Christian Magistrates afore they used to consult of the greatest affairs use to resort to divine service so this was an expresse Law to be observed by the Roman Senators is noted by Suetonius in Augusto Nay that before every small exercise or recreation that their unchristian men would call unto their gods I learn out of Hesychius who saith that when they went to play at dice they would call upon their god Mercury in these words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} good God but generally the Heathen praiers in their Churches were very long For our Saviour teacheth us when we pray Do not make long praiers as the Heathens do For this last see Pererius in his note upon Genesis And if we have not seasonable weather we use particular devotion To this purpose you may gather out of Dionysius Halicarnasseus that the Gentiles proclaimed and kept solemn Feasts for the pacifying of their Panisme gods In this place it were not improper to shew how among the Infidels as well as the Christians the Civill Magistrate especially the King the politique Father of the people made Laws to be observed by the Heathenish Clergy Therefore a common Lawyer in his Treatise of Salem and Bysance may well note that our King Lucius buried at Winton had as much prerogative over his Flamines or Ministers being Christians as Heathen And this also appeareth by Aristotle in his Polit. by Virgil by Strabo But this I reserve for another place And to omit Wolfangus Lucius his discovery of Lent to have been practised as a policy among the Heathen I shall conclude this particular with the duty of Heathen people observed towards their Priests in relieving of them and paying them Tithes as Parishioners do to their Pastors but much of this which I or any other can write in this kinde is already quoted in some of the Canonists Writings so covetous men are in advancing their own particular As the ancient elect people of God afore the Law given in Mount Sinai paid Tithes to their Priests as Gen. 14. Abraham paid Tithes to the greater Priest Melchisedeck but where it is said in Lev. 27. 32. the 10. sheep shall go under the rod A Rabbin writes that in those daies the tenth sheep was marked with Oaker as they use Tything at this day by putting sheep out of the Fold This I take to be Rabbinicall and full of conceit So the very Heathen Priests have by the consent of their people or Parishioners alwaies a relief yea and that with a tenth part of their Revenues therefore for the first-fruits Pliny writeth The Romans were not wont to taste of their fruits or Vines afore the Heathen Priests had sacrificed with them and Porphiry confesseth That from all Antiquity the first-fruits of the earth were dedicated unto their gods In particular Euripides the Tragoedian saith that Diana had the first-fruits of every thing that the earth could yeeld And Suidas in verbo {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} writeth The Travellers in the High-way did use to offer unto the Idol of Mercury that guideth them in their waies the first-fruits of the earth And Herodotus discourseth of the Image of Delphos which was made for receiving of Primitia◠terrae of the Graecians who overcame Xerxes Natalis Comes sheweth out of Aristophanes and Euripides the severall first-fruits which were due to their severall gods But in expresse terms the tenth of their substance was offered unto the Heathen gods and consequently unto the Heathen Priests For so it appeareth by Lio Camillus gave the tenth of their Corn unto Apollo and the Ephesian Diana but above all other gods they were given to Hercules for not onely by Plutarch many men offered the tenth of their substance unto Hercules but by Cicero in his Natura Deorum Tithes were due unto Hercules Nay so commonly was the tenth part offered unto Hercules that Hercules part and the tenth part were all one in signification For Plautus writes Mihi det Rex Herculeanam partem Good Reason then I note Tertullian had to speak of Tythes that were properly due unto Hercules Lastly Dionysius Halicarnasseus noteth That Iupiter and Apollo sent barrennesse upon the face of the earth because men intermitted and neglected the paying of their Tithes Hence then it is more then colourable that the Heathen Brittans our Ancestors afore the time of Iulius Caesar paid Tythes to their Priests and Druides whether the tenth part or the eighth Quota pars I have not to define as holding with a Canon-Lawyer in his Treatise Tithes and Maintenance is due by the Law of God and man but not Quota pars namely the tenth part unlesse in places accustomed to pay it Thus having chalked out the Paths the Christians tread in having been formerly beaten by the Gentiles but first made as I told you by the Jews in whose steps the Gentiles tread although awry By this my