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A16835 The supremacie of Christian princes ouer all persons throughout theor dominions, in all causes so wel ecclesiastical as temporall, both against the Counterblast of Thomas Stapleton, replying on the reuerend father in Christe, Robert Bishop of VVinchester: and also against Nicolas Sanders his uisible monarchie of the Romaine Church, touching this controuersie of the princes supremacie. Ansvvered by Iohn Bridges. Bridges, John, d. 1618. 1573 (1573) STC 3737; ESTC S108192 937,353 1,244

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importance which is in all spirituall or ecclesiasticall things or causes as temporall What is this but an importune séeking of a knot in a rushe of no importance 〈◊〉 there any thing in these wordes added more than was ●…ully compre●… hended in the other or than King Henrie or King E●…warde claymed and tooke on them 2. Pref. pag. 34. He maketh an other petit quarell at the fourme of the printed letter fol. 49. b. But it is aunswered in his bederoll of vntruthes where he likewise maketh a slurre aboute it Diuerse other petit quarels he dath aboute the distinction of the letter and for cyting the effect of certaine textes and not declaring them worde for worde fol. 50. b. which is aunswered Another quarell he pyketh at the Bishop for citing Emanuell Paleologus ▪ the Emperour of Gree●…e A●…other for that he calleth him Christian Emperour 〈◊〉 these ar●… aunswered in theyr proper places Another ●…or translating Suprema Anchora Supreme Anchore and not the last Anchore but this is likewyse aunswered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like petit quarels he piketh many which here for breuitie I ouerpasse And although there is none vnaunswered in their places yet aunswere them all with his owne wordes A man woulde here suppose master Stapleton that ye had some great and iust occasion thus grieuously to charge such a man as the Bishop is and that in print where all the worlde may read and consider it Pref. 17. VVhat an offence I beseech you hath the Bishop committed herein so great as wo●…thie a dash with your pen. 〈◊〉 ▪ b. To these he adioyneth his tenth common place which himselfe calleth wordes of course saying these are but wordes of course 1. Pref. pag. 2. And therefore I vsed his owne terme His vvordes of course that is such as may be better returned on himselfe FIrst his beginning of his first Preface with the parable of the foolishe buylder Luc. 14. Whom he compareth the Bishop vnto for attempting this controuersie which he calleth the Castle of our profession and not able to go through therewith is therefore laughed to scorne saying beholde this man beganne to buylde but hee hath not beene able to make an ende That this may be truely recoursed on the Papists all the worlde beginneth to sée and to laugh them to scorne at the ouerthrowe that God hath made of their Nymrods Babilonicall Towre and howe the more they labour to repayre the decay thereof bycause they buylde not on Iesus Christ the Rocke but on the sandes of theyr Fathers traditions they can not therefore with all theyr force inquisitions deuises and attemptes bring their buylding to any good passe their groundworke i●… rotten their stuffe is naught and therfore master Stapletons Fortresse and all their Bulwarks are ouerthrowne spirituoris ●…ius with the spirite of his mouth that is with the worde of God. But ye will say sayth he of this parable they be but words of course Well preuented master Stapleton and in time who can rightly say or iudge any other of them sith they be so indéede as your selfe confesse wordes both of ordinarie course with you and all your side and what is sayde in the whole discourse of them but such course stuffe God wote as in recoursing them to you may be more fitly and truely applyed For ensample euen in the similitude ye alleage of the Apples and Grapes of Sodome and Gomorre Pref. 1. pag. 3. fayre to the eye without within nothing but stinking ashes A most liuely picture of the fruites of Poperie more glorious withoute in pompe riches wealth and might of the worlde More shining in outwarde holinesse counterfeyts myracles Iewish ceremonies and Pharisaical workes and in all other things more faire and delectable to the outward senses than euer were the Apples of Sodome or any thing else but within for sounde doctrine and the right worship of God consisting in spirit truth neyther the Apples of Sodome and Gomorre nor Sodome and Gomorre it selfe had euer the like stinch and infection And all those gay things come but to touche them with the touche stone the holye worde of God they sm●…lder forthwith into Ashes or rather into nothing Uevobis hypocritae sayth Christ VVo bee to you hypocrites that make cleane that is outwarde c. The like recourse is made of all your glorious pamphlets and of this yours in hande there néede none other aunswere than to returne your owne words to your owne selfe thereon It beareth a countenance of truth of reason of learning but come to the triall and examination of it I finde a pestilent ranke of most shamefull vntruthes an vnsauery and vaine kinde of reasoning and last of all the whole to resolue into grosse ignorance Pag. 4. Likewise where he sayth Pag. 8. After all this strugling and wrastling agaynst the truth by you and your fellowes the truth is dayly more and more opened illustred and cōfirmed and your contrary doctrine is or ought to bee disgraced and brought in vtter discredite The aunswere to this is the same that 〈◊〉 made to the quarelling sophister If I say it the argument is true if thou sayst it it is false That which ye forge of a namelesse Protestant from one of your lying fellowes 〈◊〉 that A protestant of late dayes being pressed of a Catholike for extreeme lying and not being able to cleare himselfe sayde plainely and bluntly Quamdiu poter●… clades adferam latebunt quamdiu poterant valebunt apud vulg●… ista mendacia I will deface them and do some mischiefe to them as long as I am able my lyes shall lie hidde as long as may be and at the least the common people shall fall in a liking with them pag. 20. A●… this is most likely to be your owne and your authors lie on the Protestants that at the least the common people might fall in a misliking with vs so is it euidently true if it ●…e recoursed on your owne side all the world can witnesse it hath bene your sayings and doings in very déede and no●…e for feare y●… should haue bene preuented obiect it in your Preface to vs It is you that with your crueltie and slaunders haue and do say Quamdin potero clades adferam I wil do mischiefe to them 〈◊〉 long as I can It is you that this long while haue slaundered and deuised horrible lies ▪ by those that haue professed the truth altering and chopping their articles saying they mainteyne such and such he resies as they neuer thought and haue sayde Latebunt quamdi●… poterunt valebunt apud vulg●… ista mendacia These lies shall lie hidden with the vulgare people so long as may be And so haue yée made the people in executing your crueltie beléeue that they did God good seruice So did the Phariseys and highe priestes abuse the 〈◊〉 and ignorance of the Iewishe people with such vntrue slaunders on Iesu Christ himselfe And to the better compassing hereof ye haue set forth lyes for truth and kept
degenerate from true godlinesse into a kinde of Pharisaical righteousnesse or rather into a shew of righteousnesse the which is more cleare than that it can be denyed And afterwarde complayning further of the Popishe fastes and other abuses he sayth His similes sunt plerique nostrum c. The most of our men are like vnto these he meaneth the Phareseys that iudge they keepe the lawes then when they follow externally the letter of the law when they do nothing lesse as appeareth by them that are ydle on the feast dayes and giue themselues to ryot neglecting those thinges that are perteyning to the Sabaoth Of those also that thinke they fast when they eate but once a day but so daintilye and they so glutte themselues that they feele no hunger all day long On the contrarie they iudge not him to fast but to transgresse the commaundement that compelled by pouertie necessitie or labour doth eate but sparingly often tymes a day And a little after These thinges doe flatly fight with the doctrine of christ For first it impugneth the fayth secondly charitie which two Christ did chiefly touch For this cause therefore he doeth so often blame them But if we marke our selues we shall see our selues to be euen the most culpable in the same thinges For commonly our righteousnesse is set most in outwarde thinges I damne not outwarde thinges for who hauing his right wittes woulde or coulde so do But I say they suffice not to saluation And as I sayd a litle before of the precept of keeping the Sabaoth two things are commaunded First the bodies rest secondly and principally the rest of the old man from his workes so say I now euery precept requireth two thinges that is to wete the outwarde worke the heart that principally which Christ declared inough Math. 5. But wee neglecting that which is principally exacted do stick onely in the externall things The same may I say of the ecclesiastical cōstitutions they giue not holinesse but shewe it further it as for ensample true religion consisteth not in this that thou shouldst weare this or that habit but in this that if thou be dead to the world thou liue to god to this point outward things do also not a litle further thee so the true worship of god is if that in spirite and truth thou worship the father But hereto the externall worship doth stirre thee vp The same also is to be said of fasting cōfession prayer c. which chiefly cōsist in the hart But we neglecting these things which are most necessarie do please our selues about the outwarde things onely Thus sayth Ferus of your Popishe fast conteyning farre worse errors than Aerius not putting of difference but belike he shal be an Aerian to The third thing M. St. obiecteth to vs out of Aerius is that he sayd the sacrifice for the dead was fruitlesse If you were not also dead and fruitlesse for any trouth in you Master Stapleton ye would neuer make such a lying sacrifice of your Priestes lippes for shame As though Aerius were counted an Heretike for denying the propiciatorie sacrifice as ye call it of the Masse which ye say is auaylable and meritorious not onely for the liuing but also for the deade to deliuer them from the fayned paynes of purgatorie Whereas if he had affirmed at that time any such thing he should himself haue bene counted a straunge and new monstrous Heretike For as then nor long after neither your pardons and indulgences nor your trentals and Diriges neyther your satissactions nor your oblations neither your Masse of Requiem nor your soule Priestes to sing or say it were extant or deuised Errours in déede there were about the dead both then and long before and suche as after gaue occasion to these your gainfull deuises And if Aerius had denyed such errours or such errours had then bene practised he had béene no Heretike for denying them but rather such Heretikes as had mainteyned them Which the godly fathers did not but acknowledged and knew of no other place eyther of ioy or torment after this lyfe but onely of heauen and hell A thirde place sayth Saint Augustine that writeth of thys Aerius Penitus ignoramus VVe are vtterly ignorant of nor we can finde any such in the scriptures And yet must Saint Augustine néedes haue knowne and acknowledged such a thirde place of deliueraunce of the deade if he had ment of prayer and oblation for theyr deliuerance as you do meane But he flatly denieth the knowing of any such place it followeth then that wryting thus of Aerius either he was in the same Heresie denying any place for the dead to be holpen out of and wherto then should such praier serue or oblation for deliuering them out of a place of torment since there were no such place of torment so he confirmed Aerius his saying or else he must runne yet into a greater error and absurditie that the deade being in one of these two places heauen or hell they were there holpen by such prayers and oblations But for those that are in hell the scripture is flatte their worme shall neuer die their fire is vnquenchable and euerlasting the riche Glutton coulde not get from thence nor finde any neuer so little ease from his torments Ab inferno nulla est redemptio From hell there is no redemption And this knewe saint Augustine well ynough that sayth Duae quippe habitationes vna in igne aeterno altera in regno aeterno There are two dwellings the one in fire eternall the other in the Kingdome eternall And againe Scitote vos c. Knowe ye that when the soule is parted frō the bodie streightwayes either it is for his good deedes placed in paradise or else certainly for his sinnes cast headlong into hell fire choose nowe that you like either to reioyce euerlastingly with the Saints o●… without ende to be tormented with the wicked This was the foule and great errour of Origene Saint Augustine was not infected therewith nor any godly father of his time muche lesse Epiphanius that was an earnest condemner of Origene Although the Papists be not cleare of this errour that say they haue deliuered and can deliuer soules euen out of hell as they tell howe Pope Oregorie deliuered Traian an infidell Prince and howe his mother condemned and tormented in hell fire for hir whoordome was deliuered from thence by him through a trentall of Masses Nowe as for the soules that on the other side be in heauen the other place I thinke Saint Augustine was neuer so farre ouershotte to say or thinke that such prayers coulde ease or deliuer them from paynes that were in the ioyes of heauen What then remayneth to thinke of saint August noting Aerius of Heresie herein We shall the better perceyue this if we marke the errours that many of the Grecians and Egiptians had
