Thummim that is to say to the Light of the Old Testament and to the Perfection of the New which shall conduct you to Him who liveth for ever and ever and to JESUS the Mediator of the New-Covenant whose Blood speaketh better things than that of Abel What Joy when God shall no more be as a Barbarian to you and they shall no more bespeak you in Latine a Language which the greatest part of you understand not yea a sign of Wrath threatened by God to his People as is recorded by the Apostle Paul in that excellent Chapter 1 Cor. 14. which may suffice wholly to subvert such a monstruous and faulty procedure With what abhorrency will ye then loath that cursed Tradition of Men which like that of the Pharisees taxed by our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel hath disannulled the Cōmandment of God Then shall ye soon acknowledg that from the beginning it was not so and that all those humane Observances bred in the night of Errour and Ignorance which are either taught or practised by you have not the least affinity with the simplicity and purity of the Ancient Christian Religion Herein the ensuing Treatise will be greatly subservient and advantagious to you which doth by way of Compend or Breviary present you with a true account of the Rise and Progress of so many fatal and unhappy Innovations to the end that ye may perceive and avouch that how specious soever they be yet there is not any thing more base and despicable But briefly if ye carefully traverse the Will and Testament of your Heavenly Father namely the holy Scriptures ye shall easily know and acknowledge how widely ye have deviated from that Canon of Truth besides or against which if a very Angel from Heaven should gospel unto you he ought to be with you accursed For this reason if ye will be perswaded to rank and enter your selves unto the society of those who wholly and precisely adhere thereunto owning and using it for the only Compass whereby they regulate both matters of Faith and the order of Divine Worship ye shall undoubtedly be constrained to say with the Patriarch Jacob Surely the Lord is in this place and we knew it not How dreadful is this place this is none other but the House of God! this is the Gate of Heaven may our feet stand within thy Gates O Jerusalem As for your Believers whom God hath vouchsafed to congregate already into the Sheep-fold of the Lord Jesus ratifie the truth and purity of that Doctrine which ye profess with holiness and integrity of life that those who obey not the Word may be won without the Word by your truly Christian Conversation Make it appear to them that ye are no enemies to good works which ye are wrongfully charged with since we teach that those are the products of the Holy Ghost by those God is glorified by those our neighbours are edified and those be infallible marks and testimonies of our Election and the way leading to the Kingdome of Heaven If we thus fruitfully trade the Talent received from the bounteous liberality of God our Soveraign Master he will superadd many more and crown in us the first fruits of our new graces and blessings and because he is faithful who also hath so promised will another day own and remunerate them with all his Heavenly Glory and the inexpressible Joyes of a blessed Immortality and that upon the account not of any merit of condignity but purely a compact of grace and mercy since of a truth as the ways of sin is death as the great Apostle and Doctor of the Gentiles hath taught us so the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now To the Father who hath from all Eternity appointed so great and glorious a Salvation for us in his Son To the Son who hath with his precious Blood merited and procured that Salvation And to the Holy Ghost who applieth the same sealing us up thereunto and giving us thereof infallible assurances To those Three glorious Persons of the thrice-holy and sacred Trinity one onely true God blessed for ever be Praise Honour and Glory Power Dominion and Kingdom henceforth even from everlasting to everlasting Amen Come Lord Jesus come Amen 1 Cor. 3. 12 13. If any man build on this Foundation Gold Silver Precious Stones Wood Hay Stubble every man's Work shall be made manifest for the Day shall declare it c. Tertullian in his Apologie for Christians chap. 6. TEll me where is your Religion where is that Reverence which is due from you to your Fathers whom ye are become so exceedingly unlike to in your habit in your course of life in your manners in your opinions and finally in your language Ye still applaud Antiquity and yet daily engross Novelties thus whilst ye as much as possibly ye can deviate from the laudable Institutions of your Ancestors ye plainly discover that of the things by them established ye retain only that which is of no value forasmuch as ye reject that which is A TREATISE OF Ancient Ceremonies THe desire of being inform'd by what means and degrees the Christian Religion is become degenerate from its ancient purity what Ceremonies have been introduc'd into it and upon what Foundations those have been raised wherein all the Romish Religion