and token that at y t repeÌ„taunce of the hart thorow an offering to come and for that seedes sake that was promised Abraham theyr sinnes were forgeuen them And in like maner the ornamentes and all other ceremonies were eyther an open preaching or secret prophesies and not satisfactions or iustifyinges And thus the workes did serue them and preache vnto them and they not the workes nor put any confidence therein ¶ False worshipping BUt what did the children of Israell and the Iewes They let the significations of their ceremonies goe lost the meaning of them and turned them vnto the workes to serue them saying that they were holy workes coÌ„maunded of God the offerers were thereby iustified obtayned forgeuenes of sinnes thereby become good as the parable of the Pharesey Publican declare Luke xviij and as it is to see in Paule and thoroughout al the Byble and became captiue to serue put their trust in that which was neyther God nor hys worde And so the better creature agaynst nature did serue the worse Whereof all likelihode God should haue accepted their worke by the reason of them if their harts had bene right and not haue accepted their soules for the blouds sake of a Calfe or shepe for as much as a man is much better then a Calfe or shepe as Christ testifieth Math. xij For what pleasure should God haue in the bloude of Calues or in the light of our candels hys pleasure is onely in the hartes of them that loue his commaundementes Then they went further in the imagination of their blynd reason saying in as much as God accepteth these holy workes that we be made righteous thereby then it foloweth that he which offereth most is most righteous and the bestman yea and it is better to offer an Oxe then a shepe because it is more costly And so they stroue who might offer most and the priests were well apayde Then went they further in their fleshly wisdome saying if I be good for the offering of a Doue and better for a shepe and yet better for an Oxe and so euer the better thing I offer the better I am Oh how accepted should I be if I offered a maÌ„ namehym that I most loued And vpoÌ„ that imagination they offered their owne children and burnt them to ashes before Images that they had imagined And to coÌ„tiâ—…e their blindues they layd for them no doubt the ensample of Abraham which offered his sonne Isaac and was so accepted that God had promised hym how that in hys seede all the worlde should be blessed Hereof ye see vnto what abhomination blynde reason bringeth a man wheÌ„ she is destitute of Gods word And to speake of y â— Sabbath which was ordeyned to be their seruaunt to preach to be a signe vnto theÌ„ that God thorow his holy spirit and word did sanctifie them in that they obeyed hys commaundementes and beleued and trusted in hys promises and therfore were charged to leaue workyng and to come on the holy day and heare the word of God by which they were saÌ„ctified vnto it also they became captiue and bond to serue it saying that they were iustified by absteyning from bodely labour as ours thinke also in so much that though they bestowed not the holy day in vertue prayer and hearing the word of God in almosedede in visiting the sicke the needy comfortlesse and so forth but went vp and downe idlye yet what soeuer nede his neighbour had he would not haue holpe him on the Saboth day as thou mayst see by the ruler of the Sinagoge which rebuked Christ for healyng the people on the holy day Luke xiij And of like blyndnesse they went fet out the brasen Serpent which Moses commauÌ„ded to be kept in the Arke for a memory offered before it thinkyng no doubt that God must be there present for els how could it haue healed the people that came not nye it but stode a farre of and beheld it onely And a thousand such madnesse dyd they And of the temple they thought that God heard them there better then any where els yea and he heard them no where saue there And therfore they could not pray but there as ours can no where but at Church and before an Image For what prayer can a man pray when the word of God is not in the temple of his hart yea wheÌ„ such come to Church what is their prayer what is their deuotioÌ„ saue the blind image seruice of their hartes But the Prophetes euer rebuked them for such faythlesse woorkes for such false fayth in their workes In the xlix Psalme saith y t Prophet I wil receaue no Calues of your houses nor Goates out of your foldes thinke ye that I will eate the flesh of Oxen or drinke the bloud of Goates And Esayas sayth in his first Chapter what care I for the multitâ—de of your sacrifices sayth the Lord. I am full I haue no lust in the burnt offeringes of your Rammes or in the fat of faâ— beastes or bloud of Calues Lambes or Goates offer me no more such false sacrifice And therto your swete cense is an abhominatioÌ„ vnto me And thus he sayd because of the false fayth and peruertyng the right vse of them And for their calfe fastyng not referryng their fast vnto the tamyng subduyng of their fleshe vnto the spirite wheÌ„ they complained vnto God iustifying theÌ„ selues and saying how happeneth it that we haue fasted and thou wouldest not looke vppon it we haue humbled our soules and thou wouldst not know it God aunswered them by the Prophet Esayas in the. lviij chapter behold in the day of your fast ye do your owne lustes and gather vp all your dettes And how soeuer ye fast ye neuerthelesse striue and fight and sâ—inite with tiste cruelly I haue chosen no such fast and humblyng of soule c. But that ye louse wicked bondes and let the oppressed go free and to breake bread vnto the hungry and to cloth the naked and so forth And concerning the temple Esayaâ— sayth in his last chapter What house will ye build for me or in what place shall I rest heaueÌ„ is my seate and the earth my foote stole As who should say I am to great for any place that ye can make and as Steuen sayth Actes vij and Paul Actes xvij I dwell not in a temple made with handes ¶ How ceremonies sprang among vs. VNderstaÌ„d also to see how we came into like blindnesse that before the commyng of Christ in the flesh the Israelites Iewes were scattered thoroughout all the world for their Image seruice both East West South and North as ye read in the Chronicles how England was once full so that there was no Prouince or great Citie in the world where no Iewes were God so prouidyng
and a loud voyce hée cried Lord open the eyes of the King of Englande and then first he was with a halter strangled by the hangman and afterward consumed with fier In the yeare of our Lord. 1536. Such was the power of his doctryne and the sinceritie of his lyfe that during the tyme of his imprisonment which as aforesayd endured a yeare and a halfe hée conuerted his kéepers Daughter and other of his housholde Also such as were with him conuersaunt in the Castell reported of him that if hée were not a good Christian man they could not tell whom to trust The Procurour generall the Emperours attorney béeing there left this testemony of him that he was Homo doctus pius et bonus that is a learned a good and a godly man The worthy vertues doinges of this blessed martyr who for his painfull traueles and singular zeale to his countrey may be worthelye called in these our dayes an Apostle of England it were long to recite Amongest many other this one thing beecause it semeth worthy of remembraunce I thought good to shew vnto you There was at Andwarp on a tyme amongest a company of merchauntes as they were at supper a certaine iuggeler which thorough his Diabolicall inchauntmentes or Art Magicall woulde fetch all kinde of Vyandes and wine from any place they would and set it vpon the table incontinent before them with many other such lyke thinges The fame of this iuggeler being much talked of it chaunced that as M. Tyndall heard of it he desired certeine of the merchauntes that he also might be present at supper to sée him playe his partes And to be short the Supper was appoynted and the merchauntes with Tyndall were there present Then was the iuggler called foorth to play his feates and to shew his conning and after his wonted boldnes began to vtter all â—hat he coulde doe but all was in vayne At the last with his labour sweating and toyling when he sawe that nothing would goe forward but that all his inchauntmentes were voyde he was compelled openly to confesse that there was some man present at supper which disturbed and letted all his doinges So that a man euen in the martyrs of these our dayes can not lack the myracles of true fayth if myracles were now to be desired And here to ende and conclude this history with a fewe notes touching his priuate behauiour in dyet study and especially his charitable zeale and tender releuing of the poore Fyrst he was a man very frugall and spare of body a great student and earnest laborer namely in the setting forth of y â— Scriptures of God He reserued or halowed to hym selfe ij â–ª dayes in the weeke which he named his dayes of pastime and those dayes were Monday the first day in the weeke and Satterday the last day in the weeke On the Monday he visited all suche poore men and women as were fled out of England by reason of persecution into Antwarp and those well vnderstanding their good exercises and qualities he did very liberally comfort and relieue and in like maner prouided for the sicke and deseased persons On the Satterday he walked round about the towne in Antwarpe seeking out euery Corner and hole where he suspected any pooreperson to dwell as God knoweth there are many and where he found any to he well occupied and yet ouerburdened with children or els were aged or weake those also hée plentefully releued And thus he spent his ij dayes of pastime as he cauled them And truelye his Almose was very large and great and so it might well bee for his exhibition that he had yearely of the Englishe merchauntes was very much and that for the most part he bestowed vpon the poore as afore sayd The rest of the dayes in the weeke he gaue hym wholy to his booke where in most dillgently he traueled When the Sonday came then went he to some one merchaunts chamber or other whether came many other merchauntes and vnto them would he reade some one percell of Scripture eyther out of the olde testament or out of the new the which proceded so frutefully sweetely and gentely from him much like to the writing of S. Iohn the Euangelest that it was a heauenly comfort and ioy to the audieÌ„ce to heare him reade the scriptures and in likewise after dinner he spent an houre in the aforesayd maner He was a man without any spot or blemishe of rancor or malice full of mercy and compassion so that no man liuing was able to reprooue him of any kinde of sinne or cryme albeit his righteousnes and iustification depended not there vpon before God but onely vpon the bloud of Christ and his fayth vpon the same in the which fayth constantly he dyed as is sayd at Filforde and now resteth with the glorious campany of Christes Martyrs blessedly in the Lord who be blessed in all his saintes Amen And thus much of W. Tyndall Christes blessed seruaunt and Martyr Faultes escaped in the Printing Page 16. the 2. col in the margent after these wordes from the put to saluation in Christ. The same Page and same col in the next marginall note after put out in Christ from the beginning of the note Page 21. col 2. in the margent for adminition read admonition ¶ A Protestation made by William Tyndall touchyng the Resurrection of the bodyes and the state of the soules after this life Adstracted out of a Preface of his that he made to the new Testament which he set forth in the yeare 1534. COncernyug the resurrection I proteste before God and our sauiour Iesus Christ and before the vniuersall congregation that beléeueth in him that I beléeue according to the opeÌ„ and manifest Scriptures Catholicke faith that Christ is risen agayne in the flesh which he receaued of his mother the blessed virgine Mary and body wherein he died And that we shall all both good and bad rise both flesh and body and appeare togither before the iudgement seat of Christ to receaue euery man according to his déedes And that the bodies of all that beléeue and continue in the true faith of Christ shal be indewed with like immortalitie and glory as is the body of Christ And I protest before God our Sauiour Christ and all that beléeue in hym that I hold of the soules that are departed as much as may bée prooued by manifest and open Scripture and thinke the soules departed in the faith of Christ loue of the lawe of God to be in no worse case then the soule of Christ was from the tyme that he deliuered his spirite into the handes of his father vntill the resurrection of his body in glory and immortalitie Neuerthelesse I confesse openly that I am not perswaded that they be already in the full glory that Christ is in or the elect Angels of God are in Neither is it any article of my faith for if it so were I sée
how shall they heare wythout a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent As it is writteÌ„ saith he how beautifull are the fecte that bring glade tydinges of peace and bringe tydynges of good thynges Now when sent God any messengers vnto the deuils to preach them peace or any good thyng The deuill hath no promise he is therefore excluded from Paules fayth The deuill beleueth that Christ dyed but not that he dyed for hys sinnes Neither doth any that coÌ„senteth in the hart to continue in sinne beleue that Christ dyed for him For to beleue that Christ dyed for vs is to see our horrible damnation and how we were appointed vnto eternall paines and to feele and to be sure that we are deliuered therefroÌ„ thorough Christ in that we haue power to hate our sins and to loue Gods commaundements All such repent and haue their hartes loosed out of captiuitie and bondage of sinne and are therefore iustified thorough fayth in Christ Wicked sinners haue no fayth but imaginations and opinions about Christ as our schole men haue in their principles about whiche they braule so fast one with another It is an other thyng to beleue y â— the kyng is rich that he is rich vnto me and that my part is therein and that he will not spare a peny of his riches at my neede when I beleue that the king is rich I am not moued But when I beleue that he is rich for me that he will neuer faile me at my nede then loue I and of loue am ready to worke vnto the vttermost of my power But let vs returne at the last vnto our purpose agayne WHat is the cause that laye men can not now rule as well as in times past and as the Turkes yet doe Verely because that Antichrist wyth the miste of hys iugglyng hath beguiled our eyes and hath cast a superstitious feare vpon the world of christen men hath taught theÌ„ to dread not God his worde but hymselfe and his word not Gods law and ordinaunces princes and officers which God hath set to rule the world but his owne law and ordinaunces traditions and ceremonies and disguised disciples which he hath set euery where to deceaue the world and to expell the lyght of Gods worde that his darcknes may haue roome For we see by dayly experience of certayne hundred yeares loÌ„g that he which feareth neyther God nor hys worde neyther regardeth father mother mayster or Christ hymself which rebelleth against God ordinaunces riseth agaynst the kynges and resisteth hys officers dare not once lay handes on one of the Popes annoynted no though he sley hys father before hys face or do violence vnto his brother or defile his sister wife or mother Like honour geue we vnto his traditions ceremonies What deuotion haue we when we are blessed as they call it with the chalice or when the Byshop lifteth vp his holy hand ouer vs Who dare handle the chalice touch the Alter stone or put his hand in the fount or hys finger into the holy oyle What reuerence geue we vnto holy water holy â—yre holy bread holy salt halowed belles holy waxe holy bowes holy candels and holy ashes And last of all vnto the holy caÌ„dle commit we our soules at our last departyng Yea and of the very cloute which the Byshop or his chapplen that standeth by knitteth about childrens neckes at confirmatioÌ„ what lay person durst be so bold as to to vnloose the knot Thou wilt say do not such thinges bring the holy Ghost and put away sinne and driue away spirites I say that a stedfast fayth or belefe in Christ in the promises that God hath sworne to geue vs for hys sake bringeth the holy Ghost as all the Scriptures make mention as Paul sayth Actes xix haue ye receaued the holy Ghost through fayth or beleuing Fayth is the rocke where on Christ buildeth hys congregation agaynst whiche â—ayth Christ Math. xvj hell gates shall not preuaile As soone as thou beleuest in Christ the holy Ghost commeth sinne falleth away and deuils flye when we cast holy water at the deuill or ryng the belles he fleeth as men do from young children and mocketh with vs to bring vs from the true fayth that is in Gods word vnto a superstitious and a false belefe of our owne imagination If thou haddest fayth threwest an vnhalowed stone at his head he would earnestly flee and without mockyng yea though thou threwest nothyng at all he would not yet abyde Though that at the beginnyng miracles were shewed through such ceremonies to moue the infidels to beleue the word of God As thou readest how the Apostles annoynted the sicke with oyle and healed them and Paul sent his pertelet or Iirkyn to the sicke and healed them also Yet was it not the ceremonie that did the miracle but fayth of the preacher and the truth of God which had promised to confirme and stablish his Gospell with such miracles Therfore as soone as the gift of miracles ceased ought the ceremonie to haue ceased also or els if they will needes haue a ceremonie to signifie some promise or benefite of GOD whiche I prayse not but would haue Gods word preached euery Sonday for which entent Sondayes and holy dayes were ordeined then let them tel the people what it meaneth and not set vp a haulde and a naked ceremonie without significatioÌ„ to make the people beleue therein and to quenche the fayth that ought to be geuen vnto the word of God What helpeth it also that the Priest wheÌ„ he goeth to Masse disguifeth him selfe with a great part of the passion of Christ and playeth out the rest vnder silence with signes and profers with noddyng beckyng and mowyng as it were Iacke an apes when neither he him selfe neither any man els woteth what he meaneth not at all verely but hurteth and that excedyngly For as much as it not onely destroyeth the fayth quencheth the loue that should be geuen vnto the commaundements and maketh the people vnthankefull in that it bringeth them into such superstition that they thinke that they haue done aboundantly ynough for God yea deserued aboue measure if they be present once in a day at such mummyng But also maketh the infidels to mocke vs and abhorre vs in that they see nothyng but such apes play among vs where of no man can geue a reason All this commeth to passe to fulfill the prophesie which Christ prophesied Marke xiij And Luke xxj that there shall come in his name which shall say that they them selues are Christ That do verely the Pope and our holy orders of Religion For they vnder the name of Christ preach theÌ„ selues their own word and their own traditions and teach the people to beleue in them The Pope geueth pardons of his full power of the treasure of the Church and of the merites of Saintes
