as there is no true fayth nor charitie nor Christ so also we ought not to seeke any saluation but in her And therefore if a man would speake properly we should call the Churche a company onely of those whom God hath chosen to euerlasting life in al times places which is to man inuisible who can not enter so farre as to knowe Gods will neyther the hart of man himselfe but is only visible to God who knoweth those that are his as the Apostle saith hath sealed them with his owne seale Notwithstanding forasmuch as charitie hath commaunded vs to presume particularlie of all those that are called the Churche of Christ that they are of the nōber of his elect that as they are bodily there assembled together so also that they are there spiritually incorporated albeit on the contrarie part the doctrine of fayth generally teacheth vs that the wicked to the end of the world are mingled with the good the Goates with the Sheepe the chaffe with the graine the tares with the good corne yet will we commit vnto God the searcher of hartes the knowledge of the inuisible Church will content our selues to search for the visible in his word into which all they must retire themselues in this world which wil be gathered into the inuisible Churche in the world to come Notwithstanding by the way we will note the differences that are betwene these two The inuisible Church cōtaineth none but the good The visible Church contayneth both the good and the bad to witte that onelye the electe this all those indifferently which are brought into her by the preaching of the trueth And for this cause S. Augustine saith of that that she tooke her beginning by Abel and not by Caine who was the elder and contrarywise of the other he saith that the self same begate Abel Enoch Simon Peter all Christians c. as one people hauing also begotten Caine and Cham Ismael and Esau and Simon the sorcerer with his cōfederates The inuisible Church is partly considered in heauen partly in earth cōprehending aswell those which triumph already with their head Iesus Christ our Lord as those which yet fight here beneath in the earth for his name against the world against themselues which shal fight in the same church after vs The visible church is considered properly to consist in them who not onely fight here in earth for the name of Christ but as well those that fight vnder his name with false markes standerds ensignes And for this cause that is considered euen from the first faythfull vnto the last bringing all the states ages of the church into one this according to certaine places times forasmuch as she is not vniuersally visible and to be seene at one push but according to the ages and in her degrees In the inuisible there is a great many sheepe which neuer were gathered into the visible and contrarywise in the visible a great many wolues which neuer shal be receiued into the inuisible And therefore S. Augustine sayth that there are a great many sheepe without and a great many woolues within and S. Paul saith also they are not al Israel which are of Israel For to be in the church or rather to say of the church is to be vnited with Christ incorporated in the company of the faithfull through true faith towards God and charitie towards our neighbor And there is no doubt but that many here and there vnder Paganisme it selfe had this desire which yet bodily they could not accomplish the which notwithstanding they are bound to doe with all their power as contrarywise to be separated from the church is not onely to be without the assemblie but to haue no participation of Christ nor vnion of faith and charitie with his faythfull Of the inuisible it is sayd that the gates of hell shal not preuaile against her Of the visible that she shal be so troubled that a mā shall not finde faith on the earth that charitie shal be as it were quenched insomuch that the elect themselues if it were possible should vtterly quaile And therefore it is not without cause that we say in our Creede that we beleeue the church For if we ought to hold nothing for certaine but that which we see with these carnall eyes there is no dout but that in all the states ages of the church there should many times be foūd such a confusion as the good graine should be altogether hid vnder the chaffe without any appearance of the Churche and yet notwithstanding this was then whē God sayd to Elias that he had reserued in the same 7000. whereof the chariot of Israel the Seer of the Lord I say he to whom the good people ought especially to haue beene knowen could not outwardly knowe one and euen then there when the state of the Church was such as God could not be serued visiblye but in Iewrie All these differences notwithstanding we do not beleeue two Churches nor two espouses of Christ but we beleeue one onelye considered diuersely one in the blade and the other in the graine one in the threshing floore another in the garner one in the mine another now already fyned the one inwrapped yet in the minglings of the world the other before her husband without spotte or wrinckle Altogether like as by a familie we properly vnderstand the children only although speaking more generally we comprehend the seruants them selues by a Citie we vnderstand the vnion of Cittizens albeit many times one part be at cōtention considered apart by it selfe deserueth not but to be rooted out Returning then to our purpose we will call the visible church the company of those which make profession to serue the true God in Christ of which we haue presently to intreate This Church hath had three principall states or ages one without the lawe then say some of the auncient Fathers when man was but in some sort corrupted by the sinne of the first when he was notwithstanding in some sort a lawe to him selfe naturally felt himselfe conuinced of his sinne that is to say he felt his euil to seeke for remedy for the same although in very trueth this state and age of the Church found it selfe no lesse corrupted then the rest The second was vnder the lawe when it began in such sort to accustome it selfe to sinne that it grewe into a natural habite through the same and then for to shewe the sinne therof the lawe was giuen as a glasse in which she might consider her filthinesse and how farre of she was from that shee presumed to the ende she might returne again to be clensed The thirde was vnder grace in Iesus Christ promised to our first parents by by after their fal and who when the fulnes of time was come was sent of the Father who brought remedy to all them that
for the ordinarie nourishment of his children The Latine Church to the end she might nourish them with huskes and shales hath hidden it from them buried it in the earth or if for shame she hau◠sometimes deliuered it vnto them it hath bene altogether couered with poyson In stead that this worde shoulde haue directed vs to God for our saluation shee hath sent vs to men which are nothing but perdition yea to the sonne of perdition him self Whereas she should haue assured vs in the infinite merites of one Christ the infinite God the papacie hath turned vs to our own merits which merite nothing but hell and death The whole law was giuen to no other end but to make vs feele our sinnes to search the remedie thereof in the grace of Christ but contrariwise the Romane Church maketh vs to play the Iewes more then the Iewes promising vs saluation of our selues to the ende that making vs to search for it that wayes more feruently shee might therein shewe vs hell She hath receyued the deuill into the Lordes house she hath mingled in his bread of life death and into his cuppe she hath put poyson to conclude if through Baptisme which she hath notwithstanding many wayes profaned she enrouleth children to God as a mother yet is it certaine on the contrary part that through her false worships she nourisheth them vp to the deuil And as concerning saluation in Iesus Christ which is the necke that ioyneth the head with the body Iesus Christ with his Church it is so cut of by mans merits by the merits of Saintes by the Popes pardons and such other wickednesses that the life of the Church holdeth but by a very litle thread the which had bene straightway quite cut off Antichrist had so wel laboured therein had not God through his great mercy sent his seruants in time to represse him As long then as this threade remained there we deny it not the name of the Church no more then vnto a man the name of a man as long as he liueth what sickenesse soeuer he haue yea we are content to call her the spouse so that therewithall shee suffer vs in like maner to call her an adulteresse But we say that she is an heretical Church worse then al the Churches that euer haue bene a wife which prouoketh God to a diuorce a mother which nourisheth vp her children to the diuell and we pray God that he will vouchsafe to take her in childhood being defiled in her blood and that he will washe her in her olde age in the blood of his sonne that he will remember as he promiseth to Ierusalem Samaria the couenant made with her from her youth and that as he hath done alreadye in a good parte of her members it woulde please him to restore her againe to her first puritie and integritie See then as concerning the hereticall and impure Churches in doctrine whereof we mayntaine the Romane and Latine Church to be in the chiefest degree Concerning the Schismatical Churches whether they are plainely schismatical or whether heresie foloweth after a schisme as a feuer doth after a woūd heretikes schismatikes in this sense are all one Of Heretikes we haue spoken as before Of Schismatikes we make here two distinctiōs The cause sayth the Canon maketh a schismatike not the separatiō therfore we say that they which haue giuen others a iust occasion to separate thē selues from their corruptions are the schismatikes not they who haue taken it For this cause the Apostles were not schismatikes although they separated them selues from the Scribes Pharises cut themselues of from their assemblies But rather the Priestes Scribes which put them to death when they submitted them selues to verifie the comming of Christ amidst the Church we shall proue in his proper place that the selfe same in like maner is come to passe in our time of those which haue verified Antichrist in an open councill For the second we say that we must distinguish betwixt the author of a schisme those which followe it That the authors of Schisme forasmuch as they rent thēselues from charitie so by cōsequence from the body of Christ they may be cōpared to Dathan Core Abiram cutting themselues asmuch as in them lyeth out of the booke of life Concerning the others we say that they are the flocke of Christ but euil gouerned by their pastors and principally those which are borne vnder the Schisme forasmuch as neither of both are without blame neither can in any wise excuse themselues And therefore Dathan and his companions were swallowed vp and the congregation which cleaued vnto him was spared but in that it sawe the horrible punishmēt of those whom it had followed it was warned to separate it selfe for feare of the like In like maner Ieroboam his successors which through ambition had made a schisme in the Church were accursed and yet Samaria ceased not therefore at the least to be in the couenant of God neither by reason of her false worships halfe Iewish halfe heathenish To be short ambition the want of charitie wherof it proceedeth these make schismatikes therefore the poore people which do not holde thereof but are caried away with the faction of the mightiest as it were with a streame this although it be a separatiō yet properly it is not a schisme And euen as in factions which are made in a kingdome against the common wealth a good prince punisheth the Captaines through his clemēcie pardoneth the people who were let alone either to go through ignorance or in respect of their authoritie c. euen so it is to be presumed that the father of mercy doeth towards his poore children which for the most part do mourne vnder the ambition of the prelates are not partakers of their subtill coūcels This be simply spoken of the Schismaticall Churches that is to say which haue no notable heresies ioined with their schismes The like thing also may be foūd in the Churches of the heretikes for oftentimes the leaders of the Church are heretikes by their subtilties in certaine things not the people who vnderstand thē not contenting themselues with the simplicitie of the worde which alwayes is most true But we will speake of this more amplie in another place We wil conclude then that the workes of the pure Church are fayth and charitie the worde and the Sacramentes purely lawfully administred The markes of the impure Churches are whē therin they faile in part or be impure the which thing many times falleth out ordinarily together To be short howsoeuer it be when it hath no religion nor no doctrine nor no visible signes to distinguish it frō others We say that the Christian Churches haue their doctrine comprised in the olde newe Testament their Sacraments which are Baptisme the Supper that those which minister the one the other purely
HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE A NOTABLE TREATISE OF THE CHVRCH IN vvhich are handled all the principall questions that haue bene moued in our time concerning that matter BY PHILIP OF MORNAY Lord of Plessis Marlyn Gentleman of Fraunce ¶ And translated out of French into English by Io. Feilde APOCAL. 