doth at this day consist is a piece of curiosity not less fruitfull than delightfull In pursuit of which setting aside many and divers particulars litigious Controversies fabulous Narratives and the vanity of spurious Books our purpose is to abridge and by way of succinct memorial to represent according to the genuine truth of History the original of the prime Ceremonies whic◠have been bred and broached from tim◠to time successively especially till abou◠six hundred years after the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ for from that tim◠forwards Superstition driving on with a ful◠Sail did so quickly and withall so generally spread it self that scarcely was there discernable the least tract of true Christianity When those grand Architects and Master-builders whom God had singled out to the Apostleship had built the Sanctuary upon that only Foundation and chief Corner-Stone Christ there was not in the whole Fabrick Bar nor Buckle which did not exactly correspond to the pattern shewed them from the Heavenly Mount The Declaration of the grace of God which bringeth salvation to all Men Worshipping of Him through one only Mediator Baptizing with Water unto the Remission of Sin Communicating in commemoration of the Lord's death under the two Signs of Bread and Wine singing of Hymns and Psalms of thanksgiving Reading of the Holy Scriptures in a known tongue c. was all the Ancient Religion Then was acknowledged no object of adoration other then God nor Intercessor than Christ nor Expiatory Sacrifice than that of his Death nor Justification other than through Faith There was not a word then of an Altar at the
Kingdoms of England Scotland Ireland Swedland Denmarke and Norway the most rich and potent Provinces of the Low-Countries the illustrious Cantons of Switzerland a considerable part of France Poland Lithuania Hungary Bohemia Silesia Moravia Austria Transilvania Prussia and Livonia not to reckon those secret and hidden ones who await the time of their Redemption in Italy Spain and other Regions wherein the Light of the Truth hath not as yet scattered the thick Clouds of Popish Darknesse that the greatest part I say of those Kingdoms and Republicks were from that time forward wholly emancipated and disengaged from under the bondage of Papal both Power and Error which amongst many others hath been likewise rejected by a great number of their own authors or abettors sufficient proof that it was the Divine Hand of Omnipotency that gave those signal blows captivating all those thoughts and imaginations under the yoke of his obedience In case our Adversaries alleage 1. That those whom God raised up for this great and glorious work of Reformation were so inconsiderable as that there is no manner of respect due to such abject and inglorious Instruments And 2. being the business which they attempted was of such an extraordinary nature they ought to have wrought Miracles for authorizing of the same It is no hard matter to assoyl those Objections In the first place then for satisfaction to the former We grant indeed that there is but little or nothing at all of excellency in them being considered in and of themselves but if they be eyed with respect to the manutenency of Him who set them to work they are no wise base or contemptible There needs no more but the smart of a silly Insect to quell and confound the pride of Pharoah and extort from him a confession of the Finger of God who that the Power of his Arm and the greatness of his infinite Majesty might become the more obvious and acknowledgeable can at pleasure serve the interests of his Glory upon the most inglorious means even despicable vermine For this reason our Lord Jesus Christ that he might humble and debase the Synagogue confound and baffle the fondness and arrogancy of the Philosophers reduce and defeat the Error and Superstition of Paganism triumph gloriously over the swelling ambition and vanity of the Emperours and cause the whole Earth to bend to the sacred Yock of his Cross would not make use of any of those renowned Worldlings but of poor Fisher-men a Mechanick Tentmaker and an ignominious Publican who yet notwithstanding caught whole Empires and Kingdoms in their Nets assembling the whole World under the Tabernacle of the God of Jacob and making the most obstinate and rebellious Tributaries to his Annointed And after the same method did he proceed in the restauration of the Gospel which he used in the first publication of it as we have seen above where we have noted the marvellous exploits of the chief persons whom he hath imployed in his admirable Conquests Insult therefore no more but rather confess with the Psalmist This is Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Which they also have proclaimed aloud having alwayes in imitation of the Apostles said Such things were not wrought by us but only in the Name and Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ And with the Church in the book of Psalms Not unto us Lord not unto us but unto thy great Name be rendred all the honour and glory With the like facility we answer to the other Objection