in déede follow M. Sta. but it doth not alwayes followe ▪ A man may refuse manifest proufes of the old Testament and yet graunt such things besides that he may be concluded yea by his owne graunt ▪ And so is M. Feckenham here concluded as graunting the newe Testament the Councels and Fathers For since al these alleage he proufes of the old Testament he is forced by conclusiō of necessarie consequence to graunt also to the old Testament Except he be as peeuish as the Donatistes that granted thus much also and yet refused the manifest proufes and examples of the old Testament Although their own péeuishnesse conuinced thē but still they stoode on the bare wordes as you do and refused inclusiue proufes followed they neuer so necessarily And so did your selfe before require the Bare title of this supremacie to be shewed in the exāples of the old Testament el●… you reiect the exāples agrée they neuer so much in matter But now contrary ye say M. Feckenham doth allow and affirme the proufes of the old Testament bicause they may be included in those pointes that he alleageth but he would be loath they should be included as thankes be to God they be and so Uolens uolens beyonde his expectation is enforced with them But what is this to excuse him more thā the Donatists if he had not of set purpose slonke from the manifest proufe examples of the old Testament for otherwise he might as soone haue expresly named the old Testament as he expresly named the new And so should he haue gone directly simply to worke not indirectly with a Circumquaque haue referred the old Testament to such inclusions as you here would shake off the matter withall chiefly since the old Testament hauing no included but expresse proufes is so expresly vrged of vs And yet if he would haue included the old Testament as you say vnder the name of the new Testament why specifieth he the one so plaine not the other at all if he did it for breuitie he might most briefly haue saide the Scriptures which worde had comprehended included both so had he shewed that he allowed the proufes of the old Testament also Ha M. Stapl. Ueritas non querit angulos The truth seekes no inclusiue corners goe plainly man to worke for very shame For yet for all your inclusions here to colour the matter in other places where this is not layde vnto your charge both your selfe and M. Dorman quite excludeth the examples of the old Testament from the new as not fit paterns for Princes to followe Doing herein what pretences so euer you here include euen as M. Feckenham dothe and the Donatistes did before And that Master Feckenham did no other but euen of purpose conceale the old Testamentes examples as foreseing that they made against him I will aske no better witnesse than your owne selfe Master Stapleton that by all these couerte inclusions go aboute to excuse him But when ye can not make any good excuse in conclusion yea in your next wordes ye bewray all the matter ye could hold it no lenger for your life blabbe it wist and out it must And surely say you wise men vse not greatly to shew that maketh against them but most for them Holde your hande from the booke M. St. ye neuer saide truer worde in all your life Ye hitte the pricke there in déede and tell the very cause why he concealed the name of the old Testament and shewed it not in his large and ample offer Bicause say you wise men surely vse not greatly to shew that maketh against them but most for them but M. Feckenham surely is a wise man Ergo he sheweth not in his offer the name of the old Testament bicause the proufes thereof make against him but onely put the name of the new Testament bicause he thought that made moste for him True Master Stapl. thus do the children of this world beyng wiser in their generations than the childrē of light not shewe ▪ as ye say but conceale the truthe of God bicause they sée it maketh agaynst them But herein M. St. for all your iolie witte and wisedome that ye vaunte vppon so often your wisdome ouershot it selfe Surely ye did not like one of these wise men but rather like one of the wise men of Gotham God turning your wisedome into folly that confesse those examples and proufes to make against M. Feckenham or at least wise that he so feared and therefore he sheweth not the name of the old Testament but concealeth it And thus while your drift is to proue that he shifteth not off those proufes and examples you confesse that he of very purpose not minding as ye saide before to include them but to exclude them leaueth them out and sheweth them not but shifteth them of and that of a shamefull purpose only bicause they make against him Where if he had any sparke of truth and conscience he would not hide that in Gods worde that maketh against him But perceyuing that those prouses make against him would withall perceiue him self to be in a manifest errour and neuer let worldly wisedome so ouercome him that he should be ashamed openly to confesse that he striueth against the truth And you M. Stapleton had ye any grace confessing the truth to be against him except ye be a very Manichee that set the old Testament against the newe would perceyue that if the old were against him then the newe were also against him and would euen here hurle away the penne that should defende such a shifter off and hider of the truthe against your conscience So farre would ye be from this impudencie to write that he affirmeth and comprehendeth that which of wisedome as ye call it he purposely concealeth and that he alloweth that which he hides as making against him Whiche is no point of wisedome M. Stapleton but rather of starke follie and méere contradiction to it selfe and to all your former excuses And thus speaking of wise men to shewe your selfe in the number ye speake against him whome ye are hyred and labour to defende ye speake against your selfe yea against your cause and all So doth God make them shew their owne shame that wittingly will be hyred with Balaam to resist his open truth Confusi sunt sapientes c. The wise men are confounded sayth the Lord they shal be astonied and taken for lo they haue cast out the word of the Lorde what wisdome can be among them And so hath God here infatuate M. St. that whē he hath bewrayed the very cause why M. Feck shewed not in his offer the name of the old Testamēt so wel as of the new to be bicause he thought it made agaynst him therefore did like a wise man to leaue it out he concludeth most fo●…dly euen the quite contrarie VVherfore sayth he it is incredible that M. Feck should once imagine any
This worthie Champion ibid. Of his noble worke and of his noble holy martyr ibid. This worthie article ibid. Like to capitaine Kets tree of reformation ibid. Ye make your reckoning without your hoste 68. a. Your reformation or rather deformation 68 b. Master Hornes foolish figuratiue diuinitie 69. a. The great weight of so mightie a proufe 69. b. Master Horne of his great gentlenesse 69. b. These mē make a very VVelshmans hose of Gods word 70. a So aptly and truly you alleage you doctors 73. b. This good Antiquarie and Chronographer 76. b. Gayly and iolilie triumpheth 77. a. Verie good stuffe as good pardie as master Hornes owne booke and as clerkely and as faythfully handled 77. a. O what a craftie Cooper smooth Ioiner is M. Horne 77. b. Your handsome holy dealing 78. a. You are worthie exceeding thankes 78. a. A'iolie marginall note 78. a. O more than childishe folly 78. a. That craftie Cooper ibid. As wise as by the Metaphore of a Cowe to conclude a saddle for as well doth a saddle fit a Cowe 78. b. Such beggerly shifts ibid. Ye haue demeaned your selfe so clerkly and skilfully ibid. Such a personage as ye counterfait 80. a. This blessed Martyr ibid. Ye are a very poore silly Clarke ibid. M. Foxe will not suffer ye to walke post alone ibid. That I may a little roll in your rayling rhetoricke ibid. Your dearlings the Grecians 80. b. Seeing ye deale so freely and so liberally 81. a. Ye haue iuggled in one 82. a. Ye haue so craftily conueyed your galles 82. a. Your darke sconce a sconce of dimme light 82. a. The new pretended clergie the pretended Bishops 84. a. To all this and all other his frumpes and scoffes he may be aunswered with his owne wordes Modestia vestra M Horne not a sit omnibus hominibus Let your modestie M. Stapleton be knowne to all men 435. b. His owne obiection of bragging This is but an impudent facing and bragging 4. a. His fourth common place of bragging In his first Preface NOt beeing able to alleage any authour that maketh not for vs pag. 7. Doe what ye can c. 15. You haue in this replie a iust and a full defence 22. I haue replyed throughout 22. I haue not omitted anie one part or parcell 22. I haue aunswered the whole 22. I wishe that the most honourable c. would commaund you to proue it so to the worlde 22. I haue here replied to all and euerie part 22. If truth be on your side ye haue no cause to sticke hereat ▪ c. go through therefore as you haue begonne c. if ye thinke your foundation good c. go through I say c. if ye now draw backe men will laugh you to scorne 23. The dealing of the Catholike writers is so vpright that suche small occasions must be piked c. else against their dealings haue ye nothing to say 18. Your cause I assure you will come forth starke naked feeble and miserable 19. After all this strugling and wrastling agaynst the truth by you and your fellowes master Iewell and the rest the truth is dayly more and more opened illustred and confirmed and your contrarie doctrine is or ought to bee disgraced and brought in vtter discredite 8. In the seconde preface I VVas fully purposed hauing so largely prouoked suche sharpe aduersaries especially master Iewel for a season to rest me and to stande at mine owne defence if any woulde charge me 24. I haue shaped to the whole booke a whole and full Replie wherein I rather feare I haue sayd to much than to litle 25. Thy religion is but a bare name of religion and no religion in deede 27. These be such absurdities as euery man of meane consideration seeth and abhorreth 28. The primacie of the Bishop of Rome is euidently here proued 28. Master Hornes whole aunswere is but as it were a vayne blast 29. The sea Apostolike is the fountaine and welspring of all vnitie in the Catholike faith 33. Neither shall we euer finde any cause of good and sufficient contentation till we returne thither 35. In the answere to the Bishops Preface AS I assuredly vnderstande that the reuerende father my Lorde Abbate of VVestminster fol. 1. a. But this may I boldly say and I doubt nothing to proue it that in all his booke there is not as much as one worde of Scripture one Doctor one Councell general or prouincial not the practise of any one countrey throughout the world counted Catholike that maketh for such kinde of regimēt as master Horne auoucheth nor any one maner of proufe that hath any weight or pith in the world to perswade I will not say master Feckenham but any other of much lesse wit learning and experience 3. a. I say master Horne commeth not once nighe the principall matter in question 3. a. I say further in case we remoue and sequester all other proufes on our side that M. Horne shall by the verie same fathers Councels and other authorities by himselfe producted so be ouerthrowne in the chief and capitall question vnto the which he cōmeth not nigh as a mā might say by 1000. miles that his own cōpany may haue iust cause to feare c. 3. a I say and master Feckenham wil also say that euen M. Horne himselfe retreateth so farre backe c. 3. b. The premisses then being true and of our side abundantly proued and better to be proued as occasion shall serue as nothing can effectually be brought against them 4. a. Ye haue not no nor ye can not proue any such matters 4. b. In the first booke I Must be so bolde by your leaue as plainlie and bluntlie to go to worke with you as I haue done before with master Grindall and master Iewell 7. b. The Queene cannot make you Lord Bishop of VVinchester as I haue otherwhere sufficiently proued in the Fortresse of of our first faith annexed to venerable Bede 8. a. Luther and Caluine and other being therewith pressed were so messhed and bewrapped therein that they could not in this world wite what to say thereto answering this that they wist nere what nor at what point to holde them 8. a. The Protestants wonderfully troubled about the question of the continuall succession of Bishops 8. a. VVhat haue ye to iustifie your cause 8. b. Master Horne can not defende and maintaine his herisies nor himselfe to be a Bishop by anie law of the realme 9. a. The Catholikes not suffered to replie least their aduersaries weakenesse should as it would haue done in deede and now daylie doth God bee praysed euidently and openly haue beene disciphered and disclosed 13. a. I dare vndertake that not onely master Feckenham but manie mo that nowe refuse shall moste gladly take the saide othe 31. a. VVhat should I reason further with this man. 32. b. Notwithstanding all your great bragges and this your clerkly booke ye knowe not nor neuer shall know but that the
false Knowledge therfore is not alwayes taken so precisely to be onely of true things but graunting you this precisenesse that knowledge is only taken to be true thing●… yet you do yll herein bicause ye take after your ordinarie custome Pro concesso controuersum that to be graunted that is in question whether your or our part be true or false héerin Yea why maye not we saye and that wyth greater reason that you take the truthe for falsehoode and falsehoode for truthe And so you nor any of your syde notwithstanding all youre great bragges and thys your clearkly booke haue anye true knowledge VVell maye ye saye as ye doo moste falsly and to youre poore wretched soule as well in this as in other poyntes moste dangerously beleue the contrarie but know it yee can not vnlesse it were true for knowledge is only of true things and as the Philosopher sayth Scire est per causas cognoscere Do ye know whose words al these be and yet ye sée how they serue our turne far better than yours M. Sta. bycause our cause resteth on the truth which is the infallible worde of God Deus est verax God is true yours is grounded on the doctrines of men Omnis autē homo mendax but euery man is a lier And therfore is it lesse maruel sith ignorance and falsehood knowledge truth are al one that ye account somuch of ignorance make it to be the mother of deuotion that ye kepe down the people in ignorāce which conspireth with falshood cannot abide knowledge that is linked with truth as ye haue lōg kept the truth vnder a bushel so yet you cānot abide that it shuld come to the knowlege of the people perceiuing the sith knowledge hath begon to spring in the world our cause withal as the truth hath florished yours hath drouped as that falshod wherfore your frē●… haue cried out vpō al good letters séeing that their cause hathe had no greater enimie than knowledge is no greater maynteyner than ignoraunce Qui male agit odit lucem nec venit ad lucem ne opera eius arguantur He that doth euill sayth Christ hateth the lighte nor commeth to the light lest his workes should be reproued Next vnto this you note a rabblement of vntruthes but ye neither number them in youre Calendar but onely marke them with a starre in the forbead nor in youre replie say any more vnto them than this I will not nor tyme will serue to discusse them but why woulde youre will and your time serue you to chalenge them for vntruths and not serue you to discharge your chalenge and your owne truth in prouing them so to be but go to I see there is no remedie wée must tarie your leysure vntil that youre will come on you and that your tyme will serue you Many horrible erroures and superstitions of Monkerie The. 29. vntruth reprochefull and slaunderous This was so vntrue that all the world rang of it and the Papists themselues cried out theron Although ye were in the Tower in king Edwardes tyme that was not for any doubte of the