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
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
stay'd here in proving you by these external conflictions only but hath passed to the internal also that he might say of you as he did of his dearest people when he meant to do them most good Convertam manum meam ad te excoquam ad purum scoriam tuam auferam omne stannum tuum I will turn my hand upon thee and will boil out by fire all thy rust even to the quick and will take from thee all thy Pewter thereby to leave thee pure Silver he would equal you in this Point with the Privilege of his Apostles that you might say with them truly Foris pugnae intus timores We have fights abroad and frights at home You know what I mean and others will easily guess that have heard of the late storms past Only I will say to your high commendation that your moderate and sage deportment hath been such also in this Point of not admitting the scandal offered as all men have been edified by your Wisdom and Piety therein seeing fulfilled on your behalf that which the Holy Ghost prophesied of holy wise and peaceable men truly fearing God Pax multa diligentibus Legem tuam non est illis scandalum Those that love thy Law O Lord do enjoy their inward Peace and are not scandalized with what external tempests soever do arise 9. In respect of which Piety of yours it is to be presumed that Christ our Savior hath wrought again by his Substitute and this upon the sudden that famous Miracle recorded by St. Matthew St Mark and St. Luke of calming the Tempest that put his Disciples in fear and jeopardy Exurgens imperavit ventis mari facta est tranquilitas magna He rising up commanded the Winds and Seas to cease and thereupon ensued a great calm and tranquility which kind of Miracle is not lightly made among Protestants for that they want the means thereof And therefore as a thing peculiar to the Subordination of Christ's orderly Church and wrought by his Divine Power and Vertue I do the more admire and reverence the same assuring my self that no good Catholic will ever hereafter so much as move his finger against it but co-operate rather to the firm establishment and continuance thereof as is most behoveful to the end that as we are all one in Faith and Belief so we be also in Life Speech and Actions especially in this time of trial Which God of his infinite Goodness grant To whose holy Protection I commend heartily both You and my self this first of March 1603. An Addition of the Author to the foresaid Catholics upon the News of the Queens Death and Succession of the King of Scotland to the Crown of England SInce the writing of the precedent Epistle Advertisement is come that Almighty God of his infinite Mercy hath delivered you at length dear Catholics from your old Persecutor and as we hope will also shortly from your Persecution His Divine Majesty be thanked everlastingly for the same Here generally the applause is no otherwise than it was in old time among the Christians upon the entrance of Constantine into the Empire after Dioclesian or of Jovinian after Julian But the former Example seemeth more like for that good Constantine was of a different Religion when he entred yet of singular hope to become such as afterward he did both in respect of his excellent Parts and of his pious Mother St. Helena The difference of the two Mothers is That the Empress Helena did assist her Son here upon Earth as St. Paulinus writeth towards the Truth and Piety of Religion but Queen Mary of Scotland and France being violently deprived of this Life will do it we trust by her Prayers in Heaven The Comparison also is not improper in this for that perhaps this our new King is the first that hath been absolutely Lord of the whole Island of Britanny with the Parts annexed thereunto since Constantine 2. We know what Commendation a Heathen Author gave to Constantine while he was yet no Christian and this in public Audience at the day of Marriage with the Daughter of Maximianus Herculeus both the Emperours being present and hearing him Neque enim saith he Forma tantum in te Patris sed etiam Continentia Fortitudo Justitia Prudentia sese votis gentium praesentant Not only the Form and Beauty of your Father Constantius doth appear in you but also his Continency his Fortitude his Justice his Wisdom do represent themselves in you according to the full desire and wish of all Nations Thus said he of that Constantine Whereupon Eusebius sheweth That the Christians of that time conceived so great Love towards him tho' he were not yet a Christian as his Adversary Maxentius hearing of his coming towards Rome was glad to feign that himself would be a Christian also to retain somewhat thereby of their affections from Constantine 3. We read of divers excellent Men in Christian Religion who were presumed and foretold that they would be such before they were Christians indeed and this only upon the foresight of their good Natures and vertuous Inclinations as St. Martyn afterwards Bishop of Tours St. Nectarius Archbishop of Constantinople St. Ambrose Bishop of Millain and St. Augustin Bishop of Hyppo albeit of St. Augustin's Conversion from the Heresie of the Manichees to Catholic Religion St. Ambrose added another Conjecture also or rather Prophecy to wit that the Prayers and Tears of his good Mother St. Monica could not suffer such a Son to perish All which you see how far it maketh for Us and for our Hope of this second Constantine who wanted not also a holy Mother to Pray and shed Tears abundantly for him whil'st she lived that he might be such as we most desire now whereof my self amongst others can be a true Witness and this from her own testimony 4. And for that I cannot persuade my self that so holy Endeavors of such a Mother in such a Cause can be frustrate with Almighty God I do not only hope well but do attribute hereunto in great part the many Blessings that have fallen upon this King ever since but principally His Majesty's Preservation and strange Delivery from infinite Dangers and most imminent Perils as all men know so as neither Cyrus nor Romulus nor Moyses himself was more strangely preserved than this King hath been since his Infancy And for that God doth never commonly work those great Effects but to great Ends you Catholics of England may with reason hope well thereof especially if any thing came by his said good Mothers Intercession who loved you all so dearly as whatsoever she asked at God's hands for the Life and Prosperity of her dear Son in this World a great part thereof was meant no doubt for You and your Good if ever you came to be under his Government as now God hath brought you 5. Another effect of this holy Queens Prayers
Christian Religion under King Sigebert about the year of Christ 609 and that by the preaching principally of their first Bishop Felix born in Burgundy in France being ordain'd Bishop of a City there called Dunwich at that time which now is more than half consumed with the Sea. 7. The fourth Kingdom was of the Northumbers which contained many Shires towards the North to wit Lancashire Yorkshire Cumberland Westmorland Northumberland Durham and some part of Scotland The first Monarch of this Kingdom is accounted Ida and it received the Faith of Christian Religion under their 13th King Edwyn in the year of Christ 626 by the Preaching of St. Paulinus sent thither to preach by Justus the fourth Archbishop of Canterbury by whom the said Paulinus was translated from the See of Rochester to be Archbishop of York 8. The fifth Kingdom was of the West-Saxons which contained the Countreys of Cornwall Devonshire Dorsetshire Somersetshire Wiltshire Barkshire and Hampshire The first Founder thereof was Cerdick about the year of Christ 509 and under Kenegilsus their fifth King they received the Christian Faith by the preaching of St. Berinus their first Bishop of Dorchester in the year of Christ 635. 9. The sixth Kingdom was of the Mercians or Middle-Countrey being in that time the greatest of all the rest and containing some fifteen or sixteen Shires as Glocester Hereford Chester Stafford Worcester Shrewsbury Oxford Warwick Darby Leicester Buckingham Northampton Nottingham Huntington and Rutland The first Founder of this Monarchy is said to be one Creda about the year of Christ 586 and the Conversion thereof to Christian Faith was about the year of Christ 635 under Prince Peda Son and Heir unto the notable persecuting Pagan Peda. Their first Apostle was B. Finan who baptized King Peda against his Father's will in the Kingdom of the Northumbers at a Town by Berwick called Ad murum and this by the instance of the good Christian King Oswyn King of Northumberland who gave King Peda his Daughter in Marriage on this condition That he would become a Christian 10. The seventh Kingdom was of the South-Saxons containing the Shires of Sussex and Surrey and began about the year of Christ 478 by one Aelus a Saxon and was converted to Christianity under King Ethelwold or Ethelwach as St. Bede nameth him about the year of Christ 662 by the preaching especially of St. Wilfrid their first Bishop who erected a Monastery for the Episcopal See in a place called Seolyce or Selcey 11. Well then thus we see that within the space of forty years more or less six Kingdoms of England received the Gospel and the seventh not long after under their first Preachers and Apostles before mentioned And what great variety of Miracles God did work by these his Servants and their Helpers and Assistants in this Work of the Conversion of our Countrey is evident by all Stories of that time and after and no man but an Infidel or Miscreant can with any probable reason call them in doubt 12. And it seemeth that the promise of our Savior made to his Apostles at his last farewell in St. Mark 's Gospel for Miracles to be wrought in the Conversion of Nations especially of Gentiles as St. Gregory observeth was as abundantly fulfilled in the first Conversion of our English Nation as of any other probably in the World. The Signs and Miracles saith Christ which shall follow them that shall believe in me or receive my Faith especially in the beginning are these That they shall cast out Devils in my Name they shall speak with new Tongues they shall remove Serpents and if they should drink Poyson it shall not hurt them they shall lay their hands upon sick men and therewith heal them c. 13. All these things promised Christ our Savior and performed them most abundantly in the first Conversion of Nations while the said Miracles were necessary to plant and confirm the Faith. But when as St. Gregory in the place before alledged saith the young Plants had no more need of such daily watering by Miracles then ceased they Tho' in our Countrey and Primitive Church they endured no small time as were easie to shew if I would stand in this place to run over the Ecclesiastical Stories of the least part of the aforesaid seven Kingdoms whereof yet many things will be spoken of afterward 14. For only in the Kingdom of Kent for the first hundred years after the Conversion of King Ethelbert there possessed the See of Canterbury from St. Augustin unto Bertualdus who died in the year of Christ 730 and with whom St. Bede endeth eight Arch-bishops all most Godly and Holy Men to wit Augustin Laurence Melitus Justus Honorius Deusdedit Theodorus and Bertualdus Which Bishops were held for great Saints in our Primitive Church as appeareth by the writing both of St. Bede that lived also himself in that Age and by William of Malmesbury that lived some Ages after Who yet alledgeth a more Ancient Author than himself called Gosselinus that wrote the Lives and Miracles of all those Eight Arch-bishops of Canterbury and of some other Saints of our Country Horum saith he non minus sancti Letardi c. Of these Arch-bishops as also of St. Letard that in Ancient time came in with Q. Berta the Author before mentioned Gosselinus hath written their marvelous and admirable vertues out of Bede and others Adding also many things which he saw himself with his own Eyes shewing the great Miracles and Signs which they did c. He doth recount also the Rank of Kings with their Kindred that lay Buried in his days in the Church of St. Augustin at Canterbury Which he doth worthily call the lights of England and the Senators of the English Heavenly Court of Parliament And to this Quire of Saints and Crown or Diadem of our Eternal King Christ he addeth other pretious Stones also of Inestimable Glory to wit St. Adrian the Abbot and St. Mildred the Virgin as Conspicuous in Glory of Miracles as the rest c. 15. Thus writeth Malmesbury of these servants of God of the Church of Canterbury for the first hundred years after Christ's Faith received but he that would recount the like of all the other six Kingdoms and English Churches should have great store of matter Especially if he would enter into the particular Lives and Actions of such eminent Holy Men as that Age by the force and virtue of that Primitive Christian Religion brought forth And then if with all this he remember in like manner that most certain principle before mentioned that God would never have concurred with such abundance of Piety Holiness and Miracles to the setting up of a false Religion he will easily see how plain a demonstration this is for the truth of that Religion which was thus planted amongst us by St. Augustin and Maligned by these Sectaries of our time 16. Well then
