wee will refute more perticularly bragg of the antiquity of this traditioÌ„ with false brauadoes since God who is the auncient of dayes hath never taught it to our Fathers in the first dayes of his grace by his auncient Prophets nor in the beginning of the latter by his Sonne Christ Iesus and his Apostles nor for some hundred yeeres after their time by their true successours but on the contrarie raised vp holy and faithfull Doctors to resist contradict it So that the title of Heretiques which they so vsually giue vs in all occurreÌ„ces may by a good consequence be returned vpon them And here-upon I entreat the vnpassionate Reader to censure whether this reproch which S. Tertullian made heretofore vnto their predecessours who alwaies had antiquety in their mouths and noveltie in their braines may not justly be appropriated to them Where is the religion where is the reuerence you owe vnto your ancestours you haue renounced the custome of your Graundsirs in education in apparell in sence in speech it self You euermore praise anti quity liue froÌ„ daie to daie after nouelty wherby it is euident seing that of your selues you forsake the good institutions of your predecessours you remember keepe the things which you ought not and obserue not those which you should Now resteth the lait part of our disputation that this law and custome of going to salute the reliques of the dead ought to be abolished banished out of the ChristiaÌ„ church because of the manie-fold abuses which heretofore haue ben committed which they yet committ vnto this daye in Christendome by obseruing them The first is It withdraweth the hearts spirits of men froÌ„ the right waie by which it hath pleased God to draw vs to the knowledge and enioying the benefits of his son Christ Iesus For in stead that God commandeth vs to seeke his son in his word and sacraments in th' assemly of the liuing which worship him in spirit and truth amongst whom he is found It perswadeth vs the contrarie to seeke him among the shrines and reliques of the dead and in the compagny of those which dwell in the dust of the earth where hee forbids them by his Angel to seeke him Againe instead that the Apostle exhorteth vs to seeke Christ in Heauen where he sitteth at the right hand of God his Father and learnes vs to know him after the spirit and to assend vp vnto him in the high Places with the feete of our faith it councels vs the contrarie to seeke him and knowe him after the flesh to seeke him now here and now there some-times by pilgrimages from one Contrey into an other and sometimes to descend into the caues of the earth to contemplate there the reliques of his bodie directly against his owne expresse prohibition quoted by S. Mathew in the 24. Chap. of his Gospel The second abuse is that they haue transported the reliques of Saincts into diverse places and admonished everie one to resort thether vpon feastiuall daies dedicated to their memory and so they intoxicate the simple with this false opinion that not only the saints but God himself taketh delight in such pilgrimages and that their prayers made neere to the theise religious reliques are sooner heard of the Saincts of God himself then when they are made else where as appeareth by the decree of the Councell of Trent and the praiers which are forged by the Priests of the Romane Church according to the tenour thereof The decree of the Trent CouÌ„cell is this Mandat sancta Synodus omnibus Episcopis caeteris docendi munus curamqué sustinentibus ut iuxta Catholicae Apostolicae Ecclesiae usum à primaevis Christianae Religionis temporibus receptum sanctorumqué Patrum consensionem sacrorum Conciliorum decreta de sanctorum inter cessione invecatione reliquarum honore legitimo imaginuÌ„ usu fidelis diligenter instruant docentes eos sanctorum Martyrum aliorum cúm Christo viveÌ„tium sancta corpora quae viva membra fuerunt Christi templa Spiritus sancti ab ipso ad vitam aeternam suscitanda glorificanda á fidelibus veneranda esse per quae multa beneficia à Deo â—ominibus praestantur ita ut affirmantes Sanctorum reliquijs venerationem atque honorem non deberi vel eas aliaquè sacra monumenta à fidelibus inutiliter honorari atque cornm opis impetrandae causa Sanctorum memorias frustra frequentari omnino damnandos esse prout jampridem eos daÌ„navit nuÌ„cetiaÌ„ daÌ„nat Ecc. that is The holy Counsel enioyneth all Bishops others to whom the charge and care of teaching is committed that according to the vse of the Catholique and Apostolique Church receiued from the first age of Christian Religion the consent of holy Fathers and the decrees of sacred Counsels they diligently instruct the faithfull in the Doctrine of the interecssion and invocation of Saincts in honouring their reliques and in the Lawfull vse of images admonishing them touching the reliques that the holy Boddies of the Martyrs other Saincts living with Christ who while they liued in this worlde were his liuely members temples of the holy Ghost whome one day hee will raise vp and glorifie vnto