that the Inscription PAV5L L50O V5. V5I I1C C100E-D E-D500EO contained exactly in the numeral Letters the number of the Beast in the Revelation 666. What anger and shame this was to the Popish Faction I leave it to you to esteem But whom could they blame but themselves who had suffered so presumptuous and shameless a flattery to come forth with publick approbation annexing also so blasphemous an Inscription as unawares to them by the providence of God should so plainly characterize Antichrist But to heal up this matter again not long after we had fresh news went about That Antichrist was born in Babylon had done many miracles was coming toward Christendome with an Army We had an Epistle stampt at Venice pretended to be written at Rome An. 1592 by the Rever D. Valentinus Granarensis touching the birth of Antichrist his stock progeny Country Habitation Power Marvels Life and Death out of the Holy Scriptures and Fathers printed Cum Privilegio And as for the Title Vice-Deus as if they would have it in despite of all Men One Benedictus à Benedictis a Subject of the Venetian State setting out a Book against Doctor Whitakâ—rs Position de Antichristo at Bologna for at Venice it was not suffered to be printed revives it with advantage He dedicates it thus Paulo Quinto Pontifici Vniversalis Ecclesiae Oecumenico summo totius Orbis Episcopo atque Monarchae supremo Vice-Deo These Titles he heaps upon the Pope again and again and that you may judge of his Wit by one place in the conclusion exhorting Dr. Whitaker to repentance he tells him That by his example his King and with the same King James the First many Englishmen convertentur ad Dominum Deum ipsius loco ad Vice-Deum confugient And p. 135. he saith of Grègory the Great Totum mundum quasi Monarcha ac Vice-Deus optimè irreprehensibiliter rexit c. He might have learned of him that his other Title Oecumenicus Pontifex is the very name of Antichrist the name of blasphemy by which he doubts not to presage that Antichrist was near and an Army of Priests ready to attend him In this if ever in any thing it seems your Judge was infallible It will be said here it is not in the Popes power what his followers will say of him he stiles himself the Servant of Gods Servants If the Canonists will call him Our Lord God the Pope first it may be denyed Secondly it may be laid to the over-sight of the Writers or Printers Thirdly if it be shewed to be left standing still in the Gloss of the Canon Law by them that were appointed to over-see and correct it what marvel if one word escaped them through negligence or weariness or much business And yet if they thought the sense of the word not so usual indeed in the ordinary talk of Christians but not differing from the custom of Scripture was to be allowed to an ancient Writer the matter deserves not such out-crys But the Pope such is his modesty never usurped this Title full of arrogancy never heard it with patient ears To this let it first be considered that the Censors of such things as come to the Press are not to be imagined such Babes as not to know what will please or displease his Holiness Especially in writings dedicated to himself a man may be sure they will allow nothing the second time and after some exception and scandal taken at it but what shall be justified How much more in the Popes own Town of Bologna and when his Chaplain could not be allowed to print it at home But to let all these go we may have a more sensible proof how the Pope tastes these Titles That which he rewards he approves Benedictus was shortly after made for his pains Bishop of Caorli How worthily he deserved it you shall judge by his book which at my request vouchsafe to read over and if there be any merit you shall sure get great meed of patience in so doing That you may not doubt of the Popes judgment concerning these Titles you shall further know that the matter being come to the knowledge of the Protestants in France and England made them talk and write of it broadly namely the Lord of Plessis in his Mysterium iniquitatis and the Bishop of Chichester in his Tortura Torti This gave occasion to the Cardinal Gieurè to relate in the Officio Santo at Rome of the scandal taken hereat and to make a motion De moderandis titulis It was on foot sundry months At last the Pope revoking it to himself blamed those that had spoken against these Titles and said they were no whit greater than the authority of S. Peter 's Successor did bear To return thither whence I have a little digressed In the question whether the Pope be the Antichrist or no for my part I despair of all reconciliation For neither doth there appear any inclination at all in the Pope to reform any thing in Doctrine or Government nay he encroacheth daily more and more upon all degrees even among his own subjects and resolves to carry all before him at the breast with his Monarchy and infallibility On the other side the Reformers partly emboldned with success partly enforced by necessity chiefly tyed with band of