next Age following Pope Victor seeing the same inconveniences greatly to increase wrote a Letter to Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus to gather a Synod against it about the year of Christ 249 as Eusebius testifieth And when he perceived that both He and divers Asian Bishops did stand more stifly in defence thereof than he expected yea that they began not only to shew obstinacy therein against the former Decree of Pope Pius and the See of Rome but to draw near also to the very formality of Heresie before mentioned to wit that it was necessary to observe the Fourteenth Day nay further that it was ex Evangelii praescripto secundum Regulam Normam Fidei by the Prescription of the Gospel and according to the Rule and Norm of Faith as the said Polycrates in his Epistle to Pope Victor writeth When Victor I say saw this he resolved after Counsel taken by Conference with divers Synods both of the West and East Churches to Excommunicate those Asian Bishops that resisted if they would not agree Which Determination albeit Irenaeus and some others at that time did mislike and dehort Pope Victor from it as a thing perillous and scandalous and subject to many troubles as Eusebius reporteth yet did never any of them say that he could not do it but rather when he had done it indeed they did accommodate themselves thereunto both in West and East ratifying and confirming the same by divers particular Synods as Nicephorus recounteth to wit in Jerusalem Caesarea Tyrus Ptolomais Corinth Lions of France where St. Irenaeus himself was Bishop and other places c. 29. And finally the Council of Nice confirmed the same as the Fathers thereof do testifie by their particular Letters to the Clergy of Alexandria whose words are these as Theodoretus relateth them Scitote controversiam de Paschate susceptam prudenter sedatam esse Ita ut omnes fratres qui Orientem incolunt jam Romanos nos omnes vos sint consentientibus animis in eodem celebrando deinceps sequuturi You must understand that the Controversie about celebrating Easter taken in hand by us is prudently pacified so as all our Brethren that inhabit the East-parts will follow for the time to come the Romans or the Roman Church Us and the Authority of the Council and all You of the Aegyptian Church with full consent of mind in celebrating the same Feast Note here That the Council doth put the Authority of the Church of Rome in the first place even before Themselves and then Themselves and the Authority of the Council in the second place and those of Alexandria in the third which is another reckoning than our Heretics are wont to make of the Roman Church 30. Constantine also the Emperour writing his Letters to all Bishops of the Christian World that had not been present at the Council of Nice nor could come yieldeth account unto them with great Christian Modesty and Zeal of the chief Matters handled in that Council Where coming to speak of the Decree of celebrating Easter he saith thus Cùm de sanctissimo Festo Paschatis disceptaretur communi omnium sententia videbatur rectum esse ut omnes ubique uno eodemque die illud celebrarent When the Question was proposed about celebrating the holy Feast of Easter it seemed good by the common consent of all that were present in this Council that all Christians should celebrate the same in one and the self-same day which day he sheweth to be Sunday and refuteth at large the Custom of celebrating the same with the Jews upon the fourteenth day of the Moon tho' it were a Feria concluding thus Quae cum ita se habent c. Which things being so do you willingly embrace this Decree of the Council as a great Gift of God and a Commandment sent from Heaven forasmuch as whatsoever is decreed by holy Council of Bishops that must be ascribed to God's holy Will. Wherefore do you declare and denounce unto all our dear Brethren living among you the Decrees of this Council and namely the Decree of celebrating this holy Feast c. 31. Thus wrote our good British Emperour Constantine with a far different Spirit from those Christian Inhabitants of Britanny who afterwards defended the contrary Custom without respect of holy Decree of the Nicene Council but far more opposite and contrary is the wicked Spirit of John Bale John Fox and other such latter Brutish rather than British Sectaries that even in our days after that the Roman Catholic Use hath been received for thirteen hundred years since the said Council they are content for hatred of the Name of Rome to bring it into Controversie again and to allow rather the Jewish Use and to praise them that defend it in our Countrey as you have heard rejecting and defacing others that stood for the Catholic Party tho' never otherwise so famous and illustrious for their Learning and Vertue as Beda Agilbert Wilfrid and others the chiefest Pillars of our Primitive English Church were But this is their shameless Spirit to dishonor wherein possibly they can their Forefathers 32. And thus much of this matter about the first Conversion or Preaching of Christian Faith in Britanny under the Apostles Now will we pass to the more public Conversion of our Land under King Lucius which as in my Ward-word I called the First in respect of our two public Conversions from Paganism so do I here name it the Second in regard of the former Preaching in the Apostles