prophane nouelties of heresies Had they knowne of this infallible Iudge should wee not haue heard of him in this so proper a place and as it were in a cause belonging to his owne Court Nay doth not the writing it selfe of such bookes shew that this mattter was wholly vnknowne to Antiquitie For had the Church beene in possession of so easie and sure a Court to discouer and discard heresies they should not haue needed to taske themselues to finde out any other But the truth is infallibilitie is and euer hath beene accounted proper to Christs iudgement And as hath beene said all necessarie Truth to saluation hee hath deliuered vs in his Word That Word himselfe tells vs shall iudge at the last day Yea in all true decisions of Faith that Word euen now iudgeth Christ iudgeth the Apostle sits Iudge Christ speakes in the Apostle Thus Antiquitie Neither are they moued a whit with that obiection That the Scriptures are often the matter of Controuersies For in that case the remedie was easie which Saint Augustine shewes to haue recourse to the plaine places and manifest such as should need no interpreter for such there bee by which the other may bee cleered The same may be said if sometimes it be questioned which bee Scriptures which not I thinke it was neuer heard of in the Church that there was an externall infallible Iudge who could determine that question Arguments may be brought from the consent or dissent with other Scriptures from the attestation of Antiquitie and inherent signes of diuine authoritie or humane infirmitie but if the Auditor or Aduersarie yeeld not to these such parts of necessitie must needes be laid aside If all Scripture be denied which is as it were exceptio in iudicem ante litis contestationem Faith hath no place onely Reason remaines To which I thinke it will scarce seeme reasonable if you should say though all men are liers yet this Iudge is infallible and to him thou oughtest in conscience to obey and yeeld thy vnderstanding in all his detâ—rminations for hee cannot erre No not if all men in the world should say it Vnlesse you first set downe there is a God and stablish the authoritie of the bookes of holy Scripture as his voyce and thence shew if you can the warrant of this priuiledge Where you offiâ—me the Scriptures to be the law and the rule but alone of themselues cannot bee Iudges if you meane without being produced applied and heard yee say truth Yet Nicodemus spake not aâ—isse when hee demanded Doth our law iudge any man vnlesse it heare him first hee meant the same which Saint Paul when hee said of the high Priest thou sittest to iudge me according to the law and so doe we when wee say the same Neither doe wee send you to Angels or God himselfe immediately but speaking by his spirit in the Scriptures and as I haue right now said alledged and by discourse applied to the matters in question As for Princes since it pleased you to make an excursion to them if wee should make them infallible Iudge or giue them authoritie to decree in religion as they list as Gardiner did to King Henry the eight it might well bee condemned for monstrous as it was by Caluin As for the purpose Licere Regi interdicere populo vsum calicis in Coena Quarè Potestas 〈◊〉 summa est penes Regem quoth Gardiner This was to make the King as absolute a Tyrant in the Church as the Pope claimed to bee But that Princes which obey the truth haue commandement from God to command good things and forbid euill not onely in matters pertaining to humane societie but also the religion of God this is no new strange doctrine but Calums and ours and S. Augustines is so many words And this is all the Head-ship of the Church wee giue to Kings Whereof a Queene is as well capable as a King since it is an Act of authoritie not Ecclesiasticall Ministery proceeding from eminencie of power not of knowledge or holinesse Wherein not onely a learned King as ours is but a good old woman as Queene Elizabeth besides her Princely dignitie was may excell as your selues confesse your infallible Iudge himselfe But in power hee saith hee is aboue all which not to examine for the present in this power Princes are aboue all their subiects I trow and Saint Augustine saith plainly to command and forbid euen in the religion of God still according to Gods Word which is the touchstone of good and euill Neither was King Henry the eight the first Prince that exercised this power witnesse Dauid and Salomon and the rest of the Kings of Iudah before Christ And since that Kings were Christians the affaires of the Church haue depended vpon them and the greatest Synodes haue beene by their Decree as Socrates expresly saith Nor did King Henry claime any new thing in this Land but restored to the Crowne the ancient right thereof which sundry his predecessors had exercised as our Historians and Lawyers with one consent affirme The rest of your induction of Archbishops Bishops and whole Clergie in their Conuocation house and a Councell of all Lutherans Caluinists Protestants c. is but a needlesse pompe of words