conscience and perswasion of truth are not like to retract what they have affirmed in this behalf and whatsoever their differences be in other things in this point they have a marvellous unity amongst them Those in France having been molested for calling the Pope Antichrist have been occasioned as I have heard some few years since to take it into their Confession thereby to justifie themselves according to the Edicts of Pacification giving them liberty to profess their Religion In England as you know it is no part of the Doctrine of our Church yet a commonly received opinion Howbeit this is so far from hindering that the reformed Churches and those which heretofore were or at this present are under the Popes obedience be one Church that is all members of the Catholick that the Protestants without this cannot make good the other For Antichrist must sit in the Temple of God and that is in the Church as Chrysostome and Theophylact interpret it and Gods people could not be commanded to go out of Babel if he had none there CHAP. V. Of the safeness to joyn to the Roman being confessed a true Church by her opposites BUt you concluded hence that seeing many of the best learned Protestants did grant the Church of Rome to be a true Church though faulty in some things and contrarily not only the Romanists but Puritans Anabaptists and Brownists deny the Church of England to be so therefore it would be more safe and secure to become a Roman Catholick c. This Discourse hath a pretty shew at the first blush and perhaps was used to you since your coming into Spain as it was to some there before At
he might be the instrument of bringing about a great change even at Rome went thither He was at first well received by the Pope himself But he happened to say of Cardinal Bellarmine that had writ against him That he had not answered his Arguments Upon which a complaint was carried to the Pope as if he had been still of the same mind in which he was when he published his Books He excused himself and said That though Bellarmine had not answered his Arguments yet he did not say they were unanswerable and he offered to answer them himself if they would allow him time for it But this excuse was not accepted so he was cast into the Inquisition but was never brought to any Tryal He was poysoned not long after and his Body was cast out at a Window and all his Goods were confiscated to the Pope This was the tragical end of that great but inconstant Man If he had had as good a Soul as he had a great understanding together with vast learning considering his education and other disadvantages he had deserved to have been reckoned among the greatest Men of his Age. In his Fate it appeared how foolishly credulous Vanity makes a Man since he that was an Italian born and knew the Court of Rome so well could be wrought on so far as to believe that they were capable of pardoning and promoting him after the mischief he had done their Cause This account of that matter my Author had from Master Bedell's own Mouth But now Mr. Bedell had finished one of the Scenes of his life with great honour The most considerable addition he made to his learning at Venice was in the improvements in the Hebrew in which he made a great progress by the assistance of R. Leo that was the chief Chacham of the Jewish Synagogue there From him he learn'd their way of pronunciation and some other parts of Rabbinical learning but in exchange of it he communicated to him that which was much more valuable the true understanding of many passages in the Old Testament with which that Rabbi expressed himself often to be highly satisfied And once in a solemn dispute he prest his Rabbi with so clear proofs of Jesus Christ being the true Messias that he and several others of his Brethren had no other way to escape but to say that their Rabbins every where did expound those Prophecies otherwise according to the Tradition of their Fathers By Leo's means he purchased that fair Manuscript of the Old Testament which he gave to Emmanuel Colledge and as I am credibly informed it cost him its weight in Silver After Eight Years stay in Venice he returned to England and without pretending to Preferment or aspiring to it he went immediately to his charge at S. Edmundsbury and there went on in his ministerial labours with which he mixt the translating Paulo's immortal Writings into Latine Sir Adam Newton translated the two first Books of the History of the Council of Trent but was not master enough of the two Languages so that the Archbishop of Spalata said it was not the same Work but he highly approved of the two last that were translated by Mr. Bedell who likewise translated the History of the Interdict and of the Inquisition and dedicated them to the King But no notice was taken of him and he lived still private and unknown in that obscure corner He had a Soul of too generous a composition to stoop to those servile compliances that are often expected by those that have the distribution of Preferments in