Time. About which Conversion tho' in effect our Modern Heretics dare not deny the same yet shall you hear no less wrangling of them about this than the former for the great grief they receive in that it should be said or thought to come from Rome CHAP. IV. Of the Second Conversion of Britanny under King Lucius by Pope Eleutherius and Teachers sent from him about the year of Christ 180 and of the notorious absurd Cavillations of Heretics about the same also ALL that hitherto hath been spoken is about the first Preaching of Christian Religion in Britanny by particular men within the first Age or hundred years after Christ which our Roman Enemies only upon Envy and Animosity without any one Testimony of Antiquity will needs take from Rome and the Roman Church and give it to the Grecians of Asia and to the East parts as you have heard Now do follow two other more famous and public Conversions of the said Island under the two renowned Popes of Rome and by their special Industry which are acknowledged and registred by the whole Christian World and do so much press the Spleen and move the Gall of our Rome-biters as they leave no corner of their Wits unsifted to discredit or reject the same 2. The first Conversion was as the Warder saith under Pope Eleutherius towards the end of the second Age after Christ when King Lucius of Britanny hearing of the
it is probable that this Custom came in among the Britans Whereunto I answer First for the Britans that some are of opinion it was brought into Britanny it self by Pelagius the Heretic or some of his Followers about the year of Christ 420 who being a Britan born and a Monk as some think of the famous Monastery of Bangor travelled into Italy first and then into Sicilia Aegypt and other East-parts of the World to learn and study as he professed and by that profession of Hypocrisie he crept into many Learned and Godly mens special Love and Friendship and above others he entred with St. Paulinus Bishop of Nola and by him with St. Augustin But afterward being discovered by St. Hierom to have taught Heresies in secret together with his Fellow and Disciple Celestius who by the description made of him by St. Hierom may seem to have been a Scottish-man for he saith Habet enim progeniem Scoticae gentis de Britannorum vicinia for he hath his Off-spring from the Scottish Nation near to the Britans wherefore these two men being now discovered to be Heretics and condemned by Innocentius I. and by divers Synods are said for very shame to have retired into Britanny and being deadly Enemies to the Pope and Church of Rome that had condemned them and considering that the Eastern Custom of celebrating Easter was opposite to the same Church and yet defended by many it is thought probable enough that they might bring in the same Wherewith doth seem to concur somewhat the words of Hermannus Contractus a Chronicler that wrote above 500 years ago who writing of the year of Christ 630 saith His temporibus Haeresis de Paschate Pelagiana Britanniam turbat In these days the Heresie about the celebrating of Easter and the Pelagian did much trouble Britanny By which words it seemeth that he would signifie that these two Heresies grew to be all one in England and consequently like to be brought in by the selt-same men 11. But yet all this notwithstanding it seemeth much more probable according to St. Bede's History and the Reasons before-alleged that this Use of Easter came not in with Pelagius but long after for that St. German and St. Lupus and others made no mention thereof but especially for that the Writings of the Popes Honorius and John IV. to the Scottish Nation and Bishops before-mentioned say That this Custom of Easter was newly sprung up in their days It seemeth more probable I say that this Custom was imparted to the Britans by the said Scottish Nation and namely by those that dwelt as hath been said in Ireland or in the Islands of Hebrides But how they themselves gat it is not so certain yet the most probable seemeth that either some of them travelling into the East-Countries or others of those East-Countries coming to them brought the Observation thereof For albeit ever after that the same was condemned by Pope Victor and the Truth established by the Council of Nice the whole Western Church yea also as Constantine saith the far greater part of all East held the Roman Use yet was not the contrary so extinguished but that divers Churches of Asia minor did hold and practise the same for a long time especially certain Heretics as the Novatians Montanists Priscillianists Sabbatians and others that seemed of the Devouter sort and therewith deceived many simple people pretending that this Use was more pious than the other as being founded in the express words of Scriptures of the Old Testament and confirmed by the Example of Christ himself who made his Easter together with the Jews upon the fourteenth day of the Moon of March as appeareth by the Evangelists 12. For these I say and other like reason it seemeth according to St. Bede that the simple and rude Irish and Scottish Christians as there he called them falling upon the Use of this Custom did like better of it than of the Roman which required more exact Calculation and Observation of Times and Days as before hath been touched and as appeareth by that which Nicephorus writeth