Cùm jam varia grassentur quasi factiones opinionum c. Whereas every where now-adays divers factions of Opinions grow up among them that profess the Gospel there are some among others who by certain Philosophical Reasons go about to evacuate or make void the Testament of our Lord so as they would remove the Presence of the true Body and Blood of Christ from the Communion and would by a certain strange perplexity of words deceive the people against the most clear the most evident the most true and the most potent words of our Savior himself Wherefore your Majesty must principally look to this point and provide that the Articles of our Faith be kept without such Pharisaical Leaven and that the Sacraments instituted by Christ be restored without all corruption and adulteration Thus far the Magdeburgians to her Majesty by which you may perceive why I call them Fox his Masters in lying but not his Mates in believing 7. To come therefore now to our purpose I might as before hath been said if it were not over long use two ways for this positive Proof That these Articles deny'd by Fox and his Scholar were heard of and acknowledged in Eleutherius's time The first by citing the places themselves out of the principal Doctors that then lived but this as I have said would be over-long Yet one place I cannot omit of Irenaeus in the very Age we speak of and written while Eleutherius yet lived The words are these Maximae antiquissimae Ecclesiae c. We shewing the Tradition of the greatest and most ancient Church of Rome known to all the World as founded by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul which Tradition and Faith she receiving from the Apostles hath preached and delivered unto us by Succession of her Bishops from time to time unto our days do confound thereby all those Heretics which by any ways either through delight in themselves or vain-glory or blindness of understanding do gather otherwise than they should For that unto this Church in respect of her more Mighty Principality it is necessary that all Churches must agree and have access that is to say all faithful people wheresoever they live In which Church the Tradition that hath descended from the Apostles hath ever been kept by those that live in any place of the World. 8. And again a little after having for proof of his Faith and confirmation of Apostolical Tradition recounted all the Bishops of Rome from St. Peter to his days he saith Nunc duodecimo loco c. Now in the twelfth place from the Apostles hath Eleutherius that Bishopric and by this Succession of the foresaid Roman Bishops is the Tradition of the Apostles conserved in the Church and the Preaching of the Truth hath come down unto us and this is a most full Demonstration that one and the same lively Faith hath been conserved in the Church from the Apostles time and delivered unto us in Truth c. 9. Lo here Tradition of the Apostles delivered and conserved by the Succession of the Bishops of Rome Lo here the Church of Rome called so long ago the Greatest and most Ancient of all other Churches her Principality both named and confirmed Behold the Obligation of all other Churches of the World yea and of all faithful Christians to agree and have access to Her See here all vainglorious and self-will'd Heretics confounded by Irenaeus with the only Tradition and Succession of this Church of Rome and her Bishops even from St. Peter's time to Eleutherius that lived with Irenaeus What Catholic man could say more at this day And will any jangling Fox or Sir Francis avouch yet without shame that none of these points were ever known or heard of in Eleutherius's time 10. Well then this is one way to confound them if I would follow it But being over tedious I mean to take another and shew out of their own Historiographers the Magdeburgenses that all these Doctrins deny'd by Fox and his Follower here were known and in ure among the chiefest Writers in the primitive Church and first Ages after Christ And first of all to begin with this very matter first named by them Of the Primacy of the Pope and Church of Rome The Magdeburgians have an especial Paragraph thereof De primatu Ecclesiae Romanae under the foresaid Title of the incommodious Opinions Stubble Straw and Errors of the Doctors that lived within the first 200 years after Christ And in that Paragraph they not only do alledge for Stubble this last Authority of Irenaeus by me cited tho' they alledge it so miserably maimed as of six parts they leave out more than five but also another place of St. Ignatius that lived in the first Age with the Apostles themselves to the same purpose which they cite in like manner under the same Title of Straw and Stubble and incommodious Opinions And then passing to the third Century or second Age after that of Christ they cite Tertullian for the same incommodious Opinion about the Primacy of the Roman Church and Bishop saying of him Non sine errore sentire videtur Tertullianus claves soli Petro commissas Ecclesiam super ipsum structam c. Tertullian doth seem not without Error to think that the Keys of the Church were given only to St. Peter and that the Church was built but on him 11. They cite also four or five places out of St. Cyprian where he holdeth the same with Tertullian and so they are both confuted for Stubble-Doctors together Yet go they further with St. Cyprian citing divers other places out of him to the same effect for the Bishop and Church of Rome all which they take for Stubble as where he saith One God one Christ one Church one Chair builded upon the Ark by the Word of our Savior and three or four like places more which for brevity I omit and finally they say of him and three other Fathers of his time Cyprianus Maximus Vrbanus and Salonius do think that one Chief Bishop must be in the Catholic Church c. Lo four old Fathers that lived almost 1400 years agone and were the Lights of that Primitive Church rejected here by four drinking Germans gathered together in some warm Stow of Magdeburg tippling strongly as a man may presume and judging all the World for Stubble besides themselves for which cause the third person in this Quaternity is called perhaps Mattheus Judex But let us go forward 12. They are not content with this rejection of St. Cyprian but they fall upon him again in these words Cyprian affirmeth expresly without all foundation of holy Scripture that the Roman Church must be acknowledged by all Christians for the Mother and Root of the Catholic Church And further yet in another Treatise That this Church is the Chair of Peter from which all the Vnity of Priesthood proceedeth And finally Cyprian say they hath
divers other perillous Opinions about this matter as for Example That he tyeth the Office of true Pastorship to ordinary Succession and that he denieth that Bishops can be judged c. And Origen also in this Age hath no mean blots about the Power and Office of the Church c. 13. Hitherto are the words of the Magdeburgians against the chief Writers of these two first Ages after the Apostles concerning the point of Principality and Supremacy of the Church and Bishop of Rome so clearly confessed by the said Fathers as the Magdeburgians do grant and on the other side so boldly denied by the Fox and the Knight his Follower and Proselyte as a thing not so much as heard or dreamed of in these first Ages whereof you have heard their several and resolute asseverations before Let them but grant me saith Fox and then I say quoth the Knight there is no such matter c. And by this one point only of the five Articles before objected by them and denied flatly to have been known or believed in Eleutherius's time you may see how they behave themselves and what may be said on our part and how great a Volume this Book would grow unto if I should prosecute all the other four Articles also by them mentioned before and should pass through the first three or four or five hundred years after Christ for so much our Adversaries sometimes upon a good mood of bragging will seem to allow us to shew not out of the Books and Writings of the ancient Fathers themselves for that this were over long but what these Magdeburgians do note and gather against themselves out of their Works for the Antiquity of that Doctrin which they impugn rejecting afterward all again with this only frivolous and fond Cavil That these Opinions of the Fathers were but naevi stipulae palia Doctorum stains stubble and straw of Doctors opiniones incommodae c. and incommodious Opinions 14. Wherein it is well noted by a Learned Man of our time That these Fellows do proceed as if one being suspected or accused of Theft Heresie or any other grievous Crime should willingly present himself before the Magistrate or Senate of the City and there first of all for his clearing should bring in for Witnesses against himself the best learned most grave ancient and best reputed honest men of all that City to testifie that he is indeed such a one to wit a false Thief an Heretic or the like but yet having so done would endeavor to refute all these again by one bare rejection saying that they spake rashly and incommodiously and that they were overseen and knew not what they testified or were in a dream when they spake or testified against him and finally that all were deceived and he alone to be believed against them all And would this shift think you countervail so grave Witnesses against him or would any indifferent Judge leave to condemn him for this evasion or would any man think him much better than mad that would take such a course of Defence And yet this is the very course of these Magdeburgians who citing first the gravest and most ancient Fathers of Christendom against themselves do reject the same again with this only jest and contumely that they spake incommodiously ignorantly and were Stubble-Doctors 15. Well then for so much as concerneth the first Article mentioned by Fox and Sir Francis as a thing not heard of in Eleutherius's time to wit the Vniversality and Primacy of the Church and Bishop of Rome you see that with going to the Authors themselves of that Age the Magdeburgians do make it clear against themselves And for the second point concerning the use of Mass and Propitiatory Sacrifice we have cited sufficiently before in the first Chapter of this Treatise out of the same Magdeburgians who condemn divers of the most ancient Fathers for testifying this matter and we may do the like in all the other Articles specified by Fox and his Knight but that it would be over tedious And therefore I do remit the curious Reader to the Volumes of the Magdeburgians themselves if he have so much time to lose as the reading thereof doth require Only in this place I am to note unto him for his better Instruction three or four kinds of shifts and frauds used ordinarily by these Protestant Germans in setting down these and other like matters out of the Fathers which I shall do in the next ensuing Chapter CHAP. VII The same Argument is continued and it is shewed out of the Magdeburgians how they accuse and abuse the Fathers of the Second and Third Age for holding with Us against Them. DIvers are the shifts and frauds and manifold the abuses which Protestant Writers and namely the Magdeburgians do offer to the ancient Fathers in examining their Sentences about Controversies in Religion Whereof one principal may be accounted that of four or five places or more that may be alledged out of them for Us and our Doctrin in the question proposed they will not cite two left the multitude of Authorities if they alledge all that in the Fathers are found should give our Cause too much credit Secondly of four or five parts of the Fathers words contained in the places by them alledged these good Fellows do cut off ordinarily three lest if they did set them down at length with their Antecedents and Consequents their Opinions might appear more probable and plausible than these men would have them And of this you have had an Example in the first Authority alledged by me even now out of Irenaeus about the Principality of the Church of Rome which being set down somewhat at length as it is in the Author maketh the matter clear but shuffled up in four or five words after a most curtail'd manner as the Magdeburgians do alledge them do scarce make any sense at all which is the thing the Alledgers do desire thereby to discredit the Author 2. Their third fraud is that having alledged the first Authorities for Us and against themselves they devise divers pretty and witty slights to discredit them again as sometimes saying that in other places the said Father expoundeth or contradicteth himself sometimes that he speaketh rashly or incommodiously or without Scripture and other such contemptuous rejections As for Example talking of St. Cyprian that famous Bishop Doctor and Martyr and the Christian Phoenix of his Age as St. Augustin judgeth of him these men do handle him in this sort 3. Cyprianus sine Scriptura loquitur Cyprian speaketh without Scripture Cyprianus superstitiosè fingit Cyprian doth feign superstitiously Cyprianus malè judicat Cyprian judgeth naughtily and the like Nay they endeavor to discredit the whole multitude of Doctors and Fathers in every Age As for Example in the beginning of the first Age next after the Apostles they write thus Tamesit haec aetas Apostolis admodum vicina fuit c. Albeit this
