hand This vow of theirs therefore is metonymically filthie because it makes them such In one word that he may raue no more of Epicures Turkes Pagans Their vow is in profession glorious filthie in effect And now for a conclusion of this poynt I must out of all these grosse and ignorant passages of his though vnproperly yet truely vow to the world that a truer Bayard did neuer stumble forth into the Presse SECT XVII HE hath done with their own vowes and now descends to vs whom he confesses vowlesse His scorne cannot strip vs of the benefit of that Truth which hee confesseth Thus then hee writes I freely with other Catholikes grant that our English Ministers according to their calling make no vowes I grant their marriage to be lawfull I grant that euery one of them may be the husband of one wife c. And why did not this liberalitie of my wise Detector tye vp his Tongue in his purse all this while No more was required no lesse is yeelded whereto is all this iangling But that his grant may proue worse then a deniall thus he proceeds But wee denie them to bee truely Clergie-men or to haue any more authoritie in the Church then their wiues or daughters haue and this because they want all true calling and Ordination For they entred not in at the dore like true Pastors but stole in at the window like theeues We denie their ministerie I say to bee lawfull because they did runne before they were sent tooke their places by intrusion c. Let Master HALL disproue this and I will say Tu Phyllida solus habeto Thus he A deepe crimination and such as if it could bee proued would robbe our question of the State and vs of our duely-challenged honour Reader this vehemence shewes thee where his shoo wrings him It is the gall of Romish hearts that wee prosper and are not theirs Where they haue presumed vpon credulitie they haue not stucke to say wee are not men like others but more frequently and boldly that wee are no Christian men and here most peremptorily that we are no Clergie-men There is no Church no Christianitie no Clergie not theirs Neyther can wee bee in Orders whiles we are out of Babylon The man dreames of the Nagges-head in Cheap-side where his lying Oracle Tradition hath not shamed to report Iewell Sands Horne Scory Grindall and others in the beginning of Queene Elizabeths time beeing disappoynted of the Catholike Bishop of Landaff to haue layd hands mutually on each other and that from hence haue flowed our pretended Orders This our shamelesse Sacrobosco heard of some good old folkes and they had it of one Neale Professor Ebrius in Oxford Kellison tooke it of Sacrobosco and C.E. of him Concordat cum Originali Diabolus est mendax pater eius And is not this a worthie engine to batter downe the wals of a whole Church to blow vp all our Ordination Is it possible that any Christian face should bee so gracelesse as to beare out such an apparent and ridiculous falshood against so many thousands of witnesses against the euidence of authenticall Records against reason and sense it selfe For can they hope to perswade any liuing man that these hauing at that time a lawfull Archbishop of their owne Religion legally established in the Metropoliticall Chayre by an acknowledged authoritie the sway of the times openly fauouring them when all Churches all Chappels gladly opened to them that they would be so mad as to goe and Ordayne themselues in a Tauerne He that would beleeue this may be perswaded that their adored blocks can weepe and speake and moue that their Cake is his God Neuer truth could be cleared if not this No lesse then the whole Kingdome knew that Queene Mary died in the yeere 1558 Nouember 17 and her Cardinal then Archbishop of Canterbury accompanied her soule in death the same day The same day was Queene Elizabeths Initium Regni her Coronation Ianuary 15. following That leasure enough might bee taken in these great affaires the See of Canterbury continued voide aboue a yeere At last in the second yeere of Queen Elizabeth 1559. December 17. was Mathew Parker legally consecrated Archbishop of Canterburie by foure Bishops William Barlow formerly Bishop of Bathe then elect of Chichester Iohn Scory before of Chichester now elect of Hereford Miles Couerdale Bishop of Exceter Iohn Hodgeskins Suffragan of Bedford Mathew Parker thus irrefragably settled in the Archiepiscopall See with three other Bishops in the same Moneth of December solemnely consecrated Edmund Grindall and Edwin Sands The publique Records are euident and particular relating the Time Sunday morning after Prayers The place Lambeth-Chappell The manner Imposition of hands The consecrators Mathew Cant. William Chichester Iohn Hereford Iohn Bedford The Preacher at the Consecration Alexander Nowell afterwards the worthie Deane of Pauls The Text Take