all these books Hence it came that I rashly relying on the slaunders of heretikes and not on the Catholike fayth entituled one of my books Of the cause of my departure and another in Italian The rockes of Christian shipwracke and another A certayne sermon which I filled ful of errours and heresies for the most part in hatred of the holy Roman Church and Sea Apostolike and of those Popes by whom I thought my selfe to haue byn iniured and affirmed those and many other things vvhich before I knew to be false and hereticall and after at least in part my selfe misliked and did whils I wrote in England from my hart detest them because they conteyne open heresyes agaynst the Catholike truth and are contrary to sound doctrine I meane to that which the Catholicke Roman Church hath alwayes held and holds at this day agaynst which whatsoeuer or whersoeuer is written or sayd by me that in al and euery part I do condemne and detest and I will better more at large by Gods help condemne and detest the same in the confutation of my bookes of the Ecclesiasticall Commonwealth other bookes that I haue written agaynst the truth for I submit my selfe and all my bookes to the most holy iudgement and censure of the holy Roman and Apostolicall Sea the mistresse and guide of all other Churches 3. In the meane tyme here in this exchange for a new and sounder resolution I most detest the former of my departure the Infamous Rockes of the shipwrackes of my selfe especially and heretikes but not of Catholikes moreouer the Sermon mentioned neither shall I shame by casting of the garments which I had made for myselfe to shew my nakednes because I was not ashamed agaynst all law and conscience to breake forth into vayne fictions open slaunders and filthy heresies Dioscorides l. 6. c. 44. The sting and poyson of the scorpion by bruzing of the same scorpion that stong hath a present remedy If the voluntary breaking and bruzing of my selfe bring remedy to this poysoned wound in case any so wounded haue repented him himselfe I shall esteeme this my bruzing deiection and mortification for happy let the glory of the Catholike Church and Sea Apostolike stand immoueable yea euen with the greatest losse of temporal goods that can befall me and since that so wickedly I haue gone about to weaken and infring it this course cannot at least before God but be glorious vnto me 4. First therfore I confesse in conscience truly sincerly testify that I wrote that booke of the Cause of my departure and the other two to wit the Rocks and Sermon not out of sincerity of hart not good cōscience not out of vnfeygned faith but that I might cast some colourable excuse on my shamefull departur that I might be the more gratfull and welcome vnto the heretickes to whom like a wretch I went or with whome I did conuerse The ten yeares labour which I bragged of in the book of my departure was not imployed in maturity of deliberation grauity of iudgement discussion of truth but all that vvhile I studyed hovv to finish that vaine fruitles and pernicious worke of the Ecclesiasticall commonwealth coyne bold and hereticall fictions and withall satisfy the impotent force of myne owne rage in so much as that vocation was not deuine but diabolicall not inspired by the holy Ghost but suggested by a bad spirit vexing me worse then it did Saul with the spirit of giddines 2. Reg. 18 v. 10. but for my returne I doubt not but that it is to be ascribed vnto Gods true vocation his diuine spirit calling me backe to my Mother the holy Catholique Church 5. I sayd that the behauiour of the court of Rome was the cause why I should for euer abhorre it I am not ignorant that herein I spake ill for there were not wanting then nor yet are at Rome very many cōspicuous examples of piety all Christian vertues which are able to delight and allure religious or well disposed mynds I sayd that out of the forbidding of hereticall books to be read do spring euill suspitiōs which get credit to the books of heretiks and induce men to belieue somewhat to be in them vvhich Catholikes could not confute and this I acknowledge to haue been spoken by me not without great iniury to the Catholike saith who haue found in their bookes I meane of heretikes false hereticall scandalous and pestiferous doctrine from reading of which least the Faythfull be infected they are worthily to be restrayned for not vnto priuate men who read those bookes but vnto the