given by Christ in the Gospel to the Priest and must be believed as if it were spoken by God himself according to our Saviours words and therefore none were to condemn auricular Confession but use it for the comfort of their Consciences The people were also to be instructed that though God pardoned sin only for the satisfaction of Christ yet they must bring forth the Fruits of Penance Prayer Fasting Almsdeeds with restitution and satisfaction for wrongs done to others with other works of Mercy and Charity and Obedience to Gods Commandments else they could not be saved and that by doing these they should both obtain Everlasting Life and mitigation of their Afflictions in this present life according to the Scriptures Fourthly As touching the Sacrament of the Altar people were to be instructed that under the Forms of Bread and Wine there was truly and substantially given the very same Body of Christ that was born of the Virgin Mary and therefore it was to be received with all Reverence every one duly Examining himself according to the words of St. Paul Fifthly The people were to be instructed That Justification signifieth Remission of sins and acceptation into the favour of God that is to say a perfect Renovation in Christ. To the attaining which they were to have Contrition Faith Charity which were both to concur in it and follow it and that the good works necessary to Salvation were not only outward Civil works but the inward motions and graces of Gods Holy Spirit to dread fear and love him to have firm confidence in God to call upon him and to have patience in all adversities to hate sin and have purposes and wills not to sin again with such other motions and vertues consenting and agreeable to the Law of God The other Articles were about the Ceremonies of the Church First of Images The people were to be instructed That the use of them was warranted by the Scriptures and that they served to represent to them good Examples and to stir up Devotion and therefore it was meet that they should stand in the Churches But that the people might not fall into such Superstition as it was thought they had done in time past they were to be taught to reform such Abuses lest Idolatry might ensue and that in censing kneeling offering or worshipping them the people were to be instructed not to do it to the Image but to God and his honour Secondly For the honouring of Saints they were not to think to attain these things at their hands which were only obtained of God but that they were to honour them as persons now in glory to praise God for them and imitate their vertues and not fear to die for the Truth as many of them had done Thirdly For praying to Saints The people were to be taught that it was good to pray to them to pray for and with us And to correct all Superstitious Abuses in this matter they were to keep the days appointed by the Church for their Memories unless the King should lessen the number of them which if he did it was to be obeyed Fourthly Of Ceremonies The people were to be taught That they were not to be condemned and cast away but to be kept as good and laudable having mystical significations in them and being useful to lift up our minds to God Such were the Vestments in the worship of God The sprinkling holy-water to put us in mind of our Baptism and the Blood of Christ Giving holy Bread in sign of our Union in Christ and to remember us of the Sacrament Bearing Candles on Candlemas-day in remembrance that Christ was the spiritual Light Giving Ashes on Ash-wednes-day to put us in mind of Penance and of our Mortality Bearing Palms on Palm-sunday to show our desire to receive Christ in our hearts as he entred into Ierusalem Creeping to the Cross on Good-friday and kissing it in memory of his death with the setting up the Sepulchre on that day The Hallowing the Font and other Exorcisms and Benedictions And lastly As to Purgatory They were to declare it good and charitable to pray for the Souls departed which was said to have continued in the Church from the beginning And therefore the people were to be instructed That it consisted well with the due order of Charity to pray for them and to make others pray for them in Masses and Exequies and to give Alms to them for that end But since the place they were in and the pains they suffered were uncertain by the Scripture we ought to remit them wholly to Gods mercy Therefore all these Abuses were to be put away which under the pretence of Purgatory had been advanced as if the Popes pardons did deliver Souls out of it or Masses said in certain places or before certain Images had such efficiency with other such-like Abuses These Articles being thus conceived and in several places corrected and tempered by the Kings own hand were signed by Cromwell and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and seventeen other Bishops forty Abbots and Priors and fifty Arch-Deacons and Proctors of the lower House of Convocation Among whom Polidor Virgil and Peter Vannes signed with the rest as appears by the Original yet extant They being tendered to the King he confirmed them and ordered them to be published with a Preface in his name It is said in the Preface that he accounting it the chief part of his Charge that the Word and Commandments of God should be believed and observed and to maintain unity and concord in opinion and understanding to his great regret that there was great diversity of opinion arisen among his Subjects both about Articles of Faith and Ceremonies had in his own Person taken great pains and study about these things and had ordered also the Bishops and other Learned men of the Clergy to examine them who after long deliberation had concluded on the most special Points which the King thought proceeded from a good right and true judgment according to the Laws of God these would also be profitable for establishing unity in the Church of England Therefore he had ordered them to be published requiring all to accept of them praying God so to illuminate their hearts that they might have no less zeal and love to unity and concord in reading them than he had in making them to be devised set forth and published which good acceptance should encourage him to take further pains for the future as should be most for the honour of God and the profit and the quietness of his Subjects This being published occasion'd great variety of Censures Those that desired Reformation were glad to see so great a step once made and did not doubt but this would make way for further Changes They rejoyced to see the Scriptures and the ancient Creeds made the Standards of the Faith without mentioning Tradition or the Decrees of the Church Then the Foundation of Christian Faith was truly stated and
Cardinal A King of France desired a Dispensation to Marry his Wives Sister The matter was long considered of and debated in the Rota himself being there and bearing a share in the Debate but it was concluded That if any Pope either out of Ignorance or being Corrupted had ever granted such a Dispensation that could be no president or warrant for doing the like any more since the Church ought to be governed by Laws and not by such Examples Antonin and Ioannes de Tabia held the same And one Bacon an English-man who had taught the contrary was censured for it even at Rome and he did retract his Opinion and acknowledged that the Pope could not dispence with the Degrees of Marriage forbidden by the Law of God The Canonists agree also to this both Ioannes Andreas Ioannes de Imola and Abbas Panormitanus assert it saying That the Precepts in Leviticus oblige for ever and therefore cannot be dispenced with And Panormitan says These things are to be observed in Practice because great Princes do often desire Dispensations from Popes Pope Alexander the 3d. would not suffer a Citizen of Pavia to Marry his younger Son to the Widow of his eldest Son though he had Sworn to do it For the Pope said it was against the Law of God therefore it might not be done and he was to repent of his unlawful Oath And for the Power of dispencing even with the Laws of the Church by Popes it was brought in in the latter Ages All the Fathers with one consent believed That the Laws of God could not be dispenced with by the Church for which many places