that the old Calculation of Easter according to the Roman Use to wit that it should be upon the first Sunday after the Full Moon of March was so hard to be observed oftentimes as some learned men of Aegypt were appointed in Alexandria to calculate every year the same before-hand that the Patriarch of that Church had care to send it abroad to other parts of the World for their Instruction and direction therein which Office of calculating Easter-day was exercised for divers years in Alexandria by one Theophilus a Priest of that Church who afterward coming to be Patriach wrote divers Paschal Epistles in Greek for direction of finding out the true day of Easter which Epistles were translated by St. Hierom in the year of Christ 404. And after the said Theophilus made a Cyclus or Calculation to serve for 100 years together as appeareth by St. Leo the Pope in his Epistle to the Emperor Martian All which Observations and Directions being hard for men so far distant as Ireland and Scotland was from Alexandria to know and keep it is like that they followed rather the other which was more plain and easie 13. And this is insinuated before by St. Bede when he saith that St. Wilfrid objected to B. Colman that his Ancestors observed this Rustica simplicitate by a kind of rude simplicity and added further that no learned Calculator of Times had ever arrived unto them And if any man will know the Reasons of the difficulties that were in this Ecclesiastical Roman Account or Computation for celebrating Easter upon the first Sunday after the fourteenth day of the Moon of March let him read the foresaid Paschal Epistles of Theophilus as also the learned Discourse of Anatolius Bishop of Laodicea written about forty years before the Council of Nice part whereof is set down by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History St. Augustin also in his Answers to the Questions of Januarius shewing the reasons why the Church of Christ would not have the Feast of Easter to be stable and firm as that of his Nativity Circumcision and some other Feasts are but rather to follow the motion of the Sun and Moon for divers Mysteries therein contained doth touch divers points of the foresaid difficulties But the principal grounds that make the matter hard to the common sort are first the inequality between Annus Solaris and Annus Lunaris that is to say the Year according to the course of the Sun and according to the course of the Moon the Church using the second and not the first And the difference between them standing in the odds of eleven days for equalling whereof serveth the Rule of the Epact answerable to the Cycle of the Golden Number consisting of 19 years Revolution for observing the beginnings and Full Moons that fall out in every year seeing
years next before the entrance of St. Augustin was for Him and His Church and not for Ours yea different from the Roman Religion brought in by Augustin as often you have heard him protest and here had been the proper place to have proved it if it had been provable And whereas in the same Protestation of his prefixed before his whole Volume he avouched as you have heard that the chief British Preachers and Teachers of these times before St. Augustin's coming as Fastidius Ninianus Patricius Dubritius Congellus David Asaphus Gildas and others before mentioned were true Teachers and taught the Gospel rightly according to the Protestant Faith and consequently were of his Religion he ought here to have proved the same by their Writings Lives Acts and Monuments as I have shewed the contrary by all these kind of Arguments and Proofs before But the Fox knowing the difficulty and peril of this Combat would not enter into the same nor take upon him to defend or justifie any thing at all tho' never so much promised or protested in his Prefaces and Preambles at the beginning Whereof the Reasons are these that ensue 11. First For that touching the British Church during these three Ages he had in truth nothing at all to write or relate but what would be manifestly against himself if he had written or related it and descended to particulars For according to that you have heard before in divers places of this Treatise that as the first Faith of the Britans came from Rome and thereby they were made Members of the Roman Church from the beginning so remained they united with the same in all points of Faith and Religion except some few abuses crept in among part of them towards the latter-end of these three Ages until the Conversion of the English by St. Augustin to the same Roman Faith. Which point is proved so evidently by so many Signs Arguments and Demonstrations as little comfort might John Fox have to enter into this Discourse or Examination and consequently tho' he had promised in the beginning to treat this Subject of the British Church yet coming to the place and time when he should have performed his promise he thought better to withdraw himself slightly by utter silence than to put himself in Briars by making any mention at all thereof And thus much for his silence concerning the Christian Church of Britanny in these three Ages 12. But for the general Catholic Church of Christendom tho' these times yield abundant matter as hath been said yet the whole stream and current thereof running quite against him he thought best in like