difference to be betwyxt the priest and the people and confesse that taking blessing and breaking is so properly his that it can not rightly be the common peoples Yea marie saie you but Christ tooke the bread c. then the priest in his ministration must do as Christ dyd and no otherwyse that is to take breake and geaue vnto the people c. Speake you this of your owne mynd or do you speake it as it were vpon occasion of the Catholikes wordes Yf you thinke as you speake why find you no fault with your coÌ„munion where no rule ys apointed vnto ministers of taking the bread in to their handes or of blessing it which Christ hymselfe dyd But if you beleeue not that of necessity euery thing must be done as Christ dyd at his maundy what cause then moueth you whi distributyng should be more required then taking and blessing of the holy host which by your seruyce is omitted For the Catholike church doth teach that as the body of Christ is a sacrifice and a sacrameÌ„t so lykewyse that it ys two distinct actes â–ª his body to be offered and the same to be receiued And as S. Cypriane whom I haue alleaged doth testifie that the bread which the true Melchisedech and our high priest Christ gaue to his Disciples was both a whole burnt offering and sacriâ—ice and allso a medicine so as it is a medicine it is to be receaued of all Christians because all without exception are diseased and as it is a sacrifice it is actually to be offered for all persons by such as are properly apoynted out for that purpose because no man should take an office vpon hym before he be called Yet because one may iustly saie that to shew furth the death of our Lord vntill he come doth well agree with euery Christian man his part and office and therevpon vntruly conclud that Do this in remembrance of me which is by the interpretation of S. Paule to shew furth the death of Christ vntill he come should in all pointes be referred as well vnto the people as the priest therfor I answer further that allthough many thinges which Christ spake to the Apostles onlye and their successors may be truly applied vnto euery Christian so is it in this case of which we talke Christ saied vnto the Apostles onlye You haue not chosen me but I haue chosen you which allthough it may be truly verified of euery Christian man woman and child because that Christ in deed hath chosen vs to his people so many other besides coÌ„tinuing in their infidelitie or Iuisshnes yet it must not folow that Christ dyd not meane by those wordes that the Apostles were singularly chosen vnto the proper office of preaching and ministring his sacramentes Therfor allthough one may vse the wordes Do this in remembrance of me in respect of the common peoples affection yet it is not true that Christ had no larger or greater meanyng in them then that by eatyng of his body we should only remember that he dyed for vs which euery one may do as well as a priest Wherefor Syr as you haue coÌ„cluded that the priest is not bound to minister to other if there be none to receaue which is quickly to be graunted vnto you so I say that you haue nothing at all proued that Christ his institution stretcheth as well to the people as the priest or that the priest could not laufully receaue except there were some cumpany But where now are your scriptures your Doctours your generall councells and your crakes by which you should directly answer to that which is required of you We shall perchaunse hereafter in your defence read many great argumentes against vs but in the meane tyme you thinke it good to prouyde for a place of refuge when the ouerthrow shall be geauen vnto you And therefor you saie Yf we had no scripture at all to proue that the priest should not receaue without cumpany yf ye dyd geaue vs the ouerthrow in that yet could ye not triumph therein as though ye had wonn the field And why so I pray you Our contention you answer ys for priuate Masse c. of which sole receauyng ys but one part You pitch your campe Sir in a very wyde field and your kind of fight is such as we perceaue you would neuer be ouercummed The church of God whose armies of doctrine and verities do allwaies stand in good order if she be iustly ouercuÌ„med in any one thing which she absolutelye mainteineth she straitwaies shall be forsaken as one which is not to be credited But you in whose name I will not saie are so trimlye prepared that allthough you be ouerthrowen in one of your articles yet you will not be ouercummed in the state of your whole religion Yet how well this may be graunted lett vs consider Do not you distinct thinges some in to necessarie some in to indifferent Do not you saie that the sole receauyng of a priest by hym selfe is not a thing indifferent And do not you make a necessitie of doctrine in it that the people must receaue with the priest or els Christ his institution is broken Tell me then now further Is not the church of Christ the pillar and staie of truth And can that be possiblie his church which would sett furth a lye No truly It is impossible that the church should err in doctrine to whom the Holyghost was promised to teach her all truth and allso to tary with her for euer And if but one article which she defendeth be proued false I will not saie that all the rest which she vttered is false but this is most certen that she is not the church which is to be folowed Yet see you can so dispose your selues that allthough you be proued lyers in one of those your