were cited out of St. Cyprian Basil Ambrose Isidore Bernard and Urban Fabian Marcellus and Innocent that were Popes besides an infinite number of latter Writers And also the Popes Zosimus Damasus Leo and Hilarius did freely acknowledge they could not change the Decrees of the Church nor go against the Opinions or Practices of the Fathers And since the Apostles confessed they could do nothing against the truth but for the truth the Pope being Christs Vicar cannot be supposed to have so great a Power as to abrogate the Law of God and though it is acknowledged that he is Vested with a fulness of Power yet the phrase must be restrained to the matter of it which is the Pastoral care of Souls And though there was no Court Superiour to the Popes yet as St. Paul had withstood St. Peter to his face so in all Ages upon several occasions holy Bishops have refused to comply with or submit to Orders sent from Rome when they thought the matter of them unlawful Laurence that Succeeded Austin the Monk in the See of Canterbury having Excommunicated King Edbald for an Incestuous Marriage would not Absolve him till he put away his Wife though the Pope plied him earnestly both by Intreaties and Threatnings to let it alone and Absolve him Dunstan did the like to Count Edwin for an other Incestuous Marriage nor did all the Popes Interposition make him give over They found many other such instances which occurred in the Ecclesiastical History of Bishops proceeding by Censures and other Methods to stop the course of Sin notwithstanding any encouragement the Parties had from Popes And it is certain that every man when he finds himself engaged in any course which is clearly sinful ought presently to forsake it according to the opinion of all Divines And therefore the King upon these Evidences of the unlawfulness of his Marriage ought to abstain from the Queen and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with the other Bishops ought to require him to do it otherwise they must proceed to Church Censures Many things were also brought from reason or at least the Maximes of the School Philosophy which passed for true reason in those days to prove Marriage in the degrees forbidden by Moses to be contrary to the Law of Nature and much was alledged out of Profane Authors to show what an abhorrency some Heathen Nations had of Incestuous Marriages And whereas the chief strength of the Arguments for the contrary opinion rested in this That these Laws of Moses were not confirmed by Christ or his Apostles in the New Testament To that they answered That if the Laws about Marriage were Moral as had been proved then there was no need of a particular Confirmation since those Words of our Saviour I came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it do confirm the whole Moral Law Christ had also expresly asserted the Relation of Affinity saying That man and wife are one Flesh. St. Paul also condemned a Match as Incestuous for Affinity But though it were not expresly set down in the Gospel yet the Traditions of the Church are received with equal Authority to written Verities This the Court of Rome and all the Learned Writers for the Catholick Faith lay down as a Fundamental Truth And without it how could the Seven Sacraments some of which are not mentioned in the New Testament with many other Articles of Catholick Belief be maintained against the Hereticks The Tradition of the Church being so full and formal in this particular must take place And if any Corruptions have been brought in by some Popes within an Age or two which have never had any other Authority from the Decrees of the Church or the Opinions of Learned men they are not to be maintained in opposition to the Evidence that is brought on the other side This I have summed up in as short and Comprehensive words as I could Being the Substance of what I gathered out of the Printed Books and Manuscripts for the Kings cause But the Fidelity of an Historian leads me next to open the arguments that were brought against it by those who wrote on the other side for the Queens cause to prove the validity of the Marriage and the Popes Power of Dispensing with a Marriage in that degree of Affinity I could never by all the search I have made see either MSS. or Printed Books that defended their Cause except Cajetans and Victorias Books that are Printed in their works But from an answer that was written to the Bishop of Rochesters Book and from some other writings on the other side I gather the Substance of their arguments to have been what follows Cardinal Cajetan had by many arguments endeavored to prove that the Prohibitions in Leviticus were not parts of the Moral Law They were not observed before the Law no not by the holy seed Adams Children Married one another Abraham Married his Sister Iacob Married two Sisters Iudah gave his two Sons to Tamar and promised to give her the third for her Husband By the Law of Moses a Dispensation was granted in one case for Marrying the Brothers wife which shows the Law was not Moral otherwise it could not be dispenced with and if Moses dispensed with it why might not the Pope as well do it nor was there any force in the
He declared that he died in the Catholick Faith not doubting of any Article of Faith or of any Sacrament of the Church and denied that he had been a Supporter of those who believed ill opinions He confessed he had been seduced but now died in the Catholick Faith and desired them to pray for the King and for the Prince and for himself and then prayed very fervently for the remission of his past sins and admittance into Eternal Glory and having given the Sign the Executioner cut off his Head very barbarously Thus fell that great Minister that was raised meerly upon the strength of his natural parts For as his Extraction was mean so his Education was low All the learning he had was that he had got the new-Testament in Latine by heart His great wisdom and dexterity in business raised him up through several steps till he was become as great as a Subject could be He carryed his greatness with wonderful temper and moderation and fell under the weight of popular Odium rather than Guilt The disorders in the Suppression of Abbeys were generally charged on him Yet when he fell no Bribery nor cheating of the King could be fastned on him though such things came out in swarms on a disgraced Favourite when there is any ground for them By what he spoke at his death he left it much doubted of what Religion he dyed But it is certain he was a Lutheran The term Catholick-Faith used by him in his last speech seemed to make it doubtful but that was then used in England in its true sense in Opposition to the Novelties of the See of Rome as will afterwards appear on another occasion So that his Profession of the Catholich-Faith was strangely perverted when some from thence Concluded that he dyed in the Communion of the Church of Rome But his praying in English and that only to God through Christ without any of these tricks that were used when those of that Church died shewed he was none of theirs With him the Office of the Kings Vice-gerent in Ecclesiastical affairs died as it rose first in his person and as all the Clergy opposed the seting up a new Officer whose Interest should oblige him to oppose a Reconciliation with Rome so it seems none were fond to succeed in an Office that proved so fatal to him that had first carryed it The King was said to have lamented his death after it was too late but the fall of the new Queen that followed not long after and the miseries which fell also on the Duke of Norfolk and his Family some years after were looked on as the Scourges of Heaven for their cruel prosecution of this unfortunate Minister With his fall the progress of the Reformation which had been by his endeavours so far advanced was quite stopt For all that Cranmer could do after this was to keep the ground they had gained But he could never advance much further And indeed every one expected to see him go next For as one Gostwick Knight for Bedfordshire had named him in the House of Commons as the Supporter and Promoter of all the Heresie that was in England so the Popish party reckoned they had but half done their work by destroying Cromwel and that it was not finished till Cranmer