the same no less manifestly when he teacheth That Man is bound explicitly to believe all the Articles of Faith but implicitly whatsoever is delivered in Holy Scripture Here he manifestly supposeth Scripture not Tradition to be the Rule of all Articles of Faith. Otherwise he was obliged by all the Laws of Reason to conclude that an implicit Belief not of all things delivered by Scripture but of all delivered by Tradition is required But the most considerable Testimony of Aquinas is yet behind For inquiring whether the Articles of Faith be conveniently disposed in the Creed he formeth this Objection against it It should seem that the Articles of Faith are inconveniently disposed in the Creed For Holy Scripture is the Rule of Faith to which it is unlawful either to add or to take away For it is said Deut. IV. Ye shall not add to the word which I speak unto you nor take away from it Therefore it was unlawful to compose another Creed in manner of a Rule of Faith after the Promulgation of the Rule of Faith. Here certainly if ever was a fair occasion presented to deny Scripture to be the Rule of Faith. But Aquinas is so far from doing it that he allows it and endeavours to prove that the Composure of a Creed doth not necessarily include either any Addition to or diminution from Scripture For thus he answers To this Objection it is to be answered that the truth of Faith is diffusively contained in Holy Scriptures and divers ways and in some places obscurely so that to collect the true Faith out of Scripture a long Study and Exercise is required to which all those cannot arrive who are necessarily obliged to believe the truth of Faith since many of them taken up with other business cannot attend to study Therefore it was necessary that somewhat manifest should summarily be collected out of the sentences of Holy Scripture which might be proposed to all to be believed which indeed was not added to Holy Scripture but rather taken out of Holy Scripture I have used the greater diligence in representing the Doctrine of Aquinas because he beareth not a single Testimony but carrieth a numerous train of School Divines along with him I proceed now to the Writers of the fifteenth Age contemporary to our Author premising only the Authority of a Learned and Judicious Canonist of the precedent Age. This was Marsilius Patavinus Professor at Padua and Privy Counsellor to Lewis the Emperor who asserteth That we are bound to believe the Pope and Bishops to have received such a Power and Authority from Christ as we can evince from the Words of Scripture was conferred on them and no other But he more plainly afterwards decides the Question when he layeth down this Proposition To no Speech or Writing are we bound to give certain faith and credence or acknowledge them to be true upon pain of damnation except to those which are called Canonical that is which are contained in the Volume of the Bible In the beginning of the fifteenth Age the Council of Constance was held which as Aeneas Sylvius assureth us founded all their Decrees and Definitions upon the Authority of Holy Scripture The most eminent Divine in that Council and indeed of all Christendom at that time was Iohn Gerson Chancellor of Paris who by the unanimous Delegation of all the Bishops drew up the Decrees of the Council a person of that Eminence and Repute that by reason of the known Conformity between his Opinions and the received Doctrines of the Church he was usually styled The most Christian Doctor and when the Bohemians declined the Authority of the Council Cardinal Zabarella could oppose no Argument to them more plausible than the Reputation and Fame of Gerson To find out therefore the received Opinion of the Church in his time he ought in the first place to be consulted Thus then he delivers his Opinion Holy Scripture is the Rule of Faith against which rightly understood no authority or reason of any Man whatsoever is to be admitted Neither is any Custom Constitution or Observation valid if it be proved to be contrary to Holy Scripture This Rule is a common Foundation both to us and those Hereticks against whom I now dispute He was then disputing against the Bohemians the Followers of Husse and Wicliff whom all know to have asserted Scripture to be the Rule of Faith. In another place he hath these words In examining Doctrines it must be first and principally inquired whether the Doctrine be conformable to Holy Scripture as well in it self as in its circumstances This is manifest from the authority of S. Dionysius who pronounceth thus We must not dare to teach any thing of Divine Matters except what is delivered to us in Holy Scripture Of which the Reason is this because Scripture was delivered to us as a sufficient and infallible Rule for the Government of the whole Body of the Church and the members of it even to the end of the World. Scripture therefore is an Art a Rule and a Copy of that Nature that any other Doctrine not conformable to it is either to be rejected as heretical or suspected or at least to be esteemed no part of Religion nor belonging to it Every