works of the same we shall not only obtain everlasting life but also we shall deserve remission or mitigation of these present pains and afflictions in this World according to the saying of St. Paul Si nos ipsi judicaremus non judicaremur a Domino Zacharias Convertimini ad me ego convertar ad vos Esajas â—8 frange esurienti panem tuum c. tunc eris velut hortus irriguus Haec sunt inculcanda ecclesiis ut exercitentur ad bene operandum in his ipsis operibus exerceant confirment fidem petentes expectantes a Deo mitigationem praesentium calamitatum The Sacrament of the Altar FOurthly as touching the Sacrament of the Altar We will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us unto their spiritual charge that they ought and must constantly believe that under the form and figure of bread and wine which we there presently do see and perceive by our outward senses is verily substantially and really contained and comprehended the very selfe-same body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ which was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered upon the cross for our Redemption and that under the same form and figure of bread and wine the very selfe-same body and blood of Christ is corporally really and in the very substance exhibited distributed and received of all them which receive the said Sacrament and that therefore the said Sacrament is to be used with all due reverence and honour and that every man ought first to prove and examine himself and religiously to try and search his own Conscience before he shall receive the same according to the saying of St. Paul Quisquis ederit panem hunc aut biberit de poculo domini indigne reus erit corporis sanguinis domini probet autem seipsum homo sic de pane illo edat de poculo illo bibat nam qui edit aut bibit indâ—gne judicium sibiipsi manducat bâ—bit non dijudicans corpus domini Iustification FIfthly As touching the order and cause of our Justification we will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us unto their spiritual charge that this word Justification signifieth remission of our sins and our acceptation or reconciliation into the grace and favour of God that is to say our perfect renovation in Christ. Item That sinners attain this Justification by Contrition and Faith joyned with Charity after such sort and manner as we before mentioned and declared not as though our Contrition or Faith or any works proceeding thereof can worthily merit or deserve to attain the said Justification for the only mercy and grace of the Father promised freely unto us for his Sons sake Jesus Christ and the merits of his blood and his passion be the only sufficient and worthy causes thereof and yet that notwithstanding to the attaining of the said Justification God requireth to be in us not only inward Contrition perfect Faith and Charity certain hope and confidence with all other spiritual graces and motions which as we said before must necessarily concur in remission of our sins that is to say our Justification but also he requireth and commandeth us that after we be justified we must also have good works of charity and obedience towards God in the observing and fulfilling outwardly of his Laws and Commandments for although acceptation to everlasting life be conjoyned with Justification yet our good works be necessarily required to the attaining of everlasting Life and we being justified be necessarily bound and it is our necessary duty to do good works according to the saying of St. Paul debitores sumus non carni ut secundum carnem vivamus nam si secundum carnem vixerimus moriemur sin autem spiritu facta corporis mortificaverimus vivemus etenim quicunque spiritu dei ducuntur hi sunt filii dei and Christ saith si vis ad vitam ingredi serva mandata and St. Paul saith de malis operibus qui talia agunt Regnum dei non possidebunt Wherefore we will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us unto their spiritual charge and God necessarily requireth of us to do good works commanded by him and that not only outward and civil works but also the inward spiritual motions and graces of the Holy Ghost that is to say to dread and fear God to love God to have firm confidence and trust in God to invocate and call upon God to have patience in all adversities to hate sin and to have certain purpose and will not to sin again and such other like motions and vertues for Christ saith Nisi abundaverit justitia vestra plusquam scribarum Pharisaeorum non intrabitis in regnum caelorum that is to say we must not only do outward civil good works but also we must have these foresaid inward spiritual motions consenting and agreeable to the Law of God Of Images AS touching Images truth it is that the same have been used in the old Testament and also for the greater abuses of them sometime destroyed and put down and in the new Testament they have been also allowed as good Authors do declare wherefore we will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us to their spiritual charge how they ought and may use them And First that this may be attributed unto them that they be representers of vertue and good example and that they also be by occasion the kindlers and firers of mens minds and make men often remember and lament their sins and offences especially