{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_17678/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_17678","id":"gutenberg_17678","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17678","summary":null,"tags":["Anglican Communion -- Apologetic works","Category: History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity","Church of England -- Apologetic works"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1888 Cassell and Company edition by David Price,\nemail ccx074@coventry.ac.uk\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE APOLOGY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.\n\n\nBY\nJOHN JEWEL,\n\n_Bishop of Salisbury_.\n\nCASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:\n_LONDON_, _PARIS_, _NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_.\n1888.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nThe great interest of Jewel's \"Apology\" lies in the fact that it was\nwritten in Latin to be read throughout Europe as the answer of the\nReformed Church of England, at the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign,\nto those who said that the Reformation set up a new Church.  Its argument\nwas that the English Church Reformers were going back to the old Church,\nnot setting up a new; and this Jewel proposed to show by looking back to\nthe first centuries of Christianity.  Innovation was imputed; and an\nApology originally meant a pleading to rebut an imputation.  So, even as\nlate as 1796, there was a book called \"An Apology for the Bible,\" meaning\nits defence against those who questioned its authority.  This Latin book\nof Jewel's, _Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae_--written in Latin because it\nwas not addressed to England only--was first published in 1562, and\ntranslated into English by the mother of Francis Bacon, whose edition\nappeared in 1564.  That is the translation given in this volume.  The\nbook has since had six or seven other translators, but Lady Ann Bacon's\ntranslation was that which presented it in Queen Elizabeth's time to\nEnglish readers, and it had the advantage of revision by the Queen's\nArchbishop of Canterbury, her coadjutor in the establishment of the\nReformed Church of England, Matthew Parker.  It was published, with no\nname of author or translator on the title-page, as \"An Apologie or\nanswere in defence of the Churche of Englande, with a briefe and plaine\ndeclaration of the true Religion professed or used in the same.\"  The\nbook was prefaced by a letter, \"To the right honorable learned and\nvertuous Ladie, A. B.\" [Ann Bacon] \"M. C. wisheth from God grace,\nhonoure, and felicitie,\" where M. C. signifies Matthew Cantuar, Matthew\nParker, Archbishop of Canterbury, whom Lady Ann Bacon had made her judge,\nand whose judgment, the letter says, her book had singularly pleased.\n\nLady Ann Bacon was the second daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, who was\ntutor to King Edward VI.  Sir Anthony gave to his five daughters a most\nliberal education.  His eldest daughter, Mildred, married Sir William\nCecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh, while Ann became the second wife of the\nLord Keeper, Sir Nicholas Bacon.  Their father had made Mildred and Ann\ntwo of the most learned women in England.\n\nJohn Jewel was forty years old when he wrote the \"Apology.\"  He was born\nin Devonshire in 1522, on the 24th of May, at the village of Buden, near\nIlfracombe.  He studied at Oxford, where he became tutor and preacher,\ngraduated as B.D. in 1551, and was presented to the rectory of\nSunningwell.  At the accession of Queen Mary he bowed to the royal\nauthority, but he was a warm friend and disciple of Peter Martyr, who had\ncome to England in 1547, at the invitation of Edward VI., to take the\nchair of Divinity at Oxford.  On the accession of Queen Mary, Peter\nMartyr (who was born at Florence in 1500, and whose family name was\nVermigli) returned to Strasburg, and went thence to Zurich, where he died\nin 1562.  Jewel, repenting of his assent to the new sovereign's authority\nin matters of religion, followed his friend Peter Martyr across the\nwater, and became vice-master of a college at Strasburg.  Upon the\naccession of Elizabeth, in 1588, Jewel came back, and he was one of the\nsixteen Protestants appointed by the Queen to dispute before her with a\nlike number of Catholics.\n\nIn 1559 John Jewel was appointed a commissioner for securing, in the West\nof England, conformity with the newly-arranged Church service, and he had\nto see that the Queen's orders were obeyed in the churches of his native\ncounty.  Before the end of the same year he was consecrated Bishop of\nSalisbury.  He was most zealous in performance of all duties of his\ncharge.  To his good offices young Richard Hooker owed his opportunity of\ntraining for the service of the Church.  Among Jewel's writings, this\nApology or Defence of the Church of England was the most important; but\nhe worked incessantly, and shortened his life by limiting himself to four\nhours of sleep, taken between midnight and four in the morning.  Bishop\nJewel died on the 21st of September, 1571, before he had reached the age\nof fifty.\n\nH. M.\n\n\n\n\nAN APOLOGY, OR ANSWER, IN DEFENCE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND,\n\n\n_With a Brief and Plain Declaration of the True Religion Professed and\nUsed in the Same_.\n\n\n\nPART I.\n\n\nIt hath been an old complaint, even from the first time of the patriarchs\nand Prophets, and confirmed by the writings and testimonies of every age,\nthat the truth wandereth here and there as a stranger in the world, and\ndoth readily find enemies and slanderers amongst those that know her not.\nAlbeit perchance this may seem unto some a thing hard to be believed, I\nmean to such as have scant well and narrowly taken heed thereunto,\nspecially seeing all mankind of nature's very motion without a teacher\ndoth covet the truth of their own accord; and seeing our Saviour Christ\nHimself, when He was on earth, would be called the Truth, as by a name\nmost fit to express all His Divine power; yet we, which have been\nexercised in the Holy Scriptures, and which have both read and seen what\nhath happened to all godly men commonly at all times; what to the\nProphets, to the Apostles, to the holy martyrs, and what to Christ\nHimself; with what rebukes, revilings, and despites they were continually\nvexed whiles they here lived, and that only for the truth's sake: we, I\nsay, do see that this is not only no new thing, or hard to be believed,\nbut that it is a thing already received, and commonly used from age to\nage.  Nay, truly, this might seem much rather a marvel, and beyond all\nbelief, if the devil, who is the father of lies, and enemy to all truth,\nwould now upon a sudden change his nature, and hope that truth might\notherwise be suppressed than by belying it; or that he would begin to\nestablish his own kingdom by using now any other practices than the same\nwhich he hath ever used from the beginning.  For since any man's\nremembrance we can scant find one time, either when religion did first\ngrow, or when it was settled, or when it did afresh spring up again,\nwherein truth and innocency were not by all unworthy means, and most\ndespitefully intreated.  Doubtless the devil well seeth, that so long as\ntruth is in good safety, himself cannot be safe, nor yet maintain his own\nestate.\n\nFor, letting pass the ancient patriarchs and Prophets, who, as we have\nsaid, had no part of their life free from contumelies and slanders, we\nknow there were certain in times past which said and commonly preached,\nthat the old ancient Jews (of whom we make no doubt but they were the\nworshippers of the only and true God) did worship either a sow, or an\nass, in God's stead, and that all the same religion was nothing else but\na sacrilege, and a plain contempt of all godliness.  We know also that\nthe Son of God, our Saviour Jesu Christ, when He taught the truth, was\ncounted a juggler and an enchanter, a Samaritan, Beelzebub, a deceiver of\nthe people, a drunkard, and a glutton.  Again, who wotteth not what words\nwere spoken against St. Paul, the most earnest and vehement preacher and\nmaintainer of the truth? sometime that he was a seditious and busy man, a\nraiser of tumults, a causer of rebellion; sometime again, that he was an\nheretic; sometime, that he was mad; sometime, that only upon strife and\nstomach he was both a blasphemer of God's law, and a despiser of the\nfathers' ordinances.  Further, who knoweth not how St. Stephen, after he\nhad thoroughly and sincerely embraced the truth, and began frankly and\nstoutly to preach and set forth the same, as he ought to do, was\nimmediately called to answer for his life, as one that had wickedly\nuttered disdainful and heinous words against the law, against Moses,\nagainst the temple, and against God?  Or who is ignorant that in times\npast there were some which reproved the Holy Scripts of falsehood, saying\nthey contained things both contrary and quite one against other; and how\nthat the Apostles of Christ did severally disagree between themselves,\nand that St. Paul did vary from them all?  And, not to make rehearsal of\nall, for that were an endless labour, who knoweth not after what sort our\nfathers were railed upon in times past, which first began to acknowledge\nand profess the Name of Christ? how they made private conspiracies,\ndevised secret counsels against the commonwealth, and that end made early\nand privy meetings in the dark, killed young babes, fed themselves with\nmen's flesh, and, like savage and brute beasts, did drink their blood? in\nconclusion, how that, after they had put out the candles, they committed\nadultery between themselves, and without regard wrought incest one with\nanother: that brethren lay with their sisters, sons with their mothers,\nwithout any reverence of nature or kin, without shame without difference;\nand that they were wicked men without all care of religion, and without\nany opinion of God, being the very enemies of mankind, unworthy to be\nsuffered in the world, and unworthy of life?\n\nAll these things were spoken in those days against the people of God,\nagainst Christ Jesu, against Paul, against Stephen, and against all them,\nwhosoever they were, which at the first beginning embraced the truth of\nthe Gospel, and were contented to be called by the name of Christians,\nwhich was then a hateful name among the common people.  And although the\nthings which they said were not true, yet the devil thought it should be\nsufficient for him, if at the least he could bring it so to pass as they\nmight be believed for true, and that the Christians might be brought into\na common hatred of everybody, and have their death and destruction sought\nof all sorts.  Hereupon kings and princes, being led then by such\npersuasions, killed all the Prophets of God, letting none escape.  Esay\nwith a saw, Jeremy with stones, Daniel with lions, Amos with an iron bar,\nPaul with the sword, and Christ upon the cross; and condemned all\nChristians to imprisonments, to torments, to the pikes, to be thrown down\nheadlong from rocks and steep places, to be cast to wild beasts, and to\nbe burnt: and made great fires of their quick bodies, for the only\npurpose to give light by night, and for a very scorn and mocking stock;\nand did count them no better than the vilest filth, the offscourings and\nlaughing games of the whole world.  Thus, as ye see, have the authors and\nprofessors of the truth ever been intreated.\n\nWherefore, we ought to bear it the more quietly, which have taken upon us\nto profess the Gospel of Christ, if we for the same cause be handled\nafter the same sort; and if we, as our forefathers were long ago, be\nlikewise at this day tormented, and baited with railings, with spiteful\ndealings, and with lies; and that for no desert of our own, but only\nbecause we teach and acknowledge the truth.\n\nThey cry out upon us at this present everywhere, that we are all\nheretics, and have forsaken the faith, and have with new persuasions and\nwicked learning utterly dissolved the concord of the Church; that we\nrenew, and, as it were, fetch again from hell the old and many a day\ncondemned heresies; that we sow abroad new sects, and such broils as\nnever yearst were heard of: also that we are already divided into\ncontrary parts and opinions, and could yet by no means agree well among\nourselves; that we be cursed creatures, and, like the giants, do war\nagainst God Himself, and live clean without any regard or worshipping of\nGod; that we despise all good deeds; that we use no discipline of virtue,\nno laws, no customs; that we esteem neither right, nor order, nor equity,\nnor justice; that we give the bridle to all naughtiness, and provoke the\npeople to all licentiousness and lust; that we labour and seek to\noverthrow the state of monarchies and kingdoms, and to bring all things\nunder the rule of the rash inconstant people and unlearned multitude;\nthat we have seditiously fallen from the Catholic Church, and by a wicked\nschism and division have shaken the whole world, and troubled the common\npeace and universal quiet of the Church; and that, as Dathan and Abiram\nconspired in times past against Moses and Aaron, even so we at this day\nhave renounced the Bishop of Rome without any cause reasonable; that we\nset nought by the authority of the ancient fathers and councils of old\ntime; that we have rashly and presumptuously disannulled the old\nceremonies, which have been well allowed by our fathers and forefathers\nmany hundred years past, both by good customs, and also in ages of more\npurity; and that we have by our own private head, without the authority\nof any sacred and general council, brought new traditions into the\nChurch: and have done all these things not for religion's sake, but only\nupon a desire of contention and strife; but that they for their part have\nchanged no manner of thing, but have held and kept still such a number of\nyears to this very day all things as they were delivered from the\nApostles and well approved by the most ancient fathers.\n\nAnd that this matter should not seem to be done but upon privy slander,\nand to be tossed to and fro in a corner, only to spite us, there have\nbeen besides wilily procured by the Bishop of Rome certain persons of\neloquence enough, and not unlearned neither, which should put their help\nto this cause, now almost despaired of, and should polish and set forth\nthe same, both in books, and with long tales to the end that, when the\nmatter was trimly and eloquently handled, ignorant and unskilful persons\nmight suspect there was some great thing in it.  Indeed they perceived\nthat their own cause did everywhere go to wrack; that their sleights were\nnow espied, and less esteemed; and that their helps did daily fail them;\nand that their matter stood altogether in great need of a cunning\nspokesman.\n\nNow as for those things which by them have been laid against us, in part\nthey be manifestly false, and condemned so by their own judgments which\nspake them; partly again, though they be as false, too, indeed, yet bear\nthey a certain show and colour of truth, so as the reader (if he take not\ngood heed) may easily be tripped and brought into error by them,\nspecially when their fine and cunning tale is added thereunto.  And part\nof them be of such sort as we ought not to shun them as crimes or faults,\nbut to acknowledge and profess them as things well done, and upon very\ngood reason.\n\nFor shortly to say the truth, these folk falsely accuse and slander all\nour doings; yea the same things which they themselves cannot deny but to\nbe rightly and orderly done; and for malice do so misconstrue and deprave\nall our sayings and doings, as though it were impossible that anything\ncould be rightly spoken or done by us.  They should more plainly and\nsincerely have gone to work if they would have dealt truly.  But now they\nneither truly, nor sincerely, nor yet Christianly, but darkly and\ncraftily charge and batter us with lies, and do abuse the blindness and\nfondness of the people, together with the ignorance of princes, to cause\nus to be hated and the truth to be suppressed.  This, lo, ye, is the\npower of darkness, and of men which lean more to the amazed wondering of\nthe rude multitude and to darkness than they do to truth and light; and\nas St. Hierom saith, which do openly gainsay the truth, closing up their\neyes, and will not see for the nonce.\n\nBut we give thanks to the most good and mighty God, that such is our\ncause, whereagainst (when they would fainest) they were able to utter no\ndespite, but the same which might as well be wrested against the holy\nfathers, against the Prophets, against the Apostles, against Peter,\nagainst Paul, and against Christ Himself.\n\nNow, therefore, if it be lawful for these folks to be eloquent and fine-\ntongued in speaking evil, surely it becometh not us in our cause, being\nso very good, to be dumb in answering truly.  For men to be careless what\nis spoken by them and their own matter, be it never so falsely and\nslanderously spoken (especially when it is such that the majesty of God\nand the cause of religion may thereby be damaged), is the part doubtless\nof dissolute and wretchless persons, and of them which wickedly wink at\nthe injuries done unto the Name of God.  For although other wrongs, yea\noftentimes great, may be borne and dissembled of a mild and Christian\nman, yet he that goeth smoothly away, and dissembleth the matter when he\nis noted of heresy, Ruffinus was wont to deny that man to be a Christian.\nWe therefore will do the same thing, which all laws, which nature's own\nvoice doth command to be done, and which Christ Himself did in like case,\nwhen He was checked and reviled: to the intent we may put off from us\nthese men's slanderous accusations, and may defend soberly and truly our\nown cause and innocency.  For Christ verily, when the Pharisees charged\nHim with sorcery, as one that had some familiar spirits, and wrought many\nthings by their help: \"I,\" said He, \"have not the devil, but do glorify\nmy Father: but it is you that have dishonoured me, and put me to rebuke\nand shame.\"  And St. Paul, when Festus the lieutenant scorned him as a\nmadman: \"I,\" said he, \"most dear Festus, am not mad, as thou thinkest,\nbut I speak the words of truth and soberness.\"  And the ancient\nChristians, when they were slandered to the people for mankillers, for\nadulterers, for committers of incest, for disturbers of the commonweals,\nand did perceive that by such slanderous accusations the religion which\nthey professed might be brought in question, namely, if they should seem\nto hold their peace, and in manner to confess the fault; lest this might\nhinder the free course of the Gospel, they made orations, they put up\nsupplications, and made means to emperors and princes, that they might\ndefend themselves and their fellows in open audience.\n\nBut we truly, seeing that so many thousands of our brethren in these last\ntwenty years have borne witness unto the truth, in the midst of most\npainful torments that could be devised; and when princes, desirous to\nrestrain the Gospel, sought many ways, but prevailed nothing; and that\nnow almost the whole world doth begin to open their eyes to behold the\nlight; we take it that our cause hath already been sufficiently declared\nand defended, and think it not needful to make many words, seeing the\nmatter saith enough for itself.  For if the popes would, or else if they\ncould weigh with their own selves the whole matter, and also the\nbeginnings and proceedings of our religion, how in a manner all their\ntravail hath come to nought, nobody driving it forward; and how on the\nother side, our cause, against the will of emperors from the beginning,\nagainst the wills of so many kings, in spite of the popes, and almost\nmaugre the head of all men, hath taken increase, and by little and little\nspread over into all countries, and is come at length even into kings'\ncourts and palaces; these same things, methinketh, might be tokens great\nenough to them, that God Himself doth strongly fight in our quarrel, and\ndoth from heaven laugh at their enterprises; and that the force of truth\nis such, as neither man's power, nor yet hell-gates are able to root it\nout.  For they be not all mad at this day, so many free cities, so many\nkings, so many princes, which have fallen away from the seat of Rome, and\nhave rather joined themselves to the Gospel of Christ.\n\nAnd although the popes had never hitherunto leisure to consider\ndiligently and earnestly of these matters, or though some other cares do\nnow let them, and diverse ways pull them, or though they count these to\nbe but common and trifling studies, and nothing to appertain to the\nPope's worthiness, this maketh not why our matter ought to seem the\nworse.  Or if they perchance will not see that which they see indeed, but\nrather will withstand the known truth, ought we therefore by-and-by to be\naccounted heretics because we obey not their will and pleasure?  If so\nbe, that Pope Pius were the man (we say not, which he would so gladly be\ncalled), but if he were indeed a man that either would account us for his\nbrethren, or at least would take us to be men, he would first diligently\nhave examined our reasons, and would have seen what might be said with\nus, what against us; and would not in his bull, whereby he lately\npretended a council, so rashly have condemned so great a part of the\nworld, so many learned and godly men, so many commonwealths, so many\nkings, and so many princes, only upon his own blind prejudices and fore-\ndeterminations--and that without hearing of them speak or without showing\ncause why.\n\nBut because he hath already so noted us openly, lest by holding our peace\nwe should seem to grant a fault, and specially because we can by no means\nhave audience in the public assembly of the general council, wherein he\nwould no creature should have power to give his voice or to declare his\nopinion, except he be sworn, and straitly bound to maintain his authority\n(for we have had good experience hereof in the last conference at the\ncouncil at Trident; where the ambassadors and divines of the princes of\nGermany, and of the free cities, were quite shut out from their company.\nNeither can we yet forget, how Julius the Third, above ten years past,\nprovided warily by his writ that none of our sort should be suffered to\nspeak in the council, except that there were some, peradventure, that\nwould recant and change his opinion): for this cause chiefly we thought\nit good to yield up an account of our faith in writing, and truly and\nopenly to make answer to those things wherewith we have been openly\ncharged; to the end the world may see the parts and foundations of that\ndoctrine, in the behalf whereof so many good men have little regarded\ntheir own lives; and that all men may understand what manner of people\nthey be, and what opinion they have of God and of religion, whom the\nBishop of Rome, before they were called to tell their tale, hath\ncondemned for heretics, without any good consideration, without any\nexample, and utterly without law or right, only because he heard tell\nthat they did dissent from him and his in some point of religion.\n\nAnd although St. Hierom would have nobody to be patient when he is\nsuspected of heresy, yet we will deal herein neither bitterly nor\nbrablingly; nor yet be carried away with anger and heat; though he ought\nto be reckoned neither bitter nor brabler that speaketh the truth.  We\nwillingly leave this kind of eloquence to our adversaries, who,\nwhatsoever they say against us, be it never so shrewdly or despitefully\nsaid, yet think it is said modestly and comely enough, and care nothing\nwhether it be true or false.  We need none of these shifts which do\nmaintain the truth.\n\nFurther, if we do show it plainly that God's holy Gospel, the ancient\nbishops, and the primitive Church do make on our side, and that we have\nnot without just cause left these men, and rather have returned to the\nApostles and old Catholic fathers; and if we shall be found to do the\nsame not colourably or craftily, but in good faith before God, truly,\nhonestly, clearly, and plainly; and if they themselves which fly our\ndoctrine, and would be called Catholics, shall manifestly see how all\nthese titles of antiquity, whereof they boast so much, are quite shaken\nout of their hands; and that there is more pith in this our cause than\nthey thought for; we then hope and trust that none of them will be so\nnegligent and careless of his own salvation, but he will at length study\nand bethink himself to whether part he were best to join him.\nUndoubtedly, except one will altogether harden his heart and refuse to\nhear, he shall not repent him to give good heed to this our Defence, and\nto mark well what we say, and how truly and justly it agreeth with\nChristian religion.\n\nFor where they call us heretics, it is a crime so heinous, that unless it\nmay be seen, unless it may be felt, and in manner may be holden with\nhands and fingers, it ought not lightly to be judged or believed, when it\nis laid to the charge of any Christian man.  For heresy is a forsaking of\nsalvation, a renouncing of God's grace, a departing from the body and\nspirit of Christ.  But this was ever an old and solemn property with them\nand their forefathers; if any did complain of their errors and faults,\nand desired to have true religion restored, straightway to condemn such\nones for heretics, as men new-fangled and factious.  Christ for no other\ncause was called a Samaritan, but only for that He was thought to have\nfallen to a certain new religion, and to be the author of a new sect.  And\nPaul the Apostle of Christ was called before the judges to make answer to\na matter of heresy; and therefore he said: \"According to this way which\nthey call heresy I do worship the God of my fathers, believing all things\nwhich be written in the law and in the Prophets.\"\n\nShortly to speak.  This universal religion which Christian men profess at\nthis day was called first of the heathen people a sect and heresy.  With\nthese terms did they always fill princes' ears, to the intent when they\nhad once hated us with a predetermined opinion, and had counted all that\nwe said to be faction and heresy, they might be so led away from the\ntruth and right understanding of the cause.  But the more sore and\noutrageous a crime heresy is, the more it ought to be proved by plain and\nstrong arguments, especially in this time, when men begin to give less\ncredit to their words, and to make more diligent search of their\ndoctrine, than they were wont to do.  For the people of God are otherwise\ninstructed now than they were in times past, when all the bishops of\nRome's sayings were allowed for Gospel, and when all religion did depend\nonly upon their authority.  Nowadays the Holy Scripture is abroad, the\nwritings of the Apostles and Prophets are in print, whereby all truth and\nCatholic doctrine may be proved, and all heresy may be disproved and\nconfuted.\n\nSithence, then, they bring forth none of these for themselves, and call\nus nevertheless heretics, which have neither fallen from Christ, nor from\nthe Apostles, nor yet from the Prophets, this is an injurious and a very\nspiteful dealing.  With this sword did Christ put off the devil when He\nwas tempted of him: with these weapons ought all presumption, which doth\nadvance itself against God, to be overthrown and conquered.  \"For all\nScripture,\" saith St. Paul, \"that cometh by the inspiration of God, is\nprofitable to teach, to confute, to instruct, and to reprove, that the\nman of God may be perfect, and thoroughly framed to every good work.\"\nThus did the holy fathers always fight against the heretics with none\nother force than with the Holy Scriptures.  St. Augustine, when he\ndisputed against Petilian, a heretic of the Donatists: \"Let not these\nwords,\" quoth he, \"be heard between us, 'I say, or you say:' let us\nrather speak in this wise: 'Thus saith the Lord.'  There let us seek the\nChurch: there let us boult out our cause.\"  Likewise St. Hierom: \"All\nthose things,\" saith he, \"which without the testimony of the Scriptures\nare holden as delivered from the Apostles, be thoroughly smitten down by\nthe sword of God's word.\"  St. Ambrose also, to Gratian the emperor: \"Let\nthe Scripture,\" saith he, \"be asked the question, let the prophets be\nasked, and let Christ be asked.\"  For at that time made the Catholic\nfathers and bishops no doubt but that our religion might be proved out of\nthe Holy Scriptures.  Neither were they ever so hardy as to take any for\na heretic whose error they could not evidently and apparently reprove by\nthe self-same Scriptures.  And we verily do make answer on this wise, as\nSt. Paul did: \"According to this way which they call heresy we do worship\nGod, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; and do allow all things\nwhich have been written either in the law or in the Prophets,\" or in the\nApostles' works.\n\nWherefore, if we be heretics, and they (as they would fain be called) be\nCatholics, why do they not, as they see the fathers, which were Catholic\nmen, have always done?  Why do they not convince and master us by the\nDivine Scriptures?  Why do they not call us again to be tried by them?\nWhy do they not lay before us how we have gone away from Christ, from the\nProphets, from the Apostles, and from the holy fathers?  Why stick they\nto do it?  Why are they afraid of it?  It is God's cause.  Why are they\ndoubtful to commit it to the trial of God's word?  