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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56127	The antipathie of the English lordly prelacie, both to regall monarchy, and civill unity: or, An historicall collection of the severall execrable treasons, conspiracies, rebellions, seditions, state-schismes, contumacies, oppressions, & anti-monarchicall practices, of our English, Brittish, French, Scottish, & Irish lordly prelates, against our kings, kingdomes, laws, liberties; and of the severall warres, and civill dissentions occasioned by them in, or against our realm, in former and latter ages Together with the judgement of our owne ancient writers, & most judicious authors, touching the pretended divine jurisdiction, the calling, lordlinesse, temporalities, wealth, secular imployments, trayterous practises, unprofitablenesse, and mischievousnesse of lordly prelates, both to King, state, Church; with an answer to the chiefe objections made for the divinity, or continuance of their lordly function. The first part. By William Prynne, late (and now againe) an utter-barester of Lincolnes Inne.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1641 (1641)	Wing P3891A; Wing P3891_vol1; Wing P4074_vol2_CANCELLED; ESTC R18576	670,992	826

of conscience he who hath learned nothing is made the teacher of others and like sounding brasse and a ●inkling Cymball usurpes the office of Preaching when as he is an unprofitable ●tock and a dumbe Idoll This is it which Ecclesiastes deploringly complaines of I have seene saith he an evill under the Sunne a foole placed in high dignity and wise men sitting in low places An illiterate Bishop is a dumbe preacher It is a Prelates duty to instruct the people under him to render a people acceptable to God by opening the mystery of the Scriptures But at this day such as the people are such is the Priest as hi● darknes is so also is light Blush O Sidon at the Sea a Prela●e may blush and grieve to rule over people not to profit them to have taken upon him the office of a Teacher and to be mute in instructing the people It is the word of the lamenting Prophet My people is become a lost flock their Pastors have seduced them they are dumb● dogges not able to barke● They ought to drive the Wolves from the flocks but they themselves are wolves to their owne taking care neither of their owne nor theirs salvation they preci●itate the●selves with their flocks into the pit of eternall death Thus and much more he Not to mention Grostheads booke de Ignavia Praelatorum Or Halredus de Praelatorum moribus Nigellus Wireker de Abusu rerum Ecclesiae Gualther Mapes his Complaint against the Pr●l●tes Ad mal●s Pastores ad ●mpios Praelatos● Robert Baston de sacerdotum Luxuriis or ●ohn Purvey de obliquo cleri statu all declaiming against the Lordlinesse pompe pride wealth and v●●es of Prelates the most of which bookes the Prelates have suppressed their titles onely being left upon record Nor yet to mention the passages of Robert Holkot our famous Clerke In lib. Sapientiae lect 77.163 and lect 1. in Proverbia Solomonis to like purpose Richardus Armachanus Archbishop of Armagh flourishi●g in the beginning of Wicklif● time about the yeare of Christ 1350. De Questionibus Armenorum l. 11. ● 1. determines thus That neither the Dominion nor Ministry of temporall things belongs to Ecclesiasticall dignity but rather deminishes i● For the Lord prohibited the Dominion of temporall things to his Apostles and Disciples saying Possesse neither gold nor moneys in your purses Mat. 10.19 If thou wilt be perfect go● and sell all thou hast give to the poore Now it cannot bee of Ecclesiasticall dignity which the Head of the Church hath prohibited to his members or at least would not have them to po●sess●● Whence it appeares that the dominion or possession of temporall things doth in no wise essentially appertaine to Ecclesiasticall dignity but rather diminisheth it In the second Chapter he averres that these states and degrees of Patri●rch Archbishop Bishop c. were invented onely out of the devotion of men not instituted by Christ and his Apostles That no Prelate of the Church how great soever hath any greater degree of the power of order then a simple Priest In the fourth Chapter hee proves that the power of confirmation and imposition of hands that the Holy Ghost may be given thereby appertains to the jurisdiction of th● Presbytery Which he manifesteth by Acts 7. 14. 1 Tim. 4. and by the practice of the Primitive Church after the Apostles time In the fourth and fifth Chapters he demonstrates That Priests are called Bishops by the Apostle Phil. 1.1 1 Tim. 3. Titus 1. and Acts 20.28 Et quod ordine succedant Apostolis and that they succeed the Apostles in order In the sixth Chapter he proves That all Priests and Bishops are equall as to the power of Order And in the fourth Chapter he punctually determines That there is no distinction found in the Evangelicall or Apostolicall Scriptures betweene Bishops and simple Priests called Presbyters Whence it follow●s Quod in omnibus est una potestas aequalis ex ordin● that in all of them there is one and equall power by reason of Order And that for ought he can find the Apostle Paul doth not in any of his Epistles distinguish between the Order of Presbyters that is of Apostles and Bishops That every one who hath the cure of others is a Bishop Which the name of a Bishop importeth and manifesteth For a Bishop is nothing else but a superintendent or watchman From whence it is evident● that besides the power of Order hee hath nothing but a Cure Our famous English Apostle John VVicklife as Master Fox oft stiles him delivers the selfesame doctrine of the Identity of Presbyters and Bishops Dialogorum l. 4. c. 14. De Sacramento ordinis f. 124 125. Some men saith he multiply the character in Orders But I consider whether their foundation or fruit be in the Scripture But one thing I confidently averre That in the Primitive Church and in Pauls time two Orders sufficed The Presbyter and the Deacon Likewise I say that in Pauls time a Presbyter and Bishop suit idem was the same This appeares by the first of Timothy chap 3. and T●tus chap. 1. And herein that profound Divine Hierome justifies the same as appeares Distinct. 74. Cap. Olim. For then was not invented that distinction of Pope and Cardinalls Patriarchs and Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons Officials and Deanes with other Officers and private Religions of which there is neither number nor Order Concerning the contentions about these things that every one of these is an Order and that in the reception thereof the grace of God and a character is imprinted with other difficulties which ours babble about it seeme● good to me to be silent because they neither establish nor prove what they affirme But out of the faith of Scripture it seeme●h to me to suffice if there be Presbyters and Deacons keeping the sta●e and office which Christ hath imposed on them Because it seemes certaine that Caesarian Pride invented these other degrees and Orders For if they had been necessary to the Church Christ and his Apostles had not been silent in the expression of them and description of their office as those blaspheme who magnifie the Popes Laws above Christ. But a Catholicke ought to receive the office of these Clergy-men out of the Scriptures authority out of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus Neither ought he under paine of sinne to admit these new Caesarian inventions Thomas Waldensis Wickliffes professed Antagonist Tom. 1. l. 3. Artic. 3. c. 29.30.31 32. Tom. 2. c. 117 118. and Tom. 3. c. 60.61 62 63. brings in Wickliff● proving by many arguments That Bishops and Presbyters are all one and the same by divine institution and Gods Law That the Ordination of Presbyters belongs not onely to Bishops sed etiam ad simplic●m Sacerdotem But even to a meere Priest as well as to them That one ordained a Minister by a meere Priest alone ought not to doubt of his Priesthood or to seeke

Oxford William Cliffe Geoffry Dowes Robert Oking Ralph Bradford Richard Smith Simon Mathew Iohn Pryn William Buckmaster William May Nicholas Wotton Richard Cox Iohn Edmunds Thomas Robertson Iohn Baker Thomas Barret Iohn Hase Iohn Tyson Doctors and Professors in Divinity and of the civill and Canon Law with the whole Convocation House and Clergy of Enland in their Booke intituled The Institution of a Christian man dedicated by them to King Henry the eight Printed Cum Privilegio subscribed with all their names and ratified by the Statute of 32. Henry the eight cap. 26. chap. Of the Sacrament of Order fol. 48. c. And King Henry 8. himselfe in his Booke inscribed A necessary erudition for any Christian man published with the advise and approbation of all the Prelates Clergy of England in their Convocation and of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and nether House of Parliament with the Kings owne royall Epistle to all his loving Subjects before it Anno 1545. by vertue of the Satute of 32 Henry the eight c. 26. Chap. of the Sacrament of Order Doe all thus joyntly determine of the calling jurisdiction Lordlinesse and secular imployments of Bishops The truth is that in the New Testament there is no mention made of any degrees or distinctions in Orders but onely of Deacons and Ministers and of Priests or Bishop● And of these two Orders onely that is to say Priests and Deacons Scripture maketh expresse mention and how they were conferred of the Apostles by Prayer and imposition of their hands And to these two the Primitive Church did add and conjoyne certaine other inferior and lower degrees And as concerning the office and duty of the said Ecclesiasticall Ministers the same consisteth in true preaching and teaching the word of God unto the people i● dispensing and ministring the Sacraments of Christ in consecrating● and offering the blessed body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar in loosing and assoyling from sinne such persons as be sorry and truely penitent for the same and excommunicating such as b● guilty in manifest crimes and will not be reformed otherwise and finally in praying for the whole Church of Christ● and specially for the flocke committed unto them And although the office and ministry of Priests and Bishops stand c●iefly in these things before rehearsed ye● neither they nor any of them may exercise and execute any of the same offices but with such sort and such limitation as the Ordinances and Lawes of every Christian Realme doe permit and ●uffer It is out of all doubt that there is no mention made neither in Scripture neither in the writings of any authentical Doct●r or Author of the Church being within the time of the ●postles that Christ did ever make or institute any distinction or difference to be in the preheminence of power order or jurisdiction between the Apostle● themselves or between the Bishops themselves but that they were all ●quall in power author●ty and jurisd●ct●on And that there is now and since the time of the Apostles any such diversity or difference among the Bishops It was devised by the ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church for the conservation of good order and unity of the Catholique Church and that either by the consent and authority or else at least by the perm●ssion and suff●rance of the Pr●nces and civill powers for the time ruling For the said Fathers considering the great and infinite multitude of Christian men so l●rgely encreased through the world and taking examples of the Old Testam●nt thought it expedient to make an order of degrees to be among Bishops and spirituall Governours of the Church and so ordained some to be Patriarks some to be Metropolitans● some to be Archbishops some to be Bishops and to them did limit severally not on●ly their certaine Diocesse and Provinces wherein they should exercise their power and not exceed the same but also certaine bounds and limits of their jurisdiction and power c. And lest peradventure it might be thought to some persons that such authorities powers and jurisdictions as Patriarks Primates Archbishops and Metropolitans now have or heretofore at any time have had justy and lawfully over any other Bishops were given them by God in holy Scripture We think it expedient and necessary that all men should be advertised and taught that all such lawfull powers and authority of one Bishop over another were and be given to them by the consent ordinance positive lawes of men only and not by any ordinance of God in holy Scripture and all other power and authority which any Bishop hath used or exercised over another which hath not been given to him by such consent and ordinance of men as is aforesaid is in very deed no lawful power but plaine usurpation and tyranny And therefore whereas the Bishop of Rome hath heretofore claimed and usurped to be head and governour over all Priests and Bishops of the holy catholique Church of Christ by the lawes of God It is evident that the same power is utterly fained and untrue VVee thinke it convenient that all Bishops and Pastors shall instruct and teach the people committed to their spirituall charge that Christ did by expresse words prohibit that none of his Apostles nor any of their successors should under the pretence of authority of the sword that is to say the authority of Kings or any civill power in this world yea or any authority to make Lawes or Ordinances in causes appertaining ●●to civill powers If any Bishop of what estate or dignity so●ver he be be he Bishop of Rome or of any other City Province or Diocesse doe presume to take upon him authority or jurisdiction in causes of matters which appertaine unto Kings and the civill pow●rs and ●heir Courts and will maintaine or thinke that he may so doe by the authority of Christ and his Gospel although the Kings and Princes would not permit and suffer him so to doe no doubt that Bishop is not worthy to be called a Bishop but rather a Tyrant and a usurper of other mens rights contrary to the Lawes of God and is worthy to be reputed none otherwise than he that goeth about to subvert the Kingdome of Christ for the Kingdome of Christ in his Church is spirituall and not a carnall kingdome of the world that is to say the very Kingdome that Christ by himselfe or by his Apostles and Disciples sought here in this world was to bring all Nations from the carnall kingdome of the Prince of darknesse unto the light of his spirituall Kingdome and so himselfe raigne in the hearts of the people by grace faith hope and charity And therefore sith Christ did never seeke nor exercise any worldly kingdome or dominion in this world but rather refusing and flying the same did leave the said worldly governance of kingdomes Realmes and Nations to be governed by Princes and Potentates in like manner as he did finde them and commanded also his