God For Christe onely hath purchased the reward and our payne takyng to keepe the commaundemētes doth but purge the sinne that remayneth in the fleshe and certifie vs that we are chosen and sealed with Gods spirite vnto the reward y t Christ hath purchased for vs. I was once at the creatyng of Doctours of diuinitie where the opponēt brought the same reason to proue that the widow had more merite then the virgine because she had greater payne for as much as she had once proued the pleasures of Matrimony Ego nego Domine Doctor said the respōdent For though the virgine haue not proued yet she imagineth that the pleasure is greater then it is in deede and therfore is more moued hath greater temptation and greater paine Are not these disputers they that Paule speaketh of in the sixt chapter of the first Epistle to Timot. That they are not content with the wholesome woordes of our Lord Iesus Christ doctrine of godlinesse And therefore know nothyng but wast their braynes about questiōs strift of wordes whereof spryng enuy strife and rayling of men with corrupt mindes destitute of the truth As pertainyng to our Ladyes body where it is or where the body of Elyas of Iohn the Enangelist and of many other be perteineth not to vs to know One thing are we sure of that they are where God hath layd them If they be in heauē we haue neuer the more in Christ If they be not there we haue neuer the lesse Our dutie is to prepare our selues vnto the commaundemētes and to be thankefull for that which is opened vnto vs and not to search the vnsearchable secretes of God Of Gods secretes can we know no more then he openeth vnto vs. If God shut who shall open How then can natural reason come by the knowledge of that which God hath hyd vnto him selfe Yet let vs see one of their reasons wherewith they proue it The chief reason is this euery mā doth more for his mother say they then for other in like maner must Christ do for his mother therefore hath she this preheminence that her body is in heauen And yet Christ in the xij chapter of Math. knoweth her not for his mother but as farrefoorth as she kept his fathers commaundementes And Paule in the ij Epistle to the Corinthians v. chap. knoweth not Christ himselfe fleshly or after a worldly purpose Last of all God is free no further bounde then he bindeth him selfe if hee haue made her any promise he is bounde if not then is he not Finally if thou set this aboue rehearsed chapter of Math. before thee where Christe woulde not know his mother and the ij of Iohn where he rebuked her and the ij of Luke where she lost him and how negligent she was to leaue him behinde her at Ierusalem vnwars and to go a dayes iorney ere she sought for hym y ◠mightest resolue many of their reasons which they make of this matter and that she was without originall sinne read also Erasmus annotations in the sayd places And as for me I cōmit all such matters vnto those idle belyes which haue nought els to doe then to moue such questions and geue them free libertie to holde what they lyst as long as it hurteth not the faith whether it bee so or no exhortyng yet with Paule all that will please God and obtayne that saluation that is in Christe that they geue no hede vnto vnnecessary and braulyng disputations that they labour for the knowledge of those thinges without which they can not be saued And remember that the sunne was geuen vs to guide vs in our way and woorkes bodyly Now if thou leaue the naturall vse of the sunne and will looke directly on hym to see howe bright he is and such like curiositie then wil the sunne blind thee So was the Scripture geuen vs to guide vs in our way and woorkes ghostly The way is Christ the promises in hym are our saluation if we long for them Now if we shall leaue that right vse and turne our selues vnto vayne questions and to searche the vnsearchable secretes of God then no dout shall the Scripture blinde vs as it hath done our schole men and our suttle disputers ANd as they are false Prophetes which proue with allegories similitudes and worldly reasōs that which is no where made mention of in the Scripture Euen so counte them for false Prophetes whiche expounde the scriptures drawing thē vnto a worldly purpose cleane contrary vnto the example lyuyng and practisyng of Christ and of hys Apostles and of all the holy Prophetes For sayth Peter ij Pet. i. no prophesie in the Scripture hath any priuate interpretation For the Scripture ▪ came not by the will of man but the holy men of God spake as they were moued by the holy ghost No place of the Scripture may haue a priuate exposition that is it may not be expounde after the will of man or after the wil of the flesh or drawen vnto a worldly purpose cōtrary vnto the open textes and the generall articles of the faith and the whole course of the Scripture and contrary to the liuyng and practising of Christ and the Apostles and holy Prophetes For as they came not by the will of mā so may they not bee drawen or expounde after the will of man but as they came by the holy ghost so must they expoūd vnderstād by the holy ghost The Scripture is that wherewith God draweth vs vnto hym and not wherewith we should be leade from him The Scriptures spring out of God and flow vnto Christ and were geuen to leade vs to Christ Thou must therfore go alōg by the Scripture as by a lyne vntill thou come at Christ which is y e wayes end and restyng place If any mā therfore vse the Scripture to draw thee frō Christ and to nosell thee in any thyng saue in Christ the same is a false Prophet And that thou mayst perceaue what Peter meaneth it foloweth in y ◠text There were false Prophetes among the people whose prophesies were bely wisedome as there shal be false teachers among you which shall priuely bryng in damnable sectes as thou seest howe we are diuided into monstrous sectes or orders of Religion euen denying the Lord that hath bought them For euery one of them taketh on hym to sell thee for money that whiche God in Christ promiseth thee freely and many shall folow their damnable wayes by whom the waye of trouth shal be euill spokē of as thou seest how the way of trouth is become heresie seditious or cause of insurrectiō breaking of y e kyngs peace treason vnto his hyghnes And through conetousnes with fayned wordes shal they make marchaundise of you Couetousnes is the conclusion for couetousnes and ambitiō that is to say lucre and desire of honor is the finall end of all false Prophetes and of all false
maliciously resisted the open truth agaynst hys owne conscience sence the world began that euer I read For it is sinne agaynst y â— holy ghost which Christ saith shall neither be forgeueÌ„ here nor in the world to come whiche text may this wise be vnderstand that as that sinne shal be punished with euerlastyng daÌ„nation in the lyfe to come euen so shall it not escape vengeauÌ„ce here As thou â—eest in Iudas in Pharao in Balam and in all other tyrauntes whiche agaynst their consciences resisted the open truth of God So now the cause why our Prelates thus rage that moueth them to call M. More to helpe is not that they finde iust causes in the translation but because they haue lost their iugglyng and fayned termes wherewith Peter prophesied they should make marchaundise of the people ¶ Whether the Church were before the Gospell or the Gospell before the Church AN other doubt there is whether the Church or congregatioÌ„ be before the Gospell or the Gospell before the Church Which question is as hard to solue as whether the father be elder then the sonne or the sonne elder then his father For the whole Scripture and all beleuing hartes testifie that we are begotten through the word Wherfore if the word beget the congregatioÌ„ he that begetteth is before hym that is begotten then is the Gospell before the Church Paul also Rom. ix sayth how shall they call on him whom they beleue not And how shall they beleue without a preacher That is Christ must first be preached yer men can beleue in him And then it foloweth that the word of the preacher must be before the fayth of the beleuer And therfore in as much as the word is before the faith and faith maketh the congregation therfore is the word or Gospell before the congregation And agayne as the ayre is darke of it selfe receaueth all her light of the sonne euen so are all mens hartes of theÌ„selues darke with lyes and receaue all their truth of Gods word in that they consent therto And moreouer as the darke ayre geueth the sonne no light but contrarywise the light of the sonne in respect of the ayre is of it selfe and lighteneth the ayre purgeth it from darkenesse eueÌ„ so the lying hart of man can geue the word of God no truth but contrary wise the truth of Gods word is of her self and lighteneth the harts of the beleuers and maketh them true and clenseth them from lyes as thou readest Iohn xv ye be cleane by reason of the word Which is to be vnderstand in that the word had purged their harces from lyes from false opinions from thinking euill good and therfore from consentyng to sinne And Iohn xvij sanctifie them O father thorough thy truth And thy woorde is truth And thus thou seest that Gods truth dependeth not of man It is not true because man so sayth or admitteth it for true But man is true because he beleueth it testifieth and geueth witnesse in hys hart that it is true And Christ also sayth him selfe Iohn v. I receaue no witnesse of maÌ„ For if the multitude of maÌ„s witnesse might make ought true then were the doctrine of Mahomete truer then Christes ¶ Whether the Apostles left ought vnwritten that is of necessitie to be beleued BUt did not y â— Apostles teach ought by mouth that they wrot not I aunswere because that many taught one thyng and euery man the same in diuers places and vnto diuers people and confirmed euery sermoÌ„ wyth a sundry miracle therfore Christ his Apostles preached an â—…red thousaÌ„d sermons and did as many miracles which had bene superfluous to haue bene all written But the pith and substaunce in generall of euery thing necessary vnto our soules health both of what we ought to beleue and what we ought to do was written and of the miracles done to confirme it as many as were nedeful So that whatsoeuer we ought to beleue or do that same is written expresely or drawen out of that which is written For if I were bound to do or beleue vnder payne of the losse of my soule any thing that were written nor depeÌ„ded of that which is writteÌ„ what holpe me the scripture that is written And thereto in as much as Christ and all his Apostles warned vs that false prophetes shoulde come with false miracles euen to deceaue the elect if it were possible wherewith shoulde the true preacher confound the false except he brought true miracles to confound the false or els autenticke scripture of full authoritie already among the people Some man woulde aske how dyd God continue his congregation from Adam to Noe and froÌ„ Noe to Abraham and so to Moses without writing but with teaching from mouth to mouth I aunswere first that there was no scripture all the whyle they shall proue wheÌ„ our Lady hath a new sonne God taught Adam greater thynges then to write And that there was writing in the world long yer Abraham yea yer Noe do stories testifie Notwithstanding though there had bene no writing the preachers were euer prophetes glorious in doing of miracles wherwith they cofirmed their preaching And beyond that god wrote his testameÌ„t vnto them aâ—way both what to do and to beleue eueÌ„ in y e sacramentes For the sacrifices which God gaue Adams sonnes were no dumme popetrie or superstitious Mahometrie but signes of the testament of God And in them they red y e worde of God as we do in bookes and as we should do in our sacraments if the wicked Pope had not taken the significations away from vs as he hath robbed vs of the true sence of all the scripture The testament which God made with Noe that he woulde no more drowne the worlde with water he wrote in the sacrament of the rainebow And the appointment made betwene him and Abraham he wrote in the sacrament of circumcision And therefore sayd Steuen Act. vij he gaue them y â— testameÌ„t of circumcision Not that the outwarde circumcision was the whole testament but the sacrameÌ„t or signe there For circumcision preached Gods worde vnto theÌ„ as I haue in other places declared But in the tyme of Moyses when the congregation was encreased that they must haue many preachers also rulers temporall then all was receaued in scripture in so much that Christ and his Apostles might not haue bene beleued without scripture for all their miracles Wherefore in as much as Christes congregation is spred abroad into all the worlde much broader then Moses and in as much as we haue not the olde testament onely but also the new wherein all thinges are opened so richly and all fulfilled that before was promised in as much as there is no promise behinde of ought to be shewed more saue the resurrection yea and seyng that Christ and all the Apostles with all the Angels of
