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
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
A TREATISE OF Three Conversions of England FROM PAGANISM TO Christian Religion I. Under the Apostles in the First Age after CHRIST II. Under Pope Eleutherius and King Lucius in the Second Age. III. Under Pope Gregory the Great and King Ethelbert in the Sixth Age with divers other Matters thereunto appertaining The First Two PARTS Dedicated to the Catholics of England with a new Addition to the said Catholics upon the News of the late Queens Death and the Succession of His Majesty of Scotland to the Crown of ENGLAND By N. D. Author of the Ward-Word Enquire of ancient times before you remember the old days of your Forefathers consider of every Age as they have passed ask your Father and he will tell you demand of your Ancestors and they will declare unto you Deut. iv 32. LONDON Re-printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel MDCLXXXVIII THE Epistle Dedicatory TO THE CATHOLICS of ENGLAND THo ' when I wrote the Preface that doth ensue I had no purpose to add any Epistle Dedicatory most dearly-beloved and worthy Catholics yet afterwards thinking of some other circumstances both of Matter and Time I deem'd it not amiss to say somewhat also in this kind of Dedication both for presenting this Work to whom principally it is due as also for Advertisement in some few Points which the present State of your Affairs doth seem to require 2. And for the first Who doth not see and consider that this Treatise of the first Planting of Christian Catholic Faith in England with the Continuance and Preservation thereof from Age to Age unto our Times doth chiefly and principally belong to You that are Catholics at this day most worthy Children of so renowned Parents most honorable Off-spring of so excellent Ancestors most glorious Posterity of so famous Antiquity whom future Ages will both esteem and extoll above many of your Predecessors for retaining That in times of War which they left unto you in possession of Peace and for defending that by so singular Constancy of Sufferings which they both received and bequeathed unto you by quiet Tradition 3. Which Tradition being set down proved and declared most clearly in this ensuing Work I do by offering the same unto you but present you with your own to wit the History of your own House the Records and Chronicles of your own Family the Pedigree and Genealogy of your own Forefathers the Antiquity and Nobility of your own Progenitors together with your just Title and Claim to their Inheritance producing jointly for the same your undoubted Charters Enrollments Evidences Writings and Witnesses which no man with reason can deny or call in doubt 4. And furthermore I do add in the end for more full Complement of this whole Cause all such former false and wrong Suits Pretences Pleas Intrusions Surreptions or other like Shifts or Wranglings which any Heretics to this day but especially these of our times have made hitherto about the same for shew of some Title or Right on their part to this Inheritance and Succession of yours And lastly I do produce also the Judgments Censures Sentences and Arrests of all Christian Parliaments of the World to wit the Determination of all the highest Ecclesiastical Tribunals in your favor By all which I doubt not but that your Right and Title remaineth most evident and clear to all Men of Judgment even to the Enemies or Adversaries themselves Wherefore most justly I do Dedicate this Treatise unto you which so many ways and for so many reasons is your own And so much for the first Point 5. The second also about the Circumstances of the present Time is already somewhat touched in that we have said How by God's holy Providence you are born in this time of War Tribulation and Contradiction instead of that large and long Peace and Tranquility which your Ancestors enjoyed in the use of that Catholic Religion for which you strive and suffer now which thing tho' for the present it seem unpleasant and distastful to Flesh and Blood yet will the hour come when it shall prove a most singular Benefit and Privilege to such as have received Grace to manifest themselves by this occasion seeing that according to the Apostle this is one principal End in God's Everlasting Wisdom for permission of Heresies ut qui probati sunt manifesti fiant that those that be of proof be made manifest by this occasion 6. Wherefore seeing as the same Apostle saith in another place it is given to you dear Catholics that live in England at this day not only to believe in him but also to suffer for him a singular privilege by his account yea and that we may say of You as he said and gloried of Himself and his Fellows Vincula vestra manifesta fiunt in Christo in omni praetorio Your Bonds for Christ are made notorious throughout all the Tribunals and Judgment-seats of our Country And yet further as he wrote to his dear Thessalonians in their highest praise and commendation You are become such Followers of Christ and his Apostles as receiving the Word of God with Joy of the Holy Ghost in great Tribulation you are made an Example or Spectacle to all other faithful people in Macedonia and Achaia for that from you is divulged the Word of God not only in Macedonia and Achaia but also in all other places by reason of your Faith which is published every-where throughout the World. 7. Seeing I say all this may be truly written of you and that our Country hath gotten more honorable Renown in Foreign Catholic Nations and the Church of God more Glory and Comfort by this your Patience and Sufferings in these few latter years than by the peaceable Calm of many former Ages of your Ancestors I know no true Servant of God that together with the commiseration of your present hard afflicted state receiveth not also particular Consolation by your Integrity and Constancy praying for your perseverance in that most honorable Course which hitherto you have held of true Obedience to Almighty God in matters of your Soul and Loyal Behavior of Duty towards your Temporal Prince in all worldly Affairs which course tho' it have not escaped the calumnious Tongues and Pens of some carping Adversaries yet is it justifiable and glorious both before God and Man where Reason ruleth and not Passion And I doubt not but that the Wisdom and Moderation both of her Majesty and her sage Council will rather in this Point ponder your own facts than your Adversaries words as also consider how rare such Examples of Patience are in these our days where so great a multitude for so many years hath passed under the Rod of so sharp Afflictions which is your singular commendation with all wise and godly men let Cavillers and Calumniators say what they will to the contrary 8. But God's holy hand hath not
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
