the first an earnest Lutheran the other two Zwinglians 14. All these demonstrations I say King Henry made this year of his Catholic Opinion and Judgment in all points except in matter of Supremacy which was his own Interest And for the other six years which he lived afterwards he vary'd not from this but rather confirm'd the same as we may see by his burning of Anne Askew for denying the Real Presence in the Sacrament not many months before his death and by his own hearing of Mass in his bed and receiving the blessed Sacrament on his knees when he was not able to stand on his feet but especially by that which Bishop Gardiner testified while he lived and preached the same in a public Sermon at Paul's Cross that the said King not long before his dying day when he sent him Embassador to a Diet in Germany gave him special Commission in secret to procure by the means of some Catholic Princes and of the Pope's Legat and Nuntio there some honorable condition for his Majesty's reconciliation with the Pope and See of Rome again which tho' God of his secret Judgment permitted him not to effectuate by the shortness of his life yet appeareth it by this what his sense in matters of Religion was 15. So then now we have that Catholic Church and Religion continued in England during King Henry's Reign both in Prince and People tho' much turmoil'd by Faction Schisms and Heresie wherein notwithstanding she no more lost her possession and continuance than she did in time of the raging Arians Donatists or other Sectaries that prevailed in power for the present time either generally or in some particular Provinces as Lutherans and Zwinglians also did in King Henry's days in divers places or do at this day which yet was and is so as they are easily distinguished from the other not only by the Divisions and Differences among themselves but also for that the Union of the Catholic Religion doth ever shew it self in some Regions adjoyning yea commonly also even in those very places where these Sects do range and bear most rule some Catholics do remain to contradict them openly and to plead for their old possession and the greater the Persecution is the greater and more eminent is this Catholic contradicting part stirred up and increased by the very Power and Vertue of the Cross of Christ in Persecution as before hath been noted 16. And this was the state of Catholic Religion in King Henry's Reign to wit that it was held and defended publicly except only the Article of Ecclesiastical Supremacy denied to the Pope whereunto notwithstanding many thousands of the Realm never agreed and consequently were truly Catholics Heretics also were punished especially those three Sects that principally ranged at that time to wit Lutherans Anabaptists and Zwinglians all three taking their Origin from Luther so as of all these three Sects King Henry burned many and albeit of the fourth sort of men that opposed themselves against him to wit Catholics he put divers also to death under the name of Papists yet both this very Name as also the different manner of their Deaths but above all the nature of their Cause doth evidently distinguish them from the other and shew that their Deaths were true Martyrdoms and the others due Punishment for their Wickedness 17. For first the name of Papists that signifieth them to hold with the Pope as Supreme Head of their Church importeth no more hurt or offence than if any Sedition moved within any Realm those that hold with the King should be called Kinglings or those for example that hold part with the Mayor of London when any Apprentices would raise Rebellion against him should scornfully be called Mayorists and generally for a man to hold with his Lawful Superiour cannot be termed a Faction and much less an Heresie 18. Secondly the very difference and manner of punishment used by King Henry towards both parts the one by Fire the others by Beheading and Hanging doth evidently shew what difference he made of them the one as of Heretics and the other as of men offending against his State and Person after he had made the Supremacy Ecclesiastical to be a matter of his State and of his Royal Dignity whereby also he shewed that he was no Gospeller 19. But now for the third point which is the most important of all the rest to shew the difference in these mens Causes and that the Catholics suffered innocently for their Conscience and consequently were true Martyrs and that the other sorts of Sectaries were punished deservedly as Malefactors it is not hard to prove to him that is of any mean consideration or indifferency in matters For first who will not grant but that he that is an honest and good man when he goeth to bed for example cannot easily be made an evil man in his sleep without any motive of his affection or free will at all And again He that is a good and true Subject towards his Prince and Countrey this day how can he well to morrow be judged a Traytor the highest sin of all other if in the mean space he change not his mind nor do any act of word or deed contrary to that he did before And yet this was the Cause of the Catholics put to death under King Henry for the Supremacy 20. As for Example Sir Thomas More was Prisoner in the Tower of London upon some displeasure in the year 1534 where he attending only to his Prayers as himself testifieth and to the Writing of some Spiritual Books pertaining to the contempt of this present transitory World there passed in the mean time a Statute in the Parliament-house appointing that whomsoever did not believe the King's Majesty to be Supreme Head of the Church of England in causes Ecclesiastical should be a Traitor and suffer death for it which seeming a new and strange thing unto him and contrary to the belief of all his Forefathers he could not so soon conform himself thereunto and consequently refused when he was demanded to subscribe to the Statute and to make so great a change in his Faith upon the change of others for which soon after he was put to death not for that he had attempted altered or innovated any thing as you see but for that he would not alter and make innovation And this was the proper true cause of all Catholics that suffered for the Supremacy under King Henry VIII 20. But on the contrary side the others that were put to death by him as Sectaries did wickedly and presumptuously alter and innovate of their own heads many things about Belief and Doctrin different from that which they had received and contrary to the Belief of all their Forefathers ancient Christians for many Ages together and that with such obstinacy as no Reason Authority Discipline or Order no Witness Human or Divine could prevail with them and albeit for this obstinacy
Pope 6. But what did he from his breach forward Did he spare the new Gospellers any thing more for his breach with the Pope Truly it cannot be denied but that for some years he wink'd at their doings somewhat more than before considering the new difficulties wherein he had cast himself by his new disunion and breach as before we have noted in the end of the former Part. But as soon as he had put his Domestical Affairs in some quiet and security he returned again to his former course and custom of restraining these new unruly Spirits by calling them to account for their Innovations and proceeding juridically against them according to Church Canons and according to his former judgment in matters of Religion Which as I might shew by divers ways of proof as well of Acts of Parliament as Proclamations Injunctions and other Declarations of his Will and Opinion in this behalf so will we allege only two or three Examples in the first kind besides those which we have set down in the former Part. 7. In the 31st year of his Reign which was seven or eight years after his breach with the Pope there was made an Act for abolishing of diversity of Opinions about Christian Faith which beginneth thus Whereas the King 's most Excellent Majesty is by God's Law Supreme Head immediately under him of the whole Church of England c. intending the conservation of the same Church in a true sincere and uniform Doctrin of Christ's Religion c. Thus beginneth his Preface And then he determineth together with the Parliament That whosoever shall deny the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar or affirm that the Communion is necessary under both Kinds or that Priests may by God's Law take Wives after Priesthood or that Vows of Chastity are not to be observed or that private Masses are not to be said or that Sacramental and Auricular Confession is not necessary c. All these he condemneth as Heretics and for such to be Apprehended Arraigned Condemned and Burned as at large is to be seen in the Statute 8. And the very next year after perceiving that notwithstanding his former Statute against Protestant Opinions the same did grow and were spread abroad in England he ordained another Statute which beginneth thus Whereas the King 's Róyal Majesty of his blessed and gracious disposition c. well weighing that out of sundry outward parts and places there have sprung been sown set forth divers heretical erroneous dangerous Opinions Doctrins in the Religion of Christ whereby his Grace's Leige-people may be induced to unfaithfulness misbelief miscreancy and contempt of God to the utter confusion and damnation of Souls c. For this cause his Majesty according to the very Gospel and Law of God meaneth to have matters determined and declared c. Thus he writeth in the Statute remitting himself to his further Declaration which is wholly against Protestants whose Faith and Religion you see here called by the King unfaithfulness misbelief miscreancy contempt of God heretical erroneous and dangerous Doctrin tending to utter confusion and damnation of Souls c. And this proved by the pure Word of God and the very Gospel it self as his Majesty affirmeth 9. And will you have more clear testimony of his settled judgment against Protestants than this But yet hear further For that the same King divers years afters after this again towards the end of his days having had good experience of the falshood of Protestants in corrupting the very Scriptures themselves by their crafty Translations Notes and Commentaries he was forc'd to forbid under grievous punishments the reading of the foresaid Scriptures in English which before he had permitted as appeareth by a peculiar Statute made for that purpose and for inhibiting Protestants Books Sermons and Preachings in the 34th and 35th years of his Reign this Statute being entituled An Act for the Advancement of true Religion saying therein as followeth Whereas the King 's most Royal Majesty Sumpreme Head of the Church of England and also of Ireland perceiveth that notwithstanding such holy Doctrins and Docucuments as his Majesty hath hitherto caused to be set forth besides the great liberty granted unto them in having the New and Old Testament among them which notwithstanding many seditious arrogant and ignorant Parsons pretending to be Learred have the perfect and true knowledg understanding and judgment of sacred Scriptures c. intending to subvert the very true and perfect Exposition thereof after their perverse fantasies have taken upon them not only to preach teach declare c. but also by printed Books Ballads Plays Rhythmes Songs and other fantasies subtilly to beguile his Majesty's Leige-subjects c. 10. Behold King Henry's description of Protestants their Wit Nature Condition and Doctrin But now followeth the Remedy Wherefore to ordain and establish a certain form of pure and sincere Teaching agreeable to God's Word and true Doctrin of the Catholic and Apostolical Church c. Be it enacted That all manner of Books of the Old and New Testament in English being of the crafty false and untrue Translation of William Tyndall and all other Books or Writings in the English Tongue teaching or composing any matter of Christian Religion contrary to that Doctrin which since the year of our Lord 1540 is hath or shall be set forth by his Majesty is clearly and utterly abolished c. Thus ordained King Henry of the Protestants Books and Doctrin and this Censure he gave of William Tyndall's Truth and Honesty in translating the Scriptures whom John Fox calleth not only the true Servant and Martyr of God but the Apostle also of England in this our latter Age. 11. Wherefore I do not see how Fox can with any reason make King Henry to be a Gospeller of his Religion or so earnest a Defender of the same or why he should paint him with the Bible in his hand holden up by Cranmer and Cromwell as before hath been said and seen in his Painting seeing he contemned ever their Doctrin and burned the Professors thereof as notorious Heretics unto his dying-dying-day Which is evident by many Examples but most clear and notorious by that of John Lambert a famous Zuinglian with whom in solemn public Audience he disputed in presence of all his Clergy and Nobility of the Realm and caused Cranmer to do the like and in the end made Cromwell as his Vicar-General to give the Sentence of Death against him and burn him in Smithfield and this not two years before Cromwell's own Condemnation for like Heresie by the King 's own pursuit as may appear by the Act of his Condemnation yet extant And the same no doubt would he have done with Cranmer which was the other Upholder of his Arm to maintain the new Gospel according to Fox his Picture if he had known or suspected him not only for an Upholder of
of a worshipful and honorable Knight that afterwards was of Queen Mary's Privy Councel and was either present when these things were spoken by Joan of Kent or heard it from them that were present from whom also I received divers other Particularities which in this Chapter and the former are touched by me Knowing the Man to be of such Wisdom and entire Credit as I can hardly follow a better Author in things of his time 16. Well then this is the first point obtained in this first Parliament of King Edward that all Sects had impunity whereof Fox glories much in these words These meek and gentle times of King Edward under the Government of this noble Protector have this one Commendation proper to them that during the whole time of the Six years of this King 's much tranquillity and as it were a breathing-time was granted to the whole Church of England c. Neither in Smithfield nor any other Quarter of this Realm was any heard to suffer for any matter of Religion either Papist or Protestant either for one Opinion or other except only two one an Englishwoman called Joan of Kent the other a Dutchman named George Paris who died for certain Articles not much necessary here to be rehearsed Behold here Fox unwilling to rehearse the Articles of these two new Gospellers which were no other but the Denial of Christ himself And for that he saith no man suffered for Religion it self either Catholic or Protestant in all King Edwards days I would ask him what he would say to so many hundreds as were slain and put to death in Somersetshire Devonshire Cornwall Lincolnshire Norfolk Yorkshire and other places in the Third year of King Edward's Reign that were forced to take Arms for defence of their Religion violently wrested from them against all Truth Reason Law and Order Was not this Suffering also for Religion But let us hear John Fox himself confess unto us the manner of entrance of his Gospel into England 17. After softer beginnings saith he by little and little greater things followed in the reformation of the Churches and a new face of things began now to appear as it were on a Stage new Players coming in and the other thrust out For the most part the Bishops of Churches and Dioceses were changed c. Bonner Bishop of London was committed to the Marshalsea and deprived Gardener Bishop of Winchester and Tonstal Bishop of Durham were cast into the Tower c. Lo here by Fox his own Confession what Peace and Meekness there was used in these gentle times of King Edward under the Government of this noble Protector tho' they were but Six years in all And let the Reader confess that Fox hath a special Gift to contradict himself tho' it be in the self same page But now to the second point concluded in this Parliament about matters of Religion 18. The second Point was about the blessed Sacrament of the Altar and use thereof which as it was a very important and principal Point for these New Gospellers of King Edward's days to declare their Opinions whether they would be Lutherans or Sacramentaries so they being wholly divided among themselves in this point some of them coming from Wittemberg and other places of Saxony which followed Luther some other from Strasburg Basil and other Towns among the Switzers where the Doctrin of Zuinglius bare Rule others that were home-Protestants and desired to pass no further in neither of these two particular Sect and Factions but only so far as was needful for holding their Women they had taken as Cranmer and his Fellows they could in no case come to any accord or agreement in this matter but only to publish an Act or Statute like a Ship-man's Hose that determined neither the one nor the other the Title whereof was this An Act against such persons as shall unreverently speak against the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ commonly called the Sacrament of the Altar and for the receiving thereof under both kinds And then beginneth the Statute thus 19. The King 's most Excellent Majesty meaning the Governance of his most loving Subjects to be in most perfect Vnity and Concord in all things and especially in the true Faith and Religion of God and wishing the same to be brought to pass with all Clemency on his part as his most Princely Serenity and Majesty hath already declared c. This is the Preface and after coming to the matter they say In the most comfortable Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Savior Jesus Christ commonly called the Sacrament of the Altar c. which Sacrament was instituted by no less Author than our Savior both God and Man when at his last Supper he did take the Bread into his holy Hands and did say Take you and eat This is my Body which is given and broken for you c. Which words spoken of it being of eternal infallible and undoubted Truth yet the said Sacrament all this notwithstanding hath been of late marvelously abused by such manner of men before rehearsed who of Wickedness or else of Ignorance and want of Learning for certain Abuses heretofore committed of some in misusing thereof have condemned in their hearts and speech the whole thing and contemptuously depraved despised or reviled the same most holy and blessed Sacrament and not only disputed or reasoned unreverently and ungodlily of that high Mystery but also in their Sermons Preachings Readings Talks Tunes Songs Plays or Tests do name and call it by such vile and unseemly words as Christian Ears do abhor to hear rehearsed For reformation whereof be it Enacted c. 20. This is their Narration and according thereunto they do set down remedy and punishment for them that shall speak any contemptuous words to deprave despise or revile this Sacrament But what the words or sense thereof are in particular or what they mean by this despising or depraving they do not set down as they ought to have done if they had meant plainly tho' by the words of their said Narration it may appear this Statute was made principally against Sacramentaries that deny the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of our Savior and do dispute and reason unreverently and ungodly thereof this being the highest Injury Contempt or Depravation that can be done to it But it pleased not the Makers of this Statute to be understood or to deal clearly for the present in this behalf but rather to speak obscurely and doubtfully to the end they might afterward have a starting-hole to get out at and become Zuinglians or Calvinists when they would The other Clause of administring the Sacrament under both kinds to all sorts of people they put down more clearly with this Exception only except necessity otherwise require By which words they allow also the use under one kind in time of necessity which is far from that which since
