chiefest Bishops or Patriarks of the East were either Authours or their fautors This was the cause that often the Orthodoxall Bishops of Greece in defence of truth were forced to fly for succour to the Romaine as did Athanasius and Paulus the one Patriarke of Alexandria the other of Constantinople and others (h) Sozom. l. 1. c. 7. To end which dissentions by his Authority Supreme vnder God vpon Earth ouer the flock of Christ he hid procure that Councells might be called in Greece the discipline of the Church requiring that Councells meete examine the cause and punish offenders where the fault was committed Soe that the cause why those Councells were kept in Greece not in Rome was the Purity of the one neuer falling into Heresie and the infelicity of the other neuer to be without inuentours of such monsters 15. This sinceritie likewise of Doctrine as Ruffinus noteth (i) Ruffin in expositione Symboli is the cause that the Church of Rome did neuer add any word or syllable to the Creed but kept the same entyre without addition which saith he happened not in other Churches because other Churches hauing had heresies sprong vp within their owne bowells did add some wordes to the Creed to crosse and meet with such errours which the Romane neuer did nor had need to doe seeing no heresie had neuer beginning in it Thus Ruffinus wherefore seing the Roman Church caused those Councells to be held in Greece confirmed the same afterwards and their Creeds to be receaued through the whole Church who cā deny but we had those foundations of Faith more principally from the Roman then any other Church the Principall Sea from whence saith (k) l. 4. ep 8. S. Cyprian Priestly dignitie one great Pillar and Foundation of Christianity did flow Vnto which Tertullian (l) Praescr c. 31. Irenaeus (m) l. 3. c. 3. Optatus (n) l. 2. cōt Parmen Epiphanius (o) Haeres 27. S. Augustine (p) Epist 165. being vrged by Heretikes did fly as vnto the head deriving Scriptures Creeds and all other Ecclesiasticall traditions from them Wherefore I must thinke that many sick and sory feathers were in that Ministers head that caused you to call them rather Grecian then Roman Plumes though so light a word as Plumes applyed to so graue matters as Scriptures Creeds and Councells doth sauour of the leuity of your phrase 16. This leuity you shew in the prayses you giue to the Church no lesse then in the reproaches Thus you preach Who is he say (q) Lett. p. 67. you that saith not of the true Church with Augustine Non parua Ecclesiae auctoritas well doth her Modesty well doth her fidelitie deserue honorable esteeme she taketh not vpon her to controule the holy Scripture her Mother from whom she drew her first breath she openeth not her mouth till her mother hath deliuered her mynde she commeth not of her owne head with any sleeuelesse arrant Thus you discourse describing the Spouse of Christ and Mother of Christians as a mannerly young Mayd brought vp in Luthers schoole You demaund who is he that doth not say with S. Augustine Great is the authority of the Church And yet you your self are the Man who call that Authority of the Church which S. Augustine in that very sentence reuerenceth as great and venerable idle and sleeuelesse like the Butcher that called for his knife he had in his mouth These are S. Augustines wordes (r) De cura pro mortuis c. 1. We read in the Books of Machabees that Sacrifice was offered for the dead but if this were no where read in the old Scriptures yet ther is no small authoritie of the vniuersall Church which shineth in this custome Behold S. Augustine calleth Doctrines deliuered by the Church without expresse Scripture great shining which you reuile and contemne 17. Thus you contradict the saying of S. Augustine whilst you would seeme to applaud it yet is not this contradiction so witlesse as is your Assertion impious that Doctrines and Decrees of the Church not deliuered in Scriptures are sleeuelesse the perpetuall virginity of the B. Mother after her sacred birth of the Sonne of God you seeme so to beleeue that you would stop your eares against any that should dispute therof (ſ) Lett. p. 39. but where is this written in Scripture what is it but a perpetuall traditiō of Gods Church S. Augustine sayth (t) de Baptism cont Donatist l. 2. c. 7. that it cannot be clearly proued out of Scripture that Heritikes returning to the Church should not be rebaptized yet the Church hath forbidden the same Shall we tearme this prohibition sleeuelesse That these and these bookes be Canonicall and the other Apocriphall where it is taught in Scripture Now he doth not see that Scriptures are the chiefest points of our Faith contayning the fountaine and as it were principles of faith Doe but read your learned Authour Hierome Zanchius who will giue a newer tune then that your Minister piped vnto you That Authour famous in your Cōgregations teacheth (u) Tom. 4. l. 1. de lege Dei that diuers vnwritten traditions concerning doctrine and manners are in the Church which are not only profitable (x) Non solum vtiles Ecclesiae sed ferè necessariae saith he but in a manner necessary which haue their beginning from the holy Ghost which we must reuerence and obey else we contemne the Authority of the Church which is a thing saith he very displeasing vnto God how then doe you preach