Advice of certain Learned Men. Another was that he had been the great setter forth of all this Heresy received into the Church in this last Time had written in it had disputed had continued it even to the last Hour and that it had never been seen in this Realm but in the time of Schism that any Man continuing so long hath been pardoned and that it was not to be remitted for Ensamples-sake Other Causes he alledged but these were the chief why it was not thought good to pardon him Other Causes beside he said moved the Queen and the Council thereto which were not meet and convenient for every one to understand them The second Part touched the Audience how they should consider this thing That they should hereby take example to fear God and that there was no Power against the Lord having before their Eyes a Man of so high Degree sometime one of the chiefest Prelates of the Church an Arch-bishop the chief of the Council the second Peer in the Realm of long time a Man as might be thought in greatest assurance a King of his side notwithstanding all his Authority and Defence to be debased from an high Estate to a low Degree of a Counsellor to be a Caitiff and to be set in so wretched Estate that the poorest Wretch would not change Conditions with him The last and End appertained unto him Whom he comforted and encouraged to take his Death well by many places of Scripture And with these and such bidding him nothing mistrust but he should incontinently receive that the Thief did To whom Christ said Hodiè mecum eris in Paradiso And out of S. Paul armed him against the Terrors of the Fire by this Dominus fidelis est Non sinet nos tentari ultra quam ferre potestis By the Example of the three Children to whom God made the Flame seem like a pleasant Dew He added hereunto the Rejoicing of S. Andrew in his Cross the Patience of S. Laurence on the Fire Ascertaining him that God if he called on him and to such as die in his Faith either will abate the fury of the Flame or give him Strength to abide it He glorified God much in his Conversion because it appeared to be only his Work Declaring what Travel and Conference had been used with him to convert him and all prevailed not till it pleased God of his Mercy to reclaim him and call him Home In discouring of which place he much commended Cranmer and qualified his former Doing And I had almost forgotten to tell you that Mr. Cole promised him that he should be prayed for in every Church in Oxford and should have Mass and Dirige Sung for him and spake to all the Priests present to say Mass for his Soul When he had ended his Sermon he desired all the People to pray for him Mr. Cranmer kneeling down with them and praying for himself I think there was never such a number so earnestly praying together For they that hated him before now loved him for his Conversion and hope of Continuance They that loved him before could not sodenly hate him having hope of his Confession again of his Fall So Love and Hope encreased Devotion on every side I shall not need for the time of Sermon to describe his Behaviour his Sorrowful Countenance his heavy Chear his Face bedewed with Tears sometime lifting his Eyes to Heaven in Hope sometime casting them down to the Earth for Shame To be brief an Image of Sorrow the Dolor of his Heart bursting out at his Eyes in plenty of Tears Retaining ever a quiet and grave Behaviour Which encreased the Pity in Mens Hearts that they unfeignedly loved him hoping it had been his Repentance for his Transgression and Error I shall not need I say to point it out unto you you can much better imagine it your self When Praying was done he stood up and having leave to speak said Good People I had intended indeed to desire you to pray for me which because Mr. Doctor hath desired and you have done already I thank you most heartily for it And now will I pray for my self as I could best devise for mine own comfort and say the Prayer word for word as I have here written it And he read it standing and after kneeled down and said the Lord's Prayer and all the People on their Knees devoutly praying with him His Prayer was thus O Father of Heaven O Son of God Redeemer of the World O Holy Ghost proceeding from them both Three Persons and one God have Mercy upon me most wretched Caitiff and miserable Sinner I who have offended both Heaven and Earth and more grievously than any Tongue can express whither then may I go or whither should I fly for succor To Heaven I may be ashamed to lift up mine Eyes and in Earth I find no refuge What shall I then do shall I despair God forbid O good God thou art Merciful and refusest none that come unto thee for Succour To thee therefore do I run To thee do I humble my self saying O Lord God my Sins be great but yet have Mercy upon me for thy great Mercy O God the Son thou wast not made Man this great Mystery was not wrought for few or small Offences Nor thou didst not give thy Son unto Death O God the Father for our little and small Sins only but for all the greatest Sins of the World so that the Sinner return unto thee with a penitent Heart as I do here at this present Wherefore have Mercy upon me O Lord whose Property is always to have Mercy For although my Sins be great yet thy Mercy is greater I crave nothing O Lord for mine own Merits but for thy Name 's Sake that it may be glorified thereby and for thy dear Son Jesus Christ's Sake And now therefore Our Father which art in Heaven c. Then rising he said Every Man desireth good People at the time of their Deaths to give some good Exhortation that other may remember after their Deaths and be the better thereby So I beseech God grant me Grace that I may speak something at this my departing whereby God may be glorified and you edified First It is an heavy case to see that many Folks be so much doted upon the Love of this false World and so careful for it that or the Love of God or the Love of the World to come they seem to care very little or nothing therefore This shall be my first Exhortation That you set not over-much by this false glosing World but upon God and the World to come And learn to know what this Lesson meaneth which S. Iohn teacheth That the Love of this World is Hatred against God The Second Exhortation is That next unto God you obey your King and Queen willingly and gladly without murmur or grudging And not for fear of them only but much more for the Fear of God Knowing
augmentation of Gods mercy and gracious promise to al men that receive it in the Faith of Christ Jesu with hatred of sin and intent purpose and mind to live always a vertuous life And that is the very Transubstantiation and change that God delighteth in in the use of the Sacraments most that we should earnestly and from the bottome of our hearts be converted into Christ and Christs holy commandments to live a christen life and to dy from sin as he gave us example both by his life and doctrin and meaneth not that the bread and wine should in substance be turned or converted into the substance of his body and bloud or that the substance of the bread should be taken away and in the place therof to be the substance matter and corporal presence of Christs corporal holy humane and natural body Item That the same holy word of God doth confess hold defend acknowledg and maintain that the very natural substantial real and corporal body of Christ concerning his humanity is only and soly in heaven and not in the Sacrament and Communion of his precious body and bloud But whosoever worthily with true repentance and lively faith in the promise of God receiveth that holy Sacrament receiveth Sacramentally by faith al the mercies riches merits and deservings that Christ hath deserved and paid for in his holy bloud and passion And that is to eat Christ and to drink Christ in the holy Sacrament to confirm and Seal Sacramentally in our Souls Gods promises of eternal Salvation that Christ deserved for us not in or by his body eaten but by and for his body slain and killed upon the Cross for our Sinns as S. Paul saith Col. 1. Eph. 1.3 Ebru 2.7 8 9 10. As for eating of his flesh and drinking of his bloud really corporally materially and substantially it is but a carnal and gross opinion of man besides and contrary to the word of God and the articles of our faith and christen religion that affirmeth his corporal departure from th earth placeth it in heaven above at the right hand of God the father Almighty and keepeth retaineth holdeth and preserveth the same corporal body of Christ there til the general day of judgment as the word declareth From thence he shal come to judge the quick and the dead And that heretofore I have been in the contrary opinion and believed my self and also have taught other to believe the same that there remained no substance of bread and wine in the Sacrament but the very self same body and bloud of Christ Jesu that was born of the blessed Virgin Mary and hanged upon the Cross I am with al my heart sorry for mine error and false opinion detesting and forsaking the same from the bottome of my heart and desire God most heartily in and for the merits of his dear sons passion to forgive me and al them that have erred in the same false opinion by and through my means Praying them in the tender compassion and great mercies of God now to follow me in truth verite and singleness of Gods most true word as they were contented to follow me in error superstition and blindness and be no more ashamed to turn to the truth then they were ready to be corrupted by falshood If the holy Apostle S. Paul and the great Clerk S. Augustine with many mo Noble and vertuous members of Christs church were not ashamed to returne acknowledge and confess their error and evil opinions what am I miserable creature of the world inferior unto them both in knowledg holines and learning that should be ashamed to do the same Nay I do in this part thank God and rejoyce from the bottome of my heart that God hath revealed unto me the truth of his word and geven me leave to live so long to acknowledg my fault and error and do here before you protest that from henceforth I will with al diligence and labor study to set forth this mine amended knowledg and reconciled truth as long as I live by the help of God in the holy Ghost through the merits of Jesus Christ our only Mediator and Advocate To whom be al honor for ever and ever Amen Subscribed and confirmed 29 of April 1551. in the presence of John Bp. of Gloucester and divers other ther present NUM LXIV The Archbishop to the Lords of the Councel concerning the Book of Articles of Religion AFter my veray humble recommendations unto your good Lordeships I have sent unto the same the boke of Articles which yesterday I receyved from your Lordeships I have sent also a Cedule inclosed declarynge briefly my minde upon the said boke besechynge your Lordeshipps to be means unto the Kyngs Majestie that al the Bushops may have authority from hym to cause all their Prechers Archdecons Deans Prebendaries Parsons Vicars Curates with al their Clergie to subscribe to the said articles And than I trust that such a concorde and quyetness in religion shal shortely follow therof as ells is not to be loked for many years God shal therby be glorified his truth shal be avaunced and your Lordeships shal be rewarded of hym as the setters forward of his true word and gospel Unto whom is my dayly prayer without ceasynge to preserve the Kynges Majestie with al your honorable Lordeships From my house at Forde the 24 of this present month of November Your Lordeshipps ever to commaunde T. Cant. To my veray good Lordes of the Kinges Majestie his most honor able Councel NUM LXV The Archbishop nominates certain persons for an Irish Archbishoprick To my veray Lovinge friende Sir William Cecyl Knight one of the Kinges Majesties principal Secretaries THough in England there be many meete men for the Archbushopricks of Ireland yet I knowe veraye fewe that wil gladlie be perswaded to go thither Nevertheless I have sent unto you the names of iiij Viz. Mr. Whiteheade of Hadley Mr. Tourner of Caunturbury Sir Thomas Rosse and Sir Robert Wisdome Which being ordinarily called I thincke for conscience sake wil not refuse to bestowe the talent committed unto theim wheresoever it shal please the Kinges Majestie to appoincte theim Among whom I take Mr. Whiteheade for his good knowledge special honestie fervent zeale and politick wisdome to be most meete And next him Mr. Tourner who besides that hee is merry and witty withal nihil appetit nihil ardet nihil somniat nisi Iesum Christum and in the lively preaching of him and his wourde declareth such diligence faithfulness and wisdom as for the same deservithe much commendation There is also one Mr. Whitacre a man both wise and wel learned Chaplain to the Bushopp of Winchester veray meet for that office if he might be perswaded to take it upon him I pray you commend me unto Mr. Cheke and declare unto him that myn ague whither it were a quotidian or a double tertian wherof my Physitions doubted hath left me these two dayes and so I