thou findest in the scripture and the ensamples that are gone before wyll alway testifie who is the church Though the Phariseis succeded the Patriarkes prophetes and had the scripture of theÌ„ yet they were heretikes and falleÌ„ from the fayth of them and froÌ„ their liuing And Christ and his disciples Iohn the Baptist departed from the Phariseis which were heretikes vnto the right sence of y â— scripture and vnto the faith and liuing of the Patriarkes and Prophetes and rebuked the Phariseis As thou seest how Christ calleth them hipocrites dissimulers blynde guides and painted sepulchers And Iohn called them the generatioÌ„ of vipers and serpentes Of Iohn the angell sayde vnto his father Luke i. he shall turne many of the children of Israell vnto their Lord God which yet before Iohn beleued after a fleshly vnderstanding in God and thought theselues in the right way And he shall turne the harts of the fathers vnto the children That is he shall wyth hys preaching and true interpreting of the scripture make such a spirituall hart in y â— childreÌ„ as was in their fathers Abraham Isaac and Iacob And he shall turne the disobedient vnto the obedience of the righteous and prepare the Lord a perfect people That is them that had set vp a righteousnes of their owne and were therefore disobedient vnto the righteousnes of fayth shal he conuert from their blindnes vnto the wisdome of them that beleued in God to be made righteous and with those fathers shall he geue the childreÌ„ Egles eyes to spye out Christ and his righteousnesse and to forsake their own and so to become perfect And after the same maner though our Popish hypocrites succede Christ and his Apostles and haue their scripture yet they be fallen from the fayth liuyng of them and are heretickes and had nede of a Iohn Baptist to conuert them And we depart from them vnto the true Scripture and vnto the fayth and liuyng therof and rebuke them in like maner And as they which depart from the fayth of the true Church are heretickes eueÌ„ so they that depart froÌ„ the Church of heretickes and false fayned fayth of hypocrites are the true church which thou shalt alway know by their fayth examined by the Scripture by their profession and conseÌ„t to liue according vnto the lawes of God ¶ An other Argument AN other like blind reasoÌ„ they haue wherein is all their trust As we come out of them and they not of vs so we receaue the Scripture of them they not of vs. How know we that it is the Scripture of God and true but because they teach vs so How can we beleue except we first beleue that they be the Church and can not erre in any thyng that perteyneth vnto our soules health For if a man tell me of a maruelous thyng whereof I can haue no other knowledge theÌ„ by his mouth onely how should I geue credence except I beleued that the maÌ„ were so honest that he could not lye or would not lye Wherfore we must beleue that they be the right Church that can not erre or els we can beleue nought at all This wise reason is their shoteancre all their hold their refuge to flye vnto chief stone in their foundation wheron they haue built all their lyes al the mischief that they haue wrought this viij huÌ„dred yeares And this reason do the Iewes lay vnto our charge this day and this reason doth chiefly blynd them and hold them still in obstinacie Our spirites first falsifie the Scripture to stablish their lyes And when the Scripture commeth to light and is restored vnto the true vnderstaÌ„dyng and their iugglyng spied they like to suffer shipwracke then they cast out this ancre they be the Church and can not erre their authoritie is greater then the Scripture and the Scripture is not true but because they say so and admitte it And therfore what soeuer they affirme is of as great authoritie as the Scripture Notwithstandyng as I sayd the kyngdome of heauen standeth not in words of maÌ„s wisedome but in power and spirite And therfore loke vnto the examples of the Scripture and so shalt thou vnderstand And of an hundred examples betwene Moyses and Christ where the Israelites fell from God were eueâ— restored by one Prophet or other let vs take one euen Iohn the Baptist Iohn went before Christ to prepare his way that is to bryng meÌ„ vnto the knowledge of their sinnes and vnto repentaunce through true expoundyng of the law which is the onely way vnto Christ For except a man knowledge his sinnes repent of them he can haue no part in Christ of Iohn Christ fayth Math. xvij that he was Elias that should come restore all thyng That is he should restore the scripture vnto the right sence agayne which the Phariseis had corrupt with the leuen of their false gloses and vayne fleshly traditions He made croked thinges straight as it is written and rough smoth Which is al so to be vnderstand of the Scripture which the Phariseis had made croked wrestyng them vnto a false sence with wicked gloses so rought that no man could walke in the way of them For when God sayd honour father mother meanyng that we should obey them and also helpe theÌ„ at their nede the Phariseis put this glose thereto out of their owne leuen saying God is thy father and mother Wherfore what soeuer nede thy father mother haue if thou offer to God thou art hold excused For it is better to offer to God then to thy father and mother and so much more meritorious as God is greater then they yea and God hath done more for thee then they is more thy father and mother then they As ours now affirme that it is more meritorious to offer to God and his holy dead Saintes then vnto the poore liuyng Saintes And wheÌ„ God had promised the people a Sauiour to come blesse them and saue them from theyr sinnes the Phariseis taught to beleue in holy woorkes to be saued by as if they offered and gaue to be prayd for As ours as oft as we haue a promise to be forgeueÌ„ at the repentaunce of the hart through Christes bloud shedding put to thou must first shriue thy selfe to vs of euery sâ—…abe we must lay out handes on thine head and whistell out thy sinnes and enioyne the penaunce to make satisfaction And yet art thou but loused from the synne onely that thou shalt not come into hell but thou must yet suffer for euery sinne seuen yeres in Purgatory which is as whot as hell except thou bye it out of the Pope And it y â— aske by what meanes the Pope geueth such pardon They aunswere out of the merites of Christ And thus at the last they grauÌ„t against theÌ„selues that Christ hath not only deserued
not vnto repentaunce nor to fayth nor to loue a mans neighbour M. More declareth the meanyng of no sentence hee describeth the proper signification of no word nor the difference of the significatioÌ„s of any terme but runneth foorth confusedly in vnknowen wordes and generall termes And where one word hath many significations he maketh a man some tyme beleue that many thynges are but one thyng and some tyme he leadeth from one signification vnto an other mocketh a mans wittes As he iuggleth with this terme Church makyng vs in the begynnyng vnderstand all that beleue and in the conclusion the Priestes onely He telleth not the office of the law he describeth not his penauÌ„ce nor the vertue therof or vse he declareth no Sacrament nor what they meane nor the vse nor wherin the frute of coÌ„fession standeth nor whence the power of the absolution commeth nor wherin it resteth nor what iustifying meaneth nor the order nor sheweth any diuersitie of faythes as though all faiths were one fayth and one thyng Marke therfore the way toward iustifying or forgeuenesse of sinne is the law God causeth the law to be preached vnto vs writeth it in our harts and maketh vs by good reasons feele that the law is good and ought to bee kept and that they which keepe it not are worthy to be damned And on the other side I fele that there is no power in me to kepe the law wherupon it would shortly folow that I should dispaire if I were not shortly hoâ—pe But God which hath begon to cure me and hath layde that corosy vnto my sores goeth forth in his cure and setteth hys sonne Iesus before me and all his passions and death and sayth to me this is my deare sonne and he hath prayed for thee hath suffred all this for thee and for his sake I will forgeue thee all that thou hast done agaynst this good lawe and I will heale thy flesh teach thee to kepe this law if y â— wilt learne And I will beare with thee take all a worth that thou doest till thou caust do better And in the meane season not withstandyng thy weakenesse I will yet loue thee no lesse then I do the aungels in heauen so thou wilt be diligent to learne And I will assiste thee and keepe thee and defend thee and be thy shielde and care for thee And the hart here beginneth to mollifie and waxe soft to receaue health and beleueth the mercy of God and in beleuyng is saued froÌ„ the feare of euerlastyng death and made sure of euerlastyng life and then beyng ouercome with this kindnesse begynneth to loue agayne and to submitte her selfe vnto the law of God to learne them and to walke in them Note now the order first God geueth me light to see the goodnesse and righteousnesse of the law myne own sinne and vnrighteousnesse Out of whiche knowledge spryngeth repentaunce Now repentaunce teacheth me not that the law is good and I euill but a light that the spirite of God hath geuen me out of whiche light repentaunce springeth Then the same spirite woorketh in myne hart trust and confidence to beleue the mercy of God and his truth that he will do as hee hath promised Whiche beleffe saueth me And immediatly out of that trust spryngeth loue toward the law of God agayne And what soeuer a man worketh of any other loue theÌ„ this it pleaseth not God nor is that loue godly Now loue doth not receaue this mercy but fayth onely out of whiche fayth loue springeth by which loue I power out agayn vpon my neighbour that goodnesse which I haue receaued of God by fayth Hereof ye see that I caÌ„ not be iustified without repentauÌ„ce and yet repentaunce iustifieth me not And hereof ye see that I can not haue a fayth to be iustified and saued except loue spryng therof immediatly and yet loue iustifieth me not before God For my naturall loue to God agayne doth not make me first see feele the kyndnesse of God in Christ but fayth thorough preachyng For we loue not God first to coÌ„pell him to loue agayn but he loued vs first gaue his sonne for vs that we might see loue and loue agayne sayth S. Iohn in his first Epistle Which loue of God to vs ward we receaue by Christ thorough fayth sayth Paule And this example haue I set out for them in diuers places but their blynd Popish eyes haue no power to see it couetousnesse hath so blynded them And when we say faith onely iustifieth vs that is to say receaueth the mercy wherewith God iustifieth vs and forgeueth vs we meane not fayth whiche hath no repentaunce and fayth whiche hath no loue vnto the lawes of God agayne and vnto good workes as wicked hypocrites falsly belye vs. For how theÌ„ should we suffer as we do all misery to cal the blind and ignorauÌ„t vnto repentaunce good workes which now do but consent vnto all euill and study mischief all day long for all their preachyng their iustifying of good woorkes Let M. More improue this with his sophistrie and set foorth his owne doctrine that we may see the reason of it and walke in light Hereof ye see what fayth it is that iustifieth vs. The fayth in Christes bloud of a repentyng hart toward the law doth iustifie vs onely and not all maner faythes Ye must vnderstaÌ„d therfore that ye may see to come out of Mores blynd maze how that there be many faythes and that all faythes be not one faith though they be al called with on generall name There is a story faith without feelyng in the hart wher with I may beleue the whole story of the Bible yet not set myne hart earnestly thereto takyng it for the fode of my soule to learne to beleue and trust God to loue him dread him and feare him by the doctrine and examples ther of but to seme learned to know the story to dispute and make marchaundise after as we haue exaÌ„ples ynough And the fayth wherewith a man doth miracles is an other gift then the faith of a repeÌ„tyng hart to be saued through Christes bloud and the one no kynne to the other though M. More would haue them so appeare Neither is the deuils fayth the Popes fayth wherwith they beleue that there is a God that Christ is all the story of the Bible and may yet stond with all wickednesse and full coÌ„sent to euil kynne vnto the fayth of them that hate euill and repent of their misdeedes and knowledge their sinnes and be fled with full hope and trust of mercy vnto the bloud of Christ And when he sayth if fayth certifie our hartes that we bee in the fauonr of God and our sinnes forgeuen become good yer we do good workes as the tree must be first good yer it bring forth good fruite by Christes doctrine theÌ„ we make
him The wordes of Mathew are these I tell you that of euery idle woord that men speake shall they yéeld a reckoning in the day of iudgement but that leaueth he out full craftely Now let vs reason of thys text By the reckoning is vnderstood a punishment for the sinne as maister More sayth himself and thys reckoning shall be vppon the day of dome ergo then this punishment for sinne can not be before the day of dome but either vpon or els after the day of dome For God will not first punish them and then after reckon with them to punyshe them a new And so is purgatory quite excluded For all they that euer imagined any purgatory do put it before the iudgement for when Christ commeth to iudgement then ceaseth purgatory as they all consent neyther is there any prayer or suffrage which at that time can do any helpe at all And so hath master More by thys text geuen him selfe a proper fall Here may you sée how strong hys reasons are and what wil happen to him that taketh in hand to defend the falshode agaynst the truth of Goddes woord for hys reasons make more agaynst him then wysh him You may well know that if hys matter had ben any thing lykely he would haue coloured it of an other fashion But sith such a patrone so greatly commended for his conueyance wisedome handleth this matter so flenderly you may well mistrust hys cause Thys is the last reason grounded of Scripture wherwith he hath laboured to proue purgatory And after thys reason he reckeneth vp the doctours and sayth for his pleasure that al make for him but as touching the doctoures I will make a sufficient aunswer in the third part which is agaynst my Lorde of Rochester Thus he leaueth the Scripture which he hath full vnmanerly handled and now endeuoureth himselfe to proue his purpose by some probable reasons And first he bringeth in hys old argument that the church can not erre to the which reason I néede not to aunswer for William Tyndall hath declared aboundantly in a treatise which by Goddes grace you shall shortly haue what the church is and also that it both may erre doth erre if the pope and his adherents be the church as M. More imagineth AFter thys he confirmeth hys fantasie with phantasticall apparitions saying that there haue in euery country and in euery age apparitions bene had and well knowne testified by which men haue had sufficient reuelation and proofe of purgatorye Howe many haue by Gods most gracious fauour appeared to theyr freendes after theyr death and shewed themselues holpen and deliuered thence by pilgrimages almesdeedes prayer c. If they say that these be lyes then they be much worse then their master Luther himselfe for he consenteth in his sermons that many such apparitions bee true and they be true then must there needes be a purgatory Here playeth master More the suttle sophister and would deceiue men wyth a fallace which lyeth in thys woorde true so that when he sayeth that such apparitions be true thys sentence may be taken two maner of wayes One that it is true that such phantasticall apparitions do appeare to diuers and that I thinke no man be so folish but he will graunt him And yet in déede are they no soules but very deuils that so appeare to delude men that they should fall frō the the fayth of Christ and make a God of their owne workes trustyng to be saued thereby But to suppose this true that they are the soules of Purgatory which so appeare is very fonde false and agaynst all Scripture for Esay sayth shall we go from the quicke vnto the dead that is shall we enquire of the dead and beleue them in such pointes as cōcerne our wealth Nay sayth he but vnto the law witnes that is vnto God and his word And so are we monished by Esay in the. 8. that we beleue no such phantasies we are commaūded by the law of God that we enquire not of the dead not for the truth for God abhorreth it Deut. xviij Besides that the parable of the rich man and Lazarus doth vtterly condemne all such apparitions that they are no soules which appeare but very deuils For when the rich man desired that Lazarus might go warne his brethrē that they should not come into that place of payne Abrahā aunswered that they had Moses and the Prophetes addyng also that if they beleued not them then would they not beleue although one should rise agayne and tell it them And so may I conclude that it were in vayne to send them any such apparitions of soules that in very déede there are no soules sent of God but that they are verely deuils whiche come to delude the people to withdraw them from Christ Furthermore all men graunt that the appearyng of Samuell was but an illusion of the deuill thou shalt finde the story i. Reg. xxviij It is not long sith such a question was moued in Oxford the thing was this there was a poore man of the coūtrey whiche was sore troubled with such apparitions for there came a thyng to him which desired him to go certaine pilgrymages and to do certaine other ceremonies whereby it sayd that it should be deliuered from innumerable torments which it now suffered The poore man beleued that this thyng sayd truth and dyd as it commaunded Notwithstandyng it came so often vnto him that what with labour and what with feare the mā was almost besides him selfe and then was hee sent to Oxford to aske counsell what was best to bee done The question was moued to one Doctour Nicolas and hee affirmed by by that it was no soule but the very deuill and that he should no more folow the fendes appetite Then was it moued to D. Kyngton and he affirmed the same Finally they enquyred of D. Roper what his minde was therin he sayd that he would looke on his booke and when he had looked his pleasure he gaue this aunswere Let him alone a while quoth he and I warraunt you that this felow shall either hang him selfe or drowne hym selfe or come to some other mischief Thus determined these men whiche are a great deale to superstitious to dissent from any of the old Doctours yea or els from their owne Scholemen And yet would M. More make vs beleue that they were very soules that by such ceremonies they might be deliuered Now commeth M. More to solute those two reasons that were brought agaynst Purgatory in the Supplication of Beggers which was y t whole occasion of his booke And marke how slender his solutiōs are The first reason is this If there were any Purgatory out of which the Pope might deliuer one soule by hys pardon then may he by the same authoritie deliuer many and if he may deliuer many then may he deliuer them all The second reason is this
