the appearance of a visible Congregation can hardly bee imagined When our Sauiour had selected out his Apostles they then were termed by the name of a Flocke but yet by their Master they were called but a little flocke where the Rhemists do confesse that in the beginning it was little indeed At the death of Christ when his body hanged on the crosse for our sakes and his Disciples were all fled no man daring to shew himselfe Mary and Iohn and a fewe women were all the faithfull that now appeared vpon earth and afterward while the Apostles their followers walked very priuately or were assembled in a chamber the Priestes and Scribes and Pharisees were they who ruffled it in the streetes and bore the sway in the Temple so that if a weak body had enquired for the Church he might rather haue been directed to them who had the Law and the Altars and all sacred things in their custody then to any other When Steuen had been stoned and for feare of the persecution which was at Ierusalem the Disciples were all scattered besides the Apostles it may well be presumed that for a time they which remained in the citie where Steuen had lost his life did not walke very openly Truth it is that after these things the Church was better setled and the truth was more spread but yet neuer was there any such priuiledge bestowed vpon it but that in the dayes of persecution or some grieuous apostacy the faithfull might bee brought to a small visibilitie Our Sauiours wordes intend so much when alluding to the time of his second appearance to iudge the quicke and the dead he asketh Neuerthelesse when the Sonne of man commeth shall he find faith on earth as meaning that very little should then bee found in comparison of the Floodes and Ocean of iniquitie which euery where should abound But God to the end that he might not haue vs ignorant but warned before hand into what straights the Church should bee brought informeth vs by Saint Paul that the Lord shall not come except there first bee an apostacie or reuolt or falling away wherein Antichrist with great pride and disdaine should shew himselfe This is solemnly spoken of by the Apostle and by all both old and new intreating of it is obserued to some matter of great note that is to say some maine declining from somwhat Many of our Papists fearing to touch this sore which can in no case turne them to good would haue that interpreted to note nothing else but the slipping of diuers regions countries from their subiection to the Romane Empire But Gregory Martin and the other Rhemistes being ouercome with the euidence of truth are heere a little more honest then ordinary and speake to other purpose Indeed they cannot tell how it will be taken at other Papists hands that contrary to the custome of their fellowes in a matter of such moment they should giue way vnto vs and therefore they doe vse these words in vvay of excuse â— Be it spoken vnder the correction of Gods Church and all learned Catholiques But to the poynt concerning the Apostacie they deliuer this It is very like that this great defection and reuolt shall not bee onely from the Romane Empire but especially from the Romane Church and withall from most poynts of Christian Religion in the Margent it is and from most Articles of the Catholique Faith Heere they would haue vs take the Romish beleefe for the Christian Religion and Catholique faith but that deserueth a long pause we rather obserue out of them that this reuolt is in matter of faith and not onely from the Empire then which Glosse nothing can be truer Well then if there must bee so egregious an Apostacie it will follow that Antichrist so domineering as by the Apostle he is described will not bee negligent so to represse the publike seruice of God that it shall not carry any liuely head or countenance where hee hath to doe So that certainely our Rhemistes yeelding to this Exposition doe in substance confesse so much as that the apparancy of Gods Congregation in the time of the great defection must bee mightily ecclipsed Now the Lord to the end hee might establish his faithfull and arme them to expect this paucitie of beleeuers and inconspicuousnes of his Church and yet not be discouraged for that which should bee past present or to come And againe that there might bee no doubt in a matter of this moment letteth vs further know that the woman fled into the wildernesse where shee hath a place prepared of God It is not doubted of betweene the Romanists and vs but this Woman doeth represent the Church concerning whom being in the wildernesse it doth manifestly follow that for the time of her abode there which the Almightie had decreed she should not be discerned that is by her enemies who did would chase her