addicted to the old Superstition would commonly disturb the Preachers in his Church when he liked not their Doctrine by causing the Bells to be rung when they were at the Sermon and sometimes beginning to sing in the Choir before the Sermon were half done and sometimes by challenging the Preacher in the Pulpit For he was a strong stout Popish Prelat Whom therefore the Godly-disposed of the Parish were weary of and especially some of the eminentest Men at Limâ—hurst whose Names were Driver Ive Poynter March and others But they durst not meddle with him until one Vnderhil of the Band of Gentlemen-Pensioners of a good Family and well respected at Court came to live at Limehurst He being the King's Servant took upon him to reprehend this Abbot for these and such-like his Doings and by his Authority carried him unto Croyden to the Arch-bishop there the Persons above-named going along as Witnesses In fine the mild Arch-bishop sent him away with a gentle Rebuke and bad him to do no more so This Lenity offended Vnderhil who said My Lord methinks you are too gentle unto so stout a Papist To which Cranmer replied Well we have no Law to punish them by No Law my Lord said the other If I had your Authority I would be so bold to unvicar him or minister some sharp Punishment upon him and such other If ever it come to their Turn they will shew you no such Favour Well said the good Arch-bishop if God so provide we must abide it Surely replied the other again God will never con you Thanks for this but rather take the Sword from such as will not use it upon his Enemies And so they parted And this indeed was the constant Behaviour of the Arch-bishop towards Papists and such as were his Enemies For which he was now and at other times taxed by Men of hotter Spirits but his Opinion was that Clemency and Goodness as it was more agreeable to the Gospel which he laboured to adorn so was more likely to obtain the Ends he desired than Rigour and Austerity The Arch-bishop did one thing more this Year of good Conducement to the promoting true Religion and exposing False and that was in countenancing and licensing an earnest Preacher in the South-West Parts named Thomas Hancock a Master of Arts whose Mouth had been stopped by a strict Inhibition from Preaching in the former King's Reign The Arch-bishop saw well what a useful Man he had been in those parts of England where he frequented having been a very diligent Preacher of the Gospel and Declaimer against Papal Abuses in the Diocesses of two bigotted Bishops Gardiner of Winchester and Capon of Sarum In this first Year of the King many zealous Preachers of the Gospel without staying for publick Orders from Above earnestly set forth the Evangelical Doctrine in confutation of the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament and such like And of the Laity there were great numbers every where especially in populous Towns of such as did now more openly shew their Heads and their good Inclinations to the New Learning as it was then called In Southampton of the Diocess of Winchester in Salisbury Pool and Dorset of the Diocess of Sarum did this Hancock chiefly converse and officiate in the latter end of K. Henry When he was suspended à Celebratione Divinorum by Dr. Raynold Commissary under Dr. Steward then Chancellor to Bp Gardiner upon pretence of the Breach of the Act of Six Articles because he had taught out of the Ninth to the Hebrews That our Saviour Christ entred once into the Holy Place by the which he obtained unto us everlasting Redemption That he once suffered and that his Body was once offered to take away the Sins of many People And that one only Oblation sufficed for the Sins of the whole World And though all this was but mere Scripture yet they found it to contradict their Notions and therefore they thought convenient to suspend him But as these Bishops did what they could to stifle all Preaching of God's Word so the Arch-bishop's Principle was to encourage and send forth Preachers So Hancock notwithstanding his former Suspension obtained a Licence from our Arch-bishop to preach Now to follow this Preacher a little after his Licence obtained At Christ-Church Twinham in the County of Southampton where he was born as I take it from his own Narration he preached out of the Sixteenth Chapter of S. Iohn The Holy Ghost shall reprove the World of Sin of Righteousness c. because I go to the Father The Priest being then at Mass Hancock declared unto the People That that the Priest held over his Head they did see with their bodily Eyes but our Saviour Christ doth here say plainly that we shall see him no more Then you saith he that do kneel unto it pray unto it and honour it as God do make an Idol of it and your selves do commit most horrible Idolatry Whereat the Vicar Mr. Smith sitting in his Chair in the face of the Pulpit spake these words Mr. Hancock you have done well until now and now have you plaid an ill Cow's part which when she hath given a good Mess of Milk overthroweth all with her Foot and so all is lost And with these words he got him out of the Church Also in this first Year of the King the same Person preached in S. Thomas Church at Salisbury Dr. Oking Chancellor to Bishop Capon and Dr. Steward Chancellor to Bishop Gardiner being present with divers others of the Clergy and Laity His place was Every Plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out Whence he inveighed against the Superstitious Ceremonies Holy Bread Holy Water Images Copes Vestments c. And at last against the Idol of the Altar proving it to be an Idol and no God by the First of S. Iohn's Gospel No Man hath seen God at any time with other places of the Old Testament But that the Priest held over his Head they did see kneeled before it honoured it and so made an Idol of it And therefore they were most horrible Idolaters Whereat the Doctors and certain of the Clergy went out of the Church Hancock seeing them departing charged them They were not of God because they refused to hear the Word of God But when the Sermon was ended Thomas Chaffen the Mayor set on as is likely by some of the Clergy came to him laying to his Charge the Breach of a Proclamation lately set forth by the Lord Protector That no Nick-names should be given unto the Sacrament as Round-Robin or Iack in the Box. Whereto he replied That it was no Sacrament but an Idol as they used it But for all this Excuse the Mayor had committed him to Jail had not Six honest Men been bound for his Appearance the next Assizes to make his Answer As Dr. Ieffery about this time had committed two to Prison for the like
had Married the said Iane. In Prison he was Visited by Bishop Hethe and afterwards pretended to be brought off by him to the acknowledgment of the Roman Catholick-Religion After his Condemnation he with the Marquess of Northampton Sir Andrew Dudley Sir Iohn Gates Sir Thomas Palmer heard a Mass within the Tower and received the Sacrament in one kind after the Popish fashion The Duke of Northumberland was drawn hereunto by a Promise that was made him That if he would Recant and hear Mass he should have his Pardon yea though his Head were upon the Block In his Speech August 22 when he was Executed he acknowledged How he had been misled by others and called the Preachers Seditious and Leud and advised the People to return home to the old Religion And that since the new Religion came among them God had plagued them by Wars and Tumults Famine and Pestilence He propounded the example of the Germans how their new Doctrine had brought Ruin upon them And quoted that Article in the Creed to them I believe the Catholick Church to convine them of the Roman Catholick Faith If this Speech were not of Hethe's inditing to be used by the Duke yet this Argument from the Creed I am apt to think was his it being his Custom to make use of it For I find in a Conference betwixt this Bishop and Rogers he asked him if he did not know his Creed and urged Credo sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam But Rogers could tell him that he did not find the Bishop of Rome there If any be minded to see the Duke's Speech at length he may have recourse to the Appendix where I have set it down as I found it in one of the Cottonian Volumes But Gates and Palmer notwithstanding their hearing Mass at their Execution the same Day and Place confessed the Faith they had learned in the Gospel The former confessed That he had lived as vitiously and wickedly all his Life as any in the World And yet that he was a great reader of the Scripture but a worse follower there was not living For he read it not to edify but to dispute and to make Interpretations after his own Fancy Exhorting the People to take heed how they read God's Word and played and gamed with God's Holy Mysteries For he told them that except they humbly submitted themselves to God and read his Word charitably and to the intent to be edified thereby it would be but Poison to them and worse And so asked the Queen and all the World Forgiveness Palmer thanked God for his affliction For That he had learned more in one little dark Corner of the Tower than ever he learned by any Travailes in as many Places as he had been There he had seen God what he was and his numerous Works and his Mercies And seen himself thorowly what himself was a Lump of Sin and Earth and of all Vileness the vilest And so concluding that he feared not Death That neither the sprinkling of the Blood of two shed before his Eyes nor the shedding thereof nor the bloody Ax it self should make him affraid And so praying all to pray for him he said some Prayers and without any daunting laid down his Head upon the Block But the Duke of Northumberland submitted himself to base and mean Practices to save his Life He renounced his Religion