If we be heretics,\nwhich refer all our controversies unto the Holy Scriptures, and report us\nto the self-same words which we know were sealed by God Himself, and in\ncomparison of them set little by all other things, whatsoever may be\ndevised by men, how shall we say to these folk, I pray you what manner of\nmen be they, and how is it meet to call them, which fear the judgment of\nthe Holy Scriptures--that is to say, the judgment of God Himself--and do\nprefer before them their own dreams and full cold inventions; and, to\nmaintain their own traditions, have defaced and corrupted, now these many\nhundred years, the ordinances of Christ and of the Apostles?\n\nMen say that Sophocles, the tragical poet, when in his old days he was by\nhis own sons accused before the judges for a doting and sottish man, as\none that fondly wasted his own substance, and seemed to need a governor\nto see unto him; to the intent he might clear himself of the fault, he\ncame into the place of judgment; and when he had rehearsed before them\nhis tragedy called _OEdipus Coloneus_, which he had written at the very\ntime of his accusation, marvellous exactly and cunningly, did of himself\nask the judges whether they thought any sottish or doting man could do\nthe like piece of work.\n\nIn like manner, because these men take us to be mad, and appeach us for\nheretics, as men which have nothing to do, neither with Christ, nor with\nthe Church of God, we have judged it should be to good purpose, and not\nunprofitable, if we do openly and frankly set forth our faith wherein we\nstand, and show all that confidence which we have in Christ Jesu; to the\nintent all men may see what is our judgment of every part of Christian\nreligion, and may resolve with themselves, whether the faith which they\nshall see confirmed by the words of Christ, by the writings of the\nApostles, by the testimonies of the Catholic fathers, and by the examples\nof many ages, be but a certain rage of furious and mad men, and a\nconspiracy of heretics.  This therefore is our belief.\n\n\n\nPART II.\n\n\nWe believe that there is one certain nature and Divine power, which we\ncall God: and that the same is divided into three equal Persons--into the\nFather, into the Son, and into the Holy Ghost; and that They all be of\none power, of one majesty, of one eternity, of one Godhead, and of one\nsubstance.  And although these three Persons be so divided, that neither\nthe Father is the Son, nor the Son is the Holy Ghost, or the Father; yet,\nnevertheless, we believe that there is but one very God, and that the\nsame one God hath created heaven, and earth, and all things contained\nunder heaven.\n\nWe believe that Jesus Christ, the only Son of the eternal Father (as long\nbefore it was determined before all beginnings), when the fulness of time\nwas come, did take of that blessed and pure Virgin both flesh and all the\nnature of man, that He might declare to the world the secret and hid will\nof His Father; which will had been laid up from before all ages and\ngenerations; and that He might full finish in His human body the mystery\nof our redemption; and might fasten our sins to the cross, and also that\nhandwriting which was made against us.\n\nWe believe that for our sakes He died, and was buried, descended into\nhell, the third day by the power of His Godhead returned to life, and\nrose again; and that the fortieth day after His resurrection, whiles His\ndisciples beheld and looked upon Him He ascended into heaven to fulfil\nall things, and did place in majesty and glory the self-same body\nwherewith He was born, wherein He lived on earth, wherein He was jested\nat, wherein He had suffered most painful torments and cruel kind of\ndeath, wherein He rose again, and wherein He ascended to the right hand\nof the Father, \"above all rule, above all power, all force, all dominion,\nand above every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in\nthe world to come:\" and that there He now sitteth, and shall sit, till\nall things be full perfected.  And although the Majesty and Godhead of\nChrist be everywhere abundantly dispersed, yet we believe that his body,\nas St. Augustine saith, must needs be still in one place; and that Christ\nhath given majesty unto His body, but yet hath not taken away from it the\nnature of a body; and that we must not so affirm Christ to be God that we\ndeny Him to be man: and, as the Martyr Vigilius saith, that Christ hath\nleft us as touching His human nature, but hath not left us as touching\nHis Divine nature; and that the same Christ, though He be absent from us\nconcerning His manhood, yet is ever present with us concerning his\nGodhead.\n\nFrom that place also we believe that Christ shall come again to execute\nthat general judgment, as well of them whom He shall then find alive in\nthe body as of them that be already dead.\n\nWe believe that the Holy Ghost, who is the third person in the Holy\nTrinity, is very God: not made, not created, not begotten, but proceeding\nfrom both the Father and the Son, by a certain mean unknown unto men, and\nunspeakable; and that it is His property to mollify and soften the\nhardness of man's heart when He is once received thereinto, either by the\nwholesome preaching of the Gospel, or by any other way: that he doth give\nmen light, and guide them unto the knowledge of God; to all way of truth;\nto newness of the whole life; and to everlasting hope of salvation.\n\n* * * * *\n\nWe believe that there is one Church of God, and that the same is not shut\nup (as in times past among the Jews) into some one corner or kingdom, but\nthat it is catholic and universal, and dispersed throughout the whole\nworld.  So that there is now no nation which may truly complain that they\nbe shut forth, and may not be one of the Church and people of God: and\nthat this Church is the kingdom, the body, and the spouse of Christ; and\nthat Christ alone is the Prince of this kingdom; that Christ alone is the\nHead of this Body; and that Christ alone is the Bridegroom of this\nspouse.\n\nFurthermore, we believe that there be divers degrees of ministers in the\nChurch; whereof some be deacons, some priests, some bishops; to whom is\ncommitted the office to instruct the people, and the whole charge and\nsetting forth of religion.  Yet notwithstanding, we say that there\nneither is, nor can be any one man, which may have the whole superiority\nin this universal state: for that Christ is ever present to assist His\nChurch, and needeth not any man to supply His room, as His only heir to\nall His substance: and that there can be no one mortal creature, which is\nable to comprehend or conceive in his mind the universal Church, that is\nto wit, all the parts of the world, much less able rightly and duly to\nput them in order, and to govern them rightly and duly.  For all the\nApostles, as Cyprian saith, were of like power among themselves, and the\nrest were the same that Peter was, and that it said indifferently to them\nall, \"feed ye;\" indifferently to them all, \"go into the whole world;\"\nindifferently to them all, \"teach ye the Gospel.\"  And (as Hierom saith)\nall bishops wheresoever they be, be they at Rome, be they at Eugubium, be\nthey at Constantinople, be they at Rhegium, be all of like pre-eminence,\nand of like priesthood.  And, as Cyprian saith, there is but one\nbishopric, and a piece thereof is perfectly and wholly holden of every\nparticular bishop.  And according to the judgment of the Nicene Council,\nwe say, that the Bishop of Rome hath no more jurisdiction over the Church\nof God than the rest of the patriarchs, either of Alexandria, or of\nAntiochia have.  And as for the Bishop of Rome, who now calleth all\nmatters before himself alone, except he do his duty as he ought to do,\nexcept he minister the Sacraments, except he instruct the people, except\nhe warn them and teach them, we say that he ought not of right once to be\ncalled a bishop, or so much as an elder.  For a bishop, as saith\nAugustine, is a name of labour, and not of honour: because he will have\nthat man understand himself to be no bishop, which will seek to have pre-\neminence, and not to profit others.  And that neither the Pope, nor any\nother worldly creature can no more be head of the whole Church, or a\nbishop over all, than he can be the bridegroom, the light, the salvation,\nand life of the Church.  For the privileges and names belong only to\nChrist, and be properly and only fit for him alone.  And that no Bishop\nof Rome did ever suffer himself to be called by such a proud name before\nPhocas the emperor's time, who, as we know, by killing his own sovereign\nMaurice the emperor, did by a traitorous villainy aspire to the empire\nabout the six hundredth and thirteenth year after Christ was born.  Also\nthe Council of Carthage did circumspectly provide, that no bishop should\nbe called the highest bishop or chief priest.  And therefore, sithence\nthe Bishop of Rome will nowadays so be called, and challengeth unto\nhimself an authority that is none of his; besides that he doth plainly\ncontrary to the ancient councils, and contrary to the old fathers; we\nbelieve that he doth give unto himself, as it is written by his own\ncompanion Gregory, a presumptuous, a profane, a sacrilegious, and an\nantichristian name: that he is also the king of pride, that he is\nLucifer, which preferreth himself before his brethren: that he hath\nforsaken the faith, and is the forerunner of Antichrist.\n\nFurther we say, that the minister ought lawfully, duly, and orderly to be\npreferred to that office of the Church of God, and that no man hath power\nto wrest himself into the holy ministry at his own pleasure and list.\nWherefore these persons do us the greater wrong, which have nothing so\ncommon in their mouths, as that we do nothing orderly and comely, but all\nthings troublesomely and without order; and that we allow every man to be\na priest, to be a teacher, and to be an interpreter of the Scriptures.\n\nMoreover, we say that Christ hath given to His ministers power to bind,\nto loose, to open, to shut.  And that the office of loosing consisteth in\nthis point: that the minister should either offer by the preaching of the\nGospel the merits of Christ and full pardon, to such as have lowly and\ncontrite hearts, and do unfeignedly repent themselves, pronouncing unto\nthe same a sure and undoubted forgiveness of their sins, and hope of\neverlasting salvation: or else that the same minister, when any have\noffended their brothers' minds with a great offence, with a notable and\nopen fault, whereby they have, as it were, banished and made themselves\nstrangers from the common fellowship, and from the body of Christ; then\nafter perfect amendment of such persons, doth reconcile them, and bring\nthem home again, and restore them to the company and unity of the\nfaithful.  We say also, that the minister doth execute the authority of\nbinding and shutting, as often as he shutteth up the gate of the kingdom\nof heaven against the unbelieving and stubborn persons, denouncing unto\nthem God's vengeance, and everlasting punishment: or else, when he doth\nquite shut them out from the bosom of the Church by open excommunication.\nOut of doubt, what sentence soever the minister of God shall give in this\nsort, God Himself doth so well allow of it, that whatsoever here in earth\nby their means is loosed and bound, God Himself will loose and bind, and\nconfirm the same in heaven.  And touching the keys, wherewith they may\neither shut or open the kingdom of heaven, we with Chrysostom say, \"They\nbe the knowledge of the Scriptures:\" with Tertullian we say, \"They be the\ninterpretation of the law:\" and with Eusebius, we call them \"The Word of\nGod.\"  Moreover, that Christ's disciples did receive this authority, not\nthat they should hear the private confessions of the people and listen to\ntheir whisperings, as the common massing-priests do everywhere nowadays,\nand do it so, as though in that one point lay all the virtue and use of\nthe keys: but to the end they should go, they should teach, they should\npublish abroad the Gospel, and be unto the believing a sweet savour of\nlife unto life, and unto the unbelieving and unfaithful a savour of death\nunto death; and that the minds of godly persons being brought low by the\nremorse of their former life and errors, after they once began to look up\nunto the light of the Gospel, and believe in Christ, might be opened with\nthe Word of God, even as a door is opened with a key.  Contrariwise, that\nthe wicked and wilful folk, and such as would not believe, nor return\ninto the right way, should be left still as fast locked, and shut up,\nand, as St. Paul saith, \"wax worse and worse.\"  This take we to be the\nmeaning of the keys; and that after this sort men's consciences either be\nopened or shut.  We say, that the priest indeed is a judge in this case,\nbut yet hath no manner of right to challenge an authority, or power, as\nsaith Ambrose.  And therefore our Saviour Jesu Christ, to reprove the\nnegligence of the Scribes and Pharisees in teaching, did with these words\nrebuke them, saying: \"Woe be unto you Scribes and Pharisees, which have\ntaken away the keys of knowledge, and have shut up the kingdom of heaven\nbefore men.\"  Seeing then the key whereby the way and entry to the\nkingdom of God is opened unto us, is the word of the Gospel, and the\nexpounding of the law and Scriptures; we say plainly, where the same word\nis not there is not the key.  And seeing one manner of word is given to\nall, and one only key belongeth to all, we say, that there is but one\nonly power of all ministers; as concerning opening and shutting.  And as\ntouching the Bishop of Rome, for all his parasites flatteringly sing\nthese words in his ears, \"To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of\nheaven\" (as though those keys were fit for him alone, and for nobody\nelse), except he go so to work, as men's consciences may be made pliant,\nand be subdued to the Word of God, we deny that he doth either open, or\nshut, or hath the keys at all.  And although he taught and instructed the\npeople (as would God he might once truly do, and persuade himself it were\nat the least some piece of his duty), yet we think his key to be never a\nwhit better, or of greater force than other men's.  For who hath severed\nhim from the rest?  Who hath taught him more cunningly to open, or better\nto absolve than his brethren?\n\nWe say that matrimony is holy and honourable in all sorts and states of\npersons, in the patriarchs, in the Prophets, in the Apostles, in holy\nmartyrs, in the ministers of the Church, and in bishops; and that it is\nan honest and lawful thing (as Chrysostom saith) for a man, living in\nmatrimony, to take upon him therewith the dignity of a bishop.  And as\nSozomenus saith of Spiridion; and as Nazianzen saith of his own father,\nthat a good and diligent bishop doth serve in the ministry never the\nworse for that he is married, but rather the better, and with more\nableness to do good.  Further, we say, that the same law which by\nconstraint taketh away this liberty from men, and compelleth them against\ntheir wills to live single, is the doctrine of devils, as Paul saith:\nand, that, ever sithence the time of this law, a wonderful uncleanness of\nlife and manners in God's ministers, and sundry horrible enormities have\nfollowed, as the Bishop of Augusta, as Faber, as Abbas Panormitanus, as\nLatomus, as the tripartite work, which is annexed to the second tome of\nthe councils, and other champions of the Pope's band, yea, and as the\nmatter itself, and all histories do confess.  For it was rightly said by\nPius the Second, Bishop of Rome, \"that he saw many causes why wives\nshould be taken away from priests, but that he saw many more, and more\nweighty causes why they ought to be restored them again.\"\n\n* * * * *\n\nWe receive and embrace all the canonical Scriptures, both of the Old and\nNew Testament, giving thanks to our God, who hath raised up unto us that\nlight which we might ever have before our eyes, lest either by the\nsubtlety of man, or by the snares of the devil, we should be carried away\nto errors and lies.  Also that these be the heavenly voices, whereby God\nhath opened unto us His will: and that only in them man's heart can have\nsettled rest; that in them be abundantly and fully comprehended all\nthings, whatsoever be needful for our salvation, as Origen, Augustine,\nChrysostom, and Cyrillus have taught: that they be the very might and\nstrength of God to attain to salvation: that they be the foundations of\nthe Prophets and Apostles, whereupon is built the Church of God: that\nthey be the very sure and infallible rule, whereby may be tried, whether\nthe Church do stagger, or err, and whereunto all ecclesiastical doctrine\nought to be called to account: and that against these Scriptures neither\nlaw, nor ordinance, nor any custom ought to be heard: no, though Paul his\nown self, or an angel from heaven, should come and teach the contrary.\n\n* * * * *\n\nMoreover, we allow the Sacraments of the Church, that is to say, certain\nholy signs and ceremonies, which Christ would we should use, that by them\nHe might set before our eyes the mysteries of our salvation, and might\nmore strongly confirm our faith which we have in His blood, and might\nseal His grace in our hearts.  And these Sacraments, together with\nTertullian, Origen, Ambrose, Hierom, Chrysostom, Basil, Dionysius, and\nother Catholic fathers, do we call figures, signs, marks or badges,\nprints, copies, forms, seals, signets, similitudes, patterns,\nrepresentations, remembrances and memories.  And we make no doubt,\ntogether with the same doctors, to say, that these be certain visible\nwords, seals of righteousness, tokens of grace: and do expressly\npronounce, that in the Lord's Supper there is truly given unto the\nbelieving the body and blood of the Lord, the flesh of the Son of God,\nwhich quickeneth our souls, the meat that cometh from above, the food of\nimmortality, grace, truth, and life, and the Supper to be the communion\nof the body and blood of Christ; by the partaking whereof we be revived,\nwe be strengthened, and be fed unto immortality; and whereby we are\njoined, united, and incorporate unto Christ, that we may abide in Him,\nand He in us.\n\nBesides, we acknowledge there be two Sacraments, which, we judge,\nproperly ought to be called by this name; that is to say, Baptism and the\nSacrament of thanksgiving.  For thus many we say were delivered and\nsanctified by Christ, and well allowed of the old fathers, Ambrose and\nAugustine.\n\n* * * * *\n\nWe say that Baptism is a Sacrament of the remission of sins, and of that\nwashing, which we have in the blood of Christ; and that no person which\nwill profess Christ's Name ought to be restrained or kept back therefrom;\nno, not the very babes of Christians; forsomuch as they be born in sin,\nand do pertain unto the people of God.\n\nWe say, that Eucharistia, that is to say the Supper of the Lord, is a\nSacrament; that is to wit, an evident token of the body and blood of\nChrist, wherein is set, as it were, before our eyes, the death of Christ\nand His resurrection, and what act soever He did whilst He was in His\nmortal body: to the end we may give Him thanks for His death, and for our\ndeliverance: and that, by the often receiving of this Sacrament, we may\ndaily renew the remembrance of that matter, to the intent we, being fed\nwith the [true] body and blood of Christ, may be brought into the hope of\nthe resurrection and of everlasting life, and may most assuredly believe\nthat the body and blood of Christ doth in like manner feed our souls, as\nbread and wine doth feed our bodies.  To this banquet we think the people\nof God ought to be earnestly bidden, that they may all communicate among\nthemselves, and openly declare and testify both the godly society which\nis among them, and also the hope which they have in Christ Jesu.  For\nthis cause if there had been any which would be but a looker-on, and\nabstain from the Holy Communion, him did the old fathers and bishops of\nRome in the primitive Church, before private mass came up, excommunicate\nas a wicked person and as a pagan.  Neither was there any Christian at\nthat time which did communicate alone, whiles other looked on.  For so\ndid Calixtus in times past decree, \"that after the consecration was\nfinished, all should communicate, except they had rather stand without\nthe church-doors; because thus (saith he) did the Apostles appoint, and\nthe same the holy Church of Rome keepeth still.\"\n\nMoreover, when the people cometh to the Holy Communion, the Sacrament\nought to be given them in both kinds: for so both Christ hath commanded,\nand the Apostles in every place have ordained, and all the ancient\nfathers and Catholic bishops have followed the same.  And whoso doth\ncontrary to this, he (as Gelasius saith) committeth sacrilege.  And\ntherefore we say, that our adversaries at this day, who having violently\nthrust out, and quite forbidden the Holy Communion, do, without the word\nof God, without the authority of any ancient council, without any\nCatholic father, without any example of the primitive Church, yea, and\nwithout reason also, defend and maintain their private masses, and the\nmangling of the Sacraments, and do this not only against the plain\nexpress commandment and bidding of Christ, but also against all\nantiquity, do wickedly therein, and are very Church robbers.\n\nWe affirm that bread and wine are holy and heavenly mysteries of the body\nand blood of Christ, and that by them Christ Himself, being the true\nbread of eternal life, is so presently given unto us as that by faith we\nverily receive his body and his blood.  Yet say we not this so, as though\nwe thought that the nature and substance of the bread and wine is clearly\nchanged and goeth to nothing: as many have dreamed in these later times,\nwhich yet could never agree among themselves, of this their dream.  For\nthat was not Christ's meaning, that the wheaten bread should lay apart\nhis own nature, and receive a certain new divinity: but that he might\nrather change us, and (to use Theophylact's words) might transform us\ninto His body.  For what can be said more plainly, than that which\nAmbrose saith: \"Bread and wine remain still the same they were before,\nand yet are changed into another thing:\" or, that which Gelasius saith:\n\"The substance of the bread, or the nature of the wine, ceaseth not so to\nbe:\" or, that which Theodoret saith: \"After the consecration the mystical\nsigns do not cast off their own proper nature; for they remain still on\ntheir former substance, form, and kind:\" or that which Augustine saith:\n\"That which ye see is the bread and cup, for so our eyes tell us: but\nthat which your faith requireth to be taught, is this: the bread is the\nbody of Christ, and the cup is His blood:\" or that which Origen saith:\n\"The bread which is sanctified by the Word of God, as touching the\nmaterial substance thereof, goeth into the belly, and is cast out into\nthe privy:\" or that which Christ Himself said, not only after the\nblessing of the cup, but after he had ministered the communion: \"I will\ndrink no more of this fruit of the vine.\"  It is well known that the\nfruit of the vine is wine, and not blood.\n\nAnd in speaking thus, we mean not to abase the Lord's Supper, that it is\nbut a cold ceremony only, and nothing to be wrought therein (as many\nfalsely slander us we teach).  For we affirm, that Christ doth truly and\npresently give His own self in His Sacraments; in Baptism, that we may\nput Him on; and in His Supper, that we may eat Him by faith and spirit,\nand may have everlasting life by His Cross and blood.  And we say not,\nthis is done slightly and coldly, but effectually and truly.  For\nalthough we do not touch the body of Christ with teeth and mouth, yet we\nhold Him fast, and eat Him by faith, by understanding, and by the Spirit.\nAnd it is no vain faith which doth comprehend Christ: and that is not\nreceived with cold devotion, that is received with understanding, with\nfaith, and with spirit.  For Christ Himself altogether is so offered and\ngiven us in these mysteries, that we may certainly know we be flesh of\nHis flesh, and bone of His bones; and that Christ \"continueth in us, and\nwe in Him.\"  And therefore in celebrating these mysteries, the people are\nto good purpose exhorted before they come to receive the Holy Communion,\nto lift up their hearts, and to direct their minds to heavenward: because\nHe is there, by whom we must be full fed, and live.  Cyril saith, when we\ncome to receive these mysteries, all gross imaginations must quite be\nbanished.  The Council of Nice, as is alleged by some in Greek, plainly\nforbiddeth us to be basely affectioned, or bent toward the bread and\nwine, which are set before us.  And, as Chrysostom very aptly writeth, we\nsay, \"that the body of Christ is the dead carcase, and we ourselves must\nbe the eagles,\" meaning thereby that we must fly high, if we will come\nunto the body of Christ.  \"For this table,\" as Chrysostom saith, \"is a\ntable of eagles, and not of jays.\"  Cyprian also, \"This bread,\" saith he,\n\"is the food of the soul, and not the meat of the belly.\"  And Augustine,\n\"How shall I hold Him,\" saith he, \"which is absent?  How shall I reach my\nhand up to heaven, to lay hold upon Him that sitteth there?\"  He\nanswereth, \"Reach hither thy faith, and then thou hast laid hold on Him.\"\n\nWe cannot also away in our churches with the shows, and sales, and buying\nand selling of masses, nor the carrying about and worshipping of bread:\nnor such other idolatrous and blasphemous fondness: which none of them\ncan prove that Christ or His Apostles did ever ordain, or left unto us.\nAnd we justly blame the bishops of Rome, who, without the word of God,\nwithout the authority of the holy fathers, without any example of\nantiquity, after a new guise, do not only set before the people the\nsacramental bread to be worshipped as God, but do also carry about the\nsame upon an ambling horse, whithersoever themselves journey, as in old\ntimes the Persians' fire, and the relics of the goddess Isis, were\nsolemnly carried about in procession: and have brought the Sacraments of\nChrist to be used now as a stage play and a solemn sight: to the end,\nthat men's eyes should be fed with nothing else but with mad gazings and\nfoolish gauds, in the self-same matter, wherein the death of Christ ought\ndiligently to be beaten into our hearts, and wherein also the mysteries\nof our redemption ought with all holiness and reverence to be executed.\n\nBesides, where they say, and sometimes do persuade fools, that they are\nable by their masses to distribute and apply unto men's commodity all the\nmerits of Christ's death, yea, although many times the parties think\nnothing of the matter, and understand full little what is done, this is a\nmockery, an heathenish fancy, and a very toy.  For it is our faith that\napplieth the death and cross of Christ to our benefit, and not the act of\nthe massing priest.  \"Faith had in the Sacraments,\" saith Augustine,\n\"doth justify, and not the Sacraments.\"  And Origen saith, \"Christ is the\nPriest, the Propitiation, and Sacrifice: which Propitiation cometh to\nevery one by means of faith.\"  So that by this reckoning, we say that the\nSacraments of Christ without faith do not once profit these that be\nalive; a great deal less do they profit those that be dead.\n\nAnd as for their brags they are wont to make of their purgatory, though\nwe know it is not a thing so very late risen amongst them, yet is it no\nbetter than a blockish and an old wives' device.  Augustine, indeed,\nsometime saith, there is such a certain place: sometime he denieth not,\nbut there may be such a one; sometime he doubteth; sometime again he\nutterly denieth it to be, and thinketh that men are therein deceived by a\ncertain natural good will they bear their friends departed.  But yet of\nthis one error hath there grown up such a harvest of these mass-mongers,\nthe masses being sold abroad commonly in every corner, the temples of God\nbecame shops to get money: and silly souls were persuaded that nothing\nwas more necessary to be bought.  Indeed, there was nothing more gainful\nfor these men to sell.\n\nAs touching the multitude of vain and superfluous ceremonies, we know\nthat Augustine did grievously complain of them in his own time: and\ntherefore have we cut off a great number of them, because we know that\nmen's consciences were cumbered about them, and the churches of God\noverladen with them.\n\nNevertheless we keep still, and esteem, not only those ceremonies which\nwe are sure were delivered us from the Apostles, but some others too\nbesides, which we thought might be suffered without hurt to the Church of\nGod: because that we had a desire that all things in the holy\ncongregation might (as St. Paul commandeth) \"be done with comeliness and\nin good order.\"  But as for all those things which we saw were either\nvery superstitious, or wholly unprofitable, or noisome, or mockeries, or\ncontrary to the Holy Scriptures, or else unseemly for honest or discreet\nfolks, as there be an infinite number nowadays where papistry is used;\nthese, I say, we have utterly refused without all manner exception,\nbecause we would not have the right worshipping of God any longer denied\nwith such follies.\n\nWe make our prayers in that tongue which all our people, as meet is, may\nunderstand, to the end they may (as Paul counselleth us) take common\ncommodity by common prayer, even as all the holy fathers and Catholic\nbishops, both in the Old and New Testament, did used to pray themselves,\nand taught the people to pray too, lest, as Augustine saith, \"like\nparrots and ousels we should seem to speak that we understand not.\"\n\nNeither have we any other mediator and intercessor, by whom we may have\naccess to God the Father, than Jesus Christ, in whose only Name all\nthings are obtained at His Father's hand.  