their Successors But to release them of this quarrell let vs proceede to that which doth ensue The State of Greece therefore being on this wise rent and torne a sunder the Maiesty of the French Empire begann from thenceforth to aduaunce it selfe whiche being as yet freé from the Tyranny of the Pope did preserue the royaltye of the Maiestye by their owne prowesse well enough yet could it not gard it selfe altogether so safely but that it was now and then circumuerted with the fraudulent crampes and iniurious practises of this Sacred Seé For whereas it was established by most auncient ordinaunce euen from the tyme of Constantine the great That it should not be lawfull for anye persone throughout all Christendome to take vpon hym the dignitie of a Bishop vnlesse the Imperiall Maiesty beyng thereunto sollicited had ratified the Election whereas also the very same ordinaunce was concluded vpon and confirmed betwixt Hadrian and Charles the great that the Pope should hold him contented with his Byshoppely preminence and authoritie ouer the Clergye and administer the thinges that appertayned to the fūction of a Bishoppe to the preaching of sound doctrine and the regyment and direction of ecclesiasticall discipline but the Interest and authoritie of choosing and appoynting Bishoppes shoulde be specially resyant and reserued to the Imperiall Maiesty and to hys posteritie according to the receaued and approued constitucion of hys predecessors And that no Election of any Bishop not so much as of the pope hymselfe should be adiudged legitimate vnles the Emperour had geuen hys consent nor that it might be likewise lawfull for the pope beyng chosen to call a coūsell of Bishops nor to make anye innouacion or alteration of rites or Ceremonyes of the Church neyther yet to determine any thing without the aduise and ratification of the Emperour All these I say being by auncient custome long before the time of Constantine the great approued by custome established with Iudgement enacted by law decreed vpon afterward by the full cōsent assent of both partes not wtout the publique voyces and full acclamacions of the whole Synode and recorded also as an especiall Decree of the sacred Councell who coulde euer haue beleaued that the Bishoppes which doe owe a most humble and duetifull reuerence to the higher power would enfring or swarue one title so much from these their owne decreés beyng so cleare so manifest and so notoriously concluded vpon But now such was the tyme that nothing coulde make them to bee myndefull of their duety not reason not prescription of antiquitie not shame not their oathe and fidelitie but that they would attempt first to picke a quarrell agayust the same their decreés deliuered by Constantine concluded vpon with Charles and with great carefulnes and seueritte mayntayned by the Successors of Charles immediately after the death of Charles afterwardes vyolētly to breake thēa sunder maugre the power and Maiesty of the Emperours As hath bene aboundantly declared before in Stephen 4. in Pascalis 1. Hadriane 2. Martine 2. Hadriane 3. and many other the Successours of the sayd Hadrian although that Fraunce seémed in this behalfe somewhat of better courage and constancy in brydlyng the insolency of the Popes then Germanie was Afterwardes the whole ofspring of Charles lyne beyng in cōtinuaunce of time cleane worne the Maiestie of the Empire was turned ouer vnto the Saxons Where the same conditions and couenauntes were reuiued by the Emperours Otto the first and Otto the thryd For there is extaunt as yet a Decreé remainyng of Recorde amongest the popes Cānones where the pope after the example of Hadrian doth say that he doth geue full power vnto Otto the Emperour to Elect the pope to establishe the Seé Apostolicke and to confirme Bishops and denounceth withall a great greéuous penaltie vpon all them that would be so hardy as to Consecrate any Bishop without authoritie of the Emperour thereunto first had and obteined Wherefore all the predecessours of Charles the great his successours good Emperours euen vntill the tyme of Otto the thryd preserued with them selues the chief and onely Iurisdiction of the Popes and Byshops Election inuiolable And withall conueyed the state of the Empire vnto them selues either by lawfull succession or by approued Election without all authoritie of the Byshop of Rome wherof that Decreé chiefly of Otto the thyrd concluded vpon with Gregory 5. is a very playne and euident demonstration whereby it was generally proclaimed that from thenceforth all the right and Iurisdiction of Electing the Romaine Emperour should remaine with the Germaines onely And that it should not be lawfull for the Byshoppe of Rome to create any Emperour but such as the states of Germanie should aduaunce to that dignitie These thynges I thought good to recite touchyng the lawfull Election of Emperours and Byshops to the end the Reader may with lesse difficultie conceaue and Iudge aright of all that shall hereafter be spoken and of the whole substaunce of the Pontificall obedience First whereas Osorius doth say That this power is mainteyned not by any ordinaunce of mā but by the appointement of Christ him selfe This is easily confuted by the Edictes of Emperours mentioned before By whō it was enacted that the Election of Byshops ought none otherwise be ratified and legitimate then by the confirmation of the Maiestie Imperiall Now touchyng that which he hath annexed in prayse and commendation of the popes obedience That they do refuse no ordinaūce of any lawfull authoritie Herein me seémeth he speaketh altogether as though he neuer Read any of the antiquities of the former ages or monumentes of Histories Otherwise who so will vouchsafe diligently to peruse the Actes of the popes those especially which succeéded Otto and Henry the thyrd what do all their pollitique enterprises Counsels and proude contentions emporte what do they sauor of whereunto tende they what denounce they nay rather what do they proclaime and testifie other then a peruerse waywardnesse of a continuall bent rebellion agaynst the lawfull power of the Princes of the earth And although their arrogaunt insolēcy beyng a long tyme reasonably well snafled by the Greéke and Frenche Emperours which would yeld them no further prerogatiue then the Auncient Constitutions permitted vnto them could not raunge so licentiously to that hawtynesse and might whereafter they hunted yet neuerthelesse takyng this yoake of subiection very greéuously which did foreclose them all passable way to that largesse of Maiesty whereby they were in hope that they should oppresse the Emperours they left no occasion vnsought nor flackt any oportunitie offered which might minister vnto them some matter of title or clayme to translate vnto them selues the dispensation of causes Ecclesiasticall and Election of Byshops for if they could once bring that to passe they knew it would be matter of no difficultie either to hinder the Election of the Emperour that it should not proceéde otherwise then they listed or to
vaunt your selfe so much yet this discent in geÌ„try was not valued of Paule amongest the vertues qualities which he assigned to a Christian Byshop But other ornamentes where with I wishe you were better acquainted perhaps ye would then seéme somewhat a woorse Rhetorician but sure I am you would bee farre better Byshop But now you haue enured your selfe so much to vnmeasurable raylyng that ye seéme rather a coÌ„mon brauling Thersites theÌ„ a meéke Prelate You thinke that I yelde to much to the authoritie of kynges because I affirmed that the kynges of Israell dyd rule the Priestes in matters of Religion And this you say is not true Why so I pray you is it false bycause you say that it is false O notable Pithagoras the credite of your naked affirmatiues beyng bolstered vp with no reason nor witnesse bee not crept so farre on high benche as yet to be takeÌ„ for Iudges I did alledge a litle before Dauid Salomon Iosias Ezechias Peruse who so list the Chronicles of them and theÌ„ let him decide this controuersie betwixt vs. The sentences of Paule and Peter in the new Testament are very manifest as I haue sayd before For Paule Commaundeth prayers to be made for kinges and for all other set in authoritie In which sentence you may discerne a distinct degreé of Power and Nobilitie vnlesse you will bee blinded with malice conceaued agaynst the truth you may also seé the kyng to be placed first and highest In the same wise Peter Submit your selues to euery humune creature for the Lord whether to the king as most excellent or to the Magistrates as beyng appointed by him Loe here the lyke degreés loe here also the kyng placed chief and most excellent Here you cry out exclame Comically or rather tragically O heaueÌ„ O earth O the Seas of Neptune When as it had bene better for you to stoppe that lauishe foule mouth with the euident testimonies of the Apostles But you proceéde on rather Saying if kynges obteine the highest authoritie the whole world would be turned vpsidowne as ye thinke for that kynges would bee subiect to flatterers and so nothyng could bee executed in due order and truth but all thyngs would be gouerned after the lust of flatterers First of all kings of this our age are much beholdyng vnto you surely and amongest the rest your owne kyng especially For if it bee true that you stampe out so boldly that all Counsels of kyngs are corrupted by flatterers what one thyng do ye leaue vpright in their gouernement Beholde my good Lord and behold earnestly how trecherously and perillously you beguile your selfe with rashnesse and ignoraunce that blemish all regiment of kynges with so coÌ„mon an infamie But admit vnto you for this time that your saying is true in this respect that to to great store of flatterers swarme in Princes Courtes What then doth this let that in the Palaces of your holy Monarchies this kynde of vermine that we call a flatterer is not fostered is not dallied with all yea nâ—urished had in high price I will passe ouer myne owne neighbours and will referre you to all that new puddle of Schoolemen amongest whom you shall not finde any one sounde Exposition of Diuinitie but whole Commentaries of flatteries and Parasiticall poyson For they beautifie the Pope with these Titles videl They call him the Sunne of the worlde they ascribe vnto him both swordes Temporall Spirituall They create him the Lord of Purgatory They aduaunce him aboue the authoritie of the Canon Lawes They deny that hee is to be directed by any other person They affirme in their writynges that the Pope hath all lawes engrauen or rather lockt fast in the closet of his hart They say that the Pope can be guilty of no fault though hee throw many thousandes Soules into hell they make the Pope high Steward of PardoÌ„s as though they were the treasurie of the Churche so that hee may forgeue infinite sinnes both past already and sinnes not yet committed Furthermore they haue enthronized him chief Uicare of Christ vpon earth who can neither erre him selfe nor bryng others into errours vnto whom onely all generall Councels must be in subiection at whose feéte Emperours and Kyngs ought to prostrate them selues last of all whom all Christendome must honor and worship as an earthly God These blasphemous flatteries detestable and horrible blaunchyngs are not vttered onely by mouth at all aduenture but are extaunt in the monuments and bookes of the Romish patrones written by them aduisedly and in earnest Can you charge any kynges Courtes with the lyke Ye name Henry the eight a most excellent kyng endued with all kyngly ornaments who ye say tooke vnto him absolute authoritie ouer his subiectes through the enticemeÌ„ts of flatterers loue that he bare vnto theÌ„ boylyng also with malice agaynst the Byshop of Rome froÌ„ out whiche fountaine forsooth I know not how many floudes of wickednes and mischief did issue These be no proofes of a sober Byshop my good Lord but droÌ„keÌ„ dreames of a drousie Sophister For the noble kyng of most famous memory attempted nothyng either of loue or of hatred or by procurement of flatterours But wheÌ„ he perceaued that it was most euideÌ„t by the Gospell that generally all England was committed vnto him as his proper peculiar charge aswell by the authoritie of Gods law as mans law he banished out of his Realme that foreine authoritie and resumed his owne lawfull gouernement wholy into his owne handes studying to reserue the same inuiolable to him selfe as meéte was wherein he performed the duetie of a wise and perfect kyng and easing so his subiectes of great and importable trauailes and charges he left vnto his successours a very riche and florishyng kyngdome But touchyng the Iustice executed vpon More and Roffensis was not without much sorow of his Royall hart in respect of their witte and learnyng But after that they were publickly attainted of high treason and would by no persuasion be reclaymed from their wilfull errours hee must neédes suffer the law to proceéde agaynst them left wynking at their treachery he might haue opened a greater gappe of obstinacie and rebellion to others At the length you are come to Peters wordes but by the way spurnyng at me and calling me a most filthy person Wherin you do me no small iniurie like a wicked Sophister You demauÌ„de of me out of what wordes of Peter I framed my sentence which I vouched before touchyng the superioritie of kynges whether that enduced me bycause Peter doth name the kyng to be most excellent Not that onely graue Gentleman but the whole processe of Peters communication You doe argue in this wise That men are many tymes called excellent either in nobilitie or learnyng bycause they be very notable therein not bycause they are set in authoritie aboue all men and here a Gods name it pleaseth you to produce me for example
as was declared before And this was to cleare him selfe Osorius not to purge cleanse the Gospell with like submission humblenesse he testified his innocencie and vttered his conscieuce before the Emperour freély standyng then in perill of his owne life rather then making any bragge or vaunt of him selfe Phil. Mclancthon beyng Sommoned to appeare before the Councell rendered a Confession of his Fayth not so much of any hope to do any good as enforced by necessary constraint of obedience to make aunswere for him selfe beyng in no lesse hassard of his life then Luther The same in his common places of Diuinitie what vaunting or bragges hath he vttered Bucer and before him then Huldricke Zuinglius also after them both Iohn Caluine many other Deuines besides those for the earnest desire they had to know the truth applyed their wittes industry to the readyng of holy Scriptures For what could they do more coÌ„meÌ„dably wherein wheÌ„ they had well trauailed read and vnderstoode them immediately began the couert conueyaunces of fraude and desceipt to be made manifesâ— none otherwise then as thynges that lurcke before in darknesse do at the enlightenyng of a candle or torche immediately discouer them selues Now let Osorius tell vs what he would haue these faythfull Pastours do should they be mumme and say nothyng their coÌ„science would not permitte them For this had bene not to teach the flocke of Christ but to forsake it not to guide but to beguile it not to play the Shepheardes but wolues Theéues should they truly then and freely vndertake to defend the forlorne estate of the Veritie EueÌ„ this is it this is the very thyng they vndertooke if you be ignoraunt thereof Osorius and besides this nothyng els Whereas you say that this was a great and a hard enterprise you speake herein but the truth For whereas Veritie is a matter of great importaunce and doth commonly engeÌ„der to it selfe hatred surely they could not haue attempted any one thyng with more perill of their owne liues nor more daungerous for that present tyme yea I caÌ„ not well tell whether the Apostles them selues professing the Fayth of Christ first or the Prophetes when theâ— reproued mens traditions superstitious obseruatioÌ„ of ceremonies to much affiaunce in Sacrifices and the blind and preposterous opinioÌ„s of their people did euer enter vpon matter of more difficultie or daunger And therfore as touchyng the substaunce of the matter I do confesse that it was a perillous and an hard enterprise when they vndertooke the defence of the Veritie And yet they neuer attempted it of any such courage or confidence as to dare to promise any good successe of their labours to any others For neither was the state of that tyme so appliable as would permit them to promise any thing of theÌ„ selues though they would neuer so fayne wherein if they could escape without losse of life albeit they atchieued nought els yet they might well iudge that they had done a notable exploite So farre was it of that they could euer imagine or dreame of so great a renewyng of the Church of the vtter ouerthrow of the pope and Idolles and the like successes that ensued thereupoÌ„ the which thyng Luther shameth not to confesse simply without all dissimulation as that he could neuer so much as hope for the hundreth part of those thynges which God of his meare mercy and goodnesse brought to passe in them Whereby we do you to vnderstand Osorius that these matters were not begon by mans power or pollicie nor through any lightenes or braggyng of men but performed perfitted by the onely worke of the holy Ghost doubtles And therefore this Tertullus makyng his foundation with a manifest lye doth with like deceaueable falsehoode proceéde to the rest of his declamation that so he may seéme neuer vnlike him selfe You sayth he haue afflicted the Authoritie of the Bishop of Rome c. O affliction O cruell tormentes O holy Martyrdome O greéuous passions and woundes which this Godly Pope doth suffer for Christes sake Whiles I was readyng these wordes of yours Osorius I began to be sodenly in some doubt whether this were an ouerscape of your penne or the ouersight of Theobald your Printer whenas in steade of the Pope afflicted You would haue sayd the Lutherans afflicted or at least you should haue sayd so Certes if you indifferently and vprightly render a iust accompt of all the imprisonmentes setters gibbettes burning plates pyles of flaming woode recaÌ„tatioÌ„s beheadings boocheries fiers repeales armies tortures hostes rackynges and persecutions by fier and fagot it will easily appeare whether part hath afflicted and doth dayly afflict the other But bycause mention is made here of the afflictions of the Romish Authoritie it were neédefull for me to enquire of Osorius first what kinde of Authoritie Osorius doth define vnto vs For if he meane that Iurisdiction which the Byshop of Rome hath ouer his owne Seé of Rome and the other Prouinces aunexed to the same limited him by the Councell of Nice no man will striue agaynst him for this Authoritie But if by this name of Authoritie he will haue to be signified that hygh and vniuersall Authoritie which the Pope doth exercize and vsurpe equall with God him selfe ouer all Churches Prouinces Pastours and Byshops and aboue all generall Coâ—â—cels This Authoritie for as much as the true written Veritie doth not geue vnto him in any place yea rather oppugneth it very mightely and doth call it the See of the Beast to the which also it threateneth a vyall of vtter darkenes it can by no meanes be auoyded but one of these must neédes come to passe either that this vnmeasurable Authoritie of the Pope must geue place to the Scriptures of God or that this vniuersall Byshop shall triumphe and haue the victory the Scriptures of God beyng vtterly vanquished and put to sciâ—ence For as much as these two Authorities beyng so directly contrary eche to other can not stand together For if Christ would not permitte any superioritie amongest his owne Apostles will he suffer it amongest Byshoppes If the Lord himselfe came for this purpose as the scriptures do witnesse to become a minister to others to wash the feét of his disciples if he refused to be a king being sought vpon earnestlye for the same will there be any so proude a Disciple of Christ that will with his heéles treade vpoÌ„ the neckes of Emperours and will blaze abroad Scepters and Diademes of S. Peter in the poore and base Church of Christ what although the Pope of Rome will take vpon him more then the Authoritie of the Scriptures will allow him shall it not be lawfull therfore for godly Pastours learned Deuines to professe freély by the testimonies of the holy Scriptures that which they seé with their eyes and feéle with their handes but that they must be accounted scourgers of the Seé Apostolick But how much more wisely
to exclayme agaynst Luther was hissed out of the place not without great gleé and delight of the beholders So small and so no acquayntaunce at all hath this proud hawty and loftye kynde of myncing Minnions with our Lord and Sauior Iesu Christ. I do willingly abstayne from naming of men because I would haue them forewarned rather to theyr benefitte then reproched to their infamy if there be any besides this Osor. whom this Ciceronian skabbe hath infected with like dottage But I come agayne to Pardons wherwith as they say they sweépe all Purgatory and make cleane riddaunce when they will and by which picklockes they locke fast the gates of hell opeÌ„ the gates of heauen to whom they list But I pray you Osorius by what authoritye doe they this By the same authoritye you will say where of was spoken to Peter I will geue thee the keyes of the kingdome of heauen c. That the keyes were geuen to Peter no man will denye But what is this to the Pope of Rome because next vnto Peter the succession of the See Apostolick falleth vpon the Pope forsooth And why so how will you proue this to be true I beseéch you What because he doth enioy Peters Chayre what had Peter no more Chayres but one or did he fitt no where but at Rome And what if he neuer sate at Rome But putt the case he sate at Rome I wil geue you an argument not much vnlike vnto this It was not vnknowne to be old Poetts what a skilfull Harper Orpheus was whom they imagined to haue drawen aâ—ter him with the sweétnesse of his Harpe stoanes and woodes It came to passe in processe of time that one Neanthus Sonne of Pittacus chaunced to come by the same Harpe who being farre vnlike this Orpheus in skill of playing altogether an Asse as the prouerbe speaketh at the harpe yet through a foolish opinion conceaued of himselfe dyd persuade himselfe that he should be able to draw after him Rocks and Woddes immediately vpon the sound of the Harpe This clownish Cocklorrell therefore wandring abroad ouer hilles and dales and maruayling that the Rockes and Woods stood still as before vnmoueable and would not sturre out of theyr place at the sound of the Harpe neuer surceased from striking from stretching from thumping the Harpe vntill hauing made hymselfe loathsome to the very cattell with the tedious and brutish noyse of the Harpe became a pray to dogges and was guawed and rent in pieces by them And what els doth this popish Prelate emport with his pompous pryde and stately Chayre wheron he is no lesse â—rantickly fond then this seély soule was vpon the Harpe I list not as now to gesse the garbroyle of his glory of the thing it selfe I dare boldly speake this much as Orpheus Harpe maketh not an Harper forthwith so neyther doe Peters Keyes shape a right succession but the onely confession and fayth of Peter And yet did the Church alwayes acknowledge the Byshoppe of Rome to be the Successour of Peter the Apostle So did also the consent of the Fathers and the Antiquity of time I do heare you But by what authority by what testimony and witnesses will you iustify this to be true or by why what reason or argument will you proue it what because he canne shew the Chayre that Peter sate in Nay rather lette him expresse the vertuous life and gratious giftes of Peter and in his life geue forth vnto vs as Peter did a President and patterne of the causes precedent and the true Circumstaunces for the which the Keyes were deliuered vnto Peter For on this wise are we enformed by the Gospell Because flesh and bloud hath not reuealed this vnto thee but my Father which is in heauen You doe heare mention made first of the notable testimony of his faith and open confession of the Sonne of God which was not discouered vnto him by flesh and bloud nor by any naturall Philosophy nor engraffed within him by any force of natures lore but which being endued with heauenly inspiration he had receaued from aboue beyond all reatch of humayne Capacity For the knowledge of Christ commeth by the onely inspiration of the holye Ghost Which assoone as the Lord perceaued was engrauen within Peter wondring as it were at the greatnesse of the miracle doth first declare vnto him the glad tydings of blessednes froÌ„ God Thou art blessed Simon Bariona then alluding to the nature of his name because he was called Cephas that is to say Peter vpon that Petra that is to say vpon that Rocke of his fayth an confession he doth promise to establish the building of his Churche And added hereunto the promise of the Keyes I wyll geue thee sayth he the Keyes of the Kingdome of God c. By which CircumstauÌ„ces what are we taught els then that the foundation of the Church of Christ wheresoeuer it be is grounded vpon nothing els then vpon true fayth and vnfayned confession of the Sonne of God For when the Lord spake this vnto Peter he made no accouÌ„pt of his righteousnesse nor of hys vertues and conuersation of life neither of his fastings nor his dutifull obseruation of the commaundementes ne yet the holines of his Religion forasmuch as all these ornamentes dyd shyne as aboundauntly in others as they did in Peter But at the first vtterannce and confession of his excellent fayth the Lord doth denounce him to be blessed buildeth his Churche and doth promise the Keyes vpon the same Whereupon remayneth that we conclude at the last most truely that wheresoeuer the Keyes are exercised which are Christes true Keyes in deéd there of necessity must an influence and speciall inspiratioÌ„ of the holyghost and a certayn earnest and harty effectualnes of fayth and coÌ„stant confession of Christ goe before On the contrary part where no perseueraunce or feéling can be perceiued of the ingraued knowledge of Christ from the heauenly Father whose minde being not endued with any influence of the holyghost sauoureth of nothing at all beyond the retch of flesh and bloud who hath wedded his hart to earthly treasures to the Royalty pompe and gorgeousnes of this world who neglecting the glory of Christ is vassall and bondslaue to Ambition subiect to affections geueth himselfe to pamper the paunch and is drowned in the deépe doungeon of worldly cares who doth breath out of his nostrilles the blood and butchery of his brethreÌ„ That person in what Chayre soeuer he sitte doth with to much shamelesse arrogancy vaunte vpon the possession of the Keyes And therefore yf this Romishe ruffler doe meane to royst stille with Peters keyes he must endeuor to expresse in his maners the vertuous lyfe and godly conuersation of an Apostle and not chatt so much of a Chaire Otherwise to what purpose is it how sumptuously soeuer a man be enthronized yf he be wicked and vnworthy the place the place doth not
the pacyfying of quarells determined and ended complaynts and forced them to vnitye aud concord all which he ought to haue submitted to the pōtificall iurisdiction Moreouer this also was a part of no lesse insolencye in him to presume to fitt emongest the Byshopps in the Councell of Nyce as Theodoret doth testify to direct them with his councell commaunding thē earnestly to foreseé that in determining and decyding all matters of Religion they should haue a speciall regard to the wrytinges of the Apostles and Prophetts The same may be veryfied by the Emperor Theodosius who as Socrates reporteth did not onely sitt emongest the Byshopps and was present at their disputation but was president and chiefe of the Councell also and did vtterly condemne the opinions of the heretiques In the councell of Chalcedon when as Dioscorus Iuuenall Thalassius were condēned for heretiques who gaue sentence vpon them the ciuill Magistrate or the Byshoppes of Rome lett Osorius make aunswere at his best leasure In the 3. Councell of Constantinople the Emperour Constantine did not onely sitt together with the Byshopps but subscribed their decreés also with his owne hand on this wise We haue readd sayth he and haue subscribed them Lykewise in the Councell of Arausium we reade the same was done I doe not say of the Princes themselues but of thambassadours of Princes and states of the Potentates also who did not onely vtter their mindes in matters of Religion but did adde also their owne subscriptions emongest the Byshopps When as Iustinian the Emperor made a law touching the reformation of lyfe and the restrayning of the insolent licētiousnes of Priestes and when as he deposed two Popes Siluerius and Vigilius striuing together for Peters chayre In lyke maner here in our litle Brittaine when as Athelstane Edgar Egelrede and Canutus doe establishe Byshops in their Seés when as they doe make lawes touching the Sabbath touching payment of Tythes touching Ceremonies touching worshipping touching cases of Matrimony of Penaūce and Excommunication did they thinke that they had no charge committed vnto them for Reformation of Religion And what shall we aunswere to Ierome then who writyng agaynst Rufinus touching the lawfull aucthoritye of Councells Tell me sayth he what Emperour did commaund that Councell to be sommoned What shall I speake of August lykewise who taking vpon him to confute the error of the Donatistes emongest other many reasons forced this Argument chiefly Why did you conuent Cecilian Byshopp of Carthage before Constantine sayth he If it be not lawfull for an Emperour to determine vpon matter of Religion Moreouer how shall Chrisostome be aunswered who by the authoritye of that place of Paul before rehearsed doth restraine euery humaine creature not exempting the very Apostles and Euangelistes themselues to the dutiefull obedience not of one Byshopp but of euery of his owne particular Prince Furthermore what shall we say of the Apostle Paule himselfe who purposing to be tryed in the controuersie of Religion doth make his appeale not to Peter sitting as the Papistes doe say at Rome but to themperor Nero notwithstanding he was a most horrible Tyrant So that concerning the duetye of obedience on the behalfe of the subiect not the person that is in highest authority whether he be Kyng or Queéne but the estate it selfe which is ordeyned from God is to be considered Which beyng most certeynely true what cann be more voyde of shame then Osorius face more vnsauory then his writing and more false then his opinion who raking a heape of wordes together to bring vs to be more maligned and enuied Barketh agaynst vs Englishmen with his doggish Eloquence Who haue submitted the Sacred affayres of holy Churche not onely to a king which you doe accompt a haynousnes vnpardonable but also to a Queene contrary to all equitye and right contrary to the holynesse of most pure Religiō and contrary to the prescript ordinaunces of almighty God and haue translated also the Sacred dignitye of the highest Byshopp violently taken away from lawfull Byshopps to the gouernement and direction of a woman c. Loe here gentle Reader the substaunce of a most greuous complaynt agaynst the Sacrilegous Englishmen haynous enough considering the force of our accuser Osorius which because you shall not think but that it is in ech respect as true as it is cruell and odious and least his declamation may happen to light emongest such as be hard of beliefe and therefore skarse finde any place of creditt behold now with what Arguments with what force and with what kinde of proofe he iustifieth his accusation and therewith enforceth creditt not by reason onely but with aucthoritye and doth make it vnreproucable by the testimony of an Oracle so that now no man cann be so distrustfull as to conceaue any ill opinion of the Accuser being a man vncontrollable Namely because himselfe hath spoken the word euery of whose wordes be inuincible sentences Goe to then what is it that Osorius vpon his superexcellent creditt doth warrant vnto vs Marke well you wretched Englishmen you outcast and abandoned Nation which haue made subiect to a womans gouernement all holy Church and all holynesse rēnonucing the Pope of Rome his aucthoritye harkē vnto your cōplaint wherewith Osorius doth charge you Which thing verely I do affirme to be an haynous offence a beastly and sauadge wickednesse and a detestable and execrable abhomination It is enough for so our Tomme told vs. Neither hath he told it onely but hath proclaymed it also and doth so proclayme it not as the Iewes did sometyme exclayme whē Christ was accused for they cryed out on this wise We haue no king but Caesar. But Osorius pypeth vpp an other note wee haue no Kyng but the Pope And as for Priestes and Byshopps to be subiect to a womās aucthoritie he accompteth it an vnpardonable haynousnes worthy of a thousand Purgatories And I beseéch you Syr what was there done at Rome when as Ioane an English woman beyng Pope all Churches holynes were subiect not onely to the Iurisdiction of a woman but were at commaundement of a Strumpett But I lett this passe and retourne agayne to you who recompt it a matter intollerable that the affaires of holy Church should be ordered by any Magistrate other then by the Popes aucthoritie By what Argument do you proue this to be true Forsooth bycause Osorius hath spoken the word But farre otherwise spake and did Augustine Ierome and Chrisostome of whom we made mention before Otherwise also spake Gelasius a Bishop of Rome who doth franckly and boldly professe that the priuiledges of the Church are in the power of the Emperour deliuered vnto him from aboue I speake not here of the person man or woman nor yet of the maners of Princes but of the authoritie which whether happē to mā or womā if their prerogatiue be warranted by the ordinaunce of God there is no cause why it