striuing to win by a forme of discourse that which gladly shall bee yeelded at the first demand They might all erre if they were as many as the sand on the sea shoare if they did not rightly apply the rule of holy Scriptures by which as you acknowledge the externall Iudge which you seeke must proceed As to your demand therefore how you should be sure when and wherein they did and did not erre where you should haue fixed your foot to forbeare to skirmish with your confirmation That though à posse ad esse non valet semper consequentia yet aliquando valet frustra dicitur potentia quae nunquam dueitur in actum To the former whereof I might tell you that without question nunquam valet and to the second that I can verie well allow that errandi potentia among Protestants be euer frustra This I say freely that if you come with this resolution to learne nothing by discourse or euidence of Scripture but only by the meere pronouncing of a humane externall Iudges mouth to whom you would yeeld your vnderstanding in all his determinations if as the Iesuites teach their Schollers you will wholly deny your owne iudgement and resolue that if this Iudge shall say that is blacke which appeares to your eyes white you will say it is blacke too you haue posed all the Protestants they cannot tell how to teach you infallibly Withall I must tell you thus much that this preparation of minde in a Scholler as you are in a Minister yea in a Christian that had but learned his Creed much more that had from a childe knowne the holy Scriptures that are able to make vs wise to saluation
question which I will neuer take vpon mee to answere whether King Henry were such or no vnlesse you will before hand interpret this word as fauourably as Guicciardine doth tell vs men are wont to doe in the censuring your heads of the Church For Popes he saith now adayes are praised for their goodnesse when they exceed not the wickednesse of other men After this description of a good head of the Church or if yee will that of Cominaeus which saith hee is to bee counted a good King whose vertues exceeds his vices I wil not doubt to say King Henry may be enrolled among the number of good Kings In speciall for his executing that highest dutie of a good King the imploying his authoritie in his Kingdome to command good things and forbid euill not onely concerning the ciuill estate of men but the religion also of God Witnesse his authorizing the Scriptures â—o be had and read in Churches in our Vulgar tongue enioyning the Lords Prayer the Creed and ten Commandements to bee taught the people in English abolishing superfluous Holy-dayes pulling downe those iugling Idols whereby the people were seduced namely the Rood of Grace whose eyes and lips were moued with wires openly shewed at Pauls Crosse and pulled asunder by the people Aboue all the abolishing of the Popes tyranny and merchandise of Indulgences such like chafer out of England Which Acts of his whosoeuer shall vnpartially consider of may well esteeme him a better head to the Churâ—h of England then any Pope these thousand yeeres In the last place you come to the Hugenots and Geuses of France and Holland You lay to their charge the raising of ciuill warres shedding of bloud occasioning rebellion rapine desolations principally for their new religion In the latter part you write I confesse somewhat reseruedly when you say occasioning not causing and principally not onely and wholly for religion But the words going before and the exigence of your argument require that your meaning should be they were the causers of these disorders You bring to my minde a story whether of the same Fimbria that I mentioned before or another which hauing caused Quintus Scaeuola to bee stab'd as F. Paulo was while I was at Venice after he vnderstood that he escaped with his life brought his action against him for not hauing receiued the weapon wholly into his body These poore people hauing endured such barbarous cruelties massacres and martyrdomes as scarce the like can be shewed in all stories are now accused by you as the Authors of all they suffered No no Master Wadesworth they bee the Lawes of the Romane religion that are written in bloud It is the bloudy Inquisition and the perfidious violating of the Edicts of Pacification that haue set France and Flanders in combustion An euident argument whereof may bâ—e for Flanders that those Geuses that you mention were not all Caluinists as you are mis-informed the chiefe of them were Romane Catholikes as namely Count Egmond and Horne who lost their heads for standing and yet onely by petition against the new impositions and the Inquisition which was sought to bee brought in vpon those Countries The which when the Vice-roy of Naples D. Petro de Toledo would haue once brought in there also the people would by no meanes abide but rose vp in Armes to the number of 50000. which sedition could not bee appeased but by deliuering them of that feare The like resistance though more quietly carried was made when the same Inquisition should