that the Church neuer openeth her mouth till Mother Scripture haue deliuered her mind 18. I confesse that this your Authour goeth a step backward saying that these vnwriten traditions are not of equall authoritie with the written word (z) Paris authoritatis non sunt cum verbo in sacris literis reuelato but therin he doth cleerely contradict himselfe For the Canon of the Scripture being as he confesseth an vnwritten tradition how can any thing contayned in Scripture be more certaine then some vnwritten traditions are Can any man be more certaine of a truth proued out of Scripture then he is that his proofes are indeed Scripture One may see this doth imply in termes Wherefore great cause had your Doctour Field (a) Of the Church p. 238. to grant that Papists haue good reason to equall their Traditions to the written word if they can proue any such vnwritten verities and his proofe is pregnant because not the writing giueth things their authoritie but the worth and credit of him that deliuereth them though by word and liuely voyce alone 19. Now put these two sayings of your two Doctours togeather and make an argument for traditions let Doctour Field giue the Maior vnwritten verities can they be proued are equall to the written word let Zanchius add the Minor but diuers vnwritten verities and traditions profitable and in a manner necessary for the Church both about faith manners may be proued What doth follow but that some vnwritten verities and traditions are found which haue equall authoritie with diuine Scripture Is
your handes your sheep must learne in an hebrew grammer to vnderstand their pastors they must nibble on those rootes of Iurie which you who haue tasted of them compare to the fyery thunderbolts in Gelons belly wherewith it would be great pittie that your rare creaturs should be troubled And if this Arca cannot saue them nor assure them which is truly translated Scripture let them fly to the true Arke of Noe the Caholike Church to which Luther did foresee his turbulēt spirit raysing discord amongst Christians would force them that truly desire to be saued finally to fly to for rest (x) lib. de veritate Corpor. Christi contra Zwingliū Yf saith he the world continew long the multitude of interpretations will force vs to receaue againe the decrees of Councells and to fly vnto them to conserue vnity of Faith 10. This is the Felicitie of Catholike Ladies to be already shipped in this Arke that by the worde of the Church they know certainely which is the letter of Scripture which your Ladies like stray-sheep must seek on the top of craggy Mountaines as you terme (z) Counters p. 7. the hebrew language not without eminent daunger of an eternall downefall loosing therin tyme they might haue better spēt in works of charitie prayer seruice of God And put case which is morally impossible they find out assuredly the true Hebrew rootes the true text of Scripture yet would they be as much to seek to spel put the leters togeather to make the true sense What confusion is knowne to be in your Church concerning this point that as Irenaeus noted (a) l. 1. c. 5. Cùm fint duo veltres deijsdem eadem non dicunt of ancient heretikes one shall searse fynde two that will spell the same sense out of the same wordes These foure words Hoc est corpus meum this is my body conteyning not aboue fourteene letters you haue deuised aboue fourtimes forty expositions (b) 200. expositions of those fower wordes printed ann 1577. apud Bell. de Euchar. l. 1. c. 8. so different as the Authors of the one damne the fauourers of the other to Hell What shall your poore Ladies do in this combat they may rashly perswade thmselues that this or that exposition is the best but certaine of any thing they can neuer be till they admit the Catholike Ladies A. B. C. the Churches authority learning of her the sense of whom they tooke the text 11. But you go on with your scoffes Me thinks say you (c) Lett. p. 67. I see you playing Demetrius your craft is going to decay therfore you cry Magna Diana Ephesiorum or which is all one in effect Magna Ecclesia Romanorum Thus you You need I feare the remembrance Zeno gaue to a talker that was often laughed at for his folly Loqui lingua in mentem intincta to speake with your tongue dipped in wit not in Wine we do not in defence of Purgatory cry Magna Diana Ephesiorum nor only Magna Ecclesia Romanorum but Magna Ecclesia Christianorum the great Church of Christians in all ages Whē was the Church of Christ greater and according to the Prophesies vniuersally spread ouer the world if not in S. Augustines time When did Christian learning and piety more florish then in those daies And yet euen thē Purgatory was vniuersally belieued Praier for soules of the deceased practized in the whole Christian world as you haue heard S. Augustine witnes what is Magna Ecclesia Christianorum if this be not 12. But you haue a salue worse then the sore to wit that you take it when we name the Church we haue still reference to the former assertion that the Roman Church is of more Principality then the rest Do you call that assertion ours did we inuent that Title think you Former you may well tearme it for how ancient do you take this doctrine to be S. Irenaeus a most ancient Bishop and Martyr who liued immediatly after the Apostles dayes doth giue the former Stile to the Roman Church planted by the most glorious Apostles Peter Paul (d) l. 3. c. 3 Ad quam propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse est omnem cōuenire Ecclesiam with which euery Church must agree because of her more powerfull principality which Principality you cānot imagin what els it may be besides the Primacy of Peter to whom Christ did make (e) Matth. 