heed to your selues and to all the flocke c. The Communion lastly administred by the Archbishop For Bishop Iewell he was consecrated the Moneth following in the same forme by Mathew Cant. Edmund London Richard Ely Iohn Bedford Lastly for Bishop Horne he was consecrated a whole yeere after this by Mathew Cant. Thomas S. Dauids Edmund London Thomas Couentry and Lichfield The Circumstances Tyme Place Forme Preacher Text seuerally recorded The particulars whereof I referre to the faithfull and cleare relation of Master Francis Mason whose learned and full discourse of this subiect might haue satisfied all eyes and stopped all mouthes What incredible impudencie is this then for those which pretend not Christianitie onely but the Consecration of God wilfully to rayse such shamefull slanders from the pit of Hell to the disgrace of truth to the disparagement of our holy calling Let mee therefore challenge my Detector in this so important a point wherein his zeale hath so far out-run his wit and with him all the Brats of that proud Harlot that no Church vnder Heauen can shew a more cleere eeuen vncontrolable vntroubled line of the iust succession of her sacred Orders then this of ours If his Rome for her tyrannous Primacy could bring forth but such Cardes the World would bee too strait for her He shall maugre be forced to confesse that either there were neuer true Orders in the Church of England which he dares not say or else that they are still Ours The Bishops in the time of King Henry the eight were vndoubted If they left Rome in some corrected opinions their Character was yet by confession indeleble They laid their hands according to Ecclesiasticall constitution vpon the Bishops in King Edwards dayes And they both vpon the Bishops in the beginning of Queene Elizabeth They againe vpon the succeeding Inheritors of their holy Sees and they lastly vpon vs so as neuer man could shew a more certayne and exquisite Pedigree from his great Grand-father then we can from the acknowledged Bishops of King Henries time and thence vpwards to hundreds of
an ancient and well-grounded Institution Neither need wee any better or other proofe of the inconnexion of this Vow with holy Orders then that of their owne Dominicus à Soto Non est de essentia Sacerdotis c. It is not of the essence of a Priest saith he to keepe single for that the Grecian Clergy are permitted euen by the Roman Church to continue in the estate of Marriage What can be more cleare If there were a necessarie and inseparable connexion of a vowed Continencie with holy Orders then would not neither could the Roman Church acknowledge a true Priesthood where it finds coniugall Societie Their act of allowance to the Greeke Church implyes a faire independencie of these two which some of their clamorous Clients plead to haue indiuisibly coupled So as now all the strength of this necessary Celibate is resolued into the power of a Church-Statute and of what Church but the Roman All other Churches in the World as of Armenia Grecia Syria Ethiopia Russia the Georgians c. allow the coniunction of Ministerie and Marriage and are so farre from requiring a Vow of necessarie Continencie that they rather erroniously prerequire a necessitie of Marriage in the persons to be ordained It is onely the Church of Rome the great and imperious Mistresse of the World that imposes the yoke of this Vow vpon her Vassals Imposes it but ad libitum so as her great Paramour in whose vast Bosome that whole Church lyes may dipense with it as he lists Heare that irrefutable discourse of Cardinall Caietan His wordes beare weight and are not vnworthie the eyes of my Reader Therefore saith he since the Pope may at his pleasure loose the Bond of that Statute it followes necessarily that if a Priest of the Westerne Church shall marrie by the Popes leaue without any reasonable cause that such Marriage of his is a true Marriage and the parties married are true Husband and Wife and their Issue truly legitimate although in so marrying both the parties should sinne mortally in doing this act against the Vow of Chastitie without a reasonable or at least a probable cause of their so licencing and consequently neither should the Pope himselfe bee excused from mortall sinne But if there be any reasonable cause of dispensing with this Vow of Chastitie then the partie thus marrying and dispensed with may both safely marry and liue in Marriage And hereupon it appeares That since a reasonable cause of dispensing with this Vow of Chastitie may be not onely the publike Vtilitie whether Ciuill or Ecclesiasticall but any other greater good then the obseruing of that Chastitie it iustly followes that the Pope not onely may but with a safe Conscience may dispense with a Priest of the Westerne or Romane Church