urged from the defect of Miracles True it is had those good men taught any other doctrine than that of the Gospel in that case it had been requisite that they should have given some visible testimonies of their Calling besides that according to the Apostles caution he ought to be an Anathema though he were an Angel from Heaven whosoever preacheth any other Gospel than what hath been already evangelized He hath likewise taught us that all those extraordinary gifts which the munificent God did so liberally distribute for authorizing of the Truth of Christian Religion in its infancy should cease and become antiquated And our Lord Jesus Christ hath admonished us that whoever should brag or make ostentation hereof should be very Teachers of lies making such a plausible shew of the same as that they should be able if it were possible to deceive the very Elect And yet notwithstanding what more specious or signal ones can any desire than their very subsistence amidst the raging persecution of their enemies when as they were like unto Moses in Egypt in the hands of Pharaoh's Daughter yet such is the Providence of God they never failed to meet with their true Mother who nourished them upon her chast and untainted breasts that is to say some sound Teachers who caused them to suck the sincere Milk of the sound knowledge of God's Word as the Israelites in the Deserts of Arabia they did still feed upon Manna from Heaven and were furnished with vessels of Gold and Silver which they had taken out of the houses of the Egyptians whereof to make sacred Vessels and stately Ornaments for the service and beauty of the Sanctuary If at any time they have with the Prophet Elijah by means of a persecuting Jezebel been constrained to make a Cave their hiding-place the very Ravens turning Purveyours have furnished them with necessary food When as they were like the Prophet Daniel in the Den of Lyons or like his three Fellow-Captives in Babylon in the fiery Furnace they have been in like manner gloriously and miraculously preserved the Son of God being according to his solemn promise made to us in his Gospel ever present with two or three where-ever met together in his Name Finally since they were with a strong hand rescued out of that spiâ—ual captivity what hath not God done â—at continueth he not still to do in their â—half Should our very Enemies their â—nds laid upon their breasts become our â—dges and do us right they should â—ickly acknowledge that had not THIS â—ORK been OF GOD and had not â—r Faith been from Heaven as not being â—ported by Humane means nor as Maâ—metism maintain'd by Blood and Cruelâ— but on the contrary by exasperated â—d implacable Enemies persecuted to the â—most that it had been long ere now utâ—ly subverted and destroyed which yet â—ugre a fierce and open War prosecuted â—ainst it for the space of seven or eight â—ndred years hath been with no less wonâ—r than renown sustained and defended â—e Lord having in performance of his soâ—mn Promises made in his Word never â—t nor forsaken it being ever present for 〈◊〉 succour and relief and wheresoever â—r way lies through the Fire or through â—e Wilderness he will be always with us â—en to the end of the World Surcease then your cavilling about the â—ature of Instrumenâ—s and the quality of â—ose who speak and preach to you True â—deed they
A HISTORY OF ANTIENT CEREMONIES CONTAINING An Account â—f their Rise and Growth their first Entrance into the Church and their gradual Advancement to Superstition therein Written originally in French but now for general information and benefit faithfully translated into English The Second Impression Corrected the first being 1668. Mark 7. v. 7 8 9. In vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men for laying aside the Commandment of God ye hold the Tradition of men c. He said likewise unto them Full well do ye frustrate the Commandment of God that ye may keep your own Tradition London Printed in the Year 1669. THE TRANSLATOR to the READER THe Degeneracy of the Church Christian Reader from that Faith which was by the Apostles delivered to the Saints by Christ himself to the Apostles and by God the Father to Christ is matter of sad and serious but seasonable speculation The Primitive Church was by reason of her more immediate Conjunction with the Sun of Righteousness a burning and shining Light but alas How is the Noble Vine become a Degenerate Plant yielding instead of the Clusters of Canaan the wild Grapes of Gomorrah What Tares have there been sown in God's Enclosure What Chaff mixt with his Wheat What store of Wood Hay and Stubble in stead of Gold Silver and precious Stones in his Sanctuary How is Christs Body Mystical become an Ichabod This burning and shining Light becoming successively ever after the first Century and Age of the Church for the space of fourteen hundred years downwards either 1. decayed and remitted cool'd or clouded the Light of Truth eclipsed with its common Bushel Ignorance the heat of Zeal rebated into its ordinary Quench-coal sinful Neutrality and Luke-warmness Or 2. divided and that with no lesse