But it is a shameful part, and\nfull of infidelity, that we see every whore used in the churches of our\nadversaries, not only in that they will have innumerable sorts of\nmediators, and that utterly without the authority of God's word (so that,\nas Jeremy saith, \"The saints be now as many in number, or rather above\nthe number of the cities;\" and poor men cannot tell to which saint it\nwere best to turn them first; and though there be so many as they cannot\nbe told, yet every one of them hath his peculiar duty and office assigned\nunto him of these folks, what thing they ought to ask, what to give, and\nwhat to bring to pass): but besides this also, in that they do not only\nwickedly, but also shamefully, call upon the Blessed Virgin, Christ's\nmother, to have her remember that she is the mother, and to command her\nSon, and to use a mother's authority over Him.\n\nWe say also, that every person is born in sin, and leadeth his life in\nsin: that nobody is able truly to say his heart is clean: that the most\nrighteous person is but an unprofitable servant: that the law of God is\nperfect, and requireth of us perfect and full obedience: that we are able\nby no means to fulfil that law in this worldly life: that there is no one\nmortal creature which can be justified by his own deserts in God's sight:\nand therefore that our only succour and refuge is to fly to the mercy of\nour Father by Jesu Christ, and assuredly to persuade our minds that He is\nthe obtainer of forgiveness for our sins; and that by His blood all our\nspots of sin be washed clean: that He hath pacified and set at one, all\nthings by the blood of His Cross: that He by the same one only Sacrifice,\nwhich He once offered upon the Cross, hath brought to effect and\nfulfilled all things, and that for that cause He said, when He gave up\nthe ghost, \"It is finished,\" as though He would signify, that the price\nand ransom was now full paid for the sin of all mankind.  If there be\nany, then, that think this Sacrifice not sufficient, let them go, in\nGod's Name, and seek another that is better.  We, verily, because we know\nthis to be the only Sacrifice, are well content with it alone and look\nfor none other: and, forasmuch as it was to be offered but once, we\ncommand it not to be renewed again: and because it was full and perfect\nin all points and parts, we do not ordain in place thereof any continual\nsuccession of offerings.\n\nBesides, though we say, we have no meed at all by our own works and\ndeeds, but appoint all the means of our salvation to be in Christ alone,\nyet say we not, that for this cause men ought to live loosely and\ndissolutely: nor that it is enough for a Christian to be baptised only\nand to believe: as though there were nothing else required at his hand.\nFor true faith is lively, and can in no wise be idle.\n\nThus therefore teach we the people, that God hath called us, not to\nfollow riot and wantonness, but, as St. Paul saith, \"unto good works, to\nwalk in them:\" that God hath plucked us out \"from the power of darkness,\nto the end that we should serve the living God;\" to cut away all the\nremnants of sin, and \"to work our salvation in fear and trembling:\" that\nit may appear, how that the Spirit of sanctification is in our bodies,\nand that Christ Himself doth dwell in our hearts.\n\nTo conclude, we believe, that this our self-same flesh wherein we live,\nalthough it die, and come to dust, yet at the last day it shall return\nagain to life, by the means of Christ's Spirit which dwelleth in us: and\nthat then verily, whatsoever we suffer here in the meanwhile for His\nsake, Christ will wipe away all tears and lamentation from our eyes: and\nthat we through Him shall enjoy everlasting life, and shall for ever be\nwith Him in glory.  So be it.\n\n\n\nPART III.\n\n\nBehold these are the horrible heresies, for the which, a good part of the\nworld is at this day condemned by the Bishop of Rome; and yet were never\nheard to plead their cause.  He should have commenced his suit rather\nagainst Christ, against the Apostles, and against the holy fathers.  For\nthese things did not only proceed from them, but were also appointed by\nthem: except perhaps these men will say (as I think they will indeed),\nthat Christ never instituted the Holy Communion to be divided amongst the\nfaithful; or that Christ's Apostles and the ancient fathers said private\nmasses in every corner of the temples, now ten, now twenty together in\none day: or that Christ and His Apostles banished all the common people\nfrom the Sacrament of His blood: or that the thing, which they themselves\ndo at this day everywhere, and do it so as they condemn him for a heretic\nwhich doth otherwise, is not called of Gelasius, their own doctor, plain\nsacrilege: or that these be not the very words of Ambrose, Augustine,\nGelasius, Theodoret, Chrysostom, and Origen: \"The bread and wine in the\nSacraments remain still the same they were before:\" \"The thing which is\nseen upon the Holy Table is bread;\" \"There ceaseth not to be still the\nsubstance of bread, and nature of wine;\" \"The substance and nature of\nbread are not changed;\" \"The self-same bread, as touching the material\nsubstance, goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the privy:\" or that\nChrist, the Apostles, and holy fathers prayed not in that tongue which\nthe people might understand: or that Christ hath not performed all things\nby that one offering which He once offered: or that the same sacrifice\nwas unperfect, and so now we have need of another.  All these things must\nthey of necessity say, unless perchance they had rather say thus, that\n\"all law and right is locked up in the treasury of the Pope's breast,\"\nand that, as once one of his soothing pages and claw-backs did not stick\nto say, \"The Pope is able to dispense against the Apostles;\" against a\ncouncil, and against the canons and rules of the Apostles: and that he is\nnot bound to stand neither to the examples, nor to the ordinances, nor to\nthe laws of Christ.  We, for our part, have learned these things of\nChrist, of the Apostles, of the devout fathers: and do sincerely, with\ngood faith, teach the people of God the same.  Which thing is the only\ncause why we at this day are called heretics of the chief prelates (no\ndoubt) of religion.\n\nO immortal God! hath Christ Himself, then, the Apostles, and so many\nfathers all at once gone astray?  Were then Origen, Ambrose, Augustine,\nChrysostom, Gelasius, Theodoret, forsakers of the Catholic faith? was so\nnotable a consent of so many ancient bishops and learned men nothing else\nbut a conspiracy of heretics? or is that now condemned in us, which was\nthen commended in them? or is the thing now, by alteration only of men's\naffections, suddenly become schismatic, which in them was counted\nCatholic? or shall that which in times past was true, now by-and-by,\nbecause it liketh not these men, be judged false? let them then bring\nforth another Gospel, and let them show the causes why these things,\nwhich so long have openly been observed and well-allowed in the Church of\nGod, ought now in the end to be called in again.  We know well enough\nthat the same word which was opened by Christ, and spread abroad by the\nApostles, is sufficient both, our salvation and all truth, to uphold and\nmaintain; and also to confound all manner of heresy.  By that word only\ndo we condemn all sorts of the old heretics, whom these men say we have\ncalled out of hell again.  As for the Arians, the Eutychians, the\nMarcionites, the Ebionites, the Valentinians, the Carpocratians, the\nTatians, the Novatians, and shortly all them which have a wicked opinion,\neither of God the Father, or of Christ, or of the Holy Ghost, or of any\nother point of Christian religion, forsomuch as they be confuted by the\nGospel of Christ, we plainly pronounce them for detestable and castaway\npersons, and defy them even unto the devil.  Neither do we leave them so,\nbut we also severely and straitly hold them in by lawful and politic\npunishments, if they fortune to break out anywhere, and bewray\nthemselves.\n\nIndeed, we grant that certain new and very strange sects, as the\nAnabaptists, Libertines, Menonians, and Zuenckfeldians, have been\nstirring in the world ever since the Gospel did first spring.  But the\nworld seeth now right well, thanks be given to our God, that we neither\nhave bred, nor taught, nor kept up these monsters.  In good fellowship, I\npray thee, whosoever thou be, read our books: they are to be sold in\nevery place.  What hath there ever been written by any of our company\nwhich might plainly bear with the madness of any of those heretics.  Nay,\nI say unto you, there is no country this day so free from their pestilent\ninfections, as they be, wherein the Gospel is freely and commonly taught.\nSo that if they weigh the very matter with earnest and upright\nadvisement, this thing is a great argument, that this same is the very\ntruth of the Gospel of Christ, which we do teach.  For lightly neither is\ncockle wont to grow without the wheat, nor yet the chaff without the\ncorn.  For from the very Apostles' times, who knoweth not how many\nheresies did rise up even together so soon, as the Gospel was first\nspread abroad?  Who ever had heard tell of Simon, Menander, Saturninus,\nBasilides, Carpocrates, Cerinthus, Ebion, Valentinus, Secundus,\nMarcosius, Colorbasius, Heracleo, Lucianus, and Severus, before the\nApostles were sent abroad?  But why stand we reckoning up these?\nEpiphanius rehearseth up fourscore sundry heresies; and Augustine many\nmore, which sprang up even together with the Gospel?  What then?  Was the\nGospel therefore not the Gospel, because heresies sprang up withal? or\nwas Christ therefore not Christ?  And yet, as we said, doth not this\ngreat crop and heap of heresies grow up amongst us, which do openly,\nabroad, and frankly teach the Gospel.  These poisons take their\nbeginnings, their increasings, and strength, amongst our adversaries, in\nblindness and in darkness, amongst whom truth is with cruelty and tyranny\nkept under, and cannot be heard but in corners and secret meetings.  But\nlet them make a proof: let them give the Gospel free passage: let the\ntruth of Jesu Christ give his clear light, and stretch forth His bright\nbeams into all parts: and then shall they forthwith see how all these\nshadows straight will vanish and pass away at the light of the Gospel,\neven as the thick mist of the night consumeth at the sight of the sun.\nFor whilst these men sit still, and make merry and do nothing, we\ncontinually repress and put back all those heresies which they falsely\ncharge us to nourish and maintain.\n\nWhere they say, that we have fallen into sundry sects, and would be\ncalled some of us Lutherians, and some of us Zuinglians, and cannot yet\nwell agree among ourselves touching the whole substance of doctrine: what\nwould these men have said, if they had been in the first times of the\nApostles and holy fathers, when one said, \"I hold of Paul;\" another, \"I\nhold of Cephas;\" another, \"I hold of Apollo;\" when Paul did so sharply\nrebuke Peter; when, upon a falling out, Barnabas departed from Paul;\nwhen, as Origen mentioneth, the Christians were divided into so many\nfactions, as that they kept no more but the name of Christians in common\namong them, being in no manner of thing else like unto Christians; when,\nas Socrates saith, for their dissensions and sundry sects they were\nlaughed and jested at openly of the people in the common game-plays;\nwhen, as Constantine the emperor affirmeth, there were such a number of\nvariances and brawlings in the Church, that it might justly seem a misery\nfar passing all the former miseries; when also Theophilus, Epiphanius,\nChrysostom, Augustine, Ruffine, Hierom, being all Christians, being all\nfathers, being all Catholics, did strive one against another with most\nbitter and remediless contentions without end; when, as saith Nazianzen,\nthe parts of one body were consumed and wasted one of another; when the\neast part was divided from the west, only for leavened bread and only for\nkeeping of Easter Day; which were indeed no great matters to be strived\nfor; and when in all councils new creeds and new decrees continually were\ndevised.  What would these men (trow ye) have said in those days? which\nside would they specially then have taken? and which would they then have\nforsaken? which Gospel would they have believed? whom would they have\naccounted for heretics, and whom for Catholics?  And yet what a stir and\nrevel keep they at this time upon two poor names only of Luther and\nZuinglius?  Because these two men do not yet fully agree upon some one\npoint, therefore would they needs have us think that both of them were\ndeceived; that neither of them had the Gospel; and that neither of them\ntaught the truth aright.\n\nBut, good God, what manner of fellows be these which blame us for\ndisagreeing?  And do all they themselves, ween you, agree well together?\nIs every one of them fully resolved what to follow?  Hath there been no\nstrifes, no debates, no quarrels among them at no time?  Why then do the\nScotists and the Thomists, about that they call _meritum congrui_ and\n_meritum condigni_, no better agree together?  Why agree they no better\namong themselves concerning original sin in the Blessed Virgin?\nconcerning a solemn vow and a single vow?  Why say the canonists, that\nauricular confession is appointed by the positive law of man: and the\nschoolmen contrariwise, that it is appointed by the law of God?  Why doth\nAlbertus Pighius dissent from Cajetanus?  Why doth Thomas dissent from\nLombardus, Scotus from Thomas, Occamus from Scotus, Alliacensis [ed. 1564\nAlliensis] from Occamus?  And why do the Nominals disagree from the\nReals?  And yet say I nothing of so many diversities of friars and monks;\nhow some of them put a great holiness in eating of fish, and some in\neating of herbs; some in wearing of shoes, and some in wearing of\nsandals; some in going in a linen garment, and some in a woollen; some of\nthem called white, some black; some being shaven broad, and some narrow:\nsome stalking abroad upon pattens, some barefooted; some girt, and some\nungirt.  They ought, I wiss, to remember, how there be some of their own\ncompany which say, that the body of Christ is in His Supper naturally:\ncontrary, other some of the self-same company deny it to be so.  Again,\nthat there be other of them, which say, the body of Christ in the Holy\nCommunion \"is rent and torn with our teeth:\" and some again that deny the\nsame.  Some also of them there be, which write that the body of Christ is\n_quantum_ in the Eucharistia; that is to say, hath his perfect quantity\nin the Sacrament; some other again say nay.  That there be others of them\nwhich say Christ did consecrate with a certain Divine power: some, that\nhe did the same with His blessing: some again that say, He did it with\nuttering five solemn chosen words: and some, with rehearsing the same\nwords afterward again.  Some will have it, that, when Christ did speak\nthose five words, the material wheaten bread was pointed by this\ndemonstrative pronoun _hoc_: some had rather have, that a certain _vagum\nindividuum_, as they term it, was meant thereby.  Again, others there be\nthat say dogs and mice may truly and in very deed eat the body of Christ;\nand others again there be that steadfastly deny it.  There be others,\nwhich say, that the very accidents of bread and wine may nourish: others\nagain there be which say, how that the substance of bread doth return\nagain.  What need I say more?  It were overlong and tedious to reckon up\nall things.  So very uncertain, and full of controversies, is yet the\nwhole form of these men's religion and doctrine, even amongst themselves,\nfrom whence it did first spring and begin.  For hardly at any time do\nthey well agree between themselves: except it be peradventure as, in\ntimes past, the Pharisees and Sadducees; or as Herod and Pilate did\naccord against Christ.\n\nThey were best, therefore, to go and set peace at home rather among their\nown selves.  Of a truth, unity and concord doth best become religion: yet\nis not unity the sure and certain mark whereby to know the Church of God.\nFor there was the greatest consent that might be amongst them that\nworshipped the golden calf; and among them which with one voice jointly\ncried against our Saviour Jesus Christ, \"Crucify Him.\"  Neither, because\nthe Corinthians were unquieted with private dissensions: or because Paul\ndid square with Peter, or Barnabas with Paul: or, because the Christians,\nupon the very beginning of the Gospel, were at mutual discord touching\nsome one matter or other, may we therefore think there was no Church of\nGod amongst them.  And as for those persons, whom they upon spite call\nZuinglians and Lutherians, in very deed they of both sides be Christians,\ngood friends and brethren.  They vary not betwixt themselves upon the\nprinciples and foundations of our religion, nor as touching God, nor\nChrist, nor the Holy Ghost, nor of the means of justification, nor yet\neverlasting life, but upon one only question, which is neither weighty\nnor great: neither mistrust we, or make doubt at all, but they will\nshortly be agreed.  And if there be any of them which have other opinion\nthan is meet, we doubt not but ere it be long they will put apart all\naffections and names of parties, and that God will reveal it unto them:\nso that by better considering and searching out of the matter, as once it\ncame to pass in the Council of Chalcedon, all causes and seeds of\ndissension shall be thoroughly plucked up by the root, and be buried, and\nquite forgotten for ever.  Which God grant.\n\nBut this is the most grievous and heavy case, that they call us wicked\nand ungodly men, and say we have thrown away all care of religion.  Though\nthis ought not to trouble us much, whilst they themselves that thus have\ncharged us know full well how spiteful and false a saying it is: for\nJustin the martyr is a witness, how that all Christians were called\n[Greek text], that is, godless, as soon as the Gospel first began to be\npublished, and the Name of Christ to be openly declared.  And when\nPolycarpus stood to be judged, the people stirred up the president to\nslay and murder all them which professed the Gospel, with these words,\n[Greek text], that is to say, \"Rid out of the way these wicked and\ngodless creatures.\"  And this was not because it was true that the\nChristians were godless, but because they would not worship stones and\nstocks which were then honoured as God.  The whole world seeth plainly\nenough already, what we and ours have endured at these men's hands for\nreligion and our only God's cause.  They have thrown us into prison, into\nwater, into fire, and imbrued themselves in our blood: not because we\nwere either adulterers, or robbers, or murderers, but only for that we\nconfessed the Gospel of Jesu Christ, and put our confidence in the living\nGod; and for that we complained too justly and truly (Lord, thou\nknowest), that they did break the law of God for their own most vain\ntraditions; and that our adversaries were the very foes to the Gospel,\nand enemies to Christ's Cross, who so wittingly and willingly did\nobstinately despise God's commandments.\n\nWherefore, when these men saw they could not rightly find fault with our\ndoctrine, they would needs pick a quarrel and inveigh and rail against\nour manners, surmising, how that we do condemn all well-doings: that we\nset open the door to all licentiousness and lust, and lead away the\npeople from all love of virtue.  And in very deed, the life of all men,\neven of the devoutest and most Christian, both is, and evermore hath\nbeen, such as one may always find some lack, even in the very best and\npurest conversation.  And such is the inclination of all creatures unto\nevil, and the readiness of all men to suspect that the things which\nneither have been done, nor once meant to be done, yet may be easily both\nheard and credited for true.  And like as a small spot is soon espied in\nthe neatest and whitest garment, even so the least stain of dishonesty is\neasily found out in the purest and sincerest life.  Neither take we all\nthem which have at this day embraced the doctrine of the Gospel, to be\nangels, and to live clearly without any mote or wrinkle; nor yet think we\nthese men either so blind, that if anything may be noted in us, they are\nnot able to perceive the same even through the least crevice: nor so\nfriendly, that they will construe aught to the best: nor yet so honest of\nnature nor courteous, that they will look back upon themselves, and weigh\nour fashions by their own.  If so be we list to search this matter from\nthe bottom, we know in the very Apostles' times there were Christians,\nthrough whom the Name of the Lord was blasphemed and evil spoken of among\nthe Gentiles.  Constantius the emperor bewaileth, as it is written in\nSozomenus, that many waxed worse after they had fallen to the religion of\nChrist.  And Cyprian, in a lamentable oration, setteth out the corrupt\nmanners in his time: \"The wholesome discipline,\" saith he, \"which the\nApostles left unto us, hath idleness and long rest now utterly marred:\neveryone studied to increase his livelihood; and clean forgetting either\nwhat they had done before whilst they were under the Apostles, or what\nthey ought continually to do, having received the faith they earnestly\nlaboured to make great their own wealth with an unsatiable desire of\ncovetousness.  There is no devout religion,\" saith he, \"in priests, no\nsound faith in ministers, no charity showed in good works, no form of\ngodliness in their conditions: men are become effeminate, and women's\nbeauty is counterfeited.\"  And before his days, said Tertullian, \"O how\nwretched be we, which are called Christians at this time! for we live as\nheathens under the Name of Christ.\"  And without reciting of many more\nwriters, Gregory Nazianzen speaketh thus of the pitiful state of his own\ntime: \"We,\" saith he, \"are in hatred among the heathen for our own vices'\nsake; we are also become now a wonder, not only to angels and men, but\neven to all the ungodly.\"  In this case was the Church of God, when the\nGospel first began to shine, and when the fury of tyrants was not as yet\ncooled, nor the sword taken off from the Christians' necks.  Surely it is\nno new thing that men be but men, although they be called by the name of\nChristians.\n\n\n\nPART IV.\n\n\nBut will these men, I pray you, think nothing at all of themselves, while\nthey accuse us so maliciously?  And while they have leisure to behold so\nfar off, and see both what is done in Germany and in England, have they\neither forgotten, or can they not see what is done at Rome? or be they\nour accusers, whose life is such as no man is able to make mention\nthereof but with shame and uncomeliness?  Our purpose here is, not to\ntake in hand, at this present, to bring to light and open to the world\nthose things which were meet rather to be hid and buried with the workers\nof them.  It beseemeth neither our religion, nor our modesty, nor our\nshamefastness.  But yet he, which giveth commandment that he should be\ncalled the \"Vicar of Christ,\" and the \"Head of the Church;\" who also\nheareth that such things be done in Rome, who seeth them, who suffereth\nthem (for we will go no further), he can easily consider with himself\nwhat manner of things they be.  Let him on God's Name call to mind, let\nhim remember that they be of his own canonists, which have taught the\npeople that fornication between single folk is no sin (as though they had\nfette that doctrine from Mitio in Terence), whose words be: \"It is no sin\n(believe me) for a young man to haunt harlots.\"  Let him remember they be\nof his own which have decreed, that a priest ought not to be put out of\nhis cure for fornication.  Let him remember also how Cardinal Campegius,\nAlbertus Pighius, and others many more of his own, have taught, that the\npriest which \"keepeth a concubine\" doth live more holily and chastely\nthan he which hath a \"wife in matrimony.\"  I trust he hath not yet\nforgotten that there be many thousands of common harlots in Rome; and\nthat himself doth gather yearly of the same harlots upon, a thirty\nthousand ducats, by the way of an annual pension.  Neither can he forget,\nhow himself doth maintain openly brothel houses, and by a most filthy\nlucre doth filthily and lewdly serve his own lust.  Were all things then\npure and holy in Rome, when \"Joan a woman,\" rather of perfect age than of\nperfect life, was Pope there, and bare herself as the \"head of the\nChurch:\" and after that for two whole years in that holy see she had\nplayed the naughty pack, at last, going in procession about the city, in\nthe sight of all the cardinals and bishops, fell in travail openly in the\nstreets.\n\nBut what need we rehearse concubines and bawds? as for that is now an\nordinary and a gainful sin at Rome.  For harlots sit there now-a-days,\nnot as they did in times past, without the city walls, and with their\nfaces hid and covered, but they dwell in palaces and fair houses: they\nstray about in court and market, and that with bare and open face: as who\nsay, they may not only lawfully do it, but ought also to be praised for\nso doing.  What should we say any more of this?  Their vicious and\nabominable life is now thoroughly known to the whole world.  Bernard\nwriteth roundly and truly of the Bishop of Rome's house, yea, and of the\nBishop of Rome himself.  \"Thy palace,\" saith he, \"taketh in good men, but\nit maketh none; naughty persons thrive there, and the good appayre and\ndecay.\"  And whosoever he were which wrote the Tripartite work, annexed\nto the Council Lateranense, saith thus: \"So excessive at this day is the\nriot, as well in the prelates and bishops as in the clerks and priests,\nthat it is horrible to be told.\"\n\nBut these things be not only grown in ure, and so by custom and continual\ntime well allowed, as all the rest of their doings in manner be, but they\nare now waxen old and rotten ripe.  For who hath not heard what a heinous\nact Peter Aloisius, Pope Paul the Third's son, committed against Cosmus\nCherius, the Bishop of Fanum; what John, Archbishop of Beneventum, the\nPope's legate at Venice, wrote in the commendation of a most abominable\nfilthiness: and how he set forth, with most loathsome words and wicked\neloquence, the matter which ought not once to proceed out of anybody's\nmouth!  To whose ears hath it not come, that N. Diasius, a Spaniard,\nbeing purposely sent from Rome into Germany, so shamefully and devilishly\nmurdered his own brother John Diasius, a most innocent and a most godly\nman, only because he had embraced the Gospel of Jesu Christ, and would\nnot return again to Rome?\n\nBut it may chance to this they will say: These things may sometime happen\nin the best governed commonwealths, yea, and against the magistrates'\nwills: and besides, there be good laws made to punish such.  I grant it\nbe so: but by what good laws (I would know) have these great mischiefs\nbeen punished amongst them?  Petrus Aloisius, after he had done that\nnotorious act that I spake of, was always cherished in his father's\nbosom, Pope Paul the Third, and made his very derling.  Diasius, after he\nhad murdered his own brother, was delivered by the Pope's means, to the\nend he might not be punished by good laws.  John Casus, the Archbishop of\nBeneventum, is yet alive, yea, and liveth at Rome, even in the eyes and\nsight of the most holy father.\n\nThey have put to death infinite numbers of our brethren, only because\nthey believed truly and sincerely in Jesu Christ.  But of that great and\nfoul number of harlots, fornicators, adulterers, what one have they at\nany time (I say not killed, but) either excommunicated, or once attached?\nWhy! voluptuousness, adultery, ribaldry, whoredom, murdering of kin,\nincest, and others more abominable parts, are not these counted sin at\nRome?  Or, if they be sin, ought \"Christ's vicar, Peter's successor, the\nmost holy father,\" so lightly and slightly to bear them, as though they\nwere no sin, and that in the city of Rome, and in that principal tower of\nall holiness?\n\nO holy Scribes and Pharisees, which knew not this kind of holiness! what\na Catholic faith is this!  Peter did not thus teach at Rome: Paul did not\nso live at Rome: they did not practise brothelry, which these do openly:\nthey made not a yearly revenue and profit of harlots: they suffered no\ncommon adulterers and wicked murderers to go unpunished.  They did not\nreceive them into their entire familiarity, into their council, into\ntheir household, nor yet into the company of Christian men.  These men\nought not therefore so unreasonably to triumph against our living.  It\nhad been more wisdom for them either first to have proved good their own\nlife before the world, or at least to have cloaked it a little more\ncunningly.  For we do use still the old and ancient laws, and (as much as\nmen may do, in the manners used at these days, all things are so wholly\ncorrupt) we diligently and earnestly put in execution the ecclesiastical\ndiscipline: we have not common brothel-houses of strumpets, nor yet\nflocks of concubines, nor herds of harlot-hunters: neither do we prefer\nadultery before matrimony: neither do we exercise beastly sensuality:\nneither do we gather ordinary rents and stipends of stews: nor do we\nsuffer to escape unpunished incest and abominable naughtiness, nor yet\nsuch manquellers as the Aloisians, Casians, and Diazians were.  For if\nthese things would have pleased us, we needed not to have departed from\nthese men's fellowship, amongst whom such enormities be in their chief\npride and price.  Neither needed we, for leaving them, to run into the\nhatred of men, and into most wilful dangers.  Paul the Fourth, not many\nmonths sithence, had at Rome in prison certain Augustine friars, many\nbishops, and a great number of other devout men, for religion's sake.  