there was no such bond for Catholikes to professe their faith in refusing the Church as after there was although I doe not denie but that it was vnlawfull euen before the Satute as being a thing euill in it owne nature to goe formally to their Seruice but now euery Catholike is bound to professe his faith in refusing to go to the protestants Seruice when it is exacted of him according to the Satute which intendeth to draw him from Catholike Religion And wee see by experience that what Catholike soeuer goeth to theyr Seruice be hee neuer so zealous in minde in Catholike Religion yet is hee of euerie man reckoned in the number of Protestantes and of all Catholickes vtterlie disclaimed And such a one is in very deed a flatte partaker of Protestantisme and is incorporated ipso facto with the members of the same vtterly excluded from the participation of the Misticall Body of Christ our Sauiour 4 You might by the same reason vrge me to receiue your Communion by which you mooue mee to go to your Seruice which I hope you will not do knowing it to be so opposite to my faith religion for I may shewe my obedience to my Princes lawes as wel in the one as in the other And I knowe vvell enough that the Communion is but a peece of bread and a suppe of wine which are things no lesse indifferent of themselues thē my presence at your seruice is And as I know that your minister vvould giue me that bread and wine insteede of a farre better thing so woulde hee buzze and sound in mine eares your seruice I am sure in liew of a far more holy thing And as I little esteeme your seruice so make I small account of your bread and wine But indeede the true cause why I will doe neither the one nor the other is because they be both a like acts of religion vsed in things which I deeme moste vntrue yet might obedience excuse thē both in your opinion 5 I should ipso facto be Excommunicated Calet 2.2 ◠12. ar 1. q. 94. ar 1. and cut off from the Catholike Church of Christ for she excommunicating generallie all heretikes comprehendeth me in the number of thē because in exteriour court or show I am an heretike by going to any other seruice then that of the saide Catholike Church shee not knowing the mind or affection iudgeth according to the outward show and so reputeth me for an absolute heretike although keeping my Faith inuiolable I be not so inwardly and in very deed By this meanes I should be vsed as an excommunicat person altogether cut off frō Gods visible church barred from holie seruice sacraments for no Catholike Priest could lawfullie admitt me to any such so long as I would cōtinue in that miserable state 6 I should be contrary to my conscience a fauourer and a furtherer of Protestantes Religion for I by my presence encreasing your number as I said before must needes somewhat augment the credit of your congregation and so make your sect to flourish the more and encourage others by mine example to help forward the same 7 I should loose that peace vvhich coupleth vs to God and maketh vs of one hart soule amongst our selues Act. 4. and which was so much sought for by the penitent lapsed Christians of the Primitiue Church Their admission or reconciling againe to the Church after theyr fall was tearmed giuing of peace Cyp. lib. 1. Epist 2. for GOD knoweth how little peace rest or quietnesse of minde a Catholike going to your seruice hath And no meruail whē as his body goeth one way his mind another yea he a member rent off from the whole bodie 8 I should be adiudged by the Catholike Church both a Schismatike and an Heretike in so doing A Schismatike because I goe to a Congregation separated frō the church of God an Heretike in that I couple my selfe to them who teach heresie for being by that deed as I said before an exterior Heretike I am consequently a schismatike because that euery heretike is withall a schismatike but euery schismatike is not an heretike for a schismatike only is hee who holding the same opinions Lib. 20 cō Faust c. 3. con Crescon and vsing the same ceremonies of worshipping God with others yet only is pleased with a seuerall congregation 9 I should in so doing make a greatlie in professiō of my faith which must needs be a great sin for a lie is as well committed in deed by dissimulation Ambr. ser de Abra. as in speech And my presence at protestants seruice telleth that I am a protestant whereas in my hart conscience I am a Catholike This kinde of lying as saith S. Augustine ought most chieflie to be auoyded for that it is made in the most noblest of all morall vertues I meane Religion 10 I should giue great scandale occasion of fall to others for that they seeing me doe against my conscience in this may thinke that I will as easlie doe any thing els which I know to be naught vpon hope of repentance and so by mine example may be mooued to doe the like for hee who