him he saw him free and safe without hurt of the fire These foure so straunge wonders besides others which we passe ouer shall you finde in his sermon of the dead You see heere the Textes of holie Scripture wherewith hee confirmeth his Purgatorie Also to proue the resurrection he citeth the place of Genesis the ninth chapter and the fourth verse where God commaunded Noah The flesh with the bloud shalt thou not eate Also another straunge thing in the chapter of Virginitie he saith that had not Adam sinned men for generation should not carnally haue coupled with their wiues And because hee saw the Text of Scripture to bee against him God might sayth hee by other meanes multiply men without the coniunction of man and woman Also seeing that Saint Basil calleth the bread and the wine of the Sacrament examples of the bodie and bloud of Christ which was opposite to him This saying of S. Basil said he ought to bee vnderstood of the bread and of the wine before sanctification which is not so for the bread and wine before consecration as already wee haue proued by the Fathers are common bread and wine as the rest and be no symbols nor figures of the body and bloud of Christ vntill and not before these words Take and eate this is my body bee sayd Sith such a one then is Damascen leaue we him and let vs followe that which the hole Scripture doth teach vs that which the Fathers whom against Transubstantiation we haue alleaged doe tell vs and that also which experience it selfe of that which we see touch and tast in the sacrament doth shew vs. To Theophilact Anselme Hugo Richardo c. whom they cite against vs and liued in the time that the holy Supper of the Lord was now falling the Popes then tyrannizing the consciences of men who neuer stayed vntill the holy supper destroyed they had made of some reliques patches and remnants of their Masse such as now it is full of abuses superstitions and idolatries do we answer the same He of these late writers which least erred in this matter of Transubstantiation is Scotus who saith as before we haue said that neither by Scripture nor reason it can be proued but would yet be deceiued because the Church so commaundeth How could his Church which is the Pope and his Cardinals make new articles of faith besides those which Iesus Christ our king our Prophet and priest ordained and taught us which be contained in the Creed of the Apostles Let vs now answer to the Councels which our aduersaries alleage against vs. As touching that which they obiect against vs of the Councell of Ephesus wherein Cirillus gouerned and Theodoret who is so appaparantly against Transubstantiation was present therein they doe vs great wrong For the same do wee confesse that the Councell confesseth We say that receiuing this Sacrament we receiue not common flesh but flesh sanctifying which by an inseparable vnion is conioyned with the diuine word But how do we receiue it Spiritually by faith not carnally as say our aduersaries that they receiue eat and digest it For vntil it be digested they affirm it to be the flesh of Christ They obiect the councel of Vercell in the time of Leo the ninth where Berengarius was condemned They obiect the Councel of Lateran in the tyme of Nicholas 2. which caused Berengarius to recant The Lateran Councel also in the time of Innocent 3. Also the Councell of Constance Anno. 1516. The Trident also of our time in the time whereof so many Popes as Paule 3. Iulius 3. Marcellus 2. Paulus 4. Pius 4. and none of these for the causes that speaking of the Popes wee haue shewed were present in it poped But examine wee the recantation which Pope Nicholas the second that poped about the yeare 1060. commaunded Berengarius to make in the Councell of Lateran as it is written in the Decrees de consecrat dist 2. cap. Ego Berengarius Wherein hee was constrained to confesse that the body of Christ is handled or sensnally felt with the hands of Priests that it is broken that it is chewed with the teeth I demand of them how can the body of Christ which now is glorified and therefore impossible and no way subiect to these humane miseries suffer these things Which the Pope and his Councell do say The Glosser of the Decrees himselfe although not verie wise could not but see so great an absurditie as this and therefore sayd that this verie warily and aduisedly ought to be vnderstood for if thou doest not so saith he thou shalt fall into an error farre greater then that of Berengrius The Glossor then vnderstood it much better then Pope Nicholas or his Councell whose holy spirit the Pope was that the body of Christ in the Sacrament could no wayes bee touched with the handes nor broken nor chawed with the teeth For this cause the Maister of Sentences in the fourth willing to amend or conceale this so notable a fault saith That this which was commāded Berengarius to say ought not to be vnderstood of the body of Christ but of the Symbols which say they be the accidents And so in that manner of speaking admitteth a trope or figure according whereunto is attributed to the thing that which is of the symbols But should we vse this figure they would eat out our eyes Now shalt thou vnderstand the account which is to be made of such a Councel and of the other Councels that followed this in which the Pope or his Legates haue gouerned and nothing aught worthy was in them determined albeit the Fathers had broken their heads about it if the Pope approued it not So that the Pope only is hee which maketh and vnmaketh decrees and articles of faith and not the Councel Whē a Councell is celebrated the which from many to many yeares is done as though there were no euill life of the Prelates to be amended nor abuses superstitions heresies nor idolatries in the Church to bee corrected the Legates of the Pope which commonly are three for such is his cause that hee trusteth not one with it haue great regard to write to the Pope this or that is determined in the Councel how liketh it your Holinesse Then doth the Pope either approue it or blotting it out disalow it If he blot it out there is then no more treaty of that matter how true soeuer it be how profitable soeuer for the Church That which he approueth he writeth to his Legats This letter which the Pope sendeth is the holy spirit which now gouerneth the Councels This holy Spirit descendeth not from heauē but commeth inclosed in a budget or wallet Thus is the Councell not free but a seruant and of whom of the Pope Who as before by many most sufficient reasons we haue proued to be Antichrist So necessarie an article to saluation is
Transubstantiation among our aduersaries that they hold him not a Christian but an heretike anathematized accursed and excommunicated that doth not beleeue it Wherein to the Councell of Florence held in the time of Eugenius the fourth in the yeare of our Lord 1439. do they great iniurie In this Councell were present the Emperour of Grecia the Patriarke of Constantinople and many Easterne Bishops The Greekes and Latines agreed in this Councell in the difference which they held touching the holy Spirit and in some other things they also agreed but as touching Transubstantiation albeit the Pope did labour them to allow of it yet could they neuer effect it with them And great heed tooke the Greekes that in the letter of vnitie no mention were made of Transubstantiation the which was done to the good liking of the Greeks as in the Bull of Eugenius which beginneth Exultent coeli laetetur terra appeareth wherin he giueth for good to all Christendome that the Greeke and Latine Church had once againe accorded And I surely know had their Transubstantiation bene an article of faith without which there is no saluation the Romane Church did wickedly to admit the Greeks for brothers seeing they openly denyed Transubstantiatiō That which our aduersaries say of the mutual cōsent of the Church touching the article of Transubstātiation here appeareth to be false For neither the Greek nor Eastern church euer beleeued it nor now at this day beleeueth it nor yet did the Latine Church for a thousand yeares space beleeue it Of all this which we haue spoken touching Transubstantiation we conclude that which we say to be truth that he which heareth the Masse is a great Idolater and he which sayth it is a greater The fift Domage which the Masse causeth is that besides the sayd foure domages it maintaineth many abuses as is Purgatorie Concerning Purgatorie say we there is no other purgatorie but the bloud of Christ which purgeth our sinnes By which purgation wee are reconciled with the euerlasting Father The other purgatorie say we which our aduersaries haue forged without the word of God is the head of a wolfe as Doctor Constantine did call it who for the cause of religion of infirmitie age and hard imprisonment among those cruell Canibals and eaters of mans flesh the defilers of the faith in the castle of Traiana died Purgatorie is a common cutpurse that without shame or correction stealeth robbeth and catcheth all what it can to fill the paunches of these idle bellies priests and friers all the ecclesiasticall order For whence haue they so enriched themselues whence is it that they haue builded so many sumptuous Monasteries which seeme rather Castles and pallaces of most rich kings and Princes then houses of begging Friers and poore Monkes who in times past gained their liuing with the labour of their hands Whence haue they founded so many Chappels so manie Trentals so many Masses prayed and sung which they called de requiem but of the foolish perswasion of Purgatorie As the Masse entertayneth Purgatorie so also doth Purgatorie entertaine the Masse The Masse and Purgatorie are euen as two Mules the one rubbing the other The false prophets made an old simple woman beleeue that the soule of her father mother husband daughter or other person whō she deerely loued was suffering most grieuous torments and paines in Purgatory and demanded some reliefe by the Masse or Masses which should be said for it Then the poore old woman taking it from their mouth ioyned peece to peece 68 Blancas which is a ryall went to a Priest and giuing him the tyall for Masses are sold for money besought him to say a Masse with great deuotion for the soule of her father or some other person whom she loued And were the old woman so much more superstitions then went she to a monasterie holding it for certaine that the Fryers liued a more religious and holy life then the Priestes and being come to the monasterie besought the Sextan or potter to cause a Masse with all speede to be sayd The Sextan or porter sayd it should presently bee done Then went out a Father to say the Masse and tooke money of her to whom better had it beene to haue giuen then taken it from her for God knoweth the pouertie that remayned in the house of this old woman and the riches and superfluity that was in the monasterie And a faire thing it was that they sayd it not for her for oftentimes it happeneth that more Masses are receiued for in one day then all the Priestes of the monastery can say in a moneth And this is the cause why they cannot say all the Masses they receiue for But thou wilt say vnto mee Why do these reuerend men take of them more money for Masses then they well can say Me seemeth they rob in doing this which thou sayest Hereunto I answer that they reckon not of this nor make they any conscience thus to rob and deceiue And that which is worse this their theft and robberie do they sanctifie saying that is very well done and that necessity so requireth that the deuotion of the people be not despised Ad the Pope for the cause aforesayd a proueth and maketh good this theft and commandeth them to say two Masses at euery moneths end one for the quicke another for the dead which two Masses saith he are as auayleable as all those how many soeuer they haue omitted to say Did the Magistrates their dutie they would seeke and in the chests of their Monasteries should find such Bulles such mockeries and such licenses to steale Purgatorie haue they made a new article of faith so that he which beleeueth it not is therefore an heretike If it be heresie not to beleeue that which neither in the doctrine of the old or new Testament is confirmed Nor is in any of the three Creedes of the Apostles the Nicen nor of Athanasius being a Summarie token out of the scripture which a Christian ought to beleeue conteyned The 6. domage is that suppose the sacrifice of the Masse or sacrament of the altar As they call it had bene such As they paint it out Yet should it not be wel administred sith the Christian people are defrauded and depriued of the one halfe of the sacrament because they giue them not the sacramentall wine which is the sacrament of the bloud of Christ shed for vs vpon the Crosse when the other halfe is receiued they giue it seldome once in the yeare wickedly with so many superstitions and Idolatries As we haue already proued In bread and wine did Iesus Christ institute this sacrament for the high signification and allusion which the bread and wine holde with his bodie and with his bloud and commaunded his Apostles in the selfe same maner As they had seene him celebrate the supper in memoriall of his death to celebrate it When he gaue thē the bread he said Take
with him 30000. men and onely Saint Barnard without any payne flew to heauen 3. descended into purgatorie and all the rest into hell perpetually to be damned Thus far Venero He that reporteth this was no Ideot but a preacher and of the order of preachers Who will not beleeue an holy hermite come from another world a Bishop and a preacher also O happie Bishop which knew what passed in Heauen Purgatorie and hell Blessed be our God which hath opened our eyes and made vs to vnderstand such apparitions to be illusions of the diuell For confirmation of this our Doctrine Reade the Parable which our Sauiour propoundeth of the rich worldling who prayed Abraham to send Lazarus before deceased to the house of his father that he might declare to his fiue brethren that which he passed But Abraham answered they haue Moses and the Prophets let them heare them whom if they will not heare neither will they bee perswaded though a man should rise from the dead Luke 16. So that euery Christian which readeth searcheth and meditateth the holy scripture doth know that all this which they say concerning Purgatorie is lies albeit the Pope will haue it an Article of faith Were it an article of faith it should be founded vpon the scripture On the scripture it is not founded therefore it is no Article of faith Also were it an Artticle of faith it should be one of the twelue of the Apostles creede but it is not therefore it is not an Article of faith But it is as saith Doctour Constantine the head of the wolfe It serueth to mainetayne idle bellies Conclude wee this then of the false myracles of Antichrist with that which the Lord saith False Christes and false Prophetes shall arise and shall worke signes great and wonderfull so that if it were possible the verie elect should be deceiued Well hath our Redemer forewarned vs well hath his Apostle Saint Paule foretold vs. See we now to our selues for of ignorance now shall we not sinne we are forewarned And as Daniel for our consolation foretold vs of the miserable end of Antichrist so also saith Saint Paule and that more plainely then Daniel that the Lord will destroy him with the spirit of his mouth and consume him with the brightnesse of his comming which we see dayly more and more accomplished How many kingdomes and prouinces do now know the Pope to be Antichrist And how came they by this knowledge not forced but by reading and hearing the word of God Very wise was the Pope in forbidding the Bible in forbidding the reading of the holy Scripture well did he vnderstand that all his euill his whole ruine and destruction should there thence proceede But I commaund it The Lord saith Saint Paule will destroy him with the Spirit of his mouth with his word with the holy Scripture with the doctrine of the olde and new Testament with the Bible which he so much abhorreth Many nations haue forsaken him onely Spaine and Italy giue him life But albeit they so do yet is his sicknesse vncurable and doubtlesse shall he die thereof The third and last passage wherewith we confirme the Pope to be Antichrist is taken out of the seuenteenth chapter of the Reuelation of Saint Iohn Reade the whole chapter Here will we note the principall points Saint Iohn saith hee saw a woman sit vppon a beast the woman and the beast with their quallities and attire he depainteth The woman saith hee was the great whore which sitteth vpon manie waters with whom the kings of the earth haue committed fornication He saith that she was set vppon a beast That this woman was clothed with purple and Scarlet and guilded with golde and adorned with precious stones c. Who had in her forehead a name wriâ—ten A Mysterie Great Babylon mother of fornications and abhominations of the earth that this woman was drunken with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus And concluding the chapter he saith that this woman is the great citie whâ—ch reigneth ouer all the kings of the earth Concerning the beast saith he which was of the colour of Scarlet full of the names of blasphemie which had seuen heades and ten hornes Saint Iohn saith that when he saw this woman ride vpon the beast he greatly wondered The Angell declareth vnto him the secret of the woman and of the beast The beast saith the Angell which thou hast seene was and is not c. He saith vnto him that the seuen heades be seuen mountaines whereupon the woman sitteth He saith that the ten hornes be ten kinges subiect to the beast That these kings shall fight against the Lambe but the Lambe shall oueâ—come them That the waters whereupon the Whoore sitteth bee peoples and kindreds and nations and tongues Hee saieth that the ten hornes of the beast shall hate the whore shall make her desolate and destroy her Who seeth not Antichrist the Pope of Rome here figured and liuely painted out to whom can all these things be applied but to him alone The whore is the Pope the beast is the Romane Empire whereupon the Pope sitteth aâ—d wherewith hee hath lifted vp himselfe It is a common pâ—rase of speech in the Scrâ—pture to call Idolatrie and superstition fornication and tâ—e Idolaters it calleth strumpets and whoores Reade the sâ—cond chapter of Ieremie and 3. verse Ezech. 16. chap. Of 〈◊〉 chap. 1. 2. and 3. The Pope then is called Whore and greâ—t whore for his idolatrie and superstition which he committeth and teacheth to so many people and nations Note that which we haue said in the passage cited out of the 11. chapter of Daniel How much more yet by the great prouidence of God hath this thing fully and plainely happened seing a Pope hath bin which was a woman and a greate whoore Reade the life which we haue recited of Iohn 8. where he saith that the woman was clothed with purple and scarlet and gold c. Euen so is the Pope in his pontificall habite and chiefly the day of his coronation fully clothed Platina speaking of Pope Clement the fifth as in his lâ—fe we haue declaâ—ed saith that at his coronation fell a wall which killed many and that the Pope falling from his horse lost a Carbuncle which fell from his Miter or as they call it Reyno that was worth sâ—xe thousand Florences D. Illescas chap. 24. speaking of the coroantion of Leo the tenth saith these words The day of this coronation in Rome was so solemne and ioyfull that any hardly remembred to haue seene the like thing For besides the other feastes made which should be tedious to recount they affirme aboue an hundred thousand duckets to haue bene cast among the people c. How could this Pope say that which said Saint Peter Siluer and gold haue I none This woman he calleth Babylon as much to say as confusion He calleth