16. Ioan. vlt. subiect all other Pastors and Churches by the light of which singuler priuiledg bestowed on this Church in her first Pastor she doth shine velut inter ignes Luna minores 13. And in this respect the Roman Church may be tearmed Diana by which is vnderstood that cleare star whose beames do chase away the darknes of the night which beames the dogges (f) Pierins in Hieroglyph l. 5. de Cane◠who therby see the shadow of their vggly selues cannot endure but weare and wast away themselues with barking at it Heretickes in all ages haue bin condemned by the iudgment of the Roman Sea by the light of her authority they were forced to see the deformity of their hellish pride which hath bin the cause that they haue still waged warre against her And when with their vnited tayles they could not bring fyre inough to burne her Temple by which like Herostratus they thought to eternize their names they haue not ceased with their deuised heades and tongues to rayle and barke at her till some of them burst This consideration moued S. Augustine to say (g) De vtilit cred c. 17. that the Catholik Church deriued from the Apostolike sea partly by Authoritie of Councells partly by the consent of the world partly in the maiesty of Miracles had obtained the height of Authoritie frustra circumlatrantibus haereticis heretikes on euery syde still barking in vaine against her In which kenell your Snarler hath not the least mouth soe that in this age no lesse then in former the verses are found true applyed to the Roman Church Sic latrant sed vasta volat vox irritaventis Et peragit cursus surda Diana suos They bark but wind drowneth their clamours base Diana chast houldes on her heauenly pase 14 Heere may we gather that you vnderstand not well your selfe when you say that we haue receiued neither Scriptures nor the Creeds nor the first foure Generall Councells nor any foundations of faith from the Roman Church perhaps your reason was because these Councells were held not in Europe but in Greece and therefore you call them Grecian plumes Wherein you are grossely deceaued and litle perceaue how highly you commend the Roman Church whiles you seeke to disprayse it For the cause why these Councells were kept in Greece and not in Rome as it is most honorable for the Roman Church so is it little for the credit of the Grecian Those heresies against which such Councells were called did spring vp in Greece often times the
mentall reseruations in your writings putting that which you know was false into your paper keeping that which you did imagine might make the same true in your thoughts Finally you slaunder the Church of Rome for lewd prankes about the Fathers volumes wherein I haue proued her practise to be most syncere so that if poore mens purses be neuer more quit of mony then your penne is now of falshood when they are poorest they will not lack a groate yet I thinke my second accusation of your falshood will cleaue faster to your fingers that to cleere your selfe you will be forced to rubb them rudlye on your Printers head 16. The second place you brought out of S. Augustine against the booke of Machabees was a sentence in his booke against the Epistle to Gaudentius l. 2. c. 51. in these very wordes Machabaeorum Scriptura recepta est ab Ecclesia non inutiliter si sobrie legatur vel audiatur maximè propter ipsos Martyres Machabaeos Sed ob hanc causam in Canone morum non fidei censeri posset Signifying said you that there must be great sobriety vsed in hearing and reading of those bookes and that they are in the Canon of Manners and not of faith My accusation was that your minister had added the last sentence conteyning the substance of the matter vnto S. Augustine Sed ob hanc causam in Canone morum non fidei censeri posset But for this cause that booke may be put in the Canon of manners not of faith Will Syr Edward said I suffer himselfe to be thus bobbed his credit blowne vp wil he not set such a frowne on his trencher-ministers as may make thē vanish out of sight Can any staine to his Knighthood be greater then to be thought a notorious falsifier of so great and learned a Father euen in print Thus I wrote in my Treatise which you terme lame and goutie let vs see how nimble-footed you are in your excuse 17. This last clause say you I wōder how it should passe my sight in the reuiew for perusing my first draught I find go written short in another Letter to distinguish my inference from Augustines proofe It seemeth eyther my Manuaries hast or the Printers mispression hath turned go into sed as if the same had bene contiuned which former errour made thē omit consequētly in the English redditio Thus you write cōfessing as much as I accused you of to wit that the last clause was not S. Augustines but the Ministers or your owne Now that there was a short Goe in your first draught seemes not very probable but rather that your Vulcanes haue hāmered it out of your head to excuse