knoweth or thinketh in his conscience your Seruice to be vnlawfull and yet will be present at it vvhy will hee not as easilie doe anie other thing which hee knoweth to be euill Besides others vvoulde by this myne example bee Confirmed in Schisme and Heresie thinking the seruice either to be good and godly indeed or at the least-wise that it may begone vnto without any scruple As those who saw others eate Idolothytes 1. Cor. 8. were confirmed and encouraged to doe the like 11 I should endaunger my selfe to be infected with that doctrine which I iudge to be damnable And I am told that Eccl. 13. he who loueth daunger shall perrish therein And if I will not be bitten with a Snake I must not sleep nigh an hedge neyther ought I to touch pitch least I be defiled by the same And if Dauid had not aduentured to gaze vpon Bethsabee he had not fallen into so great liking of her as to commit such horrible sinnes as you know And if no Catholicke would haue heard Luth. to haue preached whē he began this new doctrin there had beene at this day neyther Lutheran Zwinglian Protestant Puritane nor any such late sprung vp fellowes to trouble and molest the Catholicke Church Rom. 6. 12 I should disobey S. Paule his cōmaundement bidding mee auoyde an Hereticall man Tit. 3 2. Tim. 4 And farre should I be from the minde of the holy Apostle and Euangelist S. Iohn who durst not so much as stay in the bathe to vvash in the companie of Cerinthus the Heretike Euseb li. 3 cap. 22 What would the same Holie Saint haue said thinke you if hee had bin requested by his deare vvorldlie friēds to haue bin present at the praiers seruice sermōs of
alleadgeth the Doctours most is most praysed of the audience as you vvell know which is a pittifull thing in thē and ridiculous in the Preacher vvho cannot but know if he haue read any of them himselfe that the Fathers detest vtterly that Doctrine which hee wresteth them to confirme and in the meane time the pore audience thinketh that they were of this new Religion vvhose simplicitie therein is most pittifullie abused by the Preacher THE XI REASON Triall of Trueth IT is manifest by the Holye Scriptures that it appertaineth to the Church to try to discerne spirits as also to determine to decide doubts And agreeably therunto shee hath in all ages mastered ouer-ruled captiuated the vnderstanding of euerye one were hee neuer so wise neuer so learned or had he neuer so extraordinary giftes except he obstinatly defended an errour which if he did hee was condemned for an heretike so came to nothing The Chatholike Church I saye directed by the Holye Ghost hath euer separated from the trueth all moales all singular opinions al errours and corruptions in euerie mans workes and writings in such sorte as that easilie and securelye euerie one maie knowe the trueth And certainelie the Protestantes although they saye that they giue no credite to the CHVRCH but so farre forth as they finde in their Scriptures doe can not otherwise but receaue the same Scriptures vppon the Catholike Romane Churches credit also the three Creedes of the Apostles of Athanasius and of Nice and some Articles of beleefe as the Holy Ghost to proceed from both the Father the Sonne yet as from one beginning and many tearmes as Person Trinitie Consubstantiall Sacraments c. which none coulde euer haue inuented but onely the Catholike Church Neyther is it possible for any man to know whether this Bible which is vsed amongest Christians be the true word of God indeede or some fained thing but onely vppon the Catholike Romane Churches credit And Saint Augustine confesseth plainely that he would not beleeue the Ghospell but that the authoritie of the Catholike Church moued him thereunto Con. Epist Manich. c. 5. lib. 2. de doct Chr. cap. 8. And by the same Churches authoritie hee was mooued to beleeue the bookes of Tobie Iudith Canticles Wisedome Ecclesiasticus Machabees c. as he himself sincerelie affirmeth And surely it is wōderfull to see how the Church of God receauing the Olde Testament from the Iewes and manifesting to the world the Canon of the Holy bookes of the new Testamēt hath in al times in so many alterations and chaunges kept from the destruction corruption of Heretikes Iewes and Panims the whole authenticall corps of Holy Scripture in such maner as no Heretike in the world can charge her with adding or diminishing the least iote thereof Iudge you here whether the madnes of these new fellowes be worthie to be wondred at or no who doe credit and beleeue the Church in this point and will not doe the same in others Why should they rather trust the Church in this thē in other things And I would euery man would here consider the wonderfull integritie of the Catholike Romane Church in keeping the Holy Bible so entire and vncorrupted these fifteene hundred yeares together at the least and the