extant in her I would not striue with you vpon it concernyng some members of her if you dyd so speake without priuy spite and malice But yet this doth folow that
the same was then by our saying in her infancie which now is come as you report to her dotage And as infancie then dyd nothing preiudicate vnto her wysedome by which she was well able to gouerne and rule her childerne so her dotage now which is seen in the liffe of manie doth nothing excuse you for contempnyng your old mother If therefor now it may be well said in sundrie waies and senses that the church in the Apostells tyme was in a certen infancie what spryte moued you to make such a sense of it as against which you might vse your indignation without the matter and purpose Or with what honestie could you coÌ„clud that the Catholikes do make Christ and his Apostells infantes of which the one thei honor as true God the others thei worship as Doctours and Patrones of the world Brothern saieth the Apostle I could not speake vnto you as vnto spiritual but as to carnall lyke as to litle ones in Christ I gaue vnto you milke to drinke not meate For as then you were not able no neither yet you can For as yet you be carnall And to the Galathians O my litle childerne sayeth he with whom I am in trauaile againe vntill Christ be formed in you Doe not therefor Sir I pray you so ernestly take the matter when you see the Apostle hymselfe not to leese any of his own strength and wisedome because of the imperfection of the Corinthians and others and consider allso whether thei might not be called infantes which as yet were to be fedd with milke But let vs goe further in to the chapiter You laie the cause of priuate Masse vpon the keycold charitie of the people and perhappes the first occasion came thereof in deede but. c. Who tould you that this was the cause of priuate Masse You read it not I am assured in the Apologie which you would faine answer and yet you buyld so much vpon it as though it had ben a most plaine conclusion of it The Catholike in hys Apologie sayeth that the constant faith the pure liffe the feruent charitie c whiche florisshed in the primitiue church were causes perhappes why no Masse was then celebrated but that diuers Christians dyd communicate But what conclusion doth he inferr there vpon not that truely which you dreame of but this only which he labored to proue that you should not therefor require the lyke manner of coÌ„municatyng with the priest to be at these dayes vsed when the lyke deuotion and charitie ys not in the peoples hartes grounded He said not that the keycold charitie of the people shold be the cause of priuate masse no more then he saied that the number of communicantes was the efficient cause of saying masse as though there might haue ben no masse att all except there had ben some prepared to receiue Is there no difference trou you betwyxt these ij propositions There were no masses saied in the primitiue church but there were some readie to commâ—nicate and Except there had ben some readie for that purpose there would haue ben no masses in the primitiue church The first perhappes was true and the cause thereof ys attributed in the Apologie vnto the deuotion of the people The second ys denied playnely vnto you because the sacrifice of the church of Christ doth not depend at all vpon communicantes â–ª for lyke as in these dayes at an Easter tyme the perfect holy men may be espyed to go closely in to some one chapple and there saie priuatelie a masse in great deuotion and silence the cause of which is not in the lacke of such as would communicate but togeather with many other causes the desire which thei haue geaueÌ„ in to their hartes to goe so much the further from the sight and respect of men by how much the neerer they would come to the contemplation and admiration of God so it might right well haue come to passe without any scripture aâ—thoritie or reason to the contrary that euen in the most best tyme of the primitiue church such masses were saied now and then which you do odiously call priuate Wherefor seing there is so great fault committed of you in the misconstruing of the Catholike his reason no wonder if you haue taken great peines in commentyng vpon it all out of purpose As when yow tell vs of many coÌ„modities which grow by the oft receiuing of the sacrament c. But who shall bring the people daily or weekly yea quarterly rather vnto the receiuyng of their maker yf thei will not themselues The priestes saie you should warne them and instruct them and tell them plainely that if they be gasers only and no receiuers they runn thereby in to displeasure of God with many other vehement sentences which for that purpose you alleage owt of S. Chrisostome And you make the matter so easie as though for the speaking the priest could bring the people vnto the coÌ„munion whereas it doth presently appeare eueÌ„ in your late erected churches that for al that you are able to do you haue most often tymes no coÌ„munion at all And except it were more for the princes law then for that by your vehement exhortations you shold perswad the people I thinke there wold be fewer coÌ„munions by four partes then are now in England which as many as they are do not lightly excede one or .ij. a quarter in most parisshes First therefor pluck the beame out of your owne eie and then you shall be better able to take a mote out of an others eie And when you shall perceaue by experience which allreadie in part doth trie it that except you coÌ„straine men by act of parleameÌ„t you shall neuer bring them by the strength and dailynes of your preaching vnto the frequentyng of the coÌ„munion then lo you shall be more mercifull towardes others in your owne exact iudgement and thinke that with good cause that may be vnspoken in which you shold haue no hope of redresse to be made by your speakyng But of the diligence and discretion of the church which she hath vsed concernyng the calling of people vnto their housel because of better occasion which hereafter foloweth I will in this place leaue it vncounted But ye obiect that priestes are bounden of dutie to the daily frequentation of it and the people left free That would I faine lerne at your hande and see some good proufe of the Scripture for the same Yf you would faine lerne tary vntill I bring our doctors and readers vnto you But as though you had all the lernyng of the world sett in a table before your eies so you answer that we haue lesse then a light shadow to hyde our assertion in Truly Syr you geaue testimonie against your selfe that you be very blind because you can iudge no better of colours For this first I trust you will graunt that priestes and laye men are not alltogeather one