Pastours the iudgement of fayth hath euer and doth still appertayne that they may know which are poisoned pasturs and remoue their flockes far from them Moreouer the arguments of heretiks are deceytfull sophisticall and haue most easy solutions I affirmed the doctrine of those who oppose themselues to the Church of Rome nothing at all or very little to degenerate from the pure doctrine of the primitiue Church and this also is false for the opinions in which they differ from Catholiks are all of them most cōtrary to those which that Church held nothing can conuince them more certainly of errour thē the authority of the ancient Church frō which they by these noueltyes haue very far departed in so much as for this cause they are condemned as heretikes by the Church of Rome it is therefore to be detested I doe detest that which I sayd Therefore the religion of Protestants to be condemned of the Church because it is contrary to the sense and corrupted manners of the Court of Rome I said that in Rome by extreme violence were coyned new articles of beliefe and this truly I did say both agaynst my knowledge and conscience for I neuer saw any such matter nor any man else as most certainly I know for none can say that there are new articles coyned when there are only added the true declaratiōs explicatiōs of the true articles those gathered out of the holy scripturs traditiōs of the Fathers very rules of religion Againe I endeuored to depriue the Roman Church of the titles of Catholike and Vniuersall wherin I exceedingly erred for by the Roman Church is not vnderstood that speciall and particuler Church alone which is at Rome but the collection of all other Churches adhering to the Roman in vnity of the same fayth and subiection to the same chiefe Bishop wheresoeuer they be albeit in the vttermost coastes and corners of the earth And doubtles this is most true of me both by word of mouth as England it selfe can testify and in my written treatises of the Eccleclesiasticall commonwealth and in that part which last of all I heare is printed in Germany I haue euinced that there is no other Catholike Church but the Roman vnderstanding thereby that particular with the other adhering thereunto wheras all other companies of Christians are defiled
Church to be more deuided separated from the Church truly Catholike then they are themselues deuided from the whole world diuisos toto orbe Britannos That they are perfectly deuided froÌ„ the Roman Church other Churches subiect thervnto commumunicating with the same in Religion and fayth they will theÌ„selues willingly confesse and the thing is most euident most notorious Now wheras the RomaÌ„ Church with the others aforsaid is truly properly according to the Cath. Faith the Cath. Church of Christ doth it not necessarily follow the English Church as they call it to be cleane cut of froÌ„ the Catholike Church and consequently that it is not the body of Christ nor his house nor absolutly speaking to be called a Church Which when at length I plainly perceyued I was no longer to â—emain therin They will obiect say â—s this now plain vnto thee who yet in â—hy book of Ecclesiastical coÌ„mon wealth didst stile Rome Babylon who diddest deny the Church of Rome who didst teach vs that it was properly schismatical but that which thou affirmest of our Church doth not so plainly appeare vnto vs. So they Wherfor I shal goe about to mak this point euident vnto the English who know ful well that I am not Pithagoras whose only authority amoÌ„g his schollers for any thing that he sayd was held for best proofe let theÌ„ not therfore be moued with those things I haue sayd without other argument yea further let my wordes want their weight credit eueÌ„ where I bring my reasons and proofes if they be found to be weak and feeble Truly my reason on which I relied when I made Christian Rome to be Babylon was because the prophesy oâ— S. Iohn could no be explicated of Româ— as it was heathen before it imbraced the fayth of Christ Apocalip 8. But this reason is of no force for albeyt that this were granted yet it followeth not that the Christian Rome is Babylon for it is the opinion oâ— many Catholik interpreters that in the persecution of Antichrist the heathen Idolaters enemies of Christ are perhaps to subdue Rome and that of them this prophesy not yet accoÌ„plished may conueniently be vnderstood yet so as the fayth of the Catholike Church