nay disavowed That he ever was of the Religion professed in K. Edward's Days if we may believe Parsons but only hypocritically for worldly Ends complied with it And if he might but have lived he could have been contented to spend his Days in a Mouse-hole For from a Priest I have this Relation and the Papists best knew the Intrigues of Queen Mary's Reign After Sentence pronounced upon him he made Means to speak with Bishop Gardiner who he knew could do most of any with the Queen When the Bishop came to him in Company with another Councellor to be Witness of their Discourse who himself told my Author these Passages the Duke asked the Bishop If there were no hope at all for him to live and to do some Penance the rest of his Days for his sins past Alass said he let me live a little longer though it be but in a Mouse-hole The Bishop replied That he wished to God any thing could have contented his Grace but a Kingdom when he was at liberty and in prosperity And even at that present he wished it lay in his Power to give him that Mousehole For he would allow him the best Palace he had in the World for that Mousehole And did moreover then offer to do for him what he could possible But because his offence he said was great and Sentence past against him and his Adversaries many it would be best for him to provide for the worst and especially that he stood well with God in matter of Conscience and Religion For to speak plainly as he went on it was most likely he must Die The Duke answered He would dispose himself and desired he might have a learned Priest sent him for his Confession and spiritual Comfort And as for Religion said he you know my Lord Bishop that I can be of no other but of Yours which is the Catholick For I never was of any other indeed nor ever so foolish as to believe any of that which we had set up in K. Edward's Days but only to use the same for my own purpose of Ambition For which God forgive me And so I mean to testify publickly at my Death For it is true The Bishop saith my Author went away with an afflicted Heart and shed many Tears as he returned and went to the Queen and entreated so earnestly for him as he had half gained her Consent for his Life Which so much terrified the Duke's Adversaries as presently they got the Emperor Charles that was in Flanders to write to the Queen a very resolute and earnest Letter that it was not safe for her nor his Estate to Pardon his Life And with that he was Executed Whatever credit is to be given to the rest of this Relation I can hardly believe that Passage that he is reported to say to the Bishop That he was never otherwise than a Roman-Catholick and that he did all along dissemble his Religion for worldly Ends and that he would testify as much at his Death Because this doth no ways comport with his Speech upon the Scaffold wherein he mentioneth no such thing but rather the contrary Nor did he declare any such thing when he came to Die He said indeed that he was deceived and misled but no where that he dissembled And if he were deceived he dissembled not CHAP. IV. Peter Martyr departs A Parliament THE Strangers had this piece of Mercy shewn them that they were suffered to depart the Kingdom Among the rest that went away this Year was Peter Martyr the famous and learned Professor of Divinity in
Apostles of Iesus Christ. And wished heartily that the Christian Conversation of the People were the Letters and Seals of their Offices as the Corinthians were to St. Paul who told them that They were his Letters and the Signs of his Apostleship and not Paper Parchment Lead or Wax Great indeed and painful was his Diligence in promoting God's Truth and reforming this Church Insomuch that he raised up against himself the Malice and Hatred of very many thereby These Memorials before related do abundantly evince the same The Words of Thomas Becon in an Epistle Dedicatory deserve here to be transcribed In plucking up the Enemies Tares and in purging the Lord's Field that nothing may grow therein but pure Wheat your most godly and unrestful Pains most Reverend Father are well known in this Church of England and thankfully accepted of all faithful Christen Hearts Insomuch that very many do daily render unto God most humble and hearty Thanks for the singular and great Benefits which they have received of him through your vertuous Travel in attaining the true Knowledg of Justification and of the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood those two things especially he laboured to retrieve and promote a true Knowledg of and such other Holy Mysteries of our Profession And albeit the Devil roar the World rage and the Hypocrites swell at these your most Christian Labours which you willingly take for the Glory of God and the Edifying of his Congregation yet as you have godly begun so without ceasing continue unto the end And so he did to the effusion of his Blood not many Years after For he was very sensible of the gross Abuses and Corruptions into which the Christian Church had sunk Which made him labour much to get it purged and restored to its Primitive Constitution and Beauty And this he ceased not to make King Henry sensible of putting him upon the Reformation of the English Church as he could find Occasion and Convenience serve him to move him thereunto Which found at last that good effect upon the King that towards the latter Years of his Reign he was fully purposed to proceed to a regulating of many more things than he had done But the subtilty of Gardiner Bp of Winton and his own Death prevented his good Designs While the aforesaid Bishop was Ambassador Abroad employed about the League between the Emperor and the English and French Kings our Arch-bishop took the opportunity of his Absence to urge the King much to a Reformation and the King was willing to enter into serious Conference with him about it And at last he prevailed with the King to resolve to have the Roods in every Church pulled down and the accustomed Ringing on Alhallow-Night suppress'd and some other vain Ceremonies And it proceeded so far that upon the Arch-bishop's going into Kent to visit his Diocess the King ordered him to cause two Letters to be drawn up prepared for him to sign The one to be directed to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the other to the Arch-bishop of York Who were therein to be commanded to issue forth their Precepts to all the Bishops in their respective Provinces to see those Enormities redressed without delay Which our Arch-bishop accordingly appointed his Secretary to do And the Letters so drawn up were sent by the Arch-bishop up to Court But the King upon some Reasons of State suggested to him in a Letter from Gardiner his Ambassador beyond Sea being by some made privy to these Transactions suspended the signing of them And that put a stop to this Business for that time till some time after the King at the Royal Banquet made for Annebault the French King's Ambassador leaning upon him and the Arch-bishop told them both his Resolution of proceeding to a total Reformation of Religion signifying that within half a Year the Mass both in his Kingdom and in that of France should be changed into a Communion and the usurped Power of the Bishop of Rome should be wholly rooted out of both and that both Kings intended to exhort the Emperor to do the same in his Territories or else they would break off the League with him And at that time also he willed the Arch-bishop to draw up a Form of this Reformation to be sent to the French King to consider of This he spake in the Month of August a few Months before his Death This his Purpose he also signified to Dr. Bruno Ambassador here from Iohn Frederick Duke of Saxony some little time after saying That if his Master's Quarrel with the Emperor was only concerning Religion he advised him to stand to it strongly and he would take his part But the King's Death prevented all And as for this King 's next Successor King Edward the Arch-bishop had a special Care of his Education Whose Towardliness and zealous Inclination to a Reformation was attributed to the said Arch-bishop and three other Bishops viz. Ridley Hoper and Latimer by Rodulph Gualter of Zurick Who partly by his living sometime in England and partly by his long and intimate Familiarity and Correspondence with many of the best Note here was well acquainted with the Matters relating to this Kingdom Of the great Influence of one of these upon this King viz. the Arch-bishop the former Memorials do sufficiently shew CHAP. XXXIII Arch-bishop Cranmer procures the Use of the Scriptures THE Arch-bishop was a great Scripturist and in those darker Times of Popery was the chief Repairer of the Reputation of the Holy Scriptures Urging them still for the great Standard and Measure in all controverted Matters relating to Religion and the Church By these he disintangled King Henry VIII his great Matrimonial Cause when all his other Divines who had the Pope's Power and Laws too much in their Eyes were so puzzled about it Shewing how no Humane Dispensation could enervate or annul the Word of God And in the Course he took about the Reforming of Religion the Holy Scripture was the only Rule he went by casting by School-men and the Pope's Canons and Decretals and adhering only to the more sure Word of Prophecy and Divine Inspiration And so Roger Ascham in a Letter to Sturmius in the Year 1550 when they were very busy in the Reformation writes Thaâ—â—uch was the Care of their Iosiah meaning King Edward the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the whole Privy-Council for true Religion that they laboured in nothing more than that as well the Doctrine as Discipline of Religion might be most purely drawn out of the Fountain of the Sacred Scriptures and that that Roman Sink whence so many Humane Corruptions abounded in the Church of Christ might be wholly stopped up This his high Value of the Scriptures made him at last the happy Instrument of restoring them to the Common People by getting them after divers Years opposition printed in the English Tongue and set up in Churches for any to read that would for