You must graunt allso that as we are vnder a proper and most excellent law so lykewyse that we haue a correspōdent priesthode as it is writen VVhen the priesthode is transferred it must needes be that there be made a transferring of the law allso because law and priesthode do go◠ioyntly togeather Then it foloweth herevpon That euery Bisshope chosen out of men is apointed for men in those thinges which are to Godward that he should offer vp giftes and sacrifices for synnes c. But sacrifice for synn there is none in this law and tyme of grace besides the body and bloud of our Sauyor ergo that must be offered Yet no man should take an office vpon hym except he were called and there is no place in all scripture where that calling ys expressed but only in the last supper of Christ. therefor whereas he in that his last supper gaue authoritie vnto priesthode in saying Do this in remembrance of me I conclude that priestes only are bound to blesse to breake his body and consequently to eate it I saie not that euery priest is bound to daily frequentation of the sacrament which if you thinke vs to do you speake without boke therein and misreport the Catholikes but concernyng the whole body of priesthode and the necessitie of a daily sacrifice priestes are not only bound to offer but to prouide that there be daily offering Knowing this that it is a most sure token of Antichrist his presence whē the Iuge sacrificium the daily sacrifice shall cease to be offered For thei only are called to that high office and their dutie is to folow their office And this thing being rightly considered of the auncient fathers made them so reuerently to behaue them selues towardes the blessed sacrament As S. Denyse the Areopagite speakyng of the order of masse in his tyme saieth that the Bisshope excused hymselfe that he offered vp the helthsome sacrifice which is aboue his power and that he cried out decently saying vnto God Thow hast saied Do this in my remembrance As who sould saie except thow hadest geauen licence and authoritie what man would haue bē so bold as to come nigh to the touching of so diuine misteries S. Iustine allso the Martir witnesseth that the Apostles in their cōmentaries which are the ghospells do declare that Christ cōmaunded them to consecrate the bread by the prayers of his word at what tyme he toke bread and after thankes geauing saied Do this in remembrance of me And S. Cypriane more plainely saieth that in Christ his last supper those sacramentes came furth which had ben signified from the tyme of Melchisedech and that the high priest bringeth furth vnto the sounes of Abraham which do as he dyd bread and wyne sayng this is my body Of which bread saieth this blessed martyr the Apostells dyd eate in the same supper before according vnto the visible forme but sence the time that it was saied of our Lord do this in my remembrance this is my bodye this ys my bloud as often tymes as the thing is done with these wordes and this faith this substantiall bread and chalice consecrated with the solemne blessing profiteth vnto the liffe and health of all the whole man being both a medicine and a sacrifice to heale his infirmities and purge his iniquities Wherefore if you Syr would consider how great this misterie ys you shoulde perceaue how great honor and preeminencie all priestes are indued with For when they worke then are these holy thinges which I speake of begon and perfected But say you Christ his institution was generall and his commaundement therein stretcheth as well to the people as to the priest I haue proued vnto you the contrary both by reason because priesthode ys a distinct office vnto which certen onlye are apoynted and chosen owt from the laitie and by scripture as you may cōsider by S. Paule to the Hebreues and allso by Doctours as S. Denyse Iustine and Cypriane do plainely testifie But then you byd vs to vnderstand That S. Paule a good interpretour of Christ his mind applieth the wordes of Christ to the whole congregation of Corinth where it ys certē were both ministers and cōmon people Nay Sir vnderstand you this rather that you vnderstand not S. Paule which in that his chapiter alleageth the institutiō of Christ to this purpose that the Corinthians by consideration of the charitie and maiestie which was represented therein shold be more felolyke in the cōmunicating of theyr common meates from which they were fallen vnto seuerall and priuate tables or suppers in the church And he doth tell historically what Christ saied vnto his disciples not what Christ apoynted the Corinthians and euery other of the Christians to do For I haue receiued of owr Lord that which I haue delyuered vnto you sayth the Apostell But what meaneth he by these wordes I haue deliuered he spake vnto all the Corinthians without respect of spiritualtie or temporalty but dyd he speake by waie of instruction or by waie of geauing some office and function vnto them And that which he receiued of Christ did he delyuer vnto them as a doctrine and article to be lerned or as a cōmaundement to be exequuted if you meane the first you agree with vs if you meane the second you disagree from cōmon sense and euident truth for if it apperteine vnto all Christians without distinction to doe as S. Paule receaued of Christ and as the Corinthians receaued of S. Paule then must euery Christian take bread geaue thankes and breake it and when euery body is a minister who then shall be a receauer Againe in the wordes of our Sauyor Do this in remembrance of me how much is wylled to be done Are the wordes do this to be referred only to the takyng and eating no truly for do this doth not folow in Sainct Paule immediately vpon the wordes take and eate but after the wordes thys ys my body and it were better and plainelier englyshed make this then do this thereby to geaue you to vnderstand that by those wordes authoritie of makyng and consecrating Christ his body was geauen vnto the Apostles But taking do this after the largest manner it can not yet be referred to takyng or eatyng only but must allso be vnderstanded of blessing now if you will haue these wordes of do this in my remembrance to stretch as well vnto the people as to the high order of priestes then may you cōplaine not only that thei receiue not as oft as the priest which thei will not I warrant you for all your greate mouyng but allso and rather that they take not the bread in to their handes and blesse it themselues and say masse such as may be called priuate in deed Which vnsensible and pernitiouse folissh opinion because you will not suffer to enter in to your hart therefor you must of necessitie graunt great
which the old fathers vsed peruerted yet of vs but what old father or young brother hath taught you the mightie contrarietie which you speake of betweene sacrifice and sacrament Yet goe to if we haue mistaken the old fathers how well doe you vnderstand them you can not denie but the old fathers do call the sacrament an oblation or sacrifice but you will expound their meanyng vnto vs. Wherevpon you tell vs that in the beginnyng the people at the celebratiō of the Lord his supper offered vp wyne breade and other victuals partlie to find the priestes and partlie to refresshe the poore and allso to serue the communion And so partlie It came to passe the example being taken first of the common people that the administration of the sacrament of this offering was called an oblation An other occasion that the Doctours vsed those termes of sacrifieng and offering was that in the celebration of the sacrament thei had praier for all states and thankes geauing to God for all benefites After the fathers called euerie good action a sacrifice were it priuate or common And therfor their successors by litle and litle bent the same name vnto the action and celebration of the Sacrament An other cause that the holie fathers call the sacrament an oblation or sacrifice is because according to Christes ordenance we celebrate the remembrance of his death and passion which was the onlie and true sacrifice Where I may begyn to speake against you for this your diuision of sacrifice I can not readelie tell there are so many