their power He thought that was an abjectness of Spirit that became not a Christian Philosopher much less a Churchman who ought to express a contempt of the World a contentedness with a low condition and a resignation of ones outward circumstances wholly to the conduct of Divine Providence and not to give that advantage which Atheists and Libertines take from the covetousness and aspirings of some Churchmen to scoff at Religion and to call Priesthood a Trade He was content to deserve Preferment and did not envy others who upon less merit but more industry arrived at it But though he was forgot at Court yet an eminent Gentleman in Suffolk Sir Thomas Iermyn who was a privy Counsellour and Vice-Chamberlain to King Charles the First and a great Patron of Vertue and Piety took such a liking to him that as he continued his whole life to pay him a very particular esteem so a considerable Living that was in his Gift falling void he presented him to it in the Year 1615. When he came to the Bishop of Norwich to take out his Title to it he demanded large Fees for his Institution and Induction But Bedell would give no more than what was sufficient gratification for the Writing the Wax and the Parchment and refused to pay the rest He lookt on it as Simony in the Bishop to demand more and as contrary to the command of Christ who said to his Apostles Freely ye have received and freely give And thought it was a branch of the sin of Simony to sell Spiritual things to Spiritual persons and since whatsoever was askt that was more than a decent Gratification to the Servant for his pains was asked by reason of the thing that was granted he thought this was unbecoming the Gospel and that it was a sin both in the Giver and in the Taker He had observed that nothing was more expresly contrary to all the Primitive Rules Chrysostome examined a complaint made against Autonine Bishop of Ephesuâ— for exacting Fees at Ordination Autonine dyed before the Process was finished but some Bishops that had paid those Fees were upon that degraded and made incapable to officiate any more though they pretended that they paid that Money as a Fee for obtaining a Release from such Obligations as lay on them by Law to serve the Court. Afterwards not only all Ordinations for Money but the taking Money for any Imployment that depended upon the Bishops Gift was most severely condemned by the Council of Chalcedon The Buyer was to lose his Degree and the Seller was to be in danger of it And after that severe censures were every where decreed against all Presents that might be made to Bishops either before or after Ordinations or upon the account of Writings or of Feasts or any other expence that was brought in use to be made upon that occasion and even in the Council of Trent it was Decreed That nothing should be taken for Letters dimissory the Certificates the Seals or upon any such like ground either by Bishops or their Servants even though it was freely offered Upon these accounts Mr. Bedell resolved rather to lose his Presentation to the Parsonage of Horingsheath than to purchase his Title to it by doing that which he thought Simony And he left the Bishop and went home But some few days after the Bishop sent for him and gave him his Titles without exacting Fees of him
His Devotion in his Closet was only known to him who commanded him to pray in secret In his Family he prayed alwayes thrice a day in a set Form though he did not read it This he did in the Morning and before Dinner and after Supper And he never turned over this duty or the short Devotions before and after Meat on his Chaplain but was always his own Chaplain He lookt upon the Obligation of observing the Sabbath as moral and perpetual and considered it as so great an Engine for carrying on the true ends of Religion that as he would never go into the liberties that many practised on that day so he was exemplary in his own exact observation of it Preaching alwayes twice and Catechising once and besides that he used to go over the Sermons again in his Family and sing Psalms and concluded all with Prayer As for his Domestick concerns he married one of the Family of the L' Estranges that had been before married to the Recorder of S. Edmondsbury she proved to be in all respects a very fit Wife for him she was exemplary for her life humble and modest in her Habit and behaviour and was singular in many excellent qualities particularly in a very extraordinary reverence that she payed him She bore him four Children three Sons and a Daughter but one of the Sons and the Daughter dyed young so none survived but William and Ambrose The just reputation his Wife was in for her Piety and Vertue made him choose that for the Text of her Funeral Sermon A good name is better than Oyntment She dyed of a Lethargy three years before the Rebellion broke out and he himself preached her Funeral Sermon with such a mixture both of tenderness and moderation that it touched the whole Congregation so much that there were very few dry