more impudent and more greedy to deceive than they as you shall much more perceive by his last Argument ensuing 12. For my seventh Argument saith he I may make my probation by the plain words of Eleutherius by whose Epistle written to King Lucius we may understand that Lucius had received the Faith of Christ in this Land before he sent to Eleutherius for the Roman Laws for so the express words of the Letter do manifestly purport as hereafter followeth to be seen Thus saith he and citeth for his proof in the Margin Ex Epistola Eleutherii ad Lucium and by this last and strongest Argument of his the silly Fellow thinketh to strike the Nail dead and to prove that King Lucius was a Christian before he received Preachers from Pope Eleutherius and consequently that all is false which Antiquity hath held attributing the Conversion of that Kingdom and of the King himself to the Bishop of Rome For which cause Fox addeth presently Peradventure Eleutherius might help something either to convert the King or else to increase the Faith newly sprung up then among the People 13. So defineth he the matter and consider I pray you what he attributeth to Eleutherius in this Conversion Peradventure saith he he might help something to King Lucius his Conversion And is not this a great matter especially being qualified as it is with the restriction Peradventure If a man should say of Aesop's Fables that peradventure some of them in some points might be true were it not as much as John Fox doth attribute to all this Consent of Authors for this Conversion under Pope Eleutherius seeing he saith not absolutely Eleutherius did convert King Lucius or help indeed thereunto but that peradventure he might help something c. You may mark the diminutives used by Fox to lessen the benefit to wit peradventure might something c. and thereby consider what a holy stomach he hath to Rome and what little account he maketh of the Authority or Consent of all Antiquity when they make against him 14. But now let us weigh further his Proofs and by them also his Frauds and Impostures First of all for Proofs that King Lucius was a Christian before he dealt with Eleutherius he alledgeth the Epistle it self of Eleutherius which he setteth down as authentical citing only in the Margin Ex vetusto codice Regum antiquorum taken out of an old Book of old Kings but telleth not where we shall find this old Book and it may be perhaps of as good credit if it were found as the Book of Gildas before alledged De Victoria Aurelii Ambrosii or as many other fabulous things be in the Story of Geffrey of Monmouth and John Fox after him 15. And indeed if we consider the beginning of the first words of the Epistle it self we shall find certain doubts which neither Fox nor his Fellows will ever be able to solve as first of all that it was written after Eleutherius was dead for so it appeareth by the Account of Time noted in the Title which is this in Latin as Fox relateth Anno Domini 169 Ã Passione Christi scripsit D. Eleutherius Papa Lucio Regi Britanniae ad correctionem Regis Procetum Regni c. Which words Fox omitteth to translate into English for that they make against him and therefore would not have his unlearned Reader to understand the absurdity thereof for they say That Pope Eleutherius wrote this Epistle to Lucius King of Britanny to correct both Him and the Nobility of his Kingdom in the year 169 after the Passion of Christ To which 169 years if we add other 33 which Christ lived before his Passion they make 202 which is 19 years after Eleutherius's Death who dy'd in the year of Christ 184 as all Authors agree For which cause Fox himself in this very place and elsewhere often doth appoint the Conversion of King Lucius to have been in the year of Christ 180 and the 10th of Eleutherius his Reign but this Epistle appointeth it 22 years after to wit Anno Domini 102. So wise a man is Fox in bringing it in 16. Secondly this Epistle was written in Latin and so should Fox have delivered the same unto us wholly if he had dealt plainly But he hath not so done but only giveth us the Title in Latin without any Interpretation as now hath been said and the remnant or at leastwise so much as he thought convenient in English only and this of his own Translation without letting us see the Original and so he playeth the Fox in every thing But to return again to this Latin Title of the Epistle there is another cause why John Fox would not translate it into English and this is for that it is said therein that it was written by the Pope ad correctionem Regis Procerum Regni c. to correct the King and Nobility of the Realm which proveth that the Pope took himself to be their Superior also in those days and they to be subject to his correction For which causes Fox's Scholars Holinshead Hooker and Harrison do leave out this Title altogether in their Chronicles for that the word Correction upon the King and Nobility is an odious thing in these days especially from Popes 17. And thus much of the Title and Fraud used therein Now let us pass to the Body of the Epistle Thus it beginneth in John Fox's Translation Ye require of us the Roman Laws and the Emperours to be sent over unto you which you may practise and put in are within your Realm The Roman Laws and the Emperours we may ever reprove but the Law of God we may not You have received of late through God's Mercy in the Realm of Britanny the Law of Christ c. Thus saith the Epistle and out of these last words John Fox doth frame his former seventh Argument That King Lucius had received the Faith of Christ before he sent to Eleutherius for the Roman Laws Well suppose it was so and that this sending was a second Embassage some years after his Conversion how doth this infer that King Lucius was a Christian before he dealt with Eleutherius or before he sent the first time unto him and so that he was rather converted by Grecians than by Romans as the next immediate words of Fox are And that hence it may be inferred that Eleutherius did rather help perhaps to his Conversion or to increase the Faith newly sprung up than convert him Are not these notorious shifts and shameless windings of our Fox to delude his Reader 18. But you will ask me perhaps how I do prove that this was a second Embassage sent by King Lucius to Eleutherius and the Pope's Answer to the same Whereto I say that this is confessed and proved by Fox himself who writing of King Lucius saith That some years after his Conversion when he had put his Realm in Order for matters
in this manner was Religion first planted among us according to that which St. Mark the Evangelist saith of the first Preachers and Preachings among other Nations and Gentiles in his time To wit Domino cooperante sermonem confirmante sequentibus signis Christ working with them and confirming their Preaching with Signs and Miracles And this Faith being once planted did take such deep Root by the said watering of Christ the Author thereof as it continued and held out from time to time through all difficulties and differences both of times Men and State and by Peril Divisions Enmities and cruel Wars that fell out every day between those Seven Kingdoms until they were united all under one Monarchy some 200 years after to wit under King Egbert King of the West-Saxons And from him again the same indured other 200 years unto King Edward the Confessor before the Conquest 17. And that which is worthy also the noteing in this case is that during the time of all this Enmity Emulation Suspicions Jealousie of Kingdoms and States and Bloody Battels between these Kingdoms for the space of the foresaid 200 years from their Conversion to Christianity until they came to be a Monarchy They all lived under one Arch-bishop and Primate of Canterbury holding their due subordination and good correspondence with him and by him with the See of Rome and other Catholic Countries for matters of Faith and Ecclesiastical Affairs no otherwise than if they had been all Friends yea Subjects and Provinces of one and the self same Kingdom and this is the vertue and force of Catholic Union Whereas amongst Sectaries every little difference of Temporal States yea of Towns Cities and Governments doth presently cause a diversity also in Faith and Religion As we see at this day that Saxony for example where the name of the Protestants first began being under a different Prince hath a great difference also in Religion from other parts of Germany that call themselves Protestants and the Kingdoms of Denmark and Swedeland tho' they profess all Lutheranism yet is the manner so different in these different States as not only the one will not depend of the other in any sort of subordination or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as in England we see they did but neither do they agree in any one Form of Religion or substance of belief in all points no nor in one state it self where all profess themselves to be Lutherans as in Saxony where the higher Saxons allow only rigid or streight Lutherans But the lower Saxony alloweth only the softer sort and expelleth the rigid or severe Lutherans as the other do them where they get Dominion 18. Geneva and Berne are both Cities and States of the Switzers and both of them profess Protestancy tho' not according to Luthers Doctrin But yet the Temporal State of the said two Towns being different the Magistrates have appointed a different and distinct Form. Which in England also we see by experience how much they differ from those of Scotland Holland and France who profess themselves Protestants of the same Calvinist School But every Nation and Church after his own fashion And finally what differences have risen in England it self during her Majesties only Government betwixt Puritans Brownists Family of Love and State Protestants as Thomas Diggs calleth them no Man can be ignorant But to what differences and divisions they would grow in two or three hundred years if Sects could last so long and that the States which profess them were Enemies in Temporal Affairs as it was in England is easie to guess But the reason hereof is manifest to wit that for so much as Sectaries making their own judgments and inventions the Rule of their Belief and Religion and their Temporal Princes their absolute Guiders and immediate Heads in Ecclesiastical matters it must needs follow that as these Princes or States do change or alter for any respect whatsoever as they do for many Religion also must needs alter and change for contentment or interest of the said States or Princes 19. But to return to our Deduction and Continuation of Catholic Religion among the English Saxons after they came to be a Monarchy to wit from the year of Christ 800 it is first to be noted that assoon as God had delivered them from one affliction which was the continual Civil Wars of one Kingdom with an other he sent them a second Calamity far greater perhaps than the first induring for other 200 years which was the continual incursions and devastations of the Danes Who pursued them not only for Temporal respects to get their Country from them but also for Religion it self the said Danes being then Pagans as appeareth by the cruel Murders and Martyrdoms as well of St. Edmund King of the East-angles Martyred by them about the year of Christ 885 as of Holy Elphegus Arch-bishop of Canterbury some Ages after about the year 1011 and of divers others overlong hear to recount And yet notwithstanding when the said Danes with their King Canutus Son of Swanus came once by Gods Holy grace to be Christians which was soon after the foresaid Martydom of the Holy Arch-bishop Elphegus they submitted themselves with Humility and fervor of Spirit to that very same Christian Faith of their Enemies the English-men which they had persecuted in them before taking them also for their instructors Which is a token that there was no other Christian Faith known in the World at that day for them to embrace but only that which the English professed to the embracing whereof there is no doubt but the Miracles wrought continually in confirmation of the truth of that Faith as well at the Tombs of the foresaid Martyrs St. Edmund and Elphegus slain by the Danes themselves as other ways also did greatly move and animate them 20. But whatsoever the chief motives were to move this Nation to embrace Christian Religion this is certain that soon after this time of St. Elphegus his Death God delivered the whole Kingdom of England into the Danes hands under the foresaid King Canutus about the year of Christ 1020. And he Reigned and held the same peaceably for almost twenty years In which time he being now Christian did many notable Acts of a good Religious King Went to Rome for Devotion to visit the Holy Sepulchres of St. Peter and St. Paul gave great Alms there and else where made just Laws in England loved and favored exceedingly the English Nation used them with all confidence both at home and abroad Married King Emma Mother to King Edward the Confessor thereby to unite himself the more to the Nation And finally became of a Persecutor and Conqueror one of the best Kings that England perhaps had in many Ages to Govern her 21. William of Malmesbury living as it hath been said some 500 years agone under King Henry the first Son to William the Conqueror writeth many most excellent Religious Acts
of the Kings and Queens inclination as he presumeth and of the great Authority of Cranmer Cromwell and some other that he calleth his Gospellers or Patrons rather of his Gospel And yet if you behold the external Face of the English Church at this day all these named and others held the Catholic Faith Use and Rites and both King and Queen Cranmer and Cromwell went as Devoutly to Mass as ever before and so remained they in outward shew I mean the former three even to their Deaths And Cromwell when he was to die protested on the Scaffold that he was a good Catholic Man and never doubted of any of the Church Sacraments then used and the like would Cranmer have done no doubt if he had been brought to the Scaffold in King Henries days as he was to the Fire afterwards in Queen Maries which had been a happy case for him 9. There ensued the year 1534 which was the year indeed of open breach with Rome for that an Excommunication being set forth by Pope Clement VII against King Henry VIII upon notice given of his Marriage and the said Excommunication set up in Dunkirk and other Towns in Flanders which did import the consent also and concurrence of Charles the Emperour and then certain Prophesies being blown about at home as coming from Elizabeth Barton sirnamed the holy Maid of Kent about the King's Deprivation he was much more exasperated than before and so calling a Parliament caused the Pope's Authority to be wholly extinguished and transferred to himself and made divers Bishops in order to preach at Paul's Cross against the Pope's Supremacy over the Catholic Church But what may we think that these Bishops did in so small a time change their belief in matters of Faith The King also being angry with divers Friars as namely with F. Elstow beforenamed that contradicted Cutwyne the Preacher when he inveighed against the Pope's Authority did this year upon the 11th of August ordain That all the observant Friars of St. Francis's Order should be thrust out of their Convents beginning with Greenwich where the said contradiction was made and to seem somewhat to favour the Augustin-Friars of whose Order Luther had been he commanded them for the present to be put in their places yet did he at the very same time cause John Frith to be burn'd in Smithfield for denying the Blessed Sacrament and this by his own particular order which Frith and his Master Tyndal were the greatest Enemies that Friars had 10. He burned also this year Henry Poyle William Tracy and other Protestants as Fox testifieth in his Calendar So as we may see that the King's Faith was as before and tho' he were content to suffer some new-fangl'd Spirits to ruffle at this time as namely Friar Barnes in London where he preach'd most seditiously and Hugh Latimer in Bristol where as Stow saith he stirred a notorious Tumult causing the Mayor to suffer Lay men to preach and to prohibit and imprison Priests and other like Disorders yet what the King thought inwardly of them he declared afterwards