that he may marry euen besides the cause of a publike benefit And therefore the determination of some hath beene too presumptuous in affirming That absolutely and without such cause the Pope cannot dispence whereas as we haue shewed the Pope may doe it without any cause though in so doing he should sinne and with any reasonable cause without sinne and in both the Matrimonie stands firme Thus he Words that need neyther Paraphrase nor Inforcement And how vsuall the practice of this Dispensation hath beene that we may not rest onely in Speculation appeares enough by the ingenuous complaint of their selected Cardinals to Paul the third Who cry downe the abuse of these ouer-frequent Grants which they would not haue yeelded but vpon publike and weightie Causes especially say they in these Times wherein the Lutherans vrge this matter with so much vehemence Neither is it long since our kind Apostate M. Carier gaue vs here in England from bigger Men then himselfe an ouerture of the likelyhood of this liberall Dispensation from his holy Father of Rome vpon the conditions of our re-subiection Would we therefore but stoope to kisse the Carbuncle of that sacred Toe our Clergy might as well consist with holy Wedlocke as the Grecian Oh the grosse mockerie of Soules not more ignorant then credulous Will his Holinesse dispense with vs for our sinne Wee can be dispensed with at home for his Dispensation It is their Sorrow that the World is growne wiser and findes Heauen no lesse neere to Douer-Cliffe then to the Seuen-Hills And ere we leaue this Point it is very considerable what may be a reasonable cause of this Dispensation For those very Iesuites which hold the power of this Vow such That the vehementest tentations and foyles of the flesh may not be relieued with an arbitrarie Matrimonie since the matter of this Vow is so important and carries so much danger in the violation as that it is not to be left to the power of a priuate Iudgement though morally certaine whether Matrimonie all things considered bee in this particular expedient for that may be fit for a man as a singular person which is not fit for him as part of the community yet they graunt that this extreme perplexednesse and violence of carnall motions is a iust cause of dispensation What neede wee more Though some Casuists be more fauourable and graunt that in such cases wee may not onely allow but perswade Matrimonie to the perplexed Votarie As Cardinal Aeneas Syluius who was neuer lesse Pius then when he was Pius giues this heartie aduice to his friend Iohn Freiind a Roman Priest that hee should notwithstanding his Orders helpe himselfe by Marriage yet the former will serue our turne If therefore those Superiours which haue all lawfull and spirituall authoritie ouer vs shall haue thought good vpon this reasonable cause to giue a generalitie of dispensation to all such of our Clergie as shall not after all carefull and serious indeuours find themselues able to contayne allowing them by these lawfull remedies to quench those impure flames What can any Iesuite or Deuill except against this This is simply the cleere case of them whose cause I maintayne And yet further Put case this had not beene if without the thought of any Romish Dispensation the Eastern Church neuer held it needfull to require the Vow of single Life in the Ministers of the Altar they know the words of their own Glosse why should not our Church challenge the same immunitie for that from the generall consideration of Ecclesiastiques as such wee may turne our eyes to our Ecclesiastiques in speciall no Church vnder Heauen kept it selfe more free from the bondage of those tyrannous Impositions The Clergie of this Island from the beginning neuer offered any such vow the Bishops neuer required it for more if any credit be due to Histories then a thousand yeeres after Christ The great Champion of Rome Master Harding was driuen to say They did it by a Becke if not by a Dieu-gard but could neuer proue it done by either Neither is it more worth my Readers note then my
Doctor Fulke Habentem filios aut facientem Hauing children or begetting them The difference is not worth standing for Let it passe after his owne reading I could stop his mouth with the ingenuous answere of his ESPENCaeVS Habentem enim c. For he said Hauing children not begetting them Debellatum hic esset c. This Field were wonne if either this were the Text and not the Glosse or they that thus interpret it were Apostles as they are not Thus their owne Bishop But I neede not call for any ayde The words of Ambrose doe plainely driue against an inuitation or command which wee doe willingly disclayme SECT XIX NOw vnhappie is this man that still shoots his Arrowes quite besides the Butt He prooues forsooth with great zeale that