instant and last place they may perceive that even since the time of the Gospel and that Christianity was admitted into the world the Heathens in some things also began to imitate the Christians but it was Diobolicâ instigatione as the ordinary phrase in indictments is A touch of this given by Erasmus Tertullian in his time complaineth of the devils in Heathens imitating Christian Baptism Tinget ipse saith Tertullian fideles suos And after his time you may perceive Sozomenes but especially by Gregory Nazianzene in his Oration against Iulian the damnable Politique Iulian the Emperour thought it the best way to extirpate Christianity that the Heathen in all points of service and adoration should correspond with the Christian service but it could not be effected say they because the Christians by faith inwardly and in spirit worshiped God Arnobius notes because the Christians God was not visible the Heathens call the Christians Athiests Out of this precedent Discourse the Travelling Bee that is the honest Subject of this Realm with me will reason thus If our Fore-fathers which were enlightned onely by naturall reason would have so good Orders in their Temples at their worshiping of false and superstitious Gods What great care should Christians have for enjoyning and observing of comely and godly Ordinances in the worshiping of the true and everliving God! FINIS
New England Heathens turn Christians in Old England Christians turn Heathens and that those unsound Heterodox persons which they have cast out we have received Some Divines think the time of slaying the Witnesses draweth near others conceive that the Papists shall have a hand in it and that they shall yet further prevail rather to persecute then seduce the people of God I conclude all as Dr Holland was wont to take leave of his Friends Commendo vos amori Dei odio Papismi I commend you to the Love of God and hatred of Popery Your hearty well-wisher EDWARD LEIGH A Discourse Shewing that many Paynim Ceremonies were retained in England after Christianity was received SUrely as Darknesse was before Light for the Evening and the Morning saith the Text made the first Day And as out of Chaos that Rudis indigestaque moles were made all the clear Firmaments even Caelum Crystallinum So evident it is that Paganism covered all the face of the world except the little Land of Iury afore Christlanity was admitted and after the admission of Christian Religion in the Western part of the world by the Christian Emperors the Northern people together with the Empires almost every where abolished Christian Religion But yet as Augustinus Curio notes at length every one of these Northern and Heathen Nations embraced Christian Religion saving onely the Saracens My conceit and purpose to shew you is That of the Ecclesiasticall government and policy observed in the Brittish and English ancient Pagans as formerly having their Common-wealth in frame and beautified with our common Laws they being converted unto Christianity many of the Paganish Ceremonies and Usages not contrary to the Scripture were still retained in their Christian policy By means whereof tranquillity and peace was observed and the alteration in the State lesse dangerous or sensible For as in General Arnobius is true writing Nothing was innovated for Christian Religion in rerum natura And as the Heathen Oracle of Apollo Pythius answereth the Athenians asking him what Religion was principally to be embraced namely that which was by descent delivered as a custome of their Ancestors So in particular well writeth Dionysius Halycarnasseus the least Ceremoniall points of the divine worship a Nation unlesse necessity compell them will hardly alter He instanceth it in the AEgyptians the Moors the Gaules the Scythians the Indians Nay Sir Thomas Smith in his Common-wealth expresseth that our Ancestors being Heathens when they agreed to receive Christian Religion that which was established before and concerned externall policy they held and kept still with that which was brought off new by their Christian Apostles and Doctors Because I remember Tullies cognisance namely that it is a badge of a negligent and dissolute person not to regard what the most sort of the people may conceive of him And that conceit is worthily the most hainous which may note any to plant by writing or water by speaking the cursed Roots or Seeds of self-springing Paganism I will first prove that this kinde of birth of our Ceremonies can be no disgrace to our Ecclesiasticall Ceremonies Secondly I will insinuate three observations to be remembred out of the particular Proposition proved Thirdly I will point at some of the superfluous and wicked Popish Ceremonies drawn from the Heathens Fourthly and Lastly I will instance in many Ecclesiasticall Ceremonies of the