like equitie and patience of minde to admitte our confutation thereof into your presence whereby eche partie beyng discouered according to truth your highnes may more certeinly determine of the cause There is a notable Law and an othe established in the Iudgementes of the auncient Athenians To heare with both eares that indifferent eares should be open to eche partie But what maner of custome is vsed now a dayes in this perplexitie and coÌ„bate of opinions where Byshops armed with the aucthoritie of Princes doe stand raunged in mayne battell agaynst the manifest veritie and doe so bende the whole coÌ„sent of their fayth to the one partie that all libertie once to mutter is vtterly cutte of from the other partie But here may some contrary doubtfullnes paradueÌ„ture trouble your Royall thought not so much proceedyng from your gracious nature as whyspered into your godly eares by the subtill and slaunderous practizes of glaueryng glosers who vnder the counterfaict vysour of this glorious couÌ„terfaict Church haue wonderfully bewitched the eyes and eares of many noble personadges vnder preteÌ„ce of succeeding course of many yeares do make glorious bragges that this new-fangled Church wherein the Romish Byshopp in enthronized is the onely Catholicke Church and the supremacy thereof to be onely obeyed alleadgyng the same Church to be the Empresse and gouernesse of all other Churches and which of right ought to be esteemed aboue all Kinges Emperours as ouer the which Christ hath substituted the Byshopp of Rome his sole Vicar and Vicegerent earth and therfore that all degrees ought and may safely submitt themselues to the aucthoritie and determination of that Churche as which beyng continually vpholden by the power and blessing of the holy Ghost was neuer seene hitherto to haue erred ne yet could by any meanes swarue one title from the right lyne and knowen trade of the true fayth taught in holy Scriptures And that all other persons whatsoeuer sequestering theÌ„selues froÌ„ the prescript Rules and Cannons of that Churche cann not chuse but runne headlong into wandryng errours amazed blindenes and extreme maddnes Wherefore those Lutheranes and Hugonoughtes are worthely to be expelled from the vnitie of that Church and deseruedly adiudged to fier and fagottes as most dampnable heretiques not worthy of any fauorable protection no not their writinges so much as to be touched with any maÌ„s handes bycause they dare presmouÌ„te once to quacke agaynst the supremacy of that Angelicke Ierarchy As touchyng which slaunderous surmises albeit nothyng cann be more falsely and shamefully imagined then those Sorcerous enchauÌ„tementes it is wonder how much this poysoned Dolldreanche hath betyppledd the sences of many great personadges and hath so long preuailed in great admiration with sundry estates through the onely ignoraunce of learnyng and ouermuch credulitie of godly Princes vntill of late by the incomprehensible prouidence of Almightie God the worthy Arte of Emprintyng was erected by meanes whereof good Letters and Bookes came to the Marte and Printers shoppes discouered the foggy and darkened cloudes of this olde mothe eaten barbarousnes Hereby it came to passe that the tedious deepe doungeons of lothesome ignoraunce beyng surprised with a certein new and cleare dawnyng day of purer doctrine as also of all other liberall Sciences beganne to shyne abroade nor will leaue I trust to ouerspread his brighte glisteryng beames dayly more and more vntill with the inaccessible brightenes thereof it do either thoroughly vanquishe the whole kyngdome of darkenes or at the least chauÌ„ge the same into some better countenaunce And to the ende we may conceaue assured hope of good successe herein two thynges do minister vnto vs especiall comfort Wherof the one consisteth in the mearcy of the Lord the other remayneth in your handes that be Kynges and Princes next vnder the God being the Lordes watchmen For the first we haue an infallible Argument which cann neuer deceaue the assured testimony of Iesus Christ who hath prophecied in his holy Scriptures that the same shal be brought to passe the greater part whereof we haue allready experimented to be accomplished in these our dayes That the Lord with the breath of his mouth shall confounde the pride of the Beast so arrogantly vaunting him selfe in his holy Temple For the next That other is of no small force I meane your vigilant wisedomes and singuler godlynes which causeth vs to coÌ„ceaue well of you that are Princes whom the Lord of his infinite mearcy hath ordeyned to exercize chief rule and gouernemeÌ„t next vnder him vpon the face of the earth especially whenas him selfe hath pronounced out of his owne mouth in the Reuelation of Saint Iohn That he will lende his helpyng handes hereunto saying And the tenne hornes sayth he which thou didst see vpon the Beast are those â—enne Kinges which shall abhorre the Babylonicall Strampett and shall make her desolate and naked and shall deuoure her fleshe and burne her Carkasse in flames of fire for the Lord hath inspired into their hartes to bring this to passe euen as it hath pleased him Apocal. 17. Wherfore awake you noble Princes and Christian Captaines march on in Gods name Atchieue an exployte worthy your noble Race and be no longer trayned with the trayterous sleightes of subtill sycophaÌ„tes but pursue with the power the godly guidyng of the Lord of hostes Emongest whom I most humbly call vpon your highnes most singuler Paterne of Princely Royaltie not to the ende to teaze you to exercize cruelty agaynst that viperous generation Onely my petition is that for the loue you beare to Iesus Christ and your owne soules health ye vouchsafe to deliuer simple innocentes from the bloudy iawes of those rauenyng Wolues and horrible blouddsuckers That enterchaunge of thynges beyng made the true and pure word of God may be heard what it teacheth And that ye lett lowse the reynes of their licentious insolency no longer so that they do not hereafter abuse you as the Iewes did handle our Lord Iesu Christ whose faceÌ„ when they had blindefolded they beate his body with whippes There hath bene to many broyles allreády emongest vs Christians to much Christian bloud hath bene spilte to much crueltie and horror hath bene exequuted whiles you in the meane space in whose power rested the staye of this outrage either wincked at their bootchery or at the least left poore innocentes succourlesse in their slaughter houses How long shall this Romishe Nymrod vaunt in his throne how long shall he make a scorne of your patience most excellent Princes when will your Royall hartes and noble courage daunte his pride when will you resume into your handes the whole sword of Iustice the better part whereof the Romishe Russian hath bereft you when will you surcease to be bondeslaues vnto them whom the mighty God hath made vassalles to your lawfull RegimeÌ„t how long will ye suffer your mouthes to be mooseled and your eyes muffeled with such blynde errours contrary to the manifest light of the Gospell If
that you had sene a kynges personage knowyng for certeintie that ye were dayly conuersaunt in the kynges Court or as though I were displeased with your writyng to the Queénes Maiestie whenas I did reprehend nothing in you but your sawey arrogancie and slaunderous pen in matters of so great importaūce and wherewith you were nothing acquainted or as though this your tedious quarell about this word Priuate did ought els but bewray you grosse ignoraūce and shamelesse impudencie Whereof the one denounceth how voyde you are of learnyng the other how you dare impudently attempt all thinges which may be easely discerned by your proude speach aunexed thereunto For before I was say you aduaunced to be a Byshop I did surmoūt many of your order in fauour authoritie and dignitie I pray you Sir whether doth the modestie of a Christian Prelate appeare here or that disdaineful craking of that glorious souldiour in Plautus I was borne the day after Iupiter which came of Opis c. what should I here say but we haue thus in a stage of Osorius newly Sprong vp a proude braggyng Thraso and vnder the visour of a most reuerend Prelate a most vayne painted Peacocke who to make his follie more apparaunt demaūdeth of me a profoūd questiō To what end letters were deuised at the first Whether to make such as are absent by distaunce of place acquainted with enterchaūged affaires Yes forsooth M. Doctour Euen so do Scholemaisters instruct their boyes in common Scholes And what hereof I pray you Wherfore then doe you impute this say you as a fault into me that being distaūt and seuered from your Queene so farre by land and sea of very loue that I owe to her Maiesty I aduertised by letters her highnesse of matters apperteining to the establishment of her estate I blamed you nothing because you wrote but bicause you bent the force of your penne so maliciously slaunderously agaynst my Natiue countrey whiche is no lesse deare vnto me then Portingall is vnto you herein surely I noted in you no lesse default of loue then defect of wit knowing that you are familiarly acquainted with that comicall nippe videl Are your owne businesse so nothing worth the lookyng vnto at home that you may so carefully attende the affaires of others yea those also which concerne you nothyng at all But here you haue not pleasure enough to daunce in a nette your selfe vnlesse you drawe me also into the same rebuke of follie with you makyng me to speake wordes which were neuer myne but of your owne deuising as though I should in this speach write vnto you Acknowledge now I pray you this your vnaduised remeritie of toung for such is your talke with what face dare you presume to attēpt the Queenes Maiestie by letters being a mā neuer trayned in Court neuer aduaunced to any office in the common weale as altogether vnskilfull in the Ciuill Law nor haue at any tyme exhibited to the Prince any Billes or Supplications whiche of right belongeth to me onely and such as I am And thus concludyng vpon my wordes If you doe not perceaue say you how Childish this sentēce is I must needes a diudge you a man more then halfe frāticke These be yours and your owne foolish lying wordes properly Osorius forged in that hammerhead of yours First you would haue me to yeld that those wordes bee myne whiche I neuer knew nor were once in my thought as that I should vtter such monstruous speaches wherof I neuer dreamed so much as one sillable and which Mydas would not acknowledge if he were now aliue much lesse any wise or sober person would blūder out vnlesse he had bene instructed therunto by this vayne glorious Gentleman Osorius As to that you tearme me to be more thē blockish if I do not vnderstand how childish your former sentēce is I do gladly yeld and do simply confesse my selfe a naturall dolt if I could seéme ignoraūt in either of these both either in reknowledging that your Momish communication by you applied vnto me to bee very doltish or your selfe also the deuisor thereof to bee as wise as Walthams Calfe Both these I doe know aud acknowledge this much more also That where you abuse my name to colour your scoffing toyes if you were not already enstalled a brawlyng Byshop you might be inuested a delicate Sicophant And where as you accuse me as one that doth prohibite godly personages frō their due accesse to her Maiestie chargyng me also with ambition I trust my dayly conuersation will cleare me of both those crimes where in as myne innocencie shall appeare the greater to all mē so much the lesse wil your venemous quarell preuaile to cracke my credite with any person that knoweth me It seémeth also vnto you that I am a man of very meane capacitie that in this basenes of myne estate I become so lofty stately how lofty I pray pouedo I chalēge to my selfe any preéheminēce before others in fauour authoritie or dignitie yet were not your self ashamed to bragge of these Titles whē you were but a Priuate man Do I boast that I surmoūt others in wit or learning yet you a litle after spare not to vaunt the same of your self most arrogātly I would to God Osorius I would to God that your horned cockescombe did no more puffe you vp in pride thē my seély hūble bils of Requestes do me Truly thē should your threé Inuectiues haue vomited lesse slaunders and reproches and denounced you a more charitable man farre deéper Diuine Ye take further occasion yet to charge me bycause I affirmed that you accused all England guiltie of horrible noueltie I perceiue I must now plucke of your spectacles and turne you to your owne Epistle where you haue set downe these wordes For if after this doctrine of this new Gospell and new Religion was brought into England there were brought therewithall also honestie and integritie of life c. Then a little after But if none of those were performed through the studie of this new doctrine nay rather if euer sithence all rashnes vnshamefastnes lechery haue bene embraced in all places if intollerable pride and arrogancie haue now taken suter footing then before if seditiōs vprores and rebelliōs haue bene more easily raysed if treason haue more boldly attēpted the Royall Maiestie and haue more freely pursued the bloud of Princes c. What now Doe you not hereby name condēne all England of a certeine new Gospell do you not accuse this Gospell to be the very forge of all wickednes I confesse say you that I accuse Englād but not all England But haue you any smatch is Logicke Who that wil prayse or disprayse London Olyssipone England or Portingall by name doth he not vnderstand all England thereby and all Portingall O chattering Rethorician but lumpish Logiciā which can not cōceaue that an indefinite propositiō to vse a schole terme doth reteine the efficacie of an vniversall
And whereas you write that it is reported vnto you that a great number of our subiectes do remaine in their old Mumpsimus either this is not true as it is most vntrue or if it were true it would easily argue you to be a common lyar Who haue slaundered all England with a certeine new Religion in generally yet alledge no persō particularly You turne this also to my reproch that promising to vndertake the defence of my countrey against you without any dissente of mynde yet contrary to promise I do wonderfully dissente frō you What may any man or beast iudge me so mad that I would promise to differre from myne aduersary without any cōtrary affection of mynde what haue I thē professed what haue I spoken myne aūswere is extant I referre me to bee tryed by the same Wherefore with good reason you should haue pardoned me if I an English man borne the Queéne highnes subiect did in myne aunswere vnto you deale somwhat franckly without all rācour of minde without all bitternesse of dissention c. I make promise to dispute with you without all disagreéyng of stomacke without all bitternesse of contention but you peruert my saying as if I would differe frō you without contradiction of cōsent Which no mā cā honestly promise much lesse performe Are you not ashamed of this your cold friuolous quarell Surely you may be ashamed therof But this childish fault is commō with you as I will make euident hereafter in place fit for the same Then ensueth your lamentable complaint concernyng the death of the Bishop of Rochester Thomas Moore and certein Charterhouse Monckes who were you say must cruelly murthered and that England hath euer sithence remained in marueilous infamie Uerely I confesse that Moore and Rossens were both endued with great store of singular learning and lament to seé such excellent learned men runne headlōg into such absurde and pesfilēt errour as to preferre a foreine and extraordinarie power before their liege and soueraigne Kyng But when as it was enacted by the law of the land that this crime should be deémed high Treason it was requisite that all such subiectes as would wilfully infringe that law should incurre the punishment prouided in that behalfe As for the Charterhouse Monckes the losse was the lesse how much more they liued to them selues vnprofitable to their countrey and could alledge nothyng in their defence but custome and contumacie The Statutes and Lawes in that behalfe prouided could not iustly be challēged or accoūted blameworthie nor were at any tyme vnlesse with you and such as you are whose disliking we accept for our prayse Other trifles of myne aūswere you hunt after with a great kennell of superfluous wordes plodding often vpon one thyng But I will passe thē ouer bicause you note nothyng in them worthy defence Two points you carpe at in the ordering of our lawes the one is that euery man particularly may not geue his voyce as though any cōmon wealth doth admit such custome Sūmons are made by wordes by courtes by hundreds but it was neuer seéne that euery particular person should bee required by Poll. And therfore that sentēce of Liuie The greater part preuaileth oftentymes agaynst the wiser hath alwayes bene seéne in all auncient ages and our predecessours also that a speciall choise beyng selected out of all estates the same should be adiudged for law which the greater number approued and not that whiche the fewer liked of what order obserue you in making you lawes Doe you take together Cobblers Tynkers Butchers Cookes Mullettours c. other like dregges and outcastes of the people enquire their seuerall opinions or do ye reduce your infinite multitude to the choice of your wiser Citizes But ye accuse this in vs that our voyces are wrested out from vs violently and agaynst our willes No truely there is no where els more freédome whiche is wel knowen to all mē that are but meanely acquainted with the proceédynges of our assemblies which we name our Parliament But here you vrge vs with exāples and with vnsatiable practfling you runne backe agayne to Moore and Rochester and demaunde What those holy and most pure persons had committed A very small offence pardye and I can not tell how they offended nothyng at all forsooth they were condemned for high treason which is accoumpted the most execrable and horrible fact vnder heauen But here you cauill say that force was vsed in the law or in the iudgement agaynst them Neither of thē both Syr. It was orderly proceéded agaynst them accordyng to the auncient custome and statutes of the Realme For when as they violated the dutie of allegeaūce which they did owe vnto their coūtrey ordinaunces and to their liege and souereigne Lord lineally discended and true inheritour of the Crowne erected to thē selues a foreine Romish monarche through their waywardnes of opinion they were worthely punished as decestable traytours to their coūtrey But in this point they seémed vnto your iudgement propre holy and pretie Religious men what then Syr We expect not your bald sentence nor esteéme it of a rushe We doe not preiudice you in your ordinaunces no more is it meéte that you should entermedle with vs in our Statutes Whereas you haue placed in your headroll the terrours of imprisonement and chaines and the horrible punishmentes that our late Byshops do endure we doe playnly confesse that this their rebellious obstinacie whereby they refuse the most lawfull authoritie of their souereigne Princes established by the lawes of the lād ought to be yoked and tamed with extremest punishments prouided in that behalfe Neither was any iniurie done vnto those men in administratiō of Iustice as you do imagine But they were worthely dismissed frō all benefite of law for their intollerable pride and pestilent example that refused to bee ordered by the expresse and knowen authoritie of the law Lament you therfore and howle as loude as ye list they were neuerthelesse rightfully punished For in all well ordered common weales high treason hath bene alwayes accoumpted most horrible and worthy of death You prayse your purpose of writyng to the Queenes Maiestie as procoedyng of a very zelous affection that you beare to the truth and to the publicke sauetie of soules and this you auowe with a very solemne protestatiō Touchyng the secretes of your thoughtes I referre you ouer to God whō you take to witness herein But as farre as men may discerne by your wordes and phrases of speache That stile of yours is enflamed as hoate as fier agaynst the truth of God against the publicke state of our saluation And yet you beare fayre wether with vs and would make vs beleéue that you cōceaue no malice against vs but loue vs with a bagge full of loue The rather bycause you do vnderstand the some English mē haue your Epistle in great admiration I wene If this be true what obteine you
Peter particularly yea and in earnest will you vrge and defende stoutly the very same senteÌ„ce wherein Mathew Iohn by manifest proofe do coÌ„uince you who expresly do protest that the very same power of byndyng and loosing was geuen by our Sauiour Christ to the other Apostles in generall what will you not dare to do in the darcke good Syr that practize to defraude vs of the cleare shynyng sunne how will you peruert and wrest the fathers that will so craftely iuggle with the expresse wordes of the Scriptures truely you must either bewray your pestilent â—eger de mayne in this place or confesse your grosse errour Your thyrd place is this I haue prayed for thee that thy fayth saynte not and thou beyng at last conuerted confirme thy brethren And what hereof Can any man bee so witlesse to say that those wordes of our Sauiour Christ were not aswell spoken to the rest of the Apostles as to Peter by name I will therfore first scanne the wordes of the Euangelist in order that they may be more apparaunt But you are they which haue perseuered with me in all my temptations And I do prouide for you euen as my Father hath prouided for me a kingdome that you may eate and drinke at my table in my kingdome and may sit on seates iudging the xij Tribes of Israell And the Lord sayd Symon Symon behold Sathan hath desired to sist you as wheate but I haue prayed for thee that thy fayth faint not and thou at length being coÌ„uerted confirme thy brethren In this parcell of Scripture is nothyng particular to Peter but the same is common to all the Apostles That they perseuered with Christ was common to them all The reward likewise is common to them all videl to sit at the heauenly table Agayne the thyrd parcell had relation to them all Symon Symon Sathan hath desired to sift you as wheate Sithence the whole processe of the Text therfore was referred to them all by what Argument may it be applyed vnto Peter onely Namely sithence our Lord Iesus goyng a whiles after suffer death and makyng preparation for his Ascention into heauen poured out most earnest prayers vnto his Father with a long and vehement repetition of wordes not for Peter particularly but for all the rest of the Apostles in generall whiche last and generall prayer of Christ to the Father who so aduisedly considereth shall easely conceaue that our Lord Iesu Christ made not intercession for Peters faith alone but for all the rest of the Apostles And hereof will also maruell much how great learned Clarkes dayly exercised in the Scriptures can Iudge therof otherwise Truly the most notable of the auncient Fathers do constantly affirme that the very same sentences wherewith Supremacie is challenged vnto Peter are commoÌ„ to all the other Apostles together with Peter And this haue I most manifestly proued by the selfe same places which your selfe vouched And albeit we passe ouer all these geue eare to the holy Ghost speakyng vnto vs by the mouth of the sacred Scriptures yet all this Monarchie of Peter which you do so exquisitely aduaunce aboue the Moone and the seuen Starres shal be founde to haue bene vsurped by the inordinate ambition of Byshops of Rome and not by any authoritie grosided vpon the doctrine of the auncient Apostolicke Church I will begyn with our Lord and Sauiour Iesu Christ who hauyng spoken these wordes Thou art Peter c immediately after calleth Peter Sathan and commaunded him to departe from him bycause hee knew not the thynges that apparteined vnto God How did Christ then I beseéch you erect the supremacie of his Church in the person of Peter whom immediately almost with one breath he rebuked bytterly by that most execrable name of Sathan and that not without cause for hee dissuaded him from goyng to Ierusalem Moreouer if Christ made intercession to the Father for Peter onely that his fayth should not faynt how came it to passe that within a few dayes after Peter onely with open mouth denyed forsware Christ his Lord and Maister But I doe much miscontentedly make mention of the fall of so notable an Apostle whoÌ„ I do acknowledge the most excellent amongest the famous Apostles Onely this I would to be knowen that he was ordeined to no seuerall supremacie in the Churche of Christ by any authoritie of the Scriptures We haue heard Christ let vs come now a litle lower to his Apostles and namely vnto Paule who laboured in the Churche of God as hee reporteth of him selfe more then they all he therefore doth playnly and constantly affirme that he had receaued as great authoritie from Christ to be an Apostle ouer the Gentiles as Peter had ouer the Iewes and addeth further that he had conference with Iames Cephas and Iohn whom he nameth Pillers of the Church as the chief of all the rest Yet in the meane whiles hee acknowledgeth no singular prerogatiue of prheminence in Peter Nay rather he vseth great libertie of speach agaynst Peter him selfe without all respect of Principalitie or mention of dignitie But why seéke we other testimonies Peter is a good witnesse concernyng him selfe I beseech the Elders whiche are amongest you sayth heé that am also an Elder and a witnesse of the Passion of Christ and partaker of the same glorie which shal be reuealed c. Behold here the dignitie behold the Supremacy and Monarchie of this reuerend father He is an Elder amongest Elders A witnesse amongest other witnesses of the Passion of Christ partaker with the rest of the same glory to be reuealed Here is a Triple Crowne truely yea a most precious Crowne not made of goldâ— nor beset with precious stones A most honorable Ambassadour of the heauenly glory to bee reuealed not of any Temporall or earthly dominion Lastly a most Reuerend Father not in any singular Lordlynes but by especiall ordinary power of his fellow brethren Who so will throughly sift the doctrine the ordinaunces the lyfe and conuersation of the Apostles shall finde a most perfect patterne of vnchaungeable consent but shall not smell any tast no not one sparke so much of this Lordly Monarchie wherof this ghostly Prelate doth so subtlely and largely dispute Unlesse perhaps he will driue vs to friuolous gesses as to picke vp children kyckesses together As that Peter went before That hee spake oftentymes first that hee looked into Christes Sepulchre before Iohn But if we shall hunte after such gnattes The honour geueÌ„ to Iames is of more substaunce Namely when in their publicke assembly the rest of the Apostles did subscribe to the ordinaunce that he made And that other also to wit when Peter was desirous to know who should betray our Lord Sauiour Iesu Christ to the Iewes him selfe did not enquire therof but beckened to Iohn whiche did leane vpon the breast of our Lord that hee might demaunde the question But howsoeuer these
thynges are construed The callyng of the Apostles was equall one maner of function amongest them all the authoritie indifferent one selfe same holy Ghost poured vpon eche of them at one tyme the promises generall the reward proportionall The which though I doe knit vp briefly makyng hast foreward yet if any man will behold euery seuerall parcell and withall enter into a deépe consideration of the most pure and vndefiled Church of Christ and his Apostles as he shall perceaue an enterchaūgeable communion in that strickte societie of Apostleshyp so shall he soundly iudge of that Monarchie and superioritie in possessiōs in giftes and other functions and all other priuiledges of dignitie especially That they were vtterly renounced of Peter and of all that sacred Brotherhood These former positions therefore beyng now thus well fenced your cutted Apishe Sophisme is cut of by the rumpe wherewith you conclude so ridiculously If it be euidēt say you yea more apparaūt then the sunne in mid-day that Peter was aboue all the other Apostles in superioritie of degree then is it most manifest that the same honour and preheminence in dignitie is due to all them that suceede him in place O leaddagger Argumēt in which what shall I blame first If Peter you say were a Prince It is all one forsooth as if this our holy father had wynges perhaps he would flye like a Wildgoose But admit that Peter were placed in Pontisicalibus as you would haue it though it be quyte contrary as I haue already proued But we will graunt it vnto you for a tyme. What will you gayne hereby That the same dignitie is due to the Successours wherfore I pray you The priuiledge of the person is not extended beyond the person And therefore if the Maiestie of Peter were peculiar to Peter euen so it ended in him selfe But if you had no leysure to learne the Ciuill Law can not common reason teache you that whatsoeuer priuiledge is geuen to one person alone may not bee translated to his successours vnlesse it bee limited by name But if these two crooches deceaue you come of and learne of our Sauiour Iesu Christ him selfe what kinde of superiority that was wherof Christ made mentiō to Peter Blessed art thou Symon Bariona for fleshe and bloud haue not reuealed this vnto thee but my father which is in heauen Thou art Peter c. Which wordes doe playnly conuince that flesh and bloud were not partakers of this promise nor that any especiall choise was made of the person of Peter but of his fayth and confession onely For God doth not accept the person of any man In like maner neither flesh nor bloud may challenge any succession in this promise whether it be Iuly Boniface or any other But the fayth and confession of Peter is the true succession of Peter For if his succession were due vnto personages then should this dignitie be oftentymes committed to Sorcerors and heretiques but this is altogether repugnaunt to the sacred institution of our Sauiour Christ to builde his Churche vpon so stinkyng a puddle Therfore cast away this your patched conclusion lame and haltyng of euery legge For without all question Peter obteined no such interest in Principalitie or if he did it was but in his confession of fayth onely And therfore can no man clayme any other succession as lineally from him vnlesse perhaps you may cōmaunde God to loue an Italian Prelate because he is borne in Italic better then an English or Spanish Byshop or that ye will locke fast the holy Ghost to the Citie of Rome But the Spirite will blow where him listeth and the tyme commeth and is euen now already come that neither in this Mount nor in Ierusalem nor in any appointed place God shall be worshipped God is a spirite and his true worshippers shall worship him in spirite and truth But will ye come nearer home harken to your own Doctour Ierome whose iudgement I haue here noted worthy surely to he engrauen in letters of gold If authoritie bee enquired for the world is greater then a Citie whersoeuer a Byshop be either at Rome or at Eugubium or at Rhegium or at Constantinople or at Alexandria all be together equall of like merite and of like Priesthoode The power of riches or basenes of pouertie maketh not a Byshop higher or lower They all are the successours of the Apostles wheresoeuer they sit and of what estate so euer they be c. To the same effect writeth Cyprian in these wordes The same thyng verely were the Apostles that Peter was endued with like partakyng of honour and power But the begynnyng first entered by vnitie to the entent that the vnitie of the Church might be shewed to be one Is it euen so Cypriā is this thy verdite that all the Apostles were endued with like partakyng of honour and power But you my Lord affirme cleane contrary That Peter was appointed chief of all the Apostles and that this is more manifest then the Sunne in midday and that hereunto agree the Scriptures auncient fathers and that generall cōsent of antiquitie Truly you speake many wordes but no mā besides your fraternitie will beleue you not of any pleasure of gaynesaying but bycause you alledge nothyng that may enduce to yeld And bycause you seéme somewhat tymorous of the successe of your Diuinitie in this deépe principall cause of Monarchie you catch hold fast of a Sophistical target That in the church wiche is but one ought to be one chief Ruler vpon whom all men may depende by whose authoritie troubles may be appeased and outragious opinions may be suppressed c. There is in deéde but one Church generally as there is but one confession of Christian fayth yet this generalitie of the Church is distributed into many particular congregatiōs as all Nations haue their seuerall administrations of Iustice. Now therefore as euery dominion is deuided into seuerall distinctions of gouernement so to euery particular Church are ordeined seuerall Pastours and yet in the meane whiles finde no lacke at all of your new vpstart Monarchie whereof was neuer question moued in the golden age of the primitiue church But you Reply with pretie poppet reasons That contentious can not bee calmed nor outrages suppressed except some one be ordeined chief and head of the Church This fonde distinction the common course of humaine actions doth vtterly extinguish For euery seuerall Prince doth gouerne his common weale with wholesome distinct ordinaunces and yet make not so great aduauncement of this stately Monarchy as you do phantastically dreame But perhappes this is neédefull in matters of Religion why I pray you more then in temporall regiments The gouernement of Rome it selfe for the singularitie wherof you play the champion wil minister examples vnto vs of either part Augustus was an honorable Emperour Vespasian indifferent but Caius Caligula and Nero were horrible monsters who did not onely