thinges which are to be moued and reproued First the imperfectnes that you haue vsed in it ▪ because you haue not expressed the full cumpasse of this word sacrifice as the holie Fathers haue vnderstode it Then your superfluousnes because you make many partes of that which you should haue concluded in one member As if euerie good action be called a sacrifice thē should you haue well brought the other kindes which you speake of vnder this one signification as the principall largest aboue all other Allthough you in deuising three maners after which the fathers take the word sacrifice do leaue this one out of the number by which euerie good action as you report is called a sacrifice which yet deserueth to haue the first place emong them if that which is most generall should not be omitted in diuiding Thirdlie your diuision is to be reproued for the greate vntruth which is conteined in it as I shall declare vnto you hereafter If first you will consider what an other maner of diuision was to be lerned out of the Doctours and in what sense it is spoken and beleiued of vs that a sacrifice propiciatorie is offered in our misteries Vnderstand you therefor that A sacrifice is a reuerent seruice and worshipp due vnto God onlie Now againe Of sacrificies some be internall and inuisible other some externall and visible The inward and internall sacrifice may be thus defined It is that worshipp and seruice in which our hart and will is geauen vnto God and this is done vpon the aultar of our hart when either we burne the incense of holie and deuoute loue in his sight or when we vowe to hym ourselues and his giftes in vs or when we remember his benefites in solempne feastes and holidaies or when vpon the aultar of our hart with the fyer of charitie we burne the offeringes of humilitie and praise vnto hym And this is the pure and acceptable sacrifice which onlie God requireth of vs not because of his owne profit and vantage but that we by vniting of ourselues to hym might liue and continue for euer with hym But how shall a man know that there is such a spirituall inuisible and acceptable sacrifice Of his owne doing a man perchaūse may know but of an others mynd who can tell without some externall signe or token shewed Againe if a man would vtter his owne inward deuotion how can he exemplifie it without some externall signe either of bowing of knees or holding vp of handes or lifting vp of eyes or knocking of breast or offering vp of some gift yea rather the soule and bodie being so nigh togeather as they are it ys impossible that the hart soule shold entierlie be occupied in the true worshipe of God and that by no maner of similitude it shold be perceaued in the bodie Therefor by necessarie and naturall consequence and folowing there must be an externall sacrifice And that is defined of S. Augustine by these wordes The visible sacrifice ys a sacrament that ys to saie an holie signe of the inuisible sacrifice Of this second kind of sacrifice if you require exāples you may easelie find them in the sacrificies of Abel Noe Abraham and others in the law of nature and in the boke of Leuiticus as concerning the old law and in the churches and deuotions of Christiās in this tyme of grace as whē thei offer candells burne frankincense take ashes beare palme and do anything outwardlie to the honor of God In which thinges except the offerer haue an internall deuotiō and pietie all those externall ceremonies are not to him worth the vsing and if he be in hart and memorie fullie disposed and aduised to consider his owne miserie and god his mercie then are these outwarde actions and obseruations holie signes and tokens of the internall sacrifice and may be called externall sacrificies But let vs speake of one singular example for all The visible and bitter death of our Sauior Christ vpon the crosse was an external aud bloudie sacrifice But in what sense and meaning vndoubtedlie as it was and is called visible But what meane I by visible I meane that so painefull maner of hys hanging by the handes and fcete vpon the crosse and so vniuersall a wounding of euerie part of his pretiouse bodie so that from the croune of his heade to the soele of his feete there was no whole place in hym and the panting of euerie vaine and stretching of euerie ioynt and incredible torment in all his blessed fleshe these thinges with manie other were I meane holie signes of his inward sacrifice in which he offered vp before hym and to hym which seeth all secreates his liffe his hart his will his thankes his praises and praiers and all that was his for the sauing of mankind and satisfieing of his fathers Iustice. Yea concernyng the eies of men not onlie the sight of God who may doubt of his patience which in all those tormētes dyd neuer once murmur who can mistrust or suspect his charitie which emong so manie cruellties done to hym forgat not to loue his enemies who should not but consider hys endlesse obedience whose soule could not be remoued from the keeping of his fathers will when the bodie was disioynted the one member from the other In verie deed this was an holie signe and sacrament of the inuisible and
with staÌ„ding in two sundry external thinges geaue the communion of them to his Disciples This letteth nothing our beleif which do know as well as you that Christ gaue his body and bloud vnder two formes of bread and wyne and yet notwithstanding one Christ was receiued vnder both formes of bread and wyne But therefor he deliuered hymselfe vnder those two kyndes and not one that we might the better consider his passion in which the bloud was separated from the bodye Therfore the fayth of the communicantes in the one parte receiueth the body trusting to Christ his promises the same fayth in the other parte receyueth the bloud beleiuing also our Sauior his wordes therein You haue not to proue that in the one part the body was receiued but that the bodye onlye without bloud is receiued And then further where you say that the faith of the communicantes receiueth the bodie doeth it receiue it as a dead carkas shame to thinke it or else as the bodye of the soune of God Christ our Sauior saieth The flesh profiteth nothing it is the spirite which quyckeneth How then doth the communicantes faith receiue such a sole body which hath neither bloud neither lyfe neither diuinitie in it The forgeauenes of synnes commeth only from the Deitie but the cheif instrument by which God worketh is Christes our Sauior most dearlye beloued Humanitie Which if a man conceiue as separate from his Diuinitie then trulye as it is emong all creatures most excellent so yet is it but a creature and very lytle auayleable vnto vs mary as it is the bodye and bloud of hym which was not only man but also God most glorious his body and bloud doth releiue vs through the presence of his maiestie You therfore which do diuide Christ and by your faith which no wyse man doth euer trust make a receiuing of a body without all bloud lyfe or diuinitie doe most playnelie take the fructe of their redemption from the people and make them to hang vpon grosse imaginations of a bodye without bloud and bloud without a bodye to their exceading losse and iniurie But now if all other argumentes fayled vs and if your deuise were not so obscure and vyle as it is yet the authoritie of the church is no small thing emong Christians againste which you speake so lyke a madd master as though you knew the voyce of Christ better