followed him Therefore all possible endeavors were used to make discoveries of the Encouragement which as was believed he gave to the Preachers of the condemned Doctrines And it is very probable that had not the Incontinence of Katherine Howard whom the King declared Queen on the 8th of August broken out not long after he had been Sacrificed the next Session of Parliament But now I return to my proper business to give an account of Church-matters for this year with which these great Changes in Court had so great a Relation that the Reader will excuse the digression about them Upon Cromwels fall Gardiner and those that followed him made no doubt but they should quickly recover what they had lost of late years So their greatest attempt was upon the Translation of the Scriptures The Convocation Books as I have been forced often to lament are lost so that here I cannot stir but as Fuller leads me who assures the World that he Copied out of the Records with his own Pen what he published And yet I doubt he has mistaken himself in the year and that which he calls the Convocation of this year was the Convocation of the year 1542. For he tells us that their 7th Session was the 10th of March. Now in this year the Convocation did not sit down till the 13th of April but that year it sate all March So likewise he tells us of the Bishops of Westminster Glocester and Peterborough bearing a share in this Convocation whereas these were not Consecrated before Winter and could not sit as Bishops in this Synod And besides Thirleby sate at this time in the lower House as was formerly shewn in the Process about Anne of Cleves Marriage So that their attempt against the new Testament belongs to the year 1542. But they were now much better employed though not in the way of Convocation For a select number of them sate by vertue of a Commission from the King confirmed in Parliament Their first work was to draw up a Declaration of the Christian Doctrine for the necessary erudition of a Christian man They thought that to speak of Faith in general ought naturally to go before an Exposition of the Christian Belief and therefore with that they began The Church of Rome that designed to keep her Children in ignorance had made no great account of Faith which they generally taught consisted chiefly in an Implicite Believing whatever the Church proposed without any explicite knowledg of particulars So that a Christian Faith as they had explained it was a Submission to the Church The Reformers finding that this was the Spring of all their other errors and that which gave them colour and Authority did on the other hand set up the strength of their whole Cause on an Explicite believing the truth of the Scriptures because of the Authority of God who had revealed them And said that as the great Subject of the Apostles Preaching was Faith so that which they every-where taught was to read and believe the Scriptures Upon which followed nice Disputing what was that saving Faith by which the Scriptures say we are Iustified They could not say it was barely crediting the Divine Revelation since in that sense the Devils believed Therefore they generally placed it at first in their being assured that they should be saved by Christs dying for them In which their design was to make Holiness and all other Graces necessary requisites in the Composition of Faith though they would not make them formally parts of it For since Christs death has its full vertue and effect upon none but those who are regenerate and live according to his Gospel none
conferr'd Grace That Consecrations and Benedictions used by the Church were good That it was good and profitable to set up the Images of Christ and the Saints in the Churches and to adorn them and burn Candles before them and that Kings were not obliged to give their people the Scriptures in a vulgar tongue By these Articles it may be easily Collected what were the Doctrines then preach'd by the Reformers There was yet no dispute about the presence of Christ in the Sacrament which was first called in question by Frith for the Books of Zuinglius and Oecolampadius came later into England and hitherto they had only seen Luthers works with those written by his followers But in the year 1532. there was another memorable instance of the Clergies cruelty against the dead bodies of those whom they suspected of Heresie The Common style of all Wills and Testaments at that time was First I bequeath my Soul to Almighty God and to our Lady St. Mary and to all the Saints in Heaven but one William Tracie of Worcestershire dying left a Will of a far different strain for he bequeathed his Soul only to God through Jesus Christ to whose intercession alone he trusted without the help of any other Saint therefore he left no part of his goods to have any pray for his Soul This being brought to the Bishop of Londons Court he was condemned as an Heretick and an order was sent to Parker Chancellor of Worcester to raise his Body The Officious Chancellor went beyond his order and burn't the Body but the Record bears that though he might by the Warrant he had raise the body according to the Law of the Church yet he had no Authority to burn it So two years after Tracies heirs sued him for it and he was turn'd out of his Office of Chancellor and fined in 400 Pound There is another Instance of the Cruelty of the Clergy this year One Thomas Harding of Buckinghamshire an Ancient man who had abjured in the year 1506. was now observed to go often into woods and was seen sometimes reading Upon which his house was search'd and some parcels of the New Testament in English were found in it So he was carryed before Longland Bishop of Lincoln who as he was a cruel Persecutor so being the Kings Confessor acted with the more Authority This Aged man was judged a Relapse and sent to Chesham where he lived to be burn't which was Executed on Corpus Christi Eve At this time there was an Indulgence of 40 dayes pardon proclaimed to all that carryed a Faggot to the burning of an Heretick So dextrously did the Clergy endeavor to infect the Laity with their own cruel Spirit and that wrought upon this occasion a signal effect for as the fire was kindled one flung a Faggot at the old mans head which dash't out his brains In the year 1533. it was thought fit by some signal evidence to convince the World that the King did not design to change the establish'd Religion though he had then proceeded far in his breach with Rome and the crafty Bishop of Winchester Gardiner as he complyed with the King in his second Marriage and separation from Rome so being an inveterate Enemy to the Reformation and in his heart addicted to the Court of Rome did by this argument often prevail with the King to punish the Hereticks That it would most effectually justifie his other proceedings and convince the World that he was still a good Catholick King which at several times drew the King to what he desired And at this time the steps the King had made in his Separation from the Pope had given such heart to the new Preachers that they grew bolder and more publick in their Assemblies Iohn Frith as he was an excellent Schollar which was so taken notice of some years before that he was put in the list of those whom the Cardinal intended to bring from Cambridge and put in his Colledge at Oxford so he had offended them by several writings and by a discourse which he wrote against the Corporal presence of Christ in the Sacrament had provoked the King who continued to his death to believe that firmly The substance of his Arguments was that Christ in the Sacrament gave eternal life but the receiving the bare Sacrament did not give eternal life since many took it to their damnation therefore Christs presence there was only felt by Faith This he further proved by the Fathers before Christ who did eat the same spiritual food and drink of the Rock which was Christ according to St. Paul since then they and we communicate in the same thing and it was certain that they did not eat Christs Flesh Corporally but fed by Faith on a Messias to come as Christians do on a Messias already come therefore we now do only communicate by Faith He also insisted much on the signification of the word Sacrament from whence he concluded that the Elements