Epistle which the Apostle wrote to the Hebrewes and chiefly the seuenth chapter Of this will wee intreat somewhat more to the purpose hereafter The 2. manner of sacrifice which wee call Eucharisticall comprehendeth all the exercises of charitie which done to our neighbours in some sort are they done vnto God who is thus honored in his members Our prayers praises thankesgiuing and all whatsoeuer we doe for the seruice and honor of God are also comprehended in this kind of sacrifice Al which sacrifices doe depend vppon that great sacrifice by which we are consecrated in body and soule and dedicated for holy Temples to God This kind of sacrifice nought serueth to appease the wrath of God to obtaine forgiuenesse of sinne or to deserue or purchase righteousnesse but is only to magnifie and glorifie God This Eucharisticall sacrifice can no way please God except it proceede from those which hauing by the other kind of sacrifice which we call Expiatory obtained forgiuenesse of sinnes bee already reconcyled with him and iustified This sacrifice Eucharisticall is very necessarie in the Church And woe to that day which a Christian passeth without offering of this sacrifice to God This is the incense and oblation cleane and pure which Malachie Prophesied that the Church of God should offer Of this sacrifice speaketh Saint Paule when hee saith that we offer vp our bodies a liuing sacrifice holie and acceptable vnto God a reasonable seruice of God For this cause the almes and other good works of the faithfull are called sacrifices wherewith God is well pleased The Prophet Hoseas exhorteth the people to returne vnto the Lord and saie vnto him Take away all iniquitie and receaue vs gratiously So will wee render the Calues of our lippes What the Prophet vnderstood by the calues of lippes the Appostle declareth when hee saith Let vs therefore by him offer the sacrifice of praise alwayes to God that is the fruite of the lippes which confesse or prayse his name Saint Paule calleth the liberalitie wherewith the Phillippians in his necessitie had relieued him A sacrifice of sweete sauour and all the good workes which the faithfull doe are called spirituall sacrifices His Maiestie giue vs grace continually to offer such sacrifices vnto him and that when we offer them we may without all hypocrisie confesse that wee are vnprofitable seruauntes c. For if hee commaunded his Apostles so to say and thinke yea when they had done what God had commanded them Why shal he not command the same vnto vs which be in life and doctrine so farre inferiour to his Apostles that we are vnworthie to lose the latchets of their shooes God giue vs grace to be humble in heart Of this kinde of sacrifice will we also say more hereafter By that which is said is plainely seene that the Masse is neither an expiatorie nor Eucharisticall sacrifice and so by consequence no sacrifice at all That it is not expiatorie we already haue proued and that it is not Eucharisticall by that which our aduersaries say that the Masse is an expiatorie sacrifice is proued If it be expiatorie then is it not Eucharisticall The force of this Argument consisteth in a rule of Logicke which saith The members diuiding must not be confounded As touching the definition of the Masse this is sufficient Wee haue taken from it the kind in prouing it no sacrifice we haue taken from it the difference in prouing that it is not expiatorie both the kind and difference taken away what shall be the definite Nothing Or if the Masse bee anie thing it is a priuation of the holy supper of our master and redeemer Iesus Christ euen as sinne is the priuation of grace Let not our aduersaries thinke that we yeeld thē their Masse to be so ancient as they make it saying that the Lord 1565 yeares past did institute it for so long it is since he suffered Neither do we grant them that S. Peter nor S. Iohn nor any of the Apostles euer said that which our aduersaries say to bee the Masse Those which they bring are false testimonies If any man beare false witnesse against his neighbour how vile or abiect soeuer he be he breaketh the 9. commandement he breaketh the law of God and for the same is worthy of eternall death Howe much more shall he breake it and be worthy of death that vpon cold bloud and deliberat purpose of the learned I speake and not of the vulgar sort which can neither read nor vnderstand bringeth false witnes against Christ his king prophet and priest saying that he did institute the Masse wherin are so many superstitions and idolatries saying that the Apostles chosen vessels of God to denounce the Gospell and to preach the holy catholike faith haue sayd such a Masse And so say they that S. Peter was the first that sang Masse but by hearesay they speake without alleaging any Authors How is it possible that S. Luke so diligent an Historiographer of the Acts of the Apostles hath left in the incke-horne this Article which our aduersaries hold so necessarie to saluation as any other of the twelue Articles of the faith contained in the Creed And seeing that this false testimony which they raise vp against Peter auaileth little to the confirmation of their Masse Another false testimony raise they vp also of S. Iames that S. Iames say they was the first that said the first Masse in Ierusalem Yet are they more shamelesse bring to light the said Masse said of S. Iames which 1500 years since at the least was buried cry out a miracle a miracle Now is there no further disputing to be had sith it is an Apostle which hath said Masse now neither can or ought they to moue any more doubts touching the Masse vpon paine to be an heretike blasphemer whosoeuer shal moue it In the 1560. yeare was this Masse of S. Iames as they call it printed in Paris In this Masse ther is a prayer wherin are said these words We pray for the gifts offred sanctified precious supercelestiall ineffable immaculate glorious horrible fearful diuine What maner of speech is this when vsed the Apostles any such forme of speaking Also that this falshood may be clearely perceiued there is a prayer in the Masse for the Monkes Nunnes which liued in the Monasteries They which say that this Masse is of S. Iames should read this and be silent For in the time of the Apostles was there neither Monkes nor Nunnes nor Monasteries many yeares after were these things inuented Moreouer if this be a Masse of S. Iames let them augment the Cannon Let them place them among the Canonicall bookes of the holy Scripture Let them beleeue do al that which is said in the same In this Masse which they call of S. Iames all the people did vnder two kinds communicate all the office was said in the vulgar tongue the people sang
denote that this Incense and offering is not to be carnal but spirituall What agreement hath this with the Masse Which is a diuelish inuentioÌ„ prophaneth the holy supper Other places of the scripture alleage they for confirmation of their Masse But with as great faithfulnesse and as much to the purpose As these two of Mechilzedeck and Malachy which by that is said may easily be answered The 8 reason wherewith our aduersaries do magnifie their masse is for the great good profit that therof they receiue And of al these reasons others such like which they alleadge they coÌ„clude vs to be heretiques dogs worse theÌ„ Iewes Turkes Because we so shamelesly speake against the Masse which Iesus Christ instituted his Apostles said all the Church Catholike vnto this day hath celebrated c. They say then that besides the oblatioÌ„ and sacrifice which Iesus Christ hath made vppon the Crosse of his body and of his blood for remission of our sinnes to reconcile vs with God and to obtayne for vs life eternall hee hath ordayned the Priestes which be successors of the Apostles to consecrate in the Masse the bread and wine to transubstantiate it in the body and bloud of Christ to sacrifice and offer vnto God the father that body and that blood for the remission of our sinnes and to obtaine all that is necessarie for vs both in body soule And what greater good then this say they can be This sacrifice say they also doth much profit the dead to allay the paines which they haue to suffer and doe suffer in purgatory As we cited before of the dead maÌ„s scul of Macharius reported by Damascen Who so lusteth to knowe the profits of the Masse Let him read the Spanish houers he shall find very many Amongst others there mentioned be these which follow as much worth is the masse as is the passion of Iesus Christ Also that he which heareth it waxeth not old whilst he heareth it Also that hee shall not loose that day the light of his eyes Also that he shal not die an euil death also that he which shal haue seen the body of the Lord if that day he shal die sodenly that it is taken for comunicating he may not feare to be condemned And al this say they that S. Iohn Chrisostom S. Augustine S. Ierom say for they knew how to raise false testimonies These Articles of faith haue the inquisitors of our countrey of Spaine many yeares ago yeelded to goe among the houers which coÌ„monly are praied And if now they haue caused theÌ„ to be taken away and not suffered them to be printed in this yet doe they shew their ignorance that for so many yeares they haue suffered and commanded that with their license they should print them The cause that they now fall in account is that so grosse and abhominable lies more serue at this day to make wary the people then to deceaue them And therefore permit they such things more to be printed We say then that the Masse procureth vs no good at all but great mischiefe rather As after we shall see Now that we haue answered to the reasons wherewith our aduersaries thinke to mainetaine their Masse for more confutation thereof we will now likewise set downe some notable domages which it causeth and great aduersaries which necessarily follow the popish Doctrine of the masse And I will not be much curious in seting down here al the domages absurdities which follow of the masse for that should be neuer to end Only wil I set down such as most fitly come to mind for the preseÌ„t I say then that the Masse causeth many domages First it prophaneth the holy supper of the Lord suppressing and despising his death passion 2. In it they inuocate the dead saints 3. In it dead saints are placed for intercessors 4. The priests that saith it holde hee intention to consecrate or not and the people that heare it commit idolatrie Fiftly The Masse mainetaineth many other abuses besides the Idolatrie of transubstantiation As the worshipping of Images and the inuention of Purgatorie which is a common cutpurse Sixt. In the masse defraud they the people of the halfe of the Sacrament and this halfe doe they giue seldome and wickedly Seuenthly And put case the Masse were good yet is it said in a straunge Language which the people vnderstand not and with such gesture mouing childish toyes apish fopperies that rather prouoke laughter then deuotion These seuen domages wee proue by the same order as we propounded them And that the masse derogateth from the passion of Christ is clerely sene For the Masse which for this cause was ordayned that a hundred thousand sacrifices should euery one day be offered what doth it pretend but that the passioÌ„ of Iesus Christ wherin he offered himseâ—â—e and this once by one only sacrifice remaineth buried and cast in a corner Who will thinke to be redeemed by the death of Christ when he shall see a new redemption in the Masse Who will beleeue his sins to be pardoned by the death passion of Christ when he shal see a new remission of sins in the Masse Inuocation is a high worship seruice which is only due to God For in him only we beleeue how saith S. Paule shall we call vpon him in whom we haue not beleeued So that inuocation presupposeth faith such a faith as is founded vpon the word of God the Nicen creed they sing in their Masse which beginneth Credo in vnum Deum I beleeue in one only God If in one only God we ought to beleeue one only God ought we to inuocate The which inuocation being done in faith God promiseth that he will heare it Whosoeuer shall call vpon the name of the Lord saith Ioel shall escape c As S. Paule Rom. 10. 13. and Saint Peter Acts 2. 21. doe interpret it shal bee saued Also that only God ought to be inuocated is by this reason proued Sacrifice is only due to the true God this our aduersaries will not deny inuocation is a sacrifice As saith the Psal 50. 14. Sacrifice vnto me praise or as saith the common edition The sacrifice of praise The sacrifice of praise commendeth the Apostle Hebr. 13. 15. and Hosea 14. 3 that we shal offer to God Therefore Inuocation sith it is a sacrifice to God onely ought it to bee offered But our aduersaries forsaking the fountaine of liuing waters haue digged them broken cesternes which can holde no water They leaue to call vppon God and inuocate the Saints And Saints sometime also that it is not knowne who they bee and some of them it may bee that are burning in hell An example haue we hereof in the prayer of S. Roccus which togither with the Crowne of our Lady in the 1581 yeare was printed in the house of Iohn Gutierres in Siuell The praier saith thus God which