erroribus This man did Caelestinus Bishop of Rome send to the Scots and Irish-men especially those that lived in Britanny after Palladius the Grecian to defend them from the Errors of the Pelagians 16. Behold the Care and Authority of the Bishop of Rome in those days But what followeth in Bale This man saith he did preach the Gospel unto the Irish-men with incredible fervour of spirit for forty years together and did convert them to the sincere Faith of Christ He was most excellent both in Learning and Holiness and among other Miracles that he did he continued in Praying and Fasting forty days and forty nights founded many Churches healed many sick deliver'd many possessed of Devils and raised to life sixty that were dead c. 17. Behold the effects of Preachers sent forth by the Bishops of Rome recounted by the Heretics themselves Let Fox or Bale shew us any such Example of Miracles wrought by Preachers sent by them and their Sect. And that this man also was made Bishop by Caelestinus the Pope and sent hither after Palladius is testified by St. Prosper that lived in that time and after him by St. Bede Marianus Scotus Sigibert and others who say also that he died in the year of Christ 491 being of the age of 122 years and his Memory is held in the Roman Calendar upon the 17th day of March c. And now our Fox and Bale being taken in these Examples to speak against themselves we might pass over the rest with silence assuring the Reader that all is like unto this Yet some points more we shall note 18. The fourth before named Bacchiarius tho' he be not mentioned by John Bale yet other Authors do report that he was brought up in Rome and in good credit with Pope Leo I. to whom he dedicated a Book written in defence of his Pilgrimage to Rome He had been the Scholar of St. Patricius and by this you may guess of what Religion he was 19. Congellus is the sixth Preacher of true Religion cited in Fox's Catalogue for of Dubritius which is the fifth we spoke before whom Bale saith to have flourished about the year of Christ 530 and that he was the first Abbot of the Monastery of Bangor But what more think you Ab isto Monachismus à Pelagio introductus c. From this man saith he the Religion of Monks brought in by Pelagius the Heretic was not only spread over Britanny under shew of true Religion but was dilated also into other Countreys c. Behold how Fox and Bale agree Fox saith He was a true Preacher of the Word of God and Bale saith He was a Father of Pelagian Monks And note here by the way that Fox professing to shew the continual Succession of the Britan Church leapeth from Patricius to Dubritius of whom we spake before and between whom there was above 100 years distance if we believe Bale and other Authors And then followeth Kentegernus and Helmotus before David Menevensis who should have come after him in respect of time tho' of Helmotus Bale maketh no mention but of Kentegernus he saith That he flourished in the year 560 and lived in all 185 years which if it be so he must needs be alive long after the entrance of St. Augustin He saith He was a Monk and had three hundred Scholars in one Colledge which he sent to preaching here and there c. And then he addeth further Melote utebatur c. He used a Garment made of Goats skins with a streight Hood having a white Stole about his Neck after the fashion of the Primitive Church He converted many to the Faith of Christ recall'd many Apostatas drove out Pelagians built Churches ministred to the sick and healed their sickness and lived in very great Abstinence c. Thus he describeth him and whether this description doth agree to a Protestant Minister or to a Catholic Abbot let the Reader consider 20. There do follow in Fox's Catalogue David Daniel Sampson Elnodugus Asaphus and Gildas But of St. David the first of this number we have spoken before in this Chapter And as for Gildas which is the last of this Rank Bale saith He was a Monk of Bangor And further it may easily appear by the speeches themselves which before we have alledged out of him in the former Chapter of what Religion he was Of Daniel Sampson and Elnodugus tho' John Bale speak little or nothing yet Capgrave Leland and others shew that they were of the same Religion with the rest Daniel being the first Bishop of Bangor and Sampson next after St. David was Bishop of that place 21. Of Asaph Bale saith He was Scholar to the foresaid famous Abbot Kentegern and was made Bishop of Elgoa in Wales which of his name was called Asaph ever since He flourished in the year 590 and saw the coming in of Augustin and his Fellows from Rome and was the first of the Britans saith Bale qui à Gregorii Romani Discipulis in Angliam adventantibus Auctoritatem Unctionem accepit that took his Authority and Vnction or Consecration from the Disciples of Gregory Bishop of Rome that came into England So writeth Bale and by this sheweth that St. Asaph held nothing against the Roman Religion seeing he accepted his Authority and Consecration from the Bishop of Rome Besides this this Bishop St. Asaph hath his Memory celebrated in the Roman Martyrology upon the first day of May which he should not if he had been different in any one point from the Roman Religion 22. And so being come down now to St. Augustin's time it is to no purpose to go any farther or name the rest that do ensue in Fox to wit those five Herlanus Elbodus Dinothus Samuel and Nivius for that they lived after St. Augustin's entrance whereas Fox's promise was to cite only British Teachears that were before him and different from the Roman Religion whereof he hath named hitherto none Besides that of three of these five Bale writeth not and as for Dinothus Abbot of Bangor he was the chiefest of those who opposed themselves against Augustin and set other men against him also in Synodo Wiccionum and was severely punished afterward for the same by the Providence of God as St. Bede noteth to wit by the Sword of Ethelfredus a Heathen King of Northumberland long after the Death of St. Augustin when the said Dinothus and 1200 Monks were slain at Chester by the Souldiers of the said Ethelfride Augustino jam multo ante tempore saith St. Bede ad Coelestia Regna sublato St. Augustin being taken to Heaven long before tho' Bale be not ashamed to say that it was done by his suggestion praising the foresaid Dinothus and his Confederates for that they would not preach Baptism and celebrate Easter-day according to the Custom of Rome and Universal Catholic Church 23. So as now we see that these men care not
Anselmus and so successively one after another none of them ever being noted to be contrary to his Predecessor in Religion until Thomas Cranmer in King Henry the Eighth's time Who applyed himself to the Religion which the State and Prince liked best to allow of in that time And after the Kings Death agreed to break his last Will and Testament in changing that Religion into Zuinglianism most detested by his Majesty And after again Conspired to put down and destroy all the Kings Children and to set up the Duke of Suffolks Daughter And finally was put to Death both for Heresie and Treason in Queen Maries time as after more particularly shall be shewed And this was the first change of Religion in any Arch-bishop of Canterbury from the beginning unto his days 28. So as from King Ethelbert the first Christned English King unto King Henry the Eighth being the Eighteenth from William the Conqueror and more than Eighty from the said Ethelbert one and the self same Faith endured in England and the self same Church florished under so many different both Kings and Nations as before hath been shewed And the like we have declared to have been for the first 600 years under the Britans to wit that they never were known to have changed their Religion Which being so the deduction and demonstration is so clear as any reasonable Man can either make or require for proof that one and the self same Religion endured from the beginning to the ending among them 29. Unto which kind of proof the Ancient Holy Father and Martyr St. Irenaeus giveth great Authority by a like Argument For that having made the like Enumeration of the Bishops of Rome as we do now of our Arch-bishops of Canterbury against the Heretics of his days and that from St. Peter downward to Pope Eleutherius that lived with him he inferreth this conclusion Est plenissima haec ostensio unam eandem vivificatricem fidem esse quae in Ecclesiis ab Apostolis conservata tradita in unitate c. This is a most full proof that one and the self same lively Faith hath been conserved in the Church from the Apostles days unto our time delivered from one to another in unity c. And if that were a most full proof and demonstration in St. Irenaeus judgment against the Heretics of his time The same is now much more to us having seen the Succession of so many Ages since and noted the manner of like proof and Argument in all other Fathers after him As namely of St. Augustin Numerate sacerdotes velab ipsa Petri Sede in ordine illo Patrum quis cui