notwithstanding it is not to be doubted but shee knew where her selfe was If the Romanist therefore and persecuting aduersary did not euer see the Professors of the Gospell it was no wonder the woman was to remaine in the Wildernesse a part and hidde from them The euidence of which matter is such that as Master Fox obserueth for feare of diuers things in the Reuelation of Saint Iohn whereof this may worthily be one scant any Popish Writer for many yeares together durst aduenture to comment any thing vpon the Apocalyps vntill our Rhemistes being desirous to shame the Pope and themselues with all who are wise and adventured to set pen to paper Hauing then a purpose to set forth and corrupt the New Testament partly by their Translation but most of all by their Annotations they could not choose but say somewhat of the Reuelation although they professe that it is as sparingly as may be and as briefly which is not for that the Volume of the Rhemish Testament groweth great as they would colour it but for feare least they should too much lay open their owne weakenesse which while that Booke is in the Bible will neuer bee concealed Howsoeuer therefore through their Volume in many maine matters they bee very silent where they should most speake as of the Question of imputed righteousnesse where the Apostle doeth most handle it a sore argument of their owne conscience distrusting their cause and euen sinking vnder the waight of that chapter yet here God ouer-ruling them to say the truth as hee did Caiaphas they interpret the woman to be the Church flying from the great persecution which shall be in the time of Antichrist Indeed to keepe peace with their Lord and Mastes the Pope they will not haue this flight to bee but in the very ending of the world and so they would fetch it with a backe Racket that the woman should continue so in secret but three yeares and a halfe which to keepe all vpright they assigne
disturbe the peace of the vniuersall world Whereunto Liberius did not take exception saying that the visible Church stood for him and Athanasius but rather giueth another reason to make good his being alone Be it that I am alone notwithstanding for that the cause of the faith is not the worse for a great while agoâ—e there were three onely found who would resist the Kings commandement Heere the Church for any external shew was low brought for if any body held it vp it was Athanasius who then played least in sight and durst not appeare For this Liberius who did for a time second him did afterward shrinke He went at first into banishment in defence of the truth but after that he was solicited and laid at by Fontunatianus that he relented and condiscended to subscribe to the Arrian heresie as Hierom witnesseth who liued in that age and was long conuersant in Rome and therefore could better report what was the issue of Liberius his constancie then some others who doe relate it otherwise What can be said for him Bellarmine hath but yet inforced by the euident testimony of Athanasius Hillary and Hierome he confesseth so much as I haue here set down but couer it he would that he only consented to the externall act of subscribing but remained in heart Othodox Why should it then bee a maruell if in processe of time Antichrist growing to greater strength the Church should bee in couert It is no more then often fell out vnder the Iewish Synagogue hath bin exemplified to haue been since among the Christians and was so euidently foretold before In so much that by the example of the woman it can not bee the true Church vnlesse it should be hidden in the wildernesse Which while our Popish teachers deny to agree to their Romish Church but professe that it hath euer been in sight they themselues doe by a consequent proclaime that they are not the pure and vndefiled flying woman but another painted harlot and strumpet The true Church is for a time out of sight in the wildernes but so say they was their Church neuer and therefore will they nill they their Church is not the true Church And here to the end that the slaunderous calumniation of our aduersaries may the more be manifested to all those who wil not wilfully close their eyes against truth I will a little shew the vanity yet maliciousnes of their obiection when they say there was neuer any of our faith before the daies of Luther who in the yeare 1517 began for his part to display the kingdome of Antichrist Where I pray the Reader to consider that the most part of those whom I shall cite are Popish Writers and no way partially affected towards vs. We say then that Martine Luther was not the first brocher of those points which he taught again't papistry but as he did originally deduce them from the Scriptures out