then the church of Rome which yet doe not know whether there be any Christ or no except it were for the authoritie of the church of Rome And whereas you buyld all your institutions and articles vpon the textes of the scripture and your priuate interpretations and coÌ„tempne your mother Church yet except you folow the voyce of the church of Rome you can with no reason defende that this which you holde is scripture And here againe you call vpon vs to remembre S. Cyprian which in all that epistle of his vnto which you do referr vs doth so make against them which ministred only in water that he coÌ„futeth also them which minister onlye in wyne prouing both by the old and new law that wyne and water both should be mengled togeather in the misteries But as concerning tâ—e receiuing vnder one kynde of which we haue to speake what aunswer you vnto the place of Tertullian or vnto S. Cyprian his authoritie You saye that our argumentes taken out of them are but coniectures and the same very vncertayne for often tymes in the Doctors where one kynde is mencyoned both are vnderstanded as after shall more appeare Let the wordes of the authors them selâ—es trye it whether you or we do vse the vncertayne coniectures Tertullian in his second booke vnto his wyfe where he telleth her of the sondrye faultes and inconueniencies into which those women do bring themselfes which after their husbandes death do become wyffes vnto infidell and heathen rulers or gentlemen theÌ„selues being Christians emong which this is a verye principall one that in the houses of paynyms they shall not well be able to keep the orders of Christian people he sayeth after other persuasions Shalt thou not be espied cùm lectulum cùm corpusculum tuum signas c when thow doest blesse thy bedd and thy bodye with the signe of the crossâ— when thou doest spet out with exuâ—flation some vncleane thing when also thou doest aryse in the night tyme to praye and shalt thou not be thought to worke some witchcrafte Shall not thy husband know what thou doest taste secretely of before all meate And if he know it he beleiâ—eth it to be bread and not that which it is said to be Of these wordes you gather that in the name of bread is vnderstanded also wyne and why so Mary because that some tymes emong the Doctors of which hereafter we shall speake more both kyndes are vnderstanded when but one is expressed ergo Tertullian in this place is in lyke maner to be construed But our collection is otherwise that because we reade but one kynde specifyed therefore without any necessitie we doe not make coniectures that he meaneth both And we see that Tertullian in this booke was not in such hast that he needed to speake by figures vnto his wyfe or to number syx for the dozen Then by common reason we see that wyne in so lyttle a quantitie as ones parte commeth vnto in the distributing of the mysteries was not to be reserued of any person because of the quyck alteration of it Allso we beleiue that vnder one kynde Christ wholye is geauen and therefor that the gouernors of the church were not so folysh or scrupulous as to make a necessitie of both And whereas you perceyue by this testimonye that sole receyuing was then vsed which by your sayeing Christ his institution doth not permit we had no iust occasion to mystrust the receyuing vnder one kynde which we know to be of no greater force then the receyuing with company And you also if you had good wyttes might for good cause feare least you were deceyued in the question of receiuing vnder both kindes whereas in the controuersie of sole receyuing you be so openly confounded which yet you doe as earnestile endeuor to proue as you doe shifte to vnderstand both kyndes in Tertullian whereas he mencioneth but one Note further that when Christ said This is my bodye you will haue no bloud to appertaine vnto it and when any Doctor doth speake onlie of bread you will at your pleasure make wyne to be vnderstanded Iniurious in the one and superfluous in the other Therefore let it be tryed which of our two sydes doth vse more vncertaine coniectures Now as concerning S. Cyprian When a certayne woman saieth he assayed with her vnworthye handes to open her cheste in the which SanctuÌ„ Domini fuit the holy dody of our Lorde was she was made afrayd by fyer arysing from thens that she durst
reseruation Yet in that place there is nothing lesse intended which as euery meane learned maye perceiue is wholy sett furth and decked with the coopling of contraries togeather as To be distributed which importeth a making of partes and not to be dismembred which signifieth no parte to haue ben pulled from the whole To be incorporated which should not seeme to be done without some alteration and yet not to be iniuried which declareth agayne the thing to contineâ—â— in his former estate To be receiued by which worde we seeme to haue it within vs and not to be included which setteth agayne the thing at libertie Wherfore this place as it maketh nothing for your purpose so yet it maye serue vs and all other which haue regarde of their soules to beware how thei go vpon other mens feete or ryde if thei be gentlemen vpon an others bayard except thei be sure before that togeather with his boldenes he hath also his eyes After this you alleage out of Isichius that the residue of the sacrament not receiued was in his tyme burned and out of S. Clement whom you contemptuouslie doe call our Clement you recite that the ministers must with feare and reuerence eate vpp the remaynent of the consecrated hostes wherevpon you conclude that reseruation was not generally vsed which being graunted vnto you it remayneth yet that S. Cyrill maye stande well inough with S. ClemeÌ„t and Isâ—chius For as examples are brought for declaration of both partes so is reseruation a thing indifferent to be vsed or to be omitted And lyke as we should proue our selues very ignorant if we should denye absolutelye that reseruation was at anye â—yme omitted so doth S. Cyrill saie wiselie and trulie that thei are madd men which make no price of the sacrament if it be once reserued In the later end of the chapiter you presse vs with S. Clement his authoritie as though we had euer graunted vnto you that all is to be folowed now of necessitie which was once obserued in the primitiue church or as though our answer had not euer ben that receiuing alone or with cumpany is in it selfe a thing indifferent But it seemeth you were well apaied that you had shifted away the article of reseruation which troubleth you verye â—ore to which your aunswer is exceding symple and vnperfect yea rather it is no aunswer at all Because you confesse as much as we do requyre that reseruation was then sometymes vsed But you tell vs that sometymes it was not vsed which maketh nothing so the purpose Now one thing more will I saie and so end this chapiter You protested to admit the Doctors in such degree as S. Augustyne teaceth you which is to saie if they bring either scripture or good reason Therefor what saie you to the reason which S. Cyril maketh that the sacrament if it be reserued is for all that of one state and strength because the vertue and power of consecration continueth with it It is not man which blesseth or consecrateth the bread but it is Christ hym selfe which doth sanctifie and chainge the bread and wyne whose worde being permanent and out of the dainger and mutabilitie of tyme how can it be otherwise then his bodye