weaken the Maiestie of the Romane Empire but ransacked and rent in peéces the whole world almost Euen so the Romishe Byshops in the first swathling cloutes of the first primitiue time of the church were very godly and sounde and to vse the wordes of the scripture did many tymes withstand the enemies of the Gospell euen with losse of lyfe But after they had erected this Lordly superioritie of the Papane Monarchy there was of godlynes and integritie of lyfe no dramme at all but of intollerable ambition vnbridled licentiousnes whole swarmes did appeare And yet I speake but a litle It is not therefore requisite to hang all the keyes vnder one maus gyrdle alwayes nor yet scarse good pollicie For if it were so there might be some daūger therein lest the frowardnesse of one person might ouerthrowe the whole estate of Christianitie There is farre lesse ieoperdy where seuerall Prouinces are ruled by their seuerall Pastours for proofe wherof if it be not sufficient to haue alledged reason experience I will recite vnto you out of the Register of Romish Byshops for witnes Gregorie the first Who in this matter vttereth the same reason in the same wordes And for playnesse of the matter I will set them downe as hee hath spoken them whiche are these If we haue but one onely head the fall of that head is the fall of the whole Churche it any mā presume to take vpon him this name of vniuersall Byshop the whole Church falleth downe from her estate when he falleth which is called vniuersall But farre may this name of blasphemie be from all Christian myndes whereby the honour of all Priests is diminished in part whiles this arrogaunt singularitie is presumed vpon c. May any thyng be sayd more playnly or plentyfully can any thyng be pronounced more vehemently or effectually agaynst this extraordinary and presumptuous Lordlynes of Papacie Neither did Gregorie otherwise then he spake For when this Satanicall name of vniuersall Byshop was offred vnto him by the Coūcell of Calcedon hee refused it with great detestation and would by no meanes be acquainted therewith although you deny the same most shamelesly as shal be declared afterwardes But here you obtrude agaynst vs the misticall Sonet of Salomon Wherein he commaundeth his spouse to catch the Foxes destroying the vynes which be as you interpret it heretiques peruertyng the Churche And this you affirme cā by none other meane be brought to passe except some one be set in authoritie that may roote vp the mores of hereticall contagion before they be ripe First of all Osorius it is hard to establish a firme doctrine by an Allegorie Moreouer the denomination of Foxes doth no more resemble heretiques then any other wicked persons But to graunt this vnto you in some respect by what argument do ye proue that heretiques can by no meanes els be apprehended vnlesse your singular Monarchy be admitted The Emperour Phocas did first of all erect this Papal Empire in Boniface the iij. What then Had not Peter long before Foxes in chase and the other Apostles likewise Call to your remembraunce Ananias Saphira and Elymas the sorcerour forget not other pestilent examples like vnto the same and you will be better aduised Proceéde a degreé lower to those graue Fathers the first Byshops of the Romish Church Clemēs Anacletus Marcellus many others Could the holy Martyrs haue sealed our Religion with their bloud vnlesse they had first daunted the pride of Tyrauntes and heretiques with the sword of the Scriptures But here paraduenture you will Triumph bycause I make so honorable mention of the Romish Seé I wis it is neédelesse For I doe here commend Byshops not Popes Martyrs not Monarches And yet in truth I haue no quarell with the Romishe Seé or the Byshop therof nor euer had It is that vsurped authoritie that exalteth it selfe aboue all earthly power which I do challenge and will proclaime open warre agaynst whiles breath is in my body except I finde a stronger Goliath then you are hetherto But we will returne to your Foxes whereof I haue noted the ouerthrow of sondry most subtill and craftie before the Papacie This our later age praysed be God doth punish and vtterly suppresse whole sects of heresies although the same doth not acknowledge your Papane principalitie I dare be bold to vouch England and I conceaue no lesse frendly of other common weales agaynst the which you can not forge any probable reason to the contrary or why it should not be so For if there were no vniuersall Monarche of the Churche sittyng in that stately chayre at Rome ought that be any estoppell to the Byshops of England Scotland Poland or Germany yea of Spayne or Portingall or any other dominion or common weale but that they may apprehend hereticques yea and punish them Haue they no Magistrates do they lacke lawes are they voyde of sense and vnderstanding Put on your spectacles Osorius and behold all Christian Nations and marke wel the maners of the people Are they not sufficiently prouided for their common safetie and tranquilitie by their owne peculiar lawes do not Princes gouerne their seuerall territories in orderly pollicie may they administer all other matters well and can not confute the absurdities of heresies without this Tyrannous Ierarchy of Rome Can not we touch an heretique or can not other Regions do the like which are in the furthermost part of the world seuered from the costes of Italy except they gad to Rome for a Pelting Oracle do you iustifie this Osorius is this the wisedome of an old man are you so altogether voyde of learnyng experience and discretion also Yea rather before any Pope was at all heretiques were layd handes vpon Euen now also rigour of law is executed agaynst them Neither can any Foxe be foside so crafty as your reasons alluded vnto thē are vtterly friuolous vnskillfull But ye skippe from Salomon to Paule and of him you write in this maner Therfore Paule in his second Epistle to the Thessaloniās denyeth that it may come to passe that Antichrist shall come before there be a departyng from the fayth First of all this is somewhat straunge in you that you note the place And surely in very good tyme haue ye done it for euen here your vnshamefast imprudencie is taken tardy Paule pronounceth in that place that our Lord Iesu Christ shall not come before a departyng be of the fayth first but you for our Lord and Sauiour Christ haue placed Antichrist Paules wordes are these Let no man deceaue you by any meanes for the Lord shall not come except there come a departyng first and that sonne of perdition be reuealed You are caught Osorius and so entangled in this snatch that ye can not escape Are you not ashamed to depraue Paules sentence so blasphemously can you with so execrable impietie and horrible ignoraunce place Antichrist in steéde of Christ and the sonne
of perdition in the place of our Lord Iesu And as though Paule had spoken so in deéde can you so beastly proceéde to the confirmation of that your Babylonicall Empire with a sentence of Paule pestilently peruerted Is this the profession of a Byshop is this the Diuinitie of Osorius Downe with that Pecockes tayle away with this arrogancie be no more so collhardy and write hereafter more aduisedly and take better regard to your penne lest you bryng your name into odious contempt with all Christendome Take your pleasure in my wordes wrest them as ye list but handle Paule more discreétly But you are learnedly plentyfull in examples heaping together Iohn Husse Ierome of Prage Martin Luther and many others Who as you do affirme haue reuolted from this your Romishe Monarche of set purpose bycause beyng exempt frō his Iurisdiction they might be more freely licentious in writyng and speakyng Why doe ye coniecture so vayne Southsayer They were men of laudable conuersation voyde of all maner ryotte not culpable in any notorious or haynous crime Therefore how may they be duely charged of any suspition of dissolute behauiour that lyued alwayes discreétly and soberly But this is but a trifle with you to defame a fewe persons by name you rushe vpon all England with open mouth As though after the abolishyng your Romishe Monarche it were forthwith caried violētly into all vnbridled lust This is a false suggestion by your leaue Syr for assoone as we had shaken of the foreine yoke from our shoulders and yelded our selues to the lawfull authoritie of our souereigne Prince all thynges went better and more peacibly with vs especially in this later age of the Gospell renewed which beyng cōpared to those elder yeares wherein your Romish Prelate did insolently treade vpō triumph ouer vs may wel be adiudged to haue enioyed most blessed prosperitie Then which heauēly benefite our victorious Ilād doth most thākefully cōfesse neuer to haue receaued greater at the hands of God God for his inestimable mercy graunt that it may be permanent vnto the worldes end and that weé most humbly submittyng our selues to our naturall and liege souereigne vnited together in this most duetyfull amitie may most be estraunged from your extraordinarie Babilonicall Idoll turnyng the same ouer to you and your fraternitie for euer And now ye runne foreward with more lyes Rehearsing a rable of sectes and these you doe imagine to haue entred sithence the Banishmēt of the Pope As though in the old time were not great swarmes of sectes wherof Paul doth so oft premonish vs or as though they raged not wonderfully in the tyme of that godly Father Augustine whose hart did so boyle against them that he wrate great volumes against their pestiferous errours Or as though that sacred father Peters successour Pope Liberius were not a mainteyner of that poysoned canker of Arrius Or as though Celestine and Anastase the second were not stoute champions of that horrible Scorpion Nestorius Can you obiect sectes when as no age euer wanted some Dare you so boldly name sectes when as threé of your Romish graundsiers were mighty patrones them selues of two most pernitious errours But you affirme that these godly Fathers are maliciously belyed Call forth your own Alphonse who being a Moncke and a Spanyard borne ought to bee of some credite with you beyng a Prelate of Portingall O worthy successours of Peter O excellent pillers of Christs Church This it is forsooth to cōmit sheépe vnto Wolues This is it to deliuer the people of God to bloudy Butchers Yet you blush nothing at this to blame factions of sectes in vs whiche you reporte to exercise perpetuall warre one against an other in diuersitie of contrary opinions and the same to proceéde hereof pardy bycause they are not in seruitude to Libertines and Celestines that is to say to Arrians and Nestorians But be it so as you would haue that some contrarietie were amongest the later sort of our writers Is there or can there bee any more monstruous dissention then hath burst out amōgest your Friers and Monckes hath euer sharper stormes bene raysed then betwixt your Schoolemen brawlyng oftentymes about moates in the sunne You rush vpon Lutherans and Zuinglians by name First you doe this besides the matter bycause I do not defend them I stand for my countrey I do defende England I vndertake the cause of litle Britaine against you wherein I will abide whiles breath is in my body If you prouoke enemyes els where I doubt not but that you shall easely finde them Yet in the meane space I will recite your wordes whereby men may know the manifest iniuries that you vomite agaynst the soules of these sweéte personages and how vsually you blunder out at all aduenture whatsoeuer your franticke braynes doe imagine For this you proceéde in accusation The Zuinglians doe inueighe agaynst the Lutherans and the Anabaptistes keepe continuall warres with the Zuingliās Why do not I here thrust in also Coelestianes and Interemistes and other names of Scismes First of all there is no contradiction betwixt Luther and Zuinglius in the principall pointes of Christian Religion They doe differ in the Sacrament of the Eucharistie not in the substaunce thereof but in the maner of the presence of Christ. And yet perhaps this quarell is more about wordes then matter But you haue not onely wickedly transubstātiated to speake like a Schooleman our Sauiour Iesus Christ into bread with most monstruous deuises but also thrust vpon vs vj. hundred lyes euery one contrary to other whiles you amaze the eares and myndes of Christians with this absurde and newfangled doctrine And therfore your graund captaine of Schoolemen Peter Lōbard in this doubtfull conflict broyling and turmoyling him selfe and throughly wearied with your mockeries doth conclude at the last That Transubstantiation ought to bee inuiolable for the autenticke authoritie of the Church of Rome but that it cā not be founde in the Scriptures As for the Anabaptistes you did name them without all reasons For you are not ignoraūt that the vniuersall consent of all Churches haue condemned them vnto whom Luther and Zuinglius were as earnest enemies as your Maistershyp or any of all your brotherhoode Surely in our common wealth they can reteine no footyng nor in any other coūtrey that I know or cā heare of What maner of men those Celestianes be I would fayne learne of you of your durtie cōpanion of Angrence bycause you haue geuen that name first as farre as I can perceaue The other sortes are Interemistes by this name as I gesse notyng those men which to make a certeine qualification in Religion haue patched vp a certeine booke of peéuishe Romish dregges and haue entituled it by the name of Interim If this be true what came into your braynes to reckon two of your souldiours or graund-captaines vnder our Banner That Commentarie of Interim is yours I say your owne These were
is this to make guiltie of the body and bloud of Christ your naturall brother that hath not offended you as though he had written that which he neuer wrate as though he had done that which heé neuer did as though you haue affirmed that which you do not proue nor can euer iustifie nay rather which you haue not endeuoured to proue for what haue you alledged of myne what wordes what sentences haue you noted out of my writyngs lastly what one thing haue you explaned whereby you may not bee adiudged of all men a most shamelesse slaunderour and notorious rayler Your processe that ensueth is stuffed full with demaundes wherein albeit I dyd pittie your singular amazednesse very much yet could I scarse hold my laughter in them they were so cold so friuolous so variable and to speake my mynde at a word so altogether like Osorius him selfe Your first question is That though myne eyes are so dazeled in matters of Diuinitie that I can not cōceaue that wonderfull chaunge of earthly bread into the nature of heauenly bread yet why I would notwithstādyng with quarelling peruert so wonderfull a benefite of God Truely I doe confesse right reuerend Prelate that myne eye sight hath bene alwayes so dymme that I could neuer discerne this your counterfait Trāsubstantiation But I ought to haue beén pardoned herein bycause it hath beén a generall disease and blindnes of all tymes of all ages and of all Nations The Apostles neuer saw so foolishe a thyng The auncient Fathers could neuer discerne so cloudy a forgerie at the last Sathan opened the eyes of your Schoolemen made them so sharpe sighted that in Distinctions eccyties and quiddities they could many time easely seé that thing which was no where at all This kinde of people enlumined by the Prince of darkenes furnished with the authoritie of the Laterane Coūcell and Innocentius Pope of Rome not much aboue 300. yeares past did rayse out of hell this newfangled monster of Trāsubstantiation Euen then when that Councell had sitte abrood Transubstantiation began first to peépe out of the shell beyng neuer heard of before any where nor knowē so much as by any name Why then do ye vpbrayde me with blindnes so sharpely sith your selfe I say your selfe do know that all the world was as blind as I before that Laterane Coūcell But do you as ye list I for my part will continue blind still with Christ with the Apostles with the aūcient Fathers with all the commendable company of godly Deuines in this Laberinthe of Transubstātiation rather then I will acquaynte my selfe with so monstruous a frameshapen new start vp puppet with your Schooleianglers confessours and lousie Friers But you begyn here to waxe very whote and teastie and spurre questions at me on all sides What is it you say that you do vnderstand what do you conceaue in your mynde and reasons Lastly what is it that your vnderstandyng doth feele and know I will tell you my good father and without any cholor I promise you if you will heare me patiently First I do seé that you doe childishly wander in this bitter talke that demaunde one and the selfe same thyng in threé seuerall distinct questions Then I do also playnly seé that you are so doltishe and blockishe a patrone of Transubstātiation that ye can not with any honesty open your packe amongest your owne pedlers But you neuer cease demaundyng You aske of me what doth trouble me in the mysterie of the Sacrament Truly nothyng at all graue Prelate troubleth me there but your vnmeasurable vnskilfulnes in so great a mysterie which is no small reproch to your profession and dignitie yea to your gray heares also But ye will know more yet Whether I doe mistrust the power or the clemencie of God Neither of both finewitted Gentleman no more doe I trust your selfe nor yet your Transubstantiation bycause ye goe about to throw it vpon vs contrary to the meanyng of the holy Scriptures in the which God the Father hath most fully declared vnto vs his power and will by his Sonne our Lord and Sauiour Iesu Christ. Lastly ye demaūde What the cause should be why I should thinke wherefore you should beleue that the body and bloud of Christ is cōteined in the Sacrament in a wonderfull meane and that I my selfe can not beleue the same whereunto you annexe this that in witte and learnyng ye doe farre surmonte me It is a very hard matter holy father to descry any peculiar cause whiche moueth you to beleue and defende Transubstantiation but I will gesse somewhat nearer the chiefest Forsooth you are addicted wholy to your Schooletriflers and Confessours but very litle to the Scriptures by meanes wherof it is come to passe that ye skyppe ouer the open Oracles of truth and are entangled in the weuett of errour peraduenture also ye are become an apprētice to the Romish Seé and ye meane to procure with the prety Marchaūdize of your pedlers pilfe some Cardinals Hatte It may likewise be that for countenaunce sake ye will face out your false packe with a carde often bycause ye thinke it will empaire the credite of your gray heares to be ouersene in any thyng Besides all these custome perhappes of many yeares had made your iudgement rotten before it was ripe as men vse to say of common lyers which redouble a lye so often that by their often rehearsall beleue it to be true at the length euen so may you thinke to establishe the countenaunce of your imagined Transubstantiation by alledgyng in defence therof a continuall allowaunce of long tyme. If none of all these haue moued you I thinke surely ouermuch pride hath blinded you wherewith ye swell in such sort that you dare boldly without blushyng make vaunt of your selfe more like vnto a bragging Thraso or if any thing cā be more vayne thē Thraso then like a Deuine For you doe not exceede me in witte say you nor excell me in learnyng Truely I will not compare my selfe with you nor with any other person Neither do I professe my selfe to know any thyng at all but Iesus Christ and him also Crucified As for you if one droppe of Christian humilitie or ciuill modestie were in you so hautie a bragge of your braue witte and learnyng would neuer haue escaped you Consider with your selfe in good earnest my holy father this your foolish communication and learne somewhat of Christian humilitie lest almightie God besides this your most vnsauory errour of Transubstantiation adde a more heauie plague vpon you for your vnmeasurable arrogancie You accuse me that I doe trust to much to my naturall senses but that you doe direct all the course of your life to the fayth of the Churche and that I doe shake of from my shoulders the yoke of Christ but you take it vpon you and that I doe forsake the benefites of God but that you doe leane stedfastly to fayth All which are cleane contrary
deuise no lesse wicked then false To witte that the auncient Churche is peruerted by our Deuines and a new Church fashioned after our owne phantasies Whiche doe you call the auncient Church Osorius truly you name the Catholicke and Apostolique Churche to be auncient or so you ought to say founded in the Patriarches and Prophetes enlarged by our Lorde Iesu and his Disciples with vndefiled doctrine and vprightenesse of conuersation Haue we peruerted this holy Church Osorius haue we erected a new nay rather the matter is quite contrary We do most reuerently embrace this blessed Churche sealed vnto vs by the finger of our Lord Iesu and ordered by the pure ordinaunces of his Disciples we do appeale vnto this Church the same Church do we urge agaynst you and the same we do oppose agaynst you we combate agaynst all your filthy corruptions with the decreés of this Churche Herein we do persiste and cleaue fast vnto this Church and fight agaynst you in her defence directly with her owne weapons You are fallen away by litle and litle from this auncient Churche the inuincible fortresse of all truth and haue set your trust vpō the whyueryng reéde of the Romish Seé Then also you are so whirled vp downe as it were with whirlewyndes with the whirlyng and vnsauory Constitutions of Schoolemē ech contrary to other that ye cā finde no ankerhold any where Out of these tempests and whirlewindes of vpstart doctrines out of this immoderate gulfe of your idle braynes so manifold routes of fayned Gods peéped abroad so many sundry sortes of prayers made vnto them so many and so tedious pilgrimages to dumme blockes so many impieties of offrynges inuocations massinges adorations Finally so many blasphemous markets and fayres of pardons and redeémyng of soules out of Purgatory pickpurse are made To this beadroll may bee linked superstitious swarmes of Friers Mōckes Nunnes sproutyng and dayly buddyng one out of an other in infinite droues and innumerable factions This euen this is the true Image of your Church Osorius wherupon you doe bragge so much increased with the ofscombe of rascall brothells made dronken with the drousie dregges of Schoolemen and so farre estranged from the right trade of the auncient and Apostolicke Church that there is scarse any hope that it wil euer haue any regarde to her former duetie or euer returne frō whence it is estrayed In this your new Churche or rather Conuenticle of lozelles which you haue newly erected vnto your selues with the motheaten mockertes of your Schoolemen you moyle and wallow after your accustomed maner We are desirous to renewe the auncient dignitie of the Catholique Church as much as in vs lyeth Hereunto we do employ all our endeuoures to this we doe direct all our thoughtes that siftyng through and throwyng away all the dānable darnell whiche the enemy hath scattered abroad at this present in these newe Churches we may at the lēgth be vnited and gathered agayne into the true and auncient worshyppyng of God prescribed vnto vs by Iesu Christ in his Gospell And here our old peéuish wayward piketh a new quarell agaynst me bycause I will not acknowledge any other chief Bishop but Iesus Christ and that I do also by the name of a Byshop call him a kyng Truly I hartely confesse that our Lord Iesus was both a Byshop and a Kyng but that the name of a kyng is cōteined vnder the tearme of a Byshop is false as you haue set it downe as all other your doynges are for the most part Osorius But our vnconquerable Logiciā goeth onward demaūdeth Why we do admit any other kyng besides the Lord Iesus and yet abandone the chief Byshop whereas both dignities are conteined in the person of our Lord Iesu and in this place our glorious Peacocke pounceth out his feathers and the same question repeateth agayne and agayne very boyeshly in other wordes and sentences If it be lawfull sayth he that ye may haue vpon earth an other Kyng Vicare of that great kyng what reason is there that ye will not haue an other most holy Byshop Vicare of that hygh Byshop Will ye know why we do acknowledge a kyng vpon earth Uicare of that great and heauenly kyng The holy Ghost shall most euidently and expressely aunswere for vs and shall aunswere by the mouth of Peter from whom you deriue your clayme of supreme Byshop Bee ye subiect sayth hee to euery humane creature for the Lord whether it bee to the king as chief ouer the rest or to the Magistrates whiche are appointed by him to the punishment of the euill doers and the commendation of well doers for this is the will of God c. Behold how playnly how distinctly and how plētyfully Peter doth aunswere you which by expresse speache hath settled the Maiestie of kynges in the highest place aboue all vnto whom hee commaundeth vs to be subiect for the Lord. Then next vnder that authoritie he placeth other Magistrates whom notwithstandyng he ordeineth to be Ministers of his highe power Besides this heé instructeth vs withall how commodious this authoritie of kynges is and whereunto it ought to belong Lastly to take away all doubt he concludeth that this Is the will of God If you had any droppe of shame at all in you Osorius You would not haue moued this question so malapertly Why we doe acknowledge a kynges authoritie vpon earth When as ye can not be ignoraūt of this doctrine of Peter nay rather of the holy ghost being so euidēt so firme so notable so plētyful and so of all partes defensible When as also Peter a litle after cōmaundeth in this wise Feare God honor the king When as Paule likewise doth pronounce that A king is the Minister of God to whom he commaundeth euery soule to bee subiect to whom hee geueth the sword and willeth Tribute to be payde in euery of which thynges most royall and principall souereignetie is conteined And to the end the sentēce of Paule should stand firme out of all controuersie he commaundeth That prayers intercessions petitions thankesgeuynges be frequented for kinges and all others that are set in authoritie What say you now brablyng Sophister what cā you hisse out agaynst so many so strong and so notable testimonies approuyng the authoritie of kynges What shal be done vnto you brablyng Sophister that will so maddely so proudly so blasphemously kicke agaynst the doctrine of the holy Ghost But ye allowe of the authoritie of a kyng say you in some respect so that we will likewise admit the supremacie of the hyghe Byshop We haue already iustified the authoritie of a kyng by the inuincible testimonies of the holy scriptures if you can in lyke maner coyne vnto vs out of the same Scriptures a chief Byshop we will yeld But you can not for there is not one sillable of chief Byshop to bee founde in the Gospell besides our Lord Iesus alone and besides that question moued of the rites and
ceremonies of chief Priest vsed of old amongest the Iewes Sithence therfore these thynges are so apparaunt either you doe wickedly dissemble the truth or you bee shamefully ignoraunt in all Diuinitie when as in the meane time you being an old man and a Bishop will neédes be accoumpted a most passing Deuine Here our Ierome tosseth and tumbleth to and fro and snatcheth after Sophisticall shadowes but the more he trauaileth to get out the more he is entangled in perplexities He sayth that we defende the title of kyngs not the authoritie bycause many are foūde aswell in Portingall as in England which do exercise kyngly authoritie without the name of kyng and those a Gods name he thinkes must be called petty kynges Truely I am not able to speake any certeintie of your vsage in Portingall But of Englād I dare affirme that no mā as of him selfe doth presume vpō authority royall further thē he is thereunto authorized by the kyng neither doe we know any such pettye kynges but of your shamelesse custome in lyeng we are most assured the same can not choose but abhorre in respect of your person Like idle tyme ye bestow vpon debatyng of your Monarchie As though it were as necessary that there should bee one chief supreme Byshop ouer the vniuersall Church of Christ as we defende in England the supreme power of the kyng O most senselesse Sophister Perceaue ye not how your comparison is wrested to thynges that are meére contrary eche to other Can you not seé that the one part of your comparison cōcerneth the particular Churche of England the other part indirectly altogether all the whole Churches of Christendome And yet sufficeth it not that you play the foole mōstruously your selfe vnlesse with your supposall ye make me partener also of your errours which all and euery of my senses doe vtterly abhorte and detest nay rather your cōparison ought to haue bene framed contrarywise As bycause in all seuerall cōmon weales seuerall kynges haue the principall and chief preheminence so in all seuerall Churches seuerall Priestes should gouerne who ought to haue singular authoritie in matters of Religion After this maner should your cōparison haue proceéded if you had followed herein the aduise of Philosophie But sithēce we argue now as Deuines settyng Philosophie apart we must enforce onely the testimonies of holy Scriptures wherein bycause we finde cōmaūded by expresse wordes that it is the will of God That we must honour the king that we must obey the king that we must be subiect to the king that we must feare the kinges sword that we must pay Tribute to the king that we must make our supplication and prayers to God first and chiefly for the king We can not choose but acknowledge reuerēce this chief royall kyngly authoritie so oftē in so many sondry maners mētioned in the Scriptures As for your high chief Byshop we will make no more accoumpt of then of a straunger vntill ye can iustifie his supremacie by the authoritie of the holy Scriptures And yet in the meane tyme shall you finde amongest vs all degreés of Iurisdiction Ecclesiasticall by the which all matter apperteining to the Church is duely and orderly executed Which albeit can not cōtent our troublesome Prelate yet we doubt not but will throughly satisfie all vertuous wise well disposed persons I did write that the garmēt of Christ was not cut in peéces amongest our Deuines as you seémed to conster of vs but that the Byshop of Romes Pall peraduenture was somewhat scratchte What do you say to this Do you make any demonstration by holy Scriptures that we have deuided or rente asunder the vnitie of the Church I meane alwayes the Catholicke Apostolicke church do you alledge any argumēts hereunto do you proue it with exāples you do nothyng lesse What do ye then truly euē as you are wont and as you haue accustomed to doe as ye haue learned of your father the deuill that is to say you doe continually throw out of that foule mouth most noysome poyson of slaūderous lyeng Wherein though ye be so nooseled that hee haue stuffed vp the greater part of your Inuectiues with false venemous accusations Yet bycause this place doth bewray your mōstruous insolēcie by singular demōstratiō I will set down here your own wordes as you haue pēned thē that the Christiā Reader may by the same discerne the meékenes of a Byshop the modestie of an aunciēt Deuine and with what spirite also ye were inspired when ye vomited out this foule filthy cholericke baggadge And these are your wordes When as ye do dayly behold swarmyng rounde about you such pestiferous dissensiōs of sectes and so horrible diuisions whereas you haue no sure fayth no agreement in Religion whenas dayly almost you bryng in newe confessions Articles of the Creede amended old places blotted out and new places propte vp in their places when as many sundry sectes growe and encrease and the auncient Churche is rent and cut in so many gobbettes dare ye yet say that this fallyng awaye hath not cut the garment of Christ in peeces When as also ye see with your eyes insolencie arrogancie rebellion lauishnes of toung slaunderous backbyting lust wickednesse vncleanesse tumultes and vprores to attempt all thynges in all places boldly wheresoeuer your maisters take once footyng with what face dare ye affirme that your maners and conuersatiō of lyfe hath bene well ordered amiddes all this rebellion The matter declareth it selfe euidently dayly examples make good profe therof the places of publicke gouernemēt yea the most secret closettes do bewray the same Behold here good Reader the liuely paterne of Osorius his eloquence Behold a mighty vnconquerable champion of the Romish Seé is not this felow worthie to be made a Cardinall suppose you that in so many choloricke sharpe venemous and Scorpion-like wordes hath vttered nothyng but that the most Rogishe Rascall commyng out of some Brochellhouse would haue bene halfe ashamed of hath hee not made a trimme speake agaynst vs proued thereby that we haue most haynously scattered abroad and torne in sunder the vnitie of Christes Churche in this that he doth nothyng els but exclaime agaynst vs backebiters insolent slaunderous lecherous wicked vncleane and rebelles O franticke and mischieuous raylour of whose cursed speach bycause I haue deliuered this litle tast I will from henceforth as much as I may in silēce despise passe ouer his infinite accusatiōs will deale with his pretty poppet Argumentes briefly I dyd cite out of Paule One God one Fayth Now sayth he neither one God nor one Fayth is receaued amongest the Ministers of your Gospell First of all I did not signifie of what opinion euery of vs were particularly but I shewed what ought to be receiued of all Christiās generally Then where you affirme that we do not worshyp one God onely nor professe one fayth onely how can you persuade so incredible