Eyes in the Church all the while He did not like the burying in the Church For as he observed there was much both of Superstition and Pride in it so he believed it was a great annoyance to the Living when there was so much of the steam of dead Bodies rising about them he was likewise much offended at the rudeness which the crowding the dead Bodies in a small parcel of Ground occasioned for the Bodies already laid there and not yet quite rotten were often raised and mangled so that he made a Canon in his Synod against burying in Churches and as he often wisht that Burying-Places were removed out of all Towns so he did chuse the most remote and least frequented place of the Church-Yard of Kilmore for his Wife and by his Will he ordered that He should be laid next her with this bare Inscription Depositum Gulielmi quondam Episcopi Kilmorensis Depositum cannot bear an English Translation it signifying somewhat given to another in Trust so he considered his Burial as a trust left in the Earth till the time that it shall be called on to give up its dead The modesty of that Inscription adds to his Merit which those who knew him well believe exceeds even all that this his zealous and worthy Friend does through my hands convey to the World for his memory which will outlive the Marble or the Brass and will make him ever to be reckoned one of the speaking and lasting Glories not only of the Episcopal Order but of the Age in which he lived and of the two Nations England and Ireland between whom he was so equally divided that it is hard to tell which of them has the greatest share in him Nor must his Honour stop here he was a living Apology both for the Reformed Religion and the Christian Doctrine And both he that collected these Memorials of him and he that copies them out and publishes them will think their Labours very happily imployed if the reading them produces any of those good effects that are intended by them As for his two Sons he was satisfied to provide for them in so modest a way as shewed that he neither aspired to high things on their behalf nor did he consider the Revenue of the Church as a property of his own out of which he might raise a great Estate for them He provided his eldest Son with a Benefice of Eighty Pound a Year in which he laboured with that fidelity that became the Son of such a Father and his second Son not being a Man of Letters had a little Estate of 60 l. a year given him by the Bishop which was the only Purchace that I hear he made and I am informed that he gave nothing to his eldest Son but that Benefice which he so well deserved So little advantage did he give to the enemies of the Church either to those of the Church of Rome against the marriage of the Clergy or to the dividers among our selves against the Revenues of the Church The one sort objecting that a married state made the Clergy covetous in order to the raising their Families and the others pretending that the Revenues of the Church being converted by Clergymen into Temporal Estates for their Children it was no Sacriledge to invade that which was generally no less abused by Churchmen than it could be by Laymen since these Revenues are trusted to the Clergy as Depositaries and not given to them as Proprietors May the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls so inspire all that are the Overseers of that Flock which he purchased with his own Blood that in imitation of all those glorious patterns that are in Church-History and of this in the last Age that is inferior to very few that any former Age produced they may watch over the Flock of Christ and so feed and govern them that the Mouths of all Adversaries may be stopt that this Apostolical Order recovering its Primitive spirit and vigour it may be received and obeyed with that same submission and esteem that was payed to it in former times and that all differences about lesser matters being laid down Peace and Truth may again flourish and the true ends of Religion and Church-Government may be advanced and that instead of biting devouring and consuming one another as we do we may all build up one another in our most holy Faith Some Papers related to in the former History Guilielmus Providentiâ Divinâ Kilmorensis Episcopus dilecto in Christo A. B. Fratri Synpresbytero salutem AD Vicariam perpetuam Ecclesiae Parochialis de C. nostrae Kilmorensis Dioecesios jam legitimè vacantem ad nostram collationem pleno jure spectantem praestito per te prius juramento de agnoscenda defendenda Regiae Majestatis suprema potestate in omnibus causis tam Ecclesiasticis quam Civilibus intra ditiones suas deque Anglicano ordine habitu Lingua pro Viribus in dictam Parochiam introducendis juxt a formam Statutorum hujus Regni necnon de perpetua personali Residentia tua in Vicaria praedicta quodque nullum aliud Beneficium Ecclesiasticum una