He\nracked them and tormented them: to make them confess, he left no means\nunassayed.  But in the end how many brothels, how many whoremongers, how\nmany adulterers, how many incestuous persons could he find of all those?\nOur God be thanked, although we be not the men we ought and profess to\nbe, yet, whosoever we be, compare us with these men, and even our own\nlife and innocency will soon prove untrue and condemn their malicious\nsurmises.  For we exhort the people to all virtue and well-doing, not\nonly by books and preachings, but also with our examples and behaviour.\nWe also teach that the Gospel is not a boasting or bragging of knowledge,\nbut that it is the law of life, and that a Christian man (as Tertullian\nsaith) \"ought not to speak honourably, but ought to live honourably; nor\nthat they be the hearers of the law, but the doers of the law, which are\njustified before God.\"\n\nBesides all these matters wherewith they charge us, they are wont also to\nadd this one thing, which they enlarge with all kind of spitefulness:\nthat is, that we be men of trouble, that we pluck the \"sword and sceptre\nout of kings' hands;\" that we arm the people: that we overthrow judgment\nplaces, destroy the laws, make havoc of possessions, seek to make the\npeople princes, turn all things upside down: and, to be short, that we\nwould have nothing in good frame in a commonwealth.  Good Lord, how often\nhave they set on fire princes' hearts with these words, to the end they\nmight quench the light of the Gospel in the very first appearing of it,\nand might begin to hate the same ere ever they were able to know it, and\nto the end that every magistrate might think he saw his deadly enemy as\noften as he saw any of us!\n\nSurely it should exceedingly grieve us to be so maliciously accused of\nmost heinous treason, unless we knew that Christ Himself, the Apostles,\nand a number of good and Christian men, were in times past blamed and\nenvied in manner for the same faults.  For although Christ taught \"they\nshould give unto Caesar that which was Caesar's,\" yet was He charged with\nsedition, in that He was accused to devise some conspiracy and covet the\nkingdom.  And hereupon they cried out with open mouth against him in the\nplace of judgment: \"If thou let this man escape, thou art not Caesar's\nfriend.\"  And though the Apostles did likewise evermore and steadfastly\nteach, that magistrates ought to be obeyed, \"that every soul ought to be\nsubject to the higher powers, not only for fear of wrath and punishment,\nbut even for conscience sake;\" yet bare they the name to disquiet the\npeople, and to stir up the multitude to rebel.  After this sort did Haman\nspecially bring the nation of the Jews into the hatred of the king\nAssuerus, because, said he, \"they were a rebellious and stubborn people,\nand despised the ordinances and commandments of princes.\"  Wicked King\nAhab said to Elie [Elijah] the prophet of God, \"It is thou that troublest\nIsrael.\"  Amasias, the priest at Bethel, laid a conspiracy to the prophet\nAmos' charge before King Jeroboam, saying, \"See, Amos hath made a\nconspiracy against thee in the midst of the house of Israel.\"  To be\nbrief, Tertullian saith, this was the general accusation of all\nChristians while he lived, that they were traitors, they were rebels, and\nthe enemies of mankind.  Wherefore, if now-a-days the truth be likewise\nevil spoken of, and being the same truth it was then, if it be now like\ndespitefully used as it was in times past, though it be a grievous and\nunkind dealing, yet can it not seem unto us a new or an unwonted matter.\n\nForty years ago and upward, was it an easy thing for them to devise\nagainst us these accursed speeches, and other, too, sorer than these;\nwhen, in the midst of the darkness of that age, first began to spring and\nto give shine some one glimmering beam of truth, unknown at that time and\nunheard of: when also Martin Luther and Hulderic Zuinglius, being most\nexcellent men, even sent of God to give light to the whole world, first\ncame unto the knowledge and preaching of the Gospel; whereas yet the\nthing was but new, and the success thereof uncertain; and when men's\nminds stood doubtful and amazed, and their ears open to all slanderous\ntales; and when there could be imagined against us no fact so detestable,\nbut the people then would soon believe it for the novelty and strangeness\nof the matter.  For so did Symmachus, so did Celsus, so did Julianus, so\ndid Porphyrius, the old foes to the Gospel, attempt in times past to\naccuse all Christians of sedition and treason, before that either prince\nor people were able to know who those Christians were, what they\nprofessed, what they believed, or what was their meaning.  But now,\nsithence our very enemies do see, and cannot deny, but we ever in all our\nwords and writings have diligently put the people in mind of their duty,\nto obey their princes and magistrates, yea, though they be wicked (for\nthis doth very trial and experience sufficiently teach, and all men's\neyes, whosoever and wheresoever they be, do well enough see and witness\nfor us), it was a foul part of them to charge us with these things; yea,\nseeing they could find no new and late faults, therefore to seek to\nprocure us envy only with stale and out worn lies.\n\nWe give our Lord God thanks, whose only cause this is, there hath yet at\nno time been any such example in all the realms, dominions, and\ncommonweals, which have received the Gospel.  For we have overthrown no\nkingdom, we have decayed no man's power or right, we have disordered no\ncommonwealth.  There continue in their own accustomed state and ancient\ndignity, the kings of our country of England, the kings of Denmark, the\nkings of Sweden, the dukes of Saxony, the counts palatine, the marquesses\nof Brandenburg, the landgraves of Hesse, the commonwealth of the\nHelvetians and Rhaetians, and the free cities, as Argentine, Basil,\nFrankfort, Ulm, Augusta, and Nuremberg; do all, I say, abide in the same\nauthority and estate wherein they have been heretofore, or rather in a\nmuch better, for that by means of the Gospel they have their people more\nobedient unto them.  Let them go, I pray you, into those places where at\nthis present through God's goodness the Gospel is taught.  Where is there\nmore majesty?  Where is there less arrogancy and tyranny?  Where be the\nprince more honoured?  Where is the people less unruly?  Where hath there\nat any time the commonwealth or the Church been in more quiet?  Perhaps\nye will say, from the first beginning of this doctrine the common sort\neverywhere began to rage and to rise throughout Germany.  Allow it were\nso, yet Martin Luther, the publisher and setter forward of this doctrine,\ndid write marvellous vehemently and sharply against them, and reclaimed\nthem, home to peace and obedience.\n\nBut whereas it is wont sometime to be objected by persons wanting skill\ntouching the Helvetians' change of state, and killing of Leopoldus the\nDuke of Austria, and restoring by force their country to liberty, that\nwas done, as appeareth plainly by all stories, for two hundred and\nthreescore years past or above, under Boniface the Eighth, when the\nauthority of the \"Bishop of Rome\" was in greatest jollity; about two\nhundred years before Huldericus Zuinglius either began to teach the\nGospel, or yet was born: and ever since that time they have had all\nthings still and quiet, not only from foreign enemies, but also from\ncivil dissension.  And if it were a sin in the Helvetians to deliver\ntheir own country from foreign government, specially when they were so\nproudly and tyrannously oppressed, yet to burden us with other men's\nfaults, or them with the faults of their forefathers, is against all\nright and reason.\n\nBut O immortal God! and will the Bishop of Rome accuse us of treason?\nWill he teach the people to obey and follow their magistrates? or hath he\nany regard at all of the majesty of princes?  Why doth he then, as none\nof the old bishops of Rome heretofore ever did, suffer himself to be\ncalled of his flatterers \"lord of lords,\" as though he would have all\nkings and princes, who and whatsoever they are, to be his underlings?  Why\ndoth he vaunt himself to be \"king of kings,\" and to have kingly royalty\nover his subjects?  Why compelleth he all emperors and princes to swear\nto him fealty and true obedience?  Why doth he boast that the \"emperor's\nmajesty's is a thousandfold inferior to him:\" and for this reason\nspecially, because God hath made two lights in heaven, and because heaven\nand earth were created not at two beginnings, but in one?  Why hath he\nand his complices (like Anabaptists and Libertines, to the end they might\nrun on more licentiously and carelessly) shaken off the yoke, and\nexempted themselves from being under a civil power?  Why hath he his\nlegates (as much to say as most subtle spies) lying in wait in all kings'\ncourts, councils, and privy chambers?  Why doth he, when he list, set\nChristian princes one against another, and at his own pleasure trouble\nthe whole world with debate and discord?  Why doth he excommunicate, and\ncommand to be taken as a heathen and a Pagan any Christian prince that\nrenounceth his authority?  And why promiseth he his \"indulgences and his\npardons\" so largely to any that will (what way soever it be) kill any of\nhis enemies?  Doth he maintain empires and kingdoms? or doth he once\ndesire that common quiet should be provided for?  You must pardon us,\ngood reader, though we seem to utter these things more bitterly and\nbitingly than it becometh divines to do.  For both the shamefulness of\nthe matter, and the desire of rule in the Bishop of Rome is so exceeding\nand outrageous, that it could not well be uttered with other words, or\nmore mildly.  For he is not ashamed to say in open assembly, \"that all\njurisdiction of all kings doth depend upon himself.\"  And to feed his\nambition and greediness of rule, he hath pulled in pieces the \"empire of\nRome,\" and vexed and rent whole Christendom asunder.  Falsely and\ntraitorously also did he release the Romans, the Italians, and himself\ntoo, of the oath whereby they and he were straitly bound to be true to\nthe \"emperor of Greece,\" and stirred up the emperor's subjects to forsake\nhim: and calling Carolus Martellus out of France into Italy, made him\nemperor, such a thing as never was seen before.  He put Chilpericus, the\nFrench king, being no evil prince, beside his realm, only because he\nfancied him not, and wrongfully placed Pipin in his room.  Again, after\nhe had cast out King Philip, if he could have brought it to pass, he had\ndetermined and appointed the kingdom of France to Albertus King of\nRomans.  He utterly destroyed the state of the most nourishing city and\ncommonweal of Florence, his own native country, and brought it out of a\nfree and peaceable state, to be governed at the pleasure of one man: he\nbrought to pass by his procurement, that whole Savoy on the one side was\nmiserably spoiled by the Emperor Charles the Fifth, and on the other side\nby the French king, so as the unfortunate duke had scant one city left\nhim to hide his head in.\n\nWe are cloyed with examples in this behalf, and it should be very tedious\nto reckon up all the notorious deeds of the bishops of Rome.  Of which\nside were they, I beseech you, which poisoned Henry the Emperor even in\nthe receiving of the sacrament? which poisoned Victor the Pope even in\nthe receiving of the chalice? which poisoned our King John, king of\nEngland, in a drinking cup?  Whosoever at least they were and of what\nsect soever, I am sure they were neither Lutherans nor Zuinglians.  What\nis he at this day, which alloweth the mightiest kings and monarchs of the\nworld to kiss his blessed feet?  What is he that commandeth the emperor\nto go by him at his horse bridle, and the French king to hold his\nstirrup?  Who hurled under his table Francis Dandalus the duke of Venice,\nking of Crete and Cyprus, fast bound with chains, to feed of bones among\nhis dogs?  Who set the imperial crown upon the Emperor Henry the Sixth's\nhead, not with his hand, but with his foot; and with the same foot again\ncast the same crown off, saying withal, \"he had power to make emperors,\nand to unmake them again at his pleasure\"?  Who put in arms Henry the son\nagainst the emperor his father Henry the Fourth, and wrought so that the\nfather was taken prisoner of his own son, and being shorn and shamefully\nhandled, was thrust into a monastery, where with hunger and sorrow he\npined away to death?  Who so ill-favouredly and monstrously put the\nEmperor Frederick's neck under his feet, and, as though that were not\nsufficient, added further this text out of the Psalms, \"Thou shalt go\nupon the adder and cockatrice, and shalt tread the lion and dragon under\nthy feet\"?  Such an example of scorning and contemning a prince's\nmajesty, as never before that was heard tell of in any remembrance;\nexcept, I ween, either of Tamerlane's, the king of Scythia, a wild and\nbarbarous creature, or else of Sapor king of the Persians.\n\nAll these notwithstanding were Popes, all Peter's successors, all most\nholy fathers, whose several words we must take to be as good as several\nGospels.  If we be counted traitors which do honour our princes, which\ngive them all obedience, as much as is due to them by God's word, and\nwhich do pray for them, what kind of men then be these, which have not\nonly done all the things before said, but also allow the same for\nspecially well done?  Do they then either this way instruct the people,\nas we do, to reverence their magistrate?  Or can they with honesty\nappeach us as seditious persons, breakers of the common quiet, and\ndespisers of princes' majesty?\n\nTruly, we neither put off the yoke of obedience from us; neither do we\ndisorder realms; neither do we set up or pull down kings; nor translate\ngovernments; nor give our kings poison to drink; nor yet hold to them our\nfeet to be kissed; nor, opprobriously triumphing over them, leap into\ntheir necks with our feet.  This rather is our profession; this is our\ndoctrine: that every soul, of what calling soever he be--be he monk, be\nhe preacher, be he prophet, be he Apostle--ought to be subject to kings\nand magistrates; yea, and that the Bishop of Rome himself--unless he will\nseem greater than Evangelists, than the Prophets, or the Apostles--ought\nboth to acknowledge and to call the emperor his lord and master, which\nthe old Bishops of Rome, who lived in times of more grace, ever did.  Our\ncommon teaching also is, that we ought so to obey princes as men sent of\nGod; and that whoso withstandeth them, withstandeth God's ordinance.  This\nis our showing, and this is well to be seen, both in our books and in our\npreachings, and also in the manners and modest behaviour of our people.\n\nBut where they say we have gone away from the unity of the Catholic\nChurch, this is not only a matter of malice, but, besides, though, it be\nmost untrue, yet hath it some show and appearance of truth.  For the\ncommon people and ignorant multitude give not credit alone to things true\nand of certainty, but even to such things also, if any chance, which may\nseem to have but a resemblance of truth.  Therefore, we see that subtle\nand crafty persons, when they had no truth on their side, have ever\ncontended and hotly argued with things likely to be true, to the intent\nthey which were not able to espy the very ground of the matter, might be\ncarried away at least with some pretence and probability thereof.  In\ntimes past, where the first Christians, our forefathers, in making their\nprayers to God, did turn themselves towards the east, there were that\nsaid, \"they worshipped the sun, and reckoned it as God.\"  Again, where\nour forefathers said, that as touching immortal and everlasting life,\nthey lived by no other means, but by the \"flesh and blood of that Lamb\nwho was without spot,\" that is to say, of our Saviour Jesus Christ, the\nenvious creatures and foes of Christ's Cross, whose only care was to\nbring Christian religion into slander by all manner of ways, made people\nbelieve that they were wicked persons, that they \"sacrificed men's flesh,\nand drunk men's blood.\"  Also, where our forefathers said that before God\n\"there is neither man nor woman,\" nor, for attaining to the true\nrighteousness, there is no distinction at all of persons, and that they\ndid call one another indifferently by the name of sisters and brothers:\nthere wanted not men which forged false tales upon the same, saying that\nthe Christians made no difference among themselves either of age or of\nkind, but like brute beasts without regard had to do one with another.\nAnd where, for to pray and hear the Gospel, they met often together in\nsecret and bye places, because rebels sometime were wont to do the like,\nrumours were everywhere spread abroad, how they made privy confederacies,\nand counselled together either to kill the magistrates or to subvert the\ncommonwealth.  And where, in celebrating the holy mysteries after\nChrist's institution, they took bread and wine, they were thought of many\nnot to worship Christ, but Bacchus and Ceres; forsomuch as those vain\ngods were worshipped of the heathens in like sort, after a profane\nsuperstition, with bread and wine.\n\nThese things were believed of many, not because they were true, indeed\n(for what could be more untrue?), but because they were like to be true,\nand through a certain shadow of truth might the more easily deceive the\nsimple.  On this fashion likewise do these men slander us as heretics,\nand say that we have left the Church and fellowship of Christ: not\nbecause they think it is true--for they do not much force of that, but\nbecause to ignorant folk it might, perhaps, some way appear true.  We\nhave, indeed, put ourselves apart not as heretics are wont, from the\nChurch of Christ, but as all good men ought to do, from the infection of\nnaughty persons and hypocrites.\n\nNevertheless, in this point they triumph marvellously--\"that they be the\nChurch, that their Church is Christ's spouse, the pillar of truth, the\nark of Noah;\" and that without it there is no hope of salvation.\nContrariwise they say, \"that we be renegades; that we have torn Christ's\nseat;\" that we are plucked quite off from the body of Christ, and have\nforsaken the Catholic faith.  And when they leave nothing unspoken that\nmay never so falsely and maliciously be said against us, yet this one\nthing are they never able truly to say, that we have swerved either from\nthe Word of God, or from the Apostles of Christ, or from the primitive\nChurch.  Surely we have ever judged the primitive Church of Christ's\ntime, of the Apostles and of the holy fathers, to be the Catholic Church;\nneither make we doubt to name it, \"Noah's ark, Christ's spouse, the\npillar and upholder of all truth;\" nor yet to fix therein the whole mean\nof our salvation.  It is doubtless an odious matter for one to leave the\nfellowship whereunto he hath been accustomed, and specially of those men,\nwho, though they be not, yet at least seem and be called Christians.  And,\nto say truly, we do not despise the Church of these men (howsoever it be\nordered by them now-a-days), partly for the name's sake itself, and\npartly for that the Gospel of Jesus Christ hath once been therein truly\nand purely set forth.  Neither had we departed therefrom, but of very\nnecessity, and much against our wills.  But I put case, an idol be set up\nin the Church of God, and the same desolation, which Christ prophesied to\ncome, stood openly in the holy place.  What if some thief or pirate\ninvade and possess \"Noah's ark?\"  These folks, as often as they tell us\nof the Church, mean thereby themselves alone, and attribute all these\ntitles to their own selves, boasting, as they did in times past which\ncried, \"The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord;\" or as the\nPharisees and Scribes did, which craked they were \"Abraham's children.\"\n\nThus with a gay and jolly show deceive they the simple, and seek to choke\nus with the very name of the Church.  Much like as if a thief, when he\nhad gotten into another man's house, and by violence either hath thrust\nout or slain the owner, should afterward assign the same house to\nhimself, casting forth of possession the right inheritor; or if\nAnti-Christ, when he had once entered into \"the temple of God,\" should\nafterward say, \"This house is mine own, and Christ hath nothing to do\nwithal.\"  For these men now, after they have left nothing remaining in\nthe Church of God that hath any likeness of this Church, yet will they\nseem the patrons and valiant maintainers of the Church, very like as\nGracchus amongst the Romans stood in defence of the treasury,\nnotwithstanding with his prodigality and fond expenses he had utterly\nwasted the whole stock of the treasury.  And yet was there never anything\nso wicked, or so far out of reason, but lightly it might be covered and\ndefended by the name of the Church.  For the wasps also make honey-combs\nas well as bees, and wicked men have companies like to the Church of God:\nyet, for all that, \"they be not straightway the people of God which are\ncalled the people of God; neither be they all Israelites as many as are\ncome of Israel the father.\"  The Arians, notwithstanding they were\nheretics, yet bragged they that they alone were Catholics, calling all\nthe rest now Ambrosians, now Athanasians, now Johannites.  And Nestorius,\nas saith Theodoret, for all that he was an heretic, yet covered he\nhimself [Greek text]: that is, to wit, with a certain cloak and colour of\nthe true and right faith.  Ebion, though he agreed in opinion with the\nSamaritans, yet, as saith Epiphanius, he would needs be called a\nChristian.  The Mahometists at this day, for all that all histories make\nplain mention, and themselves also cannot deny, but they took their first\nbeginning of \"Agar the bond-woman,\" yet for the very name and stock's\nsake, chose they rather to be called Saracens, as though they came of\n\"Sarah the free woman, and Abraham's wife.\"\n\nSo likewise the false prophets of all ages, which stood up against the\nprophets of God, which resisted Esaias, Jeremy, Christ, and the Apostles,\nat no time craked of anything so much as they did of the name of the\nChurch.  And for no other cause did they so fiercely vex them, and call\nthem runaways and apostates, than for that they forsook their fellowship,\nand kept not the ordinances of the elders.  Wherefore, if we would follow\nthe judgments of those men only who then governed the Church, and would\nrespect nothing else, neither God nor His word, it must needs be\nconfessed, that the Apostles were rightly and by just law condemned of\nthem to death, because they fell from the bishops and priests, that is,\nyou must think, from the \"Catholic Church:\" and because they made many\nnew alterations in religion, contrary to the bishops' and priests' wills,\nyea, and for all their spurning so earnestly against it.  Wherefore, like\nas it is written that Hercules in old time was forced in striving with\nAntaeus, that huge giant, to lift him quite up from the earth that was\nhis mother, ere he could conquer him, even so must our adversaries be\nheaved from their mother, that is, from this vain colour and shadow of\nthe Church, wherewith they so disguise and defend themselves: otherwise\nthey cannot be brought to yield unto the word of God.  \"And therefore,\"\nsaith Jeremy the prophet, \"make not such great boast that the temple of\nthe Lord is with you.  This is but a vain confidence: these are lies.\"\nThe angel also saith in the Apocalypse, \"They say they be Jews; but they\nbe the synagogue of Satan.\"  And Christ said to the Pharisees when they\nvaunted themselves of the kindred and blood of Abraham, \"Ye are of your\nfather, the devil;\" for you resemble not your father Abraham; as much to\nsay as ye are not the men ye would so fain be called: ye beguile the\npeople with vain titles, and abuse the name of the Church to the\noverthrowing of the Church.\n\nSo that these men's part had been, first to have clearly and truly proved\nthat the Romish Church is the true and right instructed Church of God,\nand that the same as they do order it at this day doth agree with the\nprimitive Church of Christ, of the Apostles, and of the holy fathers,\nwhich we doubt not but was indeed the true Catholic Church.  For our\nparts, if we could have judged ignorance, error, superstition, idolatry,\nmen's inventions, and the same commonly disagreeing with the Holy\nScriptures, either to please God or to be sufficient for the obtaining\neverlasting salvation; or if we could ascertain ourselves, that the word\nof God was written but for a time only, and afterward again ought to be\nabrogated and put away: or else that the sayings and commandments of God\nought to be subject to man's will, that whatsoever God saith and\ncommandeth, except the Bishop of Rome willeth and commandeth the same, it\nmust be taken as void and unspoken: if we could have brought ourselves to\nbelieve these things, we grant there had been no cause at all why we\nshould have left these men's company.  As touching that we have now done\nto depart from that Church, whose errors were proved and made manifest to\nthe world, which Church also had already evidently departed from God's\nword: and yet not to depart so much from itself, as from the errors\nthereof; and not to do this disorderly or wickedly, but quietly and\nsoberly; we have done nothing herein against the doctrine either of\nChrist or of His Apostles.  For neither is the Church of God such as it\nmay not be dusked with some spot, or asketh not sometime reparation.  Else\nwhat needeth there so many assemblies and councils, without the which, as\nsaith AEgidius, the Christian faith is not able to stand?  \"For look,\"\nsaith he: \"how often councils are discontinued, so often is the Church\ndestitute of Christ.\"  Or if there be no peril that harm may come to the\nChurch, what need is there to retain to no purpose the names of bishops,\nas is now commonly used among them?  For if there be no sheep that may\nstray, why be they called shepherds?  If there be no city that may be\nbetrayed, why be they called watchmen?  If there be nothing that may run\nto ruin, why be they called pillars?  Anon after the first creation of\nthe world the Church of God began to spread abroad, and the same was\ninstructed with the heavenly word which God Himself pronounced with His\nown mouth.  It was also furnished with Divine ceremonies.  It was taught\nby the Spirit of God, by the patriarchs and prophets, and continued so\neven till the time that Christ showed Himself to us in the flesh.\n\nThis notwithstanding, how often, O good God, in the meanwhile, and how\nhorribly was the same Church darkened and decayed!  Where was that Church\nthen, when \"all flesh upon earth had denied their own way?\"  Where was\nit, when amongst the number of the whole world there were only eight\npersons (and they neither all chaste and good) whom God's will was should\nbe saved alive from that universal destruction and mortality? when Elie\nthe prophet so lamentably and bitterly made moan, that \"only himself was\nleft\" of all the whole world which did truly and duly worship God? and\nwhen Esay said, \"The silver of God's people (that is, of the Church) was\nbecome dross: and that the same city, which aforetime had been faithful,\nwas now become a harlot: and that in the same there was no part sound\nthroughout the whole body, from the head to the foot?\" or else, when\nChrist Himself said, \"that the house of God was made by the Pharisees and\npriests a den of thieves?\"  Of a truth, the Church, even as a corn-field,\nexcept it be eared, manured, tilled, and trimmed, instead of wheat it\nwill bring forth thistles, darnel, and nettles.  For this cause did God\nsend ever among both Prophets and Apostles, and last of all His \"own\nSon,\" who might bring home the people into the right way, and repair anew\nthe tottering Church after she had erred.\n\nBut lest some man should say, that the aforesaid things happened in the\ntime of the law only, of shadows, and of infancy, when truth lay hid\nunder figures and ceremonies, when nothing as yet was brought to\nperfection, when the law was not graven in men's hearts, but in stone:\nand yet is that but a foolish saying, for even at those days was there\nthe very same God that is now, the same Spirit, the same Christ, the same\nfaith, the same doctrine, the same hope, the same inheritance, the same\nleague, and the same efficacy and virtue of God's word: Eusebius also\nsaith: \"All the faithful, even from Adam until Christ, were in very deed\nChristians\" (though they were not so termed), but, as I said, lest men\nshould thus speak still, Paul the Apostle found the like faults and falls\neven then in the prime and chief of the Gospel in chief perfection, and\nin the light; so that he was compelled to write in this sort to the\nGalatians, whom he had well before that instructed: \"I fear me,\" quoth\nhe, \"lest I have laboured among you in vain, and lest ye have heard the\nGospel in vain.\"  \"O my little children, of whom I travail anew till\nChrist be fashioned again in you.\"  And as for the Church of the\nCorinthians, how foully it was denied, is nothing needful to rehearse.\nNow tell me, might the Churches of the Galatians and Corinthians go\namiss, and the Church of Rome alone may not fail, nor go amiss?  Surely\nChrist prophesied long before of His Church, that the time should come\nwhen desolation should stand in the holy place.  And Paul saith, that\nAntichrist should once set up his own tabernacle and stately seat in the\ntemple of God: and that the time should be, \"when men should not away\nwith wholesome doctrine, but be turned back unto fables and lies,\" and\nthat within the very Church.  