haue beene put vpon Millaine sixteene yeeres after Yet these people were neither Geuses nor Caluinists Another great meanes to alienate the mindes of the people of the Low-countries from the obedience of the Catholike Maiestie hath beene the seueritie of his Deputies there one of which leauing the gouernment after hee had in a few yeeres put to death 8000. persons it is reported to haue been said the Countrie was lost with too much lenitie This speech Meursius concludes his Belgick history with all And as for France the first broiles there were not for religion but for the preferring the house of Guisâ— and disgracing the Princes of the bloud True it is that each side aduantaged themselues by the colour of religion and vnder pretence of zeale to the Romane the Guisians murthered the Protestants being in the exercise of their religion assembled together against the Kings Edict against all Lawes and common humanitie And tell â—ee in good sooth Master Wadesworth doe you approue such barbarous crueltie Doe you allow the butchery at Paris Doe you thinke subiects are bound to giue their throates to bee cut by their fellow subiects or to their Princes at their meere wills against their owne Lawes and Edicts You would know quo iure the Protestants warres in France and Holland are iustified First the Law of Nature which not onely alloweth but inclineth and inforceth euery liuing thing to defend it selfe from violence Secondly that of Nations which permitteth those that are in the protection of others to whom they owe no more but an honourable acknowledgement in case they goe about to make themselues absolute Souereignes and vsurpe their libertie to resist and stand for the same And if a lawfull Prince which is not yet Lord of his Subiects liues and goods shall attempt to despoile them of the same vnder colour of redâ—cing them to his owne religion after all humble remonstrances they may stand vpon their owne guard and being assailed repell force with force as did the Macchabees vnder Antiochus In which case notwithanding the person of the Prince himselfe ought alwaies to be sacred and inuiolable as was Sauls to Dauid Lastly if the inraged Minister of a lawfull Prince will abuse his authoritie against the fundamentall Lawes of the Countrie it is no rebellion to defend themselues against force reseruing still their obedience to their Souereigne inuiolate These are the Rules of which the Protestants that haue borne Armes in France and Flanders and the Papists also both there and elsewhere as in Naples that haue stood for the defence of their liberties haue serued themselues How truely I esteeme it hard for you and mee to determine vnlesse we were more throughly acquainted with the Lawes and Customes of those Countries then I for my part am Once for the Low-Countries the world knowes that the Dukes of Burgundy were not Kings or absolute Lords of them which are holden partly of the Crowne of France and partly of the Empire And of Holland in particular they were but Earles And whether that title carries with it such a Souereigntie as to bee able to giue new Lawes without their consents to impose tributes to bring in garisons of strangers to build Forts to assubjects their honors and liues to the dangerous triall of a new Court proceeding without forme or figure of iustice any reasonable man may well doubt themselues doe vtterly denie it Yet you say boldly they are Rebels and aske
by the Souldiers hand but at the beck of the Priest and bidding of the Emperor But the Pope in a Decretall Epistle pretending to teach the world in a point as he pronounces necessarie to saluation with such an interpretation as this argues little reuerence to the Word of God and a very meane opinion of the iudgements and consciences of christen men if they could not discerne this to be a strangers voice not Christs Besides that he changes Saint Bernards wordes and cleane peruerts his meaning For exerendus he puts in exercendus For ille Sacerdotis is militis manu sed sanè ad nutum Sacerdotis iussum Imperatoris Pope Boniface thinking iussum to absolute in the Emperor makes him to bee the executioner and ioynes him with the Souldier on this manner Ille Sacerdotum is manu Regum Militum sed ad nutum patientiam Sacerdotis Saint Bernard makes the executiue power to be in the Souldier the directiue in the Priest the commanding in the Emperor Pope Boniface makes the Kings and Souldiers to haue only the executiue the directiue permissiue to be in the Priest Yea sword he saith must be vnder sword For where the Apostle saith There is no power but of God que autem sunt à Deo ordinata sunt more fully in the originall text the powers that are are ordained that is appointed of God the Interpreter here dreames of order and subordination and cities a saying of Dionysius that the lowest things are reduced to the highest by the middlemost a conceit that makes nothing to the purpose of the Apostle in that place Hee proceeds and tells vs that of the Church and power Ecclesiasticall is verified the prophecie of