spiritualem alimoniam quā ipse det nā quae locutus sum inquit vobis spiritus sunt vita That is to say it is the spirite that quickeneth the fleshe profiteth nothyng the wordes whiche I speake vnto you are spirite lyfe For in this place also hee meaneth both of his owne fleshe and his owne spirite he deuided the spirite from the flesh that they might know through fayth not onely y e visible part but also y e visible part y e was in hym also that the wordes which he spake were not carnall but spirituall For what body shold haue suffised to haue ben the meate of all y t world And euē therfore dyd he make mention of the Ascension of the sonne of man into heauē that he might withdraw them frō the bodley imagination that they might hereafter learne that the flesh was called heauenly meate which cōmeth from aboue and spiritual meate whiche hee would geue For sayth Christ the wordes that I haue spokē vnto you are spirite and lyfe Here you may sée that Christ spake it of his owne fleshe and ment playnly that it dyd nothyng profite as infidelles dyd vnderstād hym For els it geueth life as it is receiued of the faythfull in a mysterie For as Bartram sayth in this mysterie of the body and bloud is a spiritual operation which geueth lyfe Without the whiche operation those mysteries do nothyng profite for surely sayth hee they may féede the body but the soule they can not féede 2. Besides that the Scripture sayth that that entreth in by y e mouth doth not defile a man for as Christ sayth it is cast forth into the draught And by the same reason it foloweth that it doth not sanctifie or make a man holy But the Sacrament entreth in by the mouth therfore it doth folow that of it selfe it doth not sāctifie or make holy of this text should folow two inconueniences if the Sacrament were the naturall body of Christ First it should folow that the body of Christ should not sanctifie the faythfull because it entreth in by y t mouth And agayne it should folow that the body of Christ should be cast out into the draught whiche thyng is abominable Wherefore it must néedes folow that the Sacrament can not be hys naturall body 3. Furthermore Christ would not suffer that deuoute woman which of loue sought hym at hys sepulture to touch hys naturall body because she lacked a poynt of fayth and dyd not count hym to be equall with hys father And much more it shall follow that the wicked which haue no fayth nor loue towardes hym shall not be suffered to eate hys fleshe with theyr téeth and swallowe it into their vncleane bodyes for that were much more then to touch hym And yet notwithstandyng they receaue and eate the Sacrament Wherupon it should follow if the sacrament were hys naturall body that they should in deede eate hys body which thyng may be counted a blasphemye agaynst God Moreouer Christ sayth he that eateth my fleshe drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in hym Now we know right well that the wicked doe eate the Sacrament and yet neither dwell in Christ nor Christ in them Wherefore it must followe that the Sacrament is not the very fleshe of Christ And surely I can not excuse them of blasphemye which so directly contrary Christes wordes How can you auoyde these textes which Christ speaketh vnto hys disciples saying yet a little while am I with you and then I depart to hym that sent me And agayne It is expedient for you that I depart For excepte that I departe that comforter shall not come vnto you And agayn he sayth I forsake the world and go to my father And to be short he saith Poore men ye shall euer haue with you but me shall you not euer haue Now we know right well that hys Godhead is in all places and that as touchyng hys Godhead hee forsooke not the world when he ascended vnto his father Wherfore it must nedes follow that he forsooke it as touching hys fleshe and manhode And thereto agréeth the expositions of S. Austen and Fulgentius before alleaged yea and al other old faithful fathers Now if he haue forsaken the world as touching the presence of hys naturall fleshe and manhode as all Doctors define then ment he not that hys naturall fleshe shoulde be present in the Sacrament to bee eaten with our téeth And therfore though Christ so tell you yet must you take hym as hee meaneth or els you be begyled For if ye thinke that God both maye and will fulfill and verifye all thynges accordyng to the letter as he speaketh them I may call you an obedient mā as S. Bernard doth hys Monk Adam And may say as he doth that if that be the right way so simply to receaue all thyng we may put out the texte of Scripture which warneth vs to be wise as Serpentes For the text following is sufficient which biddeth vs to be simple as Doues Why doth your mastership graunt a necessary allegorye whē Paul sayth Christ is a stone or whē Christ sayth that he is a doore The scripture sayth hee is both twaine and syth God so sayth he is able so to make it And therfore by your reason we shall nede none allegorye in all scripture and then he that is most simple and foolish may be counted most faythfull And so shall we néede no faythfull fathers to expoūd the text but it shall be most merite to beleue the letter Thys I denye not but that God coulde haue done it if he had so intended when he spake the wordes But now y e scripture standyng as it doth I thinke he can not doe it As by example I thinke that God by the bloud of hys sonne Christ myght haue saued all men both faythfull and vnfaythfull if he had so intended and that it had so pleased hym But now the Scriptures standyng as they do I say hee can not doe it and that it is impossible for hym For then he might make hys sonne a lyer which sayth He that beleueth not is damned And againe He that beleueth not shall not sée life but the wrath of God abydeth vpon hym And euen as it is impossible to stand with the processe of Scripture wherin God hath declared his will that the vnfaythfull shoulde be saued although God might haue done it at the first if he had so would Likewise it is impossible the Scriptures standing as they do that the naturall body of Christ shoulde be present to our téeth in the Sacrament And as for our fayth it néedeth not to haue hym present in the bread For I may as wel eate him and drinke him through fayth that is to say beleue in hym as though he were as present in the Sacrament as he was hanging on the Crosse 1. And because you say that my
very face in the glasse And euen so though the Sacrament doe represent the body of Christ yet the substaunce of the Sacrament is not hys very body no more then the glasse is my face neither is his very body in y e Sacrament no more then my very face is in the glasse and thus this exāple maketh well for vs. And for that one word comming whole to an hundreth eares I say that worde is but a sounde and a qualitie and not a substaunce and therfore it is nothyng to our purpose and can not be likened to Christs body which is a substaūce And as concernyng the sight of the litle eye I say that though the eye discry and sée an whole countrey yet is not that whole coūtrey in the eye but as the countrey is knowen by y e sight of eye though the countrey be not in it so is the death of Christ and hys bodye breakyng and bloude shedyng knowen by the Sacrament though his naturall body be not in it And thus his exāples make nothyng with hym but rather much agaynst hym And where hee sayth that the young man hym selfe can geue hym no reasō by what meane they may be done I may say vnto hys mastershyp that whē I was seuen yeare yonger then I am this day I would haue bene ashamed if I could not haue geuen an euident reason at the Austens in Oxford before y e whole Vniuersitie And albeit I now vouchsafe not to spend labour and paper about Aristotles doctrine yet haue I so much touched hys examples that he may be werye of them Also I can not see why it shoulde be more repugnaunt that one body may be by the power of God in two places at once then that two bodyes may bee together in one place at once And that poynte I thinke this young mā denieth not The beyng of our body in two places at once is against nature Scripture cā not alow it But that two bodyes should bee in one place séemeth more reasonable For I haue good experience that though my body cā not be in two places at once both in the Tower and where I would haue it beside yet blessed be God in this one place I am not without cōpany But if M. More meane that in one proper and seueral place may be two bodies at once that I will deny till he haue laysure to proue it And yet at the length I am sure his proue shall not be worth a poodyng pricke For I am sure it must bee Ratione porositatis vt in igne ferro nam penetrationem dimensionum nunq probabit And then he is as neare as he was before Now his last reason with whiche he proueth it impossible for the body of Christ to bee in two places at once is this you cā sayth he shew no reason why he should be in many places at once not in all But in all places he can not be Wherefore we must conclude that he can not be in many places at once This is a maruelous concluded argument I am sure that euery childe may soone see that this consequēt cā neuer folow vpon these two premisses of this antecedent When I made this reason compiled my treatise I had no regard to the cauillations of sutle Sophisters for I thought no Sophisters should haue medled with that meate But neuerthelesse sith nowe I perceiue that they principally are pouryng on it séekyng some pray to set their teeth a woorke In this booke I haue somewhat prouided for them and haue brought such hard bones that if they be to busie may chaunce to choke thē And yet is not the Argument so feble as he fayneth For the first part if he lyst to consider the sense and mynde and bee not to curious where I say that they can shew no reason why hée should bee in many places and not in all is thus to be vnderstand of wyse men that the very reason and cause that he shold be in many places must be because y ◠body is so annexed with the Godhead that it is in euery place as the Godhead is This I say must be the cause and reason of his beyng in many places And neither you nor no man els can iustly assigne any other Now of this maior or first proposition thus vnderstand doth the cōclusion folowe directly For if this should be y e cause as they must nedes graunt And this cause proued false by Scripture then must they néedes graunt that the thyng whiche so foloweth of this cause must néedes be false And so is my purpose proued they concluded As by example the Astronomers say that the naturall course of the Sunne is frō the weast to the East Now if a mā should aske them what is then the cause that we sée hym dayly take the cōtrary course from the East to the Weast agaynst hys nature they aunswere Because the hyghest sphere whose course is from the East to the Weast with his swift mouyng doth violently drawe the inferior spheres with hym This is the cause that they alleage and no man can assigne any other And now sith I cā proue this sense false by scripture And S. Austen for Scripture sayth that y e sphere is fastened Hebr. viij chap. And S. Austen expoundyng that text improueth the Astronomers whiche affirme that it moueth sith I say this cause is proued false by scripture they must néedes graūt that the thyng whiche foloweth of this cause must néedes be false And so we may conclude against them all that the naturall course of the Sunne is not frō the Weast to the East as the Astronomers say But contrary from the East to the West And lykewise sith the cause that Christes body should be in many places is assigned of learned men to be because hys body is so annexed with the Godhead which is in euery place that it is also in all places with it no man can assigne any other And that this cause is proued false by Scripture for when the women sought Christ at his graue an aungell gaue the aunswere that hée was not there But if his body had bene in euery place then the aungell lyed Also Christ sayd vnto his Disciples of Lazarus which died at Bethania Lazarus is dead And I am glad for your sakes that you may beleue because I was not there Now if hys body were in euery place as is the Godhead then Christ sayd not truly when he said he was not there Therfore sith as I sayd this is the cause assigned yet proued false by Scripture they must néedes graūt that the thyng whiche foloweth of this cause must also néedes be false And so we may cōclude against thē all y e Christs body is in one place onely And now you may sée how my consequent foloweth the premisses For he can no further conclude but that we can shewe no
of the same Sonday Gaudete in domino semper c. And so postilled the whole Epistle folowing the Scripture and Luthers postill And for that SermoÌ„ he was immediately accused of heresie by ij Felowes of y t Kinges hall Then the godly learned in Christ both of Pembrooke hall S. Iohns Peter house Quéenes colledge y t kings colledge Gunwell hall Benet colledge shewed theÌ„selues and flocked togither in open sight both in y e Schooles at open SermoÌ„s at S. Maries at S. Austens and at other disputations and then they conferred continually togither The house that they resorted most commonly vnto was the white Horse which for despite of them to bring Gods worde into coÌ„tempt was named Germany This house specially was chosen because of them of S. Iohns The Kings colledge and y t Quéenes colledge came in on the backside At this tyme much trouble began to ensue And first the aduersaries of D. Barnes accused him in the Regents house before the Vicechauncelour where as his Articles were presented with hym and receaued hée promising to make aunswere at the next conuocation and so it was done Then Doctour Notoris a ranke enemy to Christ moued D. Barnes to recant but he refused so to doe as appeareth in his booke made to K. Henry the viij And this tragedy continued in Cambridge in preaching one agaynst an other in trying out of Gods trueth vntill within vj. dayes of Shroftyde Then was sent downe a Sergeaunt at Armes called Gibson who sodainely arested Doctour Barnes openly in the conuocation house to make all other afrayde and priuely they had determined to make search for Luthers bookes and all the Germaynes workes sodainely But good Doctour Forman of the Quéenes colledge sent worde incontinently therof to the chambers of those that were suspected which were in number xxx persons But God be praysed they were conueyed by that tyme that the Sergeaunt of Armes the Vichchauncelour and the proctours were at euery mans chamber goyng directly to the place where y t bookes lay whereby it was perceaued that there were some priuy spyes amoÌ„g that small company The next day in the morning the Sergeaunt of Armes caried Barnes with him and brought him to London before Cardinall Wolsey where after long waiting he by the reason of Doctour Gardiner Secretary to y t Cardinal of whose familiar acquaintaunce Doctour Barnes had béene before and M. Foxe maister of the wardes at the last he spake with the Cardinall in his chamber of estate and there before him knéeled on his knées Then sayd the Cardinall vnto them is this Doct. Barnes your man that is accused of heresie They aunswered yea and it please your grace and we trust you shall finde him reformable for he is both wise and well learned Then sayd the Cardinall what maister Doctour had you not a sufficient scope in the Scriptures to teach the people but that my golden shooes my pillers my Polleares my golden cusheons and my crosses did so sore offende you that you must make vs Ridiculum Caput amongest the people Wée were that day iolily laughed to sckorne Verely it was a Sermon more fitter to be preached on a stage then in a pulpit For at the last you sayd I did weare a payre of red gloues I shoulde say bloudy gloues quoth you that I should not be colde in the middest of my Ceremonies Then Barnes aunswered I spake nothing but the trueth out of the scriptures according to my coÌ„science and according to the olde Doctours and then he