will persist in them And yet further if there be any doubt he must manifest unto me which is the Catholick Church Thirdly to make it full Apostasie he should have convinced me to have swarved and backslidden as you know the Greek Word signifies like Iulian renouncing his Baptism and forsaken totally all Christian Religion a horrible imputation though false nor so easily proved as declaimed But I thank God daily that I am become Catholick as all our Ancestors were till of late years and as the most of Christendome still be at this present day with whom I had rather be miscalled a Papist a Traytor an Apostata or Idolater or what he will than to remain a Protestant with him still For in Protestant Religion I could never find Uniformity of a settled Faith and so no quietness of Conscience especially for three or four years before my coming away although by reading studying praying and conferring I did most carefully and diligently labour to find it among them But your contrariety of Sects and Opinions of Lutherans Zwinglians Calvinists â—rotestants Puritans Cartwrightists and Brownists some of them damning each other many of them avouching their Positions to be matters of Faith for if they made them but School Questions of Opinion only they should not so much have disquieted me and all these being so contrary yet every one pretending Scriptures and arrogating the Holy Ghost in his favour And above all which did most of all trouble me about the deciding of these and all other Controversies which might arise I could not find among all these Sects any certain humane external Iudge so infallibly to interpret Scriptures and by them and by the assistance of the Holy Ghost so undoubtedly to define questions of Faith that I could assure my self and my Soul This Iudge is infallible and to him thou oughtest in Conscience to obey and yield thy understanding in all his determinations of Faith for he cannot erre in those Points And note that I speak now of an external humane infallible Iudge For I know the Holy Ghost is the Divine internal and principal Iudge and the Scriptures be the Law or Rule by which that humane external Judge must proceed But the Holy Scriptures being often the Matter of Controversie and sometime questioned which be Scriptures and which be not they alone of themselves cannot be Judges And for the Holy Ghost likewise every one pretending him to be his Patron how should I certainly know by whom he speaketh or not For to Men we must go to learn and not to Angels nor to God himself immediately The Head of your Church was the Queen an excellent notable Prince but a Woman not to speak much less to be Iudge in the Church and since a learned King like King Henry the Eighth who was the first temporal Prince that ever made himself Ex Regio jure Head of the Church in Spiritual matters a new strange Doctrine and therefore justly condemned by Calvin for monstrous But suppose he were such a Head yet you all confess that he may erre in matters of Faith And so you acknowledge may your Archbishops and Bishops and your whole Clergy in their Convocation-House even making Articles and Decrees yea though a Council of all your Lutherans Calvinists Protestants c. of Germany France England c. were all joyned together and should agree all which they never will do to compound and determine the differences among themselves yet by the ordinary Doctrine of most Protestants they might in such a Council err and it were possible in their Decrees to be deceived But if they may err how should I know and be sure when and wherein they did or did not err for though on the one side Aposse ad esse non valet semper consequentia yet aliquanâ—o valet and on the other side frustra dicitur potentia quae nunquam ducitur in actum So that if neither in general nor in particular in publick nor private in Head nor Members joyntly nor severally you have no visible external humane infallible Iudge who cannot err and to whom I might have recourse for decision of doubts in matters of Faith I pray let Mr. Hall tell me Where should I have fixed my foot for God is my Witness my Soul was like Noah's Dove a long time hovering and desirous to discover Land but seeing nothing but moveable and troublesome deceivable Water I could find no quiet center for my Conscience nor any firm Foundation for my Faith in Protestant Religion Wherefore hearing a sound of Harmony and Consent That the Catholick Church could not err and that only in the Catholick Church as in Noah's Ark was infallibility and possibility of salvation I was so occasioned and I think had important reason like Noah's Dove to seek out and to enter into this Ark of Noah Hereupon I was occasioned to doubt Whether the Church of England were the true Church or not For by consent of all the true Church cannot err but the Church of England Head and Members King Clergy and People as before is said yea a whole Council of Protestants by their own grant may err ergo no true Church If no true Church no salvation in it therefore come out of it but that I was loth to do Rather I laboured mightily to defend it both against the Puritans and against the Catholicks But the best Arguments