Revelation is suspected which the Law and the Prophets with the Gospel do not confirm Otherwise they are rather to be esteemed the Delusions of Devils or rather the Capricio's of Mens Brains than Revelations To such Idiots that saying of Christ may justly be objected Ye err not knowing the Scriptures But some will say From the beginning of the Gospel to this day some wholesom Doctrines are found in the Mouths and Writings of Men which the Holy Scripture doth not contain I answer that Scripture contains them all according to some degrees of Catholick Truths Lastly disputing of those Articles of Faith which are necessary to be believed he determines thus It is maniâ—est that the Canon of the Bible is the whole revealed Law of God whose Literal Assertions are founded upon this one only literal Principle At the same time Nicolas Clemangis Doctor of the Sorbon was held in great repute for his extraordinary Learning and Piety who treating of the Rule of Faith and Authority of General Councils placeth the first in Scripture and denieth the latter to be infallible in these words But although the Authority of the Church Militant be very great which founded upon a firm Rock cannot be shaken and against which the Gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail yet we ought not as it should seem to ascribe to it the Titles of the Church Triumphant as that it is infallible and impeccable which as you know often both doth deceive and is deceived It seemeth indeed very odd that any one should prefer the Authority of the Church Militant to the Authority of the Gospel whenas the Church may err in many things the Gospel cannot in
all points in Controversie between the Church of Rome and the Lollards and largely endeavours to confute the latter But as his zeal induced him to plead the Cause of the Church so copiously so his Learning enabled him to discover the Follies and gross Superstitions practised in that Age which when once discovered his Piety inforced him to detest Religion had now passed through so many ignorant and barbarous Ages the means of greaterknowledge had been so studiously hidden from the People and the ignorance of the Laity was so advantageous to the interest of the Clergy that the true Spirit of Christianity seemed to be wholly lost and had degenerated into Shews and Ceremonies many of which were unlawful but almost all unuseful And not only this fatal stupidity and idle Superstition had generally possessed the minds of Men but all Remedies were detested and all Artifices made use of to continue the Disease Many good and Learned Men endeavoured the Reformation of these Abuses without departing from the Communion of the Church but were attended herein with the usual Fate of the Opposers of inveterate Evils who seldom escape the Persecution but never the hatred of those who are engaged both by zeal and interest in the continuance of those Evils Our Learned Bishop was of the number of those brave and generous persons who while he earnestly invited the Lollards into the Communion of his Church no less vehemently opposed the Superstitions of his own Party Some Footsteps and Marks of this Disposition may be found in this Treatise which prove his Integrity to have been equal to his Zeal and neither inferior to his Learning The Authority of the Church and Infallibility of her Definitions had of late been set up as the most successful Engine against the prevailing growth of supposed Hereticks To refute the Arguments of Wicleff and convince his Followers with solid Reasons neither the Ignorance of the Clergy nor the Badness of their Cause did then permit It was accounted too great a Condescension in the Governors of the Church to confute the Mistakes and inform the Judgments of their seduced People Yet somewhat at least was necessary to dazle the eyes of the unthinking multitude and at once convict all their Adversaries of the Charge of Heresie Nothing could be more effectual to this end than the pretence of Infallibility which alone might satisfie the Scruples and command the assent of credulous persons For this reason ever since Heresie began to be punished with death it was thought sufficient to oppose the Infallibility of the Church to the Arguments and Reasons of condemned Hereticks and the maintenance of this pretence was esteemed the great Bulwark of the Church However our Bishop easily discovered the vanity of these pretences and in this followed the Opinion of the most Learned Writers of his Age that the Representative Church or General Councils were not only fallible but had sometimes actually erred that the Decrees and Definitions of the Church ought to be submitted to the Examination of every private person that no Article of Faith was to be received which was repugnant to the Principles of Reason and that not the Belief and Acceptation of the Church caused any Doctrin to be accounted true and an Article of Faith but the presupposed Truth of the Doctrine rendred the Belief of it rational and justifiable Indeed the Doctrine of the Churches Infallibility had by some Men in this Age been