eternall life ought to be reuerenced by the faithfull because GOD bestowes many benefits one men through those reliques So that those which maintaine that their reliques are neither to be reuerenced nor honoured that the faithfull reverence them and other holy memorials to noe end More-ouer that they in vaine frequent the places wherein such reliques are to obtaine succour from the Saincts ought expresly to be comdemned as for a longe time the Church hath condemned them and condemns them yet vnto this present The first prayer consormable to this decree made by their Presbiters is this Domine nerespicias piccatanostra sed respice ad deprecationem genitricis tuae Mariae perejus sancta merita perintercessionem sanctorum tuorum Apostolorum Petri Pauli atque omnium Sanctorum tuorum quorum reliquiae sunt in isto loco adiuva nos sicut tuvides necessitatem nostram That is to say Behold not our Sinns ô Lord but behold the Prayer of thy mother Marie and through her holy Merits and through the mediation of thy holy Apostles Peter and Paul and of all thy Saincts whose reliques are in this place help vs according to our necessitie The second is Deus qui ex omni coaptatione Sanctorum aeternum tibi condis habitaculum da aedificationi tuae incrementa caelestia vt quorum hic reliquias pio amore complectimur eorum semper meritis adiuvemur That is to say O God! which through the Sainets that thou hast appropriated to thy self buildest thee an everlasting Tabernacle giue celestiall augmentations to thy building that alwaies we may be succoured by the merrits of those whose reliques wee here embrase with a holy affection The third
is Propitiare nobis quaesumus Domine famulis tuis per horum sanctorum tuoruÌ„ N. N. atque aliorum qui in praesentirequiescunt Ecclesia merita gloriosa vt eorum pia intercessione ab omnibus semper protegamur adversis That is to say O Lord be fauourable vnto vs thy servants for the glorio us merits of these Saincts N. N. and of all others which rest here in this Church to the end that through their Godly intercession wee may evermore bee preserved in all our adversities I maintaine that this opinion is false that God heareth soner our Prayers neere vnto the reliques of the dead then else where because it is grounded on principles directly contrarie to the infallible instructions of holy Scripture where of the first is That Christians are permitted to invocate the departed Saincts and to honour religiously their reliques The second that the deceased Saincts know whatsoeuer is done vnder the Sunne and consequently vnderstand the Prayers of those which crie vnto them in this world The third that the Saincts after their departure should regard the seruice of such as salute kisse and honour their reliques by way of religion Fourthly that God hath instituted the pilgrimages which they obserue in the Romane Church and had rather be worshipped in a place wherein there is some reliques or memorials of the Saints theÌ„ where there is none Now inregard they haue not long agoe reimprinted at Sedan my refutation against the invocation of Saincts by which I haue represented vnto the reader the falshoode of the three first principles I will send the Reader vnto it But for the latter I will set downe before him that which S. Gregorie Nyssene iudgeth thereof in his Epistle against the pilgrims that went to Ierusalem to see the sepulchre of Christ and the most remarkeable memoriall of our Redeemer When the Lord saith Gregorie Nyssene calleth the blessed into the inheritance of the kingdome of Heaven he places not amonge the number of their workes which brings them thither the pilgrimage vnto Ierusalem neither maketh hee anie mention of such a worke amonge the number of the Blessed And why should men employ their time then in doing that which neither makes them happie nor is available vnto the Kingdome of Heauen Wherein cann that man advantage himself which should come into those parts as if more abundance of the holy Ghost were there and that his grace were more ample in that place If Grace were more abounding in Ierusalem then sinne would not bee so rife amonge those that inhabit there but at this present there is noe manner of wickednesse which is left vncommitted amonge them Let our exsample offend noe man but let rather our perswasion finde beliefe seing wee diswade them from that which wee haue seene with our eyes As for vs before and after wee came thither wee alwaies confessed that Christ is true God and our faith was neither impaired nor engmented therby This good I haue gathered by it that by the conference I haue had therof I must alwaies acknowledge that there is more sanctitie in vs which dwell fardest from it You then which feare God praise him at home in the places were you make your abode for the alteration of the place makes not God to come the neerer vnto you But wheresoeuer thou shall be he wil come vnto the if he finds the Lodging of thy soule readie to entertaine him But if the inward man bee laden with wicked thoughts thou shalt not