Miracles which the Papists confidently report to be done by him after his Death in curing Sick people of their severall Maladies For such Souls which they fancy in Purgatory are so farre from healing others that they cannot help themselves Yea f Eccles Hist lib. 3. cap. 12. Bede calleth this Oswald jam cum Domino regnantem now reigning with the Lord. Yet the same g Lib. 3. cap. 2 Authour attesteth that even in his time it was the anniversary Custome of the Monks of Hexam to repair to Heofen-feld a place hard by where Oswald as aforesaid obtained his miraculous Victory and there to observe Vigils for the Salvation of his Soul plurimaque Psalmorum laude celebrata victimam pro eo mane sacrae oblationis offerre A Mongrel Action betwixt Good-will and VVill-worship though the eyes of their Souls in those Prayers looked not forward to the future petitioning for Oswald's Happinesse but backward to what was past gratulatory to the Blisse he had received Purgatory therefore cannot properly be founded on such Suffrages for the dead However such over-Officiousnesse though at first it was like the Herb in the Pot which doth neither good nor ill in after-Ages became like that wild a 2 King 4. 40 Gourd Anno Dom. poysoning mens Souls with Superstition 644 when they fell to down-right Praying for the departed 79. This year Paulinus The death of Paulinus late Arch-Bishop of York since Bishop of Rochester ended his Life and one Ithamar succeeded him born in Kent and the first English-man Bishop all being Forrainers before him As he was the first of his Nation I believe him the second of his Name meeting with no moe save onely b Exod. 6. 23. Ithamar the youngest Son of Aaron High-Priest of Israel 80. After King Oswald his Death 645 four Christian contemporary Kings flourished in England Most Christian King Oswy First Oswy King of Northumberland more commendable for the Managing then the Gaining of his Kingdome except any will say that no good Keeping can make amends for the ill Getting of a Crown seeing he defeated Ethelwald Oswald's Son and the true Heire thereof Bede c Lib. 3. c. 21. termeth him Regem Christianissimum The most Christian King a Stile wherewith the present Majesty of France will not be offended as which many years after was settled on his Ancestours Long had this Oswy endeavoured in vain by Presents to purchase Peace from Penda the Pagan King of Mercia who miserably harassed his Country and refused any Gifts though never so rich and great which were tendered unto him At last saith my d Idem Authour Oswy resolved VVe will offer our Presents to such a King who is higher in Command and humbler in his Courtesie as who will not disdain to accept them Whereupon he devoted his Daughter to God in her perpetuall Virginity and soon after obtained a memorable Conquest over his Enemies and cleared the Country from his Cruelty 81. Secondly Sigebert the too good Sigebert King of Essex and the Restorer of Religion in his Kingdome which formerly had apostatized after the Departure of Mellitus valiant and pious though taxed for his contumacious Company-keeping contrary to his Confessours command with an Excommunicated Count in whose House he was afterward murdered by two Villains Who being demanded the Cause of their Cruelty why they killed so harmlesse and innocent a Prince had nothing to say for themselves but they did it because his e Beda lib. 3. cap. 22. Goodnesse had done the Kingdome hurt such his pronenesse to pardon Offenders on their though but seeming Submission that his Meeknesse made many Malefactours But I hope and believe that the Heirs of Sigebert though the Story be silent herein finding his Fault amended it in themselves and exercised just Severity in the Execution of these two damnable Traitours 82. Anna may be accounted the third Successour to Sigebert 654 and happy in a numerous and holy Off-spring Anna happy in an holy issue Yea all his Children save Firminus the eldest slain with his Father in a Fight against Pagan Penda were either Mitred or Vailed when Living Sainted and Shrined when Dead as Erkenwald Bishop of London Ethelred or Audrey and Sexburga successively Foundresses and Abbesses of Elie VVithgith a Nun therein and Ethilburg Abbesse of Beorking nigh London 83. Peada 656 Prince of Mercia The conversion of the Mercians to Christianity under Prince Peada may make up the Quaternion who married Alfrede Daughter of Oswy King of Northumberland and thereupon renouncing Paganisme embraced Christianity and propagated it in his Dominions Indeed Penda his Father that Persecuter of Piety was still alive and survived two yeares after persisting an Heathen till Death but mollified to permit a Toleration of Christianity in his Subjects Yea Penda in his Old-age used an expression which might have beseemed the Mouth of a better man namely That he