18.4.5 Goe out of Babylon my people that you be not partakers in her sinnes and that ye receiue not of her plagues For her sinnes are come vp into heauen and God hath remembred her iniquities ¶ Imprinted at London by Christopher Barker Printer to the Queenes Maiestie ANNO. DOM. 1579. THE BRIEFE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS OF this present treatise 1 WHat the visible Church is and what are the diuers states thereof 2 That of the visible and vniuersall Church some partes are pure and other some impure and what are the infallible markes of the pure Churches 3 That the other markes which our aduersaries alledge are common both to the pure and impure Churches and which are they that most commonly deceiue vs. 4 That the holy Scripture is the vndoubted touchstone to proue the puritie of doctrine which doctrine is the marke of the pure Churches 5 That there can be no other Iudge of the controuersies of this time but the holy Scripture and how euery one may iudge them by it 6 That the visible Church may erre yea and that in matters of Faith and saluation and that is proued in euery of her particular states 7 That the Pope or bishop of Rome is not head of the visible and vniuersall Church by Gods Lawe 8 That the Pope or Bishop of Rome is not head of the visible vniuersal Church by mans law and how he hath vsurped this power 9 That the Pope in calling himselfe head of the Church and not being head is the Antichrist in the Church and that Antichrist cannot be receiued into the Church with any other then the Popish doctrine 10 That euery one is bound to separate himselfe from the communion of Antichrist and that the Romanists are Schismatickes and not they which separate themselues from the same 11 That the Ministers of the reformed Churches haue a lawfull vocation to redresse and reforme the Church 12 The recapitulation or briefe rehearsall of the principall conclusions of this treatise To the right honorable and my very good Lord the Lord Robert Dudley Earle of Leycester Baron of Denbigh Knight of the most noble order of the Garter Master of the Queenes Maiesties Horses and one of her Graces most honorable priuie Councell Io. Feilde wissheth encrease of grace and all spirituall giftes by Iesus Christ our Lord. BEing willing Right Honorable and my very good Lorde in the sight of all the worlde to leaue some publique testimonie of my humble duetie vnfaigned good will towardes your Honor I thought I coulde no better way performe it then by dedicating these poore labours of mine to be shrowded and harboured vnder your good and fauourable protection And albeit I must confesse that my translation is not worthie such a Patrone yet this I must needes say that the worke it selfe both in respect of the Aucthour that wrote it and also of the matter is worthy not onely of your Honors defence but also of the defence of all noble men yea of the greatest Princes in the world if they wil answere their calling and holde of God to maintaine his Church and trueth and will set greatest price vpon thinges that are most precious For concerning the Authour though I be not acquainted with his person yet this is sufficient that I knowe him by his vertue and by this excellent worke who as he is a Gentleman of a noble house and employed in waightie affaires which sufficiently commendeth his credite and wisedome to the worlde so which is a thing to be marueiled at amiddest all his businesse whilest he lay here he set forth this notable treatise wherein he hath shewed such learning and reading with iudgement and sinceritie to the Church of God as I knowe not whether from a man of his place any hath euer bene more learnedly and piththily published and that more may make to the edifying of the Church of God and confuting the aduersarie The Lorde send many such Ambassadours that euermore their policie may be guided by diuinitie And thus much both for the person and the worke Nowe touching the translation In very deede I haue therein studied to be plaine simple keeping my selfe to mine Aucthour both in wordes and meaning so farre foorth as the proprietie of the tongue woulde suffer me Wherefore good my Lorde I most humbly beseech your Honor to accept this my humble and bounden duetie and as by your Honor I dedicate it to the Church of England so I humbly craue that it may be defended for hereunto is your Honor called of God and therefore hath he giuen you your aucthoritie that you shoulde maintaine his Church loue his religion set your selfe against Poperie and liue and die to his glorie He hath honored you that you shoulde honor him and hath set you vp that you shoulde maintaine him And wholly to trust in him and to liue to him is a stay that can neuer faile neither in this worlde nor in the worlde to come All other things shall faile for all flesh is grasse and the glorie of man is as the flower of the fielde but God is euerlasting his worde is euerlasting and they that are begotten to him by the immortall seede of his worde shall liue for euer And this life beginneth and groweth in vs as we growe and encrease in the true knowledge of God to the encreasing of our faith and working in vs as the seale of our adoption that true sanctification that maketh vs to liue vnto God by righteousnesse purely to worship him according to his worde and with brotherly loue deuoyde of all hypocrysie from a pure heart to loue our neighbours This my Lord is true religion whereunto as God in great mercie hath called your Honor so goe cherefully forwarde beware of this vaine worlde and of that vaine trust that wicked men are wont to put in it Leane not vpon it but stoppe your eares against the enchaunting and fawning whisperings of hollowe harted Papists and dissolute professors for there can be no greater trespasse against the Lord then to leane vpon Assyria to rest in the strength of Egypt to goe downe into Ethiopia Cursed is that man that putteth his trust in man and maketh flesh his arme he shal be like the heath that groweth in the wildernesse but contrariwise he that trusteth in the Lord mercie shall embrace him on euery side he shall neuer be confounded he shal be as Mount Sion and shall neuer be remoued For the Lord is his secrete place and is with him therefore who can be against him what is a mans bowe what are his legges what is the swiftnesse of Horses or the strength of an hoaste or the fauour
the canker of these heresies fret no farther but may in time be stayed that God may be glorified his poore Church preserued and his gracious blessings fealed amongst vs not onely in our dayes but in the dayes of our childrens children after vs Amen Your good Lordships most bounden and faithfull Io. Feilde To the most excellent Prince Henry King of Nauarre Prince and Souereigne Lord of Bearne c. Peere and chiefe Prince of the bloud royall of Fraunce THIS litle booke which I presume to offer to your maiestie my very good Lord belongeth vnto you by a double right First in respect of the matter for it intreateth of the Church whereof it hath pleased God to raise you vp to be a defender in our coutrey of Fraunce Then in respect of the Authour himselfe for seeing that he hath vowed and giuen himselfe to your maiestie with all that by Gods grace he is able to bring foorth the proprietie and right is in you Wherfore if it shall please you to reade you shall finde herein a little after what ought to be the right condition of the Church of God and what now at this present it is vnder the tyrannie of the Pope in the Church of Rome and consequently what honour God hath shewed vnto you in our time choosing you out from amongst so many great Princes to deliuer it from such a bondage The world will make no accompt of these honours neither is it of the worlde But to a Christian Prince who will consider that God doth hold his Church so deare that he hath giuen his dearely beloued sonne to the death and to the contempt of the world for her sake this honour shal be more precious in his sight then the whole world This vndoubtedly is a great work wherin verely there is much toile for the word of God is certaine that the nations and kinges of the earth for the most part will bande themselues together to maintaine and vnderproppe the kingdome of Antichrist But beyonde this as in all great thinges so in this there remaineth at the end of this toyle a most assured victorie For this thing the word of God telleth vs that it must needes be that that kingdome must fall and that Christ must be acknowledged through all to be the King of kings and Lord of lords yea that they themselues which shall haue mainteyned Antichrist shall hewe him in pieces Of this trauel the worst and greatest brunt is already past God hauing for the comfort of his children deuided it amongest so many great and notable personages which in our time haue trauailed therein and nowe haue rested themselues from their trauailes in that same blessed happines And if so be any thing yet remaine it behoueth that you take good courage For God who hath crowned you will also crowne this good worke by you and as for the forces which now they doe seeme to make what are they else but the gryâ—ng wringings of Antichrist And these griping â—â—â—gings are euident and vndoubted tokens that hiâ—â—â—â—â—h draweth neere God hath made you my very good lord to know his trueth euen from your childhoode and he hath employed you in his woorke in your first youth Hee hath beautified you with great gifts to this ende as strength of body quickenes of spirite valiancie of courage And employing these in his seruice he will crowne them in you with happines honour riches and high aduauancements For these are no other then accessories and he who hath giuen you the principall can giue you these and by him alone also it is that kings reigne and that princes Judge the earth And Sir this is that which he requireth of you This is it that Christendome looketh for at your hands This is that which all good men doe promise themselues This then is the alone and onely marke that your maiestie must ame at And therefore Sir as one of your most lowely seruants I make this humble petition that day and night you may liuely represent and keepe before your presence the dignitie and greatnes of this charge to which God hath called you that you may employ those rare gifts which he hath giuen vnto you for the establishing of his kingdome that you may thinke then to reigne most safely when he shall reigne by his worde in the middest of you This is the most sure and short way that your trustie seruantes can direct you in for the establishing of your highnes I beseech God therefore Sir that it will please him to assist you through his spirite in this worke to gouerne your heart and all your actions and to heape vpon you his blessings both spirituall and temporall to his owne glorie and the benefite of his Church Your most humble obedient and faithfull seruant Du Plessis To the Reader I Pray thee gentle Reader to reade this treatise not as hauing alreadie founde the trueth but seeking for it likewise and I pray thee to read it out before thou iudge of it And if it accord as the doctrine of the trueth I adiure thee in the name of God by thine owne saluation that thou openly declare it For it behoueth that we waite no longer to speake seeing once that wincking at the kingdome of Antichrist our kingdome falleth to ruine in the ruine whereof is the danger of vs all If yet there be founde any doubt they shewing it by writing we shall by the grace of God endeuoure to make it cleare But if there be any which will improue the whole I praye them that they wil answere point by point and reason by reason in the spirite of sinceritie and gentlenes seeking in steade of the prise of victorie the saluation of the people and not the glorie of this world For I protest before God that in this treatise I haue aimed at no thing else but their saluation What the visible Church is and what are the sundry states thereof CHAP. I. GOD through his might the Creatour of mankind vouchsauing of his owne good wil to be the Father thereof would that the Church should be honoured acknowledged as mother of all those of whom he vouchsaueth to be Father in his Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord And forasmuch as we are not saued but in this that God hath allowed vs for his children and that he hath allowed none to be such but those that are regenerated and nourished vp in his Church if we desire our saluation it is necessarie that we acknowledge her in whose lappe we haue it And if we will be heires of the Father we must be vnited in the familie of the mother in which it hath pleased him to beget those againe whom he hath ordeined to be hetres of his kingdome and coheires of his dearely beloued sonne Iesus Christ our Lord. All they that are knit and incorporated into this Churche in true faith charitie are partakers of this inheritance because they are members of the body of Christ and without her
they call her Princes the Princes of Sodome and her people the people of Gomorrhe to be short that they threaten her that God will remoue his tabernacle from thence to others And Saint Paul sayeth that they should be so deceiued for hauing neglected the trueth of God that they shal worship Antichrist in the Church The reason hereof is very cleare that the Church is as the moone a body thicke cloudie which hath no light but from Christ the sunne thereof By meanes that she looketh towards him she is bright and cleare and the more she turneth away from him the lesse brightnesse she hath sometimes she withdraweth her selfe so farre from him so great a masse of earth setteth it selfe betwene them that she seemeth altogether eclipsed Hereof it is that of this vniuersall Church dispersed throughout the whole worlde and gathered together into particular Churches of all the nations thereof wee maye see some vtterly rooted out by the iust iudgement of God as the Philippians Colossians many others of the East which were erected by the Apostles thēselues others to be erected else where through the euerlasting goodnesse of God towards mankinde Some by the corruption of men to be corrupted both in maners and doctrine as those of Greece of Egypt of Affrike c. Others by the presumption of their leaders hauing nothing left sound as the Church of Rome at this day To be short some other gone from heresie to infidelitie as in the coūtries where Mahomet begunne his sect which are altogether the fruites of the first sinne of man who of him selfe turned awaye from God to himselfe and was blinded in his owne loue thinking to be wise enough to guide himselfe without the worde of god Thus much in few words concerning the parts of this visible Church nowe vniuersall But let it suffise for this time that wee resolue our selues that this Church is the Assemblie or Congregation of all those which make profession of Christ throughout the whole worlde that vnder her are comprehended al the particular churches to which the promises of Christ made to this universall Churche belong equally That of the same some are pure and some impure according as they are turned away from God to themselues to be short that the purer churches are impure before God seeing he hath not founde puritie in his angels sauing that he supporteth them in mercie in Iesus Christ his sonne our Lorde That of the visible Catholique Church some partes of it are pure and some impure and which be the infallible markes of the pure Churches CHAP. II. THe Catholique or vniversall visible Church is the assemblie of all those which make profession of the Gospell of Iesus Christ throughout the whole worlde distinguished as we haue sayd into many particular Churches all which do make but one body Of all these particular as members and parts of one the selfe same body some are pure other some are impure some more some lesse sounde and some at this day are sicke euen vnto death which in times past were more healthful according as all are composed of men and therefore are subiect to be partakers with their faultes Those that are of the purer and sounder Churches we call them sound and true Churches cōsenting to the true doctrine which is the name that for the most part the auncient fathers haue giuen them The others wee call the erring hereticall or schismatical Churches according as they erre either in faith or in charitie agaynst the square and right rule of Christ or against the rule of his Church either in the one or in the other notwithstanding euery one in his degree And yet for all this both the one and the other are truely Churches that is to say assemblies that make profession of Christ but they are not pure Churches that is to say seruing God in Christ onely in puritie and veritie euen like as a lying person is truely a man albeit he be not a true man a man ceaseth not to be a man howsoeuer he be disfigured without and inwardly infected with leprosie and in such sorte benommed of his members or else troubled in his senses that he is depriued of the principall actions of a man yea and of those things also in outwarde appearance that make difference betweene a man a beast I meane speache and reason I knowe very wel that the auncient fathers and principally the Latines they cōmonly call the pure Church Catholike by excellencie to distinguish it from the congregation of heretikes but to speake properly there is no particular Church how pure sound soeuer it be that can bee called universall And if we giue them their name because they are partes of the universall Church by the selfe same reason it should agree aswell to the most impure Churches themselues And in deede this worde Catholike was not put in our Creede for to distinguish a pure Church from an impure but to distinguish the Iewish Church in times past tyed to Ierusalem from the Christian Church which by the cōming of Iesus Christ was spread throughout the whole worlde that is to saye to authorize the vocation of the Gentiles against the pretended prerogatiues of the Iewes against which S. Paul hath written in the three first whole chapters of the Epistle to the Romaines and to shewe that according to that that was foretolde by all the Prophets that all people were made one in Iesus Christ which was the principall controuersie that made greatest broyle in the primitiue Church And if a man shall deepely way this thing he shall finde that this maner of speaking vsed of the auncient fathers calling the sound and true Church Catholike came of the reasoning they had against the Schismatikes as against the Nouatians Donatistes and others who tooke vpon them to binde the whole Church to themselues and shut out all the rest of the world besides as namely the Donatistes who tyed it to a little corner of Affrike vnder the colour that they presumed that they themselues were more holy then the rest against whom to the ende to stoppe their mouthes they opposed the Catholike or vniuersall Church according to the Scripture spredde throughout the whole world Nowe it followeth that we search out the true markes of this Church which we call the true pure Church or if we like better the Catholike Church to distinguish it from the impure erroneous Church We haue said alredy that God vouchsafing through his goodnes to be the father of one sort of men would also that his Church should be the mother and we knowe very wel that it belongeth not to the mother alone to bringforth children into the world but she is a true mother who also nourisheth them and careth for them after shee hath brought them forth Nowe through Baptisme we are auowed to be the childrē of God and of children of wrath which we were we are through