receiue Christ though thou wert in Golgotha in mount olivers or in the tombe of his resurrection Perswade the Bretheren then that they goe on pilgrimage out of their Bodies vnto the Lord not out of Cappadocia into Palestina If that which was done there in the beginning did last still the holy Ghost dispensing his gifts in the likenesse of fire then would it behooue vs all to be present there where he maketh such distribution to all But if the Spirit bloweth where it pleaseth him those which haue beleeved there are made partakers of his diuine gift according to the proportion of their faith and not according to their pilgrimage vnto Ierusalem I could here likewise coppie out S. Chrisost admonition that to obtaine pardon for his sinnes he needed not to make any long iourneis into farre Countries neither to spend his mony Also that of S. Aug. that God commaunds vs not to goe into the East nor to saile into the West to seek out righteousnesse likewise that of S. Bernards that to finde the Lord it behooues vs not to passe the Seas and Alpes but that euerie man should goe vnto God within himself many other instructions of the true Doctours Fathers of the primitiue Church conformable to those of Christ his Apostle S. Paul that God wil bee worshipped by vs in al places in Spirit truth if I feared not to abuse the Readers patieÌ„ce and knew moreouer that our adversaires makes no account of the Doctrine of the Orthodoxe Fathers wheÌ„soeuer it refelleth their inventions is repugnant vnto the authority of their Pope whome they preferre as wee can proue by their writtings before a thousand Chrysostomes Augustins Bernards and Gregories The third abuse is that through the visiting of these reliques the hearts of superstitious men are moued to transferre that worship which is due onely vnto the liuing and incorruptible God to dead corruptible things For as in the time of S. Ierom S. Christostom S. Augustin the ChristiaÌ„s were adicted vnto this ceremonie of going to visite the sepulchres and monuments of the Martyrs and other holy men and to solemnize yeerely certaine solemne feastes in memorie of them So ever since their foolish Imitatours haue buylt Temples Altars in honor of their reliques lighted vp Candles about them and haue craued succour and help by their praiers not onely of God himself and his saincts but also from these dead an insensible things which neuer had any communion with humane life neither could in any wise vnderstand them nor neuer shal be capable of hauing participation in the knowledg of our God and of that eternall life which he hath promised vnto his children For confirmatioÌ„ whereof I wil not here speake of the Monkes which in time past worshipped the arme of S. Maurus nor of some other Idolaters which praied to the bones of their Saincts nor of those which adore our Sauiours crosse vnto this day onely for the present I will but reâ—ite the praier which the Monkes of the Abbey of Fons make ordinarily vnto the table-cloth vpon which according to their tradition they saie our Sauiour and Lord Iesus Christ hath celebrated the holy Sacrament with his disciples And those which the Monkes of Cahors sing vsually going in procession in honour of his kerchiefe and to the great dishonor of the person of our blessed Sauiour and onely mediator Iesus Christ. The Monkes of Fons esteeming more
domine Les abomine 7 Mais moien la grand ' bonté mainte Laquelle m'as fait sauourer Iraâ—encores t'adoâ—er En ton temple en ta maison saincte Dessous ta crainte 8 Mon Dieu guide moi connoye Par ta bonté que ne soys mis Sous la main de mes ennemis Er dresse deuant moi ta voye Que ne fouruoye 9 Leut bouche rien de vrain'ame ne Leur coeur est feint faux couuert leur gosier vnsepulchre ouuert De flatterie fausse vaine leur langue est pleine 10 O Dieu monstre leur qu'ils mesprenent Ce qu'ils pensent faire desfaits Chasse les pour leurs grands mesfaits Carc'est contre toiqu'tfs se prennent Tant entreprennent 11 Et que tous ceux se resiousissent Quien toi ontespoir foi Ioye autont sans fin deffcus toi Aucc eeux qui ton Nom cheâ—issent Et te benissent 12 Car de bien faire tu es large Al'homme iuste ô Vrai Sauueur Etle couures de ta faueur Tout ainsi commed vne targe Espesse large A DISPVTATION against the worshipping of the Reliques of Saincts departed OF all the Idolatries in the world there is none more displeasing to God nor more hurtfull to a superstitious man then that which he committeth by the religious worshipping of the bones and reliques of the dead For if God would never suffer that we should worship his living creatures created after his owne image likenesse noe not his Angels themselves which are pure and immortall and haue noe participation with our humane corruptioÌ„ how much lesse wil he permit vs to attribute that honour due vnto his onely Maiesty to the bones garments of rotten bodies returned into ashes Moreover if the worshippers of the false Gods haue estranged themselves from our Creator who is the fountaine of living waters to digg