albeit God of his absolute power can drowne the whole world againe yet will hee not drowne it So then say we now that Christ could doe that which they say annihilate the substance of the bread and be transubstantiated into it But we say that he will not do it because he will remaine sitting at the right hand of his father in heauen and according to his humanitie according to his flesh which he tooke of the Virgin Mary according to the flesh wherein he dyed wiil he neuer descend hither vntill he come to iudge the quick and the dead And so to this end sayd he to his disciples The poore ye shall haue alwayes with you but me shall ye not haue alwayes For fortie dayes passed after his resurrection hee ascended into heauen sitteth at the right hand of the Father c. Very well did his Apostle S. Peter vnderstand this when in a sermon which he preached at Ierusalem hee sayd Whom meaning Christ the heauens must containe vntill the time that all things bee restored And this is an Article of our faith which in the Creed we confesse That Iesus Christ is ascended into heauen and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father from whence shall come to iudge the quicke and the dead Then will he not come to transubstantiate the bread into his body So our aduersaries be heretikes denying in deed this article of faith which with their mouth they confesse in the Creed Hereuppon let vs nowe conclude that Christ can but hee will not transubstantiate himselfe into the bread but will sit at the right hand of the Father vntill he come to iudge c. As the holy Scripture doth witnesse it and in the Creed wee confesse it The second reason wherewith they confirme their Transubstantiation is That Iesus Christ is infallible truth and therefore of necessitie that which hee sayth must bee as hee saith it He saith This is my body Then it followeth that that is his bodie and if it be the body of Christ it is not Bread With Esayas chap. 53. verse 9. and Saint Peter chap. 2. vers 22. confesse we that Iesus Christ neuer sinned we also confesse that vntruth nor deceit was euer found in his mouth For he is that which of himselfe he saith Ioh. chap. 14. verse 6. The way the trueth and the life Wee also confesse that with his owne mouth he hath sayd This is my body and so beleeue we that it is For should wee denie that which our King Prophet and Priest affirmeth we should not be Christians Thus farre agree we with our aduersaries The difference that is betweene them and vs is as touching the maner How or in what manner that which Iesus Christ by the meane of his minister in the holy Supper doth giue vs is truely and really the body and bloud of Iesus Christ For the better vnderstanding hereof it shall bee needfull to vse the distinction which the Lord vseth in the sixth chapter of the Gospell of Saint Iohn That there bee two maners of eating the bodie of Christ the one carnall the other spirituall Commonly when the Scripture opposeth the flesh to the Spirit by the flesh it vnderstandeth the parte of man that is not regenerate nor subiect to the lawe of God So call wee men without the knowledge of God carnall naturall and sensuall men But it is not heere so to bee taken By the flesh is vnderstood the same flesh of Christ it selfe ioyntly with his blood bones and sinewes and which Iesus Christ took when he was borne and liued in this world when he dyed and rose againe c. The second maner of eating which is called spirituall is when the faithfull Christian his bodie being here below is lifted vp so high in spirit that with the wings of faith it flyeth and with one flight doth pierce all the heauens and stayeth not vntill it come before the throne of the maiestie of God the father at whose right hand he findeth sitting his redeemer and satisfier Christ And finding him with great ioy doth feede vpon him eateth his glorious bodie and drinketh his most precious bloud And if the faithfull Christian doth freely eate him much more freely doth the Lord giue himselfe to sustaine the soules which he with the death of his body with the shedding of his bloud redeemed He that with his body and bloud did redeeme them with his body and with his bloud wil he maintain them yet not carnally but spiritually by faith as before we haue sayd Our aduersaries beleeue the body of Christ in the first manner to be in their Masse They beleeue that the mouth taketh the teeth chawe the throate swalloweth and the stomacke receiueth the same carnall bodie which was borne which dyed which rose againe c. They wil vnderstand the words of Christ literally be it as it will be but Christ himselfe speaking of the necessity that wee haue to eate his flesh and drinke his bloud saith The words which I speake vnto you are spirit and life to wit that which I haue sayd vnto you touching the eating of my flesh and drinking of my bloud vnderstand you not after the letters as they carnally sound lift vp the mind and vnderstand it spiritually The Capernaits and many of the disciples also as saith S. Iohn carnally vnderstood the words of Christ And also they sayd that it was a hard saying and murmured at it To whom Christ vnfolding their errour told them they should vnderstand his words spiritually You see here that our aduersaries are worse then the Capernaits for the Capernaits would not carnally eate the flesh of Christ nor drinke his bloud but they make no bones at it without any scruple and without any loathing will they eate the flesh of Christ carnally but it will nought auaile them For the Spirit it is that quickeneth and the flesh as Christ himselfe saith speaking to our purpose profitteth nothing c. That the Lord in his supper gaue carnally his body may wee not vnderstand For should wee so vnderstand it A most great absurditie world followe that Iesus Christ when hee celebrated his supper had two carnall bodies One by one The Bodie that celebrated the supper that brake the bread in his handes blessed it brake it and gaue it to his disciples c. was the true carnall body of Christ which was borne and dyed c. If that which this carnall bodie tooke in his handes and gaue to his disciples was also the carnall body of Christ it followeth that Iesus Christ when he had celebrated his supper had two carnall bodies one which sate and remained in his place and the other which sitting body gaue to his disciples The which is a great absurditie But did they vnderstand this second manner of body which the Carnall body of Christ gaue to his disciples and they tooke it and did eat it not to bee his
Christ Saint Ierome vppon the 66. chap. of Esayas saith Not being holie in bodie nor spirit they eate not the flesh of Iesus nor drinke they his bloud Manie other places bee there in the Fathers that proue our doctrine the wicked c. not to eate nor drinke the bodie bloud of Christ But those which wee haue alleaged are now sufficient Another absurditie there is and this it is that the banquet being to be common and generall to all by which it is called Communion one onely at his pleasure eateth it and swalloweth all without giuing part to others Who taught them thus to doe Not Christ nor his Apostles nor the primitiue Church In old time all those that were present when the Supper of the Lord was celebrated did communicate and that in both kindes And except they did communicate they depriued them of the Supper which our Aduersaries cannot denie So confesseth George Cassander in the Preface of the booke intituled Ordo Romanus de officio Missae for confirmation hereof hee alleadgeth the tenth Cannon of the Apostles where it is commaunded that all the faithfull which were found present at the holy solemnities of the Church and continued not till the Masse were ended nor receiued the holie Communion should bee cast from the Communion He citeth the Councell of Antioch the second chapter wherein it is ordayned that all they which enter into the Church of God and receiue not the holy Communion should bee cast out of the Church Hee alleaged also the Cannon of Calixtus or as say others Anacletus which commandeth that the consecration ended all should communicate Hee alleageth also Iohn Coclaeus in the booke which hee intituled De Sacrificio Missae contra Musculum In old time saith Cochleus Aswell the Priestes as the Laitie so manie as were found present at the sacrifice of the Masse the offering being ended did ioyntly with the Priest communicate c. And the same Cannon which they say in their Masse maketh this to bee clearely vnderstood because it maketh mention of the people standing about offering and communicating For which cause some expounders of the Cannons say that the Cannon ought not to be sayd in the Masse but onely when the people communicate Many more Councels and Fathers might be alleaged to confirme that which Cassander sayth but the thing being so manifest many witnesses shal be needlesse The Grecians vntill this day obserue the ancient custome there is no priuate Masse among them Vpon the Lords dayes and festiuall dayes the Supper of the Lord is onely celebrated and the people in both kindes communicate Our aduersaries may see what hath beene the cause of leauing this ancient and laudable custome and that as many also as heare the Masse and communicate not incurre thereby Excommunication The Communion in our time is but once a yeare celebrated and this with damage and great idolatrie and all the dayes in the yeare is no other thing done but saying of Masses in euery corner of the Churches and in those also of particular houses without any Communion except it be that some for deuotion will communicate and oftentimes it happeneth that none is found present at these Masses but the Nouice onely that answereth Et cum Spiritu tuo and with thy spirit when the Priest hath said vnto him Dominus vobiscum The Lord bee with you And note that the Nouice is wont to be commonly a little villaine according to the prouerbe Hize à mi hijo Monazillo y torno seme diabillo Make my sonne a Nouice and turne him a little diuell What agreement then hath this their priuate Masse with the holy Supper of the Lord which is a common banquet proposed to the whole Church Reade the tenth and eleuenth chapters of the first epistle to the Corinthians which before we haue alleaged What wickednes do they then that conuert the Masse into the supper of the Lord which they neuer celebrate except the whole Church or the greatest part of it do communicate acording to the institution of Christ according to that which his Apostles did and the Church many yeares after The 3. absurdity is that which before we haue said that were there Trāsubstantiation Christ shuld haue 2 carnal bodies one which sate the other which this sitting body did eate giue to his Disciples The fourth Absurditie is that they put the body of Iesus Christ in diuerse places at one instant in all the Masses which are sayd through the world Against the order of nature doe they in this according whereunto nothing created that is finite can be at one selfe same time in diuerse places The body of Iesus Christ considered it selfe is finite and in time created therefore can it not bee in diuerse places at one instaut In this do they also against the article of our faith which in the Creed we confesse that Iesus Christ sitteth at the right hand of God the Father From whence shall he come saith the article of our faith to iudge the quicke and the dead Also they do against common experience for seeing bread and wine with the eyes tasting them with the mouth and smelling them with the nose yet for all this say they that no bread nor wine remaineth I demaund now when they burne this their Sacrament for the causes that they themselues in the booke de Cautelis do command it to be burned I demaund of them what is that which is burned and conuerted into ashes Not the bodie of Christ which now being glorified is impassible nor the accidents of the bread nor of the wine for the substance of the ashes engendred of that which was burned could not bee engendered but of another substance according to that which commonly is said The generation of one thing is the corruption of another It followeth then Albeit it grieue them that they deny it that the bread is burned I demaund of them also when the Priest deuideth the Host into three partes what is that which he deuideth Some say they bee accidents without subiect To others this answere not seeming to be good because not the accidents but the substance which hath quantitie is parted Therefore say they that nothing is parted This people thinke vs to be blocks and fooles They will make vs as they say del cielo cebolla to beleeue things impossible Free should they be from all these absurdities would they with Iesus Christ with his Apostle Saint Paul and with the Catholike Church confesse true bread and true wine to be in this sacrament of which bread and of which wine being corrupted are engendred those things before spoken So that the wormes and ashes are engendred and made not of the body of Christ which is glorious and set at the right hand of the Father not of the accidentes which haue not other being but doe remaine in some subiect and by a miracle say they the accidentes in the Sacrament bee
addeth So famous and so admirable was this miracle that the fame thereof hath stretched throughout all the kingdome c. Then was it a true miracle But of those which Sathan worketh to deceiue men and not a fiction of the Prioresse Why make their Lordships no mention in their sentence how the Prioresse had made Sathan to appeare in the figure of Christ crucified And how that litle so deuout a crosse was made and how the sicke persons were healed The principall passed they ouer least they should 〈…〉 superstitions and Idolatries That which they demanded of her is How sayd she that she had oftentimes seene the mother of God wherof in the Letters were made little mention O great subtiltie herewith they haue stopped the mouth of the people All these things was the iust iudgment and punishment of God wherewith he punisheth those that beeleue not the word of God reuealed in the holy Scripture but beleeue lies confirmed with false miracles illusions of the diuel The principall resteth for me yet to demaund What was I demaund of them that consecrate forme as saith the Prouinciall or hoste consecrated as saith Friar Lewes de Granada which the wednesday in the holy weeke issued out of the little casket wherein the most holy sacrament lay which casket of it selfe opened and out of it issued the said host without any visible ministery was presented to the mouth of the Religious and she receiued it with most great deuotion c. The Prouinciall addeth that another time vpon Innocents day another such like miracle happened Friar Lewes de Granada saith That the Masse being ended which Saint Iohn Euangelist did celebrate a consecrated host came from the Altar and was put into the mouth of this most holy Nunne Of Magâ—alen de la Cruz was it said that when shee communicated she lifted vp a rod to measure the hight of the ground as in the Treatise of the Masse we haue noted The host which Magâ—alen the Franciscan hipocrite and that which Mary the Dominican hypocrite receiued albeit the ordained Masse-Friars and with intention to consecrate did consecrate them murmuring ouer them their words of consecration Hoc est enim Corpus meum were not the body of Iesus Christ whose glorious body sits at the right hand of the Father and is not to descend thence vntill hee come to iudge the quicke and the dead As witnesseth S. Peter Act. 3. 21. Whom meaning Christ the heauens must containe vntill the day of restauration of all things And so doe we holde it for an article of faith and confesse the same in the Creed Were there no other proofe to proue their consecrated hostes their sacrament of the aultar not to be the body of Christ this in good reason should suffice that the diuell vseth his consecrated hostes he carrieth them into the aire and putteth them into the mouth of his he and she deuoted that men may holde them for holy As these two domestical exaÌ„ples of the Franciscan Magdalen de la Cruz and of the Dominican Mary de la visitation doe confirme the same But for as much as many other proofes they are taken out of the holy scripture out of the ancieÌ„t doctors which we haue noted in the Treatise of the Masse there maist thou read the same This opening of the casket this issuing out of the consecrated host and visible comming through the aire without any visible mystery and putting it in to the mouth of Magdalen of Mary and other such like was by the arte of the deuill he came betweene and was inuocated Open then thy eies O Spaine and vnderstand Suffer not thy selfe to be deceiued in the first article of christian religion Remember it is the first coÌ„mandement which our great God whose name is Iehona coÌ„maÌ„deth vs to keep Thou shalt haue no other Gods before me How can that be God how can that be a creator which the diuell vseth to cause the people to commit idolatry to entertaine the fained holinesse hypocrisy of Magdalen Mary and of other such both hee and shee Holy and blessed is our God he abhorreth wickednes hipocrisy superstition idolatry Therfore conclude that he which entertaineth these abhominations is not the true but a false God made by the inuention of men and Sathan their father which gouerneth them And this is the iust iudgment and punishment of God that they which neither read nor heare nor yet giue credit to the word of God registred by the holy prophets and Apostles without which there is no saluation may beleeue lies wherwith Antichrist and his father the diuil deceiued them to carry them with him into hell These things which we haue spoken of done by these Ladies I confesse are miracles and they caused that which our aduersaries hold for the sacrament and for the body of Christ truely to come But of these they are which the false prophets Antichrist and their father the diuell doe as our redeemer forewarneth vs Math. 2â— 24. and his Apostle 2. Thess 2. 9. wherewith they that are founded vpon the firme rocke which is Christ they that be taught by the word of God shal not be deceiued But they that be founded vpon the sand they that confirme their opinion with dreames imaginations and humane tradititions these shall beleeue them and hold them for true miracles which God hath wrought so beleeuing them shall perish except God hauing mercie vpon them doe before they depart this world conuert them With their Lordships fauour conclude we theÌ„ saying that Mary de la visitation did her miracles by the help and inuoâ—ation of the diuel for otherwise could she not doe them I vehemently suspect the cause of their so saying they feare to giue occasion lest some begin to think that their Sacrament which they sell for the body of Christ is not the body of Christ nor his Sacrament which in his holy Suppeâ— he instituted but their prophanation thereof This if our Spaniardes begin once to vnderstand the pontificall kingdom will wholly fall the kitchin of the Preists and Friars which is the Masse and Purgatory will bee cold and so superstition ignonorance heresy and Idolatry as a new thing which hath no foundation in the word of God but in dreames with false miracles and illusions of the diuell shall likewise fall and the ancient doctrine of the Gospell of Christ crucified written in the holy scripture maugre Antichrist shall flourish through the worlde Blessed and euer glorified be the holy name of the Lord who by his great mercie freed vs from such ignorance errors and superstitions heresies Idolatries where we were nourished who deliuered vs I say from the power of darknes and translated vs into the true kingdome of his beloued sonne in whom we haue redemption by his bloud and forgiuenes of sinnes What shall we render speaking as doth the Prophet vnto the Lord for all his benefites bestowed vppon vs we will take the cuppe