his word cherished nourished vp in the faith and she at the first giuing vs sucke and afterwards more fast and strong meate through the Communion of Christ his bodye in the Supper we are more and more vnited to him and by this meane inuested into that heauenly inheritance It followeth then that she is the pure Church and true mother who bringeth foorth vs her children through Baptisme regenerateth norisheth vs through the worde knitteth vs to Christ and so a-amongst our selues one to another through the Sacrament of his Supper that is to saye shee is the true mother in which the worde of God is purely preached and the Sacraments according to the same worde duely administred In the Church of Iuda and Israel Circumcision occupied the place of Baptisme the Passeouer of the Supper the worde of God alwayes keeping his place as the ordinarie nourishment of the children of God and therefore we see that after their entrie into the land of Canaan Iosue being admonished by the Lord to repaire those faults committed in the desert made the people to be circumcised and bound them by an othe if they would be his people to keepe the word of God that is to saye if they would bee his Church Likewise Iosias after so great confusions and mingle mangles when he would reforme the Church in which there was not so much as that visible marke which circumcision had left in the flesh we see that he began there first digging vp as it were the law which had bene buried published the same and made the people to sweare solemnly vnto it And cōsequently he caused a Passeouer to be proclaymed in these woordes Celebrate the passeouer of the Lord your God as it is written in the booke of this couenant that is to say according to the ordināce of the Lord your god Esdras also after he was returned frō Babylon for to reedifie the temple and to restore the Church he began at these foundations he expoundeth the lawe vnto the people and maketh thē to sweare in the forme of that couenant and after to nourish and fortifie them in the hope of their saluation to come he restoreth againe the true vse of the Paschall according to those things sayeth he which were written in the booke of Moses To be short al the true seruants of God after that there came any great scattering of the Church being willing to redresse it they haue alwaies before al other things restored these markes no otherwise then a good Captaine who after a great slaughter confusion raungeth his men into an aray and planteth his standerds in some high place to the end they may shew them selues to all sides Iesus Christ who is the true husband hath giuen vs no other markes to knowe his espouse by For this cause that he calleth the Church his wife he teacheth her her duety which is to obey his worde and not to hearken to the voyce of a straunger not to lose the tokens nor to defile the Iewels and pledges of her mariage but marke how he speaketh in expresse wordes He that is of the trueth heareth my voice And againe My sheepe heare my voice and I knowe them and they followe me and in another place Ye heare not because you are not of god The pure wife and Church then of the trueth is onely she which heareth the voyce of Christ Not a voyce in the ayre or an imaginatiue voyce but that voyce which hath it Echo out of the scriptures and which will resound vntill the end to witte the same that is pronounced by the mouth of his Prophets Apostles vpon which Saint Paul teacheth vs that the Church is founded Christ Iesus being the chiefe corner stone This is the cause why sending foorth his Apostles to erecte the Christian Churches he saith vnto thē Goe and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father c. and teaching them to keepe all that I haue commanded you And in the Actes we reade that the faithfull continued in the doctrine of the Apostles in the Communion breaking of bread in prayers which is no other thing but a briefe description of the true Church of Christ instructed by the worde in true faith and knit together in true charitie through the Communion that is in him The which thing S. Ambrose teacheth vs saying that the Catholique Church is that where God speaketh with his seruāts and S. Augustine also whē he placeth the ministerie of ministers pastors of the Church in the word of God Sacramēts Let vs yet adde hereunto the third mark of this church albeit it be not of the substance but outward to wit the lawful vocation of pastors ministers of the Church which haue the administration of the things aforesaid For seeing that there is question of preaching be it by the word or by the Sacraments which are vnto vs as a word that may be felt and that to preach it behoueth that the ministers be sent it is very necessary that the Church of God haue an order to send forth their pastors But more shal be seene of this point in another place We wil call then the true pure Churches all those wherein we finde the worde of God and Sacraments purely and lawfully administred that is to say as Cyprian saith according to the institution of the Lorde And we nothing doubt to communicate with them that God is there president howsoeuer in some certaine pointes of doctrine there haue bene some errour and in the outward policie some abuse and corruption and impuritie in maners for it behooueth that alwayes we resort thither when the chiefe pointes of the foundation of our saluation be there truly taught seeing we are men the Churches are compounded of men as speache and language consist of syllables and letters of the qualities of which men as long as the Church is in this world she is alwayes a partaker As concerning the false and impure Churches they are not so easely to be defined Trueth soundnes and right are but of one sort but errors diseases crookednesses are without nomber Againe there are many kindes degrees of impure Churches notwithstanding we can say in one worde that al those Churches are impure in which the word of the Lord and his Sacraments are impurely ministred that is are administred both against the honor of God and the saluation of our neighbour and because that the whole Gospel is nothing else but faith and charitie and whole Christ nothing but head and body we may make two principall kindes thereof calling those Heretikes which erre in the faith doctrine of Christ those schismatikes which sunder themselues from charitie and from the communion of his body which is the Church yea although they agree otherwise to the trueth of doctrine in all pointes Nowe as there are many pointes in the
Christian doctrine so also there are many kindes of heresies some in one point and some in another and some in one point more heinous and grieuous then another and furthermore some in one point alone and others in more points then one No otherwise then in a naturall body some sicknesse is in the vitall part thereof another in the instrumentall one a simple heate of the liuer another a burning in all partes of the body alike to be short one a distemperance in some one part another distemperature or euil disposition of al the body Such a Church then as hath plaied the harlot with false gods and hath beleeued the noughtie counsaile of men may be in such sort infected with heresie that euen from the crowne of the head to the sole of the foote a man shall not see one sounde place Notwithstanding these ceasse no more to be the Churches of Christ because they are heretikes then a man that is diseased ceasseth therefore to be a man but in this that they are Heretikes in the doctrine of Christ this sheweth vnto vs that they are yet Churches howsoeuer we distinguish the disease from the body altogether like as we know that a sicke man is a man and not yet the carkasse of a man But then they are not any more Churches when they come to the heresie of infidelitie when Christ who is the soule of the Church is no more accompted for a Sauiour an◠Mediatour when this mediation which ioyneth Christ to his Church as the necke doeth the head to the bodye is cut of as for example When the Christians of Asia in many places of Nestorians became Mahomites that is to say of Heretikes became Infidels what praise soeuer the Alcoran giueth to Iesus Christ because then the soule is out of the body and the winde pipe is cut and the bill of diuorce is published betwixt Christ and them after they haue once openly maried themselues to another and haue sought their happines and saluation without him This is to come againe to that I haue before spoken of that the markes of the true Church are these that of a pure and chaste wife of Christ and the mother of the heires of the father she engender children to God that she nourish them vp vnto him and that she vnite them vnto Christ for one of these points alone maketh her not worthy of this title but all together for she is not a true mother who engendreth children and afterwards leaueth them at randon and yet shee is truely a mother Now such a one was the Church of Samaria or the Church of Israel in which there was remaining circumcision and also the lawe but this was in name only She was saith the Lord an adulteresse and played the harlot with euery one that came that is there was no idolatrie which was not welcome thither and yet a litle after he sayth she engendred children vnto him She engendred I say children to God who accompted them his owne through circumcision although she had deserued by these adulteries to be reiected forasmuch as the diuorce was not yet made with her and they as yet were in the couenant but hauing brought forth children to God she offreth them vp to Moloch she maketh them to passe through the fire she enstructeth them in al idolatrie that is to say she giueth them to the deuill and made them inheritours of hell asmuch as laye in her Now it is said in the selfe same places that Ierusalem sister vnto Aholibah in which also God had chosen his tabernacle had done much worse in such sort that she was made lower thē Sodom This thē is that that Iesus Christ sayth to the Pharises Ye trauel by sea by land to make a proselyte that is to the ende you may circumcise a Painime and bring him into the Church and when this is done ye make a double childe of hell for ye teache him as ill that circumcision is worse to him then vncircumcision because that his knowledge which he hath of the true God turneth to his condemnation That the like shoulde come to passe to the Church of Christ there is no doubt at all for in the beginning there haue bene heresies in the chiefe articles of our faith that is diseases in the principal and vital partes of the body as namely in the doctrine of the God head and eternitie of Iesus Christ The sinne of man deserued death It must needes be then that the mediatour was very God and very man Man for to die the death and God to ouercome death And therefore they which denie the diuinitie of Christ they deny the principall qualitie of the mediatour through which we obtaine saluation Now the diuinitie is made nothing when the eternitie is made void For where we finde the beginning there naturally we neede not doubt of an end This heresie and many such like were scattered throughout many notable Churches Notwithstanding forasmuch as the auncient Church hath iudged that their baptisme ought not therfore to be reiected she hath shewed by consequence that shee hath holden them for Churches for all their deadly diseases forasmuch as Christ from whom true Baptisme and the efficacie thereof is baptizeth not but in the Church shewing thereby that there may be found Christian Churches which bring forth their children as mothers and yet nourrish and instruct their children worse then stepmothers And therfore they adde that this Baptisme which profited them in their infancie falleth out to their further hurt when they come to yeres of discretiō when they come to taste on these heresies whereof they had no sense or feeling The Latine Church as Ierusalem to Samaria set it selfe then very couragiously against such errors and healed many of them whereupon it got great aucthoritie amongst all but afterwards a worse euill came vnto it and that was this that hauing through Gods goodnesse who alwaies preserueth his trueth in some place bene exempted from the foresaide heresie and sickenes she was borne in hand that it came of her owne strength and that shee could not any more be deceyued as he who for hauing his health one yeere giueth him selfe to all disorder thinking that it can nothing hurt him whereupon we say that she is fallen into a generall distemperance and is so laden with heresies that she is not only throughly sicke but she is as it were sicknesse it selfe not feeling her euill at all We say then of her the same that the Prophet Ezechiel said of Ierusalem who was the onely seate of the Lorde Samaria hath not offended to the one halfe of thy sinnes Sodom thy sister hath not done neither she nor her daughters as thou hast done and thy daughters Thou hast iustified thy sisters in all the abominations which thou hast done and therefore I wil bring againe thy captiuitie and thou shalt beare thy villany The worde of God is the only meate which God hath giuen