that which is once coÌ„secrated if it should remayne vnreceiued a thousand yeares to geather vnto this reason and question you haue to aunswer with all your cunnyng and learnyng The nynth Chapiter SYrapion of Alexandria lying in his death bedd sent in the night season for the priest to minister the sacrament vnto him The priest being syck him selfe deliuered it to his ladd and badd him moyst it and so geaue it to his syck master Of this history it is to be gathered sayeth the Catholike that the Sacrament was reserued that it was receiued vnder one kynde and that it was receiued without companie Therfore what saye you the Master of the defence vnto it First you aunswer that It was a case of necessitie or great difficulty As though that were not inough for vs to shew that sole receiuing reseruation and receiuing vnder one kynde are not against the substance of Christ his institution Secondlye you tell vs that The history speaketh not generally of all that lye in they re death â—edd but only of one sorte but only of one sorte that before were restrayned froÌ„ coÌ„munion whom they called penitentes As though it were materyal what maner of person it was whiche laye in his bed and not rather in what manner of fasshion he receyued the Sacrament which in those dayes was reserued For how soeuer the person was the thing which â—elonged for is called his viaticuÌ„ which is his viage prouisioÌ„ and was not so much geaueÌ„ vnto him because he shold be therby deliuered from danger of excoÌ„munication as that he might haue comfort of the sacrament in the terrible passage froÌ„ this world vnto an other And the pâ—â—nitentes of the old tyme were not properly excoÌ„municated as they now are which by definitiue sentence are cutt of from the body of Christ but they coÌ„tinued in the payne which the officers of Christ his church did sett vpoÌ„ their fault and were in the meane tyme yet in the state of grace so that if they had departed this world without the external receiuing of the sacrament yet they should not haue ben damned for euer with those which dyed excoÌ„municated And therefor although SyrapioÌ„ was in a great necessity and difficultie as concerning his owne lyfe yet ther was no such necessitie wherfore he more then any other Christian shold receiue the sacrameÌ„t as he dyd Yea rather if they which haue not fully satisfied for their offences are fauored yett so much of the church wheÌ„ they are at the point of death that they shal enioye the benefite which is reserued for true vpright Christians how much more is it good reason that he which hath not fallen into lapse and hath not in any thing offended the church should enioye the comfort of his viage prouision which is not denyed vnto the manifest before now penitent synners Yf the beggars at our dore be serued with the white bread of childreÌ„ when pâ—nges of sicknes or death come vpoÌ„ them how much more ought the children to haue of their owne proper loffe when they come vnto the lyke cases Therâ— was one which told me saieth blessed Chrisostome not which had ben taught it of an other but which was accompâ—ed worthy to see yt and heare yt hym selfe that they which are departyng out of this lyfe if they be made partakers of these mysteries meanyng the Sacrament with a pâ—â—â—e and cleane conscience when they are geauing vp the ghost they are caryed from hence vp straitwayes into heauen by Angâ—ls which for that holy thing sake which was râ—ceyued doe stand thyck about their bodies in maner of a garde or of â—anchmen Therefore as you can neuer proue that reseruation was
canon and you thinke that he shall be lytle thanked for bringing in this Councell and to be short as though all were wonne you sing as it were Te Deum and you thanke God that we are dryueÌ„ so much to our shiftes that we can not mayntayne falsehod but that we are constreyned to promote the truth But o Lorde God what hath ben sayed wherefore this felow should have such a vantage against vs or what falshod is that which we would maynteyne by this canon or what truth is so singularly vttered by reason of this our testimonye This canon saye you doth not proue sole receyuing Mary Syr neyther we haue vsed it for that purpose It proueth saye you that in the primitiue church the maner was to receyue with cumpanye We knew this before you tolde vs. Ergo saye you all sole receyuing is by this testimonye confounded I deny your argument for as we confesse and know that receyuing with cumpany was ordinary in the church for some tymes and places so we beleiue and haue proued it before that sole receiuing hath sometymes ben allowed Wher now then is your gaye victory We resist not your authorities by which you may proue many to haue receyued togeather but we myslyke with your discretion which conclude that sole receyuing is not therfore allowable And agayne what talke you in this place of sole receyuing Answer rather vnto our argument which proueth reseruacion The DeacoÌ„s could not consecrate the Bishops and Priestes being absent in this case then sayeth the holy Councell lett the Deacons themselues bring furth the sacrameÌ„t and eate it But how should they eate it except they had it and how should they haue it except it were first consecrated or how could it be presentlye consecrated when both Bishops and Priestes were absent Must it not folow necessarily that it was reserued in that they are licensed to take it furth them selues and eate it Yf you can denye reseruation to be proued by this place we must wonder at your ignorancie and if you coÌ„fesse it playnlie wher is your proper answer vnto it Oh saye you in these Deacons which receyued in absence of the Bishop and Priestes There appeareth an extraordinary case Such is your ordinary answer but wherein is the case extraordinary In that the Deacons receyue it in absence of the Bishop and Priestes or in that it was reserued It was ordinarye that the Priestes should geaue the sacrament to the Deacons but what if no Priest had ben present then sayeth the Councell the Deacons may bring it furth and serue themselues And in this respect you saye truly that here is an extraordinary case But as concernyng the reseruation of the sacrament how can you deuise that it was extraordinarye Doe you thinke when the Bisshops or Priestes were sure to tarye at home vntyll the morow that they then did not make any store of the sacrament but presently bestow it emong the communicantes and when they could not intend the mysteries the next day folowing thinke you that they consecrated more hostes then needed for that tyme present and sayd vnto the Deacons Syrs here is the sacrament for you in store vntyll to morow But what necessitie was there for the Deacons to receyue on the morow that the breache of Christ his institution might be somewhat thereby excused Truly the Deacons should tarye not only one daye but one whole yeare rather then reseruation should be admitted if so greate fault as you saye be in it Now if the sacrament were not reserued vpon such a speciall case how can you saye that the reseruation was extraordinarye And if the reseruation were ordinary as vndoubtedlye it was make the case then of the Deacons receyuing as extraordinary as you will and it letteth our purpose nothing For we consider not the acte of the Deacons in any other sense or meanyng then as it proueth reseruation And here you shall note further that the sacrament was reserued not onlye for such which