the Images of Christ and our Lady and that therefore it is meet that they should stand in the Churches and none otherwise to be esteemed And to the intent the rude people should not from henceforth take such superstition as in time past it is thought that the same hath used to do we will that our Bishops and Preachers diligently shall teach them and according to this Doctrine reform their abuses for else there might fortune Idolatry to ensue which God forbid And as for Censing of them and kneeling and offering unto them with other like worshippings although the same hath entred by devotion and fallen to custome yet the people ought to be diligently taught that they in no ways do it nor think it meet to be done to the same Images but only to be done to God and in his honour although it be done before the Images whether it be of Christ of the Cross or of our Lady or of any other Saint besides Of Honouring of Saints AS touching the honouring of Saints we will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us unto their spiritual charge that Saints now being with Christ in Heaven be to be honoured of Christian people in Earth but not with that confidence and honour which
in that Age did and Frith wrote plainly without any Art yet there is so great a difference between their Books that whoever compares them will clearly perceive the one to be the Ingenious defender of an ill cause and the other a simple asserter of Truth Frith wrote with all the disadvantage that was possible being then in the Jayl where he could have no Books but some Notes he might have collected formerly he was also so loaded with Irons that he could scarce sit with any ease He began with confirming what he had delivered about the Fathers before Christ their feeding on his Body in the same manner that Christians do since his death This he proved from Scripture and several places of St. Austins works he proved also from Scripture that after the Consecration the Elements were still Bread and Wine and were so called both by our Saviour and his Apostles that our Senses shew they are not changed in their Natures and that they are still subject to Corruption which can no way be said of the body of Christ. He proved that the eating of Christs Flesh in the 6th of St. Iohn cannot be applyed to the Sacrament since the wicked receive it who yet do not eat the Flesh of Christ otherwise they should have eternal life He shewed also that the Sacrament coming in the room of the Jewish Paschal Lamb we must understand Christs words This is my Body in the same sense in which it was said that the Lamb was the Lords Passover He confirmed this by many passages cited out of Tertullian Athanasius Chrysostome Ambrose Ierome Austin Fulgentius Eusebius and some later Writers as Beda Bertram and Druthmar who did all assert that the Elements retained their former Natures and were only the Mysteries Signs and Figures of the Body and Blood of Christ. But Gelasius's words seemed so remarkable that they could not but determine the Controversie especially considering he was Bishop of Rome he therefore writing against the Eutichians who thought the humane nature of Christ was changed into the Divine says that as the Elements of Bread and Wine being Consecrated to be the Sacraments of the Body and Blood of Christ did not cease to be Bread and Wine in Substance but continued in their own proper natures so the humane nature of Christ continued still though it was united to the Divine nature this was a manifest Indication of the belief of the Church in that Age and ought to weigh more than a hundred high Rhetorical Expressions He brought likewise several testimonies out of the Fathers to shew that they knew nothing of the Consequences that follow Transubstantiation of a Body being in more places at once or being in a place after the manner of a Spirit or of the worship to be given to the Sacrament Upon this he digresses and says that the German Divines believed a Corporal presence yet since that was only an Opinion that rested in their minds and did not carry along with it any Corruption of the worship or Idolatrous practise it was to be born with and the peace of the Church was not to be broken for it but the case of the Church of Rome was very different which had set up gross Idolatry building it upon this Doctrine Thus I have given a short Abstract of Friths Book which I thought fit the rather to do because it was the first Book that was written on this Subject in England by any of the Reformers And from hence it may appear upon what solid and weighty reasons they then began to shake the received Opinion of Transubstantiation and with how much learning this Controversie was managed by him who first undertook it One thing was singular in Friths Opinion that he thought there should be no contest made about the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament for what-ever Opinion men held in Speculation if it went not to a practical error which was the Adoration of it for that was Idolatry in his Opinion there were no disputes to be made about it therefore he was much against all heats between the Lutherans and Zuinglians for he thought in such a matter that was wholly speculative every man might hold his own Opinion without making a breach of the Unity of