advanced so far that nothing less than a fatal credulity or no less fatal ignorance could excuse the admission of it Our Author assureth us in the first part of this Book of Faith that many Divines in his time argued from those words of S. Paul If we or an Angel from Heaven should teach any other Dâ—ctrine than that which ye have received let him be anathema that if it should happen that the Church militant and the Church triumphant disagreed in an Article of Faith the Determination of the Church militant were rather to be followed Such crude Positions might raise the admiration of fools but deserved the indignation of wiser Men. Our Author chose to do justice unto Truth in owning and asserting the Fallibility of Church and Councils and yet not to quit the specious pretence of the Churches authority in pleading her Cause and confuting the Lollards This therefore he proposed in a more plausible way confessed the Church might err and that even in matters of the greatest moment however that it would be most safe and rational for ignorant Laymen intirely to submit their judgment to the Direction of the Clergy that by this submission indeed they might possibly be led into Error and mortal Heresie but that this would be no disadvantage to them since in that case God would reward their submission and docility although to them the occasion of most grievous Errors no less than if they believed the Christian Faith intire and incorrupted and would even bestow upon them the Crown of Martyrdom if they laid down their lives in testimony of their Errors And since in that Age the Laity were generally very ignorant of the true Principles of Religion and devoid of all sort of Learning he included them all in the number of those whose duty and interest it was to pay an implicit submission to the direction of the Clergy But not only did he disown the Infallibility of the Church but also disallowed and condemned her practice of burning Hereticks He desired rather to win them to her obedience by gentle methods and thought it more noble to convince them by Reasons and Arguments than by Racks and Fires This moderation could not but displease his Fellow Bishops who chose rather at that time to satisfie their Malice by the punishment than serve the Church by the conviction of supposed Hereticks But our Author was acted with more noble and generous Principles he endeavoured to remove their Errors but refused to practise upon their Lives and which perhaps was no small part of his Crime neglected to thunder out his Curses against them and scorned to treat them with opprobrious Titles Rather in the first part of this Work he giveth to them an honourable Character and confesseth them to have been generally persons of good Lives and exemplary Conversations The incredible Fables of Legends and incurable itch of Lying for the Honor of their Saints and Patrons which then reigned among all the Monastick Orders and was fondly received by the credulous multitude were one of the greatest scandals and most pernicious abuses in the Church at that time The greater and more necessary Articles of Faith and all genuine and rational knowledge of Religion had generally given place to fabulous Legends and Romantick Stories Fables which in this respect only differed from those of the ancient Heathen Poets that they were more incredible and less elegant These our Learned Bishop feared not to oppose and disesteem arraigns them of Error Heresie and Superstition proclaims their falseness and
true Church If the first way then it must first be known what are the true and genuine Doctrines of Christianity the stedfast belief of which causeth this Society to become the true Church But if the true Church be known only from some external Notes these Notes are either taught by Scripture or found out by the light of Reason If taught by Scripture then the knowledge of the Divine Authority of Scripture is antecedent to the knowledge of the true Church and consequently independent on it For otherwise Scripture will be believed for the Authority of the Church and the Church for the Authority of Scripture which is a manifest Circle Besides in this case that grand Article of Belief in the Holy Catholick Church will be received not from Tradition but from the Scripture and consequently Scripture not Tradition will be the primary Rule of Faith. Lastly if the Notes of the Church may be found out by Natural Reason then to pass by the infinite Contradictions which would arise from such a Proposition these Notes can be no other than Antiquity Universality Perpetuity and such like every one of which doth some way or other presuppose the knowledge of the true Doctrines of Christianity as well as those of the present Church For the end of these Notes is to compare the former with the latter and consequently both of them must be first known Lastly It can never be proved that Tradition was assigned by God as a Rule of Faith. For this proof must be taken either from the Scriptures or from Tradition Not from the first for not to say that Scripture is wholly silent in this matter