by that Succession of Roman Bishops the true Succession of one and the self-same Catholic Faith to have endured not only in these several Countreys but also over all Christendom and that from Christ to those times esteeming this to be a most invincible Proof and certain Demonstration or to use St. Irenaeus his own words plenissimam ostensionem a most full probation against all Heretics whatsoever 7. According to which Principle and sure Foundation all other Fathers also that have ensued since from Age to Age have stood very resolutely upon this point of Succession against the Heretics of their times Brevem saith St. Hierom apertamque animi mei sententiam proferam in illa esse Ecclesia permanendum quae ab Apostolis fundata usque ad diem hanc durat I will utter briefly my sentence and judgment we must abide in that Church which being founded by the Apostles hath endured unto this day As if he had said We must be and abide in that Church which as it was visibly founded and spread over the World by the Apostles Preaching so it hath visibly been continued under her Bishops and Teachers unto this day Which sentence of his St. Augustin that lived with him tho' somewhat younger confirmeth in these words Dubitabimus nos illius Ecclesiae considere gremio quae ab Apostolica sede per Successiones Episcoporum frustra haereticis circumlatrantibus culmen Authoritatis obtinuit Shall we doubt still to rest in the lap of that Church which hath kept continually the height of her Authority by Succession of Bishops from the See-Apostolic unto this day notwithstanding the vain barking of Heretics on every side of her 8. Thus said St. Augustin of the visible Church in his days which had not continued much more than 400 years But what would he say if he liv'd in our days after almost 1200 years Succession more since he wrote this when he should hear far greater and more spiteful barking of Heretics against the same than he heard in his days tho' then also he heard much and much of that which we hear now But if St. Augustin should live now again there is no doubt of one thing which is that he would make this his Argument of Succession far more strong against our Heretics and esteem it so much the more by how much the Power of Christ hath shewed it self more Omnipotent in continuing the same since for so many Ages more after him amidst so many troubles and turmoils changes and alterations of Empires and Kingdoms and Temporal States as before we have noted And if in England we can number above seventy Archbishops of Canterbury all of one Religion the one succeeding the other since our first Conversion by St. Augustin our Apostle not to speak any thing of the British Church before us as you may see confessed by Cambden and other new heretical Writers of our own and that this English Church was the same in Faith and Belief with the British as before hath been shewed and both of them one with the Roman and General Church from the very beginning to this time what an Antiquity is this and how clear and evident a Succession And how would St. Augustin urge this Argument against our Protestants if he were now alive again 9. Sure I am that if any one Baron Earl or Duke in England could shew but the half of these years for the continuance and possession of any Temporal State Lordship or Land in England he would highly esteem thereof and thereby make a glorious defence against any wrangling Companion that should presume to pretend the same and deprive him thereof if he could truly say and prove as we do in the Cause of our Church that his Ancestors for 1300 years together had continued in that possession But no man can prescribe any such time in temporal matters and therefore are they well called Temporal for that they change in a little time And he that will read the foresaid Cambden's Story towards the end of every English Shire where he taketh upon him to recount the Earls or Dukes that have had their States and Titles over that Shire he shall see such a broken Succession in those States and Signories as it is pitiful to behold no Dukedom or Earldom continuing lightly three or four Generations together in any one Name or Family And this is the frailty and uncertainty of human things 10. But for matters of Religion appertaining to the Soul Almighty God hath given another manner of force unto Succession both of Men and Faith. As for example in the Law of Nature he made the same to endure by only Tradition without Writing for more than 2500 years under the ancient Patriarchs before and after the Flood of Noe. And afterward again in the written Law the Jews continued the possession of their Religion by Succession of Bishops and Ecclesiastical Governors from Moses unto Christ above 1500 years notwithstanding all varieties of times and calamities And no less from Christ to our Age hath he continued the same in a much more glorious sort and manner In which latter time of Christian Religion to speak only of this for the present so many mutations have been made both in the Roman Empire it self and all other Realms and Kingdoms round about us as all men know and may be seen in Histories And yet hath the Succession of the Catholic Church and Pastors thereof together with the Union of Faith therein taught been most miraculously conserved amongst all these tossings and turmoils breaches and divisions of Temporal Kingdoms which could never have been but by the Omnipotent Hand of our Savior that hath defended it especially considering withal the great multitude of Sects and Heresies that from time to time have risen and attempted to impugn the same but could never prevail And this is sufficient for this first and principal point of the vertue and force of Ecclesiastical Succession 11. The second point to be considered is That when Luther's new Religion began and could alledge no Successors of Bishops or ancient Teachers for it self but was much pressed with this other of the Catholics he devised a certain notorious and ridiculous shift to say that the true Church was invisible to the eye of man and only seen by God and consequently had no need of any visible or external Succession of Men. And this shift of his is discovered by that he writeth both against Erasmus and Catharinus and in his wicked Treatise de abroganda Missa privata for taking away private Masses where having had Conference with the Devil as himself confesseth he asketh very stoutly Who can shew us the Church seeing she is secret and to be believed only in Spirit To whom if any man would oppose S. Aug. that saith digito ostendimus Ecclesiam we can shew the Church with our finger should not Luther be well match'd think you 12. The like held
Church throughout the World Were they His or Our Martyrs think you For to both of us they cannot be Martyrs that is to say Witnesses we being of a different belief for that we of our part do hold resolutely the saying of St. Athanasius in his Creed That whosoever doth not hold all and every point of the Catholic Faith entirely shall perish eternally If therefore he will say they were his Martyrs he must prove that they were in all and every point of His Religion and not of Ours And to examin this point to wit of what Religion they were whether more of Ours or of His divers considerations may be brought in As first Who of us do more honor them We keep their Days and Feasts as all men know we put them in our Ecclesiastical Calendar and Martyrology we keep their Relics we honor their Tombs we call upon them in Heaven to pray for us as reigning in most high Glory with Christ All which Protestants do mislike yea John Fox by name hath put the most of them I mean of the Martyrs of these first 300 years quite out of his Ecclesiastical Calendar to give place to John Wickliff John Husse Martin Luther and other like Companions as may be seen in the very first pages of his Book which is a sign that we esteem and honor them more than they which we would not do if we did not persuade our selves that they were of our Religion and not of Protestants in any point of Controversie between us 5. Moreover the Christian visible Church of that time to wit of those first 300 years wherein these Martyrs suffered and were put to death would never have registred them for Saints nor admitted them into the number of true Martyrs if in all points they had not been of her Faith and Communion no more than she did those of divers Sects namely of the Marcionists and Montanists who were very many and bragged of Martyrdom and of God's assistance therein no less but much more than true Catholics as Apollinaris a most ancient Bishop related by Eusebius in his fifth Book of Ecclesiastical History doth testifie at large Yea these Heretics especially the latter sort were so forward in Martyrdom as they held it was not lawful to flee in time of Persecution as may appear by Tertullian who defended the same also after he was fallen into that Heresie himself St. Cyprian doth inveigh often against the Martyrs of the Novatians and St. Epiphanius against those of the Euphemits sirnamed for the multitude of their false Martyrs Martyrians and St. Augustin no less earnestly doth detest those Martyrs of the Donatists who rather than they would lack Martyrs were ready to murder themselves All which Martyrs notwithstanding were rejected by the Catholic Church tho' in shew they died for Christ for that they agreed not with her in all points of Faith and Belief And consequently we may infer for most certain that seeing the Catholic Church of that time and of all times since hath held these Martyrs before mentioned of the first ten Persecutions for true Saints and Martyrs indeed and have continued their honorable remembrance both by Histories and celebrating their annual Feasts and Memories sure it is that they agreed fully with the said known Catholic Church of those Ages Whereof we infer again That seeing the Faith of those first 300 years was continued as before we have proved in the second 300 years and so consequently downward and delivered to us and forasmuch as the Church of Rome was held still for Head of all this Church it cannot be that these Martyrs were of John Fox's Religion and consequently are to no purpose brought in by him but only for that he had nothing else to talk of or to make a shew of handling some pious matter in his Book 6. Moreover if we would take upon us to reflect upon all that is extant of the sayings and doings of these Martyrs recorded in their Histories we might soon discern of what Religion they were and whether they were John Fox his Martyrs or Ours As for example in that Answer of St. Andrew the Apostle and holy Martyr which he made to Aegeas the Proconsul that exhorted him to sacrifice to Idols Ego saith he Omnipotenti Deo qui unus verus est immolo quotidie c. I do sacrifice daily to Almighty God that is One and True not the flesh of Bulls or blood of Goats but the immaculate Lamb upon the Altar whose flesh after that all the Faithful People have eaten the same Lamb that is sacrificed remaineth whole and alive as before This man as you see spoke not as a Protestant Martyr 7. The Speech also of St. Laurence Martyr that suffered in Rome under the Emperor Valerianus the same year that St. Cyprian did in Carthage his Speech I say to Pope Sixtus Bishop of Rome whose Deacon he was and who was carry'd to Martyrdom three days before him doth not shew that he was a Protestant but rather a plain Papist as both St. Ambrose St. Augustin and other later Authors do relate the same Cùm videret Laurentius saith St. Ambrose Sixtum Episcopum suum ad Martyrium duci flere coepit c. When Laurence the Deacon saw his Bishop Sixtus to be carried away to Martyrdom he began to weep not for the others suffering but for his own remaining behind him wherefore he cried unto him in these words Whither do you go O Father without your Son and whither do you hasten O holy Priest without your Deacon You were never wont to offer Sacrifice without a Minister what then hath displeased you in me that you leave me behind you Have you proved me perhaps to be a Coward Make trial I pray you whether you have chosen unto your self a fit Minister to whom you have committed the dispensing of our Lord's Blood And then seeing you have not denied unto me the Fellowship of administring Sacraments do not deny me the Fellowship of shedding my Blood also with you 8. Thus talked St. Laurence of his Deacon's Office in dispensing the Blood of Christ from the Altar and in ministring to his Bishop while he offered Sacrifice which is a phrase far different from Protestants manner of Speech But if we consider the Speech of the Heathen Emperour to St. Laurence set down by Aurelius Prudentius above 1200 years past objecting to Christian Priests their sacrificing in Gold and dispensing the Blood of our Savior in silver Cups and the like we shall easily see of what Religion this Martyr was Hunc esse vestris Orgiis Mor émque artem proditum est Hanc disciplinam foederis Libent ut auro Antistites Argenteis scyphis ferunt Fumare sacrum sanguinem Auróque nocturnis sacris Astare fixos caereos c. We hear saith the Persecutor this to be the fashion and device of your Feasts and