hated not Christians but onely such who f Beda lib. 3. cap. 21. professed Christ's Faith without his VVorks accounting them contemptible who pretended to Believe in God without Obeying him 84. A brace of Brethren St. Cedde and St. Chad. both Bishops both eminent for Learning and Religion now appeared in the Church so like in Name they are oft mistaken in Authours one for another Now though it be pleasant for Brethren to live together in Vnity Anno Dom. 656 yet it is not fit by Errour they should be jumbled together in Confusion Observe their Difference therefore S t. Cedde in Latine Ceddus I believe the elder born at a Flores Sanctorum pag. 35. London where afterward he was Bishop bred in Holy Island an active promoter in making the East-Saxons Converts or rather Reverts to the Faith He is remembred in the Romish Kalendar Ianuary the seventh S t. Chad in Latine Cedda born in b Idem p. 224. Northumberland bred likewise in Holy Island and Scholar to Aidanus He was Bishop of Lichfield a milde and modest man of whom more hereafter His death is celebrated in the Kalender March the second and the Dust of his Tombe is by Papists reported to cure all Diseases alike in Man and Beast I believe it might make the dumb to see and the lame to speak The later of these was as the Longest Liver so the most eminent in his Life who made many Christians and amongst the rest VVulfade and Rufine Sons to Wulphere King of Mercia succeeding Peada therein who was suddenly slain and his untimely Death was a great Loss to Religion 85. Look we now on the See of Canterbury Fridona first English Arch-bishop where to our comfort we have gotten one of our own Country-men into the place Fridona a Saxon. Yet for the more State of the businesse he assumed the name of Deus-dedit We know Arch-Bishops of his See are termed Alterius orbis Papae and such changing of Names was fashionable with the Popes He was
this unlawfull Copulation a pious Son S t. Faustus was born to shew that no Crosse-barre of Bastandy though doubled with Incest can bolt Grace out of that Heart wherein God will have it to enter Germanus having settled Britain in good Order went back to his own Country where presently upon his return he died Anno Dom. 449 as God useth to send his Servants to Bed when they have done all their Work and by Gods blessing on his Endeavours that Heresie was so cut down in Britain that it never generally grew up again 14. Mean time the South of this Island was in a wofull condition In vain the Britans petition to the Roman Emperour for help against the Picts caused by the daily Incursions of the Picts As for the Picts Wall built to restrain them it being a better Limit then Fortification served rather to define then defend the Roman Empire and uselesse is the strongest Wall of Stone when it hath Stocks only upon it such was the Scottish Lazinesse of the Britans to man it a Nation at this time given over to all manner of Sin insomuch as a In Prologo libri de Excid Brit. Gildas their Country-man calls them Aetatis Atramentum the Inke of the Age. And though God did daily correct them with Inroads of Pagans yet like restife Horses they went the worse for Beating And now the Land being exhausted of the Flower of her Chivalry transported and disposed in Roman Garrisons as farre as Iudaea and b See Notitia Provinciarum Aegypt it self could not make good her ground against the Picts and was fain to request first Theodosius the younger then Valentinian the third Roman Emperour whose Homagers the British Kings were untill this time for their Assistance They dispatch Petition after Petition Embassie on Embassie representing their wofull estate Now the Barbarians beat them to the Sea the Sea repelled them to the Barbarians and thus bandied betwixt Death and Death they must either be kill'd or drowned They inforced their Request for Aid with much Earnestnesse and Importunity all in vain seeing Whisperings and Hollowings are like to a Deaf Eare and no Answer was returned Had they been as carefull in bemoaning their Sins to God as clamorous to declare their Sufferings to the Roman Emperour their Requests in Heaven had been as graciously received as their Petitions on Earth were carelesly rejected 15. What might be the Cause of this Neglect True Reasons why the Romans neglected to send Aid to the Britans Had the Imperial Crown so many Flowers that it might afford to scatter some of them Was Britain grown inconsiderable formerly worth the Conquering now not worth the Keeping or was it because they conceived the Britans Need not so much as was pretended and Aid is an Almes ill-bestowed on those Beggars who are lame of Lazinesse and will not work for their Living Or was the Service accounted desperate and no wise Physician will willingly undertake a Disease which he conceives incurable The plain truth is