cruelty towards Christs Mystical Body than was used towards the Baptist's natural one she frequently shining when she did not burn or else burning when she did not shine Light and Heat Truth and Zeal very rarely concurring both together at least in any eminent degree in her declining state so that either her Faith was dead being without works the fruits of Zeal or else her Zeal blind being without Knowledge one degree of Faith she Sampson-like losing both sight and life in the Temple of Idols Or 3. and lastly which is worst of all depraved Light and Truth with Error and Heresie Heaâ— and Zeal with the strange Fire of Idoâ—latry and Superstition Jewish-Pagan Rites and Ceremonies the truest Marks of the False Church of Rome many or most of which my self have been an Eye-witness and Spectator of abroad both the one and the other gradually introduced into the Church and vigorously propagated even to an Universal Corruption in matter both of Doctrine and Worship therein especially since the Rise and during the Reign of Antichrist who hath not failed to joyn the Serpent with the Dragon Policy with Cruelty for that end for which very reason our Retreat and Secession from that Adulterous Church should be to speak with St. Jerome a thousand times the dearer and more precious to us and may we in conformity to a higher Oracle never say a Confederacy to her more except upon God's own terms of Accommodation Let her return unto thee but return not thou unto her till that blessed day of power whereon the jealous God zealous for his Truth and Worship raised up and animated those famous Champion-Worthies Luther and Calvin with their fellow-Reformers Wisdom's Advocates as well as Children unto a rescuing of the Truth holden so long in unrighteousness and an earnest contest for the above-named Faith which was once delivered to the Saints dictated by God's own Spirit recorded in his Word and by a continued series succession of his Servants Professors under both Testaments ever since the War was first commenced between the two Seeds without interruption owned and maintained professed preserved propagated and through his good Providence Truth 's chief Guardian happily transmitted and conveyed to us at last God having never left himself without a Witness of his Truth in the Church more then of his Power in the World which they polished and refined and for the hand of the Lord was with them recovered to a considerable degree of primitive light and lustre resolving all into original Authority the Law and the Testimony Howbeit our Adversaries of the Romish Church do ignorantly or insolently charge the Reformed Religion with Enthusiastick Novelty as being of an hundred and fifty years date and of yester-day calculating its Rise by its Resurrection the Sun-rising by a Sun-shine as if its Reformers were its Authours and they Founders where they were only Repairers Whereas themselves do in the mean time like the Gibeonites under colour of the rags and tatters of their superstitious Ceremonies and the dry and mouldy Bread of their corrupt Doctrines pretend to be come from far as if the Antient of Dayes were the Parent of their novel and spurious Brat but we who have consulted the mouth of the Eternal God have not so learned Christ being informed and ascertained by the only Infallible One that how specious plausible to flesh and blood soever their Religion be it being ever as I have observed fuller of carnal and meritricious Allurement than of Argument yet from the beginning it was not so Now Reader being that this ensuing Treatise dedicated under its first Edition by its Anonymus but judicious and sober learned Author to King Charles the First of blessed Memory and under the last with Additions by another very good hand to King Charles the Second our present Soveraign comprehendeth a brief Historical Account of the whole more especially of the Rise and Growth of Church-Rites and Ceremonies their first Introduction into the Church and their gradual propagation and advancement to Superstition in it of the witnesses of Truth all along that dark and tedious Interval of about fourteen hundred years under the greatest Defection Superstition and Torrid Zone of Antichristian Persecution namely Fathers Councils Confessors Martyrs and other pious Zealots and Votaries valiant for the Truth all which died in the Faith and many of them for it the Names and successful Endeavours of the first Reformers those Trees of Righteousness whereby the Waters of the Sanctuary imbittered with Romish Wormwood Revel 8. 11. were sweetned and many other particulars specified in the useful and fruitful Preface prefixed to the Treatise from which I have onely lopt off what I judged to be more luxuriant and superfluous at the beginning of it to which I refer thee so that what is contained in the Writings of Fathers and other Church-Histories as those of Sozomen Eusebius Epiphanius the Magdenburgian Centuriators c. at large is here represented by way of short Compend and Breviary I therefore conceiving the Translation of the same into our Vernacular Tongue a thing more recreative than laborious to be well worthy of my more spare-hours and the perusal thereof