laye in their death beddes and were not recoÌ„cyled vnto the churche as you said in the chapiter before but also that it serued the vncorrupted and faythfull Christians whiles thei were yet in good health except you can thinke that the Deacons whom the Nycene Councell permitteth to take furth the sacrament and eate it were either excoÌ„municated persons either such as could not go abrode for weakenes Now as coÌ„cerning the receiuing vnder one kynd as it might be shewed out of this place if we would dally as you do vse and as concerning your great inuectyue against vs as though any of vs did make a tryfle of Christ his institution and not rather reproue your interpretations which make that to be Christes which is not his as also coÌ„cerning S. Cyprian whom you full madly alleage for your purpose which all togeather in that his epistle proueth that wyne and water shold be mingled togeather in our sacrifice I will not speak at this present because the first is not maynteyned of vs the secoÌ„de is not to be regarded and the third had ben spokeÌ„ of before But as coÌ„cerning reseruation which we say and say againe to be most manifestly proued by the testimonye of the Nycene couÌ„cell therein we haue you so fast bound that all accustomed shiftes do fayll you you wâ—ll not say I trust either that councell to be of smal reputatioÌ„ although the Bishop of Romes legates were cheif men there either the case of reseruation to haue ben extraordinary or that the church was dryuen vnto it by playne necessitie for their syckmens sake which laye at the point of death and were excommunicated from other Christians The eleuenth Chapiter SAint Cyprian in his fyfth sermon de lapsis declareth how an infant which had receyued before of bread and wyne offred vpp to Idolles had afterwardes emong Christians the bloud of Christ powred into her mouth by the Deacon of the church And straitwaies yexing and vomiting foloweth because that the sacrament could not abyde in a body and mouth defyled Of this historye it is gathered that the babe receyued the sacrament in forme of wyne only For if the body had ben receyued before it would no more haue taryed in a polluted mouth then the bloud did but she was wonderfully vexed or sore vexed for both these phrases are vsed of the Catholike in his Apology not before the bloud was powred into her mouth but immediatlye after therefore it is very euident that she receyued onlye in forme of wyne Naye saye you the first trouble which the childe had was euen in the â—yme of prayer before the sacrament was distributed It was so in deede For the child cryed out and turned her selfe hyther and thyther for anguyshe of mynde and inwarde torment But who suspected anye harme thereof or who did collect thereby that the childe was defyled within by reason of wyne soppes which were geauen to her of the offeringes to Idolls
the heate of his preachementes he could not but take a noune to his bedfellow And as he was in his doinges so is he in his writinges so shameles so fylthy so vncleane so slaunderous so mutable so presumptious and so desperate that it is wonder that he is accompted for a man much lesse for a man of God I speake these thinges to declare what difference ther is betweene our holy Abbates and your rennegate fryars the folowers of our religion and the founders of yours to enforce you hereby to shew what you thinke of S. Bernard S. Bonauenture S. Denyse and others and to signifye hereby vnto you that as we staye vpon contynuance and numbre so yet we reioyce at the vertues and graces which haue and do appeare playnly in many of this numbre wherefore it is not without cause that we are confirmed in our fayth and doctryne because of such a contynuance of it Note that I saye such a contynuanbe For Turkes Sarracenes and Panymes may alleage contynuance but such a contynuance in which the doctrine taught is greauous vnto the carnall man and yet receyued and the greatest professors of it are hated of all heretikes and yet for conscience and wordlye shame are not cōdemned such a one I say is much to be regarded and such a one is not found but onlye emong the Catholikes whose waies in doctrine if they be not open secure especially so great cumpany for so long tyme going in them with prosperous faring to their iourneyes end then will I neuer trust any waye but be as the cumpany is indifferent to go with euery one vntyll I am wery But thankes be to God he hath better prouyded for vs appointing his catholike churche to be the pyller and staye of true religion Which although it is quyckly to be founde out because it is in deede Catholike yet you thinke it necessarye to examyne what is the church and how it maye be knowen Goe to then we will follow you to the end of your defence in euery conclusion which you make against vs. The Scripture saye you speaketh of the church two waies sometyme as it is in deede before God not knowen allwaie to mans iudgement c. Sometyme the church is taken for the vniuersall multitude of all those which beyng dispersed through the world acknowledge one Christ. c. Sometyme the church is taken for the multitude of those that beare rule in the church You performe more then you promysed We looked but for two wayes and you haue declared three in which the scripture speaketh of the church by which it appeareth that you haue pretye knowledge but you keepe lytle good ordre in setting furth your diuisions Yet goe to as concerning the first sense which you make of the church what make you of her Can it err or no No say you this church is the pyller of truth that neuer continueth in error This church is neuer forsaken of the spirite of God In to this church none be receyued but onlye the children of grace and adoption How might a man then I praye you know this church Verely neither you neither any other can tell For whereas it consisteth of such as be the elect and chosen who can saye either of hymselfe that he is one of them or how can one say that of an other whose hart he seeth not which he can not vnderstand of his owne case which is best knowen vnto hymselfe Therfore as cōcerning the profyt and cōmoditye which they that would might take of this churche which is the pyller of truth we can receyue very lytle of it because she is inuisible vnto man and knowen onlye before God And if you dare saye that this churche may also be knowen vnto man I would you had showen one token or other of her that we might be sure where to fynde the pyller of truthe Now as concerning the church which is dispersed through the worlde and acknowledgeth one Christ and is Through baptisme admitted thervnto and by the vse of the Lordes supper openlye professeth the vnitie therof in doctryne and charitie Is this church trow you the pyller of truthe or what other opinion shall we haue of her This church saye you is resembled vnto a nett which hath good and bad in it it is resembled vnto a field which hath pure corne and cockle also in it You saye herein trulye and you agree now very wel with the catholike church which teacheth vs that in this world the good and euyll Christians are mengled togeather You make also much against certayne heretikes which stand in it stoutly that onely the elect are of the howsehold and familye of God which yet as you haue clerkely defined it can not be so because the good and the badd which acknowledge one Christ and receyue the sacramētes are the true church of Christ. Graunting therefor