atheisticall treacherie of these of the the new Religion who occupying no Bible nor hauing to doe with the holy scriptures for a thousand yeares togeather as they themselues confesse haue after the vniust vvresting it out of the handes of the iust possessors thereof robbed the Church of so many whole bookes besides of so manie partes and particles of the same What these fellowes would bring the Holy Bible vnto in time if they shuld hold on they may easily gesse vvho know their manifold corruption therof in so few yeares And yet forsooth they vvill haue all controuersies to be tried by only scriptures which if they were not by them corrupted falselie translated yet could theye neuer finde out any secure truth by them only for that none of them alloweth anie other mans exposition but his owne and in so dealing they can but haue a gesse or an opinion or fantasie but no faith at all Which thing to declare more plainely I aske the Protestant how he relying vpon only scripture can shew mee certainely vvhich bookes be Scripture and which not And if hee be vnlearned how knoweth hee that the translation which hee vseth is truely made out of Hebrew Greeke Latine And then how is hee sure of the sence exposition And if he be neuer so learned haue neuer so many helps all that hee can search and finde out is but a priuate mans opinion and consequentlie his Faith which hee seemeth to haue is grounded vpon his owne particular iudgement and so indeed is no faith at all but an opinion onely as I said before for faith must haue Gods expresse authoritie for her foundation Here you may consider the miserable state and condition of your newe Ghospellers in that forsaking the Catholike and vniuersall faith of Christendome deliuered to thē by the vniuersal Church as founded vppon Scripture vvhich Church Christ and his Apostles gaue thē expresse Commission to beleeue which was properly Faith founded vpon a rocke which could not faile in that forsaking I say that fortres they cast themselues into the waues of new opinions whereby they haue no certaintie at all but euery one chuseth vvhat hee liketh to himselfe vvhich choise is properly called Heresie and so the word signifieth And let anie Protestant in our Countrie of England tell mee why he doth rather beleeue his owne iudgement in points of Religion then the iudgement of Luther Caluin and Beza whome he thinketh were so excellent men for euery one that hath any learning knoweth that they taught otherwise then now is taught in England This you may plainely see the only touchstone of truth to be the Catholike Church which cannot faile and that they who cleaue to her iudgement haue most vndoubtedly the truth whereas on the other side they who ground only vpon Scriptures expounding them according to their owne fantasie and braine playing the Maisters and Pilots and Boat-swaines themselues admitting no iudge no interpreter no antiquitie nor any other manner of tryall which is the greatest madnesse and malediction that can be must needes be destitute of all certaintie and of all Religion and of all stay and of all foundation and of all rule and of all order and must needes wrangle and iangle without end and without meanes to make an end and must needes cause Nouelties without number and libertie of life without feare or force of Ecclesiasticall Discipline to restraine them and to conclude they haue no meanes to rest vntill the end in Atheisme THE XII REASON The vse and custome of the Church THE vse custome and practise of the Church hath as it vvas in the prime thereof beene alvvaies an infallible rule to
Heathen persecutors Iewes Turkes and Heretikes in perpetuall tormentes for persecuting and striuing against the Catholicke ROMAN CHVRCH To this Constantine the great brought peace and quietnesse In this Church there hath beene continuall succession of Bishops without any interruption All Bishopps and Pastours of particular Churches in what land or country soeuer they were in vnder the cope of heauen were mēbers of this Church As for example S. Ignatius at Antioch Peter Alexander Athanasius Theophilus at Alexandria Macharius and Cyrillus at Ierusalem Proclus at Constantinople Gregory and Basil in Cappadocia Thaumaturgus in Pontus Polycarpas at Smyrna Iustinus at Athens Dyonisius at Corinth Gregory at Nysa Methodius at Tyrus Ephreem in Syria Cyprian Optatus Austin in Africke Epiphanius in Cyprus Ambrose Paulinus Gaudentius Prosper Faustus Vigilius in Italy Irenaeus Martine Hylarius Eucherius Gregory Saluianus in Fraunce Vincentius Orotius Hildefonsus Leander Isidorus in Spayne Fugatius Damianus Iustus Melytus Beda in England were Bishoppes and Pastours of this Church In briefe whatsoeuer deedes or works signes or monuments fragments or reliques remaine yet in anie land or countrie of them who planted the Christian Faith there doe