supremacie for that ye still agnised but for other poynts of religion touching the ministration of the sacraments The. 30. vntruth This was not the cause of his imprisonment as shall appeare Here in his beadroll thoughe ye sée he denyeth it ●…latly yet in his counterblast where he toucheth the same he dare not be so impudent But saith as I vnderstande so that if hée be chalenged of rash dealing to affirme that for an vntruth that he stammereth in no will he saye looke my beadroll and ye shall fynde that I denyed it flatly and boldly withoute any stammering at the matter If againe this bolde flatnesse be proued a ●…atte lie ●…ushe will he sai●… I referred it in saying it shoulde appeare to my counterblast where I declare no further than I vnderstode by my freendes let it light on them if it be a lie thus cunningly Maister Stapleton hath handled the matter But a manifeste lye it is that he maketh howsoeuer he auonch or mollifie the same For this was a special cause of his imprisonment as those can tell that be yet liuing who were sente to him and to others to persuade them therein And by whome soeuer hée vnderstoode it it is but M. Stapletons and his misseinformers lye And where he would excuse the matter bicause he was examined in the matter of Iustification doth it follow therfore he was not in also for the matter of the sacrament being principally then in controuersie The Bishop only said be was in for other pointes of religion and namely touching the Sacrament but sée howe pretily M. Stapl. would bleare the readers eyes with quarelling at this half point of the sentence least the reader shoulde marke wherin the Bishop principally charged M. Feckenham that hee had confessed this article of supremacie all King Edwardes dayes and so knewe and acknowledged it then contrarie to his pretence of ignorance nowe therin And this digresseth not from the matter in hand But from this M. Stapleton slippeth in great silence and sayeth not a word therto but dalieth about other matters to finde the readers play And so by his owne rule confesseth by not denying the verye poynt in hande that M. Feckenham all king Edwards time though he were in the Tower yet euer hee agnized this title then that he refuseth nowe Wherevnto also you agreed and promised to professe and preache the same in open auditorie wheresoeuer you should be appoynted Wherevpon a right worshipfull Gentleman procured your deliuerance The. 31. vntruth slanderous He was not deliuered vpon any promise of recantation but to bee disputed withall Here M. Stapl. maketh muche adoe to conuince the Bishop of an vntruth and to make it seeme more probable he citeth diuers honourable and worshipfull to witnesse and al nothing to the purpose in hand excusing M. Feckenham of that wherwith no bodie charged him and answering nothyng but by silence consessing that that he was charged withal The bishop made no mention of any conference or disputation had with M. Feckenham after his departure oute of the tower but of that conference whiche was with him maister Moreman and maister Crispine whyle they were in the Tower. When at their owne suite to the councell they desired to haue some learned men with whom to conferre especially about the sacrifice of the Masse the ministration vnder bothe kyndes and the ministration vpon a table and not an altare And at this their sute Master Storie the Bishop then of Chichester and Maister Roberte Horne then parson of All Hallows in Breadsteat now bishop of Winchester were appointed by the honourable counsel to deals with them which they did by the space of a moneth at sundry tymes till that Master Feckenham did ▪ consent with them in all these thrée poyntes and so by maister Hobbies
and with diffinct letter which he doth not here but Paraphrastically expoundeth the texte Wherein if he doe wreste the meaning of saint Paule ye shoulde hardly note that for an vntruthe ▪ S. Paule there nameth not religion that is true but that this worde godlynesse which saint Paule nameth comprehendeth not religion as the Byshop saythe that is your owne vntruthe But this matter is debated more at large in the answere to your Counterblast chap. 18. diuis ▪ 22. where is shewed bothe by the Fathers and by your owne chiefe writers that sainte Paule by this word godlynesse meant true religion Here ye set another blasing starre vpon these words that the Byshop sayth This woulde be noted with good aduisement that Sainte Paule himselfe sheweth playnely prosperitie amongste Gods people and true religion to be the benefites and fruites in generall that by Gods ordinance springeth from the rule and gouernement of Kings and Magistrats vnto the weale of the people This would be noted say you howe ye racke saint Paule he nameth not religion at all he dothe not attribute religion to the rule and gouernment of the ciuill Magistrat but peace and tranquillitie only in godlynesse Ye durst not note this for an vntruth M. Stapleton but for a racking or wresting althoughe this is but your peeuish difference If he racke saint Paules meaning he telleth an vntruth of saint Paule although this dothe cleare the B. of racking also that ye durste not playnely note and score it vp for an vntruth yet as the B. saying is most true so it nothing swarueth from the meaning of sainte Paule For a●… the B. proueth by Chrysostome that by this worde godlynesse is meant religion and the inwarde peace of the mynde and conscience and not only the outward peace of the body So Saint Paule maketh these to bee the benefites fruites and endes that by Gods ordinaunce wee receyue from the rule and gouernement of kings and magistrates in whiche saying S. Paule is not racked but it is you M. Stapleton that racke Saint Paule ▪ for he sayth not tranquillitie and peace only in godlinesse y●… may put your only in your pursse Saint Paule sayth in godlinesse and purenesse The whiche knot and fastening togither of religion and prosperitie incōmon weales the most Christian and godly Emperours Theodosius Ualentinianus did wisely foresee The. 68. vntruthe They sawe no suche confounding of the two functions spirituall and temporall as you imagine This vntruth is directed against the Byshops imagination ye go verie neare the B. M. Stapleton that where hée sayth no suche wordes as you chalenge ye will créepe into his heart and fetche i●… from thence ye haue a goodeye sighte that can see what the B. imagineth But wisdome wil think this to bée a fonde toy of your own idle imagination for the Byshops words import no such confusion as ye talke of hée telleth howe godlynesse and prosperi●…e are lincked togither in common weales so that the one cannot be well without the other that the Prince is the knitting togither of both these and this he saythe the Emperours sawe and that they saw●… it he bringeth good proufe theire own manifest words set downe at large eyther proue this an vntruth M. Sta. or else the B. hath made nene it is but your vntrue sclaunder fonde imagination I haue proued c. That such like gouernment in Churche causes as the Queenes Maiestie taketh vpon hir dothe of duetie belong vnto ciuill magistrates The. 69. vntruth Such like gouernement you haue not nor euer shall be able to proue The B. saith that in this first booke he hath hitherto proued it by the scriptures the Doctours and some Emperoures This you denie that he hath done and set him a long day to proue it Nowe the truth or vntruth of this the reader must hang in suspence til be haue read the pr●…s ouer what they bee and then in the name of God lette himiudge whether the vntruthe lyghte on the Byshoppe or on Master Stapleton In the meane season ●…ytherto the Reader maye haue a taste what shame is in this impudent mannes ●…ace what truthe in his cause and what folly in h●…s heade thus to the wide worlde to score and sette out suche thinges for vntruthes as beeing neuer so little rypped vp are moste apparante truthes and to make suche a tryumphante gambolde and pyping vp of a round as hee doth thereon But le●…te hym daunce his ●…yll and nicke vp still on the score in the ende hée will runne so farre in the lashe that no man will credite a worde of his mouthe Mēdaci non cr●…ditur ne iurato quidem A lyer is not beleeued no thoughe he svveare ❧ To Master Stapletons first Preface OR euer Master Stap ▪ enter into his counterblast he prefixeth two Prefaces the first to the B. the second to the Reader The first bicause it is only a packet trussed vp of all such accusations as he layeth to the Bishops charge through out his whole counterblast and so is to be aunswered in their proper places I minde not therefore to follow Master Stapletons vaine that saith Decies repe●…ta placebunt to spende the time and trouble the Reader more than néedes in answering to them here that are to be answered in their places seuerally and are already many of them noted before in his Common places The effect and conclusion of this preface in the ende is this That the Bishop must néedes make a full reioynder A full reioynder I say saith he and perfect to all and euery parte of this reply and put in Master Stapleton●… whole answere not omitting any one line or sentence either of the text or of the margine or els the truth is not on the Bishops side or els he wāteth learnyng or els he buildeth on no good fundation nor the cause he groundeth on is sure or els all men vvill laugh him to scorne for his faire piece of vvorke so shamefully broken of or els M. Feckenhams scruples are most learned and inuincible reasons or els the othe can not be takē with out manifest periurie or els Master Horne must retract his most haighnouse heresies or els which I should haue set before all that the B. hath saide is but vvoordes of course to saue his poore honestie and but waltham talke or els as he obiecteth foolishnesse to the B. so M. Stapleton may proue as wise as walthams calfe and thus as he saith to the B. for this time I take my leaue of you Vale resipisce so may I for this your first Preface take my leaue of you Master Stapleton Uale sape ❧ To Master Stapletons seconde Preface THe seconde Preface is directed to the Reader and is cōtriued in thrée partes The first sheweth the reasons why he tooke vppon him to answere the Bishop The second how by what order he procéedeth in his answere The thirde is an earnest admonition
ye can be no Prelate of the Garter beeing no Prelate at all that beeing a prerogatiue appropriate to the Prelate and B. of VVinchester Soft M. St. if ye be so playne blunt a man as ye pretr̄d ne sutor vltra crep●…da hew not t●… hye least chips fall in your eye blunder not so rudely with princes must the Q. Maiestie beare with you to bicause you must needs go bluntly to worke ye presume to determine what the Q. highnes may do She can make him ●… but she can not make him L. B. of VV. And why so M. St considering he is not Lorde but in respecte of some baronage and temporalties belonging and annexed to the See of VVinchester Erg●… then ye graunt him to be Lorde B. by your owne words to whom the Q. highnesse as you graunt she may in respect of the temporalties and baronies belonging therto hath graunted and giuen him them Wherby she hath made him Lord except ye wil denie that hir highnesse authoritie which euen al your popish bishops did receiue before at hir graces progenitors hands neither the baronies and temporalties onely whe●…by they were named Lords but their inuestiture also wherby they were Byshops at the Princes handes But see stil how bluntly ye go to worke against your self for hast to remoue this title of Lord from the B. of W. ye ouerturn the glory of your own prelats For if this your rule be true that he is not called Lord but in respect of some baronies temporalties belonging and annexed to the See how many Cardinals Bishops Suffraganes Abbots Priors euen in Italie that haue neither baronies nor muche temporalties should léese their title of Lorde honour thinke you all these will be pleased with this your rule We must beare with you there is no remedie and well may M. Feck of friendship the B. of pitie beare with you also the Quéenes maiestie of hir gracious clemencie beareth with your saucie bluntnesse But assure your selfe and ye were as blunt playne as euer were your Marcolphus those Italian prelates if ye stayne their honour will neuer beare with you one iot And I rede you beware this bluntnesse for they can do much with your holy father the Pope except ye be so blunt ye care not for him neither But deale with them as ye may ye are blunt inoughe in your owne conceite for the finest of them all Let vs sée what reasons moueth you to be so blunt with the B. He is not L. Byshop of VVin. nor Prelate of the Garter Why so bicause he is no B. or Prelate at all How proue ye that he is an vsurper he is an intruder he is called therto by no lawfull vocation nor canonicall consecration c. he is no true B. c. his vocation is direct contrarie to the canons and constitutions of the Churche and to the vniuersall custome and maner heretofore vsed and practised not onely in Englande but also in all other Catholike countreys and Churches deliuered to vs from hande to hande from age to age euen from the first gra●…fing and planting of the fayth especially in Englande Here are many blunt playne words in déede M. St. and many great crakes but here is no proofe of any do not think ye muste still be thus borne withall your to muche presuming of eche mans pacience to beare with your rudenesse will hazarde your credite to farre excepte ye alledge some reason of your sayings Let vs heare therefore what proues ye bring For the which I referre me say you to all autentike and auncient ▪ recordes as well of Englande as of other Nations concerning the ordinary succession of Bishops namely in the foresayde Sea of VVinchester for there was not no not one in that Sea that did not acknowledge the supremacie of the Sea of Rome and that was not confirmed by the same vntil the late time of M. Poynet who otherwise also was an vsurper the true B. then liuing and by no lawfull or ecclesiasticall order remoued or depriued Ye are therefore the first B. of this sewt and race and so consequently no B. at al. As not able to shew to whom ye did ordinarily succede and any good or customable either vocation or cōsecration VVhich point being necessarily required in a B. and in your Apostles Luther and Caluin other lacking as I haue otherwhere sufficiētly proued though you by depesilence thinke it more wisdome vtterly to des●…emble than once to answere they being therwith pressed were so messhed and bewrapped therein that they coulde not in this worlde witte what to say thereto answearing this and that they wiste neare what nor at what poynt to holde them yea Beza was fayne at the last assemblie at Poysie with silence to confesse the inuincible truth Setting aside these vaine crakes manifest lying slaunders which I referre to your common places M. St. I will answeare onely to your inuincible argument Which standeth vpon your common bragge of succession Your argument is this ye succeede no Bishop of VVinchester Ergo ye are no Bishop of VVincester I answere First if he meane succession of the person in the roome your antecedent is euident false He succeded the persons of Popishe Bishops in the same roome And the consequent followeth not For then the first Bishop of that Sea was no B. bicause he succeded none but was the first ther●…f And if the first was none then the second was none and so there was neuer any at all If ye meane sucession of the doctrine and the Apostles rules then neyther Bishoppe Gardiner whom ye call the true B. nor any popishe Bishops haue succession but digression and defection from them And our Bishoppes haue the true succession that is to say followe the doctrine and orders of the Apostles prescribed in the worde of god for a Bishops office But howe do ye proue your antecedent Of all the Bishops not onely in Englande but in other nations namely in the Sea of VVinchester From hand to hand from age to age euen from the first grafting and planting of the fayth in Englande not one of them all no not one that did not acknowledge the supremacie of the sea of Rome and that was not confirmed by the same But you do not acknowledge the supremacie of the Sea of Rome nor are confirmed by the same Ergo ye are the first Bishop of this sewt and race and so consequently no bishop at all as not able to shew to whome ye did ordinarily succeede or any good and customable eyther vocation or consecration This argument M. Stapleton is of a newe sewt and race it succedeth neither good nor customable moode or figure and therfore can make no good successe Howbeit l●…t vs sée the partes of it The minor we graunt as euident on the Bishops part For the maior we must put you to your proufe We affirme it to conteyne many euident falshoodes For proufe hereof