the Fathers neuer vnderstood a positiue command in our Apostles words which I neuer thought so much as in dreame and then hee bends his Forces against Bygamie which I no where auouched The Man of valour loues to play his prizes alone Here is no command then saith he but a permission How much are wee bound to him for this fauour Permission Thus much hee with his holy Father yeelds to their Stewes No here is a direct allowance Let him be the Husband of one Wife Not Hee may be so But this was only for a time he saith because of the paucity of single Clergy-men Let him shew me the Apostles limitation and I am satisfied otherwise this misse-grounded conceit what countenance soeuer it may find in a priuate humane authoritie shall passe with vs as a Glosse of Burdeaux that marres the Text. But how shamelesly how fraudulently how like himselfe doth my Refuter cite CHRYSOSTOMES Castigat impudicos c He checketh the incontinent saith that Father whiles hee permitteth them not after their second marriages to be preferred to the gouernement of the Church and dignitie of Pastors and there my Refuter stops with So he whereas if hee had gone forward the place had answered him and it selfe For saith CHRYSOSTOME he which is found not to haue kept his beneuolence towards his wife which is gone from him how should he be a good Teacher to the Church Plainly shewing vs that hee intends this to those vnchaste Husbands which after an vniust diuorce of their former wiues haue married also a second not after the death of the first The like Priestly fidelitie hee vseth in the place of Chrysostome Hom. 2. vpon Iob the poore man had taken vp some scraps of quotations vpon trust hauing neuer seene the Authors For Chrysostome neuer wrote any Homilies vpon the Booke of Iob onely hee hath fiue Homilies of the Patience of Iob whereof this cited is the second wherein his errori ignoscebat hath reference rather to sine crimine which he opposeth to irreprehensibiles then to vir vnius vxoris as the sequell plainly shewes As for Bigamie it is out of our way but since his loquacitie will needes roue thither let him shew that before Montanus infected the World with a preiudice against second Marriages after decease they were held vnlawfull for any calling or person and wee will grant him clamorous to some purpose To prooue this opinion and practice of the Church like a wise Master he brings in Tertullians authoritie in his Booke which he wrote in the time of his Heresie whiles he was ouer the eares in Montanisme where hee tels vs hee hath knowne some eiected for second Marriages But if hee had euer read the Booke following of Monogamie he might haue found his Tertullian then Montanizing to vpbraid the true Catholike Church which he calls Psychicos with the vsuall practice allowance of the second Marriages of their Bishops Quot enim digami c. For how many Bishops are there amongst you twice marryed But who-euer was matcht with so vaine a Babbler I prooued from S. Paul that a Bishop might haue one Wife hee prooues by Councels and Fathers that hee may not haue two It is pittie that his Masters the Iesuites haue no more Trees for him to set with the Rootes vpward Any thing rather then to wearie the World with this foolish clacking Out of this indiscreet and odious verbositie lest hee should want noyse he stumbles vpon the Councell of Constantinople before it come in his way and spends a whole leafe only to tell vs that he will talke of it hereafter Hereafter hee shall receiue answere enough What needes this disorderly anticipation To conclude then this place of our Apostle stands for vs vnshaken by any the impotent blasts of his friuolous Elusions and shall warrant vs against Earth and Hell that a Bishop may bee the Husband of one Wife SECT XX. MY next place of the honorablenesse of Marriage amongst all he smoothes ouer with a pretended concession professing with Fulgentius and Hierome to giue all high Titles to that state only preferring the rule of a better life praysing Marriage but more extolling Virginitie But who euer made the comparison These are faire Nets to catch Fooles Whiles hee heapes vp all the reprochfull termes that spight can deuise against the verie state of Marriage in some callings not so much as preiudiced by Vow how doth hee grant Marriage honourable amongst all If the comparison bee the matter hee stands vpon let him say Marriage is good and lawfull for all conditions Virginitie is better hee shall haue no Aduersarie And whereas to call him to reckoning for arrerages he turn'd off this place when it was with a scoffe out of Bellarmine That Marriage is honourable amongst all yet not between Father and Daughter c. the man alluded sure to their great and good Alexander the sixt and his chaste Lucrece of whom he knowes