onely men may repose there conscyences In them all those thinges what soeuer are necessarye vnto oure saluation as Origen Augustine Chyrsostom and Cyryl did teache are fully and plentifully contained These be the myght and powre of God vnto saluation these be the foundacion of the prophets the Apostles whervpon is builded the Churche of God these be the moste certaine rule whereby the Churche of God in case it do stagger or erre may be directed and to the which al doctrine of the Churche ought to bee called to his triall Against the which no lawe no tradition no custome is to be hearde no not if Paule him selfe or an Aungell from heauen shoulde come and teache an other way We doe receaue the sacramentes of the Churche that is to say certen holy tokens ceremonies which Christ woulde haue vs to vse that in them he might set before our eies the mysteries of our saluatiō and more strongli confirme that faith whiche we haue in his bloude and seale vp his grace in oure hartes And these we doe call w t Tertullian Origen Ambrose Augustine Hierome Chrysostome Basile Dionyse and other Catholike fathers Figurs Signes Badges paterns counterpanes formes seals tokens Similitudes examples Images Remembrances and memories And we doubt not also to say with the selfe same fathers that they be certaine visible words seales of righteousnes badges of grace and we doe expressly pronounce that in the supper vnto suche as doe beleue there is truly deliuered the Body Bloude of the Lord the flesh of the son of God quickning our soules the foode of immortalite grace trouth life that y e same supper is the cōmunion of the body bloode of Christ by the partaking wherof we are quickned we are norished fed vnto immortalite and by the which we ar ocupied we are vnited grafted into y e body of Christ that we might dwell in hym and he in vs. Of Sacraments which are proprely to be reckened vnder that name we do acknowledg twoe the sacramēt of Baptisme and the sacrament of Thankes giuing for so many do we find deliuered consecrated by Christe approued of the olde fathers Ambrose Augustine And that Baptisme is a sacrament of Remission of sinnes and of that same wasshing wherby we ar clensid in the bloud of Chryst and from this sacrament no mā that will professe the name of Christe nother yet the young Infantes of Christian men in asmuche as they ar borne in sinne and do appertayne vnto the people of God ought to be put backe We do acknowledg the Lordes supper to be a sacrament that is to say an apparant symbole signe of the body and bloud of Christ wherin is set after a manner before our eis the death of Christ and his Resurrection and whatsoeuer he did here in his humane body to the intent we should gyue thanks for hys death and our deliuerance y t by often resorting vnto the sacramentes we shoulde continually renew the remembrance therof that we might be fedde with the trew body and bloode of Christ to the hope of resurrection and of lyfe euerla 〈◊〉 that we might be most assured that the bodye 〈◊〉 Christe is the same thing towardes the nourishing 〈◊〉 our soules y t breade wine is in y e feding of our bodies Unto this bāket ought al the people to be biddē that altogither might be partakers one with an other and might yelde an open signification and testimony of the felowship thei haue amongest them selfe and of that same hope whiche thei haue in Christe Iesu. Wherefore in case there were any that would only be a looker on abstaine from the holy communion such y e olde fathers and the Bishops of Rome in the first age of the Church before that priuate masses came vp did excommunicate as a wycked and a Heathen man neither was there any Christian man in those daies that toke vpō him whyles other men gased on to communicate alone Suche a decree Calixtus in time paste dyd make that after the consecration all shoulde communicate vnlesse thei had rather stande without the Churche dores for so saithe he hath the Apostles ordeined the holy Church of Rome doth holde Unto the people also what time thei come to the holy communion we saye bothe the partes of the sacrament ought to be giuen for so Christe commaunded it and the Apostles in al places did ordeine it and al the olde fathers and catholike Byshops did folow it And y t if any man do the contrary he committeth as Gelasius saith sacrylege and that oure aduersaries suche as at this day reyecting and abolyshing the holy communion without gods worde without any authoritie of the olde Councells without any Catholike father yea and without reason do defende priuate Masses and the dismemberinge of sacraments and do it not onely contrary to the expresse commaundement and will of Christe but also contrary to al Antiquitie do moste wickedly therin and are cursed theues and commit sacrilege We say that the breade and wine are holy and heauēly misteries of the bodye and bloode of Christe and that in them Christe himselfe the true breade of eternall lyfe is so presently deliuered vnto vs y t we do truly receaue his body and bloode through faith Neuerthelesse we do not so speake it as though we supposed that the natures of breade and wine were vtterly chaunged and came to nothinge as many in these laste ages haue