Writings for his Defence he should never so much as look them over or take a view of them but should suffer himself to be cast and overthrown in the whole Suit without pleading at all for Himself or his Interest Which is the very case of many negligent Christians in our days who seeing so many assaults to be made by different Sectaries against the old possession of Cath. Religion which was their Ancestors Inheritance to Salvation and must be theirs if ever they be sav'd do yield so dastardly in this conflict and injury offered them as they never so much as examine what Proofs or Evidences they have or may have for their Defence A negligence no doubt inexcusable and worthy of infinite rebuke and confusion 40. Out of the Third Point concerning the necessity of pious Affection in him that must profit by these Arguments of Credibility I do infer how highly it doth import every man that meaneth seriously to treat of his Salvation in this behalf to dispossess himself of his Passions and sinister Affections against the Truth at leastwise while he treateth this Great Affair and that he place himself in such an indifferency equanimity and serenity of mind as he may be able to discern and look upon the Truth with an unpassionate Eye if she chance to appear unto him 41. The saying of our Savior in the place before-alleged of S. John's Gospel to such as were ambitious and intangl'd with the Wealth and Honor of this World and thereby letted to believe the Truth is terrible and dreadful For having demanded How it was possible for them to believe and thereby come to Salvation that were so intangl'd and evil-affected in mind he addeth presently Nolite putare quia ego accusaturus sim vos apud Patrem est qui accusat vos Do not you think that I shall have need to accuse you to my Father for these corrupt affections of yours rising of Ambition for there wanteth not one to accuse you Whereby Christ insinuateth amonst other things that Himself at the Day of Judgment was not to be Accuser but Judge and that the Condemnation of these men was to be most grievous who for Ambition Honor Wealth Dignities and Promotions had neither Time nor Will to attend to matters of Faith and true Religion whereby only Eternal Salvation may be atchieved which is a Point greatly to be considered and born in mind especially by such who are in the same or like Case with those Men of Jewry to whom Christ our Savior used that dreadful speech 42. Out of the Fourth and Last Point is inferred That considering all the premisses and that this matter of true Religion is of so great Moment as hath been shewed and that in this Treatise so short and clear a way is taken for discussion thereof as by only joyning Issue about the Planting Continuance Succession and Descent of Christian Religion in England from the Apostles Time unto Ours the whole Controversie between Us and the Protestants may fully be cleared and that with such evidence of Reason and necessary Consequence as supposing only that Ghrist was Christ and his Promises true all the rest doth follow by most certain sequel of Argument and moral Demonstration All this I say being so it may encourage and animate the studious Reader to run over this short Treatise Which if he do with that indifferency and attention which in the Second and Third Point of this Discourse have been touched I do not doubt but that he shall not need to read many other Books for resolving himself either about the grounded certain Truth of Catholic Religion or the Vanity Inanity Inconstancy Lightness and Folly of all Sect and Heresies that ever have or shall arise up against the same And with this good Reader I leave thee to the holy Protection and Benediction of Almighty God and to his merciful direction of thee in so weighty an Affair This Vigil of the Nativity of our Savior 1602. The First PART of this Present TREATISE CONCERNING Three Conversions OF ENGLAND TO THE Christian Catholic Roman Religion The ARGUMENT THe purpose of this first Part gentle Reader is to declare by evident demonstration both of Histories Reasons Antiquities and Succession of Times and by confession and other testimonies of the Adversaries themselves That this our Isle of England and People thereof the Britans Saxons and English have at three several times received Christian Faith from Rome and by Romish Preachers First under the Apostles in the first Age after Christ And then under Pope Eleutherius in the second Age And thirdly under Pope Gregory in the beginning of the sixth Age And that this Faith and Religion was no other than the Roman Catholic Faith generally received over all Christendom in those days And that it was One and the Self-same Faith at all these three times and that the same was continued and professed afterward in England publicly for almost 1400 years together to wit from the Apostles days unto the Reign of King Henry VIII under divers Nations States Governments and variety of Times by Britans Saxons Danes Normans and English and that the self-same Faith continueth at this day in the Church of Rome and Christian Catholic World abroad without change or alteration of any one substantial Article or Point of Belief and that all Cavils and Calumniations of Heretics and Sectaries in this behalf are vain and foolish and most manifestly here confuted And finally a most clear easie evident and infallible deduction visible to the Eye and Vnderstanding of every mean intelligent Reader is set down and brought from hand to hand without interruption from the first Conversions of our Realm unto this day and this so perspicuously as no man that will not wilfully shut his eyes but can see and behold the same as by the Chapters following God willing more particularly shall appear CHAP. I. Whether England and English-men have particular Obligations to the See of Rome above other Nations And of the first Conversion of Britans to Christian Religion in the time of the Apostles AFTER a certain Narration made by me in my Answer to Sir Francis Hastings about the seventh Encounter between him and N. D. wherein I declared what Reverend Respect other Nations and Kingdoms of the Christian World have ever born to the See Apostolic and Bishop thereof until this miserable Age of Heretical Spirits who ridiculously do hold the same to be Antichrist I do infer the conclusion and comparison following about the particular Obligation of English-men towards the same See and Bishop above many other Kingdoms saying in my ward-Ward-word thus 2. And if all Christian Nations have and ought to bear such Reverence and Respect to the See of Rome then much more out little Island of England as this man calleth it for that it hath received more singular benefits from thence than any one Nation in the World besides having been twice converted from
perturbation of Wars as hath been said were not so well known nor distinctly observed nor deliver'd to Writing in those days as otherwise they might have been yet find I some mention tho' dispersed of three several Apostles of Christ to have Preached there to wit St. Peter St. Paul and St. Simon of Chananee sirnamed the Zealous two Apostolical Men also in these first troubled Times to have been sent thither Aristobulus a Roman whom St. Paul named in his Epistle to the Romans and Joseph of Arimathea a Nobleman of Jury that buried Christ Of all which Five we shall speak somewhat in order 20. And first of St. Peter himself to have been in England or Britanny and Preached Founded Churches and Ordained Priests and Dencons therein is recorded out of Greek Antiquities by Simeon Metaphrastes a Grecian And it seemeth to be somewhat confirmed by that which Innocentius I. Bishop of Rome hath left written above 1200 years agone saying That the first Churches of Italy France Spain Africa Sicilia and the Islands that lie betwixt them were founded by St. Peter or his Scholars or Successors For which cause Gulielmus Eysengrenius in his first Centuria or hundred years doth write also That the first Christian Churches of England were sounded by St. Peter under Nero. Whereunto it may be thought that the foresaid Gildas had relation when expostulating with the Britain Priests of his time for their Wickedness for which the Wrath of God had brought in the English Saxons upon them he objecteth among other things Quod sedem Petri Apostoli inverecundis pedibus usurpassent That they had usurped the Seat St. Peter with unshamefac'd feet meaning thereby either the whole Church of Britanny first founded by him or some particular place of Devotion or Church which he had erected And finally Alredus Rienuallus an English Abbot of the Order of Cisterce left written about 500 years agone a certain Revelation or Apparition of St. Peter to an holy man in the time of King Edward the Confessor shewing him how he had Preached himself in England and consequently the particular care he had of that Church and Nation c. 21. If any man ask What time it might be that St. Peter left Rome and went into Britanny and other Countries round about Cardinal Baronius a famous Learned Historiographer of our time thinketh that it was then when Claudius the Emperor banish'd all the Jews out of Rome as in the Acts of the Apostles it is recorded among whom it is like that St. Peter also being by Nation a Jew retired himself and took that occasion to go into divers Pagan Countries to preach the Faith of Christ that thing belonging especially to his Charge as Head of the Apostles according to his own words of himself Elegit Deus per os meum audire gentes verbum Evangelii credere God hath chosen and appointed that Gentiles shall hear and believe the Word of the Gospel by my mouth This then was the cause why he was so diligent and careful to go and preach every-where Christian Religion to the end he might fulfil and accomplish this Will and Ordination of his Master And this was one cause also to wit his absence from Rome why according to Baronius and other Learned Men St. Paul writing to the Romans did not name or salute him in his Epistle whereof our Heretics do brabble much And thus much of St. Peter 22. Of St. Paul's being in Britanny there are not so many particular Testimonies yet the foresaid Theodoretus doth affirm That from Rome he made certain Exoursions in Hispanias in Insulas quae in Mari jacent into Spain and the Islands lying in the Sea near about And in another place as the Magdeburgians do cite him he writeth expresly That St. Paul Preached to the Britains And the like hath Sophronius Bishop of Jerusalem in his Sermon of the Nativity of the Apostles Venantius also Fortunatus a most Learned and Holy. Man writing above a thousand years agone of St. Paul's Peregrination saith thus Transit Oceanum vel qua facit Insula portum Quasque Britannus habet terras atque ultima Thyle He pass'd over the Ocean-Sea to the Island that maketh a Haven on the other side even to the Lands which the Britains do possess c. For which respect Arnoldus Mirmannus in his Theatre of the Conversion of all Nations affirmeth St. Paul to have pass'd to Britanny in the fourth year of Nero Anno Domini 59 and there to have Preached and afterward to have returned again into Italy And so much of St. Paul who having twelve or thirteen years permitted him by Christ after his coming to Rome before his death for helping St. Peter and for assisting the West-parts of the World and St. Peter himself almost twice as much it is not unlike their Zeal being considered and the state of times weighed but that they made many Excursions as the former Authors do write And thus much of them 23. For the Preaching of the third Apostle Symon Chananaeus sirnamed the Zealous we have the Testimony of Nicephorus out of Greek Monuments to whom agreeth Dorotheus a very ancient Writer as also the Greek Martyrology as testifieth Baronius in his Annotations upon the Roman Martyrology And by this also we see that albeit St. Peter had undertaken to preach to the West-part of the World yet did other Apostles also help him therein as St. Paul in Italy and Spain and this Symon in Britanny and other places and St. Philip in France c. 24. Of Aristobulus also St. Peter's Scholar do testifie in like manner the foresaid Authors Mirmannus Dorotheus Baronius out of the Greek Martyrology that he was sent by St. Peter into Britanny and there made a Bishop And that Aristobulus was a principal known Christian in Rome before St. Paul's arrival there it appeareth by the Epistle of the said Apostle to the Romans where he saluteth him in these words Salute those that be of the house of Aristobulus Nor is it read that ever this Aristobulus came back from Britanny to Italy again And this of him 25. Of Joseph of Arimathea his coming into France and his sending thence into Great Britanny either by St. Philip as some say who preached then in Gaul or as Others hold by St. Peter himself as he passed that way to and from Britanny and how he obtained a place to exercise an Eremitical Life for him and his ten Companions in the Island called Avallonia where Glastonbury after was builded albeit I find no very certain or ancient Writer to affirm it yet because our later Historiographers for two hundred years past or more do hold it have come down by Tradition and namely Johannes Capgravius a Learned Man of the Order of St. Dominick and others after him I do not mean to dispute the matter here but rather to admire and praise the Heavenly Providence and