whereof not one belong to his office and vocation appointed by Gods Word My Lord Bishop is so occupyed and unquieted that he hath no leasure to study nor to preach Gods word But such affaires and worldly businesses nothing pertaining to his vocation be very great hinderance and let to my Lord Bishop that hee can not apply him to exercise his owne office For no man can serve two masters saith Christ. The Apostles thought it not just and equall to provide for the necessary living of the poore leaving Gods word untaught But my Lord Bishop doing these things nothing pertaining to his office thinketh that he hath exactly done his office From these great Mannors commeth yearly great rents pleasures and profits which although they be the good creatures ●f God yet the abundance of them being where they be more impediment than helpe be a great occasion of corruption in the user of them And peradventure they would allure and intice a Bishops heart to trust in them and so corrupt him as the Scripture saith Blessed is the rich which is found without blemish hath not gone after gold nor hoped in mony and treasures Where is ●here such a one and wee shall commend him and call him blessed for great things doth hee among his people And if my Lord Bishop should give the superfluity of his goods to the poore whose goods justly they be as the Proph●t Esay saith then my Lord should lacke them to furnish his Lordly countenance and so my Lord should lose his Lordly honour and prayse of the world Wherefore as these superfluous possessions be annexed to estates of Bishops by mans vaine fantasie and not by Gods word so my Lord Bishop will either keepe them to make him more friends remembring that riches maketh many friends but the poore is forsaken of his neighbour or devise the expence of them contrary to Gods Word either to make sure friends in the Court about the King to obtaine more promotions and benefices or in curious building sumptuous and delicate fare well apparelled servants trimme decked horses to ride pompeously like a Lord. Although there were no authority to prove this yet the Lordly countenance and fashion of Bishops yea their common exercise and practise can well prove and testifie this plainely before the face of all men which knoweth the Lordlinesse of Bishops as the Prophet Esay saith The changing of their countenance bewrayeth them yea they declare their owne sinnes themselves at Sodomites and hide them not Do no● these things faintly agree with the saying of their predecessour Paul the Apostle which saith When wee have food and rayment wee must be contented Is not this Lordly honour directly against Christs words which saith The Kings of Nations raigne over them and they that have authority over them are called gracious Lords but you shall n●t be so Also Peter speaketh to his true successors saying Feed you Christs flocke as much as lyeth in you taking the oversight of them not as compelled thereunto but willingly after a good sort nor for the desire of filthy lucre but of a good mind not as though you were Lords over the parishes but that you be an example to the flocke and that with good will But our Lordly Bishops estate and proud countenance of living as it is now used is contrary to Gods Word as it appeareth by these words But you shall not be so And also by these sayings Not at though you were Lords over the Parishes And Christ saith Hee that is not with mee is against mee Wherefore so long as they raigne so Lordly in the Clergie contrary to Gods Word so long be they against God and so long as they be against God they be not sent from God and then can they not preach truly and si●cerely his Word For how can they Preach except they be sent saith Paul Christ was s●nt to preach as it appeareth Mar. 1. Luk. 4. and Isay 61. And Christ saith to all his true Disciples As my Father sent mee so do I send you And commandeth also all his Apostles and true Successors of the Apostles to preach the Gospel to the whole world and not Lordly to raigne in the Clergie Whom Paul teacheth to be as Ministers saying● Let a man this wise esteeme us even as the Ministers of Christ and the stewards of the secrets of God To preach the Gospel therefore most gratious and prudent Lord is the true vocation and office of all godly Bishops Parsons Vicars and of other Shepheards and not to be Ambassadors to Princes not to be judges to heare matters of contention Testamentary causes divorces slanders baudery and such other Your Grace hath of your Lay see sufficient both in Learning and wisedome and of good conscience to heare and judge such causes and variances remitting Bishops to attend their office and vocation by God and not by man appointed And therefore they should not exercise any other office than God hath appointed to them for no man can serve two masters And if Bishops and other Pastors would diligently execute their vocation office much ●ewer of those matters of contention shall be in ure experience either to be heard or judged Seeing the Scriptures commandeth so earnestly every man to walke as hee is called Many Christian men marvell greatly why the Bishops desire and procure so greedily to exercise the office pertaining to another vocation and to leave their vocation and office appointed by God to them to be exercised not executed nor performed and done Verily because they love the glory of men more than the glory of God And surely even as Caiphas and Annas being Bishops and exercising the office of secular and temporall Judges did judge Christ to be crucified so our Bishops so long as they contrary to their calling do exercise the office of temporall judges so long shall they persecute Christ and his members and study to suppresse his Word and not to preach the same Have not they businesse sufficient wherewith to occupie them in their owne office If they would looke well thereunto do not they see on every side detestable sinne to raigne throughout all this your Realme Detestable vices raigne in this your Realme against the which our Bishops and other Pastours should continually cry out as the Prophet saith Cry now as loud as thou canst leave not off lift up thy voyce like a trumpet and shew my people their offences the ●ouse of Iacob their sins But alas they be become both blind and dumbe as the Prophet saith His watchmen are all blinde they have altogether no understanding they are all dumbe dogges not able to barke they ●re s●●epy foolish are they and lye snor●ing they are shamelesse dogges that ●e never satisfied The shepheards also in like manner h●ve no u●derstanding ●ut every man turneth to his owne way every out after his owne covetousnesse withall his power What is

to take this my rude Supplication to the best as a fruit of my obedience wherein I have not dissembled but have opened fully unto your Grace the ground and very bottome of my heart not of any grudge evill will or malice that I beare to any spirituall Shepheard God I take to record but onely for the glory of God the honour of your Grace and the wealth and profit of your most naturall and loving subjects Thus this namelesse Supplicant Our learned Martyr Iohn Lambert alias Nicholson Anno 1538. in his answer to his 9. and 22. Articles thus determins of the parity and identity of Bishops and Ministers As touching Priesthood in the Primitive Church when vertue bare as ancient Doctors do deeme and Scripture in mine opinion recordeth the same most roome there were no more officers in the Church of God than Bishops and Deacons that is to say Ministers as witnesseth besides Scripture full apertly Ierome in his Commentaries upon the Epistles of Paul whereas he saith That those whom we call Priests were all one and none other but Bishops and the Bishops none other but Priests men ancient both in age and learning so neere as could be chosen Neither were they instituted and chosen as they be now adayes with small regard of a Bishop or his officer onely opposing them if they can construe a Collect but they were chosen not onely by the Bishop but also with the consent of the people among whom they should have their living as sheweth Saint Cyprian And the people as hee saith ought to have power to chuse Priests that bee men of good learning of good and honest report But alacke for pity such elections are now banished and new fashions brought in which if wee should conferre with the forme of the election shewed of Christ by his Apostle Paul wee should find no small diversity but all turned upside downe In the 2● where you demand Whether I beleeve that it is lawfull for all Priests freely to preach the Word of God or no and that in all places at all seasons and to all persons to whom they shall please although they be not sent I say that Priests are called in Scripture by two distinct words that is to wit Presbyteri and Sacerdotes The first is to say ancient men Seniors and Elders and by that word or vocable are the secular Judges or such like head officers sometimes also signified as wee read in Daniel of these that defamed and wrongfully accused Susanna but this is seldome and nothing so customeablely as those be called Presbyteri which are set to be Prelates in the Church to guide the same by the word of God and his blessed Doctrine that is the rod of direction and the foundation of Christs faith And Priests thus called Presbyteri in the Primitive Church what time we●e but few traditions and ordinances to let us from the straight trade or institution made by Christ and his Apostles WERE THE SAME AND NONE OTHER BUT BISHOPS as I have shewed you in the first part of mine answer by authority of Saint Hierome and Paul recordeth the same right evidently and Tit. 1. in this forme I left thee Titus said blessed Paul behind mee in Crete that thou shouldest correct or set in a due order such things as lacke or be not else perfectly framed and that thou shouldest set Priests in every Towne like as I did appoint thee such as are without reproach or blamelesse the husband of one wife having faithfull children not subject to the vice of riot or that hee be not unruly for so ought a Bishop to be c. These are not my words but of Saint Paul in the Epistle to Titus where you may see that a Priest called Presbyter should be that same that a Bishop whom he requireth a little after to be able by wholsome Doctrine of Gods Scripture to exhort the good to follow the same doctrine and those that shall speake against it to reprove them thereby And marke you how hee would have a Bishop otherwise called an ancient man and a Priest to make exhortation by holy Scripture and thereby to reprove them that shall speake against the truth not to condemne them by might or authority only or else by traditions of men made in generall Councels And as many as are these wise Priests which are called commonly Presbyteri otherwise Bishops such as in the Church are set to take cure of soules and to be spirituall Pastors ought to Preach freely the Word of God in all places and times convenient and to whomsoever it shall please them if they suppose and see that their preaching should edifie and profit And whereas you adde this particle though they were not sent I say that all such are chosen to be Preachers and therefore sent for of this speaketh S. Gregory in his Pastorals in this wise● Praedicationis quippe officium suscepit quisquis ad sacerdotium accedit c. So hee who much condemned Ex Officio Oathes and proceedings the Canon Law and inequality of Bishops and Ministers as contrary to Christs institution who made all his Apostles of equall authority in his answers to the 29.30.41 and 43. Articles too large and too common to transcribe The booke intituled The Image of a very Christian Bishop and of a counterfeit Bishop written printed cum privilegio regali in Henry the eight his raigne though by the Bishops practice called in by this Kings injunctions An. 1539. with sundry other orthodoxe bookes determins thus both of the Bishops callings and practices in those times The booke being very rare I shall transcribe more of it than otherwise I would doe Over and besides this the Ministers of the Word of God are principally bound hereunto that they shall more sharpely rebuke the Bishops and the Primates of the Church than the worldly Princes and Rulers and that for many causes first because that Ecclesiasticall highnesse and dignity as it is now is not of God for God doth not acknowledge not elect this disguised and painted deceitfull people and these childish and in a manner counterfeit and Nicholaicall Bishops forasmuch as they do neither teach no● yet do execute any point belonging to the office of a Bishop Secondly these shadows of Bishops have not beene constituted by men but they have exalted their owne selves and they have catched unto themselves Empire Dominion and Lordships against both God and men against reason common sense or judgement after the nature and property of Tyrants which doe rule onely by the wrath and great indignation of God The Temporall or Worldly Governours and Officers are constituted by the gracious favour and mercifull ordinance of God to the chastisement and punishment of evill men and to the protection defence and maintenance of good men Besides this the worldly Governours although they do injury and wrong never so much and do unjustly and wickedly yet for