most famous places and that be shall worke strange signes and wonders we conclude on the contrary part that antiquitie multitude succession and miracles are rather at this day the markes of the seat of Antichrist of that whore then of Christ and of his chaste spouse of whome Christ hath giuen vs this one marke He that is of the trueth heareth my voyce He that is my Disciple abideth in my word That the holy scripture is the vndoubted touchstone to try the puritie of doctrine which is the marke of the pure Churches CHAP. 4. OVr aduersaries doe therevpon obiect vnto vs that doctrine as a common argument and that euery one saith that he hath the pure doctrine on his side and therefore that it can not be alledged as a mark of the pure Churches I answere that this is in deede a common bragge of all heretikes but it is not alwaies a common marke but peculiar and proper to the pure Churches For both the true Christians and heretikes may haue antiquitie multitude succession and miracles as we haue already proued but there is none but the sound and Catholike Church that can haue trueth true doctrine which consisteth in faith and charitie forasmuch as she is one and if the other boast of it they haue nothing else but the sound the which by and by vanisheth if it be once put to the touch Likewise we see commonly that they which pleade together pretende euery one that ryght is on their side In meane time who wil say that seeing both twaine saye they haue right that there is no question to dispute of the right but only that he which is in possession should keepe it He that should say so he should make him selfe a laughing stocke should often times giue authoritie title to the vniust possessor against the right owner For besides the opiniōs of parties there are aduocates to debate the right lawe that must iudge thereof Now for to decide the matter wherof there is questiō thanks be to God we haue a good Iudge The question betweene vs is of the pure seruice of god Now it is not in mans power to iudge howe God must be serued much lesse for a poore pesaunt to make bookes how Princes should be dutifully serued For betweene man man there is alwaies a proportion but betweene man and God there can be none For it is God alone which ought only to be heard in this matter not men whose ordinances of the seruice towards god is for their own turne serue only for their owne phantasies This is the cause why God himselfe would be the onely law giuer vnto his people giuing thē a law which containeth whatsoeuer he requireth of men aswel in general as in particular And to cut of al mans inuētiōs he expressely forbiddeth thē to adde any thing thereto or to take any thing therefro for he saith that he will be serued according to his pleasure and not according to that which is good in mens eyes which he hath knit vp for vs in one worde I will obedience not sacrifice The Priests were men very oftentimes they could not content themselues with this but the example of the sonnes of Aaron may be an horrour vnto euery one who for offering straunge fire vnto the Lord not being commaūded they were consumed with fire sent from heauē And whilest men haue loued their owne inuentions they haue loden the people with traditions ceremonies and gloses and whereas the lawe was giuen to conuince them of sinne to the ende they might seeke mercie in Christe they haue founde out other meanes for their saluation But God by his Prophets which he hath sent from time to time betweene the publishing of the law the Gospel hath alwaies helde them to the lawe To the lawe and the testimonie saith Esai hide my lawe amongst my Disciples And if they speake not according to this worde the morning light shall not be giuen vnto them And because they obserued not this sacrifice it was turned to them into a curse God was readie to make a diuorce with his people therefore to cutte of at one blowe all their madnesses Malachi recommendeth to the Church the obseruation of the law and the ordinances giuen from Moses vntill the comming of Elias that is of Iohn the forerunner of Iesus Christ See then the lawe of the Church euen vntill the Gospel of grace was giuen whereof the Prophetes were expositers by which a man may distinguishe the false seruice from the true without hauing anye recourse to the long possession thereof which had but small authoritie to giue power to Ismael him selfe agaynst Israel To be short he of whom it is only said Heare him to teach vs by his example hath giuen so great authority to the lawe that he will haue the people thereby to iudge whether he be Christ or no Search saith he diligētly the Scriptures for you thinke that by thē you shal haue euerlasting life and they are they which beare witnes of me The iudge of the world attributeth so much to the lāw that he wil haue the world to iudge by the same law whether he be the true Messias a deceiuer of the people or the sauiour of the world And why so because it is not the word of Moses nor of Esai nor of any men but euen his who sent him Nowe by the comming of our Sauiour Christ the holy scriptures haue lost nothing but rather haue the greater authority God which hath spoken to our fathers sayth the Apostle sundry times in diuers maners hath in these last times spoken vnto vs by his owne sonne This sōne is God himselfe this is that essētial word this is he by whose cōming the Church waiteth for the manifestation of al things The word then that proceedeth frō him ought to haue an infinite absolute authority therūto must mē adde nothing For it is the infinite wisedome of the infinite father and can teach vs whatsoeuer is necessarie for our saluation And seeyng he hath so loued vs that he came into the world to dye for vs he would not then hide from vs the worde of life To be short he came to lighten vs in darkenesse and hath promised neuer to forsake vs He hath then left vs some light to guide vs and seeing he is that same light it selfe it is such a light as we following it we cannot be deceiued Nowe this then is that same written word of God which is the true image of that essentiall worde in which he hath imprinted all that is necessarie for vs to the glorie of God and all that is expedient for our saluation The Apostles receyued this worde from his mouth to preache the same to all the worlde and herein they were true and faithfull Ambassadors Agayne the spirite of God through which they preached indited it and taught them what they
haue cut vs quite of from the Church of Rome haue proceeded agaynst vs by fire and fagot by the sworde by warres by massacres cruell murthers Finally we see that they will giue no place to our worde that they will not giue vs audience in a Council that they excōmunicate chase vs from the Church of Rome Therfore following the example of the Apostles when they were excōmunicated from the Iewish synagogue for hauing preached Christ we haue begun to gather our selues together to serue the Lord first secretly in corners afterwardes more freely neither can we communicate with those Idolatries brought in by Antichrist nor at the first dash driue him from his seat for that the Princes of the earth with their power vpholde him therefore we are enforced to deliuer our selues all those that wil hearken vnto vs from his seruitude bondage Nowe I aske what our aduersaries can finde fault with in this our doyng either in the matter it selfe or in the maner of our proceeding If they looke vpon the matter we separāt our selues not for light matters but for manifest idolatrie for making voyd the crosse of Christ for perditiō which reigneth in the place of saluatiō To be short we withdraw our selues from this prince of cōfusion who is reuolted back against our lord And we report vs euen to their own iudgement whether they thinke it not lawful to separate our selues frō the cōmunion of Antichrist sitting in the chayre of Iesus Christ For if euery one wynke therat who shal discouer him and if euery one cleaue vnto him who shal chase him away and if all the world hold their peace where is the spirit of the mouth of the Lord which shal destroy him Nowe if they shall deny that he is Antichrist we wil submit our selues to proue it then there is no questiō of our separation but of our doctrine If they will reproue vs for the maner of our proceeding therein condemning vs they condemne the Apostles who hauing ouerrunne all Israel ran into a thousande dangers to the end they might make Christ to be receyued into his owne house in the middest of the temple finally perceyuing thēselues to be stopped euery way by open force by excōmunications imprisonments c. they receyued him secretely into their priuate houses and did preach him in smal assemblies till at last they brought all the worlde into his subiection But notwithstanding this they crie out that wee haue broken the Communion of the Church that we haue set altar agaynst altar that we are Schismatikes c. which were the outcries of the Pharises against the Apostles You violate the Temple the altar the lawe c. And hereupon kings and nations haue armed themselues on all sides against vs This therefore is the thing that we must presently make answere vnto First the Communion of the Church doeth not consist in a locall vnion neyther the separation in remouing of places For there are a great many without if we looke to the place who yet are within according to charitie and many againe in place that yet if we consider faith are without but the true Christian Communion consisteth in the vnion of faith and in the vnion of charitie which S. Augustine calleth the nerenesse or rather the neyghbourhoode and dwelling together as I may say of hearts and agreement in doctrine and the true separation in the diuersitie or contrarietis of the selfe same things Nowe concerning the vnion of faith it consisteth in that heauenly doctrine which is comprehended vnto vs in the olde and new Testament tending onely to this poynt to make vs feele our sinne and to shewe vs a remedie therfore in one onely Iesus Christ crucified And this is that for which according to the example of all the auncient seruants of God we suffer and are killed and for withdrawing our selues from vnder the yoke of Antichrist that shamefully treadeth it vnder his feete we are persecuted excommunicated and murthered We are therefore vnited in the faith with the Patriarkes Prophetes Apostles Martyrs auncient Doctors and generally with the whole Church that was before the lawe vnder the lawe and vnder Grace yea and vnder the tyrannie of Antichrist If they will denie it we wil submitte our selues to proue it There is not therefore any more question to cauill at our separation which is nothing else but as an escape to the ende to resort to true doctrine and if they confesse it denying vs to be vnited with them they confesse then that they are not vnited with the ancient fathers and therfore they ought not to thinke it straunge that we renounce the communion of the Papacie Concerning the Communion of charitie or loue which consisteth in suffering and bearing the euilles one of another in not lightly condemning one another we holde all them for the true members of Christ which worship one God in spirit in trueth and hope for their saluatiō in one Iesus Christ alone the sonne of God come in the fleshe and crucified for the sinnes of the worlde which is the foundation of saluation to all men We desire all vnion and agreement with them in whatsoeuer countries and regions they are and whatsoeuer corruptions may be yet remaining amōgst them not onely in maner but also in certayne poyntes of doctrine bewayling the bodyly seruitude which they endure and praying the Father of lyght that it wyll please him to enlighten them more more by his holy spirit Contrary wise euery mā knoweth that the Popes Consistorie hath excōmunicated al the East Churches 600 yeres agone only for this that they would not submit themselues to the Bishoppe of Rome which is an article that concerneth only but his ambition and that the Pope hath left them to be inuaded of the Turke in despite whereof they had rather endure all extremitie then to acknowledge him to be head of the Church And concerning the vnion of charitie amongst them which yet cleaue to the Pope there is nothing more deare vnto them then their own liues we haue bene put to the fire water sword for opening the trueth vnto them praying God euery day that he wil enlighten them by his spirit On the other side the Romish Consistory doth pursue vs by al meanes to death and that by the space of these three score yeeres and more and so many people continually groning for a free generall Council they haue not had onely so much charitie as to grant vs eyther generall or nationall to deliuer vs from the error they pretend vs to be in answering for al that to so many princes who haue iudged it necessary That these matters are already decided and ought not any more to come in question this is euery way a friuolous answere as wee haue shewed before But I demaunde what Parliament is it yea euen amongst the heathen so barbarous and so farre from humanitie
Diuinitie in one Tombe Notwithstanding after that the diuel had cast out his fire against the Apostles and disciples of Christ that he had raysed against them infinite persecutions it must needes be in the end that he yelde himselfe that al the earth acknowledge their lord Let the earth therefore do what it will the word of God endureth for euer And it must be that Antichrist perish be discomfited by the breath of the mouth of Christ that he be abolished by the brightnesse of his comming All kings and al the earth can do nothing against this determination But I beseech the Almightie that it will please him to inspire into the heartes of all Kings and peoples a true desire of knowing the trueth to search for their saluation a true zeale to bring Christendome againe to true vnitie vnder the obedience of Christ a true affâ—â—â—â— on to reigne and to liue in him as they raigne and liue by him to the ende that Kings being well obeyed of their people and the people well commaunded of their Kinges we may see in our dayes one onelye Iesus Christ acknowledged of all peoples Kinges to be the King of Kinges and Lord of Lordes and in his Church the onely mediatour fauiour and Lawegiuer Amen Conclusions THe Church is considered as it is to be seene or not to be seene The Church not to be seene is the companie of those whom God hath chosen to euerlasting life in all times and places The Church that is to be seene is the company of those who are called thereinto and is considered according to certaine times and places There is notwithstanding but one Church but considered diuersely In that which is to be seene as the corne with the chasse in that which is not to be seene as the corne threshed and fanned This visible Church was first without the law afterwards vnder the law tyed to one certain place familie Now through grace it is spred throughout the world one place hauing no more priuiledge then an other whereof it is called Catholike that is to say vniuersall The Catholike Church comprehendeth vnder it all assemblies of Christians in al regions whoÌ„ we call Churches as we call partes of the sea the sea distinguishing theÌ„ notwithstanding by their names as the Church of Greece of Affrike c. Of the parts of the Church as the members of the same body yea though it be vniuersall some are pure and some impure and of those that are impure some are more and some lesse impure The pure Churches are those in which the word of God is purely preached and the sacraments duly administred albeit that in respect of God there is nothing pure The one they call the sound and true Churches the other but unproperly Catholike Churches The impure are those in which the word of God and his sacraments are ill administred whatsoeuer other outward marckes they can pretende And because that al the doctrine of Christ is faith and charitie we cal those that are impure in the doctrine of faith heretical Churches and those that haue separated themselues from the vnitie which they do through lacke of charitie Schismatical And some there are that are both heretical