dreamed though hetherto thei could neuer wel agre among themselfe of their dreame For Christe neuer went about to make that a wheaten cake should cast away his own nature and put vpon hit a certeine newe Godheade but rather for to chaunge vs and as Theophylactus speaketh to transelement vs into his bodye What maye be more plainely spoken then that whiche Ambrose sayth The bread wine are the same thyngs that thei were and are chaunged into an other thing Or whiche Gelasius saith It ceaseth not to be the substance of breade or nature of wine or whiche Theodorete saithe After the sanctification the mystycall signes caste not away theyr owne propre nature for thei remaine in their owne former substaunce figure and kinde or whiche Augustine saith That whiche you se is the breade and the cup the whiche thing euen your eies do tell you but that which your faith comminge to be instructed dothe require the breade is the body of Christe the cup his bloode or whiche Origen saith That breade which is sanctified by the word of God as concerninge the matter goeth into the belly and is cast into the withdrawing place Or which Christe said not onely after the consecratiō but also after the Communion ended I wil drinke no more of the frute of the vyne for it is certaine that oute of the vine cometh Wine not bloode Nother yet in
the authoritie of Gods word in so muche that as Ieremye saith the nūbre of Gods now dothe cōteruaile or rather excede the nūbre of the cities and the wretched people knoweth not towardes whiche of them it behoued them most to turne themselfe not bicause that albeit they be so many that they can not be numbred yet vnto euery one of thē thei haue apointed a seuerall office what they shal procure what they shal giue what they shall bring to passe but also bicause that bothe wickedly impudently they cal vpon the virgin Mary that she would remembre how she was a mother that she should cōmaunde her sonne and put in vre the authoritie that she hath ouer him We say that mā is borne in sinne leadeth his life in sinne That no mā can say truely My hart is cleane y t the most iustest mā is an vnprofitable seruant that the law of God is perfect requireth of vs a perfect and a ful obediēce that we in this life by no meanes cā satisfie the duety y t thereto doth appertaine Nor that there is any man that by his owne strēgth can be iustified in y e sight of God therfore that our onely sanctuarie and refuge is to the mercye of our Father through Iesus Christ to thintēt we may assuredly perswade our selfs y t he is the propitiatiō mercie sacrifice for our sinnes that w t his bloud al our spottes ar wiped away that he hath pacified al thinges with his bloud shedde vpō the crosse that he with that one and onely sacrifice whiche ones he offered vpō y e Crosse hath throughly perfected all thinges for this cause what time he was dyeng he sayd It is finished as thoe he wold signifie therby that the Raunsome for sinne of all mankind is payed This sacrifice in case there be any mā that thinke it not sufficient let them goe hardely seeke out a better We truly both bicause we know ther is but one we ar cōtent w t one loke for none other bicause it was to be offered but onely ones we doe not cōmaunde it to be repeted also bicause it was ful perfect in al respects we haue not instituted a cōtinual successiō of sacrifices Now although we say we haue no confidēce in our workes and doynges doe grounde the whole course of our saluatiō in Christ onely neuerthelesse we say not therupon y t we may liue loosly and wātonly as thoe it were inough for a Christian man to be dipped onely in y e water to beleue y t nothing els is to be looked for at his hande Trew faith is liuely and can not be idell Wherefore thus we doe teache the people that God hath called vs not to giue our selfs to excesse and our owne luste but as Paule sayeth vnto good workes to thintent to walke in them y t God hath drawen vs out of the powre of darkenes for to serue the liuyng God for to cut of the remaines of sinne for to worke our saluation in feare and trembling that the spirit of sanctification might appeare to be in our membres Christ him self thorough fayth to dwell in our hartes To cōclude we do beleue y t this self same flesh of ours wherin we doe liue albeit whē it is dead it turneth into duste yet at the laste day it shall returne agayne to life through the spirite of Christ which dwelleth in vs. In that daye what so euer in the meane time we suffer for his sake Christe will wipe from our eyes all maner of teares and we by him shall enioye life euerlasting and be with him for euer in glory So be it These be those heresies for the which a good parte of the world is cōdemned at this daye vnheard Wherfore they ought rather to haue brought their action agaynst Christe agaynst the Apostles agaynst the holy Fathers for these thinges haue not onely procedid frō them but also by them they were establyshed onles perauēture these men wil say the whiche also perhaps they will not sticke to say that Christ did not ordeyne the holy cōmmunion to thintent it should be distributed among the faithful or that the Apostles of Christ and the old fathers sayd priuate Masses in euery corner