Peter likewise telleth, how there should be\nteachers of lies in the Church of Christ.  Daniel the Prophet, speaking\nof the latter times of Antichrist: \"Truth,\" saith he, \"in that season\nshall be thrown under foot, and trodden upon in the world.\"  And Christ\nsaith, how the calamity and confusion of things shall be so exceeding\ngreat, \"that even the chosen, if it were possible, shall be brought into\nerror;\" and how all these things shall come to pass, not amongst Gentiles\nand Turks, but that they should be in the holy place, in the temple of\nGod, in the Church, and in the company and fellowship of those which\nprofess the name of Christ.\n\nAlbeit these same warnings alone may suffice a wise man to take heed he\ndo not suffer himself rashly to be deceived with the name of the Church,\nand not to stay to make further inquisition thereof by God's word; yet\nbeside all this, many fathers also, many learned and godly men, have\noften and carefully complained how all these things have chanced in their\nlifetime.  For even in the midst of that thick mist of darkness, God\nwould yet there should be some, who, though they gave not a clear and\nbright light, yet should they kindle, were it but some spark, which men\nmight espy, being in the darkness.\n\nHilarius, when things as yet were almost uncorrupt, and in good ease too:\n\"Ye are ill deceived,\" saith he, \"with the love of walls: ye do ill\nworship the Church, in that ye worship it in houses and buildings: ye do\nill bring in the name of peace under roofs.  Is there any doubt but\nAntichrist will have his seat under the same?  I rather reckon hills,\nwoods, pools, marshes, prisons, and quagmires, to be places of more\nsafety: for in these the prophets, either abiding of their accord or\nforced thither by violence, did prophesy by the Spirit of God.\"\n\nGregory, as one which perceived and foresaw in his mind the wrack of all\nthings, wrote thus to \"John, Bishop of Constantinople,\" the first of all\nothers that commanded himself to be called by this new name, the\n\"universal bishop of whole Christ's Church:\" \"If the Church,\" saith he,\n\"shall depend upon one man, it will at once fall down to the ground.\"  Who\nis he, that seeth not how this is come to pass long since?  For long\nagone hath the Bishop of Rome willed to have the \"whole Church depend\nupon\" himself alone.  Wherefore it is no marvel though it be clean fallen\ndown long agone.\n\nBernard the abbot, above four hundred years past, writeth thus: \"Nothing\nis now of sincerity and pureness amongst the clergy: wherefore it\nresteth, that the man of sin should be revealed.\"  The same Bernard, in\nhis work of the conversion of Paul; \"It seemeth now,\" saith he, \"that\npersecution hath ceased: no, no; persecution seemeth but now to begin,\neven from them which have chief pre-eminence in the Church.  Thy friends\nand neighbours have drawn near, and stood up against thee: from the sole\nof thy foot to the crown of thy head there is no part whole.  Iniquity is\nproceeded from the elders, the judges, and deputies, which pretend to\nrule thy people.  We cannot say now, Look how the people be, so is the\npriest.  For the people is not so ill as the priest is.  Alas, alas, O\nLord God, the selfsame persons be the chief in persecuting thee, which\nseem to love the highest place, and bear most rule in Thy Church!\"  The\nsame Bernard again, upon the Canticles, writeth thus: \"All they are thy\nfriends, yet are they all thy foes: all thy kinsfolk, yet are they all\nthy adversaries.  Being Christ's servants, they serve Antichrist.  Behold,\nin my rest, my bitterness is most bitter.\"  Roger Bacon, also a man of\ngreat fame, after he had in a vehement oration touched to the quick the\nwoeful state of his own time: \"These so many errors,\" saith he, \"require\nand look for Antichrist.\"  Gerson complaineth, that in his days all the\nsubstance and efficacy of sacred divinity was brought unto a glorious\ncontention and ostentation of wits, and to very sophistry.  The friars of\nLyons, men, as touching the manner of their life, not to be misliked,\nwere wont boldly to affirm, that the Romish Church (from whence alone all\ncounsel and order was then sought) was the very same \"harlot of Babylon\nand rout of devils,\" whereof is prophesied so plainly in the Apocalypse.\n\nI know well enough the authority of these foresaid persons is but lightly\nregarded among these men.  How then if I call forth those for witness,\nwhom they themselves have used to honour?  What if I say that Adrian, the\nBishop of Rome, did frankly confess that all these mischiefs brast out\nfirst from the high throne of the Pope?  Pighius acknowledgeth herein to\nbe a fault, that many abuses are brought in, even into the very mass,\nwhich mass otherwise he would have seem to be a reverend matter.  Gerson\nsaith, that through the number of most fond ceremonies, all the virtue of\nthe Holy Ghost, which ought to have operation in us, and all true\ngodliness, is utterly quenched and dead.  Whole Greece and Asia complain,\nhow the bishops of Rome, with the marts of their purgatories and pardons,\nhave both tormented men's consciences and picked their purses.\n\nAs touching the tyranny of the bishops of Rome, and their barbarous\nPersian-like pride, to leave out others, whom perchance they reckon for\nenemies, because they freely and liberally find fault with their vices,\nthe same men which have led their life at Rome in the holy city, in the\nface of the most holy father, who also were able to see all their secrets\nand at no time departed from the Catholic faith: as, for example,\nLaurentius Valla, Marsilius Patavinus, Francis Petrarch, Hierom\nSavonarola, Abbot Joachim, Baptist of Mantua, and, before all these,\nBernard the abbot, have many a time and much complained of it, giving the\nworld also sometime to understand that the Bishop of Rome himself (by\nyour leave) is very Antichrist.  Whether they spake it truly or falsely,\nlet that go.  Sure I am they spake it plainly.  Neither can any man\nallege that those authors were Luther's or Zuinglius' scholars: for they\nwere not only certain years, but also certain ages ere ever Luther's or\nZuinglius' names were heard of.  They well saw that even in their days\nerrors had crept into the Church, and wished earnestly they might be\namended.\n\nAnd what marvel if the Church were then carried away with errors in that\ntime, specially when neither the Bishop of Rome, who then only ruled the\nroost, nor almost any other, either did his duty, or once understood what\nwas his duty? for it is hard to be believed, while they were idle and\nfast asleep, that the devil also all that while either fell asleep or\nelse continually lay idle.  For how they were occupied in the meantime,\nand with what faithfulness they took care of God's house, though we hold\nour peace, yet I pray you, let them hear Bernard their own friend.  \"The\nbishops,\" saith he, \"who now have the charge of God's Church, are not\nteachers, but deceivers: they are not feeders, but beguilers: they are\nnot prelates, but Pilates.\"  These words spake Bernard of that bishop who\nnamed himself the highest bishop of all, and of the other bishops\nlikewise which then had the place of government.  Bernard was no\nLutheran: Bernard was no heretic.  He had not forsaken the Catholic\nChurch: yet nevertheless he did not let to call the bishops that then\nwere, deceivers, beguilers, and Pilates.  Now when the people was openly\ndeceived, and Christian men's eyes were craftily bleared, and when Pilate\nsat in judgment-place, and condemned Christ and Christ's members to sword\nand fire, O good Lord, in what case was Christ's Church then?  But yet\ntell me, of so many and so gross errors, what one have these men at any\ntime reformed? or what fault have they once acknowledged and confessed?\n\nBut, forsomuch as these men avouch the universal possession of the\nCatholic Church to be their own, and call us heretics, because we agree\nnot in judgment with them, let us know, I beseech you, what proper mark\nand badge hath that Church of theirs, whereby it may be known to be the\nChurch of God.  I wiss it is not so hard a matter to find out God's\nChurch, if a man will seek it earnestly and diligently.  For the Church\nof God is set upon a high and glittering place, in the top of a hill, and\nbuilt upon the \"foundation of the Apostles and Prophets:\" \"There,\" saith\nAugustine, \"let us seek the Church; there let us try our matters.\"  \"And,\"\nas he saith again in another place, \"the Church must be showed out of the\nholy and canonical Scriptures: and that which cannot be showed out of\nthem is not the Church.\"  Yet, for all this, I wot not how, whether it be\nfor fear, or for conscience, or despair of victory, these men alway abhor\nand fly the Word of God, even as the thief flieth the gallows.  And no\nwonder truly.  For, like as men say, the cantharus by-and-bye perisheth\nand dieth as soon as it is laid in balm: notwithstanding balm be\notherwise a most sweet-smelling ointment; even so these men well see\ntheir own matter is damned and destroyed in the Word of God, as if it\nwere in poison.\n\nTherefore the Holy Scriptures, which our Saviour Jesus Christ did not\nonly use for authority in all His speech, but did also at last seal up\nthe same with His own blood, these men, to the intent they might with\nless business drive the people from the same, as from a thing dangerous\nand deadly, have used to call them a bare letter, uncertain,\nunprofitable, dumb, killing, and dead: which seemeth to us all one as if\nthey should say, \"The Scriptures are to no purpose, or as good as none.\"\nHereunto they add a similitude not very agreeable, how the Scriptures be\nlike to a nose of wax, or a shipman's hose: how they may be fashioned and\nplied all manner of ways, and serve all men's turns.  Woteth not the\nBishop of Rome, that these things are spoken by his own minions? or\nunderstandeth he not he hath such champions to fight for him?  Let him\nhearken then how holily and how godly one Hosius writeth of this matter,\na bishop in Polonia, as he testifieth of himself; a man doubtless well\nspoken and not unlearned, and a very sharp and stout maintainer of that\nside.  One will marvel, I suppose, how a good man could either conceive\nso wickedly or write so despitefully of those words which he knew\nproceeded from God's mouth, and specially in such sort as he would not\nhave it seem his own private opinion alone, but the common opinion of all\nthat band.  He dissembleth, I grant you indeed, and hideth what he is,\nand setteth forth the matter so, as though it were not he and his side,\nbut the Zuenckfeldian heretics that so did speak.  \"We,\" saith he, \"will\nbid away with the same Scriptures, whereof we see brought not only divers\nbut also contrary interpretations; and we will hear God speak, rather\nthan we will resort to the naked elements, and appoint our salvation to\nrest in them.  It behoveth not a man to be expert in the law and\nScripture, but to be taught of God.  It is but lost labour that a man\nbestoweth in the Scriptures.  For the Scripture is a creature, and a\ncertain bare letter.\"  This is Hosius' saying, uttered altogether with\nthe same spirit and the same mind wherewith in times past Montane and\nMarcion were moved, who, as men report, used to say, when with a contempt\nthey rejected the Holy Scriptures, that themselves knew many more and\nbetter things than either Christ or the Apostles ever knew.\n\nWhat then shall I say here, O ye principal posts of religion, O ye arch-\ngovernors of Christ's Church!  Is this that your reverence which ye give\nto God's Word?  The Holy Scriptures, which, St. Paul saith, came by the\ninspiration of God, which God did commend by so many miracles, wherein\nare the most perfect prints of Christ's own steps, which all the holy\nfathers, Apostles, and Angels, which Christ Himself the Son of God, as\noften as was needful, did allege for testimony and proof; will ye, as\nthough they were unworthy for you to hear, bid them avaunt away?  That\nis, will ye enjoin God to keep silence, who speaketh to you most clearly\nby His own mouth in the Scriptures? or that Word, whereby alone, as Paul\nsaith, we are reconciled to God, and which the prophet David saith, is\n\"holy and pure, and shall last for ever;\" will ye call that \"but a bare\nand dead letter?\" or will ye say that all our labour is lost which is\nbestowed in that thing which Christ hath commanded us diligently to\nsearch, and to have evermore before our eyes?  And will ye say that\nChrist and the Apostles meant with subtlety to deceive the people when\nthey exhorted them to read the Holy Scriptures, that thereby they might\nflow in all wisdom and knowledge?  No marvel at all though these men\ndespise us and all our doings, which set so little by God Himself and His\ninfallible sayings.  Yet was it but want of wit in them, to the intend\nthey might hurt us, to do so extreme injury to the Word of God.\n\nBut Hosius will here make exclamation, saying we do him wrong, and that\nthese be not his own words, but the words of the heretic Zuenckfeldius.\nBut how then, if Zuenckfeldius make exclamation on the other side, and\nsay, that the same very words be not his, but Hosius' own words?  For\ntell me where hath Zuenckfeldius ever written them? or, if he have\nwritten them, and Hosius have judged the same to be wicked, why hath not\nHosius spoken so much as one word to confute them?  Howsoever the matter\ngoeth, although Hosius peradventure will not allow of those words, yet he\ndoth not disallow the meaning of the words For well near in all\ncontroversies, and namely touching the use of the holy \"communion under\nboth kinds,\" although the words of Christ be plain and evident, yet doth\nHosius disdainfully reject them, as no better than \"cold and dead\nelements;\" and commandeth us to give faith to certain new lessons,\nappointed by the Church, and to I wot not what revelations of the Holy\nGhost.  And Pighius saith: \"Men ought not to believe, no not the most\nclear and manifest words of the Scriptures, unless the same be allowed\nfor good by the interpretation and authority of the Church.\"\n\nAnd yet, as though this were too little, they also burn the Holy\nScriptures, as in times past wicked King Aza did, or as Antiochus or\nMaximinus did, and are wont to name them heretics' books.  And out of\ndoubt, to see too, they would fain do as Herod in old time did in Jewry,\nthat he might with more surety keep still his dominion: who being an\nIdumaean born, and a stranger to the stock and kindred of the Jews, and\nyet coveting much to be taken for a Jew, to the end he might establish to\nhim and his posterity the kingdom of that country, which he had gotten of\nAugustus Caesar, he commanded all the genealogies and pedigrees to be\nburnt, and made out of the way, so that there should remain no record\nwhereby he might be known to them that came after that he was an alien in\nblood: whereas even from Abraham's time these monuments had been safely\nkept amongst the Jews, and laid up in their treasury; because in them it\nmight easily and most assuredly be found of what lineage everyone did\ndescend.  So (in good faith) do these men, when they would have all their\nown doings in estimation, as though they had been delivered to us even\nfrom the Apostles, or from Christ Himself: to the end there might be\nfound nowhere anything able to convince such their dreams and lies,\neither they burn the Holy Scriptures, or else they craftily convey them\nfrom the people surely.\n\nVery rightly and aptly doth Chrysostom write against these men.\n\"Heretics,\" saith he, \"shut up the doors against the truth: for they know\nfull well, if the door were open, the Church should be none of theirs.\"\nTheophylact also: \"God's Word,\" saith he, \"is the candle whereby the\nthief is espied.\"  And Tertullian saith, \"The Holy Scripture manifestly\nfindeth out the fraud and theft of heretics.\"  For why do they hide, why\ndo they keep under the Gospel which Christ would have preached aloud from\nthe housetop?  Why whelm they that light under a bushel which ought to\nstand on a candlestick?  Why trust they more to the blindness of the\nunskilful multitude, and to ignorance, than to the goodness of their\ncause?  Think they their sleights are not already perceived, and that\nthey can walk now unespied, as though they had Gyges' ring, to go\ninvisibly by, upon their finger?  No, no.  All men see now well and well\nagain, what good stuff is in that chest of the \"Bishop of Rome's bosom.\"\nThis thing alone of itself may be an argument sufficient that they work\nnot uprightly and truly.  Worthily ought that matter seem suspicious\nwhich flieth trial, and is afraid of the light.  \"For he that doeth\nevil,\" as Christ saith, \"seeketh darkness, and hateth the light.\"  A\nconscience that knoweth itself clear cometh willingly into open show,\nthat the works which proceed of God may be seen.  Neither be they so very\nblind but they see this well enough, that their own kingdom straightway\nis at a point if the Scriptures once have the upper hand: and that, like\nas men say, the idols of devils in times past, of whom men in doubtful\nmatters were then wont to receive answers, were suddenly stricken dumb at\nthe sight of Christ, when He was born and came into the world: even so\nthey see that now all their subtle practices will soon fall down headlong\nupon the sight of the Gospel.  For Antichrist is not overthrown but by\nthe brightness of Christ's coming.\n\nAs for us, we run not for succour to the fire, as these men's guise is,\nbut we run to the Scriptures; neither do we reason with the sword, but\nwith the Word of God: and therewith, as saith Tertullian \"do we feed our\nfaith; by it do we stir up our hope, and strengthen our confidence.\"  For\nwe know that the \"Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto\nsalvation;\" and that therein consisteth eternal life.  And as Paul\nwarneth us, \"We do not hear, no, not an Angel of God coming from Heaven,\nif he go about to pull us from any part of this doctrine.\"  Yea, more\nthan this, as the holy martyr Justin speaketh of himself, we would give\nno credence to God Himself, if He should teach us any other Gospel.\n\nFor where these men bid the Holy Scriptures away, as dumb and fruitless,\nand procure us to come to God Himself rather, who speaketh in the Church\nand in councils, which is to say, to believe their fancies and opinions;\nthis way of finding out the truth is very uncertain and exceeding\ndangerous, and in manner a fantastical and mad way, and by no means\nallowed of the holy fathers.  Chrysostom saith, \"There be many oftentimes\nwhich boast themselves of the Holy Ghost; but truly whoso speak of their\nown head do falsely boast they have the Spirit of God.  For like as\n(saith he) Christ denied He spake of Himself, when He spake out of the\nlaw and Prophets, even so now, if anything be pressed upon us in the Name\nof the Holy Ghost, save the Gospel, we ought not to believe it.  For as\nChrist is the fulfilling of the law and Prophets, so is the Holy Ghost\nthe fulfilling of the Gospel.\"  Thus far goeth Chrysostom.\n\n\n\nPART V.\n\n\nBut here I look they will say, though they have not the Scriptures, yet\nmay chance they have the ancient doctors and the holy fathers with them.\nFor this is a high brag they have ever made, how that all antiquity and a\ncontinual consent of all ages doth make on their side; and that all our\ncases be but new, and yesterday's work, and until these few late years\nwere never heard of.  Questionless, there can nothing be more spitefully\nspoken against the religion of God than to accuse it of novelty, as a new\ncome up matter.  For as there can be no change in God Himself, so ought\nthere to be no change in His religion.\n\nYet, nevertheless, we wot not by what means, but we have ever seen it\ncome so to pass from the first beginning of all, that as often as God did\ngive but some light, and did open His truth unto men, though the truth\nwere not only of greatest antiquity, but also from everlasting; yet of\nwicked men and of the adversaries was it called new-fangled and of late\ndevised.  That ungracious and bloodthirsty Haman, when he sought to\nprocure the king Assuerus' displeasure against the Jews, this was his\naccusation to him: \"Thou hast here (saith he) a kind of people that useth\ncertain new laws of their own, but stiff-necked and rebellious against\nall thy laws.\"  When Paul also began first to preach and expound the\nGospel at Athens he was called a tidings-bringer of new gods, as much to\nsay as of a new religion; \"for\" (said the Athenians) \"may we not know of\nthee what new doctrine this is?\"  Celsus likewise, when he of set purpose\nwrote against Christ, to the end he might more scornfully scoff out the\nGospel by the name of novelty: \"What!\" saith he, \"hath God after so many\nages now at last and so late bethought Himself?\"  Eusebius also writeth\nthat Christian religion from the beginning for very spite was called\n[Greek text], that is to say, new and strange.  After like sort, these\nmen condemn all our matters as strange and new; but they will have their\nown, whatsoever they are, to be praised as things of long continuance.\nDoing much like to the enchanters and sorcerers now-a-days, which working\nwith devils, use to say they have their books and all their holy and hid\nmysteries from Athanasius, Cyprian, Moses, Abel, Adam, and from the\narchangel Raphael; because that their cunning, coming from such patrons\nand founders, might be judged the more high and holy.  After the same\nfashion these men, because they would have their own religion, which they\nthemselves, and that not long since, have brought forth into the world,\nto be the more easily and rather accepted of foolish persons, or of such\nas cast little whereabouts they or other do go, they are wont to say they\nhad it from Augustine, Hierom, Chrysostom, from the Apostles, and from\nChrist Himself.\n\nFull well know they that nothing is more in the people's favour, or\nbetter liketh the common sort, than these names.  But how if the things,\nwhich these men are so desirous to have seem new, be found of greatest\nantiquity?  Contrariwise, how if all the things well-nigh which they so\ngreatly set out with the name of antiquity, having been well and\nthoroughly examined, be at length found to be but new, and devised of\nvery late?  Soothly to say, no man that hath a true and right\nconsideration would think the Jews' laws and ceremonies to be new, for\nall Haman's accusation.  For they were graven in very ancient tables of\nmost antiquity.  And although many did take Christ to have swerved from\nAbraham and the old fathers, and to have brought in a certain new\nreligion in His own Name, yet answered He them directly, \"If ye believed\nMoses, ye would believe Me also,\" for My doctrine is not so new as you\nmake it: for Moses, an author of greatest antiquity, and one to whom ye\ngive all honour, \"hath spoken of Me.\"  Paul likewise, though the Gospel\nof Jesus Christ be of many counted to be but new, yet hath it (saith he)\nthe testimony most old both of the law and Prophets.  As for our doctrine\nwhich we may rightly call Christ's catholic doctrine, it is so far off\nfrom new that God, who is above all most ancient, and the Father of our\nLord Jesus Christ, hath left the same unto us in the Gospel, in the\nProphets' and Apostles' works, being monuments of greatest age.  So that\nno man can now think our doctrine to be new, unless the same think either\nthe Prophets' faith, or the Gospel, or else Christ Himself to be new.\n\nAnd as for their religion, if it be of so long continuance as they would\nhave men ween it is, why do they not prove it so by the examples of the\nprimitive Church, and by the fathers and councils of old times?  Why\nlieth so ancient a cause thus long in the dust destitute of an advocate?\nFire and sword they have had always ready at hand, but as for the old\ncouncils and the fathers, all mum--not a word.  They did surely against\nall reason to begin first with these so bloody and extreme means, if they\ncould have found other more easy and gentle ways.  And if they trust so\nfully to antiquity, and use no dissimulation, why did John Clement, a\ncountryman of ours, but few years past, in the presence of certain honest\nmen and of good credit, tear and cast into the fire certain leaves of\nTheodoret--the most ancient father and a Greek bishop--wherein he plainly\nand evidently taught that the nature of bread in the Communion was not\nchanged, abolished, or brought to nothing?  And this did he of purpose,\nbecause he thought there was no other copy thereof to be found.  Why\nsaith Albertus Pighius that the ancient father Augustine had a wrong\nopinion of original sin? and that he erred and lied and used false logic,\nas touching the case of matrimony concluded after a vow made, which\nAugustine affirmeth to be perfect matrimony, indeed, and cannot be undone\nagain?  Also when they did of late put in print the ancient father\nOrigen's work upon the Gospel of John, why left they quite out the whole\nsixth chapter?  Wherein it is likely, yea, rather, of very surety, that\nthe said Origen had written many things concerning the sacrament of the\nHoly Communion contrary to these men's minds; and would put forth that\nbook mangled rather than full and perfect, for fear it should reprove\nthem and their partners of their error.  Call ye this trusting to\nantiquity, when ye rent in pieces, keep back, maim, and burn the ancient\nfathers' works?\n\nIt is a world to see, how well-favouredly and how towardly touching\nreligion these men agree with the fathers of whom they use to vaunt that\nthey be their own good.  The old Council Eliberine made a decree that\nnothing that is honoured of the people should be painted in the churches.\nThe old father Epiphanius saith:--\"It is a horrible wickedness, and a sin\nnot to be suffered, for any man to set up any picture in the Church of\nthe Christians, yea, though it were the picture of Christ Himself.\"  Yet,\nthese men store all their temples, and each corner of them, with painted\nand carved images, as though without them religion were nothing worth.\n\nThe old fathers Origen and Chrysostom exhort the people to read the\nScriptures, to buy them books, to reason at home betwixt themselves of\ndivine matters--wives with their husbands, and parents with their\nchildren.  These men condemn the Scriptures as dead elements, and--as\nmuch as ever they may--bar the people from them.  The ancient fathers,\nCyprian, Epiphanius, and Hierom, say, for one who, perchance, hath made a\nvow to lead a sole life, and afterwards liveth unchastely, and cannot\nquench the flames of lust, \"it is better to marry a wife, and to live\nhonestly in wedlock.\"  And the old father Augustine judgeth the selfsame\nmarriage to be good and perfect, and that it ought not to be broken\nagain.  These men, if a man have once bound himself by a vow, though\nafterwards he burn, keep queans, and defile himself with never so sinful\nand desperate a life, yet they suffer not that person to marry a wife; or\nif he chance to marry, they allow it not for marriage.  And they commonly\nteach it is much better and more godly to keep a concubine and harlot,\nthan to live in that kind of marriage.\n\nThe old father Augustine complained of the multitude of ceremonies,\nwherewith he even then saw men's minds and consciences overcharged.  These\nmen, as though God regarded nothing else but their ceremonies, have so\nout of measure increased them, that there is now almost none other thing\nleft in their churches and places of prayer.\n\nAgain, that old father Augustine denieth it to be lawful for a monk to\nspend his time slothfully and idly, and, under a pretended and\ncounterfeit holiness, to live all upon others.  And whoso thus liveth,\nthe old father Apollonius likeneth him to a thief.  These men have, I wot\nnot whether to name them droves or herds of monks, who for all they do\nnothing, nor yet once intend to bear any show of holiness, yet live they\nnot only upon others, but also riot lavishly of other folks' labours.\n\nThe old council of Rome decreed that no man should come to the service\nsaid by a priest well known to keep a concubine.  These men let to farm\nconcubines to their priests, and yet constrain men by force against their\nwill to hear their cursed paltry service.\n\nThe old canons of the Apostles command that bishop to be removed from his\noffice, which will both supply the place of a civil magistrate, and also\nof an ecclesiastical person.  These men, for all that, both do and will\nneeds serve both places.  Nay, rather, the one office which they ought\nchiefly to execute, they once touch not, and yet nobody commandeth them\nto be displaced.\n\nThe old Council Gangrense commandeth that none should make such\ndifference between an unmarried priest and a married priest, as he ought\nto think the one more holy than the other for single life's sake.  These\nmen put such a difference between them, that they straightway think all\ntheir holy service to be defiled if it be done by a good and honest man\nthat hath a wife.\n\nThe ancient emperor Justinian commanded that, in the holy administration,\nall things should be pronounced with a clear, loud, and treatable voice,\nthat the people might receive some fruit thereby.  These men, lest the\npeople should understand them, mumble up all their service, not only with\na drowned and hollow voice, but also in a strange and barbarous tongue.\n\nThe old council at Carthage commanded that nothing should be read in\nChrist's congregation but the canonical Scriptures.  These men read such\nthings in their churches as themselves know of a truth to be stark lies\nand fond fables.