deliuered him vj. shéetes of paper written to confirme and corroborate his sayinges The Cardinall receaued them smilyng on him and saying wée perceaue that you intend to stand to your Articles and to shew your learning yea sayd Barnes that I doe intende by Gods grace and your Lordships fauour Then sayde the Cardinall vnto Barnes such as you are beare vs little fauour and the Catholique Church I will aske you a question whether doe you thinke it more necessary that I shoulde haue all thys royaltie because I represent the kynges maiesties person in all the high courtes of this Realme to the terrour and kéeping downe of all rebellions treasons traytours and all the wicked and corrupt members of the common wealth or to be as simple as you woulde haue vs and to sell all these aforesayde thinges and to géeue it to the poore which shortly would pisse it against the walles to pull away this maiestie of a princely dignitie which is a terrour to all the wicked and to follow your counsaile in this behalfe Barnes aunswered I thinke it necessary to be solde and géeuen to the poore for this is not comely for your caulyng nor the kinges maiestie is not maintained by your pompe and pollares but by God who sayth perâ—me Reges regnant Kynges and theyr maiesties raigne and stand by mée Then sayd the Cardinall loe maister Doctours here is the learned and wise man that you tolde mée of Then they knéeled downe and sayd we desire your grace to bée good vnto hym for hée will be reformable Then sayd he stand you vp for your sakes and the vniuersitie we will be good vnto hym And then sayd the Cardinall to Barnes how say you M. Doctour doe you not know that I am Legatus de latere and that I am hable to dispeÌ„ce in all matters concerning religion within this Realme as much as the Pope may He sayd I know it to be so Will you then be ruled by vs and we will doe all thinges for your honestie and for the honestie of the vniuersitie He aunswered I thaÌ„ke your grace for your good will I will sticke to y e holy Scripture to Gods booke according to the simple talent that God hath lent me Then sayd the Cardinall aunswere well I woulde aduise thée for thou shalt haue thy learning tried to the vttermost and thou shalt haue the lawe Then D. Barnes requyred hym that he might haue iustice with equitie but foorthwyth he should haue gone to the tower but that Gardiner and Foxe became his suertyes for that night And in the morning he came agayne to Yorke place to Gardiner Foxe and forthwith he was coÌ„mitted to y e Sergeaunt at Armes to bryng him into the Chapter house at Westminster before the Byshoppes and the Abbot of Westminster cauled Islip So soone as the Sergeaunt had presented Barnes the sayd Byshoppes and Abbot â–ª did first sweare him and layd Articles vnto hym who aunswered in like maner as hefore he had aunswered to the Cardinall and he offred vnto them his booke of probations who asked him whether he had an other for him selfe and he sayd yea sheweâ— it vnto them and they tooke them both from him saying that they should haue no laâ—… sure at that present to dispute with hym But demaunded of him whether he wouâ—… subscribe to his Articles or not And he subscribed willingly Then was he committeâ— to the Fléete and the Warden of the
that dare moste boldelye and with least shame depose Princes without a cause hée is best able to bée pope He that can by any trayne craft or subtyltye bring vnder hym any byshop or any spirituall person or inuent any newe clausein their othe hée is to bée alowed afore other Moreouer hée y e kéepeth fewest women and hath most of them that you wote of hée is holyest apte to bée head of your church And hée y e can most tyranously burne mē for preaching of y e Gospel and hée hym selfe to take no labours therein Item to burne priestes y e mary wiues and hée hym selfe to liue in all myschefe whordome yea in such abhominablenes as no man may with honestye speake you knowe what I meane this man I say hath a good testimony afore his spirituality that hée is a lawfull man to that office Furthermore hée that is a whores sonne as our holy father is now and can finde the meanes that 12. men will forswere them selfe that hée is lawfully borne as this holy Clement dyd This is a fitte father for such children Finally hée y e can geue most mony and bye y e greatest part of cardinales of hys syde hée is best worthy to bée called Pope to sit on Peters stoole For it can not bée vnknowen to you how y e Thomas Woulcy an holy piller of your Church woulde haue béene Pope whē this Clement was chosen and did offer for it a resonable peny But Clement dasshed hym out of consayte with 20000. li. more then hée offered and so hée was iudged best worthy and entered in lawfully and regularly and vnto him our bishops bée sworne and obedient And why because they will haue such a head as they bee members for how coulde els their kingdome stand For if one should bee chosen after the rule of blessed S. Paule or els after the lyuynge of these newe heretykes which bée simple and poore and care not for no dignityes nor will neuer swere nor fyght and would rather mary a wyfe of their owne then take other mens and alwayes studying preaching Gods worde séeking onely the honour of God and the profyt of his neighbour and will bée subiect and obedient in all thinges desiring none exception to his prince This man I say shoulde bée vnlawfull not eligible for hée were able to destroy y e whole kingdome of y e papistes and not worthy to receiue an othe of my Lordes y e byshops which will not gladly be periured for such a mās sake For he were able to destroy y e whole church of Rome vnto the which our Byshops haue béene before sworne It foloweth in your othe I shall not consent in counsell or in déede that they shoulde lose eyther lyfe or member or that they shoulde bée taken or trapped by any euill meane What néede you to sweare thus vnto the Pope doth not the order of charitie binde you thus to vse your selfe towarde all men that is to say neither to hurt them nor to harme them neither to intrappe them nor betraye them But all men must bée betrayde and with crafte and subtiltie vndone for the mayntenaunce of thys one wretched person The truth is that neuer man spake against this popet but you destroyde him and betrayde him But this popet hath blasphemed and betrayde all potestates and yet you were neuer against hym And why because you be sworne to hym And you will kéepe your othe bée it right or wrong But in your last othe which hath béene newely made is added thys clause That no man should lay violent bandes vpon them in any wyse or any wrong shoulde bee done vnto them by any maner of colour This part is newly brought in since the fleshe of the Pope hath béene so holy that no man might touch it but harlottes Christen men must patiently suffer iniuries and wrōges but your head will forsweare that point and mayntaine himselfe through your power against all men How neare that this is the Apostles liuing all Christen men can well iudge It foloweth in your othe Their counsell that shal bée shewed vnto mée either by theyr letters or by their messengers I shal open to no man to their hurte or damage Let Princes beware whan the pope sendeth coūselles vnto you for the meaning is to betraye them For all the worlde knoweth that the pope and you doth litle regarde what the beggars of the worlde doth handle But what Emperours kyngs and Dukes doth handle that must you let and destroye For that is the Popes counsell And you may shewe it to no man No not to your kyng And why because you are sworne to the pope But what say you to your othe made vnto your prince wherein you sweare that you shall be faithfull and true and beare vnto him aboue all creatures loue and fauour to lyue and to dye with hym and to open vnto him all maner of counselles that may bée hurtful vnto his grace Now is it well knowne that the pope hath done and dayly doth handle such coūselles as bée against our princes honour and conseruation And yet you may neyther tell it to your prince nor let it And why because you be sworn to the pope and for sworne to your prince Tell me when any thyng was opened vnto our prince by you that the pope had handeled in counsell agaynst our prince Of this thing I will take recorde of his noble grace whether I say true or false And yet must I bee accused of treason And why because you are sworne to the pope And I am true to the kyng It foloweth I shall helpe to defend and mayntaine the papistry of Rome against all men sauing myne order And in your new othe now in oure dayes made is added The regalles of Saint Peter What and in all mē bée contained your prince you must néedes defend him And why because ye bée sworne to the pope forsworn to your prince For your othe to your prince is to defend him with all your wit reason against all men Now must you forsake one of them And your practise hath béene alwayes to forsake your prince and sticke to the pope For of your othe made to your prince you haue béene oftentimes assoiled And as your lawe sayth the Church of Rome is wont so do doe But of your othe made vnto y e pope there is no absolution neither in heauen nor earth Neither was it euer redde heard nor séene that there could bée any dispensation for it Let mée bée reported by all y e bookes that euer were written and by all the bulles that euer were graunted and by all the experience that euer was vsed And if I bée found false let mée bée blamed And yet I am sure many mē will recken that I speake vncharitably But I would faine learne of all y e charitable mē in England with what other English wordes I coulde
that Christen men were not bounde to abstayne from bodely labour by that commaundement for it was so geuen to the Iewes And if we were bound to abstayne from bodely labour by that commaundement then was the kinges grace and all his councell my Lorde Cardinall and all his counsell in the waye of damnation For they cause men to carye their stuffe on the holy day what daye so euer it bée whan they will remoue At this reason all my Lordes were astonied and wist not what to say they were loth to cōdemne my Lord Cardinals grace seing he was so holy a prelate of Christes church and that facte they coulde not deneye Wherfore at y e last my Lorde of Rochester remembred hym selfe and obiected in this maner A goodly reason I will make you a like reason The byshop of Winchester suffered y e stues Ergo the stues bée lawfull At this reason I ineruayled much For I perceyued that it was as lawfull for our noble Prince to carye stuffe on the holy day which is not agaynst y e word of god as it is for an harlot of y e stnes to liue in open whordome which is against the worde of God And yet my Lords the byshops of their greate charitie and of their innumerable spirituall treasure suffereth agaynst their conscience both to bée done Briefely it were to longe to recite all the vncharitable maner that they dyd vse with me And yet earnestly I must bée condemned poore man for an heretyke But I will recyte the saying of doctours for me y e men may sée how shamefully I haue erred Saynt Hierome sayth Therfore bée certine dayes assigned that we should come togither not that that daye in the whiche we come togither is holyer then an other but all dayes bée like and equall And Christ is not alonely crucified in Parasceden and risen onlye on the sonday but the day of resurrection is alwayes and alwayes may we eate of our Lordes fleshe c. Here S. Hierome sayth y e selfe words y e I spake And of these wordes was I moued to speake as God doth knowe Also S. Augustine sayth we must obserue the sabboth day not y e we should recken our selfe not to labour but that all thinge that we doe worke well muste haue an intention to the euerlasting rest Wherfore we must obserue the holy day not by corporall idlenes and vnto the letter but spiritually must we rest from vyces and concupisences wherfore among all the ten commaundementes that of the sabboth daye is alonely commaunded to bée figuratiuely obserued c. Also Tertullyan The Carnall circumcision is put away and extincted at his time So likewise the obseruation of the sabboth day is declared to bée for a tyme for we must kéepe y e sabboth day not alonely the seuenth day but at all tymes as Esay sayth c. But here my Lorde of Rochester sayde fyrste that I vnderstode not Tertulian secōdarily that hée was an heretike But I passe ouer myne aūswere for this is but a Lordly worde and hée could none otherwise saue his honour but yet stādeth my scripture fast And S. Hierome and S. Augustine also their owne law whose wordes be these It is come vnto me that certaine men which bée of an euill spirite haue sowen certaine euill thinges among you and contrary to the holy faith so that they doe forbid that men should worke on the Sabboth day The whiche men what other thyng shall we call them but the preachers of Antichrist the which Antichrist shall make the Sabboth day and the Sonday bée kept from all maner of worke c. This law clearely declareth you to bée Antichristes this is more then I sayd I haue great marueile that the Byshop of Bathe beyng so mighty a Lord in condemning of heretickes was not learned in this law seyng it is his owne facultie NOw dare no mā preach y e truth and the very Gospell of God in especiall they that bée féeble and fearefull But I trust yea and I pray to God that it may shortly come that false and manifest errours may bée plainely shewed There bée certaine men like conditioned to dogges if there bee any man that is not theyr countryman or that they loue not or know not say any thing agaynst them then cry they an hereticke an hereticke ad ignem ad ignem These bée the dogges that feare true preachers What heresie finde you in this article I doe thinke that you doe féele my prayer to bée heards For doubtles there bée many shamefull errours now manifestly opened that at those dayes had béene heresie to haue touched them WEe make nowe a dayes many Martyrs I trust wée shall haue many moe shortly For the viritie coulde neuer bée preached playnely but persecution did follow Here did my Lord of Bathe inquire of mée if I reckoned them for martyrs that were burnte at Bruselles I answered that I knewe not their cause wherefore they died but I reckoned as many men to bée martyrs as were persecuted and dyed for the worde of God but hée saide hée woulde make mée to frye for this How thinke you by this holy prelate was not this a charitable argument to refell myne aunswere with But this was the strongest argument that euer they vsed And paraduenture I may sée the day that this argument may bée made against them THese lawes these lawyers these Iusticiares that say that a man may lawfully aske his owne good afore a Iudge and contende in iudgement haue destroyed all patience deuotion and faith in Christen people On this article hangeth also y e nexte THis pleading in iudgement is manifestly against the Gospell Luk. 12. Homo quis constituit iudicē And contrary to S. Paule Iam omnino delictum est c. Myne aduersaries most vncharitably layde these two articles against mée as though I had condempned the lawemaker lawe and execution thereof whan I onely spake agaynst the vnchariblenes of some mē which rather séeke vengeaunce of their brethren than any right or helpe of the lawe Nor I speake not against all lawyers or against any for pleading iustly after the forme of the lawe but onely against those which taught men that they were bounde to prosicute the vttermost of the lawe vnder the paine of deadly sinne were the man neuer so poore and vnlike to pay the debte Against these two persons spake I and against none other For it is not nor neuer was mine intent to forbid suing at the lawe for I doe know very well that maiestratus is of God Ergo it must néedes followe that all lawes hauing probable reasons of nature made to conserue a common wealth must also bée allowed of God for lawes bée a parte of the power that is instituted of God Moreouer S. Paule doth appeale to the Emperour which is also pars litis And that hée coulde not doe if suing were