must be the Mystical Signs of Christs Body and Blood for if they were truly the Flesh and Blood of Christ they should not be Sacraments he concluded that the ends of the Sacrament were these three by a visible action to knit the Society of Christians together in one body to be a means of conveighing Grace upon our due participating of them and to be Remembrances to stir up men to bless â—od for that unspeakable love which in the death of Christ appeared to mankind To all these ends the Corporal presence of Christ availed nothing they being sufficiently answered by a Mystical presence yet he drew no other Conclusion from these Premisses but that the belief of the Corporal presence in the Sacrament was no necessary Article of our Faith This either flowed from his not having yet arrived at a sure perswasion in the matter or that he chose in that modest style to encounter an opinion of which the World was so fond that to have opposed it in down-right words would have given prejudices against all that he could say Frith upon a long conversation with one upon this Subject was desired to set down the heads of it in writing which he did The Paper went about and was by a false Brother conveyed to Sr. Thomas More 's hands who set himself to answer it in his ordinary style treating Frith with great contempt calling him alwayes the young man Frith was in Prison before he saw Mores Book yet he wrote a reply to it which I do not find was then published but a Copy of it was brought afterwards to Cranmer who acknowledged when he wrote his Apology against Gardiner that he had received great light in that matter from Friths Books and drew most of his Arguments out of it It was afterwards Printed with his works Anno 1573. and by it may appear how much Truth is Stronger than Error For though More wrote with as much Wit and Eloquence as any man
in that Age did and Frith wrote plainly without any Art yet there is so great a difference between their Books that whoever compares them will clearly perceive the one to be the Ingenious defender of an ill cause and the other a simple asserter of Truth Frith wrote with all the disadvantage that was possible being then in the Jayl where he could have no Books but some Notes he might have collected formerly he was also so loaded with Irons that he could scarce sit with any ease He began with confirming what he had delivered about the Fathers before Christ their feeding on his Body in the same manner that Christians do since his death This he proved from Scripture and several places of St. Austins works he proved also from Scripture that after the Consecration the Elements were still Bread and Wine and were so called both by our Saviour and his Apostles that our Senses shew they are not changed in their Natures and that they are still subject to Corruption which can no way be said of the body of Christ. He proved that the eating of Christs Flesh in the 6th of St. Iohn cannot be applyed to the Sacrament since the wicked receive it who yet do not eat the Flesh of Christ otherwise they should have eternal life He shewed also that the Sacrament coming in the room of the Jewish Paschal Lamb we must understand Christs words This is my Body in the same sense in which it was said that the Lamb was the Lords Passover He confirmed this by many passages cited out of Tertullian Athanasius Chrysostome Ambrose Ierome Austin Fulgentius Eusebius and some later Writers as Beda Bertram and Druthmar who did all assert that the Elements retained their former Natures and were only the Mysteries Signs and Figures of the Body and Blood of Christ. But Gelasius's words seemed so remarkable that they could not but determine the Controversie especially considering he was Bishop of Rome he therefore writing against the Eutichians who thought the humane nature of Christ was changed into the Divine says that as the Elements of Bread and Wine being Consecrated to be the Sacraments of the Body and Blood of Christ did not cease to be Bread and Wine in Substance but continued in their own proper natures so the humane nature of Christ continued still though it was united to the Divine nature this was a manifest Indication of the belief of the Church in that Age and ought to weigh more than a hundred high Rhetorical Expressions He brought likewise several testimonies out of the Fathers to shew that they knew nothing of the Consequences that follow Transubstantiation of a Body being in more places at once or being in a place after the manner of a Spirit or of the worship to be given to the Sacrament Upon this he digresses and says that the German Divines believed a Corporal presence yet since that was only an Opinion that rested in their minds and did not carry along with it any Corruption of the worship or Idolatrous practise it was to be born with and the peace of the Church was not to be broken for it but the case of the Church of Rome was very different which had set up gross Idolatry building it upon this Doctrine Thus I have given a short Abstract of Friths Book which I thought fit the rather to do because it was the first Book that was written on this Subject in England by any of the Reformers And from hence it may appear upon what solid and weighty reasons they then began to shake the received Opinion of Transubstantiation and with how much learning this Controversie was managed by him who first undertook it One thing was singular in Friths Opinion that he thought there should be no contest made about the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament for what-ever Opinion men held in Speculation if it went not to a practical error which was the Adoration of it for that was Idolatry in his Opinion there were no disputes to be made about it therefore he was much against all heats between the Lutherans and Zuinglians for he thought in such a matter that was wholly speculative every man might hold his own Opinion without making a breach of the Unity of the Church about it He was apprehended in May 1533. and kept in Prison till the 20th of Iune and then he was brought before the Bishop of London Gardiner and Longland sitting with him They objected to him his Opinions about the Sacrament and Purgatory he answered that for the first he did not find Transubstantiation in the Scriptures nor in any approved Authors and therefore he would not admit any thing as an Article of Faith without clear and certain grounds for he did not think the Authority of the Church reached so far They argued with him upon some passages out of St. Austin and St. Chrysostome to which he answered by opposing other places of the same Fathers and shew'd how they were to be reconciled to themselves when it came to a Conclusion these words are set down in the Register as his Confession Frith thinketh and judgeth that the natural Body of Christ is not in the Sacrament of the Altar but in one place only at once Item he saith that neither part is a necessary Article of our Faith whether the natural Body be there in the Sacrament or not As for Purgatory he said a man consisted of two parts his Body and Soul his Body was purged by sickness and other pains and at last by death and was not by their own Doctrine sent to Purgatory And for the Soul it was purged through the word of God received by Faith So his Confession was written down in these words Item Frith thinketh and judgeth that there is no Purgatory for the Soul after that it is departed from the Body and as he thinketh herein so hath he said written and defended howbeit he thinketh neither part to be an Article of Faith necessarily to be believed under pain of Damnation The Bishops with the Doctors that stood about them took much pains to make him change but he told them that he could not be induced to believe that these were Articles of Faith And when they threatned to proceed to a Final Sentence he seemed not moved with it but said Let judgment be done in righteousness The Bishops though none of them were guilty of great tenderness yet seem'd to pity him much and the Bishop of London professed he gave Sentence with great grief of heart In the end he was judged an Obstinate Heretick and was delivered to the Secular Power there is one clause in this Sentence which is not in many others therefore I shall set it down Most earnestly requiring in the Bowels of our Lord Jesus Christ that this Execution and punishment worthily to be done upon thee may be so moderate that the rigor thereof be not too extreme nor yet the gentleness too much