the wicked doers and the laude and prayse of them that doe well for so is the wâ—ll of God Beholde you haue both my propositions out of Peter First the chief and most excellent authoritie of kinges then rulers and Magistrates sent and assigned by kinges for the punishment of the vngodly and the coÌ„fort of the godly Lastly you heare also that it is the will of God that by this meanes executioÌ„ of Iustice may duly proceéed Wherfoâ—â— cast away all your cauillations and beyng an Elâ—â—r your selfe if you bee wise geue attentiue and speédy eare to Peter the Elder You thunder out your malicious slaunders agaynst the demeanour and ignoraunce of our Byshops discharge your venemous stomacke agaynst them And here vnhappely as it chaunced ye begyn your talke with extreme incongruitie yea redoubling the same for your more skill For thus ye write What Byshops name you Illino whether they whom you haue disgraded from their Sees and deteine them in chaines or Illi they rather whoÌ„ you haue takeÌ„ out of Brothelhouses and Tauernes and haue enstalled in the degree of holy Byshops Is it eueÌ„ so proude comptroller Can you make so euident a fault contrary the principles of GraÌ„mar and write Illi they in steéde of Illos them Enquire of your wormeeateÌ„ companion Dalmada he will amend your escape and will be sory that you haue sâ—ypped your penne so childishly I doe medle with these trifles much agaynst my will neither would I haue done it at all but to treade downe your hautynesse a litle which can continually quarell with me for titles and sillables yea without cause I know that such escapes chaunced many tymes to Tully him selfe but I ought not forgeue you any fault at all consideryng you do so with cruell wordes â—ourge my poore speach though otherwise both cleane and pure Latin And now this I do auÌ„swere to that your filthy accusatioÌ„ agaynst our Byshops that they are replenished with more ornamentes of true Byshops wherof Paule made mention to Timothe then Osorius hath or euer will haue except he shape him selfe to a new maÌ„ betymes And how much the more their vertue godlynes beauâ—ified with singular learnyng is manifestly approued extauÌ„t to all our eares eyes so much more detestable hatefull is your quarell agaynst those auncieÌ„t Fathers especially for that you do rage so beastly agaynst your brethren whoÌ„ ye neuer haue seéne nor do know Paule coÌ„maundeth that a Byshop bee vnreprouable but you do not onely reproue but maliciously deface the estimatioÌ„ of Byshops who haue neuer offended you in word or deéde I pray you good sir how can you cleare of reprehension and fault that your caÌ„kred choler so lauishly vomited agaynst those graue Fathers whom you know not You demaunde also why those same Byshops did not vndertake the defence of Religion agaynst you and by what meanes I crept thereunto beyng a Ciuilian Truly I do franckely acknowledge my selfe to be a Ciuilian Osorius and not a Deuine As for you you are neither Ciuilian nor Deuine and therfore I might be the more â—old to try Maistrie with you Let any men that will peruse that your tedious Epistle to her Maiestie and he shall finde nothyng therein but huge heapes of idle wordes madde mazes of long SenteÌ„ces full of yrkesomnesse vnmeasurable and haynous lyes and slauÌ„ders agaynst true godlynesse Agayne let your second great Uolume bee layde abroad what is in it els but a dounghill of tauntes and reproches agaynst me No sparcke of Diuinitie except those pestilent deuises forged out of Schoolemen of pardons of couled Uipers Confessions flames of Purgatory and other patcheries of these late vpstartes Wherefore if ye will prouoke our Byshops to disputation you must open your Budget and make a shewe of better ware of purer or at lest somewhat more learned Diuinitie then you shall finde what spirite and courage they be of in the meane tyme whiles they are occupyed in matters of more importaunce you may content you with Haddon beyng but a meane aduersarie whiche hath and will alwayes haue skill enough to suppresse your insolencie and confute your trifles You demaunde an other question touchyng our Byshops By what Religion by what Ceremonie by what authoritie they were instituted who layd handes vpon them who consecrated them how holyly how sincerely this matter was executed I aunswere you at a word Handes were layd vpoÌ„ them lawfully and prayers likewise poured out for them accordyng to the prescript ordinaunce of the Gospell we doe vse our owne ceremonies like as you doe yours and as other Nations doe minister their owne At the last you Enquire of their holynesse foolishly forsooth consideryng it is an inward action of the mynde and wherof no man liuyng can pronounce any certaintie Ye murmur I can not tell what Of a confused functioÌ„ of Byshops and Deuines bycause I ascribed the office of administration of the Sacramentes to Byshops but of determinyng causes to Deuines As though Byshops are not Deuines and Deuines Byshops or as though seuerall functions may not be vndertaken many tymes in the Church or as though Byshops beyng the chiefest of the Clergy haue not a charge to execute matters apperteinyng to the Church in their own right or as though this question seémeth not to haue proceéded from a captious Sophister rather theÌ„ from a gray headed Byshop You say That the rumour goeth abroad how that our Byshops are chosen to this end especially that beyng contented with some portion of Reuenewes of their Byshoprickes the rest should be confiscate vnto our possession as a cleare gayne If this bee a rumour this rumour is wicked and slauÌ„derous and such a one as the grauitie of your person should stoppe your eares from and deceit in hart But if this lye be deuised by you and your fraternitie into how horrible a sinne doe ye wilfully drowne your selues that will scatter such wicked slaunders agaynst your brethren whoÌ„ ye know not But you say that I such as I am are charged with the greater part of this infamie for when we choose such Byshops we geue iust cause to men to conceaue some suspition of our auarice and couetousnesse Ye write monstruously Osorius Do we choose Byshops or do I choose Byshops how long and in what places hath this custome preuayled that euery particular subiect or the vulgare multitude should choose Byshops your fraÌ„ticke communication denounceth you a maÌ„ more worthy to be whipped in Bedlem theÌ„ to be disputed with all in Schooles For ye seéme to be altogether voyde of commoÌ„ sense The election of our Byshops Syr Ierome is ordered accordyng to the auncient and best receaued Canons choyse is made by the Deane and Chapter of the most excelleÌ„t in vertue and learnyng The Prince doth confirme the election The Archbyshops do consecrate them that are chosen Of whoÌ„ some are nothyng inferiour to your Maister shyppe in auncientie of race wherein you
whom though some may bee of opinioÌ„ to excell in the knowledge of the Ciuill Law yet will not forthwith vnder that title yeld vnto me the lyke commendation in the interpretyng of holy Scriptures All this matter is resolued at a word O counterfait GrammariaÌ„ For if accordyng to the doctrine of Peter and Paule certaine degreés bee limited in eche dignitie and by the same doctrine likewise determined that the royall dignitie of a Kyng doth excell aboue all other power Then is it manifest by the same decreé that the authoritie of the kyng must be honored without all coÌ„parison as chiefest But after your wonted guise ye runne at raundon with many wordes concernyng the meanyng of Paule and of a distinction to bee made betwixt the ciuill and Ecclesiasticall authoritie First of all no maÌ„ can so snaffle that vnbridled touÌ„g but that it will roue and raunge triflyngly whether it lusteth And yet the meanyng of Paule and Peter can not bee vnknowen to any men that will haue but a will to vnderstand it for they doe make a diuision or speciall distinction of Magistrates by certaine degreés and in the same doe precisely and manifestly ascribe chief rule and highest authoritie to kyngs And albeit ye triumphe iolylye in your differeÌ„ce of tymes yet this will nothyng preuayle you For ye beleue that this speache of the Apostles ought not to be applyed to ChristiaÌ„ kynges bycause it was written in the tyme of wicked Emperours which were enemies to Christian Religion Consider the sayings of the Apostles more aduisedly peéuish Prelate and acknowledge once at last your owne vnskilfulnesse Peter writeth in this maner Submit your selues to euery humane creature for the Lord whether it be to the king as to the most excelleÌ„t or to the Rulers as vnto them who are sent by him to punishe the wicked doers and to aduaunce the well doers Now therfore I demaunde this question of you Osorius whether God did send Nero that sauadge and beastly cruell Tyraunt as you know an horrible bloudsucker of Christian professioÌ„ to punish the wicked aduaunce the well doers if ye affirme that he dyd you are madde if ye deny it then all your former AssertioÌ„ lyeth in the durte Let vs seé likewise what Paule sayth Whose sentence herein is much more plentyfull Princes sayth he are not fearefull to well doers but to the wicked wilt thou not feare the power doe well then and thou shalt haue prayse of the same for they be the ministers of God appointed for thy wealth But if thou doe euill then feare thou for they beare not the sworde in vayne For they bee the ministers of God to take vengeauÌ„ce on them that do euill What say you now could this speach of Paule touch Nero in any respect whiche embrued his sword in the bloud of innumerable ChristiaÌ„s who alwayes oppressed the innocentes who wallowed all his lyfe long in all maner of outrage and crueltie No discreét or sober person will thinke so But albeit the Apostles beyng enspired with the holy Ghost gaue these preceptes in the time of tyrannous Emperours yet they had relation thereby to Christian and godly kynges because they should vndertake the defence of their subiectes and should be nurses of the congregation of Christ accordyng to the Prophecie of Esay And yet due obedience is not thereby forbidden to be geuen vnto kynges in Ciuill causes though they bee inâ—idels as appeareth manifestly both by the example and doctrine of our Sauiour Christ. You are contented that kinges should be placed aboue the Nobilitie Ciuill Magistrates and other officers in temporall causes accordyng to the saying of Peter but not to be aboue the holynesse of Churches nor the profession of Religâ—ous persons ne yet to reconcile the fauour of God Paule commaundeth euery soule to be in subiection to the hygher power amongest whom the kyng is chiefest And therfore all ye Byshops together with all other what soeuer Ecclesiasticall orders are holden subiect vnder the authoritie of the kyng vnlesse ye bee without soules as perhappes your maistershyp is if then ye be subiect to kynges ye ought to obey their commaundementes vnlesse they prescribe agaynst God And yet they beare no function in your Churches nor â—it in your Churches as rulers of them nor administer the Sacramentes but they may and ought to chastize you reduce you into good order if happely ye neglect your dueties or behaue your selfe vnseémely in your function which is to be approued by the authoritie of both the old and new Testament as it is ofteÌ„times repeated before To coÌ„firme your AssertioÌ„ you bryng for example Core Dathan and Abyron of a singular blockishnesse and ignoraunce For they made Rebellion agaynst Moses and to vse the very wordes of the holy Scriptures They were gathered together agaynst Moses and Aaron and sayd vnto them Ye take enough and to much vppon you seyng all the multitude are holy euery one of them and the Lorde is amongest them Why lifte you your selues vppe aboue the Congregation of the Lord Behold here in this their execrable speach ouer and besides a most pernitious rebellion we heare also in the same one onely equabilitie in all degrees For asmuch therefore as they did abrogate all maner of authoritie from Magistrates beyng appointed by God as the Anabaptistes of our age do practize they were accordyng to their desert swallowed vp of the gapyng gulfe prouided by God for that purpose But why do ye thrust these persons into the stage who caÌ„ occupy no part of the play For we doe neither entreate of any Rebellion nor of any trayterous suppression of Magistrates but our coÌ„munication tendeth to this ende whether kynges haue any lawfull gouernement ouer Ecclesiastical persons No lesse foolishly haue ye patcht to your purpose Oza Ozias and Balthesar whom ye do affirme to haue bene greuously plagued of the Lord bicause they did rashly handle holy thynges and thus ye say was done accordyng to their deserte Likewise should our kynges be worthely punished of the Lord if they would vndertake to minister Baptisme to infantes or would in their owne persons distribute the Lordes Supper or clymbe vp into pulpittes and vsually preache For they should entrude into other mens functions namely Ministers and Elders whom God hath peculiarly chosen to execute those orders in Ministerie Euen so the Lord hath aduaunced kynges in hyghest superioritie bycause they should commauÌ„de and prouide that all matters should be executed by others their subiectes in due conuenient order This doctrine beyng both â—ounde and profitable approued by the testimonies and examples of the purest ages and most applyable to the ordinauÌ„ce of holy Scriptures yet this our pelting Prelate seémeth so squeymishe at it that he spareth not to curse vs to the pitte of hell bycause we will not agreé with him in his most friuolous Assertions Ye maruell much why I am so hatefully bent agaynst the Byshop of Rome why
what sayth Osorius in the Ceremonies of the old law no not so for that were altogether Iewish in Fayth therfore neither yet so in any wise for this is the very doctrine of Luther Uouchsafe therfore a good felowshyp Osorius to escry out one safe Hauen for vs wherein we poore forlorne abiectes may cast Anker saue our selues frō shipwracke Forsooth in workes sayth Osorius and in keépyng the prescribed rules of vertuous lyfe That is to say in Innocencie in chastitie in modestie in abstinence in vprightnesse of mynde in holynesse of Religion in feruentnesse of the spirite in aboūdaunce of the loue of God in earnest endeuour of godlynesse in deédes of righteousnesse dueties of pietie in geuyng much almonesse in obedience in keépyng peacible vnitie and such like ornamentes treasures wherof Osorius in many wordes maketh a long rehearsall Of all whiche vertues there is not so much as one croome or sparckle in these Lutherans and Buceranes and these new Gospellers thē which kynde of people nothyng can bee named more wicked nothyng thought vpon more pestiferous nothyng more troublesome in the common wealth nothyng more readyly armed to rayse maliciousnesse to sow contentious quarelles strife enemitie nothyng more pernicious to procure the destruction of Princes none more geuē to bloudsuckyng and Treason who beyng embrued with all wickednesse licentiousnesse libertie lust with all manner shamelessenesse crueltie and madnesse outragiously rushe into all places whereby they may thrust their Gospell in place and defile all thynges with filthy stenche wheresoeuer they make neuer so litle abode they corrupt the land with trecherous villanies finally they doe poyson the ayre they doe abandone chastitie geue full scope to voluptuousnesse roote out all feare of Gods law and mans law and in all this outrage they promise vnpunishable libertie On the contrary parte I meane in the Court of Rome and in all that most sacred Citie florisheth a farre other maner of countenaunce and Maiestie of seuere discipline and vertuous lyfe And first of all in that most royall hygh and chief Prelate and most renowmed Monarche of all Prelates sittyng in Peters owne chayre In those Reuerend estates of the Tridentine Councell in the worshypfull Massemongers of the Romish Church in the great Doctours of that old Gospel in Monasteries and Dorters the very forgeshops of most pure doctrine in the most chast Selles of holy Nunnes finally in all that sacred Senate and Catholicke people no such Presidentes of wickednesse and abhomination may bee seene no spotte so much of corrupt infection raigneth no ambition no lust no insolencie neither any kynde of malice no quarellyng no crueltie no foule or vnseémely thyng sauoryng of any earthly contagion can be discernable amongest this generation But whole heapes yea huge mountaines of godly and heauealy store doth florishe and abounde no vnquietnesse or molestation of Empires and Princely gouernement no seéde plottes of mortall warres no shew so much of bloudy battell no Treason no ouerthrowe of Kynges and publicke authoritie nor any seditious plātes of cōtentious discorde finally no earthly thyng in the secret closettes of the Romishe Court in so much that if Diogenes would in midday with torche in hād prye neuer so narrowly he should no be able to finde in all the Citie of Rome one Harlot or strumpet so much To conclude it is not possible to heare amōgest that most sacred Catholicke conuenticle any sounde of cauillation at all no mutteryng of outragious slaunders no blaste of cunnyngly forged lyes wherof as all others of that sect are cleare so are these bookes of Osorius chiefly most purely purged wherein appeareth no smatche of brabling distempered affections no lyeng slaunder nor iarre of erronious doctrine no significatiō of a mynde troubled and seuered from the Castle of Reason But all thynges are debated and expounded with peaceble gentlenesse quyet tranquillitie of mynde wonderfull lenitie and mildenesse not with rigorous and malicious wordes not with slaunderous carterlike reproches but with inuincible Argumētes as forcible as the dartes of Achilles or Hector discharged I thinke out of the very guttes of the Troian horse nothyng vttered to the vayne ostentatiō of witte or reuengemēt of spightfull hatred as it were in Triumphe of victory fie beware of that gentle Reader but of a very simple earnest desire to aduaunce vertue pietie for this especiall cause forsooth that those sparkes and Embres of honesty and godlynesse which Luther hath raked vp buryed and vtterly quenched out might once agayne be quickened and florishe in that most sacred Seé of Rome These euen these same bee the workes if ye will neédes know them Catholicke Reader and good deédes of those men wherewith they doe prepare an entyre to true righteousnesse and furnish their iourney to heauen and wherewith as it were with ladders they clymbe by steppe to the purchase of eternall inheritaunce And how els this euen this must bee the right way to heauen But in the meane space with how many foggy and thicke cloudes hath S. Paule the seruaunt of God Apostle of Iesus Christ ouerwhelmed the Christiā people And into how deépe and darkened doungeons hath he drowned our senses Who albeit was rapt into the thyrd heauen had not as yet conceaued this incomprehensible wisedome out of the very forgeshops of mysticall Philosophy Belike he could not escry throughout all the heauens this hidden secret that men are not Iustified by workes but are made righteous by the Fayth of the sonne of God so by fayth that in no respect by workes Finally that the especiall meanes and singular substaunce of our Iustification is in this sorte to bee wayed as that it may not be attayned els where then in Christ onely nor by any other meanes then through Fayth onely in Christ. But if S. Paule had not receaued this doctrine from heauen or had not taught vs the doctrine which he receaued from thence or if you for your part Osorius had disputed after this sort as ye teach now in any Paynyme common wealth or before any Ethnicke Philosophers or amongest the Iewes or Turkes it might happely haue come to passe I suppose that this your Aristotlelike Iustice might haue obteined at the least some resemblaunce of truth or perhappes crept into some credite nay rather it is not to bee doubted but if the Iewes them selues or Turkes were now consederate with you in Portingall in the same Argument they could not scarsely alledge any other proofes then you bryng forth vnto vs at this present neither would I thinke expoūde the same in any other phrase of words then your selfe do vse But now for as much as we contend not together in Tullies Tusculane questions nor in his Academycall probabilities nor in Platoes common wealth nor in the Iewishe Thalmude ne yet in the Turkes Alcaron but in the Churche of Iesu Christ surely ye ought to haue regarded the place chiefly where you were when ye wrate this
doctrine And in the meane time to passe ouer that whereat I cannot choose but laugh I meane this addicion not ioyned with any rashe or vayne confidence As though any one thing vnder the heauens can be more arrogant vayne thē that perswasion of yours whereby you are wont to bring poore simple soules in beliefe that such as are buryed in the cowle weéde of a Francifcane Fryer are forthwith defensible enough agaynst all the Deuilles and furies of hell Againe in buing your pardōs who soeuer shall make best stake with you as soone as theyr coyne shall cry chink in your boxes shall haue as many soules as they will deliuered out of purgatory and send them vp presently fleéing rype to heauen To passe ouer in the meane tyme other gamboldes toyes not a few in nūber much more foolish apishe then these being desirous to make an end once not for lack of such good matter more then sufficient Euen as fruiolous and vayne may I say is all the rest that followeth concerning your Church vpon the which when yeé haue bestowed neuer so many delicate colours and besmeaared her with neuer so freshe and oryent oyles berduers yet shall you seeme to doe nothing but bedawbe olde rotten putrified walles with new morter Let no man sinisterly interprete of these wordes as spoken agaynst the true church of Christ. I do knowe and confesse that Christ neuer wanted neyther shall euer want his Church which shall continue one vniforme holy Apostolicke and truely Catholicke which being builded vpon the rock of the Apostles shall enioy generall participation in one body and within one bowells as it were with the whole cōmunion of all the saynetes and godly faythfull throughout all the whole world And I cannot wonder enough truely with what face you dare so hedge vp within the boundes of the Romish particuler Church onely this vniuersall Church which is not restrayned within any limittes of place nor tytles of persōs by the publique authoritie of the christian Fayth but is dispersed abroad generally and without compasse farre and wide vpon the face of the whole earth wheresoeuer the Apostolique Fayth is of any force in so much that to your seéming may beé no Catholique Church now but that Romishe at Rome from which your Church and Synagogue ye banish and expell all such as professe Christ after any other maner then after the Romish Fashion none otherwise then as if they professe no Fayth nor followed any order of any Church at all And hereof aryseth that your crabbed and snappish accusation agaynst Luther Melanchton Zuinglius Caluine Haddon and others not because they are not Christianes but because they are not Romanistes not because they haue swarued an heare breadth from the doctrine of the Apostles and Euangelistes but because they will not become treacherous traytours agaynst the Apostles and the expresse worde of God as your high Bishop is O singuler cause O profound and Catholique accusation But how wisely should you haue done in this if you hadde brought to passe that it might haue bene notified to the Christian people that your Romish Church were and is a sound member of the true Church of Christ rather then that the vniuersalitie of Christes Church should be forced to so narrow a hoale of subiection as Rome is For this sufficeth not Osorius though you cry out a thousād times wider the you do that your church was foūded by Christ established by the Apostles defēded with the army of Martirs amplified beautified with the traditions of godly men and made strong and for euer inuincible agaynst all the battery and countermoyles of Heretiques by power of the holy ghost without the whiche no hope of Saluation may be hoped for c. If besides vayne crakes of smoky speeches ye shewe no demonstration of sounde proofe why these bragges of yours should be true let vs graunt your saying Or els if onely speeches shall be credited and if to babble and prate whatsoeuer a man listeth may like you to allow of for an vndoughted Oracle Why may not I as well with the like lauishnes of tongue gene lill for loll and saye that thys Church of Rome whereupon you bragge so much was neuer erected by Christ but hath degēdered frō Christ vnto Antichrist from the auncient primer paterne of the primitiue Church of Rome to a certayne new fangled kynde of lyfe doctrine not Instituted by the Apostles but frō the Apostles quite fallen away into Apostasye not garded with the army of Martyrs but gorged embrued yea and drucken with the bloud slaughter of infinite Martyrs such so many as neuer any Nero or Maxentius did euer send more to heauē thē this Babilonicall strūpeth hath done Now where you adde beautified with the traditions of holy and godly men and made strong and for euer inuincible against all assaults and battrry of Heretiques and shall so continue permanent by the ayd of the holy Ghost Truely in these very wordes you feéme to resemble those persons which in the Prophett did call darcknes light and light darcknes euill good and good euill First as concerning mens traditions how holy those men were I know not this is most true that your Church is fully fraught with traditions and doctrine of men in deed in so much that who so shall vncloache your Church of those traditions and Implementes of mens patcheries shall leaue her altogether naked without all kynde of furniture to couer her shame except it be a poore ragge of Moyses Iaunitas solitudo Haue we not heard the Romishe church very notably defended by this Camille Camell I had almost sayd now sake an other vnuāquishable argumēt such as all the Heretiques wedges with all their Beatelles and malles can not beate abroad when they haue done all that they can where he knitteth vpp the knott forsooth on this wise Agaynst all the assaultes of Heretiques defensible by the power of the holy ghost shall cōtinue inuinciblefor euer How shall this be knowne forsooth because the Numa of our age Osorius doth Iustifie the same with hys wordes who is no more able to make a lye then the Pope is able to erre what remayneth therefore for vs to do but that beyng vanquished with the truth we become the Popes vassalles and worshippe the foothstoole of hys feete But to aunswere briefly to this Parrotte I will demaund this one thing first not of Osor. but of the whole brotherhood fraternitie of Shauelinges If they beleue themselues to be so garded by the power and force of the holyghost agaynst all the assaultes of heretiques as this reuerend Lord the Lord Bishop of Sylu doth boast why do they vphold their pylfe with such outrage and Tirannye with such boochery and blood with such horrible burninges stiflinges fryer fagotts emprisonmentes Rackinges Constrayntes to recantation Famine and sword Finally with all maner of horrible tortures without
this condition that the Consuls should not be first admitted to beare rule before they should prostrate them selues at the popes feéte and sweare faythfully to become bonnaire and buxome to the Pope and the Church of Rome Blond 6. booke In the yeare 1182. albeit the first begynnyng and entring of Lucius 3. into the Popedome was somewhat cleare from sedition yet within a whiles after him selfe did minister cause of great Tumultes bycause he practized to roote out the honorable name of Consuls out of the Citie of Rome not much degenerating from Lucius was for his troublesome head called Turbulentus But bycause this place doth minister oportunitie to treate of sectes and schismes why do we protract any more tyme For if a sect be defined truly to be any opinion whatsoeuer oppugneth the naturall meanyng of the Gospell how great a champion of sectes may Pope Innocenâ—ius the 3. of that name be called I meane that Innocentius the most detestable enemy of the true Gospell aboue all other who in the yeare 1215. in the CouÌ„cell of Laterane sowed the feédes of all the broyles and troubles almost in the Church wherewith the whole Christian Nation is molested at this day Whenas first he established the heresie of Transubstantiation he yoaked Christians to auricular Confession commauÌ„ded that Remission of Sinnes should be receaued none otherwise but at the deliuerie of a Priest spoyled the lay people of the one part of the Sacrament was the first deuisor of this Tyrannicall persecution by fire namely of all such as durst but once quacke against that Catholicke Seé of Rome This is that Innocent Pope who was the very authour of all the bloudshed and calamities in the Church which hath doth consume the Protestaunts and Papistes at this day Not much vnlike vnto this monster were his next successors Honorius 3. Innocentius 4. Gregorius 9 most rebellious traytors agaynst the Emperour Fridericke the 2. in whose tyme the order of Friers Beggers was instituted Here also commeth to memory that in the tyme of this Pope Gregory 9. of whom I made mention before and through his occasion chiefly began the schismes and factions of the Guelfianes which mainteyned the authoritie of the Pope and the Gibellynes who sought the preseruation of the state Imperiall By whiche occasion how cruell and horrible warres were arered scarse calmed in an huÌ„dred yeares afterwardes the auncient Recordes and conference of Hystories whereof you vaunt a plentyfull knowledge can manifestly declare vnto you I come now to Celestine 5. which was Byshop but halfe a yeare in the yeare 1294. whom after the first moneth of his Popedome succeéded or rather rusht lyke a ruffler into that Seé Boniface 8. who kept this Celestine in prison Platin. AEmil But by what pollicie this Pope aspired to the Popedome I would desire Osorius to tell me in his next Letters if he write any after to our Queénes Maiestie For if this Boniface did cast that Celestine into prison as he sayd not of any malice but of purpose to take away occasioÌ„ of mutine that might haue groweÌ„ by the confederates on the contrary parte touchyng the Popedome why did he not restoare him agayne then when the tumultes were pacified why did he craftely deuise his exile by a deuilish practise of the souÌ„de of certeine voyces imagined to be sent from heauen into the Chamber of the Pope Marius This Pope Boniface the botcher of the Decretalls was so maliciously enflamed against certeine Cardinalles of the houses of ColuÌ„ne Vrsine as many as remained fautors of the Gibelline factioÌ„ beyng him selfe the most factious of all others that he put to the sacke and razed to the hard earth all their mansions and Castells wheresoeuer he came This is that most holy and Angelicke Patriarch who beyng at Genua vpon an Ashewednesday threwe Ashes into the eyes of Porcherus Archbyshop of Genua without regard of reuerence either of the place of the tyme or the persons that were present speakyng after this maner Memento home quod Gibellinus es cum Sibillinis in Cinerem reuerteris That is to say Remember maÌ„ that thou art a Gibellyne and with the Sibyllines shalt returne agayne into dust At the length in the most cruell Itallian warres betwixt the Sicilians fauoryng the partes of the Arragones and Robert the Duke of Calabria whenas this pope would not seéke by his authoritie to pacifie the Timult though thereunto required sundry tymes very instantly beyng not loÌ„g after taken prisoner him selfe in an vproare and carried to Rome did pyne him selfe to death for sorrow and anguish of mynde What shall I speake of Innocentius 6. and of Gregory 11. whereof the one in the yeare 1352. did after an vnspeakeable maner of cruelty commit to flamyng fier one Iohn a Frier FraÌ„ciscane bycause he taught what would become of Antichrist and of the popes of Rome From the other diuers Cities of Italy reuolted in a seditions tumult as Volaterane recordeth what shall I say of all that other factious rable of popes succeeding in order who by meanes of certayne ciuill disturbances in the Citie of Rome forsooke the Citie and translated the Seé into Fraunce continued the Election of popes in the French Nation excludyng the Romaines 74. yeares After this maner the Court of Rome playeng as it were vpon a rollyng Stage albeit it chaunged their Seé now and then yet neuer founde any place of assured rest For it was scarse as yet returned agayne within the walles of Rome from her long and werysome exile but it was wellcomed home immediately with a new Tumult For in the yeare 1378. whenas Vrbanus 6. was by force enthronized in the Popedome by meanes of the Italians the French Cardinalles mislikyng the same did chuse an other one Robert Gilbonensis to witte Clement 7. which held his Seé likewise at Auinion The vnitie of the Romishe Seé by this meanes rent a sunder in that diuision and Schisme eche Pope did excoÌ„municate the other the variable people fauored both the popes This schisme coÌ„tinued by the space of 40. yeares Vrbanâ— to be aueÌ„ged of the Cardinalles the wronges susteined by the procuremeÌ„t of Iohn kyng of Sycile procureth woÌ„derfull vproares Charles kyng of HuÌ„gary raysed an army agaynst Ioane who fauored the clayme of Clement whom afterwardes Ludowicke duke of Angew deliuered The same pope furnished one Iohn Hachut an English man with munition men whoÌ„ Vrbanus the v. had made Generall of his Army before sent him with a bande of FloreÌ„tines to Naples agaynst the sayd Ioane of whom we made mention before and withall sounded the defiaunce agaynst Charles the Kyng of Naples bycause he would not make his nephew Prince of Campania At the length this Pope beyng straightly besieged by this Charles was priuely conueyed to Genua He kept 7. Cardinalles in fetters whereof fiue he drowned in the Riuer of Tiber beyng tumbled and knitte vp into sackes He ruled the
is well enough known what meanes he vsed for the suppressing that tēptes of Carolastadius the Suenfeldians Zuinglius in hys booke entitled Elenchus contra Catabaptistas Caluin de hereticis Bullenger of Tiguirine in hys inuectiue agaynst the sectes of our time the Basileanes against the Georgianes The Heluetianes and people of Sauoye and Lumbardie how seuere and earnest pursuers were all these in rooting out of wicked opinions how estraunged and alienated from all desire of Faccions all these I say haue geuen vnto vs notable presidēts and examples therof And to speak nothing of other Churches what hath bene done in England long sithence yea and of late also towardes the ouerthrowing and confuting of erroneous opinions Let your Portugall Marchaūt certifie you by letter your notary what soeuer he be or in what corner soeuer yee lurcke whō I suppose to be sent ouer into England not for any other purpose but to become Osor. hys spye Go to where is now the experience of Osorius by the wh he hath found out in Luther as he sayth so many sectes and diuersities of opinions But the names of Sects had neuer bene so raked vp together no nor any sound of any such should euer haue bene heard at any tyme. If abode had bene made in the Fayth of the Pope and of the Romanistes So likewise also I suppose that if weé had not bene diliuered from that Ethnick Paganisme of the old Idolatrye this Botche had neuer infected our Churches neyther had Ierusalem bene euer troubled at anye tyme vnlesse Christ had bene borne neyther had so great and so many swarmes of Heretickes flusht abroad vnlesse the Apostles had preached the Gospell why therefore are we not weltered back agayn into that puddle of Paganisme or Iewishnes hauing shaken away from our shoulders the most sincere and pure religion of Christ according to the choppe Logicke of Osorius that wee may shroud our selues safely from the company of those wilde faccious Sectes and daungerous diuisions But Osorius though fallen away at the last from his tackle of mans experience hath gathered more courage yet vnto hym takyng handfast of the Ankerholde of Christ his owne wordes for the proofe of the Popes Chayre so that nowe this Seé seémeth no more humayne or terrestryall but heauenly and Angelicall Affirming that this power is established not by the ordinaūce of man but chiefly by the very words and ordinaunce of our Lord and Sauiour Christ himselfe Surely if Osorius can perswade that to be true he shall beare the bell away But by what reason will he make it apparaunt vnto vs not with one nor with a simple and naked reason but with a double horned Argument that shall cutt like a sworde for besides the authority of holy Scriptures and the Testimonyes of all auncient antiquitie also whereof he boasteth himselfe not a litle skilfull he affirmeth that he knoweth it to be true by experience But go to it remayneth that you declare vnto vs what authoritie of the sacred Scripture that is at the length and wherein that testimony of auncient antiquitie is to be found Thou must needes attend a whiles perhappes he will tell theé hereafter gentle reader For as now because Osor. is not at leysure to tell theé let it suffice theé that the man hath spoken it and vouchsafe at this present to interprete all hys speaches to be very Oracles as sweéte as honny And this much hitherto touching the Maiesty of the Seé of Rome The next vnto this hath he placed in order the obedience that they yelde vnto Princes which I maruell if any man can reade and not laugh at so also I beleue sure that Osor. himselfe could not stay but laugh at himselfe or els doughtles he was disposed to dally with vs when he wrate these wordes so pleasauntly deuised and so cunningly coulered But we sayth he do not refuse the aucthoritie of any lawfull power Howe truely you speak herein how reuerētly you esteéme of princes how obediently you behaue your selues to the higher authoritie and how hūbly you do acknowledge it and how you refuse no commaundement of the Magistrate Weé will take a taste if it please you by the conference of faythfull Historiographers by the course affayres of experience whereof the actes monuments of Princes doe make mencion Finally by search of antiquitie it selfe whereof you make your selfe experte and well beseene And to beginne first with the Empire of Greece the lawfull succession whereof contynued from Constantine the founder thereof about 500. yeares more lesse if the Bishop of Rome at that tyme would not haue refused to be subiect to the authoritie of the higher powers why then did Hadriane and after him Leo 3. hauing rooted out the kingdome of Desiderius and the Lombardes contrary to their faith an allegiaunce presume to be so hardye as to pluck away the imperiall maiesty afterwardes from the right and true heyres vnto the whiche aswell they the Bishops thēselues as also all the Italiane Natiō had submitted and obliged them selues by othe no lesse then the Greékes and why did they at theyr owne appointemente trāslate the same frō the Greékes to the Frenche nacion And although Charles him self vnto whom the Diademe Imperiall was geuen seéme worthy to be registred amongst the most vertuous famous Princes as one that endued the Church of Rome with greatest treasures possessions and liberties Yet was not that cause sufficient wherefore the maiestie of the sacred Empyre should beé vyolated and oppressed with manifest iniuries Namely sithēs the ouerthrow of that state could not choose but draw after it wonderfull troubles rancour of hartes Which thing happened in very deéd not long after For euen by the meanes thereof chiefly it came to passe that not only the Emperours of the East West were enflamed agaynst ech other with perpetuall deadly and vnquenchable hartburning hatred and enmity but also that Greéce being left naked of those helpes became an open Road to the Turkes and Sarracens for the suppressing of whose powers and recouery of which countrey I knowe not whether the whole power of the Romanistes when they haue retched it to the vttermost will be euer able to preuayle But to admitte that this translation of the Empyre came either of the speciall prouidence of God or to attribute the same to the worthines of Carolus or the Necessitie of the tymes or to mittigate the matter with some plausible and colourable excuse Yet is not this excrable sawcines of these Romish Bishopps sufficiently accquited hereby which durst be so presumptuously arrogant at that tyme or the Popes of this present which do imagine that their authoritie which they claime from Peter may priuileadge their insolent vsurpacion ouer the kingdomes of the earth and theyr iniurious transposing them where they liste nor doth waraunt their shamelesse challenge of lineall succession in the same authoritie as deriued from Peter himselfe vnto