successit videte Number the Priests that have succeeded the one to the other even from the Seat of Peter himself And then further In hoc ordine Successionis nullus Donatista Episcopus invenitur No one Donatist Bishop is to be found in this rank of Succession And yet more 30. Et si in illum ordinem Episcoporum quisquam traditor per illa tempora subrepsisset nihil praejudicaret Ecclesiae And if any Traytor in those days should have crept into that order and rank of Roman Bishops for of them he speaketh it should not have prejudicated the Church of God. 31. Which saying of St. Austin may serve us not only to Answer whatsoever Heretics do or may object true or false against the Lives of any latter Roman Bishops but for defence also of the Rank and Succession of our Archbishops of Canterbury notwithstanding the Apostasie of Thomas Cranmer or any other his like that for these latter years may have crept in as St. Austin saith or been thrust in and by violence occupied that See and Seat unworthily either in respect of his life or Religion or both seeing that the former Succession as well of Men as of Doctrin from St. Austin to Cranmer is manifest and evident for the space of 900 years without interruption as also that they were united all this time in Faith and Doctrin with the Universal Church of Christendom as Members and Branches of their Head and Body and that the first breach and interruption made thereof in that See by Cranmer and continued after him by some of his followers was noted presently and contradicted yea censured and condemned also by Sentence of the whole Church and thereupon rejected and abhorred by the principal of his own people both Clergy and Laity at that time 32. And the same contradiction endureth to this day and will do ever in those that conserve their Ancient Faith and Religion and do adhere to the lawful Succession of his Predecessors against him and his partners until it please Almighty God to put the said order and lawful Succession in joynt again and restore that chief and head conduct of our Country to his former integrity whereby the Water of true Catholic Religion was wont to be derived to the people of our Land and will be again when Gods wrath for our sins shall be pacified and his mercy induce him to permit as often otherwise he hath done that all return to the accustomed Ancient course of Catholic Faith and Religion again seeing in very deed there is none but that for so much as Sects and new Religions are but inventions and entertainments of time whilst God punisheth some sins in his Servants and after all returneth where it was before 33. And this have we spoken by the way and by occasion of Cranmer that was the first Arch-bishop of Canterbury that ever brake from the Roman Faith but notwithstanding his Apostasie Catholic Religion was not extinguished in England by that but remained there still all King Henries time as also during the Reigns of his three Children King and Queens Edward Mary and Elizabeth unto these our days as in the next Chapter following more largly and particularly we are to demonstrate CHAP. XII How Catholic Religion hath continued and persevered in England during the times and Reigns of King Henry the Eighth and his three Children King Edward Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth notwithstanding all the troubles changes alterations and tribulations that have fallen out and that the same Religion is like to continue to the Worlds end if our sins hinder not THE deduction which we have hitherto made of Catholic Religion from our first Conversion under St. Gregory and King Ethelbert of Kent unto the Reign of King Henry the Eighth with whom concurred in the See of Rome Leo the Tenth and Clemens the Seventh and other Popes Successors of St. Gregory hath been for the most part in time of Peace and without any public discontinuance at all but now are we to prosecute the same matter from the alteration made by King Henry downward unto our days and therein to shew that albeit in the external Face and Form of Religion there have been divers Mutations as Tempestuous Winds and Storms for the present yet hath the Catholic
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
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
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
divers parts of the Realm and namely those of Devonshire seeing such alterations to be made in Religion under the Minority of a Child quite contrary to the Laws and Statutes left by King Henry the Eighth and that all things went backward both at home and abroad the Towns we had in France being lost or upon the point of losing they complained first and after took Arms for defence of their Ancient Religion in the beginning of the third year of this Kings Reign the people of Sommersetshire and Lincolnshire beginning first in the Month of May and then in July the people of Essex Kent Suffolk Norfolk Cornwall and Devonshire and in August those also of Yorkshire all crying and demanding to have the Catholic Religion remain as it was left by King Henry at least-wise until King Edward came to lawful age thereby to be able to determin and judge of matters of Religion which demand did wonderfully trouble and vex the Lord Seymour Protector and other new Gospellers who being hungry after Catholics Goods could abide no delay in making this desired Innovation 33. And albeit before these Insurrections fell out they did well see by divers attempts that the heart of the people was wholly against those their Innovations in Religion as appeareth plainly by a Speech of the Lord Rich then Chancellor to the Sheriffs and Justices of Peace of all Shires gathered together in London in the year 1548 being the second of King Edward's Reign as at large you may see in Fox yet such was their importunity in this behalf as they would needs go forward which thing pleasing John Fox well he writeth thus By this you may see what zealous care was in this young King and in the Lord Protector his Uncle concerning the Reformation of Christ's Church 34. The same Fox also setteth down in another place what the young King answered to the Devonshire-men that desir'd that the state of matters in Religion might remain as King Henry had ordained and left them and in particular they required that the Statute of Six Articles against Heretics might stand in force until King Edward came to full age Whereunto let us hear his Answer and consider thereby how matters went in those days To the first about the Statute of Six Articles made by his Father and inviolably kept all days of his life the little Child answered thus Know you what you require They were Laws made but quickly repented too bloody were they to be born of Our people You know they helped Vs to extend rigor and to draw Our Sword very often yea they were as a Whetstone unto Our Sword and for your Causes We have left to use them and sith Our mercy moved Vs to write Our Laws with Milk how be you blinded to ask them in Blood c 35. And then further he saith But to leave this manner of reasoning with you We let you wit That the same Laws have been annulled by Our Parliament with great rejoyce of Our Subjects and not now to be called by Our Subjects in question Dare any of you stand against an Act of Parliament c Assure you most surely that We of no earthly thing make such account as to have Our Laws obey'd for herein resteth Our Honor and shall any of you dare to breath against Our Honor c Lo how little account this little King Child was taught to make of his old Father's Laws and how thundringly to speak for the maintenance of his own But when they came to the second point about his Nonage he is yet more resolute for thus he writeth 36. In the end of your request saith he you would have Our Fathers Laws stand in force until Our full age But to this We think if ye knew what ye spake you would never have uttered that motion nor ever have given breath to such a