and Schismatical as the Churche of Rome and they that at this day cleaue vnto it for they maintaine many damnable heresies and persecute and excommunicate those that desire reformation Notwithstanding forasmuch as the profession of Christ remayneth there in some sorte we denie them not the name of a Church as we call a man a man howe sicke or brainelesse soeuer he be To discerne the pure churches froÌ„ the impure God hath deliuered vs his worde contained in the scriptures the which is perfect cleere to saluation for it hath for his aucthor the most perfect father of light This is that therfore by which men ought to determine the coÌ„trouersies of this time to reforme the Church as the coÌ„moÌ„ welth according to the lawes abolishing that which God hath there forbidden vs holding that for forbidden in his seruice which hee hath not ordeined looking to that which he hath commaunded and interpreting his wil by it selfe concerning those thinges that are in controuersie The Churches which follow that wil caÌ„not erre for that is the way of saluation and following that God guideth them also by his spirit which enlightneth them and is inseparably ioyned thereto Contrariwise the Churches which departe from it may and doe erre yea and that in the matter of saluation for that they goe out of the way of saluation Neither can they beast of the spirite for God bestoweth it not but vpon his sheepe neither doth he hold any for his sheepe but those that heare his voyce Therfore the Church following mans fantasie not the lawe of God hath greatly erred in all her particular states times euen vntil the crucifiyng of the sonne of God that is to say her owne saluation As in our time we say that the Church of Rome doth adore and worship the sonne of perdition that is to say Antichrist The Church is a body Christ the sonne of God is the head thereof giuing efficacie to the Ministerie of his Gospell through his spirit by the selfe same assisting all those that truely call vpon him And this is that wherein consisteth the administration or gouernement of the head of the Church And as touching the ministerial head no man may be it For the Church by the comming of Christ is spread throughout the whole world none can exercise that ministerie throughout the world but rather euery pastor representeth Christ in his charge And in deede our sauiour Christ before he ascended into heauen ordeyned none such neither did any of the Apostles exercise any such office the whole primitiue Church neuer knewe of it Wherefore following the worde of God and the opinion of the same church we hold that the Papal See which vnder this false title exerciseth tyranny ouer all the world is Antichrist the which without other proofes and circumstances may be verified by his doctrine alone Notwithstanding that this Papal See placed in one part of the Church is not the Churche neither a part of the Church but as a pestilence to the body of the Church which hath corrupted and infected all asmuch as it coulde and had vtterly choked it without the special mercie of God. We doe therefore depart from the papacie and not from the Church from Idoles and not from the temple from Tyranme and not from the common wealth from the plague and not from the Citie being ready entirely to knit and ioyne our selues againe when Antichrist the euil which he hath brought in shal be taken away And in waiting for this we reforme the Ministerie of the worde of God and as nye as we can his seruice according to his institution by the example of the Apostles excommunicated out of Hierusalem which yet notwithstanding is not to
denie that the old and new testament had equall authoritie with this commaundement If they take it after sinne entred God blameth and conuinceth our first parents of their faulte and this is the Lawe And after he promiseth vnto them the seed which shall bruise the head of the serpent this is the Gospell Beholde them then dead in sinne by the Lawe and as it were newe borne by the promise of Christ to come in whome they hoping after this woorde were made the beginning of the Church without this they had bene lost with all their posteritie Wherefore whether we fetche the Church from before the fall of man she hath no power aboue the word of God but is iudged by it and therefore the cōclusion is false Or whether we deriue it after yet the word is before the regeneration of the Church that is to say before the Church and that antecedent it selfe shal be false Moreouer this is an ill argument It was the first in time Ergo the first in authoritie For we haue a hundred Cities in Fraūce more auncient then our first kings and yet notwithstanding without any gainesaying they obey their lawes And the word of God of it selfe is giuen to commaunde wheras the Church is placed in the world but to obey And though it be so that the word of God be in power eternall yet it is most certeine that it must be last in this action because that before he commaund it must needs be that it should first create some men whom it might commaund This then is nothing but plaine sophistrie which is not worthy to be heard in the Church Moreouer I demaund of them whē they make this argument whether they meane to speake of the whole Church comprehending al the states and particulars of the Church into one or whether they speake of particular Churches or of the church of Rome alone If thei vnderstand the whole Church as it is like they do then they speake nothing that makes for them for the church of Rome the whole Church are things farre differing before that Rome was or any Wolfe there gaue suck more then 700. yeres the law of Moses was published in the Church If they speake of particular Churches the Cast churches wil demand the same prerogatiue and by the self same argument they wil set themselues aboue the church of Rome For they are before them in time as euery man knoweth If the church of Rome alone by the vertue of the institutiō of Christ yet they are to bring forth the titles and right thereof and then they cannot bring forth one that hath so much as any outward shewe To be short all this is nothing els but a manifest dotage for if they looke to the beginning of the Church they shall finde neither Rome nor the Pope neither the See of S. Peter nor consequently any authoritie aboue the word of god If they looke to the beginning of Rome they shall there finde the word the law the prophets expositors of long time before and therefore an authoritie farre aboue their church But in this a man may see the poore defence of their Church when for the establishing thereof the word of God must fall downe which is the foundation of the pure Church Now in this whole disputation they can not finde one onely word out of the auncient doctors for there was neuer yet any heretike so mōstrous which durst set it forth till the Councill of Constance where it was first set out by the doctors of the Church of Rome There was the question moued concerning the taking away of the cup of our Lord from the people expresly against the institution of the Sonne of god There could not one place be found out in the Scriptures which might fauour directly or indirectly plainly or darkely so damnable a sacriledge Iohn Hus called them to the holy Scripture and they knewe well that that was full against them Then first they began to aduise of those goodly Maximes or groūds which they haue mainteined euen vntil this day that the Church is aboue the holy Scripture that the Scripture hath no other authoritie then that which the Church giueth it that the Scripture is as they say De bene esse of the wel being but not of the essence or being of the Church that such should be the interpretation as seemeth good to the Church to be short that the word of God was more long and large then the word written and that the Church is more worthie thē it to which some haue sithens added that the Church should be in better case if there were no Gospell written These are the intolerable blasphemies which sprang vp in this councill who also were authors of one other goodly canon forsooth that ouerthroweth al christianitie That we must not keepe faith or promise with heretikes Iohn Hus notwithstanding presseth them yet somewhat more neerely Though it were so saith he that the Church should be aboue the word of God to which you shal neuer haue me to agree Shew me yet that the minde of the auncient Church was euer so that it euer so ordeyned or so interpreted Name me one onely auncient doctor which is not wholly and plainly against it That it is so yea our owne canons do excommunicate all those which cōmunicate not vnder both kinds therefore to communicate vnder one is not to be partaker of the communion but of excōmunication To this argument they yet find another shift more mischieuous then the former that albeit that of one commandement of the Gospel there be at this day another interpretation then was in the auncient Church notwithstanding that that meaning which is receiued in the Church must be accepted as the way to saluation in asmuch as the holy Ghost hath inspired it to the Church That is to say that the Pope his mainteyners according to their good pleasure may cry downe all the auncient interpretatiōs of the Scripture as coynes are and put them into the Mint to make theirs currant Also that as the iudgement of the Church is changed in the Scripture so we must presume that the iudgemēt of God is changed And therefore when that good man Iohn Hus could not content himselfe with these horrible blasphemies their last argument was the halter the hang man to cast him into the fire To make Gods spirit chāgeable his word a nose of waxe God himselfe inconstant in his purpose changing himselfe according to the vanitie ambition of men wil there be founde in the traditions of the Pharisees in the speculations of the Cabalists and Thalmud in the Alcoran of Mahomet any such execrable blasphennes as these are I leaue to the iudgement of euery one whether the spirit of God or the spirit of Satan ruled there in those coūcills That there can be founde no other Iudge of the controuersies of this time but the holy Scripture and how
because we finde not this puritie in the Church of Rome but the quite contrary neyther the lawe of God obeyed by made subiect to the wyll of the Pope and his vpholders we holde the Church of Rome most impure and we marke the Pope that gouerneth there for a notable marke of Antichrist lyfting vp him selfe aboue GOD for that he setteth the lawe of God behinde his owne commaundements and vaine inuentions That the visible Church may erre yea and that in matters of fayth and those which concerne our saluation CHAP. VI. BEcause our aduersaries knowe very well that they can not defende neyther by the holy Scripture nor by the example of the primitiue Church the false doctrine which beareth swaye amongst them in the most principal points of Christian religion yf a man should examine them by piecemeale therefore they haue thought good to defende all at once to wit to maintaine that the Church can not erre especially in matters that doe concerne saluation For say they seeing that Christ is the head of the Church he guideth the same by his spirit and this spirit is the spirite of vnderstanding which inspireth into her in time and place all that is necessary for to leade her in such sort that she can not erre But as they defēding this bulwarke assure themselues to defende all theyr Babylon so is it also as certaine that this being once wonne they can not any longer stande When they speake of the Church in this matter they vnderstand properly the Cleargie represented by a generall Councill and not the common people of whom they make no state the which thing many of themselues condemne as repugnant to holy Scripture notwithstanding I am content in this matter to speake after their maner to the ende to auoyde all cauils and starting holes Iesus Christ is the head of the Church as of one body not of that there nor of this here neyther of one nor of other but of all Churches alike Now this head is vnto the Church as reason vnto a man to wit to rule to guide the same by his commaundement Now so far forth as desire doth obey reason the body the head man is in good case his senses his mouings accions are in theyr perfection there is nothing in him which sauoureth not the good gouernment of reason Contrariwise when the desire will cast of obedience to reason and wil not be subiect to his gouernement but giueth it selfe to drunkennesse riot and all kinde of excesse then entreth he into a distemperature of all his body the vitall partes are therewith offended he loseth one member one sense after an other sight hearing and all the powers depart away from him To be short by the iust iudgement of God reason it selfe oftentimes is taken from him because he made no accompt to obey it I say that the selfe same may fall out and many times doeth fall out in the Church Now so farre forth as the Church doeth obey vnto Iesus Christ her head he arkeneth vnto his commaundements which is reason it selfe followeth his gouernement which is set foorth in the Scripture she can not erre in the path of saluation shee is sound pure and perfect and also he taketh pleasure to leade her and inspireth into her his holy Spirite to the ende to inlighten her in the middest of darkenesse it selfe But when she treadeth his gouernement vnder her feete and maketh no accompt to hearken vnto him but presumeth to be wyse ynough of her selfe to gouerne her selfe then is it no marueile if she fall as it were in pieces and lose one sense after an other if her eyes leade her into the pit and if the spirit of God abandon himselfe and forsake her because shee made no accompt of the worde with which he is inseparably ioyned knit together For as it is most certaine that Christ doth not suffer his flocke to erre so is it also as certaine on the other part that he doth not accompt any for his sheepe but chose which heare his voyce and those heare his voyce which hearken vnto him speaking in the Scriptures and making them clearely to vnderstand his will. God hauing first sent his Prophets hath nowe in the ende sent from heauen his owne worde which hath sayd to vs Search the Scriptures and this is that same worde also which hath sent the holy Spirite to the Apostles If we then wyll feele the Spirit it behoueth that we heare the word for the Spirit is sent from the word but the cleargie of Rome doe make no accompt of this word In stead of hearkening vnto it it will be heard afore it in steade of obeying vnto it it will make commaundements of it selfe in respect of which those of Gods haue bene neglected yea it hath abolished cut of certaine commaundements wholy and that openly It followeth then that it can not boast neither of the spirit neither of the leading thereof forasmuch as this spirite proceedeth from the sending of the essentiall word who hath left vs his word in the holy Scriptures So we see the a king wil cōmunicate his authoritie to a parliamēt to the end to make them obey his lawes to distribute them to his people but if the parliamēt shal abuse them to the end to make it self obeyed aboue the king and the lawes themselues he will straightwayes take his authoritie from it Nowe God and his lawe in respect of the Church are farre greater then these for there can be no proportion of that which is infinite to that which is finite And therefore is it any wonder if he haue taken from the prelates of the Church of Rome the gifts of his spirit when they woulde giue authoritie to their vaine traditions aboue the lawe it selfe and that vnder the shadow of his Spirite We say that the spirit and the word are inseparably ioyned and knit together and that without great sacriledge they cannot be separated forasmuch as Iesus Christ who is the word it self hath so taught vs When that same cōforter shall come that same spirite I meane of trueth he shall leade you saith he into all trueth for he shall not speake of himselfe but whatsoeuer he shall heare that shall he speake He shall glorifie me for he shall receyue of mine and shall shewe it vnto you and shall bring all thinges to your remembrance which I haue tolde you c. If this spirite heare the worde and speake nothing of his owne by a more strong reason the Church shoulde if she be gouerned and lead by the same spirite He sayth also vnto his Apostles I vvill be vvith you till the ende of the vvorld This he vnderstandeth by the vertue of his spirite but he had sayd before in the selfe same verse Teaching them to obserue al things vvhatsoeuer I haue commaunded that is to say my worde And therefore Saint Paul preaching the word both by liuely voyce