Egyptian speaking of those who lived before Jesus Christ It never entered into their hearts that there should be a Baptisme of Fire and of the Holy Ghost and that they should offer in the Church Bread and Wine as a Figure of his flesh and of his blood and that those who partake of the Bread which is visible should feed spiritually upon the Flesh of our Lord. Ephraim of Syria in the year 360. in his Treatise against the curious Inquisitours into the nature of the Son of God Observe heedfully how that taking the Bread into his hands he blesseth and breaketh it in Figure of his immaculate Body and blesseth the Cup in figure of his precious Blood Ambrose or the Author of the Book of Sacraments See that this offering turn into an acceptable and reasonable account to us which is the figure of the body and blood of our Lord. Gaudentius Bishop of Bress in his second Treatise upon Exodus The figure of Christs body is received in the bread Moreover the blood of the Lamb is fitly represented under the species of Wine Chrysostome Bishop of Constantinople in the year 386. in an Epistle to Cesarius the Monk doth thus unfold this great Mystery Before that the bread be sanctified we name it bread but it being once by Divine grace sanctified it is certainly freed from the appellation of bread and is dignified with the name of the Lords body howheit the true nature of bread doth still continue therein Turrianus and Gregory of Valence both Jesuits perceiving themselves to be wonderfully racked and puzled with this passage do most groundlesly aver that it was none of Chrysostome's but of one John of Constantinople which is confession sufficient since that it bears the mark of its antiquity This Epistle hath been seen by many in a Manuscript in the Bibliotheque of Florence by which if not stifled by our Adversaries the common fate of what ever is contrary to themselves it may be easily verified to be of a truth the genuine testimony of the great Chrysostome But it is high time that we hearken to holy Augustine who flourished in the year 410. behold how he explains himself in his 12 th Chapter against Adimantus The Lord doubted not to say this is my body when as he gave the sign of his body and upon the third Psalme The Lord admitted Judas to the Banquet at which he recommended and gave to his Disciples the figure of his body and blood The same Father upon the 98. Psalme wherein he expoundeth these words of our Lord If yee eat not the flesh of the Son of Man ye shall not have life brings in our Saviour speaking thus Vnderstand spiritually that which I have told you ye shall not eat this body which ye see neither shall ye drink that blood which my Crucifiers shall shed I have recommended to you a sacred signe which being spiritually understood shall give you life And in the third Book of Christian Doctrine Chap. 16. When the Lord saith if ye eat not the flesh of the Son of Man and drink not his blood ye shall have no life in your selves he seems to command an impiety or great crimâ—â— This then is a Figure whereby he enjoyneth us to communicate in the Lords death and Passion and delightfully and profitably to remember that his Flesh was crucified and bruised for us And in his first Treatise upon the first of St. John The Lord comforteth us who can no longer feel him with the Hand but only by the touch of faith And in the 53d Sermon upon the words of our Lord Every one almost calls that the body of Christ which is a sacred sign thereof Theodoret Bishop of Cyre in the year 420. in his first Dialogue entitled the Immutable speaking of these words This is my body saith the Lord hath dignified the visible signes with the appellation of his own body and blood not changing of their nature but adding grace to nature a little before he had said the Lord hath confer'd upon the sign the name of his own body And in the second Dialogue entitled The Inconfused The Divine Mysteries are signes of the true body And a little after he brings in an Eutychian Heretick maintaining Transubstantiation to whom he answereth in these words Thou art caught in a Net of thine own twisting for even after Consecration the mystical signes change not their nature but remain for subâ—â—â—nce form and figure the same as before Cyril Bishop of Alexandria in the year 440. Christ gave to his Disciples morsels of bread saying take eat this is my body He saith also that the faithfull believe that though he be absent from us in the body yet are all things and even our selves governed by him Again though he be absent in the Body appearing before his Father and sitting at his right hand yet nevertheless he is present in his Saints by his Spirit The same Father speaking of Nestorius Hath he not turn'd saith he our mystery into an Anthropâ—phagy that is to say a manducation of Man's flesh through an irreligious entangling of the spirits of the faithfull through vain conceits and attempting to subject to humane ratiocinations things which surpass all manner of scrutiny save that of faith only Gelasius himself Bishop of