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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	know_v	true_a	8,326	5	5.4606	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19668	Fryer Iohn Frauncis of Nigeon in Fraunce A replication to that lewde aunswere, which Fryer Iohn Frauncis (of the Minimes order in Nigeon nigh vnto Paris in Fraunce) hath made to a letter, that his mother caused to be written, and sent to him out of England, in August. 1585. Wherevnto is annexed an aunswere, to that which the same fryer hath written to his father and mother: in defence, and to the prayse of that religion, which he dooth nowe professe: and to the disprayse and defacing of that religion, which is nowe professed in Englande. Whereof the fryer himselfe was a scholler and professor, vntill the yeere 1583. which was the 18. yeere of hys age. VVritten by Robert Crowley. Anno. 1586.	Crowley, Robert, 1518?-1588.; Debnam, Samuel.	1586 (1586)	STC 6091; ESTC S109119	122,478	144

proselite of yours to beléeue all that the Romishe Catholicke Church teacheth although the same bée directly contrary to the scriptures As to make and worship Images to call vppon Angels and saints to repose trust in the worthines of his owne workes to make himselfe a Mediator in suffering for the sinnes of his Parents and Country men to haue an opinion of holines in refrayning the vse of Gods good creatures which are all holy and to be receiued with thankes to God for the vse of them to kisse and worshippe the Reliques of saynts to beléeue the reall presence of Christes bodie in the Sacrament of the Altare to make that Sacrament a sacrifice propi●iatorie for the sinnes of the quicke and the deade c. To conclude if the Romysh Catholicke Church doo teach it he must beléeue it although both reason and scripture doo denye it Into this miserable blindnes you haue by your allurements and perswasions brought many youthes that myght and were like to haue doone good seruice to God and theyr Prince in theyr natiue Countrey you haue caused them to shake of all duetifull obedience to God to theyr Country to theyr Prince to theyr parents and to all that haue béene theyr fosterers and bringers vp in learning and in religious exercises you haue plunged them into the puddle of all popysh superstition and counterfayted religion you haue stolen them from our Captaine Christ and made them souldiours to fyght against Christ vnder the banner of that Antichrist of Rome Thus your proselite hath reported in the discourse of hys peregrination that he was in Rhemes in Fraunce 17. monthes together in company with two hundreth English men almost lacked nothing which argueth that some good portion of your patrimony is spent in the maintenaunce of such English youthes as you haue conueighed thether and to other places beyond the Seas I wyll charge you no furder Take héede to your selues in time Consider that there is a God that séeth your dooinges and knoweth your intents He wil not suffer such dooings vnpunished for euer If you think that the religion that is now allowed of in this Realme by law be not Catholicke séeke your resolution at the hands of such as are learned in the tongues in the liberal artes in the writings of auncient fathers and in the scriptures and are your Countrymen occupied in the seruice of God this our cōmon country Such are able and wil be ready to conferre with you and by their knowledge in the scriptures Doctors artes and tongues to satisfy you and vndoubtedly if you wyll humbly craue it of God ye shall bee satisfyed Remember your duetye towardes GOD your duety towardes your prince your duety towardes your Country and Countrymen Repent purpose and endeuoure to amend that which you haue doone amisse Helpe to bring home againe such as by your meanes haue béene occasioned to stray from Christes fold in this our natiue soyle As you haue béene meanes to drawe them from Christ so vse what meanes you can to bring thē backe againe to Christes folde in Englande If they shall perrish in that schisme whereinto you haue brought them as vndoubtedly they shall if they shall ende in it theyr blou● shalbe required at your handes When your Seminary men tell you that we are the Sci●smaticks and they the Catholicks beleeue them not except they prooue it by Scriptures and probable reasons If wée doo proue both by the Scriptures and by probable reasons that the Church of England is Catholick and the Romysh Church schisu●●ticall why should not you beleeue vs Because they doo knowe that if you shall reade our wrytinges you must néedes yéelde to the truth which you shal sée substantially prooued by vs they put you in feare of curssing or excommunication if you shall reade any thing that is written by any of vs or if you shall giue attentiue héede to any Sermons made by vs which argueth that themselues doo knowe that the trueth is on our sides You are Gentlemen and by naturall and ciuile order you are Frée men suffer not your selues to be ledde and commaunded as blinde and bonde men by these dol●ysh hypocrites which teach you to submit your selues to the decrées precepts and doctrines of men which haue but a vaine shewe of wysedome and not to regarde the wisedome of God contained