the Church about it He was apprehended in May 1533. and kept in Prison till the 20th of Iune and then he was brought before the Bishop of London Gardiner and Longland sitting with him They objected to him his Opinions about the Sacrament and Purgatory he answered that for the first he did not find Transubstantiation in the Scriptures nor in any approved Authors and therefore he would not admit any thing as an Article of Faith without clear and certain grounds for he did not think the Authority of the Church reached so far They argued with him upon some passages out of St. Austin and St. Chrysostome to which he answered by opposing other places of the same Fathers and shew'd how they were to be reconciled to themselves when it came to a Conclusion these words are set down in the Register as his Confession Frith thinketh and judgeth that the natural Body of Christ is not in the Sacrament of the Altar but in one place only at once Item he saith that neither part is a necessary Article of our Faith whether the natural Body be there in the Sacrament or not As for Purgatory he said a man consisted of two parts his Body and Soul his Body was purged by sickness and other pains and at last by death and was not by their own Doctrine sent to Purgatory And for the Soul it was purged through the word of God received by Faith So his Confession was written down in these words Item Frith thinketh and judgeth that there is no Purgatory for the Soul after that it is departed from the Body and as he thinketh herein so hath he said written and defended howbeit he thinketh neither part to be an Article of Faith necessarily to be believed under pain of Damnation The Bishops with the Doctors that stood about them took much pains to make him change but he told them that he could not be induced to believe that these were Articles of Faith And when they threatned to proceed to a Final Sentence he seemed not moved with it but said Let judgment be done in righteousness The Bishops though none of them were guilty of great tenderness yet seem'd to pity him much and the Bishop of London professed he gave Sentence with great grief of heart In the end he was judged an Obstinate Heretick and was delivered to the Secular Power there is one clause in this Sentence which is not in many others therefore I shall set it down Most earnestly requiring in the Bowels of our Lord Jesus Christ that this Execution and punishment worthily to be done upon thee may be so moderate that the rigor thereof be not too extreme nor yet the gentleness too much
and lawful as it had been many Ages before to change Secular Prebends into Canons Regular the endowed Goods being still applied to a Religious use And it was thought hard to say That if the Pope had the absolute Power of dispensing the Spiritual Treasure of the Church and to translate the Merits of one man and apply them to another that he had not a much more absolute Power over the Temporal Treasure of the Church to translate Church-Lands from one use and apply them to another And indeed the Cardinal was then so much considered at Rome as a Pope of another world that whatever he desired he easily obtained Therefore on the 3 d. of April 1524. Pope Clement by a Bull gave him Authority to suppress the Monastery of St. Frediswood in Oxford and in the Diocess of Lincoln and to carry the Monks elsewhere with a very full non obstante To this the King gave his assent the 19 th of April following After this there followed many other Bulls for other Religious Houses and Rectories that were Impropriated These Houses being thus suppressed by the Law they belonged to the King who thereupon made them over to the Cardinal by new and special Grants which are all Enrolled And so he went on with these great Foundations and brought them to Perfection That at Oxford in the 18 th year and that at Ipswich in the 20 th year of the Kings Reign as appears by the Dates of the Kings Patents for Founding them In the last Place I come to shew the new opinions in Religion or those that were accounted new then in England and the State and Progress of them till the 19th year of the Kings Reign From the days of Wickliffe there were many that disliked most of the received Doctrines in several parts of the Nation The Clergy were at that time very hateful to the people for as the Pope did exact heavily on them so they being oppressed took all means possible to make the people repay what the Popes wrested from them Wickliffe being much encouraged and supported by the Duke of Lancaster and the Lord Piercy the Bishops could not proceed against him till the Duke of Lancaster was put from the King and then he was condemned at Oxford Many opinions are charged upon him but whether he held them or not we know not but by the Testimonies of his Enemies who write of him with so much passion that it discredits all they say yet he dyed in peace though his body was afterwards burnt He translated the Bible out of Latine into English with a long Preface before it in which he reflected severely on the corruptions of the Clergy and condemned the Worshipping of Saints and Images and denyed the corporal Presence of Christs Body in the Sacrament and exhorted all people to the Study of the Scriptures His Bible with this Preface was well received by a great