Heathens which are or may be used in ours or in any other Christian State In the first place allowing much of our Ecclesiasticall discipline used in the time of our Primitive Church was borrowed from the Heathen yet that it can be no disparagement unto it must needs be granted for otherwise to imagine is the direct opinion of the Heretiques Manichaei whose errour in this Point is solemnly refuted by St Austin writing against Faustus and by St Ierom writing against Vigilantius That I may not threaten but perswade By the judiciall Law of Moses expressed in Deut. 21. If a strange woman be taken in battel if her beauty please thee her nails and hairs being pared and shaven and her garment of captivity being taken away thou maist lawfully take her to wife By the morall of this Law severally write Isidore and Peter Blessensis the Ceremonies of the Gentiles the deformities thereof being taken away may lawfully be used amongst the Christians Isidore then expounding Deut. 16. Thou shalt not plant Trees near unto the Altar his meaning is one must not imitate the devotion nor the Ceremonies of the Gentiles For the Israelites even by the direction of God made holy Vessels and placed them in the Temple of God of the gold and silver they robbed the Egyptians of And it is vulgarly known that the sayings of the Heathen Poets are used by the holy Ghost in the New Testament Again we may see in Act. 17. how St Paul himself when he was at Athens the very Altar of Superstition which was dedicated unto an Unknown God and unto which bloudy sacrifices were slain by as much dexterity and wisedom as that time would permit did make use thereof and seem to transpose it to the worship of the true God And which is more it is expressed by St Paul it is lawfull for a Christian so it be without scandal to eat those things which are consecrated unto Idols Honestly then writes Mr Hooker That which hath been ordained impiously at the first may wear out by tract of time as the names of our Heathen Moneths and Daies used throughout all Christendome without any scandall And if the Spaniards well may glory of their Alphonsus King of Arragon Qui per cloacam ingressus subter Muros won Naples and from thence expelled Renate Duke of Anjou reasonably then eut out of former rags of the Gentiles the glorious rious and fair garment of Christianity in times may be woven And as Ephraim Syrus a Father that lived in St Bazils time writeth If the money be taken out of the purse yet the purse is not to be cast away so although the sacrifice and service of the Gentiles be taken away the outward Ceremonies may remain To conclude this pedigree of our Ceremonies staineth not our Christian policy For that all the good Orders of the Heathens came by Tradition or reading or seeing the Ceremonies that God commanded among the Jews in the Land of Promise As it appeareth by Iosephus against Appion that the Sect of the Pythagorean Philosophers translated much of the Jews Laws into their own Sect And as by Eusebius Austin Theodâ—ret Iustin Martyr and others Plato copied much out of Moses writings For Moses writings were long afore the Empire of the Persians So verily if it were for this place it may be exemplified that the succeeding Ceremonies of the Heathen were derived from the Jews Ceremonies And no man can justly deny but that we may use the Ceremonies of the Jews Non ex vised ex Analogiâ Mosaicae Legis And if this point fancy any man let him reade
Alcuinus de Officijs Divinis Amalarius de Officijs Ecclesiasticis Gratian de Con. But especially Mutius Pausa in his Osculum Christianae Ethnicae Philosophiae I can commend Nicholaus Mount-Georgius in his Book De Mosaico jure enucleando only for his endeavours you may observe out of Iosephus in the latter time of the Jews Government that Herod their first King brought much of the Romane Heathenish Discipline into their policy and in this respect that many of our Christian Ceremonies were formerly Heathen and afore that used in the Common-wealth of Iury wherein God was the Law giver They resemble the seventeen Vessels which the Heathen King Cyrus gave unto the Jews at the Building of the Temple of Ierusalem after the Captivity of Babylon among which as Esdras writes there were Vials of Gold 29. of Silver 2410. for these were in the last use sacred being formerly Heathen and prophane but most anciently holy and sanctified 2. The first of the three Observations that I am to insinuate upon the particular to be proved is the amplenesse of the Common Law admitting no Common Law within their Land but as parcell and incorporated into the Generall Laws and Policies of this Land seeing most of our Ecclesiasticall Law was before there was any Popish Canon Laws observed by the Inhabitants as the Civill Ordinance of the Magistrate in the ages most