stilâ— continue safe and sound by this interpretation my affection of Rome as Christian is ouerthrown and conteyns in iâ— a meer slauÌ„der for I know the ChristiaÌ„ Rome not to be Babylon nor that it can without exceeding iniury be so called But God forbid that in this prophesy oâ— the Apocalyps we should conceaue thâ— Roman Church it selfe the mother of all Churches head of ReligioÌ„ hertofore â—o haue been or herafter that it shal be Baâ—ylon for those things which are spoken of the Citty are not to be transferred or explicated of the Church I denyed the Church to be at Rome but proued it not and therefore that deny all is to be â—laced amongst my curses and raylings â—ea also amongst my heresyes especialâ—y my self refuting the same by reason in my other workes in which strongly I â—aue affirmed the Roman Church with â—he others adherent to be the true onâ—y Catholike Church of Christ now â—oe as much as I can professe auer the â—ame I sayd that it had made a schisme â—ut then I sayd it when as yet I had no â—xact knowledge of schisme or nature â—herof I erred grossly herin because it â—s a manifest falsity the argumeÌ„t brought â—or the contrary is of no moment coÌ„â—ludeth nothing for he who being law â—ully made head of any body doth so â—…ile and proclayme himselfe doth not â—eperate himselfe from the body neither â—oth he cast away the body from him â—ut ioyneth himselfe vnto it which is a farr different thing from schisme but this I will further prosecute in the reuiew correction of that worke now only I declare how it is euident to me that the Englishmen and much more aâ— Sectaryes of our age are truly and properly Schismaticks for that without all lawfull cause they haue cut themselues from the true Church of Christ which is the Catholike Roman Church all those that communicate therewith 10. Two causes only there may be of lawfull separation that one or more Churches of Christ may wholy repell one or more Churches from their communicating with them without the incurring of schisme the one is heresy the other schisme it selfe The hereticalâ— Churches that are incorrigible are to bâ— eschewed of Catholikes who are to hauâ— no Ecclesiasticall coÌ„munion with theÌ„ This is a point well knowne amongâ—… Christians I often demaunded of thâ— Englishmen why they separated themselues from the Roman Church takinâ— the same as it comprizeth all other besides that adhere therunto was it for anâ— heresy But truly none of them al coulâ— eyther in writing or by word of mouth shew eyther the Roman Catholikes of of our tymes or our Predecessors in their publick profession to be or haue been tainted with any true heresy The most soueraigne King of great Britaine playnly and publickely graunted this vnto me this the wiser of their chiefe and inferiour Ministers graunted and many other learned men affirmed the Church of Rome not to erre in the fundamentall fayth wherfore by the grauÌ„t of English Protestants this Church is not hereticall They will obiect perhaps the Church of Rome not to erre in the fundamentall fayth which I in the booke of the causes of my departure in the sermon made at London seemed to defend but to erre and to haue fallen into heresy in other not fundamentall articles but first of all I know not what article there is of true fayth which is not fundamentall neyther could I euer conceaue or were they able to explicate how that distinction should be admitted amongst the articles of faith that some were fundamentall some not for truly I alwayes iudged all and euery of those articles which are truly to be fuÌ„dameÌ„tal but I erred in this that from the number of fundamentall and consequently from the true articles I excluded many which are indeed articles of faith and consequently were all fundamentall and cannot without heresy be denyed howsoeuer they be not of these principall of the Trinity Incarnation Necessity of grace Baptizing in the name of the Trinity c. as are the Sacraments Iustification the necessity of workes merits indulgences and the like which before I set downe as now defined by the Church because these no lesse rely on Gods reuelation then the former and therefore as much belong vnto faith as they for he who makes God deceitfull in any one article whatsoeuer he must necessarily acknowledg him to be deceiptfull in all the rest agayne I demaunded of such as meaÌ„t sincerely that they would produce but one article in which the Roman Church doth hold and teach amisse they are wont to vrge that of Transubstantiation of bread and wyne into the body and bloud of Christ out of