c. In the end Wilfrid in his Disputation prevailed by his Impostures having bewitched the two Kings that were present King Oswyn and King Egfrid Did you ever hear a more shameless tongue But this he wrote of St. Wilfrid Obiter and by the way in the Narration he maketh of B. Colman But when he cometh to talk of him in particular and severally he is far more bitter and impudent against him telling us first how that after Wilfrid had been in France Italy and Rome to study and there learned the Mathematical Calculations of times out of the Gospels Reversus in Patriam Romanas Consuetudines contra Quartadecimanos sic enim pios homines tunc derisorié vocabant disceptationibus in Synodo publicis defendebat gerebatque circa collum reliquiarum quas Roma tulerat capsulam quandam c. Et Archiepiscopus denique ob haec his similia constitutus bis infra spatium 45 annorum non ob Regum insolentiam ut Polidorus immodesté scribit sed ob suam temeritatem imò malitiam atque neguitias plures Archiepiscopatu pulsus est longo tandem confectus senio periit Anno Christi 710. He returning from Rome to his Country did defend by public Disputations in a Synod the Roman Customs against these men who being Pious and Godly were called scoffingly in those days Quartadecimans he carried about his Neck a certain Box of Saints Reliques which he brought with him from Rome And being for these and other like things made Archbishop he was driven out twice within 45 years from his Archbishopric and this not by the Insolency of the Kings that drave him out as Polidor doth immodestly write but rather for his own Rashness yea Malice and many Wickednesses c. And so at length being consumed with Old Age he perished in the year of Christ 710. 19. Behold here a Narration worthy the Spirit of a new Gospeller and old Apostata against so Venerable and Worthy a Pillar of our Primitive English Church as was St. Wilfrid Mark how he is tax'd for travelling and studying at Rome for defending by public Disputations the Roman Custom of celebrating Easter which yet was defended and decreed openly by the General Council of Nice as before you have heard and after shall be proved for bearing a Box of Reliques about his Neck brought from Rome which no doubt is one of the things that most troubleth the Spirit of John Bale as it did the Devils and wicked Spirits in England who cry'd and were cast out by the same as you may read in them that write his Life 20. Moreover he saith That for his own Wickedness he was driven out of his Archbishopric and so finally perished in the year 710. As for his perishing if he perished that lived so austere a Religious Life converted so many thousand English Heathens to Christian Faith wrought so many Miracles as are recorded of him then woe to Us that cannot imitate so great Holiness and woe to John Bale that ran out of Religion and being a Fryer took a Wench named Faithful Dorothy and that as himself braggeth Neque ab homine neque per hominem sed ex speciali Christi dono Neither from man nor by man but by the special Gift of Christ as tho' Christ did use to divide such Gifts to Fryers that had vowed Chastity And how good a Fellow he became afterward and how pleasant a Companion you may understand by his own words when writing of his Works he saith Facetias jocos sine certo numero feci I have written Jests and Pastimes without any certain number a fit Argument for a new Gospelling Fryer But yet how far this exercise of Jesting was from the Gravity and Holiness of St. Wilfrid no man can doubt And so himself miserable man may be thought to have perished while the other reigneth eternally in Heaven 21. And as for Refutation of the horrible Slander That for his Wickedness St. Wilfrid was driven out of his Archbishopric I have no better means present than to oppose against this lying Apostata the Universal Consent of all Antiquity especially those that wrote his Life as St. Bede and after him Hedius Odo Fridegenus Petrus Blesensis and others who have written both his Life and Death as of a great Saint and his Memory and Festival Celebration is held throughout the Universal Church upon the 12th day of October as all Martyrologies do testifie And thus much of the Insolency of John Bale against the person of St. Wilfrid 22. But now whereas further he is not ashamed to defend the Jewish Custom and the Quartadecimans condemned for it saying That they were pious men and were called by the nickname of Quartadecimans for a scoff only I am forced to deal further therein and to shew him first to be an Heretical and most shameless Calumniator for that the name of Quartadecimani or Quatuordecimani signifying those that observe the fourteenth day of the Moon of March to celebrate Easter is an old name appointed to those that held that Heretical Use for many Ages agone as may appear by St. Epiphanius that wrote 1200 years agone whose words are these Emersit rursus mundo alia Haeresis Tesseradecatitarum appellata quos Quartadecimanos quidam appellant There is another Heresie sprung up in the World of some that are called in Greek Tesseradecatites which others in Latin do call Quartadecimans c. The Explication of which words St. Augustin after him in his Book of Heresies written to Quod-vult-Deus doth set down thus Hinc appellati sunt quòd non nisi quartadecima Luna mense Martio Pascha celebrant These People are called by the Greek words Tesseradecatites and by the Latin Quartadecimans for that they do celebrate Easter upon the fourteenth day of the Moon of March. Unde etiam Quartadecimani cognominati sunt saith Nicephorus lib. 4. Histor cap. 36. for which cause they are called also Quartadecimans 23. And yet further the same men were called also by a third name of Paschatites as appeareth both by St. Philastrius Bishop of Brixia somewhat before St. Epiphanius who in his Catalogue of Heresies numbring up these Paschatites yieldeth the reason of their name in these words Qui asserunt quartadecima Luna celebrandum esse Pascha non autem sicuti Ecclesia Catholica celebrat Who affirm that Easter-day is to be celebrated upon the fourteenth of the Month of March upon whatsoever day it shall fall out and not as the Catholic Church doth accustom to expect the Sunday 24. Well then we see that St. Wilfrid and other Roman Catholics of his time did not invent the name of Quartadecimani for a scoff to disgrace godly men thereby as ungodly John Bale blusheth not to avouch but that it is an old name invented and appointed by the Universal Primitive Church to them that defended obstinatly the Jewish Custom of celebrating Easter-day strictly upon the
next Age following Pope Victor seeing the same inconveniences greatly to increase wrote a Letter to Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus to gather a Synod against it about the year of Christ 249 as Eusebius testifieth And when he perceived that both He and divers Asian Bishops did stand more stifly in defence thereof than he expected yea that they began not only to shew obstinacy therein against the former Decree of Pope Pius and the See of Rome but to draw near also to the very formality of Heresie before mentioned to wit that it was necessary to observe the Fourteenth Day nay further that it was ex Evangelii praescripto secundum Regulam Normam Fidei by the Prescription of the Gospel and according to the Rule and Norm of Faith as the said Polycrates in his Epistle to Pope Victor writeth When Victor I say saw this he resolved after Counsel taken by Conference with divers Synods both of the West and East Churches to Excommunicate those Asian Bishops that resisted if they would not agree Which Determination albeit Irenaeus and some others at that time did mislike and dehort Pope Victor from it as a thing perillous and scandalous and subject to many troubles as Eusebius reporteth yet did never any of them say that he could not do it but rather when he had done it indeed they did accommodate themselves thereunto both in West and East ratifying and confirming the same by divers particular Synods as Nicephorus recounteth to wit in Jerusalem Caesarea Tyrus Ptolomais Corinth Lions of France where St. Irenaeus himself was Bishop and other places c. 29. And finally the Council of Nice confirmed the same as the Fathers thereof do testifie by their particular Letters to the Clergy of Alexandria whose words are these as Theodoretus relateth them Scitote controversiam de Paschate susceptam prudenter sedatam esse Ita ut omnes fratres qui Orientem incolunt jam Romanos nos omnes vos sint consentientibus animis in eodem celebrando deinceps sequuturi You must understand that the Controversie about celebrating Easter taken in hand by us is prudently pacified so as all our Brethren that inhabit the East-parts will follow for the time to come the Romans or the Roman Church Us and the Authority of the Council and all You of the Aegyptian Church with full consent of mind in celebrating the same Feast Note here That the Council doth put the Authority of the Church of Rome in the first place even before Themselves and then Themselves and the Authority of the Council in the second place and those of Alexandria in the third which is another reckoning than our Heretics are wont to make of the Roman Church 30. Constantine also the Emperour writing his Letters to all Bishops of the Christian World that had not been present at the Council of Nice nor could come yieldeth account unto them with great Christian Modesty and Zeal of the chief Matters handled in that Council Where coming to speak of the Decree of celebrating Easter he saith thus Cùm de sanctissimo Festo Paschatis disceptaretur communi omnium sententia videbatur rectum esse ut omnes ubique uno eodemque die illud celebrarent When the Question was proposed about celebrating the holy Feast of Easter it seemed good by the common consent of all that were present in this Council that all Christians should celebrate the same in one and the self-same day which day he sheweth to be Sunday and refuteth at large the Custom of celebrating the same with the Jews upon the fourteenth day of the Moon tho' it were a Feria concluding thus Quae cum ita se habent c. Which things being so do you willingly embrace this Decree of the Council as a great Gift of God and a Commandment sent from Heaven forasmuch as whatsoever is decreed by holy Council of Bishops that must be ascribed to God's holy Will. Wherefore do you declare and denounce unto all our dear Brethren living among you the Decrees of this Council and namely the Decree of celebrating this holy Feast c. 31. Thus wrote our good British Emperour Constantine with a far different Spirit from those Christian Inhabitants of Britanny who afterwards defended the contrary Custom without respect of holy Decree of the Nicene Council but far more opposite and contrary is the wicked Spirit of John Bale John Fox and other such latter Brutish rather than British Sectaries that even in our days after that the Roman Catholic Use hath been received for thirteen hundred years since the said Council they are content for hatred of the Name of Rome to bring it into Controversie again and to allow rather the Jewish Use and to praise them that defend it in our Countrey as you have heard rejecting and defacing others that stood for the Catholic Party tho' never otherwise so famous and illustrious for their Learning and Vertue as Beda Agilbert Wilfrid and others the chiefest Pillars of our Primitive English Church were But this is their shameless Spirit to dishonor wherein possibly they can their Forefathers 32. And thus much of this matter about the first Conversion or Preaching of Christian Faith in Britanny under the Apostles Now will we pass to the more public Conversion of our Land under King Lucius which as in my Ward-word I called the First in respect of our two public Conversions from Paganism so do I here name it the Second in regard of the former Preaching in the Apostles Time. About which Conversion tho' in effect our Modern Heretics dare not deny the same yet shall you hear no less wrangling of them about this than the former for the great grief they receive in that it should be said or thought to come from Rome CHAP. IV. Of the Second Conversion of Britanny under King Lucius by Pope Eleutherius and Teachers sent from him about the year of Christ 180 and of the notorious absurd Cavillations of Heretics about the same also ALL that hitherto hath been spoken is about the first Preaching of Christian Religion in Britanny by particular men within the first Age or hundred years after Christ which our Roman Enemies only upon Envy and Animosity without any one Testimony of Antiquity will needs take from Rome and the Roman Church and give it to the Grecians of Asia and to the East parts as you have heard Now do follow two other more famous and public Conversions of the said Island under the two renowned Popes of Rome and by their special Industry which are acknowledged and registred by the whole Christian World and do so much press the Spleen and move the Gall of our Rome-biters as they leave no corner of their Wits unsifted to discredit or reject the same 2. The first Conversion was as the Warder saith under Pope Eleutherius towards the end of the second Age after Christ when King Lucius of Britanny hearing of the