thought For what think you of Our Kingdom Be We of less Authority for Our Age You must first know that as a King We have no difference of years nor time but as a natural Man and Creature of God We have Youth and by his sufferance shall have Age. We are your rightful King your leige Lord your King anointed your King crowned the sovereign King of England not by Our Age but by God's Ordinance We possess Our Crown not by Years but by the Blood and Descent from Our Father King Henry VIII c. 37. All this and much more did they make the innocent young King to talk and write in defence of their Innovations who had more Interest therein than He. And as for the Catholic People albeit they deny'd not but that he was a true King in his minority of Age yet no man was so foolish as to think notwithstanding all these preachings to the contrary but that it was a different thing for matters of Religion to be altered now in his Name than afterward by Himself when he should come to Age. 38. But among all others none urged this Argument so much nor with such Authority as the King 's eldest Sister the Princess Lady Mary Heir-apparent to the Crown who being a zealous Catholic and yet wishing well also to the Protector did by sundry Letters to be seen in Fox admonish both Him and the rest of the Council That they should look well what they did during the King's minority in altering the Will Laws and Ordinances of his and her Father King Henry for that afterward they were like enough to be called to account about the same when the King her Brother should come to full years Moreover she admonished them That they had no Authority to make such alteration in so great matters as they did but ought rather to conserve things in the state left unto them by King Henry her Father according as by solemn Oath they had sworn unto him before his death that they would do but especially about matters of Religion until the King her Brother came unto lawful Age. 39. By all which is clearly seen how the Catholic Religion remained in England most substantially rooted in King Edward's days and that Heresie entred only from the teeth outward and was maintained by violence of Temporal Authority and according to that was the success For after many toils and turmoils one killing another of those that governed when they thought they had laid a sure Platform to continue the same by excluding the Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth and thrusting in Jane the Duke of Suffolk's Daughter after King Edward's death and had so plotted and fortified that Design as they thought it sure the only Zeal of the common Catholic People for the recovering the use of Catholic Religion again overthrew all and placed Queen Mary as is notorious to the World. And afterward if we consider the end of most of them which in those days being Counsellors for Ambition or other respects were promoters of Heresie as Dudley Pembroke Winchester
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
they would choose such a person as this is reported to be having wandred the World up and down with a Monk as Fox affirmeth How could all this lie hidden Was there none that either by Countenance Voice or other Actions of hers could suspect this Fraud How happened her own Lovers had not discover'd her or her Incontinent Life How could she pass through Priesthood and other Ecclesiastical Orders How by so many under Offices and Degrees as they must before they come to be Popes without descrying 35. And finally not to stand upon more Improbabilities either this Pope Joan was young or old when she was chosen If she were young that was against the Custom to choose young Popes as may appear by the great number of Popes that lived in that Dignity above the number of Emperours that succeeded often in their Youth besides it is a most unlikely thing that the whole Roman Clergy would choose a Pope without a Beard especially a Stranger But if she were old when she was chosen then how did she bear a Child publicly in Procession as our Heretics affirm How did they not discern her to be a Woman or an Eunuch seeing she had no Beard in her Old Age. 36. Again how could she be nine months with Child in that place without being discovered or suspected by some How durst she go forth in public Procession when she knew her self to be so near her time How is she said to have gone from the Palace of St. Peter to St. John Lateran whereas the Popes lay not then in the Vatican at St. Peters but at St. John Lateran it self Finally there are so many fond Improbabilities and moral Impossibilities in this Tale especially being joyned with the grave Testimonies of so many ancient Authors and Historiographers as before we have recited to the contrary as no man of any mean judgment discretion or common sense will give credit thereto but will easily see the vanity of so ridiculous a Fiction Wherefore this shall suffice for the Confutation of this Heretical Fable tho' as before hath been shewed if it were or had been true yet no prejudice could come to Us thereby that hold No Woman good or bad can be Head of our Church CHAP. VI. The Narration of English Ecclesiastical Affairs during this fourth station or distinction of Time is continued and the Absurdities of John Fox are discovered WHerefore now we shall return to follow the Thread of John Fox's Story again And whereas you asked me before What indeed the poor Fellow performeth in this his Third Book I now will answer as then I began to say That in very deed he meerly trifleth out the time handling noting of that he should have done of the orderly Descent Race or Course of the Church but telling us impertinent and trivial matters and for the most part not Ecclesiastical but Temporal to be found in every Chronicler to wit certain scraps of the Lives of our English Kings from King Egbert Ethelwolf Ethelbald Ethelred Alured and the rest unto King Edward the Confessor and so to William the Conqueror censuring every Prince when he speaketh of spiritual matters for their belief actions and doings in Religion As for Example reprehending them for that they builded so many Monasteries and much more for that so many of them and their Children entred to be Monks and Nuns that they gave so much Lands Livings and Privileges to Abbeys and Churches and for that they went on Pilgrimages offered Alms for their Sins ordained Masses to be said for them when they were dead that they believed so easily Miracles went to Shrift humbled themselves to Priests and other such-like Religious Actions which do greatly displease Fox 2. And to shew you some few Examples he beginneth first with Ethelwolf Son to King Egbert misliking a certain Donation of Lands which he gave to the Church in his time for Alms to pacifie as he saith God's wrath thereby the sooner for diverting the cruel Persecution and Inundation of the Danes which had begun in his Father King Egbert's time and endured still to the utter Desolation of the Land. His words are these Post multiplices tribulationes ad affligendum usque ad internecionem Ego Ethelwolfus Rex c. After many Tribulations afflicting us even to death I king Ethelwolf together with the Council of my Bishops and Princes have taken this wholsom and agreeable resolution to give some Portion of the Land of my Inheritance unto God and the B. Virgin Mary and to all the rest of his Saints to be possessed by them for ever c. to the end that they may pour out Prayers for us to God so much the more diligently c. 3. Thus far John Fox tho' William of Malmsbury doth relate the same far differently and much more largely telling what Bishops were present at the making of this Chart to wit Alstane Bishop of Shirbourn afterward translated to Salisbury and Swithin Bishop of Winchester and what Psalms and Masses were appointed by the said Bishops for the King in respect of these Alms and the like All which do greatly displease John Fox but help him nothing at all but disgraceth rather his new Church this happening in the year of Christ 844. 