or of the diuell And to make that more manifest whereof we intreat let vs deuide into three partes or orders all the Bishops that haue bene in Rome The first shall conteyne all those that from the beginning were Bishops vntill the time of Saint Siluester The second all those which were from Siluester vnto Boniface 3. The third all those that haue bene from Boniface 3. vnto Clement 8. who this yeare of the Lord 1600. doth tyrannize in the Church Come we now to the first order The common opinion hath bene that S. Peter was the first Bishop of Rome the which by holy scripture can no way but the contrary rather be proued Many haue handled this argument to whom I referre those that would knowe it For my part that which our aduersaries say concerning this matter to me seemeth impossible First they soy that S. Peter â—â—ued after after Christ passion 38. yeares which they count in this maner That he was for a time in Iudaea after at Antioch where he was Bishop 7. yeares So saith Bartholmew Caranza in his summa Conciliorum But if that be true which they say that S. Peter liued but 38. yeares after Christ the Epistle of S. Paul to the Gal. sheweth this to be impossible Saint Paul also in 1. chap. of his said Epistle declareth that after his conuersion he went not to Ierusalem but into Arabia and thence turned to Damascus and that 3. yeares after he came to Ierusalem where he found Peter with whom he abode 15. dayes not to learne ought of him but to confer with him 14. yeares after this as he saith in the chapter following he came againe to Ierusalem where those that were pillers of the Church Iames Cephas which is Peter and Iohn gaue him the right hand of fellowship These yeares were 18. at the least 3. saith he and afterwards 14. and the time which passed from the Passion of Christ vntill S. Paules going to Arabia After this they both were at Antioch where S. Paul reproued S. Peter for his dissimulation If there he was seuen yeares and twenty fiue yeares afterwardes at Rome ioyned with the eighteene yeares before mentioned shall make fiftie yeares at the least Then shall it be vntrue which they say that Saint Peper liued thirty eight yeares after the death of Christ as saith Caranza in his summa Conciliorum And much more vntrue shal be that which Humfridus Panuinus in the Chronicle of the Roman Bishops and in his annotation vpon Platina in the life of Saint Peter saith that Saint Peter was martyred 34. yeares 3. moueths and 4. dayes after the passion of Christ Count thus the yeares the S. Peter liued after Christ From the death of Christ vntill the 2. yeare of the death of Claudius were 10. yeares all which time Saint Peter abode in and departed not once from Iudea This time passed he came to Rome where he abode 4. yeares from whence by Claudius Edict against the Iewes he departed and returned to Ierusalem from Ierusalem he went to Antioch and there abode 7. yeares in which time died Claudius and Nero succeeded him in the Empire In the beginning of Neros reigne S. Peter returned to Rome whence after some time he departed and trauelled almost throughout all Europe which peregrination being ended he returned the third time to Rome From Saint Peters first enterance into Rome vntill his death were 24. yeares 5. monethes and 12. dayes which ioyned with the 10. yeares before passed in Iudea make 34. yeares three moneths and 4. dayes All this saith Panuinus Herein he contraieth his owne authors which affirme Peter to haue bene 7. yeares in Antioch and 25. after at Rome And Gracian in a certaine decree saith that Saint Peter by reuelation passed or translated his seate from Antioch to Rome And so Fryar Iohn de Pineda in the 3. part booke 20. chap. 5. Sect. 1 following this opinion saith In Antioch before Rome had S. Peter his seate Papall Caranza in his summa Conciliorum speaking of S. Peter counteth thus He sate saith he in the bishops chaire at Antioch 7. yeares and departing thence came to Rome in the time of the Emperor Claudius where he sate in the Bishops chaire 25. yeares 2. moneths and 3. dayes We see now the count of Caranza and Panuinus to be false In this they agree that he was crucified at Rome Betweene the death of the Lord and the death of Nero were 37. yeares The said Panuinus saith that S. Peter was crucified in the the last yeare of Nero then shal it be 37. yeares and not as he saith 34. yeares after the death of Christ The Legend and Cannon say that Saint Peter and Saint Paul were in one selfe same yeare day and hower beheaded at Rome Saint Ierome saith that Paul was killed with a sword and Peter crucified Eusebius saith that the one was beheaded and the other crucified We demaund and chiefly of our Spaniardes which so much beeleeue these thinges when came Saint Peter to Rome how longe there stayed he when and of what kinde of death and where dyed he who was his successor for some say Linus others Clement we shall finde great confusion and disorder amongst them as already we haue seene and how deale they so with Christians whose faith is to be founded vpon the word of God The Popes Supremacie to be Peters successour they sell for an Article of our faith insomuch as saith Boniface 8. it was de necessitate salutis necessarie to saluation and who so beleeued it not could not be saued behold vpon what holy scriptures it is founded vpon a legend of mens sayinges disagreeing among themselues The cause taken away the effect ceaseth If Saint Peter were not Bishop of Rome it followeth that all whatsoeuer is sayd touching the succession Primacie of the Pope is meere lyes and fashood Also Saint Peters Commission was to be Apostle of the circumcision among the Iewes and that of Saint Paul of the vncircumcision among the Gentiles Gal. 2. 7. Saint Paul to the Romans themselues also saith that he preached the Gospell where none had once made mention thereof and giueth a reason Beast he should seeme to build vpon a straunge foundation Whereupon it followeth that Saint Peter was not at Rome Also in the Epistles which he wrote being prisoner in Rome he sent salutations from the faithfull which were then in Rome without any mention made of Saint Peter And had he bene in Rome it is to be thought he would haue named him Read the 4. chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians from the 10. verse vnto the 14. where he saith Salute Aristareus and Marke and Iesus called Iustus which be of the circumcision These onely be they that assisted me in the kingdome of God and were a comfort vnto me Whereupon it followeth that Saint Peter was not at Rome seeing he neither did assist nor comfort him This Epistle was written from Rome And in
he let them go Don Fenando 3. reigned in Spaine When Innocent the fourth a Genoway was Pope of a most deere friend to the Emperour Fredericke he beame a mortall enemie I will here recite what saith Ieronymus Marius concerning this Pope of him saith he that being Pope he held a Councell against the Emperor at Lyous in Fraunce in which Councell the Pope himselfe cited the Emperour The Embassadors of the Emperour besought the Pope to giue him time to come to the Councell this time the Pope refused to graunt but there like a mad man excommunicated and deposed the Emperour commaunding that none should obey him and the Princes to choose another Emperour whom he so sollicited and with promises deceiued that they chose for Emperour Henrie Lantgraue of Turingia Fredericke the second vnderstanding hereof against the Pope and the rest defended himselfe valiantly vntill being in Pulla he could not escape the snares of the Pope where a certaine man by the Pope corrupted did poyson him Yet began he notwithstanding to recouer vntill a young man called Manfredo with money also as some say by the pope corrupted strangled him with a towell Concerning this good Emperour no credite is to be giuen either to Blundus Platina Estella nor Sabellicus because they wrote the sayings of the Pope and his flatterers to stirre vp the world if they might against this good Emperour Who listeth to knowe the truth let him reade Petrus de Vinea in his sixe bookes of Epistles Hitherto Marius In Sueuia at this time were preachers that with great libertie preached the truth against the Pope and his Cardinals they iustified the cause of the Emperour Fredericke the second and Conrad his sonne and boldly affirmed that neithe the Pope Cardinals nor Bishops had any authority because they were stained with Simony and that they held no power which Christ had giuen them The Priests sayd they being in mortall sinne did neither bind nor loose nor yet consecrate at al c. At the end of their sermons they said that the indulgēces which they preached were not feigned of the Pope nor inuented of his Prelates but graunted by the omnipotent God In the foresayd Councell of Lugdanum Innocent ordeined that the Cardinals should vse red shadowes which they call hattes and cloakes and ride vpon trapped horses and this saith Platina to adorne his order of Cardinals Note for this purpose concerning the Cardinals that which Pero Mexia vpon the life of the Emperour Henry the fourth saith where to paint Saint Ierome with a hat is made a mockerie for Saint Ierome died aboue 850 yeares before Innocent inuented the hattes This Pope Innocent the fourth had many bastards whom after the popish custome he called Nephewes Vntill the time of this Pope as noteth Bibliander there was no article of faith nor law of the Church that men should worship the bread and wine in the Eucharist This Pope was the first that created a new God by his transubstantiation albeit true it is that Honorius 3. began this building This Pope offered to Henry 3. king of England the kingdome of both Sicils if he would buy it In the 1254. yeare he died and Don Alonso 10. called the wise which was Emperour reigned in Castile Alexander 4. an Italian was the first that persecuted and excommunicated Manfred king of Sicilia By reason whereof many reuolts happened in Italie William de S. Amor a learned man who wrote against the feigned pouertie of the begging Friars was in the time of this Pope which bookes with a terrible edict the Pope prohibited This good man affirmed these idle poore and lazie fellowes which liued by almes were not in the state of saluation This Alexander 4. secretly fauoured Richard the sonne of king Iohn of England for money which he had promised if he would make him Emperour but publikely hee made shewe to fauour Don Alonso 10. king of Spaine of whome hee had receiued verie much money A double hearted man is neuer good In the 1262. yeare or after others 1261. he died and Don Alonso the tenth reigned in Castile Vrban 4. a Frenchman was Pope he tooke against Manfred as his predecessour Alexander the fourth had done And the better to be enabled for his owne reuenge he prayed Lewis king of France to send Charles his brother Earle of Prouince and Aniou whom he called king of both Sicils with a great campe into Italie Charles in the end after many warlike conflicts ouercame and slew Manfred neere vnto Benauente and so took he vnder fealty the kingdoms of Sicilia with Dukedome of Calabria and Pulla the pope against all right as he that faulteth in whatsoeuer he doth giuing the same vnto him This manifest roberie was the cause of manie ensuing murders This Vrban the fourth at the instance of a certain woman called Eua a Recluse in the land of Leege familiarly by him knowne before he was Pope did institute the great feast of the breaden God called Corpus Christi This woman Arnoldus Bostius and Petrus Premostratensis report had a reuelation a diuellish one no doubt vpon the celebration of the feast of the Sacrament which shee by her letters signified to the Pope requesting him by his papall authoritie to cause it to be celebrated Which thing the pope graunted as by a letter in answere thereof appeareth This letter thus beginneth Vrbanus Episcopus seruus seruorum Dei dilectae in Christo filiae Euae salutem c. Vrban Bishop the seruant of Gods seruants to Euah his beloued daughter in Christ health and Apostolique blessing We know ô daughter that with great desire hath thy soule desired the solemne feast of the body of our Lord Iesus Christ to be instituted in the Church of God and for euer celebrated of all faithfull Christians c. The Letter is long and therefore contenting my selfe to haue put downe the summe I haue spared here to recite it Behold heere my brethren the cause of this solemne feast with so manie daunces Castles Maygames playes maydes borne vpon mens shoulders streetes strowed with boughes and decked with Tapistrie A day it is of most great superstition and Idolatrie a day wherein more villanies then vertues are committed For who he or shee vpon this day will not see and be seene that beside which passeth more to be lamented then laughed at True it is that Pope Honorius the third laid the foundation and made the ground-worke of this building In the 1265. or after some others 1264. yeere died Vrban and Don Alonso 10. reigned in Castile Clement 4. a Frenchman was like his predecessors cruell and a great bloodshedder He called into Italy against Manfred king of Cicill Charles Earle of Aniou Charles vanquished and killed Manfred whom this vngentle Clement made king of Sicilia and Ierusalem with this condition to pay him yeerely 40000. duckats This caused infinite numbers of men
Gregorie went to Arimino and Benedict to his land of Cataluna Thus at this time were there three Popes Benedict 13. made in Auignon Gregorie 12. made in Rome and Alexander the Cretian made in the Councell of Pisa Poets do feigne Cerberus the porter of hell to haue three heads which fable we see now verified in the Popedome whose porter which is the Pope hath three heads and as touching the kingdome of Antichrist as well the one as the other was the head Gregorie cast Nicholas de Luca downe from the pulpit and for punishment to him and example to other put him in prison because in his preaching for the good of the Church he exhorted him him to vnitie The fathers in the end and the 1415. yeare assembled in the Councell of Constance wrot vnto him to come or at least to send some in his place to the Councell who seeing their desire was to haue him renounce forthwith there renounced but shortly after for very griefe and sorrowe dyed Petrus de Luna was alwayes called Benedict 13. against whom Iohn Gerson a famous diuine often said in the Councell whiles Luna liueth there shall no peace be in the Church but neither the authoritie of the Councell nor the threates nor requests which they vsed could cause him renounce and so till he died which was aboue thirtie yeares was Pope In the 1424. yeare he dyed Alexander 5. a Cretian was made Pope in the Councell of Pisa as before we haue said An Alexander he was in giuing and so was he accustomed to say merily of himselfe that he had bene a rich Bishop a poore Cardinall and a begging Pope So haughty was his humour that being in the Councell of Pisa Ladislaus king of Naples of whō we haue made mention in the life of Vrban 6. he depriued of his kingdome This Pope ordeyned that all Christians should beleeue as an article of their faith that his Saint Frauncis had the 5 woundes which Christ imprinted vpon him and commaunded solmnely to celebrate the feast of the woundes of Saint Frauncis Herein did Alexander shew himselfe to be very Antichrist seeing he vsurped authoritie to make new articles of faith which whosoeuer would not beleeue should for the same be condemned Saint Paul doth teach vs that if any albeit an Angel from heauen shall preach another Gospell vnto vs then that which he had preached vnto vs he should be anathematized cursed and excommunicate such a one then was Pope Alexander This Alexander which afore time called himselfe Petrus de Candia being as reporteth Theodoricus of Nyem at the point of death said that he neuer knew father nor mother nor brother nor any of his kindred that when he was yong he liued by begging for Gods sake from dore to dore He said that a Franciscan Italian Friar tooke him from that course of life and taught him Grammer afterwardes made him Friar of his orders and carried him with him into Italic And that from Italic he went into England and in Oxeforde studied and after he had continewed many yeares in this vniuersitie he went to Paris where he was made maister in diuinitie from thence he went into Lombardie where by the meanes of Duke Iohn Caleaço he was made bishop of