them pitts that can containe noe water how much more are all those gone astray out of the right waie of salvatioÌ„ which runne after I know not what pieces of old raggs in-uented at their pleasure and seeke for the light of lyfe among the shaddowes of death Now whereas the Canons of Awcon in Germanie haue not long since put forth an index of their relickes with a Iesu-iticall Epistel stuffed with false gloses and sophisticall reasons to stirt-vp thereby the poore abused people of this age vnto the visitation of their said reliques and to change at an instant their natural stupiditie into a self-obstinacie by preferring the deceitful shewes of religion before he service which God prescribs vs in his holy word So I desiring to accomplish the earnest request of some of my freindes and also my vocation which bindes mee to pre-advertise the ignorant to take heed of these blind-leaders which leads them vnto perditioÌ„ haue spent some houres in composing of this Treatise that may serue as a preseruative to the weake against the venomous errours eontained in the saide writing as a morning-watch to awaken rouse vp the sluggish as a Guide to such as are gone astray out of the path of truth and as a spurre to the dull to convert them to God to divert them from the pernicious adoration of things dead corruptible vnto the wholsome worship of our heauenly Father the onely God living incorruptible who is a spirit and loues such as worship him in spirit truth Whereunto I will indevour to bring them by three degrees First I will lay downe to them the principall causes for which Christians are not permitted to doe anye religious seruice vnto the reliques of the dead Afterward I will refute the arguments of the Canons of Awcon whereby they seeke to prooue the contrarie Finally I will advertise the Reader of the falsities of those reliques specified in their index I will confirme this my proposition that Christians are not permitted to doe any religious service to the reliques of the dead by three reasons whereof the first shall be that the tradition of visiting and reuerencing religiously the reliques of the departed Saints hath no foundation in the holy Scripturs nor from the example of those which haue followed invariably their paterne The second how some Christians inconstaÌ„t in their waies hauing learned this superstitious ceremony in the Schoole of the Gentiles haue brought it into the Primitiue Church about foure hundred yeeres after Christ. The third that the consideratioÌ„ of the sundry abuses sprung from this wicked custome nourished and maintayned yet vnto this present in the Idolaters Synagogue ought to mooue and stirre vp the true worshippers of God wholly to banish it froÌ„ out of the christian Church Touching the first poynt of my admonition surely we finde in the Byble that the holy Patriarckes and their children haue buried honourably their dead according to the ordinance of the Lord Thou art dust to dust shalt thou returne but we read not in any place of it that they haue torne their bodies and traÌ„sported them by peece-meal after their deceasse placed their bones in sundrie places showne their garments to the vulgar people with coÌ„mand to worship them and promisse that in calling vpon theÌ„ they should be heard Neither reade wee also in it that God hath commanded vs by his auncient prophets to goe on pilgrimage to those parts where their inheritours had carried theÌ„ to offer vp there vnto them burning tapers and holy candles to touch salute kisse their bones with great devotion Much lesse reade we in it that God hath prescribed them to soleÌ„nize the memorie of their reliques by certain convocations of the people publicatioÌ„s of solemne fests nor yet to load the Churches Altars with them nor to carry them vppon their necks shoulders nor to walke vp downe with theÌ„ in processions to the intent to moue every one to reverence them with confidence to obtaine succour from God and his Saincts by worshipping them And albeit that the Patriarke Iacob and Ioseph his son grounding them-selues vpon the truth of Gods promisse that he would giue for an inheritance to their posterity the land of Canaan enioyned their children to transport them forth of Egypt when the houre of their deliueraÌ„ce should come into the coÌ„trey which God had promissed them and that Moses tooke their bones alonge with him when the children of Israel came forth of Egipt notwithstanding he never shewed theÌ„ vnto the people of God in his greatest distresses either in his passage through the redd sea or in the wildernesse much lesse did he lift them vp into the ayre and sett them vppon a Perch as he did the brasen serpent or ordayned that any should behold them with sted fast assurance that every of them should bee delivered from their euils by contemplating them but contrary wise he kept them secret close in their coffins and the Elders of the people that surviued Moses and Ioshua caused theÌ„ to