that vve vvere baptised in Sée what a wicked slaunder to couer your disobediēce ye charge your most gratious prince withall as though she went about to make you renie that fayth ye vvere baptised in And this ye doe euen where ye pretende to kneele on your knees vvith moste humble and lowely submission Sée what cankred hearts ye beare for all your counterfayte crouching If ye knowe M. Stap. the fayth ye were baptised in at least if ye were rightely baptised and be a true Christian man it is not in the name fayth or obedience of the Pope but in the name fayth and obedience of the father the sonne and the holy ghost and this fayth the Q. maiestie goeth so little about to haue you abandon that hir Graces supreme gouernemēt is chiefly directed to this end to haue ye without any superstition error idolatrie or any other pollution therof kéepe maintein it inuiolate as in baptisme ye promised to do and therfore this is not subiect like though ye be on your knees neuer so muche to accuse hir highnesse as to cause ye to abandon the fayth ye were baptised in She requireth ye to kéepe it not abandon it neither on the soden nor at leisure And if this were all the cause of your refusall of obedience as hir Grace neuer denied you it ye doe but slaunder hir so néeded ye not haue runne away nor shew yet such disobedience to hir authoritie since she euer graunted and maynteined the thing ye séeme to craue Howbeit your counterfeite humilitie detecteth it selfe to be very stubborne disobedience And that while ye pretende to craue one thing ye entende another thing And that is ye would be borne with still to refuse her graces supreme authoritie ouer you in Ecclesiasticall causes this is the thing in deede ye meane and ye would the rather be borne withall bicause it is a matter that commeth vpon the sodaine therefore ye can not vpon the sodaine graunt it In déede M. St. ye pretende reason Weightie matters require not to be done on a sodeyne passion but with deliberation ▪ But is this so sodeyne a matter yet vnto you did ye neuer heare of this questiō before haue ye not had leasure to deliberate thereon but who seeth not that and ye had neuer so much leasure this matter would still come vpon the sodeyne to you and of reason ye must haue time to take aduisement vpō it which you will take all at your leasure and so for feare ye should become an obedient subiect vpon the sodeyne ye craue to remayne still vpon deliberation an obstinate enemie But M. St. pretēding this refusall to be for the abandoning of the faith that we were Christened in procéedeth And as we are assured all our auncetours and her Maiesties owne most noble progenitours yea her owne most noble father King Henrie the eight yea that faith which he in a clerkly booke hath most pithily defended and thereby atchieued to him and his and transported as by hereditarie succession the worthie title and stile yet remayning in her Highnesse of the Defendour of the Faith. As ye slaunder most wickedly the Quéenes Maiestie to cause ye to abandon the faith of your baptisme ▪ so ye slaunder not only al our auncestors but that most famouse Prince her highnesse Father K. Henrie the 8. as christened in the faith of the Popes obedience hereof ye say ye are assured when it is most assured most euident false For although our fathers the Q. Maiesties father also yea many of vs our selues the Q. Maiestie also her selfe were borne and baptised when all the errours of poperie or many of them did chiefly abounde yet can no more any one of these be said now to be baptised in those errours that they helde which baptised them if they kept the right formall words of baptisme I baptise thée in the name of the Father of the sonne of the holy Ghost thā in the old time any of their childrē or they themselues could be saide to be baptised in such errours as they helde that were Nouatians Donatists Rogatists Pelagians or any other Heretikes that notwithstāding kept the right element formal words of baptisme Neither can any Papist say now to any that dissuadeth him from his popish errours that he goeth about to will him to abandon the faith wherein he was baptized any more thā a Pelagian or any such Heretike being moued to forsake his heresie could pretēd he were moued to forsake the faith he was baptised in bicause they that baptised him yea his auncesters before him were Pelagians c. Ye should therefore M. St. make your distinction betwene the faith of your baptisme and the faith that your popish Church putteth in diuers erronious pointes of doctrine As for the faith that K. Henrie the 8 ▪ the Q. Maiesties most noble Father set out in the Booke that ye mencion therby labour to stayne the Q. Maiestie as setting out a contrarie faith to her father as you for your parte M. St. shew your extreme malice nothing subiectlike to blemish her highnesse with the famous renown of her father which notwithstanding ye cā not do so for the King her father I answere you howbeit his booke were clerkly yet clerklines is one thing truth is an other what maruel if he thē wrote in defence of your doctrines whē your popish prelates hid the very truth frō him bore him in hand that your falshoodes were truth till it pleased God not to suffer so noble a Prince to be any longer deluded by such false prelates but first in this question after in other according to the measure of his merciful riches reueled the truth vnto him how chance ye speake not of his faith then what clerkly sincere doctrine he set out thē against your Pope And as for the Q. Maiestie herein which is the proper questiō now in hād followeth most zealously the steppes of her highnesse father not wherein he was abused as many other princes were by false teachers but in that he forsooke those errours he abolished those false teachers their captaines vsurped authoritie in that he obeyed the truth reueled to him before all his own clerkly bookes before all worldly glory securitie aduentured himselfe his kingdome against all his enemies in setting forth the truth gouerning his subiects after the word of god Which though it were not so plentifully set forth then nor all wéedes so thoroughly rooted vp by reason of some false Gardiners whom he trusted ouer much howbeit at lēgth thanks be to God he espied them also had procéeded furder if God had lent him furder life yet is he rather to be commended for that he did than to be euil spoken or euell thought of for that he could not throughly bring to passe in his time but left his most vertuouse Sonne King Edwarde to bring to more perfection
sticke at that ye will not sticke and make that false that ye graunt true or else ye proue master Feck not to be ignorant contrarie to his defence and all the rest of your owne défence of him as we shall sée your wordes afterwarde In the meane time let vs sée howe pretily ye shift off the matter onely bicause the Bishop names Tho. of Aquine a schole Papist for the diuision of Ignoraunce thinking ye haue gotten a wonderfull aduauntage thereby for the Popes supremacie But nowe sayth M. Stap. the verye authour brought forth by master Horne so fullie and effectually dischargeth M. Feck of all three and chargeth M. Horne with the worst of them three that is wilfulnesse and malice as he shal winne small worship by alleaging of S. Thomas For S. Tho. sayeth plainely that we are obliged and bounde vpon paine of euerlasting damnation to beleeue that the Pope is the onely supreme heade of the whole Church Nowe fearing as not without good cause that the B. would in this matter reiect the authoritie of this Thomas whom our Thomas calleth a late latine writer and to much affectionate to the Pope as it were by preuention He can not well reiect his authoritie sayeth he vsing it him selfe And why so Sir I pray you must euery one that citeth him in any one poynt receyue and admit his authoritie to in euerie poynt Is it lawfull for the Sorbonistes the Scholemen and the whole rabble of the Papistes yea for Thomas Stapleton him selfe to accept Thomas of Aquines authoritie in some poyntes and to reiect his authoritie in other some poyntes and is it not lawfull for the Bishop or anye other to vse the same libertie The Sorbonistes affirme of this Thomas Illa doctrina non potest esse in omnibus sic approbata c. That doctrine can not in all thinges be so approued that conteyneth many thinges erronious in fayth but as they say the foresayde doctrine of Saint Thomas not onelye in the matter of the absolute necessitie of a creature c. but also in manye other thinges conteyneth manye matters erronious in fayth And againe Non oportet credere c. VVee muste not beleeue that the doctrine it selfe is in no parte thereof erronious or hereticall wherein are conteyned manye contrarieties and repugnancies yea euen in the matter perteyning to the sayth ▪ but manye suche contrarieties and repugnancies are conteyned in the doctrine of Saynt Thomas Agayne 〈◊〉 dicunt aliqui c. And some saye for thys that manye maye denye the glosses of the decrees and Decre●… when the glosse doeth openlye denye the texte and lykewyse some saye of the ordinarye glosses of the Byble that notwithstanding seeme to bee of greater authoritie when they are alleaged for authoritie than is the Doctryne of Saint Thomas The sixte example maye bee giuen of certayne Doctours whiche are not canonized Saintes as the venerable Anselme Byshoppe of Cant. Hughe of Saint Victor and certayne other whose sayinges or wrytinges are in certayne poyntes founde erronious and yet theyr doctrine seemeth to bee no lesse authenticall than the doctrine of Saint Thomas sithe they are of the skilfull in their scolasticall actes alleaged for authoritie nor are wonted to bee denyed but their sayinges reuerently to be glosed and expounded whiche notwythstanding the Schoolemen are not woont to doe on the sayinges of Saint Thomas and therefore it seemeth presumptuous so to extoll hys Doctrine ouer them and other Doctours that wee maye not beleeue and affirme that hee erred in fayth euen as other also haue erred And after this as likewise before reckoning vp diuerse errours these spéeches are common Ista locutio est de virtute sermonis falsa multum impropria c. This speech in the force of the wordes is false and verie improper Ista doctrina multos errores continet c. This Doctrine conteyneth manie errours Uidetur multipliciter erroneum c. It seemeth diuerse wayes erroneous Deficit in multis c. If fayles in many poyntes Non est verum c. It is not true Et breuiter haec alia multa erronea falsa impropriè dicta vidētur multis in praedicta doctrina contineri quae tamen ex taedi●… pertransimus And briefly these and many other erronious false improper sayings seeme to many to be conteyned in the foresaide doctrine the which notwithstanding we ouerpasse for tediousnesse And from hence they discend to manifest errours in diuinitie And in conclusion write thus of him They say also that in verie many places of his doctrine he erred by reason of this that he applied to much the principles of philosophie or rather certaine wordes of Philosophers to the conclusions of Diuinitie Thus say the great Censors of the Popish doctrine agaynst Thomas of Aquine so well they agrée togither in vnitie of doctrine obiecting discorde vnto vs Yea the whole swarme of Papists not excepting our Thom. St. here him selfe vnlesse he be returned to the truth since he wrote his booke reiecteth and condemneth Thom ▪ of Aquines iudgement and authoritie in one of the most necessarie matters of Christian religion namely the doctrine of iustification For expounding this sentence of S. Paule Arbitramur hem●…nē iustificari absque operibus legis Arbitramur enim nos c. For we being taught of Christ thinke sayth Thomas according to the truth of the Apostle that euerie man whether he be Iewe or Gentile is iustified by faith Actes 15. By fayth purifying their hearts that without the workes of the law and that not onely without the ceremoniall works which did not giue grace but also without the works of the moral commandements according to that saying to Titus 3. Not of the works of the righteousnes that we haue wrought The reason is presumed that we are saued for our merits the which he excludeth when he sayth not of the works of the righteousnesse which we haue done But the true reason is the onely mercy of god There is not therefore in them the hope of iustification sed in sola fide but in fayth alone VVorkes are not the cause that any bodie is iust before God but they are rather executions and the manifestings of righteousnesse Where Tho. of Aquine thus according to Gods worde speaketh the truth as in this poynt here of iustification the Bishop and all other faythfull receyue his iudgement and admit the same with better reason than the Papists reiect it But where as in many other poyntes he swarueth from the truth though the Papists saint him neuer so much yet there all true saintes with good reason refuse him As in this that master Stapleton citeth out of him who confesseth him selfe that Thomas being a late latine writer wrote partiallye in this poynte bycause hée was to muche affectioned to the Pope and shall we beléeue such an affectionate wryter in hys partiall affection Or shall we beléeue master Stapleton no