in this manner was Religion first planted among us according to that which St. Mark the Evangelist saith of the first Preachers and Preachings among other Nations and Gentiles in his time To wit Domino cooperante sermonem confirmante sequentibus signis Christ working with them and confirming their Preaching with Signs and Miracles And this Faith being once planted did take such deep Root by the said watering of Christ the Author thereof as it continued and held out from time to time through all difficulties and differences both of times Men and State and by Peril Divisions Enmities and cruel Wars that fell out every day between those Seven Kingdoms until they were united all under one Monarchy some 200 years after to wit under King Egbert King of the West-Saxons And from him again the same indured other 200 years unto King Edward the Confessor before the Conquest 17. And that which is worthy also the noteing in this case is that during the time of all this Enmity Emulation Suspicions Jealousie of Kingdoms and States and Bloody Battels between these Kingdoms for the space of the foresaid 200 years from their Conversion to Christianity until they came to be a Monarchy They all lived under one Arch-bishop and Primate of Canterbury holding their due subordination and good correspondence with him and by him with the See of Rome and other Catholic Countries for matters of Faith and Ecclesiastical Affairs no otherwise than if they had been all Friends yea Subjects and Provinces of one and the self same Kingdom and this is the vertue and force of Catholic Union Whereas amongst Sectaries every little difference of Temporal States yea of Towns Cities and Governments doth presently cause a diversity also in Faith and Religion As we see at this day that Saxony for example where the name of the Protestants first began being under a different Prince hath a great difference also in Religion from other parts of Germany that call themselves Protestants and the Kingdoms of Denmark and Swedeland tho' they profess all Lutheranism yet is the manner so different in these different States as not only the one will not depend of the other in any sort of subordination or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as in England we see they did but neither do they agree in any one Form of Religion or substance of belief in all points no nor in one state it self where all profess themselves to be Lutherans as in Saxony where the higher Saxons allow only rigid or streight Lutherans But the lower Saxony alloweth only the softer sort and expelleth the rigid or severe Lutherans as the other do them where they get Dominion 18. Geneva and Berne are both Cities and States of the Switzers and both of them profess Protestancy tho' not according to Luthers Doctrin But yet the Temporal State of the said two Towns being different the Magistrates have appointed a different and distinct Form. Which in England also we see by experience how much they differ from those of Scotland Holland and France who profess themselves Protestants of the same Calvinist School But every Nation and Church after his own fashion And finally what differences have risen in England it self during her Majesties only Government betwixt Puritans Brownists Family of Love and State Protestants as Thomas Diggs calleth them no Man can be ignorant But to what differences and divisions they would grow in two or three hundred years if Sects could last so long and that the States which profess them were Enemies in Temporal Affairs as it was in England is easie to guess But the reason hereof is manifest to wit that for so much as Sectaries making their own judgments and inventions the Rule of their Belief and Religion and their Temporal Princes their absolute Guiders and immediate Heads in Ecclesiastical matters it must needs follow that as these Princes or States do change or alter for any respect whatsoever as they do for many Religion also must needs alter and change for contentment or interest of the said States or Princes 19. But to return to our Deduction and Continuation of Catholic Religion among the English Saxons after they came to be a Monarchy to wit from the year of Christ 800 it is first to be noted that assoon as God had delivered them from one affliction which was the continual Civil Wars of one Kingdom with an other he sent them a second Calamity far greater perhaps than the first induring for other 200 years which was the continual incursions and devastations of the Danes Who pursued them not only for Temporal respects to get their Country from them but also for Religion it self the said Danes being then Pagans as appeareth by the cruel Murders and Martyrdoms as well of St. Edmund King of the East-angles Martyred by them about the year of Christ 885 as of Holy Elphegus Arch-bishop of Canterbury some Ages after about the year 1011 and of divers others overlong hear to recount And yet notwithstanding when the said Danes with their King Canutus Son of Swanus came once by Gods Holy grace to be Christians which was soon after the foresaid Martydom of the Holy Arch-bishop Elphegus they submitted themselves with Humility and fervor of Spirit to that very same Christian Faith of their Enemies the English-men which they had persecuted in them before taking them also for their instructors Which is a token that there was no other Christian Faith known in the World at that day for them to embrace but only that which the English professed to the embracing whereof there is no doubt but the Miracles wrought continually in confirmation of the truth of that Faith as well at the Tombs of the foresaid Martyrs St. Edmund and Elphegus slain by the Danes themselves as other ways also did greatly move and animate them 20. But whatsoever the chief motives were to move this Nation to embrace Christian Religion this is certain that soon after this time of St. Elphegus his Death God delivered the whole Kingdom of England into the Danes hands under the foresaid King Canutus about the year of Christ 1020. And he Reigned and held the same peaceably for almost twenty years In which time he being now Christian did many notable Acts of a good Religious King Went to Rome for Devotion to visit the Holy Sepulchres of St. Peter and St. Paul gave great Alms there and else where made just Laws in England loved and favored exceedingly the English Nation used them with all confidence both at home and abroad Married King Emma Mother to King Edward the Confessor thereby to unite himself the more to the Nation And finally became of a Persecutor and Conqueror one of the best Kings that England perhaps had in many Ages to Govern her 21. William of Malmesbury living as it hath been said some 500 years agone under King Henry the first Son to William the Conqueror writeth many most excellent Religious Acts
of the Kings and Queens inclination as he presumeth and of the great Authority of Cranmer Cromwell and some other that he calleth his Gospellers or Patrons rather of his Gospel And yet if you behold the external Face of the English Church at this day all these named and others held the Catholic Faith Use and Rites and both King and Queen Cranmer and Cromwell went as Devoutly to Mass as ever before and so remained they in outward shew I mean the former three even to their Deaths And Cromwell when he was to die protested on the Scaffold that he was a good Catholic Man and never doubted of any of the Church Sacraments then used and the like would Cranmer have done no doubt if he had been brought to the Scaffold in King Henries days as he was to the Fire afterwards in Queen Maries which had been a happy case for him 9. There ensued the year 1534 which was the year indeed of open breach with Rome for that an Excommunication being set forth by Pope Clement VII against King Henry VIII upon notice given of his Marriage and the said Excommunication set up in Dunkirk and other Towns in Flanders which did import the consent also and concurrence of Charles the Emperour and then certain Prophesies being blown about at home as coming from Elizabeth Barton sirnamed the holy Maid of Kent about the King's Deprivation he was much more exasperated than before and so calling a Parliament caused the Pope's Authority to be wholly extinguished and transferred to himself and made divers Bishops in order to preach at Paul's Cross against the Pope's Supremacy over the Catholic Church But what may we think that these Bishops did in so small a time change their belief in matters of Faith The King also being angry with divers Friars as namely with F. Elstow beforenamed that contradicted Cutwyne the Preacher when he inveighed against the Pope's Authority did this year upon the 11th of August ordain That all the observant Friars of St. Francis's Order should be thrust out of their Convents beginning with Greenwich where the said contradiction was made and to seem somewhat to favour the Augustin-Friars of whose Order Luther had been he commanded them for the present to be put in their places yet did he at the very same time cause John Frith to be burn'd in Smithfield for denying the Blessed Sacrament and this by his own particular order which Frith and his Master Tyndal were the greatest Enemies that Friars had 10. He burned also this year Henry Poyle William Tracy and other Protestants as Fox testifieth in his Calendar So as we may see that the King's Faith was as before and tho' he were content to suffer some new-fangl'd Spirits to ruffle at this time as namely Friar Barnes in London where he preach'd most seditiously and Hugh Latimer in Bristol where as Stow saith he stirred a notorious Tumult causing the Mayor to suffer Lay men to preach and to prohibit and imprison Priests and other like Disorders yet what the King thought inwardly of them he declared afterwards by his acts when he burned Barns and cast Latimer into the Tower and kept him there with evident danger of his life so long as himself lived which disposition of King Henry Tyndal smelling at the same season wrote from Flanders to his Scholar John Frith Prisoner in the Tower of London in these words And now methinketh I smell a counsel to be taken c. But you must understand that it is not of a pure heart and the love of Truth but to avenge themselves and to eat the Whores flesh and to suck the marrow of her bones c. So wrote that honest man signifying that King Henry was resolved to make an outward shew in favouring the Gospellers not for love or liking he had of them but to revenge himself of the Pope and to enjoy the Goods of Monasteries and other spiritual Livings which he in his blasphemous heretical vein calleth the Whores flesh and marrow of her bones 11. Well then this was the beginning of their Gospel in England by their own Confession and Interpretation and so whatsoever was done from this year forward against Catholics or Catholic Religion unto the 31st year of his Reign which was of Christ 1540 to wit for five whole years was upon these grounds and to the former ends of Revenge and Interest if we believe Protestants themselves in which point notwithstanding for that divers Godly Learned and Zealous men could not be content to follow the King's affections as others did and namely Bishop Fisher of Rochester Sir Thomas More late Chancellor of England and divers most Reverend and Venerable Abbots Priors and Doctors and other their like they were content to give their Blood in defence of Catholic Unity against this Schism as the Abbots of Glastenbury of Whaley of Reading Dr. Forest Queen Catharine's Confessor Dr. Powel and the like 12. Some others and amongst them one most near to the King himself both in Blood and Affection namely Cardinal Pool opposed himself by public Writing from Padua as we may see by those three learned Books left by him in Latin De Unitate Ecclesiae Others also of the same Blood-Royal as the Marquess of Exceter and Countess of Salisbury the said Cardinal's Mother shewed their dislike which afterwards was the cause of their ruin and many Shires also of the Realm at this time not being so patient as to bear these Innovations took Arms and fell into great Commotions as in Lincolnshire Yorkshire Somersetshire and some other Provinces making all their Quarrels for matters of Religion 13. So as by this we see that Catholic Religion remained still in England both in Prince and People but that the Prince for a time thought good for other ends to tolerate and wink at disorders therein until the aforesaid year of 1540 when calling all his Realm together both Spiritual and Temporal to examin well this matter of Religion they decreed that famous Statute both in Parliament and Consistory Ecclesiastical called the Statute of six Articles or as John Fox nameth it the whip with six strings or lashes in which Decree are condemned for detestable Heresies all the most substantial points of Protestants Doctrin especially of Zwinglians and Calvinists and most severe punishment of Death appointed unto the Defenders and Maintainers thereof whereby the Catholic Judgment and Censure of the whole Realm in that behalf was seen and the King himself made further declaration thereof presently for his own part by putting away his German Wife Anne of Cleve by which the Gospellers had thought to have drawn him further into League and Religion with the Protestant German Princes and by punishing Cromwell the Head and Fountain of most of these Innovations by the loss of his Head. He burned also immediately after this Statute in Smithfield upon the promulgation thereof three famous Heretics Barns Jerom and Gerard
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