by his acts when he burned Barns and cast Latimer into the Tower and kept him there with evident danger of his life so long as himself lived which disposition of King Henry Tyndal smelling at the same season wrote from Flanders to his Scholar John Frith Prisoner in the Tower of London in these words And now methinketh I smell a counsel to be taken c. But you must understand that it is not of a pure heart and the love of Truth but to avenge themselves and to eat the Whores flesh and to suck the marrow of her bones c. So wrote that honest man signifying that King Henry was resolved to make an outward shew in favouring the Gospellers not for love or liking he had of them but to revenge himself of the Pope and to enjoy the Goods of Monasteries and other spiritual Livings which he in his blasphemous heretical vein calleth the Whores flesh and marrow of her bones 11. Well then this was the beginning of their Gospel in England by their own Confession and Interpretation and so whatsoever was done from this year forward against Catholics or Catholic Religion unto the 31st year of his Reign which was of Christ 1540 to wit for five whole years was upon these grounds and to the former ends of Revenge and Interest if we believe Protestants themselves in which point notwithstanding for that divers Godly Learned and Zealous men could not be content to follow the King's affections as others did and namely Bishop Fisher of Rochester Sir Thomas More late Chancellor of England and divers most Reverend and Venerable Abbots Priors and Doctors and other their like they were content to give their Blood in defence of Catholic Unity against this Schism as the Abbots of Glastenbury of Whaley of Reading Dr. Forest Queen Catharine's Confessor Dr. Powel and the like 12. Some others and amongst them one most near to the King himself both in Blood and Affection namely Cardinal Pool opposed himself by public Writing from Padua as we may see by those three learned Books left by him in Latin De Unitate Ecclesiae Others also of the same Blood-Royal as the Marquess of Exceter and Countess of Salisbury the said Cardinal's Mother shewed their dislike which afterwards was the cause of their ruin and many Shires also of the Realm at this time not being so patient as to bear these Innovations took Arms and fell into great Commotions as in Lincolnshire Yorkshire Somersetshire and some other Provinces making all their Quarrels for matters of Religion 13. So as by this we see that Catholic Religion remained still in England both in Prince and People but that the Prince for a time thought good for other ends to tolerate and wink at disorders therein until the aforesaid year of 1540 when calling all his Realm together both Spiritual and Temporal to examin well this matter of Religion they decreed that famous Statute both in Parliament and Consistory Ecclesiastical called the Statute of six Articles or as John Fox nameth it the whip with six strings or lashes in which Decree are condemned for detestable Heresies all the most substantial points of Protestants Doctrin especially of Zwinglians and Calvinists and most severe punishment of Death appointed unto the Defenders and Maintainers thereof whereby the Catholic Judgment and Censure of the whole Realm in that behalf was seen and the King himself made further declaration thereof presently for his own part by putting away his German Wife Anne of Cleve by which the Gospellers had thought to have drawn him further into League and Religion with the Protestant German Princes and by punishing Cromwell the Head and Fountain of most of these Innovations by the loss of his Head. He burned also immediately after this Statute in Smithfield upon the promulgation thereof three famous Heretics Barns Jerom and Gerard
Religion from those downward to John Wickliffe were commonly infected with some points of these two general Sects the Waldenses or Albigenses it shall not be needful to stand upon the examination of every one of them seeing that their Opinions are known to be such as they could not possibly be of one Church with Fox and his Company Yet must we note this by the way also that Fox doth commit infinite confusion falshood and cosinage in all this his enumeration accounting some for Disciples of the Albigenses that lived 100. years before them As Marsilius Patavinus who lived under Pope Paschasius II. about the year 1110. which is more than an 100 years before Pope Innocentius III. as both Alvarus and Alphonsus de Castro do testifie and never held any points of the former Heresies but only some Propositions agiainst the Degrees and living of Ecclesiastical Persons And the like falshood is to be understood of Gulielmus de Sancto Amore who living about the year 1250. was a Catholic man in all points and only had some quarrellings with Religious Orders As in like sort Armachanus Archbishop of Armach in Ireland also had For which cause only Fox maketh him of his Church though in matters of Religion he held no one Article of the Protestant Faith with him different from the Catholic And consequently Fox doth extremely abuse them by conjoining them here with divers Heretics burned for the foresaid blasphemous Opinions 32. The like may be said of William Occam and Gregorius Arminensis two Catholic Scholmen and every day alleged for such in our Schools Robert Grossead also our Learned Bishop of Lincoln is in the same predicament as in like manner Dante 's and Petrarcha Italian Poets that never held any jot of Protestant Religion in the world And yet are brought in here by John Fox as men of his Church and Belief with the greatest falshood and foolery in the world And this forsooth for that in some place of their Works they reprehend the Manners of Rome or Lives of some Popes in those days Which is as good an Argument as if a man would prove that St. Paul was not of the Faith or Religion of the Corinthians for that he reprehended them sharply for Fornication used among them 33. Wherefore to leave the Rabble that followeth of this people as namely thirty six Citizens of Moguntia burned An. Dom. 1390. and another company of like people to wit one hundred and forty put in the Fire throughout the Province of Narbone and twenty four more put to death in Paris in the Year 1210. and other particular Saints of his Church recounted and Canonized by Fox To leave these I say and to come down to our Lolhards and Wickliffians and their followers in England we have treated of their Doctrin sufficiently in the precedent Chapter shewing how far different it was from that of Fox and his Fellows But now for their Actions we are to consider that the Lolhards began from the year of Christ 1320. or thereabout and Wickliff from the year 1370. and therewith raised infinite Troubles Garboils and Tumults in our Country As may appear by the lamentable Story set down by Thomas Walsingham of the whole people put in commotion in King Richard II. his time against the Nobility and Clergy by these kind of people under their Seditious Captains Jack Straw Wat Tiler and the rest And so again under some other Kings whilst this Heresie lasted And namely against the two valiant and most Catholic Princes King Henry IV. and King Henry V. his Son. In the first year of whose Reign to wit King Henry V. John Stow writeth thus 34. The favorers of Wickliffs Doctrin did nail up Schedules upon the Church Doors of London conteining that there were an hundred thousand ready to rise against all such as could not away with their Sect c. And hereon followed the open Rebellion of Sir John Oldcastle and Sir Roger Acton and others in S. Giles Field by Holborn which before we have touched And yet was the providence of God such as this Sect could never prevail in England neither then or after so Catholic were our Princes until some Points thereof being renewed by Luther and Zwinglius the later was admitted in K. Edward's days I mean the Sect of Zwinglius as all men know Being the first Sect that ever was admitted publickly in England either by Britans or Englishmen from Christ to that day For as for King Henry VIII though in the matter of the Popes Supremacy he admitted the Opinion of Luther yet in other things as before we have shewed at large he held in all Articles the Catholic Roman Faith with singular hatred against both Lollards Wickliffians and Lutherans but much more against Zwinglians and other such Sacramentary Sectaries As by his Laws made for their punishment and repression doth sufficiently appear 35. And albeit his Majesty having yielded once in that one Point of Ecclesiastical Supremacy and subordination which held before all the rest in joint it was no marvel though Sects and Sectaries did grow upon him so fast as with all his severe Laws he could hardly repress them in his own days yet much more were the Judgments of God seen after his death in that presently all was turned upside down in the Minority of his Son notwithstanding his Laws Testament and Ordinances to the contrary And that by those whom he most trusted on that behalf and who in his days had shewed themselves most earnest against Zwinglians and their Doctrin of the Sacrament as a thing most abhorred by the old King their Master I mean Cranmer Ridley Seymor and Dudley the chief changers of all in King Edwards days 36. But this is the common event where Princes be not careful at the beginning as Walsingham doth well note about the rising of Wickliff's Heresie in in the end of King Edward III.'s time when that old King was now impotent and wholly governed by Women leaving the care of his Kingdom in the Hands of his Son the Duke of Lancaster and others that followed him who having partly emulation and jars with the Bishops of Canterbury Winchester London and some other principal men of the Clergy and partly desiring to invade Church Livings which Wickliff preached to be lawful they were content to wink at him yea and to use him and his Doctrin openly against the said Bishops and Clergy as also against Monks and Abbots in the beginning of of K. Richard II.'s time as appeareth both in the said Walsingham and Stow who relate the calling of Wickliff to London for this effect where he was publicly and scandalously born out by the said Duke and Sir Henry Piercy and others of that Faction against the said Bishops Monks and Abbots which here we shall set down in Stows own words taken by him out of Walsingham and other Writers which do contain the very sum of
to this or that Man or Woman For so he cometh in presently with his Examples of Queen Anne and Cromwell So long saith he as Queen Anne lived the Gospel had indifferent success but after that she by sinister instigation of some about the King was made away the course of the Gospel began again to decline But that the Lord then stirred up the Lord Cromwell opportunely to help in that behalf who did much avail for the increase of God's true Religion and much more had brought it to perfection if the pestilent Adversaries maligning the prosperous Glory of the Gospel had not by contrary practising undermined him and supplanted his vertuous proceedings 22. Behold here a wise Discourse of John Fox Whereby if nothing else were you might perceive how justly and truly that Spirit of Majesty that spake to him in his Bed upon a Sunday in the morning if you remember called him Thou Fool For that no man but a very Fool indeed would have brought forth these Examples to have proved his purpose being both impertinent and clearly false in themselves 23. And first they are impertinent or rather against himself for that they shew that his Gospel had no other beginning in England but upon Affection of Men and Women False also are the Examples if we consider the Times themselves for that the foresaid new Book of devised Articles mentioned by Hall and Hollinshead as the first public Alteration in points of Religion discovered in King Henry was made and set forth after the death of Queen Anne Bullen to wit upon the 8th of June 1536 whereas the Queen died upon the 19th of May before And Fox himself having related the said Articles and Book as set forth after the death of Queen Anne he saith thus This Book treated especially but of three Sacraments Baptism Penance and the Supper of the Lord for which the Lincolnshire men took Arms c. And then he addeth this Note in the Margin Alteration of Religion a little beginneth And after again presently this other Note Commotion in Lincolnshire Whereby is evident out of his own words that the first beginning of any alteration in points of Religion towards his Gospel was after the death of Queen Anne Bullen and consequently it is a ridiculous foolery which he writeth before That so long as Queen Anne lived the Gospel had indifferent success c. 24. The other Example also of Cromwell is no less apparently false for that besides the particulars which you have heard before of his assisting to punish and burn Protestants and his Sentence of death given against Lambert with the Protestation he made at his own death of his being Catholic and never doubting of any one Point of Catholic Religion Besides all this I say it is notorious that when the severe Statute of Six Articles was made against all sorts of Protestants in the 31st year of King Henry's Reign which was in the Month of April 1540 as appeareth both by the Book of Statutes it self and Hall Holinshead and other Chroniclers Cromwell was then in his highest Authority and Favor with the King as is evident for that in the time of the very same Parliament besides all his other great Offices before received as of Baron Chancellor Knight of the Garter Master of the Jewels Vicar-General in Spiritual Affairs and other like Titles he was created also Earl of Essex and High-Chamberlain of England which Holinshead setteth down in these words The 18th of April at Westminster was Lord Thomas Cromwell created Earl of Essex and ordained Great Chamberlain of England which Office the Earls of Oxford were wont ever to enjoy Also Gregory his Son was made Lord Cromwell c. Thus writeth he And if in Cromwell's most flourishing time this Act of Six Articles came out for punishment of Protestants the most severe that can be imagined how fond and childish a babling was that before used by Fox when he telleth us that as long as the good Lord Cromwell was in credit or bare Rule with the King their Gospel went prosperously c 25. Well then by all this we may see how poor and troden down a state John Fox's Church and Religion held under King Henry notwithstanding all his brags and flattering of him in his Pictures Which yet that you may not think we mean only of the temporal or external condition or contemptibility of his Church for of that perhaps he would brag seeing he defines his Church by the words obscure and troden down I would have you here consider briefly but two things only for the end of this Chapter which directly do appertain to the true spiritual misery of Fox's Church and Religion in those days under King Henry if a Confusion of fantastical Opinions Errors and Heresies may be called a Religion 26. The first is That in King Henry's days at leastwise for a great part thereof the Protestants Sects were not yet fully distinguished into their Classes or Orders but were a great confused heap of new Opinions all going under the name of Gospellers or Protestants as well Lutherans Oecolampadians Zuinglians and other Sacramentaries as Waldensians Wickliffians Anabaptists Libertines and other such-like So as in this first Heap and Mass of Gospellers were contained all the several Sects that since have been distinguished as the four Elements and particular parts thereof were contained according to the Poets Fiction in that great confused Chaos of the World before it was distinguished or to speak more properly they were as the Bears Whelps when first they are born and new fallen from their Mothers Womb to wit certain disform gross confused things which by often licking of their Parents are polished at last and brought to some fashion of handsom Creatures such as you know Bears Whelps to be 27. And even so was it in those days with Protestants Religion For that every man that would hold a new Opinion of what Sect soever or would speak against the Catholic Church or Doctrin then used was admitted presently for a Brother of the new Gospel and for a sincere Servant of God and holy Gospeller as John Fox every-where calleth them without distinction whether he were a Lutheran Zuinglian Anabaptist Waldensian Wickliffist Lolhard or whatsoever else but since that time this Chaos hath been somewhat more distinguished and polished and every sort of Sectaries divided into their Classes Which Luther himself began first to do noting nine distinct Sects to have risen in few years after him out of his Doctrin and these only of Sacramentaries Whereunto his chief Scholar Melancthon a little before his death in his Judgment written to the Palsgrave or Prince Elector of Rhene added six more to be among the Lutherans themselves But others that have gathered them more exactly and distinctly as Staphilus a most Learned Man and Counsellor to the Emperour Bishop Lyndan Dr. Gabriel Prateolus and others do divide them into a far great number