such a supposition would destroy it self and involves a manifest Contradiction For if it be a Point of Faith that Tradition is the Rule of Faith and this Article is deduced and received only from Scripture then Scripture is the immediate Rule of one Article of Faith and the mediate Rule of all other Articles and consequently Tradition cannot be the Rule of Faith. No less absurd is it to imagine any Proof of this Article can be drawn from Tradition For we can never be assured the Tradition of this very Article is of Divine Authority and consequently infallible until we be first satisfied that God by assigning Tradition for a Rule of Faith conferred Divine Authority upon it which is the matter now in question Thus have I briefly pointed out some Arguments which prove that Tradition neither is nor can be the Rule of Faith. And indeed all Ages of Christianity have been so far satisfied of the truth of this that in all Controversies the Catholicks no less constantly appealed to Scripture than the Hereticks recurred to Tradition The pretence of Tradition is so easie and impossible to be refuted by the meaner Christians that no wonder if Hereticks always took this more compendious way when to pretend the Authority of Scripture would have been too palpable and too gross an impudence The Standard of written Truths continued always the same and could not be universally corrupted Whereas Tradition might securely be adapted to the most absurd and contrary Opinions since to effect that Design no more was required than the confidence or mistake of Hereticks pretending to have received their own Dreams and Errors as necessary Articles of Faith from their Forefathers Thus all the Hereticks of the three first Centuries when the true and genuine Tradition of the Church might much more easily be known than it can be at this day proposed their Heresies under the venerable name of Apostolick Traditions which pretence they carried on so far that they published the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Traditions of almost every Apostle and Apostolick Man wherein they committed to Writing those revealed Truths which they believed the Apostles to have preached and have left unwritten In vain should the Fathers and Writers of the Church have recurred to the true and genuine Tradition of unwritten Revelations since they could never demonstrate that this true Tradition was rather to be found among them than among those Hereticks For many of these Heretical Sects were contemporary with or began immediately after the Apostles were vastly numerous and scattered through the whole Church and consequently could put in so fair a claim for Tradition that no human wit could ever have determined the Question if the Scripture had not been called in and opposed to such unreasonable pretensions Accordingly Scripture was ever pleaded by the Catholicks and the pretence of unwritten Revelations derived down by oral Tradition was then esteemed as a Characteristick Note of Hereticks Thus S. Augustin and before him Clemens Alexandrinus complain of the Hereticks of their times Tertullian assures us it was the usual evasion of Hereticks to decline the Scriptures and flee to Tradition pretending that the Apostles published not the Gospel to all People nor committed all revealed Truths to Writing but delivered many Articles of Faith secretly to approved Men which Articles were no other than their own Heresies In the same manner the Hereticks opposed by S. Irenaeus were wont when urged with the Authority of Scripture and their perfect silence as to those Articles which they obtruded upon the World to plead the Imperfection of the Holy Scriptures that they were not intended by God as a Rule of Faith Because the Truth could not be learned from them by those who were ignorant of Tradition For that the Christian Faith was not delivered by Writing but by Word of Mouth or by Oral Tradition To produce but one Example more Eunomius the Heretick in his Apology extant in Manuscript in S. Martin's Library every where pleadeth the Tradition of precedent Ages and professeth to follow that as his only Rule of Faith. It is necessary saith he for those who treat of matters of Faith setting before them the holy Tradition which hath all along obtained from the times of the Fathers as a Rule and Canon to make use of this accurate Rule to judge of those things which shall be said Afterwards proposing his blasphemous Opinion about the Holy Ghost he introduceth it with this Preface Exactly following the Doctrine of the Holy Fathers and receiving it from them we believe c. This then was the Artifice and Practice of the ancient Hereticks What the Practice of the Catholick Fathers was in opposing these Hereticks or establishing any necessary Article of Faith that they accounted Scripture to be the only adequate Rule of Faith and to contain in express and plain words all things necessary to be believed that they rejected all Articles which could not be thence deduced as spurious and false or at least uncertain and unnecessary and always asserted the Sufficiency of Scripture I will not here insist to prove since that Point hath been so often handled and cleared by the Writers of our Church more particularly by Bishop Taylor to whom I remit the Reader My Design and the Age of that