I could use against the Puritans from the Authority of the Church and of the ancient Doctors interpreting Scriptures against them when they could not answer them they would reject them for Popish and flye to their own arrogant spirit by which forsooth they must control others This I found on the one side most absurd and to breed an Anarchy of confusion and yet when I came to answer the Catholick Arguments on the other side against Protestants urging the like Authority and Vniformity of the Church I perceived the most Protestants did frame evasions in effect like those of the Puritans inclining to their private Spirit and other uncertainties Next therefore I applyed my self to follow their Opinion who would make the Church of England and the Church of Rome still to be all one in essental Points and the differences to be accidential confessing the Church of Rome to be a true Church though sick or corrupted and the Protestants to be derived from it and reformed and to this end I laboured much to reconcile most of our particular controversies But in truth I found such contrarieties not only between Catholicks and Protestants but even among Protestants themselves that I could never settle my self fully in this Opinion of some reconciliation which I know many great Scholars in England did favour For considering so many opposite great Points for which they did excommunicate and put to death each other and making the Pope to be Antichrist proper or improper it could never sink into my Brain how these two could be descendent or Members sound nor unsound
nor these were Roman Catholicks Namely the Fathers of the African Council and amongst these S. Augustine And therefore by Pope Boniface his Sentence be undoubtedly damned for taking upon them by the Devil's instinct if we believe another Pope Boniface to wax proud against the Church of Rome Such Catholicks if ye mean the most of Christendome be at this Day beware of putting your self upon that Issue Believe me either you must frame a new Cosmography yea a new World or else you are gone if it come to most Voices in Christendom Touching the Names of Papist Traytor Idolater The first is no mis-calling you as comprizing the very Character that differenceth you from all other Catholicks Neither by our Rhemists advice should you be ashamed of it sith to be a Papist by their Interpretation is nothing else but to be a Christian Man a Child of the Church and subject to Christs Vicar The wise State of Venice have a little different notion of their Papalines excluding from sundry their consultations under that name such of the Nobility as are obliged to the Pope by Ecclesiastical promotions True it is that they apply it also to Papalines in faction such as are superstitiously devoted to the maintaining of all the Popes usurped Authority in which sense I hope you are no Papist A Traytor I am assured Mr. Dr. Hall will never call you unless he know that you have drunk so deep of the Cup of error as to believe the Pope may depose your Prince that you are not bound to obey him being so deposed that in that case it is lawful yea meritorious to kill him that they are Martyrs that are executed for plotting to blow him up with Gunpowder though undeposed hoping it would be no less agreeable to his Holiness than that which he desired to have kept him from coming to the Crown at first If you be thus perfectly a Papist not only we here in England but I believe his Catholick Majesty under whose obedience now ye live whensoever he should be that Prince would account you a Traytor and punish you accordingly I hope you are far from these furies For Idolatry if to give divine honour to Creatures deserve that name consider how you can defend or excuse those Prayers to the Blessed Virgin Tu nos ab Hoste protege horâ Mortis suscipe And to the Cross Auge piis justitiam reisque dona veniam I omit to speak of the Popes Omnipotency I hope also you keep your self from this Idolatry In Protestant Religion you say you could never find Vniformity of a settled Faith How so when you had that same One only immoveable and unreformable Rule of Faith as Tertullian calls it every Lords Day recited in your hearing if not by your Mouth I mean the Creed of which Irenaeus saith that he which is able to say much of the Faith exceeds it not nor he that less diminisheth which S. Augustine calls the Rule common to great and small which might well enough have settled and quitted your Conscience whilest you laboured to find the truth in all doubtful Questions Whereto how carefully and diligently you used the means of reading studying and praying for Three or Four Years God and your Conscience best know For conferring I cannot yield you any testimony notwithstanding our familiarity and that we were not many Miles asunder and you were also privy that I had to do in these Controversies with some of that side and saw some sample of the Work I come now to your Motives CHAP. II. Of the contrariety of Sects pretended to be amongst Reformers