the Roman Empire now grown Ruinous could not repair it's out-Rooms and was fain to let them fall down to maintain the rest and like Fencers receiving a blow on their Leg to save their Head exposed the Remote Countries of Spain France and Britain to the Spoil of Pagans to secure the Eastern Countries near CONSTANTINOPLE the Seat of the Empire 16. Here Vortiger The sad successe of the Pagan Saxons invited by King Vortiger into Britain forsaken of God and man and left to himself Malice could not wish him a worse Adviser resolves on a desperate Project to call in the Pagan Saxons out of Germany for his Assistance under Horsus and Hengistus their Captains Over they come at first but in three great Ships a small Earnest will serve to bind a great Bargain first possessing the Island of Thanet in Kent but following afterwards in such Swarms that quickly they grew formidable to him that invited them over of Guests turning Sojourners then In mates and lastly Land-lords till they had dispossessed the Britans of the best of the Island the entertaining of mercenary Souldiers being like the administring of Quick-silver to one in Hiaca Passio a Receipt not so properly prescribed by the Physician to the Patient as by Necessity to the Physician If hired Aid do on a sudden the Work they are sent for and so have a present Passage to be discharg'd sovereign use may be made of them otherwise if long tarrying they will eat the Entralls and corrode the Bowells of that State which entertains them as here it came to passe 17. For soon after the Saxons erected seven Kingdomes in Britain And because their severall Limits conduce much to the clear understanding of the following History and we for the present are well at Leisure we will present the Reader with the Description of their severall Principalities The respective bounds of the Saxon Heptarchie The Partition was made by mutuall Consent thus farre forth that every King caught what he could and kept what he caught and there being amongst them a Parity of high-spirited Princes who more prized an absolute Sovereignty over a little then a Propriety with Subjection in never so much they erected seven severall Kingdomes in little more then but the third part of this Island A thing which will seem no wonder to him who hath read how the little Land of a Iosh. 12. 24. CANAAN found room at the same time for one and thirty Kings But let us reckon them up 1. The first was the Kingdome of KENT which began Anno 4 5 7. under King Hengist It contained the County of Kent as it is at this day bounded without any notable difference And though this Kingdome was the least of all as consisting but of one intire County without any other addition yet was it much befriended in the Situation for Traffick with France and Germany Besides it being secured on three Sides with Thames and the Sea and fenced on the fourth with Woods this made their Kings naturally defended at home more considerable in their Impressions on their Neighbours 2. Of the SOUTH-SAXONS comprising Sussex and Surry both which till very lately were under one Sheriff And this Kingdome began Anno 491 under King Ella and was the weakest of all the seven affording few Kings and fewer Actions of moment 3. Of the EAST-SAXONS comprehending Essex Middlesex and so much of Hartfordshire as is under the Bishop of London's Jurisdiction whose Diocese is adequate to this Kingdome A small Ring if we survey the little Circuit of Ground but it had a fair Diamond in it the City of London though then but a Stripling in Growth well thriving in Wealth and Greatness This Kingdome began in Erchenwin about the year 527. 4. Of the EAST-ANGLES containing Norfolk Suffolk Cambridgeshire with the Isle of Ely and as it seems faith a Reverend b Usher de Brit. Ecc. Primord p. 394. Writer part of
safely rely Though a Second part of his Institut pag. 487. some have said that this was no Statute but made by the Prelates themselves yet that this is an Act of Parliament it is proved not onely by our books but also by an Act of Parliament 17. The King to his Judges Were it of concernment it were not difficult to name the Prime Judges of England at this time Viz. 1. In the Kings or Vpper-Bench either Ralph de Hengham or which is more probable one Wymborne was Judge 2. In the Common-Pleas Thomas de Weyland on that token that he was guilty of Bribery 3. In the Exchequer Adam de Stratton as faulty as the former But by the Judges named in this Writ for as this was an Act of Parliament so was there a Writ also founded thereon called Circumspectè agatis we understand some peculiar Commissioners dispatch'd and employed on this particular business 18. Concerning the Bishop of Norwich It is needless to tell the Reader that William Middeton was Bishop thereof at this time b Chronicon Osniense charactred to be Vir in Jure