But they hate God envy his glory and be utterly in dispair For the more large Declaration of the Christian Faith it is to be considered that there is a general Faith which al that be christned as wel good as evil have As to believe that God is that he is the Maker and Creator of al things and that Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world and for his sake al penitent sinners shal have remission of their sins And that there shal be a general resurrection at the end of this mortal World At the which Christ shal judge al the Good to joy without end and the Evil to pain without end with such other like thyngs And al these things the Devils also believe and tremble for fear and grievousnes of Gods indignation and torments which they shal endure and ever shal do But they have not the right christen Faith that their own sins by Christs redemption be pardoned and forgiven that themselves by Christ be delivered from Gods wrath and be made his beloved children and heires of his kingdom to come The other Faith have al Devils and wicked christen people that be his Members But this pure christen Faith have none but those that truly belong to Christ and be the very Members of his body and endeavor themselves to persevere in his precepts and lawes altho many pretend to have the same pure Faith which nevertheles have it not but only in their mouths For as there is a ly in the mouth and a ly in the heart even so there is a faith in the mouth and a faith in the heart Examine every man if he Trust in God and Love God above al things And in word he wil answer Yea. But examine every mans acts and deeds and surely in a great number their acts and deeds condemn their words For they walk after their own Wills and plesures and not after Gods commandments And Christ himself saith Qui diligit me mandata mea servat And S. Iohn saith Qui dicit se nosse deum mandata ejus non custodit mendax est And therfore al those that bridle not their own appetites but follow them and accomplish the wil of their own carnal minds they trust in God and trust God no further then the lips And if they persuade themselves that they trust in God and love God in their hearts and be of any estimation before God then be they much deceived and as S. Paul saith they deceive their own hearts Our own flesh and carnal mind is contrary to the Spirit and motion of God And they saith S. Paul that belong unto Christ do crucify their flesh with the affections and lusts therof And contrary he saith They that follow the lusts of the flesh shal not inherit the kingdom of God These be very notable and fearful sentences unto al such as be not repentant but live after their own wills and not after Gods wil neither have the right faith nor Love unto God nor shal be inheriters of his kingdom And though Christ hath payd a sufficient ransome for al the sins in the World and is a sufficient Redeemer and Saviour of al the World yet shal they have no part therof For they belong not unto Christ and Christ utterly refuseth them for his which have Faith and Love only in their mouths and have not the same engraven in their hearts and expressed in their actions and deeds And so he goes on more largely to illustrate this argument of the necessity of more than a mere faith in the mouth Afterwards the Discourse thus procedes If as treacle kept only in the mouth doth not remedy poyson in the whole body but the treacle must enter down into the body and then it altereth the whole body and expells al venome and poyson In like maner he whose profession of his faith is only in his mouth and altereth not his evil life is not forgiven his sins is not delivered from hel nor from the power of Devils is not made the son of God but continueth stil in his poyson of sin in the wrath and indignation of God and in the damnation of the wicked in hell But if the profession of our faith of the remission of our own sinns enter within unto the deepness of our hearts then it must needs kindle a warm fire of Love in our hearts towards God and towards all others for the love of God a fervent mind to seek and procure Gods honor wil and pleasure in al things a good wil and mind to help every man and to do good unto them so far as our Might Wisdome Learning Counsil Health Strength and al other gifts which we have received of God wil extend And in summa a firm intent and purpose to do al that is good and leave al that is evil This is the very right pure perfect lovely christian hearty and justifying Faith which worketh by Love as S. Paul saith and suffereth no venome or poyson of sin to remain within the heart Acts 15. Fide Deus purificans corda But gendreth in the heart a hatred unto al sin and makes a sinner clean a new man and is the Faith which every christen man ought to profess in his Creed And of this Faith runneth al our Paraphrasis upon the same For as for the other fained pretended hypocritical and adulterate Faith in the mouth it is but only a painted visor before men but before God it is hollow within dead rotten and nothing worth II. JUSTIFICATION AND for a further Declaration to know how we obtain our Justification it is expedient to consider first how naughty and sinful we are al that be of Adam's kindred and contrariwise what Mercifulnes is in God which to al faithful and penitent sinners pardoneth al their offences for Christs sake Of these two things no man is lightly ignorant that ever hath heard of the fal of Adam which was to the infection of al his posterity and again of the inexplicable mercy of our heavenly father which sent his only begotten Son to suffer his most grievous passion for us and shed his most precious blood the price of our Redemption But it is greatly to be wished and desired that as al Christen men do know the same so that every man might acknowledg himself a miserable sinner not worthy to be called his son and yet surely trust that to him being repentant Gods mercy is ready to forgive And he that seeth not these two things verified in himself can take no maner of emolument or profit by knowledging and believing the said things to be verified in others But we cannot satisfy our minds settle our conscience that these things be true saving that we do evidently see that Gods word so teacheth us The Commandments of God lay our faults before our eyen which putteth us in fear and dread and maketh us se the wrath of God against our sins As S. Paul saith Per legem agnitio
such things in them written as be not consonant to the Scripture as they wil avoyd occasion of error and tender the truth of Gods word and his glory To whom be laud praise and honor Amen NUM XL. Archbishop Cranmers Answers to the fifteen Articles of the Rebells Devon Anno 1549. WHen I first read your Requests O ignorant men of Devonshire and Cornwal straitwayes came to my mind a request which Iames and Iohn made unto Christ to whom Christ answered You ask you wot not what Even so thought I of you assoon as ever I heard your Articles that you were deceived by some crafty Papist which devised those Articles for you to make you ask you wist not what As for the Devisors of your Articles if they understand them I may not cal them ignorant persons but as they be indeed most rank Papists and wilful Traitors and Adversaries both to God and our Soveraign Lord the King and to the whole realm But I cannot be persuaded so to think of you that in your hearts willingly you be Papists and Traitors but that those that be such have craftily seduced you being simple and unlearned people to ask you wot not what Wherfore my duty unto God and the pity that I have of your ignorance move me now at this time to open plainly and particularly your own Articles unto you that you may understand them and no longer be deceived In your first Article you require that al the General Councels and holy Decrees of our forefathers may be observed and kept and whosoever shal againsay them to be holden as Hereticks This you al ask but what you ask I dare say very few or none of you understand For how many of you I pray you do know certainly which be called the General Councels and holy Decrees of the Fathers and what is in them contained The holy Decrees as they cal them be nothing else but the Laws and Ordinances of the Bp. of Rome Wherof the most part be made for his own advancement glory and lucre and to make him and his Clergy Governors of the whole world and to be exempted from al Princes Lawes and to do what they list And would you ask if you knew what you asked that we should put away the Lawes of our own realm and be governed by the Bp. of Romes Lawes If you mean this then be you Traitors to the King and enemies to your own realm And if you mean it not consider what persons they be and how they have deceived you that make you ask you wot not what And as for the General Councels you say you wil have them al kept but you be not so destitute of al reason that you would have spoken such words if you had known what you had said For a great number of the Councels repugn one against another How should they then be al kept when one is contrary to another and the keeping of one is the breaking of another And among your own Articles you say you wil have divers things observed which be not only contrary to the General Councels but also contrary to the Law of this realm and also to Gods Laws as it shal be plainly declared when we come to the Articles And al reason is contrary that you should have asked such things if you had known what you had asked I have this opinion of the greater number of you that you would fain walk in the right way if you could find it And forasmuch as I perceive that wicked and false guides under pretence to bring you to the high way have brought you clean out of it my good wil shal be seeing you so far wandring out of the way and so blindfolded with il persuasions that you cannot see where you go to open your eyes that you may see and to set you again into the right way And when your eyes be so opened that you may se and the right way shewed unto you wherin you should walk then if you wil stil wink and not see and run headlong in error and not come to the right way you may no longer be called simple and ignorant people but perverse froward and wicked Papists and Traitors Enemies to God and your own realm But now I wil come to your Articles particularly opening every one of them by himself that you may se the bowels therof and what is contained in the same That when you shal understand the whole you may judge whether you knew before what you asked or you were deceived by subtil and wily Papistical Traitors I. Your first Article is this WEE wil have al the General Councels and holy Decrees of our forefathers observed kept and performed and whosoever shal againsay them we hold them as Hereticks First to begin with the manner of your phrase Is this the fashion of Subjects to speak unto their Prince We wil have Waâ— this maner of speech at any time used of the Subjects to their Prince since the beginning of the world Have not al true Subjects ever used to their Soveraign Lord this form of speaking Most humbly beseecheth your faithful and obedient Subjects Altho the Papists have abused your ignorance in propounding such Articles which you understand not yet you should not have suffered your selves so much to be led by the nose and bridled by them that you should clearly forget your duty of Allegiance unto your Soveraign Lord saying unto him This we wil have and that saying with armour upon your backs and swords in your hands Would any of you that be Householders be content that your servants should come upon you with harness unto their backs and swords in their hands and say unto you This we wil have If then you would abhor and detest this in your servants towards your selves how can you allow your fact With what conscience can you being but subjects do to your King that thing which you would condemne in your servants towards your selves But answer me this Be you Subjects or no If you be Subjects then I admonish you as S. Paul taught Titus saying Warn them to be subject to Princes and Rulers obeying them at a word But tel me again Pertaineth this to subjection and obedience to say This we wil have S. Peter saith Be subject unto Kings as unto chief heads and to other Rulers sent by them For so is the Wil of God Gods wil is that you should be ruâ—ed by your Princes But whether is this to be ruled by your King or to rule your King to say Thus we wil have the Realm governed Your Servants be by the Scripture commanded as they fear God to be obedient to their Masters whether their Masters be good or evil And can you think it meet and lawful for you to disobey your undoubted King being a Prince most innocent most godly and most careful for your sorrow and wealth If any thing can declare disobedience what can declare it more then Subjects to come