articles which you make necessary yet you will not be mistrusted but that neuerthelesse you be the true church of Christ. And whereas the Holyghost which was promised vnto the church doth teach her all truth yet you so vnderstand the matter that for all the ouerthrowing of one whing of your battaile you neuerthelesse will not leese the whole field and victorie Which one saying of yours alone without further stroke geaueÌ„ doth so wound your church and confound it that in deed you haue lost the victorie And it may well be that your tong is yet free and that your feete may serue you to runn in to other questions besides the purpose but as concernyng the truth which is with you in all poyntes if you be the true church you haue lost for euer the grace of it either because as we know you can not disproue sole receiuing either because yourselfe saie that if you were therein ouerthrowen you had not yet lost the victorie Which is thus much in effect that the church of Christ which honor you challenge vnto yourselfe might
the heate of his preachementes he could not but take a noune to his bedfellow And as he was in his doinges so is he in his writinges so shameles so fylthy so vncleane so slaunderous so mutable so presumptious and so desperate that it is wonder that he is accompted for a man much lesse for a man of God I speake these thinges to declare what difference ther is betweene our holy Abbates and your rennegate fryars the folowers of our religion and the founders of yours to enforce you hereby to shew what you thinke of S. Bernard S. Bonauenture S. Denyse and others and to signifye hereby vnto you that as we staye vpon contynuance and numbre so yet we reioyce at the vertues and graces which haue and do appeare playnly in many of this numbre wherefore it is not without cause that we are confirmed in our fayth and doctryne because of such a contynuance of it Note that I saye such a contynuanbe For Turkes Sarracenes and Panymes may alleage contynuance but such a contynuance in which the doctrine taught is greauous vnto the carnall man and yet receyued and the greatest professors of it are hated of all heretikes and yet for conscience and wordlye shame are not cōdemned such a one I say is much to be regarded and such a one is not found but onlye emong the Catholikes whose waies in doctrine if they be not open secure especially so great cumpany for so long tyme going in them with prosperous faring to their iourneyes end then will I neuer trust any waye but be as the cumpany is indifferent to go with euery one vntyll I am wery But thankes be to God he hath better prouyded for vs appointing his catholike churche to be the pyller and staye of true religion Which although it is quyckly to be founde out because it is in deede Catholike yet you thinke it necessarye to examyne what is the church and how it maye be knowen Goe to then we will follow you to the end of your defence in euery conclusion which you make against vs. The Scripture saye you speaketh of the church two waies sometyme as it is in deede before God not knowen allwaie to mans iudgement c. Sometyme the church is taken for the vniuersall multitude of all those which beyng dispersed through the world acknowledge one Christ. c. Sometyme the church is taken for the multitude of those that beare rule in the church You performe more then you promysed We looked but for two wayes and you haue declared three in which the scripture speaketh of the church by which it appeareth that you haue pretye knowledge but you keepe lytle good ordre in setting furth your diuisions Yet goe to as concerning the first sense which you make of the church what make you of her Can it err or no No say you this church is the pyller of truth that neuer continueth in error This church is neuer forsaken of the spirite of God In to this church none be receyued but onlye the children of grace and adoption How might a man then I praye you know this church Verely neither you neither any other can tell For whereas it consisteth of such as be the elect and chosen who can saye either of hymselfe that he is one of them or how can one say that of an other whose hart he seeth not which he can not vnderstand of his owne case which is best knowen vnto hymselfe Therfore as cōcerning the profyt and cōmoditye which they that would might take of this churche which is the pyller of truth we can receyue very lytle of it because she is inuisible vnto man and knowen onlye before God And if you dare saye that this churche may also be knowen vnto man I would you had showen one token or other of her that we might be sure where to fynde the pyller of truthe Now as concerning the church which is dispersed through the worlde and acknowledgeth one Christ and is Through baptisme admitted thervnto and by the vse of the Lordes supper openlye professeth the vnitie therof in doctryne and charitie Is this church trow you the pyller of truthe or what other opinion shall we haue of her This church saye you is resembled vnto a nett which hath good and bad in it it is resembled vnto a field which hath pure corne and cockle also in it You saye herein trulye and you agree now very wel with the catholike church which teacheth vs that in this world the good and euyll Christians are mengled togeather You make also much against certayne heretikes which stand in it stoutly that onely the elect are of the howsehold and familye of God which yet as you haue clerkely defined it can