Civili Canonico peritissmus elegantissmus But Norwich is here put onely for example which equally extended to all the Bishops of the Realme 19. Si placitum tenuerint if they hold plea Placitum a Plea so called saith my c Linwood his Constit lib. 2. tit De Foro competenti Author per antiphrasin quia non places none being pleased to go to Law save Barreters who delight in brangling But what if it be called placitum because the Plaintife is pleased to submit his right in question to the pleasure of the Court to decide it 20. In Court Christian These words are left out in Linwood his Constitutions where all the rest is registred And where the recording thereof amongst the Provincial Canons of Canterbury gave the best countenance to their conjecture who degrade this Act of Parliament into a meer Church-Constitution It is called the Court Christian because therein the Laws of Christ do or should bear the decisive sway whilest the Statutes of Secular Princes regulate the proceedings in other Courts 21. Such things as be meerly spiritual This furnisheth us with a necessary distinction of all matters Into meerly and purely mixtly and partly spiritual Of the former we shall finde very few meerly spiritual For the Apostles sometimes conceived that the very distribution of Almes to the poor had something of worldly drossiness therein called by them d Acts 6. 2. serving of tables as if onely the preaching of the word were a spiritual employment Of the latter sort many things are mixtly spiritual For seeing man consists of two principles soul and body all his actions good or bad as to the minde-moiety or soul-part thereof must needs have at least a glance of spiritual reflection Here then the Quaere will be in matters mixtly spiritual whether the spirituality of them shall refine the rest so as to exalt the same into Church-cognisance or the corporality or earthliness of them depress them so as to subject them to civil consideration the decision hereof dependeth on the practice and custom of the Land as will appear hereafter 22. For deadly sin Distinguish we here betwixt a sin deadly to the soul drawing damnation without repentance and a deadly commonly called a capital crime deserving death by humane Laws The former onely is here intended the latter belonging wholly to the Common-Law Nor did the punishment of every mortal sin to use the language of that age belong to Church-men seeing if so as Linwood no less Learnedly then modestly confesseth Sic periret temporalis gladii jurisdictio Thereby the power of the temporal sword will wholly be taken away Long since had Doctors-Commons eaten up all the Inns of Court if all things reducible to deadly sins had pertained to the Court-Christian And therefore the Casuists themselves do qualifie and confine these words of indefinite extent to such crimes which de sui naturâ spectant ad Forum Ecclesiasticum 23. As first fornication Here saith Linwood thirteen cases are in specie recited though I dare not reckon them up fearing to make them lying so confusedly moe or less Fornication that is saith the Casuist Soluti cum soluta the uncleanness of a loose understand unmarried with a loose person 24. Adultery These two alone are specified because lying in a middle distance so the more conveniently to reach other sins of this kinde of higher or lower guilt 1. Higher as Incest 2. Lower Soliciting a womans chastity If any say that Adultery doth not belong to the Court-Christian because Christ himself would not punish an a John 8. 4. 11. adulteress taken in the act waving it as an improper imployment It is answered that our Saviour appearing in privacy and poverty and coming not to act but to suffer not to judg but be judged justly declined all judicial power But we see afterward how the Church of Corinth by S t Paul his command proceeded against the incestuous person and at this time Church-men cleanly carried the cognisance of such offences I say at this time it plainly appearing that in the Conquerors time Fornication and Adultery were punishable in the Kings Court and the Leets especially by the name of LETHERWITE and the fines of offenders assessed to the King though now it meerly belonged to the Church As for a Rape being Adultery or at leastwise fornication offered with violence the Common-Law hath justly reserved to it self the trial and punishment thereof 25. And such like Here is an interpretative et-caetera inserted in the body of a Parliament Act and a Writ grounded thereon causing some differences about the Dimensions thereof For if these words And such like relate onely to the last foregoing Fornication and Adultery in common construction most probable then they onely fetch in such offences which have some tincture of Carnal uncleanness But if they also refer to the mediate preceding words deadly sins behold a