depose them that were Elected if they liked them not And hauing attempted this deuise sundry tymes in vayne at the last after the death of the Emperour Henry 3. they crept couertly into an occasion of colorable entraunce effectuall and plausible enough as they supposed whereunto they bente all their force endeuour imagination to the vttermost of their power Pope Benedict 1. slyly entryng into conference with some of the familiares of the foresayd Henry immediately vpon the death of Conrade his Father practized forthwith to dishinherite him from the Empire and withall to aduaunce in his place Peter Kyng of Hungary presentyng vnto him this precious Owch to set on his cappe Petra dedit Romam Petro tibi Papa coronam The Rocke gaue Rome vnto Peter and the Pope the Crowne vnto thee Henry the 3. beyng dead left behynd him a sonne named Hēry 4. a very babe tender of yeares Agaynst this young Prince was a conspiracie practized by certeine State of Saxony with whom conspired also many Byshops but chiefly aboue all the rest Gregory 7. pope of Rome The Emperour is conuented of heresie for lewdly disposing the goodes and possessions of the Church and geuyng Ecclesiasticall promotions to vnworthy personages This pretence was plausible enough The Emperour is cited to Rome to defende his cause and by the Pope adiudged to penaunce namely That renouncyng his Imperiall dignitie he should doe penaunce dayly by the space of one whole yeare at the Church doore as Peter Paule yea besides this also that barefooted and barelegged he should personally crooch and creépe to kisse the popes feéte whiles this pageaunt was playeng the meane while Rodolphe Duke of Saxon is suborned to inuade the Empire vnto whō the Diademe is sent with this Inscription Petra dedit Petro Petrus Diadema Rodolpho The Rocke gaue vnto Peter and Peter geueth the Diademe vnto Rodolph The young Emperour vnderstandyng the matter dispatcheth away into Germany Rodolphe beyng in fiue battels disconfited and put to flight whiles he laye a dyeng was presented with his right hand which he lost in the battel which when he beheld he spake to the Byshops that stoode about him after this maner This is the right hād wherewith I vowed my Fayth to the Emperour Now is the same hand become a witnes and testimony of my breach of fidelity and detestable treason against my Souereigne euen by your procurement prouocation chiefly After this when the other confederates of the same Saxon conspiracy whō the pope had inueigled to reuolt to witte Herman of Luxemburgh Ecbert Marques of Saxon Duke Otto with his sonnes Conrande and Henry the grosse Echarde sonne of Ecbert Vdo Geberde and others had suffered lyke punishmentes the Emperours good fortune alwayes preuailyng The pope surceased not his practize neuerthelesse whom sufficed not to teaze straūgers to treason vnlesse he had seduced the naturall Sonnes of the Emperour to witte Conrade the first and immediatly after his decease Henry his other Sonne agaynst the Father Wherepon ensued afterwardes horrible broyles and at the length the death of the Emperour also And yet that vnhappy conspiracy of Henry the Sonne ioyning with the Pope agaynst Henry the Father happened not happely on his side afterwardes For when Henry the Sonne did withstād the same inordinate Articles of the Byshops which his Father refused Lotharius is pricked forewardes agaynst him by new practizes of the pope euē the same Lotharius whō agaynst his Fathers will he had made Duke of Saxon before who mainteining the quarell of the pope after that he vanquished the army of Henry the 5. the Emperour now left destitute of frēdes and throughly weried out with the continuall trechery of the Byshops was constrayned to relent and yeld ouer his right The Emperours therfore beyng thus weakened and for the most part brought vnder subiectiō immediatly began to spryng vp the Absolute power and Monarchy of the pope about the yeare 1094. by the speciall practize of Hildebrand and Vrbane 2. which did forbyd that no man from thenceforth should receaue any Ecclesiasticall promotiō they call it Inuestiture of any Temporall Authoritie Whē they had accomplished this with effect they began to attempt an other matter much more waighty to witte that they to whom the Byshops did owe due obedience before should now become the popes Uassalles and stand at his courtesie For wheras the Byshops were so subiect to the Emperour hitherto that no Election of any pope could be holden legitimate if the Emperour had not ratified it And agayne whereas alwayes heretofore the lawfull authoritie of the Imperiall Succession was deriued from the Fathers to the Sonnes without any graunt allowaunce or confirmation of the pope These Sacred and holy Fathers outragiously boylyng with an inward charitable zeale to vnlade the Princes of that heauy burden of authoritie and to lay it vpon their owne shoulders what do they forsooth vnder colour of false surmise both horrible agaynst God and outragiously presumptuous agaynst men they pretende that this authoritie to erect and set vppe earthly Empires and kyngdomes and to dispose and trāspose them at their pleasure where when and to whō they listed was geuē cast vpon them frō aboue not by any terrene ordinaunce but euen by Christ him selfe and that it was now no more lawfull for any man to clymbe to the state Imperiall but at the will and lawfull Election of the Pope And hereof are many Decreés extaunt abroad shamefully forged by them and much more shamefully countenaunced and faced out The Maiestie of the Empire beyng thus brought in subiectiō and worne quite out of countenaunce the intollerable arrogancy of the Byshops grew to such outrage that not contented to haue pluckt out their owne neckes out of the colier of lawfull obedience drew also vnto them selues the Emperours interest lawfull authoritie in creatyng the Pope in enstallyng of Byshops in callyng of Councels in disposing Ecclesiasticall promotiōs finally in administryng all Ecclesiasticall matters and the Emperours them selues beyng thus made subiect vnto thē after a most execrable sort did moyle turmoyle oppresse enforcyng them not onely to sweare allegeaunce and obediēce vnto them but to prostrate them selues to kisse euen their stinkyng feéte also extollyng and magnifieng their owne absolute power and Monarchy in the meane space aboue all the kyngdomes of the earth gloriously vauntyng that the Imperiall Maiesty was seuēty tymes seuen tymes Inferiour and baser then the glory of the Popedome was alledging this similitude for a speciall Argument that as God sayd they had created two great lightes in the firmament and as the creation of heauen and earth had not two begynnynges but one begynnyng Euen so now was left nothyng for the Emperour no not in the lowest Sphere of the world wherein he might beare any preéminence but that the whole Chaos of all power generally seémed to be fast locke vp and ensealed within one
determine vpoÌ„ an other Emperour to be chosen And when Themperour sent Embassadours to the Pope to be receaued into fauour The Pope drew him out an InstrumeÌ„t with these coÌ„ditions annexed to witte that he should confesse the errors and heresies of his Princes and Cytties which were none at all that he should depart froÌ„ his Empyre and should committe hymselfe his Children and all his goodes and possessions to hys mercy and from thenceforth should neuer meddle with any of them without hys permissioÌ„ and sufferaÌ„ce Which articles albeit TheÌ„perour was not vnwilling to yealde vnto yet because the Pope perceaued that the States of the Empyre woulde not accepte it hys owne sacred holynes vpon Easter day appoynteth an other Emperour Charles 4. At the last Ludouick beyng poysoned not without the procurement and practize of this most mercifull Clement departed thys lyfe as Ierome Marius doth record within a yeare after the Election of this Charles in the yeare 1347. At the length the same Charles whom the Pope annoynted Emperour contrary the ordinaunce of all the States to th end to confirme the dignitie Imperiall to hys sonne and hys Successors so ioyneth in league with the Electors what with fayre promises bribes that he passeth ouer the reuenewes of Th empyre to the Electors this did he to establishe the Succession in hym and hys posteritie as Aeneas Siluius doth report Agayne the Electors bound the sayd Charles by oathe that he shoulde neuer require restitution of those reuenewes agayne which the Electors do enioy euen to this day By meanes whereof it came to passe that the Romayne Empyre beyng thus embased and the Reuenewes of the same empayred The Turkishe outrage hath long sithence freely possessed a great part of Christendome without resistaunce and is like to preuayle further yet for as much as the power and force of the Christianes beyng rent asunder and skattered abroad there is now none other power or PoteÌ„tate that is eyther able or dare adueÌ„ture to withstand the mighty puyssaunce of that outragious furye And the verye cause of all these mischiefes haue for the more part issued out froÌ„ that pestilent sincke of Rome who building hys rauenous neast with none other furniture more then with the scrappes that heé skrapeth together through violent seditious partaking of factions and dissentions of Princes hath brought Christendome to so small a handful now at the last that the Christian Princes iarring alwaies emoÌ„gest theÌ„selues do seeme that they will neuer be williÌ„g to be at one and agreé togethers for prouisioÌ„ to be made against the Turckes nor will be able at any tyme to make their partyes good agaynst the coÌ„tinuall inuasuones and Roades whiche this Tyraunt doth dayly make into Christendome But we haue shewed Recordes and examples sufficient whiche if be not true Let Osorius himselfe confute them by hys Antiquitie whereof he vauÌ„teth so singuler a skill But if they be most true as they be in deéde if he shall neuer be able to disproue theÌ„ where is now become that wonderfull obedience to the lawfull Magistrate where is that consideration of the Maiestie which as he sayth refuseth no ordinaunce of the higher power but doth yelde that vnto Cesar that belongeth to Cesar that vnto God that is due vnto God he addeth moreouer For we beleeue according to the testimony of Paule that lawfull Magistrates are so established by the ordinaunce of God that he that resisteth the lawfull aucthoritie outh to be adiudged not so much to resiste man as to resiste God himselfe If these wordes were as hartyly and vnfaynedly vttered as you professe honorably in wordes I meruayle theÌ„ froÌ„ wheÌ„ce came that so cruell rebellion of that Ecclesiasticall Seignorie agaynst the Superiour powers and from whence those moÌ„struous turmoyles of Empires and so execrable alterations of States these many hundred yeares came at the first The principall causes of all whiche tumultes commotioÌ„s and alterations â—prang from no where els then fromout that boyling fornace of the Popes canckered contumacye agaynst their liege Lordes and Emperoures From hence came the warres of the Emperour Henry the 4. 5. then of Fridericke 1. and 2. from hence the battell of Ludowicke of Bauiere and Ludowicke of Austriche In which vproares the Maiestie of the kyngdomes was not onely violated the power of the same weakened Princes combatyng against ech other like the brethren of Cadmus destroyed but Churches also were miserably torne and many godly consciences driuen into greéuous anguish of minde and most perillous staggering vncerteintie through these outragies of the Byshops who to extoll and enlarge their false forged dominion conceaued by as false forged opinioÌ„ were in effect the very cankers and botches of the Church and of all Europe besides What stroake then shall the authority of Paule who forbiddeth all resistauÌ„ce beare amongest these ruffling Prelates who delightyng and sporting them selues priuely to seé Princes and their Subiectes together by the eares and to rende and teare a sunder common weales and the publique peace and tranquilitie of the Church with Ciuill discentioÌ„s seditious Bulles and pestilent Libelles who through their priuiledges and immunities exemptyng them selues from publique Iustice and Ciuill Lawes do vse abuse Monarches and Tetrarches lyke bondeslaues after their owne lust and pleasure do blesse them curse them commaunde them intreate them rewarde them punish them allow disallow set vp set downe treade vpon with the heéles yea with their Papane power and Maiesticall prerogatiue cast downe into hell betray theÌ„ poyson theÌ„ how true this report is the Grecian FreÌ„ch and Germany Emperours playne patternes of their fury doe euidently and aboundauntly declare the smart therof felt Chilpericke the French kyng whom the Pope deposed from his kingdome and thrust into a Monckery Henry the 2. kyng of EnglaÌ„d whose Princely crowne takeÌ„ froÌ„ his head you reteigned by the space of foure dayes Iohn kyng of England who was first driuen out of his kyngdome by Pope Innocent 3. at the length poysoned by a Monke Henry 7. Emperour of Germany whom ye destroyed by poyson as ye did Victor likewise whose lyfe also a certeine Relligious lozell of your owne order cut short of a white or a blacke Moncke for he was a Dominicane Friar by ministryng vnto him the Sacrament dypped before in deadly poyson What shall I say of Phillippe the French kyng agaynst whom Pope Boniface 8. did procure Edward kyng of England to mainteyne mortall warres what shall I speake of Henry 6. Emperour of Rome agaynst whom as rebelles reuolted the Byshop of Collen and Leodicensis in which tumult Leodicensis was slayne And for breuities sake to passe ouer infinite other Dukes and Princes of Sycile Arragon Tuscane Calaber Naples Venice Germany Fraunce England Boheme Italy Rome Emperours Kynges Princes Marquestes Dukes Counsellours Senatours Consuls whom I dare auow were neuer more horribly molested in all their whole lyues then
through the malice trechery of your holy Fathers and their fraternitie So that this whole Seé of yours may seéme to haue attayned that loftyness of absolute power and sole superioritie to none other end then to teare rende abroad and dissipate lawfull authorities Potentates and Magistrates established by the ordinaunce of almighty God What happened but of late dayes by the attēpt of Pius the 2. I thinke is not yet slipt out of your remēbraunce who would not graūt to the cōfirmation of the Bishop of Iseberg vnlesse he would promise that the Bishop of Mentz should neuer assemble the Electours before the Pope were made acquainted yea gaue his cōsent thereto Which if the pope might haue cōpassed once doughtlesse he had wonne the spurres for the suppressing of the authoritie of the Electours for euer This insolēcy the Byshop of Iseberg did stiffely oppugne whom beyng for the same scorched with the horrible lightening of the popes curses deposed from his Byshoppricke the Palatine Fridericke vndertooke to defend in this righteous and lawfull cause apperteinyng to the state of the Electours and sauety of Germany By meanes wherof when the matter came once to handy stroakes the iust and righteous cause preuailed Now I beseéche you Osorius Such as challenge vnto them selues a Lieutenauntshyp not of one Citie onely but of the whole world such as teach that Emperours do not reigne of them selues but vnder the Pope such as affirme that all right to create Kynges and Princes doth belong vnto them selues were these persons euer of the mynde to geue due honor to the high powers whenas they acknowledge no power on earth aboue them selues whenas of late yeares Pope Clement the 7. bent his thunderboltes of excommunication agaynst Henry the 8. Kyng of England whenas also of late Pope Pius 5. waxed very wroch agaynst our most Souereigne Lady Queéne Elizabeth and threw out agaynst her his truell curse and seditious Bull whenas he cutteth her of frō her Regall dignitie and the congregation of Christians assaulteth her with slaunders and reproches nameth her pretensed Queéne proclaimeth her refuge for runneagates whenas he procureth her subiectes to become traytours and teazeth them to armes agaynst their naturall Princesse yea whenas he releaseth them in this behalfe of their Oathe of allegeaunce do these Prelates obey the counsell of Paule◠Wherein euery soule is commaunded to submitte it selfe to the highe powers Which place of Paule Chrisostome interpretyng Doth say that not onely Byshoppes Prophetes and Euangelistes but also the Apostles them selues are subiect to the same law Let vs briefly runne ouer the remnaunt of Osorius Fable So that hereof it cōmeth passe that we doe Decree that nor onely the Cannons of the Byshops but also the ordinaunces of Princes beyng not directly contrary to the Lawes of God ought to be obeyed most duetyfully To this end tendeth his talke to witte◠That these holy Fathers may not seéme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to warre against God For whosoeuer resisteth the lawfull Magistrate resisteth God And therfore you do decreé that the ordinaunces and lawes of Princes beyng not contrary to the lawes of God ought to be as duely obserued as the Popes Decrees But you may pype vppe this kynde of caterbrawle Osorius to such as are not yet well acquainted with your Catholick maskings in some other world if it please you in Noua Hispania or els in Calecute For with vs thinke not to finde any so foolish to follow you fantasticall all deuise and to credite your affirmatiōs who being ouermuch enured to your ingglyngs are sufficiently instructed in those your wyly beguilye are to well acquainted with your ambitious hawtynes your continuall cruell combattes with Princes your suppressing of Kynges your exemptions from politique and Ciuill lawes so many hundred yeares Now that you haue brought to passe by your vnmeasurable and vnsatiable Tyranny that the Monarches and chief Potentates of this world are become subiectes vassalles vnder your authoritie daryng not to mutter no nor so much as to hisse once agaynst your cōmaundementes vnlesse your fatherhoodes gape vpon thē Osor. like a fine man steppeth forth endeuouryng to persuade with his sweéte eloquēce that all the Packe of their Popish priesthoode is already trussed vpp offereth it selfe alwayes most humbly applyable to all the ordinaūces Commaūdemētes of Princes and higher powers which are not repugnaunt agaynst the lawes and ordinaūces of God But come of now let vs take a tast of this your Seraphicall obedience and let vs set down for example that which may come to passe hereafter or at least that which is hartely wished for to come to passe in deéde Put the case that this your noble Sebastian Kyng of Portingall whom for the reuerence I beare him I name a puissaunt Prince should geue you an expresse commaundement that all Idolles Pictures and Images should be pluckt out of your Churches Surely this commaundement were nothyng disagreable to the ordinaunce of God I beseéch you tell me what would Osorius do here would he obey the commaundemētes I dare scarsely beleéue him But there is no such matter commaunded by your kyng nor shall euer be commaunded What your Prince shall do hereafter neither doe you know your selfe Osorius neither am I inquisitiue to knowe whereabout your Noble Kyng of Portingall doth bestew his tyme at this presēt but I speake what he ought to do And what if the Lord in whose handes are the hartes of Princes do by secret inspiration of the holy Ghost enduce him to cōmaunde it at one tyme or other The Pope say you would not permit it yea Syr I do beleéue this in deéde And therfore the king should not aduēture to geue any such attempt though he were wholy bent thereunto Neither would Osor. obey though he did it Yet surely the word of God would permit it though the Pope and all his Cardinalles do spurne and kicke agaynst it In the meane tyme O wonderfull authoritie of Kynges in those Nations and O miraculous obedience of Catholickes whereas neither Princes are at libertie to enact and establish that in their owne common weales that they ought to do nor is lawfull for the Subiectes to obey their Princes lawes in matters approued by the word of God vnlesse the Popes authoritie beyng farre higher then either the authoritie of man or power of God be obteyned first By whose crafty deuises after that the Lordes and Princes be forced to that issue that it may not be lawfull for them to institute any ordinaunce but such as shall please the Byshops and Priestes then are all those shauelynges at elbow by and by to execute whatsoeuer their Princes commaunde them whenas the Princes may not commaunde any thyng in deéde but as they shal be guided and lead as it were by the lippe of their owne Subiectes O singuler superexcellent obedience of such Subiectes towardes their Magistrates Departyng a whiles frō Portingall let
vs turne out penne towardes Spayne though swaruyng but litle frō the question Not many Monethes agoe arriued there an English Shyppe richly laden with English wares in the same besides sundry Passengers were xx Mariners more or lesse who beyng vnder sayle on Seaborde did worshyp the Lord after their countrey maner in their owne mother toung This shyppe whether carried in her right course or forced by Tempest arriued at the length vpon the coast of Spayne The Shippe had scarse thrust her nose into the Hauen but by what occasion I know not the holy Inquisitours beyng flocked together flew into the shyppe They Sommon the Mariners to appeare before the Inquisition and by constraint of oathe enforced them to shew the bookes of their Common Prayers hereupon threw into prison Queéne Elizabeth hauyng intelligēce of the matter addresseth Letters vnto Kyng Phillippe for the deliuery of her Subiectes The Kyng desirous to graunt her request made aunswere that there wanted no good will in him to do what he might to the vttermost and that he had also to his power and Princely authoritie entreated for them very earnestly but that the Maiestie of the Sacred Inquisition in his kingdome was of such force that him selfe must neédes be obedient vnto it do ye not seé here a notable kyng Osorius who may commaunde nothing more in his kyngdome thē shall like the subiectes are ye wont in this sorte to obey the cōmmaundement of your kyngs Yes ye obey in deéde but such ordinaunces as your selues do make not such as they commaunde nor do ye otherwise obey then as it may serue your owne turnes and when you list your selues About fiue hundred yeares sithence more or lesse how fewe kyngs haue bene in this litle Brittaine that haue not bene greéuously molested by beggerly Monckes and amōgest all others by the Monckes of Caūterbury chiefly how insolently did Anselme withstand William Rufus and Henry 1. kynges of Englād how proudly did Theobald behaue him selfe agaynst kyng Stephen How great vnspeakeable Tragedies played Thomas Archb. of Caunterbury agaynst Henry 2. Which Thomas your holy fathers for his treachery and Treason haue shryned for a Sainte The Byshop of Elye an execrable Traytour not onely to kyng Richard 2. his own person but to all the Nobilitie of England besides it is a wonder to seé what a sturre he kept No man is ignoraunt of the manifold iniuries that kyng Iohn suffred at the handes of Stephen Langton No lesse trayterous was Edmund Archb. of Canterbury agaynst Henry the 3. Which Henry succeéded Edward his sonne whom Iohn Peccham resisted wonderfull obstinately leauyng after him a successour Robert who degeneratyng nothyng at all from his successours trechery was at continuall iarre with the kyng ech of them an Archbishop eche of them a Traytor to the Maiestie What shall we say of Gualter the Archb whom sufficed not to take away Adrian Byshop of Herford frō the Temporall Iudges in despight of the kyng and his Counsell and to set him at libertie vnpunished but he must also become a confederate of Queéne Isabels conspiracy agaynst kyng Edward the 2. And to passeouer in the meane space the sundry outragies conspiracies and seditions agaynst their owne Princes by Ludeines of that coate was there euer so beggerly a Moncke or so lowsie a cowled lozell that being supported by the popes authoritie and armed with the granneshotte of his excommunicatiō would not quickely contemne and set at nought any Potentate or Magistrate were he neuer so mighty Whereas an auncient custome was established by solemne consent amongest the auncient antiquitie that Byshopprickes the dignities and possessiōs Ecclesiasticall should not be disposed and geuen but by speciall cōfirmation of Kynges and Princes and that no Appeale should be made to the Pope of Rome for any cause without the kyngs consent Popish ambition preuailed so farre forth immediately after the enthronizyng of Hildebrand That kynges were called kynges onely in name but the rule order and administratiō of all causes caught away from kynges should remaine with Monckes and such like shauelynges who would both rule the roast and the game After Becker was slayne Kyng Henry 2. made earnest intercession with cappe in hand to the Monckes of Caunterbury Priour wherof was one Odo that for his sake they would vouchsafe an Archb. of his admittaunce and withall nominated him The request was honest yea it was a request of one which neéded not to desire it but might of very iustice by the prerogatiue Regall institute and appoint Byshops within his owne kyngdome All which notwithstandyng in contempt of the kynges authoritie and without any regard had to his humble petition was an other chosen not whom the kyng desired but whom the Monckes them selues liked best in the yeare 1173. The like vnto the same was done also in the Election of Baldwyne the next successour in the yeare 1184. In which Election the kyng was compelled to yeld to the Monckes whether he would or no. And where is now that Catholicke obedience of Monckes towardes their Monarches where is the commaundement of the Apostle Wherein kinges are commaunded to be honored I will adde hereunto one example more for to recken vppe all would make a great peéce of worke Pope Gregory the 9. sent his Legate Otto by name into England as the other Popes were accustomed before him to doe to gather vppe his haruest sheaues together plentyfull enough I warrant you they call it Procuraria This haruest was on this maner That euery particuler Church throughout all England should pay one yearely reuenew of foure Markes to the pope the summe was infinite Letters were deliuered to the Archb. And Byshops commaundyng them to assiste the Legate in gatheryng this money and withall should prouide threé hundreth of the fattest Benefices to be employed vpon iij. C. Italians of the popes appointment Kyng Henry 3. vnderstandyng the matter calleth a Synode of Byshops caused cōference to be vsed with the Byshops in their cōuocation house first addresseth his Letters to the pope touchyng their aūswere aswell in his owne name as in the behalfe of his Subiectes when he could not this way preuayle he openeth the matter to his Counsell and states assembled in Parliament writeth to euery particuler Byshop declareth vnto them the great inconueniēce that would ensue by meanes of that collection humbly beseécheth them that they would not be so earnestly affected towardes Straungers as to seéke the vtter spoyle and vndoyng of their natiue Countrey wherein they were borne nor would so empouerish their owne Churches Afterward he doth threaten them yea denounceth the penaltie of the lawes and auncient Statutes of his Realme agaynst them openly Finally vpō their allegeaunce chargeth them that they deliuer no money out of the Realme whereby the Common weale may be empouerished If ye consider the authoritie of him that doth commaūde what could
be of more authoritie in a Realme if ye way well his purpose what was more profitable for the Countrey or more agreable to Gods word Let vs now behold a singuler president of Catholicke obedience which if were as playnly discernable in the lyues and maners of your Clergy Osorius as you haue notably painted it out with your penne I would not thinke you to be more worthy of credite theÌ„ your Catholickes worthy of commendation Now how ready and diligent they were in performing the Kynges commaundementes the matter doth more then sufficiently declare it selfe For it was so farre of that the pope would yeld any iote at all to the Kynges Requestes that he seémed to grow into great choller agaynst the Kyng yea and to threaten him for the care he had of his owne Realme The kyng of England sayth he which doth kicke and spurâ—e agaynst vs now hath is CouÌ„sell But I haue my Cousell also which I will follow c. and withall sendeth ouer Letters with expresse Bulles to the Byshops to the Byshop of Worcester chiefly whereby he was coÌ„maunded to prosecute the popes practize by all meanes possible at a day prescribed thereunto which was the AssuÌ„ption of our Lady agaynst which day Auditte must be geuen of this sacred Receipt Addyng also thereunto that whosoeuer should withstanding his proceédynges herein should be presently accursed yea if it were the kyng him selfe what thinke you of these dealynges right reuerend Father is this to obey Princes commaundementes suppose you or rather to commaunde Princes what they shall doe What may we say to that request whereas the same Henry accordyng to his princely prerogatiue and as of right he might lawfully haue done aduaunced into the Bishopprick of Canterbury one Richard who being repelled by the Monckes and in despight of the king an other A Moncke of the same house named Gualter beyng enstalled the king not a little displeased with the vnhonest refusall made meanes to the Pope by his letters and Ambassadours who after hys wonted maner more inclinable to the Monckes then to the King coulde be by no meanes reconciled the King because he would not seéme to be ouercome of hys owne Monckes in his owne Realme was enforced to growe to composition with the Pope and to graunt hym a tenth of all the goodes moueable in England and in Scotland The most holy Father vndermyned with this crampe yelded by and by But it shall not be amisse for the better declaration of the matter to sett downe the very wordes of the Author Our Lord the Pope sayth he beyng inwardly inflamed aboue all things to suppresse the hautines of the king recoÌ„forted with these promises was made to consent This much Mathaeus ParisieÌ„ Which grauÌ„t how pestiferous pernicious became afterwardes to the Realme can skarsly by any estimate be comprehended An. 1229. Raunge at random now Osorius and spare not to vtter whatsoeuer shall come into your harish Eloquence as lowdly as ye can of the humble obedience and ready inclination of your Clergye towardes the Lawes and commaundementes of Princes But ye annexe a tagge to your poynt Which ordinaunces are not contrary to Goddes lawes And what may bee construed I pray you of that where Charles the great and Otto the first one a Frenche Emperoure the other a Germaine to the singuler benefite of the Empyre dyd ordayne yea and that not without the generall consent and agreément of the bishops and the Councelles that no person should be chosen pope of Rome without the consent and confirmation of the Emperour and that the right of appoynting Bishoppes and the determination of ecclesiasticall causes should be ordered by the Temporall authoritie This ordinaunce so holy so faythfully instituted by them so long and so firmely obserued and kept by their Successors eueÌ„ vnto the warres of Themperours Henry the father and the sonne and the Popedome of Hildebrand yea and Cannonized also amongest your decreés will you affirme to be contrary to the Law of God if you do graunt it how came it to passe that they were established by your popes which could not erre if you deny it how chaunced that Hildebrande and the other Lordinges Successors of that Seé did abrogate the same so wickedly And with what face may the ordinauÌ„ces of Princes be sayd to be duetifully obserued of them who do so litle shame to speake agaynst their owne Princes and oppugne their ordinaunces who accompte it no small part of their Maiestye to delight and pastime themselues in scorning theyr Lawes deryding and denienge their requestes In like maner to be so bolde to Inferre somewhat of our owne Countrye Lawes It was an auncient custome here in England tyme out of mynde that the Byshoppes and the subiectes of the Realme should sweare their allegeaunce to their kyng accordyng to a fourme thereof prescribed And also that no person whatsoeuer should be so hardy to appeale to Rome without the kinges coÌ„maundement Moreouer that in Election of Bishoppes and disposing of Ecclesiasticall promociones namely such as were of greatest estimacion should haue the first and chief voyce afore all other c. out of Parisiensis Of these auncyent ordinaunces you shall heare what our Auncient kynges do testifie in the Chronicles themselues For in this wise King Henry 1. speaketh There is an auncient custome sayth he of my kingdome ordayned by my Father that no person shall sue any appeale from vs to the Pope whosoeuer will attempte to enfringe this custome doth offend agaynst our Maiestye and the Crowne of England He that will seeke to dispoyle vs of our Crown is an enemy Traytour to our persoÌ„ c. Now agayn Let vs heare the wordes of the same King to hys Subiect What haue I to do with the popes letters I will not breake the Lawes of my Realme c. And out of all question These constitutions remayned sound safe and inuiolable vntill the tyme of Hildebrand By force of which ordinaunce Lanfranck was appoynted Archbishoppe of Caunterbury by William King of England DuÌ„stane enstalled Byshoppe of Worcester by Edgar Odo by Adelstane Oswalde made Archbyshoppe of Yorke by Edgar without any consideration had of the Bishop of Rome So were also other Bishoppes admitted by other kynges Which auncient lawes and ordinaunces of Princes if your clergye had euer determined with themselues to obey as inuiolable what ment Sainct Anselme Sainct Beckett Langton and many other Archbyshoppes and Moncks of Yorke Canterbury and Douer what did they meane I say who roonning to Rome in their often chase rechase sweating turmoyling spent coÌ„sumed great Sommes of mony about pacifieng of tryfles wh would haue bene concluded at home with lesse charge and more ease if they would haue harkened vnto their owne princes and obeyed their lawfull lawes and ordinaunces rather then haue bene so much addicted to the pope But what do I moyle my selfe in thys huge and vnmeasurable Gulfe