remote But of these hereafter in particular Secondly Note If much of the Christian Policy and Discipline was in practice when the State of this Land was Heathen the Lay-Catholiques are much mistaken in their Petition where they write We have all our Feasts and Ceremonies from Austin the Monk And let them not play Suffenus part in delivering there is not the least Ceremony or circumstance which hath been added to the Solemnization or Majesty of Gods Service but the year is known when and the Pope by whom it was ordained but these forget what their Father Bellarmine confesseth that all Christian Ceremonies were not invented by the Pope Thirdly This will sufficiently convict the opinion of them whom Nazianzen ingeniously cals New Pharisees to be but ceremonious that will not conform themselves to any Ceremonies used in the time of Popery seeing we must and ought to obey the Ecclesiastical discipline established by the Laws of the Land for coming to Church for having prayers or preaching or musick in our Churches or such like although as shall be proved these Ceremonies and Customes were used in the time of Pagans and at their sacrifices Genebrard by by whom it is verified that much Learning and railing may be accidents in one Subject writes that in the Year 1560. in England arose a new Sect of Puritans so called because they will not pray in the Churches that were the Catholiques nor wear a Surplice Sure I am that many that wear the Liveries of this name are otherwise minded And I learn out of Dubrarius that the Thaborites of Prague held that the Clergy should not be Doctors of Divinity or quote the Fathers in their Sermons or wear any other then their ordinary garments But yet for them all O quam honestâ voluntate miseri errant It is confessed Ceremonies of themselves are things indifferent as being neither expresly commanded or forbidden by the Word of God And although among the Jews their Kings would not permit Liberties in Ceremonies to the Subjects Christian Kings may But yet when they are enacted in a Christian State and made the Laws of the Land they must be obeyed of necessity as unto a thing not indifferent For well write the Canonists An act indifferent when it is commanded is a necessary act otherwise idle is the command And it appeareth by Iosephus that the Athenians made a severe Law against those that spake against the outward Ceremonies established by Law or custome This also may appear out of Livy and out of Dion who knoweth not that the King the Caesar of the Countrey must obey the Law of the Land What a presumption is it then for a private man to exempt and priviledge himself from obeying the Laws of the Land Truly writes a Learned Common-Lawyer the Laws of men not contrary to the Law of God ought to be kept even of the Clergy in the Law of the soul And Mutius notes that Charles the Great in Saxony gave equall authority to his Magistrates Scabinis to put to death those which contemned and derided the Ceremonies Ecclesiasticall as those which sacrificed to Heathen gods For Lodovicus Sotomajor well writes in his Comment upon the Canticles Godlinesse being as the soul yet Ceremonies are as the body of Christian Religion 3. But I am to point at some of the superfluous and wicked Ceremonies of the Papists borrowed from the Heathen Of so large and near affinity is the divine worship of the Heathens and Papists in the Temples that Lodovicus Vives confesseth there cannot any difference be shewn unlesse the Papists have changed the Names and Titles So that with Chemnitius to the followers of the Sea of Rome we may object what Faustus did to the Christians Ye turn Idols into Martyrs and Saints whom ye worship with correspondent vows And I can hardly imagine how plentifull the tears of Petrus Chrysologus and Silvanus would run if they were alive and viewed the Antichristian Sea For that in their times some of the superfluous Heathen Ceremonies began to abound in the Christian Churches Whereupon they complained although the Gentiles Circensia were celebrated in the honour of Christ Yet the Church being out of that cradle the particular usage of the Gentiles in this kinde was not to be imitated I commend therefore the intent of that Emperour who for revence of the Sign caused as Sozomenes reporteth Furcam to be erected Loco Crucis And I reverence the Opinion of the Makers of an ancient Statute in H. 3d. time namely that De Pistoribus which punisheth a Butcher that buyeth flesh of Jews to sell the same to Christians And generally that the Heathen thought their Ceremonies would drive away the Christians Abbas Urspergensis a German and Didacus Covarcuvias a Spaniard writ that Helena a Brittan and Mother of Constantine the first Christian Emperour born in this Island going to Ierusalem found in the place where Christ was crucified the Idol of Venus placed But to instance the Popish Purgatory in scope and being agreeth with the Heathen Purgatory mentioned in Plato and Virgil the Papisticall manner of consecrating Churches and Church-yards fully imitateth the Ceremonies of the Pagans when they consecrated their Temples and Temple-Courts or Yards described by Alexander of Alexandro In Spain by Gregorius Lopus at the beginning of the consecration of a Church they must make three crosses in the last part thereof Their sprinkling of holy water is mentioned in the 6. Sat. of Iuvenal And Sozomenes calleth it a Heathenish Ceremony In particular that it was alwaies used at the sanctifying of the Capitoll appeareth by