vnto you that the church hath good men and euill in her I aske now the cause of you wherfore you labor to proue that this church maye goe out of the waye for some part of her you tell vs of Noe of the .x. trybes of Israell of the Prophetes of the captiuitie of Babilon and other such historyes But to what end and purpose yf you wil proue thereby that thei which beare the name of the people of God haue often tymes forsaken his law and destroyed his Prophetes you haue spoken that for proufe wherof I wold neuer haue gone to the flood of Noe hauing so many examples at home to make this conclusion manifest For all they which be Christened doe beare the name of the people of God and the promyses are made only vnto them yet this world maye declare how many coniurars dissemblers wycked lyuers faithlesse ministers lecherous friars and desperate peruerters of all law and honestie doe lyue in the churche But if you would proue that because a great numbre was deceyued therefore the whole churche was subuerted you speake alltogeather without booke For to consider one example for all in the tyme of Elias the Prophet when he good man thought that all had forsaken God besydes hym selfe yet said God vnto hym I haue lefte my selfe seuen thousand in Israell which haue not bowed their knees before Baal And before that it is playne by the booke of kynges that Abdyas the stewarde of kyng Achab his house dyd hyde a hundred Prophetes of God from the sight of Iezabell the quene and fedd thē with bread and water Therefore as it can not be denyed but that they which haue borne the name of the people of God haue not allwayes and wholy folowed hym so yet it can neuer be proued that the visible church of God hath ben in all her partes subuerted And yet in the old law the church was not then so richely endowed as it was afterward in the commyng of Christ and his holie ghost neither were those wordes spokē then which haue
was betwene S. Augustine and the Donatistes We seeke for the church and the place where she resteth You say that it hath ben vnknowen defaced obscured and coarcted you saye that it is now in England and before these last .lx. yeares you knew not where she was to be founde On the other syde we beleiue that it hath ben and shall be continually visible tholike vpon the topp of the hill not in gardens or chambers not in corners of countreyes but in the open sight of the worlde And here now at this point we shal haue no other thing but our yea and our nay Yes saye you lett the matter be tryed by scripture So lett it be and because you are so trymlye seene in them that you will make vs altogeather ignorant shewe vs your scriptures to proue your pretie narrow and shamefast churche Yf you can shewe none reade for the truthes sake those places which we shall name vnto you In thy seede all nations shall be blessed Aske of me and I wyll geaue the for thy heritage the Gentyles He meaning the Messias shall rule frō sea vnto sea and from the floud euen vnto the endes of the worlde Agayne The stone which was cutt out of the hyll without handes fylled the whole worlde So it hath ben wrytten and so it behoued Christ to suffre and repentance and remission of synnes to be preached in his name through all nations You shall be my wytnesses in Iury and Samaria and vnto the endes of the earthe But what of all this Marye Syr that you shold reade in these scriptures how playnly it was promysed that the whole world should be Christ his inheritage and that his churche should be sought for not in pelting corners of Africa of Europa or Asia not in wyttenberge Geneua or England but in all nations and in all countreyes of the world And if you myslyke this our cōclusion gathered out of these places of scripture consider then better then you haue done S. Augustins reasoning against Petilian and against all other Donatistes when so euer he wrote against them as in his 162. 166. 170. 171. and other of his epistles In all which places he proueth that it is vnpossible that Donate which was an vpstart heretike in Africa should haue the truth on his syde because the scriptures do so playnlye promyse vs that the church of Christ should be enlarged ouer the whole worlde and because it was so sensibly performed that euery one might see that churche which was extended through all nations Now if you haue any scriptures or authorityes or reasons to proue that the church should not be openly knowen for 900. yeares togeather or that about the yeare of our Lorde God .1500 the light of the Ghospell should begynne to appeare or that the churche may be in one countrey only or that Christ shold leese his inheritage which was promysed hym ouer the world or that all the dryfte of S. Augustyns reasoning against the Donatistes doth not expresly make against you then shall you speake somewhat worth the answering Against which tyme prouyde also to tell vs how S. Cyprian whom you alleage to proue that recourse should be had to the scriptures doth make any thing for you Yea rather he maketh cleane against you and if you had taken but small leysure to consider hym he teacheth you that to come vnto the truth and to be sure of it there is an other and better waye then you haue yet inuented For after those wordes Hereof aryse schysmes because we seeke not to the head nor haue recourse vnto the spring nor keepe the cōmaundementes of the heauenly master After which wordes you make a full point as though you had tolde all his meanyng he saieth further that to proue this there is no neede of long talke or reasonyng Our Lorde spake vnto Peter and sayed I tell the thow art Peter and vpon this rock I wyll buyld my church and the gates of hell shall not overcome it c. And allthough he gaue lyke authoritie vnto all his Apostles after his resurrection and said Euen as my father sent me I also sent you receyue you the holyghost yf you remyt any man his synnes they are forgeauen hym yf you reteyne them they are reteyned yet that he might make playne and set furth an vnitie he disposed by his owne authoritie the head and spring of that vnitie which beginneth of one And a lytle after he sayeth Doeth he beleiue that he holdeth and keepeth his fayth which keepth not this vnitie of the church How then could you bring in S. Cyprian in the commendatyon of anye of your two markes of the church which so expressely warneth you to consider the vnitie thereof and the authoritie which was geauen vnto S. Peter in which vnitie who so euer is not found hath lost all true fayth crake he neuer so much of his sacramentes and scriptures But now because it is not inough to declare that your markes of the church are vncertayne and controuersious except we geaue some better signes which may leade all men vnto the true church therfore it is to considered what we professe openlye in one of the articles of our Crede I beleiue sayeth euery Christian one holye Catholike and Apostolike church and if he knoweth also what he speaketh then shall he neuer be to seeking of the churche For she must be fyrst of all One church that is to saye she must haue one profession of fayth one ordre in sacramentes and one head for her gouernement by which one worde thei be quicklye tryed for no good Christians which can neuer agree vpon their fayth or haue no certayne head or gouernour Secondlye the church is holye in this sense either because none are holye which are out of this church either because she hath ben bought with bloud a deare price either because she is stable and inuiolable Which note doth warne vs to beware of them which haue no contynuance in their religion but are quyckely altered at euery new preachers inuention Thirdly the church must be Catholike which is to say she must goe through the whole world not only in respect of place but also of persons and tyme wherevpon it foloweth that all such religion as lurketh only in particular countreyes or which hath no antiquitie and contynuance at all is to be reiected as a singuler naught and no Catholike or good religion And last of all the true church must be Apostolike by which worde I meane that if they of England now or those of Geneua can by degrees ascende and frō one minister vnto an other go vpwardes in a cōtynual ordre vntyll they do come vnto one of the Apostles whō they will proue to haue ben a father to their religion that then they haue one good signe to commende their doinges But because this is vnpossible to be doone of them therfore they are not