that it may well be referred to the traditiō of the Apostles that besides the Sōday the birth-daies of Saintes should be kept holy which thing I see approued by the anciēt custom of the Church I find S. Cyprian very careful to haue the dayes noted Lib. 3. Ep. 6. in which the Christians were martired vt talibus saith he celebrētur hic à nobis oblationes sacrificia ob cōmemorationes ipsorū that on those daies they suffred we in remembrāce of them may celebrate here the oblatiōs sacrifices S. Iohn Chrysostome S. Augustine exhort the faithful to the due obseruance of the feastes of Saints Chrysost serm in martyrem Pelagiam Augu. in Psal 88. part 2. in fine Wherfore I cannot but exceedingly merueil at the new scruples of Protestants not soberly * So the Protestāts translate non plus sapere quā oportet sapere sed sapere ad sobrietatem Rom. 12.3 but more highly thinkinge of themselues then they ought whiles they haue fully iudged and taught all feastes of the Saints yea of the B. Virgin mother of God of the Apostles and most famous martirs to be abrogated and taken away albeyt the English Protestants be not so rigorous for in this matter they haue left somwhat to remayn as before though it be very little 14. To inuocate Saints departed say these mē is nothing els thē to make many Gods and this our calling vpon them and worshipping of their images not to differ frō the customes of Pagans vnder which pretext they abhorre and auoid vs all they can but for vs it were easy if this place would beare so long dispute to beate backe and refell all these slaunders of heretikes for they are forced if they beleeue the Scriptures to admit this as certayn that the soules of the Saints with God pray for vs mortall men and that not in generall only but also in particuler and it is most euident in this life the faithfull to be holpen by the prayers of the vertuous for Moyses often by his prayers turned away the wrath of God from the people of Israel Iob 42.18 and God exhorted the friends of Iob to intreate his prayers thereby to obteyne pardon for their folly Eph. 6. Coloss 4. 1. Thes 5. 2. Thes 3. Hebr. 13. c. S. Paul ofter cōmended himselfe to the prayers of the faithful these men may learne if they list the Saints whose soules liue in the the sight of God and raign with Christ to pray for such as are yet liuing in the militant Church out of Hieremy Ezechiell and the Apocalips Hierem. 15 Ezech. 14. Apocalip 5.8 8. That for their sakes God graunteth many fauours vnto them they haue in the same holy Scriptures and that in many places as Genes 26.4.5.24 Exodus 32.13 3. Regum 18.36 1. Paralip 29.18 3. Reg. 11.12.32.34 15.4 4. Reg. 8.19 19.34 and 20.6 and Isa 37.35 See the commentaries which are sayd to be S. Chrysostomes in the second Homily vpon the 50. Psalme Christ warneth vs to make fryends of the mammon of iniquity Luke 16. Vt cum defeceritis recipiant vos in aeterna tabernacula that when you fayle they receyue you into their euerlasting tabernacles August de ciuitate Dei lib. 21. c. 7. Gen. 28.12 Heb. 1.14 out of this place S. Augustine attributeth much to the intercessiō of Saints 15. This intercession of Saints the holy Fathers acknowledg admit and confirme And truly of Angels the Ladder of Iacob and their other employments for vs are notorious See Origen contra Celsum lib. 8. Of the Angells attending vpon vs see S. Augustine Aug. Epi. 122. and of our guardian Angell the Scriptures doe often and plainly make mention Gen. 48. Exod. 23. Psalm 33. Math. 18. Actor 1◠and the Fathers also most cleerely Nyssenus in vita Moysis Basil in Psal 33. Hieron in 18. Mat. If therefore euery man haue to assist and guard him an Angell of our Lord what shall hinder but that he may craue his help I heard once in Englād with great gust one of my fellow Chanons of Windesor preaching before the King and affirming roundly in his sermon that he saw no reason to the contrary why euery faythful man might not turne and conuert himselfe towards his good Angell and say Sancte Angele custos ora pro me holy guardian Angell pray for me Of the intercession of Angells their labours for our helpe and benefit any one besides the former may also reade these Fathers S. Anton. Monachorum Parentem Epist 2. ad Arseonitas Anastasium Synaitam in Hexam lib. 