IN the front whereof is the common exception to our contrariety of Sects and opinions c. First what are all these to the Church of England which followeth none but Christ Then if it be a fault of the Reformed Churches that there is strife and division amongst them as who will justifie it yet let it find pardon if not for Corinth's sake and the Primitive Churches what time Themistius was fain to excuse it with an Oration to Valens the Emperour yet even for Romes Where also you cannot but know that in very many and most important Points Divines hold one thing and Canonists another The French and lately also the Venetian Divines resist to his Face him that others say no Man may be so hardy as to ask Domine cur ita facis though he should draw with him innumerable Souls to Hell Your Spanish Prelates and Divines would never acknowledge in the Council of Trent the Mysteries whereof are come out at last That Episcopal Authority was derived from him nor consent to that circumventing Clause Proponentibus Legatis c. And were strong that Residence is de Iure Divino howsoever they were over-ruled by the Italian Faction Whether they have yet changed their minds you can better tell than I. The old Faction of the Thomists and Scotists is yet a foot as I perceive by Rada his Controversies In the beginning whereof the Censor of the Book hath this Sentence Qua propter audiendi nullatenus sunt qui has Theologicas contentiones è medio omnino explodendas arbitrantur There is another lately risen between the Dominicans and the Iesuites both in as great matters and pursued with as great vehemency as those of the Reformed Churches excepting only a few fiery Spirits of Saxony But in the Church of England as Reformation was not brought in by any one Man but by the joynt consent of the whole so it is yet continued Lutherans Zuinglians Calvinists are not known among us save by hearsay Whereof it is some sign That your self do not know them well as it seems when you distinguish them from Protestants A name first given to the Princes and free Cities of Germany that sought Reformation in the Dyet at Spire Anno 1529. and from them passed to us and other Countreys where it was effected Who are then Protestants if the Lutherans and Zuinglians be not For of both these there were in that Dyet the Helvetians and parts adjoyning of Germany having been reformed at home first by the preaching of Zuinglius the Saxons and the remnant of Luther Who much about one time and without any correspondence began to oppose the Popes Indulgences and differed not for ought that ever I could yet understand save in the manner of Christs Presence in the Eucharist Yea in that also taught uniformly That the Body and Blood of our Saviour are present not to the Elements but to the Receiver in the use and without Transubstantiation As for those whom you call Calvinists and the rest Puritans Cartwrightists and Brownists tell me in good sooth Mr. Waddesworth how do they differ from the Reformed Churches in Helvetia or the Church of England save in the matter of Government only See then all this contrariety of Sects meetly well reconciled For Puritans Cartwrightists and Brownists are in substance of Doctrine all one with
inaudita Here is at length some certainty Some truth mingled among to give the better grace and to be as it were the Vehiculum of a lye For Iohn Scory in King Edward his times Bishop of Chichester and after of Hereford was one of those that ordained Doctor Parker and preached at his Ordination But that was the Ordination effected as you call it We are now in that which was not effected but attempted only And here we seek again who were these quidams that laid Hands on Scory We may go look them with Laudasensis the Archbishop of Ireland Well hear the proofs Master Thomas Neal Hebrew Reader of Oxford which was present told thus much to the antient Confessors they to F. Halywood This proof by Tradition as you know is of little credit with Protestants and no marvel For experience shews that reports suffer strange alterations in the carriage even when the Reporters are interested Irenaeus relates from the antient Confessors which had seen John the Disciple and the other Apostles of the Lord and heard it from them That Christ our Saviour was between forty and fifty years of Age before his Passion I do not think you are sure it was so For my part I had rather believe Irenaeus and those Antients he mentions and the Apostles than Father Halywood and his Confessors and Master Neal. But possible it is Mr. Neale said he was present at Matthew Parkers Ordination by John Scory These Confessors being before impressed as you are with the buz of the Ordination at the Nags-head made up that Tale and put it upon him for their Author Perhaps Mr. Neal did esteem Iohn Scory to be no Bishop and so was scandalized though causelesly at that action Perhaps Mr. Neale never said any such Word at all To help to make good this matter he saith It was after enacted in Parliament That these