\n\nBut if there be any that think these above-rehearsed authorities be but\nweak and slender, because they were decreed by emperors and certain petit\nbishops, and not by so full and perfect councils, taking pleasure rather\nin the authority and name of the Pope, let such a one know that Pope\nJulius doth evidently forbid that the priest, in ministering the\nCommunion, should dip the bread in the cup.  These men, contrary to Pope\nJulius' decree, divide the bread, and dip it in the wine.\n\nPope Clement saith it is not lawful for a bishop to deal with both\nswords: \"For if thou wilt have both,\" said he, \"thou shalt deceive both\nthyself and those that obey thee.\"  Nowadays, the Pope challengeth to\nhimself both swords, and useth both.  Wherefore, it ought to seem less\nmarvel if that have followed which Clement saith, that is, \"that he hath\ndeceived both his own self and those which have given ear unto him.\"\n\nPope Leo saith, \"Upon one day it is lawful to say but one mass in one\nchurch.\"  These men say daily in one church commonly ten masses, twenty,\nthirty, yea, oftentimes more.  So that the poor gazer on can scant tell\nwhich way he were best to turn him.\n\nPope Gelasius saith, \"It is a wicked deed and sibb to sacrilege in any\nman to divide the Communion, and when he hath received one kind to\nabstain from the other.\"  These men, contrary to God's Word, and contrary\nto Pope Gelasius, command that one kind only of the Holy Communion be\ngiven to the people, and by so doing they make their priests guilty of\nsacrilege.\n\nBut if they will say that all these things are worn out of ure and nigh\ndead, and pertain nothing to these present times, yet to the end all folk\nmay understand what faith is to be given to these men, and upon what hope\nthey call together their general councils, let us see in few words what\ngood heed they take to the selfsame thing, which they themselves these\nvery last years (and the remembrance thereof is yet new and fresh), in\ntheir own general council that they had by order called, have decreed and\ncommanded to be devoutly kept.  In the last council at Trent, scant\nfourteen years past, it was ordained by the common consent of all\ndegrees, \"that one man should not have two benefices at one time.\"  What\nis become now of that ordinance?  Is the same too soon worn out of mind,\nand clean consumed?  For these men, ye see, give to one man not two\nbenefices only, but sundry abbeys many times, sometimes also two\nbishoprics, sometimes three, sometimes four.  And that not only to an\nunlearned man, but oftentimes also even to a man of war.\n\nIn the said council a decree was made that all bishops should preach the\nGospel.  These men neither preach nor once go up into the pulpit, neither\nthink they it any part of their office.  What great pomp and crake then\nis this they make of antiquity?  Why brag they so of the names of the\nancient fathers, and of the new and old councils?  Why will they seem to\ntrust to their authority whom when they list they despise at their\npleasure?\n\nBut I have a special fancy to commune a word or two rather with the\nPope's good holiness, and to say these things to his own face.  Tell us,\nI pray you, good holy father, seeing ye do crake so much of all\nantiquity, and boast yourself that all men are bound to you alone, which\nof all the fathers hath at any time called you by the name of the\n\"highest prelate,\" the \"universal bishop,\" or the \"head of the Church\"?\nWhich of them ever said \"that both the swords were committed unto you?\"\nWhich of them ever said \"that you have authority and right to call\ncouncils?\"  Which of them ever said \"the whole world is but your\ndiocese?\"  Which of them \"that all bishops have received of your\nfulness?\"  Which of them \"that all power is given to you as well in\nheaven as in earth?\"  Which of them \"that neither kings, nor the whole\nclergy, nor yet all the people together, are able to be judges over you?\"\nWhich of them \"that kings and emperors, by Christ's commandment and will,\ndo receive authority at your hands?\"  Which of them with so precise and\nmathematical limitation hath surveyed and determined you to be \"seventy\nand seven times greater than the mightiest kings?\"  Which of them that\nmore ample authority is given to you than to the residue of the\npatriarchs?  Which of them that you are the \"Lord God\"? or that you are\n\"not a mere natural man, but a certain substance made and grown together\nof God and man\"?  Which of them that you are the only \"headspring of all\nlaws\"?  Which of them that you have \"power over purgatories?\"  Which of\nthem that you are able to \"command the angels of God\" as you list\nyourself?  Which of them that ever said that you are \"lord of lords\" and\nthe \"king of kings\"?  We can also go further with you in like sort.  What\none amongst the whole number of the old bishops and fathers ever taught\nyou either to say private mass while the people stared on, or to \"lift up\nthe Sacrament\" over your head (in which point consisteth now all your\nreligion), or else to \"mangle Christ's Sacraments,\" and to bereave the\npeople of the one part, contrary to Christ's institution and plain\nexpress words?  But that we may once come to an end, what one is there of\nall the fathers which hath taught you to distribute Christ's blood and\nthe holy martyrs' merits, and to sell openly as merchandises your pardons\nand all the rooms and lodgings of purgatory?\n\nThese men are wont to speak much of a certain secret doctrine of theirs,\nand of their manifold and sundry readings.  Then let them bring forth\nsomewhat now, if they can, that it may appear they have at least read or\ndo know somewhat.  They have often stoutly noised in all corners where\nthey went how all the parts of their religion be very old, and have been\napproved not only of the multitude, but also by the consent and continual\nobservation of all nations and times.  Let them, therefore, once in their\nlife show this their antiquity.  Let them make appear at eye that the\nthings whereof they make such ado have taken so long and large increase.\nLet them declare that all Christian nations have agreed by consent to\nthis their religion.\n\nNay, nay, they turn their backs, as we have said already, and flee from\ntheir own decrees, and have cut off and abolished again within a short\nspace the same things which, but a few years before, themselves had\nestablished for evermore, forsooth, to continue.  How should one, then,\ntrust them in the fathers, in the old councils, and in the words spoken\nby God?  They have not, good Lord, they have not, I say, those things\nwhich they boast they have: they have not that antiquity, they have not\nthat universality, they have not that consent of all places, nor of all\ntimes.  And though they have a desire rather to dissemble, yet they\nthemselves are not ignorant hereof: yea, and sometime also they let not\nto confess it openly.  And for this cause they say that the ordinances of\nthe old councils and fathers be such as may now and then be altered, and\nthat sundry and divers decrees serve for sundry and divers times of the\nChurch.  Thus lurk they under the name of the Church, and beguile silly\ncreatures with their vain glozing.  It is to be marvelled that either men\nbe so blind that they cannot see this, or if they see it, to be so\npatient as they can lightly and quietly bear it.\n\nBut, whereas they have commanded that those decrees should be void, as\nthings now waxen too old, and that have lost their grace, perhaps they\nhave provided in their stead certain other better things, and more\nprofitable for the people.  For it is a common saying with them that, \"if\nChrist Himself or the Apostles were alive again, they could not better\nnor godlier govern God's Church than it is at this present governed by\nthem.\"  They have put in their stead indeed; but it is \"chaff instead of\nwheat,\" as Hieremy saith, and such things as, according to Esay's words,\n\"God never required at their hands.\"  \"They have stopped up,\" saith he,\n\"all the veins of clear springing water, and have digged up for the\npeople deceivable and puddle-like pits, full of mire and filth, which\nneither have nor are able to hold pure water.\"  They have plucked away\nfrom the people the Holy Communion, the Word of God, from whence all\ncomfort should be taken; the true worshipping of God also, and the right\nuse of sacraments and prayer; and have given us of their own to play\nwithal in the meanwhile, salt, water, oil, boxes, spittle, palms, bulls,\njubilees, pardons, crosses, censings, and an endless rabble of\nceremonies, and, as a man might term with Plautus, \"pretty games to make\nsport withal.\"  In these things have they set all their religion,\nteaching the people that by these God may be duly pacified, spirits be\ndriven away, and men's consciences well quieted.  For these, lo, be the\norient colours and precious savours of Christian religion; these things\ndoth God look upon and accepteth them thankfully; these must come in\nplace to be honoured, and put quite away the institutions of Christ and\nof His Apostles.  And like as in times past, when wicked King Jeroboam\nhad taken from the people the right serving of God, and brought them to\nworship the golden calves, lest perchance they might afterward change\ntheir mind and slip away, getting them again to Jerusalem to the temple\nof God, there he exhorted them with a long tale to be steadfast, saying\nthus unto them: \"O Israel, these calves be thy gods.  In this sort\ncommanded your God you should worship Him, for it should be wearisome and\ntroublous for you to take upon you a journey so far off, and yearly to go\nup to Jerusalem, there to serve and honour your God.\"  Even after the\nsame sort every whit, when these men had once made the law of God of non-\neffect through their own traditions, fearing that the people should\nafterward open their eyes and fall another way, and should somewhence\nelse seek a surer mean of their salvation, Jesu, how often have they\ncried out, \"This is the same worshipping that pleaseth God, and which He\nstraitly requireth of us, and wherewith He will be turned from His wrath.\nThat by these things is conserved the unity of the Church.  By these all\nsins be cleansed, and consciences quieted, and that whoso departeth from\nthese hath left unto himself no hope of everlasting salvation.\"  For it\nwere wearisome and troublous, say they, for the people to resort to\nChrist, to the Apostles, and to the ancient fathers, and to observe\ncontinually what their will and commandment should be.  This ye may see,\nis to \"withdraw the people of God from the weak elements of the world,\nfrom the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees, and from the traditions of\nmen.\"  It were reason, no doubt, that Christ's commandments and the\nApostles' were removed, that these their devices might come in place.  O\njust cause, I promise you, why that ancient and so long allowed doctrine\nshould be now abolished, and a new form of religion be brought into the\nChurch of God.\n\nAnd yet whatever it be, these men cry still that nothing ought to be\nchanged: that men's minds are well satisfied herewithal: that the Church\nof Rome, the Church which cannot err, hath decreed these things.  For\nSilvester Prierias saith, that the Romish Church is the squire and rule\nof truth, and that the Holy Scripture hath received from thence authority\nand credit.  \"The doctrine,\" saith he, \"of the Romish Church is the rule\nof most infallible faith, from the which the Holy Scripture taketh his\nforce.  And indulgences and pardons, saith he, are not made known to us\nby the authority of the Scriptures, but they are made known to us by the\nauthority of the Romish Church, and of the Bishops of Rome, which is\ngreater.\"  Pighius also letteth not to say, that without the license of\nthe Romish Church, we ought not to believe the very plain Scriptures.\nMuch like as if any of those that cannot speak pure and clean Latin, and\nyet can babble out quickly and readily a little some such law Latin as\nserveth the court, would needs hold that all others ought also to speak\nafter the same way which Mammetrectus and Catholicon spake many years\nago, and which themselves do yet use in pleading in court: for so may it\nbe understood sufficiently what is said, and men's desires be satisfied:\nand that it is a fondness now in the latter end to trouble the world with\na new kind of speaking, and to call again the old finesse and eloquence\nthat Cicero and Caesar used in their days in the Latin tongue.  So much\nare these men beholden to the folly and darkness of the former times.\n\"Many things,\" as one writeth, \"are had in estimation oftentimes, because\nthey have been once dedicate to the temples of the heathen gods.\"  Even\nso we see at this day many things allowed and highly set by of these men,\nnot because they judge them so much worth, but only because they have\nbeen received into a custom, and after a sort dedicate to the temple of\nGod.\n\n\"Our Church,\" say they, \"cannot err.\"  They speak that, I think, as the\nLacedaemonians long since used to say, that it was not possible to find\nany adulterer in all their commonwealth: whereas indeed they were rather\nall adulterers, and had no certainty in their marriages, but had their\nwives common amongst them all: or as the canonists at this day, for their\nbellies' sake, used to say of the Pope, that forsomuch as he is lord of\nall benefices, though he sell for money bishoprics, monasteries,\npriesthood, spiritual promotions, and part with nothing freely, yet,\nbecause he counteth all his own, \"he cannot commit simony, though he\nwould never so fain.\"  But how strongly and agreeably to reason these\nthings be spoken, we are not as yet able to perceive, except perchance\nthese men have plucked off the wings from the truth; as the Romans in old\ntime did prune and pinion their goddess Victoria, after they had once\ngotten her home, to the end that with the same wings she should never\nmore be able to flee away from them again.  But what if Jeremy tell them,\nas is afore rehearsed, that these be lies?  What if the same prophet say\nin another place that the selfsame men, who ought to be keepers of the\nvineyard, have brought to nought and destroyed the Lord's vineyard?  How\nif Christ say that the same persons, who chiefly ought to have care over\nthe temple, have made of the Lord's temple a den of thieves?  If it be so\nthat the Church of Rome cannot err, it must needs follow, that the good\nluck thereof is far greater than all these men's policy.  For such is\ntheir life, their doctrine, and their diligence, that for all them the\nChurch may not only err, but also utterly be spoiled and perish.  No\ndoubt, if that church may err which hath departed from God's words, from\nChrist's commandments, from the Apostles' ordinances, from the primitive\nChurch's examples, from the old fathers' and councils' orders, and from\ntheir own decrees, and which will be bound within the compass of none,\nneither old nor new, nor their own nor other folks', nor man's law nor\nGod's law, then it is out of all question that the Romish Church hath not\nonly had power to err, but also that it hath shamefully and most wickedly\nerred in very deed.\n\nBut, say they, \"ye have been of our fellowship, but now ye are become\nforsakers of your profession, and have departed from us.\"  It is true; we\nhave departed from them, and for so doing we both give thanks to Almighty\nGod, and greatly rejoice on our own behalf.  But yet for all this, from\nthe primitive Church, from the Apostles, and from Christ we have not\ndeparted.  True it is, we were brought up with these men in darkness, and\nin the lack of the knowledge of God, as Moses was taught up in the\nlearning and in the bosom of the Egyptians.  \"We have been of your\ncompany,\" saith Tertullian, \"I confess it, and no marvel at all; for,\"\nsaith he, \"men be made and not born Christians.\"  But wherefore, I pray\nyou, have they themselves, the citizens and dwellers of Rome, removed and\ncome down from those seven hills, whereupon Rome sometime stood, to dwell\nrather in the plain called Mars' field? they will say, peradventure,\nbecause the conduits of water, wherewithout men cannot commodiously live,\nhave now failed and are dried up in those hills.  Well, then, let them\ngive us like leave in seeking the water of eternal life, that they give\nthemselves in seeking the water of the well.  For the water, verily,\nfailed amongst them.  \"The elders of the Jews,\" saith Jeremy, \"sent their\nlittle ones to the waterings; and they finding no water, being in a\nmiserable case, and utterly marred for thirst, brought home again their\nvessels empty.\"  \"The needy and poor folk,\" saith Esay, \"sought about for\nwater, but nowhere found they any; their tongue was even withered for\nthirst.\"  Even so these men have broken in pieces all the pipes and\nconduits: they have stopped up all the springs, and choked up the\nfountain of living water with dirt and mire.  And as Caligula many years\npast locked up fast all the storehouses of corn in Rome, and thereby\nbrought a general dearth and famine amongst the people; even so these\nmen, by damming up all the fountains of God's Word, have brought the\npeople into a pitiful thirst.  They have brought into the world, as saith\nthe prophet Amos, \"a hunger and a thirst: not the hunger of bread, nor\nthe thirst of water, but of hearing the Word of God.\"  With great\ndistress went they scattering about, seeking some spark of heavenly life\nto refresh their consciences withal: but that light was already\nthoroughly quenched out, so that they could find none.  This was a rueful\nstate; this was a lamentable form of God's Church.  It was a misery to\nlive therein, without the Gospel, without light, and without all comfort.\n\nWherefore, though our departing were a trouble to them, yet ought they to\nconsider withal how just cause we had of our departure.  For if they will\nsay, it is in nowise lawful for one to leave the fellowship wherein he\nhath been brought up, they may as well in our names, and upon our heads,\ncondemn both the Prophets, the Apostles, and Christ Himself.  For why\ncomplain they not also of this, that Lot went quite his way out of Sodom,\nAbraham out of Chaldea, the Israelites out of Egypt, Christ from the\nJews, and Paul from the Pharisees?  For except it be possible there may\nbe a lawful cause of departing, we see no reason why Lot, Abraham, the\nIsraelites, Christ, and Paul, may not be accused of sects and sedition,\nas well as others.  And if these men will needs condemn us for heretics,\nbecause we do not all things at their commandment, whom, in God's name,\nor what kind of men ought they themselves to be taken for, which despise\nthe commandment of Christ, and of the Apostles?  If we be schismatics\nbecause we have left them, by what name, then, shall they be called\nthemselves, which have forsaken the Greeks, from whom they first received\ntheir faith, forsaken the primitive Church, forsaken Christ Himself, and\nthe Apostles, even as if children should forsake their parents?  For\nthough those Greeks, who at this day profess religion, and Christ's Name,\nhave many things corrupted amongst them, yet hold they still a great\nnumber of those things which they received from the Apostles.  They have\nneither private masses, nor mangled sacraments, nor purgatories, nor\npardons.  And as for the titles of high bishops, and those glorious\nnames, they esteem them so, as whosoever he were that would take upon him\nthe same, and would be called either universal bishop, or the head of the\nuniversal Church, they make no doubt to call such a one both a passing\nproud man, a man that worketh despite against all the other bishops his\nbrethren, and a plain heretic.\n\nNow, then, since it is manifest, and out of all peradventure, that these\nmen have fallen from the Greeks of whom they received the Gospel, of whom\nthey received the faith, the true religion and the Church; what is the\nmatter, why they will not now be called home again to the same men, as it\nwere to their originals and first founders?  And why be they afraid to\ntake a pattern of the Apostles' and old fathers' times, as though they\nall had been void of understanding?  Do these men, ween ye, see more, or\nset more by the Church of God than they did who first delivered us these\nthings?\n\nWe truly have renounced that Church, wherein we could neither have the\nWord of God sincerely taught, nor the sacraments rightly administered,\nnor the Name of God duly called upon: which Church also themselves\nconfess to be faulty in many points; and wherein was nothing able to stay\nany wise man, or one that hath consideration of his own safety.  To\nconclude, we have forsaken the Church as it is now, not as it was in old\ntimes past, and have so gone from it as Daniel went out of the lions'\nden, and the three children out of the furnace: and to say the truth, we\nhave been cast out by these men (being cursed of them as they used to\nsay, with book, bell, and candle), rather than have gone away from them\nof ourselves.\n\nAnd we are come to that Church, wherein they themselves cannot deny (if\nthey will say truly, and as they think in their own conscience) but all\nthings be governed purely and reverently, and, as much as we possibly\ncould, very near to the order used in the old times.\n\nLet them compare our churches and theirs together, and they shall see\nthat themselves have most shamefully gone from the Apostles, and we most\njustly have gone from them.  For we, following the example of Christ, of\nthe Apostles, and the Holy fathers, give the people the Holy Communion,\nwhole and perfect; but these men, contrary to all the fathers, to all the\nApostles, and contrary to Christ Himself, do sever the Sacraments, and\npluck away the one part from the people, and that with most notorious\nsacrilege, as Gelasius termeth it.\n\nWe have brought again the Lord's Supper unto Christ's institution, and\nhave made it to be a communion in very deed, common and indifferent to a\ngreat number, according to the name.  But these men have changed all\nthings contrary to Christ's institution, and have made a private mass of\nthe Holy Communion.  And so it cometh to pass that we give the Lord's\nSupper unto the people, and they give them a vain pageant to gaze upon.\n\nWe affirm, together with the ancient fathers, that the body of Christ is\nnot eaten but of the good and faithful, and of those that are endued with\nthe Spirit of Christ.  Their doctrine is, that Christ's very body\neffectually, and as they speak really and substantially, may not only be\neaten of the wicked and unfaithful men, but also (which is monstrous to\nbe spoken) of mice and dogs.\n\nWe use to pray in our churches after that fashion, as, according to\nPaul's lesson, the people may know what we pray, and may answer Amen with\na general consent.  These men, like sounding metal, yell out in the\nchurches unknown and strange words without understanding, without\nknowledge, and without devotion; yea, and do it of purpose because the\npeople should understand nothing at all.\n\nBut not to tarry about rehearsing all points wherein we and they\ndiffer--for they have well-nigh no end--we turn the Scriptures into all\ntongues; they scant suffer them to be had abroad in any tongue.  We\nallure the people to read and to hear God's Word: they drive the people\nfrom it.  We desire to have our cause known to all the world; they flee\nto come to any trial.  We lean unto knowledge, they unto ignorance.  We\ntrust unto light, they unto darkness.  We reverence, as it becometh us,\nthe writings of the Apostles and Prophets; and they burnt them.  Finally,\nwe in God's cause desire to stand to God's only judgment; they will stand\nonly to their own.  Wherefore, if they will weigh all these things with a\nquiet mind, and fully bent to hear and to learn, they will not only allow\nthis determination of ours, who have forsaken errors, and followed Christ\nand His Apostles, but themselves also will forsake their own selves, and\njoin of their own accord to our side.\n\n\n\nPART VI.\n\n\nBut peradventure they will say, it was treason to attempt these matters\nwithout a sacred general council; for in that consisteth the whole force\nof the Church; there Christ hath promised He will ever be a present\nassistant.  Yet they themselves, without tarrying for any general\ncouncil, have broken the commandments of God, and the decrees of the\nApostles; and, as we said a little above, they have spoiled and\ndisannulled almost all, not only ordinances, but even the doctrine of the\nprimitive Church.  And where they say it is not lawful to make a change\nwithout a council, what was he that gave us these laws, or from whence\nhad they this injunction?\n\nTruly, King Agesilaus did but fondly, who, when he had a determinate\nanswer made him of the opinion and will of mighty Jupiter, would\nafterward bring the whole matter before Apollo, to know whether he would\nallow thereof, as his father Jupiter did, or no.  But yet should we do\nmuch more fondly, when we hear God Himself plainly speak to us in His\nmost Holy Scriptures, and may understand by them His will and meaning, if\nwe would afterward (as though this were of none effect) bring our whole\ncause to be tried by a council; which were nothing else but to ask\nwhether men would allow as God did, and whether men would confirm God's\ncommandment by their authority.\n\nWhy, I beseech you, except a council will and command, shall not truth be\ntruth, and God be God?  If Christ had meant to do so from the beginning,\nas that He would preach or teach nothing without the bishop's consent,\nbut refer all His doctrine over to Annas and Caiaphas, where should now\nhave been the Christian faith? or, who at any time should have heard the\nGospel taught?  Peter verily, whom the Pope hath oftener in his mouth,\nand more reverently useth to speak of than he doth of Jesus Christ, did\nboldly stand against the holy council, saying, \"It is better to obey God\nthan men.\"  And after Paul had once entirely embraced the Gospel, and had\nreceived it, \"not from men, nor by man, but by the only will of God, he\ndid not take advice therein of flesh and blood,\" nor brought the case\nbefore his kinsmen and brethren, but went forthwith into Arabia, to\npreach God's Divine mysteries by God's only authority.\n\nYet truly, we do not despise councils, assemblies, and conference of\nbishops and learned men; neither have we done that we have done\naltogether without bishops or without a council.  The matter hath been\ntreated in open Parliament with long consultation, and before a notable\nsynod and convocation.  But touching this council which is now summoned\nby the Pope Pius, wherein men so lightly are condemned, which have been\nneither called, heard, nor seen, it is easy to guess what we may look for\nor hope of it.\n\nIn times past, when Nazianzen saw in his days how men in such assemblies\nwere so blind and wilful that they were carried with affections, and\nlaboured more to get the victory than the truth, he pronounced openly\nthat he never had seen any good end of any council.  What would he say\nnow, if he were alive at this day, and understood the heaving and shoving\nof these men?  For at that time, though the matter were laboured on all\nsides, yet the controversies were well heard, and open error was put\nclean away by the general voice of all parts.  But these men will neither\nhave the case to be freely disputed, nor yet, how many errors soever\nthere be, suffer they any to be changed.  For it is a common custom of\ntheirs often and shamelessly to boast that \"their Church cannot err; that\nin it there is no fault; and that they must give place to us in nothing.\"\nOr if there be any fault, yet must it be tried by bishops and abbots\nonly, because they be the directors and rulers of matters; and they be\nthe Church of God.  Aristotle saith that a \"city cannot consist of\nbastards;\" but whether the Church of God may consist of these men, let\ntheir own selves consider.  For doubtless neither be the abbots\nlegitimate abbots, nor the bishops natural right bishops.  But grant they\nbe the Church: let them be heard speak in councils; let them alone have\nauthority to give assent: yet in old time, when the Church of God (if ye\nwill compare it with their Church) was very well governed, both elders\nand deacons, as saith Cyprian, and certain also of the common people,\nwere called thereunto, and made acquainted with ecclesiastical matters.\n\nBut I put case, these abbots [and bishops] have no knowledge: what if\nthey understand nothing what religion is, nor how we ought to think of\nGod?  I put case, the pronouncing and ministering of the law be decayed\nin priests, and good counsel fail in the elders, and, as the prophet\nMicah saith, \"The night be unto them instead of a vision, and darkness\ninstead of prophesying:\" or, as Esaias saith, \"What if all the watchmen\nof the city are become blind?\"  \"What if the salt have lost his proper\nstrength and savoriness,\" and, as Christ saith, \"be good for no use,\nscant worth the casting on the dunghill?\"\n\nWell, yet then they will bring all matters before the Pope, who cannot\nerr.  To this I say, first, it is a madness to think that the Holy Ghost\ntaketh His flight from a general council to run to Rome, to the end if He\ndoubt or stick in any matter, and cannot expound it of Himself, He may\ntake counsel of some other spirit, I wot not what, that is better learned\nthan Himself.  For if this be true, what needed so many bishops, with so\ngreat charges and so far journeys, have assembled their convocation at\nthis present at Trident?  It had been more wisdom and better, at least it\nhad been a much nearer way and handsomer, to have brought all things\nrather before the Pope, and to have come straight forth, and have asked\ncounsel at his divine breast.  