manner to decline craftily the medling or wrestling therewith And so much the more for that he had seen the pitiful plight wherein his Masters the Magdeburgians had cast themselves in their fourth fifth and sixth Centuries by over-large relating the Acts and Gests of these three Ages against themselves and their own Religion being forc'd to spend a great part of their Labors not so much in relating what the Fathers of those Ages writ or held as to answer and refute the same and shew that it was not true nor the said Doctors and Fathers to be believed therein Which trouble John Fox like a wily Fox indeed thought best to avoid by Art of Silence I will in this place for examples sake only and to give you a taste of the said Magdeburgians dealing throughout their whole Work from which John Fox taketh the principal parts of his let you see some points taken out of their fourth Century dedicated to her Majesty of England with a sharp Invective as before hath been shewed used by them against the Calvinists therein which Century containeth the fourth Hundred year after Christ and the first of the three which now we have in hand from Constantine downward wherein they spend above 400 Leaves in Folio and more than twice as much in the other two Centuries that ensue John Fox not having bestow'd four Leaves upon all three Ages as you have heard 13. And that you may perceive how this one Century of the Magdeburgians cometh to make so great a Volume you must note that it is divided into certain large Chapters or Heads of different matters As for example first of the propagation of Christian Religion in that Age and the State thereof throughout all Countreys Kingdoms and Nations which is a large matter as you see comprehending the Stories of all Ecclesiastical Writers Secondly of Persecutions Troubles and Jars that have passed as also of Peace and Tranquility Then of Doctrin good or bad then of Heresies then of Rites and Ceremonies then of Ecclesiastical Government then of Schisms then of Synods and Councils then of Bishops Doctors and Teachers their Lives Works and Actions at large then of Heretics their beginnings and endings then of Martyrs then of Miracles then of Pagan Commonwealths also and other such points capable as you see of long Discourses Which I thought fit once to note to the end that those which have not read the Centuries may know in general what matters they handle and what method they use therein 14. Secondly it is to be noted about the same affair That in all these Heads and Chapters there be divers things which are not in controversie among us I mean between Catholics and Protestants but are common to us both at least in some degrees Other Points there are that they affirm and we deny or we affirm and they deny There is a third kind also of Points wherein tho' We and Protestants do not agree fully either in the Doctrin or in the Practice yet one Sect of them differeth more or less from us than the other And in all these three Points you shall see some brief Examples of the Magdeburgians manner of proceeding in this fourth Age Noting to you first by the way their own Testimony of the excellent Learning of the Doctors and Teachers thereof in these words Habuit haec aet as si quae unquam alia plurimos praestantes illustres Doctores ut Arnobium Lactantium c. This Age if ever any other had very many most excellent and famous Doctors as Arnobius Lactantius Eusebius Athanasius Hilarius Victorinus Basilius Nazianzenus Ambrosius Prudentius Epiphanius Theophilus Hieronymus Faustinus Didymus Ephrem Optatus and others out of which we shall shew and declare what was the form of Christian Doctrin used in this Age. 15. Lo there the Testimony of the Magdeburgians of the famous Doctors Teachers and Leaders of Christ's Church in this Age And being such as they say so excellently Learned and endued with Christ's Spirit for Guiding of his Church is it probable think you that these four German Magdeburgians Illyricus Wigandus Judex and Faber shall come to presume afterward to condemn them all of Ignorance and lack of Spirit when they speak against them Truly they cannot do it with any shame fac'dness or modesty at all or be believed
meaneth of Customs and Ceremonies and not of Articles of Belief Which no Council can appoint but only declare and expound as before we have shewed 12. This Position then of St. Augustin is most true and consonant to the Doctrin of all other Fathers in that behalf that when any thing is found generally received in the Church and no Author Institutor or Beginning can be found thereof this without all doubt cometh down from the Apostles And of this position may be alledged two infallible grounds The one of Faith the other of evident Reasons For in Faith who can think so basely of Christs Power or Will in performing his Promises made unto his Church to conserve her in all Truth unto the Worlds end as that he should permit her notwithstanding to admit or teach generally any one false Article of Doctrin and much less so many as these men object against us For whereas he promised his Holy Spirit to be with her unto the Worlds end and that she should be the Pillar and Firmament of Truth to direct others and finally that hell gates should never prevail against her How should all this be performed if she fell into those Errors of which