testifie the Catholike Roman Religion All Princes Kings Emperors all States and commonweales which euer were christened the Theodosians in the east the Charles in the west the Edwards in Englande the Lewesses in Fraunce the Hermigildes in Spaine the Henries in Saxony the Wenceslaes in Boeme-Lande the Leopoldes in Austria the Steeuens in Hungary the Iosophates in India professed and protected the Roman Religion they builded Churches founded religious houses erected many other Monuments of pietie not for Protestants Iwis but for the professours of the Catholike Roman Religion which Faith and Religion S. Pattricke brought first into Ireland Palladius into Scotland S. Augustine into England and other Apostles into other countries witnesses of this Religion are al Vniuersities Colledges Hospitals Monasteries Churches Chappels and innumerable other monumentes Witnesses their foundations their ordinances yea and the very buildings themselues witnesses all Reuestryes Chauncels with steppes vp Aultars Rood lofts Cross-buildings al Crosses in Church and Church-yeardes Market-places and High-waies witnesses all Bishoprickes Deaneries Arch-deaconries Prebendes Parsonages Vicariages such like ordained trow you for women children to make them gentles Witnesses all tithes and other liuely-hoods so religiously lotted out not for ministers wenches their brats but for Sacred anoynted Priests Good Lord what would the founders of all these premisses say if they might come but to see how their lands and goods which they so religiouslie bestowed to honor God withall are by Protestants employed Witnesses spirituall Courtes Visitations Conuocations Excommunications Suspensions witnesses probations of dead mens wils witnesses bidding and forbidding of banes witnesses partitions of Diocese parishes all ordeyned and instituted by Papists Witnesses auncient lawes and customes witnesses the vulgar manners of people the Election and Inauguration of Emperours the rites of annoynting crowning of kings the dubbing of knights c. witnesses coynes windows towne-gates town-houses all rules and to conclude all things in the world witnes the Catholike Roman Religion Thus haue I briefelie my deare frendes set downe some plaine reasons of the religion which I professe for the enioying of which I am content to forgoe my natiue soyle my deare Parents you my dearest friends with all the rest and all those commodities and pleasures which you account in your letter I wish you not to thinke euill of mee for so doing for it is the religion wherein I was borne baptized and confirmed it is the religion which from time to time hath bin vniuersallie receaued throughout all Christēdome it is the religion which there in our own countrie of al others is the first the auncientest the moste benificiall of all the rest the mother and begetter of the others the religion of all our Christian Predecessours and therefore beare with me I pray you in that I will not yeelde vp my title and interest of that which I haue receaued from myne Elders by lineall and lawful discent no man for these thousand yeares at the least seeking to put mee or any of my predecessors out of it Yet if any Protestant or other whatsoeuer can shew me any good euidence why I should not possesse the same I am readie to giue it vp but hitherto they promising and vaunting to shew good euidence haue brought forth nothing but words and forgerie And therefore by Gods grace I purpose to hold the same euen vntill my dying day except such euidence come against my title as is not to be shewed no not by an Angell if he should come from heauen God blesse you in the aboundance of his mercie who sende vs ioyfull meeting eyther in this world or in the next or in both A COPIE OF ANOTHER LETTER WHICH THE TWO Cittizens of London wrote to theyr friende beyond the Seas shortlie after that the other was sent DEARE AND WEL-beloued friend after that we had sent the last Letter dated the 13. of September Anno. 1599. wee consulting and weighing the contents thereof with some what more deepe considerations then before wee had done it was thought good to write vnto you this second Letter to let you vnderstand that wee will not receaue nor medle with any grounds or reasons of your faith and religion therfore you neede not to trouble your selfe with writing any for wee assure our selues that you can bring forth none but such as Papistes vse to alleadge which are now growne verie stale out of request Onlie this is the desire of vs al that you would returne without delay but yet so as you may shew your selfe obedient to her Ma. lawes in comming to the Church as other good dutiful subiects doe for surelie what Religion soeuer you professe we thinke you may with safe conscience come to heare Diuine Seruice or a Sermon beeing no further vrged but that you may thinke and pray as