Vincentium and afterwardes Archbishop of Milan then Cardinall and in the end Pope In the 1411. yeare he died The cause of his death as saith Baptista Panecius in his 6. sermon was poyson which his Phisition Marcillias of Parma corrupted with money by Cardinal Baltassar Cossa who sought to be pope as he was gaue him D. Iohn 2. thē reigned in Castil Iohn 24. as Platina calleth him or 23. or 22. for the causes before mentioned with the poyson which he caused to be giuen to Alexander his predecessor was made Pope Hee better knew how to manage armes then bookes and so as noteth Friar Iohn de Pineda lib. 23. cap. 10. ¶ 5. a man he was notable for matters of the world but ignorant in spirituall things a very good beginning for confirmation hereof he aleageth Leonardus Aretinus Blundus Flauius Pius 2. More by violence thē free election as the papists themselues do witnes was he made Pope For when Alexander was dead the Cardinals assembled to chuse a Pope in Bologna he being Legat in Bologna and hauing like a good captaine many souldiars very much threatned the Cardinals except they should chuse a Pope according to his wil. For this cause named they many saying wilt thou haue this wilt thou haue this other but with none of thē was he pleased And when they praied him to name whom he would haue Pope Giue me said he the mantle of S. Peter and I will put it vpon him that shal be Pope And when they had giuen it he put it vpon himself said I am Pope This is like that which is reported of Don Fernando grandfather of Don Charles the Emperor king of Spaine maister for maister this let it be so casting vpon him the habit made himselfe maister of S. Iames. The like election to this was that of Pope Iohn 23. as before we haue declared This deed of the Pope displeased the Cardinals Yet thought they it best to dissemble with him and for that he was so terrible a man to passe with the election In this man saith Platina was more fiercenes boldnes then besemed his profession all his life almost was soulderlike such were his customes that many things vnlawfull to be spoken of he thought it lawfull to doe And such were his abhominations that Platina shamed to speake them When he was Pope he wrote to the Emperor Sigismund that he would crowne him He began to hold a Councell in Rome whereunto when the Emperor and diuers nations could not freely come by reason of the discord that the Pope had raised in Italy at the request of almost all nations the Pope apointed Constance the 1. of Nouember in the 1414. yeare In which Councel he himselfe would be present And albeit that some did coūsel him not to go to the Councell lest he thence returned without his bishoprick yet went he notwithstanding carying with him subtil aduocats to defend him if ought were obiected against him Thē begā the general Coūcel by cōsent of pope Iohn Sigismūd the Emp. other Christian princes The night of the natiuitie the Emp. as a Deacon sang the Gospel which began Exijt edictum à Caesare c. When the Coūcel was set licence of free speech to each one giuē they obiected and proued against Pope Iohn in the presence of the Emp. more then 40. hainous offences he was then cōstrained by the Coūcels cōmand to renounce The causes were for that to make himselfe Pope he had caused poyson to be giuē to Alexander 5. because he was an heretique Symonist a liar an hipocrite a murtherer a witch a gamester an Adulterer a
displaceth and placeth kings and transferreth kingdomes from one nation to another Ergo say they the Pope hath authoâ—iâ—ie to dispose kingdomes giuing them to whom he will and taking them from whom he listeth Herehence came it that kinges and Emperours began striâ—ingly to kisse their feete beeing present or by their Embassadous being absent Hence it is that the Emperour himselfe â—erueth him for a horse boy holding the stirrop to his Sathanship when he mounteth on horsebacke And yet brawleth the Pope if he hold not the stirrop featly So shamelesse was Pope Boniface 8. that he made an Article of faith without which there could bee no saluation That the Pope aswell in the temporalltie as spiritualltie is absolute Lord presenting himselfe in the Iubile to the viewe of all men with a keye in the one hand and a Sword in the other His successor Pope Clement the sixt not contenting himselfe to commaund kinges and Emperours dared in a bull to commaund the Angels In the Popes Rota which is his Chauncerie was it concluded and determined that whatsoeuer the Pope doth God holdeth for good and approueth it That the will of the Pope is the rule of all lawe and Iustice That the Pope may doe absolutely in this world all whatsoeuer God doth Seeing that he is all and aboue all thinges And that if hee chaunge his opinion it ought to be presumed that God also hath chaunged That ableit the Pope should send many thousands of soules to hell none can reproue him That the power extendeth to heauen earth and hell it selfe That from him may no man appeale to God That he may dispence and commaund against the Epistles of S. Paul as hee that is greater then Paul The same may he doe against the old Testament as hee that is greater then the authors of the old Testament And yet haue they gone further they haue disputed whether the Pope might dispence against the Gospell Whether the Pope hath more power then Saint Peter Whether the Pope be simple man or as God Briefly the deuill hath so farre further proceeded that a little before the comming of Luther and afterwards also it was disputed in the schooles whether the Pope did participate as did Iesus Christ of the â— natures to wit diuine and humane Better should they haue demaunded if the Pope were an Hermophrodit which well may be because a woman hath bene Pope Read Erasmus Annot. 1. caput 1. Epistle ad TimotheuÌ„ They also disputed to vse their proper Latine An mille Angels possint saltare in summitate digiti To wit whether a thousand Angels might daunce one the end of a fingar Item an Christus sub forma scarabei posset saluare genus humanum Whether Christ in forme of a beetle could saue mankind Item whether the Pope were more mercifull then Christ O blasphemy they conclude yea The reason which they giue is this That it is not read in all the scripture That Iesus Christ drewe any soule out of Purgatorie But the Pope of his great pietie and mercy an infinite number of Soules doth daily deliuer And yet go they further and in their disputations conclude that the Pope hath power to kindle and quenche the fire of Purgatorie Flattering the Pope conclude they in all these questions lying against their owne consciences and making no reckoning of the honour onely due to God nor of his onely sonne Christ Iesus And Ca. Quoniam de imunit in 6. the Pope saith we not willing to contemne our Iustice nor that of our spouse the Church The Church is well knowne to haue no other spouse but onely Christ The Pope passeth further Hee saith and commaundeth that so it be said and preached and that we also so beleeue the vertue and holinesse of his seate to be such and so great that what wicked man soeuer how impious periured and abhominable hee be which shall sit therein euen then in a moment for hauing sitten therein is altered and changed to another man and is made holy But heare we the selfe same words which the beast himself speaketh as in Ca. Non nos dist 41. they be written and these they be The blessed S. Peter transferreth to his successors together with the inheritance of innocency an euerlasting dowery of merits That which to him was granted by the light of his workes pertaineth to those that be lightened with like clerenesse of conuersation For who may doubt him to be holy which is lifted vp to the height of dignitie wherein if he want goods gotten by his owne merit those that are giuen by the predecessor of the place suffice c. If this were truth then no Pope should be euill either in life or Doctrine sith that in being Pope he is learned and holy and in a word to speake all he is God vpon earth and so all whatsoeuer he doth God approueth it in heauen But the liues of the Popes by vs recited and the same liues also which the Popes parasites haue written doe shew vs the contrary This is that seate papall this is the heritage which one Pope inheriteth of another that one sitting therein were he not so euill before he is made euill And if he were euill he becommeth most euill and in the end each one is made the sonne of perdition and man of sinne opposing and lifting vp himselfe against all that is called God or that is worshipped So that as God he sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himselfe that he is God All these things which here we haue gathered together concerning the doctrine of the Pope are blasphemies such as were the diuell himselfe clothed with humane flesh he could not speake greater nor more horrible yet for all this art thou blind ô Spaine and seest not nor yet knowest thou Antichrist whom supposing thou doest seruice to God and honour to Iesus Christ his sonne thou adorest and honorest God shewe thee his mercie and open the eyes of thine vnderstanding that thou maist reade heare and vnderstand the will of God which his Maiestie hath reuealed in his holy Scriprure without the reading or meditation whereof vnpossible it is for a man to attaine to the truth Search saith Iesus Christ the Scripture for they be those that testifie of me so by consequence of Antichrist also When with the Spirit of humilitie thou shalt well haue read and meditated vpon them thou shalt then vnderstand how great hath bene thy blindesse and ignorance Then turning thy selfe hartily to the true God that created redeemed and sanctified thee thou shalt abhorre the idols of siluer and the Idols of gold which thy sinfull hands as saieth Esaie haue made And thou blind and ignorant supposing thou didst great seruice to God diddest honor and adore them Then shalt thou cast them from thee stampe them in peeces and consume them so greate shall be thy hatred against Idolatrie Then then by how much
king of kings and vnder the name of Pastor he sheweth himselfe a rauening Wolfe and vnder pretence to be S. Peters successor he declareth himselfe the follower of Iudas For as Iudas with a kisse fayned friendship betrayed his Lord so with fayned holinesse and outward ceremonies doth the Pope draw the common people into the chaines and snares of ignorance and superstitions The said title therefore which Christ gaue vnto Iudas Ioh. 17. 12. the Apostle giueth to Antichrist 2. Thess 2. 4. A contemner of mariage when he esteemes it a carnall estate and therefore with such seuerity forbiddeth it to his Clergie that although fornicators and adulterers can easily purchase absolution of their sinnes no pardon remaineth for the Clergie that mary according to the ordinance of God but the same is reputed and punished by the Pope for an vnpardonable sinne Albeit the holy scripture teacheth 1. Cor. 7. 9. That it is better to marry then to burne And Hebr. 13. 4. Marriage is honorable among all men Also 1. Timoth. 3. 2. Euery Bishop must be the husband of one wife Insatiable is the couetousnesse of the Pope and extendeth into all parts For money he pardoneth sinnes selleth ecclesiasticall functions maketh marchandize of his Bulles indulgences Iubilies Reliques Masses praiers and sacraments and compelleth the miserable people to buy his marchandize not on such dayes onely as other marchants vse to traffique but also and principally on the feast dayes the Lords dayes and Sabboths when other men rest And raketh together euery day in the yeare and of all sortes of people euen of the Iewes and Curtesans of Rome A tyrant he is and persecutor of Saints being the cause of the sheding of so much Christiā blood inciting kings princes to persecute such as contradict him and abandon his Idolatries and superstitions to serue God according to his will and word whom the Pope condemneth for heretiques to be burned and least they should speake putteth a gagge in their mouthes And to fill vp the measure of his crueltie he spareth not Emperours nor kings being the Lords Annointed when they refuse to execute his tyrannies as histories plainely witnesse A deceauer he is sundry waies because he deceaueth the common people with false doctrine and vaine promises with high titles and fayned holinesse with bulles Pardons false miracles and illusions of the diuell c. He is full of impietie because he pleaseth and delighteth himselfe not only in sinne but causeth others also to sinne because he hath depraued the worship of God with idolatrie the authoritie of kings with tyrany The common faith with deceit and the life of his Clergie with shame and filthinesse occasioned by constrayned single life To conclud in the kingdome of the Pope is the fountaine and spring af all abhominations and slaunder according to the old prouerbe The neerer to Rome the worse Christian So the neerer to Antichrist the further from Christ By these demonstrations it appeareth plainely that the Pope is Antichrist whom the Holy scripture hath foretold and by whom the Church of Christ hath so much suffered The second Treatise of the Masse and the holinesse thereof WE haue passed by the Lords assistance the Laborinthe not of Creete but of Rome of the Pope and his Roman Court another much worse and for more intricate troublesōe The Pope haue we proued to be a false Preist and very Antichrist to be the man of sin sonne of perdition to be that whereof whom speaketh S. Iohn in his Reuelation This haue we proued by his euil life wicked Doctrine by the sayings of Doctors and ancient Councels and by three notable passages of holy scripture Now will we shew the Masse which is the second pillar that supporteth and vpholdeth the Roman Church to be a false sacrifice an inuention of the diuell and a profanation of the holy supper which Iesus Christ our redeemer instituted And if such bee the Masse as we will proue it to bee it followeth that wee ought to flie and detest it and so doe we flie and abhorre it as a thing condemned and abhominable before the face of God This done wee will shewe by the Lordes assistance without which we can doe no thing that good is Iesus Christ to be the true and onely priest and chiefe bishop And his propper body blood which he offered vpon the crosse to his father to be the true only sacrifice the memory wherof we shew forth so oftē as we celebrate his holy supper A table wil we place at the end of this Treatise wherein we will shew the conformity vnion and likenesse which the holy supper instituted by Iesus Christ holdeth with the holy supper in the reformed Churches celebrated And thē also wil we shew the differēce disconformity contrariety that the Masse which our aduersaries celebrate holdeth with the holy supper of Christ which is the same we now celebrate As the name of Pope is not found in the holy scripture as little also is there found the name of Masse And doubtlesse had it bene so necessarie for a Christian to beleeue the authoritie of the Pope and holinesse of the Masse without which faith say they it is vnpossible for a man to bee saued It is I say to bee beleeued that Iesus Christ or his Apostles would haue made some mention thereof For all whatsoeuer is necessary for our saluation doth Christ and his Apostles teach vs. Saint Paule speaking to the Ephesians saith Ye knowe that I keepe backe nothing that was profitable but haue shewed you and haue taught you openly and throughout euery house Witnessing both to the Iewes and Grecians the repentance and faith in our Lord Iesus Christ But this holy Apostle so diligent in teaching that which we ought to beleeue maketh no mention of the Pope nor of the Masse Hereuppon it followeth that to beleeue the authoritie of the Pope or holinesse of the Masse is no Article of faith But true it is will they saie vnto me that this word Masse is not found in the scripture but its equiualent is found the supper of the Lord And if we ought to admit the Lords supper thē must we admit this name Missa Whereunto we aunswere that most great Iniurie and wrong doe they to the holie supper which the Lord instituted in saying it to be the same that is their Masse which they haue imagined and forged For how great difference there is betweene Truth and Falshood Light and darkenesse God and Belial So great is the difference betweene the holy supper and the profane Masse Had the question bene concerning the name whether the holy supper were to be called Missa or no. It should not be of great importance Agree wee in the substance of the things and call it as ye list Albeit it bee il done when the holy spirit calleth a thing by such or such name that man dare call it by another name The Apostle calles it