Mercury was square and of Cubick-figure As we have no Images in our Temples so likewise was it used of many Heathens Among the Romans their holy and ancient King Numa by a Law banished Images or Idols out of their Temples Tacitus reports the Germans likewise would not represent the gods by Images and Strabo and Herodotus shew how the Persians for their gods neither made Altars nor Images And Eusebius writes the people called Caes by a speciall Law forbad the worshiping of Images To wade a little further the Gentiles having their Temples and Churches for their poeticall gods Christianity being received by consent of the Emperours and Civill Magistrates it is to be seen whether those Ethnick Churches were all demolished and new ones built of the Christians That many of the Heathen Churches were utterly ruinated many Historians and Fathers witnesse Among others St Ierom writing against Jovinian telleth of the destruction of the famous Temples of Iupiter Capitoline And in his Comment upon the Galatians his words are these Vacua Idolorum Templa quatiuntur And in the Theodosian Codex you may see a particular Rescript made by the Emperour Theodosius the younger That the Panism Temples in the East should be pluckt down they being fit to be the Dens of Devils or unclean spirits And their subversion of the Idols Temples is the reason that by the canon and common Law Ius aedificationis is a speciall cause that giveth the patronage or advowson of the Church unto a Lay-Patron But yet without controversie when Kingdoms and States turned from Idolatry or Paganism to Christianity and that in short time so powerfull was the holy Ghost many of the Heathen Temples were not overthrown But of necessity after some Ceremonies accomplished were used for Christian praiers and Assemblies By means whereof the alteration in the State was not so great the temporall world with Democritus being not to be new made ex atomis and men sooner and easilier embraced publique Christian Religion And this is the reason that by the Common Law of England a man may be said to be Patron of a Christian Church although he never built it if he only endow the Church with Revenues And as in forreign Countries the Emperor Honorius about the year 400. made a Law restraining the heat of the Christians against the Wals and stones of the Gentiles Temples The words of the Rescript are As we forbid their Sacrifices so we will the ornament of their publick works be kept And the first Christian Emperour Constantine made a Law against them which pluck down the Tombs and Monuments of the superstitious Heathens And those Laws methinks in forreign Countries gave some warrant for retaining Heathen Ceremonies So in our Country of England it is notorious by the Epistles of Pope Gregory himself who sent our Austin the Monk That although Pope Gregory in his Epistle to the King of England writ that ancient Pagan Temples in England might wholly be destroied yet afterwards the same Pope better advising that somewhat was to be yeelded unto them that were weak in faith as the Apostles did he writeth a peculiar Epistle to Miletus one of the first Apostles or Bishops of the English-men and expresly willeth that the Temples of the Idols in England be not destroied but that they be hallowed and sanctified and turned into Oratories for Christians And as in generall for other Countries this appeareth by Theodoret so now it is a work of some difficulty to shew you in particular what Christian Church at this day standing was anciently the Temple of such an Heathen god In Rome by full ample authority it is plain as by Beda in his severall Books by Ado by Paulus Diaconus and others that Pantheon the Temple in Rome for all the Heathen gods was given by Phocas the Emperor about the 5. year of his Reign unto Pope Boniface the 4. and by the said Pope dedicated to the honour of our Lady and of all Martyrs It is now called the round Church of our Lady And the shape and antiquity thereof is pourtraied lively in the first description of Ianus Outerus his ancient descriptions whose works may please a man that delighteth in