endured you will easily see the Fruits of that new Gospel 4. For first all begun with manifest perfidiousness against the old King that was dead For whereas he had two things in abomination above the rest First that his Son should have a Protector considering the fatal events thereof in former times for which cause he appointed sixteen Tutors to govern with equal Authority during the Minority of his Son the other that Heresie but especially Zwinglianism should enter into his Realm both these things were determined contrary to the said Kings Will and Ordination within three days after his death and above a dozen before he was buried For that the young Child being Proclaimed King upon the 28. of January and his Father not buried until the 14. of February his Uncle the Earl of Hartford was made Protector both of the King and whole Realm upon the first of the said Month of February following and this by the private Authority of the greater part of the Executors only without expecting any Parliament or consent of the Realm for so great a change and charge as that was 5. And albeit for obtaining the consents of the greater parts of Executors to this mutation great advancements and Dignities were promised and some of them also performed for that the Lord Dudley was made Earl of Warwick the Lord Parre Marquess of Northampton the Lord Chancellor Wriothesley was created Earl of Southampton Sir Thomas Seymor was made Lord Sudley and High Admiral of England and other the like and this within fifteen days after the Protectors Advancement and tho' hope also was given to those that were Catholicly inclined as the most of them were if they had followed their Consciences that no great alteration of Religion should be made for the present yet twenty days had scarce passed after this advancement but that the Protectors Fingers did so eagerly itch to be doing and tampering about Innovation in Religion as upon the 6. of March next following he sent away Commissioners into all parts of the Realm to pull down Images and other Ecclesiastical Ornaments throughout all the Churches of the Realm and to make other Innovations by his Authority which now in all things he would have to be the Kings And for that the Chancellor Wriothesley resisted the same and would have had it stayed until a Parliament might be called his Office was taken from him thereby to terrifie others from speaking in like Cases Bishop Tonstall also was put beside the Council for like offence though he were one of the sixteen Executors appointed by King Henry So as now the Protector would needs have all things absolutely in his own Hand both without Law and before Law yea expresly against the Laws of King Henry yet in force 6. And for that both he and his followers did easily see the affection of the Realm to be wholly against these Mutations as before we have shewed in the end of our former part he devised with the Lord Dudley who soothed him in all at that time the Journey into Scotland of Musselborough Field which all men know under pretence to gain the young Queen by force to Marry with the King. But yet every man of judgment and discourse did easily see that not to be a thing likely to get such a Princess by way of Arms from her Subjects Neither was King Edward of such Age as they needed to have hastened so much to get him a Wife so soon he being but nine years old but that the matter might have been treated peaceably with the Scots to have concurred willingly for their own interest to that conjunction of both Realms by that Marriage according as they had done in King Henry's time And so wrote Bishop Gardener to the Protector presently upon the first Sermon he heard the Bishop of St. Davids in Wales make in London about that matter I mean to exhort the people to the enterprise of Scotland For that now all Preachers were set a work by the said Protector and Earl of Warwick to shew the great Glory and utilities of that Attempt 7. But the true cause of this Enterprise was indeed to have thereby a just pretence and occasion to raise an Army within the Land and to call in Foreign Forces as they did both Germans and Italians under Petro Gamboa that had served King Henry at Bologne and other Leaders who they thought would be always more sure unto them than English Soldiers in occasions of Religion And so it fell out indeed For the very next year after these Foreign Soldiers did stand the Protector in very good stead when divers Shires of the Realm took Arms for defence of their Religion in the third year of King Edward's Reign as after you shall hear 8. This then was the first Summers work after King Edward's Coronation to wit that the Protector made his Voyage towards Scotland having first sent Commissioners and Preachers as you have heard into all Shires to preach against Images Procession Litanies Pilgrimages Mass praying to Saints And this of his own Authority without and against Law for that no Parliament had yet disannulled the Religion left by King Henry Which thing so much grieved the common Catholic people as they began to exclaim every where against the said Commissioners and one of them called Body was slain in Cornwall for which divers Men were Executed in sundry places of that Shire and a Priest sent up to be Hang'd Drawn and Quarter'd in Smithfield for the terror of others for that he was said by some to have been Accessary to the said Body's death 9. And this was the beginning of planting new Religion in England by Authority of the Protector under a Child-King which Protector notwithstanding for that he mistrusted his home-Doctors as well as his home-Souldiers to be sufficient for so great a Work as the planting of a new Religion he sent over into Germany for divers strange Sectaries of what Religion soever so they were not Catholic But especially he desir'd to have Apostate-Friers that had ty'd themselves to Sisters assuring himself that they would be most pliable to his purpose And so there came into England Martin Bucer a Dominican Frier who unto that day had been an earnest Lutheran and Peter Martyr a Canon-Regular that inclin'd to Zuinglianism but yet came with great indifferency to preach and teach what he should be appointed Bernardinus Ochinus was the third who had been a Franciscan Frier and by taking a Woman had lost all Religion writing a Book de Polygamia for having many Wives at once and died after a Jew 10. These three were distributed into three principal Fountains of the Land London Oxford and Cambridge and with these joyned other of the same Coat and Profession as Coverdale an Augustine Frier Bale a Carmelite and other-like English-men as before we have shewed All which beginning to preach in divers parts of the Land filled mens heads with Novelties and
under Gregory different from that which now is in Rome under Clement VIII a thousand years after Gregory and shall endure to the worlds end 8. This I say we shall demonstrate afterward most clearly but yet to the end the Reader may see in the mean space how much credit is to be given to this Knight's I say let him but read the fourth Chapter of his good Masters and chief historical Doctors the Magdeburgians touching the second Age of Christ wherein Eleutherius lived towards the end as also the beginning of the third Age immediately ensuing and he shall find that in the second Age under their ordinary Title of Inclinatio Doctrinae complectens stipulas errores Doctorum that is to say The falling away of Christian Doctrin containing the stubble and errors of Doctors they reprehend Ignatius who was St. John Evangelist's Scholar for using the phrase Offerre Sacrificium immolare to offer and make Sacrifice as also the holy Martyr Irenaeus for saying That Christ had taught a New Oblation in the New Testament which the Church receiving from the Apostles doth offer up throughout all the world c. And in the third Age they accuse that blessed Bishop and Martyr St. Cyprian of Superstition for saying Sacerdotem vice Christi fungi Deo Patri sacrificium offerre that the Priest supplying the place of Christ doth offer Sacrifice to God the Father They reprehend also Tertullian for using the phrase Sacrificium offerre to offer Sacrifice They condemn also St. Martial Scholar of the Apostles themselves for saying Sacrificium Deo creatori offertur in ara Sacrifice is offered to God our Creator upon the Altar among Christians 9. So that if by our Mass Catholics understand no other thing but the public external Sacrifice appointed by Christ in his Church as we do not then may we see that by confession of the Magdeburgians themselves this Mass was as well in use in Eleutherius his time as in time of Gregory I. after him And the like might we shew about the use of Images but that it were over long for this place our intention being only to treat of the Conversion of our Countrey to Christian Religion and to note by the way Which is most to be credited by a discreet man either the I say of a Courtly Knight affirming that Mass was not in the time of Eleutherius or the Testimonies of so many grave and Learned Fathers to the contrary that lived in the same Age to wit Ignatius Martial Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian and others 10. And this being sufficient for refutation of both parts of Sir Francis's idle reply I shall go forwards to discuss a little the first entrance of Christian Faith into England how and in what time and by whom it is likely that it might be done before the days of Eleutherius and whether this first Conversion or sowing the Faith in our Island may be ascribed also to Rome as well as the other more public Conversions afterward Which if it fall out to be so then hath the Knight instead of diminishing our Obligation to Rome not a little increased the same by mentioning also a third Conversion from that See which I for brevities sake and for that it was less notoriously known than the other two thought good to pretermit in my Ward-word but now being moved thereunto by Sir Francis who fighteth mightily for the most part against himself alleging matters that make for us I shall now briefly discuss more in particular this affair 11. First then no man can deny but that the Death Resurrection and Ascension of our Savior the coming of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles and their beginning of Preaching presently upon the same was in the eighteenth year of Tiberius the third Emperor of Rome who living five years after and Caius Caligula other four there entred Claudius who reigned fourteen years and Nero after him as many who in the last year of his Reign put to death St. Peter and St. Paul St. Peter having come to Rome according to Eusebius in the second year of Claudius which was eleven years after the Resurrection of Christ tho' some Authors differ in that account Eusebius his words translated out of Greek by St. Jerome are these Petrus Apostolus Natione Galilaeus Christianorum Pontifex primus c. Peter the Apostle of the Country of Galile the first chief Bishop of Christians after he had founded the Church of Antioch went to Rome and having there preached the Gospel remained Bishop of the same City for twenty five years together c. St. Paul was sent thither Prisoner by Festus Governor of Judaea in the second year of Nero's Reign that is fourteen years after St. Peter according to the same Eusebius 12. The next year after St. Peter came to Rome which was the third year of Claudius his Reign there began to be such War in Britanny as the Emperor himself resolved to go in person thither and so he did with admiration of the whole world And if there were any Christians in Rome at that time as it is likely there were the Christian Faith having been now preached in the world some dozen years after Christ's Ascension it is very probable that some went with him into Britanny and that this was the first sparkle of planting Christian Faith and Religion in those Countries but much more afterward as their number increased seeing that this War continued for forty years together that is to say to the fourth year of Domitian when as well extern Histories as our William of Malmsbury to omit other Heathen Writers doth teach That Britanny was wholly subdu'd and brought into a perfect form of Province And in this time there being continual going and coming from Rome to Britanny and Christian Religion every day increasing in Rome the same could not choose but be kindled also in Britanny especially for two or three Considerations First for that there were many Britans inhabiting in Rome at that day some for Hostages some for their own Pleasures thereby to fly the Wars and unquiet state of their own Country others taken and carried by force as Caractacus Sylurum Rex Caractacus King of the Sylures who inhabited that part of Britanny which at this day we call South-Wales who being taken was sent to Rome by Ostorius Governor of that Country for Claudius the Emperor in the 11th year of his Empire and much Nobility with him as Tacitus in his Story doth relate 13. Some also both Romans and of other Nations being Christened and flying the Persecution which was in Rome against such Men especially under Nero got themselves into Britanny as a place of more liberty and less subject to Examinations in such matters by reason of the Wars and Tumults there And this is conform to that which Gildas the ancient Britan writeth in his Complaint of the Overthrow of Britanny
his Book contra Judaeos cited by Fox divers years after that again as Pamelius and others do demonstrate in his Life So as Eleutherius reigning fifteen years before Victor as all Authors do agree it followeth that he was Pope twenty five years before Tertullian was a Christian And forsomuch as the Conversion of England is assigned to have been in the fifth year of Eleutherius it followeth that Tertullian was not a Christian in twenty years after that time And thus much for his second Reason now let us hear his third 7. My third probation saith he I deduct out of Origen whose words are these Britanniam in Christianam consentire Religionem That Britanny did consent in Christian Religion whereby it appeareth the Faith of Christ was sparsed here in England before Eleutherius Mark his own Contradiction mark his Inference and note his Imposture He affirmeth out of Origen That Britanny did consent in Christian Religion and yet he saith in his Inference Whereby it appeareth it was sparsed in England Sparsing importeth that particular men here and there were converted Consent importeth a general Conversion So that by Origen's words of consent it may seem that he meant the public Conversion made by Eleutherius and by Fox's own false Interpretation and foolish Inference he is made to say that there were only certain sparkles of Christian Religion in his days in Britanny But the true words of Origen corrupted by Fox do make the matter more clear who disputing against the Jews urgeth them with this Question Quando enim terra Britanniae ante adventum Christi in unius Dei consensit Religionem For when did the Land of Britanny agree in the Religion of one God Before the coming of Christ 8. Here you see the words of Origen first not truly but corruptly alledged before by John Fox and secondly that Origen doth speak them of a consent in Religion throughout all the Land of Britanny and thereby seemeth to signifie not the particular Conversion of several men before Eleutherius his Time as Fox would enforce it but rather the public Conversion as I have said under King Lucius and Eleutherius which Conversion according to the former Account of Fox himself who saith it was in the year of Christ 180 was about 76 years before the Death of Origen for that as Eusebius testifieth Origen died in the year of Christ 256 and was of age 69 when he died so as he was born seven years after our said Conversion under Lucius and consequently he might mean of this Conversion in his former Homily And it is not only Ignorance but wilful Malice and Imposture also in John Fox to make his Reader believe as before in Tertullian so in this Man that he was either Equal or Elder than Pope Eleutherius And for this cause that Origen in his foresaid Homily must needs mean of a former Conversion of Britanny that came not from Rome Consider the Man's Honesty and Wit in these shifts 9. And albeit this may be sufficient and more than enough to shew his false Dealing and lack of Fidelity in every thing he handleth yet will I add his two last Arguments which he calleth his first and seventh and in which as I said before that not only the former two qualities of Impertinency and Error are to be found but manifest Fraud also and wilful Deceit Let us hear his words But first I must both pray and prevent the Reader to take in patience the hearing of one and the self-same thing many times repeated for that we having to deal with three several Parties that do tell us Tales by retail one to another of them to wit Sir Francis Sir Fox and Messieurs the Magdeburgians we cannot well see or set down what each of them saith and borroweth one of another but by repeating the same things yet shall it be very briefly Thus then writeth Fox in that which he calleth his first probation against the first Conversion of England by Eleutherius 10. My first probation saith he I take out of the Testimony of Gildas who in his History affirmeth plainly That Britanny received the Gospel in the time of Tiberius the Emperour and that Joseph of Arimathea was sent by Philip the Apostle from France to Britanny Gild. lib. de Victoria Aurel. Ambrosii Here you see first not only crambe recocta according to the Proverb that is to say Coleworts and other Trash twice sodden but many times also both sodden and set before us for all this you heard before more than once both out of Sir Francis and the Magdeburgians And when all is granted yet is the whole Argument but a vain and childish Cavil for it proveth only that Damianus and Fugatius sent by Eleutherius were not the very first of all that preached Christian Faith in Britanny which we never affirmed but only that Britanny was converted publicly under Eleutherius which this impugneth not And secondly for the receiving of Christ's Faith under Tiberius the Emperour I have shewed before that it is unlikely seeing Tiberius lived but five years after the Ascension of our Savior and that the place alledged for it out of Gildas if he mean the true Gildas now extant proveth it not but only that Christ himself appeared to the World in the time of Tiberius and that the Faith of Christ entred Britanny afterward under Claudius as may appear evidently to him that will read and examin the place with attention Which the Fox perceiving thought it not best to alledge us the said true Gildas published by Polydor Virgil and allowed by all Learned Men of Christendom whose Title is De excidio Britanniae but runneth to a forged Gildas De Victoria Aurelii Ambrosii to confirm his Allegation withal of which Gildas the said Polydor after due Examination of the matter writeth as followeth 11. Extat item alter libellus ut tempestive lectorem nefariae fraudis admoneamus qui falsissimè inscribitur Gildae commentarium haud dubie à quodam pessimo impostore compositum c. Sanè is nebulo longè post homines natos impudentissimus c. There is extant besides another Book also that I may by this occasion advertise the Reader in time of a wicked Imposture which is most falsly entituled The Commentary of Gildas devised no doubt by some naughty Deceiver c. Truly he was the most impudent Knave that ever lived c. Thus said Polydor of the Inventer of this Book and as much would he have said of Sir John Fox that obtrudeth the same for a true Author if he had lived in our days And seeing that the Calvinists themselves of Heidelberg in Germany taking upon them to set forth all the British Writers Anno 1587 as Gildas Geffrey of Monmouth Ponticus Virunnius and others durst not set forth this feigned Gildas alledged by Fox but only the former true Gildas printed before by Polydor it is a token that Fox is