you list And what Scripture authority or reason can you shew or pretend for refusing so to doe For we knowe the cōmon answere which women such sillie soules are accustomed to make in saying It is against my conscience I may not with a safe conscience so doe is too foolish for you who seeme to haue more knowledge Wee supposed at the first that your refusall proceeded of a timerous ouer scrupulous conscience but now wee beginne to suspect that because you haue gone so far in that course you thinke it would be some discredite as to be deemed vnconstant and a turne-coate if you should in any sort relent and come to conformitie and therefore you minde still to be obstinate but wee friendly aduise you to beware of such peeuishnes proceeding indeede from the roote of pride we wish you to submit your selfe to your gracious Princesse her honourable Coūcell to the lawes of your natiue Country and weigh with your selfe what you are to
themselues slaues to ambition as they did in Scotland or by following Lust and Leacherie or of some such like brutish occasion and neuer indeede vpon anie good ground vsing their religion only as a serueturne when other meanes faile to atchieue theyr vnlawfull desires It is plaine therefore in my iudgement that the Catholiks are they who euer fished simplie and syncerely with Saint Peeters Net and therein haue enclosed myraculous multitudes of fishes and that the Protestantes by theyr extraordinary and late angling haue caught none but such as were in a better and more sound maner taken before And although Freculphus writeth In Chron. tom 2. li. 4 cap. 20. that the Arrian heretikes conuerted the whole nation of the Gothes from Paganysme to the Faith in the time of Valens the Emperour socrates lib. 4. cap. 27. sozom. l. 6 cap. 37. Theodoret lib 4. cap. vlt. yet it appeareth by Socrates Sozomenus and Theodoretus that the greatest part of those Gothes were Catholike Christians before and afterward seduced by the Arrians for Heretikes cannot possiblie conuert anie to such faith as may make the conuerted better then they were before for that they hauing indeede the Scripture in some sort yet haue not the true sense thereof vvhich properly is the sword of the spirit and the wordes are rather the scabard in which the sword is sheathed And therefore they fighting only with the scabard without the sword cannot wound the harts of Infidels And no meruaile though they peruert Catholikes for that men are prone to libertie and to loosenesse of life which by such doctrine is permitted So that they are indeed most aptly by S. Augustine likened vnto Partridges lib. 13. contra faust cap. 12. which gather together young ones which they begot not whereas contrariwise the Holy Church is a most fertle Doue which continuallie bringeth forth new Pigeons THE FIFT REASON largenes of Dominion through the multitude of Beleeuers THE Church vvhich the Messias was to plant must be as is aforesaid dispersed throughout al nations kingdomes as the Holy Prophets most plainely foreshewed and namely the Royall Prophet speaking of the Apostles and Preachers vvhich should Succeede them saieth Psal 18. Theyr sounde went foorth into all partes of the Earth and theyr wordes vnto the endes of the circle of the earth And most manifestlie doth he foretell the largenesse of Christian Religion in the 71. Psalme And S. Iohn saw the foure beasts Apoc. c. 5. the foure and twentie Elders fall downe before the Lambe singing thus Thou art worthie Lord to take the Booke and to open the seales therof for thou hast bin slaine hast redeemed vs to God in thy Blood Cap. 7. out of euery Tribe people Language Nation in another place After these things saith hee I saw a great companie which no man was able to nūber of all Nations Tribes and Peoples and Tongues These thinges with manie such like in Holy writ are no wise verefied in any Religion vnder Heauen but onely in the Romaine Catholike Church for that none but it as euerie man knoweth hath had any large scope to account vpon in any age And it hath beene for these thousand yeares at the least throughout both the Hemyspheres in such sort as the sunne stretcheth not his beames further then it doth and hath done yea there is no tongue nor people nor climate in the vvorlde which hath not heard of in some measure receaued the Catholike Romaine Religion Neither can the Protestantes say that the Church now beginneth to flourish and to dilate it selfe in the worlde after so many ages for that now it is growen olde and aged as is most plaine to say that she increased not in her younge yeares but now in her olde age is to make her a monster She must therefore of necessitie haue growen increased occupied if not all the world yet no doubt the greatest part thereof and so hath the Catholike Romaine Church and none but she done Colloss 1. for in the Apostles time shee began to fructifie in all the world And in S. Irenaeus his time Irenaeus l. 1. cap. 3. Tertul. li. contra Iudaeos ca. 4. Cyprian de vuit eccles Athanas lib. de humanit shee was spreade all ouer the vvorld then knowen as she was afterwards in Tertullian his time and in the dayes of S. Cyprian Athanasius Chrisostome Hierome Augustine Theodoretus Leo the great and Prosper vvho in his booke De Ingratis hath these wordes verbi Chrisost Hieron in Mat. 24. Aug. in Epist 78. 