simpliciter forbidden Also good lawes bée Gods gifts Wherfore it must néedes followe that wée may lawfully vse them But as men may misuse cunning and beautie so may mē also misuse the excellent gift of the lawes not that lawes bée euill but because wée vse them not to the intent that they were ordayned for No man doubteth but in vsing of all Gods creatures there must bée an epykya that is a meane a measure and an order so that no man may therby destroy his neighbour against the order of charitie which is a guide and a ruler in vsing of all creatures As for men to make a rumour in a whole countrey for a trifle or els for a mā to sue his neighbour which is not able by no meanes to paye hys debte and so vtterly to vndoe hym and to take none ende with him but after the extremitie of the lawe I say that this maner of sutes doe not become Christen men Vbi transgreditur equitatis et charitatis limites And that all men may clearely perceiue that these onely were both my words and intent I shall rehearse the occasion that moued mée to speake of the lawyers and sueters The cause was thys There was a poore man dead and had made an other poore man his executour and bequethed in his will to a Churche in Cambridge a kettell worth ij s. iiij d. the which kettel was afterwarde required by the Churche Warden But this executour beyng a poore man and not able to geue this bequest at that tyme therefore hée desired the Church Warden of longer respite but hée could not be heard for the Church Warden would haue the vttermost of the law and sued him be fore the Commissary and at the last condemned him vnto prison where hée lay and neither was able to pay his dette nor to helpe his wife children Now bicause I might doe somthing with y e Church Warden therefore the poore mans wife came wéeping and waylyng to me desiring me in the way of charitie to speake to the Church Wardē for to bée good to her poore husband wherby I was moued to send for this my frend his name is called Ihon Drake a mā well knowē in Cambridge vnto whom I spake in this maner Countreyman I am very sory to heare of your vncharitable demeanour Here hath béene w t mee a poore woman wéepyng and waylyng and crying out howe you haue vndone her her poore husband and her miserable children for all they haue not one bitte of bread towardes their foode neither is shée able to labour Wherefore I marueile sore at you that you wil bée so extreme vnto poore men whom God visited with pouertie to proue your charity What mercy will you haue at Christes hand the whiche is so extreme vnto your poore neighbour whom hée hath bought with his precious bloud Vnto this hée made me aunswere on this maner how that thyng pertained not to hym but vnto the Church wherfore hée sayd that all Doctours of law did say that they must sue therefore vnder the payne of deadly sinne And if it were wrong why did they learne so Now I had many wordes with hym betwéene him and me as concernyng this maner But the next day when I preached by the reason that the selfe same mā stoode afore me in y e Church was I brought to remembraunce of the case that hée and I had commoned of And bicause I had not clearely cōuerted hym therfore I recited the case in a parable that no man knew what I meant but hée I. And of this thyng was I moued as God knoweth to speake of suters the whiche I thinke in this case no Christen man can alow And therefore I say in myne Article these lawyers Now is there vtterly sinne among you sayth Paule bicause you goe to law one with an other why rather suffer you not wrōg why rather suffer ye not your selues to bée robbed Also our master sayth If any man will sue at the lawe and take thy coate from thée let him haue thy cloke also May not I say these wordes wherfore were they written by the holy ghost but that they should bée learned Here our master Christ and S. Paule speaketh agaynst suters no man can denye it the text is so cleare Now what suyng can bée vnlawfull if this bée not vnlawfull against the which I did speake Here is a poore man wife and children destroyed and no charitable wayes taken with the poore man whereby hée might make restitution And my learning saith That Summum ius summa iniuria est Wherefore I will bée iudged by all Christen men if I ought not in this case to géeue my frende counsell not for to sue Or whether I bée worthy to bée condemned for an hereticke because I counsell my frende and brother rather to suffer wrong than for to vndoe a whole housholde for a naughtie leude kettel But let vs sée how the holy doctours that hath written ouer these places of scripture doth erpounde them First Athanasius on this text of Saint Paule that I bryng There is vtterly sinne among you that is to say It is to your condemnation and to your ignomynie that you doe exercise iudicials among you Wherefore doe you not rather suffer wrong Also saint Hierome It is sinne vnto you that you doe against the cōmaūdemēt of Christ that you haue iudgementes among you the which ought alwayes to kéepe peace yea though it were with the losse of your temporall goods Wherefore doe you not rather suffer wronge Where as ye ought by the commaundement of the Gospell and by the example of the Lorde patiently to suffer there doe you the contrary not all onely not suffer but you doe wrong vnto them that doe no wronge c. Marke how S. Hierome calleth it a precepte and a commaundement and no counsell and also calleth it sinne to doe against this cōmaundement Likewise Haymo saith It is offence and sinne in you that you haue iudicials For accusation engendreth strife strife engendreth discorde discorde engendreth hatred And least paraduenture they woulde say this is no sinne to require mine owne Therefore sayth the Apostle Truely it is sinne vnto you for you doe against the cōmaundement of the Lord the which sayth He that taketh away thy good aske it not againe Wherefore doe you not rather suffer losse that ye might fulfill the commaundement of the Lord. c. Marke how hée calleth it the commaundement of God and it is sinne to aske our owne with contention Now what haue I sayde in mine article that holy scripture and also holy Doctours do not say But after this came a Doctour of lawe whom I knew not and sayde that their lawe had condemned thys epiniō and declared those scriptures to bée but counsels But I denyed that and sayd I knew no such lawe And sodainely Doctour Steuen now Byshop of Winchester shewed mée their lawe whose wordes bée
abide the determination of ytVicechauncelour And the other parte rekened that my oth bound mée not by the reason that it was so vncharitably made the which was not their promyse to doe Yea yeVicechauncelour hym selfe thought it to extreme So y e after many words y e the cōgregation of them was dissolued and I should make an aunswere within eyght dayes what I would do Now in the meane season did master Tyrell ride to London and founde y e meanes by the reason that hée could not obtayne his mynd in the Vniuersitie for I sayd I would appaele from the vicechauncelour to y e whole body of the Vniuersitie that the Cardinal sent downe doctour Capon and a sergeant of armes called Gybsō which did arest mée in the Vniuersitie for to appere before your graces counsell So was I brought Vp to London y e Twesday afore shroue Sondaye and on the wedensday at night after was I brought afore the Cardinall in hys gallery at westmynster which take red all my articles quietly tyl he came to the 6. There hée stopped and asked mée if a byshop might haue any more Cities thē one I aunswered y t a Byshop was instituted to instructe and teach the Cytie therfore hée might haue as much vnderneth him as hée were able to preach and teach to And to that mée thought S. Paule did agrée commaūdyng Timothe to set in euery Cytie a Byshop Wherefore I knew none other order but this Then sayde hée That in Paules dayes a Citie was 6. or 7. myles long beside the subburbes and of that whole Cytye was there but one Byshop So likewise now a byshop had but one Cathedrall sée and all the resedue of the countrey were as subburbes vnto it To this I sayde nothyng for hée woulde heare mée no more but returned and read forth y e articles till that he came to the xxij articles where hée founde his pyllers and his pollaxes And there hée stopped and had a great disputation with mée of them as I haue written afore in my articles So at y e last wée came so farre that I sayde how these articles were vncharitably gathered out of my Sermonde Than hée sayd you are defamed of heresie I answered and sayde I trust there is no good mā that knoweth me which will suspect mée Hée sayde doe not you knowe that there is a rumour how that you bée brought afore vs for heresie I aunswered that rumour is scattered by mine aduersaries of malice and not of any occasion that I haue geuē He sayd I beléeue that to bée true but how will you purge your selfe I answered I wyll bée bounde to brynge vnto your grace xx honest men and well learned of good name and fame that shall depose for mée how that I am not worthy of this infamy Then hée sayde can you bring mée vi or x. doctours of diuinitie that wil sweare for you that you are neyther giltie nor yet worthy to bée suspected I aunswered that it was not possible to bryng so many Doctours for mée séeing there were no more but two at my Sermonde and they belonged both to Byshops Wherefore I supposed they woulde not testifie wyth mée But I woulde brynge as many honest men as shoulde bée required and they shoulde bée as well learned and better then I for to testifie wyth mée But he sayde that woulde not helpe for they must bée my péeres after y e forme of the law I sayd y e was impossible Then sayd hée you must bée burned I answered that I trusted to haue more grace and fauour at hys hand Hée sayde hée was sworne to mayntayne the lawes of y ◠church and therfore hée must follow y e forme of the lawe Wherefore I shoulde take deliberation with my selfe whether I woulde stande to the course of the lawe or els submit my selfe to his grace Now because I had once submitted my selfe to the Vicechauncelour and I was thereby circunuented Therefore I thought I would now not bée so hasty in submitting my self And therefore I aunswered that I woulde submit my selfe to his grace in any thing that coulde be proued agaynst mée that I had spoken contrary to learning He sayd that this was no submission And I woulde graunt no more So after much communication hée concluded wyth mée sayd how that I was but a foole coulde not perceiue how good hée was vnto mée Wherefore séeing that I woulde bée reported by my déedes therefore hée had signed xv or xvi Doctoures sayde hée the which shoulde y e nexte day heare mée And so the nexte day which was on the Thurseday before Festigam Sonday was I brought into the Chapterhouse of Westminster where sate y e Byshop of Bathe as principall iudge and the Byshop of saint Asse the Abbot of Westminster the Abbot of Burye Doctour Quarton Doctour Allen Doctour Stephen then secretary with many moe which I knew not Then sayd the Byshop of Bathe Syr you are defamed of heresie but I denyed the same Hée sayde yée doe sée what a multitude of people here is gathered to heare your examination whiche must rise of some fame I sayde that I knewe no cause of that gathering for I knewe neuer a man there nor brought any man wyth mée sauing a childe of xiij yeares Than sayde hée Dyd you neuer heare of any man that you were accused of heresie Than sayde I Men may say their pleasures I can not let them but it is no matter to mée as long as I am faultles Then sayde hée wée doe beléeue that you are faultles but yet you must purge your selfe and declare your innocency I answered to that I was content and woulde bée reported by all men that euer knew mée or heard mée Well sayde hée that is wel said Now sayde hée bée there certayne articles deliuered vnto vs agaynst you what say you to them My desire was to know myne accusers Nay sayde hée wée procéede after an other forme of the lawe wherefore what say you to these articles I aunswered that they were vncharitably gathered agaynst mée wherefore I did deliuer certayne articles into the court subscribed with mine owne hande As soone as they had them than had they what they woulde for I was nowe come in further daunger then I wist of for now must I néedes purge my selfe after their request or els reuoke all thinges that they had laide against mée as though they had béene myne or els I must néedes dye after theyr lawe The which thyng I than neyther knew nor suspected And thys hath béene the cause that all maner of men whatsoeuer they were that came afore them were they neuer so good nor innocent must néedes bée heretykes if they were not good vnto them the which they were seldome as their déedes hath declared But to come to our purpose they enquired diuers questions of mée nothing perteyning vnto mine articles As whether a man might sweare or not And whether my
as this is But yet I pray you one worde Why bée not your haÌ„ds defiled for handeling of whores sleshe Is whores slesh so cleane that Priestes may handle it and the fleshe of an honest and a good woman so vncleane that Priest must bée burned for handeling of it Fye on the deuill Thinkest thou that men hath neyther reuereÌ„ce in their â—artes toward God nor yet reasoÌ„ to iudge of these things What can bée shameles if this thing shall bée thus alowed amongest Christen men Here bée all honest women and that in honestie abhorred despised and whores in comparison of them bée sanctified and blessed But oh thou Lord God I doe yet beléeue that thou wilt once bée reuenged of this dâ—shonour shamefulnes Moreouer why doth not oppression and violence and thefte defyle Priestes handes as well as mariage What hath pure matrymonye offended that it alonely should defyle priests hands and all other maner of vices and vncleanenes doth nothing contaminate them But alas for pitye how blindly doe we iudge of this holy ordinaÌ„ce and institution of God that thus doe blaspheme it What will men say to blessed S. Paule where hée sayth Haue we not power to lead about a syster to wife as well as the bretheren of the Lord and as Cephas I will not dispute whether that Paule had a wife or not But this I am sure that this text doth clearely proue and that after y t mind of great doctours how that Peter other Apostles had wiues Wherefore then should it bée vnlawfull for our priestes to marry Bée our priests holier theÌ„ S. Peter other Apostles Or is mariage now more vnlawfull then it was then But peraduenture here will bée sayd that the Apostles had wiues beefore y t Christ dyd chuse theÌ„ but afterward they forsooke their wyues and folowed Christ To this I aunswere that it is not inough so to say For séeing that they haue graunted how the apostles had wiues wheÌ„ they were cauled it standeth with reasoÌ„ that these men should proue by an open scripture that the Apostles after theyr caulyng dyd forsake theyr wyues Yea I wyll goe farther wyth them and say playnely that is an abhominable lye a great blasphemy agaynst God and his holy Apostles to say that they had forsaken theyr wyues For our M. Christ taught them not to forsake their wyues but in any wyse to kéepe theÌ„ sauing alonely for fornication Now is the election vnto Apostleship neyther fornication nor yet like vnto fornication Wherefore I say boldely that it is a false lye agaynst the holy Apostles to say that they forsooke their wyues Also this same place of S. Paule doth prooue it a false lye For S. Paule speaketh how S. Peter after hys Apostleshyp and also other disciples of Christ caryed theyr wyues about wyth them when they went a preaching Wherefore it is but a lye to say that they had forsaken them Now Christen reader here haue I perfourmed I trust one part of my promise that is to say I haue proued this article of myne by Gods holy worde so playnely that no man I trust can or will deny but that these Scriptures bée sufficient to moue me and al other meÌ„ to bée of this doctrine that I am of The second part of my promise was to proue this also by holy doctours Vnto the which I will now prepare my selfe But afore all thinges I louingly and charitably desyre the reader to set apart all parcialitie and malice and to iudge indifferently of my doctrine as hée will aunswere at y â— dread full day of doome and not to refuse that thyng that is truth for hatred or displeasure of my person For surely myne intent is neyther to hurte or harme nor yet displease as much as lyeth in mée any person And though I haue in tymes past somwhat vehemently written agaynst those thinges that I thought errours yet would I require hartely euery man to weye euery thyng indifferently by hymself and consider how I haue taken vpon mée not to enuey agaynst any persoÌ„ but alonely to fight agaynst that deuillishe doctrine which is dishonour to Christ and hys blessed bloude and perillous and dampnable vnto all Christen mens soules Secondarily I haue béene wrongfully and vncharitably handeled as God and all good men doth knowe the which I will bée bounde to prooue whensoeuer it shall please God and the kyng to assigne indifferent iudges to heare mée and myne aduersaries Now let no maÌ„ require in mée that hée can not finde in hymselfe that is to say that I can so patiently and so easely beare and suffer these intollerable wronges as I ought for to doe yea and paraduenture as I gladly woulde doe Wherefore I confesse that many wordes hath béene sharpely written by mée the which I would gladly had béene more charitablyer written but then God had not geeueÌ„ mée so great patience Wherefore I trust now by Gods grace somethyng more temperately to speake desiring euery good man of hys charitie to helpe mée wyth his deuoute prayer Amen To our purpose Fyrst commeth blessed S. Ciprian of whom was asked a question what should bée done wyth those religious personnes that could not kéepe theyr chastitie as they had vowed These bée hys wordes Thou doest aske what wée doe iudge of vyrgins the which after they haue decréed to lyue chastly are afterward founde in one bedde wyth a man Of the which thou sayst that one of them was a Deacon Wée doe wyth great sorow sée y â— great ruine of many persons which coÌ„meth by y â— reasoÌ„ of such vnlawfull and perillous companying togither Wherefore if they haue dedicate them selues vnto Christ out of fayth to lyue purely and chastly then let them so remayne wyth out any fable and strongly and stedfastly to abyde the rewarde of virginitie But and if they wyll not abyde or els can not abyde then is it better to marry then for to fall into the fier of concupiscence and let them géeue vnto the brethren and sisterne none occasion of sclaunder c. I doe for my parte require no more then blessed Cyprian doth here teach that is to say if Priestes can lyue sole I beséeche our Lord to rewarde them for it géeue them grace to continue But if they can not I woulde haue no snare layd for theyr soules nor yet haue them compelled to a thyng that they can not kéepe But I woulde the thyng shoulde bée indifferent for them that can lyue chaste so to remayne And they that haue not the gifte nor can not so lyue for to vse that lawfull remedy that God hath ordained What hath men to doe or what moueth theÌ„ to compell Priestes not to marry as long as God is conteÌ„ted with priests wedlocke Let no man thynke that such a compulsion is acceptable to God And if men wyll not bée conteÌ„ted with this doctrine that is so good so reasonable and so honest what