of the works of the ancient Fathers so he did derine them also hereditarily from other who immediatly before him had taught the same doctrine left it both in books the hearts of men recommended vnto him as principal parties herein I name Iohn Hus Hierome of Prage and all such as were their schollers in or about Bohemia who before Luthers time oppugned the beliefe of the church of Rome their profession was not extinguished vntill his dayes howsoeuer it before had bin mainly assaulted If we could learne this no where els yet Fr. Guicciardine an Italian Florentin Historiographer would informe vs of it who writing of the yeare 1520 saith plainly that Luther did set abroad the Heresies as he tearmeth them of the Bohemians and hee nameth there Hus and Hierome as former diuulgers of the same and Petrus Messias a Spaniard therein agreeth with him who mentioning the opinions of Hus and the Bohemians saith they were the seed of those errours which were afterward in Germany alluding to the doctrine of Luther There is no man whose testimony in this behalfe may be of more worth then Ioh. Cochleus First because he wrote a large story of purpose concerning the Hussites therfore by his long search reading and writing in that argument may be persumed to know as much as any Secondly because it may be well imagined that he would fain nothing to do Luther good in as much as he also wrote a volume purposely against that worthy seruant of God intending to rip vp his whole life from yeare to yeare and to censure all his works yet this enemy of his in the Story of the Hussites doth plentifully satisfie vs about the matter now in question One where he telleth vs that Hus did slay soules for an hundred yeares together neither yet doth he cease to slay them by the second death Within an hundred yeares after him came in Luther according as the said Iohn Hus did prophecie not long before his death And when it is added that yet he doth not cease to slay it is manifest that his Doctrine remained till the dayes of Cochleus In another place he relateth that Luther did stirre vp seditions in Germanie by the Books of the Hussites Afterward he calleth those who were in Germany in his time New Hussites And againe Hus did so rent the vnitie of the Church that vnto this day there remaineth a pitifull diuision in Bohemia He proceedeth in the same matter elsewhere saying That the people of Germanie are now by Luther partakers of the Heresies of Hus and Hierome One sort of the followers of this Iohn Hus did call themselues Thaborites and these were they who most dissented of all from the Doctrine of Rome Of these he speaketh thus Vnto this day remaineth the Sect of the Thaborites in many places of Bohemia and Morauia vnder the name of Picards and Waldenses Lastly the same Cochleus in the yeare 1534. doth wish that hee may see the remainders or leauings of the Hussites to returne to the Church and the Germanes to cast out all new Sectes VVhat can bee more euident then that the Doctrine of Iohn Hus was sensibly and apparantly continued somewhere euen till the dayes of Martin Luther Vnto which may bee added that whereas Luther began to shew himselfe but in the yeare 1517 that very yeere was ended the Councell of Laterane held at Rome and finished by Pope Leo the tenth And there consultation was had of reforming the manners of the Church and of recalling the Bohemians to the vnity of the Church of Rome And as these Testimonies doe conuince that the Christian Confession of Hus was not extinguished at the comming of Martin Luther so may there be good reason assigned why it did so long continue in as much as it was imbraced by many and earnestly maintained euen vnto the death When Hus began first to preach the people which vsed handy craftes did with
to be the time of Antichrists raigne and then the Iudgement must come which is a most fond evasion seeing by that meanes men liuing at the appearance of Antichrist should be able precisely to tell when the day should be to wit three yeares and a halfe after Antichrists entring But of that day and houre knoweth no man no not the Angells which are in Heauen neither the Sonne himselfe saue the Father onely It can neuer be made good that the time times and halfe a time the two and fortie moneths and the thousand two hundred and sixtie dayes are so literally to bee taken as that they should containe exactly three ordinary yeares and a halfe Your Romane Bishop in his declination hath already been in the world much longer and he is the greatest Antichrist that euer yet was manifested among men and on whom many things in the Scripture signified touching Antichrist doe directly and vnauoydably light Well this reuolt taking place and the woman the