consent placed Bishops where there were Flamines and three Archbishops where there were Arch Flamines turning the three Arch●flamines Sees in the three chiefe Cities into Arch-bishoprickes and the 28. Flamines Sees into 28 Bishoprickes This is punctually averred for Truth by Geofry Monmoth Histor. Brit. l. 2. c. 1. Edit Ascent l. 4. c. 19. Edit Heidelb by Gild●s in his Booke De victoria Aurelii Ambrosii by Gervasius Tilburiensis de Otiis Imperialibus ad Othonem Imperatorem Historiolae Wintoniensis Ecclesiae Alphredus Beuer lacensis Radulphus de Diceto Bartholomaeus de Cotton Gerardus Cornubiensis Ranulphus Cestrensis the Authors of the History of Rochester of the Chronicles of Hales and Dunstaple of the Booke of Abingdon of the Geneologicall Chronicle of the Monastery of Hales and of the Abbreviated Chronicle of the Britaines Thomas Rudburne Thomas Stubs Thomas Harfield Ponticus Virunnius Polydor Virgil Martinus Polonus P●olomaeus Lucensis Tuscus cited by Ioannis Leydensis in Chronico Belgico l. 2. c. 1. Ioannis B●ptista Platina in vita Eleutherii Iacobus Philippus Bergomiensis Suppl Chron. l. 8. Nauclerus vol. 1. Chronograph gen 30. Vol. 2. Gen. 6. Tritemius compend l. 1. Pope Leo the ninth Epist. 4. Guilielmus Durandus Rationale● l. 2. c. 1. n. 21 22. Polydorus Virgilius de Jnvent● rerum● l. 4. c. 11. All quoted to my hand by that excellent learned Antiquary Bishop Vsher. De Britannicarum Ecclesiarum primordiis c. 5. p. 56 57 58 59.99.100 To whom I might adde Matthew Parker his Antiquitates Ecclesiae Brit. p. 7. Iohn F●x his Acts and Monuments Edit ult Vol. 1. p. 138 139. Iohn Speed in his History of Great Britaine p. 132. Richard Grafton in his Chronicle part 7. p. 83. William Harrison in his Description of England l. 2. c. 1 2. With many more of our owne Writers and generally all the Canonists and Glossers on Gratian Dictinctio 80. and the Schoolemen on Peter Lombard sent l. 4. distinct 24 who concu●re in this opinion For in Gratian distinct 80. f. 130. I find these two decrees cited the one of Pope Lucinus with this Rubricke prefixed In what places Primates and Patriarches ought to be ordained The Cities and places wherein Primates ought to preside were not ordained by moderne times but long before the comming of Christ to whose Primates even the Gentiles did appeale for their greater businesses In those very Cities after the comming of Christ the Apostles and their Successors placed Patriarches and Primates to whom the businesses of Bishops yet saving the Apostolicall authority in all things and the greater causes after the Apostolike See are to be referred On which Iohn Thierry and others make this glosse Primates are constituted there where heretofore the proto-Flamines of the Gentiles were placed Arch-Bishops where there were Arch-Flamines Bishops where their Flamines were and this for the most part if wee may credite them was done by Saint Peters appointment The second is this Decree of Pope Clemens which warrants this glosse In those Cities wherein heretofore among the Ethnickes their chiefe Flamines and prime Doctors of the Law were placed Saint Peter commanded but God knowes when and where Primates or Patriarches of Bishops to be placed who should agitate the causes of the rest of the Bishops and the greater businesses in Faith But in those Cities in which in times past among the foresaid Ethnickes their arch-Flamines were whom yet they held to be lesse than their foresaid Primates he commanded Arch-bishops to be iustituted but in every other particular City● he commanded one sole Bishop and not many to be ordained who should onely ●btaine the name of Bishops because among the Apostles themselves there was the like institution sed unus praefuit omnibus but one had authority over the rest which is most false On which the glosse thus descants The Gentiles had three Orders of Priests to wit proto-Flamines arch-Flamines and Flamines In the place of the proto-Flamines Peter commanded Patriarches to be placed who should take conusance of the greater causes of other Bishops in the place of arch-Flamines Arch-bishops in the place of Flamines Bishops of whom there ought to be but one in every City Which Grai●an himselfe thus backes in his 21 Distinction There is a certaine distinction observed among Priests whence others are called simply Priests others arch-Priests others chorall Bishops others Bishops oth●rs Arch-bishops or Metropolitanes others Primates others chiefe Priests Horum discretio a Gentibus maxime introducta est The distinction of these was principally int●oduced by the Gentiles who called their Flamines some simply Flamines others Arch-flamines others Proto-flamines All which Peter Lombard the Father of the Schoolemen affirming after Gratian in his lib. 4. Senten●iarum Dist. 24. made this to passe as an undubitable verity among all the Canonists and Schoolemen There is onely one thing needs explanation in these Popes d●crees and that is what is meant by Saint Peter who is made the Author of this Institution For this we need resort no further then to the Decree of Pope Nicholas recorded by the same Gratian Distinct 22. c. Omnes f. 33. Omnes sive Patriarchae cujuslibet apicem sive Metropoleon primatus Episcopatuum cathedras vel Ecclesiarum sive cujuscunque ordinis dignitatem instituit Romana Ecclesia By which it is evident that by Saint Peter is meant the Church and Popes of Rome who stile themselves oft times Peter in their bulls and writings as well as his successors By all these Authorities compared together it is evident that our Arch-bishops and Bishops had their Originall Institution from the Church and Popes of Rome and that not out of their imitation of any divine patterne or forme of government prescribed by Christ in Scripture and setled in those primitive Churches of the Gen●iles which the Apostles planted and to whom they directed their Epistles but out of an apish imitation of the Heathenish Hierarchicall government of the Idolatrous Proto-Flamines Arch Flamines and Flamines used among the Pagan Gentiles and Britaines before their conversion to the Christian Faith in whose very places Sees and forme of government they succeeded Eleuther●us instituting and ordaining that all or the most part of the Arch-Flamines which is to meane Arch-bishops and Bishops of the Pagan Law which at that day were in number three Arch Flamines and 28 Flamines should be made Arch bishops and Bishops of the Church of Christ as Graf●on and others write in positive termes which if it be true as this cloud of witnesses averre it will thence necessarily follow that our Arch●bishops and Bishops are not of divine and Apostolicall but rather of Papall and E●hnicall institution and a meere continuance of the Diabolicall heathenish Hierarchy exercised among the Idolatrous Priests in times of Paganisme within our I●land and so by necessary consequence they and their government are rather to be utterly extirpated then perpetuated in our Christian reformed Church which ought