Secondly, it is also an unlawful dealing\nto toss our matter from so many bishops and abbots, and to bring it at\nlast to the trial of one only man, specially of him who himself is\nappeached by us of heinous and foul enormities, and hath not yet put in\nhis answer; who hath also aforehand condemned us without judgment by\norder pronounced, and ere ever we were called to be judged.\n\nHow say ye, do we devise these tales?  Is not this the course of the\ncouncils in these days?  Are not all things removed from the whole holy\ncouncil, and brought before the Pope alone? that, as though nothing had\nbeen done to purpose by the judgments and consents of such a number, he\nalone may add, alter, diminish, disannul, allow, remit, and qualify\nwhatsoever he list?  Whose words be these, then? and why have the bishops\nand abbots, in the last council of Trident, but of late concluded with\nsaying thus in the end: \"Saving always the authority of the see apostolic\nin all things?\" or why doth Pope Paschal write so proudly of himself?  \"As\nthough,\" saith he, \"there were any general council able to prescribe a\nlaw to the Church of Rome: whereas all councils both have been made and\nhave received their force and strength by the Church of Rome's authority;\nand in ordinances made by councils, is ever plainly excepted the\nauthority of the Bishop of Rome.\"  If they will have these things allowed\nfor good, why be councils called?  But if they command them to be void,\nwhy are they left in their books as things allowable?\n\nBut be it so: let the Bishop of Rome alone be above all councils, that is\nto say, let some one part be greater than the whole; let him be of\ngreater power, let him be of more wisdom than all his; and, in spite of\nHierom's head, let the authority \"of one city be greater than the\nauthority of the whole world.\"  How, then, if the Pope have seen none of\nthese things, and have never read either the Scriptures, or the old\nFathers, or yet his own councils?  How if he favour the Arians, as once\nPope Liberius did? or have a wicked and a detestable opinion of the life\nto come, and of the immortality of the soul, as Pope John had but few\nyears since? or, to increase his own dignity, do corrupt other councils,\nas Pope Zosimus corrupted the council holden at Nice in times past; and\ndo say that those things were devised and appointed by the holy Fathers\nwhich never once came into their thought; and, to have the full sway of\nauthority, do wrest the Scriptures, which, as Camotensis saith, is an\nusual custom with the Popes?  How if he have renounced the faith of\nChrist, and become an apostate, as Lyranus saith many Popes have been?\nAnd, yet for all this, shall the Holy Ghost, with turning of a hand,\nknock at his breast, and even whether he will or no, yea, and wholly\nagainst his will, kindle him a light so as he may not err?  Shall he\nstraightway be the head-spring of all right; and shall all treasure of\nwisdom and understanding be found in him, as it were laid up in store?\nor, if these things be not in him, can he give a right and apt judgment\nof so weighty matters? or, if he be not able to judge, would he have that\nall those matters should be brought before him alone?\n\nWhat will ye say if the Pope's advocates, abbots and bishops, dissemble\nnot the matter, but show themselves open enemies to the Gospel, and\nthough they see, yet they will not see; but wry the Scriptures, and\nwittingly and knowingly corrupt and counterfeit the Word of God, and\nfoully and wickedly apply to the Pope all the same things, which\nevidently and properly be spoken of the Person of Christ only, nor by no\nmeans can be applied to any other?  And what though they say, \"The Pope\nis all and above all?\" or, \"that he can do as much as Christ can?\" and\n\"that one judgment-place and one council-house serve for the Pope and for\nChrist both together;\" or, \"that the Pope is the same light which should\ncome into the world;\" which words Christ spake of Himself alone: and\n\"that whoso is an evil-doer hateth and flieth from that light;\" or that\nall the other bishops have received of the Pope's fulness?  Shortly, what\nthough they make decrees expressly against God's Word, and that not in\nhucker-mucker or covertly, but openly, and in the face of the world, must\nit needs yet be Gospel straight whatsoever these men say?  Shall these be\nGod's holy army? or will Christ be at hand among them there?  Shall the\nHoly Ghost flow in their tongues; or can they with truth say, \"We and the\nHoly Ghost have thought good so?\"  Indeed, Peter Asotus and his companion\nHosius stick not to affirm, that the same council wherein our Saviour\nJesus Christ was condemned to die had both the Spirit of Prophesying, and\nthe Holy Ghost, and the Spirit of Truth in it; and that it was neither a\nfalse nor a trifling saying when those bishops said, \"We have a law, and\nby our law He ought to die:\" and that they, so saying, did light upon the\nvery truth of judgment (for so be Hosius' words); and that the same\nplainly was a just decree whereby they pronounced that Christ was worthy\nto die.  This, methinketh, is strange, that these men are not able to\nspeak for themselves, and to defend their own cause, but they must also\ntake part with Annas and Caiaphas.  For if they will call that a lawful\nand a good council wherein the Son of God was most shamefully condemned\nto die, what council will they then allow for false and naught?  And yet\n(as all their councils, to say truth, commonly be) necessity compelled\nthem to pronounce these things of the council holden by Annas and\nCaiaphas.\n\nBut will these men (I say) reform us the Church, being themselves both\nthe persons guilty and the judges too?  Will they abate their own\nambition and pride?  Will they overthrow their own matter, and give\nsentence against themselves that they must leave off to be unlearned\nbishops, slow bellies, heapers together of benefices, takers upon them as\nprinces and men of war?  Will the abbots, the Pope's dear darlings, judge\nthat monk for a thief which laboureth not for his living? and that it is\nagainst all law to suffer such a one to live and to be found either in\ncity or in country, or yet of other men's charges? or else that a monk\nought to lie on the ground, to live hardly with herbs and pease, to study\nearnestly, to argue, to pray, to work with hand, and fully to bend\nhimself to come to the ministry of the Church?  In faith, as soon will\nthe Pharisees and Scribes repair again the temple of God, and restore it\nunto us a house of prayer instead of a thievish den.\n\nThere have been, I know, certain of their own selves which have found\nfault with many errors in the Church, as Pope Adrian, AEneas Sylvius,\nCardinal Pole, Pighius, and others, as is aforesaid: they held afterwards\ntheir council at Trident in the selfsame place where it is now appointed.\nThere assembled many bishops, and abbots, and others whom it behoved for\nthat matter.  They were alone by themselves; whatsoever they did, nobody\ngainsaid it; for they had quite shut out and barred our side from all\nmanner of assemblies: and there they sat six years, feeding folks with a\nmarvellous expectation of their doings.  The first six months, as though\nit were greatly needful, they made many determinations of the Holy\nTrinity, of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which were\ngodly things indeed, but not so necessary for that time.  Let us see, in\nall that while, of so many, so manifest, so often confessed by them, and\nso evident errors, what one error have they amended? from what kind of\nidolatry have they reclaimed the people?  What superstition have they\ntaken away?  What piece of their tyranny and pomp have they diminished?\nAs though all the world may not now see that this is a conspiracy and not\na council; and that those bishops whom the Pope hath now called together\nbe wholly sworn and become bound to bear him their faithful allegiance,\nand will do no manner of thing but that they perceive pleaseth him, and\nhelpeth to advance his power, and as he will have it; or that they reckon\nnot of the number of men's voices rather than have weight and\nconsideration of the same; or that might doth not oftentimes overcome\nright.\n\nAnd therefore we know that divers times many good men and Catholic\nbishops did tarry at home, and would not come when such councils were\ncalled, wherein men so apparently laboured to serve factions and to take\nparts, because they knew they should but lose their travail, and do no\ngood, seeing whereunto their enemies' minds were so wholly bent.\nAthanasius denied to come, when he was called by the emperor to his\ncouncil at Caesarea, perceiving plain he should but come among his\nenemies, which deadly hated him.  The same Athanasius, when he came\nafterward to the council at Syrmium, and foresaw what would be the end by\nreason of the outrage and malice of his enemies, he packed up his\ncarriage and went away immediately.  John Chrysostom, although the\nEmperor Constantius commanded him by four sundry letters to come to the\nArians' council, yet kept he himself at home still.  When Maximus, the\nBishop of Jerusalem, sat in the council at Palestine, the old Father\nPaphnutius took him by the hand, and led him out at the doors, saying,\n\"It is not lawful for us to confer of these matters with wicked men.\"  The\nbishops of the East would not come to the Syrmian council after they knew\nAthanasius had gotten himself thence again.  Cyril called men back by\nletters from the council of them which were named Patropassians.\nPaulinus, Bishop of Triers, and many others more, refused to come to the\ncouncil at Milan when they understood what a stir and rule Auxentius kept\nthere: for they saw it was in vain to go thither, where not reason, but\nfaction, should prevail, and where folk contended not for the truth and\nright judgment of the matter, but for partiality and favour.\n\nAnd yet, for all those Fathers had such malicious and stiff-necked\nenemies, yet if they had come they should have had free speech at least\nin the councils.  But now, sithence, none of us may be suffered so much\nas to sit, or once to be seen in these men's meetings, much less suffered\nto speak freely our mind; and seeing the Pope's legates, patriarchs,\narchbishops, bishops, and abbots--all being conspired together, all\nlinked together in one kind of fault, and all bound by one oath--sit\nalone by themselves, and have power alone to give their consent: and, at\nlast, when they have all done--as though they had done nothing--bring all\ntheir opinions to be judged at the will and pleasure of the Pope, being\nbut one man, to the end he may pronounce his own sentence of himself, who\nought rather to have answered to his complaint; sithence, also, the same\nancient and Christian liberty, which of all right should specially be in\nChristian councils, is now utterly taken away from the council--for these\ncauses, I say, wise and good men ought not to marvel at this day, though\nwe do the like now, that they see was done in times past in like case of\nso many Fathers and Catholic bishops: which is, though we choose rather\nto sit at home, and leave our whole cause to God, than to journey\nthither, whereas we neither shall have place nor be able to do any good;\nwhereas we can obtain no audience; whereas princes' ambassadors be but\nused as mocking-stocks; and whereas, also, we be condemned already,\nbefore trial, as though the matter were aforehand despatched and agreed\nupon.  Nevertheless, we can bear patiently and quietly our own private\nwrongs.  But wherefore do they shut out Christian kings and good princes\nfrom their convocation?  Why do they so uncourteously, or with such\nspite, leave them out, and--as though they were not either Christian men,\nor else could not judge--will not have them made acquainted with the\ncause of Christian religion, nor understand the state of their own\nChurches?\n\nOr if the said kings and princes happen to intermeddle in such matters,\nand take upon them to do that they may do, that they be commanded to do,\nand ought of duty to do, and the same things that we know both David and\nSolomon and other good princes have done, that is, if they--whilst the\nPope and his prelates slug and sleep, or else mischievously withstand\nthem--do bridle the priests' sensuality, and drive them to do their duty,\nand keep them still to it; if they do overthrow idols, if they take away\nsuperstition, and set up again the true worshipping of God--why do they\nby-and-by make an outcry upon them, that such princes trouble all, and\npress by violence into another body's office, and do thereby wickedly and\nmalapertly?  What Scripture hath at any time forbidden a Christian prince\nto be made privy to such causes?  Who but themselves alone made ever any\nsuch law?\n\nThey will say to this, I guess: \"Civil princes have learned to govern a\ncommonwealth, and to order matters of war, but they understand not the\nsecret mysteries of religion.\"  If that be so, what is the Pope, I pray\nyou, at this day other than a monarch or a prince?  Or what be the\ncardinals, who must be none other nowadays, but princes and kings' sons?\nWhat else be the patriarchs, and, for the most part, the archbishops, the\nbishops, the abbots?  What be they else at this present in the Pope's\nkingdom but worldly princes, but dukes and earls, gorgeously accompanied\nwith bands of men whithersoever they go; oftentimes also gaily arrayed\nwith chains and collars of gold?  They have at times, too, certain\nornaments by themselves, as crosses, pillars, hats, mitres, and\npalls--which pomp the ancient bishops Chrysostom, Augustine, and Ambrose\nnever had.  Setting these things aside, what teach they?  What say they?\nWhat do they?  How live they?  I say, not as may become a bishop, but as\nmay become even a Christian man?  Is it so great a matter to have a vain\ntitle, and, by changing a garment only, to have the name of a bishop?\n\nSurely to have the principal stay and effect of all matters committed\nwholly to these men's hands, who neither know nor will know these things,\nnor yet set a jot by any point of religion, save that which concerneth\ntheir belly and riot; and to have them alone sit as judges, and to be set\nup as overseers in the watch-tower, being no better than blind spies; of\nthe other side, to have a Christian prince of good understanding and of a\nright judgment to stand still like a block or a stake, not to be suffered\nneither to give his voice nor to show his judgment, but only to wait what\nthese men shall will and command, as one which had neither ears, nor\neyes, nor wit, nor heart; and whatsoever they give in charge, to allow it\nwithout exception, blindly fulfilling their commandments, be they never\nso blasphemous and wicked, yea, although they command him quite to\ndestroy all religion, and to crucify again Christ Himself: this surely,\nbesides that it is proud and spiteful, is also beyond all right and\nreason, and not to be endured of Christian and wise princes.  Why, I pray\nyou, may Caiaphas and Annas understand these matters, and may not David\nand Ezechias do the same?  Is it lawful for a cardinal, being a man of\nwar, and delighting in blood, to have place in a council? and is it not\nlawful for a Christian emperor or a king?  We truly grant no further\nliberty to our magistrates than that we know hath both been given them by\nthe Word of God, and also been confirmed by the examples of the very best\ngoverned commonwealths.  For besides that a Christian prince hath the\ncharge of both tables committed to him by God, to the end he may\nunderstand that not temporal matters only, but also religious and\necclesiastical causes, pertain to his office: besides also that God by\nHis prophets often and earnestly commandeth the king to cut down the\ngroves, to break down the images and altars of idols, and to write out\nthe book of the law for himself: and besides that the prophet Isaiah\nsaith, \"A king ought to be a patron and a nurse of the Church:\" I say,\nbesides all these things, we see by histories and by examples of the best\ntimes that good princes ever took the administration of ecclesiastical\nmatters to pertain to their duty.\n\nMoses, a civil magistrate, and chief guide of the people, both received\nfrom God, and delivered to the people, all the order for religion and\nsacrifices, and gave Aaron the bishop a vehement and sore rebuke for\nmaking the golden calf, and for suffering the corruption of religion.\nJoshua also, though he were none other than a civil magistrate, yet as\nsoon as he was chosen by God, and set as a ruler over the people, he\nreceived commandments specially touching religion and the service of God.\nKing David, when the whole religion was altogether brought out of frame\nby wicked king Saul, brought home again the Ark of God; that is to say,\nhe restored religion again; and was not only amongst them himself as a\ncounsellor and furtherer of the work, but he appointed also hymns and\npsalms, put in order the companies, and was the only doer in setting\nforth that whole solemn show, and in effect ruled the priests.  King\nSolomon built unto the Lord the Temple which his father David had but\npurposed in his mind to do: and after the finishing thereof, he made a\ngoodly oration to the people concerning religion and the service of God:\nhe afterward displaced Abiathar the priest, and set Sadok in his place.\nAfter this, when the Temple of God was in shameful wise polluted through\nthe naughtiness and negligence of the priests, King Hezekiah commanded\nthe same to be cleansed from the rubble and filth, the priests to light\nup candles, to burn incense, and to do their Divine service according to\nthe old and allowed custom; the same king also commanded the brazen\nserpent, which then the people wickedly worshipped, to be taken, down and\nbeaten to powder.  King Jehoshaphat overthrew and utterly made away the\nhill altars and groves; whereby he saw God's honour hindered and the\npeople holden back with a private superstition from the ordinary Temple,\nwhich was at Jerusalem, whereto they should by order have resorted yearly\nfrom every part of the realm.  King Josiah with great diligence put the\npriests and bishops in mind of their duties; King Joash bridled the riot\nand arrogancy of the priests; Jehu put to death the wicked prophets.\n\nAnd to rehearse no more examples out of the old law, let us rather\nconsider, since the birth of Christ, how the Church hath been governed in\nthe Gospel's time.  The Christian emperors in the old time appointed the\ncouncils of the bishops.  Constantine called the council at Nice;\nTheodosius the First called the council at Constantinople; Theodosius the\nSecond, the council at Ephesus; Martian, the council at Chalcedon; and\nwhen Ruffine the heretic had alleged for authority a council which, as he\nthought, should make for him, St. Hierom his adversary, to confute him,\n\"Tell us,\" quod he, \"what emperor commanded that council to be called.\"\nThe same St. Hierom again, in his epitaph upon Paula, maketh mention of\nthe emperor's letters which gave commandment to call the \"bishops of\nItaly and Greece to Rome to a council.\"  Continually for the space of\nfive hundred years, the emperor alone appointed the ecclesiastical\nassemblies, and called the councils of the bishops together.\n\nWe now therefore marvel the more at the unreasonable dealing of the\nBishop of Rome, who, knowing what was the emperor's right when the Church\nwas well ordered, knowing also that it is now a common right to all\nprinces, for so much as the kings are now fully possessed in the several\nparts of the whole empire, doth so without consideration assign that\noffice alone to himself, and taketh it sufficient, in summoning a general\ncouncil, to make that man that is prince of the whole world no otherwise\npartaker thereof than he would make his own servant.  And although the\nmodesty and mildness of the Emperor Ferdinand be so great that he can\nbear this wrong, because, peradventure, he understandeth not well the\nPope's packing, yet ought not the Pope of his holiness to offer him that\nwrong, nor to claim as his own another man's right.\n\nBut hereto some will reply: The emperor, indeed, called councils at that\ntime ye speak of, because the Bishop of Rome was not yet grown so great\nas he is now, but yet the emperor did not then sit together with the\nbishops in council, or once bare any stroke with his authority in their\nconsultation.  I answer, Nay, that it is not so; for, as witnesseth\nTheodoret, the Emperor Constantine sat not only together with them in the\nCouncil of Nice, but gave also advice to the bishops how it was best to\ntry out the matter by the Apostles' and Prophets' writings, as appeareth\nby these his own words: \"In disputation,\" saith he, \"of matters of\ndivinity, we have set before us to follow the doctrine of the Holy Ghost.\nFor the Evangelists' and the Apostles' works, and the Prophets' sayings,\nshow us sufficiently what opinion we ought to have of the will of God.\"\nThe Emperor Theodosius, as saith Socrates, did not only sit amongst the\nbishops, but also ordered the whole arguing of the cause, and tare in\npieces the heretics' books, and allowed for good the judgment of the\nCatholics.  In the council at Chalcedon a civil magistrate condemned for\nheretics, by the sentence of his own mouth, the bishops Dioscorus,\nJuvenalis, and Thalassius, and gave judgment to put them down from their\ndignities in the Church.  In the third council at Constantinople,\nConstantine, a civil magistrate, did not only sit amongst the bishops,\nbut did also subscribe with them.  \"For,\" saith he, \"we have both read\nand subscribed.\"  In the second council called Arausicanum, the prince's\nambassadors, being noble men born, not only spake their mind touching\nreligion, but set to their hands also, as well as the bishops.  For thus\nit is written in the latter end of that council: \"Petrus, Marcellinus,\nFelix, and Liberius, being most noble men, and famous lieutenants, and\ncaptains of France, and also peers of the realm, have given their\nconsent, and set to their hands.\"  Further: \"Syagrius, Opilio,\nPantagathus, Deodatus, Cariattho, and Marcellus, men of very great\nhonour, have subscribed.\"  If it be so, then, that lieutenants, captains,\nand peers have had authority to subscribe in council, have not emperors\nand kings the like authority?\n\nTruly there had been no need to handle so plain a matter as this is with\nso many words, and so at length, if we had not to do with those men who,\nfor a desire they have to strive and to win the mastery, use of course to\ndeny all things, be they never so clear--yea, the very same which they\npresently see and behold with their own eyes.  The Emperor Justinian made\na law to correct the behaviour of the clergy, and to cut short the\ninsolency of the priests.  And albeit he were a Christian and a Catholic\nprince, yet put he down from their papal throne two Popes, Sylverius and\nVigilius, notwithstanding they were Peter's successors and Christ's\nvicars.\n\nLet us see, then, such men as have authority over the bishops, such men\nas receive from God commandments concerning religion, such as bring home\nagain the Ark of God, make holy hymns, oversee the priests, build the\nTemple, make orations touching Divine service, cleanse the temples,\ndestroy the hill altars, burn the idols' groves, teach the priests their\nduties, write them out precepts how they should live, kill the wicked\nprophets, displace the high priests, call together the councils of\nbishops, sit together with the bishops, instructing them what they ought\nto do, condemn and punish an heretical bishop, be made acquainted with\nmatters of religion, which subscribe and give sentence; and do all these\nthings, not by any other man's commission, but in their own name, and\nthat both uprightly and godly: shall we say it pertaineth not to such men\nto have to do with religion? or shall we say a Christian magistrate,\nwhich dealeth amongst others in these matters, doth either naughtily, or\npresumptuously, or wickedly?  The most ancient and Christian emperors and\nkings that ever were, did busy themselves with these matters, and yet\nwere they never for this cause noted either of wickedness or of\npresumption.  And what is he that can find out either more Catholic\nprinces or more notable examples?\n\nWherefore, if it were lawful for them to do thus, being but civil\nmagistrates, and having the chief rule of commonweals, what offence have\nour princes at this day made, which may not have leave to do the like,\nbeing in the like degree? or what especial gift of learning, or of\njudgment, or of holiness have these men now, that, contrary to the custom\nof all the ancient and Catholic bishops, who used to confer with princes\nand peers concerning religion, they do now thus reject and cast off\nChristian princes from knowing of the cause, and from their meetings?\nWell, thus doing, they wisely and warily provide for themselves and for\ntheir kingdom, which otherwise they see is like shortly to come to\nnought.  For if so be they whom God hath placed in greatest dignity did\nsee and perceive these men's practices, how Christ's commandments be\ndespised by them, how the light of the Gospel is darkened and quenched\nout by them, and how themselves also be subtly beguiled and mocked, and\nunawares be deluded by them, and the way to the kingdom of heaven stopped\nup before them: no doubt they would never so quietly suffer themselves\nneither to be disdained after such a proud sort, nor so despitefully to\nbe scorned and abused by them.  But now, through their own lack of\nunderstanding, and through their own blindness, these men have them fast\nyoked, and in their danger.\n\nWe truly for our parts, as we have said, have done nothing in altering\nreligion either upon rashness or arrogancy; nor nothing but with good\nleisure and great consideration.  Neither had we ever intended to do it,\nexcept both the manifest and most assured will of God, opened to us in\nHis Holy Scriptures, and the regard of our own salvation, had even\nconstrained us thereunto.  For though we have departed from that Church\nwhich these men call Catholic, and by that means get us envy amongst them\nthat want skill to judge, yet is this enough for us, and ought to be\nenough for every wise and good man, and one that maketh account of\neverlasting life, that we have gone from that Church which had power to\nerr: which Christ, who cannot err, told so long before it should err; and\nwhich we ourselves did evidently see with our eyes to have gone both from\nthe holy fathers, and from the Apostles, and from Christ His own self,\nand from the primitive and Catholic Church; and we are come as near as we\npossibly could to the Church of the Apostles and of the old Catholic\nbishops and fathers; which Church we know hath hereunto been sound and\nperfect, and, as Tertullian termeth it, a pure virgin, spotted as yet\nwith no idolatry, nor with any foul or shameful fault: and have directed,\naccording to their customs and ordinances, not only our doctrine, but\nalso the Sacraments and the form of common prayer.\n\nAnd, as we know both Christ Himself and all good men heretofore have\ndone, we have called home again to the original and first foundation that\nreligion which hath been foully foreslowed, and utterly corrupted by\nthese men.  For we thought it meet thence to take the pattern of\nreforming religion from whence the ground of religion was first taken:\nbecause this one reason, as saith the most ancient father Tertullian,\nhath great force against all heresies, \"Look, whatsoever was first, that\nis true; and whatsoever is latter, that is corrupt.\"  Irenaeus oftentimes\nappealed to the oldest churches, which had been nearest to Christ's time,\nand which it was hard to believe had erred.  But why at this day is not\nthe same respect and consideration had?  Why return we not to the pattern\nof the old churches?  Why may not we hear at this time amongst us the\nsame saying, which was openly pronounced in times past in the council at\nNice by so many bishops and Catholic fathers, and nobody once speaking\nagainst it [Greek text]: that is to say, \"hold still the old customs!\"\nWhen Esdras went about to repair the ruins of the Temple of God, he sent\nnot to Ephesus, although the most beautiful and gorgeous temple of Diana\nwas there; and when he purposed to restore the sacrifices and ceremonies\nof God, he sent not to Rome, although peradventure he had heard in that\nplace were the solemn sacrifices called Hecatombae, and other called\nSolitaurilia, Lectisternia, and Supplicationes, and Numa Pompilius'\nceremonial books.  He thought it enough for him to set before his eyes,\nand follow the pattern of the old Temple, which Solomon at the beginning\nbuilded according as God had appointed him, and also those old customs\nand ceremonies which God Himself had written out by special words for\nMoses.\n\nThe prophet Aggaeus, after the temple was repaired again by Esdras, and\nthe people might think they had a very just cause to rejoice on their own\nbehalf for so great a benefit received of Almighty God, yet made he them\nall burst out into tears, because that they which were yet alive and had\nseen the former building of the Temple, before the Babylonians destroyed\nit, called to mind how far off it was yet from that beauty and excellency\nwhich it had in the old times past before.  For then, indeed, would they\nhave thought the Temple worthily repaired if it had answered to the\nancient pattern and to the majesty of the first Temple.  Paul, because he\nwould amend the abuse of the Lord's Supper, which the Corinthians even\nthen began to corrupt, he set before them Christ's institution to follow,\nsaying: \"I have delivered unto you that which I first received of the\nLord.