Church being in the wildernesse it is not to be doubted but here and there be diuers which serue God aright the very gates of Hell not being able to preuaile against them And as these in generall wheresoeuer dispersed doe make vp the vniuersall militant Church so where any few of them euen in the smallest number are assembled together they may be said to be a particular Congregation or Church Where three are saith Tertullian there is a Church although they bee Lay persons It is likely that he alludeth to that saying of our Sauiour Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the middest of them He is with them as with members of his Church to guide them and heare them to blesse them and preserue them And that such little assemblies are not vnworthy the name of the Church is plaine by S. Pauls words to Philemon where he sendeth greeting not only to Philemon and Appias and Archippus but to the Church in Philemons house for so the Rhemistes themselues translate it In dangerous and Apostatating times such petty assemblies doe make vp the generall and they belong vnto the same mysticall body although they not onely be not knowne to their persecutors but many of them haue no acquaintance with other They haue the same Head the same Faith the same Charitie the same Spirit the same Holy Ghost is giuen to all Saints ioyned one to the other in loue whether they know each other corporally or doe not knowe them saith Saint Austen The want then of Acquaintance each with other may keepe the godly asunder as well as the rage of their persecutors both which are to be found in the case of Elias But directly to follow further this Argument of the Ecclipse of the Churches glorie may it not bee thought to be brought to a low ebbe when it is said of the second Beast That he causeth all both small and great rich and poore free and bond that he should giue them a marke in the right hand or in their foreheads and that no man might buy or sell saue hee that had the marke or the name of the Beast or the number of his name And what else is signified when so many are mentioned to haue commerce with the Whore of Babylon yea all Nations are reported to haue drunken of the wine of the wrath of her fornication The ancient Fathers were not ignorant that such times these might bee when they so oft compared the Church to the Moone as Saint Ambrose The Moone it selfe whereby in the Oracles of the Prophets the countenance of the Church is figured when at the first rising againe shee is renewed into the ages of the Moneth she is hidden by the darknesse of the night and by little and little filling her hornes or right ouer against the Sunne ending them doth shine with the light of cleare brightnes S. Austen in one place doth for diuers respects liken the church vnto the moone and expoundeth the moone to signifie it In another place he hath the Sun is Christ the Moon the Church which as one the one side it doth intimate vnto vs that the Moone hath no light but from the Sun and the Church no light nor beauty but from God so on the other side it doth most liuely put vs in mind that as the Moon continueth at the same stay but increaseth and decreaseth waxeth and waneth is ecclipsed by the interposition of the earth between her selfe and the Sunne and somtimes in the change cannot be seene although it is neuer to be doubted but there is a Moon so the church of Christ whilest this troublesome world doth last is now glorious then shadowed in one age in beauty in an other age kept vnder vnder some Princes in peace vnder others in persecution yea sometimes so pressed with the extremity of the malicious as that she is glad to remaine retyred into secret places not to appeare openly to the malignant albeit shee neuer is nor can be extinguished but hath a continuall being Vnto which it may bee added that since faith doth much consist of things which are not seene and we beleeue the holy Catholike church as an Article of our faith it may follow that it need not euer be eminently visible and apparantly sensible vnto vs. For the better exemplification of this verity it may be remembred what hauock was made by the Heathen Romane Emperors and their deputies against the flock of Christ in the ten first persecutions that in the Roman dominion there was scant any to be heard of who professed Christianity but he was soone cut off by the sword or otherwise Did they in those times suffer any potent visibilitie of true Professors or whē they once knew where they were did they not forthwith labour to extirpate them But in the dayes of Constantius when the Arrian Heresie had once gotten the head where in the world did there appeare any sencible Congregation maintaining the Orthodox beliefe Hieroms