of this King Canutus saying amongst other things thus Monasteria per Angliam c. He did repair all the Monasteries in England that were overthrown or defaced by the Wars of his Father Swanus or himself He did Build Churches in all the places where he had fought any Battels And appointed Priests for the said Churches who should Pray continually to the Worlds end for the Souls of them that had been slain in those places He was present at the Consecration of a goodly Church in a place called Aschendum where he had his chiefest victory causing both the Nobles of the English and Danish Nation to offer with him Rich gifts to the said Church c. 22. Over the Body of Blessed St. Edmund which the Ancient Danes had slain he Builded a Church worthy the greatness of his Kingly Heart appointing there both an Abbot and Monks and giving them many Possessions In so much as by the greatness of his gifts that Monastery at this day is above all the rest in England He took up with his own hands the Body of St. Elphegus Arch-bishop of Canterbury slain not long before by his Danes and caused the same to be be carried unto Canterbury Reverencing the same with worthy honor He gave such great Gifts and rare Jewels to the Church of Winchester that the shining of pretious Stones did dazle the Eyes of such as did behold them c. In the Fifteenth year of his Kingdom he went to Rome by Land and having stayed some days there and redeeming his sins by Alms in those Churches he returned by Sea to England c. 23. Thus and much more doth William of Malmesbury write of this notable King Canatus a terrible and fierce Warrior before his Conversion and much given to Blood and Impiety whereby may easily be seen what force Catholic Religion is of to make change in a Mans manners where it truly entreth Let Protestants shew us some such examples of Princes Converted to their Religion But to go forward in Malmesbury he setteth down after all this a large Epistle of King Canutus which he wrote from Rome or in the way homeward unto the two Arch-bishops Egetnothus and Alfricus the first of Canterbury the other of York and by them to the whole Realm giving them account of his Journy to Rome Where amongst other things he writeth thus Canutus Rex totius Angliae Denmarkiae Norvegiae partis Suecorum c. notifico vobis me noviter ivisse Romam oratum pro Redemptione peccaminum meorum c. I Canutus King of all England Denmark and Norway and part of Swecia c. do give you to understand that of late I went to Rome to pray for the Redemption of my sins and for the health of my Kingdoms and people having made a vow of this Journy long ago but could never perform it until now by reason I was hindred by the Affairs of my Kingdoms And now I do yield most hearty thanks to Almighty God that he hath granted me this Grace to come and visit in my Life time the Blessed Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and all the Sanctuary that is within and without this City and according to my desire to honor and worship the same in my own person c. 24. Thus he wrote And moreover adjoyned many other pious Ordinances in the same Epistle to be observed in England for Restitutions to be made Alms to be given and other good deeds to be done exhorting all to perform them willingly and threatning them that should do the contrary And William of Malmesbury saith that returning after to England he caused the same to be strictly observed And gave many new priviledges to Churches And one among other to the Church of Canterbury which Malmesbury setteth down at length and in the end hath these words Si quis verò c. If any Man shall perform this my Ordination with a prompt will Almighty God by the Intercession of the most Blessed Virgin Mary and all his Saints increase his portion in the Land of the living And this Donation of Priviledge is written and Promulgated in the Presence of me King Canutus in the Wooden Church in the year of Christ 1032. 23. Thus far writeth William of Malmesbury of this Kings Pious disposition after his coming from Rome And John Stow addeth out of Henry of Huntington as followeth After this time Canutus never bare Crown upon his Head but he set the same upon the Head of the Crucifix at Winchester c. And thus much of his Piety and other Fruits of true Christian Faith which he had received And it is no small Argument of the Divine Power thereof that it could so mollifie and change so fierce a Warriour and cruel a Persecutor as this King was before his Conversion 26. So as now we have brought down the continuance and succession of one and the self same Christian Religion in England from St. Augustin and King Ethelbert unto King Canutus for the space of 400 years And that this was no particular Religion of England alone but the Common General Faith not only of Rome but of all Christendom besides at that day and consequently the only Catholic Religion of those Ages appeareth in like manner by other words of the Kings former Letter Recorded by Malmesbury where he saith Sit autem vobis notum c. Be it known unto you that in this last solemnity of Easter there was a great Assembly of Nobility here in Rome together with Pope John and the Emperor Conrade to wit all the greatest Princes from the Hill Garganus unto this other next the Sea all which did receive me most honorably and did present me with Magnificent Gifts c. Thus wrote the King Whereby we may easily perceive that King Canutus was held in all Points for a perfect Catholic Prince seeing that both Pope John the 20th and the Emperor Conrade the 2d did esteem and honor him so highly 27. After Canutus succeeded in the Kingdom of England his two Sons Harold and Hardicanutus for two or three years And then King Edward the Confessor for Twenty-three years together After whose Death the second Harold Son of Earl Goodwin holding the Kingdom by violence against both English and Danes scarce one year William Duke of Normandy came in as all Men know and Conquered the Land towards the end of the year 1066. and held the same all days of his Life and so hath his posterity after him by Male or Female unto our time and have continued the same Religion which he found or brought into England for all was one for the space of 500 years unto King Henry the Eighth's time which may be proved beside other ways by the Succession of our Arch-bishops of Canterbury Stigand an English Man being the Twenty-third from St. Augustin holding the same when William the Conqueror got the Crown to whom succeeded Lanfranc and to him
each Sect pretended Scriptures for themselves yet the vertue and substance of Scriptures consisting in their true meaning and interpretation thereof it was intolerable pride and insolency in them to arrogate to themselves the said true Interpretation and Exposition before the whole Church of God that went before them And hereof ensued the justness of their punishment which in Catholics can have no place as before hath been shewed Yet one Example of each sort of these men shall we here alledge thereby better to declare the Case 21. King Henry during his Reign caused sundry sorts of men to be put to death about matter of Religion as is notorious and first certain Anabaptists and new Arians namely in the 27th and 30th years of his Reign In the former of these two Condemnations were nineteen Men and six Women as Stow and others do relate and in the second were three Men and one Woman condemned These Anabaptists denied amongst other points that Children ought to be baptized before they come to years of discretion and can actually believe for defence of which Doctrin they stood resolutely upon many clear places of Scripture as to them then seemed to wit Qui crediderit baptizatus fuerit salvus erit Marc. 16. He that shall believe and be baptized shall be saved Lo say they it is necessary to believe as well as to be baptized which Infants being not able to do ought not to receive Baptism in their Infancy or if they do they must be rebaptized again when they come to years of discretion Thus reasoned they And besides this Text they and their chief Masters do alledge almost thirty places of Scripture more which seem most plain and evident to them as by their Books that are extant appeareth 22. The like places they do alledge also for that other absurd Position of theirs That no Magistrate may punish by death as for example those words of God Exod. 20. Non occides Thou shalt not kill and again the saying of our Savior Omnes qui acceperint gladium gladio peribunt Matth. 26. All that use the sword shall perish by the sword Thus said the Anabaptists from which by no means could they be drawn but went willingly to the fire for testimony of their Opinions The Arians also denying the Equality of God the Son with the Father alledged no less plain places as they would have them to seem namely that of Christ himself in St. John's Gospel ch 14. Pater meus major me est My Father is greater than I and many other which were too long here to recite And this of them who burned together obstinately in one fire in England 23. But what shall we say of the Lutherans Do not they alledge plain places also both against Us and Calvinists as themselves think For against Calvinists in defence of the Real Presence in the Sacrament they urge the plain words of Christ as we do Hoc est corpus meum This is my Body And against us for their gross Opinion that the substance of Bread and Wine remaineth together with the Body of Christ they alledge many places of Scripture where it is called Bread which places the Zuinglians accepting do turn the same against the Lutherans affirming that for so much as it is so oftentimes called Bread in the Scripture it is not the true Body of Christ at all And this passed between Fryer Barns and the two Apostata Priests Gerard and Jerom burned with him The first a fervent Lutheran the other two earnest Zuinglians all three consumed by Fire at one Stake in Smithfield by King Henries appointment in the Thirty-second year of his Reign 24. But now was there a third or fourth sort of Sectaries in K. Henries days who were neither Anabaptists Arians nor yet perfect Lutherans or Zwinglians but would have the Controversie of the Blessed Sacrament and Real Presence to be an indifferent thing to be believed or not believed as every Man should think best So held William Tyndall as also his Scholar John Frith whom John Fox doth compare to St. Paul and Timothy Frith being Burned in Smithfield by the Kings express Commandment in the Twenty-sixth year of his Reign and Tyndall not long after in Flanders by the said Kings procurement as more largely we shall declare in the Third Part of this Treatise when we come to examine John Fox his Calendar of Martyrs Now it shall be sufficient for proof of that we say to alledge Fox himself who setting down the Articles of Frith for which he was Burned assigneth this for the first First saith he the matter of the Sacrament is no necessary Article of Faith under pain of Damnation c. But may be believed or not believed as every Man shall think best And for proof thereof alledgeth divers Arguments out of Scripture that the Fathers forsooth of the Old Testament were saved by the same Faith that we are and yet were not bound to believe the Real Presence c. And Fox seemeth to like well both of this Argument and of the Heresie 25. Now then here be four or five sorts of Sectaries Condemned by King Henry and all defended themselves by shew of Scriptures but for that each of them doth reserve the interpretation of Scripture to themselves and thereby teacheth new Doctrin contrary to that which was received generally in the known Church before them to whose judgment and interpretation they will not yield themselves Hereof it followed that the indictment of Heresie lyeth truly and justly against them and that they were worthily Condemned and Burned for this Pride self-will and obstinacy But on the contrary side against the Catholics that died for the Ecclesiastical Supremacy of the Pope none of these Accusations can justly be laid for that they do neither stand upon their own judgment nor have invented any thing of new nor do adhere to their own Interpretations or Exposition of Scriptures but being accused do make their Plea and Defence far otherwise to wit that they found this Doctrin of the Popes Supremacy in use and practice before they were born as a thing received from Age to Age by the known Catholic Church time out of mind that they see all Christian Kingdoms and Princes to have embraced the same and General Councils to have allowed thereof That the Texts and Examples of Scripture alledged for the proof of this Article and all others whereon they stand are not inventions of their own but so expounded by Ancient Fathers and uniform consent of the Catholic Church that all our Christian English Kings from our first Conversion unto King Henry the Eighth acknowledged this Spiritual Authority of the Bishop of Rome and King Henry himself defended the same most earnestly with his own Pen not many years before against Luther and Lutherans That it is not a thing devised but delivered as Tertullian said of the Catholic Faith and therefore if any point thereof were to
from King Egbert his death but 234. So as Fox is in no one thing exact or punctual And these 264 years may be counted the fourth station or parcel of Time from Christ downward which now we are briefly to examin and run over as we have done the former Stations and Limitations appointed 2. First then concerning the general Roman Church it continued in these Ages as in the former by continual Succession of her Bishops and Governors altering nothing in Belief and Doctrin from her Ancestors And briefly to repeat the sum of all there ruled in the See of Rome in these two Ages and an half as supreme known and acknowledged Pastors of this great visible Church some sixty Popes from Leo III. that crowned Charles the Great and thereby restor'd the Western Empire unto the time of Alexander II. under whom Duke William of Normandy conquered England And in the Western Empire there reigned some eighteen Emperours in this space from Charles the Great to Henry IV. and in the Eastern Empire some twenty five from Nicephorus I. to Constantine X. All which Popes Emperours and Princes were of one Religion Faith and Belief in those days And albeit soon after the See of Constantinople and Greek Church by occasion of Emulation against the Roman Empire did begin to withdraw their due Obedience from the Roman Church and thereby fell by little and little into divers errors of Doctrin also and finally were delivered over as all the World seeth into the Subjection and Servitude of the Turks yet in these Ages there was Union and due Subordination between both Churches Which may appear by that one only General Council being held at Constantinople even against Phocius that was Patriarch of the said City being gathered by order of Pope Adrian II. and Basilius the Grecian Emperour concurring therein This Council was of 300 Bishops and confirmed by the said Pope Adrian being the eighth General Council in order and the fourth of those that were held in Constantinople Whereby it cometh also to be noted That all the General Councils held hitherto in the Christian Church for the space of 900 years being eight in number as hath been said from the first Council of Nice unto this and from this to the first General Council of Lateran holden in the year of Christ 1115 under Pope Innocentius III. were all held in Greece but yet by order of the Bishops of Rome sending thither their Legats and confirming the same afterwards by themselves without which confirmation they were never held for Lawful in the Christian World which is no small Argument of the Greatness and Authority of the Church of Rome from time to time 3. It shall not be needful to speak of the particular Heresies of these two or three Ages which in effect were none of any name but only two the Iconoclasts or Image-breakers and the Berengarians or Sacramentaries both of them agreeing in their particular Heresies with the Calvinists of our Times tho' in many other things different as it is wont to be The first of them was begun before these Times by Leo III. Emperour of Constantinople sirnamed Isaurus about the year of Christ 750 as before hath been noted and renewed again by Claudius Taurinensis The second was begun 300 years after by Berengarius about the year of Christ 1050 and abjured by him again as hereafter shall be shewed The chief Doctors and Fathers that defended true Religion in these Ages were Turpinus Eginhardus Haymo Rabanus Frecolphus Hincmarus Jo. Diaconus Remigius Theophylactus and others in the ninth Age and then in the other Odo Ado Rhegino Luitprandus Rhatbodus Abbo Floriacensis and others and the other half of the eleventh Age Bruchardus Petrus Damianus Lanfrancus and many others 4. And this was the state of the Universal Christian Church in these Ages whereunto in all respects was conform the particular Church of England as the Daughter to her Mother which may be demonstrated partly by the continual Descent of Archbishops in England which were to the number of Sixteen from Celnothus that lived with King Egbert unto Stigand that possessed the See of Canterbury when William the Conqueror came in tho' afterward he caused him to be deposed by a Commission from Rome in the year of Christ 1070 as John Stow and others do note 5. I do pretermit the Succession of other Bishoprics in England for Brevities sake the Kings also of England that possessed that Crown from Egbert to William the Conqueror were some Twenty in number if we count Canutus the Dane and his two Children among the rest All which Kings of what Nation or State soever agreed fully in Faith and Belief with the said Archbishops and Bishops of our Land and They again with the whole Universal Roman Church as appeareth by their Acts and Monuments and John Fox also confesseth 6. Which being so it is hard to say or imagin where John Fox in these Ages will pick out a different Christian Church tho' it be never so poor and creeping for Him and His either in England or out of England during this time And much more hard it is to think how he can devise any visible Continuation of the said obscure and trodden-down Church as he promised to do even from the Apostles Time to our Age. His only refuge must be as before we have often noted to run to the condemned Heretics of these times if he find any for his purpose Which yet he dareth not openly to do as you have seen throughout all the former Ages But afterward when he cometh near home to wit after Pope Innocentius III. and John Wickliff he taketh more heart affirming Our Church to have utterly perished and a new visible Off-spring of his Church to have started up to wit all the Sectaries and Heretics cast out and condemned of our Church as you shall see more particularly when we come to that place 7. For the present Ages that we are now in he doth not so much as lay hands upon the Iconoclasts or Berengarians nor doth seem to count them for his Brethren tho' in the principal Points of their Heresies they agree with Him as is notorious And John Fox to have some visible Members of his Church in these Ages ought to have shaken hands with them but the poor Fellow was asham'd to build his Church openly of so ancient Heretics tho' afterward when he beginneth to build indeed and to gather Stones together he calleth for the Berengarians again which now he casteth away as after you shall see 8. But now perhaps you will ask me If John Fox do set down no Succession in these Ages as neither in the former of His Church or Ours what doth the simple Fellow in all this third Book of his Whereto I answer first That albeit he promiseth in the Title That this third Book shall contain the Acts and Monuments of 300 years together with the whole