respect of obscurity and contemptibility John Fox may easily joyn his Church with them as also in having some sparkles of true Doctrin but not the whole body of true Doctrin among them 5. He may joyn also in divers particular Doctrins which these men held as peculiar Heresies to themselves and were condemn'd by the Church for such in those days and are held also in these days by John Fox his Church in the very self-same words sense and meaning as they were held by those Heretics As namely he may joyn with the Donatists who said that thy were the only true Church and called the Succession of Bishops in the Church of Rome as Sectaries do at this day the Chair of Pestilence and moreover that the whole Church besides themselves had erred c. which is the common Song of our modern Protestants And further if you will see how near of Kin these Donatists and our Protestants be both in Manners Conditions Doctrin and Belief read St. Augustin Optatus and other Writers that objected against them these things following to wit That they had cast the blessed Sacrament of the Altar to Dogs overthrew Altars broke Chalices and sold them cast a Bottle of holy Chrism out of the Church-window shaved Priests heads to take away their Unction turned Nuns out of their Monasteries to the World polluted all Church stuff and the like And whether John Fox and his Fellows do not joyn also in these Points let the Reader judge 6. They may joyn in like manner with the Eunomians for their only Faith who affirmed as St. Augustin saith quòd nihil cuiquam obesset guorumlibet perpetratio ac perseverantia peccatorum si hujus quae ab illis docebatur Fidei particeps esset That the committing and perseverance in never so great sins could not hurt him that was partaker of their Faith. They may also joyn with the Novatians of that time in denying the Churches power in forgiving sins They may joyn with the Aerians who taught as St. Angustin saith non oportere orare vel Oblationem offerre pro mortuis that we ought not to pray or offer Oblations for them that be dead and further That solemn Feasts are not to be appointed by the Church but every one to fast when he would lest he should seem to be under the Law c. 7. Thus testifieth St. Augustin of him and of Jovinian that followed him both the said Father and St. Hierom that wrote against him do accuse him to have held That all sins were equal before God that fasting from certain meats was not profitable that chast Marriage was equal in honor and merit to professed Virginity in Nuns and that he had been cause that some Nuns had married in Rome and finally that the reward in Heaven was equal to all men And is not this good currant Protestant Doctrin and Practice at this day But let us go forward They may joyn also with the Helvidians or Antidicomarians in impugning our Blessed Lady and equalling Marriage with Virginity And much more with Vigilantius in impugning the continent sole Life of Clergy-men Worship of Martyrs at their Tombs use of Candles and Torches in the Church by day-time Invocation of Saints Vows of Poverty and the like 8. I will go no further for that this is sufficient to see what Communion John Fox his Church did hold in these three Ages either with the common known Catholic Church of Christ or with these lurking Assemblies of Heretics pursued and persecuted by the said Church and for that John Fox is guilty to himself in this behalf he hath proceeded accordingly in his Acts and Monuments For whereas he promiseth a several Book of these second 300 years under this Title The second Book containing the next 300 years after Christ c. he not finding any sufficient matter for his purpose to patch up this second Book withal as he did the former with recounting the Martyrs of those days what shift deviseth he think you to blear his Readers eyes with all and to seem to say somewhat in the continuation of his Story You shall hear briefly and by this one trick you may learn to know the man and his meaning for the time to come 9. First he writeth but five leaves in all for the continuation of the Story of these second 300 years A short Volume you will say for so great and copious an Argument And yet further you must know that of these five leaves he passeth two in telling tales and matters that fell under Pope Eleutherius and King Lucius more than a hundred years before and consequently it should have been told in his former Book by order of Time and Story and then the other three leaves he spendeth in setting down the entrance of the Saxons into England about the year of Christ 449 and the Succession of their Pagan Kings unto St. Augustin's coming So as of all the foresaid glorious Christian Church for 300 years together to wit from Pope Sylvester and Constantine unto Pope Gregory and Mauritius the Emperour wherein she flourished more than in any other three Ages we find only five Leaves designed but scarce three Lines performed Whereby you may perceive how little part John Fox persuadeth himself to have in these three Ages for his hidden Church You may consider also what an honest Bargainer he is and how well he performeth his promise made in the first page of his whole Work wherein he saith That he will set forth at large the whole Race and Course of the Church from the Primitive Age to these latter times of ours c. whereof you see he hath performed nothing at all hitherto either largely or briefly I mean of this Race or Course of any Church General or Particular Domestical or Foreign Good or Bad True or False His or Ours for of the first 300 years he wrote only the ten Persecutions as you have seen and of the second 300 years he writeth nothing at all 10. Which if you consider well is a strange confession of his own weakness and poverty seeing that these three Ages to wit the fourth fifth and sixth are the most abundant of matter that are to be found in the Church of Christ from the beginning and so might he see by the Centuries of his Masters the Magdeburgians who do enlarge themselves much more in these three Ages than in the former enforced thereunto by the multitude of matter tho' all against themselves as before hath been noted and here will also appear which John Fox well perceiving thought best by slight of silence to avoid that inconvenience of treating a History so apparently against himself Which slight notwithstanding or rather flight every man of mean understanding doth easily see considering that according to the Argument of his Book and particular promise made before he should have declared to us That the Religion of Britanny in these 300
though he died quietly in his Bed as after shall be shewed And that of Luther upon the 17. of Feb. with the title only of Confessor but both of them in red Letters Notwithstanding that the Authors of these three Sects do disclaim one from another as in the former Chapter you have heard So as this forcible drawing of opposite Sectaries into one Catalogue and Calendar of Saints is like to that of Cacus who drew Bulls backwards by the tails into his Cave And this shall suffice for the contemplation of this strange composition and combination of Fox his Church from Wickliffs time down to K. Henry VIII of whose Reign and matters contained therein we shall now successively begin our speech CHAP. XI The Search of John Fox's Church is continued under the Government and Reign of K. Henry VIII and his Children And it is discussed what manner of Church John Fox then had or may be imagined to have had HAving made our former search or pursuit for the finding of Jon Fox his Church throughout the precedent years and Ages of the Christian world from the Apostles time unto the Reign of King Henry VIII and declared most evidently as to us it seemeth that the said Church was never yet to be found in any of those times and Ages except perhaps in some such broken and contemptible Heretics and so opposite and contrary one of them to another as cannot possibly be thought to make a Church that requireth unity and conformity of Faith there remaineth now that we proceed to examin what may be found for John Fox's purpose under the Reign of K. Henry VIII downwards to our time For that as often hath been noted of this time doth John Fox brag and glory in his Book as of the florishing time of his Gospel Which appeareth not only by that he imployeth the half of his whole Volume in these only thirty years that passed between the breach of King Henry with the Pope unto the entrance of Queen Elizabeth but also by a brave triumphant picture set in the first page of King Henry's Reign with his Feet upon the back of Pope Clement VII and other circumstances of Heretical insolence which presently we shall declare 2. But first of all you must understand that in the 12 last pages of K. Henry VII.'s Life it pleased John Fox to set down pleasantly 12 large printed and painted Pageants of the Popes greatness in those days together with his Papal Cases reserved to himself his Dominion both Spiritual Temporal his great Riches the universal Obedience both of Temporal and Spiritual Princes unto him and other such like points All which being but a melancholy meditation and Spectacle for Protestants John Fox in the next page setteth down a merrier contemplation to wit King Henry VIII placed by him in a high Throne with Clement VII under his Feet grovelling on the ground with his Cross Keys and Triple Crown in the Dust Whereat many Friars are painted staring and gazing and weeping round about and B. Fisher and Sir Thomas Moor pitifully also weeping and stooping down to help him up again And on the other side K. Henry is painted with the Gospel in his Lap and his Sword in his right hand lifted up for defence thereof Which Gospel is also holpen to be held up by Cranmer and Cromwell that on his said right hand do assist the King with great contentment of the new Ministers Who are painted here to stand very gravely contemplating of the matter with a singular comfort and all other Bishops Abbots Ecclesiastical and Temporal men bewailing and mourning 3. And this is John Fox his pleasant or rather peevish invention to entertain the eyes of the simple Readers or lookers on and to make pastime for Fools whereof himself was a solemn Father while he lived And I would ask the silly Fellow here how King Henry tho' he brake with Pope Clement upon some matters of displeasure as is notorious and refused to yield him Spiritual obedience in England as he and his Ancestors had done ever before yet how could he justly or truly be said to have cast him down with his Crown and Cross as herein painted Seeing that Pope Clement his Authority power and Spiritual jurisdiction throughout the Christian World was no less after King Henry's breach than before And albeit the Realm of England withdrew Her Spiritual obedience from him yet the encrease of new Churches in the Indies was of much more Authority and jurisdiction unto him and his Successors in that kind than he or they lost in England Germany or other parts that retired themselves from his and their obedience 4. Further I would ask this John Deviser that devised this wise representation how could K. Henry's Sword be said to be in Defence of the Protestants Gospel when by their own Affirmation he was the greatest persecutor of their Brethren that ever was King of England from the beginning of that Monarchy to his days For so sheweth Fox himself in that he in his Calendar of Saints setteth down more Martyrs of his Sect made by King Henry only than by all the other former Kings and Queens of England from the first entrance of Christian Faith to his time As we are to shew more largely in the Third part of this Treatise when we come to examin his said Calendar But yet in the mean space if you will have some tast how favourable K. Henry of his own inclination was to these new Gospellers you may read what Fox setteth down in the second part of his Acts and Monuments of this matter Where among other complaints of this Kings Reign you shall find in one place no less than fourteen whole pages of Names by way of Table or Catalogue of godly Men and Women as he calleth them apprehended persecuted and imprisoned for the Gospels sake by the Bishop of Lincoln in one year The King himself being the chief Author and Inciter to the Persecution as appeareth by a Letter of the said Kings written to the said Bishop of Lincoln upon the 20. of Octob. 1521. and the 13. year of his Reign which Letter Fox doth Register under this Title The Copy of the Kings Letter for the aid of John Longland Bishop of Lincoln against the Servants of Christ falsely then called Heretics c. 5. Lo here King Henry proved to be an Aider and Inciter of Persecution against Gospellers termed the Servants of God by Fox but Heretics by the King. And if so many of these good Fellows were persecuted by him in one Year under one Bishop only within one Diocese what may be imagined throughout the whole Realm Truly you may read in Fox himself very large and lamentable complaints of this King's Reign and divers copious Lists of these persecuted Saints of his Church set down by him especially from the foresaid year of Christ 1521 to 1531 which was the last ten years before the breach with the
Writings for his Defence he should never so much as look them over or take a view of them but should suffer himself to be cast and overthrown in the whole Suit without pleading at all for Himself or his Interest Which is the very case of many negligent Christians in our days who seeing so many assaults to be made by different Sectaries against the old possession of Cath. Religion which was their Ancestors Inheritance to Salvation and must be theirs if ever they be sav'd do yield so dastardly in this conflict and injury offered them as they never so much as examine what Proofs or Evidences they have or may have for their Defence A negligence no doubt inexcusable and worthy of infinite rebuke and confusion 40. Out of the Third Point concerning the necessity of pious Affection in him that must profit by these Arguments of Credibility I do infer how highly it doth import every man that meaneth seriously to treat of his Salvation in this behalf to dispossess himself of his Passions and sinister Affections against the Truth at leastwise while he treateth this Great Affair and that he place himself in such an indifferency equanimity and serenity of mind as he may be able to discern and look upon the Truth with an unpassionate Eye if she chance to appear unto him 41. The saying of our Savior in the place before-alleged of S. John's Gospel to such as were ambitious and intangl'd with the Wealth and Honor of this World and thereby letted to believe the Truth is terrible and dreadful For having demanded How it was possible for them to believe and thereby come to Salvation that were so intangl'd and evil-affected in mind he addeth presently Nolite putare quia ego accusaturus sim vos apud Patrem est qui accusat vos Do not you think that I shall have need to accuse you to my Father for these corrupt affections of yours rising of Ambition for there wanteth not one to accuse you Whereby Christ insinuateth amonst other things that Himself at the Day of Judgment was not to be Accuser but Judge and that the Condemnation of these men was to be most grievous who for Ambition Honor Wealth Dignities and Promotions had neither Time nor Will to attend to matters of Faith and true Religion whereby only Eternal Salvation may be atchieved which is a Point greatly to be