that are written Likewise the Lorde sending his Apostles commandeth that the nations be baptized and taught to obserue all those things that he commaunded If therefore it be commaunded in the Gospell or in the Apostles Epistles or be contayned in the Acts. c. Then let also this holy tradition be kepte And anone after he sayth Quae ista obstinatio VVhat an obstinacie is this or what a presumption to preferre an humane tradition before Gods ordinance Nor to consider that God taketh indignation and wrath so often as an humaine tradition looseth goeth beyonde the commaundements of God as he cryeth by his Prophet Esay and sayth this people honoreth me with their lippes but their hart is separate frō me they worship me in vayne whyle they teache the cōmaundements and doctrines of men The Lorde also in the Gospell blaming likewise and reprouing putteth foorth and sayth ye haue reiected Gods commaundement to establishe your tradition Of whiche commaundement S. Paule beeing mindefull dothe likewise warne and instructe ●…aying if anye teache otherwise and contenteth not him selfe with the wordes of our Lorde Iesus Christ and his doctrine ▪ he is pufte vp with blockishnesse hauing skill of nothing From suche an one we ought for to departe c. And in the same Epistle he sayth further But if so be O moste deare brother the feare of God be before vs if the tenor of fayth preuayle if we keepe Christes cōmaundements if we maynteyne the holynesse of his espouse incorrupte and inuiolate if these wordes of the Lorde sticke faste in oure vnderstanding and in oure hartes whiche he sayde thinke ye that when the sonne of man shall come he shall finde fayth in the earthe Bicause then we bee the faythfull souldiours of God bicause we wage vnder him with faythe and sincere religion let vs with a faythfull manhoode keepe hys campe committed to vs of god Nor the custome that crepte in among some oughte to hinder vs that the truthe mighte the lesse preuayle and vanquishe For custome without truthe is the antiquitie of errour VVherfore forsaking errour let vs followe the truthe Knowing that the truthe saythe as it is written in Esdras The truth florisheth and preuayleth for euer c. If we returne to the head and originall of Gods tradition mans errour ceaseth And beholde the reason of the heauenly sacraments what obscuritie soeuer lurked vnder the miste and cloude of darknesse it is opened with the light of the truthe If a conduite of water whiche before dyd slowe plentyfully and largely do sodaynely fayle do we not go to the spring there to knowe the reason why it fayleth whether by the encreasing of the vaynes it be dryed in the head or else flowing from thence whole and full it stoppe in the middle course And if it come to passe by reason the pype is broke or if it soke vp the water whereby the streame can not still keepe on his course continually the pype beeing repayred and amended the water is fette agayne as plentyfully and as holesomely as it springeth from the fountayne VVhich thing now also the Priestes of God ought to doe keeping the commaundements of god That if so bee the truth stagger and wauer in any poynt let vs then returne backe to the Lords and his Gospels original and the Apostles tradition And from whence bothe the order and originall arose from thence let the reason of our doing arise Marke this generall rule of S. Cyprian M. Sta. and I pray you set all your ceremonies vnto it and ye shall tell me another tale and say with Hilarie they are well taken away Omnem plantationem c. Euery plant which is not of my fathers setting is to be pulled vp that is to say the tradition of man is to be rooted out by the loue whereof they transgressed the commaundementes of the Lawe And therefore are they blynde leaders of the blynde promising the waye of eternall lyfe which them selues can not see and so beeing blinde them selues and guides of the blynde they tumble into the ditche togither Suche Pharisies are you M. St. with your blynde ceremonies and suche Chrisostome if the worke be hys calleth you and all other that s●…ande so muche on ceremonies Per obseruationes c. They enlarge their owne sayinges by the obseruations of dayes as thoughe it were euen the Phariseis broade gardes and in their preaching they shewe them continually to the people as thoughe they were the full keeping of the Lawe and the getting of their saluation Suche were they of whome Christe sayde they worship me in vayne teaching the doctrines and commaundementes of men The large hemmes of their garmentes he calleth the magnificall extolling of their commandements For when they prayse those trif●…ing and superstitious obseruations of their owne righteousnesse as though they were excellent and very much pleasing God then do they set out the hemmes of their garments If y●… saye it is to be doubted whether this be Chrisostomes owne opinion of ceremonies or no in likenyng them to the Pharifeis hemmes ye shall heare euen his owne opinion Unde patet multa c. It appeareth heerevpon that many thinges were of newe broughte in by the priestes and althoughe Moyses wyth a greate terrour hadde threatned them that they shoulde neither adde too nor take awaye anything ye shall not saythe hee adde any thyng to the worde that I speake to you thys daye nor take therefrom yet for all thys had they brought in very many new thinges suche as were those not to eate meate with vnwashed handes to rince their cuppes and brasen vessell and to washe themselues And whereas they oughte in processe of tyme to haue contemned suche obseruations they tyed them selues to more and greater VVhich thing came to so gret wickednesse that their precepts were more kept than were the commaundements of god In so muche that now they seemed worthily to be reprehēded that did neglect their obseruations In which doings they committed a double fault for bothe the bringing in it selfe of the newe thinges was no small crime and in that they sharpely punished the contemner of their obseruations hauing no regarde of the commaundementes of God they became thrall to greeuous offences So right in euery poynt thefe doings of the Phariseis hit on the thumbes and liuely portray out your popish Priestes doings M. St. that oppressed the church of Christ with the like and m●… superstitious ceremonies than euer the Phariseis did Nowe where they pretended as you do that they receiued these ceremonies of their auncestors Although sayth Chrisostome he make no mention of their Elders yet in accusing these he so dasheth downe those that he sheweth euen that to be a double fault first in that they obeyed not God then that they did them for bicause of men as though he shoulde say I tell you euen this destroyeth you bicause in euery thing ye will obey your elders whiche is one of your
Dominus Iesus reue●…auit cuidam deuoto poterit venire in breui ad amorem timorem perfectum coelestium By this meanes as the Lord Iesus reuealed to a certayne deuoute man he might in shorte tyme come to a perfecte loue and feare of heauenly things But in the meane time the people sticking in visible and earthly thinges fell without all feare or loue of Gods truthe euen to a perfection of Idolatrie Beléeuing too muche in such faygned reuelations and reiecting the word of God wherein Christ hath not to a certayne deuoute man but to all the worlde reuealed the expresse will of his heauenly father in playne words forbidding the worshippe of all Images yea of all creatures as heathen and wicked Idolatrie But ye still crye that your Images are not Idols as the heathens Images were and therefore your worshippe of them is not Idolatrie as was theirs I omitte the examining of thys sequele M. Stapl. And will onely as nowe denye the antecedent The which thoughe other more at large haue improued and I haue somewhat touched it before yet bicause at the very instant of the writing hereof there came to my hands a paper by a certen friend of youres whome I spare to name wherein was conteyned as he affirmed suche reasons as were vnanswerable to proue that your Images are nothing like the Heathen Idols Although perusing the same by Doctor Saunders foresayde booke of Images it séemeth to be drawen from his collections of the differences betwéene Idols and Images and so by some other already may be full answered yet I thought it not amisse euen héere to set it downe and sée by this whiche already is spoken howe easily or hardly it is to be answered vnto The differences betweene the Idols of the Gentiles and our Images sayth this Papistes paper First some kinde of Idols had no truthe at all in nature but were feigned monsters all our Images haue that essentiall truthe extant in the world which they represent I answere first for some of their Idols ye say truth Secondly for all your Images ye make a loude lye As for ensample the Image of S. Sunday pictured like a man with all kinde of 〈◊〉 about him as though he had bene Iohn of all craftes Wheras for the béeing of any suche man there was no suche essentiall truth at all extant in the worlde that it represented And yet for your Images this is a generall rule that you must most firmly beléeue Quod qualem imaginem vides ad extra oculo corporali ●…lem Christus habet similitudinem aed infra secundum esse diuinale Ideale That what maner of Image thou seest outwarde with thy corporal eye Christ hath the same similitude inwarde according to his diuine beeing and conceyued forme And the like he sayth of the Uirgin ●…deò habeatur Imago Mariae virginis pulchra quoniam turpis Imago teste Maximo non est vera Imago Mariae sed falsa Cum ipsa Maria sit totius pulchritudinis decoris amoris regina domina Let a fayre Image be had of the virgin Mary bicause a foule Image as Maximus witnesseth is not the true Image of Mary but a false Image sith Mary is the Queene and Lady of fayrenesse comlynesse and loue And M. Saunders concluding this poynt saythe For looke what proportion is betweene thing and thing the same proportion is betweene signe and signe of those things By which rule of leueling the Image according to the essential truth extant in the worlde of the partie represented by the Image as many other Saincts yea Christes and the blessed Uirgins maye be proued Idols being pictured amisse and swaruing from their truth represented so by no meanes can ye defende your consecrate cake your three faced picture of God the father your winged and feathered Aungels your pictures of Saint Sauiour and Saint Sunday from being manifest Idols And therefore betweene these some Images of yours and those some Idols of theirs there is no difference in this first point Secondly all their Idols were without truth concerning fayth and religion All our Images conteyne such a truth as belongeth to Christes fayth and religion I answere No Images belong to the truth of Christes fayth religion As for religion all the religion that Christ ordeyned was without Images Images in diuerse places are forbidden to be worshipped Custodi●…e vos à simulac●…ris Kepe your selues from Images And they are in no place bidden to be worshipped As for fayth Fides ex auditu auditus autē per verbum dei Faith cōmeth by hearing hearing by the worde of God. But the worship of Images is without the word of god yea as is alreadie shewed by your schoolemen it is but of the Churches ordināce but no faith can be with out Gods worde the worship then of Images is without the truth of Christs faith religion so likewise in this 2. point they differ not from the worship of the heathen Idols Thirdly sacrifice was done to their Idols not so to oure Images but onely to God. I answere first in that ye made such sacrifice to God as God neuer ordeyned and made more dayly renuing of sacrifices to him not contented with the only sacrifice that he made once for all therein ye committed plaine Idolatrie and your massing sacrifice was the Idoll Secondly where ye say ye made sacrifice onely to God I haue proued alreadie in plaine confession of your selues that ye made sacrifice to the blessed virgin also Thirdly that ye say they made sacrifice to their Idols so do not you If sacrifice bée the worship of Latria then so doe you by your owne tales but what matter maketh this whē ye sacrificed to them of whome the Images were the pictures and what differed that from the Heathens doing that sacrificed to Iupiter before the Image of Iupiter or honored him by sacrifice in his Image whiche thinges you did also and therefore without any difference héerein bothe theirs and your Images are Idols Fourthly their Images belonged many times to very wicked men our Images which we worship belong alwayes to blessed Saincts Not alwayes M. St. to blessed Saincts except ye iumble God his Saincts togither Yea some of those that ye worship for blessed Saincts are doubted of your selues to be dāned spirites belike they were little better than wicked mē But how blessed saincts some of thē were whō ye worshipped read euē your own writer sir Thomas Mores works of Images pilgrimages ye shall sée little difference betwéene theirs yours except yours were the worsse euen in that simulata sanctitas est duplex iniquita Their counterfeit sainctship made them double hypocrites Fourthly some of the Gentils professed thēselues to adore the vnsensible wood and stone we do not professe or teache any such thing but rather the contrarie I answere if some of the Gentiles did teach this among them