of theyr churches somtimes ten somtimes twēty at ones in one day or that Christ the Apostles did restrayne al the people from the Sacrament of his bloud or that euē that thing whiche at this day is done euery where amongst them and is so done that who that doeth otherwise they cōdemne him for an Heretike is not called of Gelasius their owne man sacrilege or that these be not the wordes of Ambrose Augustine Gelasius Theodorete Chrysostome Origene that bread and wine in the Sacraments remayne the same thinges y t they were before That whiche is sene vpon the holy table is bread that it ceasseth not to be the substance of bread and nature of wine that the substāce and nature of bread is not chaunged that the self same bread for so muche as apperteyneth to the matter goeth downe into the belly is caste out into the priuy place of withdrawing Or that Christ the Apostles and holi fathers did not praye in that tonge whiche the people did vnderstand or that Christ by y e one only sacrifice whiche he offered ones did not perfectly finishe all thinges or that that sacrifice was vnperfect so that now we haue neede of an other All these thinges thei must nedes say onles perauenture they had rather saye that all lawe and right is conteyned in the treasury of the Popes bosome or as one of his hyerlinges parasytes douted not in time paste to say that he might dispens agaynst the Apostles against the Councels against the Canōs of the Apostles and that he is not bounde by these examples ordinaunces and lawes of Christ. These thinges haue we learned of Christe of the Apostles and holy Fathers and the same we doe faithfully teache the people of God and for the same at this day we are called of him forsothe that wil be the prince of Religion Heretikes O mercyfull God Doe you conclude therfore that Christ him selfe and the Apostles and so many fathers haue together all erred doe you conclude that Origen Ambrose Angustine Chrysostome Gelasius Theodorete were men that abandoned and forsooke the Catholike fayth Doe you conclude that so perfect agrement of so many Byshops and learned men was nothyng els but a conspiracie of Heretickes Or els that that thyng whiche at that time was commended in them is now condemned in vs and that whiche in them was catholicke is now onely bicause men haue chaunged theyr fantasies sodenly become Schismatike or that whiche ones was trew nowe by and by bycause it pleaseth not these men shall be false Wherfore let them bryng forthe an other Gospell or let them shew causes wherefore
was he that at Rome dyd set the crowne vpon the Emperours heade Henry the sixte not with his hande but wyth hys foote and wyth the same foote dyd caste yt downe againe saying withal that he had power bothe to make Emperours and to remoue them Whoe dyd sette Henry the sonne vpon Henry the fourthe his father beinge Emperoure and brought to passe that the Father was taken prysoner of the sonne and that after thei had shorne his crown scornfully abused him was throwen into a monastery where for hunger and sorrow he might pine away to death Who was he that in most shamefull wise did set his feete vpon Frederike themperours necke and as though that had not beene ynough he added moreouer these wordes out of the Psalmes of Dauid Thou shalt walke vpon the Aspis and vpon the Cockatryce and shalt treade downe the Lyon and the Dragonne Such an example of despite and contempt against princely Maiesty as neuer was heard of before in any age except parauenture in Tamerlane the Scithian that sauage and barbarouse man or in Sapor the king of Persia. All these were Popes al successors of Peter all most holy out of whose mouthes euery worde must be vnto us a seuerall Gospell If we be appeached as gilty of treyson whiche doe honour our Princes which yelde ouer vnto them all things so far as it is lawful by gods word whiche do pray for them what I beseche you ar these that haue not only done all these things that we spake of before but also by one assent haue allowed them as thinges right nobly done Trow ye then that either this is y e way to teache the people to reuerence the Maiestrate or that they w tout shame may accuse vs for seditious persons for disturbers of the common peace and despisers of princely Maiesty For we neither shake of y e yoke of oure obedience nor remoue kingdomes from one to an other nor take vpon vs either to make kings or to put them down nor translate Empires nor poison our kings nor offer them our feete to kisse nor triumphe ouer them setting our feete on their necks this rather is our profession this is our doctrine that eueri soule whatsoeuer it be whether it be monke whether it be Euangelist whether it be Prophet whether it be Apostle must of necessite be subiect vnto Kinges and Maiestrates yea and the Pope himselfe onles he will seme to be greater then the Euangelistes then y e Prophets then the Apostels must both acknowledge the Emperour to be his Lorde the which thing the auncient Bishops of Rome when the world was in better estate did neuer refuse and also call him by the name of Lorde Wee teache openly that princes are so to be obaied as men sent of God who that resisteth againste thē resisteth the ordinance of