4. The like Donation doth Fox recite out of William of Malmsbury made by Ethelbald King of the Mercians some years before to wit about the year of Christ 740 where he saith Ego Ethelbaldus Merciorum Rex pro amore Coelestis Patriae c. I Ethelbald King of the Mercians for the love I have to my Heavenly Country and for the health of my Soul have thought good to study how by good works I may free the same from the chains of sin Wherefore seeing Almighty God for his Mercy and Clemency without any precedent Merit of mine hath given me my Crown of this Government I do willingly out of that which he hath given me restore to him again by way of Alms that which followeth c. 5. Thus far that good King which greatly also misliketh John Fox And he saith in particular that two things do much offend him in these Donations to Churches and Monasteries The first That they should erect these Monasteries of Monks Nuns saith he to live solely and singly by themselves out of the holy state of Matrimony And secondly That unto this their Zeal and Devotion was not joyned the knowledge of Christ's Gospel especially in the Article of our free Justification by the Faith of Jesus Christ 6. Lo here what two quarrels our Fox hath pick'd out against these ancient Christians The first That so many did profess the holy State of Virginity and Continency The other That by doing so many good works they lacked the knowledge of the Protestants Gospel which justifieth by Faith only without good works But they might answer with St. James Thou hast Faith and I have Works shew me thy Faith without Works and I
will shew thee my Faith by Works And that these good works did proceed of Faith contrary to the Cavil of John Fox is evident by those pious words of the King where he saith Seeing Almighty God of his Mercy and Clemency without any precedent Merit of mine hath given me my Crown I do willingly restore to him again c. 7. But Fox goeth forward in jesting at the said King Ethelwolf saying That he that had been once nuzl'd up in his Youth among Priests he was always good and devout to holy Church c. And then passeth he on to shew How after he had established matters in his own Kingdom he went to Rome and carried with him his little Son Alured or Alfred committing him to the bringing up of Pope Leo IV. as before hath been said where also he re-edified the English School founded by King Offa and destroy'd by Fire a little before under King Egbert Moreover he gave saith Fox yearly to be paid in Rome 300 Marks to be distributed in this manner 100 Marks to maintain the Lights of St. Peter 's Church and another hundred Marks to maintain the Lights of St. Paul 's Church and the third hundred to be disposed in good works at the Pope's appointment At all which Fox jesteth also merrily building his Church by these Mocks and Mews 8. And to like effect he reciteth a Miracle registred by William Malmsbury and by the Charter of King Ethelstone Son and Heir to King Edward the elder which King having escaped a great Danger at Winchester where one of his Subjects named Duke Alfred and other of his Nobles conspiring together presently after his Father's Death would have put out his eyes But he escaping that Danger took the said Alfred Prisoner and for that he denied that he had any such intention the good King thought there was no better Trial than to send him to Rome to Pope John XI to be try'd by a solemn religious Oath before him The Pope made him swear before St. Peter's Altar who forswearing the said Conspiracy fell down presently before the said Altar in the sight of all the People and was carried thence in the arms of his Servants to the aforesaid School or English-men where he died the third night after wherewith the Pope and all Rome remain'd astonished and the Pope sent presently into England to know of the King whether he would pardon him and suffer his Body to be buried in Christian Sepulcher which King Ethelston after consultation had with the rest of his Nobility and by the earnest intercession of Duke Alfred's Friends was content that he should be so buried but yet by Sentence of the whole Realm the Possessions of the said Alfred were adjudg'd to the King's use who bestow'd them all upon Churches and Monasteries to the Honor of God and St. Peter which had given this Judgment in the Controversie 9. All this is testified by the said King's Charter recorded by Will. of Malmsb. and recited by Fox and the said Charter towards the end hath these words Et sic judicata est mihi tot a possessio ejus in magnis modicis quam Deo Sancto Petro dedi nec justius novi quà m Deo Sancto Petro hanc possessionem dare qui emulum meum in conspectu omnium cadere fecerunt mihi prosperitatem Regni largiti sunt And by this means the whole Possession both great and small of Duke Alfred was adjudged unto me which I gave unto God and to St. Peter nor do I know to whom I should more justly give the same than to God and to St. Peter who made my Adversary to fall down in the sight of all men and gave unto me the Prosperity of my Kingdom Thus wrote he about the year of Christ 933 as John Fox counteth and I marvel he would relate this Story being so much against himself and his Religion and in confirmation of ours as it is for that it sheweth that God and St. Peter in those days wrought Miracles in Rome when Fox saith that the Faith and Religion of Rome was far out of order from the true Gospel But this is the misery and calamity of this poor Fellow and his Cause as often before I have noted that either he must write nothing at all of these Times and Ages or else he must write Testimonies against himself 10. I will give you one short Example more where he allegeth us a Narration of a very old Writer which he saith he had in Manuscript lent him by one named William Carre and thereupon he citeth it still by the name of Historia Cariana this Story being written as it seemeth in those Ages and of the Miseries that happened to England by the Incursions of Danes and other Infidels seeketh out the causes of God's wrath in this behalf saying thus In Anglorum quidem Ecclesia primitiva Religio clarissimè splenduit c. In the primitive Church of England Religion did most clearly shine insomuch that Kings Queens Princes Dukes Consuls Barons and Rulers of Churches incensed with the desire of the Kingdom of Heaven laboured and stirred as it were amongst themselves to enter into Monastical Life and into voluntary Exile and Solitariness forsaking all to follow their Lord where in process of time all Virtue so much decay'd among them that in Fraud and Treachery none seemed like unto them neither was to them any thing odious or hateful but Piety and Justice nor any thing in price and honor but Civil War and shedding Blood Wherefore Almighty God sent upon them Pagan And Cruel Nations like swarms of Bees 11. This relateth Fox out of his Carian Story and I know not to what end he should relate it but only to shew that while English-men lived Godly according to the fashion of their primitive Church they esteemed and honored highly Religious and Monastical Life and many leaving the World with the Pleasures and Possessions thereof entred into that Religious Course endeavoring to follow and imitate their Lord and Master therein and that so long was England happy and blessed by God To which effect if John Fox do allege the same then is it evident what a good Conclusion he doth make against himself his Religion at this day that are such professed Enemies to that kind of life so highly here commended and consequently the Relator thereof doth shew himself to be as well John Fool as John Fox not considering what maketh for him or against him 12. But to the end that we should not think that he hath made Peace or Friendship with Monks for all this or that he liketh their Life or Profession any thing the better for so many praises given them by ancient Authors he scoldeth at them every where and upon every occasion writing over the Pages and Titles of his Book these Superscriptions Monks Superstitious Monks Monks married Monks meer Lay-men in old times and the like