5. Antiochum Abbat Hom. 61. Chrysost de incomprehensib Dei natura Hom. 3. Hom in Martyres Aegyptios Hieron in Epist 1. Cyrill Alexandrinum apud Anastasium Nycaenum quaest 61. Theodoretū ibidem Damascen Lib. 1. Parales cap. 7. c. 16. For Intercession of Saints we haue the common consent of the auncient Fathers See S. Cyprian Lib. de mortalitate Hieron aduersus Vigilantium August de Baptismo Lib. 5. cap. 7. Lib. 7. cap. 1. de verbis Apost Sermo 47. Sermon 46. de Sanctis Lib. 9. Confess cap. 3. Lib. de cura pro mortuis agenda cap. 16. contra Faustum Lib. 20. cap. 21. in Meditatio c. 20. Leo Magnus Sermon de Sancto Laurentio Gaudentius Brixian Serm. 17. Gregorius Magnus lib. 7. Indictione 2. Epist. 25. Bernard in Cantic Serm. 77. I pretermit innumerable others of later tymes the Scriptures therefore and Fathers and consent of the vniuersall Church doe securely warrant vs that the Angells and soules of Saints departed this life doe pray for the liuing and that also in particular Why then should not euery faythfull man take courage to inuocate or call vpon them whome most certainly he knowes to pray for him in heauen 17. That the Inuocation of Angels Saints to the end that they pray for vs and ioyne their prayers with ours as S. Chrysostome speaketh Serm. in Sanctum Meletium cannot be doubted of is most euident and of the B. Virgin Mother of God a part that she is to be inuocated by vs that she pray for vs to her sonne we haue most euident testimonyes Iraeneus lib. 5. cap. 19. Athanas in Euang. de Deipara Nazianzen orat in Cyprianum Basilius Seleuciae orat 1. de verbo incarnato August sermo 1. de Annunciatione Cosmas Hierosolym Sophronius item Hierosolymitanus orat 6. de Angelorum excellentia Hildefonsus Toletanus c. 18. Now for the Inuocation of other Saints besides the sacred Virgin that the most auncient practice of the Church doth so much as I sayd before it appertaineth to the tradition of the Apostles for this inuocation hath alwaies beene in vse and neuer reproued by any who was not held for an heretike It were to long a labour to recount the Fathers who inuocate Saints or teach them to be inuocated that elsewhere I haue aboundantly
with heresies and being by schisme deuided and separated from the truth are out of the Catholike vniuersall and true Church of Christ and these blind soules with their blynd guides rush and fall headlong into the pit of hell which I in my errour most wickedly and without grieuous iniury affirmed of the Roman Catholikes for from the Roman Church at all times to all other Churchs the most shining light of the pure and incorrupted fayth hath flowed and at this present flowes I remember also that in the preface of my bookes of the Ecclesiasticall commonwealth I vsed certayne wordes by which I insinuated all such to be in the Catholike Church who had receaued baptisme in the name of the Trinity but albeit the words haue an ill sound make all hereticall Churches true sound mēbers of the true Catholike Church which is most false and hereticall yet my meaning was that the Arian Nestorian Eutichian all hereticall and condemned Churches in tymes past should be excluded and only the true belieuers to be retayned which true belieuers I thought then to be many more then indeed they are and many Churches tainted with these latter Heresyes and by Schisme deuided I erroneously iudged to pertaine to the Catholike but though the Catholike Church be so denominated for her Vniuersality yet this Vniuersality includes no other then the true orthodoxe or right belieuing Churches spread ouer the whole world which remayne in vnity with the Roman And truly the vniuersality of the Roman Church doth consist not only in the cōtinual durance neuer yet interrupted or euer after to be and constance of sound beliefe but also is vniuersall because the selfe same fayth of Rome and supreme gouernement are extended after the cōming of Christ to all places and all Nations for which respect euen in these latter ages it is no lesse to be tearmed Catholike then it was in the tyme of the ancient Fathers because the fayth of the Roman Church euen at this tyme is propagated in the most remote vast regions of the East and West Indyes euen vnto the furthest corners of the earth in so much as the children of this Church euen in these dayes passing by continuall trauel from the rising of the Sunne vnto the setting and carrying with them the Fayth of Christ offering cleane sacrifices that now may be sayd especially to be fulfilled which God pronounced by the mouth of Malachy Malach. 