troop cometh beyond our power exactly to number them And here Forein Casuists bring in a bundle of mortal sins all grist for their own Mill as of Church-cognisance namely Sacriledg Usury Heresie Simony Perjury Fortune-telling consulting Astrologers Drunkenness c. But it matters not how long and large their bills be from beyond the Seas seeing our Common-Law brings their reckonings to a new account defalking a great part of that measure which they make to themselves in favour of Church-Jurisdiction 26. For that the Church is uncovered It belonged ever to the Priests to provide for the decent reparation of Gods-House Thus Jehoiada b 2 Chro. 24. was careful to amend the decayes of the Temple But though it pertained to Church-men to see the thing done yet several persons were to do it 1. The Steeple with the Body of the Church and all Chappels lying in common thereunto are to be repaired at the joyn cost of the Parish 2.
merits of the blood and passion of our Saviour JESU CHRIST Item That this certain faith and hope is gotten and also confirmed and made more strong by the applying of Christs words and promises of his grace and favour contained in his Gospel the Sacraments instituted by him in the New Testament And therefore to attain this certain faith the second part of Penance is necessary that is to say Confession to a Priest if it may be had for the asolution given by the Priest was institute of Christ to apply the promises of God's grace and favour to the penitent Wherefore as touching Confession We will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach Our people committed by Us to their spiritual charge that they ought and must certainly believe that the words of absolution pronounced by the Priest be spoken by the authority given to him by Christ in the Gospel Item That they ought and must give no lesse faith and credence to the same words of absolution so pronounced by the Ministers of the Church than they would give unto the very words and voice of God himself if he should speak unto us out of heaven according to the saying of Christ i i Iohn 20. 23. Whose sins soever ya doe forgive shall be forgiven whose sins soever ye doe retain shall be retained And again in another place Christ saith k k Luke 10. 16. Whosoever heareth you heareth me Item That in no wise they doe contemn this Auricular Confession which is made unto the Ministers of the Church but that they ought to repute the same as a very expedient and necessary mean whereby they may require and ask this absolution at the Priest's hands at such time as they shall finde their conscience grieved with mortal sin and have occasion so to doe to the intent they may thereby attain certain comfort and consolation of their consciences As touching to the third part of Penance We will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach Our people committed by Us to their spiritual charge that although Christ his death be the sufficient oblation sacrifice satisfaction and recompense for the which God the Father forgive and remitteth to all sinners not only their sin but also eternal pain one for the same yet all men truly penitent contrite and confessed must needs also bring forth the fruits of penance that is to say Prayer Fasting Alms deeds and must make restitution or satisfaction in will and deed to their neighbours in such things as they have done them wrong and injury in and also must doe all other good works of mercy and charity and expresse their obedient will in the executing and fulfilling of Gods commandements outwardly when time power and occasion shall be ministred unto them or else they shall never be saved For this is the expresse precept and commandement of God l l Luke 3. 8. Doe you the worthy fruits of penance And S. Paul saith m m Rom. 6. 19. Like as in times past you have given and applied your selves and all the members of your body to all filthy living and wickednesse continually excreasing the same in like manner now you must give and apply your selves wholly to justice excreasing continuoslly in purity and cleannesse of life And in another place he saith n n 1 Cor. 9. 27. I chastise and subdâ—e my carnal body and the affections of the same and make them obedient unto the spirit Item That these precepts and works of charity be necessary works to our salvation and God necessarily requireth that every penitent man shall perform the same whensoever time power and occasion shall be ministred unto them so to doe Item That by penance and such good works of the same we shall not onely obtain everlasting life but also we shall deserve remission or mitigation of these present pains and afflictions in this world according to the saying of Saint Paul o o 1 Cor. 11. 31. if we would correct and take punishment of our selves we should not be so grievously corrected of God And Zecharias the Prophet saith p p Zech. 1. 