many who were led into these Opinions rather by the Impressions which common sense and plain Reason made on them than by any deep Speculation or Study For the followers of this Doctrine were illiterate and ignorant men some few Clerks joyned to them but they formed not themselves into any body or association and were scattered over the Kingdom holding these Opinions in private without making any publick Profession of them Generally they were known by their disparaging the superstitious Clergy whose Corruptions were then so notorious and their Cruelty so enraged that no wonder the people were deeply prejudiced against them Nor were the methods they used likely to prevail much upon them being severe and cruel In the Primitive Church though in their Councils they were not backward to pass Anathematisms on every thing that they judged Heresie yet all Capital proceedings against Hereticks were condemned and when two Bishops did prosecute Priscillian and his followers before the Emperor Maximus upon which they were put to death they were generally so blamed for it that many refused to hold Communion with them The Roman Emperors made many Laws against Hereticks for the fining and banishing of them and secluded them from the Priviledges of other Subjects such as making Wills or receiving Legacies only the Manichees who were a strange mixture between Heathenism and Christianity were to suffer death for their errors Yet the Bishops in those days particularly in Africk doubted much whether upon the Insolencies of Hereticks or Schismaticks they might desire the Emperor to execute those Laws for Fining Banishing and other restraints And St. Austin was not easily prevailed on to consent to it But at length the Donatists were so intolerable that after several Consultations about it they were forced to consent to those inferiour penalties but still condemned the taking away of their lives And even in the Execution of the Imperial Laws in those inferiour punishments they were always interposing to moderate the severity of the Prefects and Governours The first Instance of severity on mens bodies that was not censured by the Church was in the Fifth Century under Iustine the first who Ordered the tongue of Severus who had been Patriarch of Antioch but did daily Anathematise the Council of Chalcedon to be cut out In the Eighth Century Iustinian the 2d called Rhinotmetus from his cropt nose burnt all the Manichees in Armenia And in the end of the Eleventh Century the Bogomili were condemned to be burnt by the Patriarch and Council of Constantinople But in the end of the 12 and in the beginning of the 13th Century a Company of Simple and Innocent persons in the Southern parts of France being disgusted with the Corruptions both of the Popish Clergy and of the publick Worship separated from their Assemblies and then Dominick and his brethren-Preachers who came among them to convince them finding their Preaching did not prevail betook themselves to that way that was sure to silence them They perswaded the Civil Magistrates to burn all such as were judged Obstinate Hereticks That they might do this by a Law the Fourth Council of Lateran did Decree that all Hereticks should be delivered to the Secular Power to be extirpated they thought not fit to speak out but by the Practise it was known that Burning was that which they meant and if they did it not they were to be Excommunicated and after that if they still refused to do their duty which was upon the matter to be the Inquisitors Hangmen they were to deny it at their utmost Perils For not only the Ecclesiastical Censures but Anathema's were thought too feeble a punishment for this Omission Therefore a Censure was found out as severe upon the Prince as Burning was to the poor Heretick He was to be deposed by the Pope his Subjects to be absolved from their Oaths of Allegiance and his Dominions to be given away to any other faithful Son of the Church such as pleased the Pope best and all this by the Authority of a Synod that passed for a Holy General Council
Christi and Matrimonium be called in the Scripture Mysteria and therefore we may call them by the Scripture Sacramenta But one Sacramentum the Scripture maketh mention of which is hard to be revealed fully as would to God it were and that is Mysterium Iniquitatis or Mysterium Meretricis magnae Bestiae To the third In Scripture we find no precise number of Sacraments To the third I find not set forth the express number with express declaration of this many and no more nor yet of these expresly by Scripture which we use especially under the name of Sacraments saving only of Matrimony I think that in the Scripture be innumerable Sacraments for all Mysteries all Ceremonies all the Facts of Christ the whole Story of the Iews and the Revelations of the Apocalypse may be named Sacraments The certain number of Sacraments or Mysteries contained within Scripture cannot be well expressed or assigned for Scripture containeth more than infallibly may be rehearsed De istis septem quae usitate vocamus Sacramenta nullum invenio nomine Sacramenti appellari nisi Matrimonium Matrimonium esse Sacramentum probat Eckius Homi. 73. conferre gratiam ibid. There be divers Sacraments by the Scripture as in Tobie 12. Sacramentum Regis the King's Secret Also Nebuchadnezars Dream Dan. 2. is called Sacramentum Incarnatio Christi Sacramentum Ephes. 