1. v. 11. Ab ortu solis vsque ad occasum magnum est nomen meum in gentibus in omni loco sacrificatur offertur nominimeo oblatio munda From the rising of the sunne vnto the setting my name is great amongst the Gentills in euery place there is sacrificed and offered vnto my name a pure oblation Neither was it a lesse iniury and slaunder when I said that I had noted very many noueltyes and errors of the Court of Rome which nouelties which errors I neyther now or euer yet noted and I acknowledge it to be most false confesse it for such that euer there were or are in Rome such errors out of which the ruine and slaughter of soules doth proceed the peace of the Church is troubled or publick scandalls haue or doe arise truly next after God all peace of the Catholike Church her totall tranquillity and the euerlasting saluation of soules is to be ascribed to the care and sollicitude of the Roman Church I sayd that the more potent Bishops vnder the Bishop of Rome were but equiuocall or counterfeit Bishops and this saying cōteins no lesse falshood then iniury in it and therefore as raylatiue I condemne it for they are true and lawfull Bishops made by lawfull ordination I affirmed others who were not Potentates and Princes to haue lost the proper dignity and power of Bishops and truly this is also a slaunder for hierarchical subordinatiō in the Church hath been alwaies necessary much more doe I cōdemne as an heresy that which I said the Church no longer to remayn vnder the Bishop of Rome for as before I specifyed and earnestly auouched only the Church of Rome with the rest adhering therunto is the true Church of Christ that others are no Churchs at all And to conclude much in few I perceyue that in the first booke of my departure I specially endeauoured to infringe the primacy of the B. of Rome in which poynt I deny not but that I spake against the fayth of the whole Catholike Church and therefore greatly to haue erred for both by the Euangelicall ordinance traditions of the Apostles definitions of the holy Synods Generall Councells by very many decrees of Popes and common testimony of Fathers and ecclesiasticall histories it is manifest and cleere the B. of Rome alwayes to haue been taken for head of the whole Church to haue beene so appointed by Christ our Lord and alwayes to haue been taken for a singular oracle to whome no lesse the East then the West in all doubts of fayth should sue for instruction of beliefe definition secure doctrine as a maister appointed vs by God who should by his office teach and direct his Church any scholler may obserue very many examples in which the Bishops of Rome direct the Patriarkes and Bishops of the East they warne them rebuke them teach them condemne them absolue them depose them restore them controle them and that euen out of their office and power ouer them and the others checked by the Popes humbly gaue them eare obeyed resisted not or reclaymed and briefely it is cleare by the confession of all the Catholike Church the whole spirit of Christ for determining of these things which belong vnto fayth to reside in the sole and one visible supreme head of the same Church which is only the Pope the chiefe Bishop and S. Peters succcessor 5. I freely confesse that the booke which I called the Rockes of Christiā shipwrack did exceedingly displease me presently after that it was set forth for without all choyce had of the matter without all discussion or search of truth I hudled it vp that I might some way or other please the Englishmē after my arriuall amongst them in writing of which I considered and layd open not what was true but what pleased best the enemies of the Church especially the vulgar and vnlearned multitude and this booke whiles I was in England preparing for my departure being obiected vnto me by the King and other men I did in plain wordes detest it and my selfe withstood the greater part of heresyes which it conteynes and as far as I was able impugned them al which here agayne I reiect abhorre and detest The heresies were these The B. of Rome not to be Christs vicar on earth and visible head of his Church that he had no power ouer temporall things implicite fayth to auayle nothing but much to hurt the faithfull the excommunications of the law to be vain buggs the cōmandements of the