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
that Heresie but that he had so much as secretly and inwardly favored the same And for this very cause did King Henry use that solemn and sharp Judgment upon Lambert and made Cranmer to dispute so earnestly against him for the Real Presence whereof afterward he made also the said Cranmer write and print a Book for more evident Attestation therein and to the same end he made Cromwell to pronounce the Sentence that all men might see and know but especially his Favorites that whomsoever he found faulty in that behalf should expect no favor at his hand Whereupon when he had spoken to Lambert asking him What he had to say more for himself why he should not die And the other falling down on his knees remitted himself to his Princely Mercy The King answered with a loud Voice in these words as Fox relateth them If you remit your self to my Judgment you must die for I will be no Patron of Heretics And by and by turning himself to Cromwell he said Cromwell read the Sentence of Condemnation against him which Cromwell addeth Fox was at that time the chief Friend of the Gospellers who taking the Schedule of Condemnation in his hand read the same c. 12. Thus writeth Fox and putteth in the Margin this Note The King condemneth the Martyr of Christ John Lambert And again in another place Thus was John Lambert in this bloody Session by the King judged and condemned to death c. And then speaketh he very dishonorably of King Henry about this matter citing him to the last Day of Judgment to receive his Sentence for that Sentence So as howsoever they flatter the Memory of this King for glosing with her Majesty in outward words yet it is clear enough what they think of him in their hearts and speak of him in corners And howsoever Fox paint him out with their Gospel in his Lap and Sword in his hand to defend it calling him every-where Gospeller yet can they not deny but that the sharpest edge of the Sword fell upon them 13. And here I cannot omit to let you hear Fox's complaint of ill luck and misfortune in this behalf that the King with Cranmer and Cromwell and some others of his Gospel and Gospellers should so unluckily concur to the condemning and burning of this fervent Brother of their Gospel Lambert Here saith Fox it is much to be marvelled at to see how unfortunately it came to pass in this mattter that through the pestiferous and crafty Counsel of Gardyner Bishop of Winchester Sathan did here perform the Condemnation of this Lambert by no other Ministers than Gospellers themselves This is Fox his complaint laying all the fault as you see upon Bishop Gardyner as tho' he had been able to have induced all these Gospellers and among others the King himself and his Gospelling Counsellors to have concurred to the burning of their own Brother Lambert if they had been then of his Gospel But the truth is that none of them at that time were come so far forward as to be Zuinglians For as for the King himself he hated them deadly both then and unto his dying-day as also the Lutherans tho' he bare somewhat more with them than with the other in respect of their holding the Real Presence in the Sacrament whereunto he was most devout And as for Cranmer and Cromwell it may be that in those days they were a little touched with Lutheranism the former to enjoy his Woman which he kept secretly by whom he was also made a Zuinglian in King Edward's days the second for his Gain and Advancement Yet the said Cromwell coming soon after this to be beheaded on the Scaffold said these words among others as Fox relateth them And now I pray you that be here to bear me record that I die in the Catholic Faith not doubting of any Article of my Faith no nor doubting in any Sacrament of the Church Many have slandered me and reported that I have been a Bearer out of such as have maintained evil Opinions which is untrue c. And then a little after he addeth again The Devil is ready to seduce us and I have been seduced but bear me witness that I die in the Catholic Faith of the whole Church 14. Thus relateth Fox of his last Confession and putteth in his Margin this Note A true Christian Confession of the Lord Cromwell at his Death Which if John Fox mean truly indeed and that Cromwell himself meant it also truly and sincerely as he spake and was understood by the people then died he a Catholic in all points and believed all Sacraments of that Church which then in England was held for Catholic and opposite to the new Gospellers at that time by whom he confessed he had been somewhat seduced and yet denieth that ever he was a Bearer out of them as you see And if all this be true indeed how then can this Confession of the Lord Cromwell be called a true Christian Confession with John Fox seeing it is a Catholic Confession and renounceth Fox his Religion utterly And if it were a false feigned and dissembled Confession of Cromwell and meant contrary to the sound of his words at the hour of his death how was he a true Christian man in so dissembling and lying and this at his very going out of the World And here I would have John Fox to solve me this Dilemma both for his own and Cromwell's Credit whom notwithstanding all this Fox will needs enforce to be of his Gospel whether he will or no writing of him thus in another place In this Worthy and Noble Person besides divers other Eminent Virtues three things especially are to be considered his flourishing Authority his excelling Wisdom and his fervent Zeal to Christ and to his Gospel c. And so much of Him and his Fellow Cranmer the two chief Pillars and Under-props of John Fox's Gospel with King Henry 15. And hereby we may in part in contemplate the first Beginning Fountain Origin and Off-spring of John Fox's Gospel in England whereof we have spoken somewhat before in the last Chapter of the former Part of this Treatise where we alleged the words of William Tyndall written to John Fryth his Scholar at the very beginning when King Henry first seemed to favor the Gospel wherein Tyndall saith that he had smelled a certain Counsel taken against Papists but that Fryth must understand that it was not for God but for Revenge and to enjoy the spoil of the Church These were the first motives if we believe Tyndal whom John Fox holdeth and calleth an Apostle of England So as this testimony coming from Him must needs be also Apostolic if not Evangelical 16. But what was the progress of this Gospel so begun in England I have shewed before that not long after this beginning to wit in the year of Christ 1536 King Henry being disposed upon former motives to make some
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
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
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