this is if men would bée content and satisfied with reason ¶ Ex damaso Papa ad Hieronimum ex Platina Nauclero BVt let vs goe farther and sée how many Popes haue béene priestes children that this matter may bée opened by them and that Popes them selues may be witnes of this doctrine Fyrst is there Siluerius pope the which had a byshop to his father called Ormisda This Siluerius lyued about the yeare of our Lord. 524. Pope Felix the third of that name was y t sonne of Felix priest of Rome This man lyued about the yeare of our Lord. 474. Pope Deus dedit was the sonne of Stephane the subdeacon which lyued about the yeare of our Lord. 623. Pope Theodorus was the sonne of Theodore byshop of Hierusalem This man lyued about the yeare of our Lord. 634. Hadrian y t secoÌ„d was the sonne of Thalare the byshop This man lyued about the yeare of our Lord. 873. Pope Iohn the xv of that name was y t sonne of priest Leo This man lyued aboute the yeare of our Lorde 984. Pope Agapitus the fyrst of that name had a priest to his father called Gordianus hée lyued about the year of our Lord. 534. Pope Siluerius had a father called Siluerius a byshop of Rome This man liued about the yeare of our lord 544. Pope Boniface the fyrst of y t name was sonne to Iucundus priest Pope Osius was y t sonne of Stephan the subdeacon Pope Gelasius the fyrst had a byshop to his father called Valenus anno Domini 484. Iohn the. x. pope of y t name was sonne to pope Surgius about the yere of our Lord. 924. All these a great many more as the Popes lawe testifieth were the children of subdeacons deacons and Priestes and haue borne rule in the Church of Rome Wherefore I meruayle very fore that men doe recken it so new learning that priests should haue wiues séeing that it standeth with Gods holy word with the saying of the olde doctours with the determination of counsels with y t Emperours lawe and also with y t Popes olde decrées Moreouer Christes holy Apostels and many other holy men since their dayes haue liued in the holy estate of matrymony Finally there hath been many holy men and also holy women borne in the wedlocke of Priestes By what reasoÌ„ now can or wil meÌ„ damne all these thynges that bée of so great auctoritie If men wyll heare neyther God nor maÌ„ nor yet no good reason what néede men then so much to speake of learning séeing that they wyll heare nothyng but that they alonely iudge good Truely this is a great high minde of meÌ„ thus wrongfully to condemne other men for heretikes hauyng so good learnyng for them and yet they themselues are grounded onely of their owne sensuall mynde hauyng no learnyng nor reason for them But I wyll put this matter to Gods iudgement And let not men doubt if they béeléeue there is a God but that God wyll bée a reuenger of such wrongfull violence as men doe vse in thys case both agaynst hym and agaynst all his blessed company of Saintes But yet for to doe men pleasure and that they myght bée perswaded if it were possible I will declare vnto them how y t wée doe finde old monuments testifiyng clearely that priests were in peaceable possessioÌ„ of matrimony their childreÌ„ gotteÌ„ in that same matrimony were admitted to spiritual benefices In the tyme of Pope Alexander y t thirde there was a controuersie for the patronage of a benefice betwéene the pryor of PlimptoÌ„ in Deuenshyre and one Iohn de Valletorda Now were there deputed iudges Rychard Archbyshop of Caunterbury Roger Byshop of Wynchester béefore whome the pryor of Plympton prooued his patronage by the reason that hée was in possession and had géeuen it vnto diuers persons Fyrst hée sayth there was a Priest of PlymptoÌ„ called Alpheghe which had by y t gyft of the pryor of Plympton the benefice of Sutton which is now called Plymmouth This Alpheghe had a sonne cauled Sadda which had also the benefice after hys father And after Sadda was there an other priest cauled Alnodus which had the benefice likewyse This Alnodus had a sonne called Robert Dunprust which after the discease of his father Alnode had also the same benefice And after thys Robert Dunpruâ—t William Bacon hys sonne enioyed the benefice lykewyse Here men may see that it is neyther so new learnyng nor yet so long agoe since priestes had lawful wyues Moreouer I reade in our owne Chronicles that in the tyme of kyng Henry the iij. which raygned y t yeare of our Lord 1101. priestes myght lawfully marry wiues in so much y t Anseline than Archbyshop of Caunterbury in a Seane that hée helde at London did make a decrée y t priestes should forsake their wiues the which was both agaynst Gods lawe and mans For the texte of our Mayster Christ is cleare Quos deus coniunxit Homo non seperet Marke these two wordes Deus and Homo And howe much the one passeth the other Farthermore the Pope hymselfe hath not greatly regarded Priestes chastitie if hée myght get any money for dispensations in the which thyng hée coulde not haue dispeÌ„sed if it had béene of Gods lawe And if it bée but but mans lawe what charitie is in the Pope to compell men so sore to kéepe it séeyng that it is so great dauÌ„ger vnto priestes and that so many soules béene lost thorough it Yea what tyranny is in hym thus cruelly to kill men for breakyng alonely of hys commaundement the which is not in their power to kéepe To our purpose the Pope hath often tymes dispensed both wyth Priestes and religious men for their vowe hath géeuen them licence to marry It is not vnknowen to many men that there was an Abbot of Reading whom men for his perfecte lyuinge called Abbot Sancte This man béeyng in daunger of a certayne disease by the reason hée had no wyfe sente vnto the pope desiring hym to dispense wyth hym for hys vowe and y t pope dispensed wyth hym and gaue hym licence to marry a wyfe but vnder a condition that it shoulde bée secretly done and not In facie ecclesie By this men may sée that the Pope himself holdeth not so much of priests chastitie for then hée woulde not regarde more money then it And if the pope may dispence wyth thys Abbot for auoyding of a disease corporall how much more ought hée now to dispense with priestes séeing there bée so many soules in daunger Yea and also the order of priesthoode is sore defamed and sclaundered by the reasoÌ„ that priestes hath no wyues Moreouer wée doe reade that pope Celestine the third did dispense with a Nunne whose name was cauled Constatia Kyng Rogers daughter of Cecyll and gaue her licence to marry with Henry y t Emperour the sixt of that
name This was about y t yeare of our Lorde 1186. So that meÌ„ may perceaue how the pope doth not greatly regarde the vowe of hys spiritualtie if any thing may bée gotten to pay for a dispensation And it wil not helpe to say that the pope did dispense with this woman for a common wealth For the stories maketh mention that the pope dispeÌ„sed with him vnder a coÌ„dition that hée should paye hym a yearely pencion for the kyngdome of Cecyll and should recouer it of his owne charges out of the handes of Tancredus which was then in possession of it And béecause that hée myght haue the better title to the kyngdome hée gaue hym the onely daughter of Cecill So that y t pope did it not for a common wealth but for his owne lucre But now graunt that it were for â–ª a common wealth therefore first it was not Gods commaundemeÌ„t that priestes should liue sole For gods word géeueth no place to no common wealth And if y â— pope did then dispence for a coÌ„moÌ„ wealth why doth hée not now dispence for auoyding of fornication in so many innumerable priestes Doth not meÌ„ recken it for a common wealth to expell fornication all occasions therevnto But now there is no commoÌ„ wealth to bée regarded béecause there is no shyning golde offered But at y t least wayes mée thinketh that priestes which marry bée very farre from heresie for it is neyther agaynst Gods lawe nor yet agaynst the common wealth Here were many examples to bée brought in how the pope hath dispensed both with Monkes Friers and Nunnes the which I will passe ouer and will she we as neare as I can out out of Chronicles how loÌ„g â–ª it is that the pope hath gone about to bryng in the vow of chastitie Doctour Eckius doth say that Calixtus primus dyd firste make the statute that priestes should vow chastitie bâ—t that is false For all Chronicles beareth witnesse that priestes had wyues in the Councell of Nicene the which was almost an hundreth yeares after Calixtus dayes Wherfore it can not bée supposed that y t statute was made béefore the Councell of Nicene But authenticall hystories doth make mention that Nicholas the first whiche was Byshop of Rome the yeare of our Lord 860. did goe about this thyng but hée could not bryng it to passe by the reason of an holy man S. Huldericke Episcopus Augustensis the which wrote a very sharpe Epistle agaynst hym reproouyng hym sore bycause hée would compell priestes to vow chastitie Hys woords bée these Thou hast not swarued a litle from discretion y t where as thou oughtest to haue counsayled priestes to chastitie thou hast with a Lordly violence compelled them to it Is not this after the iudgement of all wise men a great violence wheÌ„ that thou agaynst the institution of the Gospell and agaynst y e decrée of the holy ghost wilt compell men to obserue thy priuate decrée c. Hée reciteth also agaynst y e Byshop of Rome all those same scriptures that I haue brought herein my booke of this matter and alâ—o certain of the counsels to that purpose that I haue brought them So that men ought not to thinke that I am the first that thus hath vnderstande the Scriptures nor yet the first that hath spoken agaynst priestes vowes Note also how this holy maÌ„ sayth that priests ought to bée admonyshed counselled to chastitie but not compelled For that sayth hée is a great violence and agaynst Christes holy Gospell and y t blessed spirite of God These bée as vehement wordes as I haue spokeÌ„ For out of these woordes men may gather that it is not farre from heresie to compell priestes to vow chastitie This holy man procéedeth farther with y t Bishop of Rome and telleth a fact of S. Gregory the which went about to compell priestes to vow chastitie Vpon a day S. Gregory sent vnto hys pondes for fish and in the nettes that they fished withall were brought vp aboue sixe thousand young childrens heades the which thyng when S. Gregory saw stroke hym sore to the hart hée was very heauy of that sight and perceyued anone that hys decrée that hée made for priester chastitie was the occasion of this great murther In that that priestes could not lyue sole nor yet they durst not auow theyr children for feare of the decrée And so for sauegarde of theyr honesty they fell into a fearefull and abhominable sinne to kyll theyr own children And for this cause S. Gregory sayth this holy Byshop dyd reuoke hys decrée agayn and did greattly alow the saying of the Apostle Iis better to marry then to burne Addyng vnto it of hys owne It is better to marry then to geue occasion to murther Here note good reader what a terrible and a fearefully example this is Is not this a piteous case that so many thousandes innoceÌ„tes bée thus slayne When shall the chastitie keepyng of all the priestes in the worlde bée an occasion of so great goodnes as the law of chastitie hath béene hereof mischief Alas is there no pyty in â—…eÌ„s hartes that are nothyng moued wheÌ„ they read such horrible factes in holy mens writyngs Or doe men thinke that there is no mischief now in our dayes done by the reason that priests are compelled to chastitie If men thinke that there come any mischiefe by the reason of it how can men recken to auoyde Gods vengeauÌ„ce that will so stifly and strongly mayntayne the same I haue béene informed of credible persons the whiche if néede were I could yet bryng foorth that in a place of Religion within this fewe yeares there was a religious man that dyd get a woman with child the whiche woman was brought a bed in the brothers chamber of a fayre sonne This child was Christened in the same chaÌ„ber and as soone as it was christened hée brake the necke of it and buryed it in the night in the Churcheyarde This is the trueth I caÌ„ prooue it Is not this a terrible thyng dooth not nature abhorre this And yet men had rather here this abhominablenes theÌ„ for to release a litle of theyr own will But oh Lorde God howe streightly shalt thou punish this It is not yet out of y t minde of maÌ„ sinnes y t an honest man lost his daughter by the reason that a priest defiled her the which bycause hée would not bée dishonested kylled the mayde priuely and afterwarde cast her into a well If men will not bée moued at this and such lyke other factes I can not tell what will moue them I could recite a great many of abhominable and detestable factes if I were not more ashamed to tell them then priestes hath béene to doe them Neither will I recite how shamefully that mens daughters mens wyues mens seruauntes hath béene and are dayly cast awaye by the â–ª reason that priestes are so hoate of courage and can not