pious Princes and Lords Egfrid King of the Northumbers Anno 10. upon the fifteenth day before the Calends of October the eighth Indiction and Etheldred reigning over the Mercians the sixth year of his Reign and Adulphus being King of the East-Angles the seventeenth year of his Reign and Lodtharius being King of Kent in the seventh year of his Reign and Theodorus by the Grace of God Archbishop of the Isle of Britanny and of the City of Canterbury being President of the Synod together with the rest of the Bishops of the same Island venerable men sitting with him in Council and the holy Sacred Gospel being laid before them in a place called in the Saxon Tongue Hedtfield after treaty had they expounded the right Catholic Faith in this manner 24. Sicut Dominus noster Jesus c. As our Lord Jesus taking our flesh upon him did deliver unto his Disciples that saw him in person and heard his speeches and as the Symbolum or Creed of the holy Fathers have delivered unto us and as generally all whole and universal Synods and all the company of holy Fathers and Doctors of the holy Catholic Church have taught us so do We following their steps both Piously and Catholicly according to their Doctrin inspired to them from Heaven profess and believe and constantly confess according to the said holy Fathers Belief That the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are properly and truly a consubstantial Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity c. We receive also the holy and universal five Synods that have been held before our time by the blessed Christian Fathers our Ancestors to wit those 318 holy Bishops in the first Council of Nice against Arius and his wicked Doctrin and of the 150 other Bishops in the first Council of Constantinople against the Heresie of Macedonius and of the 200 Godly Bishops of the Council of Ephesus against Nestorius and his Errors and of the 230 Bishops in the Council of Calcedon against Eutyches and his Doctrin and of the other 165 Fathers gathered together in the second General Council of Constantinople against divers Heretics and Heresies c. We do receive all these Councils and we do glorifie our Lord Jesus Christ as they glorified him adding nothing nor taking any thing away We do anathematize and accurse also both by heart and mouth all those whom these Fathers did anathematize and accurse and we do receive them whom they received c. 25. Behold here the manner and form of Catholic Councils of old time who laid down first the Gospel in the midst and then after due examination of Scriptures considered that Antiquity of Fathers and Councils had determined in God's Church before them even from Christ and his Apostles downward and therein insisted agreeing all in one and rejecting and accursing all new contrary or different Doctrins and Doctors and by his means and by the assistance of the Holy Ghost promised by Christ unto his Church hath she continued now for 1600 years one and the self-same whereas Sectaries lacking this Humility Wisdom and Subordination but especially God's Grace are divided and consumed among themselves 26. But I will pass no further in this point this which I have said being sufficient to shew that there were more Learned men in England in these times of our primitive Church than fantastical Fox would have men believe which is greatly confirmed by that which Malmsbury writeth and Fox also confesseth the same That a General Council being gathered soon after this which we have mentioned in Constantinople both of the East and West Church against the Monothelites that deny'd two distinct Wills of Christ our Archbishop Theodorus with some other Learned men of our English Clergy was called for by Pope Agatho to be one of his Legats in the said Council where there were 331 Bishops gathered together by order of the said Agatho Bishop of Rome against the Patriarchs of Antioch Alexandria and Constantinople which thing sheweth the great Power and Authority of the Bishop of Rome even in Greece it self at that day the Emperour Constantine IV. being present himself 27. And to this Council as is said was the foresaid Theodorus Archbishop of Canterbury with divers other Bishops called by name by Pope Agatho as we may see in his Letter to the said Council cited by Malmsbury in these words Sperabamus de Britannia Theodorum c. We did hope to have had from Britanny Theodore my Brother and Fellow-Bishop and Archbishop of that great Island and a Philosopher together with others which hitherto do remain there and then to have joined them to our Humility and for this cause we have hitherto deferred the Council Vides quanti eum fecerit saith Malmsbury ut ejus expectatione Universale Concilium differret You see of what account this Archbishop was with Pope Agatho that he would defer a General Council for his expectation Thus writeth he whereby every indifferent man will easily see that this time of our primitive English Church which Fox by contempt so often calleth Ignorant and Monkish was not devoid of rare Learned men and so hath continued until our days frustrà circumlatrantibus haereticis to use St. Augustin's words Heretics in vain barking on every side against it With whom John Fox thought good to bear a barking part also and not being able to find out any one hole or corner for his Church in those Ages except only among the Heretics before named he thought good at least to rail and spit at them as he passeth by and so will he do more and more the lower he goeth until at length he fall to plain Apostasie and forsaking them openly will join with the known condemned Heretics and Enemies of this Church which Church hitherto notwithstanding he will seem in some sort to follow tho' lazily and dragging behind and as it were weary of her Company and looking about him which way he may give the slip and betake himself to his heels as will better appear by that which ensueth CHAP. V. The fourth station or division of Times from King Egbert unto William the Conqueror containing the space of some 260 years and how John Fox his Church passed in these days and whether there were any Pope Joan or no. YOu have heard before how John Fox in his second Book promising to handle but 300 years touched in the Acts of 500 in less than a dozen Leaves shewing the small store of matter he had for his Church in those Ages Now his next Book is entituled thus The third Book containing the next 300 years from the Reign of Egbert unto the time of William the Conqueror So is his Title And yet if you count the years from the beginning of King Egbert his Reign Anno Domini 802 according to Stow or 800 according to others unto the entrance of the Conqueror Anno 1066 you shall find but only 264 years and
And if I should number up the manifest Lies which the miserable and poor spiteful Fellow inventeth for some shew of proof you would take pity of Him and not of the Monks You shall hear one short Discourse of his about them and thereby you may judge of the rest 13. Monks saith he were nothing else in old time but Lay-men leading a more stricter Trade of Life as may sufficiently appear by Augustin lib. de moribus Ecclesiae cap. 3. Item lib. de oper Monachorum Item Ep. ad Aurelium Also by Hieron ad Heliodorum writing these words Alia Monachorum est causa alia Clericorum Clerici pascunt Oves ego pascor One thing pertaineth to Monks another thing to them of the Clergy They of the Clergy feed the Flock I am fed c. By all which is evident that Monks were no other in former Ages of the Church but only Lay-men differing from Priests c. 14. Thus writeth Fox which alone were sufficient to shew his peevish Fraud and Folly in all his Writings For albeit St. Augustin in the places by him quoted had written any such thing as he affirmeth which is quite false and so shall the Reader find that will examin the places yet the very words of St. Hierom by Fox himself adjoyned do clearly interpret both his own and St. Augustin's meaning and convince Fox for a meer malevolent Caviller for that St. Hierom doth not deny that Monks are Clergy-men or Priests for then he should deny himself to have been a Priest or of the Clergy seeing he confesseth himself to be a Monk but his meaning is to shew the different End and Office of some Clergy-men to wit Secular Priests and Bishops that have care of Souls from Monks for that the one do attend principally to Action the other to Contemplation the one to Preaching the other to Praying the one to feed others the others to be fed in which latter number St. Hierom for humility putteth also himself whom yet I think John Fox will not affirm to have been a meer Lay-man and not Priest and Clergy-man And so is this cavil of his against Monks that in old time they were Lay-men shewed to be most vain and malicious For what will he say of St. Basil St. Nazianzen St. Augustin St. Gregory were they not Monks Priests and Bishops also how then were Monks meerly Lay-men in old time 15. The like notorious Folly conjoyn'd with Falshood he useth to prove married Monks alleging St. Athanasius's words Epist ad Diacont qui ait se novisse Monachos Episcopos conjuges liberorum patres who saith that he knew both Monks and Bishops married men and Fathers of Children But what proveth this Do not we see every day even now in our Church both Bishops Priests and Religious men that have once been married and some of them also to have had Children and after the death of their Wives to have entred into Ecclesiastical and Religious Orders What fond deluding of his Reader is this He should have proved that they had married after they had been Priests or Monks and then had he said somewhat But this he could not do and so thought best to make a fond flourish of the other 16. Nay in the very Greek Church at this day where Priests are permitted that were married before tho' their Wives be living yet if their said Wives die they are not permitted to marry again And as for Monks out of which Order only Bishops are made in that Church they were never permitted to marry after their profession of Religion Nay St. Epiphanius a chief Pillar of that Church when it was perfectly Catholic about 1200 years agone saith plainly as the Magdeburgians also allege him That the holy Church of God admitted not in his days any man to Priesthood or Episcopal Dignity that either married the second time or did not abstain from conversation with his first Wife if she lived after he was admitted to Priesthood Revera saith he non suscipit sancta Dei praedicatio post Christi adventum eos qui à nuptiis mortua ipsorum uxore secundis nuptiis conjuncti sunt propter excellentem Sacerdotii Honorem Dignitatem Et haec certè Sancta Dei Ecclesia cum sinceritate observat c. In very truth the holy preaching of God after the coming of Christ doth not admit those to be Priests who after their first Marriage and their Wife dead do joyn themselves again in second Marriage And this doth the holy Church of God observe with sincerity in respect of the excellent Honor and Dignity of Priesthood c. So saith Epiphanius and addeth presently Sed adhuc viventem liberos gignentem c. But further than this the said holy Church of Christ doth not admit to Priesthood a man of one Wife if he live and get Children as before but only she admitteth Him to be a Deacon Priest Bishop or Subdeacon especially where the Clergy is sincere who is content to contain from his Wife that he used before or live in Widowhood if his Wife be dead 17. Thus writeth this holy Doctor not only of his own Judgment but of the whole Consent of the Universal Catholic Church in his days not only of Monks that make a more strict profession of Chastity but of all Clergy-men also that lived in Holy Orders to wit Subdeacons Deacons Priests and Bishopss Of whom thus much be spoken by occasion of John Fox his notorious Lye That Monks were only Lay men and married in old time And by this we may see his affection towards Them and their Profession And there were no end if I should prosecute all his peevish picking of quarrels against them upon every occasion or without occasion thereby to shew his Heretical Stomach in that behalf One only Example I will shew you more and so make an end 18. There is a Story recorded by William of Malmsbury and other ancient authentical Authors as Fox himself confesseth touching our foresaid famous English King Alfred fourth Son to the forenamed King Ethelwolf and Nephew to King Egbert brought up in Rome by Pope Leo IV. as hath been said who being driven into great Extremities by the Conquest of the Danes against him was relieved and comforted by the appearance of St. Cuthbert miraculously foretelling him what should succeed in those Wars and confirming the same with other Predictions also which afterwards were fulfilled Which Story tho' it be one of the most rare that is to be read in our English Histories and with most comfort also by him that will consider it with attention and indifferency and testified also unto us as authentically as any Story may be in this kind not only by the said Malmsbury above 500 years agone but by divers others in like manner and of like credit as Fox himself is forced to confess yet for that St. Cuthbert principal Actor therein was an unmarried Monk he cannot