Protestants accuse her or what greater Victory could the gates of Hell have against her than that from an Apostolical Church of whom Christ spake she should become an Apostatical Church as these Men do call her which is the greatest Blasphemy against Christ and his Divinity that possibly can be imagined seeing it doth evacuate his whole Incarnation Life Death Doctrin Resurrection and other Benefits of his coming which were all imployed to this end to make unto himself a Church and Kingdom in this world that should direct Men in all Truth to their Salvation And this being taken away and the other granted that the Church her self may fall into Error and false Doctrin then is there no certainty in any thing And consequently it cannot be that any erroneous Doctrin should be taught or received generally by the Church And this is the first ground of St Augustin's Assertion 13. But besides this there is another founded in Reason and Experience which cannot be denied And for that it is a consideration of great Importance and may serve the Reader to many purposes of moment for discerning of Doubts and Controversies I shall desire him to be attent in perusing the same We do find by Experience and that not only in Ecclesiastical but Temporal Affairs also That when Orders Laws and Customs are once settled in any Common-wealth it is hard to alter or take them away or to bring in things opposite or different to them without some Resistance Dispute Contradiction or at least some Memory thereof how why and by whom it was done As for Example if a Man would go about to bring in any Innovation in the particular Laws of London and much more in the general Laws of all the Land no doubt but he should find some Resistance therein some that would dispute about the matter alledging Reasons to the contrary others would resist and oppose themselves and when all did fail at leastwise some Record Story or Memory would be left of this Change. 14. But much more if this matter did concern Religion which is most esteemed above other Points As for Example if a Man would begin to teach any Points of Doctrin at this Day in England contrary or different from that which is there received and established by public Authority he would presently be noted and contradicted by some no doubt as we see the Puritans Brownists Family of Love and other such newer Teachers have been and the History thereof is notorious and will remain to Posterity 15. And this is the very reason also why all Heretics and Heresies from the beginning did no sooner peep up in the visible Catholic Church but that they were noted impugned confuted and finally cast out from that body to the Devils dung-hill And the Records thereof do remain who were the Authors and Beginners who the Favourers and setters forward at what time upon what occasion under what Popes and Kings and other such-like Circumstances And this will endure to the end of the World. 16. This then being so we now come to the state of our Question and to joyn with the Protestants upon this Issue That seeing the Doctrins before mentioned of the Popes Authority Sacrifice of the Mass Transubstantiation Vse of Images and the like were found to be generally received and believed in the Visible and Universal Catholic Church of Christendom when Martin Luther first began to break from the same yea and many Ages before by their own confession they must shew us when the said Doctrins were brought in afterwards to the Church not being there nor believed therein before to wit by what Man or Men with what Authority Constraint or Persuasion with what repugnance of them that misliked the same and other like Circumstances before mentioned which if they be not able to do most certain it is that whatsoever they prattle against these Doctrins saying they were not in Eleutherius's time it is nothing but Cavils and Heretical Shifts 17. And now that they cannot shew any such particularities for the entrance or admittance of these Doctrins into the Church is most evident For whatsoever time they assign for their beginning we can still shew that before that time they were in use if they mean of the Things themselves and not only of Words or Phrases As for example when they object That in the Council of Lateran under Pope Innocentius III. in the year of Christ 1215. the word Transubstantiation was first used we answer That albeit that word was then added for better explication of the matter as these words Homousion Consubstantial Trinity and the like were by the first General Council of Nice yet the substance of the Article was held before from the beginning under other equivalent words of Change and Immutation of Natures Transformation of Elements and the like As for Example that of St. Ambrose speaking of the words of Christ in the Consecration Non valebit sermo Christi ut species mutet elementorum Shall not the words of Christ be of power to change the Natures of Elements And again Sermo Christi qui potuit de nihilo facere quod non erat non potest ea quae sunt in id mutare quod non erant The Speech of Christ that was able to create of nothing that which was not before shall it not be able to change things that are already into that which they were not before He meaneth the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ as himself doth expound 18. So as here we see the change of the Natures of Elements and of the Substance of one Body into another averred by St. Ambrose long time before the Council of Lateran which is the same that we mean by Transubstantiation And