Generall assemblies at your Trident Councell as ye bragge vpon If ●…e meane for the frée libertie and order of it it was not onely Nationall of Italians in Italy as the Donatistes was of Aphricans in Aphrica but also more partiall violent and nothing but tongtyed bondage and compulsion farre worse than was the Donatistes Eightly say you The Donatistes sayde that all the world was in an Apostacie before the comming of their Apostle Donatus and is not Luther the same man to you that Donatus was to them We estéeme Luther as a notable organ of God to detect your falshoods and open his truth although we graunte he were not without his infirmities but what dothe that excuse your apostacie or argue him to be a Donatist Yea though he had sayd such words now as then Donatus falsly sayde M●…ght not an vniuersall apostacie haue bene since or be nowe bicause there was none suche then and yet Luther charged not al the world but al your popish Church with this Apostacie And what dothe he therein that is not manifest what said he that the Apostle S. Paule foresayde not there should come a defection before the cōming of christ what said he that euē at your last Trident councel that ye craked on last the Frenche Legate did not openly say to your Prelates faces Verily we must euen of necessitie cōfesse this quoth he whether it hath bene perchaūce by mans infirmitie or by some negligēce of the Prelats of the church or else by their preposterous godlinesse if I should name no greeuouser thing that there hath crept into the Church very many things worthy to be abolished abrogated or restrayned Yea what saide he that euen your Pope hath not confessed VVe know saith Pope Adrian to the Princes of Germanie in his Cpistle wherin he chiefly inueigheth agaynst Luther that euen in this holy seate many abhominable things there haue bene already now certayne yeres abuses in spirituall matters excesses in cōmaundements to conclude all things haue bene changed into peruersitie not it is maruell if the sicknes haue descended frō the head into the members from the chief byshops into the inferiour Prelates all we that is to say the eccl ▪ Prelates haue erred euery one in his owne wayes nor there hath bene any this long while the which dyd good no not one This general apostacie loe your owne Pope confesseth both for him selfe for his predecessors for al other Prelates and Priests vnder him and for al the Church besides And weye these words wel M. St. for they serue agaynst you in many matters touched before chiefly whether the Pope al his Prelates yea al the visible state of the Church may erre or no. But ye were best make this Pope a Donatist too To the author of the harboroughe ye are answered by other as I heare say And it is but your péeuishe quarell Ninthly say you The Donatists being charged and pressed to shew the beginning and continuance of their doctrine and the ordinarie succession of their Bishops were so encombred that they coulde neuer make any conuenient aunswere And are not you I pray you with your fellowes Protestant Bishops fast in the same myre If not aunswere then to my third demaunde in the fortresse annexed to Sainct Bede This is Satis proimperio More than inough for your authoritie Master Stapleton to commaunde our Bishops to aunswere your vaine demaundes and pelting bookes or else they must be Donatists But euen so played the Donatists with the godly Bishops then as you play now with ours Your humour is all on vaine glorie to set oute and vaunt your owne workes But it is a signe ye lacke good neighbours at Louaine For one of them not your selfe should haue commended to vs your Demaundes Fortresses and Translations But your selfe must be faine I sée to put vs in minde of them for your brethren séeke theyr owne glorie likewise in their writings And why then shoulde not you séeke yours as well as they But for my part as I haue not youre noble Fortresse so I thinke your Demaunde be not worthie the séeking for much lesse the aunswering I pray you pardon me if I thinke amisse for I measure it by many other Demaunds of this your Counterblast As for the beginning of our doctrine is alreadie shewed euen he that is the beginning the ending the Alpha and Omega he began our doctrine and hath euer continued and preserued it We say with Chrysostome as is before sayd Ad montes Let vs flee to the mountaines that is to the scripture we say with Saint Cyprian Ad fontein Let vs go to the fountaine that is to the Scripture we say with the Prophetes Ad legem testimentum To the lawe and testimonie that is to the Scripture we say with him that is the beginning himselfe venite ad 〈◊〉 come vnto me and we admit onely that Quod suit ab initio reiecting that doctrine of which we may say Non suit sic ab initio It was not so at the beginning this ye say the Donatistes being charged and pressed could not do but we shewe you here the very beginning of all our doctrine Now if a man should demaunde of you to shew the beginning of all your doctrines aske you as Christ teacheth vs to demaunde of you the originals is it of God or is it of men then are you for a great many of them bemyred fast with the Donatistes and can not tell how they came vp sauing that they crept in by custome and many retayned of the old superstitions of the Pagans little or nothing turquesed but none of them al came vp otherwise than by mē none were set foorth of God in his holy word And so againe ye are Donatists or worse than they and the worse in that as the French Kings Embassadour aforesaide tolde your Trident Fathers ye hold fast with tooth nayle all things that ye haue receiued of long custome But the old fathers tell you from whom ye father your customes We must not follow the customes of man but the truth of God. Yea your old Popes them selues Felix Gregory Nicholas Leo can tell you that all customes should giue place to the Scriptures for Christe said not he was custome but the way the truth and the life That we should not goe one Iote from the Apostles institutions That such ill customes are no lesse to be auoided than a pestilent infection which except it be taken out the soner the wicked will take holde of it as dutie of priuileges And that such transgressions and presumptions being not forthwith suppressed will be reuerenced for lawes and celebrated like priuileges for euer Here is the comming vp and beginning of the most of your doctrines and therefore what hable ye of your Bishops since your Bishops them selues say thus of your long customes beginning and continuance of them As for the
it is of master Foxes owne setting foorth I graunt M. St. he is the chronicler setteth downe that he findeth Doth that argue that he acknowlegeth for true euery such article as he setteth downe nay he maketh often exception to the contrarie that many of suche articles are falsly obiected which neuerthelesse he setteth downe Yea but there is moe thinges layde vnto him than this By whome M. Stap Forsoothe euen by sir Thomas More A trustie witnesse on your owne side But go to be it he sayde euen so Yet is this iniustly done of you master Stapleton to charge all Protestantes with his opinion in this poynt when they manyfestly mainteine the contrarye We deale not so with you we burden not your whole Churche where ye openly defende the contrarie with the seuerall iudgement of euery writer much lesse of euery obscure author and suche an one as of whome we haue nothing but heresay and that such heresay as his aduersaries loue to reporte and wrest to make it odious to the hearer this is not vpright dealing But yet for al this ye can not héere vpon fasten that whiche so fayne ye would that therfore he is a Donatist The Donatistes denied to Princes the punishment of heretikes and would haue beleefe free This man denieth neither of these First his quarel was not of faith alone but as ye tell it for any maner of crime to be punished by death and yet it followes no more hereon that he woulde haue faith free to beléeue what eche man woulde then he woulde haue it ▪ frée for any manner of cryme to doe what eche man woulde Secondly thoughe he denie the punishment by death yet he denieth not but there●… ▪ graunteth that Princes might make lawes of other kind of punishement which if he graunt them your selfe cleare him of béeing a Donatist But leauing him ye tell vs of greater businesse concerning sir Iohn Oldecastle whō ye rattle vp with a susurrauit calling him traytor and detestable Donatist And nowe say you all the weight resteth to proue this substantially to you and to master Foxe And to stoppe all your froward quarellings and accustomable elusions against our proofes VVell I will bring you as I thinke a substantiall and ineuitable proofe that is master Foxe him selfe and no worsse man. Héere is a lustie crake M. Stap. to bumbaste the matter withall out of doubt we shall héere haue some great foyle But let vs sée what all this haynous matter is Forsoothe M. Foxe setteth downe the articles that the Papistes haue composed to be sir Iohn Oldecastles articles the tenth article whereof is this That manslaughter either by warre or by any pretended lawe of iustice or for any temporall cause or spirituall reuelation is expressely contrary to the new Testament which is the lawe of grace and mercie Why M. Stap. is this your substantiall and ineuitable proofe that is master Foxe him selfe and no worsse man this is none of master Foxes saying nor opinion he dothe but write ▪ playne and plat what soeuer articles it pleased his enimies your auncestors to deuise in the name of Sir Iohn Oldecastles articles Lo thus he writeth say you of this worthy Champion and that euen in his owne huge martyrologe who doubteth but to the great exalting and amplification of this noble worke and of his noble holy martyr The worthy prayse of this noble worke in déede and of this noble and holy martyr are no whit blemished by these your sco●… raylings M. St. but what kinde of argument call ye this he reciteth this article among the rest and therfore out of doubt he alloweth it and sets it out to hys great exalting and amplification By this argument your selfe allowe the article too for ye haue héere also recited it But what would ye haue sayde if he had subtracted it and the one of the twayne he must haue done either haue left it out or set it out as he founde it But howe chaunce you lefte out that whiche in many places of his worke M. Foxe noteth of the Papists corrupting of those martyrs articles yet which is in déede to his great exalting and amplification he setteth them downe euen as he founde them For the thing to any indifferent reader will easily shewe it selfe But yet goe to once agayne Were this article his or not his it proues not him a Donatist First the Donatistes allowed manslaughter thoughe vnlawfully done as your selfe haue proued before of the Circumcelions But héere ye graunte that he vtterly disalloweth all manslaughter and so ye cleare him héerein of béeing a Donatist Agayne the Donatistes vtterly reiected as your selfe say all the Princes authoritie and all punishement in false religion Contrarywise Sir Iohn Oldecastle allowed their authoritie yea ouer the Pope and his Prelates to punishe them for their false religion And thoughe he disallowed manslaughter yet can ye not gather that he allowed no punishment for false religion Onlesse as ye shewed in the dayes of your late crueltie there be no punishement with you but manslaughter Whereby we maye more iustely gather that he acknowledged their authoritie in willing Princes to punishe thoughe not by deathe than you can any way gather héereon that he vtterly denied all kinde of punishement And if ye would deface his martyrdome for this or coūt it Donatisticall of the same minde was euen sir Thomas More him selfe your owne mery martyr whome ye cited to witnesse a fewe lynes before as appeareth in his Vtopia although more couertly yet he quite disaloweth manslaughter and deuiseth other punishments in stead thereof Is he therefore a Donatiste And I pray you what was all the auncient order in banishing heretikes was it death or were they Donatistes then bicause they allowed not punishment by death So was S. Augustine a Donatiste also whome ye cite agaynst the Donatistes For it was long or euer he came to this opinion that the Donatistes might be slayne and vpon what considerations I wil shew you out of that learned clarke Erasmus who for this matter also had great conflict with your Sorbonistes I denie saythe he that euer I readde that Byshoppes sholude haue stirred vp Kinges to kyll Heretikes For this is not to warne Princes in generall but to appoynte oute vnto them a kynde of punishement But I speake in my reprehension not of these tymes but of Sainct Augustine and the Byshoppes of his age For nowe certayne Abbotes and Byshoppes thinke it a moste acceptable sacrifice to God if they may kyll a great many with their owne sworde and their owne hande And to confesse the truthe in that they tell howe Sainct Augustine was first of that opinion that he denied the Emperoures power to be called vpon but when he sawe the heresie succeeded he changed his mynde euen so is it as true that I wrote But then had they to do with Donatistes that were more than heretikes
the prince cā not iudge much lesse are by him punishable As are all such crimes which properly belong to the court of conscience to we●…e misbelefe in God mistrust in his mercie contempt of his cōmandements presumption of our selues incredulitie and such like VVhich all are offences against the first table that is against the loue that we owe to god Contrarywise true beleefe confidence in God the feare of God and such like are the vertues of the first table and of these Melancthon truly saith Haec sunt opera prime tabulae These are the vertues of the first table All this M. St. that ye speake is beside the question concerning such crimes or vertues of the first table properly belonging to the courte of Conscience What néede ye stande so long descanting on the first table as though in the secōd table many such vices were not lurking in the hart●… of mā for which the Prince also can make no lawe For he can not compel his subiects to beare no hate nor wrath in their hartes nor to lust or desire in their harts vnlawfully their neighboures wife and goodes nor to loue another as them selues All which are of the second table properly also belonging to the court of conscience You might as well haue added these of the second as the other of the first table but then had your falshood bene espied going aboute by this meanes to reuoke all your graunt for the first table that because the Prince cannot punish such inwarde and peculiar breaches therefore he can not iudge vpon the doctrine and open causes and so ye simply conclude The punishing correcting or iudging of these appertaine nothing to the auctoritie of the Prince or to any his lawes but onely are iudged corrected and punished by the speciall sworde of excommunicatiō of binding of sinnes and enbarring the vse of holy Sacramentes by the order and auctoritie of the Priest onely and spirituall Magistrate Ye might M. St. as well conclude this of the second table also and quite debar the Prince of all dealing in either table bicause the inwarde action of either table the Prince can not punish so defeate all your graunt which before ye confessed that the furthering or punishing for both the tables as well of the first as of the second belongeth to the Princes aucthoritie Quod ad externam disciplinam mores attinet So far as belongeth to outwarde discipline and manners And now ye say the quite contrary he can not punishe nor Iudge the offences of the first table if ye meane ▪ the open offences thereof he can do it by your own limitacion Quod ad externam disciplinam mores attinet And so you make a fallacion à secundum quid ad simpliciter except ye meane as your reason pretendeth properly as yet belonging to the courte of conscience betwene God him Then whether it be in the first or in the second table the Prince in déede can not iudge or punish the secrete offence no nor properly the minister but so God alone The minister doth but pronoūce Gods sentence and the Magistrate punisheth it be it in the first or secōd table come it once to the breach of external ●…tes discipline as your selfe do limite their aucthoritie there in haue promised to agrée with Caluin and Melancthon But as in this your first