3. Matrimonium Sacramentum Taking for Sacraments any thing that this word Sacramentum doth signify there be in Scripture a great number of Sacraments more than Seven Non habetur determinatus Sacramentorum numerus in Scripturis sunt enim innumera fere illic quae passim vocantur Sacramenta cum omnis allegoria omneque Mysterium dicatur Sacramentum Quin et somnia ac secreta subinde Sacramenta vocantur Tobiae 2. Sacramentum Regis abscondere bonum est Dan. 2. Imploremus misericordias Dei Coeli super Sacramento isto somnio Paulus etiam Epist. 2. vocat Mysterium Incarnationis Christi Sacramentum Et in Apoc. 1. vocat Sacramentum septem Stellarum Ac hoc praecipue observandum venit nullum a septem Sacramentis receptis hoc nomine appellari praeter solum Matrimonium As many as there be Mysteries which be innumerable but by Scripture I think the Seven which be named Sacraments may principally bear the name Speaking of Sacraments generally they be innumerable spoken of in Scripture but properly to speak of Sacraments there be but Seven that may be so called of which Matrimony is expresly called Sacramentum Ephes. 5. and as I think in the germane and proper signification of a Sacrament so that the indivisible knot of the Man and his Wife in one Body by the Sacrament of Matrimony is the Matter of this Sacrament upon which as on the literal verity the Apostle foundeth this allegorical saying Ego autem dico in Christo in Ecclesia for the mystical sense presupposeth a verity in the Letter on which that is taken Six more there be to which the definition doth agree as manifestly doth appear by the Scriptures with the exposition of the Ancient Authors In the Scripture there is no certain number of Sacraments I â—ind no more of the seven called expresly Sacraments but only Matrimony but extending the name of Sacrament in his most general acception there are in Scripture a great number of Sacraments whereof the Apostle saith Si noverint Mysteria omnia c. To the third I say that I find not in Scripture any of these seven which we commonly call Sacraments called Sacramentum but only Matrimonium But I find divers and many other things called Sacraments in Scripture as in the 21 of Tobie Sacramentum Regis abscondere bonum est Item Apoc. 17. Dicamus tibi Sacramentum Item 1 Tim. 3. Magnum est pietatis Sacramentum c. I cannot tell how many Sacraments be by Scripture for they be above one hundred In â—ertio conveniunt satis non esse certum numerum Sacramentorum per Scripturas Redmaynus addit But by Scripture I think the seven which be named Sacraments may principally bear the name Idem sentit Edgworth septem tantum Matrimonium in Scripturis haberi sub nomine Sacramenti plerique dicunt In the third they do agree That there is no certain number of Sacraments by Scripture but even as many as there be Mysteries and none of these seven called Sacraments but only Matrimony in Scripture 4. Question How many Sacraments there be by the Ancient Authors Answers BY the Ancient Authors there be many Sacraments more than seven for all the Figures which signifie Christ to come or testifie that he is come be called Sacraments as all the Figures of the Old Law and in the New Law Eucharistia Baptismus Pascha Dies Dominicus lotio pedum signum Crucis Chrisma Matrimonium Ordo Sabbatum Impositio manuum Oleum Consecratio Olei Lac Mel Aqua Vinum Sal Ignis Cinis adapertio Aurium vestis candida and all the Parables of Christ with the Prophesies of the Apocalyps and such others be called by the Doctors Sacramenta To the fourth There is no precise number of Sacraments mentioned by the Ancient Authors taking the word Sacrament in his most general signification To the fourth I find that St. Austine speaketh de Baptismo de Eucharistia de Matrimonio de Ordinatione clericorum de Sacramento Chrismatis Vnctionis Also I find in the said St. Austine that in the Old Law there were many Sacraments and in the New Law few I think that in the Doctors be found many more Sacraments than seven viz. Panis Catechumenorum signum Crucis Oleum Lac Sal Mel c. That Scripture containeth by the same Holy Ghost which is Author thereof the Holy Doctors and Ancient Fathers expoundeth So that where in Scripture the number of Sacraments is uncertain it cannot be among them certain Apud Augustinum lego Sacramentum Nuptiarum Sacramentum Baptismi Sacramentum Eucharistiae quod altaris sive panis vocat Sacramentum Ordinationis Sacramentum Chrismatis quod datur per manus impositionem Baptizatis Sacramentum Unctionis I find in the Ancient Authors that Baptism is called Sacramentum Eucharistia Sacramentum Matrimonium Sacramentum Ordo Sacramentum Chrisma Sacramentum Impositio Manuum per Baptismum Sacramentum Dilectio Sacramentum Lotio pedum Sacramentum Oleum Mel Lac Sacramenta and many others There be a great sort of Sacraments found in the Doctors after the acception above-said more than seven Apud Scriptores Ecclesiasticos reperiuntur multo plura Sacramenta quam haec septem Taking this word Sacrament universally for Mysteries or all secret Tokens there be more Sacraments than can be reckoned but the seven by old Authors may specially obtain the name Lotio pedum is spoken of in old Authors as a special Sacrament