with force of armes to their natural King and Prince and say This we wil have But now leaving your rude and unhansome maner of speech to your most Soveraign Lord I wil come to the point and joyn with you in the effect of your first Article You say you wil have al the holy Decrees observed and kept But do you know what they bee The holy Decrees as I told you before be called the Bp. of Romes ordinances and lawes Which how holy and godly soever they be called they be indeed so wicked so ungodly so â—ul of tyranny and so partial that since the beginning of the world were never devised or invented the like I shal reherse a certain of them that your selves may see how holy they be and may say your minds whether you would have them kept or no. And at the hearing of them if you shal not think them meet to be kept here in this realm then you may see how they deceived you that moved you to ask this Article And if you like them and would have them kept after you know what they be then I say assuredly that you be not only wicked Papists but also Heretics and most hainous Traitors to the King and this his realm And yet how an absolute Papist varieth from an Heretick or Traitor I know not but that a Papist is also both a Heretic and a Traitor withal One Decree saith That whosoever doth not acknowledg himself to be under the obedience of the Bp. of Rome is an Heretic Now answer me to this Question Whether be you under the obedience of the Bp. of Rome or not If you say that you be under his obedience then be you Traytors by the laws of this realm And if you deny it then be you Heretics by this Decree And shift is there none to save you from treason but to renounce this Decree that commandeth you to be under the Bp. of Rome and so to confes contrary to your own first Article That al Decrees are not to be kept Yet a great many other Decrees be as evil and worse than this One saith That al Princes lawes which be against a Decree of the Bp. of Rome be void and of no strength Another Decree saith That al the Decrees of the Bp. of Rome ought for ever to be kept of al men as Gods word Another Decree there is That whosoever receiveth not the law of the Bp. of Rome availeth neither him the Catholick faith nor the four Evangelists For his sin shal never be forgiven Yet is there a worse and more detestable decree That al Kings and Princes that suffer the Bp. of Romes Decrees to be broken in any point are to be taken as Infidels Another is there also That the Bp. of Rome is bound to no maner of Decrees but he may constrain al other persons both Spiritual and Temporal to receive al his Decrees and Canons Another is yet more devilish then any before rehersed That altho the Bp. of Rome neither regard his own Salvation nor no mans else but put down with himself headlong innumerable people by heaps unto hell yet may no mortal man presume to reprove him therfore But what should I tarry and make you weary in rehersing a number For a thousand other like Canons and Decrees there be to the Advancement of the Bp. of Rome his usurped power and authority I cannot think of you that you be so far from al godliness from al wit and Discretion that you would have these Decrees observed within this Realm which be so blasphemous to God so injurious to al Princes and Realms and so far from al equity and reason But here you may easily perceive what wily foxes you met withal which persuaded you to arme your selves to make sedition in your own Country to stand against your Princes and the laws of your Realm for such Articles as you understand not and to ask you wist not what For I dare say for you that the subtil Papists when they moved you to stand in this Article that al the holy Decrees should be observed they shewed you nothing of these Decrees that they would have taken for holy Decrees For if they had they knew right wel that you would never have consented unto this Article but would have taken them for Traitors that first moved you thereto For now shal I shew you what miserable case you should bring your selves unto if the Kings Majesty should assent unto this first Article that al the Decrees should be kept and observed For among other partial Decrees made in favor of the Clergy this is one That none of the Clergy shal be called or sued before any Temporal Iudge for any maner of cause either for debt suit of lands fellony murther or for any other cause or crime Nor shal have any other Iudge but his Bp. only Another is That a Spiritual man may sue a Temporal man before a Temporal or Spiritual Iudge at his plesure but a Temporal man cannot sue a Spiritual but only before his Ordinary I cannot deny but these been good and beneficial laws for the liberty of the Clergy But for your own part I suppose you do not think it any indifferent Law that a Priest shal sue you where he list with the licence of his Ordinary and you shal sue him for no maner of cause but only before his own Ordinary Or if a Priest had slain one of your sons or brether that you should have no remedy against him but only before the Bp. What mean those Papistical priests that stirred you to ask and wil such decrees and lawes to be observed in this realm but covertly and craftily to bring you under their subjection And that you your selves ignorantly asking you wist not what should put your own heads under their girdles For surely if you had known these Decrees when you consented to this Article you would have torn the Article in pieces and they that moved you therto also For these Decrees â—e not only partial and against al equity and reason made only for the favor of the Clergy and the suppression of the Laity but also they be and ever have â—e clearly contrary to the Lawes and customes of this Realm And yet by this Article you wil have the old antient Laws and customes of this realm which have ever been used in al Kings times hitherto to be void and to cease and these Decrees to come in their place and be observed of al men and againsaid of no man For whosoever speaketh against them you wil hold them for Heretics And in so saying look what sentence you give of your selves altho your Article say it yet I am sure you be not so much enemies to your own Realm that you would have the old antient Laws and Customs of this Realm for the defence whereof al the Noble Kings of this Realm have so valiantly and so justly stand against the Bishops of Rome now to be taken
Or whether the footmen shall make them ready or set themselves in array or set upon the enemy or retyre to the standard Even so should the Priests be Gods trump in in his Church So that if he blow such a certain blast that the people may understand they be much edified therby But if he give such a sound as is to the people unknown it is clearly in vain saith S. Paul For he speakes to the air but no man is the better or edified therby Nor knoweth what he should do by that he heareth Furthermore in the same place S. Paul saith That if a man giveth thanks to God in a language to the people unknown how can they say Amen to that they understand not He doth wel in giving thanks to God but that nothing availeth or edifieth the people that know not what he saith And S Paul in one brief sentence concludeth his whole Disputation of that matter Saying I had rather have five words spoken in the Church to the instruction and edifying of the people then ten thousand in a language unknown that edifieth not And for this purpose alledgeth the Prophet Esay Who saith that God wil speak to his people in other tongues and in other languages Meaning therby that he would speak to every country in their own language So have the Greeks the Mass in the Greek tongue the Syrians in the Syry tongue the Armenians in their tongue and the Indians in their own tongue And be you so much addict to the Romish tongue which is the Latine tongue that you wil have your Mas in none other language but the Romish language Christ himself used among the Iews the Iews language and willed his Apostles to do the like in every country whersoever they came And be you such enemies to your own country that you wil not suffer us to laud God to thank him and to use his Sacraments in our own tongue but wil inforce us contrary as wel to al reason as to the word of God So many as be godly or have reason wil be satisfied with this But the mere Papists wil be satisfied with nothing Wherfore I wil no â—onger tary to satisfy them that never wil be satisfied but wil procede to the second part of this Article wherin you say that you wil have neither men nor women communicate with the Priest Alas good simple souls how be you blinded with the Papists How contrary be your Articles one to another You say in your first Article that you wil have al General Councels and Decrees observed and now you go from them your selves You say you wil have no body to communicate with the Priest Hear then what divers Canons Decrees and general Councels say clean against you There is one Decree which saith thus When the Consecration is done let al the people receive the Communion except they wil be put out of the Church And in the Canons of the Apostles in the eighth Chapter is contained That whensoever there is any Mas or Communion if any Bp. Priest Deacon or any other of the Clergy being there present do not communicate except he can shew some reasonable cause to the contrary he shal be put out of the Communion as one that giveth occasion to the people to think evil of the Ministers And in the ninth Chapter of the same Canons of the Apostles and in the General Council held at Antioch is thus written That al christen people that come into the Church and hear the holy Scriptures read and after wil not tarry to pray and to receive the holy Communion with the rest of the people but for some misordering of themselves wil abstain therfrom let them be put out of the Church until by humble knowledging of their fault and by the fruits of Penance and prayers they obtain pardon and forgivenes And the Councel Nicene also sheweth the order how men should sit in receiving the Communion and who should receive first Al these Decrees and general Councels utterly condemn your third Article wherein you wil That the Priest shal receive the Communion alone without any man or woman communicating with him And the whole Church of Christ also both Greeks and Latines many hundred years after Christ and the Apostles do al condemn this your Article Which ever received the Communion in flocks and numbers together and not the Priest alone And besides this the very words of the Mas as it is called shew plainly that it is ordained not only for the Priest but for others also to communicate with the Priest For in the very Canon which they so much extol and which is so holy that no man may know what it is and therfore is read so softly that no man can hear it in that same Canon I say is a prayer concerning this that not only the Priest but also as many beside as communicate with him may be fulfilled with grace and heavenly benediction How aggreeth this prayer with your Article wherein you say that neither man nor woman shal communicate with the priest In another place also of the said Canon the priest prayeth for himself and for al that receive the communion with him that it may be a preparation for them unto everlasting life Which prayer were but a very fond prayer and a very mocking with God if no body should communicate with the priest And the Communion concludes with two prayers in the name of the priest and them that communicate with him wherin they pray thus O Lord that thing which we have taken in our mouth let us take it also with pure minds that this Communion may purge us from our sins and make us partakers of heavenly remedy And besides al this there be an infinite sort of postcommons in the Mas-books Which al do evidently shew that in the Masses the people did communicate with the priest And altho I would exhort every good christen man often to receive the holy Communion yet I do not recite al these things to the intent that I would in this corrupt world when men live so ungodly as they do that the old Canons should be restored again which command every man present to receive the Communion with the priest Which Canons if they were now used I fear that many would receive it unworthily But I speak them to condemn your Articles which would have no body neither man nor woman to be communicated with the priest Which your Article condemneth the old Decrees Canons and General Councels condemneth al the old primitive church al the old antient holy Doctors and Martyrs and al the formes and maner of Masses that ever were made both new and old Therfore eat again this Article if you wil not be condemned of the whole world and of your selves also by your first Article Wherin you wil al Decrees and general Councels to be observed But forasmuch as I have been so tedious in this Article I wil endeavour my self to be shorter in