Apostles of the holy Martyrs and other excellent personnages renowned for their good life purenesse in doctrine but also to the reliques of the greatest deceivers of the world To begin then with the reliques of S. Francis who for his impiety was condemned by Pope Iohn the 22. as a pervertour of the Christian religion it is written in the booke of Conformities that a woman troubled with the bloody flix for the space of thirteene yeeres was cured thereof by touching the hemme of his gowne and that a blinde man recouvered his sight by touching of his hoode S. Gregory also rehearseth in the first booke of his Dialogues second Chapter That a provost of the monasterie of Funda in Italie called Libertinus having drawne on a stocking of the Abbot S. Honorats mett a woeman that went to burie her Sonne who importuned him with many prayers to raise him from the dead this good prouost graunting her her request laid the stocking ouer her said son and put life into him againe through the vertue thereof He likewise reporteth in the third booke of his Dialogues that in the time of a drought the Citizens of Spoleta made great store of raine to fall vpon their Soile by lifting vp towards heauen the gowne of S. Eutychus Wee knowe also that some woemeÌ„ with Child following the Counsell of their Monkes haue kissed S. Ioostlings breeches in Flaunders others lifted vp S. Arnoults others haue stradled ouer S. Guerchilous image hoping by this meanes to bee the more safely deliuered of their children Wee are not ignorant likewise that many Idiots of the Romane Church beleeue that there is in the citie of Orleans some residue of the marriage wine of Cana in Galile which never diminisheth although they drinke oftentimes thereof And in our Ladies Church at Rome and at S. Salvader in Spaine some of the morcells of those Loaues wherewith Christ fed fiue thousand persons in the wildernesse which neuer lesseneth although they oftentimes eate their bellies full thereof Moreouer they beleeue that the Prelates of Rome haue in some of their Churches diverse reliques of a wonderfull force and vertue as at S. Iohn Latrans the wastcoate of the Apostle S. Iohn which being heretofore laid ouer three dead bodies made them to rise vp a liue in the field At S. Pauls that crucifix which spake vnto S. Brigit Queene of Sweethland wheÌ„ shee came to pray in that place At S. Iohn del ' Isle that image of the virgin Maries which at the overflowing of the Tiber could not be spoiled nor her lampe put out with the water At S. Francis the bodie of S. Lodovica a a Romaine lady which doth many miracles At S. Maries TraÌ„spontina a cruciâ—ix which spake heretofore to S. Peter S. Paul To S. Mary en voy large a small picture of the virgin Maries which hath wrought many miracles At S. Maries laneufve an other small picture of the virgin Maries which was miraculously preserved in the midst of a great fire which burned the other ornaments of this Church At S. Augustins an image of the virgin Maries painted by S. Luke which did also many miracles in the time of pope Innocent the eight At S. Martins a gowne which the virgin Mary made for her sonne Christ Iesus in his minority which miraculously groweth to the same stature as himself grew In S. Pontials Church-yeard an host consecrated by a Priest singing masse in the Chappel which because he doubted whether it was the body of Christ sprung out of his hand in a wonderfull manner and falling vppon the ground made a marke of blood which is to be seene within a litle grate of iron yet vnto this day A jest not vnlike to that of the Iesuits and advocats of that horrible conspiracie of Garnet and of his complices against the Crowne of the King of great Britanie who were so impudent as this wise King accuseth them thereof in the preface of his Apologie dedicated to the Emperour all other Princes in ChristendoÌ„ that thy were not ashamed to say and write that after the execution of that Traitor quartered with his coÌ„federats in London a woman found a straw tinctured with a dropp of bloode which sprunge from the body of of this traitour and was miraculously metamorphosed into the resemblance of his head chopt off with a crowne set vpon it But as this deceit was soone after discouvered and manifested to the world aswell by the penn of this King and Solomon of our age as by the art of his painters who according to his Maiesties desire drew a picture vpon a straw and a drop of blood taken from some other body like vnto the same in all things So I beseech God that it will please him by this exsample and advertisment to awaken all other Christian Kings to sift out and examine more deligentlie then they haue done in times past the other jugling trickes of the forgers of reliques and lying wonders This is that Gentle Reader which our Iosiah my dread Souverain vpon whose sacred person the Lord hath experimented his preservations from their damnable treasons because he dwelleth in the secret of the most hie and shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty he will cover thee vnder his wings thou shalt be sure vnder his feathers A