and specially when they bée against the open woorde of God This may bée prooued by the woordes of Moyses If there arise in the midst of thee a Prophet or a man that saith I haue seene a vision and tell thee afore a signe and a woÌ„der and that thing that hee tolde thee doe also come to passe Now if this man say vnto thee let vs goe and follow strainge Gods which thou knowest not and let vs serue them thou shalt not heare the Prophet nor the dreamers wordes for God doth prooue you that it may bee open whether you loue hym in all your harte and in all your soule or not Bée not these woords open against all manner of myracles yea against Prophetes whose prophecie is true and yet béecause hée will drawe the hartes of y â— people vnto other things béeside God therefore shall hée not bée heard your Images bée not here excepted Farthermore what signifieth this that God will haue all our hartes and all our soules If God haue all then can your Images haue no part But marke how God doth prooue our faith with such myracles so that hée woulde that neyther heaueÌ„ nor hell Sainte nor myracles Prophet true nor false shoulde draw our harts froÌ„ him or froÌ„ his word but alonely to sticke fast to him Wherfore lay for your Idols what you caÌ„ first they bée no Gods secoÌ„darily they can no more doe if they doe so much but doe miracles tel you before of those thynges that bée to come And yet all this can not helpe for it is openly agaynst the woord of God and we may not heare them Farthermore agaynst your Idols will I set the brasen Serpent of whoÌ„ it is written that it did miracles so openly that no man caÌ„ deny it yea and that by the worde of God which did also stand many hundred yeares till the people did to it so much as they now doe to your Gods that is they did offer inseÌ„ce other oblations therto and therfore was it destroyed Not withstaÌ„ding it was instituted of God and so bée none of your idolles wherfore miracles can not helpe And among the Turkes bée miracles done as they thinke and yet that prooueth not their sect to bée lawfull I will tell you of a miracle that is writteÌ„ in their law On a certeine tyme there was a controuersie betwéene the Priestes and the religious men which of them should haue the oblations of the people The Priests layd that they were best worthy béecause they were ministers in the temple and seruauntes to the Gods and night and day tooke payne for the people The Friers laid for them that they were the successioÌ„ of all their holy fathers and by their prayers and meritâ—… was the kyng all the people kept 〈◊〉 â—he land defeÌ„ded from all euill with many other thinges more Briefly this matter was deferred of both partes to the sentence of the kyng the whiche had thought to haue geuen senteÌ„ce with the Priestes But when the Friers knew it they came to the kyng and desired him that hée would deferre the senteÌ„ce vij dayes and sée what the Gods would shewe for them The night béefore that the kyng should geue sentence was hée compelled by nature to goe to the preuy which wheÌ„ hée came there y e preeuy brake and hée fel in there was hée crying by the space of an houre til hée was so wery that hée coulde cry no more no man could come to him for the pallace was locked TheÌ„ sodeÌ„ly appeared vnto hym a religious maÌ„ w t a glorious light saying vnto hym Now where bée they y â— thou woldest haue geuen sentence with all are not they wel worthy of the oblations that can not helpe thée out of dauÌ„ger but now mayst thou sée what we may doe with the Gods for thée and all thy land and with this the kyng without paine or hurt was taken out of y e préeuy and layd agayne in his bed or hée wist it and the day folowyng gaue hée sentence that the religious men should haue the oblations How thinke you was not here an open miracle and was it not done on the kyng the which had vnderstaÌ„dyng and reason It was an open matter when hée was in the préeuy and the préeuy broken and hée layd agayne in his bed without any hurt this passed maÌ„s power But what wil you prooue of this miracle all your Gods togither can not doe a more open miracle then this is But let vs sée what the Doctours say agaynst your Gods ClemeÌ„s writeth these woordes We doe honour visible Images to the honour of the inuisible God the whiche is a false thyng but if you will honour the image of God in doing well to man in hym shall you honour the true image of God Wherfore if you will truely honour the image of God we will open that thynge vnto you that is of trueth so that you muste doe well vnto man the whiche is made vnto the Image of God geue hym honour and reuerence geeue hym meate when hee is hungrye geeue him drinke when hee is thyrsty Clothe him when hee is naked serue hym when hee is sicke geeue hym lodgyng when hee is a straunger and when hee is in prison minister to hym necessaries This is the thing that shall bee counted to bee geeueÌ„ God truely What honour is this of god to ruÌ„ne about foolishly to stony wooddy Images and to honour as Godes idle and dead figures and to despise man in whoÌ„ is the very true Image of God Wherfore vnderstaÌ„de you that this is the suggestion of the Serpent that lurketh within the whiche doth make you beleeue that you bee deuoute when you doe honour in sensible thyngs And maketh you to beleue that you bee not wicked when you hurt sensible and reasonable men c. How thinke you doth not this damme the worshyppyng of Images yea though it bée in y t honour of God Hée sheweth you also that there is no other true Image but maÌ„ Which of you all goe a pilgrimage to y t Image whiche of you all doe offer to that Image which of you all doe honour that Image You land lepers you inuenters of new gods you Idolaters what say you to this how can you auoyde this is not this agreable with Scriptures And yet this Image doe you despise This image cast you in prison this Image doe you stocke chayne and whippe from towne to towne wtout any cause This image dyeth in the streates béefore your doores for hunger and colde and you runne to Walsingam to Ipsewiche with great pompe pride to honour your dead shadowes It were better for you to burne those Idolles and to warme this true image of God there by for this Image was made vnto God onely and all your dumme gods were made for this Images sake Wherfore it commeth of the deuill that you forsake this very true
nothing but as the father moueth it euen so hath God all tyrantes in hys hande and letteth them not do whatsoeuer they would but as much onely as he appoynteth them to do and as far forth as it is necessarye for vs. And as when the childe submitteth himselfe vnto hys fathers correction and nurture and humbleth himself altogether vnto the will of his father theÌ„ the rod is taken away euen so when we ar come vnto the knowledge of the right waye and haue forsaken our owne will and offer our selues cleane vnto the will of God to walke which way soeuer he will haue vs then turneth he the tyrantes or els if they enforce to persecute vs any further he putteth them out of the way according vnto the comfortable ensamples of the scripture Moreouer let vs arme our soules with the promises both of helpe and assistance and also of the glorious rewarde that followeth Great is your reward in heaueÌ„ sayth Christ Math. 5. And he that knowledgeth mee before men him will I knowledge before my father that is in heauen Math. 10. and Call on me in time of tribulation and I wyll deliuer thee Psal 65. and Beholde the eyes of the Lord are ouer them thet feare hym and ouer them that trust in hys mercy to deliuer theyr soules from death and to feede them in time of hunger Psal 46. And in Psal 47. sayth Dauid The Lorde is nygh them that are troubled in theyr hartes and the meeke in spirite will he saue The tribulations of the righteous are many and out of them all will the Lord deliuer them The Lord keepeth al the bones of them so that not one of theÌ„ shall be brused The Lord shal redeeme the soules of his seruauntes And of such like consolation are all the Psalmes full woulde to God when ye read them ye vnderstood them And Math. 10. When they deliuer you take no thought what ye shall say it shall be geuen you the same houre what ye shall say for it is not ye that speake but the spirite of your Father which speaketh in you The very heares of your heades are numbred saith Christ also Math. 10. If God care for our heares he much more careth for our soules which he hath sealed with his holy spirite Therefore sayth Peter 1. Pet. 4. Cast all your care vppon him for he careth for you And Paule 1. Cor. 10. sayeth God is true he wil not suffer you to be tempted aboue your might And Psal 71. Cast thy care vpon the Lord. Let thy care be to prepare thy selfe with all thy strength for to walke which way he will haue thee and to beleue that he will goe with thee assist thee and strengthen thee agaynst all tyraÌ„tes deliuer thee out of al tribulatioÌ„ But what way or by what meanes he will do it that committe vnto him and his godly pleasure and wisedome and cast that care vpon him And though it seeme neuer so vnlikely or neuer so impossible vnto naturall reason yet beleue stedfastly that he will do it and then shall he according to his olde vse chainge the course of the worlde euen in the twinckling of an eye and come sodenly vpon our Gyantes as a theefe in the night and coÌ„passe them in their wyles and worldly wisedome when they crye peace all is safe then shall theyr sorrowes beginne as the panges of a woman that traueileth with childe and then shall he destroy them and deliuer thee vnto the glorious prayse of hys mercy and truth Amen ANd as pertayning vnto them that despise Gods worde counting it as a phantasie or a dreame and to them also that for feare of a little persecution fall from it sette this before thyne eyes how God since the beginning of the world before a generall plague euer sent his true prophetes preachers of his word to warne the people and gaue them time to repent But they for the greatest part of theÌ„ hardened theyr hartes and persecuted the worde that was sent to saue them And then God destroyed them vtterly and tooke them cleane from the earth As thou seest what followed the preaching of Noe in y â— olde world what folowed the preaching of Loth among the Sodomites the preachyng of Moses and Aaron among the Egiptians and that sodenly against all possibilitie of mans witte Moreouer as ofte as the children of Israell fel from God to the worshipping of images he sent his prophets vnto them and they persecuted and waxed harde harted and then he sent them into all places of the world captiue Last of all he sent his owne sonne vnto them and they waxed more hard harted then euer before And see what a fearefull example of his wrath and cruel vengeance he hath made of them vnto all the worlde now almost fifteene hundred yeares Vnto the olde Brittaines also which dwelled where our natioÌ„ doth now preached Gildas and rebuked them of theyr wickednes and prophesied both vnto the spirituall as they will be called and vnto the lay men also what vengeaunce would follow except they repented But they waxed hard harted and God sente his plagues and pestilences among them and sent theyr enemies in vppon them on euery side destroyed them vtterly Marke also how Christ threateneth theÌ„ that forsake him for whatsoeuer cause it be whether for feare eyther for shame eyther for losse of honour frendes lyfe or goodes â–ª He that denyeth me before men him will I deâ—y before my father that is in heauen He that loueth father or mother more then me is not worthy of me all thys he sayth Math. 10. And in Mark 8. he sayth Whosoeuer is ashamed of me or my wordes among this adulterous and sinfull generation of him shall the sonne of man be ashamed when he commeth in the glory of his father with his holy Angels And Luk. 9. also None that layeth his hande to the plowe and looketh backe is meete for the kingdome of heauen Neuerthelesse yet if any man haue resisted ignorantly as Paule did let him looke on the truth which Paule wrote after he came to knowledge Also if any man cleane against his hart but ouercome with the weaknes of the flesh for feare of persecution haue denied as Peter did or haue deliuered his booke or put it away secretly let him if he repente come again and take better hold and not dispayre or take it for a signe that God hath forsaken him for God ofttimes taketh hys strength euen froÌ„ his very elect wheÌ„ they either trust in theyr own strength or are negligent to call to him for his strength And that doth hee to teach theÌ„ to make theÌ„ feele that in that fire of tribulatioÌ„ for his wordes sake nothing can endure and abide saue his word and that streÌ„gth onely which he hath promised For the which strength he will haue vs to praye vnto him night and day wyth all
instance THat thou mayst perceyue how that y â— scripture ought to be in the mother tounge and that the reasons which our sprites make for the contrary are but sophistry and false wiles to feare thee from the light that thou mightest follow them blindfolde and be theyr captiue to honor theyr ceremonies and to offer to theyr belly First God gaue the children of Israell a law by the hande of Moses in their mother tounge and all the prophetes wrote in theyr mother tounge and all the Psalmes were in the mother tongue And there was Christ but figured and described in ceremonies in riddles in parables and in darck prophecies What is the cause that we may not haue the olde Testament with the new also which is the light of the olde and wherin is openly declared before the eyes that there was darckly prophesied I can imagine no cause verely except it be that we should not see the woorke of Antechrist iugglyng of hipocrites what shoulde be the cause that we which walke in the broad day should not see as well as they that walked in the night or that wee shoulde not see as well at noone as they did in y â— twylight Came Christ to make the world more blinde By this meanes Christ is the darknes of the world and noâ— the light as he saith him selfe Iohn 8. Moreouer Moses saith Deut. 6. Heare Israell let these wordes which I coÌ„maunde thee thys day sticke fast in thine hart whet theÌ„ on thy children talke of theÌ„ as thou sittest in thine house as thou walkest by the way when thou lyest downe when thou risest vp binde them for a token to thyne hand let them be a remembraunce betwene thine eyes write theÌ„ on the posâ—es gates of thine house This was commauÌ„ded generally vnto all men How cometh it that gods word pertaineth lesse vnto vs theÌ„ vnto the Yea howe commeth it that our Moysesses forbid vs and commaund vs the contrary threaten vs if we do will not that we once speake of Gods worde How can we whette Gods word that is to put it in practise vse exercise vpoÌ„ our children houshold wheÌ„ we are violently kepte from it and knowe it not How can we as Peter commaundeth geue a reason of our hope when we wot not what it is that God hath promised or what to hope Moyses also commaundeth in the sayd chapter If the sonne aske what the testimonies lawes and obseruaunces of the Lorde meane that the father teach him If our childreÌ„ aske what our cerimonies which are moe then the Iewes were meane no father can tell his sonne And in the xj chapter he repeteth all againe for feare of forgetting They will say happely the scripture requireth a pure minde and a quiet minde And therefore the lay man because he is altogether combred with worldly busines can not vnderstand them If that be the cause then it is a plaine case that our prelates vnderstand not the Scriptures them selues for no lay man is so tangled with worldly busines as they are The great thinges of the worlde are ministred by them neyther do the lay people any great thing but at their assignement If the Scripture were in the mother tongue they will say then would the lay people vnderstande it euery man after his owne wayes Wherfore serueth the Curate but to teach him the right way Wherfore were the holy dayes made but that the people shoulde come and learne Are yee not abhominable scholemaisters in that ye take so great wages if ye will not teach If ye would teach how could ye do it so well and with so great profite as when the lay people haue the scripture before them in theyr mother tongue for then should they see by the order of the text whether thou iugledest or not and then woulde they beleue it because it is y â— scripture of god thoughe thy liuyng be neuer so abhominable Where now because your liuing your preaching are so contrary and because they grope out in euery sermon your open and manifest lyes and smell your vnsatiable couetousnes they beleue you not when you preach truth But alas the Curates them selues for the most part wot no more what the new or olde Testament meaneth then do the Turkes neither know they of any more then that they read at masse mattens and euensong which yet they vnderstande not neyther care they but euen to mumble vp so much euery day as the Pye and Poymgay speake they wot not what to sill vp theyr bellies withall If they will not let the lay man haue the woorde of God in hys mother tounge yet let the priests haue it which for a great part of them do vnderstand no latine at all but sing and say and patter all day with the lips onely that which the hart vnderstandeth not Christ commaundeth to search the scriptures Iohn 5. Though that miracles bare recorde vnto hys doctrine yet desired he no fayth to be geuen eyther vnto hys doctrine or vnto hys miracles without recorde of the scripture When Paule preached Act. 17. the other searched the scriptures dayly whether they were as he alleaged them Why shal not I likewise see whether it be the scripture y â— thou alleagest yea why shall I not see the scripture and the circumstaunces and what goeth before and after that I may knowe whether thine interpretation be y â— right sence or whether thou iuglest and drawest the scripture violently vnto thy carnall and fleshlye purpose or whether thou be about to teache me or to disccaue me Christ sayth that there shall come false prophets in his name and say that they themselues are Christ that is they shall so preache christ that meÌ„ must beleue in theÌ„ in their holines and thinges of their imagination wtout gods word yea that agaynst Christ or Antechrist that shall come is nothyng but suche false prophetes that shall iuggle with the scripture and beguile the people with false interpretatioÌ„s as all the false prophetes scribes pharisies did in y t old TestameÌ„t How shall I know whether ye are agaynst Christ or fals prophetes or no seing ye will not let me see how ye alleage the scriptures Christ sayth By theyr deedes ye shall know them Now when we looke on your deeds we see that ye are all sworne together and haue seperated yourselues from the lay people and haue a seuerall kingdome amoÌ„g your selues and seuerall lawes of your owne making wherewith ye violently binde the lay people that neuer consented vnto the making of them A thousand thinges forbidde ye which Christ made free and dispence with them agayne for money neyther is there any exception at all but lacke of money Ye haue a secret counsell by your selues All other mens secretes counsels know ye and no man yours ye seek but honour riches promotion authoritie and to