considered and born in mind especially by such who are in the same or like Case with those Men of Jewry to whom Christ our Savior used that dreadful speech 42. Out of the Fourth and Last Point is inferred That considering all the premisses and that this matter of true Religion is of so great Moment as hath been shewed and that in this Treatise so short and clear a way is taken for discussion thereof as by only joyning Issue about the Planting Continuance Succession and Descent of Christian Religion in England from the Apostles Time unto Ours the whole Controversie between Us and the Protestants may fully be cleared and that with such evidence of Reason and necessary Consequence as supposing only that Ghrist was Christ and his Promises true all the rest doth follow by most certain sequel of Argument and moral Demonstration All this I say being so it may encourage and animate the studious Reader to run over this short Treatise Which if he do with that indifferency and attention which in the Second and Third Point of this Discourse have been touched I do not doubt but that he shall not need to read many other Books for resolving himself either about the grounded certain Truth of Catholic Religion or the Vanity Inanity Inconstancy Lightness and Folly of all Sect and Heresies that ever have or shall arise up against the same And with this good Reader I leave thee to the holy Protection and Benediction of Almighty God and to his merciful direction of thee in so weighty an Affair This Vigil of the Nativity of our Savior 1602. The First PART of this Present TREATISE CONCERNING Three Conversions OF ENGLAND TO THE Christian Catholic Roman Religion The ARGUMENT THe purpose of this first Part gentle Reader is to declare by evident demonstration both of Histories Reasons Antiquities and Succession of Times and by confession and other testimonies of the Adversaries themselves That this our Isle of England and People thereof the Britans Saxons and English have at three several times received Christian Faith from Rome and by Romish Preachers First under the Apostles in the first Age after Christ And then under Pope Eleutherius in the second Age And thirdly under Pope Gregory in the beginning of the sixth Age And that this Faith and Religion was no other than the Roman Catholic Faith generally received over all Christendom in those days And that it was One and the Self-same Faith at all these three times and that the same was continued and professed afterward in England publicly for almost 1400 years together to wit from the Apostles days unto the Reign of King Henry VIII under divers Nations States Governments and variety of Times by Britans Saxons Danes Normans and English and that the self-same Faith continueth at this day in the Church of Rome and Christian Catholic World abroad without change or alteration of any one substantial Article or Point of Belief and that all Cavils and Calumniations of Heretics and Sectaries in this behalf are vain and foolish and most manifestly here confuted And finally a most clear easie evident and infallible deduction visible to the Eye and Vnderstanding of every mean intelligent Reader is set down and brought from hand to hand without interruption from the first Conversions of our Realm unto this day and this so perspicuously as no man that will not wilfully shut his eyes but can see and behold the same as by the Chapters following God willing more particularly shall appear CHAP. I. Whether England and English-men have particular Obligations to the See of Rome above other Nations And of the first Conversion of Britans to Christian Religion in the time of the Apostles AFTER a certain Narration made by me in my Answer to Sir Francis Hastings about the seventh Encounter between him and N. D. wherein I declared what Reverend Respect other Nations and Kingdoms of the Christian World have ever born to the See Apostolic and Bishop thereof until this miserable Age of Heretical Spirits who ridiculously do hold the same to be Antichrist I do infer the conclusion and comparison following about the particular Obligation of English-men towards the same See and Bishop above many other Kingdoms saying in my Ward-word thus 2. And if all Christian Nations have and ought to bear such Reverence and Respect to the See of Rome then much more out little Island of England as this man calleth it for that it hath received more singular benefits from thence than any one Nation in the World besides having been twice converted from
Calixtus the Second Whereby appeareth that the Britans were not only Papists in those days before the coming of St. Augustin but had Papist Gods and Saints also there Yet this Man might live according to Bale to have seen the times of St. Augustin's entrance for that he saith he flourished in the year 440. and lived in all 146 years tho' Gerrad Cambrensis Polydor and others do make him somewhat more ancient 10. And for that we have talked here of John Bale and that the testimonies taken from Enemies themselves are of greatest weight against themselves we shall in this place touch certain Points briefly of the chief Preachers and Pastors among the Britans in those days to wit for the next two hundred years before the coming of St. Augustin into England Which Preachers are mentioned and much praised both by Fox and Bale as true Teachers in those days whereof Fox writeth thus In this Age to wit after the Peace restored to the Church by Constantine followed here in the land of Britanny Fastidius Ninianus Patricius Bacchiarius Dubritius Congellus Kentegernus Helmotus David Daniel Sampson Elnodugus Assaphus Gildas Henlanus Elbodus Dinothus Samuel Nivius and a great sort more which governed the Britan Church by Christian Doctrin a long season albeit the civil Governours for the time were dissolute and careless as Gildas very sharply doth lay to their Charge and so at length were subdued by the Saxons And all this while about the space of 400 years to wit from the time of King Lucius Religion remained in Britanny uncorrupt and the word of Christ truly preached until about the coming of St. Augustin and his Companions from Rome c. 11. Here now you see the chief Teachers of the British Church Nineteen in number for the space of 400 years as Fox avoweth set down in order and highly praised by him but neither his Order or Argument is worth a rush For as for his Order he beginneth with Fastidius that lived not two hundred years before St. Augustin's coming tho he name four hundred And then he putteth some before that lived long after the rest and sometimes skippeth over 100 years together from one to another as you shall see by the Examen And for his Argument how many lies and errors it containeth shall easily appear by the Sequel of this Discourse For first concerning two of the chief in this Catalogue contained to wit Dubritius and David Archbishops of the Britans you have seen before that they were Roman Catholics and canonized many Ages after their Death by Roman Bishops which they would never have done if they had differed from them in any Point of Religion But now let us see of the rest for I see not what reason there is why Fox should so commend these two 12. The first four are Fastidius Ninianus Patricius and Bacchiarius all which are found to have been Catholic Men and held the common Faith of Rome in those days nor any of them ever favoured any of these new Doctrins brought in by our new Gospellers Trithemius maketh mention of Fastidius whose Sirname was Priscus Bishop of the Britans a Man of rare Life and great Learning in the Scriptures and a singular Preacher and lived in the time of Honorius and Theodosius the Emperors about the year of Christ 420. The same do write of him both Honorius Gennadius and Bergomas And John Bale concurreth with the rest adding that he was Archbishop of London and that amongst other his Works he wrote one De Viduitate servanda of keeping Widowhood without marryig again By which only work you may know that he was not of John Bale's Religion What we have written also of the Religion of St. German and his fellow Bishops that came into England may easily declare what Religion this Man was of who being then Archbishop of London must needs be presumed to have had a great part in their calling in as also to have joyned with them against the Pelagians which he would not have done if they had not been all of one Religion And thus much of him 13. Of St. Ninianus who converted the Picts to Christian Religion St. Bede maketh most honorable mention in the Third Book of his Ecclesiastical History and the Roman Martyrologe doth cite him for a Saint upon the Sixteenth day of September Which would never have been permitted if he had been in any one thing different from the Roman Faith. Nay John Bale writeth of him thus Ninianus Bernitius ex Regio Britannorum sanguine procreatus Italiam adhuc adolescens petiit Romae apud divini verbi ministros mysteria veritatis edoctus ad plenum celer in patriam remigrabat c. miraculis ac sanctitate clarissimus obiit anno 432. St. Ninian Bernitius being descended of the Blood of the King 's of Britanny went in his youth into Italy and being fully taught the Mysteries of Gods Word in Rome he returned swiftly to his Country again where he flourished exceedingly in Miracles and Sanctity of Life and after died in the year of Christ 432. Mark here that Princes Children became Priests in those days and went to Rome to learn Divinity and that this Man having done so and brought back into Britanny the Christian Doctrin of Rome wrought Miracles thereby Ergo he was no Protestant so that here Bale testifieth against himself 14. There followeth of Patricius in John Fox but indeed he should have put Palladius before Patricius For so doth Bale and he hath Reason for that he was a famous Teacher in Britanny and sent from Rome by Pope Caelestinus before Patricius as Bale doth note saying first of Palladius Hic à Caelestino Romanorum Pontifice Antistes mittebatur c. This Man was sent Bishop from Caelestinus Pope of Rome to drive out of Britanny the Pelagian Heresie which at that time had infected the greater part thereof and to reduce the Scots to true Piety c. He flourished about the year of Christ 431. c. So saith he And the same is confirmed by that which Prosper a far better Author than Bale writeth in his Chronicle where he saith that Palladius was sent by Caelestinus Pope in the year 432 into Britanny but especially to the Scots as testifieth also St. Bede in his Story So as in this time also the Popes of Rome had Supreme Care in Spiritual Affairs both among the Britans and Scots seeing he appointed them Bishops from Rome 15. And this is confirmed also by the other Example of Patricius who as John Bale saith was sirnamed Mangonius and was born in Britanny of the Family of Senators and thereby called Patricius but yet of kindred by his Mother to St. Martin Bishop of Tours study'd Divinity in Rome and thence sent by Caelestinus the Pope to preach to the Irish-men Istum saith he ad Scotos Hibernos post Palladium Graecum misit ut eos à Pelagianorum tueretur
each Sect pretended Scriptures for themselves yet the vertue and substance of Scriptures consisting in their true meaning and interpretation thereof it was intolerable pride and insolency in them to arrogate to themselves the said true Interpretation and Exposition before the whole Church of God that went before them And hereof ensued the justness of their punishment which in Catholics can have no place as before hath been shewed Yet one Example of each sort of these men shall we here alledge thereby better to declare the Case 21. King Henry during his Reign caused sundry sorts of men to be put to death about matter of Religion as is notorious and first certain Anabaptists and new Arians namely in the 27th and 30th years of his Reign In the former of these two Condemnations were nineteen Men and six Women as Stow and others do relate and in the second were three Men and one Woman condemned These Anabaptists denied amongst other points that Children ought to be baptized before they come to years of discretion and can actually believe for defence of which Doctrin they stood resolutely upon many clear places of Scripture as to them then seemed to wit Qui crediderit baptizatus fuerit salvus erit Marc. 16. He that shall believe and be baptized shall be saved Lo say they it is necessary to believe as well as to be baptized which Infants being not able to do ought not to receive Baptism in their Infancy or if they do they must be rebaptized again when they come to years of discretion Thus reasoned they And besides this Text they and their chief Masters do alledge almost thirty places of Scripture more which seem most plain and evident to them as by their Books that are extant appeareth 22. The like places they do alledge also for that other absurd Position of theirs That no Magistrate may punish by death as for example those words of God Exod. 20. Non occides Thou shalt not kill and again the saying of our Savior Omnes qui acceperint gladium gladio peribunt Matth. 