3. Turn your selves unto me and I will turn again unto you And the Prophet Esay saith q q Isa 58. 7 8 9 c. Break and deal thy bread unto the hungry bring into they house the poor man and such as want harbour When thou seest a naked man give him clothes to cover him with and refuse not succour and help the poor and needy for he is thine own flesh And if thou wilt thus doe then shall thy light glister out as bright as the sun in the morning and thy health shall sooner arise unto thee and thy justice shall goe before thy face and the glory of God shall gather thee up that thou shalt not fall And whensoever thou shalt call upon God God shall hear thee and whensoever thou shalt crie unto God God shall say Loe here I am ready to help thee then shall thy light overcome all darknesse and thy darknesse shall be as bright as the sun at noon-daies and then God shall give unto thee continuall rest and shall fulfill thy soul with brightnesse and shall deliver thy body from adversity and then thou shalt be like a garden that most plentifully bringeth forth all kinde of fruits and like the well-spring that never shall want water These things and such other should be continually taught and inculked into the ears of Our people to the intent to stirre and provoke them unto good works and by the self-same good works to exercise and confirm their faith and hope and look for to receive at God's hand mitigation and remission of the miseries calamities and grievous punishments which God sendeth to men in this world for their sins The Sacrament of the Altar Fourthly As touching the Sacrament of the Altar We will that all Bishops Preachers shall instruct and teach Our people committed by Us unto their spiritual charge that they ought and must constantly believe that under the form figure of bread wine which We there presently do see perceive by outwards senses is verily substantially really contained and comprehended the very self-same body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ which was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered upon the Crosse for our redemption And that under the same form and figure of Bread and Wine the very self-same body and blood of Christ is corporally really and in the very substance exhibited distributed and received unto and of all them which receive the said Sacrament And that therefore the said Sacrament is to be used with all due reverence and honour and that every man ought first to prove and examine himself and religiously to trie and search his own conscience before he shall receive the same according to the saying of S. Paul Whosoever eateth r r 1 Cor. 11. 27. this body of Christ unworthily or drinketh of this
long time accustomed to be taken the Law already established providing a sharp and severe punishment for such as shall exceed the same Besides an order also which we at this present have taken amongst our selves for the better performance thereof I therefore most humbly beseech your Majesty to continue your gracious goodness towards us who with all humility submit our selves to your Highness and cease not daily to pray for your happy estate Mar. 24. and long and prosperous Reign over us Your Majesties Chaplain and daily Orator most bounden John Cantuar. Thus the old year on the last day whereof this Letter was dated ended sadly and suspiciously with the Prelates but the next year began Cheerfully and presented good tidings unto them 25. For Her Majesty will alter nothing materiall to church government the Queen to verifie her Motto SEMPER EADEM and to disprove that Inconstancy generally charged on her sex acquitted Her self more then Woman in Her masculine resolutions and nothing of moment was altered in Church discipline Many things indeed were offered to both houses debated agitated and as it seems passed the Commons but nothing in fine was effected Thus the Major may propound what it pleaseth and the Minor assume what it listeth but no conclusive argument could then be framed without the Ergo of the royall Assent which the Queen refused to affix to any materiall Alteration 26. And few dayes after the session of the Parliament for the present broke off Mar. 29. Parliament dissolved wherewith ended the assenbly of the Ministers And now all of them had leave to depart to their own homes Otherwise such members thereof as formerly went away without leave were obnoxious to censure Witness one of them in his Ingenious confession a Mr. Gelibrand to Mr. Field cited by Bp. Bancroft in his dangerous positions pag 75. Touching my departure from that holy assembly without leave c. I crave pardon both of you and them c And thus commending this holy Cause to the Lord himself and your Godly Councell to the President thereof I take my leave 27. The next day the Convocation