parte ye haue graunted so much as suffiseth all the matter besides the referring your selfe to Caluins and Melancthons iudgement so in your second parte ye wrest and wrangle about your graunt and labour to proue contradiction in thē though in déede you can finde none and yet would ye looke on your selfe ye should finde an heape of fowle manifest contradictions besides those foresaide euen in this present chapter Againe say you whereas the chiefe vertue of the first table is to beleeue in God to know him and to haue the true faith of him and in him in Externall regiment as to punish open blasphemie to make lawes against Heretikes to honour and maintayne the true seruice of God Princes especially Christians ought to furder aide and mayntaine the same but to iudge of it and to determine which is the true faith in God how and after what manner he ought to be serued what doctrine ought to be published in that behalfe the Prince hath no aucthoritie or power at all Sée how ye first pinche and wrest your former graunt M. Stapl. and inconclusion take it quite away Before ye saide Christian Princes had the regiment in externall matters now ye come in with externall regiment Right now the Prince had authoritie to further and punish ouer the one table as well as the other and now he cannot determine so much as which table is which Right now he had authoritie Quoad externos mores as much as belongeth to externall manners now he must not iudge how or after what manner God ought to be serued Right now he had Externam disciplinam the outward discipline now to know what doctrine or discipline ought to be published he hath no authoritie or power at all This géere hangeth trimly togither and haue we not gotten a faire graunt we thought as the Papistes had wont to say we had God in the Ambry but the Diuell I see was in the Horologe Now after he hath renoked his graunt he beginneth to quarrell with the Protestants with whome before he said he and all his felowship would agrée and first he beginneth to proue contradiction in Melancthon His argument is thus Melancthon saith that Princes ought to looke vnto true doctrine to correct the Churches when the Bishops falle of their dutie yea and to consider the doctrine it selfe Againe the same Melancthon saith they must make no newe doctrines in the Churche neither institute any worships Ergo Melancthon either recanteth as better aduised or writeth playne contraries to him selfe How hath malice blinded you M St can ye sée no lesser difference than contrarie betwéene looking to the olde and coynyng newe betwéene considering and instituting worships Surely then can ye neuer consider nor well looke vnto not the truth but euen your owne follie that dreame of recanting and contradictions in other hauing your selfe scarse written a line before wherein so plainly ye contraried your owne wordes in recanting your former graunt Thus as in vaine ye séeke for cōtradiction in Melācthōs wordes so as fondly do ye conclude thereon your purpose Melācthon would not haue Princes make new doctrines and worships of God nor haue the functions of both Magistrates spirituall and temporall to be confounded Ergo he taketh away all auctoritie from Princes in iudging and determining of doctrine But what dealing call ye this M. St that in translating Melancthons sentences ye both falsely wrest them add●… of your own vnto them Where Melancthon saith Nec instituant cultus Neither let them institute or appoynt of new any worshipping
naughtinesse of the argument We graunt that to iudge aright of Ecclesiasticall matters is a great gift of God but that the iudgemēt of ecclesiasticall matters is onelie to be restrained to binding and losing as you here define what you meane by iudging in matters of faith this is a manifest falsehood True it is that binding and losing can not rightly be withoute iudgement nor withoute right iudgement and therefore your Pope and you doe erre so often herein both binding that that should be losed and losing that that should be bound errante claue as ye terme it your key erring and erring also not onely in things to be bounde or losed but in the power it selfe of binding losing too Yet notwithstanding binding and losing and the iudgement requisite in binding and losing are two distinct and seueral things and iudgement reacheth furder to other things also euen in the Priest himselfe besides the Princes iudgement And therefore as this definition of iudgement in matters of faith is preposterously brought in for ye oughte before to haue defined what ye ment by iudgemente so is it false for other matters of faithe require iudgement besides binding and losing Now where you say this power commeth not of the principles of our corrupt nature but of the free mercie of God you say truth But that ye adde the mercie of God is made manifest vnder the time of the newe testament partlye by the law written partly not written is spoken ambiguously For that Princes iudged in matters of faith was also made manifest in the olde Testament but that Princes haue power to binde and lose we graunt is neither manifest nor couert neither in the olde or newe As for the newe lawe to be deuided into written and not written is another error and impertinent to this question Your vnwritten lawe of the new Testament we stand not vpon But to affirme that by neither way written or vnwritten no power is giuen to kings in Ecclesiasticall matters that we denie and your self haue rather confuted it thā hither to confirmed it But to confirme it ye bring out this reason Neither were thene at the beginning any Christian Kings to whom Christ shoulde haue committed any power nor the Apostles gaue any rule according where vnto the kings should iudge of Ecclesiasticall causes That there were no Christian kings then is not materiall For by this rule they should be no defenders of the faith neither bicause Princes were not thē defenders of it But that the Apostles gaue no rule whereby they should iudge is false For whosoeuer should iudge shuld iudge by gods word and this rule Christ and his Apostles gaue in generall But that Princes mighte iudge is both proued from the olde Testament and by the text that M. Saunders himselfe citeth out of the new yea by that he saith immediatly For if any man say kings are appointed iudges in a cause of the faith only bicause by Baptisme they are made spiritual mē who iudge all things and the spirites do trie those things that are of God this in dede I graunt to be true in the kynde and maner of the priuate but not of the publique iudgement For it is another thing when thou art a member of the Catholike Church nor preferrest thy selfe before thy pastours what is necessarie for thee priuately to Iudge and this the vnction teacheth and another thing to take vpon thee power to teache others and to prescribe to thy Pastors what they ought to do or teache when thou art not called to the publique ministerie of the Church as Aaron was We know there is a difference betwéen priuate and publique Iudgement But that this place of S. Paule The spirituall man Iudgeth all things is only to be vnderstoode of prinate Iudgement is but the priuate iudgement of M. Saunders But it is well that he graunteth priuate iudgement to euery Christian man Neither is it any reason then it shuld be debarred irom any Christian Princes neither is it anye reason that the Prince although in his priuate Iudgement ▪ rightly iudging a matter of faithe to be true shoulde not approue set forth the same publiquely by his princely authoritie And so his priuate Iudgement directs his publique Iudgement For a Prince is not only a priuate man but a publique man also not that he may doe all things of his owne priuate or publique Iudgement nor take vpon him the publique ministerie of the pastour in teaching being not called as Aaron was for this is not ascribed to the Prince bicause he giueth a publique Iudgement in respect he is a publique person but his Iudgement is a publique approbation and establishing of that that is alreadie by others Iudgement ▪ iudged to whome the discussing appertaineth In which discussing althoughe the godly learned clergie being called as Aaron was haue the greatest skill and charge of Iudgement yet the lay men suche as are also learned and godly haue a publique Iudgement too Or else why saith Panormitane we shoulde more beleue a lay man alleaging scripture than the whole councell besides but nowe the truth being once founde out by these learned Iudgements the Princes publique Iudgement as it called them together as it gaue them their charge so it prescribeth what the pastors ought to doe and teache therin without any preiudice to the spirituall pastors Iudgement in the function of his doing and teaching Now hauing thus set downe his owne assertions he will enter on the other part to confute our obiections And first he alleageth this reason of the protestantes In all the olde Testamente we sée gouernors and Kings both to haue prescribed to the priests what they ought to doe in ecclesiasticall matters and also to haue remoued them frō the ministerie that haue negligently done their dutie To this obiecton M. Saunders answere is this that this reason holdes not from the olde Testament to the new If this came so to passe in the olde Testament saith he yet no reason shuld compell that the same shuld be so in the new Testament sith the reason of the eccl. gouernment is changed And are you changed too M. Saunders that saide before after say make all your booke of it that the ecclesiastical kind of gouernment hath bene alwayes one and that is a vi●…ble Monarchie euen from Adam to Pope Pius ▪ 5. and said that if the gouernement be changed the Churche must needes be changed t●…o and made the gouernement of the olde Testament to be a figure of the new But now that you are beaten with your owne arguments you say they hold not by reason the ecclesiasticall gouernment is changed But I see Maister Saūders you woulde deale with vs as the riche man dealt with his poore neighbor When the poore mā complained saying I beseeche your worship be good vnto me for my Cowe hath goared your Bull. What hath he quoth the riche mā
in these wordes following vnto Pilate after he had denied his kingdome to be of this world when Pilate replyed Arte thou then a King he answered thou saist that I am a king Ne tamen c. vvhiche notvvithstanding saithe Ferus least Pilate should be more offended vvith the name of a King Christe proceedeth to declare his kingdome more plainely as thoughe he shoulde say Pilate vnderstande thou this for troth and cast out of thy mynde all suspition of a vvorldly kingdome or of tyrannie This is the case I vvill not at al denie my spiritual kingdome vvhether it be before thee or before Caesar. Onely knovve thou this thing that it is not my purpose to inuade any man vvith Armes or after the manner of other Kings to raigne pompously but to erecte and establishe in earth the Diuine truth To this purpose vvas I born ▪ and to this purpose came I into the vvorlde that I might beare vvitnesse to the truth Therfore I say came I therfore was I borne not to fight with the svvorde but that I might teach and declare the truth and the Gospell vvhiche is the povver of God to saluation to all that beleeue And as I declare the Gospell so I rule by the Gospell in the heartes of the beleeuers ouer sinne death and the Deuill and for sinne vvill I giue righteousnesse for death life for the Crosse ioye for hell I vvill giue heauen these are feofments of my kingdome Of these things none can be pertaker excepte he heare my voyce and beleeue in his heart I enrich not mine vvith ryches vvith cities and other feofmēts but by my vvords I communicate vnto them ioye life peace and to conclude heauen it selfe The Gospell therefore is the Scepter of my kingdome But what are these things against the Emperor of Rome Thus againe we sée that Christe is not such a King nor his kingdome suche as you dreame of Whiche in the ende your selfe contrarie to your selfe confesse that his kingdome is not suche an one that he euer mingled himselfe in earthly things Then Master Saunders those thinges belonged not to his Kingly office nor to his kingdome For in suche things euery King ought not onely to mingle but chiefly to occupie himselfe But strait you haue an exception at hand that he mingled not himself in earthly things except whereas they might be profitable to a spirituall ende and this your selfe before confessed was the finall ende of all the ciuill power and that all faythfull Kings ought to directe all those thinges in their kingdomes vnto spirituall endes bicause they themselues are spirituall And so what letteth but that Christe should haue raigned as a worldly King and gouerned an earthly kingdome But say you This kingdome of Christ therfore both came from heauen tendeth vnto heauen For both al povver is giuē vnto ▪ him as he vvas man and died and rose againe that he shoulde rule ouer the lyuing and the deade and that he should be set ouer the vvorkes of the handes of God and that all things should be cast vnder his feete sheepe and Oxen and moreouer the beastes of the fielde And also Saint Cyrill saith that euen the wicked in the laste daye shall arise to their punishement for Christe vvho rose firste and contained as man al men in him self Sith therefore earthly Kings administer those things that pertain to sheepe and Oxen and beasts of the fielde although they remaine E●…hnikes and Infidels yet are they truely vnder Christe the King as the most vvorthy man ▪ that hath receiued the principalitie ouer all thinges of this vvorlde not from the earth but from heauen and for the same shall giue an accoūt to him of their common vveale euil ordered bycause they referred not their kingdomes to a spirituall ende that is to the glorie of one god But Christ so far as appertineth to his humaine ●…atūre being lesse than Angels seemeth to me to haue receiued that kingdome that Adam first should haue administred among all creatures to the glorie of one God if he had not falne from grace and to haue renued it in himselfe and to haue directed it to a spiritual end that vvhen all things should be subiect to the Sonne of man then should the Sonne also be subiecte vnto him that hath subdued all thinges to him that God might be all in all Sith therefore Christ by his humaine nature is the King of all he truely directeth al things to a spiritual end that is to the glorie of God for God deserue●…h glorie yea euen in those that are damned bothe for his povver and for his iustice The effecte hereof is this that God hath giuen to the humain nature of Christ as to the principal of al his creatures al povver iudgement to direct them to a spiritual end that is to his glorie But what is this to the purpose that Christes kingdome is after the fashion of a vvorldly kingdome he gouerneth all creatures we graunt with his power and prouidence yea the sheepe Oxen and cattail that he speaketh on But dothe the kingdome of Christe consiste in these things Numquid Deo cura de bobus hath God saith Sainte Paule care of Oxen in the cōsideration of his heauenly kingdome He telleth vs howe all Kings shall answere for the ●…busing of their kingdomes vnto Christ at the day of dome bycause they referre them not to a spirituall ende But he telleth not howe muche more the Pope shall aunswere for ●…surping kingdomes and abusing the spirituall kingdome of Christe to vvorldly endes But shall this iudgemente of Christ be in a vvorldly cōsistorie He telleth vs how he thinketh that Christe receiued that kingdome that Adam should haue had had he not falne But thinketh he that Christe should haue ruled in an earthly Paradise or that Christ came to restore vs to no better kingdome than Adam was in before he sinned He telleth vs Al things shal be made subiect to Christe and Christe to God and God shall be all in all But thinketh he this kingdome shall be in this worlde and militant Church while the euimies striue and are not yet al subdued he telleth vs the glorie and iustice of Christ shineth in the condemnation of them that are damned But dothe he thinke this is a vvorldly glorie and humaine iustice it is true that the glorie and iustice of Christe shal shine ouer thē And so shal it in the righteouse condemnation of the Popish Church that séeketh such a vvorldly kingdome and calleth it the spiritual kingdome of Christe to cloake their pryde withall But what can Master Saunders conclude hereon for Byshops to possesse kingdoms to rule Kings to sette vp or to depose them Neither say I these thinges saithe he to shevve herevpon that povver is ouer the vniuersal vvorld giuen to the Bishops of the Chnrch as though they in all things are the Ministers and Vicars