God these be our ordinances and these lessons are euident in our bookes these are in our sermons and these doe shine in y e māners and modesty of our people But as touching that where they say that we haue forsakē the vnite of the Catholike Church it is not only odious but also although it be most vntrue yet hath it some apparance and likelyhode of truth Now amōgest the common people and ignorant multytude not only those thinges that be true in dede and certain are beleued but also such things if any come in place that maye seeme to haue a lykelihoode of truthe Whereupon we se how y t crafty subtill fellowes hauing no truth where with to maintaine their cause haue euer vpholden their matters by those thinges that had a resemblance of truth to the intent y t such as are not able to see the bottom of the matter themselfes might at y e least be entangled with some colour and probalitie of the truthe Thus in times past bicause the Christians our forefathers what tyme they made their praiers vnto God tourned themselues towardes the Easte there were some that said they worshypped the Sunne and tooke hit to be their God And when as they sayde that as touching the euerlastinge and immortall life they liued vpon none other thing but of the fleshe and bloode of that Lambe that had no spott that is to saye of our sauiour Iesus Christe The enuyers and enemies of the Crosse of Christe who sought after nothing els but that Christian religion by any manner of meanes might be euill spoken of perswaded the people that they were wicked persons that they killed men to make sacryfices of them and that they dronke mans bloode Lykewise when they sayde that before God there is nother Male nor Female nor so farre as appertaineth to the attayninge of righteousnesse there is at all noe dyfference of persons and when as amongest themselues euery one called an other brother and syster there lacked not malycious persons to quarell agaynste them that the Christians made no manner of dyfference amonge themselues other of age or of kinde but laye together at aduenture al of them as it came to hande lyke brute beastes And whereas for common praier and hearinge of the Gospel they were oft times fayne to assemble themselues togyther in secrete vauts and hydden places bycause that practisers of conspyracies hathe accustomed sometimes to doe the lyke rumors were openly spread abroade that thei conspired among themselues and practised together other to murder magistrates or to ouertourne the common welthe And furder bycause that in celebratynge the holy mysteries they vsed accordinge vnto Christes institution to haue breade and wine it was supposed of many that they worshipped not Christ but Baccus and Ceres by reason that these counterfeyt gods amongest the hethen were worshipped after their prophane superstition in a lyke ceremony wyth bread and wine These thinges were beleued of many men not bycause they were trewe for what coulde bee more vntrue but bycause they were somewhat lykely and myght well deceyue men wyth the resemblaunce of truthe Euen after the same manner these men slaunder vs for Heretikes and to haue forsaken the Church and the communion of Christ not for that they thinke it to bee true for therof they take no care but bycause that vnto ignoraunt men it myghte paraduenture some way haue an apparance of truthe For we haue forsaken not as Heretykes are wonte to doe the Church of Christe but as all good men are bounde to dooe the contagious infection of lewde men and of Hypocrytes And yet dooe they in thys poynte tryumphe merueilousely sayeng This is the Church this is the spouse of Christ thys is the pyller of truthe thys is the arke of Noe oute of whych no saluation is to be looked for and that wee haue forsakē it we haue torne Christes coate Wee are cutt of from the bodye of Christ and haue abandoned the Catholyke Faythe And when they haue lefte nothinge vnsayde that may bee sayde although falsely and
out by the holy and canonical Scriptures and y t which can not abide the trial of thē is not y e Church Yet these men I can not tell howe whether it be of reuerence or of cōscience or for dispayre of the victory doe alwayes abhorre and flee Gods worde euen as a thief dothe the gallous Nother is it any maruell at al. For like as it is sayde of the golde worme that in the ioyce of Balsme an ointment to all other respectes of moste sweete and delicate sauour he is sone dispatched and killed so they in Gods worde doe see theyr cause as it were in poyson to be vtterly dispatched destroyed Wherefore to the intent they might the more easily driue the people from the scriptures as from a moste daungerous and a hurtful thing the whiche neuerthelesse our sauiour Iesus Christ did not only vse in al his cōmon talke but also at the laste sealed them with his bloud thei ar wont to cal thē a colde an vncertaine an vnprofitable a dumme a killing a dead lettre Which vnto vs semeth to be asmuche as thoe they had sayd they be no scriptures at all But they sticke not to adde thereunto a similitude not al together of the beste making that thei be in maner as it were a nose of waxe that maye be fashioned and turned into all manner of shapes and serue euery