School Divinity was at that time universally received in the Church of Rome taught in all Universities and Schools and by long use become in great measure the Doctrine of the Church The most famous and celebrated Author of this Divinity was S. Thomas Aquinas whose Writings were then in all Mens hands universally applauded and religiously embraced Some few Divines indeed dissented from him and followed the System of Scotus but this Disagreement respected not the Rule of Faith nor indeed any material point of Divinity but only some abstracted Notions and Scholastick Niceties of Divinity The Doctrine therefore of Aquinas is to be esteemed the general opinion of the Divines and Writers of those times It cannot be here objected against the force of our Argument that the same Divinity is yet retained and taught in most Popish Countries although the Doctrine of the Scriptures Sufficiency be rejected The Method of Reasoning and Disputing is now infinitely altered among the Writers of the Roman Church from what it was before the Reformation Before that time they made no difficulty to acknowledge and even urge the necessity of Reformation whereas now the Honour of their Church obligeth them to declare it both unnecessary and unlawful While Scripture was yet looked up in an unknown Tongue and removed from the knowledge of the Laity who were then generally very ignorant they were not ashamed to make confident Appeals for the Truth of their Doctrine to the Holy Scriptures When that Veil was removed the Scriptures translated and the World become more intelligent and inquisitive some other Artifice was to be found out which might preserve the Credit of antient Errors and defend them from the silence and opposition of Scripture To this end no stratagem could conduce more than the constant Artifice of all Innovators in Religion the Plea of Tradition Before that lesser Artifices could hide the Deformity of their Errors and while ignorant Christians could be securely misled with false and sometimes foolish Interpretations of Scripture while Ecce duos gladios was thought sufficient to evince the coercive Power of the Pope over temporal Princes and Arabant boves juxta comedebant asini could effectually perswade the Laity intirely to resign up their Judgments to the Direction of the Clergy there was no need of any desperate Remedy but when persons became so far inquisitive as to inquire into Reasons of Things and demand some better Authority for the belief of Articles imposed on them nothing less than the arrogant pretence of an infallible Tradition could secure and palliate the contradiction of impossible Propositions To prove therefore Aquinas his Doctrine concerning the Rule of Faith to have been intirely agreeable to that of our Author I will go no farther than his Sum of Divinity the most famous and best known of all his Works In the beginning of it laying down the Principles upon which Divinity and the proofs of Religion ought to proceed he saith That this Holy Doctrine useth the Authority of Philosophers as extraneous and only probable but the Authorities of Holy Scripture as properly belonging to her and concluding necessarily or infallibly but the Authorities of other Doctors of the Church as properly indeed belonging to her but concluding only probably For our Faith is founded upon the Revelation made to the Apostles and Prophets who wrote the Canonical Books of Scripture and not upon any Revelation made to other Doctors if any such there be Whence S. Augustin saith in his Epistle to S. Hierom To the Books of Scripture only which are called Canonical have I learned to pay this honour that I should most firmly believe none of their Authors to have erred in any thing in composing them In the two next Articles it is inquired whether Holy Scripture may use Metaphors and contain diverse senses under one and the same Letter In both places the Objections are thus formed These Qualities would be incongruous to a Rule of Faith but the Scripture is the Rule of Faith. This last Proposition is no where reinforced in the Objections but laid down as an uncontroverted Principle Aquinas in answering them no where denies Scripture to be the Rule of Faith but endeavours to take off the incongruity of a metaphorical and ambiguous Style to the Rule of Faith and in answer to both Objections hath these words Although Metaphors and Allegories be found in Scripture yet doth Holy Scripture suffer no detriment or imperfection thereby For nothing necessary to Faith is contained under the hidden sense which Scripture doth not somewhere manifestly deliver in the literal sense Afterwards being about to dispute of God and the Mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation he proposeth this as a most certain and undoubted Principle That we ought to affirm nothing of God which is not found in Holy Scripture either in