not be so because the good and the badd which acknowledge one Christ and receyue the sacramētes are the true church of Christ. Graunting therefor vnto you that the church hath good men and euill in her I aske now the cause of you wherfore you labor to proue that this church maye goe out of the waye for some part of her you tell vs of Noe of the .x. trybes of Israell of the Prophetes of the captiuitie of Babilon and other such historyes But to what end and purpose yf you wil proue thereby that thei which beare the name of the people of God haue often tymes forsaken his law and destroyed his Prophetes you haue spoken that for proufe wherof I wold neuer haue gone to the flood of Noe hauing so many examples at home to make this conclusion manifest For all they which be Christened doe beare the name of the people of God and the promyses are made only vnto them yet this world maye declare how many coniurars dissemblers wycked lyuers faithlesse ministers lecherous friars and desperate peruerters of all law and honestie doe lyue in the churche But if you would proue that because a great numbre was deceyued therefore the whole churche was subuerted you speake alltogeather without booke For to consider one example for all in the tyme of Elias the Prophet when he good man thought that all had forsaken God besydes hym selfe yet said God vnto hym I haue lefte my selfe seuen thousand in Israell which haue not bowed their knees before Baal And before that it is playne by the booke of kynges that Abdyas the stewarde of kyng Achab his house dyd hyde a hundred Prophetes of God from the sight of Iezabell the quene and fedd thē with bread and water Therefore as it can not be denyed but that they which haue borne the name of the people of God haue not allwayes and wholy folowed hym so yet it can neuer be proued that the visible church of God hath ben in all her partes subuerted And yet in the old law the church was not then so richely endowed as it was afterward in the commyng of Christ and his holie ghost neither were those wordes spokē then which haue
ben spoken sence and now presently doe take place our Sauior faythfully promysing vnto Sainct Peter that Thow art Peter which is to saye a rock and vpon this rock I will buyld my church and the gates of hell shall not preuayll against it So that if nothing might be said to the contrary but that in the olde law the church of God was not to be founde which is vnpossible to be proued yet in this tyme of grace when all nations of the world are in the heritage of Christ as only the Israelites then were and when for figures we haue truthes for Moyses the seruant and his chayer Iesus the soune of God and his lieutenant for the inspirations which came at sondry tymes vpon the Prophetes a continuall presence of the maiestie of the holie ghost for promyses vnder cōdition to tarye with them if they would folow his cōmaundementes most absolute performāce of the spirite of truth to be with vs vntyl the worldes end in this tyme of grace so gloriouse so much made of so deere and welbe loued so defenced so priuileaged to make so harde and pynching rekoning that the light of the world should be couered vnder some busshell and that cytie be vnperceauable which Christ him selfe planted vpon the topp of a hyll it is an ignominious and Iewysh and cruell dysgracing of the church of Christ. But because we maye have a better tyme and leysure to speake against you in this matter if this visible church which hath contynued so long in one maner of doctrine and sacramentes be not the true church of God because the visible church of the Iewes had not allwayes the truthe of doctryne And if it must follow because the kynges of Iuda were some tymes Idolators that the clergie of those tymes agreed vnto them and if some did so in deede that all therefore without exception did it or if because the Prophetes reproued the maners of the high Priestes therefore they condemned theyr doctryne and religyon or if Christ because he was cōdemned of the high Priestes sayed not vnto the people concerning the doctors of Moyses law Doe that which they saye vnto you but doe not after theyr doinges And to be short if all these unreasonable consequēcies which would please you very well should be graunted vnto you tell vs then for conscience sake what church we shall follow If the churche of Rome which hath ben and is so well receyued hath ben and may be vntrulye perswaded maye not that church which you perchanse shall point out vnto vs with your lytle fynger be also with good lykelyhood very fowlie deceyued And maye not one thirde person commend vnto vs an other church which agreeth with none of our two and yet is nothing the better In this doubt which doth so necessarilye aryse what is your ghostly counsell vnto such as are fearefull of conscience The right church therfore as the fold of Christ hath the true worde of God and vse of his sacramentes according vnto the same for the due markes therof After this maner you shall haue some tymes the symple idiotes of the countrey to make answer vnto straingers asking the right waye vnto this or that place which they would come vnto For saye they you must goe by my grandsyres close and then keepe the straytwaye and you shall neuer mysse Or else lyke as a man would sende his seruant to London for a cupp of pure and cleane wyne and tell hym that he shall be sure to haue it there where he seeth an Iuye garland to hang at the dore