surely the authority of such as represent the person of Christ vpon earth must neédes be of very great estimation For this was the legacy that Christ himselfe the Testator of the new Testament bequethed vnto them He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me And agayne whose Sinnes soeuer ye remitte the same shall be remitted c. This is a great authority doubtles but due consideration must be had of the causes whereupon this authority must be exercised of that persons with whom it must be reuÌ„ant That is to say in none other persons but in those to whom the same Testator speaketh saying Receiue ye the holy ghost c. Moreouer the whole force of this Euangelical authority doth consist in the power of the holy ghost not in the glorious ostentation of Pompe and must be employed to edify withall not to destroy to subdue all hauty arrogancy extolling it selfe agaynst the knowledge of God vnto the obedieÌ„ce of Christ not to cut the throates of the poore flocke which seéketh nothing els but the obedieÌ„ce and glory of Christ. And therefore such as represeÌ„t the maiesty of Christ vpoÌ„ earth if they be bold of counterfayting and hipocrisy must neédes be exalted yea and in great authority But in the meane space let such braggers and boasters be well aduised what and whose person they do represent not the person of Moyses but of Christ not of a controller but of a teacher a comforter a fauourer a refresher and of one that is full of compassion not of a furious fretter and raging reuenger of euery gnatte in the Skie For he was a milde Seruaunt but preseruing all poore yet enriching all boasting very litle but geuing aboundaunce Iniuried of all but iniurious to none Humble in hart meék in speéch base to behold but in power mighty teaching with authority so voyd of al color to aueÌ„ge that he would pray for his enemies and not so much as brusing a broken reéde vnder his feéte enlightning all men comming into this world burning none And the day shall come when he shall come againe in glory to iudge both the quick and the dead All which notwithstanding he remayneth one selfe same person still which continually crieth out in the gospell it is not I that doe accuse you before the father but there is one that doth accuse you Now such as will take vpon them to represent the person must resemble him likewise in manners and life And yet the Church of God is not without her Iurisdiction I confesse But in this Church I recken to be reuÌ„ant aswell Emperors Princes as Popes and prelates Moreouer a distinction also must be made here betwixt the flesh and the spirit that without confusion of Iurisdiction ech authority may enioy it own priuiledge But of this hereafter by the sufferaunce of God Hauing thus ouerrunne the principall poyntes that concern the censures consistories and chaunceries of the holy mother Church of Rome It followeth now in order that with like diligence we harken to that which is vsuallye done in Churches Wherein the godly reader is to be forewarned by some preface as it were to keépe his couÌ„tenauÌ„ce somewhat grauely a whyle not to smile whiles our Osor. reckeÌ„ vp in ranck that comely kaleÌ„der of his church holidayes and solemne ceremonies of his double feastes in a long brabling beadroll And yet hath he not iâ—â—bled vp all the ceremonies thereof nor his euer able to number them For they are as infinitely past number as they be ridiculous and Apish But brauyng out the better sort of them he fetcheth their pedigreé from a wonderfull farre compasse you will say that the man was either at excellent good leysure or destitute of some necessary matter to occupy his pregnant witte vpon which would vndertake so weérysome a course for his Rhetoricall â—uffe in so tunable trinkettes of these Romish Reliques And first of all begynnyng at the Kalendes of DeceÌ„ber at what tyme the Church of Rome makyng preparation for the commyng of the Lord and so forth proceedyng foreward to other state feastes as euery of them commeth about by the course of the yeare from the begynnyng to the end doth accustome it selfe to great solemnitie and prayer and setteth downe in order the hygh and solemne ceremonies celebrated in euery seuerall feast for renewyng the ioyfull remeÌ„braunce of Deuine thyngs But in the meane tyme how idelly the common people bestow the tyme in these feastes how they plye that pauÌ„che franckly tappe the canne freély hoppe daunce lustely swill and swincke soundly make meéry mightely drinke droÌ„ke deuoutely scratch and byte boystorously moyle and turmoyle madly dyce carde surffett sumptuously more like bellygoddes then godly defilyng them selues more in filthy behauiour beastly then in tenne other workyng dayes employed orderly Osorius maketh not a word so much slyly and herein hath he not played the foole very wisely Moreouer he maketh no mention at all of the maner of the prayers vsed in these Sacred Saturnalles in their croochynges maskyng Masses Anthemes Songes Sonettes Sacrifices lamentable Dirges in their gaddynges Processions how odious and filthy vnseémelynes how horrible Idolatry impietie and superstition isvsed in those Prayers Hymnes and cunnyng chaunting euen abhominable to be named Wherein I so much the more commende the wisedome of the man who thought better craftely to cloake those clouteries then to display them to the view As when in that solemne feast of S. Thomas Becket the Church prayeth very deuoutly that the bloud of S. Thomas may make a way for their prayers to wende where Christ our Lord and Sauiour before did ascende And agayne makyng Inuocation to Thomas him selfe it prayeth on this wise O sweete S. Thomas geue vs thy helping hand confirme them that stand rayse them that are fallen reforme our maners conuersatioÌ„ and liues and direct vs into the way of peace c. Not vnlike vnto that where amongest other CoÌ„fessours S. Swythune is called vpon that he would vouchsaue by his godly intercession to wash away our sinnes Where S. Rocke is spoken vnto Honor and glory be geuen vnto thee holy S. Rocke how glorious is thy name blessed Rocke which with thy intercessions and prayers hast skill to cure all diseases come downe and preserue vs from botche and pestilence and graunt vs a sweet and wholesome ayre Whenas also S. Albane is commauÌ„ded to powre out his prayers for the sauetie of the faithfull When Wenefred is called vpon that she will bring them to the heauenly ioyes which doe celebrate her memory Whenas in the Feast of all Saintes prayer is made to the Saintes that their merites may bring vs to the kingdome of heauen c. And that the holy company of Martyrs the confession of Priestes and the chastitie of the Uirgines may clense vs from our Sinnes c. Agayne in the Anthemes song of the blessed Uirgine Mary mother of Christ
for the most perfect men and most purely catholicke towardes the attayning of perfect Religion Because mans minde hath alwayes some familiarity and acquayntaunce with transitory thinges of this worlde Which if be not poolished with this most excellent skanning of mysteries waxeth of her owne nature very dull quickly and is ouerwhelmed with forgetfulnesse And no maruell For as much as this new and wonderfull light of the Euangelicall knowledge which hath transsigured those Lutheranes hath not yet shined so brightly in the eyes of those meÌ„ nor are as yet so throughly carried away from this corporall familiarity as that they caÌ„ waÌ„t these signes of heaueÌ„ly things without great perill as these Celestial and Diuine men can do For with this skoffe doth he note them whom Luthers doctrine hath enstructed by a certayne figure called Sarcasmus But to auÌ„swere your pleasaÌ„ut scoffe good maister Bishop First what acquaintauÌ„ce familiarity you haue with the state of murtall men let other men iudge Surely I could hartely wish that you Massemongers and Shauelinges would take lesse acquaintaunce of your neighbors wiues and daughters with câ—Ì„cubynes and drenches of Baudrye to stay here and to rippe vp no more of your horrible dealinges But if you be not as yet estrauÌ„ged froÌ„ the assaults of the flesh as you do affirme nor haue yet so mortiffed the flesh but the generall ftaylty of nature will violently carry you away typsituruy as well as other men now and then into the naturall infirmities of the flesh what meaneth theÌ„ that rash temeraryous rushing rudely into vowes wherewith very solemnely you sweare sacred and perpetuall virginity both to God and vnto men As though there were nothing to be feared in you of that naturall and general disease of imbecillitye and weakenesse that is otherwise common to all men ingeneral Which if you doe as faythfullye performe as you doe rashlye sweare and vow beyng a matter aboue the reach and capacityâ— of humayne ability I cann seé no cause to the contrary but that we may reply these Surnames vpoÌ„ you much sooner to witt to call you Celestiall men and more then Diuine For as concerning Luther and others of his profession howsoeuer it pleaseth you to mockemeary being a very merry man tricke and trym altogether for holydayes all kind of pleasureablenes yet did they neuer challenge to themselues so Celestiall Deuine natures but that as men compassed about with weake and frayle bodies as all other mortall men are they waÌ„ted their introductions yea and enured themselues to the same not vnwillingly For both Religion and the Church of Christ hath her rudymentes hath also her ceremonyes and introductions not onely profitable to say as you say but very nacessary also I speake of those rudimentes and ceremonies chiefly which Christ himselfe deliuered to his Church in number but very few but in vse of greatest force and effectualnesse Namely Baptisme and the Supper of the Lord the one whereof Christ did institute as a pledge of our profession the other as aperpetuall memoryall of himselfe For other rudimentes of piety which are practised in externall actions Christ left none besides these of any expresse commaundement And yet if there be any other ceremonies profitable and appliable for the present time the Lutheranes doe not altogether abolish them But the matter doth bewray that these ceremonies rytes Gamboldes holidayes and new fangled ceremonies which your Clergye doth daylye patche vpon the olde are for the more part not onely fruitles but also verye Botches and Cankers of the pure and true Religion And thys much hetherto of the holy and sweét mother church of Rome and of the vniuersall Regiment of her fayth ceremonies and holydayes Of the which because Osorius seémeth to himself to haue spoken sufficiently returning at the length to the Lutheranes bendeth his declamation against them raked and skraped from out of the very bowels of Rhetoricke wherein he thrusteth himselfe vpon the stage to play the part and to expostolate with Luther in such wise as that in all that notable furniture of words skarcely ought can be found els then was sometimes especially noted in Anaximenes by one on a time to witt to haue whole fludds of words but not a dropp of good matter It were great pitty to rehearse the whole speéch a fresh then the which nothing can be more ouerlauish and babling The effect thereof as briefly as may be compiled together tendeth to this end These Lutheranes do seeme to haue taken vpon them a very great and labour some burthen Who seing the Church of Christ lameÌ„tably entaÌ„gled in such dissolute liceÌ„tiousnes of maners doctrine almost ready to fall to the grouÌ„d could not onely be coÌ„teÌ„ted to be agreeued thereat with bare prayer well wishing hartes helpe to vnderpropp it but that they would attempt to put their handes therto also by their industry practise the reformation of that which was past al recouery and because they saw that the inueÌ„tioÌ„ of man was not able to couÌ„teruayle so great an incoÌ„uenience by any meanes they vndertook the matter by the onely word of God renouncing all humaine pollicy and industry Go to and to what end are all these so farre fetche and false also Osorius at length our Tertullius goeth forward But because the efficacy of Gods word doth consist not in brauery and braggery of wordes but in vertue in the duetyes of lyfe and the workes of righteousnes He doth desire therfore that some president of this deuine workemanship may be shewed him wherein some shew at the least of this recouery and preseruation of the Church may shew it selfe But forasmuch as there could not possibly be a ReformatioÌ„ vnlesse those obstackles were vtterly takeÌ„ away which gaue the first occasion of this generall craze euen as in Phisicke wholesome potiones are not ministred before superfluous and noysome humors be throughly purged in buildings like as vnlesse the olde walles and rotten postes be first plucked downe no new building is supplied euen so and after the same maner the Lutheranes did purpose with themselues to proceed with theyr worke Which Osorius mislyketh nothing at all For he thinketh it expedieÌ„t that superstitions be vtterly cut of because vertue commoÌ„ly hath not greater Enemies then her owne counterfaytes Moreouer where he seeth many abuses taken away scattered abroad krusht in pieces neither doth Osorius reproue this in theÌ„ so long as this alteration is profitable for the Christian coÌ„mon weale and that in stead of these which be remoued some supply be made of better Nowe what is throwne downe he doth see playnely but what is new builded he seeth not yea it is apparaunt enough what thinges are moyled vppe by the Rootes but what is planted in that place he confesseth he caÌ„not as yet discerne But this he doth see namely the authority of the Byshoppe of Rome to be afflicted Monasteries and Nooneries rooted
extinguished true pietie neglected not the consciences onely but the lyues also of men endaungered through none other so perillous a contagion as this glitteryng pompe of gorgeous Ceremonies Amongest the which this is one that Reporte telleth of two persoÌ„s in FrauÌ„ce who not many yeares agoe were in daunger to be burned for none other matter but bycause they did eate flesh two dayes in Lent beyng constrained thereunto by necessitie of sicknesse Behold the fruites of Ceremonies to witte that for mens Traditions we shall breake the CoÌ„maundements of God recoÌ„ptyng murther to be a more tollerable offence then to leaue a peltyng coÌ„stitution of a Pope vndone I could rehearse six huÌ„dreth like exaÌ„ples out of the Monuments of our own Martyrs chiefly who were more often and more sharpely punished for despising meÌ„s Traditions then for breakyng the CoÌ„maundementes of God in so much that a maÌ„ would thinke that the whole face of Christian Relligion had bene estraunged into Ceremonies or els to hang more vpon these then vpon the word of God And whereas you say that Images Signes Crosses and Altares are throwen downe I thinke veryly that Luther and the other ministers of the Gospell cannot be duely charged with this slaunderous reproch forasmuch as they neuer put their handes to the breaking or plucking downe of Images nor is it conuenient for any priuate person to presume vpon any innouation in Christian coÌ„mon weales or Churches by force and vproare But if the Magistrate do execute his office godly and peaceably acording as he may lawfully do in the things which he doth perceiue to be consonaunt with the word of God What maketh Osorius here with vs being but a priuate man himself and a meére straunger to keépe a skolding or medling with our matters If the famous king of Portingall Sebastian be of the mind to remayne a fawtor and follower of those Romish superstitious Ragges in Altares Pictures Signes and worshippyng of Images He hath on the one side the testimonies of the Scriptures on the other side the Parasiticall pratyng of Monckes let him follow which he will let him doe in hys owne Realme vpon his owne perill what him pleaseth best On the other side If the most vertuous Queéne of England Elizabeth by the guiding of Scriptures haue thought it more conuenient to expell and Banish out of her Realme the stincking pilfe of durty superstition the sight whereof no Christian Prince can endure without great perill daunger of himselfe and hys subiectes Truely she doth nothing herein but that she may safely do iustify the doing therof by the manifest authority of the sacred scripture and singuler examples of most famous and renowmed kings Unlesse peradueÌ„ture Osorius doth make small account of the commendable remembraunce of Ezekias Iosias Iosaphat and others which brake downe and krusht in peéces Altares Idolles Groanes and the Brasen Serpent Or the example of Gedeon also who though were not a kyng did yet cut downe the Groaue and tare abroad the Altar What now The same which was lawfull for the kinges of the Iewes in the carnall law shall not be as lawfull for our Rulers and Potenâ—ates in the spirituall kingdome of Christ shall that which redouÌ„ded to their glory and prayse in the olde law be condemned in our age in Christian Princes for Sacriledge And what if Osorius had liued in that season when as Epiphanius Byshoppe of Cypres seing the Image of Chryst agaynst the manifest authoritie of the Scriptures as he sayed paynted in a veyle rent it in peéces with his owne handes what if he had liued in the time of Origen or in that florishing age of the primitiue church at what time Augustine Lactantius Ambrose Eusebius would not suffer in the church this kind of Paâ—anisme at what time as yet was not any shadow so much of an Image in the temples of Christians Or what if afterwardes he had happened in the Court of Phillippicus Leo Isaurick an Emperor of Greéce and of his sonne Constantine the fifth or of Leo the 4 What if he had bene present at those threé councels Constantinople vnder Constantine the fifth Emperour or at the Elibertine and Franckfordine Councels vnder Charles the great in the which Images were vtterly Banished out of Churches by most manifest argumentes out of the holy Scriptures and by the generall consentes and voyces of the whole counsell at what tyme great and inuincible reasons were alleadged to proue directly that the Images of Chryst of our Ladye of the Apostles Martyres as neuer instituted by any tradition of Christ of the Apostles no nor of any that auncient Fathers ought not in any wise be brought into Churches or being brought in not to bée permitted and suffered in any respect The Catholicke Church say they standing amids Iewishnesse and Gentility doth neither allow the bloody Sacrifices of the Iewes and in Sacrificing doth vtterly abandone all manner of Gentility gaze of Images And agayne a litle after Whosoeuer shall practise to erect Pictures or Images of Sayntes after the errour of the Gentiles shal be adiudged a Blasphemer c. And so concluding at the last We say they that are inuested in Priestly dignity being asseÌ„bled together do with one voyce determine and decre that all manner Imagery of whatsoeuer mettall wood or stuffe deuised by the wicked practise of paynters shal be vtterly abolished out of the churches of Christians as execrable and abhominable And whosoeuer shall presume to sette vppe aâ—y such Image either in the Church or in his priuate house or secret closet If he be a Byshop or a Deacon Let him be deposed If he be a seculer or a lay person let him be holden aceursed and turned ouer to the punishment of the Imperiall constitutions as one that doth wilfully impugne the ordinaunces of God and breake the Rules thereof c. Not vnlike vnto this was the decreé established in the Elibertine couÌ„cell It seemeth good vnto vs that Images ought not be in Churches and that no thing be paynted vpon the walles that is reuerenced or worshipped c. Of these I say and of other the like decreés of councels if Osorius had bene an eye witnesse himselfe or would yet vouchsafe to peruse the monumentes of auncient Fathers he would surelye conceiue an other opinion of Images he would beleue the testimony of Lactantius who sayth that there is no Religion where any picture is in place Agayne he would geue creditte to Chrisostome saying we do enioy the presence of Sayntes by reading their writinges hauing therein a present view not of their bodyes but of their soules To this may be added the testimony of Amphilochius Byshoppe of Iconium We esteeme it not worth the labour to paynt any corporall shape of Sayntes in coloured tables because we haue no need of them but we ought to be mindfull of their good liues And from this differeth very
full mouth so much The olde Cannons that are called the Canons of the Apostles doe with wonderfull seueritye manace and threaten them who frequenting the Church hearing the preachings doe sequester themselues from receauing the Communion On this wise did Pope Calixt who would doe nothing without the Censures ecclesiasticall exhort and perswade all men to communicate publiquely together wheresoeuer the supper of the Lorde was ministred The wordes of Ierome be in each respect no lesse euident The Supper of the Lord sayth he ought to be generall to all because Christ himselfe did equally distribute the Sacrament to all his disciples that were present And how doth this geare agreé with the celebrating of your priuate Masses The same Canons prouided that the Byshop should be deposed which would ioyne a ciuill office with a spirituall fūction The same also did Pope Clement detest as horrible haynousnes And what doth the Pope then meane by that newe power of both swordes is it because he will be armed to fight a new combate with the Dragon that fought agaynst the Aungel Michaell Many yeares sithence did the Councell of Carthage forbid that nothing should be read in the Churche but the Canonicall Scriptures Which Scriptures Iustiniā the Emperour commaunded to be vttered with a lowd audible voyce that the people might gather some fruite thereby If Antiquitie of time or authoritye of Councels could haue obtayned any creditt amongest the Romanistes the olde councell Elibertine did decreé that nothing should be paynted in the Church that might be an occasion to moue the people to worshippyng So did also Epiphanius that aūcient Father accoūt it for an intollerable sacriledge yf any man would be so hardy as to set vp in Churches of Christians any kinde of Image yea though it were the Image of Christ himselfe The Auncient Fathers were no lesse godly zelous then zelously studious to perswade enduce the people to the Readyng of holy Scriptures and to the buying of Bookes of the same that emongest themselues euery one in his seuerall familye wyues with their husbands children with their parentes the plowgh man at the plowe the weauers in their Loomes women and maydens spinning and carding might debate of the holy Scriptures and sing some sonets and songes of the same as Origen Chrisostome and Ierome do testifie It was not tollerable in the time of Augustine that A Moūck should idely cōsume his time in slouth and sluggishnes or should vnder visor and pretence of holynes lyue vpon an other mans trencher but by the sweate of his owne browes such a one also Appollonius also doth lyken to a theéfe There was an auncient custome of this Land instituted from the auncient fathers that no person should appeale to the Pope for any cause without the kings leaue at what time our kings yelded to the popes no submission at all Whereupon when Anselme did deliuer the Popes letters to the king What haue we to do sayd the king with the Popes letters we will not breake the lawes of our kingdome Whosoeuer shall presume to infring the Custome of our Realme the some is a traytor to our Crowne and dignitye he that doth take away our Crowne from vs is an enemy and Traytor to our owne person There was an ordinaunce sometime within the Realme no lesse profitable then auncient That if any man did possesse two Benefices at one time bearing charge of sowle especially the same should be depriued from both And this ordinaunce continued so long in force vntill the Pope with his medley of dispensation innouating all thinges and turning all thinges vpsydowne after his owne lust and pleasure did leaue nothing in Churches that had any smatch of Antiquitye And no maruell though he were so malapertly sawcy with the Lawes of our Realme when as in the last Councell holden at Trydent skarcely 24. yeares sithence by publique authoritye and consent of the whole Councell an Edict was established that no person should enioy two benefices at once this Cannon notwithstanding there is so litle regard of authoritye of that Councell emongest these Prelates that a mā may easily seé now a dayes many Monasteries two Byshopprickes yea sometimes threé or fowre swallowed vp into one paunch all at one tyme. The same may be verified of the Coūcels of Cōstance and Basile Where though many matters were determined vpon wickedly enough this decreé notwithstanding was published being good and profitable for the Church That generall Councells assembled together by lawfull Sommons were and ought to be esteémed better and higher in authoritye then the Pope And yet this decreé sone razed out by the power of the Pope how quickly was it dispatcht so farforth doth nothyng delight these fine heads of Rome that whether it be old or new nothyng can please them but that which is for their owne toothe Wherein I would wishe that Osorius would marke diligently this one thing sithence this Seé doth conuey her lawfull discent not frō any decreés of mē but frō christ himselfe as he affirmeth what doe these Fathers of the Coūcell of Constance and Basile meane by this decreé Wherein they commaunded that the Romishe Seé should be gouerned by the generall Councells Now what may be spoken or imagined of the Prouisiones Reseruations yearely penciōs Pardons Priuiledges Exemptions Dispensations Graces Preuentions Expectatiues Palles Uisitations and other lyke snares and trappes of that Romishe Seé what shall we number these trinketts also emongest thother sacred Reliques receaued in that Apostolique age aboue xv hundreth yeare sithence I come now more neare vnto those partes of Religiō wherin all the glory and vaunte of your Antiquitye triumpheth chiefly And first that doctrine of Trāsubstantiatiō your onely Goddesse and chiefe vpholder of that your popish kingdome From whence did it issue and who was the author of it before Pope Innocent 3. in the Councell of Lateran not many yeares ago At what tyme the consecrated hoste was commaunded to cast away all her nature of Bread or at least before Nicholas 2. and his Successor Hildebrand in a Councell holden at Rome at what Councell Berengarius was forced to Recant And why were not Pope Gelasius Theodoret Augustine Tertullian Origen Eusebius and with them also the whole Greéke Churche cited to Recant For the same error of Berengarius Why was not the Church of Moskouites compelled to abiure which from thence euen to this day doe minister the Communion with bread broken and distributed in deéde but not consecrated into the body of the Lord To passe ouer other Churches why was not all this Church of Saxons in our kingdome condemned for hereticall which maintayned the same cause that Berengarius did as of late hath bene declared by certeine auncient Recordes lately found out emongest vs in the Saxons tongue Although this opinion of consecrated bread beganne to sparckes◠abroad not many yeares agoe after the Councell of Nice the second
some glymering of dawning day and to refresh the razed Rent of his ruynous Church and to restore a recouery of his auncient recordes of written veritye the Braynesuck beastes of Romyshe rowte ganne fret aud fume and our sweéte shauelinges seéke at the length that we render them a reason of our Noueltye And because veritye Euangelicall oppressed with Tyranny through the Reuell of Sathās raunging abroad these few yeares eyther durst not shewe it selfe into the open world or could not be heard to plead for it selfe through their outragious vilaines being now quickened from aboue beginneth to display her oryent beames she is called to corā before these cloisterers as though Christe and the doctrine Apostolicall were some straunger in the world and commaunded to Iustifie her chalenge of Antiquitye to them which are neither able to render any reason of theyr counterfayt Antiquitie nor Iustify the trueth of their own cause by any recordes or reportes of probable auncienty or by any testimonie or president of the prymatyue Churche whatsoeuer Wherein me seémeth they behaue themselues no more modestly and shamefastly then theéues and murtherers which breakyng in by nyght into an other mans house hauing by violnce and wrong either slayne or thrust the true owner out of dores chalenge vnto themselues a title of possession And so pleadyng in possession by wrongfull disseisin for tearme of certeyne yeares doe plead occupation and prescription of time agaynst the lawfull heire that hath right by lawe to recouer and demaund Iudgement thrusting the true heire out from his true inheritaunce who in ryght equitye demaundeth restitution For what other thing doe they herein who finding their cause to be no way bettered by vouching of Scriptures which make nothing for thē at all fleé ouer forthwith to yt. Fathers Custome continued of olde by long prescription of time crying out agaynst vs with full mouthes that they haue enioyed their possession in the Church more then xv hundreth yeares and commaund vs to tell them where our Church was litle aboue xl yeares sithence And because they aske it I will tell them conditionally that they will distinctly tell me first what they doe meane by this worde Church If they meane the people perhappes we were not all borne then if they vnderstand the Roofes Walls and Tymber of the Churches they stand euen now in the same place where they were wont to stand are enuironed with the same churchyardes where they stood of old But yf they speake of the doctrine verely it was in the word of God and in the Scriptures discernable enough where also it resteth now rested euer heretofore and shall rest hereafter for euer If they demaund of the forme of gouernment It was in the primitiue Church and many yeares after in Asia Greece Affrick Europe dispersed abroad in all Churches at what tyme euery particular Church was gouerned by theyr peculiar Patriarches and not pente vppe and straighted into one hole vnder the commaundement of one man onely when also neither was any Byshoppe called vniuersall Byshoppe no nor my Lord Byshoppe of Rome called as then vniuersall Byshoppe I haue now told where our Church was before these fourtye yeares It remayneth that I be so bold to demaund agayne of them but especially of our Osorius that he vouchsafe to declare vnto vs where this fine Ciceronisme thys braue poolyshed speach where thys exquisited eloquence of writyng and speaking where this gorgeous furniture of fyled toūges this pyked and straunge statelynes of style was fourty yeares agoe where this wonderfull increase of Artes and Mathematicall sciences was will he eyther say that it is newely found out now or restored agayne rather and deliuered long sithence from olde auncient teachers If he will confesse that they be not new nor speciall deuises of our proper wittes but renewed and reuiued rather out of auncient authors let him then so account him selfe satisfied in his question touching the state of the Church not that it is a newe vpstart but reuiued from olde not garnished with new Coapes but returning agayne in her old Fryse gown For we doe not now build a new Church but we bring forth and beautifye the olde Church But now if any man will seéme to maruell what the verye cause reason should be that these artes and disciplines do rather in these dayes now florishe agayne at length after so long scylence and so long continuaunce in exile and banishment and would neédes know the very true naturall cause hereof What better aūswere shall I make him then that it is done by the speciall prouidence of GOD who of his inestimable goodnesse vouchsafed in these latter dayes to discouer abroad into the world the famous Art of Emprinting By meanes wherof aswell the seédes and principles of all liberall sciences as the knowledge of Diuinitye are extant and in dayly exercise not newly begon now but sproughted vppe of the olde Rootes and recouering their olde beauty So that you haue lesse cause to wonder Osorius that our Deuines beyng enlightened thus with so opē a light of the manifest scriptures and furnyshed with so great store of bookes and helpes of learning doe seé much more in matters of Diuinitye than many our Elders haue done Which helpes and furnitures of bookes if had bene so plentifull in those aūcient yeares of Gregory 7. Nicholas 2. and Innocent 3. for the exercise of wittes as we seé them now dayly and hourely handled and frequented beleue me Osorius The Pope of Rome had neuer so long lurcked in his lazye denne nor so long had bewitched the senses of selly ones with his leger demayne and crafty conueyaunce Nor had Osorius euer sturred his stumpes so stoughtly in this quarell agaynst Haddon Nor had Haddon bene forced to this streight to make defence of his Noueltye at this present But here some one of Osorius Impes will say peraduenture For as much as the state condition of the Church is such that wheresoeuer it be it must neédes be visible and apparaunt to be seéne not thrust vnder a bushell but set on hygh vpon an hill that it may shyne clearely vnto all and for as much also as the Churche of Rome was euer euē from the very swathlyng cloutes of Christian Religion of that excellency as to be able to Iustifie her dignitie and renowme by the whole and full agreable consent of all estates times and places euen vnto this day and that none other Church besides this one alone can mainteyne so lōg a continuaunce of yeares and so great a title of authoritie who may dought hereof but that this Seé of Rome is the onely Seé where onely is refiaunt a true face and profession of the true Church And that on the contrary part the Lutheranes Church beyng but of a few yeares continuaunce and neuer heard of before must therfore be accoumpted not worthy of place or name of a Church