your falshood First what likenesse is there betwixt go and sed that your Manuarie or Printer should take the one for the other what probability that he should so consequently corrupt the text as to leaue out consequently vpon the former errour Secondly why should you make your inference in Latine writing in English What English Author doth vse that idle manner of writing but your self neither doe you vse it your self but only in this place which maketh it more then probable that in truth you thought not therof But now you say you vsed it hauing noe better cloak then this short go to couer so notorious a fraud Thirdly for what purpose doth this iuggling togeather of your sentences both in Latin and English with S. Augustines serue but only that the simple Reader may not distinguish the gray-hound from the hare the doue from the kyte Finally may not a man printe whole sentences of his owne as S. Augustines or any other Fathers and being accused of falshood haue the like excuse to yours at his fingers ends that in the draught there was a go which the Printer let goe 18. But you had you say (r) pag. 33. S. Hieromes authority for that inferēce though you quoted him not who sayth (ſ) Hier. praefat in l. Salom. that the Church doth not receiue the booke of Machabees adding legat ad aedificationem plebis non ad authoritatē dogmatum Ecclesiasticorum confirmandā which wordes say you amount to no lesse summe then that those bookes are in Canone morum non fidei censendi I answere first this is nothing to the purpose to proue S. Augustine did reiect them who might be contrarie to S. Hierome in this point not being then defined by any generall Coūcell though S. Hierome may seeme to speake according to the opinion of the Hebrews as he vseth to doe (t) Vide prafat in Daniel Apol. aduers Ruffin not in his owne Secondly I say that those wordes of S. Hierome come short of your summe and that neither in S. Hierome nor any Ancient Father can be found your Protestant distinction of the Canon of Māners and Canon of Faith Euerie booke that may be reade for edification in the Church may not be tearmed a Canō or Rule of Manners as manie books may edifie Faith which doe not rule it so some Authours may edifie the Church in good life though their workes be not the rule of manners A rule must be right so that a thing conformable to it cannot be crooked As what soeuer is agreable to the Rule of Faith is infallibly true soe what is iust with the Rule of Manners is certainely good But actions according to these bookes we speake of you grant may be wicked how then can they be the Canon and Rule of Manners To kill himselfe for example is a thing vnlawfull yet it is conformable to those actions that you say are praised in the Machabees which bookes you accept as a Rule of Manners If a booke that alloweth some thinges against good Manners may be with a litle Caution as you say (v) pa. 37. the Canon of vertuous life I see not why a booke teaching false doctrine in some points may not with like caution be the Canon of Faith you see that your distinction neither grounded vpon reason nor Fathers nor Scriptures is iustlie a beame in my eye Neither doth Caietan whome you cite iumpe altogeather with your conceipt and though he did his sayings are not Oracles with vs. 19. The third testimonie you alledged out of S. Augustine against the Machabees was this sentence (x) Aug. de ciuit l. 1. c. 20. In the holy Canonicall Bookes there is no diuine precept or permission to be found that we may eyther to gaine immortality or to escape any peril or mischiefe make away with our selues vt Razis seipsum occidens laudatur as Razis did kill himselfe and is therefore commended in the booke of Machabees This last clause said I (z) pag. 135. 136. wherein the force of the testimony consisteth is added both in latin and in English to S. Augustines wordes to make him seeme an enemy of the bookes of the Machabees But indeed that Father doth not say that Razias for that is his name and not Razis was praysed
this world is forgiuē in the world to come that they may not be afflicted with eternall torments Thus he Now is S. Augustine doubtfull either of Purgatorie or of the exposition of this place for pardon in the next world Hath this Doctour in his vnfoulding the words of Christ turned vp Nody Or rather your Minister that dealt your Cardes vsing foure false and deceiptfull trickes concerning this testimony of Viues may he not be thought to haue turned vp for you all the Nodies and Knaues in the bunch 8. But this your gaming Metaphore is not so iniurious to these Blessed Saintes as it is blasphemous against the holy Ghost whose thrice venerable writings did you reuerence in your hart more then the follies of your owne braine your pen would haue trembled to haue called that exposition Nody which so many graue Fathers without the contradiction of any do peremptorily affirme to containe his meaning What can be sacred and certaine amongst Christians if an vnlearned Knight may be permitted to deride that which the most famous Deuines and Fathers of former ages do deliuer as an vndoubted verity and Gods infallible word It is true that Fathers to proue this or that Catholike verity may sometimes bring places of Scripture that haue other sense yea perhaps the sense that one or other doth giue may