26. All that use the sword shall perish by the sword Thus said the Anabaptists from which by no means could they be drawn but went willingly to the fire for testimony of their Opinions The Arians also denying the Equality of God the Son with the Father alledged no less plain places as they would have them to seem namely that of Christ himself in St. John's Gospel ch 14. Pater meus major me est My Father is greater than I and many other which were too long here to recite And this of them who burned together obstinately in one fire in England 23. But what shall we say of the Lutherans Do not they alledge plain places also both against Us and Calvinists as themselves think For against Calvinists in defence of the Real Presence in the Sacrament they urge the plain words of Christ as we do Hoc est corpus meum This is my Body And against us for their gross Opinion that the substance of Bread and Wine remaineth together with the Body of Christ they alledge many places of Scripture where it is called Bread which places the Zuinglians accepting do turn the same against the Lutherans affirming that for so much as it is so oftentimes called Bread in the Scripture it is not the true Body of Christ at all And this passed between Fryer Barns and the two Apostata Priests Gerard and Jerom burned with him The first a fervent Lutheran the other two earnest Zuinglians all three consumed by Fire at one Stake in Smithfield by King Henries appointment in the Thirty-second year of his Reign 24. But now was there a third or fourth sort of Sectaries in K. Henries days who were neither Anabaptists Arians nor yet perfect Lutherans or Zwinglians but would have the Controversie of the Blessed Sacrament and Real Presence to be an indifferent thing to be believed or not believed as every Man should think best So held William Tyndall as also his Scholar John Frith whom John Fox doth compare to St. Paul and Timothy Frith being Burned in Smithfield by the Kings express Commandment in the Twenty-sixth year of his Reign and Tyndall not long after in Flanders by the said Kings procurement as more largely we shall declare in the Third Part of this Treatise when we come to examine John Fox his Calendar of Martyrs Now it shall be sufficient for proof of that we say to alledge Fox himself who setting down the Articles of Frith for which he was Burned assigneth this for the first First saith he the matter of the Sacrament is no necessary Article of Faith under pain of Damnation c. But may be believed or not believed as every Man shall think best And for proof thereof alledgeth divers Arguments out of Scripture that the Fathers forsooth of the Old Testament were saved by the same Faith that we are and yet were not bound to believe the Real Presence c. And Fox seemeth to like well both of this Argument and of the Heresie 25. Now then here be four or five sorts of Sectaries Condemned by King Henry and all defended themselves by shew of Scriptures but for that each of them doth reserve the interpretation of Scripture to themselves and thereby teacheth new Doctrin contrary to that which was received generally in the known Church before them to whose judgment and interpretation they will not yield themselves Hereof it followed that the indictment of Heresie lyeth truly and justly against them and that they were worthily Condemned and Burned for this Pride self-will and obstinacy But on the contrary side against the Catholics that died for the Ecclesiastical Supremacy of the Pope none of these Accusations can justly be laid for that they do neither stand upon their own judgment nor have invented any thing of new nor do adhere to their own Interpretations or Exposition of Scriptures but being accused do make their Plea and Defence far otherwise to wit that they found this Doctrin of the Popes Supremacy in use and practice before they were born as a thing received from Age to Age by the known Catholic Church time out of mind that they see all Christian Kingdoms and Princes to have embraced the same and General Councils to have allowed thereof That the Texts and Examples of Scripture alledged for the proof of this Article and all others whereon they stand are not inventions of their own but so expounded by Ancient Fathers and uniform consent of the Catholic Church that all our Christian English Kings from our first Conversion unto King Henry the Eighth acknowledged this Spiritual Authority of the Bishop of Rome and King Henry himself defended the same most earnestly with his own Pen not many years before against Luther and Lutherans That it is not a thing devised but delivered as Tertullian said of the Catholic Faith and therefore if any point thereof were to
from King Egbert his death but 234. So as Fox is in no one thing exact or punctual And these 264 years may be counted the fourth station or parcel of Time from Christ downward which now we are briefly to examin and run over as we have done the former Stations and Limitations appointed 2. First then concerning the general Roman Church it continued in these Ages as in the former by continual Succession of her Bishops and Governors altering nothing in Belief and Doctrin from her Ancestors And briefly to repeat the sum of all there ruled in the See of Rome in these two Ages and an half as supreme known and acknowledged Pastors of this great visible Church some sixty Popes from Leo III. that crowned Charles the Great and thereby restor'd the Western Empire unto the time of Alexander II. under whom Duke William of Normandy conquered England And in the Western Empire there reigned some eighteen Emperours in this space from Charles the Great to Henry IV. and in the Eastern Empire some twenty five from Nicephorus I. to Constantine X. All which Popes Emperours and Princes were of one Religion Faith and Belief in those days And albeit soon after the See of Constantinople and Greek Church by occasion of Emulation against the Roman Empire did begin to withdraw their due Obedience from the Roman Church and thereby fell by little and little into divers errors of Doctrin also and finally were delivered over as all the World seeth into the Subjection and Servitude of the Turks yet in these Ages there was Union and due Subordination between both Churches Which may appear by that one only General Council being held at Constantinople even against Phocius that was Patriarch of the said City being gathered by order of Pope Adrian II. and Basilius the Grecian Emperour concurring therein This Council was of 300 Bishops and confirmed by the said Pope Adrian being the eighth General Council in order and the fourth of those that were held in Constantinople Whereby it cometh also to be noted That all the General Councils held hitherto in the Christian Church for the space of 900 years being eight in number as hath been said from the first Council of Nice unto this and from this to the first General Council of Lateran holden in the year of Christ 1115 under Pope Innocentius III. were all held in Greece but yet by order of the Bishops of Rome sending thither their Legats and confirming the same afterwards by themselves without which confirmation they were never held for Lawful in the Christian World which is no small Argument of the Greatness and Authority of the Church of Rome from time to time 3. It shall not be needful to speak of the particular Heresies of these two or three Ages which in effect were none of any name but only two the Iconoclasts or Image-breakers and the Berengarians or Sacramentaries both of them agreeing in their particular Heresies with the Calvinists of our Times tho' in many other things different as it is wont to be The first of them was begun before these Times by Leo III. Emperour of Constantinople sirnamed Isaurus about the year of Christ 750 as before hath been noted and renewed again by Claudius Taurinensis The second was begun 300 years after by Berengarius about the year of Christ 1050 and abjured by him again as hereafter shall be shewed The chief Doctors and Fathers that defended true Religion in these Ages were Turpinus Eginhardus Haymo Rabanus Frecolphus Hincmarus Jo. Diaconus Remigius Theophylactus and others in the ninth Age and then in the other Odo Ado Rhegino Luitprandus Rhatbodus Abbo Floriacensis and others and the other half of the eleventh Age Bruchardus Petrus Damianus Lanfrancus and many others 4. And this was the state of the Universal Christian Church in these Ages whereunto in all respects was conform the particular Church of England as the Daughter to her Mother which may be demonstrated partly by the continual Descent of Archbishops in England which were to the number of Sixteen from Celnothus that lived with King Egbert unto Stigand that possessed the See of Canterbury when William the Conqueror came in tho' afterward he caused him to be deposed by a Commission from Rome in the year of Christ 1070 as John Stow and others do note 5. I do pretermit the Succession of other Bishoprics in England for Brevities sake the Kings also of England that possessed that Crown from Egbert to William the Conqueror were some Twenty in number if we count Canutus the Dane and his two Children among the rest All which Kings of what Nation or State soever agreed fully in Faith and Belief with the said Archbishops and Bishops of our Land and They again with the whole Universal Roman Church as appeareth by their Acts and Monuments and John Fox also confesseth 6. Which being so it is hard to say or imagin where John Fox in these Ages will pick out a different Christian Church tho' it be never so poor and creeping for Him and His either in England or out of England during this time And much more hard it is to think how he can devise any visible Continuation of the said obscure and trodden-down Church as he promised to do even from the Apostles Time to our Age. His only refuge must be as before we have often noted to run to the condemned Heretics of these times if he find any for his purpose Which yet he dareth not openly to do as you have seen throughout all the former Ages But afterward when he cometh near home to wit after Pope Innocentius III. and John Wickliff he taketh more heart affirming Our Church to have utterly perished and a new visible Off-spring of his Church to have started up to wit all the Sectaries and Heretics cast out and condemned of our Church as you shall see more particularly when we come to that place 7. For the present Ages that we are now in he doth not so much as lay hands upon the Iconoclasts or Berengarians nor doth seem to count them for his Brethren tho' in the principal Points of their Heresies they agree with Him as is notorious And John Fox to have some visible Members of his Church in these Ages ought to have shaken hands with them but the poor Fellow was asham'd to build his Church openly of so ancient Heretics tho' afterward when he beginneth to build indeed and to gather Stones together he calleth for the Berengarians again which now he casteth away as after you shall see 8. But now perhaps you will ask me If John Fox do set down no Succession in these Ages as neither in the former of His Church or Ours what doth the simple Fellow in all this third Book of his Whereto I answer first That albeit he promiseth in the Title That this third Book shall contain the Acts and Monuments of 300 years together with the whole
Protestant Congregation in London in Queen Maries days and of one Cuthbert Sympson the Deacon or Clerk of that Congregation which two had Dreams and Visions the one concerning the other of them Which Fox thinketh worthy of so great consideration as he writeth thus in his Margin The Visions sent to God's Saints concerning their afflictions Now then touching the first St. Rough you must know that he had been a Dominican Friar in Scotland as Fox confesseth and from thence running away into England gate himself a Mate or as he calleth her a Kate with whom lying in bed he had a Vision of his Fellow Sympson which Fox recounteth in these words The Friday at night before Master Rough was taken being in his bed he dreamed that he saw two of the Guard leading Cuthbert Sympson Deacon of his Congregation to Prison and that he had the Book about him wherein were written the Names of all them that were of that Congregation Whereupon being sore troubled he awaked and called to his Wife Kate strike light for I am much troubled with my Brother Cuthbert this night And when she had so done he gave himself to read on his Book a while and then feeling sleep to come upon him he put out the Candle and so gave himself to rest again and being asleep he dreamed the like Dream and awaking therewith he said O Kate my Brother Cuthbert is gone So they lighted a Candle again and rose This is the Vision of the Scottish Friar which caused his Kate twice to strike fire and light the Candle as you see 30. The other Vision of his Clerk Simpson that kept the Beadroll of the Names of his secret Congregation and was afterward burned with him in Smithfield Fox describeth in this manner Before Simpson 's burning saith he being in the Bishop's Cole-house in the Stocks he had a very strange Vision or Apparition which he himself with his own mouth declared to the Godly Learned Man Master Austen and to his own Wife c. Thus beginneth Fox to relate the Vision noting first as you see that he spoke it with his own mouth as tho' it were a great matter And then he entreth to make a long Apology against the Papists in defence of these Visions tho' theirs be not to be believed 31. They will ask me saith he why should I more require these to be credited of them than theirs of us This is the demand which he frameth in behalf of the Papists and I think no man will say but that it is reasonable Let us hear his Answer First saith he I write not this binding any man precisely to believe the same as they do theirs Lo here is a Foolery with a manifest Lye the Foolery is in telling us so precise believing all Visions and Dreams which no wise man ever thought or spake the Lye is in that he affirmeth us to teach that such precise belief is necessary in Visions among us But let us hear him further in his Answer to the former demand It is no Argument saith he to reason thus Visions be not true in some Ergo they be true in none This part we grant but what is this to his purpose or proof His meaning is that Ours be not true Visions and His be But who shall be Judges He and His would be But this is no reason and we on the contrary do say much more equally Nec mihi nec tibi neither He nor We as particular men ought to judge of these things but the Catholic Church which by her Bishops and Pastors does examin the Proofs Weight and Moment of every one of these things that fall out and according to the Quality Merit and Condition of them to whom they happen as also of the Witnesses and Testimonies whereby they are proved she doth judge of the Truth or Probability of every thing And to Her therefore we stand and not to the fantastical broken Brains of John Fox that maketh Miracles and Visions where he listeth and authorizeth or discrediteth them when it pleaseth him again 32. And thus much by occasion of St. Cuthbert's Apparition to King Alfred the Holiness of which Saint how highly it was esteemed in the days of this King