this point Dion writes in the Reign of the Emperor Titus when Rome burnt by the space of 3. daies that the Temple Pantheon was burnt but Eusebius saith In the 13. year of Trajan Pantheon was burnt with a Thunderbolt howsoever it was reedified by the Heathen Emperours It is evident by Beda that we had a Pantheon in England it stood in a Town in York-shire now called Godmanham this Temple among our Ancestors the Pagan Saxons was called Godmandingham and was totally burnt by the people of Northumberland when at the preaching of Paulinus King Edwyne of an Idolater became a Christian Beda writes the Heathen person or Flamine Coysi was the first qui injecta lanceâ prophanavit sum omnibus septis suis succendit burnt the very wals of the Church yard Pope Gregory writeth in his Dialogues that Pope Benedict translated the Church of Apollo into the Oratory of S. Martins And Cardinall Bellarmine sheweth that at this day the Church of St Cosme and Damiano in Rome was the materiall Heathen Temples of Castor and Pollux And Ado writeth In the Year 425. Pope Sixtus turned the Temple of God Bacchus in Rome into the Church of our Lady But for England to omit out of Ziphilin the Abridger that anciently the Brittains worshipped commonly in the Church of God Victory as many Learned men have reason to conjecture S. Pauls Church in London to have been the Heathen Temple of Diana For that the adjacent and skirtbuildings unto the Church are called the chambers of Diana As also that in Edw. 1. time as our Chroniclers report in Pauls Church-yard were digged up an innumerable number of Oxeheads which the Learned know were anciently the Sacrifices unto Diana So certain I am that S. Peters Church now called Westminster Abby was anciently the Temple of Apollo For so it appeareth by one of the Charters of King Edgar made to Westminster Abby and this is also recited in Sulcardus Book an Authour that lived near William the Conquerors time And in the Legier Book of St Albones it is written in the life of St Eadmerus the 9. Abbot of St Albones who lived in the time of our King Edward the Martyr that in digging for a Foundation about Albones Abby was found a Book written in the Brittish Tongue And that of the first part discoursed of St Albones the second part treated of the Idolatry of the Citizens of St Albones Verulamij unto the Sun and unto Mercury Hence I conceive probably the ancient Churches of St Albones were dedicated to the service of the Sun and Mercury their gods To proceed as lawfully the civill and supream Magistrates gave the Temples of the Heathens to the Christians as well St Austin notes in one Epistle that the Christian Emperours did passe over to the
true Catholiques the Churches and Revenues which were given by Donatists to errour and schism yet before the Heathen Temples were consecrated and purged the Christians would not use any Christian service in them And this well appeareth out of Nicephorus lib. 7. cap. 46. who reports Constantine the Great the first Christian Emperour that in the wars he might have a Christian Church to say a Christian service in he built him a Church that might be carried up and down after his Camp {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Ecclesiam portabilem as one cals Ships portatiles domos Now how the Christian Bishops did hallow and sanctifie the Heathen Churches particularly may be seen out of Marihnus Scotus Rhegino and Sigisbert in the year 607. by Ado and others when they speak of the Dedication of Pantheon by Boniface the fourth Note at this day Consecration of Churches is only reserved unto the Bishops and anciently there was more then one Bishop present at the consecration of a Church For Turpinus telleth to the consecration of a Church-yard in Burdeaux there were seven Bishops present and that our Yew-trees in Church-yards was the planting of the Heathens even Verstegan understands Volateran reports that about the Year 484. Pope Felix the third made a Canon that Temples should only be consecrated by Bishops and that this ceremony of consecrating and hallowing of Churches and dedicating of them was anciently used by the Heathens both by words and by hand is plain by Livy Ovid Tibullus and Cicero in many places Livy writeth Horatius Pulvillus did dedicate the Temple of Iupiter Capitoline In this second place I am to produce some of the Ceremonies or policies observed among the Heathen Flamines or Ministers which are likewise in practise at this day among the Christian Provinces That the Heathens had their Ministers or Priests nothing is more plain And the Priests of our Ancestors the Brittish Heathens and the Goths were the Druides as at large write Caesar and Tacitus And the names of our Bishops Episcopus and Pontifex were used among the Heathen For that he was called Episcopus that