not be the best although the doctrine therby proued be true which is to erre according to the Analogy of the Place not of Faith A distinction you vnderstand not yet when many Fathers of the Church agree in the same exposition of Scripture without the Contradiction of any the same is to be thought the vndeniable sense of that place For which cause Caluin cannot be excused of hereticall rashnes (h) Caluin comment in c. 10. Io. who dareth expound this Text of Scripture Ego et Pater vnum sumus I and the Father are one of vnity of Consent and Will not of nature and substance adding that the Ancients did abuse the same to proue the Consubstantiality of the Sonne of God Happily the text cannot be so strongly vrged but Caluin◠Arrianizing wit may find some plausible euasion to escape the force therof Yet seing the vniforme consents of Fathers haue canonized that meaning of the wordes he can not be a true Christian that will not neyther was Caluin that did not submit his Iudgment therunto For the vniforme consent of Fathers doth not require that euery one none excepted should expresly teach the same doctrine for then scarse in any point could this vniforme consent be proued seeing all write not of the same point but it sufficeth that many haue taught it in diuers ages without contradiction of the rest and such is the exposition of this place for Purgatory and for the dead in the next world Neither is S. Chrysostomes exposition you brought (k) Lett. p. 41. contrary vnto this that the synne against the holy Ghost shall not be forgiuen in this world nor in the world to come that is Non effugient poenam they shall surely be punished in this wold and in the world to come For first it is not sure and certayne that vniuersally all such synners are punished in this world Many tymes they florish prosper and spend their whole liues in great worldly ioylity as diuers Persecutors Sodomites Apostata's haue done which you name as synnes irremissible and call their Authors Synners in grayne Besides synne neuer to be remitted is more then to be punished in this world and in the next For as you heard S. Augustine say some endure temporall punishments in this life only and some in the next life only some in both so that one may be punished both in this and in the world to come and yet haue his sinne forgiuen at last The meaning then of S. Chrysostome is they shal be punished in this world without pardon and in the next likewise without remissiion Whence it doth follow some may be punished in the next with Purgatory Clemency as Boaethius speaketh (l) Lib. 4 praef 4. So that this exposition as I said though it be not taught expresly by euery Father yet is it not contradicted by any These things Syr you should consider before you speake you should wipe away Tobacco smoke from your eyes when a Card is turned vp before you cry Nody least often as now you haue done you lay the foule Epithete on the holy Ghost indeed that true King of Harts who moued those Fathers to expound the wordes of Christ for the remission of sinnes in the world to come 9. You oppose against our Catholike expositiō another deuised by your self or your Ministers wherin you do greatly delight You will grant sinnes pardoned in the next world and yet not yield one penny to our Purgatory box In this world say you (m) Lett. pag. 50. 51. sinnes are fully pardoned quoad remissionis applicationem by the application of pardon vnto them and the selfe same sinnes may and shal be pardoned in the next per remissionis promulgationem by the proclamation of pardon This distinction you thinke is the (n) p. 32. fiue fingers which you imagin will carry away the Set from the Fathers yet I dare say a man that hath bin conuersant in Scriptures will iudge it no better then Nody First because it is a new deuise not backed by the authority of any Father which therfore may iustly be suspected For Scriptures are to be expounded according to the traditions of our ancestors not by our owne fancies as the Goulden paire of Grecian Doctors Basil and Gregory did who durst neuer follow therin their owne iudgments as Ruffinus o recordeth neither would you Scripturarū intelligentiam non ex propria praesumptione sed ex maiorū scriptis authoritate sequebantur whose wit and learning is not to be paralelled with theirs were you as humbly conceited of your self as you haue cause Secondly because you neither do nor can bring any expresse testimony of Scripture to confirme this your new fancy nor any text that may giue the least colour or probability vnto it You cite the words of S. Iohn that the vnbelieuer is already condemned yet say you he must come to a second doome so is it with the belieuer Albeit he hath full remission granted (p) c. 3. v 18 and his pardon sealed in this life yet he must haue the same proclaimed at the generall Goal-deliuery in the world to come in which sense he may as truly be said to haue his sinnes pardoned as the other his condemned 10. Thus you preach very learnedly as you think though God knowes to little purpose For first you neither do nor can tel what is the first doome the vnbelieuer vndergoeth by which he is damned in this world and after which he must come to a second The ancient Fathers expound that place not that he is indeed sentenced in this world but is said to be condemned and iudged