about the year of Christ 878 you hereby see himself living 200 years before for that he died upon the year 687 the 20th of March which day hath ever since been celebrated with perpetual Memory not only by the Church of England but also by the Universal and that most worthily as may appear by his Life written largely by St. Bede Howsoever John Fox doth speak contemptuously of him here and his Fellow John Bale doth revile him But for what think you You shall hear his complaints Omnia ad amussim Monachus didicit quae ad Monachismum spectare novit nulla penitus de Evangelio facta mentioone He being a Monk learned exactly all things that appertained to the Life of Monks but never made mention of the Gospel And is this likely or probable think you that he never so much as mentioned the Gospel seeing that Monks Profession and form of Life is taken out of the Gospel But what more ensueth You shall hear the Apostata utter his Spirit Faemineum gensn saith he exosum ei erat c. Women-kind was hateful unto him c. This is the same Accusation that the Mgdeburgians laid to St. Cyprian if you remember for that he praised Virginity But how doth Bale gather this hatred of St. Cuthbert against Woman-kind It followeth Decretum fecit contra Mulieres ne ejus ingrederentur Monasteria He made a Decree against Women that they should not enter into his Monasteries This Decree Friar Bale that loved Woman-kind liked not But he addeth a further Accusation That in the second year of his Bishopric St. Cuthbert left the same and no less hypocritically than idly made himself an Anchorite leading for the rest of his days a solitary retir'd life See what matters they pick out to object unto God's Saints which themselves cannot or will not imitate 33. Finally to end this Chapter and therewith this fourth station or Time John Fox after much trifling here and there setteth down in the last words of this his third Book a very brief Catalogue of the Archbishops of Canterbury of these Ages with this Title The Names and Orders of the Archbishops of Canterbury from the time of King Egbert to William the Conqueror c. Which he beginneth with Etheldrenus that was the Eighteenth in Order and endeth with Lanfrancus who was the Thirty-fourth making certain Notes or rather Scoffs and Jests upon them all especially upon those that were most renowned for their Holiness and multitude of Miracles recorded by old Writers as namely St. Dunstan of whom Malmsbury and others having left written That among other Miracles happened unto him one was that his Harp wherewith he was wont in his Youth
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
one Protestant Opinion in his life as we shall shew when we come to his place in the Calendar And as for Bucer and Melancthon they were Lutherans indeed and open Enemies for many years against Zuinglius and Zuinglians that are the Flower of John Fox's Church And tho' Friar Bucer afterward to have the free use of his Woman in England dissembled egregiously in some things to please the Protector for a time and seemed to bear with the Sacramentaries yet told he the Lord Dudley then Duke of Northumberland being asked confidently his opinion of the Sacrament by the said Duke in the presence of the Lord Pagett then a Protestant who testified the same publicly afterward that for the Real Presence it could not be denied if we believe all that the Evangelists do write But whether all be to be believed or no he said merrily that was a matter of more disputation 35. And lastly concerning King Edward VI. set down also by Fox in red Letters for a solemn Confessor of his Religion If we talk of King Henry's time he was a very young Confessor for that he was scarce nine years old when his Father died And it is very probable that the Religion which he at that Age could receive was rather such as his Father had caused him to be taught during his life than such as it pleased Fox to assign unto him afterwards But if Fox mean that he was a Confessor of their Religion after his Fathers death albeit it be hard to say of what Religion the Child would have been if he had lived yet do I think him rather worthy to be accounted a Martyr of Fox's Church than a Confessor Seeing it is probable that the bringing in of that Religion and change of state left by his Father was the cause of his immature death For that if matters had remained as his Father left them and no Protector chosen as he appointed nor Wriothesley the Chancellor put out of his Office nor other Catholic Councellors most faithful to the conservation of the Kings Blood had been disgraced and displaced by that unlucky change like it is that the good young King might have lived many fair years more and his two Sisters never have fallen into those imminent dangers of present destruction which they once saw themselves in by the ambition of the new Gospelling Faction But enough of this and of all the Reign of King Henry VIII Now shall we pass briefly over the rest that remaineth CHAP. XII Whether Fox's Church hath had any Place under King Edward Queen Mary and Her Majesty that now Reigneth and how far it hath been admitted or is admitted at this day ALbeit John Fox did Paint out King Henry VIII in the first page of his Life sitting with his Feet upon the Popes back and the Gospel in his Lap with his Sword lifted up in his right-hand to defend the same as before you have heard yet did he Paint Cromwell and Cranmer staying up the said Sword least it should fall upon the Protestants themselves as we have shewed that in effect it did But now in the first page of King Edward's Reign Fox hath a much more ample and triumphant Pageant for the Child above his Father Who though he were but nine years old yet seemeth Fox to make him a fuller Head of the Church than his Father placing him in a high Throne of Majesty and his stretched out Sword in the right Hand and with the other which is the left he delivereth the Gospel unto the People and Prelates that stand round about him Where Fox writeth in the Margent this Note King Edward delivering the Bible to the Prelates c. As tho' the Bible had taken Authority from the Childs delivering Who being so tender of Age as he was and of likelihood scarce able to read the same and much less to understand it as well he might have delivered them the Poem of Chaucer or the Story of Guy of Warwick or of Bevis of Southampton if it had been put into his Hand to deliver as this was by his Uncle the Protector that knew full near as little of the Contents as the Child himself 2. But besides this Majestical representation of delivering the Gospel there be two or three other Pageants in the same page The first is of pulling down Images with great diligence every where and burning them with this Sentence written under The Temple well purged And then is there a great Ship painted with Men Women and Children carrying their Church-Stuff into that Ship to wit Bells Books Images and Candles and amongst other things also the Blessed Sacrament And over the Ship is written thus The Ship of the Romish Church And on the side this Sentence Ship over your Trinkets and be packing you Papists And thus is John Fox's pleasant Head delighted with these Fancies But who seeth not how childish this folly is Seeing scarce six years after this triumph when Queen Mary came in a Man might have said to him again and his Fellows Ship over your Trinkets and be packing you Protestants 3. But if we consider indeed the different Wares and Trinkets which this Catholic Roman Ship carried away from England at that time and those which the new Protestants Ship brought in soon after from Germany Geneva Switzerland and other Places we shall easily discover whether the loss were greater for our Nation by the departure of the one or by the coming in of the other For that in the Roman Ship was carried away not only the blessed Sacrament as Fox saith and Painteth it out which yet is the highest and most precious Treasure that Christ hath left to Christians upon Earth but with that also all kind of vertue and honesty for the most part For that all Modesty Gravity Learning Piety Devotion Peace Concord Unity and Charity was carried away And in the new Gospelling Ship came in all the contrary Vices namely of Sedition Division Pride Temerity Curiosity Novelties Sensuality Impiety and Atheism And in place of many sober honest and grave men that retired themselves upon this change there came running into England a main number of wanton Apostata Priests and Friars each one with his Mate and Dame at his side hungry and turbulent people as Friar Bale Friar Bucer Friar Coverdale Friar Martyr and other like Who joined with other of their own Sect in England in such a vein of Innovations as quickly brought all upon their own Heads And so tho' after all these foresaid three Pictures and Representations to wit the Bible distributed the Churches spoiled and the Catholic Roman Ship sent away John Fox doth make a fourth fair Pageant of the Protestants kind and comfortable meeting together at their Communion Table and their peaceable breaking of Bread. Yet if you consider what presently ensued in their actions I mean of their changing chopping pulling down and setting up in those few years that it
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
with great difficulty Whereupon the said Parliament was continued in Disputation and Contention especially about this matter for the space of four Months and a half to wit from the 4. of November unto the 14. of March and in the mean space all was in suspence of what Religion England should be For as on the one side many that knew or suspected the Protectors inclination did think and lay Wagers that Zwinglianism would prevail so others hearing that Archbishop Cranmer and his party stood resolutely on the other side and had punished divers for speaking against the Mass and Real Presence in the Sacrament a little before to wit one Thomas Dobbe a Master of Art in Cambridge as Fox telleth us cast into the Counter by Cranmer and held there till he died and John Hume Imprisoned for the same Cause by the said Archbishop This I say made many to expect and Bett on the other side But especially this doubt and expectation was notorious in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge where Peter Martyr and Bucer had Read now for the space of a year and more and were oftentimes urged and pressed much by their Scholars whereof the far greater parts in those days were Catholics to declare themselves clearly of what Opinion they wear touching the Sacrament of the Altar and the Real Presence To wit whether they were Lutherans or Zwinglians But they kept themselves aloof and indifferent or rather doubtful so far as they could until the determination of the Parliament should come Yet was Peter Martyr put into a great strait thereby For that having taken upon him to Read and Expound to the Scholars of Oxford the first Epistle to the Corinthians wherein the Apostle in the Eleventh Chapter handleth the Institution of the Blessed Sacrament he had thought to have come to that place just at the very time when the Parliament should have determined this Controversie 34. But the Contention enduring longer by some Months than he expected he was come to the Eleventh Chapter long before they could end in London Whereupon many Posts went to and fro between him and Cranmer to require a speedy resolution alleging that he could not detain himself any longer but that being come to the words Hoc est Corpus meum he must needs declare himself a Lutheran or a Zuinglian But he was willed to stay and entertain himself in other matter until the Determination might come and so the poor Frier did with admiration and laughter of all his Scholars standing upon those precedent words Accepit Panem c. Et gratias agens c. Fregit c. Et dixit c. Accipite manducate c. discoursing largely of every one of these Points and bearing off from the other that ensued But when at length the Post came that Zuinglianism must be defended then stepped up Peter Martyr boldly the next day and said Hoc est Corpus meum This is my Body interpreting it This is the Sign of my Body adding moreover that he wondred how any man could be of another Opinion seeing this Exposition was so clear Whereas if the Post had brought other News himself also would have taught the contrary Opinion And this Story was testified whil'st they were alive by Dr. Sanders Dr. Allen Dr. Stapleton and others that were present at this Trifling and Tergiversation of this Apostate-Frier And thus began our Zuinglian Gospel in England under King Edward VI. 35. Now let us hear a word or two out of the Statute it self about this Communion Book and profession of Zuinglianism establish'd in England after two years strife among the Protestants Whereas of long time saith the Act there hath been in this Realm of England divers Forms of Common Prayer commonly called the Service of the Church as well concerning the Mattins and Even-Song as also the holy Communion called the Mass c. And whereas the King's Majesty with the Advice of his most entirely-beloved Vncle the Lord Protector and others of his Highness's Council hath heretofore divers times assayed to stay Innovations or new Rites concerning the premises yet the same hath not had such good success as his Highness required in that behalf Whereupon his Highness by the most prudent Advice aforesaid being pleased to bear with the frailty and weakness of his Subjects in that behalf of his great Clemency hath been not only content to abstain from punishment in that behalf but also to the intent that an uniform quiet and godly Order should be had concerning the premisses hath appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury and certain of the most learned and discreet Bishops to consider and ponder the premises and thereupon having as well an eye and respect to the most sincere and pure Christian Religion taught by the Scriptures as to the Vsages of the Primitive Church should draw and make one convenient and meet Order Rite and Fashion of Common-Prayer and Administration of Sacraments to be used in England Wales c. The which at this time by the Aid of the Holy Ghost with uniform Agreement is by them concluded set forth and delivered to his Highness's great comfort and quietness of mind in a Book entituled The Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of Sacraments c. 36. This is the Preface to that Act of Parliament whereby you may see that this Communion-Book was devis'd first for bearing with the frailty of them that sought Innovations then that it was perform'd by uniform Consent Aid of the Holy Ghost according to the most sincere and pure Christian Religion taught in the Scriptures and lastly that the young Child-Prince received great comfort and quietness of mind thereby All which is ridiculous if you consider what a multitude of Errors and gross Absurdities the latter Protestants especially the preciser sort of them have gathered out against this Book yea after it was twice more reviewed altered and amended according to the pure Word of God as was pretended once in King Edward's days it self and then again in the beginning of her Majesties Reign whereof tho' I have spoken sufficiently in my Defence of the first Encounter against Sir F. Hastings yet cannot I omit to admonish the Reader in this place to read the ninth Chapter of the second Book entituled Dangerous Positions c. set forth by public Permission and printed in London Anno 1593. In which Chapter you shall see put together the words of divers new Gospellers concerning this Communion-Book affirm'd here in the Statute to be according to the most sincere and pure Christian Religion taught by the Scriptures But they say the contrary to wit that it is full of corruption and that many of the Contents thereof are against the Word of God the Sacraments wickedly mangled and prophaned therein the Lord's Supper not eaten but made a Pageant and Stage play that their public Baptism is full of childish superstitious toys 37. And finally not to stand any longer