Ieremy Behold I haue set thee this day ouer Kings and Kingdomes c. Tell me good Master Wadesworth what is to peruerâ— the Scriptures if this bee not to apply to the power Ecclesiasticall that which is spoken of the word and calling Propheticall Yet more The earthly power if it swerue out of the way shall bee iudged of the power spirituall but if the spirituall that is lesser of that which is superiour to it But if the highest it may bee iudged of God onely not of man the Apostle witnessing the spirituall man iudgeth all things but himselfe is iudged of none Wee are come at length as it were to the fountaines of Nilus to the originall of the infallibilitie of your Iudge and if hee haue here rightly interpreted Saint Paul we learne that no earthly power no Magistrate is a spirituall man vnlesse hee bee one of the Popes spiritualtie For these be Saint Pauls spirituall men that iudge all things Yet this must receiue limitation For no man may iudge the Pope the supreme Spirituall man for of him it seemes Saint Paul meant it his authoritie hee saith is not humane but diuine by the diuine mouth giuen to Peter and his successors when the Lord said to him Quodcunque ligaueris For conclusion whosoeuer resists this power thus ordered of God resists the ordinance of God vnlesse as Manichaeus he faine two beginnings which saith hee wee iudge to bee false and hereticall sith by Moses record not in the beginnings but in the beginning God created Heauen and Earth Who would not acknowledge the diuine authoritie and infallibilitie of your Interpreter both in confirming his purpose and conuincing heresies from so high a beginning as this first sentence of holy Writ What rests now but after so many testimonies he inferre Furthermore to be vnder the Bishop of Rome we declare say define and pronounce that to euery humane creature it is altogether of necessitie of saluation Thus saith your infallible Iudge and Interpreter of Scripture the center of your conscience and foundation of your Faith not as a priuate Doctor but as Pope in his owne Law intending to informe and bind the Church and that in matters with him of the greatest importance that may bee touching his owne authoritie and as hee pretends absolutely necessarie to saluation to all the sonnes of Adam I might heape vp many more but these may suffice for a sample You may and so doe by your selfe I beseech you obserue these kind of interpretations in other points also and in other the Decretals Breues of Popes which as I heare are lately come forth in great volumes You shall finde many mysteries in your faith that perhaps you know not of as That you cannot please God because you are married for so is that place of the Apostle interpreted qui in carne viuunt Deo placere non possunt That not onely the wine in the Chalice but the water also is transubstaniated first into wine then into Christs bloud That it was not watry moisture but the true element of water which issued out of Christs side You shall finde confession of sins to the Priest proued by the text Corde creditur a'd iustitiam ore autem fit confessio ad salutem That the good ground that receiued the seed in the Gospel is the religion of the Friers Miâ—â—rs That this is that pure and immaculate religion with God and the Father which descending from the Father of lights deliuered exemplariter verbaliter by the Sonne to his Apostles and then inspired by the holy Ghost into Saint Francis aud his followers containes in it selfe the testimony of the Trinitie This is that which as Saint Paul witnesseth no man must be troublesome vnto which Christ hath confirmed with the prints of his Passion The text is decaetero nemo mihi molestus sit ego n. stigmata Domini Iesu in corpore nemo porto It is maruell if Saint Paul were not of the order of Saint Frances That when Christ said Ecce ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus hee meant it of remaining and being with them euen by his bodily presence Saint Augustine vpon the same text denies this and saith that according to the presence of his body hee is ascended into heauen and is not here That the Father of the childe christened and his Godfathers wife may not marry because according to the Lords word the husband and the wife are made one flesh by marriage That the number of Foure doth well agree to the degrees prohibited in corporall marriage of which the Apostle saith The man hath not the power of his owne body but the woman nor the woman power of her body but the man because there are foure humours in the body which consist of the foure Elements For conclusion you shall finde it by a commodious interpretation concluded contrarie to many texts of Scripture out of Scripture it selfe that no simple and vnlearned man presume to reach to the subtility of the Scripture because well it was enacted in the law of God that the beast which should touch the mountaine should be stoned For it is written Seeke not things higher then thy selfe