Rome about the year 590. speaketh thus Certainly the Sacraments which we receive of the body and blood of Christ are a Divine thing whence also we are by them made partakers of the Divine nature yet nevertheless the substance or nature of the â—read and the Wine doth uncessantly continue such and the Image and resemblance of the body and blood of Christ is infallibly celebrated in the exhibition of those mysteries Facundus an African Bishop who in the 550th year of our Lord wrote in defence of the three heads or points of the Council of Chalcedon The Sacrament of Adoption to wit Baptisme may be called the Adoption upon the very same account that we call the Sacrament of Christs body and blood which consists in the consecrated Bread and Cup his own body and own blood Not that the Bread is indeed his body and the Cup his Blood in proper speech but hecause that the mystery of his body and blood is contained therein Dionysius falsely surnamed the Areopagite an Author of whom we know not certainly in what time he lived howbeit to procure the greater Authority to his writings he assumed the name of Dionysius the Areopagite mentioned in the Book of Acts chap. 17. vers 34. But divers reasons move us to believe that he flourished about the end of the fourth Age others make him more ancient whoever he was he doth more than ten times in one Chapter tearm that which is given to us in the Supper Images Signes and Symboles and saith that the Communion of Bread and Wine is a commemoration of that most Divine Supper at which the signes of things therein celebrated were first of all instituted
therefore he calls Jesus Christ a worker of signes adding that by them Christ is represented and received Whence Maximus his Scholar who lived about the year 630. We attain not to an immediate discovery of the things themselves in matters Divine but we arrive at perfection through the intervention of signes such as is the Cup of blessing as the Apostle calls it and the Bread which we break those things are signes only not the Truth it self Moreover recommending to consideration the expressions of that same Dionysius called the â—reopagite Note saith he that he every where tearms the Divine Sacrifice Symbolical or Figurative and that the holy Offerings are signes of more real heavenly things But towards the year 840. some through their Hyperbolical tearms others through questions moved touching the alteration of signes did by degrees give occasion for conceiting of a new opinion concerning the Sacrament which being in fine in the year 1059. ripened into perfection it was declared in the Lateran Council under Nicholas the Second that the â—read and the Wine are the very body and blood of Christ and that he is sensibly felt broken and crumbled by the teeth of believers Expressions absurd and impious and disowned by the Church of Rome at this day We shall here in pursuit of the order of time annex to all those testimonies of Fathers by us produced that which is contained in the Roman Decretal collected by Gratian the Father of the Canonists who lived about the year 1160. He in the second distinction of the Consecration in the Canon Hoc est expresseth himself thus The heavenly â—read which is the Flesh of Christ is in a peculiar respect called the body of Christ howbeit to speak truly it be a sacred signe of Christs body to wit of Him who becoming visible palpable mortal was at last crucified And upon the Gloss of the Doctors hath these words worthy of consideration The Heavenly Sacrament wherein the flesh of Christ is truly represented is called the body of Christ but improperly for it is so called after a manner congruous and peculiar to it self howbeit not according to the real truth of the thing but by way of a significant mystery so that the sense runneth thus It is called the body of Christ that is to say this is thereby signified Judge then sober Reader how much and how far the Church of Rome is at present departed from the sense and belief of the ancient Fathers even that of the times of the famous Canonist Gratian. We will conclude this Chapter with that which we read in Justin Martyr his second Apology for Christians to the end that it may appear what the practice was of pure Antiquity as well in the Celebration of the holy Supper as in all the other parts of the Divine Service of the Primitive Church and that one may thâ—reby be able to judge who approacheth nearest thereunto whether those of the Church of Rome which hath wholly deac'd and perverted the model of true Religion and utterly destroyed that spiritual worship which we owe to God Or those who to save themselves from her Pit of Errour Dung-hill of Superstition have abandon'd her Communion Behold then how that pious Author speaketh Vpon the Sabbath days we assemble our selves both in City and Country in one place the Lecture is made from the Writings of the Prophets or the Apostles the Lecturer ceasing he that presides makes the Exhortation admonishing to an imitation of those excellent things which done we rise up and pray to God after this they present him of the Fraternity that