And if I should number up the manifest Lies which the miserable and poor spiteful Fellow inventeth for some shew of proof you would take pity of Him and not of the Monks You shall hear one short Discourse of his about them and thereby you may judge of the rest 13. Monks saith he were nothing else in old time but Lay-men leading a more stricter Trade of Life as may sufficiently appear by Augustin lib. de moribus Ecclesiae cap. 3. Item lib. de oper Monachorum Item Ep. ad Aurelium Also by Hieron ad Heliodorum writing these words Alia Monachorum est causa alia Clericorum Clerici pascunt Oves ego pascor One thing pertaineth to Monks another thing to them of the Clergy They of the Clergy feed the Flock I am fed c. By all which is evident that Monks were no other in former Ages of the Church but only Lay-men differing from Priests c. 14. Thus writeth Fox which alone were sufficient to shew his peevish Fraud and Folly in all his Writings For albeit St. Augustin in the places by him quoted had written any such thing as he affirmeth which is quite false and so shall the Reader find that will examin the places yet the very words of St. Hierom by Fox himself adjoyned do clearly interpret both his own and St. Augustin's meaning and convince Fox for a meer malevolent Caviller for that St. Hierom doth not deny that Monks are Clergy-men or Priests for then he should deny himself to have been a Priest or of the Clergy seeing he confesseth himself to be a Monk but his meaning is to shew the different End and Office of some Clergy-men to wit Secular Priests and Bishops that have care of Souls from Monks for that the one do attend principally to Action the other to Contemplation the one to Preaching the other to Praying the one to feed others the others to be fed in which latter number St. Hierom for humility putteth also himself whom yet I think John Fox will not affirm to have been a meer Lay-man and not Priest and Clergy-man And so is this cavil of his against Monks that in old time they were Lay-men shewed to be most vain and malicious For what will he say of St. Basil St. Nazianzen St. Augustin St. Gregory were they not Monks Priests and Bishops also how then were Monks meerly Lay-men in old time 15. The like notorious Folly conjoyn'd with Falshood he useth to prove married Monks alleging St. Athanasius's words Epist ad Diacont qui ait se novisse Monachos Episcopos conjuges liberorum patres who saith that he knew both Monks and Bishops married men and Fathers of Children But what proveth this Do not we see every day even now in our Church both Bishops Priests and Religious men that have once been married and some of them also to have had Children and after the death of their Wives to have entred into Ecclesiastical and Religious Orders What fond deluding of his Reader is this He should have proved that they had married after they had been Priests or Monks and then had he said somewhat But this he could not do and so thought best to make a fond flourish of the other 16. Nay in the very Greek Church at this day where Priests are permitted that were married before tho' their Wives be living yet if their said Wives die they are not permitted to marry again And as for Monks out of which Order only Bishops are made in that Church they were never permitted to marry after their profession of Religion Nay St. Epiphanius a chief Pillar of that Church when it was perfectly Catholic about 1200 years agone saith plainly as the Magdeburgians also allege him That the holy Church of God admitted not in his days any man to Priesthood or Episcopal Dignity that either married the second time or did not abstain from conversation with his first Wife if she lived after he was admitted to Priesthood Revera saith he non suscipit sancta Dei praedicatio post Christi adventum eos qui à nuptiis mortua ipsorum uxore secundis nuptiis conjuncti sunt propter excellentem Sacerdotii Honorem Dignitatem Et haec certè Sancta Dei Ecclesia cum sinceritate observat c. In very truth the holy preaching of God after the coming of Christ doth not admit those to be Priests who after their first Marriage and their Wife dead do joyn themselves again in second Marriage And this doth the holy Church of God observe with sincerity in respect of the excellent Honor and Dignity of Priesthood c. So saith Epiphanius and addeth presently Sed adhuc viventem liberos gignentem c. But further than this the said holy Church of Christ doth not admit to Priesthood a man of one Wife if he live and get Children as before but only she admitteth Him to be a Deacon Priest Bishop or Subdeacon especially where the Clergy is sincere who is content to contain from his Wife that he used before or live in Widowhood if his Wife be dead 17. Thus writeth this holy Doctor not only of his own Judgment but of the whole Consent of the Universal Catholic Church in his days not only of Monks that make a more strict profession of Chastity but of all Clergy-men also that lived in Holy Orders to wit Subdeacons Deacons Priests and Bishopss Of whom thus much be spoken by occasion of John Fox his notorious Lye That Monks were only Lay men and married in old time And by this we may see his affection towards Them and their Profession And there were no end if I should prosecute all his peevish picking of quarrels against them upon every occasion or without occasion thereby to shew his Heretical Stomach in that behalf One only Example I will shew you more and so make an end 18. There is a Story recorded by William of Malmsbury and other ancient authentical Authors as Fox himself confesseth touching our foresaid famous English King Alfred fourth Son to the forenamed King Ethelwolf and Nephew to King Egbert brought up in Rome by Pope Leo IV. as hath been said who being driven into great Extremities by the Conquest of the Danes against him was relieved and comforted by the appearance of St. Cuthbert miraculously foretelling him what should succeed in those Wars and confirming the same with other Predictions also which afterwards were fulfilled Which Story tho' it be one of the most rare that is to be read in our English Histories and with most comfort also by him that will consider it with attention and indifferency and testified also unto us as authentically as any Story may be in this kind not only by the said Malmsbury above 500 years agone but by divers others in like manner and of like credit as Fox himself is forced to confess yet for that St. Cuthbert principal Actor therein was an unmarried Monk he cannot
somniabunt Joel 2. which St. Peter in the Acts of the Apostles cap. 2. ver 17. interpreteth of true Visions sent from God by the Holy Ghost saying This is the meaning of that which is said by the Prophet Joel which shall come to pass in the latter days I shall pour out of my Spirit upon all Flesh and your Sons shall prophetize and your Daughters and young men shall see Visions and your elder people shall dream Dreams c. And finally if we consider the Story of our Savior's Infancy recounted by St. Matthew's Gospel we shall find the most part of his Mysteries reveal'd to our Blessed Lady and St. Joseph in sleep as Mat. 1.20 Gabriel apparuit Joseph in somnis The Angel Gabriel appeared to St. Joseph in his sleep and told him that he should not put away his Wife And then in the 2d chapter talking of the Magi He saith Et responso accepto in somnis They receiving an answer from God in their sleep that they should not return to Herod they returned another away Who being gone the Evangelist saith again Ecce Angelus Domini apparuit in somnis Behold the Angel of God appeared to Joseph again in his sleep and warned him to flie into Aegypt And then when he should come out of Aegypt again he being in doubt whither to go Admonitus in somnis secessit in partes Galileae He being warned in his sleep what to do went and carried Christ into the parts of Galile c. 24. Lo here a very frequent custom of Almighty God to warn men of his will in time of sleep And albeit all kind of Dreams or Representations in time of sleep be not easily to be credited as the Scripture in other places doth admonish us yet God saith also Si quis fuerit inter vos Propheta Domini in Visione apparebo ei per somnum loquar ad illum If there be any among you that is a Prophet of God to whom I mean to reveal my secrets to him I will appear in Vision and to him will I speak in sleep And this is sufficient to shew that all are not dreaming Fables which are uttered in sleep as the incredulous and infidel humor of John Fox and of modern Heretics would have it seem when it is against them 25. But in their own Sectaries they do admire and extoll any thing never so fantastical yea tho' it be a Vision or Revelation from the Devil himself for so Luther in his Book about the abrogating of the Mass doth recount of himself how the Devil did appear unto him by night and reasoned with him against the said Mass And in another Book written to the Senators of the Cities of Germany and talking of other Sectaries that did brag of Visions Voices and Apparitions of Spirits to wit the Swinkfeldians and Anabaptists saith thus of himself Ego quoque fui in Spiritu atque etiam vidi spiritus si omnino de propriis gloriandum est fortè plus quam ipsi adhuc intra annum videbunt I my self was also in Spirit which he speaketh in imitation of St. John the Evangelist in his Revelations and have seen also Spirits if I must needs glory of my own Gifts and perhaps I have seen more Spirits than they which brag so much of seeing Spirits will see within one year This said Luther of himself and hence we must imagin that he so often said of himself Certum se esse Doctrinam suam è Coelo esse petitam That he was certain his Doctrin came from Heaven And Sleydan every-where in his Story doth compare Him and his Visions and Revelations with those of the old Prophets 26. Carolstadius also a chief beginner of the Sacramentary Doctrin braggeth as Kemnitius a chief Lutheran reporteth that it was revealed unto him from Heaven how he should understand those words Hoc est Corpus meum by different pointing of the Sentence from that which it was wont to be And Zuinglius affirmeth of himself That he had a Voice by night from Heaven which yet Luther saith was from the Devil telling him how he should expound those words Hoc est Corpus meum contrary to all Antiquity by the Example of those words of Exodus Phase idest transitus Domini c. And we are a little after to shew more at large in this Treatise how John Fox also had a Voice and Revelation from Heaven on a Sunday morning as he lay in his Bed about understanding of the mystical Numbers in the Apocalypse of Forty-two months assign'd by the Angel to the Reign of Antichrist 27. But if we should recount all the Visions and Revelations which John Fox doth attribute to his ragged Martyrs that he setteth down in his Calendar and how highly he would have them esteemed there would be no end Let any man read what he writeth of the Visions and Voices that Samuel a Minister of Ipswich had in his sleep when he was in Prison He fell into a sleep saith Fox at which time one clad in white seemed to stand before him comforting him in these words Samuel Samuel be of good cheer c. No less memorable is it saith Fox and worthy to be noted touching the three Ladders which the said Samuel saw in his sleep set up towards Heaven whereof one was greater and longer than the other at the beginning but after all three made equal Which Vision Fox doth expound thus That Samuel being in Prison with two Women of his Sect Agnes Potten a Beer-brewer's Wife and Joan Trunchfield a Shoemaker's Wife of the same Town Agnes and Joan were persuaded by Samuel to burn with him as after they did And consequently saith Fox tho' Samuel was the greater Ladder at the beginning and higher towards Heaven as being a Minister or Preacher and the other two lesser Ladders signified by the Brewer's and Shoemaker's Wives yet at length were they all three made equal by the Glory of Martyrdom 28. Thus reasoneth Fox And then coming to speak of the same two Women apart he sheweth that Agnes Potten the Brewer's Wife had Visions also Potten 's Wife saith he in a night a little before her death being asleep in her bed saw a bright burning fire right up as a Pole. By which Vision he sheweth that the Shoemaker's Wife who was fearful to die and would have drawn back was encouraged by the other also to go to the fire And do you not see here the Spirit of the Circumcellians and Massilians to run wilfully to death From this Fox passeth to recount another strange prophetical Dream of one William Hunter an Apprentice of London Nineteen years old who would needs be burned also and nothing could keep him from it much encouraged as it seemeth by his Dream 29. And from this again he runneth to other more solemn Dreams and Visions of John Rough a Scottish Minister Director of a certain secret
qui perpetuae se devoverit Castitati To him only belongeth to offer Sacrifice who hath vowed himself to perpetual Chastity 20. Behold Sacrifice and vowing of Chastity in Priests of the Greek Church above 700 years before the time that Fox saith it was decreed first of all by Pope Gregory VII that they should not marry And Eusebius in the next Age after being one of them that were of the Council of Nice saith Eos qui sacrati sunt in Dei ministerio cultúque occupati continere deinceps seipsos à commercio Vxoris decet It becometh them that are consecrated and occupied in the Service of God to contain themselves for the time to come from all dealing with Wives There follow in the same Age with Eusebius divers other Fathers as St. Cyrill St. Gregory Nyssen St. Chrysostom St. Epiphany all which writing of this matter are of the same Opinion Qui apud Jesum bene fungitur Sacerdotio abstinet à Muliere saith St. Cyril He that performeth the Office of a Priest well in the sight of Jesus that is to say is a good Christian Priest doth abstain from all Women To like sense do write St. Gregory Nyssen lib. de Virginit cap. ult and St. Chrysostom hom 2. de patien Job And as for St. Epiphanius we have alleged him before as reprehended by the Magdeburgians for affirming this Rule of Priests Continency from Marriage to have been observed in his time throughout the whole Church with great sincerity wheresoever good Clergy-men were 21. It were in vain to allege the Latin Fathers for that our Enemies confess them to be all of the contrary judgment to them But when no other Argument were the very Example of so great a multitude of famous learned and holy Bishops Doctors Teachers and Preachers of those first Ages after Christ that lived Continent and were not married as St. Ignatius St. Polycarp Clemens Alexandrinus St. Athanasius St. Basil St. Gregory Nazianzen St. Chrysostom St. Epiphanius St. Cyril and many others of the Greek Church as also St. Cyprian St. Hillary St. Ambrose St. Hierom St. Augustin and above Fifty Popes of Rome held all for Saints and the most of them Martyrs in the Latin Church These Mens Example I say is a sufficient Argument to shew what was the Spirit of Christ in those days to him that hath any feeling thereof 22. But to say no more of this but to return to make an end of our speech of Pope Gregory VII whom our Protestants for his singular Vertue and Constancy in God's Cause cannot abide Fox concludeth thus of his death Antoninus writeth That Hildebrand as he lay a dying desired one of his Cardinals to go to the Emperour and desire of him forgiveness absolving both Him and his Partners from Excommunication c. And true it is that St. Antoninus Archbishop of Florence relateth some such thing upon other mens speeches saying Quod misit Cardinalem ad Imperatorem ad totam Ecclesiam ut optaret ei Indulgentiam That he sent the Cardinal to the Emperour and to all the Church to wish him Indulgence And what marvel if it had been so that a man lying at Deaths door would gladly be at peace with all the World But