the next IV. Your fourth Article is this WE wil have the Sacrament hang over the high Altar and there to be worshipped as it was wont to be and they which wil not therto consent we wil have them dy like Heretics against the holy Catholic faith What say you O ignorant people in things pertaining to God Is this the holy Catholic faith that the Sacrament should be hanged over the Altar and worshipped And be they Heretics that wil not consent therto I pray you who made this Faith Any other but the Bishops of Rome And that after more then a thousand years after the Faith of Christ was ful and perfect Innocent III. about 1215 years after Christ did ordain that the Sacrament and Chrism should be kept under lock and key But yet no motion he made of hanging the Sacrament over the high Altar nor of the worshiping of it After him came Honorius III. and he added further commanding that the Sacrament should be devoutly kept in a clean place and sealed and that the priest should often teach the people reverendly to bow down to the host when it is lifted up in the Mass time and when the priests should cary it to the sick folkes And altho this Honorius added the worshipping of the Sacrament yet he made no mention of the hanging therof over the high Altar as your Article proporteth Nor how long after or by what means that came first up into this realm I think no man can tel And in Italy it is not yet used until this day And in the beginning of the Church it was not only not used to be hanged up but also it was utterly forbid to be kept And wil you have al them that wil not consent to your Article to dy like heretics that hold against the Catholic faith Were the Apostles and Evangelists heretics Were the Martyrs and Confessors heretics Were al the old Doctors of the Church heretics Were al christen people heretics until within three or four hundred years last past that the Bishops of Rome taught them what they should do and believe All they before rehearsed neither hanged the Sacrament over the Altar nor worshiped it nor not one of them al spake any one word either of the hanging up or worshiping of the Sacrament Mary they speak very much of the worshiping of Christ himself setting in heaven at the right hand of his Father And no man doth duely receive the Sacrament except he so after that maner do worship Christ whom he spiritually receiveth spiritually feedeth and nourisheth upon and by whom spiritually he liveth and continueth that life that is towards God And this the Sacrament teacheth us Now to knit up this Article shortly Here is the issue of this matter that you must either condemn of heresy the Apostles Martyrs Confessors Doctors and al the holy Church of Christ until the time of Innocentius and Honorius because they hanged not the Sacrament over the Altar to be worshiped or else you must be condemned your selves by your own Article to dy like heretics against the holy Catholic faith Now to your fifth Article V. Your fifth Article is this WE wil have the Sacrament of the Altar but at Easter delivered to the Lay-people and then but in one kind Methinks you be like a man that were brought up in a dark dungeon that never saw light nor knew nothing that is abroad in the world And if a friend of his pitying his ignorance and state would bring him out of his dungeon that he might se the light and come to knowledg he being from his youth used to darknes could not abide the light but would wilfully shut his eyes and be offended both with the light and with his friend also A most godly Prince of famous memory K. Henry VIII our late Soveraign Lord pitying to se his Subjects many years so brought up in darknes and ignorance of God by the erroneous doctrines and superstitions of the Bp. of Rome with the counsil of al his Nobles and learned men studied by al means and that to his no little danger and charges to bring you out of your said ignorance and darknes unto the true light and knowledg of Gods word And our most dread Soveraign Lord that now is succeding his father as wel in this godly intent as in his realmes and dominions hath with no less care and diligence studied to perform his fathers godly intent and purpose And you like men that wilfully shut their own eyes refuse to receive the light saying you wil remain in your darknes Or rather you be like men that be so far wandred out of the right way that they can never come to it again without good and expert guides and yet when the guides would tel you the truth they would not be ordered by them but would say unto them Wee wil have and follow our own wayes And that you may understand how far you be wandred from the â—ight way in this one Article wherin you wil have the Sacrament of the Altar delivered to the Lay-people but once in the year and then but under one kind be you assured that there was never such law nor such request made among christen people until this day What injury do you to many godly persons which would devoutly receive it many times and you command the priest to deliver it them but at Easter Al learned men and godly have exhorted christen people altho they have not commanded them often to receive the Communion And in the Apostles time the people at Ierusalem received it every day as it appeares by the manifest word of the Scripture And after they received it in some places every day In some places four times in the week in some three times some twice commonly every where at the least once in the week In the beginning when men were most godly and fervent in the holy Spirit then they received the Communion daily But when the Spirit of God began to be more cold in mens hearts and they waxed more worldly than godly then their desire was not so hot to receive the Communion as it was before And ever from time to time as the world waxed more wicked the more the people withdrew themselves from the holy Communion For it was so holy a thing and the threatnings of God be so sore against them that come therto unworthily that an ungodly man abhorreth it and not without cause dare in no wise approch therunto But to them that live godly it is the greatest comfort that in this world can be imagined And the more godly a man is the more sweetnes and spiritual plesure and desire he shal have often to receive it And wil you be so ungodly to command the Priest that he shal not deliver it to him but at Easter and then but only in one kind When Christ ordained both the kinds as wel for the Lay-men as for the Priests and that to be eaten and drunken at
of Christs church in the N. Testament so long as it was pure and holy and kept from Idolatry Who was able to bring this to effect contrary both to Gods expres Commandment and the custom of al godly people from the beginning of the world until four or five hundred years after Christ No man surely could have wrought this thing so much contrary to God but Antichrist himself that is to say the Bp. of Rome To whom God hath given great power to work wonders to bring into error those that wil not believe the truth But by what means did he compas this matter By such means as were most meet for himself and as he hath commonly practised in al other matters that is to say by Sedition and Murder by Confederacies and Persecutions by raising the Sons against their Fathers the childre against their mother and the Subjects against their Ruâ—ers by deposing of Emperors and Princes and murdering of learned men Saints and Martyrs For thus he wrought against the Emperor of the East parties from Gregory II. his time until Gregory III. who at length after this condition had endured above five hundred years in a Councel held at Lions by feigned promises persuaded the Emperor of the East to condescend to his purpose as wel to receive Images into the churches as to other his requests But nevertheles the Bp. of Rome failed of his purpose For yet to this day the Christen men in the East do not allow images to stand in their churches neither the Greeks nor the Armenians nor the Indians nor none other christen men And that more is Search al the world through out of what religion soever they be whether they be Iews Turks Saracens Tartaries or Christen people and you shal not find an image in none of their churches but that was brought in by the Bp. of Rome and where the Bp. of Rome is or with in these forty years was taken for the head of the Church and Christ's Vicar in earth And at the beginning the Bps. of Rome to cloak their Idolatry pretended to have Images set up only for a remembrance to Lay men and to be as it were Lay mens books But after they defined plainly that these should be worshipped And so it encreased at length that Images were kneeled unto offered unto prayed unto sought unto Incensed and Pilgrimages done unto them and al maner of superstition and idolatry that could be devised Almighty God knoweth our corrupt nature better then we do our selves He knoweth wel the inclinations of Man how much he is given to worship creatures and the work of his own hands and especially fond Women which commonly follow superstition rather then true religion And therfore he utterly forbad the people the use of graven images especially in places dedicated to the honor of God knowing assuredly that of the having would follow the worshipping them Now thanks be to God in this Realm we be clearly delivered from that kind of idolatry which most highly offended God and we do according to the Councel Elebertyne which ordained that no Images should be in Churches And this is so antient that it was about the same year that Nicene Councel was What should â—hen move you to ask again your Images in the Church being not only against Gods commandments and the use of Gods Church evermore since the beginning of the world when it was pure from idoâ—atry but also being chargeable