be at Rome although it be graūted them exempteth it not from error Besides omitting that that S. Peter himself hath erred was reprooued of S. Paul I demaūd if S. Peters See giueth this prerogatiue to the Pope or rather to the Church of Rome If to the Pope Marcel hath sacrificed to the idols of the Painims Liberius was an Arriā Anastatius an Acatiā Moreouer eche one delighted to abrogate the decrees of his predecessor as Nicolas of Iohn the 22. Gregorie of Pelagius Innocentius of Gregorie and that in matters according to their owne iudgements concerning the faith Syluester the 2. Iohn the 19. Gregorie the 7. witnes all the histories of their times were magicians that is the successors of Simon Magus which was at Rome aswell as they and not of Simon Peter the disciples of Satan not of Christ Iohn the 23. held opinion that there was no life after this whereupon the Council of Constāce called him a deuil incarnate many other were deposed by the Councils not onely in qualitie Heretikes but also Atheists Iohn the 8. also was found to be a womā an harlot deluding both the seat al the colledge of Cardinals Briefly they say that the virgin Marie told S. Bridget that the most part of the Popes are in hell and the Cardinal of Ragousia in the time of the great schisme mainteined that the Pope might erre in the faith Cardinal Cusan that he might be an infidel which thing also the Diuines of Paris haue alwayes mainteined It followeth then that this See neyther exempteth them frō error heresie nor infidelitie but augmenteth vnto them their owne condemnation If the priuiledge be giuen to the Church of Rome I aske them if they teache not that the Church is represented by a generall Councill S. Augustine sayth that one generall Councill is corrected by another and correction presupposeth error Gregorie Nazianzen in whose time many Councils were holden sayth that the Church was then so full of ambition that none was euer seene to returne any whit the better Gerson and Panormitan say that one laye man alleadging the Scripture ought to be preferred before a whole Councill being out of the way Moreouer see the second Councill of Nice which mainteined Images against the Coūcil of Cōstantinople that of Frankford about the selfe same time which threw them downe to the ground See the third Council of Carthage another holdē at Carthage it self vnder the Emperor Mauritius which excōmunicated him declared him to be Antichrist which should cal himself vniuersall Bishop at the pursute of S. Gregorie himself whereas that of Rome a very litle while after and that same of Trent in our time hath declared the Bishop of Rome to be vniuersal Bishop hath excōmunicated al those that wil not so accōpt of him The Coūcills also of Florence of Basil brideleth the Pope with other Bishops bringeth thē vnder the Church wheras they of Florēce Trēt lift him againe aloft published him to be a God in earth And Pope Pius the second who stuck to the Council of Constāce a litle while after pronounced all them to be heretikes which helde that men might appeale from the Pope to a Coūcil that is to say those present Councils there which were general al those that follow them It followeth then either that trueth is double which neither is nor euer shall be or els that these Councils contrary one to the other haue erred so consequently that the Churche may erre Also that either the Pope is Antichrist or els the Church which hath published such a one that taketh vpon him the title of vniuersall Bishop hath shamefully erred Also either to beleeue that the pope is head of the Churche is not necessary to saluation the which the decretalles allowed of the church of Rome do allowe deliuering it for an article of our faith and the Councill of Trent hath confirmed it or else the Councils which haue denyed him to bee such a one haue erred in the matter of Saluation that is to saye the first generall council of Nice which made him but equall and like to the other patriarkes the Councill of Sardis the Council of Carthage and the vniuersal Church for the space of sixe hundred yeeres To be shorte it must needes be that our aduersaries confesse either that their Church at this day holdeth that for necessary to saluation which is contrary to saluation or els that the auncient Church so long time was ignorant of that which was necessary to saluation that is to say her owne saluation who hath refelled it in a plaine and open council whereof it must followe that the Catholike church may erre in general councils yea and the Romane Church it self notwithstanding the pretēded See of Peter moreouer that the Romane is cōtrary to the auncient church to which we desire at this day to conforme our selues Now if the pope the Romane church haue erred in matters of saluation it followeth then that the Christian visible church may erre that a man may seeke for the reformation thereof But to them which knowe how the councils of our time haue bene holden as that before they haue bene assēbled the controuersies haue bene concluded at Rome that notwithstanding all the arguments proofs they could make to the contrary they haue passed things by their speciall aucthoritie knowing howe that same holye spirite or rather that spirite of Satan hath bene brought from Rome in a Caskat moreouer seeing they are such that gouerne there that there dispute and conclude it needeth not greatly that men proue that such assemblies may erre but contrariwise it might be found a strange thing if they coulde conclude anye thing without error But now cōtrary to these so vrgent and weighty proofs they alledge vnto vs that Iesus Christ prayed that Peters faith might not faile whereupon they conclude with open triumph that the Romish Church can not erre First the matter is of great importance for it is a question concerning a great nomber of articles for which as for articles of faith wee haue bene burned for the space of these fiftie yeres which haue no other foundation but this It must bee therefore that this fundation be fast vndoubtfull if wee will not doe him open wrong who hath taught vs our saluation Adde also hereunto that al the iarre of the Greeke and Easte Churches with the Romish doe depend wholly vpon this point For if it can not erre then they which are contrary to her haue erred greatly But these thinges are farre enough one from the other I haue praied that thy faith should not faile though Satan sift thee the conclusiō which they draw thēce the church of Rome cānot erre Secōdly Iesus Christ prayed for Peter and Peter yet after this prayer denyed him thrise trusting to much in him selfe whereas he should haue
prayed to God acknowledged his owne infirmitie and hereof also it came that hee that esteemed more of him selfe then al his companions should stumble and fall more shamefully then all they The Churche of Rome therefore shoulde rather drawe this conclusion from thence which is more agreeable to the text that as he trusting to much to himselfe renounced God and did worse then all the rest so likewise it maye doe when it is made to beleeue that it can not erre And therefore it should followe that according to his example it should weepe at the crowing of the cocke and acknowledge all the faultes thereof Thirdly if this followe Christ prayed for Peter Ergo the Church of Rome which is founded by him can not erre then must it followe also that the Churches which were founded by the other Apostles can not erre For Iesus Christ drawing neere to his Crosse prayed most earnestly for his Apostles and for all those which shoulde beleeue in him through their preaching to the end they might be one in the Father in him that is to say that they might be inseparably knit vnto him And yet the Romish Churche hath excommunicated them as heretikes and hath holden them as cut of from saluation It foloweth then either that this conclusion is false Iesus Christ prayed Ergo it can not erre or else that hee ment the inuisible Church against which hell gates cannot preuaile Fourthly S. Paul vnderstood not this subtiltie forasmuch as we see that hee admonisheth the Romanes called from amongest the Gentiles that they should not proudly aduaūce them selues against the Iewes vnder this shadowe that they were entred into their place For saith he the naturall branches were cut of through vnbeleefe and thou art engrafted in by faith and if God haue not spared them take heede least he also spare not thee that is to say take heed that thou fal not from faith as they haue done he meaneth then that he thought them not to be without the compasse of the danger Neither did Cyprian likewise writing to the clergie of Rome saying That the praise which S. Paul attributed to the Church of Rome that their faith was made knowen throughout the worlde shoulde be turned to their shame if they did not perseuer to inherite this faith Nor S. Hierom also whē he saith That after that couetousnes was entred into the Church as it was into the Empire the Law should perish from the Priestes and the vision from the Prophets Nor all the ancient fathers when they tooke Rome for that Babylon in the Apocalyps for the seat of Antichrist as we shal see hereafter And therfore they should doe a great deale better to followe their olde glose vpon this place of S. Luke that as in praying for him he saith O Peter I haue kept thee that thy faith shoulde not faile euen so also comforte the poore weak ones by thy example of repentance to the end that by their sinnes they fall not into despaire but that they hope for mercye as hath bene shewed vnto thee Finally besides all these foresaide reasons betweent the Antecedent Christ prayed for Peter the consequent The Church of Rome can not erre there are infinite thinges to proue betweene these two sentences to wit That S. Peter was head of the Apostles of the church That he was at Rome That he was B. there That he particularly founded any church there That he had this prerogatiue aboue the rest that he coulde not erre That he either tyed it or coulde tye it to that chaire either for the popes or for the Romish Church The which things ought first to be plainely proued before we can come to any such conclusion Let vs come then to ours following our promises and notwithstanding their obiectiō of this place let vs conclude with the holy Scriptures and the practise of all times this present disputation Our Lord Iesus Christ hath deliuered to his Church the holy Scripture as a compasse to a shippe for to conduct and guide it to Saluation Looking vnto this compasse she can not be deceiued for it sheweth alwayes vnto her her marke whatsoeuer winde do driue her and not looking vnto it she can not but erre and goe out of the way no more then all the pilots or Shipmasters of the world together know without a good cōpasse to keep their course one only houre To the churches which follow his worde he hath promised thē the presence of his spirit From these which make no accompt of it he withdraweth him selfe accompting thē vnworthy of his presence which disdaine to harken to his voice Hereof it is that the Church in all her estates and places hath greatly erred gone out of the way but more this then al the rest which hath bene more bold to intermedle without the leading of the worde which hath most presumed of her owne abilitie to witte the Romishe Church If she haue no other priuiledges and promises then the visible and vniuersall Church there is no doubt but she may erre For we haue seene by her owne confession that she hath erred euen in the matters of saluation in her most notable mēbers If she haue any speciall priuiledge as that which shee alledgeth of Saint Peters Seate yet for all that as wee haue proued that exempteth her not neither from errour nor heresie But to the ende men may see howe vaine and weake this foundation is whereupon they woulde builde an article of so great weight it followeth that wee examine those titles by vertue whereof shee pretendeth this priuiledge That the Pope or Bishop of Rome is not head of the vniuersall visible Church by any right of the lawe of god CHAP. VII WHen we demaund of our aduersaries vpon what their traditions are founded which they make equall with the articles of our fayth which haue not anye shewe of foundation in the holye Scripture they answere vs that they are the ordinances of the Church If hereupon wee will beate them downe alledging that the Church must be gouerned after God his will conteyned in his woorde and that such doctrines are not agreeable thereunto they reply that the Church can not erre in the matters of Saluation If wee proue farther vnto them by the discourse of all times that often tymes shee hath abandoned the pure seruice of God to follow her owne inuentions euen vntill shee hath bene defiled with al abhominable idolatries they reply that the Romish church hath this particular priuiledge that it can not erre because it is S. Peters seate the head of the Apostles of al the Church And therfore by this meanes all the controuersies in a maner that we haue with thē come to be brought to this question Whether the B. of Rome or the sea of Rome for they are different in themselues be head of the church In this quality there is attributed to the pope power to change the