Schollers themselves and so presently authorized to govern them without the admission of any other Thomas Watson Bishop of Lincolne in the first yeere of Queene Elizabeth was deprived of hs Bishopricke and imprisoned for refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy and counselling the other Bishops to excommunicate the Queene for altering religion Of which see more before in Tonstall Bishop of London Of other Bishops of this See since his time I finde little in History As for the present Prelate of that Diocesse as he deserves due praise for his magnificent Structures of Libraries Hospitals and the like So on the other side his excessive pride and miscarriages in his Chancellor-ship for which he lost that office and especially his advancing of the now Arch-bishop of Canterbury who proved a scourge to him as well as others with his procuring Mountagues Appeale to be printed which kindled a great Combustion in our Church and State and laid the foundation of all those Popish Innovations both in doctrine and discipline which have since like a filthy leprosie over-spread our Church and bred such sad effects and distractions among us deserve iust blame Yea his late extraordinary stickling much spoken against to maintaine the Lordly iurisdiction and secular authority of our Prelates without the least diminution or reformation of their excesses hath much ecclipsed all the honour and reputation he had gained by his former sufferings which should have made him as the vulgar truely say more meeke and lowly in heart like Christ his Master of whom he and all other Pontifs should learne Humility not lofty and pontificall domineering like Diotrephes who loved to have the preheminen●e for which St. Iohn condemns him or like the ambitious Apostles who contended which of them should be greatest for which Christ sharpely rebuked th●m sundry times saying Ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion ov●r them and they that are great exercise authority upon them But it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you let him be your minister and whosoever will be chi●fe among you let him be your s●rvant even as the Sonne of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a ransome for many Which texts together with that of Peter Feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready minde neither as being Lords over Gods Heritage but being ensamples to the flocke c. Yea all of you be subiect one to another and be cloathed with humility for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble it seemes this Prelate and his Brethren have forgotten or at least beleeve not to bee canonicall since they now poynt-blancke oppugne them yet me thinkes he should in this case have remembred what himselfe had but lately published in print as most Orthodox in doctrine and consonant in Discipline to the Church of England and very fit to be printed and published in any place or places where h● as Ordinary was inabled and licenced so to doe and so at Westminster In the holy Table Name and Thing pag. 82. against Clergy mens intermedling with secular affaires where thus he writes O foolish St. Basil that bids h●s Clergie take speciall heed that their Martha be not troubled with many things O dull Synesius that held it fitter for an Aegyptian then a Christian Priest to be over-troubled with matters of wrangling Well Doctor God helpe the poore people committed to thy Cure they are like to finde but a sorry Shepherd One that will be in the vestry when hee should be in the Pulpit and by his much nimblenesse in the one is like to shew a proportionable heavynesse in the other which he thus seconds p. 166.167 St. Cyprian was angry with one Geminius Victor for making against the Canon one Faustinus a Priest Overseer of his Will and by that meanes withdrawing him from his calling and mini●●ry And enlarging himselfe in that discourse how carefull God had beene in providing Tith●s and Oblations for the Priest under the Law giving him not Lands and Husbandries amongst the other Tribes ut in nulla re avocar●●ur that hee might have no occasion to be withdrawne from the Altar He aggravates the offence of these Testators that by making Church-men Executors and Overseers of their last Wills ab altari Sacerdotes Ministros volunt avocare will needs withdraw Ministers from their Ecclesiasticall functions with no lesse offence then if under the Law they had withdrawne the Priests from the holy Altar So that this pl●ce takes my Doctor a little by the nose that cannot indure to be a looker on and a dull Sp●ctator confined only to his ministeriall meditations So this Prelate And do not th●se p●ssages of this Bishop Nose●oo ●oo as w●ll as the Doctor who cannot endure to be a looker on and a dull Spectator confined only to his ministeriall Meditations unlesse he may likewise sit as a Peere in Parliament and intermeddle with secular affaires If not as some conceive they doe yet sure I am the words of Synesius and Cyprian in their places which hee quo●t●s will round him in the eare and give him no little checke For Synesius in his 52. Epistle to Andronicus writes thus against Bishops sitting as Iudges and intermedling with publike secular affaires to which Andronicus would have perswaded him To ioyne the power of administring the republique with the Priesthood is all one as to knit those things together which cannot be coupled by any coniunction Ancient times permitted the same persons to be Priests Iudges For the Aegyptians and Hebrewes for a long time used the government of Priests Afterwards when as it seemes to me that the divine worke began to be done in a humane manner Deus ambo vitae genera separavit God separated both kindes of life and one of these was appointed to sacred things the other to government and empire for He designeth some to the dregs of the lowest things others he hath associated unto himselfe Those are imployed in secular affaires not in Prayer● But yet in both God requires what is honest and consentaneous Why dost thou therefore againe revoke them Why wilt thou conioyne these things which God hath separated Who requirest us not to administer but to deprave us in administring than which what can be more unhappy Hast thou need of a Patron Goe to him who is President in the Lawes of the Republike or Lord chiefe Iustice. Hast thou need of God in any thing Goe to the Bishop of the City Contemplation is the end of Priesthood if a man not falsly usurpe that name to himselfe Now Contemplation and Action doe no way●s accord for the force of the Will is moved into action which cannot bee without some affection But the Soule which is to

Apostles and Disciples to doe the semblance whatsoever Priest or Bishop will arrogate or presume upon him any such authority and will pretend the authority of the Gospel for his defen●e therein he doth nothing else but as in a manner as you would say crowne Christ againe with a crowne of thornes and traduceth and bringeth him forth againe with his Mantle of Purple upon his back to be mocked and scorned of the World as the Jewes did to their owne damnation c. The truth is that God constituted and ordained the authority of Christian Kings and Princes to be the most high and supreame above all other powers a●d Officers in this World in the regiment and government of their people c. But specially and principally to defend the faith of Christ and his Religion to conserve and maintaine the true Doctrine of Christ and all such as be true Preachers and setters forth thereof and to abolish abuses heresies and Idolatries and to punish with corporall payne● such as of malice be the occasion of the fame And finally to over-see and cause that the said Bishops and Priests doe execut● their Pastorall office truly and faithfully and specially in those points which by Christ and his Apostles was given and committed unto them and in case they shall be negligent in any part thereof or would not diligently execute the same or cause them to redouble and supply their lacke and if they obstinately withstand their Princes kind motion and will not amend their faults then and in such case to put others in their roomes and places And God hath also commanded the said Bishops and Priests to obey with all humblenesse and reverence both Kings and Princes and Governours and all their Lawes not b●ing contrary to the Lawes of God whatsoever they be and that not onely Propter iram but also Propter conscientiam that is to say not onely for feare of punishment but also for discharge of conscience Whereby it appeareth well that this pretended Monarchy of the Bishop of Rome is not founded upon the Gospell but it is repugnant thereto And therefore it appertaineth to Christian Kings and Princes for the discharge of their office and duty toward God to endeavour themselves to reforme and reduce the same againe unto the old limits and pristine estate of that power which was given to them by Christ and used in the Primitive Church For it is out of doubt that Christs faith was then most firme and pure and the Scriptures were then best understood and vertue did then most abound and excell and thererefore it must needs follow that the customes and ordinances then used and made be more conforme and agreeable ●nto the true doctrine of Christ and more conducing unto the edifying and benefit of the Church of Christ than any custome or lawes used and made by the Bishop of Rome or any other addic●ed to that See and usurped power sith that time Thus all the Prelates Clergie King and Parliament in king Henry the eighth his dayes Cuthbert Tonstall Bishop of Duresme and Iohn Stokerley Bishop of London in a certaine letter sent unto Reginald Poole Cardinall then being at Rome concer●ing the superiority of Bishops over other Min●sters resolve thus Saint Cyprian saith undoubtedly all the rest of the Apostles were the same that Peter was indued with like equality of of honour and power And Saint Ierome saith thus All the Apostles received the keyes o● the kingdome of Heaven and upon them as indifferently and equally is the strength of the Church grounded and established Which Saint Ierome also as well in his Comentaries upon the Epistle unto Titus as in his Epistle to Evagrius sheweth that these primacies long a●ter Christs assention were made by the device of men where before by the common agreement of the Clergie every one of the Churches were governed yea the Patriarchall Churches The words of Saint Ierome be these Let the Bishops understand that they be greater than other Priests rather of custome than by the vertue and verity of the Lords Ordinances And in his Epistle to Evagrius hee hath like sentence and addeth thereunto Whereso●ver a Bishop either at Rome or at Eugubinis or at Constantinople c. Hee is of all one worthinesse and o● all one Priesthood And that one was elected which should be pr●ferred before other it was devised to the redresse of Schismes left any one challenging too much to themselves should rent the Church of Christ. These words onely of Saint Ierome be sufficient to prove that Christ by none of these three Texts which be all that you and other doe alleage for your opinion the three texts are these Thou art Peter and upon this Rocke I will build my Church Peter I have prayed for thee that ●hy faith should not faile And thou being once converted confirme thy brothers feed my Sheepe Gave not to Peter any such superiority as the bishop of Rome by them usurpeth and that Peter nor no other of ths chiefe Apostles did vind●cate or challenge such primacy or superiority but utterly refused it So these two popish Prelates Why then shoulld our Bishops challenge any such primary or superiority over their fellow Ministers There is a notable Dialogue intituled A disputation betweene a Clerke and a Knight or a Souldier concerning the power committed to the Prela●es of the Church and to the Princes of the Earth Written by our famous Schooleman Wil●i●m Ocham about the yeare of our Lord 1330. as Iohn Bale records printed at London in Latin by Thomas B●rthlet Cum Privileg●o in King Henry the eight h●s raigne Wherein the Clerk complaining that the Church which in his age was had in great honour with Kings Princes and all Nobles was now on the contrary made a prey to them a●l many things being exacted f●om them many things given by them and that if they gave not their goods by way of subsidie or supply to the●r Princes they were violently t●ken from them that the●r Lawes were trampled und●r feet their Liberties infringed c. The Knight proves first that Clergy men can make no Lawes nor Canons touching temporall things but Princes onely because they have no Dominion of temporall things and that the Pope is chiefe Vicar not to those things which Christ now doth in glory but to imitate those things which Christ did in his state of humility here on earth because those things are necessary to us That he committed to his Vicar that power which he exercised on Earth as a mortall man not that hee received being glorified● For Christ said to Pilate that his K●ngdome was not of th●s World and that he came not to be ministred to but to minister This testimony is so manifest that it may confound the man who resisteth it and make the stiffest ●ecke to submit And when one of the multitude spake thus to Christ Master command my brother to divide the inheritance with me he