why hath not Fox set down the other words of Antoninus presently following Quae tamen vera esse non credo multis de causis Which yet for many causes I do not believe to be true Here you may see that Fox is still a Fox 23. Nauclerus reporteth That his last words lying on his Death-bed in Salerno were those of the Psalm Dilexi Justitiam odivi Iniquitatem propterea morior in exilio c. I have loved Justice and hated Iniquity and for this do I die in banishment being driven away from my See by the violence of the Emperour Thus wrote Nauclerus of him tho' a German adding these words Vir fuit Gregorius times Deum Justitiae Aequitatis amator in adversis constans Pope Gregory was a man that feared God a great lover of Justice and Equity constant in Adversity And Platina that flattereth not Popes as our Protestants do confess writing of him saith Vir certe Deo gratus c. Truly he was a man grateful to God Prudent Just Clement and a Patron of all Poor but especially of Pupils and Widows Cranzius also a German saith Henricus Gregorium septimum virum sanctum insectatus est Henry the Emperour persecuted Pope Gregory VII being a holy Man. 24. But to omit this and to speak no more of Popes Lives or Learning especially of these two Gregory and Innocentius so well known but only to consider their Faith and Belief for That principally indeed concerneth our purpose seeing that albeit they should be Wicked or Unlearned yet might they be true Popes I would ask John Fox What one Article of Belief any one of these two Popes living more than an hundred years the one after the other did they differ in from their Predecessors or were noted by their Successors for the same And if no such Article can be brought forth as most certainly there cannot how then could these two Popes either joyntly or severally overthrow so great a Church dispersed over all the World as was at that time the Roman and much more extinguish the whole Christian Faith as John Fox affirmeth 25. Is not this plain madness to affirm that any one or two Popes could overthrow a whole Church or extinguish Christian Faith especially living an hundred years one from the other as hath been said For if the first had done it then what needed the help of the second or if the same Church persevered in Christian Faith for an hundred years together after the first then did not he overthrow the same And yet doth John Fox delight himself so much in this Fancy that in divers places of his Book he foundeth his whole Discourses thereon as we shall see in the Chapter following CHAP. VIII Here followeth a dreaming Imagination of John Fox contrary to it self about the Fall of the Roman Church and Rising of Antichrist with the rest that remaineth of our Ecclesiastical History from the Conquest to Wickliff JOhn Fox taking upon him in his vein of fancy to distinguish Times and to determin when the Church of Rome fell sick and died when Antichrist was born and other like vain imaginations proving also the same by certain Revelations made unto himself as he lay on his Bed upon a Sunday in the morning he setteth down for a ground this distinction of Times in the very beginning of his Acts and Monuments in these words First saith he I will treat of the suffering time of the Church which continued from the Apostles Age about 300 years Secondly of the flourishing time of the Church which lasted other 300 years Thirdly of the declining time of the Church which comprehendeth also other 300 years until the loosing out
to divert these Prophesies from the true Antichrist and apply them to certain Bishops of Rome do beat their heads how to devise out some new Expositions of these numbers never heard or thought of before And namely John Fox more fondly than the rest will have the number of 42 Months to import 294 years that is every Month to signifie seven years or as fantastically he calleth it a Sabbath of Years For proof whereof having neither Authority nor any one Example of Scripture he confirmeth it by a Revelation of his own as after you shall hear 10. His device therefore is That the 1000 years wherein Sathan is said in the Ayocalypse to be ty'd up must begin as you see after the said 294 years of Heathen Persecution were ended So that the loosing out of Sathan against the Church again must fall in the year of Christ 1294 when Bonifacius VIII was chosen Pope or as the Monks Prophesie was upon the year 1260 when Antichrist was born Which is both contrary to that he said before that he was loosed about the year 900 as also that the Popes Gregory VII and Innocentius III. by Sathan's help no doubt overthrew the Church about the year of Christ 1080 or 1215 For if that Sathan was bound and not loosed until the year of Christ 1294 how could he overthrow the Church before 11. Wherefore all these new Interpretations of the words of the Apocalypse are but fantastical devices of wrangling Heretics seeing the ancient Fathers do interpret all these things far otherwise And first they put the binding up of Sathan for 1000 years there mentioned before the other number of 42 Months given to Antichrist to work his will and do say that the said loosing of Sathan began from the very Death and Passion of Christ when the power of Sathan was bound according to the saying of Christ himself in St. John's Gospel drawing near to his Passion Now the Prince of this World shall be cast forth And secondly they do interpret these 1000 Years not to signifie any certain time but generally to signifie all the whole course of time between the death of Christ and the coming of Antichrist three years and a half before the Day of Judgment according to the ordinary phrase of Scripture As for Example Quod mandavit Deus in mille generationes God hath commanded his Precept to be kept for a thousand Generations that is to say to the Worlds end and not for any certain time And again in Job If a Just man should contend with God he cannot answer him one for a thousand 12. This then is the ancient Interpretation of holy Doctors quite contrary to these new fancies of John Fox whose Expositions are both contrary to himself as in part you have seen and opposite to the words and sense of Scripture it self For whereas first these 42 Months importing by his Account 294 years were given to Sathan to work his will against the Saints of God the Scripture saith they were given to the Beast that is to say to Antichrist by the Dragon and not to the Dragon himself And secondly whereas he would needs have the 42 Months to signifie 294 years the Scriptures do expound them by 1260 days which make just three years and a half as hath been said 13. Thirdly Fox shall never find any place or example in Scripture where the word Month either in Greek or Latin doth signifie seven Days Weeks or Years as in Daniel the Greek word Hebdomada doth and may by its proper signification And yet is John Fox so fond and resolute in his device as all other proofs and probabilities failing him he will needs confirm it by a Revelation from God which he recounteth in these words following 14. Because the matter saith he being of no small importance greatly appertaineth unto the public utility of the Church and lest any should misdoubt me herein to follow any private Interpretations of my own I thought good to communicate to the Reader that which hath been imparted unto me in the opening of these Mystical Numbers in the foresaid Book of Revelation contained by occasion as followeth c. 15. As I was in hand with these Histories c. being vexed and turmoiled in spirit about the reckoning of these Numbers and Years it so happened upon a Sunday in the morning lying in my Bed and musing about these Numbers suddenly it was answered to my mind as with a majesty thus saying inwardly within me Thou Fool count these Months by Sabboths as the Weeks of Daniel are counted by Sabboths The Lord I take to witness thus it was Whereupon thus being admonished I began to reckon the 42 Months by Sabboths first of the Months and that would not serve and then by Sabboths of Years and then I began to feel some probable understanding Yet not satisfied herewith eftsoons I repaired to certain Merchants of my acquaintance of whom one is departed a true and faithful Servant of the Lord the other two yet alive and Witnesses hereof to whom the number of these foresaid Months being propounded and examined by Sabboths of Years the whole Sum was found to surmount to 294 years containing the full and just time of the foresaid Persecutions neither more nor less c. 16. And thus you have the Revelation made to John Fox which he saith that he relateth unto us for that we shall not misdoubt the truth thereof nor think that he followeth any private Interpretation of his own but that it came from God immediately And this is the first Dream of John Fox in his Bed. And the second ridiculous point is that he went to three Merchants to confer this Revelation and that they approved the same The third point is open Folly where he saith that this number of 294 containeth the full and just time of the first Persecution of Christians under Pagan Emperours neither more nor less which before hath been confuted and is evident in it self seeing that from Christ to the Victory of Constantine against Maxentius there are assigned by Eusebius 318 years and yet did not this Persecution of Christians cease then neither but continued under Licinius and other Tyrants for divers years after See then how just these Numbers fall out neither more nor less All which being considered I find no one thing so true or credible in all this Revelation as those words of the Spirit unto him saying Thou Fool for that this maketh him a Fool indeed by Revelation And so much of him and of this whole matter of binding and loosing Sathan and Reign of Antichrist Now let us return to the continuation of our Conference with John Fox about his Church 17. The deduction of the Catholic Roman Church from William the Conqueror downward unto John Wickliff's time is no less easie and clear but rather more than the former deduction from Christ to the Conquest for that the Church was now more spread and
variety of Controversies and not knowing what to resolve or being wearied with labor to seek the Truth do incline easily to this absurd Error That a man believing piously in Jesus Christ crucified or as Sir Francis Hastings and O. E. before said in Christ crucified may be saved and be held for a Brother so he be against the Pope and Church of Rome 19. And the same sheweth John Fox that he believeth also in that he citeth here so many different Sects and Sectaries for his Brethren and Fathers and chief Pillars of his obscure and trodden-down Church notwithstanding they differed never so much from him in divers Articles of their Belief as shall appear by the particular examination that ensueth For albeit it would be over-long to examin the whole Catalogue before set down yet the principal Members thereof we shall run over and thereby let you see what Truth or Substance there is in it or Wisdom in the Alleger First then he beginneth his Catalogue thus 20. To pretermit saith he Bertramus and Berengarius which were before Pope Innocentius a learned multitude of sufficient Witnesses might be produced c. It was well he pretermitted these two which were both against him flatly For as for Bertramus he was wholly of the Roman Religion and so liv'd and dy'd nor ever taught he any one Point of Protestant Doctrin in his life as may appear by Tritemius and others that write of him he being a Monk and so continu'd to his dying-dying-day which was above 800 years agon tho' after his death when Berengarius had begun his Heresie some of his Followers did forge a little Pamphlet in his name as favoring the Berengarian Heresie against the Real Presence of Christ's Body in the Sacrament but the fraud was presently discover'd and rejected So as this man could not be of Fox's Communion holding all Points of Religion against Him and with Us. And this is the first Folly and Falshood of our Fox in the first Man by him alleged 21. Now as for Berengarius Archdeacon of Tours in France tho' he once held the Error against the Real Presence in the Sacrament yet did he oftentimes recant the same as appeareth by his Abjurations which Fox himself confesseth and in all other Points was a perfect Catholic so that we may more justly make him of Our Church than Fox of his if we would take any such broken Wares as Fox doth But we reject all that are not complete tho' if it be true which Gerson and many others do write that Berengarius died very penitent for his former Error he was and is of our Church and whether he did or not he cannot be of Fox's by any reason both for that even in this Error while he held it he was far different both from Calvin and Luther and in all the rest of his Belief an Adversary as hath been said To which effect the words of the Magdeburgians are to be noted which are these Leo IX say they deserved in this one thing no small praise above his Predecessors that presently at the beginning he condemned the Heresie of Berengarius together with the Author in a Synod at Rome So say Fox's Masters whereunto I marvel what he will answer seeing they cast away that which he so earnestly and carefully gathereth up 22. But now let us see the rest of his Rank Joachim Abbot saith he of Calabria Almaricus a learned Bishop c. As for Joachim Fox doth not tell us what he held of his Opinions to make him of his Church nor any other Author that I have read but only that he being an old Man and half out of his Wits was censured by the Pope for certain fond Prophecies and some Errors also about the blessed Trinity as appeareth by the Decree extant in the Canon-Law against him and by other Authors that have written of him So as he being a Catholic Man in all the rest and never dreaming perhaps of any Protestant Proposition in his life Fox hath no other reason to make him of his Church but only for that he was censured in something by the Pope Which how good reason it is every man doth see forasmuch as every Malefactor condemned by the Pope should by this reason be justified 23. As for Almaricus the Learned Bishop judged for an Heretic saith Fox for holding against Images in the time of Pope Innocentius III. First you must know that he was never Bishop either learned or unlearned but only of Fox's making for that his highest Degree that ever he was known to have was a Doctorship in Paris he being born in the Town of Chartres as testifieth Caesarius that lived with him Secondly if he held against Images as Fox there saith he was not judged an Heretic only by Innocentius for that Heresie but he all other of that Opinion were condemned above 400 years before that time by the second General Council of Nice Thirdly the truth is That this man was condemned first by the University of Paris and then by Innocentius and by a Synod in Rome for many more detestable Heresies than for holding against Images and some so foul as Fox himself will be asham'd to defend them tho' he make him a Saint of his Church and therefore like a Fox he left them out As for Example the foresaid Caesarius writeth thus Almaricus Magister Pravitatis haec asseruit Almericus a Master of Error taught these Propositions following 24. That there is no Resurrection of Bodies at all That there is no Paradise nor Hell. That the Body of Christ is no more in the Sacrament after the words of Consecration than in a Stone or Horse That God spake as much in Ovid as in Augustin And other such absurd Propositions to the number of Twenty for which he was burned openly in Paris in the year of Christ 1208. Cum aliis quibusdam Haereticis blasphemis in Personas S. Trinitatis saith Gagninus With certain other blasphemous Heretics against the Persons of the Blessed Trinity 25. This is related not only by the said Gagninus but by Caesarius also as before I have cited Gerson also Chancellor of the same University Paulus Aemilius and Genebrordus two Learned and Reverend Bishops And now let the Reader consider what a Saint John Fox hath chosen as the second Pillar of his Church after Pope Innocentius and how false a Companion he is in that he telleth us that he was a Learned Bishop and condemned only for holding against Images And thus much of Abbot Joachim and Almaricus of whom John Fox made an ill choice to be the first Founders of his Hierarchy seeing that neither of them agreed with Him or His in Faith and Belief There followeth in Fox The Martyrs of Alsatia of whom we read saith he a hundred to be burnt in one day by the said Innocentius c. To shew Fox to be