Christ waxed olde and lost it collour it being and worth Thus commeth one and casteth a peece vnto it afterwards commeth another and casteth vnto it c. So that now it is not the Supper of the Lord but the Masse of the Pope now it is not the robe of an honourable man but a cloake of a shamelesse begger By that which is said haue we answered to the second and third reasons wherewith our aduersaries doe confirme their Masse The fourth reason with which our aduersaries suppose to mainetaine their Masse is That all the Church Catholique from the death of Christ vntill this day with most great reuerence hath celebrated the Masse This their reason they confirme saying that God who loueth his Church as his spouse would neuer suffer it so long time to be deceaued especially with so great superstition and idolatrie as the Masse wee say is This fourth reason of our aduersaries in two thinges consisteth In antiquitie And in that God who loueth his Church as his spouse would not suffer c. concer-cerning the first of the Antiquitie of the Masse In answering to the second and third reasons of our aduersaries wee shewed that Iesus Christ neuer instituted the masse nor his Apostles euer said it and that the Church Catholique for the space of a thousand yeares neuer celebrated the Masse which our aduersaries now celebrate But the holy supper was celebrated with some humaine traditions and ceremonies inuented by man Notwithstanding all this the holie supper as touching it substaunce was euer in it beeing conferued by the space of a thousand yeares For fiue hundred yeares space hitherto the supper hath ceassed to bee a supper and hath euery day more and more bene conuerted into the Masse such as nowe wee see and chiefly since transubstantiation and the Communion in one kind were commaunded to be beleeued as an Article of faith Then fell wholy the holy supper not in name onely calling it the masse but also in substaunce as before we haue said Concerning the second part which they bring for confirmation of the first namely That God who loueth his Church would not permit that his Church so long time should liue deceaued To this I answere praying them to read the Histories of the olde and newe Testament Wherein they shall finde if they well consider that the Church faulted and mainteined errours and that no meane ones The people of Israel was the people of God the Church of God and the spouse of God and dearly beloued but for all this the same people fell into many errours superstitions heresies and Idolatries and not once by chaunce but oftentimes and of deliberate purpose Read that notable song which Moses the man of God made written in Deuteronomy There I say shall yee find that that people and that Church of God fell into idolatrie verse ninth Hee saith For the Lordes portion is his people Iaakob is the line or lot of his Inheritaunce And in the tenth verse hee saith that God kept this people as the apple of his eye And in the eleuenth God carried this people vppon his back like the Eagle c. But behould what hee saith in the same chapter and verse fifteene of this people so deare and so beloued Behould if they fell to idolatrie And hee forsooke saith hee God that made him and regarded not the strong God of his saluation They prouoked him with their straunge Gods and made him angry with their abhominations They sacrified to diuels and not to God But to Gods whom they knewe not new Gods newly come vpp whome their fathers feared not c. And in the two and thirtith chapter of Exodus it is said that the people of Israell pluct of their golden Earnings c. And that Aaron tooke them and made of them a moulten calfe And when the calfe was seene Israel sayd These be thy Gods which brought thee out of the land of Egypt And when Aron sawe that Hee built an altar before it c. As wee haue sayd in the beginning of the first Treatise Here may yee fee How all the people of Israel and Aaron their chiefe Priest committed idolatrie Let vs proceede furâ—her When the people of Israel were entred into the land of promise How behaued they themselues they also committed Idolatrie Read in the booke of Iudges and chiefly the second chapter and the eleuenth verse And the children of Israel saith hee did wickedly in the sight of the Lord and serued Baal And verse nineteenth But when the Iudge was dead they turned and corrupted themselues more then their fathers following other Gods seruing them and bowing downe before them They ceased not from their owne inuentions Nor from their rebellious way All this booke is full of examples hereof The Iudges ended and this people of God gouerned by kinges How was it then As ill or worse then before Let them read the Prophets which they call great and small This people of God their Priestes and Princes condemned the good Doctrine and persecuted the holie Prophets that preached the same So obstinate was this people in turning away from God That God in indignation commaunded Esaie to say these wordes vnto the people in hearing heare and not vnderstand In seeing see and not perceaue The heart of this people is waxed fatte and their hearing dull and their eyes are blinded least they should see with their eyes and heare with their eares c. The prophet Ieremy protesteth to all the people of Iuda and to all the Inhabitantes of Ierusalem the diligent care which the Lord had vsed to conuert them from Idolatrie to himselfe and the small profect they receaued thereby Hee had this said hee preached vnto them by the space of twentie and three yeares and they heard him not Note what the Prophet saith in the second verse that hee spake this to all the people of Iuda and to all the inhabitantes of Ierusalem And note that onely this Hebrewe people and no other in all the world was then the Church of God And behould if the Church erred Who wounded and imprisoned Ieremy for his sermons Pashur the chiefe Priest of the people of God What was the state of the people of Israel when Elias supposed that there was none but hee that worshipped the true God of Israel S. Paul alleageth this place Rom. 11. 13. Let this suffice concerning the Church of the old Testament Come wee nowe to the newe When the diuine word taking flesh came into the world How found he his spouse the Church All to be smeared with dirt and sootte The Scribes and Pharisies priests and high priests with their traditions had wholely corrupted her As nowe doe the Priestes and Fryars Bishoppes and Popes So great then was the corrupption in Doctrine among the people of God that there was their principall sects of the Pharifies sadduces Essees The Pharises great hypochrits corrupted the scripture with their traditions The
they taken it for an error But none of them say that Origin thought amisse of the Eucharist Therfore that which Origin saith is no error neither among the anciēt Doctors was it holden for an error But leaue we the pudles let vs drinke of the cleare water of the fountaine Leaue we apart the fathers and let vs see what the holy scriptur saith Many times doth S. Paul call it bread yea after it be consecrated after it be dedicated made the sacrament of the body of the Lord. First the bread saith he which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ 2. For one bread is that we many are one body 3. For we be al partakers of one bread 4. So that whosoeuer shall eat of this bread c. 5. Let euery man therefore proue himselfe 50. Let him eate of that bread c. The Apostle in all these places calleth the bread bread Not because it was so But because it is so concerning the wine the Lord himselfe aftrr he had made the sacrament of his blood calleth it The fruit of the vine And I say vnto you saith he That henceforth will I not drinke more of this fruit of the vine c. what thing is the fruit of the vine or of the grape but wine S. Paule saith The cupp of Blessing which wee blesse is it not the communion of the bloud of Christ Also Or shall drinke of this cupp of the Lord vnworthily Also And drinketh of that cup. In these there places S. Paul by the cup doth vnderstand that which in the cuppe is conteyned which is that which his maister calleth the fruit of the vine or wine Here yee see that the Lord his Apostle and the auncient Doctours call that bread wine which in the sacrament is visible earthly and by the same reason admit no transubstantiation As there is none in deede This simple and sound Doctrine taketh away many absurditie inconueniences which followe transubstantiatiō it taketh away many scruples afflictions of conscience And so if the sacrament I speak as they speak for it is not a sacrament but when it is taken eaten Take saith Christ and eate and afterwards saith This is my body Then in the sacrament is not Christes body except it be taken and eaten be mouldy corrupt eaten with wormes or mice when it falleth on the ground or powered out c. For to all these things the bread and wine and not the body of Christ are subiect the bread say we is mouldy is corrupt c. The wine is spilled The which bread and wine had not rat◠but men eaten and dronken had bin the sacrament of the body blood of Christ Would our aduersaries vnderstand this they should not neede the booke which they cal De coutelas de la Missa which intreateth what ought in such former like cases to be done This booke is a continuall affliction torment and slaughter house of the consciences which haue zeale but as saith S. Paul not according to knowledge The reason is because this conscience are not founded vpon the firme foundatiō vpon the word of God but vpon the sand the traditions of men Such as will not vnderstand the words of the Lord This is my body c. Spiritually but carnally doe fall into great heresie horrible Idolatrie The Christian religion as witnesseth Athasius in his Symbol beleeueth that in Iesus Christ are 2 natures diuine and humane It beleeueth that these two natures are so vnited and conioyned in Christ that they are not confounded nor mingled one with another The diuine hath his properties and the humane his As the reasonable soule and fleshly bee one man So the diuinitie and humanitie bee one Christ It is the propertie of the diuinitie onely and of no other thing besides to bee in euery place for it is vnmeasurable infinit and no other thing there is that is vnmeasurable and infinite It is the propertie of the humanity to be in some one place and not in euery place So witnesseth the Angell speaking of the humanitie of Christ He is risen sayth he he is not here Beholde here the place where they put him And S. Peter Whom sayth he the Heauens must contayne vntill the time of the restauration of all things And so do wee hold it for an article of faith that he ascended into Heauen and is set at the right hand of God the father from thence shall he come to iudge the quicke and the dead Iesus Christ himselfe sayth The poore shall you haue alwayes with you but me shall you not haue alwayes All these places doe proue Iesus Christ according to his humanity and in as much as he is man not to bee here below but in heauen This Article of faith do our aduersaries impugne when they beleeue the body of Christ to be in euery Masse And so many as dayly through all the world are celebrated and in all their Sagrarios or pixes where they keepe it inclosed really corporally carnally so great and so big as it was vpon the crosse If this be not heresie what shall bee heresie Good Transubstantiators are our aduersaries when they haue transubstātiated the bread and the wine into the body and bloud of Christ so that now is it no bread now it is no wine but as they say the body and bloud of Christ So now they transubstatiate the humanitie of Christ his flesh and his bloud into the diuinitie seeing they attribute vbiquitie to the bodie and bloud of Christ the which is only proper to the diuinitie Iesus Christ is true God and true man But his Godhead is not his manhood and his manhood is not his Godhead The one is the Creator whose beginning is from euerlasting the other is a creature whose being had beginning Notwithstanding all this which our aduersaries of the learned I speake may heare and reade they continue obstinate and hardened and God hath left them to a reprobate mind that they may beleeue the bread to be no bread but the bodie of Christ the wine to be no wine but the bloud of Christ And so they worship that which a parish Clearke maketh betweene two yrons and the Priest giueth it a forme making it his God In the pixe do they keepe it to the sicke they carie it Vpon some feastes of the yeare and chiefly the day which they call Corpus Christi with great pompe triumph and maiestie take they it forth to walke and wo to that person that will not kneele before it I would aske them who commanded them to doe this If they know that Iesus Christ hath so done orcommaunded his Apostles so to doe Neither example nor commandement will they giue Christ neither did nor commanded any such thing nor his Apostles nor the Catholike Church did so by the space of one thousand yeares after
Priest to giue vs the Sacrament but we must vnderstand the stretched out hand of Christ to doe this By all this varietie of speach what think we sought Chrisostome to doe but to drawe the mindes of the Communicants from the consideration of the outward signes and figures visible and subiect to perish and to make them consider the heauenly and diuine things which by them be figured This glorious Father then would that in communicating we should so celebrate the memorie of the death and passion of Christ as if then at the same instant that we communicate his body were crucified his bloud were shed for vs. Would God that all Christians when they communicate would haue this consideration meditation other fruit should they then receiue of the cōmunion The faithfull beleeuing the Euangelicall doctrine and celebrating the holy Supper are present as it were at the condemnation and death of the Lord this is the memorie commanded them to doe and so saith Saint Paul to the Galathians That before their eyes was Christ condemned among them crucified As touching that of Saint Augustin which they obiect vnto vs that Christ bare himselfe in his hands We denie it not For what inconuenience is it that Iesus Christ with his hands hath borne his owne body if by the body we vnderstand the Sacrament of his body And that this was his meaing hee himselfe a little lower declareth when hee saith Quodam modo in a certaine maner not simply To the other which they say of Saint Augustin that the flesh of Christ ought to be adored in the Sacrament We denie not the flesh of Christ in so much as it is conioyned with the Diuinitie from the which it neuer departeth ought to be worshipped For whosoeuer otherwise shall simply worship the flesh of Christ not respecting the hypostaticall vnion which is betweene the flesh and the Diuinitie in Christ shall commit idolatrie for only God onely his Diuinitie ought to be worshipped Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serue Deut. chap. 6. vers 13. Who so listeth to see how much Saint Augustine is for vs and how much against the Transubstantiation of our aduersaries and this not in one place by chance but in manie let him reade that which we haue alreadie alleaged S. Hillarie in the place cited against vs groundeth his argument vpon the truth of the Sacraments the which doe really and truly seale giue and present that which they represent vnto vs. We receiue then in the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ the true body and bloud of Christ and make our selues one selfe same thing with him and this spiritually by faith as so often we haue sayd which vnion is not onely made in the Eucharist but also in Baptisme And so the same Hillarie a little before he had sayd those wordes of the Eucharist had sayd the same of Baptisme saying that by it we are conioyned with Christ and amongst our selues And this not by vnion of consent and will only but also of nature let them also put Transubstantiation in the water of Baptisme As touching that which they say of Leo the first wee confesse the same which he saith that Christ is made our flesh and that we doe passe into his flesh As touching Damascen there is no doubt but that he is wholly for them As appeareth in the place against vs alleaged This Damascen by nation and profession was a Iew vntill hee came to Constantinople and was conuerted and being conuerted became a Monke He liued in the time of the Emperour Leo Isauricus About the 720. yeare when the Moores a fewe yeares before hauing passed the Straights of Gibraltar had by the chastisement of God subdued almost all our country of Spaine Some things he wrote wherein are found many wonders superstitions and erours I will here set downe some that the credite may be seene that to such an authour is due A great defender hee was of Images They are not only to be made saith he but also to be honored and reuerenced The which is contrary to the second comaundement Thou shalt not make to they self any grauen Image Thou shalt not worship nor honour them The reliques of Saints he much esteemed and doubted not to call them fountaines of the giftes of God He dared to say that wee ought with faith to honor dead saints the which is blasphemy For in one only God ought we to beleeue As we confesse in the beginning of the Nicene Creed Speaking of Purgatory to confirme it he reporteth great wonders hee telleth how Traian the Emperour who was a pagan an Idolaten a great persecuter of the Christians by the praiers of S. Gregory went out of the paines of hell c. Also that the soule of a woman called Falconilla a Pagan went out of hell whither for her idolatrie she was condemned and this by the prayers of one which he calleth Primera a martyr Frier Iohn de Pineda libr. 18. cap. 24. ◠1. telleth another such like tale and this it is Zenoras whom he calleth a noble Historian saith that the Empresse besought the Patriarch bishops and religious persons to pray for the soule of the Emperour Theophilus her hushand and that they obtayned pardon for his offences but I saith Pineda hold it very doubtfull seeing that he dyed an obstinate heretike And then I will leaue mine opinion founded vpon the rootes of faith One of which saith that where the tree falleth there shall it euer remaine and another that in hell there is no redemption and another that grace deuideth betweene the sonnes of the kingdome and of hell c. For the selfe same causes say we that which Damascen sayth of the soules of Traian and Falconilla to be lies Pero Mexia vpon the life of Traian sayth that that which is sayd of the soule of Traian is a meere fable and iest Doctour Illescas vpon the life of Gregorie the first holdeth it for certaine truth and condemneth Pero Mexia Also saith Damascen that one Macarius consulting with a drie scull knew many thinges of the state of the dead and what is to be a Nigromancer if this be not This Macarius sayth hee wontedly prayed for the dead and desired to know if such prayers did ought auaile them and if they receiued any comfort by them He sayth that God a louer of soules willing by manie and firme arguments to declare this to his seruaunt inspired into the drie skull the word of truth For these words the skull pronounced When thou prayest for the dead some small consolation wee feele c. Also hee reporteth that one sawe a a Disciple of his which had liued a life somewhat dissolute burning in the fire whose body was in the flame euen to the throate Afterwardes by the prayers of the Maister The same Maister himselfe sawe him in the fire vp to the middle and afterwardes praying eftsoones for