enemies Diversity of States worketh diversity of Religion amongst Sectaries * In his humble motives an Domini 1601. Why Sectaries do change so often their Religion under different States Affliction by the Danes from the year 800 downward S. Edmund and S. Elphegus Martyred by Danes Osbertus in vita S. Elph. apud Sur. 21. April Malm. lib. 1. Pontif. Angl. pa. 116. Matth. West monast an Dom. 1011. 1012. The good Acts of King Canutus after his Conversion Malmes de gist Regum Angl. l. 2. c. 11. The building the Abby of Edmundbury and rich endowment thereof by King Canutus King Canutus his Letter from Rome Malm. ibid. fol. 14. How King Canutus performed his good desires when he returned from Rome Ibid. fol. 42. Stow in Chron. pag. 116. Ibidem apud Malm. fol. 41. King Canutus was Catholic 1043. The Succession of Catholic Religion since the conquest Thomas Cranmer Arch-bishop of Canterbury The conclusion of this deduction Iren. l. 3. adversus haeres cap. 3. Aug. in psal contra partem Donati Aug. ep 165. Aug. ibid. * Thomas Cranmer his Apostasie doth not prejudicate the See of Canterbury Anno Domini 600. Anno 1509. Anno Domini 1530. 1 Tim. 3. The Catholic faith groweth by persecution and affliction and heresie is overthrown King Henry zealous in Catholic Religion King Henries Book against Luther Dedicated to Leo 10. An. Dom. 1523. The beginning of the Kings breach with the Pope Stow An. Dom. 1530. King Henry winked for a time at some heretics Heretics burned An. Dom. 1531. Thomas Audley Thomas Cromwell Fa. Elstow contradicteth the Preacher in defence of the Pope before the King. Anno 1533. The beginning of Fox his Gospel in England Anno 1534. The first year of open breach with Rome Hol. pag. 964 The Franciscan Friars put out of their Convents Heretics burned an 1534. Stow an 1534. See the Letter of Tyndal to Frith set down by Fox p. 987. The Statute of six Articles An. 1540. The burning of Friar Barns a Lutheran with Gerard Jerom Zwinglians K. Henry gave Commission for his reconciliation with Rome Catholics increased by Persecution The name of Papist not justly punishable The different punishments upon Catholics and Protestants doth shew what K. Henry thought of them both * In his Epistles The true cause of Catholics suffering under K. Henry The condemnation of Anabaptists and Arians by K. Henry Absurd positions of Anabaptists Arrians in K. Henry's time grounded upon Scriptures pretended The condemnation of Lutherans and Zuinglians by King Henry The opinion of Tyndall and Frith agreeing with neither Lutherans nor Zwinglians Fox pag. 942. The different plea or defence of Catholics from heretics * Tertull. l. de praescript adversus haeres The disagreement of Fox his Calendar Martyrs King Edward the 6th his Reign The attempts of Cranmer and Ridley and others of their crew in King Edwards days The attempts of Seymor the Protector and John Bale in flattery towards him Bal. descript Brit. cent 5. fol. 237. See Stow and other Chroniclers in the year 1549. The general aversion of English-people against the entrance of Heresie Fox p. 1185. Fox ib. 1186. Fox p. 1189. K. Henry's Laws rejected by his Son K. Edward K. Edward's reply to the demand of the people of Devonshire Q. Mary's admonition unto the Protector and Council Heresie in K. Edward's days entred by violence Catholic Religion restored by Q. Mary Bishops and Archdeacons deprived and imprisoned for Cath. Faith An. 1560. The constancy of English Catholics in this time of Persecution The constant resolution of divers Catholic Priests Joan Lashford Fox p. 1547 1517. Agnes Potten Joan Trunchfield Rose Nottingham Fox p. 1547. William Hunter Fox p. 1395. an 1555. Rawling White Fox p. 1414. Heretical hastiness to burn for their Errors * Cap. 2. A great number of English Youths in Exile for Religion The Conclusion of the first Part of this Treatise The principal point to be noted of Succession St. Augustin's estimation of Succession Aug. ep cont Faust Manich. c. 4. tom 6. Aug. quaest 110 in nov vet Test Tert. l. de praescrip advers haeres Tert. ibid. Iren. l. 4. advers haeres c. 4. Ibid. c. 45. The force of Succession with Irenaeus other Fathers Hier. dia. ult cont Lucif Aug. l. de utilitate credent c. 17. Barking of Heretics against Succession as St. Augustin termeth it In descr Cantii A comparison between the durance of the Church temporal States The second principal point to be considered about the visibility of the Church (a) In defens l. de servo arbitr (b) Lib. cont Cathar * Part 1. Aug. in tract in ep Joan. * Cap. de Conciliis * In locis com loco 12. de Eccles (c) Cent. 1. l. 1. c. 4. (d) Apol. 1. part 3. Calv. l. 4. Inst c. 1. § 3. Why Lutherans left the Paradox of the invisibility of the Church Matt. 18. Act. 15.18 Evident Scriptures for the visibility of the Church Evident reasons that the true Church must be visible containing both good and bad (a) Marc. ult Ephes 4. 1. Pet. 3. (b) Rom. 10. Luc. 12. 1 Tim. 6. (c) Mat. 5. Luc. 11. Joan. 15. (d) Mat. 28. 1 Cor. 12. 1 Tim. 3.5 St. Augustin's Discourses about the visibility of the Church See St. Aug. in Psal 44 47. l. 2. cont Petil. c. 32 104. l. 2. cont Cresco c. 36. l. 4. c. 58. tract 1 2. in ep Joan. c. 4. collat 3. diei in Brevie A second fond device of Lutherans about an obscure Church The third point of John Fox's Opinion about the true Church A great perplexity of John Fox Illyr gloss in Matth. c. 1. Fox's new Opinion making the Church both visible and invisible Fox in his protestation to the Church of England p. 2. How Enemies and Persecutors do see the true Church Fox in the Title The purpose of John Fox in his Protest p. 3. What is to be handled about John Fox's Church The substance of John Fox's Book The division of 1060 years into four principal parts The first 300 years from Christ to Constantine Sup. c. 8 9. The impertinent course taken by John Fox Reasons to prove that the old Martyrs were of our Church and not of Fox's * Nisi integram inviolatamque servaverit absque dubio in aeternum peribit Who do more honor the ancient Martyrs See Fox's Calendar in the beginning of his Volume The second Reason Cap. 15. Tert. l. de fuga in persecut Epiph. in panar haeres 80. Aug. cont literas Petiliani l. 2. c. 83. cont 2. ep Gaudentit l. 2. c. 26. alibi Of heretical Martyrs * Supra c. 5 6. (a) The third Reason (b) St. Andrew (c) See the story of his passion written by the Church of Achaia in those days cited by Remigius in Psal 21. by Lanfrank lib. cont Berengar by St. Bernard Serm. de St. Andrea many others St. Laurence Amb. l. 1. Officior c.
where having declared the extreme Calamity come upon his Country-men by that War and Victory of the Romans against them under Claudius addeth presently these words Interea glaciali frigore rigenti Insulae c. In the mean space while these Wars lasted there appeared and imparted it self to this cold Island removed further off from the visible Sun than other Countries that true and invisible Sun which in the time of Tiberius Caesar had shewed it self to the whole World I mean Christ vouchsafed to impart his Precepts c. 14. This is the sum and true sense of his Sentence tho' the words be somewhat intricate and his stile obscure which Sir Francis understanding not citeth this place of Gildas as before you have heard to prove that Britanny received the Gospel under Tiberius Caesar which he saith not nor is not likely as before hath been declared both in respect of the small time which Tiberius lived after the Apostles began to preach as also for that in those days there was no War in Britanny whereof Gildas speaketh immediately before 15. And thus much of the Time and Occasion whereby Christian Religion began first in Britany within the first fifty years after Christ's Ascension whereto also we may add the Testimony of Nicephorus and before him of Theodoretus and Sophronius ancient Writers who do testifie That Brittaniae Insulae c. The Britan Islands fell in division among the Apostles in their first partition which they made of the World. And it is most like that St. Peter being come to Rome to teach and convert the Western-parts of the World as Italy Spain and France by name these Islands also received the same benefit from him And so say our Authors whom afterwards I shall allege for his being in Britanny 16. And this is another point of Obligation betwixt England and Rome if Sir Francis can be content to hear it to wit that the first Bishop of Rome went in person to convert our Country as afterward we shall hear grave Authors affirm to whom I remit me Tho' who indeed were the very first Teachers in Britanny and Preachers in particular or Helpers thereunto is not so certain our ancient Historiographers by reason of the variety of Times and our Countries Calamities having left no clear Testimony thereof True it is that our later Writers of the English Nation namely Holinshed and Cambden do affirm That one Claudia Ruffina a Noble British Lady living then in Rome and being the Wife as they say of one Pudens a Roman Senator and Mother of the two famous Christian Virgins Praxedes and Pudentiana did send divers Books and Messages unto her Friends in Britanny and thereby helped much to their Conversion And this may appear say they as well by the Salutation sent from her by St. Paul's Pen to Timothy when he said Eubulus Pudens Linus Claudia and all the Brethren do salute you as also for that she was the first Hostess or Harbourer of St. Peter and St. Paul at their coming to Rome it may be conjectur'd that she was one of the first Christians of the City Whereof it may be inferred that if it be true that she sent those first Messages Books or Messengers of Christian Knowledge into her Country she was also the first or one of the first Helpers to that Conversion 17. But now the proofs of this mater are not so strong as I could wish or desire for the Honor of our Country but let us hear them as they be First the proof that she was a Britain is by certain Verses of Martial the Poet written unto her in his Epigrams thus Claudia caeruleis cùm sit Ruffina Britannis Edita cur Latiae pectora plebis habet Whereas Claudia Ruffina is born of the Britans that paint themselves how cometh it to pass that she hath gained so much the good wills of the Italian People And then he goeth forward to praise her also for her Beauty exceeding the Beauty either of Italians or Grecians He commendeth her besides for three Children which she had born to her Husband and these Children our men would interpret to be the foresaid two Virgins Praxedes and Pudentiana together with Novatus their Brother all Children of Pudens the Senator above-named 18. But altho' I could wish much as I said for the Honor of our Nation that this thing were true especially her being the Wife to Pudens and Mother of the foresaid Children that were all Saints yet have I great Arguments to the contrary Whereof the first is the silence of all Antiquity in this behalf Martial also being a Heathen and Enemy to Christians would hardly have commended her so much and written Epigrams to her of her rare Beauty if she had been a Christian which was the most odious thing that might be in those days nor could she be so Beautiful in his time living under Vespasian and Titus and dying under Trajan during whose Reign it appeareth in Martial that these Verses were written for so much as she must needs be very old in those days seeing that Pudens his House placed in declivo Montis Scauri in the side of the Hill called Scaurus was the first by Tradition of all Antiquity that received St. Peter and afterward St. Paul in Rome and is at this day a Church dedicated to his Daughter St. Pudentiana and from the arrival of St. Peter to Rome until the time of Trajan were almost sixty years So as if she were Wife of Pudens and Mother of those Children when St. Peter came to Rome she must needs be very aged when Martial wrote those Verses of her Beauty Besides this our own Bede Ado Archbishop of Trevers Usuardus and other ancient Authors in their Martyrologies do assign another Wife unto Pudens the Senator as Mother to the foresaid three Children whose Name was Sabinella so that tho' it be true that there was such a British Lady named Claudia Ruffina in Rome commended by Martial under Trajan and that St. Paul did commend another Claudia and Pudens for Christian Religion in his second Epistle to Timothy all which is sufficiently proved yet that this Claudia Ruffina was the Claudia mentioned by St. Paul or that the same Ruffina was a Christian or Wife to Pudens or Mother of Praxedes and Pudentiana which are the principal Points whereof the matter dependeth This I say is not proved nor any part thereof but only huddl'd up by our later Heretical Writers under a shew of other Proofs to wit that there was such a Claudia that was of Britanny and another by St. Paul named which are impertinent Points to the Principal that should have been proved And hereby we see that Heretics are but slight Provers and very deceitful in all matters as well Historical as Doctrinal 19. Wherefore to let this pass and to speak of the first Ecclesiastical Teachers of Christian Religion in England who through the great