might not leave his young Son involved in a War of such consequence Peace was concluded in Iune which was much to the Kings honour though the taking and keeping of Bulloign which by this Peace the King was to keep for eight years cost him above 1300000 pounds Upon the peace the French Admiral Annebault came over to England And now again a Resolution of going on with a Reformation was set on foot for it was agreed between the King and the Admiral That in both Kingdoms the Mass should be changed into a Communion and Cranmer was Ordered to draw a Form of it They also resolved to press the Emperor to do the like in his Dominions otherwise to make War upon him But how this Project failed does not appear The Animosities which the former War had raised between the two Kings were converted into a firm Friendship which grew so strong on Francis's part that he never was seen glad at any thing after he had the news of the Kings death But now one of the Kings angry fits took him at the Reformers so that there was a new Prosecution of them Nicholas Shaxton that was Bishop of Salisbury had been long a Prisoner but this year he had said in his Imprisonment in the Counter in Bread-street That Christs natural Body was not in the Sacrament but that it was a Sign and Memorial of his Body that was crucified for us Upon this he was endicted and condemned to be burnt But the King sent the Bishops of London and Worcester to deal with him to recant which on the 9th of Iuly he did acknowledging That that year he had fallen in his old age in the Heresie of the Sacramentaries But that he was now convinced of that error by their endeavours whom the King had sent to him And therefore he thanked the King for delivering him both from Temporal and Eternal fire and subscribed a Paper of Articles which will be found in the Collection Upon this he had his pardon and discharge sent him the 13 of Iuly and soon after preached the Sermon at the burning of Anne Askew and wrote a Book in defence of the Articles he had subscribed What became of him all Edward the 6ths time I cannot tell But I find he was a cruel prosecutor and Burner of Protestants in Queen Maries days Yet it seems those to whom he went over did not consider him much for they never raised him higher than to be Bishop Suffragan of Ely Others were also Endicted upon the same Statute who got off by recantation and were pardoned But Anne Askews Trial had a more bloody Conclusion She was nobly descended and educated beyond what was ordinary in that age to those of her Sex But she was unfortunately married to one Kyme who being a violent Papist drave her out of his House when he found she favoured the Reformation So she came to London where information being given of some words that she had spoken against the Corporal presence in the Sacrament she was put in Prison upon which great applications were made by many of her friends to have her let out upon Bail The Bishop of London examined her and after much pains she was brought to set her hand to a Recantation by which she acknowledged That the natural Body of Christ was present in the Sacrament after the Consecration whether the Priest were a good or an ill man and that whether it was presently consumed or reserved in the Pix it was the true Body of Christ. Yet she added to Her subscription that she believed all things according to the Catholick Faith and not otherwise With this the Bishop was not satisfied but after much adoe and many importunate addresses she was Bailed in the end of March this year But not long after that she was again apprehended and examined before the Kings Council then at Greenwich where she seemed very indifferent what they did with her She answered them in general words upon which they could fix nothing and made some sharp reparties upon the Bishop of Winchester Some liked the wit and freedom of her discourse but others thought she was too forward From thence she was sent to Newgate where she wrote some devotions and Letters that shew her to have been a woman of most extraordinary parts She wrote to the King That as to the Lords Supper she believed as much as Christ had said in it and as much as the Catholick Church from him did Teach Upon Shaxtons Recantation they sent him to her to prevail with her But she in stead of yielding to him charged his Inconstancy home upon him She had been oft at Court and was much favoured by many great Ladies there and it was believed the Queen had shewed kindness to her So the Lord Chancellor examined her of what Favour or Encouragement she had from any in the Court particularly from the Dutchess of Suffolk the Countess of Hertford and some other Ladies But he could draw nothing from her save that one in Livery had brought her some money which he said came from two Ladies in the Court But they resolved to extort further Confessions from her And therefore carrying her to the Tower they caused her to be laid on the Rack and gave her a taste of it Yet she confessed nothing That she was rackt is very certain for I find it in an Original Journal of the Transactions in the Tower written by Anthony Anthony but Fox adds a passage that seems scarce credible the thing is so extraordinary and so unlike the Character of the Lord Chancellor who though he was fiercely zealous for the old Superstition yet was otherwise a great person it is that he commanded the Lieutenant of the Tower to stretch her more but he refused to do it and being further prest told him plainly he would not do it The other threatned him but to no purpose so the Lord Chancellor throwing off his Gown drew the Rack so severely that he almost tore her Body asunder yet could draw nothing from her for she endured it with unusual Patience and Courage When the King heard this he blamed the Lord Chancellor for his Cruelty and excused the Lieutenant of the Tower Fox does not vouch any Warrant for this so that though I have set it down yet I give no entire credit to it if it was true it shews the strange influence of that Religion and that it corrupts the Noblest natures yet the poor Gentlewomans being Rackt wrought no pity in the King towards her for he left her to be proceeded against according to the Sentence she was carried to the Stake in Smithâ—ield a little after that in a Chair not being able to stand through the Torments of the Rack There were brought with her at the same time one Nicolas Belenian a Priest Iohn Adams a Taylor and Iohn Lassels one of the Kings Servants it is likely he was the same person that had discovered
or other Histories other than he can avouch and justify to be written by some allowed Writer And when he hath done all that he will say and utter for that time he shall then in few words recite again the pith and effect of his whole Sermon and add thereunto as he shall think good Item That no Parson Vicar Curat or other Priest having Cure of Souls within my Diocess and Jurisdiction shall from hence-forth permit suffer or admit any manner of person of whatsoever estate or condition he be under the degree of a Bishop to preach or make any Sermon or Collation openly to the people within their Churches Chappels or else-where within their Cures unless he that shall so preach have obtained before special License in that behalf of our Sovereign Lord the King or of me Edmund Bishop of London your Ordinary And the same License so obtained shall then and there really bring forth in writing under Seal and shew the same to the said Parson Vicar Curat or Priest before the beginning of his Sermon as they will avoid the extream Penalties of the Laws Statutes and Ordinances provided and established in that behalf if they presumptuously do or attempt any thing to the contrary Item I desire require exhort and command you and every of you in the Name of God Thâ—â— ye firmly faithfully and diligently to the uttermost of your poweâ—â— do observe fulfil and keep all and singular these mine Injunctions And that ye and every of you being Priests and having Cure or not Cure as well Benefice as not Beneficed within my Diocess and