this purpose and not for the other have you received the keyes of the kingdome of Heaven why then doe you invade other mens bounds or borders The rest I will passe over for brevities cause The seventh Article Falsly and against the Honour State and reverence of the sacred Majesty of the King of Scots hee hath said holden and affirmed that our most noble King of Scots defender of the Christian faith would appropriate unto himselfe all the possessions lands and rents of the Church given and granted by his predecessors and also by himselfe and convert them unto his owne private use And for this end and purpose as hee hath many times written unto him so hath he with his whole endeavour perswaded our said noble Lord and King thereunto It is no marvell though these mad dogs doe so barke against mee whom they thinke to have counselled the Kings Majesty I would to God I had also throughly perswaded him that hee should take away from these unjust sacrilegious possessors the riches wherewith all they are fatted and ●ngreased like Swine For this is the nature of dogs if any man goe about to take away the bone out of their mouth by and by to snatch at him and teare him with their teeth It is out of all controversie unto such as have any wit at all that such men were very childish that is to say ignorant of all learning and judgement which did so fat and feed with their possessions these belly beasts For who would not judge it more then childish to bestow the Kings victuals or meate upon the bellies of the prophets of Baal and Iesabel But all they which at this present doe endowe such filthy sinks I will not call them dens of thieves with such revenues they doe follow the steps of Iesabel for what other thing doe they when as daily they are bleating and lowing before their Images burning of Incense and fall flat downe before their Altars but that which in times past the prophets of Baal did when as they transported the worship of God unto an Idoll Wherefore if Daniel and Elias were spotted with heresie when they would have destroyed the Priests of Baal I grant that I also must bee an Heretique But for so much as then hee did nothing but which was commanded him of the Lord that was able to kill the prophet which had allured the people to follow strange gods he could not truly and justly be accused of heresie so neither can my adversaries spot mee therewithall except peradventure they will condemne me that whereas Elias dealt more rigorously with the prophets of Baal for he cast them into the brooke Kidron I required or desired no more but that the riches which was wickedly bestowed upon them and their possessions might be taken from them The ninth Article He hath openly holden said and affirmed preached and taught that the Lawes of the Church that is to say the sacred Canons approved and allowed by the holy Catholique and Apostolique Church are of no force strength or effect alleadging therefore and affirming that they are made and intended contrary to the Law of God God forbid that I should say that those things which are approved by the holy Catholike Church should be of no effect or value For well I know that the holy Apostolique Church hath never been allowed ordained or taught any thing which shee hath not learned of the Lord the Apostles are witnesses therof Peter and Paul whereof the one of them dared not freely utter or speake of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by himselfe for the obedience of the Gentiles The other exhorteth That if any man speake he should speake the praises of God but I condemne those lawes which the Bishops of Rome have made according to their owne will and mind and say that they are spirituall pertaining unto the salvation of the soule and necessarie unto everlasting life for so much as the writings of the Apostles doe evidently declare that there was no authority knowne amongst them to make or ordaine any ordinances or lawes Furthermore the Scriptures doe manife●tly shew the same how oftentimes even by the Lords owne mouth this foresaid authority is taken from the Ministers of the Church so that no excuse for them remaineth but that they be plaine rebels against the Word of God how many soever doe presume or take upon them to appoint or set any new lawes upon the people of God Which thing is more manifest and evident than the light it selfe in many places of the Scripture For in the three and twentieth chapter of Ioshua it is written You shall observe and doe all that is written in the Law of Moses neither shall you swarve from that either to the right hand or to the left hand But that which is written in the ●welfth chapter of Deuteronomy ought to move them somewhat the more What soever I command saith the Lord that shall you observe and doe thereunto you shall adde nothing neither shall you take any thing from it c. This point hee there excellently prosecutes at large where yo● may read more at your leisure M. William Tyndall our famous Martyr in his obedience of a Christian man Printed C●m Privilegio at London 1573. p. 98. writes thus of Bishops and their practises God promised David a Kingdome● and immediately stirred up King Saul against him to persecute him to hunt him as men do Hares with Greyhounds and to ferret him out of every hole and that for the space of many yeares to tame him to meere his lusts to make him feele other mens diseases to make him mercifull to make him understand that hee was made King to minister and to serve his brethren and that he should not thinke that his Subjects were made to minister unto his Lusts and that it were lawfull for him to take away from them life and goods at hi● pleasure Oh that our Kings were so nurtured nowadayes which our holy Bishops teach of a farre other manner saying your Grace shall take your pleasure yea take what pleasure you list spare nothing wee shall dispense with you wee have power wee are Gods Vicars and let us alone with the Realme wee shall take paine for them and see that nothing be well your Grace shall but defend the faith onely After which he proceeded thus Kings were ordained then as I before said and the sword put in their hands to take vengeance of evill doers that others might feare and were not ordeined to fight one against another or to rise against the Emperour to defend the false authority of the Pope that very Antichrist Bishops they onely can minister the temporall sword their office the preaching of Gods Word laid apart which they will neither do nor suffer any man to do but slay with the temporall sword which they have gotten out of the hand of all Princes them that would The preaching of

all that they doe but onely hurt the temporall goods and the body But these great estates and Prelates of the Church if they be not good and vertuous and do not promote and ●e● forwards the course of the word of God unfainedly and with their hearts they are meere wolves and most cruell murderers of soules And it is much like in evill and wicked Bishops as if Satan having a Miter on his head and rings on his fingers did ●i● in a chaire and did rule the people Wherefore even the Bishops also which doe not teach the pure Word of God are no lesse to be eschewed than the Devill himselfe For wheresoever the Word of God is not there without doubt is nothing else but humane errour meere doctrine of Devills and butchery and slaughter of soules for the consciences or soules without the Word of God can neither live no● bee delivered from the Devill But here I know well enough they will object and say that it is jeopardy lest sedition might be raysed up against those Bishops and Prelates of the Church Loe I make answer Shall the Word of God I beseech you for this your fained objection be neglected and shall therefore the whole people perish And is it I pray you right and convenient that all soules should perpetually perish and be slaine that the temporall and most vaine pompe of such men might be preserved and maintained and might endure and continue in her peace and quietnesse Nay it were better for spirituall harmes are most to be weighed that sixe hundred times all the Bishops should perish for ever in their pride and dignity and that all the Churches collegiate and al Monasteries were plucked up by the rootes were overthrowne and utterly destroyed so it were done by the authority of the higher powers th●n that one soule should perish Because I will not in the meane season say that infinite soules yea that all soules shall perish for any thing that such as they doe I pray you tell me what profit commeth of many of the Bishops that now are or wherefore serve they but onely to live in voluptuousnesse and pleasures and to play the rioters and wantons of other mens labour and sweat and in the meane season with much grievo●s threatnings and with dreadfull feares to condemne to hisse out to cast out and to warre against the Word of God Good men they take exceeding great thought and care for themselves and with marvellous great unquietnesse of minde feare and dread seditions in the temporall common-wealth but as for the death of soules being thereof all carelesse and without any manner of fea●e or unquietnesse of minde they doe neglect and passe nothing upon it I beseech thee good Reader are not these goodly wise and exceeding bold and manly heardsmen of the Church If they did receive the Word of God and of truth and did principally search for the life and safeguard of soules then the God● as the Apostle saith of patience and of Comfort and hope would be with them that they should not neede to feare any seditions or risings of the people which is but their crafty cloaked excuse to blind the eyes of the Princes But in as much as they like deafe Serpents stopping their eares will not heare the Word of God but such is their fury and madnesse doe rage against it with excommunications cursings imprisonments with the sword and finally with fire I beseech you what other thing doe they as concerning their part with this their extreame woodnesse then which God defend even willingly provoke that there should rise up a very great sedition and that some certaine tempest and storme should violently and suddenly come upon them which should rid them at once out of the world And surely if any such thing did chance unto them yet were they nought else but to be laughed and scorned as Wisedome saith in Proverbs 1. Because I have called and you have refused to come I have stretched forth my hand and there was none of you that would looke to me and you have despised all my counsell and have set at nought my rebukings I also will laugh in your destruction and I will mocke and scorne when that thing which you did feare shall be chanced and come unto you The Word of God doth not stirre or raise up seditions and strifes but the stubborne aud obstinate disobedience of them which doe rage against it is the cause that trouble and sedition is stirred up among the people and that then by such seditions that thing should happen unto them which they had deserved through their owne unbeleefe and frowardnesse and wicked blindnesse for whosoever receiveth the Word of God that man raiseth up no manner of seditions at all albeit that he doth no longer feare those vaine ●ugges neither doth worship those Episcopall Puppets now since that he doth know the Word of God and because that men doe not feare and reverence their vaine imaginations as heretofore they have done that same is the thing if I be not beguiled which they doe call seditions and this is the thing that those persons doe so greatly feare which have hitherto suffered themselves to be worshipped and feared like Gods as though they had beene true Bishops or true Hear●smen of the Church After which he addes S. Pe●er saith of these The Lord knoweth how to keepe the unrighteous persons unto to the day of judgement for to be punished Namely such as following the flesh doe walke in the concupiscence and lust of uncleannesse and doe despise the Governors and Rulers being presump●uous stubborne and which doe no● feare to raise and speake evill words on them which are in high authority Our delicate Bishops doe ●ot beleeve that this was spoken of them But I beseech thee good Read●r marke here how well the words of Peter doe agree with Paul when he describeth their filthy and uncleane life For where he saith presumptious stubborne there are scantly any men to whom those words doe sooner agree For it is they which of all men doe most set by themselves insomuch that they doe despise all worldly Rulers and Officers and whatsoever other person is of high dignity and authority in the world in comparison of themselves and doe also rayle upon them and speake opprobrious words against them For the Pope hath many yeares agoe taken this monstrous tyrannie unto himselfe that hee hath not beene afraid to tread Kings and Princes under his feete to depose them to excommunicate them to curse them unto the 4.5 and 6. Generation and after their owne pleasure to exercise all things which any manner of way whatsoever it may belong and helpe unto extreame and wonderfull tyranny none otherwise than if the Princes and Governours were Swine or else Dogges notwithstanding that the Scripture willeth all men to ●e subject and obedient unto the Princes and Governours of the publicke peace and