or the drawer of the wyne to vse no deceptfull bruyng of it wheras the Iuye garland is no certayne tokē of good wine ready to be solde and euery tapster will easily saie for his owne truth and honestye so you haue tolde vs such markes to know the true church by that as the true church hath them in deede so yet euery mysbegotten congregatiō will chalendge them vnto herselfe Except you thinke that Luther and Zuinglius with all their forked tayles of heresies doe not eche of them stande in yt that they haue the true worde of God and right vse of the sacramētes on eche of their sydes which yet are contrary the one to the other I had thought you would haue tolde of one such marke and signe to come by the knowledge of the true church that in all the controuersies of opinions and all the euill conditions of lyuing we might haue ben directed vnto one certayne and approued staye of our consciences and you to declare your wysedome and vnderstanding haue named two such markes as euery kynde of religion will boldely chalendge vnto her selfe First the true worde of God saye you is one true marke of the church what meane you then by the worde of God for if you meane the volume of the olde and new testament and that wheresoeuer we fynde the byble in any persons handes that we must thereby straitwayes take this for a certayne tokē that he which hath the byble in his hande is one of the right churche so shal you haue not only your selfe but Arrians Anabaptistes and all the rabell of myscreantes to be of the true churche by good lykelyhod On the otherside if you meane by the worde of God the two testamentes not as they are to be solde at bookebynders shopps but as they are expounded of sincere and true preachers what tokē thē shall we haue of you to know readily who is a true preacher And as I haue said of this first marke which you geaue so maye I saye againe of your seconde which is the right vse of the sacramētes Which as I will graunt vnto you to be rightlye practized onlye within the true churche so yet you haue to shewe vs further how I maye know such as doe minister them accordinglye You would proue by S. Augustine S. Cyprian Saint Chrisostome and Origine that the scripture is the true tryall of the churche Yea Syr in one sense that is true in deed as also that the church maketh the tryall and declaration of the true scripture But that euer any good and reasonable man had this meanyng that who so euer would might take the scriptures into his handes and sytt iudge ouer the church I denye it vtterly and I am sure you can neuer proue it For as the scripture declareth which is the true church so doeth the churche shewe the authoritie of the scripture and the scripture and the churche are the better the one for the other of them Do you thinke to make vs aferde by the appealing vnto scripture or doe you labor to moue a suspition that you only haue the Ghospell for you Verely we are content to be tryed not only by the scriptures but euen by those holy fathers which you depraue in this place towardes your purpose The cōtrouersie now betwene vs and you is the same which
by you alleaged the simple and obscure oblations of the people because he speake of that which the Prophete Malachie had writen of Yet to shew the grace which you haue in vnderstanding of the Doctours whereas this present testimonie of S. Irenei maketh so plainely against you you saye that he expoundeth hymselfe in an other place as in the .34 chap. of the forsaied boke And signifieth that he speaketh not of the offering of the sacrament consecrated but of the bread and wyne offered partlie to the vse of the supper partlie to the finding of the poore It is wonder to see your boldnes For the place of S. Irenei by which you would proue this your comment doth neither make mention of the vse of the supper neither of finding the poore But rather he saieth we make offering vpp to God c. offering vnto hym the firstfructes of his creatures c. and this pure offering the church only offereth to our maker c. But where doth he saie in that place which either should haue serued your purpose or els not at all haue ben alleaged that the new oblation of the new testament and the prophesie of Malachie of which he had spoken in the 32. Chapiter before were to be vnderstanded of the bread and wyne offered to the vse of the supper and finding of the poore we do not denie but that the people offered bread and wine for such intentes but you shold haue proued that same to be the pure offering which the church onlie offereth as S. Irenei saieth Which can not possiblie be euer concluded because neither the offering of the people singularlie pure neither the Church onlie doth offer bread wyne and firstfructes which the verie panymes that naturallie do offer vp against reason vnto their false Goddes Idolls wherefor you haue brought S. Ierenei out of place not to expound hymselfe but to confound your miserable lying And thus much for the first signification which you make of the word oblation and sacrifice Now as concernyng the second we graunt and the church allso hath taught it you that there is a sactifice of praier and a sacrifice of thankes geauing But how can you proue that the sacrament it selfe is not allso a sacrifice that is to saie an externall and visible signe of our thaÌ„kes geauing and praier for not onlie Te Deum laudamus or Agnus Dei miserere nobis are sacrificies of thankes geauing and humble praying but most