Jurisdiction do procure to have a Copy of the same Injunctions to the intent ye may the better observe and cause to be observed the Contents thereof The names of Books prohibited delivered to the Curats Anno 1542. to the intent that they shall present them with the Names of the Owners to their Ordinary if they find any such within their Parishes THe Disputation between the Father and the Son The Supplication of Beggars the Author Fish The Revelation of Antichrist The Practice of Prelates The Burying of the Mass in English Rithme The Book of Friar Barnes twice printed The Matrimony of Tindall The Exposition of Tindall upon the 4 th Chap. to the Corinth The Exposition of Tindall upon the Epistles Canonick of St. Iohn The New Testament of Tindalls Translation with his Preface before the whole Book and before the Epistles of St. Paul and Rom. The Preface made in the English Prymmers by Marshall The Church of Iohn Rastall The Table Glosses Marginal and Preface before the Epistle of St. Paul and Romans of Thomas Mathews doing and printed beyond the Sea without priviledg set in his Bible in English XXVII A Collection of Passages out of the Canon Law made by Cranmer to shew the necessity of reforming it An Original Dist. 22. Omnes de Major obedien solit Extra De Majorit obedient Unam Sanctam HE that knowledgeth not himself to be under the Bishop of Rome and that the Bishop of Rome is ordained by God to have Primacy over all the World is an Heretick and cannot be saved nor is not of the flock of Christ. Dist. 10. de Summa Excommunicationis Nominat 25. q. 11. omne Princes Laws if they be against the Canons and Decrees of the Bishop of Rome be of no force nor strength Dist. 19 20 24. q. 1. A recta memoria Quotiens haec est 25. q. 1. General violatores All the Decrees of the Bishop of Rome ought to be kept perpetually of every Man without any repugnancy as God's Word spoken by the Mouth of Peter and whosoever doth not receive them neither availeth them the Catholick Faith nor the four Evangelists but they blaspheme the Holy Ghost and shall have no forgiveness 35. q. 1. Generali All Kings Bishops and Noblemen that believe or suffer the Bishop of Rome's Decrees in any thing to be violate be accursed and for ever culpable before God as transgressors of the Catholick Faith Dist. 21. Quamvis 24. q. 1. A recta memoria The See of Rome hath neither spot nor wrinkle in it nor cannot err 35. q. 1. Ideo de Senten re judicata de jurejurando licet ad Apostolicae li. 6. de jurejurando The Bishop of Rome is not bound to any Decrees but he may compel as well the Clergy as Lay-men to receive his Decrees and Canon Law 9. q. z. Ipsi cuncta Nemo z. q. 6. dudum aliorum 17. q. 4. Si quis de Baptis ejus effectu majores The Bishop of Rome hath authority to judg all Men and specially to discern the Articles of the Faith and that without any Counsel and may assoil them that the Counsel hath damned but no Man hath authority to judg him nor to meddle with any thing that he hath judged neither Emperor King People nor the Clergy And it is not lawful for any Man to dispute of his Power gr Duo sunt 25. q. 6. Alius Nos Sanctorum juratos in Clemen de Haereticis aut efficiund The Bishop of Rome may excommunicate Emperors and Princes depose them from their States and Assoil their Subjects from their Oath and Obedience to them and so constrain them to rebellion De Major obedien solit Clement de summa re judicata Pastoral The Emperor is the Bishop of Rome's Subject and the Bishop of Rome may revoke the Emperor's Sentence in temporal Causes De Elect. Electi proprietate Venerabilem It belongeth to the Bishop of Rome to allow or disallow the Emperor after he is elected and he may translate the Empire from one Region to another De supplenda Negligen praelat Grand li. 6. The Bishop of Rome may appoint Coadjutors unto Princes Dist. 17. Si modo Regula Nec licuit multum Concilia 96. ubinam There can be no Council of Bishops without the Authority of the See of Rome and the Emperor ought not to be present at the Council except when Matters of the Faith be entreating which belong universally to every Man 2. q. 6. Nothing may be done against him that appealeth unto Rome 1. q. 3. Aliorum Dist. 40. Si Papa Dist. 96. Satis The Bishop of Rome may be judged of none but of God only for altho he neither regard his own Salvation nor no Mans else but draw down with himself innumerable People by heaps unto Hell yet may no mortal Man in this World presume to reprehend him forsomuch as he is called God he may not be judged of Man for God may be judged of no Man â— z. q. 5. The Bishop of Rome may open and shut Heaven unto Men. Dist. 40. Non vos The See of Rome receiveth holy Men or else maketh them holy De Pecunia Dist. 1. Serpens He that maketh a Lye to the Bishop of Rome committeth Sacriledg De Consecra Dist. 1. De locorum praecepta Ecclesia de Elect. Electi proprietate Fundamenta To
correspondence with the King fell to the ground with her but he may well cite Cochleus an Author of the same honesty with himself from whose writings we may with the like security make a judgment of Forreign Matters as we may upon Sanders's testimony believe the account he gives of English Affairs 90. He tells us among other things done by the King and picks it out as the only instance he mentions of the King's Injunctions that the People should be taught in Churches the Lord's Prayer the Ave the Creed and the Ten Commandments in English It seems this Author thought the giving these Elements of Religion to the People in the vulgar Tongue a very heinous Crime when this is singled out from all the rest 91. That being done he says there was next a Book published called Articles appointed by the King's Majesty which were the six Articles This shews that he either had no information of English Affairs or was sleeping when he wrote this for the Six Articles were not published soon after the Injunctions as he makes it by the same Parliament and Convocation but three years after by another Parliament They were never put in a Book nor published in the King's Name they were Enacted in Parliament and are neither more nor less than 25 lines in the first Impression of that Act so far short come they of a Book 92. He reckons up very defectively the differences between the Church of Rome and the Doctrine set forth by the King's Authority but in one point he shews his ordinary wit for in the sixth particular he says He retained the Sacrament of Order but appointed a new Form of Consecrating of Bishops This he put in out of malice that he might annul the Ordinations of that time but the thing is false for except that the Bishops instead of their Oaths of Obedience to the Pope which they formerly swore did not swear to the King there was no other change made and that to be sure is no part of the Form of Consecration 93. He resolved once to speak what he thought was Truth tho it be treasonable and impious and says Upon these changes many in Lincolnshire and the Northern parts did rise for Religion and the Faith of Christ. This was indeed the motive by which their Seditious Priests misled them yet he is mistaken in the time for it was not after the six Articles were published but almost three years before it Nor was it for the Faith of Christ which teaches us to be humble subject and obedient but because the King was removing some of the corruptions of that Faith which their false Teachers did impiously call the Faith of Christ. 