For this is almost the whole strength substaunce of their defence And I am not ignoraunt how plausibly this probable shew glittereth in the eyes of vnskilfull and vnlettered people For so do Philosophers define Probabilitie to be such as seémeth probable either to all men or many or at the least to wise personages But in heauenly thyngs ought a farre other maner of cōsideration be had For if we grounde our selues vpon many we are taught by Christ himselfe That many are called but few are chosen And agayne in an other place That his flocke is a very litle flocke And afterwardes he demaundeth If when the Sonne of mā shall come whether he shall finde any Faith vpō the earth Neither are those thyngs alwayes best wt delight many Agayne if we shall depend vpon the Iudgemēt of the wise we heare likewise the same Lord him selfe geuing thākes vnto his Father that he had hiddē those thinges frō the prudent and wise of this world and reuealed them to litle ones And agayne we read in Paul The wisedome of this world is very foolishnes with God And therfore where as they would haue the Church to be placed on high apparaūt to the view of all the world truly they Iudge not amysse herein namely if they meane of the preaching of the word And yet this is no good Argumēt notwithstādyng that euery Citie vaūced on highest hill shall be forthwith esteémed the true church of God or els what shall be sayd to that famous great City mētioned in the Apocalips Which was foreprophecied should be built not vpon the Toppe of on hill onely but vpon seuen hills Or what shall we Iudge of that exceédyng wondering and worshyppyng of so many Nations so reuerētly hūbled to that Beast whose marcke it is sayd that small and great young and old riche and poore freemen and bondmen yea and those in noumber not a fewe but vniuersally all shall be marked withall in their right handes and in their foreheades Uerely if common sence and consent of people do make a Church where was euer a greater consent or more well likyng and greater admiration of fautours and frendes But they say that the cōsent cōmunitie of their Church is vniuersall Catholick which may not erre by any meanes Now let vs seé how they proue it The Apostle say they in his Epistles did greatly cōmēde the fayth of the Romaine Church This is true Peter also did both consecrate the same to be a See and instruct it in the Fayth I am in dought of this But what hereof After the Apostles tyme many of the Apostles Disciples say they learned Doctours and holy Martyrs Ignatius Irenaeus Cyprian Tertulliā Augustine and all that auncient age of graue Fathers did alwayes most gloriously esteeme of this Church Is there any more yet In the tyme of Basile Nazienzene Chrisostome the Church of Rome was not onely had in highest estimation but also was diuers tymes sought vnto for counsell and ayde neither will I deny this to be true couple herewith if you will that whē other Churches were tossed and turmoyled euery where with Schismes and rent in sunder with seditious factions no one Church besides stoode so long in so quiet a calme not assaulted with any such contētious sectes or variable opiniōs which did not a litle aduaunce the estimation of the Church and gate it no small authoritie Go to and what shal be concluded at the last out of all this For sooth The Church of Rome whiles it reteigned the sounde doctrine and simplicitie of the Fayth was commended of the holy Fathers by the name of a Catholicke and an Apostolicke Church Ergo The Church of Rome is the head and Metropolitane Church of all other Churches which hath neuer hetherto swarued from the true tracke of the truth nor shall euer erre vnder the which all other Churches must be subiect of very necessitie the cōmaundement wherof is an haynous obstinacie to disobey From the which to depart is manifest Schisme agaynst the which to resist and stand is playne heresie all the cōmaundements whereof to sweare obedience vnto is the surest way of sauety moreouer also a very necessary Article of eternall Saluation You do seé I suppose the whole force and subtiltie of your Catholicke cutted Enthymeme Whereof if you will seé a right proportion it is this The Church of Rome was allowed of the holy Apostles or the most auncient Fathers and all the most approued Doctours of the Church for Catholicke and Apostolicke But our Church is the Church of Rome Ergo Our Church is approued for Catholicke and Apostolicke by the consent of all the godly First we aunswere to the Maior proposition The auncient primitiue Church of Rome was approued by the famous cōsent of the learned for Catholicke and Apostolicke Peraduenture it was so yet was not this Church of Rome accompted so alone nor yet to this end so accompted bycause it should be the vniuersall Church of all other Churches For this will forthwith be gayne sayd by the Councels of Nice Mileuitane and by Pope Gregory and all the learned Deuines of that age vntill the cōmyng of Boniface 3. Moreouer neither was it for that cause so famously commended with so great consent bycause it was the Church of Rome but bycause it was a Christian Church Neither for any prerogatiue of the place though Peter sate there a thousand tymes For euen this also will an aūcient Pope Gregory deny as appeareth euidently by the Decreés Neither the places nor the dignities do make vs more acceptable to our Creatour but either our good deedes doe couple vs vnto him or our euill deedes do exclude vs frō him Moreouer not bycause it can prescribe an ordinary Succession of Byshops For Ierome also will not admit this They be not children of holy ones forthwith sayth he that occupie the possessiō of the holy ones but they that practize the workes of the holy ones But bycause with the Succession of Byshops they did ioyne agreable profession in true Religion bycause they did apply them selues to imitate the Fayth Religion and order of worshyppyng instituted by the Apostles bycause they did not varry frō well ordered Churches in any part of sounde doctrine For this cause I say namely for their sincere vnstayned Fayth and constaunt vprightenes of Religion not defiled with filthy stenche of erroneous doctrine the Church of Rome obteined of the auncient godly Fathers to haue a place amongest the Catholicke Apostolicke Churches But what is this O ye Apostolicke Princes to this your Romish Church in the state that it is now in the disorderous order whereof as it is at this day reuelyng with Cardinalles riotyng in Court glorified with this title of Uniuersall head garnished with tripple Crowne garded with the double sword magnified with Patriarches and innumerable other titles of dignitie armed with Abbottes mounted with Mounkes saluted
were not partaker of the spoyle did not onely winke at them but authorize them also by her owne Bulles so to do Agayne when these felowes Tecelius Wympine were gone to what purpose was Cardinall Caietane posted abroad in the yeare 1518 who in in the Councell of Augusta might reuiue the same opinions agayne and force Luther who had already confuted these abuses by open Disputation to recante And how will Osorius his defence now hang together with these practizes of his Pope denying vtterly that these Pardones were neuer scattered abroad by the consent of that holy mother Churche If it be true that the Church did not so what did that forme of Commission vsually geuen from the Seé of Rome emporte the tenour whereof was this He that soweth niggardly shall reape sparely but he that soweth bountyfull shall reape aboundauntly vnto life euerlastyng And agayne what meaneth this We do exhorte you all generally in the Lord do enioyne you vpoÌ„ payne of Remission of your Sinnes that of the goodes that God hath geueÌ„ you ye enlarge bouÌ„tifully your charitable deuotion vnto theÌ„ c. For these wordes were euery where scattered abroad by Maisters of Hospitalles Which what is it els theÌ„ to set vp a commoÌ„ Marte and moneybancke of remission of sinnes which is due to Fayth not to workes and which the Scripture willeth by all meanes possible to be freé and what is it els then as Chrisostome sayth to turne the forme of worshippyng and prayer into an occasion of wicked buyeng and sellyng But Osorius will cite vs forthwith to the Tridentine Councell wherein these Markettes of Pardons were after a sort mitigated with a certeine quallification Uery well But how much better had the Fathers of that Councell prouided if they had vtterly abrogated not the Markettes of Pardons onely but the very Pardons them selues out of all ChristiaÌ„ CongregatioÌ„s Regions But these Fathers now fosteryng continually this frettyng Fistula within the Bowels of the Christian common weale thinke they haue besturred them selues gayly if they foreseé not that the caÌ„ker may be throughly cured and kept from crawlyng any farther but that it be suppressed aloft and so suffred to creépe more closely below that is to say that men may freély now and withoâ—t money plunge their soules into hell But what is this to the purpose whether Pardons be put to sale or not put to sale For this is not in questioÌ„ now whether Pardoners may be abridged of their bold presumptioÌ„ but the question coÌ„cerneth Pardons theÌ„ selues not whether they ought to be sold but whether they may be tollerable how freé soeuer they be whether it be consonaunt to Christian Fayth or lawfull by the authoritie of the Scriptures for the Pope of Rome to make any kynde of choppyng and chaungyng with mens peltyng Pardons for the redeémyng of mens Sinnes I speake of those Pardons that are now in vse not such as were deliuered by the auncient Fathers For the Church had alwayes her Consistories and Iudiciall Courtes wherein for notorious offences certeine publique chastisement was ministred the Greékes called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we call theÌ„ Canonicall Satisfactions The rigour of the Church did vse many tymes to quallifie or acquite by releases pardons as occasion did serue accordyng to the qualitie of tymes places persons offences As if a man had reuolted froÌ„ the Fayth of Christ wtout any cause which kinde of backsliding was not thought worthy to be receaued to mercy in the primitiue Church yet afterwardes some courtesie was extended vnto such as repented them of the same and shewed them selues hartly sorrowfull for the same and such were enioyned to penaunce by the space of 12. yeares as appeareth by the 11. Canon of the Nicene Councell Wemen that either would procure vntymely birthes before they were borne or would murther their childreÌ„ beyng borne were by the same Canon excluded froÌ„ the CongregatioÌ„ for euer After this ensued the 21. Canon of the Councell of Antycira Which moderatyng the auncient censure with lenitie did prescribe vnto such wemen tenne yeares penaunce If a man had committed manslaughter by chauncemedley the same accordyng to the auncient Canon was enioyned seuen yeares penaunce which afterwardes thorough gentler mitigation of the same Councell was abridged to fiue yeares penaunce by the 22. Canon At the Councell of Agathe was a Canon made which was in noumber the 37. speakyng on this wise The auncient Fathers did enioyne a greuous payne vpon such as forsooke their Fayth whom we abridgyng the noumber of yeares doe enioyne onely two yeares penaunce We read in Eusebius that a certeine Bysh. returnyng with teares to the Church froÌ„ the heretique Nouatus was receaued into the CoÌ„gregatioÌ„ the whole Congregation makyng earnest Supplication for him contrary to the order of the Canons Cyprian reporteth that the Martyrs of his tyme consideryng the earnest amendement of lyfe in certeine PeniteÌ„tiaries and perceauyng the tyme of their penaunce limited vnto them by the Church to draw neare to an end obteined by their earnest petitions made to the Elders of the Church that they releasing some part of their penaunce might receaue them into the Congregation agayne as reconciled notwithstanding their satisfactions beyng not fully accomplished And the Reason of this Pardon doth the 5. Canon of the CouÌ„cell of Antycira declare A Byshop sayth the Canon ought to haue this prerogatiue as that he may vpon consideration of the demeanour of Penitenciaries become somewhat more tractable and either quallifie the rigour of the penaunce or aggrauate the censure as he shall thinke conuenient and as necessitie shall require So also in the Nicine Councell the 5. Canon Let them stand excommunicate sayth the Canon vntill either the Congregation or the Byshop shall thinke it conuenient to mitigate the tyme of their penaunce Thus much I thought not amisse by the way to note brieflye of the maner of publique penauÌ„ce and Canonicall satisfactions exercised in the olde Church To the end it may more fullye appeare by what meanes those auncient ordinaunces of publique penauÌ„ce did first decay and were abolished in the Popes church and how by litle and litle certayne new Satisfactions were crept in thrust in place For albeit this name of Satisfactions be of some auncienty yet were Satisfactions exercised farre otherwise in the auncient Church then they are now in dayly practise in the Popes Church For in the Primitiue Church such satisfactions were enioyned as publicke penaunce for publicke offeÌ„ces only But your Popes CoÌ„fessioners do enioyne satisfactory penaunces for certayne priuate and secret sinnes The first sort were neuer ministred but in presence of the congregation onely to serue for outward Discipline onely and not to redeéme the wrath of God for their sins by way of satisfiyng and the cause why they were called Satisfactions was because they did satisfy the opinioÌ„ of the congregatioÌ„ in
publique offences only Euē so and in such wise Releases Pardōs were esteémed not to be in any respect valuable to clense the sinnes of guiltye consciences in the sight of God simply but should be as pledges and witnesses of a full releasing their penaunce enioyned vnto thē by the Church or of mitigating the same with some gentle quallification As appeareth by a Transcript drawen out of the Penitentiall of Rome vp Burchard treating much of those exchaunges of satisfactions namely that in stead of this penaunce where a man was enioyned to fast one whole day with bread and water heé should be released thereof and say fifty psalmes or Lxx. psalmes kneéling relieue some one begger with food If he were a rich man and vnlettered he should redeéme one dayes penaunce by paying iij. pence if he were poore and vnlettered he should paye one peny or feéd threé poore folke The penaūce of a whole weékes fast was redeémed with CCC Psalmes a whole mouethes fast by saying xij hundred Psalmes for one yeares fast he shoulde geue in almes to the poore xxij shillinges c. Many other like exchaunges of penaunces are mentioned in Burchard all which respected none other end but that they might quallify the rigor of the olde Canons touching publique penaunce ministred to this end not as necessary instrumentes to obtayne remission of sinnes and to pacify the wrath of God but instituted for exāples sake that they might be speciall prickes and prouokementes to sturre vpp such as were fallen and allurementes to earnest amendement of life On the contrary part the custome of our time and of our Popes hath so farre degendred from the auncient ordinaunces of the Elders in dispensing with Pardons and Satisfactions that it may seéme to haue ouerwhelmed not onely all discipline of the auncient Church but also almost ouerthrowen the whole force and efficacy of Christian fayth For whereas the Summe and Substaunce of all our Religion consisteth in the cleansing and purging of Sinnes and the same comprehended also in the onely obedience and passion of Christ these new vpstart Popes haue translated all this Release and satisfaction for our sinnes from the merite of Christ to I know not what newfangled absolutions and Pardons And whereas the olde penitentiall Canons were onely mens constitutions wherein men might dyspence with men according to the necessity of the tyme hereupon our Popes taking hart of grasse are become so shamelesse impudent that with theyr Pardons they dare presume to dispense with mens sinnes yea and theyr consciences also and to make their satisfactory merites by merite meritorious as it were worthye and able to encounter the wrath and iudgement of God And now behold how many pumples and fretts lurke vnder this one skabbe of the popish doctrine First they do so ouerlade mens consciences with a commaundement of confession without all authority of scripture and contrary to all the presidents of the primitiue Church they force all persons to render an account of theyr sinnes whether they be contrite or not contrite and this also vpon payne of eternall damnation As for Absolution they leaue cleane naked of all effectualnesse denying it to be auayleable without workes precedent ouer and besides thys also they do clogge them that are confessed with an vnauoydable necessity of doing penaūce they do thrust in Pardō of sinnes graunted by mans authority which they call Satisfaction for sinnes to deserue freé release from that punishment payne which the iustice of God may duely exact Out of which Syncke proceéd many vntimely and vyperous birthes full of lyes sacrilege and blasphemy agaynst God Namely Mounckes vowes The Sacrifice of the Masse for the quick and the dead Pilgrimages to stockes and stoanes Iubiles Pardons and Purgatory and out of that Purgatory sprang forth that momish maxime of Scotus Scottish and crabbed enough to this effect That Sinners after absolution ar either turned ouer to pardones or to Purgatory I do not here complayne or expostulate for those portesales and crafty conueyaunces of Pardōs Let Pardōs be as francke and freé as they would seéme to be for me But this is the thyng that I do demaund by what title by what scripture by what example finally by what I do not say authority but by what honest colour the Pope of Rome may presume so much vpon hys authority as to challenge to himselfe an interest and as it were an inheritable possessiō of those things wh Gods owne mouth and the promises of the whole scripture doe geue franckely and freély vnto all them that repent and beleue euen by theyr fayth in Christ Iesu and how he dare also affirme that such men are not otherwise to be dispēsed withall then by his Bulles of Pardons and his deputary Cōmissaryes Saynt Peter cryeth out with a loud voyce and confirmeth his saying with the authority of all the Prophets that shall receiue forgeuenesse of Synnes as many as do beleue in Christ. So doth also the Apostle Paule proclayme boldly that all thinges are pacified by the bloud of Christ both in heauen and in earth and addeth moreouer And in him sayth he you are made perfect And because no man shall be of opinion here after that there wanteth any thing to the full accomplishment of our saluation read in Iohn The bloud of Christ doth clense vs from all Sinne. And immediatly after He is the propitiation for our sinnes not our sinnes onely but for the sinnes of the whole world And Iohn Baptist poynting to Christ with his finger doth affirme Christ to be the Lambe appoynted by God to take away the sinnes of the world And Paule to the Hebrues By one onely oblation Christ made perfect for euer them that were sanctified And in an other place we are taught that our hartes are purified by fayth To conclude The whole meaning and intent of the scripture being nothing els but a certayn neuer interrupted course of recomfortable refreshyng in Christ it doth so allure vs all vnto hym that it leaueth none other medicine or restoratiue for our ouerladen and encombred consciences but the onely bloud of the Sonne of God And therefore if the onely death of Christ once offred for all be a full Raūsome for our Sinnes and the full price of our Redemption If Christes onely death and Passion be imputed to the faythfull beleuer for righteousnesse What neéde then any other Pardōs If Christ pacified all thinges in heauē in earth why could he not aswell pacifie all thynges in Purgatory When full power was geuen vnto him ouer all thinges in heauen and in earth what shall Christ haue nothyng to doe in Purgatory but that the Pope must be onely Prince of that Region The bloud of Christ say they did Raunsome vs from guilt and euerlasting punishment But there remaineth yet a Temporall punishment to be endured partely in this lyfe partly in Purgatory out of the which
alwayes commend the person but yf the person be good he doth alwayes commend the place otherwise yf he be euill he doth shame the place And what yf Peter did receaue the keyes from Christ did he alone therefore receaue them was it not also spoken indifferently to all without exception Receaue ye the holy ghost whose soeuer sinnes you louse or binde vpon earth c. Could Peter be sent by any greater authoritye then by the authoritye of Christ himselfe Finally was not this spoken to all thapostles indifferently by Christ himselfe As the liuing father sent me euen so doe I send you Peter therefore did binde Peter did louse I doe perceaue you so did also Paule louse the Corynthian and reteigne Hermogenes and Alexander Iohn the Euangelist did louse the theéfe once or twise as Eusebius doth recorde in his 3. booke Cap. 17. Other Apostles did louse lykewise others euen by the same authoritye receaued from Christ himselfe and not from Peter at all What then because Peter did before the rest of thapostles confesse his fayth and because the keyes were first geuē to Peter doth this argue forthwith that the keyes were geuen to Peter alone But to goe foreward Putt the case that the keyes were deliuered to Peters custody both first yea in respect of his confessing of fayth besides this also to him alone sith you will haue it so yet what kinde of chopplogick is this The keyes were deliuered to Peter cōfessing Christ with a true and sincere fayth Ergo. The Popes of Rome onely be the successors of Peter and are inuested in the possession of the same power of binding and lousing by the expresse worde of God A trymm conclusion surely very Catholick Wherein neither the Antecedent is true and the consequent much more false Forasmuch as neither this force of binding and lousing was geuen to Peter alone their assumption hereof surmised that the Popes of Rome onely are Peters Successors is altogether as false The reason is because the simplicitye and natiue humilitye of the Gospell doth no where acquaint it selfe with any such carnall successions which are applyed to places persons and tymes as neither Christes philosophye doth acknowledge or regard carnall Fathers Sonnes affinities and kinreddes as the which doth mount on high and doth enter by farr more excellent meanes Goe to yet for example sake lett vs imagine that Peter hadd a sonne borne vnto him by his lawfull wyfe and an other Cephas resembling the father and by discent and course of nature next heire What shall we say that this Sonne shall clayme the priuiledge of his fathers Portershippe because he is his next heyre Not so you will say And will you so flattly deny that priuiledge to naturall discent which you yeld to place and to a rotten outward Chayre If Christ did neither acknowledge mother brethren nor sisters vpon the earth but those onely which yelded their due obedience to his fathers commaundements will the same Christ vouchsafe any other successors or vicars of Peter then such as present themselues with the same cognifizaunce and badge that he did acknowledge in Peter And admitt also the very best that maketh for you that the Byshoppe of Rome doth with neuer so good a face pretend this authoritie from Christ what and be not other Byshopps of other Churches endued with semblable fayth what prerogatiue hath he then in this office and keéping of keyes now as to challenge any superioritye ouer other Byshoppes and Presidēts of the Churche The Scripture doth in a certein place deny that he which hath not the spirite of Christ is of Christ. Now this spirite of Christ wheresoeuer it resteth is humble and meéke regardeth not the thinges of the earth seéketh not her owne suffereth the iniuries of others offereth iniury to none neither reuengeth any iniury offred to himselfe haleth no man to the slaughter-house thyrsteth after euery mans sauetye yea prayeth also for his enemies earnestly doth receaue the weake in fayth doth oppresse no man endureth many thinges becometh all in all to all persons that he may winne all vnto Christ accompteth other mens chaunces good or badde as his owne lyueth not to himselfe but to the publique benefite of many doth amend that is amisse addresseth that which is out of order recouereth the lost recomforteth the dispeired estates finally doth not breake in peéces the shieuered Reéde For in very deéde the spirite of Christe canne not be vnlyke to Christ himselfe And therefore hereof we may well conclude that wheresoeuer this spirite doth plant his Seate there doughtles is the successor of Peter there be the true keyes of the Church I doe not presume here to iudge of the spirite of the Pope he hath his Iudge and shall haue his daye of iudgement which shall display abroad into open light secrets of all darkenes In the meane space touching the Popes Pardons whereof these praters preach so presumptuously this is most certen and sure That thorough the whole scriptures or aūcient Fathers one sentēce so much cann not be found to make those their Pardons Iustifiable or coulorable First touching their whole allegation of Succession it is playne fraude and deceipt their bragge of the singuler prerogatiue of Peter is false The power of the keyes doth no more belong to the Seé of Rome then to the vniuersall Church of Christ. For if by those keyes power of binding and lousing be figured as hath bene allready spoken these keyes though Peter receaued first in deéde yet did not he alone receaue them nor did euer at any tyme exercise the power of the same otherwise then as he did enioye them together with thother Apostles which for asmuch as is confirmed by very many infallible profes and established by the cōtinuall vnbrokē course of auncient Antiquitye as also witnessed euidently by the testimony of the Cannons in the Councels of Ancyra and Nice whereof we made mencion before where it is sayd that the custome of the Church was then such as that euery Byshoppe should haue the order and ouersight of euery his peculiar Prouince and vpon due consideration of the behauiour of the Penitentiaries might lawfully either mittigate shorten or cutt of the tyme of their penaunce or prolong the same according as they should thinke in necessary and neédefull for reformation and correction So that it was shamelesse presumption and most arrogant insolencye of Pope Innocent the 3. to make this vndiscreéte decreé in the Councell of Laterane in the yeare 1215. Because sayth he through vndiscreate and superfluous Pardons which certē Prelates of the Church are not affrayd to graūt both the keyes of the Church are despised and penitentiall satisfaction is weakened we doe decree that when the feast of dedication of Saynt Peters Pallaice shall be solemnized Pardon shall not be graunted aboue one yeare and so foorth in the feast of the yearely dedication the tyme of appoynted Pardons
dead how is the safetie of all men and the state of the Churche preserued thereby To make this matter good Iustifiable S. Paule him selfe is forced maugre his beard to become wittnesse agaynst him self beyng charged with his one wordes spoken once or twise in his Epistle written to the Corinthes as when he sayth I do dye dayly through the reioysing that I haue of you in Christ Iesu our Lord. c. And agayne writyng to the Collo Now I do Reioyse sayth he ouer my afflictions for you and I do fill vpp that which wanteth in the afflictions of Christ in my fleshe for his body which is the Church c. Out of these wordes of Paule well spoken not well vnderstanded and wickedly wrested it is a wonder to seé what horrible doctrine and monstruous blasphemies these false Apostles doe inferr and thrust in place For whereas the Apostles meanyng doth note onely the confirmation of doctrine and the afflictiōs and agonyes that he endured for the enlargyng of the Fayth of Christ onely the same doe these praters most horribly mistourne force to the satisfaction for Sinnes yea to the very price of our Redemption not without manifest Sacriledge agaynst the bloud of Christ As though the Death and Passion of the onely Sonne of God Iesu Christ could not otherwise suffice to the absolute accomplishment of the whole action of our Redemption vnlesse meritorious afflictions of Sainctes were annexed besides which beyng mingled together with the bloud of Christ should counterpeise in equall ballaunce the iust and true proportion of the Iudgement of God and with full measure as it were fill vpp that euer flowyng founteyne which doth purge and washe cleane away the Sinnes and filthe of the quicke and the deadd Which mingle mangle they call by the name of the Treasure of the Churche which of all the rest is most vayne foolishe And this Treasure of the Church they dare not committe to the custody of Christ onely nor to euery of the Ministers nor yet to laye men nor to Priestes not to poore Prelates not to Abbottes or Priours not to Prouostes and Wardens of Colledges nor to simple Preachers as they call thē but to Byshoppes onely and amongest them also chiefly to the high and superexcellent Byshoppe the Pope which is of all the rest most absurd And yet least you shall thinke that these be not their own proper Assertions we will heare what holy Saynct Bonauenture and such like doctours of the same Schoole doe speake of theyr owne mouth For on this wise doe those profounde Deuynes frame theyr Argumentes out of the wordes of holye Scripture Because according to the Law say they he that doth marry his Brothers wise to rayse vpp seede to his brother that is dead ought to enioy the possession of his brothers goods that appertayne to the education of the Children Ruth 4. Therefore the dispensation of this treasure of the Church belongeth to the Byshoppes onelye which be the husbandes of the Church haue power to beget sonnes daughters that is to say perfect vnperfect and amōgest all these principally the high Byshopp which is husband gouernour of the whole Church vniuersall Ha Ha gentle Reader haue you not heard a mynyon mariage worthy for a Popes puppett grounded vpō the very vnpenetrable Rocke of the profundity of all Scriptures by which ye may first perceiue that Christ was once the husband of this spowse Now because he departed this lyfe dyed without issue of his body lawfully begottē his next brethrē the Byshops do succeéd him who marrying their Brothers wife may rayse vpp issue to their Brother vpon her and may begett Children perfect and vnperfect And because all this shall not wāt creditt they do proue it by the authority of the scripture to witt in the 4. Chapiter of Ruth and other testimonies of the Law But by the way whereas we find that by the same law it was lawfull for one husband to haue many wiues or concubines I do not yet remember any such liberty geuen by the law that one wife should be married to manye husbandes Wherein truely they doe describe a very hard and miserable estate and condition of the Church if one wife shal be constrayned to be buxonne and bonaire to so many husbandes as there be Byshoppes in Christendome But let vs harken yet what followeth more For he proceédeth on this manner And therefore all Byshoppes sayth be that haue issue may graūt pardones but especially aboue all other our most holy Father the Byshopp of Rome as to whom belongeth the dispensation of the whole spirituall treasory because he hath the charge of all the whole Church and of all her Children whereupon all be his Children and he is the Father of all c. Thus much doth preach vnto vs our holy Saynt Bonauenture Behold here gentle Reader the summe of this most excellent mysticall interpretation of the Schole doctrine where in bethinke aduisedly with your selfe how many fowle horrible errors blasphemies are scatrered abroad by this pestilent dogg and recken them vpon your fingers if you will whiles I sett thē downe in order vnto you First an vtter disability and a worne out Emptymes in the bloud of Christ his most comfortable death is here set downe wherein is manifest blasphemy Then followeth an Eclipse of Christes passion That is to say whatsoeuer wanteth in his passion to the full satisfaction of our Redemption must be supplied and recompenced with the afflictions of Martirs and Sainctes Next vpon this minglemangle of the merytes of Christ and his Martirs they gather together a certayne treasury of most precious and aboundant Satisfactiō which they call the Treasure of the Church Now whereas out of this treasury all Remission and pardō of Sinnes is dawen forth then yet must not all be Stewards and distributers of this great riches nor any other then the Bishoppes and the chiefe Byshopp of all other the Pope of Rome which is of all other a most pestiferous error Moreouer as is most meét out of this Romish Budgett and dispensation of Romish treasure are begotten Bulles and Pardons which is a most horrible fraud and liegerdemayne Lastly out of these Pardons is framed at the lēgth the skalding house of Purgatory by this argument forsooth Because otherwise these pardons and prayers of the Church and merites of Sayntes should not be worth a Rush vnlesse the soules of the faythfull did frye and broyle in this skalding house of Purgatorye for ease of whom these qualificatiōs are proued by the Church I haue reckened vpp orderly and briefly the chiefe of all their errours monstruous horrible enough I thinke which being directly agaynst manifestly repugnaunt and contrary to the true meaning and naturall sense of the scripture will not require any long aunswere in the confutation of them First where as they do affirme that