80. ad Hesychium Theod. lib de legibus Leo. Mag. ser 1. de S S. Petro Paulo Sedes Roma Petri quae pastoralis honoris Facta caput mundo quic quid nos possidit armis Religione tenet Which thus may be Englished Rome Peters seate whose Bishop is of Prelates Peereles Lord Religion Lady makes of all which armes do not afford But the Protestantes peraduenture will graunt that the true Church flourished in those dayes but not afterwardes vntill this age in which they haue reformed the same yet is it most manifest that it flourished afterwards euen vntill this our time no lesse then it did before if not more for in Saint Gregory his dayes it was spread all ouer the world as appeareth by his Epistles to the Bishoppes of the East of Afrike Spayne Fraunce England Sicilie And by Saint Bede in cap. 6. cantic In vita S. Bernardi lib. 2. ca. 7. as also by Saint Bernard who disputing before Rogerius King of Sicilie auouched that in those dayes the East all the West Fraunce Germanie England Spaniardes and manie barbarous nations obeyed the Bishop of Rome And in these dayes it is all ouer Italie all ouer Spayne and in Fraunce in most parts of Germanie in Poleland Boheme besides England Hungarie Greece Syria Aethiopia Aegypt in vvhich Landes are manie Catholikes and in the nevve world it flourisheth mightily in al the foure parts of the world Eastward in the Indies Westward in America Northward in Iaponia Southward in Brasilia and in the vttermost parts of Afrike And to name somewhat more in particular some Countries in which it is happely receaued of many if not vniuersally of all but yet in many lāds it is receaued of the greatest parte of the inhabitants in Goa in Malabar in Cochin in Bazain in Colā in Tana in Daman in Ciaul in Coran in Salsetta in Pescaria in Manar in Trauancor in Cogiro in Bugen in Cicungo in Cicugne in Oian in Gomotto in Gensura in Xichi in Ormuz in Ternate in Momoia in Ambonio in Macazar in Cerignano in Siligan in Butuan in Pimiliran in Camigu in Supa in Sian in Bacian in Solar in Malacca in Tidor in Selebi and in the Ilandes of S. Thomazo S. Domingo Madera and in all those innumerable Islandes vvhich the King of Spayne there possesseth So that the Catholike Romaine Religion hath had and
be saide that they doe as the firste Christians did which denyed and destroyed the false and superstitious religion of the Heathens for that the Christians did that by manifest Commission from God himselfe by working of Miracles by planting Christian religion in place thereof but the Protestantes neither doe that which they do by any authoritie from God nor euer could work any one miracle as is afore-saide and insteede of that which they reiect pull downe they place iust nothing THE XV. REASON Diuinitie IF you looke into the Vniuersities of the Catholiks of Protestants you shal see in the one the whole corps of Diuinitie and of Christian trueth most pythelie and profoundly taught but in the other nothing but a number of pelting obiections taken out of Caluins Institutions or out of the Magdeburgenses or out of some Hereticall Pamphlet together with wrested interpretations of the new Testament which they haue learned of Beza or of some such like fellow in some they trouble themselues with nothing but onely with the Controuersies of this time that is all the Diuinity which they haue or meddle withall But the Catholike Diuines studie and teache in theyr Schooles most exactlie all thinges vvhich man may in this life know of God ALMIGHTIE of his Simplicitie Perfection Goodnesse Infinitie of his being in his creatures of his immutabilitie Eternitie Vnitie knowledge and seeing of him of his names Science Idees Life Will Loue Iustice and Mercie Prouidence Power Felicitie of the Blessed Trinitie of the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost of theyr Equalitie Vnitie Consubstantialitie in one GOD-HEADE of the Creation of thinges of Angels of theyr substance Incorporcitie locall motion Knowledge Will Loue Production Goodnesse and Badnesse of mans Creation of his Bodie Soule of all the powers and parts thereof of his Propagation of the end whereunto hee is created of Vertue and Vice in generall and in particular of the Incarnation of Gods Sonne ioyning two most different natures of God and Man both entire both complete without cōmixtion or confusion into the vnitie of one person of the