both the name the person the which our text plainely sheweth vs the which he would neuer haue done if it ought to haue bene vnderstoode of Peter not of the confession of Peter Againe I leaue it to the iudgement of euery Christiā whether it be more agreeable to the faith more healthful for the Church either that the Church be founded vpon Christ or vpon Peter vpon the Sonne of the liuing God whom Peter cōfessed or vpon Peter who a litle while after denyed the sonne of the liuing God vpon him that vanquished Satan or vpon him whom Christ himselfe in the very same Chapter calleth Satan himselfe vpon him who is called the chiefe corner stone of the building or vpon him who was an offēce vnto him that is to say a stone of great stumbling None sayth S. Paul can laye any other foundation but that which is layde which is Christ Also S. Peter saith You are as liuing stones built vpon the chiefe corner stone in whom whosoeuer beleeueth he shal not be confounded that is to saye in that confession of Christ which he called the rocke and foundation of his Church It appeareth then by this place that Christ hath builded it vpon himselfe not vpon Simon Peter and vpon the confession of fayth which Peter made and not vpon the fayth of Peter which was too much wauering and vnstedfast And in very deede where Saint Iohn recyteth this story he resteth wholly vpon Peters confession But to the ende they abuse not the people vnder the visard of antiquitie we must see what the auncient Doctors haue taught vpon this place Chrysostome vpon Saynt Matthewe Vpon this stone that is to saye vpon the fayth of this confession Also he hath sette our feete vpon the rocke that is to saye vpon fayth For fayth in Christe by good right is called a rocke that cannot be broken and therefore when Saint Peter had confessed Thou art Christ the sonne of the liuing God Christ added Thou art Peter vpon this rocke that is to say vpon this fayth which thou hast cōfessed c. Saint Ambrose Iesus Christ hath sayd vnto Peter and vpon this rocke c. that is to say vpon the confessiō of the Catholike faith I will establish the faythfull vnto euerlasting life Saynt Augustine Peter was founded vpon the rocke to the ende he should suffer death for the loue of him whom through feare he had thrise denyed Also the Church likewise is founded vpon the rocke whereof also Peter had his name For a rocke or stone commeth not of Peter but rather Peter of the rocke as Christian commeth of Christ and not Christ of Christian And because Peter had sayde Thou art Christ c. Our Sauiour added vpon this rocke which thou hast confessed will I build my Church Christ then is the rocke vpon which S. Peter himselfe was founded builded For none can lay any other foundatiō then that which is already layd to wit Christ Againe he wil not say vpō this Peter I wil build my Church but vpon this faith vpon that which he had saide Thou art Christ the sonne of the liuing God c. Here vpon this rocke saith he I wil found my Church Also Vpon this rocke which thou hast cōfessed vpō this stone which thou hast acknowledged wil I build my church I wil build my Church vpō me not vpō thee but thee vpō me The mē that will build vpō men they wil say I hold of Cephas that is to say of Peter of Paul and of Apollo but they who wil not be builded vpon Peter but vpon the rocke they wil say I holde of Christ This is the interpretatiō of S. Augustine repeated in many places of his bookes of the citie of God euery where where he handleth this matter Saint Hierome vpon this place By the rocke we vnderstande Christe whom Peter confessed For if we take Peter for a stone of the foundation all the Apostles shall be alike according to that which we see in the Apocalypse And this is the verie opinion of Cardinall Cusan in his booke of the Catholike Concorde presented to the counsell of Constance who proueth it euen by the Canon lawe it selfe and maintaineth it against the Pope Saint Bernard The rocke is in heauen In the same is stedfastnesse and assurance And in deede where else can it be but in our Sauiour The world roareth the flesh oppresseth me the world doggeth and hangeth vpon me and yet for all this I fall not for I am founded vpon a sure rocke To be short let them reade their owne common glose Super hanc Petram vpon this rocke that is to say vpon Christ in whom thou beleeuest and the interlineall glose Thou art Peter but frō me which am the rocke and alwaies in such sort as I reserue to my selfe the dignitie of the foundation of the Church Beholde then that by the interpretation of the auncient fathers none neede to dashe against this stone Nowe if our aduersaries reply that some of the auncient fathers interpret it as they doe and namely Saint Augustine in some place I aunswere that if a man reade those places he shall finde that it was but by the way and as it were in handlying another thing And in deede Saint Augustine in his booke of retractations hath retracted it in these wordes It fell out that I sayd in a certaine place that in the Apostle Saint Peter the Church was buyled as vpon a rocke but for the most part I haue expounded it of him whome Peter confessed I was abused by an Hymne of Saint Ambrose common ynough where he saith that at the crowing of the Cocke the rocke wept This is a Poeticall maner of speaking and therefore Christ saide not vnto hym Tu es Petra but Tu es Petrus For the rocke is Christe whome Simon had confessed Besides he is so farre of from taking Peter for the foundation of the Church that in another place he sayeth that Iames Peter and Iohn seemed to be the pillars of the Church but that in trueth they were not And Saint Hierome sayth that the Apostles are pillars of the Church principally Peter Iames and Iohn but that all they which ouercome the Deuill by fayth may be so aswell as they But here they run to their ordinary distinction That it is certayne that Christ is the essentiall head of the Church but yet that Peter is the Ministeriall head that is to say that he is likewise called so by reason of his ministerie But we demaunde in what place either of the Scriptures or of the fathers them selues they finde this And we haue alreadie proued that there can be had no ministeriall head which is the selfe same thing But againe let them answere vs whether Peter had any other Ministerie besides his Apostleshippe If he had any other let them take it and shewe
vs wherein it consisted If they can not then it followeth that all the Apostles were ministeriall foundations as well as he and not founded vpon him and so likewise must it be of all the Churches which were founded by them as Saint Ierome saith vpon the seconde Chapter to the Galatians And according to this S. Paul saith that the faythfull are buylded vpon the foundation of the Prophetes and Apostles Christ being the chiefe corner stone And he gloryeth that he had preached the Gospel in many places without buylding vpon the foundation of any other Saint Iohn likewise That the Citie of God is set vpon twelue foundations wherein are the names of the twelue Apostles of the Lambe Whereof it followeth that all the Apostles are the foundation of the Church aswell one as another and moreouer that Saint Paul hath buylded without any foundation not building vpon Peters ministerie or else the Peter was not that foundation Againe we demaunde of them if this ministerie consist not in the edifying of the Church by the preaching of the Gospel Forasmuch as the Apostles which were all preachers of saluation in Christ were therein master buylders and all they are buylders which buylde vpon the foundations which were layd by them vpon that liuing rocke Nowe if they were all master buylders why then Saint Peter was not the foundation for he coulde not be both the foundation and a master buylder both together It followeth in the selfe same place Tibi dabo c. I will giue thee the keyes of the kingdome of heauen That which thou shalt binde in earth c. Of this text we further drawe two contrary propositions Theirs is Christ hath giuen here to Peter alone the keyes of the kingdome of heauen and so consequently to the Bishop of Rome and to his successours Ours contrariewise is that Christ here hath promised the keyes to all in the name of Peter and hath giuen them to all his Apostles and after them to all those which lawefully exercise the Ministerie of his Gospel If we knowe what is meant by the keyes and what it is to binde and to loose it wil be easie for vs to iudge whether of these two propositions be true Christe Iesus pronounceth Wo be to you Doctors of the lawe because you haue taken away the keye of knowledge ye haue not entred in your selues and those which woulde wyllyngly haue entred in ye haue forbidden Nowe these Doctours were those who had charge to teach the worde of god These keyes then are no other thing but the charge to preache the kyngdome of heauen and to open the gate thereof by the preaching of the Gospel And concernyng byndyng and loosing Saint Iohn expoundeth what they meāt by these wordes to retayne and to remit sinnes the which is not done but in preaching the forgiuenesse of sinnes displayed in Iesus Christe to all those that beleeue the preaching of the Gospel The keyes then is the charge to preach the woorde to bynde and to loose is the effect of this word which to one sorte turneth to their saluatiō to the other to their greater damnation Whereupon Saint Paul calleth his Ministerie The Ministerie and word of reconciliation and else where The Ministerie of vengeaunce vpon the disobedient which Esai before had called the acceptable yeere of the LORD and the daye of vengeaunce Nowe forasmuch as no one alone can exercise this Ministerie in euerie place nor towards all It followeth therefore that one alone can not haue these keyes nor this charge of byndyng and loosyng which by the comming of Christie extendeth it selfe to all places They demaunde then wherefore it was saye to Peter I will giue thee IESUS Christe had sayde vnto all Whome thinke ye that I am And he in the name of all had answered Thou art Christ c. And therefore in his name he promiseth to all his Church the power of the keyes which he promiseth also afterwardes to all in the eyghtenth Chapter and after his resurrection deliuered them to all the Apostles equally and without any difference in these wordes Receiue the holy Ghost To all those to whom you shall remit their sinnes they shal be remitted c. That then that was promised here in these wordes I will giue vnto thee c. and not I doe giue thee which sheweth the time to come was then fully accomplished universally to all as in the person of Peter it was there promised to all To be short If as Saint Gregorie saith Saint Peter was not head of the Apostles til it was after his repentance in vaine then do they vpon this place trouble their braine pretending that by that place this power was giuen vnto him And if they will say that the same was meāt there by the keyes promised vnto him by the deliuerance of the keyes which was after his repentance giuen vnto all we conclude that they were here promised vnto all The which we saye not to the ende to derogate any thing from S. Peter whose readines to confesse the sonne of God and zeale toward our Sauiour was incomparable but to discouer the subtiltie of the Pope and of his poleshorne generation that of the keye of knowledge giuen to Saint Peter hath made a key of power and of the preaching of the worde a tyranny ouer all the princes and people of the earth and of the kingdome of heauen a temporall monarchie notwithstanding that there is nothing more cōtrarie to the whole doctrine that Christ hath taught his Apostles As for the auncient doctors they haue vnderstoode it no otherwise then we doe Saynt Cyprian Our Lord in the person of one man gaue the keyes to all to shewe the vnitie of all The others neuerthelesse were euen the same that Peter vvas companions in like equal honour in equall povver but he vvould begin by one man to shevv that the Church is one Saynt Hierome expounding this selfe same place The ignorant Bishops and elders sayth he tooke hereby occasion to vsurpe I know not what maner of Pharisaicall authoritie thinking that they had power to bynd and loose at their pleasure But to bind loose ought to be no other thing but to declare by the word of God Gods sentence Beholde then the Pope in the stead of Cephas a Caiphas euen by the difinitiue sentēce of S. Hierom a minister of the Romane Church And else where All the Apostles had one the selfe same iudicial povver For Christ after his resurrection sayth vnto them Receiue the holy Ghost vvhose sinnes ye shal remitte they shal be remitted in heauen c. All the Church likevvise in his elders Bishops but specially Peter receiued it to the ende that euery one should vnderstand that he that separateth himselfe from the vnitie of faith cannot be absolued from his sinnes nor enter into heauen He sayth from the vnitie of fayth not from the vnitie of Peter nor
sayeth that they were beheaded both together and the Canon sayeth the same yere in the same daye and at the same hower Eusebius sayeth that the one was beheaded and the other was crucified and Linus who hath written the suffering of Saint Paul he I saye whome they holde to haue bene the next that succeeded Saint Peter hath made no mention of Saint Peters suffering One sayeth that Linus was his successour another that it was Clemens To be short they are not yet agreed neyther of the tyme of his comming nor of the tyme of his death nor of the maner thereof nor of his successour nor of any thing And yet for all that they are so impudent that they will drawe all staye of the Christian faith vnto the faith of a lying legende Nowe agaynst these proofes they can alledge but one place of Scripture whereof they may be ashamed to witte that which is in the later ende of the first Epistle of S. Peter The Church which is in Babylon saluteth you I wyll not denye vnto them that Eusebius and Beda and Saint Hierome hath interpreted the date of this letter to be from Rome but I do rather willingly accept that which they confesse that they are not able to aucthorize the See of Rome by the scripture otherwise thē by acknowledging it to be called Babylon euen by their pretended founder himself Now if they wil alledge vnto me that this is a common receyued opinion that S. Peter was at Rome besides the diuersities that we haue noted before I answere that the question is not of the opinion but of an article of faith vpon which they would buyld many others of like sort That S. Hierome a Romane elder expoūding this place Beholde I haue sent you Prophets wise men and Scribes c alledgeth for example Saint Stephen stoned and S. Peter crucified by the Iewes to be short that the popedome then is founded vpon opinion and not vpon a certaine and an vndoubted faith But granting that opinion that he was there for I will not now debate the matter to shewe the vncertaintie of that which they pretende to be most certayne I demaunde whether he were there in the state of a Bishop or of an Apostle If as Bishop or elder for then we know that both these were one they were bounde euery one to their owne citie or towne and to his owne Church as may appeare by the Actes in the Epistle to Titus and therefore the Bishop of Rome could not pretende any aucthoritie ouer others for none could transferre that right which he had Againe why shoulde they not rather haue chosen Paul for their Bishop seeing that it appeareth by the holy scripture that he had preached there a long tyme Moreouer what will they answere to the Bishoppe of Antioch who is more clearely founded in the scripture then the Bishop of Rome that is to say euen in the expresse text of the Scripture for alledging that goodly reuelation of translating Peters See frō Antioch to Rome which is read in Gratians decretal they shal be derided as for an idle dreame And what will they answere to S. Gregorie himselfe who sayth that the Bishops of Alexandria and of Antioch are aswell Peters successors as he of Rome that they sitte in Peters chaire If as an Apostle we knowe that the charge of the Apostleshippe was not tyed to any citie towne or prouince no nor to any one nation but was extended throughout the whole world and if they will haue it any maner of way limited this must be by the spirite of God who had appointed Peters Apostleship amōgst the Iewes and Pauls amongst the Gentiles sending the one sayth S. Hierome to the Gentiles and placing the other by the singular prouidence of God in Iurie Whereupon it wil folowe then that by the same right all places where Peter hath preached shall haue a primacie that is to say there shal be primacies and popedomes without nomber and so consequently not one alone Also that the succession of Rome ought rather to be taken of Paul then of Peter for Rome is of the Gentiles Also that all the places spoken of Peter are yll