mans purpose Trowe ye the Pope is ignorant that these thinges ar spoken euen by his owne derelinges Or dothe he not vnderstande that he hath such Champions Let him heare therefore how deuoutly how godly one Hosius writeth of this matter a Poloniane as he him self sayth a Byshop doutles an eloquent man not vnlearned and a very earnest and stoute defender of his cause He wil maruel I suppose that any man fearyng God coulde other thynke so wickedly of those wordes whiche he knoweth to haue proceded from the mouthe of God or write so slaunderously and that specially in suche sorte as that he would not haue it to be taken for his own iudgement alone but as the cōmon iudgement of them all In deede I doe not denie but he dothe dissemble his owne personne doth so propoūde the matter as thoe not he nor mē of his sorte but y e heretikes called Zuenkfeldians did speake after y t māner We sayth he as touchyng y e very scriptures wherof we see brought in now a daies so many interpretatiōs not only diuerse amōgst them self but also cōtrary one to an other wil bidde Away with thē And wil rather heare God speake then turne our selfs towardes these beggerly elementes in them repose y e hope of our saluatiō It is not requisit to be cūning in the lawe in y e scriptures but to be taught of God It is but vaine labour y t which is bestowed vpō y e scripture for y e scripture is a creature and a certain beggerly elemēt These be y e wordes of Nosius writē no doubt w t the same spirite minde wherw t Montanus in time paste Marcion did speake of whome it is sayd y t they were wōte to say at what time they would contemptuously reiect the holy scriptures that they knewe many bothe moe better thinges then euer other Christ or his Apostles did knowe What shall I saye therefore in this pointe O ye pillers of Religion o ye prelates of the Church of Christ is this the reuerence that you giue vnto Gods worde Dare you so deale with the holy Scriptures the whiche S. Paule sayth ar deliuered vnto vs by inspiraciō from God the whiche God hath adorned and set forth with so many miracles in the which the most euident footesteppes of Christes passage ar certainely imprynted whiche all the holy fathers whiche the Apostles whiche the Angels whiche Christe him selfe the sonne of God when neede required did call to witnes Dare you I say abide away with thē as though they were vnworthy to be hearde of you Is not this to commaunde God him self whoe most euidently speketh vnto you in the scriptures to kepe silence or will you call that worde by the whiche onely as S. Paule saythe we ar reconciled vnto God and whiche Dauid saith is holy and pure and shall endure for euer by the name onely of a beggerly and a dead element or will you saye that to bestowe our labour about that thing whiche Christe commaunded vs diligently to serche and alwayes to haue before our eyes is a vayne labor and to none effect And that Christ and the Apostles what time they did exhorte the people to the redyng of the holy scriptures that out of them thei might become plentifull in all wisdome and knowlege did goe about to abuse menne with lies It is no meruaile thoe these men despise vs and all that we doe or say whiche make so litle accounte of God him self and of his moste holy worde Yet was it but a folish deuise of them in seking to hurte vs to commit so haynous an iniurie agaynst the worde of God But Hosius will crie out we doe him iniurie and that these be not his but Zuinkfeldius wordes But what if Zuenkfeldius also crie that they be not his but Hosius wordes For wher did Zuinkfelde euer write thē or if he did write them and Nosius iudged them to be wicked why did he not at y e least speake one worde to cōfute them how so euer the matter goe Althoe peraduēture Hosius wil not allow the wordes yet he dothe not disallow the meanyng For in all controuersies almost and namely touchyng the vse of the holy cōmunion vnder bothe kindes although Christes wordes be most plaine yet he cōtemptuously reiecteth them as colde and dead elementes and woulde haue vs beleue certain newe deuises prescribed by the Church and certain reuelations I know not what of the holy ghost And Albert Pighius saieth we ought not to beleue the wordes of the scripture althoe thei were moste manifest vnlesse the same be allowed by the interpretation and authoritie of the Churche Neuerthelesse as though this were but a smal matter they sticke not also to burne vp y e sacred scriptures as in time paste wicked kyng Aza did or as Antiochus or Maximinus did and these they ar wonte to cal heretikes bookes wherein they seeme to intende the same practise whiche Herode in time paste for the mayntenāce of his estate went about in Iury. For he wheras he was an Edomite a very straunger to the stocke and kinred of the Iewes and neuerthelesse couetid to be taken for a Iewe to the intent he might the rather establish for him and his posteritie his kingdome ouer thē the which he had before obtained at the handes of Augustus themperour commaunded all their enrolments of petigrees whiche euen from the time of Abrahā vnto that daye had bene diligentlie kepte amongest their recordes and by the which it might with out al error easily be