of the church Apostolike and for good cause they are to be dyscredited Loe Syr if you be of a good conscience contynew in the fayth which you haue professed and for two symple markes which euery man will set vpon his religion take these fower notes which al christendome aloweth of which fower there is no heretike which worke he neuer so craftely shall euer be able to proue that any one may serue for hym The .xiiij. Chapiter IF you had acquaynted your selfe with faythfull Abraham and Isaac and dyd beleiue that God is able to performe what so euer he promiseth you would make no question of the reall presence of Christ in the Sacrament and that cheif principle being once confessed you shold neuer make great quarreling about certayne consequencies which folow therevpon As whether Christ his bodye be vpon a thousand aultars at one tyme or whether accidentes be without substance and bodye without place or whether reseruation may be alowed with diuers other questions This is the fault which the Catholike in this last Chapiter fyndeth with you in auoyting of which you saie first We graunt as freely as you with Abraham and Isaac that God is able to perfourme what so euer he doeth promyse Yf you thinke as you speake why are these bodging and souterly argumentes so ofte repeted emong you that Christ his naturall bodye is in heauen ergo yt can not be on the earth Item a natural body occupyeth onlye one place but the sacrament is in many places Againe accidences can not be without substance ergo the substance of bread is not chainged into the substance of Christ his bodye Are not these your argumentes most manyfest tokens that you speake against the possibilitie to haue Christ his naturall bodye in the Sacrament For otherwise you should not aske how it might be after the Iewysh fasshyons but rather proue that it is not so after the maner of wyse heretikes Well yet thankes be to God that you be not so folysh as your fellowes and that you graunt that yt ys possible inough vnto God to bring all that vnto passe which the church teaceth vs as concerning the sacrament but saye you How can you shew that it was God his holy wyll to haue so many myracles wrought as you without necessitie doe make in the Sacrament Mary Syr we shew it by his owne wordes This is my bodye This is my bloud vpon which one myracle all the rest of our beleif therein doeth follow by necessitie of consequence You aske allso for an example in some place of all the scriptures lyke vnto this merueylous worke which is beleiued to be in the sacramēt Wherein I answer you with the same wordes as S. Augustine answered Volusianus as concerning the incarnation of God Yf you aske for a reason the thing shal not be wonderfull and if you requyre an example the thing shall not be singular Also the myracles which the scriptures speake of are not therefore beleiued because they haue other myracles of lyke sute with them but because God is allmightie and because all scripture is true We doe not apoint as though all were of our one making but we belieue that Christ his very body is truly in the sacramēt and that it is there not in maner of proportion quantitie or figure also that it maye be in a thousand places at once and yet in neuer a one of them all locallye which is to saye as in a place of his owne Oh saye you Is not this to take awaye the nature of a bodye from his bodye and in deede to affirme it to be no bodye See loe where you be now Do not these wordes importe that it can not be that a naturall body shold contynue naturall and be in a thousand places at once in which your saying what other thing doe you but priuelye conclude that it is impossyble In which least you should seeme to denye the power of God of which you spake reuerentlye a lytle before you amend the matter and saye Yet we say not but that God is able to worke that also if it be his pleasure Verely verelye you be vncertayne in all your conclusions for if you graunt that God is able to do that which we reporte of hym that he worketh in our Sacrament why talke you of the nature of a bodye and taking awaye of the nature of it if Christ be really in the Sacramēt And if it be vnpossible to haue a bodye without quantitie and in a thousand places at once as it is to make that one selfe same thing should be a bodye and no body why saie you that God is able t◠worke this also if it be his pleasure you offende in both sydes doubting at one tyme of God his allmightmes by which we beleiue his naturall bodye to be in the sacrament and at an other tyme making hym so allmighty as though he could bring to passe that such thinges might agree togeather as are in them selues plaine contradictorie the one to the other But as in this later point you goe beyond all truth and possibility so in the other I trust you wil hereafter be more stedefast and neuer argue against the power of God which is able to performe all those articles which the Catholikes haue gathered vpō the sacramēt Which now you begynn to doe at length and saye that it is not God his will to doe as we beleiue he hath done in the sacramēt But how proue you this For neither is there any necessitie that shold once trayne hym to doe yt nor doeth his word teach vs that euer he did the lyke These be your owne reasons as it is easylye to be perceyued by the weight of them which if you will follow in other pointes of our fayth you maye conclude all our Crede to deserue no credit at all For neyther anye necessitie cōstrayned God first to make and afterward to redeeme mankynde and the most of all his workes are of such a peculyar excellency that we maye thinke right well of eche of them that they are in theyr kynde singular what necessitie constrayned our Sauior to take our death vpon hym and what example haue you in all the scriptures lyke vnto the myracle of the death of God Ergo according vnto your diuine logike it is only an inuention of the papistes that God hym selfe did suffre a most paineful death for man It is wysedome for vs rather to beleiue the church then to allow such argumentes by which we maye destroye all true religion And yet not only the church teacheth but the scripture also wytnesseth that this which the Christians receyue in the Sacrament is the bodye of Christ hym selfe as he said most playnly This is my bodye which is geuen for you Now whether the verbe substātiue Sum es fui might be interpreted by transsubstantiare tell me fyrst I praye you whether Sum