thousand shall fall at thy side and tenn thousand at thy right hand but it shall not come neere thee toucheth in his premonition as in a passage having reference to that straw which the father 's the Iesuites would haue fathered vpoÌ„ Garnet their auricular-traitour but as my Authour saith his Maiesty ingeniously found out as cunning a Parrahsius in his great Ile of Britanie as a Zeuxes in Italie At S. Maries de la consolation an image of the virgin Maries which hath done many miracles In S. Vitus Church an oyle drawne from the reliques of that Sainct which being mixed with them healeth the byting of madd doggs At S. Sabinaes a huge blacke stone chained to the great Altar which the Divel threw at S. Dominicus to overwhelme him while he prayed in that place but it chaunced that this stone burst miraculously that S. Dominicus was not hurt therewith At S. Iulians a water distilled with the reliques of S. Iulian whiâ—h helpeth al manner of-fevers and diseases In the same Church an Image of the virgin Maries brought from the citie of Edessa which vpon a day seing the holy man S. Alexis comming towards her after his wonted manner to say his prayers and hearing him knock at one of the Church-doores spake twise together vnto the Sexten Open and let in that holy man of God S. Alexis for he hath merited Heaven In S. Bâ—bians Church-yeard an herbe which shee herself planted thar cureth the falling sicknesse At S. Anastases a pillar wherevpon they cut of S. Pauls head which being falne from his body gaue three jumpes and at euery jump sprang forth three fountains a
saying in their prayer to Christ Crucem tuam adoramus Domine resurrectionem tuam sanctam glorificamus That is Lord wee worship thy crosse and glorifie thy resurrection And to the one to the other Ecce lignum crucis in quo salus pependit venite adoremus That is Behold the woode of the crosse whereon salvation hath hunge come let vs worship it Is not this then to seeke in rotten wood which serues christiaÌ„s for no vse that which cannot be founde but in that immaculate Lambe Christ Iesus which is without blemish who was taught vnto vs by our Fathers who hath redeemed vs from our vaine conversation not with corruptible things as silver and golde or by the woode of the crosse but with his most precious bloode as the Apostle S. Peter witnesseth in the first Chapter of his first Epistle Is not this to attribute as much honour to a creature dead insensible whervnto none of vs would willingly resemble as to the living God the creatour of heaueÌ„ earth The last abuse is daylie seene in the sundry opinions and disputes which the one hold directly contrarie to the other touching the right place and the true Gardians and keepers of these reliques whereby one lie overthroweth another For it is not possible for â—hem to agree without giving each other the lie and without giving to the Saincts more bodies and members after their departure then they had while they were liuing Which is easie to bee showne by their owne writings and the inventories of their reliques To begin with the reliques of Christ as our aduersaires are not ashamed to maintaine that the body of Christ which is assended vp into Heaven to remaine there vntill the restauration of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of his holy Prophets is also here beneath on earth in all the hosts consecrated by their Priests which administer the sacrifice of the masse so they make no conscience to affrme that they haue the foreskinn navell of Christ in diverse places which they keepe and adorne with this fine verse Circumcisa caro Christi sandalia clera Atque vmbilici viget hîc praecisio clara That is to say The foreskinne of Christ his pantofles also With his Navill are inclossed within this place For they haue showne heretofore the first foreskinn of our Lord Iesus Christ in our Ladies Church at Awcon which wee shall come to speake of more amply in the third part of our disputation The second in our Ladies Church at Anwerpe The third at Hildesham in Germanie The fourth is to be seene yet according to their saying at Rome in S. Iohn Latrans church The fifth in the citie of Byzanson in the free-Countie and the sixt in the Abbey of Charroux in France So that by this reckoning they would make Christ Iesus not a man like vnto vs in all things saue in sinne but in stead of a small skinn of his circumcision hee should haue six and consequently as manie bodies Also S. Iohn Baptist according to their tradition hath had manie heads visages For notwithstanding that the Monkes of Rome glory in that they haue his whole head in the Cloister of S. Sylvester those of Malta vaunt that they haue the hinder-part and they of Amiens with those of S. Iohn Angelique for having the forepart with the gash of a knife which Herodias should giue him ouerthwart the eye as the hangman brought her his head to present it by her daughter in a platter to Herode his frends invited to the feast of his nativity But who would not thinke it strange and incredible that the