Parliamentary Bishops should be holden for lawful I looked for something of the Nags-Head Bishops and the Legend of their Ordination But the lawfulness that the Parliament provides for is according to the Authority the Parliament hath civil that is according to the Laws of the Land The Parliament never intended to justifie any thing as lawful jure divino which was not so as by the Preamble it self of the Statute may appear In which it is said That divers questions had grown upon the making and consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops within this Realm whether the same were and bâ— duely and orderly done according to the Law or not c. And shortly to cut off Father Halywoods surmises the case was this as may be gathered by the body of the Statute Whereas in the five and twentieth of Henry the Eighth an Act was made for the Electing and Consecrating of Bishops within this Realm And another in the third of Edward the Sixth For the Ordering and consecrating of them and all other Ecclesiastical Ministers according to such form as by six Prelates and six other learned Men in Gods Law to be appointed by the King should be devised and set forth under the great Seal of England Which Form in the fifth of the same Kings reign was annexed to the Book of Common Prayer then explained and perfected and both confirmed by the Authority of Parliament All these Acts were 1 Mariae 1 2 Philippi Mariae repealed together with another Statute of 35. Henry 8. touching the Stile of Supreme Head to be used in all Letters Patents and Commissions c. These Acts of repeal in the 1 Elizabeth were again repealed and the Act of 25. Hen. 8. revived specially That of 3 Edw. 6. only concerning the Book of Common Prayer c. without any particular mention of the Book or form of Ordering Ministers and Bishops Hence grew one doubt whether Ordinations and Consecrations according to that Form were good in Law or no. Another was Queen Elizabeth in her Letters Patents touching such Consecrations Ordinations had not used as may seem besides other general Words importing the highest Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical the title of Supreme Head as King Henry and King Edward in their like Letters Patents were wont to do And that notwithstanding the Act of 35 Hen. 8. after the repeal of the former repeal might seem though never specially revived This as I guess was another exception to those that by vertue of those Patents were consecrated Whereupon the Parliament declares First That the Book of Common Prayer and such Order and Form for consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops c. as was set forth in the time of King Edward the Sixth and added thereto and authorised by Parliament shall stand in force and be observed Secondly That all Acts done by any person about any Consecration Confirmation or investing of any elect to the Office or Dignity of Archbishop or Bishop by vertue of the Queens Letters Patents or Commission since the beginning of her Reign be good Thirdly That all that have been Ordered or Consecrated Archbishops Bishops Priests c. after the said Form and Order be rightly made ordered and consecrated any Statute Law Canon or other thing to the contrary notwithstanding Theâ—e were the Reasons of that Act which as you see doth not make good the Nags-head-Ordination as F. Halywood pretends unless the same were according to the Form in Edward the Sixth's days His next proof is That Bonner Bishop of London while he lived always set light by the Statutes of the Parliaments of Queen Elizabeth alledging that there wanted Bishops without whose consent by the Laws of the Realm there can no firm Statute be made That Bonneâ— despised and set not a Straw by the Acts of Parliament in Queen Elizabeths time I hold it not impossible and yet there is no other proof thereof but his bare Word and the antient Confessors tradition of which we heard before Admitting this for certain there might be other reasons thereof besides the Ordination at the Nags-head The stiffness of that Man was no less in King Edwards time than Queen Elizabeths And indeed the want also of Bishops might be the cause why he little regarded the Acts of her first Parliament For both much about the time of Queen Maryes death dyed also Cardinal Poole and sundry other Bishops And of the rest some for their contemptuous behaviour in denying to perform their duty in the Coronation of the Queen were committed to Prison others absented themselves willingly So as it is commonly reported to this day there was none or very few there For as for Doctor Parker and the rest they were not ordained till December 1559. the Parliament was dissolved in the May before So not to stand now to refute Bonners conceit that according to our Laws there could be no Statutes made in Parliament without Bishops wherein our Parliament Men will rectifie his Judgment F. Halywood was in this report twice deceived or would deceive his Reader First that he would make that exception which