from p. 887 to 912. and again from p. 949 to 957. That K. Henry after his breach with Rome was still an enemy to Protestants Religion * Cap. 12. See Stat. 31 H. 8. cap. 14. Statutes in Religion made by K. Henry against Protestants Stat. an 32 H. 8. c. 26. The very Gospel against our new Gospellers by K. Henry's judgment K. Henry forbiddeth the Protestant Translation of the Scriptures Stat. an Reg. H. 8.34 35 c. 1. The very true and perfect exposition of Scriptures prescribed by K. Henry against the Protestants Will. Tyndall's Translation of the Scriptures condemned together with the Protestants Books Fox p. 981. The solemn Judgment Condemnatian of Lambert by the King. Anno 32. H. 8. Fox p. 1026. col 1. n. 78. Fox and King Henry fallen out Fox p. 1086. The Protestation of Cromwell at his death that he was a Catholic John Fox is sore pressed about the L. Cromwell Fox p. 1084. Tyndall's judgment testimony of the first motives towards Protestancy in K. Henry Fox p. 977. Hall. in chron an Reg. H. 8.28 fol. 228. The first Book of alteration of Religion in England devised by King Henry A certain Conference between a Courtier a Lady about devising Novelties in Religion Cocl in vit Luther Sur. ann Dom. 1516 1517. The Reply of the Lady with the Courtier 's Answer * Of these Hollanders see Holinshead an 27 H. 8. mensè Maii 1535. * See Holinsh and Stow of this Polling an 1535. The growing and going forward of the new Gospel under King Henry Fox p. 1036. Fox ib. See before cap. 7. Fox p. 991. col 2. n. 30. King Henry's beginning of alteration af-the death of Q. Anne Bullen The chiefest credit of Cromwell when new Gospellers were most punished by King Henry Hol. an 1540. pag. 950. The first point of spiritual misery of the Gospellers Church under King Henry Confusion Luth. in parva Confess de coena Domini Melancthon lib. de suo Judicio ad Elect. Rhen. an Dom. 1560. Freder Staph. l. de Concord Luth. Lyndan in dubitant Praet initio lib. de vit sectis haeret The different Classes and sorts of Sectaries sprung from Luther since the year 1517. How John Fox coupleth all Sectaries in his Church The second spiritual misery of J. Fox's Church contradiction among themselves in their Belief See part 3. of Bilney die 10. Martii an 1531. Tho. Bilney Jo. Frith Will. Tyndall * Part 3. die 2 Jan. die 6 Octob. Frier Barns Gerrard Jerom Lambert Ridley Hooper Rogers Latymer Andrew Hewit * Part 1. c. 12. Peter German * See his day part 3. 13 Octob. Colyns and Coubridge made Martyrs Fox p. 1033. Fox's Confessors under King Henry Erasmus Roterodamus * die 26 Decemb Erasm l. 16. ep 11. Picus Mirandula Bucer Melancthon Friar Bucer's Answer to the Duke of Northumberland Of King Edward VI. Two fond Pageants of King Henry and K. Edward Other ridiculous Paintings of Fox What the Roman Ship carried away and what the Protestants Ship brought into England A Picture of the Protestants Agreement Promotions made by the Protector in the beginning of King Edward's days Holinshead Stow and others an Dom. 1547. The Journey into Scotland why it was devised in King Edward's time The rushing in of Apostates into England Bernard Ochinus Vid. Sander l. de visib Monarch p. 627. The causes of jars between the new Protestant Preachers Stow. Anno 1539. Statut. Anno Domini 1547. Edw. 6. An. 1. Liberty and Impunity granted to all Heretics Joan Knell condemned and burned by Cranmer Sto. in Chron. An. 1549. Sir Francis Inglefield Fox pag. 1180. col 2. n. 40. Fox his impertinent Brag of impunity under King Edward The suffering of Catholics under King Edward Fox pag. 1180. n. 14. The 2d Point handled in the first Parliament about the Blessed Sacrament Stat. an 1. Ed. 6. cap. 1. The Statute about the B. Sacrament Mat. 26. Luc. 22. 1 Cor. 11. Deceitful dealing in this Statute The first Communion Book in English rejected The allowance of Priests and Friers Marriages rejected in this Parliament The resolute proceeding of the Lord Protector Fox p. 1183. Candles Ashes Palms forbidden by the Protector Fox ib. Col. 2. Images taken away by the Protector 's Letter before the Parliament A new Communion Book thrust upon Catholics by the Protector 's only Authority Fox p. 1184. Col. 1. The Confusion that insued in England upon the first Innovation The troubles and garboils in Temporal Affairs ensuing upon Ecclesiastical Confusion Bal. de script Britan. fol. 238. The second Parliament of King Edward An. 1548. 4. Novemb. Statut. Anno 2. Edw. 6. cap. 21. Anno Domini 1548. The Statute of Impunity for Priests and Friers to Marry The second Contention about their new Communion Book The Zwinglian Faction did over-bear the Lutheran in King Edwards days Two men cast into Prison by Cranmer for speaking against the Sacrament of the Altar Fox p. 1180. 1181. The perpl ex ty of Peter Martyr in Oxford about expounding Hoc est Corpus meum Dissembling and tergiversation of Peter Martyr Stat. an 2 Ed. 6 cap. 1. The new Communion-Book made upon the frailty and weakness of Subjects The judgment and speeches of the purer sort of Protestants against the foresaid Communion-Book Fox p. 1355. Catholics excepted from pardon in the Statute The apprehension and condemnation and death of the Lord Thomas Seymor by his Brother and other new Gospellers Stat. an 2 Ed. 6. cap. 18. Anno Dom. 1548. The Revel that ensued presently upon this Parliament of 4th of Novemb. 1548. Holinsh Stow. Anno Dom. 1549. The Protector cast into the Tower Octob. 4. an 1549. Stow an 3 6. 1555 The conclusion concerning the occasions means events and fruits of the new Gospel A consideration of much importance Holinsh An. Dom. 1553. pag. 1089. Stow in Chron. An. 1553. The Duke of Northumberland's Confession of his Faith at his Death Fox pag. 120. The form and fashion of Fox's new Church and Religion Pag. 8. The sleights and shifts of John Fox in his Writings A Comparison expressing the different dealing of Catholics and Protestants about seeking the true Church and Religion Three differences 1. The different estimation of the Church and lineal descent thereof between Catholics and Protestants Aug. l. 1. cont Crescon c. 33. Lactant. lib. 4. divin Instit cap. ult Lactant. ibid. All Heretics do challenge to be the true Church Cyp. l. de simpl Praelat Aug. Ep. 204. ad Donatum Presbyt Donatist No man can be saved out of the true Church Cypr. Tract de unit Ecclesiae How much it importeth each man to consider whether he be in the true Ch. or not The benefits by being in the Church Marc. ultim Mat. 18. Joan. 20. a The contemptibility of the Protestants Church even among themselves b See Luth ep ad Alb. March. Prusiae ep ad Jacob. Brem Aurif tit haer West ph l. cont Calvin Stanch l. de Trin. Mediat Heshus in defens con Calvinum Calv. admonit contra West ph Kemnit ep ad Elector Brandiburg Confess Tigur tract 3. c. c See also the two English Books the one called Dangerous Positions the other A Survey of Disciplinary Doctrin c. August cont ep fund c. 5. Lactan. l. 4. c. ult What Church S. Cyprian and S. Augustin do call Catholic Aug. l. 3. contra Gaudent Donat. cap. 1. Cypr. l. de unit Eccl. Fox's Protest pag. 8. The baseness and obscurity of the Protestant Church by their own confession Fox in Protest ibid. See S. August of this very Point Tract 1. in ep Joan. lib. contra ep Petil. c. 14. in Psal 30. conc 2. alibi Chrysost Hom. 4. de verbis Isaiae vidit Dominum c. Fox ibid. Fox in the difference c. betwixt the old Roman Church and the new pag. 26. Acts and Monuments pag. 1560. Fox p. 1561. col 2. n. 74. August contr ep Fundam cap. 5. What John Fox taketh from his Church The Protestants believe the Devil as much as their own Church The second principal point wherein Catholics and Protestants do differ Cypr. l. 4. ep 2. Epiph. in haer Cathar Aug. l. de haer c. 69. 88. l. 3. contr Par. men c. 2. The Conference at Carthage between Catholics and Donatists Aug. in Breviculo Collat. 3. cap. 3. The first point discussed between S. Augustin and the Donatists about the Name Catholic The second point between the Doatists and Catholics August Coll. 3. cap. 8. The third point discussed between the Catholics and Donatists at Carthage Câ—llat 3. cap. 8. A contention about the Parables of Christ concerning the Church Matt. 13. Matt. 3. Luc. 3. Marc. 3. 13. Mat. 29. Collat. 3. c. 9.10 11. The third principal difference about the proprieties marks of the true Church A Comparison of different giving of notes to find a thing by Proprieties and Marks the true Church given by Catholics Luth. lib. de conc parte ult The marks of the Church fondly set down by Heretics Magdeb. cent 1. lib. 2. c. 4. Calv. l. 4. Instit cap. 1. Protestant Ministers do flie publick Conference as the Donatists did Aug. in Brevit Praefat. ad coll 1. diti Coll. 1. cap. 8. The tergiversation of the Donatists to flie publick Trial. Coll. 1. c. 11.12 13 14. How English Ministers have fled publick Conference hitherto Coll. 3. c. 25.