they would not forethinke that possible this good old man would not drinke so freely as to bee drunken and if hee were yet would not be in the humour to doe as they would haue him for who can make any foundation vpon what another would doe in his cups What a scorne would this bee to them Men are not alwaies so prouident in their actions True but such men are not to bee imagined so soâ—tish as to attempt so solemne an action and ioyned commonly with some great feast and as you obserued well out of the Acts with the Queens mandate for the action to be done and hang all vpon a drunken fit of an old man Besides how comes it to passe that wee could neuer vnderstand the names of the old Bishop or of those whom hee should haue consecrated or which consecrated themselues when hee refused to doe it For so doe your men giue it out howsoeuer you say it was not there effected And in all the space of Queene Elizabeths reigne wherein so many set themselues against the reformation by her established is it possible wee should neuer haue heard word of it of all the English on that side the Seas if it had beene any other then a flying tale After fortie fiue yeeres there is found at last an Irish Iesuite that dares put it in print to proue by it as now you doe that the Parliamentary Pastors lacke holy orders But he relates sundry particulars and brings his proofes For the purpose this ordainer or consecrater hee saith was Laudasensis Episcopus home senex simplex His name Nay that yee must pardon him But of what Citie or Diocesse was hee Bishop for wee haue none of that title Here I thought once that by errour it had beene put for Landaffensis of Landaffe in Wales saue that three times in that Narration it is written Laâ—dasensis which notwithstanding I continued to bee of the same minde because I found Bishop Boners name twice alike false written Bomerus But loe in the Margent a direction to the Booke De Schismate fol. 166. where hee saith this matter is touched and it is directly affirmed that they performed the Office of Bishops without any Episcopall consecration Againe that great labour was vsed without an Irish Arch-bishop in prison at London to ordaine them but hee could by no meanes be brought thereto So it seemes we must passe out of Wales into Ireland to finde the See of this Bishop or Archbishop But I beleeue we may saile from thence to Virginia to seeke him for in Ireland we shal not find him Let vs come to those that he should haue ordained what were there names Candidati if that wil content you more yee get not Why they might haue been remembred as well as the Nags-head as well as Boners name and his See and that hee was Deanâ— of the Bishops hee meanes of the Archbishopricke sede vacante and that he sent his Chaplaine his name also is vnknowne to forbid the Ordination At least their Sees To cut the matter short Quid plura Scoraeus Monachus post Herefordensis pseudo-episcopus coeteris ex coeteris quidam Scor aeo manus imponunt fiuntque sine patre filiâ— pater à filiâ—s procreatur res seculis omnibus inauditae Here is at length some certaintie some truth mingled among to giue the better grace and to be as it were the Vehiculum of a lie For Iohn Scory in King Edward his times Bishop of Chichester and after of Hereford was one of those that ordained Doctor Parker and preached at his ordination But that was the ordination effected as you call it wee are now in that which was not effected but attempted onely And here wee seeke againe who were these quidams that laid hands on Sâ—ory Wee may goe looke them with Laâ—dasensis the Archbishop of Ireland Well heare the proofes Master Thomas Neale Hebrew Reader of Oxford which was present told thus much to the ancient Confessors they to F. Hâ—lywood This proofe by Tradition as you know is of little credit with Protestants and no maruell for experience shewes that reports suffer strange alterations in the carriage euen when the reporters are not interessed Iremeus relates from the ancient Confessors which had seene Iohn the Disciple and the other Apostles of the Lord and heard it from them that Christ our Sauiour was betweene fortie and fiftie yeeres of age before his passion I doe not thinke you are sure it was so For my part I had rather beleeue Irenaeus and those ancients hee mentions and the Apostles then F. Haliwood and his Confessors and Master Neale But possible it is M. Neale said hee was present at Matthew Parkers ordination by Iohn Scory These Confessors being before impressed as you are with the buzze of the ordination at the Nags-head made vp that tale and put it vpon him for their Author Perhaps Master Neale did esteeme Iohn Scory tâ— bee no Bishop and so was scandalized though causelesly at that action Perhaps Master Neale neuer said any such word at all To helpe to make good this matter hee saith It was after inacted in Parliament that these Parliamentary Bishops should be holden for lawfull I looked for some thing of the Nags-head Bishops and the Legend of their ordination But the lawfulnesse that the Parliament prouides for is according to the authoritie the Parliament hath â—iuill that