and taught in the holye Scriptures Collos 2. Your calling and estate in the Common weale of this Realme is worshipfull and your duety is to be ayding to your Prince in the execution of the Lawes made for the preseruation of the state and defence of the liberty of this English nation and wyll you bée the ring leaders in the violating of those good Lawes in sub●erting the state and in turning the liberty into thraldome and bondage God forbidde Our good God in hys good time vsed our noble King Henry the eyght as his meane by whome hée deliuered this noble and free kingdom from the Babilo●icall bondage of Rome and wyll you bring your selues and the whole English nation into the like bondage againe The same our mercif●ll GOD hath by the same Noble Prince and by his Sonne Edwarde and Elizabeth his daughter restored to this English nation the bright shyning light of the Gospell and wyll you bring vppon your selues and vpon vs and vpon all our posterity the palpable Egyptian darknes of Ignoraunce the mother nursse and continuall fosterer of all errour and wiched life God forbidde You are English men God giue you English harts that may neuer yéelde to bee gouerned by forraine power You be christian men God giue you christian hartes that may neuer yéelde to professe Antichristian Religion Suffer not your selfe to be blinded by their colours of antiquity vniuersality and vniformity For when theyr antiquity is compared with ours it is found to be but of yesterdayes hatching where ours is prooued to haue had continuaunce from the time of the first man Their vniuersalitye was neuer so large as the Romaine Monarchie but ours hath alwayes béene and styll is and euer shalbe as large as the whole worlde Theyr vniformity is deuided themselues doo scarsly knowe into howe many seuerall sects whereof not any two can be founde that doo agrée in all poynts but we béeing but one body and one spirit are called in one hope of our calling one Lorde one fayth one Baptisme One God and father of all which is aboue all throughout all thinges and in vs all ●phe 4. I pray you vouchsafe to reade with indifferent iudgment that which I haue written in my Replication and answere to that which Fryer John Fra●ncis of Nigeon in Fraunce hath written to hys Father and Mother And as he hath admonished in the margine of his letter no lesse then seauentéene tunes Reade it thorough or beginne it not euen so haue I sette at the heade of euery page Reade all or reade nothing I haue set down the Fryers wordes euen as he wrote them and as

were for that Apostacie conquered by the Assyrians and the remnant of them carryed into strange landes farre off Of thys conuerting or turning of the posterity of this people the Prophet Ieremie dooth write after this manner Audiens audiui Ephraim trans●igrantem or as it is in the Hebrewe plangentem Castigastime Domine et eruditus sum or as it is in the Hebrew castigatus sum quasi iteuencus indomitus Conuerte me conuertar quiatu Dominus Deus meus Postquam enim conuertistime egi poenitentiaem postquam ostendistimihi per cussi femur meum Confusus sum erubui quoniam sustinui opprobrium adolescentiae meae c. I haue in verye déede sayth the Lorde heard Ephraim flytting out of his Country or as the Hebrewe hath it making great or pittifull lamentation saying after this manner O Lord thou hast corrected mee and I am thereby instructed or as the Hebrewe hath it I am chastened like an vntamed Bullocke Doo thou turne me and then I shall bée turned for thou art the Lord my God And after thou haddest turned me I repented And after thou diddest she we vnto me that is after thou diddest let me sée the filthines of myne owne life I dyd strike my thigh I was confounded I was ashamed for I did beare the reproche of mine owne youth Is not Ephraim a sonne that I estéeme much off Is he not a Ladde in whom I am delighted For since I haue spoken of him I will still remēber him And therfore the bowels of my compassion are mooued towardes him and in pittie I wyll haue compassion vpon him sayth the Lord. The due consideration of these wordes might haue moued you to doo the contrary of that which you say you were by them mooued to doo Ephraim had forsaken the right Religion of GOD and hee had embraced the Religion of Baall which was a wrong Religion he had forsaken the precepts and commaundements of God and embraced the precents and commaundements of men He had refused to hearken to the voyces of the true Prophets of God and had gyuen eare to the Prophets of Baal which were false Prophets Hée had left of to walke in those right and high wayes that the Lorde had taught his own people to walk in he had chosē thē to walk in by waies such as y e Lord forbad his people to walk in And haue not you doone y e like You were baptised in the right faith of Christ Jesus which your Godfathers your Godmother confessed at y e time of your baptising and desired for you that you might be baptised in that Fayth which they did then confesse And you were baptised in that fayth and were named Samuel But nowe you are called John Frauncis as your selfe haue written and therefore I feare you haue renounced your first Baptisme and haue béene rebaptized in the Romysh Catholike fayth professing