to the realm and great occasion of hainous idolatry But that some Papistical and covetous priests have persuaded you hereto Which care neither for Gods honor nor your damnation so that they may have any commodity or profit therby I have been very long in this Article and yet the matter is so large that it requireth much more to be spoken therin which for shortnes of time I am constrained to leave until a more occasion and so come to your eigth Article VIII Your Eighth Article is this WE wil not receive the new Service because it is but like a Christmas game but we wil have our old Service of Mattins Mass Evensong and Procession in Latine as it was before And so ne the Cornish men whâ—rof certain of us understand no English utterly refuse this new English As concerning the having of the Service in the Latine tongue is sufficiently spoken of in the answer to the third Article But I would gladly know the reason why the Cornish men refuse utterly the New English as you cal it because certain of you understand it not and yet you wil have the Service in Latin which almost none of you understand If this be a sufficient cause for Cornwal to refuse the English Service because some of you understand none English a much greaâ—er cause have they both of Cornwal and Devonshire to refuse utterly the late Service for as much as fewer of them know the Latine tongue then they of Cornwal the English tongue But where you say that you wil have the old Service because the new is like a Christmas game you declare your selves what spirit you be â—ed withal or rather what spirit leadeth them that persuaded you that the Word of God is but like a Christmas game It is more like a game and a fond play to be laughed at of al men to hear the Priest speak aloud to the people in Latine and the people listen with their ears to hear and some walking up and down in the Church some saying other prayers in Latin and none understandeth other Neither the Priest nor his parish wot what they say And many times the thing that the Priest saith in Latine is so fond of it self that it is more like a play then a godly prayer But in the English Service appointed to be read there is nothing else but the eternal word of God The New and the Old Testament is read that hath power to save your Souls Which as S. Paul saith is the power of God to the Salvation of all that believe The clear light to our eyes without the which we cannot see and a Lanthorn unto our feet without which we should tumble in darknes It is in it self the Wisdome of God and yet to the Jews it is a stumbâ—ing block and to the Gentiles it is but foolishnes But to such as be called of God whether they be Iewes or Gentiles it is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God Then unto you if it be but foolishness and a Christmas Game you may discern your selves what miserable state you be in and how far you be from God For S. Paul saith plainly that the Word of God is foolishnes only to them that perish but to them that shal be saved it is Gods might and power To some it is a lively savor unto life and to some it is a deadly savor unto death If iâ— be to you but a Christmas game it is then a Savor of death unto death And surely persuade your selves that you be
offences but to pardon the punishment for the same If the King would pardon you would you take that for a pardon Would you not alledg your Pardon and say that you ought not to be punished Who can then that hath but a crum of reason in his head imagin of God that he wil after our death punish those things that he pardoned in our life time Truth it is that Scripture maketh mention of Paradise and Abrahams bosome after this life but those be places of joy and consolation not of pain and torments But yet I know what subtil Sophisters use to mutter in mens ears to deceive them withal David say they with many other were pardoned of their offences and yet were they sore punished after for the same of God And some of them so long as they lived Wel be it were so Yet after their lives they were not punished in Purgatory therfore But the end of their lives was the end of their punishment And likewise it is of Original sin after Baptism which altho it be pardoned yet after paines therof continue so long as we live But this punishment in this life time is not to revenge our Original sin which is pardoned in Baptism but to make us humble penitent obedient to God fearful to offend to know our selves and ever to stand in fear and aw as if a Father that hath beaten a wilful child for his faults should hang the rod continually at the childs girdle it should be no smal pain and grief to the child ever hanging by his side And yet the father doth it not to beat the child for that which is past and forgiven but to make him beware hereafter that he offend not again and to be gentle tractable obedient and loth to do any thing amiss But after this life there is no such cause of punishment Where no rod nor whip can force any man to go any faster or further being already at the end of his journey Likewise a Master that hath an unthrifty Servant which out of his Masters sight doth nothing but riot and disorder himself if he forgive his Servant and for the love he beareth to him and the desire he hath to se him corrected and reformed he wil command him never to be out of his sight This Command altho indeed it be a great pain to the Servant yet the Master doth it not to punish those faults which before he had pardoned and forgiven but to keep him in stay that he fal no mo to like disorder But these examples and casâ—s of punishment here in this life can in no wise be wrested and drawn to the life to come And so in no wise can serve for Purgatory And furthermore Seeing that the Scriptures so often and so diligently teach us almost in every place to relieve al them that be in necessity to feed the hungry to cloth the naked to visit the sick and the prisoner to comfort the sorrowful and so to al others that have need of our help and the same in no place make mention either of such pains in Purgatory or what comfort we may do them it is certain that the same is feigned for lucre and not grounded upon Gods word For else the Scripture in some place would have told us plainly what case they stood in that be in Purgatory and what relief and help we might do unto them But as for such as Gods word speaketh not one word of neither of them both my counsil shal be that you keep not the Bp. of Romes Decrees that you may come to Purgatory but keep Gods laws that you may come to heaven Or else I promise you assured y that you shal never escape Hel. Now to your next Article X. Your tenth Article is this WE wil have the Bible and al Books of Scripture in English to be called in again For we be informed that otherwise the Clergy shal not of long time confound the Heretics Alas it grieveth me to hear your Articles and much I rue and lament your ignorance praying God most earnestly once to lighten your eyes that you may see the truth What christen heart would not be grieved to se you so ignorant for willingly and wilfully I trust you do it not that you refuse Christ and joyne your selves with Antichrist You refuse the holy Bible and al holy Scriptures so much that you wil have them called in again and the Bp. of Romes Decrees you wil have advanced and observed I may wel say to you as Christ said to Peter Turne back again for you savor not godly things As many of you as understand no Latine cannot know Gods word but in English except it be the Cornish men which cannot understand likewise none but their own speech Then you must be content to have it in English which you know or else you must confes that you refuse utterly the knowledg therof And wherfore did the Holy Ghost come down in fiery tongues and gave them knowledge of al languages but that al Nations might hear speak and learn Gods word in their Mother tongue And can you name me any Christens in al the world but they have and ever had Gods word in their own tongue and the Jews to whom God gave his Scriptures in the Hebrew tongue after their long captivity among the Chaldees so that mo of them knew the Chaldee rather then the Hebrew tongue they caused the Scripture to be turned into the Chaldee tongue that they might understand it Which until this day is called Targum And Ptolomy King of Egypt caused Sixty Seventy of the greatest Clerks that might be gotten to translate the Scripture out of Hebrew into Greek And until this day the Greeks have it in the Greek tongue the Latines in the Latine tongue and al other Nations in their own tongue And wil you have God further from us then from al other countries that he shal speak to every man in his own language that he understandeth and was born in and to us shal speak a strange language that we understand not And wil you that al other Realmes shal laâ—d God in their own speech and we shal say to him we know not what Altho you savor so little of godlines that you â—ist not to read his word your selves you ought not to be so malicious and envious to let them that be more godly and would gladly read it to their comfort and edification And if there be an English Heretic how wil you have him confuted but in English And wherby else but by Gods word Then it followeth that to confute English Heretics we must have Gods word in English as al other Nations have it in their own native language S. Paul to the Ephesians teacheth al men as wel Lay-men as priests to arme themselves and to fight against al Adversaries with Gods word Without the which we cannot be able to prevail neither against subtil Heretics puissant Devils this deceitful world nor our
hardly kepe our selves in such things that the scripture do speake of the heavens and of Christes sytting in heaven 28. I have a conscience in so high misteries to allow such kinde of speaking as is not taught in the scripture though such be much used yea and that by the authority of the holy fathers for to what point through such speakyng the devyll and antychrist hath brought us we all lamentably complayne 29. Wherfore with reverence and in a true meanyng I wyll understand the sayinges of the holy fathers as touching the mutation of the sygnes I wyll never graunt their sayings so to be taken as to mutch straunge from gods worde and after such sort as men myght now a daies be overthrowen with Antichristes doctrine into the idolatrye which of all other is most detestable 30. So likewyse if any thing may be found that the holy fathers have wrytten of Christ placed in heaven more then the scripture doth certaynely teach I wyll not without reverence refuse it nor yet wyth any man contend therin for I have nothing to say that such writyng is contrary to any place of scripture I do but only desyre that no necessary doctrine be made therof and that I may be suffered to abyde in the playnes of Gods written word 31. But they will say that a man well expert in saith when he heareth that Christ is present in the holy supper and is geven receyved and had with the bread cannot refraine but imagine such a presence of Christ in the bread as is there placed or els like to such a thing as hath a place 32. I cannot se how the wordes of the Holy Ghost ought to be refourmed because of the weakenes of our understanding either that we should allow such utteraunce of wordes wherby it might appeare that the Holy Ghost had not uttered the matter circumspectly and strongly inough