is according to the Lawes of the Land The Parliament neuer intended to iustifie any thing as lawfull iure diuino which was not so as by the Preamble it selfe of the Statute may appeare In which it is said That diuers questions had growne vpon the making and consecrating of Arch-bishops and Bishops within this Realme whether the same were and bee duely and orderly done according to the Law or not c. And shortly to cut off F. Halywoods surmises the case was this as may bee gathered by the bodie of the Statute Whereas in the fiue and twentieth of Henry the Eight an Act was made for the electing and consecrating of Arch-bishops and Bishops within this Realme And another in the third of Edward the Sixth for the ordering and consecrating of them and all other Ecclesiasticall Ministers according to such forme as by sixe Prelates and sixe other learned men in Gods Law to bee appointed by the King should bee deuised and set forth vnder the great Seale of England Which forme in the fifth of the same Kings reigne was annexed to the Booke of Common Prayer then explained and perfected and both confirmed by the authoritie of Parliament All these Acts were 1. Mariae 1. 2. Philippi Mariae repealed together with another Statute of 35. Henr. 8. touching the stile of supreame Head to bee vsed in all Letters Patents and Commissions c. These Acts of repeale in the 1. Elizabeth were againe repealed and the Act of 25. Hen. 8. reuiued specially That of 3. Edwar. 6. onely concerning the Booke of
Common Prayer c. without any particular mention of the booke or forme of ordering Ministers and Bishops Hence grew one doubt whether ordinations and consecrations according to that forme were good in Law or no. Another was Queene Elizabeth in her Letters Patents touching such Consecrations Ordinations had not vsed as may seeme besides other generall words importing the highest authoritie in causes Ecclesiasticall the title of Supreame Head as King Henry and King Edward in their like Letters Patents were wont to dâ— that notwithstanding the Act of 35. Hen. 8. after the repeale of the former repeale might seeme though neuer specially reuiued This as I ghosse was another exception to those tâ—at by vertue of those Patents were Consecrated Whereupon the Parliament declares First that the Booke of Common Prayer and such order and formâ— for consecrating of Archbishops andâ— Bishops c. as was set forth in the time of King Edward the Sixth and added thereto and authorised by Parliament shall stand in force and be obserued Secondly That all Acts done by any person about any consecration confirmation oâ— inâ—esting of any elect to the Office or Dignitie of Arch-bishop or Bishop by vertue of the Queenes Letters Patents or Commission since the beginning of her reigne bee goodâ— Thirdly That all that haue beene ordered or consecrated Archbishops Bishops Priests c. after the said forme and order be rightly made ordered and consecrated any Statute Law Canon or other thing to the contrary notwithstanding These were the reasons of that Act which as you see doth not make good the Nags-head-ordination as F. Halywood pretends vnlesse the same were according to the forme in Edward the Sixth dayes His next proofe is that Boâ—er Bishop of London while hee liued alwayes set light by the Statutes of the Parliaments of Queene Elizaboth alleadging that there wanted Bishops without whose consent by the Lawes of the Realme there can no firme Statuee bee made That Boner despised and set not a straw by the Acts of Parliament in Queene Elizabeths time I hold it not impossible and yet there is no other proofe thereof but his bare word and the ancient Confessors tradition of which we heard before Admitting this for certaine there might bee other reasons thereof besides the ordination at the Nags-head The stiffenesse of that man was no lesse in King Edwards time then Queene Elizabeths And indeed the want also of Bishops might be the cause why he little regarded the Acts of her first Parliament For both much about the time of Queene Maries death dyed also Cardinall Poole and sundry other Bishops and of the rest some for their contemptuous behauiour in denying to performe their dutie in the Coronation of the Queene were committed to prison others absented themselues willingly So as it is commonly reported to this day there was none or very few there For as for Doctor Parker and the rest they were not ordained till December 1559. the Parliament was dissolued in the May before So not to stand now to refute Boners conceit that according to our Lawes there could bee no Statutes made in Parliament without Bishops wherein our Parliament men wil rectifie his iudgement F. Halywood was in this report twice deceiued or would deceiue his Reader First that he would make that exception which Boner laid against the first Parliament in Queen Elizabeths time to be true of all the rest Then that he accounts B. Boner to haue excepted against this Parliament because the Bishops there were no Bishops as not canonically ordained where it