Protestant Congregation in London in Queen Maries days and of one Cuthbert Sympson the Deacon or Clerk of that Congregation which two had Dreams and Visions the one concerning the other of them Which Fox thinketh worthy of so great consideration as he writeth thus in his Margin The Visions sent to God's Saints concerning their afflictions Now then touching the first St. Rough you must know that he had been a Dominican Friar in Scotland as Fox confesseth and from thence running away into England gate himself a Mate or as he calleth her a Kate with whom lying in bed he had a Vision of his Fellow Sympson which Fox recounteth in these words The Friday at night before Master Rough was taken being in his bed he dreamed that he saw two of the Guard leading Cuthbert Sympson Deacon of his Congregation to Prison and that he had the Book about him wherein were written the Names of all them that were of that Congregation Whereupon being sore troubled he awaked and called to his Wife Kate strike light for I am much troubled with my Brother Cuthbert this night And when she had so done he gave himself to read on his Book a while and then feeling sleep to come upon him he put out the Candle and so gave himself to rest again and being asleep he dreamed the like Dream and awaking therewith he said O Kate my Brother Cuthbert is gone So they lighted a Candle again and rose This is the Vision of the Scottish Friar which caused his Kate twice to strike fire and light the Candle as you see 30. The other Vision of his Clerk Simpson that kept the Beadroll of the Names of his secret Congregation and was afterward burned with him in Smithfield Fox describeth in this manner Before Simpson 's burning saith he being in the Bishop's Cole-house in the Stocks he had a very strange Vision or Apparition which he himself with his own mouth declared to the Godly Learned Man Master Austen and to his own Wife c. Thus beginneth Fox to relate the Vision noting first as you see that he spoke it with his own mouth as tho' it were a great matter And then he entreth to make a long Apology against the Papists in defence of these Visions tho' theirs be not to be believed 31. They will ask me saith he why should I more require these to be credited of them than theirs of us This is the demand which he frameth in behalf of the Papists and I think no man will say but that it is reasonable Let us hear his Answer First saith he I write not this binding any man precisely to believe the same as they do theirs Lo here is a Foolery with a manifest Lye the Foolery is in telling us so precise believing all Visions and Dreams which no wise man ever thought or spake the Lye is in that he affirmeth us to teach that such precise belief is necessary in Visions among us But let us hear him further in his Answer to the former demand It is no Argument saith he to reason thus Visions be not true in some Ergo they be true in none This part we grant but what is this to his purpose or proof His meaning is that Ours be not true Visions and His be But who shall be Judges He and His would be But this is no reason and we on the contrary do say much more equally Nec mihi nec tibi neither He nor We as particular men ought to judge of these things but the Catholic Church which by her Bishops and Pastors does examin the Proofs Weight and Moment of every one of these things that fall out and according to the Quality Merit and Condition of them to whom they happen as also of the Witnesses and Testimonies whereby they are proved she doth judge of the Truth or Probability of every thing And to Her therefore we stand and not to the fantastical broken Brains of John Fox that maketh Miracles and Visions where he listeth and authorizeth or discrediteth them when it pleaseth him again 32. And thus much by occasion of St. Cuthbert's Apparition to King Alfred the Holiness of which Saint how highly it was esteemed in the days of this King about the year of Christ 878 you hereby see himself living 200 years before for that he died upon the year 687 the 20th of March which day hath ever since been celebrated with perpetual Memory not only by the Church of England but also by the Universal and that most worthily as may appear by his Life written largely by St. Bede Howsoever John Fox doth speak contemptuously of him here and his Fellow John Bale doth revile him But for what think you You shall hear his complaints Omnia ad amussim Monachus didicit quae ad Monachismum spectare novit nulla penitus de Evangelio facta mentioone He being a Monk learned exactly all things that appertained to the Life of Monks but never made mention of the Gospel And is this likely or probable think you that he never so much as mentioned the Gospel seeing that Monks Profession and form of Life is taken out of the Gospel But what more ensueth You shall hear the Apostata utter his Spirit Faemineum gensn saith he exosum ei erat c. Women-kind was hateful unto him c. This is the same Accusation that the Mgdeburgians laid to St. Cyprian if you remember for that he praised Virginity But how doth Bale gather this hatred of St. Cuthbert against Woman-kind It followeth Decretum fecit contra Mulieres ne ejus ingrederentur Monasteria He made a Decree against Women that they should not enter into his Monasteries This Decree Friar Bale that loved Woman-kind liked not But he addeth a further Accusation That in the second year of his Bishopric St. Cuthbert left the same and no less hypocritically than idly made himself an Anchorite leading for the rest of his days a solitary retir'd life See what matters they pick out to object unto God's Saints which themselves cannot or will not imitate 33. Finally to end this Chapter and therewith this fourth station or Time John Fox after much trifling here and there setteth down in the last words of this his third Book a very brief Catalogue of the Archbishops of Canterbury of these Ages with this Title The Names and Orders of the Archbishops of Canterbury from the time of King Egbert to William the Conqueror c. Which he beginneth with Etheldrenus that was the Eighteenth in Order and endeth with Lanfrancus who was the Thirty-fourth making certain Notes or rather Scoffs and Jests upon them all especially upon those that were most renowned for their Holiness and multitude of Miracles recorded by old Writers as namely St. Dunstan of whom Malmsbury and others having left written That among other Miracles happened unto him one was that his Harp wherewith he was wont in his Youth
in those days should revive and preach again in these days would his Brethren the Protestants in England or out of England receive them think you And if it be certain that they would not how were they true Preachers then and not now or how can these and they be true Brethren of one Faith Religion or Church Doth not every simple Man or Woman see this Folly and absurd Contradiction 29. But to return to the matter in hand about rejecting Parliaments and other public Testimonies we see that John Fox with the same facility both reciteth and rejecteth the Letter of the Archbishop of Canterbury written to the Pope about those Wickliffians of his time twenty years after the former Parliament was held but yet in conformity of that which the said Parliament under King Henry IV. and the other before under King Richard II. did testifie as well of the said Sectaries Hypocrisie and Dissimulation as of their wicked Errors and Heresies All which Fox contemning saith to the contrary That they served faithfully the living Lord within the Ark of his true spiritual and visible Church c. 30. And it is to be noted that scarce ever throughout this whole Volume of Acts and Monuments from Christ downward for the space of 1400 years doth Fox talk of any visible Church on his side but only now when he cometh to these Wickliffians and other like Sectaries And yet to speak warily also he adjoyneth unto it the word spiritual to have some starting-hole to run out when he shall be pressed about the true nature of visible Succession which we mean to do in the next Chapter following But in the mean space it is a matter worth good laughter to hear him say That Papists do brag of their painted Sheath concerning their Churches Antiquity and Succession and that he hath sufficiently proved before by the continual descent of his Church after the Doctrin that now is reformed that it hath stood and been continued from the beginning for so are his words yea and that visibly as now he addeth Whereat I know no man can choose but laugh that hath read this our Treatise wherein we have shewed all the contrary to wit the visible Descent of the Roman Church by orderly Succession from the Apostles time and that John Fox hath not so much as named any different Succession or Descent of his Church distinct from the other until the time of Innocentius III. 1200 years after Christ And what manner of deduction or collection of Heretics and Sectaries he bringeth down from thence and how well they agree and hang together either in Time Place Function or Faith we shall examin a little after 31. But now before we end this Chapter we are to advertise the Reader that besides the Sects before named of the Petrobusians Henricians Waldensians or poor men of Lyons the Albigensians and Wickliffians there was another Sect in England called Lollards more famous than the rest in respect of Lollards Tower some what renowned in London for the Imprisonments of those Sectaries in that place But when and how this Sect of Heretics began is not so clear for that some as Prateolus and others seem to affirm that it took its Origin in England as a Brood of the Wickliffists for that they were more famous there than in other places And therefore he saith Lollardi ex Anglia ex Wickliffistarum Secta originem duxerunt The Lollards had their beginning from England and from the Sect of the Wickliffians And he addeth That it was about the year 1360 which cannot stand for that we have shewed before how Wickliff began to publish his Doctrin after this to wit about the year 1370. Wherefore the Abbot Tritemius a German Chronicler declareth the matter more particularly and truly saying That there was a certain Heretic in Germany called Gualter Lolhard who about the year of Christ 1315 taking certain Doctrin from the Albigenses and Waldenses that went before him and adding as the fashion is of Sectaries divers new Opinions of his own made a particular Sect who were called Lolhards Whereby it appeareth that this Sect began in Germany above fifty years before the Sect of Wickliff in England and hereby ensued that Wickliffians taking afterwards divers Opinions from the said Lolhards were commonly also called Lolhards And John Fox himself reciting the Sentence of Condemnation of Bishop Tresnant of Hereford against one William Swynderby an Apostata Priest for Wickliffian Heresies in the year of Christ 1391 the 24th of June he setteth down these words of the said Bishop We being excited through the Information of many credible and faithful Christians of our Diocese to root out pestiferous Plants as Sheep diseased with an incurable Sickness going about to infect the whole and sound Flock that is to say certain Preachers or more truly execrable Offenders of the new Sect vulgarly called Lolhards c. 32. Lo here Wickliffians at this time for such a one was this Swynderby were commonly called Lolhards twenty years and more after Wickliff had begun his Doctrin So as rather Wickliffians are to be said to have come forth of Lolhards than Lolhards of Wickliffians 33. And albeit these two Sects beginning as you have heard the one in Germany and the other in England with the distance of some fifty years of their Off-spring had many Opinions common to them both especially against the Roman Church against Invocation of Saints Fastings Prayers and the Sacraments of Penance Matrimony Extreme Unction and the like yet had they their peculiar Opinions also whereby they were made a several Sect. As for Example the Lolhards impugned not only the foresaid three Sacraments of Penance Matrimony and Extreme Unction as some Wickliffians did but Baptism and the Eucharist in like manner They held also for their peculiar Opinions as Tritemius saith That Lucifer and his Angels were injuriously thrust out of Heaven by Michael and his Angels and consequently to be restored again at the Day of Judgment and that Michael and his Angels are to be damned for the foresaid Injury and to be delivered over to everlasting Punishment from the Day of Judgment forward That our Lady could not bear Christ and remain a Virgin for that so he should have been an Angel and not a Man. That God having given the Earth to the use of Man according to the saying of the Psalm Terram autem dedit filiis hominum God hath given the Earth to the children of men he doth consequently punish such Wickedness as is done upon Earth but if any thing be done under ground it is not punishable And therefore in Caves and Cellars under ground they were accustomed to exercise all manner of Abomination And of this he relateth a certain Story happened in Germany which was That one Gisla a young woman of their Sect coming to be burned for Heresie she was asked whether she were a Virgin or no whereunto