words or in sense conformably to what the Master of Sentences and Founder of the School Divinity had before taught who inquiring what Method is to be observed in treating of the Trinity answers That it must in the first place be demonstrated according to the Authorities of Holy Scripture whether the Christian Faith teacheth it or not and in what manner But to return to Aquinas he asserteth Scripture to be the Rule of Faith in many other places of his Summ. Thus disputing of the nature and properties of the New Law or Covenant he inquires whether it be a written Law. in resolving of this Question he opposeth not the written Law to Tradition but to the Law written in the Hearts of Men by the virtue and operation of the Holy Ghost and at last concludeth thus The New Law is principally that very Grace of the Holy Ghost which is written in the Hearts of the Faithful but secondarily it is the written Law in as much as those things are delivered in it which either dispose to Grace or respect the use of that Grace Here the very nature of this Question and comparison of the Written with the New Law supposeth that the whole System of revealed Truths is contained in the written Law and lest we should doubt of this supposition the latter part of the Passage now cited plainly determines it But to proceed Aquinas often reneweth this supposition and at last comparing the Old with the New Testament he determines thus All things which are plainly and explicitely delivered to be believed in the New Testament are delivered also to be believed in the Old Testament but implicitely and obscurely And in this respect also as to matters of Belief the new Law is contained in the old But if all matters of Belief in the new Law be contained in the Old Testament and whatsoever is contained in the Old Testament is plainly and explicitly taught in the New Testament then the New Testament doth not only contain all matters of Belief in the New Law but also which is more considerable proposeth them clearly and explicitly He intimates
this being once granted viz. That it may be evidently deduced from the proper Principles of Faith that is from the Holy Scriptures This manner of Disputation in defending the Article then in question sufficiently manifests that the pretence of Oral Tradition however entertained by some private Men had yet gained no general applause in the Western Church From Councils I return to private Writers but those of so great Repute and Authority that their Opinion can be esteemed no other than the general Doctrine of the Church at that time Of these I shall produce only two more Cardinal Panormitan and Antoninus Archbishop of Florence the first accounted by all the greatest Canonist of his Age and by many the greatest of all Ages and which is more considerable who had been to the Council of Basil what Gerson was to that of Constance an Oracle and Dictator the second a person of so great Authority in the Church that in the Judgment of Pope Nicolas he deserved to be Sainted whilst alive and was really Sainted when dead Panormitan therefore proposeth his Opinion in these words In Matters pertaining to Faith a Council is above the Pope Yet I suppose that if the Pope were induced with better Reasons and Authorities than the Council that his Determination were rather to be embraced For a Council also can err as it hath sometimes erred For in matters relating to Faith even the opinion of one private Man were to be preferred to the Determination of the Pope if he were induced with better Reasons of the Old and New Testament than the Pope Here Panormitan not only asserteth the Old and New Testament to be the Rule of Faith but also allows to every private Man a power of interpreting that Rule and even of rejecting the Definitions of Popes and Councils if he thinks them not consonant to it Antoninus hath transcribed those words into his Summ of Divinity and proposeth them as his own Opinion And not only so but also in another place declareth his Judgment no less plainly in these words God speaketh in the Scriptures and so fully as S. Gregory explaineth in the twenty second Book of his Morals upon Job that it is not necessary God should any other way reveal any thing necessary to us since all things necessary may be had there After so many and so great Authorities it cannot reasonably be doubted what was the general Belief of the Church in that Age touching the Rule of Faith I mean not that then the Sufficiency of the Scripture was asserted by all and denied by none but only that it was maintained by the greater and more considerable part of the Church as the Practice of General Councils and Positions of the most famous Writers of that Age do manifestly evince Many indeed had for some Ages before asserted the existence of some necessary Articles not contained in Scripture but conveyed down to us by Tradition only but they equalled not the Followers of the former Opinion either in number or Reputation And therefore Occam in the preceding Age representing the Arguments and Reasons of both Opinions proposeth that of the Sufficiency