is overseer of others and looked unto the poor and had care of their diet is plain by the words of Arcadius the civill Lawyer in the Digests And as Onuphrius and others note by Cicero in his Epistles where he writes Pompey would have him to be Bishop of the Cities of Asia and it appeareth by the body of the common Law the office of the Primate came from the Heathen Now for Pontifex it is confessed by every one that the Christians took that name from the Heathen Ministers and so Sâ—zomenes deriveth it Rhenanus and others note the word Diocese and the jurisdiction in this kinde came from the Heathen Now as among the Christian Ministers worthily and of necessity there are degrees of the Clergy and one subordinate to another So likewise was it when our Ancestors were Pagans for they had their Pontifex and Pontifex Maximus heir Flamines and Arch-Flamines as is plain by Gratians Rhapsodie And as every particular god had his Flamine his Minister so as Gallius notes Flamen dialis Iupiters Priest was the chiefest among the rest Beda writes Coyfy was the chiefest Heathen Priest in the Kingdom of King Edwyne some of our Countrey Chroniclers that lived almost 400. years ago Ptolomeus Lucentius who wrote the lives of the Popes of Rome writes in the life of Pope Eleutherius how the 3. Proto-Flamines were converted into so many Arch-Bishopricks tell you how many Flamines and Arch-Flamines there were among the Brittans and into what Bishopricks and Arch-Bishopricks they were afterwards translated But no wise man will beleeve their particular seeing they report actions done a thousand years before their time having no former authour or authority to warrant it And the Heathen Priests had some under them which were not Priests and yet to serve in the Temples they were called Camilli as appeareth by Plutarch and Dionysius and these are in the nature of our Deacons The correspondent power of our Clergy to that of the Heathen would best appear by opening of the nature of the Heathen Pontifices To omit Livy Plutarch Alciat Alexander ab Alexandro Peter Perkins in his comment upon the rules of the common Law writeth the Heathens assigned a peculiar jurisdiction to their Pontifices namely to look into the publique and private cermonies of their Religion to defend and interpret their holy mysteries to deliver with what Altars to which gods with what Sacrifices upon what daies at which Temples praiers and offerings should be to see that every one resorted to Church and no new ceremonies to be admitted that Vows be performed Funerals decently bestowed Oaths and Faith fullfilled Holy Daies proclaimed the Gods pleased And Wolphangus Lazius particularly noteth out of Heathen Authours some the chief of their Clergy and Pontifices were to be skillfull especially in their common or Ecclesiasticall Law to judge of Marriages of Sanctuaries to consecrate Churches and places of buriall That our Clergy hath in like manner most of their particulars every man must acknowledge But to adde unto these last recited Authours concerning the Holy Daies observed by the Christians and Heathen Thucydides notes it is a matter of necessity to have Holy daies That the Christians begin their day from midnight saith Censorinus it is common with the Gentiles And that our Clergy foretell and declare the Holy daies to the people The like was done by the Pontifices of Rome witnesseth Plutarch in Numa The Heathens call the daies which are no Holy daies profestidies yea that the Holy daies in the Gentiles Kalendar lose onely their name having upon the same daies Christian Festivities appointed for the Apostles made no Laws concerning Holy daies is known by Theodoret who writeth that the Heathen Holy daies of Iupiter Mars and the rest of the Heathen Gods were ordained among the Christians Holy daies for Peter Paul and other Saints Gregorius Nissenus in the Life of Gregory for his great actions surnamed Thaumaturgus reporteth that it was this Gregory that first made the particular conversion of the Heathen into Christian Holy daies And as among the Christians the day of the Martyrs or Saints death is the Holy day Dies martyrij Dies natalis so was it among the Heathens for by Plutarch in Camillo the Romans observe Romulas Death day for his Holy day Moreover as among the Christians before a man can be admitted into the Ministery there is enquiry made by the Superiour Clergy of his ability and worthinesse and certain times and solemnities observed at the Ordinance of the Minister So likewise was it amongst the Infidels or Ancestors For as some of the recited Authours mention the Heathen Pontifices were to be skillfull in their profession and Clergy-discipline So further it appeareth by Alexander ab Alexandro that if a man were a cripple or lame in any part of his body he could not be