presides with bread and drink of Wine and Water which he receiving yieldeth praise and glory to the Father of all in the name of his Son and by his holy Spirit in which act of thanksgiving he is the more prolix to the end that they might be rendered worthy of those things through that Spirit and prayers and thanksgiving being finished all the People present gives consent by acclamation saying Amen which is to say in the Hebrew Tongue So be it Now after that the President hath given thanks and all the People hath by acclamation consented those who are named Deacons with us administer to all that are present Bread Wine and Water being blessed and carry the same to such as are absent and this repast is with us called the Eucharist Proceed we to another point and view the sequel and progress of those innovations Anno 1055. AT this time under Victor II. the Redemption of Penances was introduced For it was enacted that they might be lawfully converted into penalties of another nature as pecuniary Mulcts under the notion of Almes Donatives bestowed in favour of the Church Pilgrimages and other things equivalent proportionably to the years of penance allotted them and that such as had not wherewithall to accommodate themselves herein might redeem their years of penance with the number of Psalmes sung by them with Fastings in the strength of Bread and Water with scourging and scarifying of themselves and other kinds of voluntary mortification whence the custome of whipping proceeded and from the same source the Batusses and Penitents Now by those exchanges and redemptions the ancient Discipline was utterly subverted We have seen that the Indulgences were no other than certain relaxations or limitations of Church-penalties intended for curtailing of the time prescribed to Penitents before that they could be re-admitted to the Communion But the vertue of those Indulgences was afterwards extended beyond this World for shortening of the years of their abode in Purgatory a thing which the Primitive Christians never once dreamed of We have likewise observed that the Penitents who ordinarily were very numerous tendered themselves to the Church having their faces covered with ashes in token of humility from whence it was that the Church of Rome derived that vain Ceremony of Ash-Wednesday at the beginning of Lent And in this action they sing the very same things which they sung heretofore when as there was any number of Persons doing of publick Penance Anno 1090. URban II. that he might advance Superstition ordained about the year 1090. that upon every Saturday a Mass should be said in honour of the Virgin Mary Chaplets or Pater-nosters were at the same time invented by Peter the Hermite together with the Office and Hours of our Lady Anno 1160. ALexander III. decreed the Canonization of Saints and ordained that none should be from thence-forward acknowledged Saint but whom the Pope first declared such Anno 1212. CHrist's corporal presence in the Sacrament had already gained some credit but they were not as yet agreed upon the pretended conversion of signes Behold then how that a little after the year 1215. in the Lateran Council Innocent III. determines the Form thereof who willeth all to believe that the Bread is transubstantiated into the Body of Christ and the Wine into his Blood Thus was Transubstantiation ratified and that
rest of them whom God miraculously preserved till this present time in some parts of Provence and divers Valleys of Piedmont being joyned to our Churches from the very beginning of the Reformation They disowned as they do at this day Papal Authority Transubstantiation Purgatory the Invocation of Saints Images Merits Monastick Vowes and all other Opinions which were in like manner rejected by the Reformed Churches of those times they embraced for their only Rule both of Faith and Practice the Old and New Testament their course of life also was simple and unblamable by the very relation of Claudius de Seissel Bishop of Marseilles who in a Book written against them howbeit he terms them mis-led in matter of Doctrine yet nevertheless acknowledgeth that as touching Life and Manners they were without reproach amongst men giving themselves with all their might unto the observance of the Commandments of God And many other sober Writers howbeit their Adversaries also have yet likewise acquitted them though not from all yet at least from the more heinous accusations Amongst whom was the Monk of the Valleys Sernay and James of Riberia who lived in the time wherein the Count de Montfort fomented so cruel a War against them namely in the beginning of the 13th Century so that we might easily gather that as hath been said all the grudge they bore them all the horrid accusations which they devised on purpose to brand them and make them odious all those proceeded from no other cause than that they withstood the Pope and his Innovations and for their animating the people against them Hence also it was that the Popes to the end they might quite exterminate them published divers Croisades after the year 1208 till the year 1243 during which