and so commaunded that the French Office which was now the same with the Roman should bee celebrated through all his kingdome And then all weeping and swearing the old Spanish Prouerbe began to be said Alla van leyes do quieren Reyes As the king will so go the lawes And from that time was the French Office kept in Spaine as well in the Psalter as in the rest which neuer before that time had bin receiued nor vsed in Spaine yet in some monasteries it was afterwards vsed for a time And the translation of the Psalter in manie Cathedrall Churches and Monasteries at this day is also vsed Thus farre the Archbishop In this historie reported by the Archbishop is there much to be noted First that now 500 yeares past for so long time is it since Gregorie the seuenth died in whose time reigned Don Alonso the sixt the diuine Office celebrated in all our countrie of Spaine was not the Roman but the Gothish which they called the Toledane office This office was changed through the desire of a French woman who so greatly pricked forward the king her husband that he chaunged the ancient Office maugre the state Ecclesiasticall Nobilitie and all the Communaltie of Spaine The Pope also that commanded the Office should be chaunged was one of the most abominable that did eate bread in his time Many wrote his life A great inchanter he was by force of Armes without any election he made himselfe Pope A tyrant he was an heretike he burned the Sacrament of the Altar his God And the moreouer which in his abominable life we haue declared For which enormious sinnes in his absence for he would not appeare hee was condemned and depriued in the Councell of Brixa And Clement the third was made Pope in his place The Legate of the Pope which dealt in this businesse of the chaunge of the Office was aso another such like as his maister that sent him and so abode in the same with his maister and Lord. For his wickednesse as the Archbishop reporteth was he depriued In these two Pope and Legate is the old Spanish Prouerbe verified Qual Abad tal Monazillo Such Abbot such Nouice Hereby shall our Spaniards perceiue that the diuine Office and Translation of the Psalter which our forefathers vsed in Spaine vntill the yeare 1080 or little lesse was not the Roman office much lesse was it the Masse which now in Spaine is so greatly esteemed For the Roman Office which before fiue hundred yeares was celebrated was defiled with the superstition and idolatry which we now see in the Masse as be Transubstantiation the taking from the faithful the one half of the Sacrament Intercession and Inuocation of Saintes Purgatorie c. Long time after about the 1215. yeare Innocent 3. being Pope was Transubstantiation admitted and made an article of the faith Albeit true it is that this Gregory 7. was the first that drawing it out of hell began to exalt it And notwithstanding that the Romane Office then vsed was nothing so euill nor ought agreed in Idolatry with that which is now yet is it to be thought there was great difference between the Toledane and the Romane office seeing that all Spaine so purposely and truly opposed it self to the king the Queene the Pope and his legate and receiued not the Romane Office but with great dislike and forced by threats of life goods That also is to be noted which the Archbishop speaketh concerning the combat of the 2 Knights and of the friar which the Gothish Office remaining safe then burned the Roman Office If they will haue miracles this of the fire is strange D. Illescas lib. 5. vpon the life of King Don Alonso the 6. saith almost the same that Don Rodrigo the Archbishop doth for from him hee tooke it but that of affected malice he changed some things whose words I will here set downe When hee that defended the part of the Gothish Office sayth he was Victor the king stroue by all meanes to take it away and hauing cast into the fire two Masse bookes the Archbishop saith it was determined that the booke of the Toledan Office and the booke of the French Office should bee cast into a great fire He saith not Masse bookes the Roman leaped out of the fire and the Gothish was not burned in it The Archbishop saith the booke of the French Office was consumed of the fire and the booke of the Toledan Office arose vp without receiuing any domage Here seest thou the maner of our aduersaries dealings To aduaunce his Catholique faith hath God no need of such lies And note that Doctour Illescas alleageth not the Archbishop from whence hee tooke this report lest his shamelesse falsifying should haue beene seene The Authour and the place which is the sixt booke the 25. and 26. chapters haue I alleaged I beseech the Reader to reade it that it may bee seene whether I or Doctor Illescas doth ly I speaking with the Guardian of S. Francis of Mexico touching this falsification of Doctor Illescaâ— It was so answered he me as Doctor Illescas said and that our booke were falsified But I brought him an old booke with the armes royall printed at Granada and shewed him the place the poore Warden was ashamed And it is to be noted as noteth D Illescas that by the command of Don Sancho 1. king of Arragon the Gothish or Mosorabish Office was least to be sayd in Arragon and the Roman Office which now is vsed brought in In S. Iohn de Pena the 21. day of March in the 1071. yeare was sayd the first Latine Masse after the manner of the Romaines The same Doctor Illescas also saith The 25. day of may in the. 1083. yeare King Don Alonso 6. wan Toledo the great Church whereof called Mesquita was consecrated the 25. of October in the 1086. yeare Thus was the Gothish office chaunged in Arragon fifteene yeares at least before it was in Castile Note ye Spaniards which thinke and beleeue the Latine Masse now sayd in Spaine to be most ancient from the time of the Apostles the first Latine Masse after the Roman maner was said in S. Iohn de Pena in the time of king Don Sancho 1. And in this yeare 1599. is no more but 528 yeares since If ye beleeue not me beleeue D. Illescas and others that say the same which I do A new thing is the Masse which plucketh from the Church the institution of Iesus Christ I meane his holy Supper God giue you grace to returne and restore it to it former place Of this change others also make mention George Cassander in the preface of his booke intituled Ordo Romanus de officio Missae saith these words But the Spaniards As they be most resolute in the institution which they haue once receiued held constantly for manie yeares the rites of their countrey Their rite was called the Rite of the Mosarabes and so was it called because the Christians mingled with
our cause which is his because it is the vndeceiueable truth which his maiesty in his holy Scripture hath reuealed Concerning the lies false doctrine of the authority of the Pope the holines of the Masse which our aduersaries maintaine persecuting with fire bloud all those that beleeue it not nor worship it therefore trouble they the world as at this day we see it troubled We assuredly know that it shall perish According to that which the Lord saith Euery plant which my heauenly father hath not planted shal be plucked vp by the roote And we haue the axe which is the word of God put to the root of the two trees the Pope the masse to cut them downe I beseech the Lord our God Christian reader which hath giuen thee a desire and will to be informed to know the causes why we subiect not our selues to the Pope nor wil heare his Masse but rather detest and abhor the one the other that he would please to lighten thine vnderstanding that thou maist comprehend what in these two Treatises haue bin said confirmed not with the sayings of men but of God himselfe of his holy Scripture giue thee such a mind and strength that thou maist wholly depart out from this wicked Babylon which is Rome deliuer thee from all the enormities abominations horrible superstitions and detestable idolatries which Rome hath inuented among which the principal is the Masse These idolatries without doubt be the chiefe cause original and fountaine of all miseries calamities and warres where with they that are called Christians be at this day afflicted For if God in the primitiue Church plagued with infirmities death the Corinthians for the abuses which they had brought into the holy supper the Apostle S. Paul yet liuing which he reporteth in his first epistle that he sent them what shal we say this selfe same Lord wil now do when the malice impiety superstition idolatry haue so greatly increased that the holy supper of the Lord which he instituted and commanded vs in remembrance of him to clebrate haue they wholy conuerted into the prophane Masse of the Pope Truly the abuses of the Corinthes as touching the Supper had no agreement by far with the erronious intollerable abuses which those that are called Christians commit at this day in their Masse And notwithstāding all this Saint Paul speaking to the Corinthians saith vnto thē For which cause many ef you are infirmed and weake many sleepe he wold haue sayd are dead We are not then to maruel if God strong iealous of his honour do chasten at this day such an idolatry as is that which in the Masse is committed with such great warres famine pestilence and which is worse and lesse perceiued a reprobate sense And no other mean there is Christian reader to obtaine pardon for these superstitions passed idolatries to get and keepe the grace of God of whom thou oughtest not only to expect all prosperity goodnesse but to endeuour by all possible meanes to serue him honour him applying thy selfe with all thine heart to all that which pleaseth him which is that which his Maiestie hath ordained and instituted in his holy word flying contrariwise all whatsoeuer may displease offend him and especially all kinds of idolatrie which he more detesteth abhorreth then all other sinnes abhominations and as such doth punish it as in the beginning of the first Treatise we haue declared Such is the Masse fly then from it follow the holy institution which Iesus Christ our king prophet and onely high Priest ordained This is the holy Supper as the Euangelists and S. Paul do shew Do this thē which Iesus Christ ordained commanded vs to doe in remembrance of him as by the mercy of God with all simplicity without all superstition or idolatrie is celebrated in our reformed Church and thou shalt walke aright All they that do otherwise erre God giue thee grace to walk aright that thou be not with this world coondemned And this do he for the vertue merit of the sacrifice with our high and only Priest Christ one onely time offered vnto him To whom who liueth and reigneth with the Father and the holy Spirit be euerlasting glorie and perpetuall power Amen A SWARME OF FALSE MIRAcles and Illusions of the diuell wherewith Maria de la visitacion Prioresse de la Anuntiada of Lisbon deceiued very manie and how she was discouered and condemned Anno. 1588. FOr confirmation of that which in these two Treatises so often I haue said that the Papists confirme their religion with false miracles inuēted by their ecclesiasticall persons or wrought by the Art of the diuell I will here set downe a most true historie deliuered in two popish bookes which by the prouidēce of God came to my hands Out of which with all faithfulnesse as he that must appeare before the iudgement seat of Christ giue an account not only of that hee hath done and said but of that also which he hath thought I haue taken that which I will deliuer Hee that will not beleeue me let him reade the two bookes from whence I haue taken that which I say I name the Authours of these bookes the Printers the yeare and place where they were imprinted as a litle after you shall see Our Aduersaries I wot well would haue buried all these thinges for they open a dore to men to seeke to vnderstand and the truth And that they may vnderstand it I haue put it in writing The Lord which knoweth my desire blesse my trauaile Our Aduersaries hauing no sound proofe to confirme their new articles of faith which they haue made as in very truth there is none haue confirmed them with dreames with fained apparitions and visions of Phantasmes of spirits and of soules come as they say from another world Now I hauing met with a new great and thicke swarme of such things which I found in a Portugal hiue me seemed I should do well by a new familiar and domesticall example which be they that most moue and that none can denie seeing it happened in our countrey of Spaine in the yeare 1588 truly to manifest the same that all the world and chiefly my countrimen the Spaniards for whom I haue taken this paine may hasten to know them and knowing them may abhorre them so may turne to the holy catholike faith true religion of Iesus Christ which is written in holy Scripture This hiue is Maria de la Visitacion Prioresse of the Monastery de la Anunciada in Lisbon who was held so certainly for holy whose hypocrisie false miracles were discouered publikely condemned as we shall after see I hearing much talke of the great holinesse admirable life and maruellous miracles of this womā whom for excellency they called The holy Nunne aduised my countrimen the Spaniards in a booke which I published in the