she answered That above-ground she was but under-ground not 34. There followed many other Heresies also from this time downward unto King Henry VIII.'s days which prevailed diversly in divers Countries as the Flagellants or Whippers which made a new Baptism of Blood and held divers Articles of the Lolhards in Germany and Hungary about the year of Christ 1350 as Tritemius saith The Hussites also in Bohemia who had their Doctrin of John Husse Scholar of John Wickliff but yet in divers Articles differing from him about the year of Christ 1415 as Aeneas Sylvius declareth at large And upon this Man 's teaching and the Doctrin of Hierom of Prague that lived at the same time there sprung up divers different Sects in Bohemia as the Orebites Adamites Drecentians Gallecians Rochezanites Jacobites Thaborites and others Whereof Aeneas Sylvius Bonfinius and other Authors do treat And Bonfinius writeth That Matthias King of Hungary was wont to say in his days that the Sects and Sectaries of Bohemia were so divers and contrary one to the other as if no other Argument were against them this were sufficient to overthrow them all And the same confusion remaineth there unto this day 35. And this shall suffice for the Heresies of this fifth station of Time especially such as prevailed most in England from Wickliff unto King Henry VIII in whose days Luther rose up and made a new Sect. For albeit in many Points he symbolized and had concurrence with most of these Sects but especially with the Lolhards and Wickliffians under whose Names all Sectaries commonly covered themselves in our Country yet had Luther divers Points also peculiar to Him and His which made them properly a distinct and several Sect which himself confesseth in like manner disclaiming by Name from Husse and Hussites in these words Non recte faciunt qui me Hussitam vocant non enim mecum ille sensit They do not well that call me a Hussite for he doth not agree with me in Doctrin And as for Wickliff we may see the same Judgment of Luther by the testimony of Philip Melancthon that saith of him Nec intellexit nec tenuit Fidei Justitiam He neither understood nor held the Justice of Faith which is the very Foundation of Luther's Gospel and Doctrin 36. And again in the same place he objecteth divers other erroneous Doctrins unto him as That he doth take away all Civil and Politic Government that he holdeth for unlawful to Priests to possess any thing proper that no Tythes are to be paid and the like Which Doctrins of Wickliff notwithstanding our John Fox defendeth commending highly the Teachers and Professors thereof in all his tract of Time from King Edward III. to King Henry VIII canonizing them for Saints that were any way punished or called in question for any of these Doctrins under the Reigns of King Richard II. or King Henry IV V VI or VII and other Kings of that time And in this Argument is spent the whole sum of his fifth and sixth Books in which Books the very Titles of the Pages may sufficiently testifie what is handled therein As for Example page 406. under the Reign of King Richard II. is this Title The first Law for burning the Professors of the Gospel Whereby you see that he calleth all these men whether they be Wickliffians Hussites or Lolhards Professors of Christ's Gospel and consequently must he needs hold for Evangelical Truth all which they did hold and so in effect he doth in handling their Causes throughout these two Books against the Bishops and Princes that punished them though in clear words and Categorical Propositions he dare not do it 37. And this is the sluttering and stammering turning and winding of this our Fox as you can never know where to have him for that now he affirmeth now he denieth now he leaveth the matter doubtful now he moveth a question but solveth it not now he gainsayeth and contradicteth himself now he saith one thing in words and prosecuteth another in deed As for Example He confesseth before in words as you have heard That Wickliff had divers blemishes in Doctrin that is to say Errors and Heresies and so it may appear as well by that which we have set down thereof as also by the Judgment of Melancthon and yet in prosecution of his Work John Fox will not stick to commend the worst of those Doctrins as we may see by the very Titles of the Pages set over these Books 38. As for Example page 420. he putteth this Title over the said Page Temporalities may be taken from the Clergy c. And then yet further in the same Page he putteth this Head or beginning to a long Discourse about this matter in these words The second Disputation in the Vniversity of Prague upon the seventeenth Article of John Wickliff most fruitful to be read proving by twenty-four Reasons out of the Scriptures that Temporal Lords and Princes may take away Temporalities from the Clergy c. This is the Title of this fruitful Discourse for taking away all Temporal Fruits from the Clergy But how fruitful soever this Disputation may seem to John Fox against Clergy-Temporalities that perhaps could get none for himself yet to others of his Clergy that possess Temporalities I doubt much whether it will seem so fruitful or be so well liked of as by John Fox who for his twenty-four Reasons alleged for the same may chance be related into some Rank of the twenty-four Orders fit for a Man of his Degree and Merits 39. Moreover page 426. he hath this Title Tythes proved to be pure Alms. Which Title I think also will not greatly content the most of his Fellow-Ministers if their Parishioners should stand upon this Doctrin with them to wit That their Tythes are pure Alms according to the Gospel of John Wickliff and John Fox and consequently they may deny or detain them when they list or give so much thereof unto Ministers as they list and no more which oftentimes perhaps would be very little But what would these Ministers think you but especially their Wives and Children say of this Doctrin if once they felt hunger come upon them thereby yet Fox prosecuteth the same Title over other Pages As for Example page 446. he hath these words Tythes not expresly commanded anew by Christ and then hath he this Note If Tythes be claimed by force of the Old Law then Priests by the same Law are bound to have no Temporalities And this matter Fox doth prosecute at large as one Article among other of one Walter Brute a Lay-man of the Sect of Wickliff in whom saith Fox the mighty operation of God's Spirit did effectuate such constancy as in this and other Articles he resisted openly the Bishop of Hereford in his time c. Lo here the approbation of Brute's Spirit whose fourth Article was as Fox himself setteth down That no man is bound to give
Religion from those downward to John Wickliffe were commonly infected with some points of these two general Sects the Waldenses or Albigenses it shall not be needful to stand upon the examination of every one of them seeing that their Opinions are known to be such as they could not possibly be of one Church with Fox and his Company Yet must we note this by the way also that Fox doth commit infinite confusion falshood and cosinage in all this his enumeration accounting some for Disciples of the Albigenses that lived 100. years before them As Marsilius Patavinus who lived under Pope Paschasius II. about the year 1110. which is more than an 100 years before Pope Innocentius III. as both Alvarus and Alphonsus de Castro do testifie and never held any points of the former Heresies but only some Propositions agiainst the Degrees and living of Ecclesiastical Persons And the like falshood is to be understood of Gulielmus de Sancto Amore who living about the year 1250. was a Catholic man in all points and only had some quarrellings with Religious Orders As in like sort Armachanus Archbishop of Armach in Ireland also had For which cause only Fox maketh him of his Church though in matters of Religion he held no one Article of the Protestant Faith with him different from the Catholic And consequently Fox doth extremely abuse them by conjoining them here with divers Heretics burned for the foresaid blasphemous Opinions 32. The like may be said of William Occam and Gregorius Arminensis two Catholic Scholmen and every day alleged for such in our Schools Robert Grossead also our Learned Bishop of Lincoln is in the same predicament as in like manner Dante 's and Petrarcha Italian Poets that never held any jot of Protestant Religion in the world And yet are brought in here by John Fox as men of his Church and Belief with the greatest falshood and foolery in the world And this forsooth for that in some place of their Works they reprehend the Manners of Rome or Lives of some Popes in those days Which is as good an Argument as if a man would prove that St. Paul was not of the Faith or Religion of the Corinthians for that he reprehended them sharply for Fornication used among them 33. Wherefore to leave the Rabble that followeth of this people as namely thirty six Citizens of Moguntia burned An. Dom. 1390. and another company of like people to wit one hundred and forty put in the Fire throughout the Province of Narbone and twenty four more put to death in Paris in the Year 1210. and other particular Saints of his Church recounted and Canonized by Fox To leave these I say and to come down to our Lolhards and Wickliffians and their followers in England we have treated of their Doctrin sufficiently in the precedent Chapter shewing how far different it was from that of Fox and his Fellows But now for their Actions we are to consider that the Lolhards began from the year of Christ 1320. or thereabout and Wickliff from the year 1370. and therewith raised infinite Troubles Garboils and Tumults in our Country As may appear by the lamentable Story set down by Thomas Walsingham of the whole people put in commotion in King Richard II. his time against the Nobility and Clergy by these kind of people under their Seditious Captains Jack Straw Wat Tiler and the rest And so again under some other Kings whilst this Heresie lasted And namely against the two valiant and most Catholic Princes King Henry IV. and King Henry V. his Son. In the first year of whose Reign to wit King Henry V. John Stow writeth thus 34. The favorers of Wickliffs Doctrin did nail up Schedules upon the Church Doors of London conteining that there were an hundred thousand ready to rise against all such as could not away with their Sect c. And hereon followed the open Rebellion of Sir John Oldcastle and Sir Roger Acton and others in S. Giles Field by Holborn which before we have touched And yet was the providence of God such as this Sect could never prevail in England neither then or after so Catholic were our Princes until some Points thereof being renewed by Luther and Zwinglius the later was admitted in K. Edward's days I mean the Sect of Zwinglius as all men know Being the first Sect that ever was admitted publickly in England either by Britans or Englishmen from Christ to that day For as for King Henry VIII though in the matter of the Popes Supremacy he admitted the Opinion of Luther yet in other things as before we have shewed at large he held in all Articles the Catholic Roman Faith with singular hatred against both Lollards Wickliffians and Lutherans but much more against Zwinglians and other such Sacramentary Sectaries As by his Laws made for their punishment and repression doth sufficiently appear 35. And albeit his Majesty having yielded once in that one Point of Ecclesiastical Supremacy and subordination which held before all the rest in joint it was no marvel though Sects and Sectaries did grow upon him so fast as with all his severe Laws he could hardly repress them in his own days yet much more were the Judgments of God seen after his death in that presently all was turned upside down in the Minority of his Son notwithstanding his Laws Testament and Ordinances to the contrary And that by those whom he most trusted on that behalf and who in his days had shewed themselves most earnest against Zwinglians and their Doctrin of the Sacrament as a thing most abhorred by the old King their Master I mean Cranmer Ridley Seymor and Dudley the chief changers of all in King Edwards days 36. But this is the common event where Princes be not careful at the beginning as Walsingham doth well note about the rising of Wickliff's Heresie in in the end of King Edward III.'s time when that old King was now impotent and wholly governed by Women leaving the care of his Kingdom in the Hands of his Son the Duke of Lancaster and others that followed him who having partly emulation and jars with the Bishops of Canterbury Winchester London and some other principal men of the Clergy and partly desiring to invade Church Livings which Wickliff preached to be lawful they were content to wink at him yea and to use him and his Doctrin openly against the said Bishops and Clergy as also against Monks and Abbots in the beginning of of K. Richard II.'s time as appeareth both in the said Walsingham and Stow who relate the calling of Wickliff to London for this effect where he was publicly and scandalously born out by the said Duke and Sir Henry Piercy and others of that Faction against the said Bishops Monks and Abbots which here we shall set down in Stows own words taken by him out of Walsingham and other Writers which do contain the very sum of
