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A68090 An apology or defence for the Christians of Frau[n]ce which are of the eua[n]gelicall or reformed religion for the satisfiing of such as wil not liue in peace and concord with them. Whereby the purenes of the same religion in the chiefe poyntes that are in variance, is euidently shewed, not onely by the holy scriptures, and by reason: but also by the Popes owne canons. Written to the king of Nauarre and translated out of french into English by Sir Iherom Bowes Knight.; Apologie ou défense pour les chretiens de France de la religion reformée. English Gentillet, Innocent, ca. 1535-ca. 1595.; Bowes, Jerome, Sir, d. 1616. 1579 (1579) STC 11742; ESTC S103023 118,829 284

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his maiestie may easely discerne if it may please him to heare our reasons or but only to looke vpon this litle Apologie And surely Sir we assure ourselues that you will alwayes continue to be a mean to his Maiestie euery day better than other for the maintenance and quyetnes of vs and our Religion because you were brought vp in it in your young time and haue made a good profession of it Besides this the famous examples of your noble ancestors which haue been euer renowmed for their godlynes doe direct you to the following of their footesteps For the Histories doe auow vnto vs that your Ancestors of the renowmed house of Burbon for I will not speake of those of late time whose remembrance being yet fresh in mens mindes and will continue honorable for euer among them that come after vs haue alwayes been had in honor for their great zeale towards the Christian Religiō and for their feruent loue to the mayntenance of the crown of Fraunce of the quyetnes of their countrey which are two principall points wherein godlynes shineth forth For first of all the great and dangerous voyages which your Ancestors haue made with men of warre into the East countreys and into Affrike against the Turkes Sarasyns for the great desire they had to aduance the Christian Religion as the two voyages of king Lewis the saint The two voyages of Lewes Duke of Burbon and the voyages of many other princes of their race doe yeald sufficient record of their Religious and godly disposition And although that in those dayes by reason of the great ignorance of languages and of good learning and consequently of the pure doctrine Religion was not so well vnderstoode nor so purely taught as it is nowadayes through the grace of god yet it is not to be douted but that if they had had a purer and cleerer vnderstanding therof they would haue been so much the more earnest and zealous in it And as touching loue and dutifulnes towards their countrey which is the second poynt wherin godlynes consisteth your sayd aūcestors haue geuen so good tryall therof by their contynuall imploying of themselues valyantly in the defence and inlarging of the Crown of Fraunce aswell against forrain enemies as against the disturbers of the publick peace that the house of Burbone hath alwayes iustly had this honorable reporte to haue been alwayes a florishing branch of the bloud Royall and a sure piller of the liberty and safety of the Realme As for example Iaques of Burbon Earl of March and Cōstable of Fraunce gaue good proofe of his loue towards the welfare of his countrey and towards the Crown of Fraunce in hazarding himselfe in many battailes against the English men then almost inuincible enemies of this Realme specially at the battel of Poytiers in the time of king Iohn and also in doing his indeuour with great good will to conclude the peace at Britany and to driue the Companions and Outlawes out of Fraūce which tooke their pleasure in spoyling the coūtrey and in maintayning of trouble in the Realme Also Lewis of Burbon the first Earl of Vādome for that Earldome fell vnto him by his mother made warre against the Englishmen in the time of king Charles the sixt not only in Fraunce but also euen in England and he was a curteous Prince and very profitable to his Countrey aswell in matters of war as of peace His sonne named Lewis also being then Lord great master of Fraunce was in many battailes where he fought valiantly specially at the battaile of Agincourt notwithstanding that he was taken prisoner by the Englishmen with many other great Princes and Lords of Fraunce Likewise he was one of those that toke most paines to make the peace at Arras in the time of king Charles the seuenth for the suppressing of the Ciuil wars which had indured so long time welnere to the vtter destruction of the Realme Iohn of Burbon Earle of Vandome and sonne of the sayd Lewis was also a virtuous Prince and a valyant warryor and aduentured himselfe in many a battaile specially at the siege of Fronsack in the Marches of Burdeloys where he was made knight for his valiant desertes and he was one of the Princes which tooke part with Lewis the Dolphin and with the Dukes of Burbon and Alaunson in setting themselues against the wicked and tirannicall dealings of certayne timeseruers and flatterers of king Charles the seuenth Fraunces of Burbon his sonne a good and stout prince went in the viage to Naples with king Charles the eighth and behaued himselfe nobly in matters both of peace and warre to the honor and profite of the Crowne of Fraunce and of his whole country But I should not soone make an end if I minded to recken vp all the excellent