the Riddle Filia Sponsa Nurus For vs that it is honorable in all estates of men by Apostolicall warrant is sufficient assurance that to no calling or estate it can bee dishonourable and vnlawfull But to vntye Bellarmines trifling knot I say Marriage is honourable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all but not betweene all That is euery man may marrie with a woman but not with any woman whatsoeuer as with his Mother or Sister So Father and Daughter may marry but not one the other See now what a worthy Messe of Sophistrie is layd in Saint Pauls dish by these Caruers and how easily ouer-turned So as I might very well proclaime to all the World which I doe now confidently second that if God might be iudge of this Controuersie it were soone at an end If my Refuter make faces at this their whole Schoole shall beare me out in it Et sane communis est scholae resolutio c. And in truth it is saith their ESPENCAEVS the common resolution of the Schoole that if wee insist only in those things which were spoken by Christ and written by the Apostles in
Apostles Soone after according to S. Pauls prophesie Spirits of Errors were abroad and whether out of the necessarie exigence of those prosecuted times or out of an affectation to win fauour and admiration in the eyes of Gentilisme Virginitie began to rayse vp it selfe in some priuate conceits vpon the ruines of honest Wedlocke neyther is it hard to discerne by what degrees yet neuer with such absolute successe as to proceed to any Law of restraint I doe not therefore fayne to my selfe as mine idle Refuter golden ages of mirth and marrying vnder those tyrannous persecutions but in those bloudie ages I doe auouch to him and the World an immunitie from the Tyrannous yoke of forced continencie This if hee could haue disproued by any iust instances he had not giuen vs words If he be angrie that I said some of the pretended Epistles of his ancient Popes to this purpose are palpably foysted Let him fasten where hee lists if he haue not an answer let me haue the shame in the meane time it is enough to snarle where he dares not bite That which I cited from Origen aduising the sonnes of Clergie-men not to be proud of their parentage he cannot deny he can cauill at The same perswasion saith he might bee made to S. PETERS daughter as many are of opinion that he had one yet will it not follow that hee knew his wife after he was an Apostle So he But what needs this parenthesis if the man bee true to his owne Authors Did wee deuise the Storie of Petronilla Did wee inuent the passage of her Sutor Flaccus Of her Feuer the cure whereof her father denyed Of her Epitaph ingrauen in Marble by her fathers owne hand Aureae Petronillae dilectissimae filiae To my deare and precious PETRONILLA my most beloued daughter found by Paul the First Are not these things reported by their owne Volateranus Petr. Natalis Beda Vssuardus Sygebertus Platina Still where is the man that cryes out of reiecting authorities in other cases allowed Eyther then let him giue the lye to his Histories or else let him compute the Time when Flaccus the Roman Count was a Sutor to her and see if he be not forced to grant that shee was begotten of S. Peter after his Apostleship And so for ought hee knowes might those sonnes bee whom Origen thus dehorteth This man was not their Mid-wife The place of Origen which hee cites to the contrary he tooke vp somewhat on trust let him goe and inquire better of his Creditor by the same token that in the Homily of Origen whither he sends vs hee shall finde nothing but Balaams Asse an obiect fit for his meditation As for that parcel of the Testimony which he saith my chin-cough caused mee to suppresse in ipsa Christianitate it is as Herbe-Iohn in the Pot to the purpose of my allegation Origen speakes of that Text Many that are first shall be last c. Which he applyes as a cooling-card to the children of Christian parents especially Si fuerint ex patribus Sacerdotali sede dignificatis If they be the sonnes of them which are dignified with Sacerdotall honour The change of the Preposition is remarkeable ex patribus arguing that he speakes not of their education but their descent and therefore implying no lesse then I affirmed that their parentage giues them a supposed cause of exaltation SECT II. HOly ATHANASIVS was brought by mee in stead of a thousand Histories Who tels vs that it was no rare thing to find marryed Bishops in his time My wise Refuter after hee hath idlely gone about the bush a little comes out with this dry verdict What will Master HALL hence infer That Bishops and Priests may lawfully marrie Saint ATHANASIVS saith it not but onely recounteth the fact that some marryed of both sorts but whether they did well or ill or whether himself did approue