of Christe in that he is man for they haue not receiued the vvhole povver of Christe to administer it but that part that properly belongeth to beleeuers For it vvas sayde vnto the first Pastor feede not all men but my sheepe and to thee I giue the keyes not of all the vvorlde but of the kingdome of heauen Sithe therefore Christe hath receiued a certaine celestiall kingdome vvhich kingdome vseth also earthly things vnto the glorie of God and sith out of the things of the vvorld he hath chosen a certaine societie of men vvhiche in a certain especial sort vvorshippeth God in faith and loue in this onely seconde kynde of things Christe hath ordeined Pastors to be his Vicars You say that ye say not these things to shevve that herevpon povver is giuen to Byshops ouer al the vniuersal world But what soeuer you say your Pope saith contrarie applying this saying of Christe to himselfe and his successors all povver is giuen to me in heauen and in earth You say that Byshops haue onely that povver that properly belongeth to the beleeuers bycause Christe sayde vnto the firste Pastor feede not all men but my sheepe That Peter was the firste Pastor is another question Master Saunders But that the the Apostles had not in charge to go and preach to those that were not beleeuers yea to all men so farre as they could besides the feeding of them that were beleeuers and so were become alreadie the shéepe of the folde of Christe is a manifest vntruth For the Apostles had this generall charge goe ye into all the vvorlde and preach the Gospell to euery creature So that they fedde besides the faithfull the Infidels dispersed through out the whole world for those Christe also calleth his bycause they shoulde be his shéepe alias oues babeo c. I haue also other sheepe that are not of this folde those must I bring also c. But whereto run you to this so euident falshood forsooth to proue that the Byshops haue ful power ouer al the beleeuers in a their earthly possessions so might haue power to depose Kings to occupie their king doms sease vpō al mens goods that are Christians bycause they are their Pastors And to this purpose is it that you say Christe hath receiued a certaine celestiall kingdome vvhiche vseth also all earthly things vnto the glorie of God. Whiche saying in this sense may well be graunted the kingdome of Christe vseth all earthly thinges that it vseth to the glorie of God but this woulde be proued that the Kingdome of Christe vseth by the administration of the spirituall ministers thereof a vvorldly or earthly kingdome which vse is so far from the glorie of God that it is contrarie to his celestial kingdome Whiche consisteth as you say in feeding the sheepe of Christe in the keyes of Gods worde and in that especiall sort of vvorshipping God in faith and loue and not in deposing kings or gouerning of earthly kingdomes wherin they can not be as you terme them Vicars or deputies of Christ sith Christ the King neither tooke himselfe such vse of power vpō him flatly forbad the same vnto his Ministers Therefore the vvhole kingdome of Christe came from heauen that is from the dignitie vvhich is giuen vnto his humaine nature for the vnion of the Diuine nature Neither by any meanes the kingdome of him drue his originall from the lavve of nations or the ciuile For hee refused to be created King or to deuide the inheritance betwene the brethren saying vvho hath made me a Iudge or deuider ouer you As though he shoulde say neither the common vveale neither the Emperor hath made me a Iudge yet notwithstanding these brethren thought of such a Iudge But in that part that Christe vvas appointed of God to be Iudge by his incarnation concerning that he saide vnto those brethren bevvare of all couetousnesse For he savv that they draue not their inheritance to a spirituall ende that they might beare the heauenly iudgement of Christe This is a shamefull wresting of the Scripture and inuerting of the manifest doings of our Sauiour Here are two other plaine examples of Christ against Master Saunders the one of his refusall to be a vvorldly King the other to be a'vvorldly Iudge The former he shifteth off in this sort●… Christ would not receiue an earthly kingdom into his hands not bycause he would none of it but bycause he woulde not take it of their gifte least it shoulde séeme to come of them For his kingdome is of heauen and notin the originall from the lavv of nations or of the ciuile As though our disputatiō were so much of the originall as of the vse and hauing of it as though Christe respected nothing but the originall or as though if he woulde haue had such a kingdome he could not haue had it if they had not giuen it him or as thoughe euen the first original of earthly kingdomes came not from God also But to confute you with your owne mouthes I will cite once againe Frier Ferus againste you that alledgeth not onely this cause of the originall but many other causes directly to this purpose Christe fled saithe he bycause he receiued not a kingdome of men but gaue a kingdome vnto men He fled bycause his kingdome is not of this vvorld it is not carnall it consisteth not in externall riches povver pompe c. Yea he rather came that he might teach to contemne these things But his kingdom is a kingdome of truth iustice peace and eternall life For although he gouerne in all the vvorlde yet hee gouerneth not after the manner of the vvorlde nor he affecteth suche a kingdome He s●…edde therefore not bycause he vvoulde not raigne ouer the faithfull but bycause he deferreth the expresse tokens of reigning for the time to come Hee sledde bycause hee came to minister not that it shoulde be ministred vnto hym Hee fledde for hee came not to kill Kings but to preach to Kings the knovvledge of raigning iustly not to presse the kingdomes of the world vvith tributes and taxes but that vvhich Kings so vvell as the people vvanted to giue them giftes of life eternall out of the treasure of the kingdome of heauen going about to vanquishe in vvarre a farre other manner of ennimie than Tiberius Caesar and to take an other manner of beaste than Rome vvhyche at that tyme vvas Ladie of the Ievves Besides this hee fledde that he vvoulde not giue to the people an occasion of sedition against Caesar and so vvithall an occasion of sinne and perdition For hee that moueth sedition againste the povver as héere in your writing you M. Sand ▪ do and your Pope doth in his Bulles against Christian Princes sinneth and iustly perisheth for it VVhich Christe himselfe hath spoken he that taketh the svvorde shall perishe vvith the svvorde To conclude he fled least hee should
is yet aboue the Byshops And although the King so well as the priuate man ought to require the lavve of the Lord out of the priestes lippes yet if the Priest inst●…ade of the Lords lavve will giue his owne lavv the king ought to rebuke or punish him For if the King ought to require it of the B. then as it is the Byshops duetie to yelde it so is it the Princes duetie and of●…ce to call vpon him to sée to it that the B. faithfully giue it to him to all the priuate men in his kingdome Whiche againe proueth so litle the Byshops authoritie ouer the King that it playnely proueth the Kings authoritie ouer the B. in requiring of thē to preach the lavv of God which is their proper office calling and not to gouerne Kings and translate kingdomes Sixtly and lastly I answere that if this were graunted to the Pope which M. sand woulde so faine conclude that one Iudge in the Church should be ordeined betvvene Kings themselues and them and their peoples that this one Iudge shoulde be the Pope where he pretendeth it woulde cut off infinite occasions of warres and tumults as this conclusiō can not be gathered on this example so this effecte of peace to ensue by this meanes is but an imagination in M. sand opinion we should finde another manner of effecte thereof that would be the very welspring of infinite warres and tumults And least he shoulde thinke that I speake partially against the Pope as he doth for the Pope I report me to the experience of it and not to vaine imaginations what tragedies hath the Pope raysed betwene the Gréeke Germaine Emperors chiefly to the Henries the 4. the ●… ▪ to Frederike the 2. to Lewis the 4. to the tumults of King Iohn in Englād to the Popes practises betwene Germanie Fraūce Spaine for the kingdomes of Cicil Naples for the Duchie of Apulia Millaine to the maintenance of the factions in Italy betwene the Guelphes and Gebellines the white sect and the blacke secte the French Imperials the Uenetians and the Genowaies the Florentines and the Pisans al the states of Italy Al which and infinite moe warres and tumults in Christendom haue ben raysed nourished abetted chiefly by this one Iudge the Pope and yet would M. sand haue him to be the onely Iudge and definer whether any King should be deposed or be placed Were not this the readiest way to set al Princes by the eares chiefly if he wold change his mynd vpon displeasure or his successor should fauour an other or there were two or thrée Popes at once thē should al Christendome be in a broyle by the eares togither and the Pope would clap them on the backe and win by the spoyle of all countries and no countrie shoulde haue their lawfull and naturall Prince but either foraine or periured vsurpers nor any Prince haue his royall authoritie but be the Popes Tenants at will. If the world were come to this passe as it appeareth the Papistes would haue it were not this a goodly quiet world trow you But then it were a goldē world for the Priests when all men else shoulde finde it a bloudie world and euery man wer●…●…eadie to cut an others throate and all things runne to hauocke But were it admitted that none of these mischieues should ensue but that al occasions of vvarre and tumults vvould be cut off yet sith this calling to rule all Christian Kings and kingdomes is vnlawfull for any Byshop besides Christe to haue what were this peace but as the wicked say Pax pax vbi non est pax peace peace where God saith there is no peace what were this peace but the worldes peace yea the Diuels peace where the strong man helde all things in his house in peace where Antichriste ruled in quiet prosper●…tie till Christe a stronger than he woulde come and breake his peace Rather than tumults shoulde be cut off with suche a shamefull peace and peace bought with suche a wicked condition it were far better for Princes to striue to the death for the truth against such peace and to cut off suche an arbiters head who to maintaine his pryde for worldly peace would make open warre with Christe And thus we sée the effecte would be naught and yet as naughtie as this peace woulde be we shoulde not haue it peaceably neyther if the Pope might set in his foote take vpon him to depose kings and translate kingdomes But this example of Ioiada giueth him no such authoritie M. Saund. hauing now gathered together all the proues examples that he coulde wrest with any colour to his purpose leaueth the ol●…e Testament falleth to the like proues and wrestings of the newe Testament Howe Christe for the saluation of one man let the deuils drowne two thousande hogges How Christ draue the buyers and sellers out of the Temple How S. Paule gaue the incest●…ous fornicator at Corinth and Hymene●… and Alexander to Sathan How Peter reproued Ananias and his wife for lying to the holy Ghost they fell downe dead But how al these things are wrested is app●…ant For in all this here is no king deposed and therfore they serue not to this question But how euery one of them serueth to confute the Papistes bicause the volume is risen too large alreadie in these answeres and chiefly in the answere to Maister Stapleton I am constra●…ned here to breake off stay As for that which followeth of the Fathers of the Histories and how those also are wrested as ●…oulie as these I purpose to reserue God willing to another volume In the meane time let vs coniecture the residue by these arguments the rest of al the Papists by these two M. Stapleton and M. Saunders who are nowe their principall writers Whereby as we may easily weighe the peise of their stuffe so we may●… euidently sée the dri●…te of their malice Thirsting blood breathing treasons practising conspiracies procuring seditions blowing out as it were a trumpet to open rebellion against the Queenes Maiesti●… their Natural Soueraigne and our most Gracious Gouernour against all the states of the Realme and to make ha●…e of the whole congregation of Christ and all to maintaine the pride the tyrannie the errors and superstitions of the Pope But with what weake and selender reasons how impudently wrested how shamefully applyed how vnfitly concluded All the world may sée and themselues be ashamed if they be not past shame All the children of God may cléerely beholde and not be afraide but the fullier confirmed in the truth thereby All Christian Princes may the better perceiue and the more abhorre the Popishe practises with all their power represse them as the vtter ruin●… of their sstates and considering their high calling may zealously loke to the dutie of their authoritie and as their Titles put them in minde be in déede most Christian