princes of your maiesties most renowmed house of Burbon and much les should I do it if I ment to take vpon me to rehearse their heroycall deedes and vertues which would require many great volumes But I thinke it inough for me to haue named some few of them that might serue for examples to princes and to all other men to speed themselues valiantly in the defence and mayntaynance of the peace of their countrye Which examples wil in my opinion be the better liked of your maiesty because they come not onely of your owne house which hath alwayes been most fruitfull in noble and vertuous princes but also of the Linial discēt of your progenytors For the late king of Nauare your father was the sonne of Charles of Burbon the first duke of Vandome who was sonne of the foresayd Fraunces Earle of Vandome who was sonne to the forenamed Iohn who was sonne to the foresayd Lewis Lord great master of Fraunce who was the sonne of the other Lewis the first Earle of Vandome who was the son of Iohn Earle of March who was the sonne of Iaques Earle of March and constable of Fraunce who was the sonne of Lewis first duke of Burbon surnamed the great duke who was the sonne of Robert of Fraunce Earle of Cleremount and Beawuoysin who was the Sonne of good king Lewis the saynt And so your Maiestie is the eleuenth in order descending in the right line from S. Lewis your great Ancestor whose vertues I hope that God will make to grow more and more in your Royall person making you to be a follower of his steps in that he was a good defender of the Christian Religion a louer of vpright iustice a natiue example of good manners a seuere correcter of partiall corrupt Iudges an vntreatable punisher of blasphemers Atheistes and vsurers and a zealous furtherer of all good reformation But now to come back agayn to my matter I hope that such of the Romain Religion as shall reade this my wryting shall haue no cause to finde fault with me or to say that I deale to roughly with them For hauing once simply and without any bitternesse set down my
word of God then the doctrine of the Romish Catholicks For S. Paule doth teach vs that Christ is the head of the church not a head separated or set away frō it but surely knit and ioyned fast vnto it with all manner of fastninges knittinges that a well vnited and well cōpacted bodye should haue These be his wordes To th end that by following the truth with charitie wee should in all poyntes atteyne to full growth in him which is our head that is to say in Christ vnto whome the whole bodye being throughly knitted and fastned together by all manner of fastninges that may furnish it out doth take bodilye increase of the power that worketh within it according to the capacitye of euery mēber to the full perfecting vp of it self in loue By which wordes euery man may easely iudge that S. Paule ment to portray out vnto vs the great and singular cōiunctiō of the head which is Christ vnto his church in that he sayth that he is knit and fastened to the same by all manner of fastenings requisite to the full furnishing out of a bodye And in an other place he sayth likewise that Christ is the head of the church working all thinges fully in all the members of his bodye which is the church Whereupon it followeth very well that we ought to haue no other head in the church to execute and performe the office of Christ forasmuch as the sayd performance is reseruid to Christ him selfe These be the very wordes of S. paule And he hath put all thinges vnder his feete set him aboue all things to be the hed of the church which is his bodye and the ful furnishing out of him who furnisheth out all thinges fully in all men Also in an other text of S. Paule it is well declared that that church needeth not a liuetenant to hold the place of Iesus Christ her hed For he sayth that lyke as the husband is the hed of his wife so is Christ also the hed of his church And were it meet that a wife should haue a nother man in her husbandes stead would not men say that the wyfe which would needs haue another man to supply her husbāds roome were a whore yes and euē in lyke wise the chast and honest-minded church ought to content herselfe with her hed which is Christ who is well inough able to gouerne the same without a liuetenant specially seing it should be but ill gouerned by such liuetennants as the most part of the Popes haue bene This is the very text of S. Paule For the husband is the hed of the wyfe euen as Christ is the hed of the Church who is also the preseruer of hir bodye Therfore as the church is subiect vnto Christ so lykewise let women be subiect to their husbandes Moreouer when S. Paule maketh reckening of the diuers offices which are in the Church he saith that for the gathering together and building vp of the same Christ hath ordayned Apostles Prophets Euangelistes Shepherds and Teachers and not that he hath appointed a Pope or an vniuersall Shepheard to haue supremacie ouer the vniuersal Church which is dispersed throughout all the world And yet it is very certain that S. Paule would not haue forgotten to haue spoaken of him yea and to haue reckned him in the first place if Iesus Christ had ordayned that there should haue bene a pope in his church to haue bene his lieutenāt These be the very wordes of S. Paul Therefore he hath appoynted some to be Appostles some to be Prophets some to be Euangelists some to be Shepheards some to be Teachers to gather