the Monasterie and caused the said Prioresse to be brought before them And demaunding of her how that businesse passed she said that the truth was because men should esteeme her holie shee had painted the woundes on her handes and that ordinarily shee so did And that that of the side shee had onely done thrise with a knife which shee had in her combe boxe Once when she published that the sayd wounds were made Another time at a visitation made by the Prouinciall of their order the last this which now is done being like vnto the scratch of a pen. And that the Crowne of thornes vppon her head she made pricking herselfe with a knife and making the bloud to issue forth and that this she had done sixe or seuen times Being demaunded how shee imprinted in the clothes the fiue droppes of bloud which were sayd shee of the wound in the syde She answered that she carefully tooke certaine holland clothes and painted them with bloud and when they gaue her some to touch the wound which she fayned in her syde shee cutte them before those which gaue them in such sort that they were like vnto those which shee had and put them vppon her breast and drawe fourth and gaue them those which shee had painted Being demaunded when the Moore captaine of them resident in this Citie of Lisbon and had bene viceroye of Biquinos came to see her how printed shee the wounds in the little cloth which she gaue him She answered Because she saw that the Moore did mark her shee drewe a little the curtaine of the lettife window faining that for shame hee should not see her putting the cloth vppon her breast shee tooke out of her combe boxe a knife and so pticked her finger that it bled and painted therewith the same cloth and afterwardes put it vppon the breast and beganne to straine the same before them all and drewe it out imprinted with bloud and all beleeued it was the bloud of her side being demaunded how shee had put those droppes of bloud vppon the rotchet of â—he Popes Collector Shee answered That the Collector perswading her to put some bloud of her woundes vppon the said rotchet at such time as shee chaunced to haue a blister on her hand shee tooke it away in such sort that the bloud issued and therewith rubbed she her hand in the rotchet and it remayned died with bloud Being demaunded how shee lift vp her selfe And how the Nunnes sawe her many times to shine in her Cell Shee answered that shee kindled in a chasing dish a fire with small light and put before it a lookeing glasse and that the light stroke vppon the glasse and the reflection of the glasse glimpsed in her face And that shee should seeme to haue beene lifted vp she put her feete vpon Chapins or womens shoes other times vpon timber which she had purposely prouided whereupon she so sate that shee seemed to be lifted vp into the aire demaunded that being in mortall sinne how she dared euery day to communicate She answered She euer trusted that our Lord would draw her in time to repentance and hereof shee craued mercie of the foresayd Lordes This notwithstanding they proceeded to take further information wherein the Nunnes declared that she being one day in the Chapter was lifted vp and a place made by her side as though some man should sit there Demaunding of her for what purpose she did that she sayd See ye not that our father Saint Dominicke came thither and there sitteth And many other things which to auoyd tediousnesse I omit The foresaid processe seene by the foresaid Lords and the offences which thereof redounded against the Prioresse the sixt of the instant moneth of December in the 1588 yeare they pronounced sentence against her in the Monastery of the mother of God of the order of Saint Francis in this citie from whence they commaunded to carrie her and in her presence was published and read the sentence which we will now declare And afterwards the 8. of the sayd moneth in the pulpit of the great Church of this citie at the time of the great Masse with an high and audible voyce was published Wherby they declared that through only zeale that men should deeme her holy all that to be and haue bene fained And for that shee had not dealt with nor inuocated the diuell they adiudged her to perpetuall imprisonment And that in fiue yeares she might not be confessed nor communicate except in case of necessitie and three feasts in the yeare and in the Iubilee and that she should neither beare vaile nor habit nor haue any actiue or passiue voyce in the Chapter nor bee elected to any office And that for fiue yeares she should eate vpon the ground and that the fragments remaining might not to any no not to the poore be giuen but burned and that when they were to go forth of the dyning place she should lie prostrate on the earth that all the Nunnes might passe ouer her and that on wednesdayes and frydayes they should giue her discipline whiles the psalme of Miserere mei last And that shee should bee carried forth of the citie to a Monasterie of the same order 25 leagues vpwards the riuer Teiâ— where shee should bee included in a cell and not go out of the cell but at the Masse-time and Cannonicall houres and that she might talke with no Nunne one excepted which the Prioresse of that Monasterie should appoint her and that she should be instructed in the faith And that her picture vpon the wall of the Annunciada should be blotted out that no after signe remaine there euer to haue bene and that the small clothes with the fiue wounds other her things shold be carried to the Inquisitors where they should be and otherwise to the Prouisor or curate of the parish who was to appoint what should be done with them Now to aduise all those that truely desire to serue Christ of whose name they are called Christians and will liue according to his holy Gospell and law and not according to that which men haue inuented to liue in pleasure Some notes and considerations will I here make of that which hath bene sayd vpon the life and sentence of this holy Nunne First as touching the ten instructions drawne by Lusignan out of the Letters missiue It were good to shew how false they be all in general and euery one in particular For not vpon the word of God but vpon dreames false miracles illusions of the diuell imaginations of a cursed hypocrite which fained her selfe to be no lesse then Christ haue they any foundation But seeing our aduersaries by publike sentence haue condemned all that contained in the Letters concerning the holinesse and miracles of this Nunne to be false fained and hypocritically done I will not paine my selfe to proue their falshood Onely I will tell them that when they will proue their new articles of faith they seeke
better proofes For dreames and false miracles are now nothing worth The time through the mercie of God is not now as wontedly it was when the Clergie easilie deceiued the people and made them to beleeue all whatsoeuer they listed Blessed bee the Lord for the light which in our times he hath giueÌ„ vs. His Maiestie giue vs grace to draw neere vnto it For the seruant that knoweth his maisters will doth it not shall be more punished then he that knoweth it not Besides this there is nothing in these his ten instructions which hath not already in the two precedent Treatises of the Pope and of the Masse bene sufficiently confuted To them I referre my selfe Our redeemer Iesus Christ when hee beganne to preach his Gospell confirmed the same with true miracles and departing from this world as Saint Marke in the last chapter of his Gospell declareth for the same effect to confirme the Euangelicall doctrine he left to his Church the gift of working miracles This gift in the Church I would say in some of the faithfull for all had it not as witnesseth Saint Paul 1. Cor. 12. where reckoning vp the giftes of the holy Spirit and how he distrributeth them amongst other hee saith And to another are giuen the gifts of holinesse by the same Spirit To another working of miracles c. for some time continued vntill the doctrine was confirmed and then afterwards ceassed Albeit God vsing his omnipotency leaueth not sometimes to do miracles But this is extraordinary and not common as then it was The Antichristians willing to be sold for Christians pretend and doe confirme their new and false doctrine with new and false miracles of which their bookes bee full For this is the chiefe proofe wherewith they confirme their doctrine Concerning that of the fiue wounds there is no word in all the new Testament nor in any of the ancient Doctours which for the space of one thousand and two hundred yeares liued in the Church of God that any of the Apostles no not Saint Iohn the dearely beloued Disciple nor yet the holy mother of our redeemer her selfe hath had them nor euer was it said anâ—e hee or shee Saint in all this time to haue had them for so much as I remember to haue read the first that they say had them was Saint Francis and this a few yeares before his death who died in the 1226. yeare The booke of Conformities fol â— demaundeth In which of the saints haue the miraculous wounds of Christ bene imprinted The same answereth In none but in the blessed our Father Saint Frauncis As witnesseth the Romane Church and commandeth the faithfull to beleeue it Afterwardes say same that in the 1340. yeare Saint Gertrude had them And holy Ludiuina say they but know not in what yeare also had them Also they say that S. Katherine of Sena who died in the 1380. yeare And in our dayes in the 1588. yeare was a publike voice and fame that the holy Nunne of Lisbon had them For so great a truth hold they that of Saint Francis that if anie beleeue it not or doubt it for an heretike is he â—olden and as an heretike ought he to be punished So that it is now one of their new articles of faith And so Pope Gregorie did commaund it to be beleeued The same commanded Pope Alexander the fourth and saith that with his owne eyes he saw theÌ„ as in his Bull he doth witnesse Another such like Bull gaue out Pope Nicholas 3 and Pope Bendict 12. who graunted besides this to the Franciscan Friars that they should celebrate the feast of the wounds of Saint Francis All this saith the booke intituled Of the Conformities of Saint Francis with Iesus Christ A booke full of blasphemies seeing it maketh him equall with Iesus Christ proueth S. Francis with many reasonles reasons to haue bin much more excellent then S. Iohn Baptist Amongst which he setteth these downe that he conuerted many more than Iohn that he preached repentance 18 yeares instituted the order of Penance S. Iohn but 2 yeares and some what more preached Iohn receiued of the Lord the word of repentaÌ„â—e Francis receiued it of the Lord of the Pope And which is more terrible blasphemie to adde ought to the infinit power of the Lord S. Iohn was a friend of the Bridegrome The like to the Lord Iesus Christ was the blessed S. Francis In holinesse to the world was Iohn most singular In conformitie of his wouâ—ds with Christ was Francis then all men more excellent S. Iohn is aduanced into the order of the Seraphins In the same Seraphical order seat of Lucifer is placed the blessed S. Francis c. If this be not to make a mockery of Christian Religion of the maiestie of the Son of God and of the holinesse of Saint Iohn Baptist what shall bee Friar Iohn de Pineda a Friar Franciscan part 3. lib. 22. cap. 23. ¶ 3. speaking of his holy Saint Francis saith thus A few yeares before his death fasting and praying vppon the Eue of Saint Michael the Archangell he receiued in his virginall bodie the wounds of Iesus Christ by the impression of the same Iesus Christ as say Vbertino and the Maister Pisano S Francis himselfe to haue reuealed the same hauing suffered most terrible paines when they were imprinted c. He confirmeth his saying with the sayings of Vbertino and the Maister Pisano who is the Author of that blasphemous booke of Conformities They say the same Of no great credit be these two Authors as easily as they speake it with the same facility will we condemne it It is sayd of Saint Francis that he couered the wounds of S. Katherine of Sene saith Antonius that she besought God they should not be shewed vpon her body Of S. Lyduuina saith Iohn Brugmano that to auoyd the applause of the world shee besought the same at God his hands Of S. Gertrude saith Surius that for manie dayes ran bloud from them 7. times euery day But of our holy Nunne of Lisbon say the Prouinciall and Friar Lewes de Granada and it was the publike voyce and fame that she had them and shewed them that they yeelded alwayes fresh bloud wherewith shee painted the small clothes which they gaue her The Prouinciall saith that the wound of the side on certaine dayes namely the fridayes opened that certaine drops of bloud issued from the same c. Surely this was much more shamelesse than all the others Saint Francis and the rest sayd to haue the wounds liued in the times of great ignorance aswell of good letters as of true and pure Christian religion when the Roman Antichrist was absolute Lord of all swayed both swords spirituall and temporall Then was there none that durst whisper against him nor that was so bold to say vnto him thou dost wickedly but it should cost him his life or litle lesse An easie thing was it then with such
their religioÌ„ One Pope doth that another Pope vndoeth The first Iubile Indulgences The Pope cannonizeth and vncaÌ„nonizeth Boniface stretched his pardons to purgatorie Anno 1304. Entered like a Foxe c. Benedict 11. Anno 1305. Poyson Clement 5. In the 1305. yere the Court of Rome passed into France there remained almost 74. yeers The Templars dissolued The Fraticellians Begardians and Begninians condemned Anno 1314. Poyson in the Sacrament wherewith the Emperor dieth The Dominicans and their monasteries destroyed and the cause The Pope a Simonist A great vacatioÌ„ Iohn 23. au heretique cruel Iohn 23. elected himselfe The terrible crueltie of the Pope Caragoca an Archbishoppricke The knights of the order of Christ in Portugal Note why the Pope coÌ„maunded men to be burned The Pope erreth in faith touching the estate of soules departed The heresie of the Pope confuted Luke 24. 46. True happines consisteth in seeing of God and enioying his presence Pope Iohn 23. disalowed Images The Grecians answere to the Pope is well to be noted Nothing is giuen by the Pope to the Emperour The ancient custome of Pope choosing renewed Nicholas 5. Sisme 28. Anno 1335. The Pope recanted Benedict 12. The Emperor is Emperour without confirmation of the Pope The County Palatine and not the Pope gouernour of the Empire One Pope vndoth that another hath done The sister of Petrarca the Popes minion Anno 1342. Clement 6. The Pope a Tyrant The Pope causeth poison to to be giuen to the Emperour Iubile from 50 yeares to 50. Anno 1350. The Pope coÌ„mandeth the Angels The Pope speaketh blasphemy What thing a Bull is Anno 1352. Innocent 6. Don Gill Carillo of Albornoz The yeere began at the incarnation Anno 136â— Vrban 5. The institution of the Rose sent by the Pope The Archbishop of Colonia maried The heads of S. Peter and Paule lost and found Anno 137â— Poyson Gregorie 11. In the 1376. yere the Pope returneth to Rome Anno. 1378. Vrban 6. a most cruel Pope Two Popes The 27. Sisme lasted 50 yeeres A cruel Pope Anno 1385. A cruel hatred Poyson Anno 1390. Gunnes Clement 7. Anno 1387. was the question of the conception Anno 1392. The Popes titles Bonifâ—ce 9. 2 Popes First fruits Benedict 13. Two Popes Anno 1424. Clement 8. 2 Popes Theodoricus de Nyem Innocent 7. Two Popes Anno 1407. Gregorie 12. 2 Popes The Councell of Pisa deposed both Popes elected Alexander a Cretian Anno 1410. three Popes Anno 1415. Anno 1424. Alexander 5. An article of faith that S. Fraunces bare the fiue wounds Gal. 1. 2. Libr. 3. Ch. 15. Lib. 3. cap. 53. Anno 1411. Poyson Iohn 24. a notable villaine A stratagem to be Pope A notable election of the Pope The Councell of Constance 1414. The Emperour is a Deacon The Pope by the Councell deposed The Popes customes The Pope an heretique The Counce is aboue the Pope Notable saying of Gerson As the whole is greater then part So the Councell is greater then the Pope Historia Bohemia cap. 36. The Constancie of Iohn Hus and Ierome of Prage The BohemiaÌ„s Constancie Iohn 24. for his villanies depriued of the Popedome is made Bishop Cardinall Anno 1419. Martin 5. The Popes will heare no man to speake vnto them of reformation The Councels haue deposed Popes and elected others The Popes enemies to the Councels lib. 23. cap. 20. ¶ 4. Anno 1431. Eugenius 4. Anno 1432. The Councell of Basil Felix 5. Two Popes A miserable example for such as keepe not their faith albeit to an Infidel Thomas Rendon Anno 1446. Felix 5. Two Popes The 30. Sisme Anno 1439. Anno 1447. Anno 1549. Nicholas 5. Platina One Mule the cause of 200 mens deaths more S. P. Q. R. Constantinople lost Anno 1455. Calistus 3. The Preachers of Buls called Carmerants The Pope forbiddeth appellation to the Councell Anno 1458. Pius 2. The tyranniâ—â— of Pope Pius Anno 1464. Note for this purpose the following life of Paule 2. Paul 2. The Pope a Simonist The red had Pope against Pope Gregorie 1. Nicholas 1. Pius 2. Paule against forced single life Anno 1471. Sistus 4. 300000 duckets euil spent 40000 duckets the Pope hath yearely of the Curtisans The Iubile froÌ„ 25 to 25 yeers The Rosary inueÌ„ted by Saint Dominick Anno 1200. after wards renewed Anno 1470. Blasphemous dishonesties If this be not to make a mock of the death of Christ what shal be The mother of Sistus dreame Papisticall religion founded vpon dreames false miracles 2. Thes 2. 11. Anno 1484. Innocent 8. most luxurious Sixteene sons and daughters of the Pope The Pope found the title of the crosse Iron of the speare Anno 1492. Alexander 6. abhominable Alexander vpoÌ„ condition to be Pope gauehimselfe to the deuill Anno 1500. The first Iubile conditional The ceremony of the yeare of Iubile The holy gate The Iubile by God instituted The Symony and sacriledge of Alexander The Pope calleth the Turke against the French king Poyson Anno 1503. Anno 1499. Sauanarola his life doctrine Sixe notable things happened to Spaine about the yeare 1492. 1. A Spanish and abhominable Pope The taking of Granado 2 3 The discouerie of the Indies Iohn 4. 23. Gen. 2. 24. 4 The InquisitioÌ„ 〈◊〉 The manner of the Inquisitors teaching sheweth the spirit that moueth them 4 The InquisitioÌ„ is the cause of the reuolt of the low countries 1. Pet. 2. 14. Apoc. 6 9. 5 The Brotherhood The 3 holy sisters of Spaine 6 The Bubos a disease called the French pockes Iohn 2. 11. Anno 1503. Pius 3. Anno 1503. Iulius 2. a warriar 200000. men slaine by occasion of Iulius 2. Anno 1512. Nauarre taken Anno 1512. Vigils prohibited in Buâ—gos The Councell of Pisa Anno 1511. The Pope periured The Councell of Lateran Anno 1512. Esaias 5. Anno 1513. Leo 10. An Atheist Matâ—h 16. Martin Luther What the cause was that moued Luther to speake against the Church of Rome Lnther burneth the Cannon Law 1. Cor. 1. 26. Charles the Emperor kept his word with Luther The magnanimity of Luther Anno 1522. Leo dyed for ioy Poyson The Atheisme of Leo. Adrian 6. Poyson Anno 1523. Clement 7. The king of France prisoAnno 1525. Rome Sacked Anno 1527. The Coronation of Don Charles Anno 1530. The confession of Augusta for which they are called protestants He that of a theefe doth steale 100 daies pardon doth not saith The vertues of the Pope The Pope is Diotrephes 3. Iohn 9. Anno 1534. Poyson Paul 3. accursed Poyson Poyson 40000 Curtesanes in Rome Henry 8 made no reconing of the Pope Anotable villany done by the Franciscan friars at orleans The Franciscans deceiue the people with false apparitioÌ„s Iesuites Anno 1537. began the Iebusites or Iesuites The Duke of Gandia a Iesuite Iesuites attempt to kill the Queene of England Iesuites attempt to kill the French king The cause why the Iesuites banished France The Citie Geneua in