that time they have taught 21. These were the two things of most moment determined about Religion in this first Parliament Two other things were attempted by the Gospellers with most earnest endeavor but they could not be obtained The first was to have a Book of Common Prayer pass which they had composed in hast out of the Mass-Book for altering the Service and Mass into English or rather for abolishing of the Mass and bringing in the new Communion in place thereof And this Book was composed by certain appointed by the Protector and Cranmer But when it came to the Parliament to pass it was misliked and contradicted not only by Catholics but by many Protestants also Especially those that were the most forward as Hooper Rogers and some other Who according to Fox were Puritans in those days and would neither take the Oath of Supremacy to the young King as we shall shew more largely when we come to treat of them severally in the next Part of this Treatise nor yet wear Typpet Cap or Surpless And misliked moreover the whole Government Ecclesiastical in that time neither agreed with the Opinions of Doctrin set down by that Book And so it was rejected with no small grief both of the Duke Protector and Archbishop Cranmer 22. The other Point proposed and rejected also was about allowance of Priests and Friers Marriages and Legitimation of their Children Wherein great force was made by them that had taken Women first and sought approbation afterwards but could not get it for the present Though in the next Parliament about a year after they obtained a certain mitigation therein as you shall hear 23. Now then this Parliament being thus past and ended upon the 20 day of December and the Protector much grieved that no more could be obtained therein to the favor of the new Gospellers he thought good for the time to come to use his Kingly Authority under the Name of the young Child for the altering of divers Points in Religion using Cranmer and some other also of the Council for his Instruments And first they began with Bishop Bonner as may appear by a Letter from the said Bonner written to Bishop Gardiner of Winchester the 28. of January 1548. wherein he writeth thus My very good Lord these be to advertise your Lordship that my Lord of Canterbury 's Grace this present 28. of January sent me his Letters Missive containing this in effect That my Lord Protector 's Grace with Advice of other the King's Majesties most Honorable Council for certain Considerations them moving are fully resolved that no Candles shall be born upon Candlemas-day nor from henceforth Ashes nor Palms used any longer Requiring me to cause Admonition thereof to be given unto your Lordship and other Bishops with celerity c. Thus much there 24. And after this again upon the 11. of the next Month of February the said Protector with some others of the Council at his appointment wrote to Cranmer and by him to all Bishops of the Realm Commanding them to pull down all Images in these words amongst others We have thought good saith he to signifie unto You that His Highness pleasure with the Advice and Consent of Vs the Lord Protector and the rest of the Council is that immediately upon the sight hereof with as convenient diligence as You may You give order that all Images remaining in any Church or Chappel c. Be removed and taken away And in the Execution hereof we require both You and the rest of the Bishops to use such foresight as the same may be quietly done with as good satisfaction of the People as may be c. From Somerset Place the 11. of February 1548. Your loving Friends Edward Somerset Henry Arundell Anthony Wingfield John Russell Thomas Seymer William Paget 25. And now Candles Ashes and Images being gone as you see there followed in the next Month after to wit of March that the Protector desiring still to go forward with his designment of Alteration sent abroad a Proclamation in the Kings Name with a certain Communion Book in English to be used for Administration of Sacraments instead of the Mass Book but whether it was the very same that was rejected a little before in the Parliament or another patched up afterward or the same mended or altered is not so clear But great care there was had by the Protector and his Adherents that this Book should be admitted and put in practice presently even before it was allowed in Parliament To which effect Fox setteth down a large Letter of the Council to all the Bishops Exhorting and Commanding them in the King's Name to admit and put in Practice this Book We have thought good say they to pray and require your Lordships and nevertheless in the King's Majesty Our most Dread Lord's Name to Command You to have a diligent earnest and careful respect to cause these Books to be delivered to every Parson Vicar and Curate within your Diocese with such diligence as they may have sufficient time well to instruct and advise themselves for the distribution of the most holy Communion according to the Order of this Book before this Easter time c. Praying you to consider that this Order is set forth to the intent there should be in all parts of the Realm one Vniform manner quietly used To the Execution whereof we do eftsoons require you to have a diligent respect as you tender the King's Majesties pleasure and will answer to the contrary c. From Westminster the 13 of March 1548. 26. By all which and by much more that might be alleged it is evident that all that was hitherto done against Catholic Religion for these first two years until the second Parliament was done by private Authority of the Protector and his Adherents before Law and against Law. And now what a Babylonical Confusion ensued in England upon these Innovations in all Churches Parishes and Bishopricks commonly is wonderful to recount For some Priests said the Latin Mass some the English Communion some both some neither some said half of the one and half of the other And this was very ordinary to wit to say the Introitus and Confiteor in English and then the Collects and some other parts in Latin. And after that again the Epistles and Gospels in English and then the Canon of the Mass in Latin and lastly the Benediction and last Gospel in English And this mingle mangle did every man make at his pleasure as he thought it would be most grateful to the people 27. But that which was of more importance and impiety some did Consecrate Bread and Wine others did not but would tell the people before-hand plainly they would not consecrate but restore them their Bread and Wine back again as they received it from them Only adding to it the Church Benediction And those that did Consecrate did Consecrate in divers forms some
upon this proof how the latter Gospellers according to their pure Word of God do reject and contemn the very pure Word of God of Cranmer and Ridley's time alleging for reason among other things as the Survey of pretended Discipline saith cap 28. That the Sun of the Gospel shineth more clear in these days than in those Not to stand I say upon this Fox himself doth sufficiently shew that this pure Communion Book and Order therein set down was mislik'd and rejected by the most zealous sort of Protestants even in those days as may appear by that which the said John Fox telleth us when he talketh of the Prophetical Spirit of John Rogers the Minister that was burn'd in Queen Maries days how he sent word to the Brethren by a certain Book-binder that except the Gospellers when they returned into England again for so saith Fox he prophesied they should did follow the Form and Plot set down by Him and Hoopâ—r different from this of Cranmer and others they should have as bad an end as he and his Fellows had that were burned under Queen Mary 38. But yet for the present this was the pure Word of God and the Work of the Holy Ghost and no man might mislike or reprove it without danger and great punishment especially if he was a Catholic for above all others they were to be punished especially the Catholic Bishops in Prison for resisting the former Book obtruded in the first Parliament which yet was pardoned to others for so saith the Statute immediately after in these words That all and singular person and persons that have offended concerning the premises other than such as now be and remain in ward in the Tower of London or in the Fleet may be pardoned thereof 39. But to return to our story and first planting of the Gospel under King Edward you must note That together with this Comedy of the new Book of Service disputed and passed in this Parliament wherein the Protector was a chief Part and Actor there was a bloody Tragedy handled in like manner whereof he was both Head and Instigator for that about the midst of the Parliament to wit upon the 16th of January he caused his Brother Lord Thomas Seymor High-Admiral of England to be suddenly arrested and sent Prisoner to the Tower being in Mourning-Apparel at that time for the late Death of his Wife Queen Catherine Parre and not suffering the said Brother of his to be heard or come to his Trial he caused a Condemnation to pass against him in the said Parliament which beginneth thus Whereas Sir Thomas Seymor Knight Lord Seymor of Sudley High Admiral of England not having God before his eyes c. Thus beginneth the Act and then followeth a long Narration of his Offences as That he desired to have the custody of the King was ambitions and married Queen Catherine Parre secretly before he told the King or his Brother of it and after help'd to make her away again with secret intention to marry the Lady Elizabeth if he could get her was ungrateful for many benefits both of the King and his said Brother the Lord Protector persuaded the young King to take the Government into his own hands and thereby to exclude the said Protector from his Dignity and Government It was inferred That the said Lord Admiral aspir'd to the Crown it self and to the Destruction of the King's Person Lands Realm Church and Commonwealth c. 40. All these things I say and many other are related in this Act of Parliament of Attainder against the Lord Seymor Sir William Sharington and other his Friends and Followers but not prov'd at all by any thing in the Narration But yet such was the force of his Brother and other chief Gospellers against him a doleful beginning of the new Gospel for him as he was condemned to be Hang'd Drawn and Quarter'd and upon favor was Beheaded upon the 20th of March following And presently the Protector as triumphing both over his Mother and Brother as one said in those days for that the Church was as well his Mother as the Admiral his Brother he made a Proclamation upon the 6th of April to put down the Mass throughout the whole Realm whereupon there ensued such Revel presently in London and in other places of the Realm as was strange and pitiful the blessed Sacrament being thrust out in hast of every Church and Altars pull'd down and upon the 10th of April being but four days after the whole Cloister of St. Paul's Church in London was thrown down and together with That a goodly Work of Antiquity cunningly wrought called the Dance of Pauls environing the said Cloister was beaten down and defaced also another goodly Monument in like manner of Antiquity belonging to the same Church called the Charnel-house of Pauls where the Tombs Bones and Memories of dead Men were was all beaten down by the fury of this time and the dead Mens Bones cast out into the Fields as both Holinshead Stow and other Chroniclers do relate 41. And for that the Protector had designed to raise a famous Palace worthy of his Greatness and Renown for his Habitation and perpetual Memory called Somerset-Place he first caused the Parish Church of the Strand without Temple-Bar together with Strand-Inn and Strand-Bridge to be pull'd down to give place to that Palace and to the end he might have Stone for the same more near at hand and with less Charges he caused the fair goodly Church of St. John of Jerusalem near Smithfield belonging in former time to the Knights of Rhodes to be undermin'd and with Gunpowder to be overthrown and the Stone thereof to be applied to the building of his said House and Palace 42. And this was the form of the first planting of the new Gospel in London by Gunpowder tearing and renting of ancient Monuments and overthrowing of Churches far unlike to the first planting of Christian Faith in England by St. Augustin and his Fellows before in part by us described And if this Revel was in London in the sight of the Prince and Council and where most Order and Law ought to be kept we may easily imagin what was practised throughout all the other parts of the Realm where less respect was born to the public Magistrate by no less unruly Spirits than were in London whereupon the poor afflicted Catholic people were forced to take Arms for their defence And from hence began the Commotions and Insurrections above mentioned of divers Shires for retaining their Religion But being overcome and oppressed by Martial Law and by the Troops of English and Foreign Souldiers made for the Scottish Voyage not long before there ensued infinite Misery Murther Massacre and Mortality in the Realm All which the Earl of Warwick with the help of others of the Nobility laying afterwards to the Protector 's charge in the end of the very next year to wit the 3d of King Edward's Reign