of Scripture in the first place as the most common and more generally received Opinion and Ioannes de Neapoli a Dominican and Doctor of the Sorbon disputing of the Science of Faith doth all along suppose that whole Science to be contained in Scripture and lest we should doubt of his Opinion doth in more than one place positively assert it Not to say that Nicolas de Lyra in his Glosses upon the whole Bible doth every where suppose it and in his general Preface most expresly maintain it And of what Repute his Gloss was formerly in the Church of Rome may appear from that vast number of Manuscript Copies of them which may be found in our ancient Libraries But I will not any longer insist upon the Writers of this Age having intended to confine my Discourse to the fifteenth Age the general Belief of which concerning the Rule of Faith I have already manifested It remains that I say somewhat more particular of the Treatise here published and of the Author of it He was born in Wales and bred in Oriel College in Oxford where he was created Doctor of Divinity and obtained a great esteem for his rare Eloquence and extraordinary Learning He was soon taken notice of by that great Patron and Protector of Learning and Virtue Humphrey Duke of Glocester at that time Protector of the Kingdom by whose Favour he was promoted to the Bishoprick of S. Asaph in the year 1444 translated to Chichester in the year 1450. His singular Learning appears not only from this Discourse which if put into modern English would appear to the meanest Reader both rational and elegant but also from many other plain and manifest Indications He had read the Works of the Fathers with no small care and diligence and as it should seem from what he says upon the Article of Christ's Descent into Hell had made Critical Observations on them far beyond the Genius and vulgar Learning of that Age. He was not unacquainted with the Genuine Epistles of Ignatius and in the first Part of that Work whereof this Treatise makes the second citeth the Acts of his Martyrdom writ by his contemporary Philo and published in this Age by the Learned Bishop Vsher. As his Learning enabled him so his Zeal prompted him to write divers Books of Controversie in defence of the Church against the supposed Hereticks of that time the Lollards whom he endeavoured by all means possible to reduce into the Communion of his Church to which Work as it should seem from divers Passages in the first part he had dedicated his whole Life He mentions many of them in this Work which are these The just apprising of holi Scripture The just apprising of Doctours Of faith in Latyn Of Presthode The Donet The folower to the Donet The Represser The forcrier The book of Cristen Religion The provoker The book of signis in the Church clepid also the boke of Worschiping The boke of Leernyng The boke of filling the IV. Tablis This present book of Feith Of the Churche in Latyn Beside these already mentioned Bale reckons up The Defender The Follower of it The Declaratory Of the Creed To Godharde the Franciscan Of Divine Offices A Manual Of the Providence of God. Of the Liberty of the Gospel Of the Power of Seculars Against Constantines Donation Of the equality of Ministers Of the Laws and Doctrines of Men. Of Communion under both kinds Against unlawful Begging An Account of his own Recantation The greatest part of these Books are lost being studiously suppressed by his Enemies and also burnt at his Recantation However I have seen his Represser in a fair Manuscript in the publick Library of the University of Cambridge in Quarto It is intituled The Repressour of over much blaming the Clergy wherein he passeth through
submitting the Decrees and Doctrine of the Church to the examination of every private man how strongly he contends that God can reveal nothing contrary to our reason or oblige us to the belief of it that he rejecteth the authority of Tobit and Susanna as being Apocryphal Books that a Divorce and Separation of the Clergy from their Wives after Marriage once contracted in unlawful that the Council of Nice condemned that Separation and consequently prohibited not to the Clergy the use of Marriage in the third Canon that the Church hath no more authority of interpreting Scripture and proposing it to the faithful than hath every private Housholder of proposing it to his Family every Divine to his Hearers every Learned Man to ignorant persons or no more than a Judge hath of expounding the Laws or a Grammarian the Rules of Grammar I will not so far presume upon the Judgment of the Reader as to make an Apology for the old and obsolete stile of our Author If it wanteth the Elegance and Beauties of our modern Language that must be imputed to the fault of the Age not any deficience of the Author I had once intended to represent his Arguments in our modern Language and publish both together in distinct Columns but the fear of inlarging these Papers too much deterred me from pursuing that design However I have drawn up an Alphabetical Catalogue of the more obsolete and unusual words and affixed their