perfections defects assumpted by him of the Resurrection Iudgemēt and of many other profound pointes vvhich the Protestantes neuer beate their braines about and indeede they cannot possiblie studie these thinges throughlie beeing somuch occupied about wooing vvenching and wiueing taking vppon them to be Doctours of Diuinitie and Husbandes also And therefore if the learnedst amongst them should appeare in Catholicke Schooles or Vniuersities abroade hee would not once dare to open his mouth in matters of Learning among the great nūber of most excellent learned men which there are founde as wee haue vvell proued by such of your Protestants as nowe and then goe abroade to forraine VNIVERSITIES and are very quicklie brought to Confesse theyr inequalitie in this kinde for that they scarce vnderstand the verie ordinarie tearmes of the learned sciences which the others doe fullie possesse And I pray you what a learned Clargie was there in Queene Maryes time in our Countrie of England in respect of these pore creatures that occupy now theyr Prebends and sit in the sunne-shine of theyr new pretended Ghospell with theyr Wiues and Children rounde about them Were not one Tonstall one Watson one Christopherson for learning one Fecknā one Gardener one White for wisdome learning togeather able to set to Schoole all your ruffed Cleargie at this day for tearme of life and after as by their workes writings yet extant doth wel appeare This grosse ignorance of these newe Ghospellers is the cause that the people doe remaine vtterly voide of the knowledge of mysteries which they are bound to beleeue vppon paine of damnation and they cannot otherwise be when as their Leaders Doctours are altogether vnskilfull of the points afore-named But if they can speake a litle Greeke and a few words in Hebrew and vse some Inke horne Eloquence with rayling against Pope and Papistes then are they forsooth deepe Diuines Take the most learned Doctour of them all and set him to reason with an Heathen or with an Atheist and you shall see what goodly arguments hee will make nay you shall see him betray the truth for lack of learning for that he is vtterly ignorant as they are all of Schoole Diuinitie And hereupon it is that theyr Preachers comming to reason vvith the Turkish Priestes haue beene driuen to yeelde and haue become Mahometans for indeed one who taketh vpon him to be Doctor of Diuinitie ought to be so instructed furnished with Philosophie Morall Physicall and Metaphysicall with Logicke and with all humane helps with Councels Fathers Histories and such like and not only with the bare text of the Bible as that he may be able to defend the faith of Christ in all points against Iewes Turkes Heathens Atheistes not only against heretiks And here I cānot but admire the prouidēce goodnes of God towards his Church in furnishing it with all kinds of learning sciences whereby it may defend and maintaine it self against all sorts of enimies be they Iewes Turks Heathens Atheists or Heretikes vvhatsoeuer for in the Vniuersities thereof you may see most learnedly substantially orderly and vniuersallie taught all Christian truth and that in short space for in 4. or 5. yeares the whole course of Diuinity is taught vnder two or three readers in the same time the Controuersies by another reader by another all the new Testament is learnedlie foundly expounded besides an 100. publike Disputations euerie yeare of some whole matter as of Baptisme of the Eucharist of the Trinitie of the Incarnation of Angels of the Supremacie c. and withall the whole Bible read ouer at Table euery yeare alwaies after Dinner and Supper two Chapters of it one of the new and another of the old testament diligentlie examined vvith familiar conference betweene the learned and the younger sort And besides all this there are taught Cases of Conscience in which is set downe what is sinne and vvhat not the differences of sinnes which great which lesser c. which is a most fruitfull a most profitable kind of knowledge and therefore is much studied and practised by Catholike Priests Diuines who teach the people thereby to rule and to order their liues and actions Neyther doth the Protestant meddle with these matters of Conscience but fraighteth his ship only with Faith and neuer beateth his braine about sinnes for that he thinketh none to be imputed to such Predestinated as they all weene them-selues to be vvhich causeth the people theyr followers to be vtterly ignorant of the nature differences and quality of sins and consequently nothing fearefull or stayed by any conscience to committ the same THE XVI REASON Holinesse of Life ALthough vpon externall outwarde holinesse vve may not infallibly inferre true Religion for that among Iewes Turkes and other Infidelles some make great shewe of piety and deuotion yet we may truelie argue that