or condemne the same there is no word in this sentence Thus he We take what he giues and seeke for no more Wee cited Athanasius in stead of many Histories not of many Arguments Histories de facto not discourses de iure The lawfulnesse was discussed before the practice and vse is now inquired of This Athanasius witnesses and C. E. yeelds Wherein yet I may not forget to put my Refuter in minde how brittle his memorie is who in the same leafe contradicts himselfe For when hee had before confessed that ATHANASIVS doth neyther approue nor condemne the practice eyther as good or euill now he plainely tels vs that the words were not spoken by way of simple narration but of mislike and reprehension He would be a good lyer if he could agree with himselfe Why of dislike For saith hee it was neuer lawfull for Monkes or Bishops to beget children Ipse dixit wee must beleeue him Not to tell him that Chrysostome teaches vs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is possible with marriage to doe the acts of Monkes nor to conuince him with counter-testimonies let him tel me what fault it is to doe or not to doe miracles These in this sentence of ATHANASIVS goe in the same ranke with Marriage But to cleare Athanasius he brings Hierom against Vigilantius impudently called by him The father of the Protestants who would haue all Clergie-men to marrie when his verie Rhemists haue checkt him for this slander pleading against that necessitie from which wee haue oft washt our hands when as the same Author against Iouinian affirmes de facto the same with Athanasius and vs. To say then that Athanasius spoke this only of lewd licentious Monks or Bishops is but the leud libertie of a licentious tongue that hath ouer-runne both Truth and it selfe From hence this Orator this parcell of wit flyes out into a pleasant frumpe as hee thinkes but indeed an vgly inhumane lothsome ribaudrie ill-beseeming the mouth of any that was borne of a woman I will not say whether ill or well beseeming the pen of a Virgine-Priest forsooth so pure and Angelical that marriage would vn-Saint him His vnmanly vnnaturall Stile belcheth thus Thus LVTHER of KATHERINE BORE his Sow had sixe Pigs Away nasty C. E. transformed by Circe Hoy backe to her Styes yea thine where thou maist freely Grunnire in septis cum foedo hoc agmine clausus Then proceeds hee enuying the the matrimoniall fruitfulnesse of Bucer who surely had he vnder the vaile of maydenly Priesthood been farre more fruitfull in a whole swarme of Bastards should neuer haue heard of it vnlesse perhaps he had denyed to pay Taxam Camerae As for Ochius allowing Polygamie and perhaps other worse obliquities in his opinions what are they to vs For the marriage of P. Martyr Occolampadius Pellican c. Let him take for an acquittance that which hath beene payed them thus Nobis nostrae sunt lunones vobis vestrae Veneres And then I aske Viuat vter nostrū cruce dignior If this will
eight Booke hee shall find Badegisitus the cruell Bishop of the Cenomans matched with â—n ill wife who yet liued with him as it seemes all his time and had altercations with Bertram Archdeacon of Paris for his goods deceased In these there is strength of â—egall presumption though no necessitie of inference But what doe I instance in these or any other when Balsamon tells vs cleerly that before the sixt Synode it was lawfull for Bishops to haue wiues Etiam post dignitatem Episcopalem And his owne Canon Law can tell him that in the East Church their Priests Matrimonio copulantur which his wariest Masters expounding would interpret by copulato vtuntur Iudge then Reader what to thinke of the mettle of this mans forehead who would beare vs downe that no one Bishop or Priest was allowed after Orders to haue any Wife Yea euen for the very contraction of Marriage it selfe after Orders honest Espencaeus can cite one Ioannes Marius a Dutch-man by birth but a French Historian to whom hee allowes the title of non indiligeris who writes that hee knowes that in the times of Pope Formosus and Ludouicus Balbus Priests were married Et ijs lieuisse sponsam legitimam ducere modo Virginem non verò Viduam and that it was lawfull for them to marrie a Wife so shee were a Virgine not a Widdow As for that base slander wherewith this venomous Pen besprinkles the now-glorious face of our renowned Archbishop and Martyr Doctor Cranmer whom hee most lewdly charges with lasciuiousnesse and incontinent liuing with I know not what Dutch Fraw it is worthy of no other answere then Increpet te Dominus It is true that the holy man wisely declining the danger malignitie of the times made not at the first any publike profession of his Marriage as what needed to inuite mischiefe But that he euer had any dishonest conuersation with her or any other it is