perturbation of Wars as hath been said were not so well known nor distinctly observed nor deliver'd to Writing in those days as otherwise they might have been yet find I some mention tho' dispersed of three several Apostles of Christ to have Preached there to wit St. Peter St. Paul and St. Simon of Chananee sirnamed the Zealous two Apostolical Men also in these first troubled Times to have been sent thither Aristobulus a Roman whom St. Paul named in his Epistle to the Romans and Joseph of Arimathea a Nobleman of Jury that buried Christ Of all which Five we shall speak somewhat in order 20. And first of St. Peter himself to have been in England or Britanny and Preached Founded Churches and Ordained Priests and Dencons therein is recorded out of Greek Antiquities by Simeon Metaphrastes a Grecian And it seemeth to be somewhat confirmed by that which Innocentius I. Bishop of Rome hath left written above 1200 years agone saying That the first Churches of Italy France Spain Africa Sicilia and the Islands that lie betwixt them were founded by St. Peter or his Scholars or Successors For which cause Gulielmus Eysengrenius in his first Centuria or hundred years doth write also That the first Christian Churches of England were sounded by St. Peter under Nero. Whereunto it may be thought that the foresaid Gildas had relation when expostulating with the Britain Priests of his time for their Wickedness for which the Wrath of God had brought in the English Saxons upon them he objecteth among other things Quod sedem Petri Apostoli inverecundis pedibus usurpassent That they had usurped the Seat St. Peter with unshamefac'd feet meaning thereby either the whole Church of Britanny first founded by him or some particular place of Devotion or Church which he had erected And finally Alredus Rienuallus an English Abbot of the Order of Cisterce left written about 500 years agone a certain Revelation or Apparition of St. Peter to an holy man in the time of King Edward the Confessor shewing him how he had Preached himself in England and consequently the particular care he had of that Church and Nation c. 21. If any man ask What time it might be that St. Peter left Rome and went into Britanny and other Countries round about Cardinal Baronius a famous Learned Historiographer of our time thinketh that it was then when Claudius the Emperor banish'd all the Jews out of Rome as in the Acts of the Apostles it is recorded among whom it is like that St. Peter also being by Nation a Jew retired himself and took that occasion to go into divers Pagan Countries to preach the Faith of Christ that thing belonging especially to his Charge as Head of the Apostles according to his own words of himself Elegit Deus per os meum audire gentes verbum Evangelii credere God hath chosen and appointed that Gentiles shall hear and believe the Word of the Gospel by my mouth This then was the cause why he was so diligent and careful to go and preach every-where Christian Religion to the end he might fulfil and accomplish this Will and Ordination of his Master And this was one cause also to wit his absence from Rome why according to Baronius and other Learned Men St. Paul writing to the Romans did not name or salute him in his Epistle whereof our Heretics do brabble much And thus much of St. Peter 22. Of St. Paul's being in Britanny there are not so many particular Testimonies yet the foresaid Theodoretus doth affirm That from Rome he made certain Exoursions in Hispanias in Insulas quae in Mari jacent into Spain and the Islands lying in the Sea near about And in another place as the Magdeburgians do cite him he writeth expresly That St. Paul Preached to the Britains And the like hath Sophronius Bishop of Jerusalem in his Sermon of the Nativity of the Apostles Venantius also Fortunatus a most Learned and Holy. Man writing above a thousand years agone of St. Paul's Peregrination saith thus Transit Oceanum vel qua facit Insula portum Quasque Britannus habet terras atque ultima Thyle He pass'd over the Ocean-Sea to the Island that maketh a Haven on the other side even to the Lands which the Britains do possess c. For which respect Arnoldus Mirmannus in his Theatre of the Conversion of all Nations affirmeth St. Paul to have pass'd to Britanny in the fourth year of Nero Anno Domini 59 and there to have Preached and afterward to have returned again into Italy And so much of St. Paul who having twelve or thirteen years permitted him by Christ after his coming to Rome before his death for helping St. Peter and for assisting the West-parts of the World and St. Peter himself almost twice as much it is not unlike their Zeal being considered and the state of times weighed but that they made many Excursions as the former Authors do write And thus much of them 23. For the Preaching of the third Apostle Symon Chananaeus sirnamed the Zealous we have the Testimony of Nicephorus out of Greek Monuments to whom agreeth Dorotheus a very ancient Writer as also the Greek Martyrology as testifieth Baronius in his Annotations upon the Roman Martyrology And by this also we see that albeit St. Peter had undertaken to preach to the West-part of the World yet did other Apostles also help him therein as St. Paul in Italy and Spain and this Symon in Britanny and other places and St. Philip in France c. 24. Of Aristobulus also St. Peter's Scholar do testifie in like manner the foresaid Authors Mirmannus Dorotheus Baronius out of the Greek Martyrology that he was sent by St. Peter into Britanny and there made a Bishop And that Aristobulus was a principal known Christian in Rome before St. Paul's arrival there it appeareth by the Epistle of the said Apostle to the Romans where he saluteth him in these words Salute those that be of the house of Aristobulus Nor is it read that ever this Aristobulus came back from Britanny to Italy again And this of him 25. Of Joseph of Arimathea his coming into France and his sending thence into Great Britanny either by St. Philip as some say who preached then in Gaul or as Others hold by St. Peter himself as he passed that way to and from Britanny and how he obtained a place to exercise an Eremitical Life for him and his ten Companions in the Island called Avallonia where Glastonbury after was builded albeit I find no very certain or ancient Writer to affirm it yet because our later Historiographers for two hundred years past or more do hold it have come down by Tradition and namely Johannes Capgravius a Learned Man of the Order of St. Dominick and others after him I do not mean to dispute the matter here but rather to admire and praise the Heavenly Providence and
Religion held firm her continuance throughout all these Tempests yea shewed her self more clear eminent and notorious by the Confession of her most constant Members then she did before in peace which is the proper privilege and excellency of truth and of the Catholic Church that is the Pilar of Truth above all Sects and Heresies as St. Cyprian St. Austin and other Fathers do note to come out of Persecution as Gold out of Fire more bright illustrious and eminent than before or as an excellent Ship well Tackled and skilfully guided breaketh thorow the Waves without hurt at all 2. And this hath been proved now by the experience of 1600 years wherein this Ship of the Catholic Church hath passed thorow no fewer storms than there are years and overcome them all whereas many hundred Sects and Sectaries in the meane space have been broken in pieces perished and consumed either by division among themselves or with a little externe Persecution or Discipline of the Church whereof I shall not need to alledge many examples for that the World is full of them and all Histories do testifie and our former deduction hath made it clear and one Domestical example of our own days there is before our eyes which may serve for all the rest to wit that some severity being begun by our State against two opposite Religions in England the Catholics and Puritans tho' much more rigorous against the former than the second yet hath Catholic Religion increased thereby and Puritanism been broken and in a manner dissolved The Reason of which different success we shall touch afterwards Now to the purpose we have in hand 3. For the first Twenty years of King Henries Reign unto the year of Christ 1530 no Man can deny but that the integrity of Catholic Religion Union and Communion with the rest of Christendom and perfect subordination to the See Apostolic of Rome remained in England whole as the said King had received it from the most prudent Religious and Victorious Prince his Father King Henry the Seventh and he again from his renowned Ancestors whom yet King Henry the Eighth as he did excel in knowledge of Learning So was he nothing inferior to them in zeal of defending the purity of Catholic Faith as may appear by the multitude of Sectaries and Heretics as well Waldensians Arrians Anabaptists Lollards and Wickliffians as Lutherans Zuinglians Calvinists and the like burned by him for dissenting from the universal known Church and Roman Religion in the first said Twenty years of his Reign which Fox setteth down with great complaint and regret and we shall after declare more at large in the Second and Third parts of this Treatise 4. And when Luther afterward rose up in the Eighth year of this glorious Kings Reign which was the year of Christ 1517 King Henry caused first the Famous Learned Bishop John Fisher of Rochester to confute the Mad fellow and after he vouchsafed to do the same himself by a most excellent Book which I have Read and seen subscribed with his own hand with the Dedication thereof by his Ambassador Dr. Clark after Bishop of Bath and Wells unto Pope Leo the Tenth who in gratification thereof gave his Majesty and all his Posterity the most Honorable Style and Title of Defender of the Faith. 5. And thus continued King Henry and the Religion under him in England until the foresaid year 1530. at what time there happened a most fatal and unfortunate contention between Clement the Seventh the Pope and him about his Divorce from Queen Katherine He began first to shew his grief and displeasure against Cardinal Wolsey and secondly against the whole Clergy of England Condemning the one and the other in the Forfeiture of Premunire who in their submission and supplication for Pardon either of fear or flattery called him Supreme Head of their Church of England 6. The King also began to shew openly his disgust with the Pope for not yielding to his pretence and Petition But what Was the Kings Religion changed by this Or did he alter his judgment in Faith for this disaffection towards the Pope No truly as well appeareth by his other actions For he frequented the Mass no less than before he burned Heretics more than ever as appeareth by Fox his accompt and so you shall see in all the residue of his Life which were Sixteen years after this And albeit at this time being much troubled with this breach with the Pope he attended less to repress Heresie for some years than he had done before yet was his judgment no less against them than from the beginning and the longer he lived the more grew his aversion from them as may easily appear to him that will but look over the years that ensued after this disgust and breach with Pope Clement the Seventh For albeit in the next year after to wit 1531 he proceeded to shew his aversion from that Pope yet did not he neglect the punishment of Lutherans as may appear by the burning of David Foster Valentine Freese John Tenkesbury the old Man of Buckingham and other which Fox doth complain of 7. In the year 1532. The King proceeding in the same discontentment with the Pope did certain things rather to terrifie him than to make any change of Religion as making Sir Thomas Audley Chancellor in the place of Sir Thomas More which Audley was suspected to favor Lutheranism In using also familiarly Thomas Cromwell a Man of the same humor or worse To which end also he going over into France conferred with Francis the French King and persuaded him to Summon the Pope to a General Council but he would not whereupon King Henry returning into England not only spake open words against Pope Clement but suffered one Dr. Cutwyn Dean of Hertfort to Preach publickly against him in a Sermon before the King himself in the Church of the Franciscan Friers of Greenwich who passed so far in that vein as a grave Religious Father Named Elstow reprehended him publickly out of the Quire or Roodloft for which he was sent to Prison And this was the first open contradiction that King Henry had within his Realm about this Controversie with the Pope and yet doth Fox recount unto us divers of his Martyrs most opposite to the Pope that were burnt by the Kings Authority this year as namely James Baynam Robert Debnam Nicolas Marish Robert King and others 8. There followed the year 1533 wherein his Majesty was Married to Queen Ann Bullen and consequently this year passed most in Triumph about Coronation of the said Queen as also the Birth and Baptism of her Majesty that now is So as little was done in matters of Religion any way but a great Gate seemed to be opened to the Protestants and to Luthers favorers by this Marriage in so much that Fox doth assign the ground of his Gospel principally from this year in respect both