testimony of those dayes was The whole world did sigh and wondred that it selfe was Arrian The words are but few but they are to the purpose So said Saint Gregorius Presbyter writing the life of Gregory Nazianzen The Sect of the Arrians had almost possessed all the coasts of the world the power and impietie of the Emperour ministring vnto it The words of Constantius himselfe in Theodoret do giue testimony vnto this Neither doth Liberius the Roman Bishop say ought to the contrary The speeches of the Arrian Emperour against him and Athanasius are these The whole world doth thinke that this is well The whole world hath giuen sentence of his impietie Thou alone doest embrace the friendship of that wicked man And a little before that Doeth so great a part of the world reside in thee Liberius that thou alone doest dare to come in ayd to that wicked man and
A TREATISE OF THE Perpetuall Visibilitie AND Succession of the True CHVRCH in all AGES AT LONDON Printed by HVMâ—REY LOVVNES for ROBERT MILBOVRNE 1624. TO THE READER KIng Salomon the Mirror of wisdome who digged deepest into the richest Mines of diuine and humane knowledge exhorts others to search after that which himself had found in such abundance and he sets an edge vpon our desires by promising If thou seekest after her as for siluer and searchest for her as for hid treasure then shalt thou finde the knowledge of God c. Of so pretious a Talent when wee haue found any parcell wee ought not to hide it in a napkin much lesse to bury it in the bowels of the earth by concealment or suppression for Veritatem celare est aurum sepelire To conceale the Truth is to burie gold and therby to depriue not only others but our selues also of the benefit and vse thereof Wherefore Saint Austen sharply censureth such as would challenge a peculiar interest and propriety in this which is the true common treasure of Gods Church saying Veritas nec mea nec tua nec illius est sed omnium nostrum quos ad eius communionem publicè vocas admonens nos vt nolimus eam habere priuatam ne priuemur ea The truth is neither mine nor thine nor his but all ours in common whom thou O Lord callest publikely to the communion thereof dreadfully admonishing vs not to desire to haue it priuate lest we be depriued of it Now of all truth this day in controuersie there is none more sought after by some than the visibility of the true Church which retained the purity of the Apostles doctrine vnmixed with dregs of errour and superstition especially in the gloomy and dark Ages before Luther As for higher times and neerer the Apostles such was the clarity and splendour of the pure Church that in a manner it obscured the Sun But in succeeding and degenerating times after the number of the name of the Beast 666 it began much to be obscured and clouded with ignorance and superstition and in the thousandth yeer in which Satan was let loose and much more after euen till the happy reformation in these later Ages it was so eclipsed especially in the Western Parts of the world that some confidently affirm it was quite extinct The Woman clothed with the Sun hauing the Moon vnder her feet was now fled into the Wildernesse and had but a fewe Stars to discouer her By the conduct and lustre wherof yet many Wise-men follow'd her obscure track and found her Among whom the most reuerend religious learned and painfull Authour of this enfuing Treatise concerning The Visibility and Succession of the true Church deserueth to bee named in the first rank who hath more particularly and perspicuously trauelled in this Argument than any in our English Tongue It was the manner of the Heathen Race-runners after they had finished their course to deliuer a Lamp or Taper to the next Runner Semblably whereto this Christian Antiquary shewes vnto thee how the noble Worthies of the Christian world and Fore-runners of our faith after they had finished their course deliuered the Lamp of their doctrine from one to another as to omit other former-bearers of this Light Bertram to Berengarius Berengarious to Petrus Bruis Petrus Bruis to Waldo Waldo to Dulcinus Dulcinus to Gandune and Marsilius they to Wicklef Wicklef to Hus and Ierome of Prague and their scholars the Taborites to Luther This Treasure of Antiquitie falling into my hands and finding it hard to come-by I thought fit to publish it and make it more common that so all that loue the truth might cleerly see in it the perfect Image of their Mother the true Protestant Church partly blubbered with tears partly smeared with bloud by the cruelty of the Man of sinne and his Complices in former Ages About which dolefull Image we may fitly write these words of the Prophet Micah for a Motto Reioyce not against me O my enemy when