was because there was no Bishops true or false there at all His last proofe is That D. Bancroft being demanded of M. Alâ—blaster whence their first Bishops receiued their orders answered that hee hoped a Bishop might bee ordained of a Presbyter in time of necessity Silently granting that they were not ordained by any Bishop and therefore saith he the Parliamentary Bishops are without order Episcopall their Ministers also no Priests For Priests are not made but of Bishops whence Hierome Quâ—d facit c. What doth a Bishop sauing ordination which a Presbyter doth not I haue not the meanes to demand of D. Alablaster whether this be true or not Nor yet whether this be all the answere he had of D. Bancroft That I affirme that if it were yet it followes not that D. Bancroft silently granted they had no orders of bishops Vnlesse he that in a false discourse both where propositions be vntrue denies the Maior doth silently grant the Minor Rather he iested at the futilitie of this Argument which admitting all this lying Legend of the Nags-head and more to suppose no ordination by any Bishops had beene euer effected notwithstanding shewes no sufficient reason why there might not be a true consecration and true Ministers made and consequently a true Church in England For indeed necessitie dispences with Gods owne positiue Lawes as our Sauiour shewes in the Gospel much more then with mans and such by Hieromes opinion are the Lawes of the Church touching the difference of Bishops and Presbyters and consequently touching their ordination by Bishops onely Whereof I haue treated more at large in another place for the iustification of other reformed Churches albeit the Church of England needs it not To confirme this Argument it pleaseth F. Halywood to addâ— That King Edward the Sixth tooke away the Catholike rite of ordaining and in stead of it substituted a few Caluinisticall prayers Whom Queene Elizabeth followed c. And this is in effect the same thing which you say when you adde that Couerdale being made Bishop of Exceter in King Edwards time when all Councells and Church Canons were little obserued it is very doubtfull hee was neuer himselfe canonically consecrated and so if hee were no canonicall Bishop hee could not make another canonicall To F. Halywood I would answere that King Edward tooke not away the Catholike rite of ordaining but purged it from a number of idle and superstitious rites prescribed by the Popish Pontifical And the praiers which he scoffes at if they were Caluinisticall sure it was by prophecie for Caluin neuer saw themâ—ill Queene Maries time when by certaine of our English exiles the Booke of Common Prayer was translated and shewed him if he saw them then Some of them as the Let any and the Hymne Veni Creator c. I hope were none of Caluins deuising To you if you name what Councells and Church Canons you meane and make any certaine exception either against Bishop Couerdale or any of the rest as not canonicall Bishops I will endeauour to satisfie you Meane while remember I beseech you that both Law and reason and Religion should induce you in doubtfull things to follow the most fauourable sentence and not rashly out of light surmises to pronounce against a publike and solemne ordination against the Orders conferred successiuely from it against a whole Church Wherein I cannot but commend Doctor Carriers modestie
whose words are these I will not determine against the succession of the Clergie in England because it is to mee very doubtfull And the discretion of Cudsemius the Iesuire which denies the English Nation to be Heretickes because they remaine in a perpetuall succession of Bishops And to take away all doubt from you that some of these Ordayners were onely Bishops elect and vnconsecrated besides Miles Couerdale in King Edwards time Bishop of Exceter cast in prison by Queene Mary and released and sent ouer Sea to the King of Denmarke know that William Barlow was another in King Edwards dayes Bishop of Bath and Welles in Queene Maries beyond the Seas in the companie of the Duchesse of Suffolke and Master Bâ—rtie her husband at the time of Doctor Parkers ordination Elect of Chichester A third was Iohn Scorie in King Edwards time Bishop of Chichester and at the time of the said ordination Elect of Hereford A fourth was Iohn Hodgeskin Suffragan of Bedford And these foure if they were all ordained according to the forme ratified in King Edwards dayes were presented by two Bishops at least to the Archbishop and of him and them receiued imposition of hands as in the said forme is appointed One scruple yet remaines which you haue in that these men did consecrate Doctor Parker by vertue of a Breue from the Queene as head of the Church who being no true head and a woman you see not how they could make a true consecrationr grounded on her authoritie But to cleare you in this also you must vnderstand the Queenes mandate serued not to giue power to ordaine which those Bishops had before inâ—rinsecally annexed to their office but leaue and warrant to apply that power to the person named in that Mandate A thing vnlesse I haue beene deceiued by reports vsed in other Countries yea in the Kingdomes of his Catholike Maiestie himselfe Sure I am by the Christian Emperours in the primitiue Church as you may see in the Ecclesiasticall histories and namely in the ordination of Nectarius that I spake of before Yea which is more in the consecration of the Bishops of Rome as of Leo VIII whose Decree with the Synode at Rome touching this matter is set downe by Gratian Dist. 63. c. 23. taken from the example of Hadriaâ— and another Councell which gaue to Charles the Great Ius potestatem eligendi Pontificem ordinandi Apostolicam sedom as you may see in the Chapter next before See the same Dist. c. 16. 