especiallie the holie host consecrated And you must not by one truth take awaye an other as because no maÌ„ wil deny that the praiers to God and prayses of God vsed in the masse are true sacrificies to conclude therefor that the bodie and bloud of Christ are for vs no sacrifice Further where you saie concerning the prayers and thankes geauen at the celebration of the sacrament That the Doctours in infinite places affirme that to be the true and onlie sacrifice of the new testament It ys most false and vnreasonable For thankes and praiers are coÌ„nion sacrificies vnto all religions and all lawes new and old supernaturall and naturall And then if we should speake exactlie there is none true and pure sacrifice but onlie that which our Sauior maketh of hymselfe in what so euer forme place and maner it pleaseth hym to be offered For all our Iustice considered by it selfe without relation made vnto the holines and merites of Christ are like the foule clothes of women all vncleane and polluted And the starres themselues being not cleane in his sight muchlesse any praiers or praises of men if without mercie thei should be considered Againe where you drawe the matter out with more length then truth That the fathers called euerie good action a sacrifice were it priuate or common as S. Austine allso signifieth but you tell not where you report of them vntrulie as S. Augustine may proue vnto you For he saieth not that euerie good worke absolutelie but euerie worke that is done to the intent we might cleaue vnto God in holy societie is a true sacrifice As if you should geaue an almes to one because he is your poore frind which asketh it and not referr the geauing of it vnto that supreme end and point which is God hymselfe all though the act be good morallie yet can it not be called a sacrifice After this you bring in Ireneus Eusebius Chrisostome Austyne but to what purpose verelie to proue that which is not denied that the Christians do offer vpp the sacrifices of thankes geauing of praiers and the remembrance of that great sacrifice of the crosse For who denieth this vnto you I tell you againe that to goe no further then the selfesame places of the Doctours which you recite we offer to God most high a sacriâ—ice of praise but allso as it foloweth we offer a ful a sweete and holie sacrifice after a new sort according to the new testament Yet if you meane the simple praises of our hart and lippes thei are not worth the honor of so manie epithetons and titles as Eusebius attributeth vnto the sacrifice of this owr tyme of grace Againe according to the same Eusebius true it is we celebrate the remembrance of that great sacrifice but yet we take that which foloweth according to the misteries instituted by Christ hymselfe By which wordes he geaueth you to vnderstand that the matter hangeth not vpon your newlie deuised apprehension by which we represent vnto our memorie the passion and merites of the Soun of God but thorough the institution of the misteries which the fatihfull haue allwaies honored that remembrance of the highe and bloudie sacrifice ys continued and celebrated accordinglie We hold furthermore with S. Austine that the Martirs are the misticall body of Christ but yet we hold allso with hym that at the sacrifice which we offer vnto God the Martirs in their place and order are named For as our Sauyor hath true bodies one misticall an other naturall so the offering of the misticall must not exclude the presence and offering of the naturall Yea rather how can the misticall bodie be offered except it be thorough the presence of the naturall For the offering of ourselues is not the offering of Christ his whole misticall bodie although you affirme it And if the whole parisshe would ioyne itselfe neuer so stronglie togeather how doe thei offer S. Peter S. Paule and all the rest of the elect and chosen But when the naturall bodie of Christ is offered vnto whom as the head all the elect as members are ioyned and not onlie thei which are departed this world or which are in it at this present but all thei which euer hereafter shall be borne vntill all the number be fullfilled then loe and onlie then it is verified that Christ his misticall bodie is offered because he the head is offered which as coÌ„cerning God his euerlasting
and childissh to saie that Chrisostome vpon the .viij. of Mathew maketh mention onlie of thankes geauing for all men which are passed or which are to come ergo there is no other sacrifice but thankes to be offered for the soules departed or els to declare more sensiblie the absurditie of your reason ergo in hys thirde homelie vpon the epistle vnto the Philippians he hath no word of the Apostels tradition that in the presence of the reuerend misteries praiers shold be made for the deade to cause God to be mercifull vnto them But see againe S. Ambrose offered for Valentinian the Emperour then dead and S. Ambrose doubted not of his saluation ergo he dyd no more but thanke God for hym This is your argument without reason and knowledge For euerie soule of whose saluation we need not to doubt is not straitwaies in heauen As S. Austine allthough he doubted not but that his mother Monica dyd yeld at her death a saued soule vnto God of whom he testifieth that she so lyued that God was praised in her faith and maners and that she was a mercifull woman and forgaue all them which had trespased againste her and that she came euerie daie to church and serued God