alledged by them forasmuch as the succession is not drawen frō him This is beside For Cardinall Cusan maintayneth vnto them that all Bishops are equally of S. Peter whereof it foloweth that they haue all the priuiledge of his See that as one may erre so likewise may another If they say that S. Peter hath foūded the Church of Rome that is false for long time before that they say it should be foūded by him S. Paul wrote vnto them that the renowme of their faith was spread throughout the whole worlde Nowe if it be in respect onely that Peter there dyed they say that so did Paul also who went thither by the expresse commandement of God I say that S. Ierome writeth that he was crucified in Iudea to be short I say that the Apostle S. Iohn who liued longer then all the Apostles thirtie yeeres at the least after S. Peter according to their own reconing and who wrote the last of all sayth rather that Christ foretolde Peter that he should be glorified by his death but he maketh no mention of the place where he shoulde thereby glorifie the Pope which without doubt hee would not haue concealed for the benefite and saluation of all the worlde if the state of the Church had depended vpon this supremacie But I demaund farther who cā vaūt to be Peters heire whether the Church of Rome or the Pope If the church of Rome as it semeth the Pope Calixte gaue place to it then there is no more questiō of a Pope nor of one man alone nor of one personall succession For the Church is a body a body dieth not but successiuely in his parts there needeth no successor to him that dyeth not If it be the Pope then ought not the Church of Rome any more to say that she is the head of the Church neither that shee say any more as the schole of Sorbonistes noth That Peters chaire is for the Church and not the Churche for Peters chayre For she is but a part of the succession And if this come to passe I demaund what shal become of the Church and of the Ministerie of the same when the head thereof shall become an heretike and an Atheist when there shal be a Schisme of thirtie or fourty yeeres continuance without a Pope as often hath bene seene when Ioan shall be in Peters place c. But before they answere vs they must make voyde this broyle amongst themselues and if it please God before they agree therein their pretended succession must fall to the ground Nowe albeit we coulde reiect all in one worde beyng not grounded vpon any one worde of Gods lawe yet it shal be good to see from
time to time howe they are groūded vpon mans lawe and that which wee call positiue They holde that S. Peter was crucified vnder Nero in the yeere of our Lorde 69 and that Clement succeeded him Others say that Linus succeeded him then Saint Iohn yea and Iames himselfe If we beleeue those bookes supposed to bee Clements they shoulde haue obeyed Clement as head of the Church for he succeeded as they saye in Peters Authoritie he ought to haue no lesse authoritie then the popes at this daye who can dispense with Paules epistles A wonderfull case that the primitiue Church when they made the Canon of those bookes that should haue authoritie in the Church that they should rather put in those bookes of Iames and Iohn then of Clement the principall heire and successour of the holy ghost by the vertue of Saint Peters chaire A wonderfull matter further that this Clemēt made so smal accompt of succession so necessary in the Church seeing that in his epistle which he writeth to Iames Bishop of Ierusalem he calleth him our Lordes brother the Bishoppe of Bishops and gouernour of the Church of Ierusalem and of all others throughout all the worlde But yet a more wonderfull matter that they shoulde bee found so impudent in the light of good learning that at this day shineth as to foūd the papacie vpon those gaye bookes of Clement in which there are so many falsehoodes Clement writeth to Saynt Iames after Peters death and teacheth him the institution of our Lorde when as the Scripture witnesseth that S. Iames was martyred long before in Ierusalem and that as long as hee liued he was to teach Clement such matters and not to learne them of him And yet this is one of the notablest authors that they can alledge But let vs proceede We holde the Apostles Creede from the beginning of the Christian Church And we there finde the Catholike church But this article of the faith that pope Boniface the eight made is not therein That if we will be saued we must acknovvledge the pope to be the soueraigne Lord. Saint Cyprian saith That there is but one Bishoppricke of vvhich euery Bishop holdeth his parte vvholy vvithout any diuision Also that none of his time either called or made him selfe Bishoppe of Bishops eyther made through tyrannie his companions subiect to his obedience Also he complaineth that certaine prophane men and Schismatikes vvith drevve them selues to the bish of Rome who saith he hath none but certaine desperate wicked fellovves that stay vpon him making thē selues beleeue that the Bishops of Affricke haue lesse povver then the Bishops of Rome And in very deede he calleth not Stephen Cornelius bishops of Rome other thē brethren cōpanions handleth Stephen rudely enough in manye places To be short a litle after his death the church of Affricke decreed in the councill of Carthage that none should be called the prince or chiefe of ministers or the first Bishoppe but onely according to the dignitie of Cities the Bishoppe of the first See. Irenee very liuely reproueth Victor the Bishop of Rome who through a certaine shamelesse ambition had excommunicated the Churches of Asia for disagreeing about the Passeouer The Ministers saith he vvhich haue helde the eldershippe of the Church ouer vvhich thou novv doest gouerne Anicetus Pius Higinus c. haue not done as thou hast done neither they also vvhich vvere vvith them Tertullian who otherwise is wont to attribute verye much to Saint Peter scorneth the Bishop of Rome his great ambition which then began to shew it selfe albeit in a certaine place he maketh a long narration of the praises of the Church of Rome yet he teacheth not neither neere nor farre of that which is the principall to wit that it was the infallible seat of the holy Ghost by Peters successiō And yet these are for all that the very firste of all antiquitie and in whose time the Church of Christ more florished then at any time In the time of Constātine as the church had more liberty so it had also more ambition then Bishops begā first to think on miters that before time thought nothing els but to be martyrs That same famous Council of Nice was then called together by Constantine the Emperour to the ende to decide the matter of Arrius The B. of Romes deputies were there but they sate onely in the fourth place Yea one decree was there made by which certaine limits were attributed to euerie patriarke ouer which the Canon gaue them equall authority which the Bishop of Rome was wont to haue ouer the neighbour Churches of his citie They went about by infinite meanes to corrupt the canons of this councill as the histories do witnesse vnto vs But Cusan the Cardinal alledging this Councill acknowledgeth the trueth in these words By this we see saith he how much authoritie the Pope hath gotten in our time against the sacred auncient constitutions and altogether through the lēgth of time and custome of a slauish subiectionall obedience And yet in meane time Iulius with standeth it not neither doe his Legates alledge to the fathers of the Councill their Tibi dabo I will giue vnto thee nor their Pasce oues meas Feed my sheep for as yet they were not studyed so deeply therin but they rested onely in the ordinance of the Councill which afterwardes was confirmed by the Councils of Antioche and of Constantinople And this was about the time that they woulde deuise the donation of Constantine to pope Syluester confuted by so many learned men so long time agoe that none but such as are ignorant will beleeue it But if they will beleeue the original which is kept in Vaticā in the popes library in goldē letters let thē also beleeue these words which are written added in the end Quam fabulā longi tēporis mēdacia finxit that is to say in the proper words of ill latine This is a fable which an old lye hath forged Or if they wil therin beleeue the legend of Pope Syluester then let them also beleeue that which it sayeth that then was hearde a voyce from heauen saying Hodie effusum est venenum in Ecclesiam that is to say At this day poyson is shedde into the middest of the Church In the first and seconde Councill of Ephesus Cyrillus and Dioscorus Patriarches of Alexandria did gouerne there though the Bishoppe of Rome there had his deputies And it forceth not to saye that the seconde was not lawfull For this can not be knowen but by the yssue but it sufficeth that in the beginning and then when men thought that it was verye lawfull and that in such a time as the ceremonies were kept there Leo the Bishoppe of Rome neyther his deputies did not there striue for the chiefe place because they thought it to haue no good grounde In the Councill of Chalcedon
institution of Christ in the Sacraments to change according to the time the interpretation of the holy scripture to make newe articles of the faith to derogate from the olde Testament from S. Paule his epistles as the vicar of Christ successour of S. Peter This then according to their iudgemēt is an article of great importāce to saluation vpon which all other articles necessarie to saluation are founded In the selfe same quality iurisdiction is giuen vnto him ouer all the East churches to cut them of frō the Cōmunion of the Church to leaue them for a pray to the Turk because they will not acknowledge him To be short it is come to this point that he calleth himself king of kings to establish empires at his own wil to set out kingdomes for a pray to dispence with subiectes for their othe made to their prince This therfore is an article not onely belonging to the saluation of euerye Christian particularly and to all in generall for that same vnion which is so much commended vnto vs but also necessarie to policie to the obedience due to magistrates to the whole life of man But nowe wee see that Iesus Christ his Apostles haue deliuered vnto vs the articles of our faith the doctrine of the Sacraments of the obedience which is due to our superiors in plaine expresse termes and those very often repeated in many places It followeth then that this article by the which new articles of faith are established the changing of the Sacraments the setting vp deposing of princes the subiecting of heauen and earth vnder the power of one onely man must bee there plainely set foorth Nowe if it be not there expresly conteined one of these two things must folow either that our Lord his apostles took pleasure to hide these things frō vs to make a math confusion of heauen and earth together which to thinke were verye execrable blasphemie or else it must bee altogether false and consequently all that is builded vpon it must quite fall downe and bee vtterly razed to the ground Nowe I doe adiure euerye one euen as they loue their saluation that they weygh wel the proofes of this article For if the very foundation of the popishe doctrine which is this here haue no foundation in Christ it followeth that the pope hath layd another foūdation in the Church then Christ contrary to that which the Apostle saith and by consequent that hee is none of those which hath builded vpon the foundation of Christ woode haye stone but the Antichrist him selfe which hath setled him selfe in the place of the chiefe corner stone which is the onely fundation of the Church We say that Iesus Christ is the head of the Churche our aduersaries say that it is S. Peter in his successors or rather the pope and the Church of Rome because of S. Peter his seat Now as we haue found the body out of the Scriptures to wit the church so likewise we ought not to search for the head any where else S. Paul saith that Christ is the head of the church the church the accōplishmēt of him which hath accomplished all in all Also that Christ is the head of the Churche as the husband of the wife and the Sauiour of his body Also wee which are manye are one body in Christ euery one of vs are mēbers one of another These places are so cleare the our proposition can not be denied Thereupon they will graunt vs that Christ is the head of the Church but they will say that there must be a head and generall lieutenant in the gouernment thereof that this is S. Peter in his Successors whome they call for distinction sake the ministerial head of the Church This is it that they must proue vnto vs by plaine textes for wee flatly deny it vnto them First of all we must not here imagine an earthly kingdome For Iesus Christ hath taught vs that his kingdome is not of this world if his be not of this world then much lesse shall his be whosoeuer shal enterprise to be his lieutenant This lieutenantshippe then is neither temporall nor secular neither can it be stretched ouer the empires of the earth neither can the B. of Rome in this qualitie call him selfe the Monarch or onely gouernour both of the spiritual temporal But as the kingdom of Christ is spiritual to wit the gouernmēt of the soules of the faithfull whō he fedeth by his word as S. Paul sayeth that it is peace ioy righteousnes through his spirit so must it be likewise that the administration or gouernmēt of his seruāts must be spiritual to wit the ministery of the word from whence proceede those forenamed effects much lesse ought we to imagine an earthly king For Christ is the Sonne of the eternal God who stileth euery thing with his power who by the vertue of his spirite is present to all thinges and is present with those that consent in his name to the ende of the world He needeth not therefore any lieutenant as doe other earthly princes for to winne the heartes of his people for these are the effectes of his Spirite giuing efficacie to his worde the which no man how great holy ▪ soeuer he seeme can attribute to him selfe And if they finde it strange that our Lord by his spirite in that he is God doth gouerne his Church forasmuch as he hath promised so to doe Let them not thinke it more strange that we deny his corporall and carnall presence in their masse which he hath not instituted Againe here is no question of a kingdome which may be gouerned by a lieutenant alone but of preaching the Gospell throughout the whole worlde of reconciling al the people of the world by the word vnto God in a woorde of the Ministerye of the Gospell which consisteth in administring the worde and Sacraments in all places Nowe it is certaine that no man can accomplish this but onely he who is the worde it selfe and the alone sacrifice because that with his manhode hee hath Godhead and power that is infinite Therfore there can none but he bee the Bishop of Bishoppes the Pastour of Pastours and the high Priest and none can bee this Ministeriall head or Lieutenant in his offices But rather euery Bishoppe and pastor amongest his flocke may represent Christ in exercising his charge without acknowledging of the Bishop of Rome to be aboue him as hath bene most largelye disputed by Cusan the Cardinall in the time of the Council of Constance That which they alledge of Moses and Aaron that they were heades the one of the common wealth the other of the sacrifices whilest yet God walked in the middest of his people is but naughtely drawen into a consequence For besides that there was the expresse institution of God in their persons and in the successors of Aaron for