17. 18. and you shall finde that when one was chosen Bishop of Reate within the Popes owne Prouince by the Clergie and people and sent to him by Guido the Count to be consecrated the Pope durst not doe it till the Emperours licence were obtained Yea that hee writes to the Emperour for Colonus that receiuing his licence hee might consecrate him either there or in the Church of Tusculum which accordingly vpon the Emperors bidding he performed Yet another exception you take to the making our Ministers that wee keepe not the right intention First because we neither giue nor take Orders as a Sacrament By that reason we should haue no true marriages amongst vs neither because we count not Matrimonie a Sacrament This Controuersie depends vpon the definition of a Sacrament which if it be put to be a signe of a holy thing these be both so and a many more then seuen If a seale of the New Testament so are there but those two which we properly call Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper In which last as to the intention of sacrificing surely if yee allow the doctrine of the Master of the Sentences that it is called a Sacrifice and Oblation which is offered and consecrated by the Priest because it is a memorie and representation of the true Sacrifice and holy immolation made on the Altar of the Crosse. And that Christ once dyed on the Crosse and there was offered vp in himselfe but is daily offered vp in a Sacrament because in the Sacrament there is a remembrance of that which waâ— once done which he there confirmes by the authorities of the Fathers cited by Gratian in the Canon Law If this Doctrine I say may yet passe for good and this bee the Churches intention wee want not this intention of sacrificing Adde to this the confession of Melchior Canus who saith the Lutherans doe not wholly denie the sacrifice but grant a Sacrifice of thanks giuing which they call the Eucharist they will haue none for sinne which they call propitiatorie If he had put hereto vnlesse it bee in a mysterie hee had rightly expressed the opinion of the Protestants Thirdly yee object wee want the matter and forme with which orders should be giuen namely for the matter in Priesthood the deliuerie of the Patena with bread and the Chalice with wine in Deaconship the deliuerie of the booke of the Gospell c. By which reason the seuen first Deacons had no true ordination for then there was no Gospell written to be deliuered them Nor those Priests whom the Pope shall make by his sole word saying Esto Sacerdos Whom notwithstanding sundrie famous Canonists hold to bee well and lawfully ordained and Innocentius himselfe saith that if these formes of Ordination were not found out any other Ordainer might in like manner make Priests with those words or the like for as much as these formes were in processe of time appointed by the Church And if wee list to seeke for these Metaphysicall notions of matter and forme in Ordination which at the most can bee but by Analogie how much better might wee assigne the persons deputed to sacred functions to be the matter as those that contract are by your selues made the matter in matrimonie and the imposing of hands with the expressing the authoritie and office giuen to bee the forme In Dionysius though falsly called the Areopagite yet an ancient Author yee shall finde nothing else nor which I may tell you by the way any other orders saue Bishops Priests and Deacons And to come to that wherein you say wee faile most of all the substantiall forme of Priesthood tell mee ingenuously good Master Wadesworth how doe you know that our Lord Iesus Christ made his Apostles or they others Priests with this forme which hath no mention or footstep in the Gospell or otherwhere in holy Scripture Nor so much as in the Councell of Carthage that from whence the manner of giuing other orders is fetched nor in Gratian nor in any other ancient Author that I can finde saue in the Pontificall onely And is the present Pontificall of such authoritie with you as the forme of Priesthood the substantiall forme can subsist in no other wordes then those that bee there expressed To omit the late turkesing whereof consider what Augustinus Patritius writes in his Preface before that which at Pope Innocent VIII his commandement he patched together That