before the aultar from which she knew the holie sacrifice to be dispensed by which the byll of debt which was contrarie vnto vs was put out and cancelled Yet for all this knowing the accompt which euerie soule shall geaue for the least word that is spoken against the coÌ„maundementes of God and leauing a side her good deedes for which he ioyfullie thanketh God he praieth for his mother that her sinnes might be forgeauen and saieth Lett no creature pull her from thy protection Let not the lyon and dragon put hym selfe in betweene neither by force nor by subteltie c. Graunt that she may be in peace with her husband before whom and after whom she was maried to no other c. And inspire in to thy seruantes my brothers and thy childerne my masters that as manie of them as shal reade these thin ges may remember at thy aultar thy seruant Monica with Patricius her husband Therefore that you maie know your folie and lerne from hence forward to harken vnto the whole tale before you geaue definitiue sentence I will saie vnto you with S. Austine vnto Laurentius It ys not to be denied that the soules of them which are departed are relieued and eased by the dâ—â—otion of their frindes lyuing when the sacrifice of our mediator ys offered for them or when almeses are geaueÌ„ in the church c. and in the end of the chapiter he concludeth Therefore when the sacrificies either of the aultar either of any kind of almes what so euer it be are offered for all such as haue departed with baptisme they are for the verie good thankes geauing they are propitiations for such as are not verie euill for the starke naught allthough they are no healpe as concerning them being now dead yet they are cumfortes such as they are for the quicke Vnderstand you this Englisshe and do you marke how one selfesame sacrifice doth serue to render thankes by it and to be allso a propitiation for sinners such as die not desperate Will you beare awaie the distinctioÌ„ of three sortes of men which S. Austine here maketh and see by reason that some die in such case as not praises but praiers rather are to be made for them doe so I praie you then And neuer fill your papers in writinges or your audience eares in preaching with such argumentes as are taken of authoritie of holie fathers negatiuelie or with such commendacioÌ„ of one truth as craftelie shall disgrace an other as true Like as manie vse to proue that the true fast ys in absteinyng from synn which no man denieth and inferr therevpon wylilie that to absteine from corporall meates serueth not to any kind of reasonable fasting Or as some do shew by manie authorities that Christ is to be receaued spirituallie by fayth and denye therefor that he ys eaten reallie which yet is as true as the other Or lyke as you in this chapiter haue abused your reader in prouing a sacrifice of prayers and thankes geauing and denying any oblation to be in the church for sinnes which yet the holie fathers in theyr writinges haue expressed The fifthe Chapiter IN this chapiter you find fault with the Catholike that he alleageth the place of Chrisostome other wise then it ys in hym which as concerning the interpretation of Musculus you myght saye perhappes but I trowe ye should not report of him that he reciteth the place otherwyse then it ys in S. Chrisostome except you disproued hym by the greeke text it selfe which you haue not And trulie what great reproueable diuersitie should be in saying Sacrificium frustra quotidianum offerimus or frustra habetur quotidiana oblatio whereas both come to one end that the dailie oblation or sacrifice ys made in vaine I can not redelie tell except you mislike the terme of offering and thinke that the hauing of a daylie sacrifice might be made without the act of offering But goe to for quietnes sake we are content with Musculus interpretation and what saie you then vnto the argument of the Catholike The wordes of S. Chrisostome are these Frustrà habetur quotidiâ—na oblatio frustrà stamus ad altare nemo est qui simul participet Our daylie sacrifice ys had in vaine we stand at the aultar in vaine there ys none to take part with vs. By this testimonie to conclude shortlie there was dailie sacrifice in S. Chrisostoms tyme and there was not daylie receiuing with the priest ergo to haue communicantes is not of the substance of the Catholike masse Vnto this argument I find as it were fower answers for your defence of which the first ys that Chrisostom to exaggerat the peoples slacknes saieth there ys none to be partaker meaning they were verie few and seldome in comparison of that their dutie was Do you thinke then that euerie daie there was one or other of the people which dyd come to the communioÌ„ then dyd he not stand in vaine at the Aultar except you can proue that in that world such a canon was made that there should be no communion without .iij. to receiue at it on the other side if in any one daie at all there was found no one to coÌ„municate the sacrifice being offered euerie daie it was celebrated some tymes without coÌ„municants For it is not materiall vnto vs whether the people receiued some at Easter some at tweluetyde and other some more ofter but whether as the oblation was daylie that so the receiuing appropriated as you thinke vnto it should haue ben dailie And all the authorities which you bring of S. Ambrose Austine Chrisostome and Concilium Elibertinum to proue that the people dyd communicate more then once in the yeare and