certain Alterations did not take counsel nor direction from the new Gospellers to do it but rather set forth a Book of his own entituled thus Articles devised by the King's Highness So do testifie both Hall Hollinshead and Stow. And then Hall who lived in those days addeth further In this Book are especially mentioned but three Sacraments with the which the Lincolnshire men were offended And then again afterwards he writeth This Book especially treated of no more than three Sacraments where always before the people had been taught seven Sacraments c. Which Articles being delivered to the people the Inhabitants of the North parts being very ignorant and rude and not knowing what true Religion meant c. said Now you see Friends that four Sacraments of seven are taken from us and shortly you shall lose the other three also except you look about you c. Thus writeth Hall of the beginning of the Insurrection of Lincoln York and other Shires by occasion of these new-devised Articles in Religion Whereby notwithstanding we see that King Henry thinking best to make some alteration tho' he meant not indeed to take away any Sacrament as afterwards appeared yet disdained he to take his Platform from the Protestants or Gospellers of those days but devised of himself the Innovation which for the present he meant to make Whereof I have heard of a certain Story not unpleasant nor from the purpose which therefore here I will set down 17. A certain Courtier at that day some say it was Sir Francis Bryan talking with a Lady that was somewhat forward in the new Gospel about this Book of the King 's then lately come forth she seemed to mislike greatly the Title thereof to wit Articles devised by the King's Highness c. saying That it seemed not a fit Title to authorise matters in Religion to ascribe them to a mortal King's device Whereunto the Courtier answered Truly Madam I will tell you my conceit plainly If we must needs have devices in Religion I had rather have them from a King than from a Knave as your Devices are I mean that Knave Frier Martin who not yet 20 years agone was Deviser of your new Religion and behav'd himself so lewdly in answering his Majesty with scorn and contempt as I must needs call him a Knave tho' otherwise I do not hate altogether the Profession of Friers as your Ladyship knoweth Moreover said he it is not unknown neither to your Ladyship nor Us that he devised these new Tricks of Religion which you now so much esteem and reverence not for God or Devotion or to do Penance but for Ambition and to revenge himself upon the Dominican Friers that had gotten from him the preaching of the Pope's Bulls as also to get himself the use of a Wench and that a Nun also which now he holdeth And soon after him again three other married Priests his Scholars to wit Oecolampadius Carolstadius and Zuinglius devised another Religion of the Sacramentaries against their said Master And since these again we hear every day of other fresh Upstarts that devise us new Doctrins and there is no end of Devising or Devisers And I would rather for my part stick to the devising of a King that hath Majesty in him and a Council to assist him especially such a King as ours is than to a thousand of these Companions put together 18. It is true said the Lady when they are Devices indeed of Men but when they bring Scriptures with them to prove their sayings then are they not Mens Devices but God's Eternal Truth and Word And will you say so Madam quoth he And do you not remember what ado we had the last year about this time with certain Hollanders here in England whom our Bishops and Doctors could not overcome by Scriptures notwithstanding they held most horrible Heresies which make my Hairs to stand upright to think of them against the Manhood and Flesh of Christ our Savior and against the Virginity of his Blessed Mother and against the Baptism of Infants and the like wicked Blasphemies I was my self present at the Condemnation of fourteen of them in Paul's Church in one day and heard them dispute and allege Scriptures so fast for their Heresies as I was amazed thereat and after I saw some of these Knaves burned in Smithfield and they went so merrily to their Death singing and chanting Scriptures as I began to think with my self whether their Device was not of some value or no until afterward thinking better of the matter I blessed my self from them and so let them go 19 Oh said the Lady but these were Knaves indeed that devised new Doctrins of their own heads and were very Heretics not worthy to be believed But how shall I know quoth the Courtier that Your Devisers have not done the like seeing These alleged Scriptures no less than They and did one thing more which is that they went to the fire and burned for their Doctrin when they might have lived which your Frier and his Scholars before named have not hitherto done And finally Madam I say as at the beginning I said If we must needs follow devising we Courtiers had much rather follow a King than a Frier in such a matter For how many years Madam have Friers shorn their Heads and no Courtier hath ever follow'd them hitherto to therein But now his Majesty having begun this last May as you know to poll his Head and commanded others to do the like you cannot find any unshorn Head in the Court among us Men tho' you Women be exempted And so I conclude that the device of a King is of more credit than the device of a Friar And with this the Lady laugh'd and so the Conference was ended 20 And thus much for the first devising or setting up of new Religion in England Now for the going forward thereof let us hear a large testimony of John Fox himself and thereby judge how Apostolic the manner was of promoting the same To many which be yet alive saith Fox and can testifie these things it is not unknown how variable the state of Religion stood in those days how hardly and with what difficulty it came forth what chances and changes it suffered even as the King was ruled and gave ear sometime to one and sometime to another so one while it went forward and another season it went as much backward again and sometime clean altered and changed for a season according as they could prevail which were about the King c. 21. Here now you see both the beginning and progress of Fox's Gospel whereof in the Margin he maketh this Note The course of the Gospel interrupted by malicious Enemies Here you do hear him say that the Birth of his Gospel came forth hardly and with great difficulty and straining and then that it grew or went backward as the King was ruled by others and gave credit
Contentions but had not the Gift of the old Apostolical Preachers to preach the self-same Faith and Doctrin every where but so many men so many Opinions were set abroach every man following his own fancy only they agreed in impugning the Catholic Church Rites Doctrin and Service but among themselves they could not agree 11. Which thing being signified to the Protector both before his departure and while he was in the Scottish Journey it grieved him exceedingly and wrote back to Cranmer Ridley and the rest that they should seek some means of Agreement and Conformity and that they should make hast to end the Common-Service-Book or Book of Common Prayer Doctrin and Rites which they had begun to treat of before his departure out of London But this was not so easie to do for that new Factions and Divisions were grown now among them especially upon the arrival of the foresaid new Preachers as well English as strangers from beyond the Seas For albeit the strangers could not much help in making this English Communion-Book or rather new Mass-Book yet did they hurt and hinder the same much by the variety of Opinions which they brought with them in matter of Doctrin some of them coming from Saxony and others from Switzerland where there were different new Sects and Doctrins held and taught And forasmuch as in this Book not only the Rites and Ceremonies of Service and Administration of Sacraments but the Doctrin also of their Number and Nature and other Articles of Belief were to be expressed or at leastwise insinuated hereof arose a great War for that Bucer would have one thing Peter Martyr another Ochinus a third and then stepped in John Bale and Milo Coverdale freshly come with their new Doctrin and wanton Women from beyond Seas and would have room amongst the rest 12. But above all others did trouble the Market at this time two heady married Priests come also from beyond the Seas to wit John Hooper and John Rogers the one from Wittenberg with a German Wife the other from Argentine with a Burgundian Sister as Fox testifieth who dissenting wholly from the Course begun by Cranmer and Ridley and bearing special emulation against them as accounting themselves more Learned and zealous and more reformed than they as in their Lives we shall shew when we come to their places in the Calendar they being potent in Speech and Faction and had in estimation of the people in respect of their former Banishment they made this Agreement at the first beginning much more difficult Especially for that one Hugh Latimer more turbulent than any of them all and of more regard with the common people for that he had been Bishop in King Henry's days joyned with Hooper and Rogers against Cranmer and Ridley for that they were not inclined to restore him his Bishoprick of Worcester whereof he had been deprived by King Henry VIII 13. Whereupon the Protector when he returned to London from the Scottish Voyage in the end of the Summer he was greatly troubled to see these Divisions But especially for that he found nothing ready as he had hope for the new Communion-Book but only that the old Religion was impugned and the new not yet framed and infinite strife was raised both about the one and the other Yet a Parliament being called together upon the Fourth of November Anno Domini 1547 and the First of King Edward they thought to give an attempt to see what might be done to have some Alteration established But it would hardly be notwithstanding all Art Power and Persuasion was used by the Protector and his people to obtain the same For that in this Parliament they gat only two things of moment to be determined about Religion The first was that all former penal Statutes made against any Heretic or Sectary whatsoever from King Edward the Third downward to wit for the space almost of 200 years should be revoked But namely the Statutes made against Lollards Wickliffians Hussits Anabaptists and the rest in the 1. Year of King Richard the Second and in the 2. Year of King Henry the Fifth and in the 25.31.33.34 and 35. Years of King Henry the Eighth against what Heresies Heretics or Sectaries soever All these Laws and Statutes I say were recalled annulled and taken away together with their punishments prohibitions or other restraints whatsoever So as now every Man might think say preach or teach what he thought best And this judgeth Fox to be a goodly sweet Liberty of the Gospel where no Man is bound nor forced to any thing And this determined a Child of Nine years old against the Decrees of all his prudent Ancestors for 200 years upward 14. But yet in all this free liberty of Sectaries to say write and teach what they list the punishment of Death was reserved unto Catholics that should speak in defence of the Doctrin of the Pope's Supremacy or in derogation of the Supreme Ecclesiastical Headship of this young King. And this was the first and principal beginning of the Gospel in King Edward's time to give every Man liberty to do and believe what he would so he were not a Catholic Which is much like the opening of Prisons and common Jayls in the beginning of a Rebellion when all Malefactors are made free from fear of Laws so they will joyn in Faction with the Rebellious And upon the opening of this Gate no marvail tho' all Sectaries rushed in and among others divers Arians Anabaptists Trinitarians and like Heretics began to preach presently their Doctrins with such publicity as Cranmer and his Fellows for repressing thereof were enforced to sit in publick Judgment and condemn divers of them to Death albeit I do not see by what Law having now revoked and annulled all former Statutes made against Heretics for their punishment as hath been said And namely he condemned Joan of Kent alias Joan Knell that had been a Handmaid of Anne Askew burned before in the last year of King Henry VIII for denying the Real Presence And Joan had profited so much under Anne's Doctrin as now she denied Christ to have taken Flesh of the Blessed Virgin who was so resolute with her Scriptures against Cranmer and his Assistants sitting upon her and her Fellows in our Lady 's Cappel of S. Paul's Church in London upon the 27th of April when he gave Sentence of Death against her that she reproached him greatly for his inconstancy in Religion telling him that he condemned not long before Anne Askew for a piece of Bread and now condemned her for a piece of Flesh And that as he was come now to believe the first which then he had condemned so would he come in time to believe the second c. 15. And for that O. E. in his Defence of Sir Francis Hastings would not seem to think this matter to be true I do assure the Reader in all sincerity that I have it by relation and asseveration
they cast him into the Tower deprived him of his Protectorship and had cut off his Head also at that time had not the Dutchess of Somerset prudently pacified the Earl of Warwick by presenting a rich Casket of Jewels unto the Countess his Wife whereunto my Author was pâ—ivy and moreover she offered a new Complot of Affinity between the said Earl and Duke which afterward was effectuated to wit the Marriage between the Son of the Earl and Daughter of the Duke All which together with a most humble lowly and base Submission made by the said Protector which is extant in our Chronicles moved the Earl to pardon him for the present and to restore him to a kind of Liberty at his own House and after that again to the Council and King's presence for of all he was deprived but never to the Protectorship Nay soon after he cast him into Prison again and cut off his Head as all men know and had thereunto the help of many chief Gospellers who not long after this laid other Complots conform to the turbulent humor and fruits of this Gospel and made other new Alliances between the House of Suffolk that was most forward of all others in Gospelling and the said Earl of Warwick now Duke of Northumberland which Alliances are supposed to have shortned the young unfortunate King's Life and known to have meant the Subversion of the whole Course of the Royal Line and Succession appointed by King Henry VIII cutting off his two Daughters Mary and Elizabeth that remained after King Edward if God had not strangely defended them by cutting off these Evangelical Contrivances 43. Wherefore to be no longer in this matter which is clear enough of it self we do see how the first public Introduction of Protestant Religion that ever was admitted in England from Christ to that time came in both under King Henry and much more under King Edward his Son to wit how and upon what occasions by whom and what men the same was both preached and favored and what effects by what means and in what form and fashion it was performed for as for the occasions they have been declared before But under King Edward it is evident that they were the Childhood and Infancy of a tender young Prince together with the Ambition Covetousness Pride and desire of sole Command in his Uncle the Protector which motives made him break the Will and Testament Laws and Ordinances of his old Dread Lord King Henry before almost his Blood was cold after his death and the like Inductions of Promotions drew after him others who seconded his Actions as long as they were profitable unto them 44. As for the men that first and principally broached these Doctrins they were for the most part married Friers and Apostate Priests that living in Concupiscence of Women and other Sensuality desired to maintain and continue the same by the Liberty of this new Gospel The Promoters and Favorers of these Men were such especially of the Laity and Clergy as had more Interest by the Change for their own Promotion and Advancement than Conscience or persuasion of Judgment for the Truth of their Religion as would appear if we should name them one by one that then were of the Council and chief Authority The Effects and spiritual Fruits of this first Change were as you have seen and heard the most notorious Vices of Ambition Dissimulation Hatred Deceit Tyranny and Subversion one of another together with Division Dissention Garboils and Desolation of the Realm yea plain Atheism Irreligion and contempt of all Religion that ever was known to have risen up in any Kingdom of the World within the compass of so few years And that which is most remarkable there followed presently the Overthrow of all the principal Actors and Authors of these Innovations by God's own wonderful hand and this more in these six years than in sixty or six score or perhaps six hundred hath been seen to have fallen out in England in other times And no doubt but it is of singular consideration that whereas true Christian Religion but especially any Change or Reformation to the better part is admitted there presently do ensue by usual consequence great effects of Piety Devotion Charity and vertuous Life if the Reformation be sincere come from God indeed here on the contrary side the Providence of God did shew a notorious document to the whole World of the falshood and wickedness of this new Gospel in that the first professors and promoters thereof in our Land fell to more open wickedness in these Five years than in so many Fifties before as hath been said 45. And the chief Captain and Ringleader of all this Dance of Innovations after the Protector himself to wit the Duke of Northumberland coming soon after to Calamity fell into the accompt and reckoning of this matter and made a long vehement declaration thereof in the Chappel of the Tower before divers of the Council the day before he was put to death to wit upon the 21. of August 1553 shewing that he had found true by good experience that this new Gospel which he had followed hitherto tended to nothing but to Atheism in Religion dissolution of Life and perturbation of the Common-wealth which he repeated again at his Death and the same was presently put in Print and so it remained Tho' Holinshed Hooker and Harrison like false Companions as they be do leave it out wholly of their large Chronicle telling only that he and the Duke of Somerset were buried one by the other in the Tower. But Stow proceedeth more handsomly for tho' he omit the larger rehearsal of the matter and do speak of other things less odious yet doth he so set down the thing as the truth may easily be seen thereby which the other Companions do hold from us of purpose for thus he writeth 46. The rest of the Duke's Speech almost in every Point was as he had said in the Chappel of the Tower saving that when he had made Confession of his Belief Stow dare not tell what Belief for that it was wholly Catholic with many vehement Protestations against the Heresies of that time he had these words Here I do protest unto you good People most earnestly even from the bottom of my Heart that this which I have spoken is of my self not being required nor moved thereunto by any man for any flattery or hope of Life I take witness of my Lord of Worcester here my old Friend and Ghostly Father that he found me in this mind and opinion when he came to me But I have declared this only upon my own mind and affection and for the zeal and love that I bear to my natural Country And I could good People rehearse much more even by experience that I have of this Evil that is happened to this Realm by thâ—se occasions But now you know I have another thing to do whereunto I