I fall I shall rise when I sit in darknes the Lord shall be a Light vnto mee Such a Light hee hath been Before and In our daies and Henceforth will bee according to his promise til he shall dispell all darknes and consume the Man of sin with the Spirit of his mouth and destroy him with the brightnes of his Comming Euen so come Lord Iesu come quickly A TREATISE OF the perpetuall Visibilitie and Succession of the true CHVRCH WEE teach that as from the beginning long before the Incarnation of Christ God euer had his Church yet sometimes more visible and glorious and sometimes more contracted and obscured so since the appearance of our Sauiour at all times infallibly and without exception there haue been chosen children of God who haue retained his faith and calling vpon his name haue studied to expresse their knowledge in their life by retyring themselues both from the loose conuersation of Libertines and the profanation of Idolatrous persons Neither euer was there any of our profession which did teach or write the contrary But wheras the Synagogue of Rome layes it downe for a fundamentall Rule that this Church hath been and must bee in all ages a visible and conspicuous Congregation at the least consisting of an apparant Hierarchy so that at all times a man may poynt it out and may repaire thither as to a matter eminent yea and in a sort pompous too or to say as Stapleton speaketh when he doth most extenuate it It is euermore visible in respect of her Gouernours and Sheepheards but most of all for the Pope or cheife Pastor thereof To which Pope Bellarmine assigneth that he cannot erre in iudgment and to the people and Cleargie of Rome where this sensible Church must principally be that they cannot erre with a personall errour so that all altogether erre we therein doe dissent from them and maintaine that although when the godly are most driuen to extremities by Heresies or persecutions they bee visible each to other and acquainted with some other brethren who are in like case with themselues yet they are not so apparant to other men as that at all times they know where to find Assemblies and Congregations of them But that the Bishop of Rome and his Pontificall Clergie should haue the face of the Church tyed and inseperably ioyned vnto them wee can in no sort yeeld but doe disclaime it as a flattering tale suggested to that Bishop by such parasites as are about him and from time to time doe depend vpon him And that it may bee seene what reason we haue of this our assertion wee first shew that the estate of the faithfull was frequently so before the comming of Christ. For when it lay as hid in some fewe persons within the single Families of the old Patriarks before and after the Floud what great boast could there bee made of it Nay
was not long after that Conradus the Archbishop himselfe became a Hussite also as the Authour calleth him Vnder this Conradus as President of the assembly these Hussites held a Councell at Prage in the yeare 1421 and there they compiled a Confession of their faith This cause did the said Archbishop and many Barons of Bohemia afterward stiffely maintaine complained against the Emperor Sigismund for offring wrong to those of their Religion Alexander also the Duke of Lituania did giue these Hussites ayd which moued Pope Martin the fifth to write vnto him in this sort Know that thou couldest not giue thy faith to Heretikes which are the violaters of the holy faith and that thou doest sinne deadly if thou shalt keepe it because there cannot be any fellowship of a Beleeuer with an Infidell Thus did the vertuous Pope write In processe of time there grew a parley betweene Sigismund the Emperour and the Bohemians There among the Compacts this was one That the Bishop should promote to holy Orders the Bohemians euen the Hussites which were of the Vniuersitie of Prage And they might well deserue to be reputed Vniuersity men for Cochleus himselfe witnesseth that the Priests of the Thaborites were skilled in arguing and exercised in the holy Scripture Kakizana one of them did vndertake to dispute with Capistranus a great and learned Papist By that time that the yeare 1453. was come Aeneas Syluius doth complaine that the kingdom of Bohemia was wholly gouerned by Heretikes Now all the Nobilitie all the Comminaltie is subiect to an Heretike That was one George of Gyrziko Gouernour of the kingdome of Bohemia vnder King Ladislaus But when Ladislaus was dead this George himselfe was by the Nobles and people chosen King of that Countrey And continuing the ancient profession of his Religion about the yeare 1458. those of Vratislauia and Silesia doe refuse to obey him as being an Heretike Notwithstanding Pope Pius the second then intending