Euangelists which haue represented vnto vs in their historie all the markes which could bee perceiued in this incestuous strumpet of a cruell heart thirsting after the innocent bloode of S. Iohn Baptist should haue forgotten to shewe vs this last which if it had bene true would haue bene more remarkeable then all the rest And although that Eusebius and some other Historians attest that the body of this Fore-runner of Christ was burned to ashes yet these forgers of reliques would make the Idolaters of the papacie beleeue that the finger wherewith Sainct Iohn Baptist showed our LORD Iesus Christ vnto his Disciples in saying Behold the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world was miraculously preserved by the providence of the Lord multiplyed into so manie fingers that their at least six of them found to wit one at Lions another at Bourges the third at Bezanson in S. Iohn the greats Church The fourth at S. Fortuits the fifth at Thoulouse and the sixt at Florence As for the Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul Albeit the Prelates of Rome say that they keepe in S. Iohn Latrans church their whole heads their bodies parted in the midst weighed and divided in to equall shares by S. Sylvester in S. Pauls Church yet those of Poitiers seeke to perswade the comon people that they haue S. Peters chinn and his beard those of Argenton in Berri that they haue one of S. Pauls shoulders those of Trier that they haue manie of the bones of these two Disciples of our Lord Iesus Christ. Likewise those of Thoulouse shew one body of S. Andrews and those of melphe another The Priests of Rome also wrangle with those of Trier and Padoua for S. Matthias body because euerie one of these three townes thinke they haue his corps in his owne Church The same presbiters striue for the body of S. Iames the yonger S. Phillips S. Symons and S. Iudes with those of Thoulouse which maintaine aswell on the one side as on the other that they haue in their Churches the same bodies of these Apostles aboue said The Romanists shew besides two seueral bodies of two other Saints in two other places as the body of S. Anne mother vnto the virgin Marie and Magdalenes sister vnto Lazarus the wise men of the East S. Denises S. Anthonies S. Petronelles S. Susannas S. Hilaries S. Honorats S. Gilses S. Williams and S. Ferreols For they shew one of S. Anns bodies at Apt in Provence and another at our Ladies de â—isle at Lions Then one of Magdalenes corps at Vezelè by Auxerna and another at S. Maximnis in Provence Likewise the bodies of the three wise men of the East both at Milan and Cologne S. Denises at S. Denis in France and at Regesbourgh in Almaine S. Anthonies at Arles and at Vienna S. Petronels daughter vnto S. Peter at Rome and at Mans in the Iacobins Covent S. Susannas at Rome and at Tholose S. Hilaires at Poitiers in two other churches the one in that which the Canons of that place dedicated vnto him the other in the Monkes Church at Sella moreouer S. Honorats bodie at Arles and in the I le of Lyrnis nere vnto Antiâ—ou S. Gilses in a towne in Languedoc which beareth his name and at Tholose S. Williams at an Abbey in Languedoc
vnto the view of all sorts of people to moue theÌ„ by the conteÌ„plation therof to revereÌ„ce them In which times but especially before the warres dangeros waies people resorted not onely froÌ„ adjoyning places but also from farre as out of Hungary Germany France the Lowcontries in such â—n abundance that this semed not an obscure citie but rather an assembliâ— of manie provinces anâ— kingdomes together Refutation The inscription of this Epistle sheweâ— that these CanoÌ„s are of the same humâ—â— and complexion as the Scribes Phariâ— were in the time of Christ his Apostâ—â— who gloried in them-selves for being 〈◊〉 pillars of the church There is this difereâ— betweeÌ„ the swelling Titles whiâ—h the Scrâ—â— Pharises attributed to theÌ„selves to repâ—â—sent their dignity to the comoÌ„ people 〈◊〉 they were some what Ecclesiasticall in 〈◊〉 of these that the Canons of the Syâ—gogue of Awcon assume to themselve which are rather politique The preface of this Epistle demonsâ—teth that these new Scribes and Phariâ— would faine constraine the Christians our age to judaisme and obserue the customes of the ceremonial law long 〈◊〉 abolished by our Lord Iesus Christ 〈◊〉 hath purchased vs the freedome to assâ—â—ble our selues euery day in his name and worship him in all places after th' example of his Apostles and other Christians well instructed in the faith which accounted all dayes a like the one as the other and reprooued the Superstition of those which condemned their bretheren in the distinctioÌ„ of a holy-day of the new Moone or of the Sabbath Wherevnto S. Hierome having respect acknowledged euery day was alike and that Christ was crucified not onely vpon the day of the preparation or rise againe vpon the Sunday but ads that his resurrection is alwaies and that alwaies we may liue by the flesh of Christ. He addeth morover that after the