ended Iohn Hilton in Convocation abjoreth his hereticall opinions having effected nothing of moment save that in the 9 th session thereof Iohn Hilton Priest made a solemn Abjuration of his blasphemous heresies according to the tenour ensuing b b This was by me faithfully transcribed out of the records of Canterbury In Dei nomine Amen Mar. 30. Before you most reverend father in God Lord John Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Primate and Metropolitane of all England and the reverend fathers in God the Bishops of this your Province of Canterbury here Congregated and Assembled together in this holy Synod and Convocation I John Hilton Priest of my pure heart and free will voluntarily and sincerely knowledge confess and openly recognize that in times past I thought beleeved said held and presumptuously affirmed and preached the Errors Heresies Blasphemies and damnable opinions following c. Here he distinctly read a Schedule containing his heresies which what they were may be collected by that which ensueth and then proceeded as followeth Wherefore I the said John Hilton detesting and abhorring all and every such my said Heresies Blasphemies and damned opinions willing and with all my power affecting hereafter firmely to beleeve in the true and perfect faith of Christ and his holy Church purposing to follow the doctrine of Christ and his holy Apostles with a pure and free heart voluntary minde will and intent utterly forsake relinquish renounce and despise the said detestable Errours Heresies Blasphemies and Abominable opinions Granting and confessing that the blessed Trinity consisteth in three distinct persons and one Godhead as God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost coe quall in power and might Secondly that Jesus Christ is both God and man and my Saviour and Redeemer and of all other baptized and beleeving in him Who of his Father of his own substance in his humanity was conceived by the Holy Ghost incarnate and for our Redemption being very God became man And that by the death of Jesus Christ we be not only made partakers of his Testament and so deduced to the knowledge of his godly will and power but also that we have full Redemption and Remission of our sins in his bloud And where I did most ungodly detestably and blasphemously affirme that the Old and New Testaments were Fables now being most sorry for that abominable and damnable assertion I do most humbly and c c Here the record is so ill written that this word is not legible beleeve the same Testaments to contain all truths necessary to salvation and that I and all others are bound to beleeve the same as the undoubted word of God and that without that I cannot be saved And therefore the said Errours Blasphemies and all other Heresies false doctrines and damned opinions in generall contrary and repugnant to the faith of Christ I utterly absuâ—e forsake and purely renounce before you most Reverend father in God and the rest of this holy Synod here assembled And moreover I swear by this holy Evangelist by me here bodily touched that from henceforth I shall never hold teach believe or affirme the said Errours Heresâ—s â—lasphemies or damned opinions or any other against contrary or repugnâ—t to the holy saith of Christs Church Nor yet shall I by my self or any other person privately oâ— apertly defend maintain succour favour or support any person that to my knowledge holdeth beleeveth affirmeth or teacheth any such Heresies Errours or damned opinions So help me God and these holy Evangelists In witness whereof to this my present Abjuration and renunciation I have with my own hand voluntarily subscribed my proper name JOHN HILTON 28. Upon this his Abjuration Pennance imposed upon him Pennance was imposed on him first that he should attend at Pauls Crosse upon the Preacher Sunday next all the time of the Sermon and there penitently stand before the said Preacher with a faggot on his shoulders Secondly that he should not preach minister Sacraments nor exercise any Ecclesiasticall function in the Church except specially licensed by the Arch-Bishop thereunto Thirdly that he should recant the said heresies and damnable opinions in the Church of S t. Martius in the fields at a sermon there to be made by the Arch-Deacon and there to shew himself very penitent I finde in the Records a recognizance of five hundred pounds drawn up to the Queen whereby the said Hilton bound himself for the performance hereof but because the rude draught of the bond is crossed I conceive it not insisted on and finding nothing to the contrary presume the aforesaid pennance by him exactly performed 29. The Ministers or Brethren now missing their mark Exchange of important Letters betwixt the Earl of Leicester and the Arch-Bishop abated much of their former activity in so much as that