together the Sayntes through their working in the ministery and to build vp the body of Christ And so it appeareth by this text that there needeth no pope for the building vp of the church nor for the work of the ministery but that the offices before named by S. Paule are sufficient for that purpose And as touching the text of Saint Mathew before alleadged whereon the Romish Cotholickes doe build theyr doctrine concerning the Pope saying that Iesus Chryst hath builded his Church vpon S. Peeter the first Pope and geuen him all power ouer the vniuersall Church The Protestances aunswere that the Petra that is to say the rocke which is spoken of there is the fayth whereby S. Peter had most stoutly confessed that Iesus was that Christ the sonne of the liuing god For S. Paule doth teach vs that Iesus Christ is the head corner stone whereon we ought to build And S. Peter himselfe doth witnes that the true beleuers which haue their fayth builded vpon this corner stone christ are as liuing stones conched and cemented together vpon it to fynish vp the building of the lords church And as for the authority which Iesus Christ gaue vnto Peter as it is sayd in the same text They sayd also that he gaue the like to all the rest of his Apostles as S. Iohn witnesseth So as it cannot be inferred vpon this text that S. Peter was ordained to be the onely Soueraygn gouernor of the Christian Church any more then the rest of the Apostles And in an other place S. Paule doth wel declare that S. Peter had no more authority then the other Apostles for hee putteth himselfe in the same degree of apostleship that Peter was And whē he reckneth vp the chiefest Apostles he reckneth first S. Iames then Saynt Peter and in the third place S. Iohn wherein he had greatly ouershot him selfe which cannot be sayd without blaming the holy ghost if the saying of the Romish Catholickes be trew who affirme that S. Peter was the Prince of the Apostles and had soueraygne authority ouer them and ouer the whole vniuersall church These be the uery wordes of S. Paule For he which hath wrought by peter in the office of Apostleship among the circumcised hath like wise wrought by me among the Gentiles and Iames Cephas and Iohn who are esteemed to be the pillers haue knowne the grace which was geuen me Neither doth S. Peeter in his Epistles name himselfe Pope or prince of Apostles or head of the church or Christs vickar but simply an Apostle as the others And when his companions did geue him charge to go preach in Samaria he was so far of from pretēding to haue any princely authority ouer them that he obayd them without gayneseing as it is written in the Actes of the Apostles And therefore it appeareth playnelye by all these sayings that the doctrine of the protestantes is better grounded vpon the word of God then the doctrine of the Romish Catholickes and consequently that it is the most auncient and true according to our second Maxime Let vs now come to the Canons Truely when I read these Canons which I wil reherse hereafter I maruel that pope Engenie the third who authorised the decres of Gratian and commanded that they should be openly red
of touching this matter namelye the personall succession amongst those of the Romain Clergy wherof they doe so greatly brag thēselues against the Protestantes and their discipline As touching the first point they say they haue as it were a lineall succession from age to age of Bishops and Shepheards from the Primitiue Church and therefore that they be the true Shepheards that by the contrary reason the Ministers of the gospell which haue had no such succession be false Shepheards But this matter of succession is very easie to be answered For if you looke well into the histories of the Popes and conferre them with the canons both of late yeres and of olde time you shal finde that the most part of the Popes and Bishops came in at the window and not at the dore And that they haue been intruders and vsurpers not lawfull successors And to begin at the beginning the canons doe teach vs as truth is that Bishopricks and Ecclesiasticall offices ought to be bestowed by lawfull election and that it is not lawfull for Bishops and Shepheards to appoint in their latter dayes who shall succeede them but only to geue their opinion to their Churches concerning such as they deeme in their consciences to be most meete to succeede them Thus saith a Canon taken out of the Counsell of Antioch It is not lawful for a Bishop to choose or appoint who shall be his Successor though he be neere his death and whatsoeuer he doth in that case is nothing nor nothinge worth By which Canon it followeth that Pope Clement whom they vouch to be the Successor of S. Peter was no lawfull Pope For there is another Canon which saith if it be worthy to be beleued that S. Peter drawing nie the end of his life tooke S. Clement by the hand and betooke vnto him the Church of Rome choosing him to be his successor Also Pope Damasus who was about the yere of our Lord 371. in the time of the Emperor Valentiniā was made Bishop or Pope of Rome by great hurliburlies wherein there were a hundred and seuen and thirty men slaine in the streetes as Marcillinus doth witnes Pope Iohn the eightth being a woman and therfore not capable of the Popedome was borne in England held the Papacie about two yeres and a halfe Pope Siluester the second was a great Negromanser and came to be Pope by the help of