should be defaced for the peéuish pratyng of one Portingall Surely if the aucthoritie of a woman haue not prerogatiue in decidyng determining Ecclesiasticall causes Gregory did not demeane him selfe discreétly who in a cause of purgatiō of a certein womā named Mēna sent backe that Appeale to Brunichelda the Frenche Queéne as to her lawfull Princesse Gouernesse What shall I say of Eleutherius Pope of Rome who writyng vnto Lucius kyng of Englād called him the Uicar of God within the precinct of his owne kyngdome and therfore doth exhort and require him that he gouerne his Realme with wholesome ordinaunces established by the word of God If Christian Kynges and Princes euery one within their owne seuerall Realmes do as it were represent the Uicares of God vpon earth I beseéch you Osorius what is more proper vnto God then to prouide circumspectly for the well orderyng and good dispositiō of such thynges as apperteigne to the Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction But of this enough and more then enough But of all other this is a most pleasaunt iest very fitt for a Rhetorician Where you complayne bitterly that the Popes Byshops are dispoyled of their lawfull authoritie which seémeth to me euen as much in effect as if AEsopes Crow should take an action agaynst the litle byrdes for entryng vpon possession of their owne feathers which were their own of right But bycause this matter hath bene sufficiently enough debated already take here a resolute aunswere Osorius for the knittyng vppe of this knotte in fewe wordes Peruse throughly this whole Papane whatsoeuer which you call by the name of a lawfull aucthoritie I speake not of the personages that haue supplyed the place I say behold agayne and agayne the whole forme and proportion of that Seé and Pontificall royaltie as it is at this present the conuersation the practizes the orders the insolency the pryde the greédynes the cruelty the slaughters executed the infinite vnspeakeable Martyrdomes the Idolatryes the blasphemyes the immoderate iniuries and tyrannies of this Popish Church behold I say search out examine and circūspectly consider with your eyes and emprinte in your imaginatiō all the premisses withall compare all the same to the notes signes and Prognostifications of the Propheticall Scriptures and if it do not approue by the infallible Prophecies and most certein tokens and for eshewynges and markes of the sacred Scripture that this same Prelate◠euen he whom you do propp vpp so proudly in that Pontificall Prelacy whom you defend so stoughtly is the very naturall Antichrist that Child of perdition Behold here I will yeld ouer my right and will become your bondman But if this cā not be denyed to be an vnuanguishable veritie nor gaynsayd by you by any reason nor can be mainteyned by you by any proofe or due Argumentes what will you say then Osorius Where is that authoritie violently taken from your lawfull Byshops which you haue most wickedly vsurped so long not without execrable iniury of other Christian Princes Wherefore either defend if you can that he that doth supply the place of that Romish Papane is not very Antichrist or cease from hēceforth to barcke so currishly agaynst the gouernement of our Mayden Queéne vnto whose authoritie we Englishmen do most humbly acknowledge our dutyfull subiection by the prouident appointment and most happy ordinaūce of almighty God whose Princely prerogative established from aboue neither are you able to suppresse but you shall withall become an errand rebell agaynst Gods ordinaūce nor yeld the souereignty thereof to that proud Prelate but that you shall herein conspire with Antichrist and denounce your selfe an open traytour agaynst Christ the Sonne of the liuyng God From hence now is our Portingall Parrott taken his flight hoppyng from one treé to an other and passing ouer many bushes and brambles that he may at the last come to his appointed marke to witte that last place of his booke wherein the seély Childish babe Haddō doth sayth he teare his owne flesh with his owne nayles and hath withall geuē him selfe a very deadly wounde c. If this gallaunt challēger were as valiaunt in armes as he can face out the matter with a carde of tenne surely he were mā good enough to ouerthrow all the Pigmees in the world Here is a great noyse of woundes yea and of deadly woūdes but God be praysed not so much as one dropp of bloud shedd we heare a sounde o◠mostruous stormes and horrible thundercrackes but neuer a droppe of rayne wherein to my conceipt happeneth to Osorius a chaunce not much vnlyke to that wherof the old tale maketh mention of an husbandman not all of the wisest that did sheare his Dogge Good Lord quoth he what a noyse is here and not so much as a locke of wolle But passing ouer those outcryes and painted speaches of Osorius Let vs consider the matter it selfe somewhat aduisedly The place of Haddon wherein this Scourgeluther doth so much whyppe Haddon is on this wise What now sayth Haddon shall this most sacred doctrine of the Gospell wherein we haue alwayes cōtinued by the space of xxx yeares together except that troublesome tyme of vi yeares wherin the Queenes Maiestie hath bene trayned and instructed from her infancie wherein her highnesse hath hadd so many trialles of Gods great bountyfull liberalitie towardes her wherein hath bene a generall consent of all estates wherein hath bene a settled stay of most excellent lawes and ordinaunces shall this so pure and syncere worshipping of God so circumspectly defended and established by the Royall Maiestie of all partes be defaced and disgraced thorough the crakes of a peeuish ` Portingall These be Haddones wordes in that which place will be worthe that notyng to seé what scarres Osorius hath espyed out The first is wherein Haddon doth name the sacred doctrine of the Gospell to be the Discipline of Luther Zuinglius Bucer Caluine and such lyke frantick fellowes Truely this is a greuous wound And why so forsooth because those men haue not onely with the rules of their doctrine but also with the euill example of their lyues haue rooted out all shamefastnes Modestye Ciuilitye and obedience First here be two lyes at a chopp but lett vs search out the other woundes Moreouer in steed of fayth and freedome they haue bestowed vpon their familiars presumptiō and rashnes together with vnpunishable lycentiousnes of sinning They haue in steede of true righteousnes brought in a false and deceitfull righteousnes They haue made God the Authour of all wickednes The decayed Church which they promised to Restore to her auncient integritye they haue defiled with more abhominations so that by how much the more a man doth encline to their discipline so much the more is he estraunged from all shamefastnes and Chastitie c. These be old winde shaken Broomes worne out before to the bare stumpes and which hath bene handled before sufficiently but haue you any new
required in philosipher so may the want therof be borne withall in a Deuine Ieromes Epistle to PaÌ„machius Luke 16. Esay 2. 1. Cor. 1. â— Osor. 163. Prouer. 16. Fine poolished speach is alwayes impudent An Exquisite affectation of Eloquence not so much to be regarded of Deuines Pag. 166. Osori inueighed against EnglaÌ„d but not agaynst all Osori pag. 167. What Osorius doth promise in this booke Osori Argument not able to be resolued Haddones auÌ„swere to Osori Argument Osor. pag. 167. The testimony of the world agaynst the Lutheranes The rebouÌ„ding of the Argument agaynst Osor. Osor. pag. 168. A trimme reason of Osor. Osor. pag. 169. Osor. Argument coÌ„futed The spirite of the Prophettes is not to be measured by the nomber of beleuers Moah Moses Esay Ieremy Stephen S. Paule The first beginning of Luther Luthers humble letters to pope Leo the tenth Pope Leo his proude insolency agaynst Luthers humble submission Luthers second letters to Leo the Pope Anno 1519. Luthers Protestation Luthers huÌ„ble Supplication to the Church of Rome Stanislaus Hosius in his first booke of heresies The Pope the seruauÌ„t of seruauÌ„tes of God by a figure called Antiphrasis The cause of Luther honest Osori conclusioÌ„s false Sophistry A comparison betwixt the professoures of the true Gospell the Papisticall Osor Pag. 169. The prayle of the Romish church after Osor. A fifth and euerlasting Gospell made on a tyme of the Dominick Fryers at Parise Anno Dom. 1256. Osor. pag. 169. Of the Fayth of the Romishe Church Whether the vniformitye of fayth be more discernable in the Romish Chur. or in the Lutheranes How many wayes the popes fayth is contrary to the right institution of the Gospell Arrogancy and vayne confidence The name of vniuersal Church is restrayned to the Romaynes onely contrary to the nature of the Gospell Osor. pag. 169. The false and lyeng braggeâ— of the Romish Church Osor. pag. 169. Esay 5. How the Church of Rome is laden with mens tradicions Emptynes and voyde Apoca. 13. Osor. pag. 170. By what Reasons the vniuersality of Christes Vicar is coÌ„firmed One head of the Church The doctrine of the Gospell doth call all the Ministers of the Church to humilitie permitteth superioritie to none in any wise August agaynst Petilian Epist. Cap. 3. Cyprian Whether the authoritie of the Romishe See be Necessary for the takyng away of Schismes The Romishe See the Metropolitane of Sectes Where the Romish authoritie is quite banished there is most rest The Papacie nothyng els then a certeine mighty faction and armed power of kyngs The slaunder of the Sectes and dissentioÌ„ of the Lutheranes FactioÌ„s and Schismes in the Church of Rome Diuerse coÌ„tentiones of papistes amongst theÌ„ selues touching the supper of the Lord. Whether Popes See were erected by god or men See hereof before Haddons discourse in the first booke pag. 15. Peter sate at Rome What a diuersitie is betwixt Rome now and as it was in the tyme of Peter The principallitie of the See of Rome by what begynnyng it crept to so great power and tyranny When the name of Vniuersalitie and the order of Cardinalles beganne Vrsinus Damasus Anno 369. How many and how great conflictes haue raunged in the Chur. of Rome about the choosing of the Pope Boniface Eulalius Anno. 420. Simachus Laurentius Anno. 499. Stephanus Constantinus Phillip Anno. 768. Anastasius Benedictus 873. Leo. Christoph. Sergius Iohn 13. Leo. 8. Anno. 968. Out of platina this Iohn the 13. was takeÌ„ committyng adultery and was slayne Benedict the 5. being taken prisoner was cast into Adrianes Doungeon Anno. 973. Donus 2. Boniface 7. ranne away with the Treasury of Rome 975. Gregor 5. Iohn 17. Siluester Anno. 995. Out of Cardinall Benno Clemens 2. 1048. Benedict 10 1058. Alexander 2. Cadolus 1062. Hildebrand Clement 3. Victor 3. Vrbanus 2. Anno. 1083. Pascalis Albertus Theodoric Maginulph Vibertus False Popes Platina Blondus Gelâ—sius 2. The Archbishop of Bacchara a false pope Anno. 1118. Calistus 2. Gregory 8. false popes Anno. 1124. Distinct. 76 Cap. Ieiunium The first institution of Cardinalles about the yeare 1124. Innocent 2. Anacletus 1130. Out of AEmilius his 5. bookes Blond Platina Guil. Tyrius 14. booke and the 12. Chapter The Consuls of Rome brought in subiectioÌ„ to the Pope Blond in his 6. booke Lucius 3.2 Schismatick 1182. Vrbanus 3. called Turbulent for his troublesome head 1185. InnoceÌ„t the 3. the chief champioÌ„ of all the calamities and troubles of the church 1215. Honorius 3 Innocent 4. Gregoâ—y 9. most rebellious traytours agaynst the Emperour Friderick 2 The factioÌ„s of the Guelsians and Gibellynes raysed by the meanes of this Gregory 9. Celestin. 5. Boniface 8. a firchrand of factions 1295. Platina AEmil The most impudent shamelenes of Boniface 8. agaynst the Archb. of Genua Innocentius 6. Gregorye 11. the greatest author of Schisme 1352. Vrbanus 6. thrust into the Popedome by violeÌ„ce 1378. The See of Rome deuided in Schisme by the space of 74. yeares A cruell coÌ„tention betwixt the Cowled generation about the Conception of our Lady 1400. Boniface 9. Innocent 7. a seditious murderer 1405. Gregory 12 AlexaÌ„der 5 a troublesome pope Iohn 24. by force and money occupyeth the Sec. 1411. Three Popes deposed at one time Martine 5. The Councell of CoÌ„stance The Conuenticle of Constance did coÌ„deÌ„ne Ierome of Prague and Iohn Husse to be burned Martin not the Vicare of Christ but of Bellona Engenius an other chicken of Bellona A CouÌ„cell at Basile 1435. Eugenius a Schismatick is deposed from the Popedome 1442. This schisme endured 9. yeares The battell agaynst the Heluetians and Basileans by the procuremeÌ„t of Eugenuius Rob. Gaguinus and Phrigio Thomas of Redon thorough the popes Tyranny burned 1436. Antonius others A non causa vt causaÌ„ The fallaxe of the accident Luther a speciall aduersary to Sedition Osor. pag. 187. Of the Româ—nistes obedience rowardes Princes pag. 170. The Emperoâ—â— translated from the Grecyanes to the Frenchmen by the popes contrary their oathes Charles the Great The Creeks inuaded by the Turkes An Auncient ordinaunce of the right of the Emperour and the Pope The Maiestye of the Empyre was translated from Fraunce into Germany by the pope A degree of Gregory the 5. Concluded vpon with Otho the thyrd Emperour The wayward Rebellion of the popes alwayes agaynst the Imperiall Maiestie An olde grudge of the popes agaynst the Emperours for the bestowyng of Ecclesiasticall promotions Benedicte doth rebell against HeÌ„ry 3. The horrible conspiracie of pope Gregory 7. and the Bishops agaynst Henry the fourth Rodolphe suborned agaynst his Lord and Emperour by the practize and treason of the pope Rebellion punished The pope beyng the firebrand of seditioÌ„ doth prouoke the sonnes to rebell agaynst their Father Gods iust iudgement executed vpon the sonne that rebelled agaynst his Father The popes absolute power The Maiestie Imperiall subdued and subiect to the popes De Maior obedi Cap. Insolitae De Maior Cap.
Sacrament of bread and wine is called the body and bloud of Christ. August to Boniface 13. Episto August vppon the psalme 89. August agaynst Adimant 13. The circumstaunces about the Supper of the Lord are to be considered August vpon the wordes of the Lord in Lake Ser. 33. August in Ioh. tractar 25.26 The abseÌ„ce of the body of Christ more profitable for vstheÌ„ his presence An Argument in respect of the profit therof Antichrist An argument from Impossibilitye Contradictiories cann not be together not so much as by miracle A great diuersitie betwixt the auncient Church of Rome and this vpstart Church The lynes and couersatioÌ„ of the auncieÌ„t Fathers of the primitiue Church The first age of the Church Deut. 12. Gala. 1. Math. 7. In processe of time the maners and ordinaunce of ChristiaÌ„s were chauÌ„ged The middle age of the Church How sure forth humayne authoritye doth binde Ecclesiasticall function consisteth in two thinges chiefly How farre ecclesiasticall power doth extend it selfe In matters appertayning vnto God dew obedience ought to be geuen to the Pastors and Ministers How farre forth obedieÌ„ce ought to be geuen or not geueÌ„ to Pastours of the churche in matters of mens constitutioÌ„ What ministers ought to consider in makyng new ordinaunces Of iudiciall power of Churches The difference betwixt Ecclesiasticall temporall IudgemeÌ„ts Ecclesiasticall discipline in the primitiue Church The first institution of the primitiue church compared with the tymes of the latter Church The foundation of the christiaÌ„ Church The foundation of the Romyshe Church The Popes doctrine coÌ„uinced by foure principall pointes The popes Church more like an earthly kyngdome then the kyngdome of Christ. A smale discription of the Romishe Ierarchye A comparison betwixt the kingdome of the Pope and the kingdome of this world Iohn 20. A comparison betwixt the popes kyngdome and Christs kyngdome Luke 20. Mar. 10. Luce. 12. 2. Cor. 10. 1. Cor. 4. 2. Cor. 1. 1. Pet. 5. Rom. 12. The shape of the Romish Ierarchy The counteâ—faite authoritie of popes The church wickedly defined by the papistes How the Romishe stagers doe counterfayt olde Antiquitye A manifest declaration of the Romish church as it is now to be nothing at all Gregor 4. booke 30. Epistle The order of Cardinalles The electioÌ„ of the pope of Rome Cyprian 4. booke Epistle 2. The auncient authoritie of Emperours in sommoning Councelles and in chusing popes A Decree of Charles the great Otto Distinct 6 3. The olde Canons do abhorre priuate Masses Canon 8. The power of both swords coÌ„trary to the old CanoÌ„s The thyrd CouÌ„cell of Carthage Cap. 47. In the new Constitutions 123. 146. Cap. 3. Antiquitie agaynst Images in Churches Origene vpon Leuit. Cap. 16. Chrisost. vpon Math. 1. Homel 2. Vpon Iohn Homel 31. August de opera Monach Malburiensis de pontificibus Lib. 1. An auncieÌ„t law of EnglaÌ„d against pluralities All thynges altered by the pope Out of the Tridentine Councell Generall Councels accordyng to the old constitutioÌ„s aboue the pope The Church of Rome as it is now is conuinced of Nouelty The Councell of Laterane A new doctrine first instituted in the same vnder Pope Innocent 3. Cap. 1. Of the sacrifice of the Masse Of priuate confession The Laterane councell vnder Innocent 3. Cap. 21. Chrisost. in his fourth Sermon of Lazarus Chrisost. vp on the psal 50. hom 2. Chriso vpon the Epistle to the Hebrues homi 31. Tripart histo lib. 9 Cap. 35. Erasmus iu his Apolo The Sacraments of the Romish Church Out of Huntington the 7. booke Out of the Chronicles of Monumetensis Councell of Gangren Cap. 4. Out of the 2. councel of Arelaten 2. cap. Pope Lucius decree distinâ— 81. Ministri The greatest part of the Romish doctrine newly fouÌ„d out and brought in within thâ—s 500. yeares Apoc. 21. Trueth suffereth violence A figure called Hypotiposis Whereby the state of the RomaÌ„s Church and the Reformed Churche is expressed In the question of the Churche many things are conteined People buildyng doctrine forme of gouernement Where the Churche of Lutheranes was fourtie yeares ago A Similitude betwixt the restitutioÌ„ of Religion the finest of the tounges Reason reÌ„dered why Religion is more pure at this tyme in the Churches then it was in many yeares before The Arte of Emprintyng The reason and obiection of the Catholicks in the defeÌ„ce of their Church Probable with Deuines Rome built vpon seuen hilles Apocal. 13. The reason of the papistes touchyng the consent and proofe of their vniuersalitie The captious conclusion of the Catholicks The aunswere to the Argument Distinct. 40. Non loca Distinct. 4. Non est A fallax in the Equiuocum which is of diuers significations The Rom. Church doth combate against the true Church of Christ vnder a coulour of christian name Origen vpon Mathew cap. 17. Irene 3. book cap. 4. The trueth is the life of the church Lactant. 5. institu cap. 30. ArgumeÌ„tes made from consent and multitude of authors are weake Math. 10. Eccle. 1. Ieremy 8. Osorious accusation which was properly bent against Doctrine is transposed to maners To what end tendeth the force of Osorius Accusation Osorius doth deny that Luthers doctrine hath any affinitye with the Apostolique Scriptures Pag. 181. Osor. pag. 182. Osorius lying Rhetorick The Argument of Osorius The Aunswere to the Argument Osorius quarell of lyfe and maners Tit. 1. Ill may the Snight the Woodcock twight for his long bill The lyfe of the Lutheranes compared with the Catholickes The vices of maners are not to be imputed to his doctrine The fruites of Luthres doctrine Osor pag. 182. The confutation of hisl aunder Artic. 21. The scoffe of Luthers doctrine Luther offeÌ„ded with the life of his countrey men Osor. pag. 187. Deut. 18. The argument of Osorius 1. Kinges Act. 1â— A true difference betwixt the false and the true Prophett Luther vpon the 130. Psalme Mens iudgemeÌ„ts in findyng faulte may be free so that they be vpright Out of Valer Ansel. Iohn Stella Out of BeÌ„uo a Cardinall Of couenauntes and promises not alwayes holden true emoÌ„gest the papistes Iere. cap. 23. Osorius argument out of Ieremy Aunswere to the argument The fallax of the consequent The aunswere to the Maior The reason to discerne betwixt false and true Prophetes accordyng to Osorius The aunswere of the Minor Osori pag. 190. The place of Ieremy expounded Iohn Husse The prophecy of Iohn Husse touchyng the doctrine of the Gospell to be restored by Luther A small coÌ„trouersy betwixt Luther and Zuinglius Osor. pag. 191. Of diuisioÌ„s of the churche Dissentions in the Papane church Dissentions amoÌ„gst the most godly A full consent of doctrine in reformatioÌ„ of Churches The Articles of the chief grouÌ„des of Religion wherin the Ministers of the Church do well agree together How great a concord is ctetwixt many Churches in the matter of the Sacrament Papistes murtherers of Martyrs Osori pag. 192. Osori doth beleue fame Authour of all his vntruthes A prouerbe
gloryous name coūterfaytyng the hornes of the immaculate Lambe doth vnder the person of Chrystes Uycar on earth attempt nothyng els in very deéde but that he may be the chiefe Monarch of the whole world and that all others Princes and Potentates of the earth may become buxam and bonnair vnto hys beck and commaundement For may it be lawfull Osorius for a man to speake the trueth franckely and in playne wordes to call a Toad a Toad Let that vysor of presumptuous pretence be pluckt from your pates and but a litle whyles turne downe that tytle and cloake of the Church wherewith you couer your selues and lette vs behold the thyng as it is in deéd to wytte the whole course of your conuersation your treasury myghty Maiesty gallant trayne pryncely pallaces stately dignyty pompous pryde terryble Lawes your lofty Castles presumptuous power what difference shal we seé betwixt the hyghest gouernemēt of an Empyre and the supremacy of the Pope betwixt the courtes of Kinges and the Reuelyng Rout of Rome betwixt Princes parliamēts and the Popes generall councels Now if you lyst to take a view of the gallaunts themselues what is the Pope himselfe other thē the Monarch and chiefe Ruler of thys world sauyng that other worldly Prynces be crowned wyth one single Dyademe onely but thys Ruffeler can skarse be satisfied wyth a Tryple Crowne Cardynalles what do they represent els then kynges and kynges Sonnes what do the Patryarches Archbyshoppes Byshopps and Abbottes in that pontificall kyndome shew themselues other then earthly prynces Dukes Earles equall or rather exceédyng them in sumptuousnesse wayted vpon wyth stately trayne wheresoeuer they goe and Ryde and many of them also Rynged and Chayned to whom a man may lawfully lyncke the Lubberly Rowt of monstruous Mounckes and false Fryers in stead of a gard Finally what one thing is done in any common wealth or pryncely courtes that these iolly Rufflers haue not conueyed into the Church of Christ by ambytious emulation Kynges and Emperours enduced hereunto for necessary preseruation of theyr state doe ioyne vnto them counsellors and Piers Those haue theyr Ambassadours and Messengers they haue also theyr pryuy ligiers and skowtes what doth the Pope want his consistory hath not this most holy father his Synodaryes doth he lack his legates nati legates de latere who wheresoeuer they be sent vse no lesse pompe thē any other Piere or potētate of highest nobility yea though he be neuer so sumptuous No more is he destitute of his skowtes and spyes whom he hath priuelye lurkyng euery where armed with treason at a pynche in princes courtes in theyr councels yea in the closettes pryuy chambers of Kynges and Queénes Do ye not thinke that thys is a comely concordaunce Osorius and a reasonable resemblaunce of Chrystes lyfe and commaundementes agreéable with the Apostles and Euangelists with the auncient Fathers with the ordinaunces of the primitiue Church and with the former presidēt of the Elders The Lord cryeth out in the Gospell As my lyuing Father sent me euē so do I send you What and do you thinke that he was so sent into the world that he should establish a new Regyment on earth and like an other Romulus builde an other stately and Emperiall Rome Or do ye thinke that the ministers of Chryst were sent after any other sort then the Sonne himselfe was sent from the Father Christ proceédeth yet foreward Receaue ye the holye Ghost sayth he whosoeuer Sinnes you shall forgeue the same are forgeuen them whosoeuer Sinnes you shall retayne the same also shal be retayned Other power then this he neuer did entitle his Church withall nor yet gaue this power to any but vnto them onely whom he purposed to endue with his holy spirite If we will value the Church of Christ by Christ his owne Lawes and not after the decreés of Popes what can be more euident then the wordes which he spake vnto his Disciples Ye know that such as will seeme to rule ouer Nations are Lordes ouer them theyr Princes haue dominion ouer them But it shall not be so with you for he that will be greatest shall humble himselfe minister to all the rest For the Sonne of man came not to be ministred vnto but to minister to other himselfe and to geue his lyfe to be a redemption for many Agayne Who made me iudge betwixt you we are taught like wise in Paule that the weapons of our warrefare are not carnall but mighty in the power of God wherewith we captiuate all vnderstanding and wisedome in subiection vnto Christ. And agayne Let euery man so esteeme of vs as the ministers of Christ and Stewardes of the misteryes of God And the same Paule in an other place Not because we be Lordes ouer your faith but we be helpers of your ioy For by fayth you are made perfect In the same sence also Peter Not being Lordes ouer the Clergy sayth he And agayne in the thyrd chapter of the same Epistle meaning to expresse the efficacy of the Gospell he doth call it a ministery not of the flesh but of the spirite And therefore to the end he may make vs more spirituall he doth wisely forbidde not the ministers onely but generally all other to be alike fashioned to this present word what would he now say If he did beholde the shape and vgly deformity of the Romish Church as it is now if heé aduised well the Royaltyes of S. Peter the fulnes of power the authority of both swordes the Keyes of all Churches stollen away and hanged all vpon the Romish bunch the toppe gallaūt of the pontificall maiesty the Cardinalles the Legates preuayling aboue Prynces the empalled and Mytred Byshoppes the orders of Shauelings the swarmes of Mounckes and Fryers the Lawes Bulles decreés which they vse as forcible as Cānon shotte theyr might and power fearefull yea terrible also to Princes The Lord hymselfe cryeth out mightely in the Gospell that his kingdome is not of this world nor canne away with the thinges that are mighty of the earth But our pontificall prelate will storme and waxe wroth if the world enioy any thyng that is not subiect vnto his power And this Ierarchy meane whiles more then wordly they fayne and God will to be the Church at whose becke as at the sight of Gorgones vgly face they make astonyed all the Monarches and Tetrarches of the earth And the same haue they magnified with the name of Catholicke forsooth By vertue of which name they will haue to be notyfied not a congregation dispersed vpon the face of the whole earth agreéing together in one conformity of doctryne and worshypping of Christ whyche doth make a true Catholicke Church But they meane hereby that onely Ierarchy which they will haue tyed fast to the Romyshe Seé And hereunto for the greater aduauncement of the authority they haue deuised a trymme tytle of Antiquity
Behold say they was there euer any Church if the Church of Rome were not a Church glorying as it were vpon the tytle of Antiquitye whereas neuer any one thing doth differre more from all antiquity wherein these Romish skippiacks seéme in my conceit not much lyke litle boyes playing the Comedyes of Plautus vpon some stage where one playeth the part of Chremes an other of Menedemus or Cremilus who beyng not yet come to be hoary and grayheaded by course of yeares because they will sette a graue countenaūce vpon the matter and seéme olde men before the gazers vpon them about on the Skaffoldes they put vpon them counterfayt trynckets to witte a white hoary beard vpon theyr chynne gray and white lockes vpon theyr heades counterfayting theyr gate with stooping and crooching they rest their handes vpon some staffe shaking and tremblyng and fashion theyr voyces bigge like olde men doyng all this with a certayne witty and crafty conueyaunce of counterfayting so that if you behold theyr outward handling and gesture you would say they were olde men but if you discharge them of theyr Roabes and plucke of theyr vysours you shall finde them nothing lesse then such as they haue fayned themselues to be Not much vnlike is this dottrell Ierarchy of Rome which it is a wonder to seé how many yeares it vaunteth of continuaunce in wordes in voyce in countenaunce gesture and outward resemblaunce Fiftene hundreth yeares and more say they did our predecessors beginne to sitte in this chayre euen from the first foundatiō of the prymitiue Church which being erected in Christ himselfe established by the Apostles confirmed with a cōtinuall course of neuer fayling Succession receiued by generall consent from the Auntient Fathers and from them hath remayned bene deriued vnto vs by aperpetuall and permanent deliuery of Succession But your Church which you call an Euangelicall Church where was it euer seene or heard at any time of any man These verely be the vysours and stagelike gugawes wherewith this Romish counterfaytes haue played their tragicall partes wherewith they haue beguiled many simple people hetherto But lett vs plucke of theyr visors and discouer this bellygod Pope a whytes that we maye throughly behold what manner of puppette this smoath Apish Church is within About fiftene hundreth yeares sithence and more they say that this Church wherein they raygne now like Lordes was and hath had vnchaunged continuaunce Albeit this be but to small purpose what cōtinuaunce things that are false and altogether vntrue do prescribe vpon Yet if the age of the Church be so great as they pretēd it to be lette them shew thē out of all the antiquities of thinges places tymes or persons what one of all the Apostles or Euangelistes what one auncient Father or auncient Church did euer heare the name of vniuersall Pope before these thousand yeares last past or if they now heard it would permitt it in the Church what Law did euer enforce and binde all churches generally to the ordinary Succession of one Churche or euer appoynted so great a toppegallaunt of Maiesty which as before the chiefe and hyghest iudge may clayme prerogatiue of Iurisdiction ouer all causes in the world to be decided within hys owne consistory which might arrogantly challenge the fulnesse of power which as it were out of one high court of parlyament might rule ouer all Churches and beare dominion ouer all the world as ouer one peculier dioces which might challēge the authority of both swordes might be Lord ouer the Spyritualty and Temporalty which being the wellspring and Closette of the whole Law finally beyng King of Kinges Queéne and Princesse of all potētates and rulers might surmount in superiority all earthly dignity seuenty times sixty degreés when as there are not yet much more then a thousand yeares sithence Gregory a Pope of Rome did frāckely and openly confesse that there was neuer any of his predecessors that would euer take vpon him this name of Singularity or enter vpon any such hawtinesse of arrogant title to be named with such an heathenish name wherein sayth he was a wonderfull iniury committed agaynst Christ the head of the whole Church vnto whom should a sharpe and dreadfull account be rendred by him whosoeuer heé were that would enterprise to bring vnder his owne subiection all the rest of his members vnder the name and tytle of Vniuersality And ouer and besides annexeth hereunto with great vehemency of speéch whosoeuer doth call himselfe vniuersall Byshopp or doth attēpt to be so called the same doth by that his intollerable pryde denounce him selfe playnely to be the very forerunner of Antichrist Let the Romanistes shew where was not onely the order but the name also of Cardinals litle aboue one thousand yeares sithence or where this prettye forme of election was heard of which is now frequented in the Romish Church before that Pope Nicholas 2. gathering together a Couent of Piers apparelled in purple from amongest the Deacons of that Citye and the neighbour Byshops there did transferre all the right and interest of chusing the Pope to a few Cardinalles contrary to the prescript custome of the auncient Fathers Touchyng the Election of Cornelius a Byshop of Rome the wordes of Cyprian are very euident which I haue thought good to inserte in this place Cornelius was made Byshop sayth he by the Iudgement of GOD and his Christ by the consent of all the Clergie almost by the voyces and acclamations of the people that were present and by the Congregation of the Auncient Priestes aud godly personages For as yet Emperours were not professed Christians At the length Constātine being Emperour the Church was gouerned after his time vntill the time of Henry the 4. in such sorte that neither Byshoppes should be created but by thauthoritye Emperiall nor councells Sommoned nor Ecclesiasticall Reuenewes distributed by any Byshop before the Emperors grace did allowe thereof That this is true appeareth by the Recordes of most aūcient monumēts but aboue others chiefly by that decreé of Charles the great and Otto Emperours proclaymed in a Synode of Byshopps The forme of the decreé is extant in the 63. Distinct. The force of which decreé remained firme and inuiolable during the whole lyne and race of the sayd Charles vntill the time of Otto the 1. And after him also vntill the Battels and ouerthrowes of Henry the 4. and Henry the 5. For as concerning the forme of the oathe annexed to the same distinction whereby they doe falsly imagine that themperor Otto did sweare him selfe to the Pope it is manyfest by the autētick and true Recordes of Histories that it was shame fully forged and counterfait as also the graunt Donatiue of Ludouicus Pius which is immediatly set before the same oath in the distinction which Recordes doe playnely conuince the same to be detestable lyes And where now be these xv hundreth yeares whereupon they prate with so