94. He says The King did promise most faithfully that all these things of which they complained should be amended This is so evidently false that it is plain Sanders resolved dextrously to avoid the speaking of any sort of Truth for the King did fully and formally tell them he would not be directed nor counselled by them in these Points they complained of and did only offer them an Amnesty for what was past 95. Then he reckons up 32 that died for the defence of the Faith They were attainted of Treason for being in actual Rebellion against the King and thus it appears that Rebellion was the Faith in his sense and himself died for it or rather in it having been starved to death in a Wood to which he fled after one of his rebellious Attempts on his Soveraign in which he was the Pope's Nuncio 96. He says The King killed the Earl of Kildare and five of his Uncles By this strange way of expressing a legal Attainder and the execution of a Sentence for manifest Treason and Rebellion he would insinuate on the Reader a fancy that one of Bonner's cruel fits had taken the King and that he had killed those with his own hand The Lord Herbert has fully opened that part of the History from the Records that he saw and shews that a more resolved Rebellion could not be than that was of which the Earl of Kildare and his Uncles were guilty But because they sent to the Pope and Emperor for assistance the Earl desiring to hold the Kingdom of Ireland of the Pope since the King by his Heresie had fallen from his Right to it Sanders must needs have a great kindness for their memory who thus suffered for his Faith 97. He says Queen Iane Seimour being in hard labour of Prince Edward the King ordered her Body to be so opened by Surgeons that she died soon after All this is false for she had a good Delivery as many Original Letters written by her Council that have been since printed do shew but she died two days after of a distemper incident to her Sex 98. He sets down some Passages of Cardinal Pole's Heroical Constancy which being proved by no Evidence and not being told by any other Writer whom I ever saw are to be lookt on as the flourishes of the Poet to set off his Hero 99. He would perswade the World that the Marquess of Exceter the Lord Montacute and the rest that suffered at that time died because they were believed to dislike the King 's wicked Proceedings and that the Countess of Sarum was beheaded on this single account that she was the Mother of such a Son and was sincerely addicted to the Catholick Faith and that she was condemned because she wrote to her Son and for wearing in her Breast the Picture of the five Wounds of Christ. The Marquess of Exceter pretended he was well satisfied with the King's Proceedings and was Lord Stewart when the Lords Darcy and Hussie were tried and he gave judgment against them But it being discovered that he and other Persons approved of Cardinal Pole's proceedings who endeavoured to engage all Christian Princes in a League against the King pursuant to which they had expressed themselves on several occasions resolved when a fit opportunity offered it self to rebel it was no wonder if the King proceeded against them according to Law And for the Countess of Sarum tho the legality of that Sentence passed against her cannot be defended yet she had given great offence not only by her correspondence with her Son but by the Bulls she had received from Rome and by her opposing the King's Injunctions hindring all her Tenants to read the New Testament or any other Books set out by the King's order And for the Picture which was found among her Cloaths it having been the Standard of the Rebellion and the Arms of England being found on the other side of it there was just ground to suspect an ill design in it 100. He says The Images which the King destroyed were by many wonderful Works of God recommended to the Devotion of the Nation All the wonder in these Works was the knavery of some jugling Impostors and the simplicity of a credulous multitude of
necessary to our Salvation as also the other touching the honest ceremonies and good and politick order as is aforesaid which their determination debatement and agreement forasmuch as we think to have proceeded of a good right and true judgment and to be agreeable to the Laws and Ordinances of God and much profitable for the establishment of that charitable concord and unity in our Church of England which we most desire we have caused the same to be published willing requiring and commanding you to accept repute and take them accordingly most heartily desiring and praying Almighty God that it may please him so to illumin your hearts that you and every of you may have no less desire zeal and love to the said unity and concord in reading divulging and following the same than we have had and have causing them to be thus devised set forth and published And for because we would the said Articles and every of them to be taken and understanden of you after such sort order and degree as appertaineth accordingly We have caused by the like assent and agreement of our said Bishops and other Learned men the said Articles to be divided into two sorts that is to say such as are commanded expresly by God and are necessary to our Salvation and such other as although they be not expresly commanded of God nor necessary to our Salvation yet being of a long continuance for a decent order and honest policy prudently instituted are for that same purpose and end to be observed in like manner which ye following after such sort as we have prescribed unto you shall not only attain that most charitable unity and loving concord whereof shall ensue your incomparable commodity profit and lucre as well spiritual as other but also ye conforming your selves and using these our said Articles as is aforesaid shall not a little encourage us to take further travel pains and labours for your commodities in all such other matters as in time to come may happen to occur and as it shall be most to the honour of God and ours the profit tranquillity and quietness of all you our most loving Subjects The Articles of our Faith FIrst as touching the chief and principal Articles of our Faith sith it is thus agreed as hereafter followeth by the whole Clergy of this our Realm we will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach our people by us committed to their spiritual Charge that they ought and must most constantly believe and defend all those things to be true which be comprehended in the whole body and Canon of the Bible and also in the three Creeds or Symbols whereof one was made by the Apostles and is the common Creed which every man useth the second was made in the Holy Council of Nice and is said daily in the Mass and the third was made by Athanasius and is comprehended in the Psalm Quicunque vult and that they ought and must take and interpret all the same things according to the selfe-same sentence and interpretation which the words of the selfe-same Creeds or Symboles do purport and the Holy approved Doctors of the Church do intreat and defend the same Item that they ought and must repute hold and take all the same things for the most Holy most sure and most certain and infallible words of God and such as neither ought ne can be altered or convelled by any contrary opinion or Authority Item that they ought and must believe repute and take all the Articles of our Faith contained in the said Creeds to be so necessary to be believed for mans Salvation that whosoever being taught will not believe them as is aforesaid or will obstinately affirm the contrary of them he or they cannot be the very members of Christ and his Spouse the Church but be very Infidels or Hereticks and members of the Devil with whom they shall perpetually be Damned Item that they ought and must most reverently and religiously observe and keep the selfe-same words according to the very same form and manner of speaking as the Articles of our Faith be already conceived and expressed in the said Creeds without altering in any wise or varying from the same Item that they ought and must utterly refuse and condemn all these opinions contrary to the said Articles which were of long time past condemned in the four Holy Councils that is to say in the Council of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcidonense and all other sith that time in any point consonant to the same The Sacrament of Baptism SEcondly as touching the Holy Sacrament of Baptism we will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us unto their Spiritual Charge that they ought and must of necessity believe certainly all those things which hath been always by the whole consent of the Church approved received and used in the Sacrament of Baptism that is to say that the Sacrament of Baptism was instituted and ordained in the New Testament by our Saviour Jesus Christ as a thing necessary for the attaining of everlasting life according to the saying of Christ Nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aqua Spiritu Sancto non potest intrare in Regnum coelorum Item that it is