time terrible Massacres were committed there being by the relation of some Historians above two hundred thousand cut off Yet notwithstanding we cannot think that any man of Reason would once imagine that if their colours had been as black as those wherein Rome and the Monks do paint them Alphonsus King of Aragon Raymond Count of Tholouse the Prince de Bearn the Counts de Foix Bigorre St. Gilles Comings Carmain Villemur Vicount de Beziers and Carcassonne and many other Barons and Persons of Honour would ever have upheld and protected them especially the King of Aragon and the Vicount de Beziers who were of a contrary Religion nor that any others would ever have imbraced their Faith therby becoming the objects of publick hatred and exposing themselves to exile and misery Add moreover that the Legats of Pope Innocent III. attended with many Abbots and Doctors of the Romish Communion being assembled to hold a Conference with some of the Pastours of the poor Waldenses and Albigenses the only thing propounded at that Conference upon the part of the said Pastors was these three ensuing Positions 1. That the Masse with Transubstantiation was a meer humane Invention 2. That the Church of Rome was no Church of Christ but a Church of Confusion drunken with the blood of Martyrs 3. That the policy of the Romish Church was nor good nor holy nor over established by Jesus Christ. From whence it is evident that therein lay the very crise and sum of the controversie and the chief controverted points of their Belief which in the year 1281 as appears by an Extract of the Municipal Priviledges of Realmont in Albigeoise was still professed by a great number of persons throughout all those quarters and indeed this prov'd no unfruitful Seminary being that not only the City of Realmont but likewise the whole Province of Languedock and other adjacent places God having in the beginning of the last Century caused his Word as it were to regerminate and sprout afresh yeelded a more goodly and plentiful harvest than that of the other parts of this Kingdom Anno 1315. NOw in this year appeared that great person Arnauldus de Villa Nova Doctor in Medicine and Chancelour of the University of Montpellier well skill'd in the Latine Greek and Arabick tongues for his knowledge in the Liberal Sciences the very wonder of his Age who in many excellent Treatises by him composed doth mightily inveigh against the Errours of the Romish Church he said that he perceived the very face of Antichrist in the Papacy and the order of Monks That Divines have wickedly confounded Philosophicall Dreams with sacred Scripture that in the Sacrifice so denominated from the Altar the Priest offered nought to God and that the Masses did nothing avail either the quick or the dead that Papal Constitutions were no other than humane Traditions containing only the doctrines of humane works and he proved by the Prophet Daniel and many other Authorities that Antichrist should in the height of Tyranny persecute the Faithful For which Opinions he was by the Jacobins of Tarascon judged a Heretick and whilst the King of Sicily was sending him to the Pope he died at Genoua James King of Aragon in an Epistle written to the same King of Sicily his Brother gave him a very good testimony Anno 1371. JOHN VVICKLIFF Doctor and Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford a person of an exemplary life and conversation was at this time a strenuous Defender of the Truth of the Gospel zealously withstanding the corruptions and superstitions of Popery he was protected as long as King Edward III lived This Prince as also the Prince of Wales John Duke of Aquitany and of Lancaster his Brother the Earl of Salisbury the Baron of Cobham Lewis Clifford William Nevil and John Montaigue Knights Thomas Latimer Robert Ridgly Chancelour of the University of Oxford and many other Lords and persons of the prime Nobility and Clergy of England adhering to the Doctrine of the said Wickliff by the relation of Thomas of Walden and Croxton in his Chronicle who wrote against him But under the Reign of Richard II through the solicitation of the Pope and Monks he was banished afterwards being recalled from Exile he died peaceably in the year 1386 in the Parish of Luterworth where he had been Pastor But forasmuch as the Rage and Fury of the Adversaries doth exasperate them unto a Persecution of the Faithful not only to death but even to the very grave the Bones of this man of God were in the year 1451 at the instigation of the Court of Rome digged up and publickly burnt whose Ashes were in their time a Mystical Seed Anno 1414. JOhn Huss Batchelour in Divinity and Jerome of Prague Doctor of the Sorbonne persons of great Learning and no less integrity of Life who had from the year 1400 published the Truth of the Gospel in Bohemia having reap'd some first-fruits amongst the remnant of the Waldenses in those Countries and amongst some others that had professed the Doctrine of Wickliff they did so laboriously cultivate and improve the Lord's Field as that they left an abundant and excellent harvest behind them Now forasmuch