pious Princes and Lords Egfrid King of the Northumbers Anno 10. upon the fifteenth day before the Calends of October the eighth Indiction and Etheldred reigning over the Mercians the sixth year of his Reign and Adulphus being King of the East-Angles the seventeenth year of his Reign and Lodtharius being King of Kent in the seventh year of his Reign and Theodorus by the Grace of God Archbishop of the Isle of Britanny and of the City of Canterbury being President of the Synod together with the rest of the Bishops of the same Island venerable men sitting with him in Council and the holy Sacred Gospel being laid before them in a place called in the Saxon Tongue Hedtfield after treaty had they expounded the right Catholic Faith in this manner 24. Sicut Dominus noster Jesus c. As our Lord Jesus taking our flesh upon him did deliver unto his Disciples that saw him in person and heard his speeches and as the Symbolum or Creed of the holy Fathers have delivered unto us and as generally all whole and universal Synods and all the company of holy Fathers and Doctors of the holy Catholic Church have taught us so do We following their steps both Piously and Catholicly according to their Doctrin inspired to them from Heaven profess and believe and constantly confess according to the said holy Fathers Belief That the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are properly and truly a consubstantial Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity c. We receive also the holy and universal five Synods that have been held before our time by the blessed Christian Fathers our Ancestors to wit those 318 holy Bishops in the first Council of Nice against Arius and his wicked Doctrin and of the 150 other Bishops in the first Council of Constantinople against the Heresie of Macedonius and of the 200 Godly Bishops of the Council of Ephesus against Nestorius and his Errors and of the 230 Bishops in the Council of Calcedon against Eutyches and his Doctrin and of the other 165 Fathers gathered together in the second General Council of Constantinople against divers Heretics and Heresies c. We do receive all these Councils and we do glorifie our Lord Jesus Christ as they glorified him adding nothing nor taking any thing away We do anathematize and accurse also both by heart and mouth all those whom these Fathers did anathematize and accurse and we do receive them whom they received c. 25. Behold here the manner and form of Catholic Councils of old time who laid down first the Gospel in the midst and then after due examination of Scriptures considered that Antiquity of Fathers and Councils had determined in God's Church before them even from Christ and his Apostles downward and therein insisted agreeing all in one and rejecting and accursing all new contrary or different Doctrins and Doctors and by his means and by the assistance of the Holy Ghost promised by Christ unto his Church hath she continued now for 1600 years one and the self-same whereas Sectaries lacking this Humility Wisdom and Subordination but especially God's Grace are divided and consumed among themselves 26. But I will pass no further in this point this which I have said being sufficient to shew that there were more Learned men in England in these times of our primitive Church than fantastical Fox would have men believe which is greatly confirmed by that which Malmsbury writeth and Fox also confesseth the same That a General Council being gathered soon after this which we have mentioned in Constantinople both of the East and West Church against the Monothelites that deny'd two distinct Wills of Christ our Archbishop Theodorus with some other Learned men of our English Clergy was called for by Pope Agatho to be one of his Legats in the said Council where there were 331 Bishops gathered together by order of the said Agatho Bishop of Rome against the Patriarchs of Antioch Alexandria and Constantinople which thing sheweth the great Power and Authority of the Bishop of Rome even in Greece it self at that day the Emperour Constantine IV. being present himself 27. And to this Council as is said was the foresaid Theodorus Archbishop of Canterbury with divers other Bishops called by name by Pope Agatho as we may see in his Letter to the said Council cited by Malmsbury in these words Sperabamus de Britannia Theodorum c. We did hope to have had from Britanny Theodore my Brother and Fellow-Bishop and Archbishop of that great Island and a Philosopher together with others which hitherto do remain there and then to have joined them to our Humility and for this cause we have hitherto deferred the Council Vides quanti eum fecerit saith Malmsbury ut ejus expectatione Universale Concilium differret You see of what account this Archbishop was with Pope Agatho that he would defer a General Council for his expectation Thus writeth he whereby every indifferent man will easily see that this time of our primitive English Church which Fox by contempt so often calleth Ignorant and Monkish was not devoid of rare Learned men and so hath continued until our days frustrà circumlatrantibus haereticis to use St. Augustin's words Heretics in vain barking on every side against it With whom John Fox thought good to bear a barking part also and not being able to find out any one hole or corner for his Church in those Ages except only among the Heretics before named he thought good at least to rail and spit at them as he passeth by and so will he do more and more the lower he goeth until at length he fall to plain Apostasie and forsaking them openly will join with the known condemned Heretics and Enemies of this Church which Church hitherto notwithstanding he will seem in some sort to follow tho' lazily and dragging behind and as it were weary of her Company and looking about him which way he may give the slip and betake himself to his heels as will better appear by that which ensueth CHAP. V. The fourth station or division of Times from King Egbert unto William the Conqueror containing the space of some 260 years and how John Fox his Church passed in these days and whether there were any Pope Joan or no. YOu have heard before how John Fox in his second Book promising to handle but 300 years touched in the Acts of 500 in less than a dozen Leaves shewing the small store of matter he had for his Church in those Ages Now his next Book is entituled thus The third Book containing the next 300 years from the Reign of Egbert unto the time of William the Conqueror So is his Title And yet if you count the years from the beginning of King Egbert his Reign Anno Domini 802 according to Stow or 800 according to others unto the entrance of the Conqueror Anno 1066 you shall find but only 264 years and