and promising to beléeue and to doo all that that Antichristian Church teacheth and commaundeth You were brought vp in the knowledge of your duety towards God and your duety towards man but nowe you call that knowledge heresie and such as haue béene your instructors therein heretikes You haue and doo styll refuse to heare the voyce of the Preachers of the Gospell of Christ which are the true Prophets of this time and your eares are open to the voyces of the preachers of popysh ceremonies fayned and false miracles and all manner deuises of men which are the false prophets of this time You haue left the way of truth wherein God requireth his owne people to walke seruing him in spirite and truth that is in true holines righteousnes and you haue chosen to walke in by waies euen such as the Lord hath forbidden his people to walk in Namely the hearing of masses and therein gyuing diuine honour to creatures that is to bread and wine therein vsed and holden vp and shewed that they may be worshipped by such as be present In kyssing the Reliques of Saints in the supersticious refrayning of the vse of Gods good creatures wherein God hath giuen liberty to all men that will reuerently vse them and be thankfull to him for them In making inuocations and prayers to Angels to deade men such as be called Saints not knowing whether they can hear you or whether they can helpe you or no. In praying for the deade not knowing whether they doo stand in néede of your praiers or no. Yea not knowing whether your prayers may profite them or no. In honouring God and hys Saints by Images directly contrary to hys expresse commaundement Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any grauen Image c. In vowing performing the vow of wyuelesse chastitie and yet with this causion Si non castè tamen cautè If not chastlie yet warily In performing the vowe of wilfull pouertie and yet enioy all thinges necessary in great plenty In taking vpon you y e yoke of obedience to such as God hath not commandèd you to obey but shaking of that yoke of obedience that God hath layd vpon all mens neckes Namely to naturall Parents Princes and al maner of Gouerners In dooing penaunce as you terme it by fasting bread and water by dyuing vpon the earth by whypping your selfe with a discipline of whypcords or chaynes of wyar or with pynnes of siluer taking vpon you by these meanes to redéeme your owne sinnes and the sinnes of others also And so consequently entruding your selfe into the Office of Christ which is to be the onelie mediatour betwixt God and man and the onely propitiator to obtaine mercy for the sinnes of the world If you had considered these words of Ieremie aright and as you shoulde haue doone applying them to your selfe as I hope nowe you wyll doo then you would haue cryed with Ephraim as I hope you will nowe crye Turne me and I shalbe turned for thou art the Lord my God And when the Lord shall turne you as I hope he will at the last turne you so that you shall from the bottome of your harte repent that euer you left the highe way of righteousnes to walke in these by wayes of wickednes you will not as you terme it do penaunce in whypping your selfe with your discipline as you call your whip wherwith you haue giuē your self so many hundred lasshes but you will submit your selfe vnder the mightie and mercifull hand of our heauenlie father to be chastined at his hande according to his good pleasure that by his fatherly corrections you may be brought to sée the greatnes of your owne folly wherein you haue walked And so with Ephraim strike your selfe on the thigh and say I am confounded and ashamed I haue borne the rebuke of my youth And then vndoubtedly the Lord wil say of you as he did of Ephraim Is not Samuel a sonne that I make greate account of Is he not a ladde in whom I am delighted Sith I haue spoken of him I wyll still remember him And

and founde them as he reporteth But when he shall awake out of hys dreame for as yet hee lyeth sno●ing and snorting in his déepe sléepe of wylfull ignorance then he shalbe that case that the poore begger was in which awaking out of hys sleepe sought after money but founde not one crosse of Coyne about him notwithstanding that in his sléepe he dreamed that he had more bagges of Golde then he was able to beare Hee vttered certayne spéeches amongst his companions whylst he was in my house before he tooke his iourney into Fraunce which wordes doo sauour of such a Dreame What wyll you say sayth this dreamer when you shall sée me preache at Paules Crosse And agayne I wyll sée Rome before I bee a yéere elder These spéeches agree with that desire that he had to creepe into the wéede of a Minime Fryer No man coulde diswade him from it By all likelihoode he had hearde that diuers Friers of S. Frauncis Order haue béene made Popes of Rome As Sabellicus the Hystorian noteth that before his time fiue Franciscane Fryers hadde beene made Popes Enneadis 9. Libro 6. And I knowe the courage of Fryer Iohn Frauncis to be such that though his personne be but little yet hys heade would holde vp the triple Crowne And although there haue béene many bloudy beasts that haue worne that crowne yet I thinke that amongst them all there hath not beene