\"  And when Christ did confute the error of the Pharisees, \"Ye\nmust,\" saith He, \"return to the first beginning; for from the beginning\nit was not thus.\"  And when He found great fault with the priests for\ntheir uncleanness of life and covetousness, and would cleanse the Temple\nfrom all evil abuses, \"This house,\" saith He, \"at the first beginning it\nwas a house of prayer,\" wherein all the people might devoutly and\nsincerely pray together.  And so it were your part to use it now also at\nthis day, for it was not builded to the end it should be a \"den of\nthieves.\"  Likewise all the good and commendable princes mentioned of in\nthe Scriptures were praised specially by these words, that they had\nwalked in the ways of their father David: that is, because they had\nreturned to the first and original foundation, and had restored religion\neven to the perfection wherein David left it.  And therefore, when we\nlikewise saw all things were quite trodden under foot of these men, and\nthat nothing remained in the temple of God but pitiful spoils and decays,\nwe reckoned it the wisest and the safest way to set before our eyes those\nchurches which we know for a surety that they never had erred, nor never\nhad private mass, nor prayers in a strange and barbarous language, nor\nthis corrupting of sacraments, and other toys.\n\nAnd forsomuch as our desire was to have the Temple of the Lord restored\nanew, we would seek none other foundation than the same which we know was\nlong ago laid by the Apostles, that is to wit, \"Our Saviour, Jesus\nChrist.\"  And forasmuch as we heard God Himself speaking unto us in His\nword, and saw also the notable examples of the old and primitive Church;\nagain, how uncertain a matter it was to wait for a general council, and\nthat the success thereof would be much more uncertain, but specially\nforsomuch as we were most ascertained of God's will, and counted it a\nwickedness to be too careful and overcumbered about the judgments of\nmortal men: we could no longer stand taking advice with flesh and blood,\nbut rather thought good to do the same thing, that both might rightly be\ndone, and hath also many a time been done, as well of good men as of many\nCatholic bishops--that is, to remedy our own churches by a provincial\nsynod.  For thus know we the old fathers used to put in experience before\nthey came to the public universal council.  There remain yet at this day\ncanons written in councils of free cities, as of Carthage under Cyprian,\nas of Ancyra, Neocaesarea, and Gangra, which is in Paphlagonia, as some\nthink, before that the name of the general council at Nice was ever heard\nof.  After this fashion in old time did they speedily meet with and cut\nshort those heretics, the Pelagians and the Donatists at home, by private\ndisputation, without any general council.  Thus, also, when the Emperor\nConstantine evidently and earnestly took part with Auxentius, the bishop\nof the Arians' faction, Ambrose, the bishop of the Christians, appealed\nnot unto a general council, where he saw no good could be done, by reason\nof the emperor's might and great labour, but appealed to his own clergy\nand people, that is to say, to a provincial synod.  And thus it was\ndecreed in the council at Nice that the bishops should assemble twice\nevery year.  And in the council at Carthage it was decreed that the\nbishops should meet together in each of their provinces at least once in\nthe year, which was done, as saith the council of Chalcedon, of purpose\nthat if any errors and abuses had happened to spring up anywhere, they\nmight immediately at the first entry be destroyed where they first began.\nSo likewise when Secundus and Palladius rejected the council at Aquileia,\nbecause it was not a general and a common council, Ambrose, bishop of\nMilan, made answer that no man ought to take it for a new or strange\nmatter that the bishops of the west part of the world did call together\nsynods, and make private assemblies in their provinces, for that it was a\nthing before then used by the west bishops no few times, and by the\nbishops of Greece used oftentimes and commonly to be done.  And so\nCharles the Great, being emperor, held a provincial council in Germany\nfor putting away images, contrary to the second council at Nice.  Neither,\npardy, even amongst us is this so very a strange and new a trade.  For we\nhave had ere now in England provincial synods, and governed our churches\nby home-made laws.  What should one say more?  Of a truth, even those\ngreatest councils, and where most assembly of people ever was (whereof\nthese men use to make such an exceeding reckoning), compare them with all\nthe churches which throughout the world acknowledge and profess the name\nof Christ, and what else, I pray you, can they seem to be but certain\nprivate councils of bishops and provincial synods?  For admit,\nperadventure, Italy, France, Spain, England, Germany, Denmark, and\nScotland meet together, if there want Asia, Greece, Armenia, Persia,\nMedia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, and Mauritania, in all which\nplaces there be both many Christian men and also bishops, how can any\nman, being in his right mind, think such a council to be a general\ncouncil? or where so many parts of the world do lack how can they truly\nsay they have the consent of the whole world?  Or what manner of council,\nween you, was the same last at Trident?  Or how might it be termed a\ngeneral council, when out of all Christian kingdoms and nations there\ncame unto it but only forty bishops, and of the same some so cunning that\nthey might be thought meet to be sent home again to learn their grammar,\nand so well learned that they had never studied divinity.\n\nWhatsoever it be, the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ dependeth not\nupon councils, nor, as St. Paul saith, upon mortal creature's judgment.\nAnd if they which ought to be careful for God's Church will not be wise,\nbut slack their duty, and harden their hearts against God and His Christ,\ngoing on still to pervert the right ways of the Lord, God will stir up\nthe very stones, and make children and babes cunning, whereby there may\never be some to confute these men's lies.  For God is able (not only\nwithout councils), but also, will the councils, nill the councils, to\nmaintain and advance His own kingdom.  \"Full many be the thoughts of\nman's heart\" (saith Solomon); \"but the counsel of the Lord abideth\nsteadfast:\" \"There is no wisdom, there is no knowledge, there is no\ncounsel against the Lord.\"  \"Things endure not\" (saith Hilarius), \"that\nbe set up with men's workmanship: by another manner of means must the\nChurch of God be builded and preserved: for that Church is grounded upon\nthe foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, and is holden fast together\nby one corner stone, which is Christ Jesu.\"\n\nBut marvellous notable, and to very good purpose for these days, be\nHierom's words: \"Whosoever\" (saith he) \"the devil hath deceived, and\nenticed to fall asleep, as it were with the sweet and deathly\nenchantments of the mermaids the Syrens, those persons doth God's word\nawake up, saying unto them, Arise, thou that sleepest; lift up thyself,\nand Christ shall give thee light.  Therefore, at the coming of Christ, of\nGod's word, of the ecclesiastical doctrine, and of the full destruction\nof Nineveh, and of that most beautiful harlot, then, then shall the\npeople, which heretofore had been cast in a trance under their masters,\nbe raised up, and shall make haste to go to the mountains of the\nScripture; and there shall they find hills, Moses verily, and Joshua the\nson of Nun, other hills also, which are the Prophets; and hills of the\nNew Testament, which are the Apostles and the Evangelists.  And when the\npeople shall flee for succour to such hills, and shall be exercised in\nthe reading of those kind of mountains, though they find not one to teach\nthem (for the harvest shall be great, but the labourers few), yet shall\nthe good desire of the people be well accepted, in that they have gotten\nthem to such hills; and the negligence of their masters shall be openly\nreproved.\"  These be Hierom's sayings, and that so plain, as there\nneedeth no interpreter.  For they agree so just with the things we now\nsee with our eyes have already come to pass, that we may verily think\nthat he meant to foretell, as it were, by the spirit of prophecy, and to\npaint before our face the universal state of our time; the fall of the\nmost gorgeous harlot Babylon; the repairing again of God's Church; the\nblindness and sloth of the bishops, and the good will and forwardness of\nthe people.  For who is so blind, that he seeth not these men be the\nmasters, by whom the people, as saith Hierom, hath been led into error\nand lulled asleep?  Or who sooth not Rome, that is their Nineveh, which\nsometime was painted with fairest colours, but now, her vizard being\npalled off, is both better seen and less set by?  Or who seeth not that\ngood men, being awaked, as it were, out of their dead sleep at the light\nof the Gospel and at the voice of God, have resorted to the hills of the\nScriptures, waiting not at all for the councils of such masters?\n\nBut, by your favour, some will say, these things ought not to have been\nattempted without the Bishop of Rome's commandment, forsomuch as he only\nis the knot and band of Christian society.  He only is that priest of\nLevi's order whom God signified in the Deuteronomy, from whom counsel in\nmatters of weight and true judgment ought to be fetched; and whoso\nobeyeth not his judgment, the same man ought to be killed in the sight of\nhis brethren; and that no mortal creature hath authority to be judge over\nhim, whatsoever he do: that Christ reigneth in heaven, and he in earth;\nthat he alone can do as much as Christ or God Himself can do, because\nChrist and he have but one council-house; that without him is no faith,\nno hope, no Church; and whoso goeth from him quite casteth away and\nrenounceth his own salvation.  Such talk have the canonists, the Pope's\nparasites, surely, but with small discretion or soberness.  For they\ncould scant say more, at least they could not speak more highly of Christ\nHimself.\n\nAs for us, truly we have fallen from the Bishop of Rome upon no manner of\nworldly respect or commodity.  And would to Christ he so behaved himself\nas this falling away needed not; but so the case stood, that unless we\nleft him we could not come to Christ.  Neither will he now make any other\nleague with us than such a one as Nahas the king of the Ammonites would\nhave made in times past with them of the city of Jabez, which was to put\nout the right eye of each one of the inhabitants.  Even so will the Pope\npluck from us the holy Scripture, the Gospel of our salvation, and all\nthe confidence which we have in Christ Jesu.  And upon other condition\ncan he not agree upon peace with us.\n\nFor whereas some use to make so great a vaunt, that the Pope is only\nPeter's successor, as though thereby he carried the Holy Ghost in his\nbosom, and cannot err, this is but a matter of nothing, and a very\ntrifling tale.  God's grace is promised to a good mind, and to one that\nfeareth God, not unto sees and successions.  \"Riches,\" saith Hierom, \"may\nmake a bishop to be of more might than the rest: but all the bishops,\"\nwhosoever they be, \"are the successors of the Apostles.\"  If so be the\nplace and consecrating only be sufficient, why then Manasses succeeded\nDavid, and Caiaphas succeeded Aaron.  And it hath been often seen, that\nan idol hath stand in the temple of God.  In old time Archidamus the\nLacedaemonian boasted much of himself, how he came of the blood of\nHercules.  But one Nicostratus in this wise abated his pride: \"Nay,\"\nquoth he, \"thou seemest not to descend from Hercules.  For Hercules\ndestroyed ill men, but thou makest good men evil.\"  And when the\nPharisees bragged of their lineage, how they were of the kindred and\nblood of Abraham: \"Ye,\" saith Christ, \"seek to kill me, a man which have\ntold you the truth, as I heard it from God.  Thus Abraham never did.  Ye\nare of your father the devil, and will needs obey his will.\"\n\nYet notwithstanding, because we will grant somewhat to succession, tell\nus, hath the Pope alone succeeded Peter?  And wherein, I pray you?  In\nwhat religion? in what office? in what piece of his life hath he\nsucceeded him?  What one thing (tell me) had Peter ever like unto the\nPope, or the Pope like unto Peter?  Except peradventure they will say\nthus: that Peter, when he was at Rome, never taught the Gospel, never fed\nthe flock, took away the keys of the kingdom of heaven, hid the treasures\nof his Lord, sat him down only in his castle in S. John Lateran, and\npointed out with his finger all the places of purgatory, and kinds of\npunishments, committing some poor souls to be tormented, and other some\nagain suddenly releasing thence at his own pleasure, taking money for so\ndoing: or that he gave order to say private masses in every corner: or\nthat he mumbled up the holy service with a low voice, and in an unknown\nlanguage: or that he hanged up the Sacrament in every temple, and on\nevery altar, and carried the same about before him whithersoever he went,\nupon an ambling jannet, with lights and bells; or that he consecrated\nwith his holy breath, oil, wax, wool, bells, chalices, churches, and\naltars, or that he sold jubilees, graces, liberties, advowsons,\npreventions, first fruits, palls, the wearing of palls, bulls,\nindulgences, and pardons; or that he called himself by the name of the\nhead of the Church, the highest bishop, bishop of bishops, alone most\nholy: or that by usurping he took upon himself the right and authority\nover other folk's churches; or that he exempted himself from the power of\nany civil government; or that he maintained wars, and set princes\ntogether at variance: or that he sitting in his chair, with his triple\ncrown full of labels, with sumptuous and Persian-like gorgeousness, with\nhis royal sceptre, with his diadem of gold, and glittering with stones,\nwas carried about, not upon palfrey, but upon the shoulders of noble men.\nThese things, no doubt, did Peter at Rome in times past, and left them in\ncharge to his successors, as you would say, from hand to hand; for these\nthings be now-a-days done at Rome by the popes, and be so done, as though\nnothing else ought to be done.  Or contrariwise, peradventure they had\nrather say thus, that the Pope doth now all the same things, which we\nknow Peter did many a day ago: that is, that he runneth up and down into\nevery country to preach the gospel, not only openly abroad, but also\nprivately from house to house: that he is diligent, and applieth that\nbusiness in season and out of season, in due time and out of due time:\nthat he doth the part of an evangelist, that he fulfilleth the work and\nministry of Christ, that he is the watchman of the House of Israel,\nreceiveth answers and words at God's mouth; and even as he receiveth\nthem, so delivereth them over to the people: that he is the salt of the\nearth: that he is the light of the world: that he doth not feed his own\nself, but his flock: that he doth not entangle himself with the worldly\ncares of this life: that he doth not use a sovereignty over the Lord's\npeople: that he seeketh not to have other men minister to him, but\nhimself rather to minister unto others: that he taketh all bishops as his\nfellows and equals; that he is subject to princes, as to persons sent\nfrom God: that he giveth to Caesar that which is Caesar's: and that he,\nas the old bishops of Rome did without any question, calleth the emperor\nhis lord.  Unless, therefore, the popes do the like now-a-days, and Peter\ndid the things aforesaid, there is no cause at all why they should glory\nso of Peter's name, and of his succession.\n\nMuch less cause have they to complain of our departing, and to call us\nagain to be fellows and friends with them, and to believe as they\nbelieve.  Men say, that one Cobilon, a Lacedaemonian, when he was sent\nambassador to the king of the Persians to treat of a league, and found by\nchance them of the court playing at dice, he returned straightway home\nagain, leaving his message undone.  And when he was asked why he did\nslack to do the things which he had received by public commission to do,\nhe made answer, he thought it should be a great reproach to his\ncommonwealth to make a league with dicers.  But if we should content\nourselves to return to the Pope, and to his popish errors, and to make a\ncovenant not only with dicers, but also with men far more ungracious and\nwicked than any dicers be; besides that this should be a great blot to\nour good name, it should also be a very dangerous matter, both to kindle\nGod's wrath against us, and to clog and condemn our own souls for ever.\nFor of very truth we have departed from him, who we saw had blinded the\nwhole world this many a hundred year: from him, who too far\npresumptuously was wont to say, \"he could not err,\" and whatsoever he did\n\"no mortal man had power to condemn him, neither kings, nor emperors, nor\nthe whole clergy,\" nor yet all the people in the world together; no, and\nthough he should carry away with him to hell a thousand souls from him\nwho took upon him power to command, not only men, but even God's angels,\nto go, to return, to lead souls into purgatory, and to bring them back\nagain when he list himself: whom Gregory said, without all doubt, is the\nvery forerunner and standard-bearer of Antichrist, and hath utterly\nforsaken the Catholic faith, from whom also these ringleaders of ours,\nwho now with might and main resist the gospel, and the truth, which they\nknow to be the truth, have ere this departed every one of their own\naccord and goodwill, and would even now also gladly depart from him, if\nthe note of inconstancy and shame, and their own estimation among the\npeople, were not a let unto them.  In conclusion, we have departed from\nhim, to whom we were not bound, and who had nothing to say for himself,\nbut only I know not what virtue or power of the place where he dwelleth,\nand a continuance of succession.\n\nAnd as for us, we of all others most justly have left him.  For our\nkings, yea, even they which with greatest reverence did follow and obey\nthe authority and faith of the bishops of Rome, have long since found and\nfelt well enough the yoke and tyranny of the Pope's kingdom.  For the\nbishops of Rome took the crown off from the head of our King Henry the\nSecond, and compelled him to put aside all majesty, and like a mere\nprivate man to come unto their legate with great submission and humility,\nso as all his subjects might laugh him to scorn.  More than this, they\ncaused bishops and monks, and some part of the nobility, to be in the\nfield against our King John, and set all the people at liberty from their\noaths, whereby they ought allegiance to their king; and at last, wickedly\nand most abominably they bereaved the king, not only of his kingdom, but\nalso of his life.  Besides this, they excommunicated and cursed king\nHenry the Eighth, that most famous prince, and stirred up against him,\nsometime the Emperor, sometime the French king: and as much as in them\nwas, put in adventure our realm to have been a very prey and spoil.  Yet\nwere they but fools and mad, to think that either so mighty a prince\ncould be scared with bugs and rattles; or else, that so noble and great a\nkingdom might so easily, even at one morsel, be devoured and swallowed\nup.\n\nAnd yet, as though all this were too little, they would needs make all\nthe realm tributary to them, and exacted thence yearly most unjust and\nwrongful taxes.  So dear cost us the friendship of the city of Rome.\nWherefore, if they have gotten these things of us by extortion, through\ntheir fraud and subtle sleights, we see no reason why we may not pluck\naway the same from them again by lawful ways and just means.  And if our\nkings in that darkness and blindness of former times, gave them these\nthings of their own accord and liberality for religion's sake, being\nmoved with a certain opinion of their feigned holiness; now when\nignorance and error is espied out, may the kings, their successors, take\nthem away again, seeing they have the same authority the kings their\nancestors had before.  For the gift is void, except it be hallowed by the\nwill of the giver, and that cannot seem a perfect will, which is dimmed\nand hindered by error.\n\n\n\n\nTHE RECAPITULATION OF THE APOLOGY.\n\n\nThus, good Christian reader, ye see how it is no new thing, though at\nthis day the religion of Christ be entertained with despites and checks,\nbeing but lately restored, and as it were, coming up again anew;\nforsomuch as the like hath chanced both to Christ Himself and to His\nApostles: yet nevertheless, for fear ye may suffer yourself to be led\namiss and seduced with these exclamations of our adversaries, we have\ndeclared at large unto you the very whole manner of our religion, what\nour opinion is of God the Father, of His only Son Jesus Christ, of the\nHoly Ghost, of the Church, of the Sacraments, of the ministry, of the\nScriptures, of ceremonies, and of every part of Christian belief.  We\nhave said, that we abandon and detest, as plagues and poisons, all those\nold heresies which either the sacred Scriptures, or the ancient councils\nhave utterly condemned: that we call home again, as much as ever we can,\nthe right discipline of the Church, which our adversaries have quite\nbrought into a poor and weak case.  That we punish all licentiousness of\nlife, and unruliness of manners, by the old and long-continued laws, and\nwith as much sharpness as is convenient, and lieth in our power.  That we\nmaintain still the state of kingdoms, in the same condition and plight\nwherein we have found them, without any diminishing or alteration,\nreserving unto our princes their majesties and worldly pre-eminence, safe\nand without impairing, to our possible power.  That we have so gotten\nourselves away from that Church, which they had made a den of thieves,\nand wherein nothing was in good frame, or once like to the Church of God,\nand which, themselves confessed, had erred many ways, even as Lot in\ntimes past gat him out of Sodom, or Abraham out of Chaldea, not upon a\ndesire of contention, but by the warning of God Himself.  And that we\nhave searched out of the Holy Bible, which we are sure cannot deceive,\none sure form of religion, and have returned again unto the primitive\nChurch of the ancient fathers and Apostles; that is to say, to the first\nground and beginning of things, as unto the very foundations and\nheadsprings of Christ's Church.  And in very truth we have not tarried\nfor in this matter the authority or consent of the Tridentine council,\nwherein we saw nothing done uprightly, nor by good order; where also\neverybody was sworn to the maintenance of one man; where our prince's\nambassadors were contemned; where not one of our divines could be heard,\nand where parts-taking and ambition was openly and earnestly procured and\nwrought; but, as the holy fathers in former time, and as our predecessors\nhave commonly done, we have restored our churches by a provincial\nconvocation, and have clean shaken off, as our duty was, the yoke and\ntyranny of the bishop of Rome, to whom we were not bound; who also had no\nmanner of thing like, neither to Christ, nor to Peter, nor to an Apostle,\nnor yet like to any bishop at all.  Finally, we say, that we agree\namongst ourselves touching the whole judgment and chief substance of\nChristian religion, and with one mouth, and with one spirit, do worship\nGod, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nWherefore, O Christian and godly reader, forasmuch as thou seest the\nreasons and causes, both why we have restored religion, and why we have\nforsaken these men, thou oughtest not to marvel, though we have chosen to\nobey our Master Christ, rather than men.  Paul hath given us warning how\nwe should not suffer ourselves to be carried away with such sundry\nlearnings, and to fly their companies, in especial, which would sow\ndebate and variances, clean contrary to the doctrine which they had\nreceived of Christ and the Apostles.  Long since have these men's crafts\nand treacheries decayed, and vanished, and fled away at the sight and\nlight of the Gospel, even as the owl doth at the sun-rising.  And albeit\ntheir trumpery be built up, and reared as high as the sky, yea even, in a\nmoment, and as it were of the own self, falleth it down again to the\nground and cometh to nought.  For you must not think that all these\nthings have come to pass rashly, or at adventure; it hath been God's\npleasure, that, against all men's wills well nigh, the Gospel of Jesu\nChrist should be spread abroad throughout the whole world at these days.\nAnd, therefore, men, following God's biddings, have of their own free\nwill resorted unto the doctrine of Jesus Christ.  And for our parts,\ntruly we have sought hereby, neither glory, nor wealth, nor pleasure, nor\nease.  For there is plenty of all these things with our adversaries.  And\nwhen we were of their side, we enjoyed such worldly commodities much more\nliberally and bountifully than we do now.  Neither do we eschew concord\nand peace, but to have peace with man we will not be at war with God.  The\nname of peace is a sweet and pleasant thing, saith Hilarius; but yet\nbeware, saith he, \"peace is one thing, and bondage is another.\"  For if\nit should so be, as they seek to have it, that Christ should be commanded\nto keep silence, that the truth of the Gospel should be betrayed, that\nhorrible errors should be cloaked, that Christian men's eyes should be\nbleared, and that they might be suffered to conspire openly against God;\nthis were not a peace, but a most ungodly covenant of servitude.  There\nis a peace, saith Nazianzen, that is unprofitable; again, there is a\ndiscord, saith he, that is profitable.  For we must conditionally desire\npeace, so far as is lawful before God, and so far as we may conveniently.\nFor otherwise Christ Himself brought not peace into the world, but a\nsword.  Wherefore, if the pope will have us be reconciled to him, his\nduty is first to be reconciled to God.  For from thence, saith Cyprian,\nspring schisms and sects, because men seek not the Head, and have not\ntheir recourse to the fountain (of the Scriptures), and keep not the\nrules given by the heavenly Teacher.  For, saith he, that is not peace,\nbut war; neither is he joined unto the Church, which is severed from the\nGospel.  As for these men, they used to make a merchandise of the name of\npeace.  For that peace which they so fain would have, is only a rest of\nidle bellies.  They and we might easily be brought to atonement; touching\nall these matters, were it not that ambition, gluttony, and excess did\nlet it.  Hence cometh their whining, their heart is on their halfpenny.\nOut of doubt their clamours and stirs be to none other end, but to\nmaintain more shamefully and naughtily ill-gotten things.\n\nNowadays the pardoners complain of us, the dataries, the pope's\ncollectors, the bawds, and others which take gain to be godliness, and\nserve not Jesus Christ but their own bellies.  Many a day ago, and in the\nold world, a wonderful great advantage grew hereby to these kinds of\npeople.  But now they reckon, all is lost unto them, that Christ gaineth.\nThe pope himself maketh a great complaint at this present, that charity\nin people is waxen cold.  And why so, trow ye?  Forsooth, because his\nprofits decay more and more.  And for this cause doth he hale us into\nhatred, all that ever he may, laying load upon us with despiteful\nrailings, and condemning us for heretics, to the end, they that\nunderstand not the matter may think there be no worse men upon earth than\nwe be.  Notwithstanding, we in the mean season are never the more ashamed\nfor all this; neither ought we to be ashamed of the gospel.  For we set\nmore by the glory of God, than we do by the estimation of men.  We are\nsure all is true that we teach, and we may not either go against our own\nconscience, or bear any witness against God.  For if we deny any part of\nthe Gospel of Jesus Christ before men, He on the other side will deny us\nbefore His Father.  And if there be any that will still be offended, and\ncannot endure Christ's doctrine, such, say we, be blind, and leaders of\nthe blind; the truth, nevertheless, must be preached and preferred above\nall, and we must with patience wait for God's judgment.  Let these folk,\nin the meantime, take good heed what they do, and let them be well\nadvised of their own salvation, and cease to hate and persecute the\nGospel of the Son of God, for fear lest they feel Him once a redresser\nand revenger of His own cause.  God will not suffer Himself to be made a\nmocking stock.  The world espieth a good while agone what there is a\ndoing abroad.  This flame, the more it is kept down, so much the more\nwith greater force and strength doth it break out and fly abroad.  Their\nunfaithfulness shall not disappoint God's faithful promise.  And if they\nshall refuse to lay away this their hardness of heart, and to receive the\nGospel of Christ, then shall publicans and sinners go before them into\nthe kingdom of Heaven.\n\nGod and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ open the eyes of them all,\nthat they may be able to see that blessed hope, whereunto they have been\ncalled; so as we may altogether in one glorify Him alone, who is the true\nGod, and also that same Jesus Christ, whom He sent down to us from\nHeaven, unto whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be given all\nhonour and glory everlastingly.  So be it.","title":"The Apology of the Church of England","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":42530}