the deuill to whom he gaue both body and soule as it is written in his history and he raigned foure yeares and certaine Monethes Pope Siluester the third was made Pope by tumults and factions For in those dayes as sayeth the history the popedome was growen to such a state that it was geuen to him that would geue most for it or which made most frends and fauour Pope Boniface the eightth was made Pope by faction and bribery hauing first by suttle practises gotten the resignation of his predecessor Pope Celestine a man of a simple Wit whom he caused to be straitly shut vp in prison where he dyed for grief of mind when he saw himself so deceiued and il handeled Wherupon it was sayd by this Boniface a good witnesse of his calling that he entered into the Popedome like a fox raigned like a Lion and died like a dog for he dyed mad Pope Iohn the four and twentieth vsurped the Papacie by force and violence and maintayned himselfe in it by the same meanes and was found to erre in the Christian faith in moe than in fortie Articles so holy was his holines To be short the histories of the popes are full of the wicked dealings and practises which the Popes did vse to attaine to that degree Now therefore I aske you whether these ought to be called lawfull successors of S. Peter and whether those Bishoppes which were consecrated by them were lawfully called or not or ought to be reputed the lawfull successors of the primitiue church whether the Curates and other Priestes that were promoted to holy order and to benefices by such Bishops may be reckned as lawfull successors of the Shepheards and Elders of the Primitiue Church It is very ceataine that they were not For then were the Canons vntrue which say that in all prouisions for persons meete for Benefices there ought to be a lawfull election wherein consideration is to be had of the fitnes of the parties age which is to be chosen and of the grauitie of his manners and of his learning and that as many as haue voyces in the election should be heard vpon paine of making the election of no force and that the party be denoūced as vnworthy and vnmeet to haue a benefice which is furthered or preferred therunto by the fauor or power of the world Neither are such diuelish seruings inforcementes subtilties and fauors to be called lawfull vocations but intrusions inuations vsurpations and wicked and damnable practises The Canons also doe confirme it to be Simonie to geue mony or ought els to be promoted to Orders or to be prouided of a Benefice or to obtayn a benefice in recompence of any temporall seruice And that al aduowsions and presētations made by Popes or Bishops in way of Simonye be naught and of no valure or authoritie Now I leaue it to al people of any discretion to cōclude how the Bishops the priestes of these dayes may be called the lawfull successors of those of the primatiue Church For shall a man find any which geueth no mony for his orders or for the bulles of hys benefice Are not the Bishoprickes Abbyes Pryoryes and other Benefices geuen away now adayes and of long tyme agoe in recompence of temporall seruice yea and sometime for such vnworthy vile seruices as deserue rather punishement than recompence And seeing that the Popes and Byshops thēselues clymbe vp into their high degrees by Symonye must it not needes be that the collations which they make in bestowing the benefices of the patronages vpō other inferior priestes are Simonicall and so consequently voyd according to the foresayd Canons If the Romish Catholickes deny this they must also disauow their own Canons and deny the sonne to haue light And therefore the Romish Clergy are farre from the lawful and continuall successiō of the Shepherds and Priests of the primatiue Church wherein they imagine themselues to to remayn For sure Brybery Simonie and such other like practises are not the doore whereby they ought to enter into the succession of the auncient shepheardes and Elders as they doe But they ought to enter by lawful election made by calling vpon the name of God after dew examination of the party that is to be promotid that he be found meet for that charge who beyng so chosen must thenceforth haue the tokens of the auncient Shepheardes whiche are to preach Gods word purely to minister the Sacraments to mayntayn good discipline and to visite and comfort the sicke as the
legacies and foundacions of Obites to massepriests and chauntrypriests and to make good prouision of pardons specially in the time of the great Iubileis and Croysseys which they sell very good cheape And in very truth this doctrine of Purgatory hath exceedingly inriched the Cleargie yea more than any other thing For there dyed not so poore a wretch which gaue not some legacie to the priest yea often times euen the best thing they had to haue them sing masses for the case of their soules and to shorten the time of their abode in purgatory And hereunto were al sick folke perswaded by their Confessors which would make great difficultye nicenes to geue them absolution except they would promise to geue one thing or other to the church And the better to draw them hereunto they made them beleue that for euery mortall sinne their soules shold remain as is said seuen yeares in the paynes of purgatory which would be an infinite time if it were not shortened by masses For say they although that God doe in this world pardon the sinnes of all such as confesse them to