decease of the Apostles some wise men instituted certaine daies for fasting and convocation to the intent that such as waited more vpon the worlde then vpon God who could not or at least would not assemble them-selves so much as one day in their lives to come offer vp vnto God the sacrifices of their praiers humane actions might watch pray vpon those daies if they would Whereby it appeareth painely that the observation of the Iudiciall feasts were not instituted by our Lord Iesus Christ or his Apostles but by the Doctors of the primitiue Church to expresse and record more clearely vnto the common sort of people the principal benefits of our Redeemer Iesus Christ and to accustome them to employ some extraordinarie dayes in meditating vpon them Wherevnto this testimonie of Socrates may serue as a sufficient proofe whereby he declareth that neither Christ nor his Apostles was of meaning to suspend their judgements touching Easter-day or any other feast nor instituted any lawes for them that they should bee kept nor yet denounced any condemnation against such as did not obserue them or did lay any cursse or penalty vpon them as the law of Moses vsually did but the marke whereat they aimed was to recommend to euery one that vertue and life which was pleasing to God And what an impudencie is it in these Canons of Awcon to appropriate their abuse vnto the feasts of the old Testament seing there is asmuch difference betweene their seventh yeeres Sabbath that of the Iewes as is betweene light and darknesseâ— For that of the Iewes was neither consecrated nor employed but onely to the glorie of God whereas that of the Canons of Awcon and their pilgrims is dedicated to the honour of the bones and raggs of mortall men Touching their pilgrimages vnto the reliques of the departed Saincts they are in noe wise grounded vpon any institution of our Lord neither from any example of the aue Iewes nor from the doctrine of the Apostles and first Doctours of the primitiue Church For Iesus Christ our Redeemer was so farr from commaunding his disciples to transport themselves from one place to another to adore the ashes of their predecessours that on the contrarie speaking vnto the Samaritanish woeman hee told her that the hower immediatly should come wheÌ„ strangers should not come any more vnto the temple of Ierusalem to worship God his Father but that the true worshippers should worship him in Spirit and truth at home in their owne Countrey As for the Iewes the true Children of Abraham as it cannot be proued by holy Scripture that God enjoyned them to goe into any forraine Countrey to visite the reliques of the Saincts departed so they never resorted any whether but where God onely was invocated in all puretie shuning all other places into which they had transferred the honour of God to his creatures â—ead and insensible following therein the â—ropher Hoseas exhortation Though thou playest the Harlot â— Israell at the least let not Iudah sinne come not ye vnto Gilgal neither goe 〈◊〉 vp to Beth-avan I acknowledg that some of the ancientâ— Fathers traveled to Ierusalem to beholdâ— the sepulchre of our Redeemer Iesus Christ and some other monuments of the Saincts departed but I add thereto that in the beginning they went not thither to worship their reliques but God onely neither had they any such foolish imagination as once to think that the grace of God was tyed more to one place then to an other but their onely desire was to consider the remarkeable signes of Christs redemption the place of his abode with his disciples Herevpon S. Hierom speaking of S. Hilarions journey to Ierusalem rebuketh such thought that any thing was waÌ„ting in the faith who had not seene Ierusalem and â—â—steemed others that had ben there moâ—â— holy then they which had not The kingdom of God saith he is among you The palâ—â— of God is as accessible in Britainie as in Ierusalem Anthony the Monkes of â—gipt saw not Ierusalem and yet notwithstandâ—â—â— found the gate open While S. HilarioÌ„ â—â—â—in Palestina he went and saw Ierusalem â—â—â—cause he would not dispise the holy places in suâ—â—â— a iourney neuerthelesse he remained there but for a day because it should not seeme he ment to shutt vp the Lorde into a certaine place From hence it followeth that these Canons of Awcon and their predecessors takes for an example the Iewish ceremonies and ancient customes which some Christians through a superstitious imitation introduced into the primitiue church by some of their hirelings onely to encrease their dishonest gaine but let vs proceed to the first parte of their Epistle wherby they shew the reasons where fore many superstitious men in times past haue visited the Reliques which are to bee seene in their Church The first parte of this Iesuiticall Epistle They perceived what great benefites God hath imparted to mortall men through those holy Reliques and how many sundry sorts of miracles haue bene wrought by them through a supernaturall force For not onely the wordes of the Saincts as