yea and that most aptly and effectually as well to the edefying of faith as to the putting away of all errours 33. These now be the wordes of Christ Where two or three be gathered in my name ther am I in the mydst of them In the name of Christ we assemble together at the Lords Supper rightly ministred In the world we be yea and somewhere placed and whersoever we be Christ is among us which notwithstanding is not in the world and also dwelleth in our hartes But we cannot perseâ—ve nor attaine it neyther by our sense nor by reason but by faith For how can the head be away from his body Wherfore I defyne or determine Christes presence howsoever we perceive it either by the sacraments or by the word of the gospell to be onely the attainyng and perceyving of the commodities we have by Christ both God and man which is our head raignyng in heaven dwelling and lyving in us Which presence we have by no worldly meanes but we have it by faith and take the fruit therof when it is offered us in the word and in the sacraments But the force therof we feele in all our parties and powers what tyme by the spirit of Christ they be sanctifyed and renewed unto obedience and godly lyfe 34. He is called present by some knowledge of perceyvyng him even as one may be called present with an other and so we do say that they be here present whom we know by hearing or by syght to be present but now the thing which we know by faith is much more certaine then any thing we can know by sence or reason Why may not we then say that Christ our head is present with his members when we know by faith that he both liveth and dwelleth in us 35. They say that the holy fathers expound the scriptures recording the Lords presence that Christ by his Godhead by his majesty and by his providence is present with us yet lyving in this world Truth it is but the Lord saith I am with you unto the worldes end and Paule affirmeth that Christ lyveth and dwelleth in our hartes Yea and the holy fathers themselves declare that we have Christ present in the sacrament of baptisme and in the meate and drink of the aulter which call that presence carnall that is knowen by our senses and is set over against the presence which we have by faith 36. Faith truly embraceth Christ both God and man and kepeth him present which by his Godhead is not onely present in the congregation of his saintes and in his members but is also present in every place But some cannot be contented unles we graunt that we have his body and bloud really carnally and substantially present in the supper 37. Wyse and good men will eschew all uncertaine wordes in every talk and speaking how much more are they to be avoyded in Christes sacramentes Moreover in the treatyse of Christes sacraments we may justly refuse such straunge wordes as be not used in the scripture unles they may be perfectly applied for the declaration of Christes truth For such uncertaine wordes doth more darken the true doctrine and therfore we must not medle with them except ther be some consideration of the using of them 38. I would wysh these wordes realiter and substantialiter to be altogether refused neither to be allowed in reasonyng to or fro because we shall seme to graunt their contraries and to say that Christ is receyved counterfeâ—tlye and accydenâ—ly if we deny him to be received in the supper really and substantiallye 39. If the matter so require that these words be brought into reâ—sonyng I would for the maintenance of Christes truth against the adversaries among the children of God defyne these wordes realiter and substantialiter as if one would understand by the presence of the Lord really and substantially that he is received verely in dede by faith and his substaunce is geven in the sacrament but if he would enterlace any worldly presence with these words I will deny it because the Lord is departed this world 40. I can never admyt or allow these words carnally and naturally because they bring in a meanyng that he is receyved with our sences 41. Hereby I thinke it evydent agreeable to the holy scripture and according to the reverence we owe to God and his scripture and toward the auncient church that we should frame our selves to the words of the Lord of his Apostles and of the auncient Church and to say that ther is geven and receyved the body and bloud of the Lord that is to say very Christ himselfe both God and man but he is geven with the word and the signes but received with true faith and that he is geven and received to the end that we may move and lyve more parfectly in him and he in us 42. And I thinke it an easy thing to make answer when they say that the thing which is already cannot be received and that he which cometh to the Lords supper and hath not Christ in himselfe receiveth not Christ
to shew him the way and to expound to him the scripture yet did hee read And therefore God the rather provided for him a guide of the way that taught him to understand it God perceived his willing and toward mind and therfore hee sent him a Teacher by and by Therfore let no man be negâ—igent about his own health and salvation Though thou have not Philip alwayes when thou wouldest the holy Ghost which then moved and stiâ—red up Philip will bee ready and not fail thee if thou do thy diligence accordingly All these things bee written for us for our edification and amendment which bee born towards the latter end of the world The reading of the Scriptures is a great and strong bulwark or fortress against sin the ignorance of the same is a greater ruine and destruction of them that wil not know it That is the thing that bringeth in heresie that is it that causeth all corrupt and perverse Living that is it that bringeth all things out of good order Hitherto al that I have said I have taken and gathered out of the foresaid sermon of this holy Doctor S. Iohn Châ—ysostom Now if I should in like manner bring sorth what the self same Doctor speaketh in other places and what other Doctors and Writers say concerning the same purpose I might seem to you to write another Bible raâ—her then to make a Preface to the Bible Wherfore in few words to comprehend the largeness and utility of the Scripture how it containeth fruitful instruction and erudition for every man if any thing be necessary to be Learned of the holy Scripture we may learn it If falshood shall be reproved thereof wee may gather wherewithal If any thing bee to bee corrected and amended if there need any exhortation or consolation of the Scripture wee may wel learn In the Scriptures bee the fat pastures of the Soul therein is no venomous meat no unwholsome thing they bee the very dainty and pure feeding Hee that is ignorant shal find there what hee should learn Hee that is a perverse sinner shal there find his Damnation to make him to tremble for fear Hee that laboureth to serve God shal find there his Glory and the promissions of eternal life exhorting him more diligently to labour Herein may Princes learn how to govern their Subjects Subjects obedience Love and dread to their Princes Husbands how they should behave them unto their Wives how to educate their Children and Servants And contrary the Wives Children and Servants may know their dutie to their Husbands Parents and Masters Here may al maner of persons men women young old learned unlearned rich poor priests Laymen Lords Laâ—ies officers tenants and mean men Virgins Wives Widdowes Lawiers Merchants Artificers Husbandmen and al manner of persons of what estate or condition soever they bee may in this book learn all things what they ought to believe what they ought to do and what they should not do as wel concerning Almighty God as also concerning themselves and al other Briefly to the reading of the Scripture none can bee enemy but that either bee so sick that they Love not to hear of any medicine or else that bee so ignorant that they know not Scripture to bee the most healthful medicine Therefore as touching this former part I wil hear conclude and take it for conclusion sufficiently determined and appoynted that it is convenient and good the Scriptures to bee read of al sorts and kinds of people and in the vulgar tongue without further allegations and probations for the same which shal not need since that this one place of Iohn Chrysostom is enough and sufficient to persuade al them that bee not frowardly and perversely set in their own wilful opinion Specially now that the Kings Highnes being Supreme Head next under Christ of this church of England hath approved with his Royal assent the setting forth hereof Which onely to al true and obedient Subjects ought to bee a sufficient reason for the allowance of the same without further delay reclamation or resistance although there were no preface or other reason herein expressed Therefore now to come to the second and latter part of my purpose Here is nothing so good in this world but it may bee abused and turned from unhurtfull and wholsome to hurtful and noisome What is there above better then the Sun the Moon and the Stars Yet was there that took occasion by the great beauty and vertue of them to dishonour God and to defile themselves with idolatry giving the honour of the Living God and Creator of al things to such things as hee had created What is there here beneath better then fire Water meats drinks mettals of gold silver iron and steel Yet wee see daily great harm and much mischief done by every one of these as wel for lack of wisdome and providence of them that suffer evil as by the malice of them that work the evill Thus to them that bee evil of themselves every thing setteth forward and encreaseth their evil bee it of his own nature a thing never so good Like as contrarily to them that study and endeavour themselves to goodnes every thing prevaileth them and profiteth unto good bee it of his own nature a thing never so bad As S. Paul saith Hijs qui diligunt Deum omnia cooperantur in bonum All things do bring good success to such as do love God Even as out of most venimous wormes is made Triacle the most sovereign medicine for the preservation of mans health in time of danger Wherefore I would advise you all that come to the reading or hearing of this Book which is the word of God the most precious jewel and most holy Relique that remaineth upon earth that yee bring with you the fear of God and that yee do it with al reverence and use your knowledg thereof not to vain glory of frivolous disputation but to the honour of God encrease of vertue and edification both of your selves and other And to the intent that my words may bee the more regarded I wil use in this part the authority of S. Gregory Nazienzen like as in the other I did of S. Iohn Chrâ—sostom It appeareth that in his time there were some as I fear mee there bee also now at these dayes a great number which were idle bablers and talkers of the Scripture out of season and all good order and without any encrease of virtue or example of good living To them hee writeth al his first book De Theologia Whereâ—ore I shal briefly gather the whole effect and reciâ—e it here unto you There bee some saith hee whose not onely ears and tongues but also their fists bee whetted and ready bent al to contention and unprofitable disputation whom I would wish as they bee vehement and earnest to reason the matter with tongue so they were al Ready and practive to do good deeds But forasmuch as they subverting the order of