tranquillity of this life● Namely forasmuch a● they 〈…〉 and ordained to serve the divine Ordinance as Ministers of the sword And yet neverthelesse there are found some Kings and Princes so faint-hearted and of so little manfulnesse and courage that they doe feare these harmelesse thunders and vain● curs●●g and doe humbly beseech and obtaine the ex●reame and ●●termost foolishnesse and insen●ibility that they may be blessed againe for so they call it of the Pope I wo● n●t with what charmes or conjurations and words appointed for the same purpose onely that is to wit to the end that that cruell p●●sumption and that wonderfull tyranny of his a● though he were not m●d enough of his owne Swing might by the reason hereof the sooner gather power and strength and with those most vaine decei●es of cursings might deceive all the whole world Besides this the Bishops d●e stoutly and man●●lly helpe the Pope and so all the great L●rds belonging to the Pope and they be in very deede the dispisers of all Rulers and Potestates which will in no wise be subject to any manner of high power neither in body nor in goods but onely they being presumptuous and stubborne and more than Wood doe on every side make businesse and rage to excommunicate and curse all Kings and Princes and others which are in authority Tell me I beseech you hath not our Peter here largely and plainely touched our most delicate and tender Bishops I pray you of what other persons may these words be understood that they are not subject nor obedient unto the Rulers that they speake evill of Kings and Princes briefely that being presumptuous and stubborne they doe feare no man Is it not knowne openly to the world who they be that commit these lewd deedes Why then should I be affraid to touch and rebuke these coloured and painted Bishops which by the tyranny of the Pope by the favours of men and by holy gold have invaded Bishoprickes without the Commandment either of God or men But for as much as these delicate and tender Bishops have foreheads of Iron and neckes of brasse as it is sayd in the Prophets and will not feare they cannot be perswaded and they runne forth on according to their owne madnesse their owne course and their owne swing and whereas they ought to spend their blood and their life I meane not in any worldly fight for the maintenance of the Word of God against the doctrines of men They sleepe all carelesse and give their mindes altogether to pleasures and to fare well and the soules of which they boast themselves to be the Pastours and feeders they doe most sloathfully neglect and nothing care for But such is their negligence they doe onely thinke and study how they may bring in the dreadfull wrath of God upon men and draw soules unto the deepe pit of hell and that they may at the last carry the Consciences of men cleane overthwart from the Word of God into lyes and devillish Errours and the doctrines of men wherefore wee ought here so much the more diligently to take good heede and to looke well about that we may shew and utter unto the world these so cruell and so bloody wolves which doe lye hid under forked Miters set with pearles and precious ●tones I doe therefore exhort all Christian men in our Lord that they will here con●ider and ponder the wrath of God And therefore likewise as you would doe with a visible Idoll even so do now with the Bulls of these Romish Balaam the tormentor and slayer o● soules Consider how pleasant a thing you shall doe unto God if you doe breake and dash in peeces with the Word of God and not with the sword these Idolls and doe sanctifie his glorious name and doe deliver it from the filthy abomination of Idolatry After which he addes That a Bishop ought to abhorre and to be farre a way from filthy Lucre but the Bishop of Rome and his Clients and other Bishops of their complexion have infinite crafts and most shamefull meanes of getting money And here it is not unknowne to me what they doe object I● i● not enough not sufficient for a Prince say they to have meate drinke and cloathing except he have also sufficiently whereof he may keepe and maintaine a guard or band of men according to the condition and estate of a Prince What Princes doe in this place object and alleadge for themselves of the Princely state and of Princes Courts advise them the Apostle speaketh not of Princes but of Bishops As for these Princely Bishops and Bishoply Princes he utterly knoweth nothing of which doe beguile the world with the name of Bishop and with the most vaine colours of Ceremonies and gloves and Miters But therefore Paul and the Spirit of God which spake in him shall not change their words neither attemper themselves un●o these Princes but these Princelike Bishops shall be faine to attemper and apply themselves in their living according to the minde of S. Paul and his word●● or else they shall not be Bishops nor Pastours but meere puppets and v●surs I cannot here refraine although I list not now greatly to bourd in the rehearsall of these things but I must rehearse a pleasant and merry History It happened upon a time that a certaine Princely Bishop of Colen in Germany did ride with a Royall Pompe and goodly company of horsemen as commonly such Bishops are wont to shew themselves set forth gayly and gorgeously even above any worldly or temporall Princes through the fields that lay neere unto a certaine Village whom when a certaine shepheard had haply espied as he rode over the fields he left his flocke and did run unto him and staring and gazing upon him as it had beene one amazed he marvelled greatly at the riches pompe and gorgeousnesse which he saw about him The Bishop seeing him so gazing sayd unto him What dost thou see here that thou dost marvell so greatly Then he as he was an homely rusticall fellow made to him this plaine answer I mervaile said he whether S. Martin did use this same Pomp or like gorgeousnesse and superfluity To whom the Bishop said Forsooth thou art a starke foole and takest thy marke amisse for S. Martin was scarcely one of the vile and rascall people but I am also a Prince of high and Noble birth Then sayd the shepheard againe I beseech you my Lord will you give me leave to speake a word yea marry sayd the Bishop● I give thee good leave demand what thou wilt Then said the Shepheard what if the Devill should take and beare away the Prince shall there remaine any thing of the Bishop At these words that good Princely Bishop being confounded and ashamed depar●ed from the man and rode his way So the Apostle Paul in comparison of those Dukes and Nimrods was a plaine simple craftsman living by the worke of his owne hands And therefore

crowne of glory Here thou seest that Peter even likewise as Paul did doth use these two words Presbyter and Episcopus both for one thing that is to wit that they are Episcopi which doe teach the people and doe preach the Word of God● and he maketh them all of equall power one with another and he fo●biddeth them to behave themselves so as if they were Lo●ds or had dominions over those whom they have charge of He calleth himselfe a fellow Priest that I may so say by these words evidently declaring and proving that all Parish Priests and Bishops of Cities are of equall power among themselves and as touching the Authority of a Bishop that one is nothing superiour to another and that he himselfe also is fellow Priest with them and hath no more power authority in his own City then have the other or every one of them in their owne Congregation● Loe Peter maketh himselfe equall and not superiour to the Bishops what I beseech you will those beasts alleadge here against these things which doe not cease nor onely to be Lords and have dominion but also to exercise most cruell tyranny upon our soules and our goods which also doe never cease with exceeding mad brawlings and suites to contend and strive among themselves about the difference and degrees of power and authority And that I may once make an end Christ himselfe in the 22. chapter Luke saith The Princes of the Paynims are Lords over them and they which have power and authority over them are called beneficiall and gracious but it shall not be so among you but he that is eldest among you let him be made as youngest Hereunto hearken and give good attendance you pompous and Lordly Bishops Loe all the holy Christian people require of you a reason and cause of your domination and Lordship which you have hitherto with so many titles and also with so many tyrannous deedes taken violently usurped and challenged unto your selves Loe I say the Christian world requireth a cause of this your doing for this you cannot deny which is so open and evident afore the eyes of all men that your Kingdome is an outward and a worldly Kingdome yea and that more worldly than the Kingdome of any worldly Prince For you play the Lords openly both upon the bodies and also the minds and that not by the Word of God but by exteriour pompe by exteriour and worldly tyranny as other Princes and Rulers of the heathen people doe I say goe to therefore now and tell me how those Words of Christ vos autem non sic that is but so shal not you doe how do t●ey agree with that your Kingdome Goe to now because you shall not as you are very slippery slip from me let us ensearch and ponder well the signification of the words What is the meaning of these words But you not so for here undoubtedly is rebuked your Kingdome● your condition state for this ought not to be such a one as it is if it were a Christian state Now let it be whatsoever manner one you will yet for all that Christ speaking of the domination of those worldly Princes saith plainely unto you for you will seeme to be Bishops But ye shall not doe so Which words hee largely prosecutes and afterwards proceedes thus You doe ●eede and nourish your selves most delicately and ●enderly in riot and pleasures with the blood and sweate of poore men● besides impoverishing and beggering the world with your gu●●es and deceipts you doe with your Excommunications and Interdictions vex and tosse all things up and downe afflicting and tormenting poore men both in soule in body and in their goods you doe extinct and destroy the Gospell and not onely your selves doe no manner of worke belonging to the Office of a Bishop but also you will not suffer any other men to preach the Word of God you doe pursue the Preachers from City to City as it was prophesied in Matth. 24. and you do expulse them as knaves and vild wretches out of all your dominions dest●●ction● I verily to give you good and faithfull counsell would advertise you that you should purchase and get unto your selves the favour and love of the people with mildnesse with mercifulnesse with softnesse with patience and Apostolicall sincerity that is to wit with those vertues with those holy means which S Paul did use goe forth and hold on as you have begun this is even the right and next way to undoubted destruction whereunto you do so greatly make haste for even so did your Fathers the Iewes into whose hypocrisie you are succeeded who when they had slaine the Lord and author of life Jesu● Christ and had by degrees promulged and published the Gospell to be for bidden yet could they not rest untill they had provoked the Romans and so had sought their owne undoubted mischiefe which said Romans at the last setting violently upon them slew them and utterly destroyed them for how could you better observe and fulfill that which becommeth your personages to do than if you do goe about and endeavour to prove and shew your selves the very right and true sonnes and heires of such manner of Parents But here I see they will put upon them all the whole Episcopall armour that is to say a purple pall and a forked Miter upon their heads their gloves and their rings with precious stones to fence both their hands withall they s●all also have their feet shod not with the preparation of the Gospel of peace but of the sandall of vanity and a silver Crosse hanging downe to the midst of their breast and if I be not deceived a Roman Pall also covering their shoulders and a shepheards staffe to measure their pace and so then having this armour upon them with a stately and solemne gate they shall come forth c. Who hath commanded that Bishops should so play the gallants and use such pompe and gorgeousnesse of the Court Christ did openly forbid them to be as the Kings and Princes of the Gentiles where ●ee dot● by expresse and open words separate and divide t●em from Princes of the World a●d saith The Kings and R●lers of the Gentiles are Lords over them but you shall not do soe These words that Prince of Princes and King of Kings and that Lord of Majesty will not revoke hee will not abolish them nor suffer them to be thrust out of place and made void for thy peevish excuses wherewith thou dost in thy conscience coldly and faintly com●ort thy selfe Why dost thou not rather forsake thy Lordly Port be it never so pleasant if thou ca●st not e●ecute and fulfill the offi●e of a Bishop why dost thou for transitory and most vild honour forget thine owne health and salvation yea moreover wittingly and willingly dost cast away thine owne soule for the most deceitfull pleasure of this life Why dost thou I say wittingly a●d wilfully perish Even those