offered unto all men as well Infants as such as have the use of Reason that by Baptism they shall have remission of sins and the grace and favour of God according to the saying of St. Iohn Qui crediderit Baptizatus fuerit Salvus erit Item that the promise of Grace and everlasting life which promise is adjoyned unto the Sacrament of Baptism pertaineth not only unto such as have the use of reason but also to Infants innocents and children and they ought therefore and must needs be Baptised and that by the Sacrament of Baptism they do also obtain remission of their sins the grace and favour of God and be made thereby the very sons and children of God insomuch as Infants and Children dying in their Infancy shall undoubtedly be saved thereby or else not Item that Infants must needs be Christened because they be born in Original sin which sin must needs be remitted which cannot be done but by the Sacrament of Baptism whereby they receive the Holy-Ghost which exerciseth his Grace and efficacy in them and cleanseth and purifieth them from sin by his most secret vertue and operation Item that Children or men once Baptized can ne ought ever to be Baptized again Item that they ought to repute and take all the Anabaptists and the Pelagians opinions contrary to the premisses and every other mans opinion agreeable unto the said Anabaptists or the Pelagians opinions in this behalfe for detestable Heresies and utterly to be condemned Item that men or children having the use of reason and willing and desiring to be Baptized shall by the vertue of that holy Sacrament obtain the grace and remission of all their sins if they shall come thereunto
perfectly and truly repentant and contrite of all their sins before committed and also perfectly and constantly confessing and believing all the Articles of our faith according as it was mentioned in the Article before or else not And Finally if they shall also have firm credence and trust in the promise of God adjoyned to the said Sacrament that is to say that in and by this said Sacrament which they shall receive God the Father giveth unto them for his Son Jesus Christs sake remission of all their sins and the Grace of the Holy Ghost whereby they be newly regenerated and made the very Children of God according to the saying of Christ and his Apostle St. Peter Paenitentiam agite Baptizetur vnusquisque vestrum in nomine Iesu Christi in remissionem peccatorum accipietis donum Spiritus Sancti and according also to the saying of St. Paul ad Titum 3. non ex operibus justitiae quae fecimus nos sed secundum suam misericordiam salvos nos fecit per lavacrum regenerationis renovationis Spiritus Sancti quem effudit in nos opulenter per Iesum Christum servatorem nostrum ut justificati illius gratia haeredes efficiamur juxta spem vitae aeternae The Sacrament of Penance THirdly Concerning the Sacrament of Pennance We will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us unto their Spiritual charge that they ought and must most constantly believe that that Sacrament was instituted of Christ in the New Testament as a thing so necessary for mans Salvation that no man which after his Baptism is fallen again and hath committed deadly sin can without the same be saved or attain everlasting Life Item That like-as such men which after Baptism do fall again into sin if they do not Pennance in this Life shall undoubtedly be damned even so whensoever the same men shall convert themselves from the said naughty Life and do such Pennance for the same as Christ requireth of them they shall without doubt attain remission of their sins and shall be saved Item That this Sacrament of perfect Pennance which Christ requireth of such manner of persons consisteth of three parts that is to say Contrition Confession with the amendment of the former Life and a new obedient reconciliation unto the Laws and will of God that is to say exteriour Acts in works of Charity according as they be commanded of God which be called in Scripture fructus digni Paenitentia Furthermore as touching Contrition which is the first part We will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us unto their Spiritual charge that the said Contrâ—tion consisteth in two special parts which must always be conjoined together and cannot be dissevered that is to say the penitent and contrite man must first knowledg the filthiness and abomination of his own sin whereunto he is brought by hearing and considering of the will of God declared in his Laws and feeling and perceiving in his own conscience that God is angry and displeased with him for the same he must also conceive not only great sorrow and inward shame that he hath so grievously offended God but also great fear of Gods displeasure towards him considering he hath no works or merits of his own which he may worthily lay before God as sufficient satisfaction for his sins which done then afterwards with this fear shame and sorrow must needs succeed and be conjoyned The second part viz. a certain faith trust and confidence of the mercy and goodness of God whereby the penitent must conceive certain hope and faith that God will forgive him his sins and repute him justified and of the number of his Elect children not for the worthiness of any merit or work done by the penitent but for the only merits of the blood and passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Item That this certain faith and hope is gotten and also confirmed and made more strong by the applying of Christs words and promises of his grace and favour contained in his Gospel and the Sacraments instituted by him in the new Testament and therefore to attain this certain faith the second part of Pennance is necessary that is to say Confession to a Priest if it may be had for the Absolution given by the Priest was institute of Christ to apply the promises of Gods grace and favour to the Penitent Wherefore as touching Confession We will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us to their spiritual charge that they ought and must certainly believe that the words of Absolution pronounced by the Priest be spoken by the Authority given to him by Christ in the Gospel Item That they ought and must give no less faith and credence to the same words of Absolution so pronounced by the Ministers of the Church than they would give unto the very words and voyce of God himself if he should speak unto us out of Heaven according to the saying of Christ Quorum remiseritis peccata c. qui vos audit me audit Item That in no ways they do contemn this Auricular Confession which is made unto the Ministers of the Church but that they ought to repute the same a verry expedient and necessary mean whereby they may require and ask this Absolution at the Priests hands at such time as they shall find their consciences grieved with mortal sin and have occasion so to do to the intent they may thereby attain certain comfort and consolation of their consciences As touching the third part of Penance We will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us to their spiritual charge that although Christ and his death be the sufficient oblation sacrifice satisfaction and recompence for the which God the Father forgiveth and remitteth to all sinners not only their sin but also Eternal pain due for the same yet all men truly penitent contrite and confessed must needs also bring forth the fruits of Penance that is to say Prayer Fasting Almsdeeds and must make Restitution or Satisfaction in will and deed to their neighbour in such things as they have done them wrong and injury in and also must do all other good works of mercy and charity and express their obedient will in the executing and fulfilling of Gods Commandments outwardly when time power and occasion shall be Ministred unto them or else they shall never be saved for this is the express precept and commandment of God Agite fructus dignos paenitentia and St. Paul saith Debitores sumus and in another place he saith Castigo corpus meum in servitutem redigo Item That these precepts and works of Charity be necessary works to our Salvation and God necessarily requireth that every penitent man shall perform the same whensoever time power and occasion shall be ministred unto him so to do Item That by Penance and such good