significations to them which the Reader will find at the end of the Book and may consult upon occasion A Treatise of REGINALD PEACOCK Bishop of CHICHESTER before the Reformation In the Year 1450. proving that Scripture is the only Rule of Faith. CAP. I. I. DEsiring for to wynne the Lay Children of the Churche into Obedience whiche undir greet perel of ther Soulis thei owen paie and holde to the Clergie y entende and propose in this present Booke for to mete agens suche unobediencers bi an open wey and in a nother manner and bi meene which the lay persoonys wole admitte and graunte which meene is this That we owen to bileeve and stonde to sum Saier or Techer which may feile while it is not knowne that thilk Seier or Techer thereyne failis And so for to move and convicte them into obedience never the lesse and never the latter to the Clergie in leernyng their feith thoug it were so that the Clergie mygte solempnely determyne agens trew feith II. Twey thingis be the principal causis of Heresie in the lay yeple Overmyche leenyng to Scripture and in such manner wise as it longith not to holi Scripture for to receyve And the seconde is this Setting not bi for to followe the Determynatiouns and the Holdingis of the Churche in mater of Feith III. The Feende hath broughte in so greet a sleigte in the Secte of the Sarrasenes that thei ben ful wondirful violenti settid for to geve audience to eny proofe making for Christen Feith or making agens Sarrasene Secte For whi thilk wickid Man Mahumet whiche brought in their Secte or sum Prelate after him made as for a poâ—nt of his Law that no persoone of his Secte schulde heere eny Declaracioun or evydence agens his Sect and that under peyne of passing cruel deep But O thou Lord Iesu God and Man heed of thi Christen Churche and Techer of Christen Bileeve y beseeâ—he thi mercy thi pitee and thi charite fer be this seid perel fro the Christen Churche and fro ech persoon thereyne conteyned and schilde thou that this Venom be never brougte into thi Churche and if thou suffre it to by eny while brougte in y beseche that it be soon agen out spet but suffre thou ordeyne and do that the Law and the Feith whiche thi Churche at eny tyme kepith be receyved and admitted to fall under this examinacioun whether it be the same verri Feith which thou and thi Apostlis taugten or no and that it be receyved into examinacioun whether it hath sufficient evydencis for it to be verry feith or no and ellis it mygte be holde aghe and it were a full suspect thing to alle them that schulde be convertid therto and ellis also it were a ful schameful thing to the Christen Churche for to holde such a feith for a substaunce of her salvacioun and yitt dursten not suffre it to be examined whether it is worthi to be allowid for trew feith or no. And it were a vilonye putting to Crist that he schulde geve such a feith to his peple and into which feith he wolde his peple turne alle other peple and yitt he wolde not allowe his feith to be at the ful tried and that he durste not be aknowe his feith to be so pure and so fyne fro al falsehede that it mygte not by strenghe of eny evydence be overcomen And therefore Lord Almygti thou forbid that eny such prisonyng of thi feith be maad in thi Churche And also this is worschip ynoug for Cristen Feith that it may withoute feere be avowed and be publischid and be profred to be examyned bi eny wit under Heuene in such maner of examynacioun now bifore seid as vi which ech pretense feith ougte to be examyned whether it be trew feith or no. And yitt ferthemore to this now seid may evydence be this that ellis Crist wolde have gove such a Lawe to be hadde and to be contynued in his name of whiche Law sum of our feith is a party ne were that it mygte abide the fier of triel and of examynacioun of ech creaturis resoun so the examynacioun be such as ougte to be taken and usid for to examine and prove whether a feith pretense be trewe feith or no as ferforth as eny Goldsmyth wole avowe and warante his Gold which he desyneth to be tried and examyned by all manner of fier of this wordli brennyng IV. And ferthemore y wole Clerkis to have in consideracioun that not for a thing is famed to be an Article of Feith therefore it is an Article of Feith but agenward for that it is an Article of Feith and proved sufficiently to be such therefore it is to be bileeved bi feith So that an Article to be bileeved bi feith is dependant on this that it is bifore proved sufficiently to be feith And an Article to be an Article of Feith is not dependent of this for that it is bileeved as an Article of Feith V. The Clergy shall be condemned at the last day if by cleer witt they drawe not Men into consent of trew feith otherwise than by fier and sword or hangement Although I will not deny these second means to be lawfull provided the former be first used VI. Thomas had thanne these same evydences of Christis Resurrection in as good maner or in better than we hau now for us For whi he herde the Apostlis denounce Christis Resurreccioun to him bi ther owne mouthe the that denouncen the same to us bi their