warres against the Turke did by all meanes perswade them that they should yeeld obedience vnto him This George saith the Authour was borne and brought vp in the heresie of the Hussites Now when Pope Pius did interpose himselfe as a Mediator betweene the King and his subiects George did require of the Pope that hee might keepe the Compacts agreed vpon at Basil in behalfe of the Bohemians And when Pius would not yeeld thereunto the King calleth together the Estates of his kingdome and protesteth that hee would liue die in those Compacts and so did also the nobles which were Hussites This was done at Prage in the yeare 1462. This resolutenesse of his caused that Pope to tolerate many things in him But Paul 2 who succeeded in that See of Rome did excommunicate that King set vp a Croisado against him Also he gaue to Matthias the King of Hungary the title of King of Bohemia Onuphrius in the life of Paul the 2. saith that the Pope did excommunicate him and depriue him of his kingdome Indeed for seuen yeares this George Matthias did war for it and Matthias got from him Morauia and Silesia a good part of the kingdom of Bohemia Vratislauia also and some other Prouinces and Cities did put themselues in subiection to Mathias Yet did not George deale hardly with the Papistes which were in Prage but in his greatest extremity did vse both the aduise and aid of many Nobles of the popish belief At length after the continuance of warre for seuen yeares Mathias concludeth a peace with king George both against the wil of the Pope and the Emperour And then this King was content to aske of the Pope an absolution from the Excommunication some Princes being mediators for him in that respect But before the Agents could returne from Rome the King died in the yeare of our Lord 1471. By this Story it is manifest that both noble and learned of high account were of that Christian Beliefe which Iohn Hus taught and were contented to aduenture al things which they had in the world for the maintenance of the same Perhaps here it may bee asked but how shal we know that Iohn Hus and his followers did imbrace that Religion which is now professed in England We find in Aeneas Syluius some opinions of theirs which peraduenture will scant be reputed currant among all English Protestants Hee rehearseth these foure of theirs That they would receiue the Sacraments in both kinds that ciuill dominion is inhibited to Clergie men that Preaching of the Word was permitted to al men that publik crimes are in no sort to be tolerated I answer that truth it is that hee there mentioneth onely those and whether he relateth them truly or no it may be doubted as anon I shall shew by laying open the custom of the enemies of the Gospell in misreporting their doctrine But elsewhere he deliuereth other opinions of theirs as against the Supremacy of the Pope against Purgatory against Inuocation of Saints and such like matters If we returne to Cochleus who was best acquainted with their matters we shal find much more As thus Hus translated all the Books of Canonicall Scripture into the Bohemian tongue and the people did most diligently read them They would haue the holy Scriptures to be the onely Iudge in Controuersies They held that all Bishops and Priestes are the Successors of the Apostles that not the Pope but Christ is the head of the Church neither are the Cardinals the body but all that beleeue in Christ that that the Pope is not a member of the Church but of the Deuill and his Synagogue that one Pope was a woman yea Hus did preach that the Pope is an abomination and Antichrist Also he calleth the generall Councell at Constance The Synagogue of Sathan Another of his articles was The Pope is the Beast in the Apocalyps His Schollers after his death brake downe the Images in Churches and Monasteries yea Zisca did cast down all the churches which were dedicated to the virgin Mary or to any Saint as if it were lawfull onely to build a Church to Almighty God In his time the professors began to be distinguished in two companies the one of thē did not so much dissent from the Pope as the other Those which in fewer matters diffred from the Bishop of Rome retained still the name of Hussites they which disagreed in more were called Thaborites of Thabor the citie which Zisca built for them And these were the greater number and the stronger There is in Cochleus a confession of faith made by one Iohann Pezibram a Bohemian who was but a Hussite and not wel affected to the Thaborites because he accounted them as a kinde of Precisians or Puritans in comparison of himselfe yet this more mild man doth wish and beg of God to see a reformation of the Church that there might be redressed Symonies throughout all