one more bloudy then thys little vermine woulde be if he myght once change his Minimes hoode for a triple Crowne But to returne to our matter He procéedeth with hys exhortation to hys Father and mother and thus he sayth The Fryar I haue hearde my mother say that in the olde tyme the people were more deuoute then nowe they be Nowe if so be that you be nowe gouerned by God and the Papists in olde time were gouerned by the deuill you must needes confesse that the deuill is better able to make men deuout then God is for because that by your owne confessyon the Papists were more deuout in the olde time then the Protestants are nowe Crowley Thys is a poynt of déepe Diuinity and of as cunning Sophistry Fryer Iohns Mother did once say so therefore of necessity it must needes be so But it may be that Fryers of your Order haue a Priuiledge whereby they may frame arguments that shall conclude neither in Mode nor in Figure and yet no man may denie either the argument or any part thereof I haue hearde it reported that once there was a Pope that would séeme to be a better Latinist then he was indéede and therfore he would nowe and then be talking a little Latine though hee did oftentimes reache Priscian a blowe But on a time there was one present that hearing him make default in not obseruing the Rules of Grammer in his spéeche thought good wyth due reuerence to admonish him saying It may please your holines to pardon my boldnes As I take it your holines hath broken Priscians heade The Pope answered and sayd As I haue spoken so shall it bée in despight of Priscian and all the Grammarians in the worlde Nowe if that holy Father or any other amongst your holy fathers of Rome haue graunted you as large a liberty in framing Arguments as that holy Father himselfe vsed in speaking Latine then you may maintayne your argument for good amongst Papistes but amongst Protestants it wyll neuer be allowed for good The meaning of your mothers wordes is as much as if shee should say thus The people were more addicted to Religion in the olde time then they be nowe but the Religion that then was in vre is a corrupted and vnpure Religion and the Religion that now is in vse is more sincere and pure The people therefore are more addicted to embrace a corrupted Religion then that which is more pure Thys argument hath some sence in it And this saying is according to that saying of our Sauiour Christ Iohn 3. Lyght is come into the worlde and men haue loued darknes more then light Nowe if you shoulde enforce these words against the Apostle and others that were the Schollers of Christ you shoulde doo them great wrong for they were not of that sorte of men that loued darknes more then light for they were chosen out of y e world and had theyr myndes renued and as they were renued they loued light and hated darknes that is ignoraunce and wickednes of lyfe which is the fruite of ignoraunce and darknes Euen so you doo open wrong to the Protestants in that you enforce your mothers spéeche agaynst them concluding that of necessity they must confesse that eyther they be gouerned by the deuill or els that the deuill is better able to worke deuotion in men the God himselfe is Thys conclusion followeth not vpon the Premisses For although men generally haue not so great deuotion to the true Religion that is nowe in vse as generally they had to that Religion that was in vse in the time of ignoraunce yet such as be now vnfayned Christians euen such as men of your sorte doo vse to call Protestants haue nowe as greate deuotion to the right Religion as euer the Papysts had to theyr vayne superstition or as you Master Fryer John haue nowe to that solery y t you haue nowe professed in Nigeon The ryght Protestant is the right Christian and hath receiued the spyrite of Christ as all that belong to Christ haue doone Rom. 8. and is gouerned and ledde by that spyrite which spirite worketh in him a feruent deuotion to serue God in spyrit in trueth that is in true holines and righteous●es The ryght Papyst is the ryght Antichristian and hath receiued the spirite of Antichrist and is gouerned and ledd● by that spyrite because he hath gyuen ouer himselfe to be ledde by that spyrite forsaking y e spirit of truth 2. Thes 2. I conclude therefore that your conclusion that you infer vpon those wordes that you haue hearde your mother speake concerning the deuotion of the people in the olde time is a fonde fryarlike conclusion and toucheth not vs any thing at all We know that our God is in heauen and that he can doo what hee wyll doo and hath doone what he woulde doo both in heauen in earth and in hell and in all deepe places As for the deuill we knowe hym to be but a sl●ue to our God And that of himselfe he hath no power at all For all power belongeth to God Psal 62 And we knowe that deuotion is a good gyft and therefore commeth from GOD who is the gyuer of all good gyfts and that no good gyft doth or can come from the deuill That therefore which you call deuotion and is wrought in you Papists by y e spyrit of Antichrist which is the deuill is no deuotion indeede but a méere superstition and a superstitious zeale to false Religion And thus much for aunswere to that matter You procéede and you say