the priest and make satisfaction yet doth he remit but the sinne only and not the payne so as we must needes goe to purgacory to suffer paynes for al the sinnes which we haue committed in all our life time Which paines are so great as greater are not possible For say they there is as greate difference betwixt the fire of purgatory and the fire of this world as is betwixt a burning coale the breath of a mannes mouth By reason wherof the poore world had so great feare and conceit of this hote fire of purgatory and of the infinite time which they should be fayn to remaine there accounting seuen yeares for euery mortall sinne which was committed in a mannes life time that euery man gaue vnto the Priestes as much as they would craue to the end that their time in purgatory might be shortned But contrary to this doctrine the Protestantes doe hold opinion that we haue no other purgatory than the bloud of our Lord Iesus Ghrist which washeth away and clenseth all mens sinnes which beleue in him And they say that his precious bloud is more then sufficient to wipe out all our sinnes without hauing neede to be purged by any fier And that our sauiour doth not clense vs by halfes but throughly altogether and we should doe him wrong and iniury to beleue that we haue need of any other kinde of clensing than of that which he him selfe maketh in iustifying vs by bearing our iniquities and by wyping away our sinnes and blemishes And that it is a mockery to say that God doth pardon our sinnes and not the payn due for sinne as if you wold say he forgeueth vs the dets that we doe owe him but not the payment of the dettes for he will haue that still And now to say the truth all men may easily iudge that this doctrine is better thā the doctrine of the Romish Catholickes according to our first rule because that by the same Christ our Redeemer is most honored forasmuche as he is acknowledged to be the only and whole purger of our iniquities and our true and only Attonementmaker and Iustifyer And asfor the holy scripture that doth teach vs that the faythfull and chosen of God do dye vnto the Lord and that those which dye vnto the Lord are very happy do go into the place of rest These are the expresse wordes of S. Iohn Happy are they which from this time forth do dye to the Lord for they do rest from their labors And for those which dye not to the Lord forasmuch as they be none of his nor members of the body of the true church whereof christ is the head it is certayne that there is no saluation for them And therefore it is in vayne to imagine a purgatory either for the one or for the other For as many as die to the lord go presently to rest not into purgatory And those which doe not dye to the Lord do go into euerlasting payn not into purgatorye and there is no saluation for them And as for the text taken out of the booke of the Machabees which alloweth prayer for the dead and so by consequence purgatory also The Protestantes say that it ought to be houlden for a certayn and vndoubted rule that we ought not to build any article or fayth vpon the bookes called Apocripha of which nūber this booke of the Machabyes is one insomuch as the Author thereof that wrate it confesseth that he may perchaunce haue ouershot himselfe and that he hath written in simple stile and that he was not of skill to write any better which is an vnmeete kinde of speech for the holy Ghost who can not erre nor hath any neede to be excused for speaking in a base stile for when he listeth he speaketh in a higher stile than the excellentest Orators that ouer were in the world And as touching the text where it is sayes that the sinne against the holy Ghost is not pardoned neither in this world nor in the would to come Whereupon the Romish Catholicks doe inferre following the interpretation of S. Gregory that then the other sinnes are forgeuen in the other world and so by consequence that there must nedes be a purgatory the protestantes affirme that to be an ill conclusion For in so saying our Lord Iesus Christ mente nothing else but that the sinne againste the holy Ghost shal neuer be forgeuē S. Oregory himself as we will declare hereafter doth not say that all other sinnes sauing the sinne agaynst the holy Ghost shall be pardoned in the world to come but onely that the smalest sort of sinnes which are called veniall sinnes shal be then forgeuen Let vs now come to the Canons There are two peeces of Canons in the decrees of Graecian which may easely quench and confound purgatory For by the one it is sayd that in this world one of vs may wel be helped by the prayers of another But when we depart from hence to appeare before the seate of Christ euery man must beare his own burthē and then the prayers of Saints which are in paradise will nothing auaile vs and much lesse will the prayers of mē of this world stand vs in any steade These are the wordes of the Canon In this present world we know we may helpe one another with our prayers and good aduice but when we come before the iudgement seate of Christ then neyther Iob. nor Daniell nor Noe can pray for any but euery man shall then beare his own burthen The other Canon sayth that neither the bishops nor the Apostles can assoyle the dead of their sinnes Wherupon it followeth that men haue bought the Popes pardons in vaine for the redeeming of those which are sayd to haue been in Purgatory These are the very words of the said Canon taken out of