If hee had seene our Bishops that now bee hee would have said otherwise For now the Pope claimeth a power above all the powers in heaven and earth as it is written in the Councell of Lateran Againe ●rasmus in another place speaking hereof saith thus This holy man Saint Ierome saith plainly and freely and as hee thinketh that the Bishop of Rome is above other Bishops not by Bishopricke● but onely by riches By riches onely M. Harding Erasmus saith the Pope is above other Bishops By riches onely hee saith not by right of Gods word not by vertue not by learning not by diligence in preaching but onely by riches Now it may please you to follow your owne rule and to lay the one saying to the other But Saint Ieromes words are plaine of themselves and have no need of other expositor Thus he writeth What doth a Bishop saving onely the ordering of Ministers but a Priest may do the same Neither may wee thinke that the Chu●ch of Rome is one● and the Church of all the world beside is another France England Affrica Persia Levante India and all barbarous Nations worship one Christ and keepe one rule of the truth If wee seeke for Authority the whole world is greater than the City of Rome Wheresoever there be a Bishop be it at Eugu●ium be it at Rome be it at Constantinople be it at Rhegium Be it at Alexandria be it at Tanais they are all of one worthinesse they are all of one Bishopricke The power of riches and the basenesse of poverty maketh not a Bishop either higher or lower for they are all the Apostles successors What bring you mee the custome of Rome being but one City Here M. Harding findeth great fault for that I have translated these words Of one Bishopricke and not as hee would have it Of one Priesthood God wo● a very simple quarrell Let him take whether he liketh best if either other of these words shall serve his turne Erasmus saith Bishop P●iest and Presbyter at that time were all t●ree all one But M● Harding saith The Primates had Authority over other in●eriour Bishops I graunt they had so Howbeit they had it by agreement and custome but neither by Christ nor by Peter nor Paul nor by any right of Gods Word Saint● Ierome saith Let Bishops understand that they are above Priests rather of Custome than of any truth or right of Christs institution and that they ought to rule the Church altogether And againe Therefore a Priest and a Bishop are both one thing and before that by the inflaming of the Devill parts were taken in Religion and these words were uttered among the people I hold of Paul I hold of Apollo I hold of Peter the Churches were governed by the common advice of the Priests Saint Augustine saith The office of a Bi●hop is above the office of a Priest not by the authority of the Scrip●ures but after the names of honour which the custome of the Church hath now obtained So part 2. cap. 9. Divis. 1. p. 196 He brings in M. Harding the Papist writing thus Even so they which denyed the distinction of a Bishop and a Priest were condemned of heresie as we find in Saint Augustine in the Booke and Chapter aforesaid And in Epiphanius Lib. 3. cap. 75. In the Councell of Constance the same is to be found To whom he answers in the Margent Vnt●uth for hereby both Saint Paul and Saint Ierome and other good men are condemned of Heresie And p. 202. He gives this further answer But what meant M. Harding here to come in with the difference betweene Priests and Bishops thinkes hee that Priests and Bishops hold onely by Tradition or is it so horrible an heresie as hee maketh it to say that by the Scriptures of God a Bishop and a Priest are all one or knoweth hee how farre and unto whom he reacheth the name of an Hereticke Verily Chrysostome saith Betweene a Bishop and a Priest in a manner there is no difference Saint Hierome saith somewhat in rougher sort I heare say there is one become so peevish that hee setteth Deacons before Priests that is to say before Bishops Whereas the Apostle plainly teacheth us that Priests and Bishops he all one Saint Augustine saith What is a Bishop but the first Priest that is to say the highest Priest So saith Saint Ambrose There is but one cons●cration of a Priest and Bishop for both of them are Priests but the Bishop is the first In his Sermon upon Haggai 1 p. 176. he writes thus against the temporall possessions and secular Offices of Clergy men When Constantinus the Emperour endowed the Church with lands and possessions they say there was a voyce of Angels heard in the ayre saying This day poyson is powred into the Church If there were poyson powred into Church then I doubt there was nover Treacle powred into it since This wee see that from that time shee hath done worse and worse Augustine findeth fault with the multitude of Ceremonies and saith the Church in ●his time was in worse case by mans devises than was the Church of the Iewes Bernard said There is no part sound in the Clergie And againe They which chuse t●e first places in the Church are chiefest in persecuting Christ. And againe they be not Teachers but deceivers they are not feeders but beguilers they be not Prelates but Pilates Which hee thus further prosecutes in his Sermon on Matthew 9. p. 198. And what shall I speake of Bishops Their cloven Miter signifieth perfect knowledge of the new Testament and the old their Crosiers Staffe signifieth diligence in attending the flocke of Christ their purple Bootes and Sandals signifie that they should ever be booted and ready to goe abroad through thicke and thinne to teach the Gospell and thereto they applyed the words of the Prophet How beautifull are the feete of them which bring glad tydings of peace which bring glad tydings of good things But alas in what kind of things do they beare themselves for Bishops These mysticall titles and shewes are not enough to ●e●ch in the Lords Harvest they are garments more meete ●or Players than for good Labourers Saint Bernard writes thus to Eugenius the Bishop of Rome who sometime had beene his Scholler Thou which art the shepheard ●ettest up and downe shining in gold and gorgeously attired but what get thy sheepe If I durst speake it these things are not the fodder for Christs sheepe but for devils Whatsoever apparell they have upon them unlesse they will fall to worke Christ will not know them for labourers How then can the Bishop of Rome be taken for the chiefe Pastor of Christ which these 900. yeares hath not opened his mouth to feed the flocke These 900. yeares I say since Gregory the first of that name it can hardly be found that ever any Bishop of Rome was seene in a Pulpit One of

his owne prayers unto God and private reading of those sundry confessions that were offered him c. Pag. 543. he thus proceeds Had you beene in the Primitive Church of Christ you would have gallantly disdained these other examples of Christian Kings and Countries converted and instructed by Merchants somtimes by women most times by the single perswasion of one man without all legall meanes or judiciall proceeding● the poore soules of very zeale imbracing the Word of life when it was first offered them and neglecting your number of voyces consent of Priest● and competent Courts as frivilous exc●ptions against God and dangerous lets to their Salvation● Frumentius a Christian Child taken prisoner in India the farther and brought at length by Gods good Providence to beare some sway in the Realme in the non-age of the King carefully sought for such as were Christians among the Roman Merchants and gave them most free power to have assemblies in every place yeelding them whatsoever was requisite and exhorting them in sundry places to use the Christian prayers And within short time he built a Church and brought it to passe that some of the Indians were instructed in the faith and joyned with them The King of Iberia neere Pontus when he saw his wi●e restored to health by the prayers of a Christian Captive and himselfe delivered out of the suddaine danger that he was in onely by thinking and calling on Christ whom the Captive woman named so often to his wife sent for the woman and desired to learne the manner of her Religion and promised after that never to worship any other God but Christ The Captive woman taught him as much as a woman might and admonished him to build a Church and described the forme how it must be done whereupon the King calling the people of the whole Nation together told what had befallen the Queene and him and taught them the faith and became as it were the Apostle of this Nation though he were not yet baptized The examples of England France and other Countries are innumerable where Kings and Common wealths at the preaching of one man have submitted themselves to the faith of Christ without Councels or any Synodall or judiciall proceedings And therefore each Prince and people without these meanes have lawfull power to serve God and Christ his Sonne notwithstanding twenty Bishops as in our case or if you will twenty thousand Bishops should take exceptions to the Gospell of truth which is nothing else but to waxe mad against God by pretence of humane reason and order By all which it is evident that Parliaments may not onely be held and determine Secular matters but likewise Ecclesiasticall and Religious without the presence of Bishops which is no wayes necessary if expedient Touching the parity of Bishops Presbyters by Divine institution their difference only by custom he determins thus The title and authorithy of Arch-Bishops and Patriarkes was not ordained by the Commandment of Christ or his Apostles but the Bishops long after when the Church began to be troubled with dissentions were content to lincke themselves together and in every Province to suffer one whom they preferred for the worthines of his City and called their Metropolitane that is Bishop of the chiefe or mother City to have this prerogative in all doubts of Doctrine and Discipline to assemble the rest of his brethren or consult them absent by Letters and see that observed which the most part of them determined Before there began Schismes in Religion the Churches saith S. Hierome were governed by the Common Councill of the Seniors And therefore let the Bishops understand that they be greater than Ministers or Elders rather by custome than by any truth of the Lords appointment and that they ought to governe the Church in Common and in his Epistle to Evagrius having fully proved by the Scriptures that the Apostles called themselves but Presbyters Elders or Seniors he addeth That after their times one was chosen in every Church and preferred before the rest to have the dignity of a Bishop this was provided for a remedie against Schismes lest every man drawing some unto him should rent the Church of Christ in peeces For what doth a Bishop except ordering of others which an Elder may not doe And lest you should thinke he speaketh not as well of the chiefe as of the meaner Bishops he compareth three of the greatest Patriarkes with three of the poorest Bishops he could name A Bishop of what place soever he be either of Rome or of Eugubium or of Constantinople or of Rhegium or of Alexandria or of Tajus hath the same merit and the same function or Priesthood abundance of riches or basenesse of po●erty doth not make a Bishop higher or lower for they all be successours to the Apostles So that the Bishop of Rome by Commission from Christ and succession from the Apostles is no higher than the meanest Bishop in world The Superiority which he and others had as Metropolitanes in their owne Provinces came by custome as the great Councell of Nice witnesseth not by Christs institution Let the old use continue in Egypt Lybia and Pentapolis that the Bishop of Alexandria be chiefe over all those places for so much as the Bishop of Rome hath the like custome Likewise at Antioch and in other Provinces let the Churches keepe theer Prerogatives The generall Councell of Ephesus confesseth the same It seemeth good to this sacred and Oecumenicall Synod to conserve to every Province their right priviledges whole and untouched which they have had of old according to the custome that now long hath prevailed Next their authority was subject not onely to the discretion and moderation of their brethren assembled in Councell but also to the Lawes and Edicts of Christian Princes to be granted extended limited and ordered as they say cause For example the first Councell of Constantinople advanced the Bishop of that City to be the next Patriarch to the Bishop of Rome which before he was not And the Councell of Chalcedon made him equall in Ecclesiasticall honours with the Bishop of Rome and assigned him a larger Province than before he had So Iustinian gave to the City in Africa that he called after his owne name the See of an Archbishop Touching Bishops secular Jurisdiction imprisonment and temporall affaires he writes thus Bishops be no governours of Countries Princes be that is Bishops beare not the sword to reward and revenge Princes doe Bishops have no power to command and punish Princes have This appeareth by the Words of our Saviour expressely forbidding his Apostles to be Rulers of Nations and leaving it to Princes The Kings of Nations rule over their people and they that be great ones exercise authority with you it shall not be so that is you shall neither beare rule nor exercise authority over