no other then the accent of the mouth of Blasphemy And if any one of our Clergie after a legall and iust Diuorce long since haue taken to himselfe that liberty which other Reformed Churches publikely allow as granting in some case a full release both à thoro and à vinculo what ground is this for an impure wretch to cast dirt in the eyes of our Clergie and in the teeth of our Church Malicious Masse-priest cast backe those emissitious eyes to your owne infamous Chaire of Rome and if euen in that thou canst discerne no spectacles of abominable vncleannesse spend thy spightfull censures vpon ours I reckoned diuers Examples of marryed Bishops and Priests out of Eusebius Ruffinus others amongst the rest Domnus Bishop of Antioch which succeeded Samosatenus for which my margent cited Eusebius in his seuenth Booke and nine and twentieth Chapter My Detector taxes mee for citing Authours at randome as Eusebius lib. 7. cap. 29. when as there are he saith but sixe and twenty Chapters and for things which are not found in him As if the man had desperately sworne to write nothing but false Trust not me Reader Trust thine owne eyes Thou shalt not finde that Booke of Eusebius to haue one and thirtie Chapters and in the cited place thou shalt duly finde the Historie of Domnus Whose patience would not this impudencie moue If I reckoned not Examples enow or such as he likes not as vniustly seeming litigious there is choice enough of more Tertullian Prosper Hilarie Eupsychus Polycrates and his seuen Ancestors To which let him adde foure and twentie Diocesses at once in Germanie France Spaine Anno 1057. of married Clergie-men recorded by their owne Gebuilerus and make vp his mouth with that honest confession of Auentine Sacerdotes illa tempestate publicè vxores sicut caeteri Christiani habebant filios procreabant Priests in those dayes publikely had Wiues as other Christians had and begat children which the olde Verse if hee had rather expresses in almost the same termes Quondam praesbyteri poterant vxoribus vti which his Mantuan hath yet spun in a finer thred as we shall shew in this Section What danger is there now therefore either of the breach of my promise to my worthy Friend Master Doctor Whiting or of my diuorce or of his victorie If the man and his modestie had not beene long since parted these idle crackes had neuer beene But whereas this mightie Champion challenges me with great insultation in many passages of his brauing Discourse to name but one Bishop or Priest of note which after holy Orders conuersed coniugally with his Wife without the scandall of the Church branding such if any were for infamous and daring to pawne his cause vpon this triall I doe heere accept his offer and am readie to produce him such an Example as if all the Iesuites heads in the world stood vpon his shoulders they could not tell how to wrangle against I doe not vrge to him that Prosper of Aquitaine a Bishop and a Saint whose Verses to his Wife are famous and imply their inseparable conuersation Age iam precor mearum Comes irremotarerum c. Nor yet the fore-named Hilarie Bishop of Poitiers who in his olde age if that Epistle be worthy of any credit writing to his Daughter confesses her yeeres so few that through the incapacitie of her age shee might perhaps not vnderstand the Hymne or Epistle of whom the honest Carmelite MANTVANVS could ingenuously confesse Non nocuit tibi progenies non obstitit vxor Legitimo coniuncta thoro Non horruit illa Tempestate Deus thalamos cunabula taedas Nor Bishop Simplicius of whom Sidonius giues this prayse that his Parents were eminent either in Cathedris or Tribunalibus and that his Pedigree was famous either Episcopis or Praefectis and for his Wife that shee was of the Stocke of the PALLVDII qui aut literarum aut altarium cathedras cum sui ordinis laude tenuerunt of whom also Sidonius can say she did respondere Sacerdotijs vtriusque familiae answere the Priesthoods of eyther Family Nor Alcimus Auitus the French Archbishop who writing to his Sister of her Parentage hath thus Stemma Parentum Quos licet antiquo mundus donârit honore Et titulis à primaeuo insigniuerit ortu Plus tamen ornantur sacris insignibus illi c. Nec iam atauos soror alma tibi proauosque retexam Vita Sacerdotum quos reddidit inclyta claros Nor Paulinus Bishop of Nola in Campania to whome Ausonius writes Tanaquil tua nesciat istud And Formidatamque iugatam obijcis c. These and such like might suffice reasonable men but since wee haue to doe with those Aduersaries whom Saint Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who if we vrge hundreds of such euident examples turne vs off with bold shifts and will needes put vs to proue those acts which seeke secresie Let him and all his complices whet their wits vpon that cleare and