Caesar as matters committed of trust to you by Christian Princes are nothing else but open and wif●ull invasions of other mens rights you changing the names and calling those things Spirituall and Ec●lesiasticall which indeede be civill and temporall and shouldering Pri●ces from their cushins who first suffered Bishops to sir judges in those causes of Honour to their Persons and favour to their sunctions which on your part is but a bad requitall of their Princely graces and benefits He addes S. Paul expressely writeth of the Prince that He beareth the sword not without cause and is Gods minister to revenge him that doth evill And our Saviour severely forbiddeth Pe●er and the rest of the Apostles to meddle with the sword All that take the sword shall perish by the sword and to them all you know that Kings of Nations raigne ●ver them● and they that be great exercise authority with you it shall not be so The sword is but the signe of publicke and Princely power and where the thing is not lawfull the signe is unlawfull Since then the Lord interdicteth his Apostles and messengers all Princely power it is evident the sword which is ●ut a signe th●reof is likewise interdicted them Thus much Bernard sticketh not to tell Pope Eugenius to his face It is the Lords voice in the Gospell Kings of Nations are Lords over them and they that have power over them are called gratious and the Lord inferreth you shall not be so It is a cleare case the Apostles are forbidden dominion G● thou then saith Bernard to the Pope and usurpe if thou d●re either an Apostleship if thou be a Prince or dominion if thou be Apostolike Thou art expresly forbidden one of them If thou wilt have both thou shalt lose both The patterne of an Apostle is this Dominion is interdicted service is enjoyned Gird thy selfe with thy sword the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God And this Pope Nicholas fairely confesseth The Church of God hath no sword but the spirituall wherewith she quickneth shee killeth not Your owne Law saith It is easily proved of Bishops and other Clergy m●n whatsoever that they may not either by their owne authority or by the authority of the Bishop of Rom● take weapon in hand and excercise the materiall sword and addeth his reason For every man besides him and his authority which hath lawfull ●●wer and which as the Apostle saith beareth the sword not without cause to whom every soule ought to be subject every man I say that without his authority taketh the sword shall perish with the sword He that beareth the sword may lawfully put malefactors to death and wage warre with his enemies when need so requireth which Bishops may not doe The weapons of our warfare are not carnall saith Saint Paul Quid Episcopis cum bello what have Bishops to doe with battle saith Athanasius and A●brose Pugn●re non deb●o I ought not to fight If they may not fight much lesse kill if they may do neither they cannot beare the sword which is appointed by God and received of men to do both The words of our Saviour are cleare with us for the negative My Kingdome saith hee is not of this World if then your Priests Prelates and Popes will be the servants of Christ they must challenge no worldly Kingdome as from him or in his name The servant is not above his Master If the master with his owne mouth have denyed it the servants may not affirme it or usurpe it The souldiers of Christ must not intangle themselves with secular affaires much lesse make themselves Lords and Judge of ear●hly matters which office properly belongeth to the sword and must be sustained of all those that beare the sword The Popes themselves be●ore their power and pride grew so great were of this opinion with us Thus and much more Bishop Bilson to the same effect Not to trouble you with more quotations of this nature which are infinite I shall conclude onely with two more au●horities of men of greatest eminence and learning in our Church in Queene Elizabeths later dayes The first of them is Dr. Whitakers Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge he in his Booke Contra Du●eum l. 6. sect 19. Controvers 4. De Ecclesiae regimine Quest. 1. c. 1. sect 1. 2. c. 2. sect 16. Quest. 4. c. 3. sect 25 26 27 28 29 30 31. De notis Ecclesiae qu. 5. c. 6. p 509 and Contr. 2. Concil qu. 3. c. 2. p. 586 587. reciting Saint Ieromes words at large on Titus 1. and to Euagrius concludes with him That in former times Bishops and Presbyters were all one and the same that every where a Presbyter was the same that a Bishop is that ALL Churches were not under the Government of one man but were governed by the Common Counsell of their Presbyters Ecclesiae inquit Jeronymus gubernabantur c. id est VBIQVE OMNES fuit hi● MOS Ecclesiarum gubernandarum That this custome was not changed by the Apostles sed POST Ecclesie judicto That Bishops are greater now than Ministers not by divine institution but custome and that humano non divino jure totum ●oc discrimen constat the whole difference betweene them is by humane not by divine Law or right That by ancient and divine right a Presbyter was lesse than a Bishop NIHILO in nothing After which he proceeds thus If the Apostles had changed that order as Sanders pretendeth what had it profited Hierome with so great diligence to have collected testimonies out of the Apostles whereby to shew that they were sometimes the same It might easily come into his memory that this order was changed by the Apostles themselves after the Church was disturbed and torne with discords But wherfore then saith Hierom Before it was said I am of Paul c. the Church was Governed by the Common Councell of Presbyters c. I answer this might deceive Sanders Hierome onely alluded to the place of the Apostle that hee might shew that schismes were the cause of changing this order as hee saith elsewhere that this was done to remedy schismes But this remedy was almost worse than the disease For as at first one Presbyter was set above the rest and made a Bishop so afterwards one Bishop was preferred before the rest and so this custome brought forth the Pope with his Monarchy by little and little and brought it into the Church Ierome so openly oppugneth the Pontificall Hierarchy that the Papists know not what to determine or answere concerning Hierome Michael Medina doubts not to affirme that Ierome was an Hereticke in this kinde and that he held the very same opinion that Aerius did verily Hierome was of the same opinion with Aerius whereby we may the lesse regard that Aerius is so often objected to us AB INSULSIS HOMINIBUS

though I thinke untrue then it is cleare that this Angel of Ephesus who lost his first love was famous and zealous Timothy not dead when this Epistle was written as Pererius and Alcazar both Jesuites with Lyra Ribera P. Halloix and others confesse And who dare be so presumptuous as to thinke Timothy a man so eminent famous zealous and so much applauded in Scripture would prove an Apostate or backeslider and lose his first love Either therefore you must deny Timothy or this Angell to be the Bishop of this Church Ninthly grant this Angell to be a Bishop yet it was onely such a Bishop as was all one and the same with Presbyters and of which there were many in one Church no● one over many Churches according to the holy Ghosts and the Apostles owne institution as appeares by Act. 20.17.28 Phil. 1.1 Tit. 1.5.7 compared with the 1 Pet. 5.2.3 Iam. 5.14 Act. 14.23 1 Tim. 5.17 which maketh nothing for but directly against that Episcopacy you contend for Tenthly and finally grant him such a Bishop as you would make him yet at the best he was an Apostate who had fallen from and lost his first love by being made a Lord Bp And it will be but little credit for our Prelates to found their Hierarchy upon an Apostate And if I conjecture not amisse this may bee one probable reason why so many Ministers prove turne-coates and Apostates losing their first love and zeale to God when they are made Lord Bishops because they have an Apostate Angel both for their foundation and imitation Happy man be their dole let them make the best of this Apostate I will not hinder but rather pitty them in this folly The second Allegation for the divine right of Episcopacy is that Timothy and Titus were Bishops such as our Lordly Prelates now are the one of Ephesus the other of Crete which Bishop White and others endevour to prove especially by the Post-script of the second Epistle to Timothy The second Epistle unto Timotheus ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians was written from Rome when Paul was brought before Nero the second time And by this Postscript to the Epistle to Titus It was wri●ten to Titus ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians f●om Nicopolis of Macedonia which Post-scripts they say are very ancient if not Canonicall and irrefragable I shall not here enter into a large discourse to prove Timothy neither a Bishop● nor first nor sole nor any Bishop at all of Ephesus who as some say preached the Gospell in our Island of Britaine whiles our Prelates would crea●e him the Apost●ate Angel residing in the Church of Ephesus to whom Christ writ an Epistle by S. Iohn Rev. 2.1.2 or to disprove Titus to be Lord Bishop or rather Lord Arch-bishop of Crete which had an hundred Cities in it in Homers dayes and no lesse than 4. Arch-bishops and 21. Bishops in former times since I have sufficiently manifested this long since in The Vnbishopping of Timothy and Titus not hitherto answered And indeede were there no other Arguments but two First that though Paul in his Epistles mentions Timothy and Titus more frequently than any other persons yet we never finde him so much as once stiling them Bishops no not in the Epistles to them Secondly that Paul doth never write to them in the Ordinary stile of our Lordly Prelates which it seemes he was not then acquainted with and so not with their Office viz. To the Right Reverend Father in God Timothy Lord Bishop of Ephesus To the Most Reverend Father in God Titus Lord Arch-bishop of Crete his Grace Primate and Metropolitan of all that Island which doubtlesse he would have done had they beene such Bishops as ours are and this stile had beene due or fitting for them but onely To Timothy my owne sonne or dearely beloved sonne in the faith To Titus mine owne sonne after ●he common ●aith c. these were sufficient to satisfie any indifferent man that neither of them was a Bishop or Arch-bishop of these places or at least that they were no such Lordly Prelates as ours now are who may well be ashamed of these pompous swelling Titles which no Apostle nor Apostolicall Bishop ever usurped But the onely thing I shall here insist on shall be to take away ●he grounds of this false Allegation to wit the pretended Authority and Antiquity of these two Post-scripts wi●h which the world hath beene much abused For their Authority It is confessed by all First that they are no part of the Text or Canonicall Scripture Secondly that they are not of infallible truth many of them being dubious others directly false as Baronius the Rhemists Estius Mr. Beza Mr. Perkins and sundry others prove Thirdly that they were not added to the Epistles Paul b● himself when he writ the Epistles as some have dreamed but by some third pe●son since as the whole frame of the words running on●ly in the third person imports For their Antiquity when and by whom they were first added will be the sole question To cleare this doubt I shall have recourse to the Post-script of the first Epistle to Timothy which runnes thus The first to Timothy was written from Laodicea which is the chiefe City of Phrygia Pacatiana This Post-script of the first Epistle no doubt was written either before or at the same time when the Post-script of the Second Epistle was penned and that must needes be after Phrygia was commonly stiled Pacatiana since it is thus named in this Post-script Now we shall not finde Phrygia so stiled in any Authors till about 340. yeares after Christ in the reigne of Constantine the great at which time it begun to be called Pacatiana and that as some conjecture from Pacatianus who as the Code of Theodosius M. Cambden and Speede affirme was Vicegerent of Brittaine some 330. yeares a●ter Christ. Who it was who first annexed these Post-scripts to Pauls Epistles onely ●or the other Apostles Epistles have none will be the greatest question For resolution whereof I take it somewhat cleare that Theodoret was the man who flourished about the y●are of our Lord .430 For I finde these Post-scripts added to his Commentarie upon Pauls Epistles and in no other Commentator before nor in any after him till Oecumenius his Ape and transcriber who lived about the yeare 1050. Theodoret then being the first in whom Post-scripts are extant and Oecumenius his follower the next it is probable that he was the first Author of them And that which puts it out of doubt is this that Theodoret in his Preface to his Commentaries on Pauls Epistles is the first who doth modestly undertake with scriptum esse existimo onely to shew both the time when and the place from whence Paul writ his severall Epistles which Preface fully accords with the Post-scripts placed not after the text it selfe but after the end of his