conform to this do speak also other ancient Fathers as well Greek as Latin and one thing is specially to be noted That both the Greek and Latin Church did agree therein in the said Council there being present two Patriarchs of the Greek Church to wit those of Constantinople and Hierusalem and others both Archbishops Bishops and Prelates So as of both Churches the Archbishops were 70 the Bishops 412 Abbots and Priors 800 and Prelates in all 1215 together with the Legats Doctors and Embassadors of both Empires West and East as also of the Kings of France Spain England Hierusalem and others So as this point of Doctrin about Transubstantiation was not hanled in corners but publicly and the Council doth not deliver the same as any New Doctrin but only as an Explication of That which ever had been held before 19. And the same is answered to the other-like Heretical Cavils about other points here objected by Fox and Sir Francis of an Vniversal Pope the use of the Mass and Propitiatory Sacrifice the setting up of dead Mens Images and the like For if they understand by the first the Primacy and Supreme Authority Ecclesiastical of the See of Rome and her Bishops and by the second the Christian external Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of our Savior instituted by himself as the Complement of all other Sacrifices that went before and by the third Sacred Memories and Images of Christ and his Saints that are not dead but living and reigning everlastingly in Heaven then are all these Doctrins howsoever disguised by Heretics with different words to make them more odious most true and Catholic Doctrins and received in the Church from the beginning and continued from the Apostles downward 20. And albeit these People to continue cavilling do alledge divers times that the first of these Articles about the Popes Supremacy did begin first under Pope Gregory the Great and Phocas the Emperor about the year of Christ 600 and that the last about the Vse of Images was decreed in the second General Council of Nice about the year 700 and that the other of the Use of Mass began by little and little they cannot tell when yet is this all most ridiculous and themselves dare not stand to any certain time by them assigned for that presently we appoint another time before that wherein these things were also acknowledged which they cannot do in the Heresies by us objected to them for that we shew indeed the very true time wherein they began and had their off-spring together with the proper Authors Places Occasions and other-like particularities recorded not by our selves but by other authentical Writers before us so as reasonably there can be no doubt thereof And herein stands the true difference between us We really and substantially shew the Beginning and Authors of their Heresies for that they are Heresies indeed but They cannot shew the Beginning or Author of any of our Articles of Belief since Christ and his Apostles for that they are no Heresies but Catholic Doctrins and have ever endured from Christ downward tho' in some Ages more than other they have been expounded or declared by Fathers and Councils according to the necessities of the time and this is one proper Office of the Holy Ghost appointed for Guider of the Church to explain matters as doubts do arise 21. Wherefore this is the first way of trial whether the foresaid Articles of the Roman Religion taught at this day about Transubstantiation Mass and the like be the same that Pope Eleutherius held and sent into Britanny or not And I do call all this kind of Argument Negative both in respect of our Adversaries that deny them to have been then in use and of Us that deny them to have been brought in afterward And they ought to prove the second seeing they cannot deny but that they were once generally in use and received over Christendom Whereof we do make the former most infallible Inference with St. Augustin That forasmuch as they were once in use and generally received and no particular beginning can be shewed of them or of their entrance Ergo They came from the Apostles themselves 22. To this Inference the Sectaries and Heretics of our time have one only shift more which is That albeit these Doctrins have for many Ages been received generally in the Church of Christendom yet that they crept into the same by little and little and finding no resistance began at last to be universally believed But this creeping Instance can have no place here by any probability For to say nothing of the Providence of God in protecting his Church from such creeping Errors nor yet of the Promises of Christ before-mentioned to the same effect Reason it self doth demonstrate also that this possibly could not be For if the Doctors and Fathers of the Church did note and discover from time to time every least Heresie or Error that did peep up in their days and this not only in Heretics but in divers principal Fathers also that held any particular Opinions as is manifest in St. Cyprian Lactantius Arnobius Cassianus and others If this diligence I say were used by them in all other occasions how could it happen that so many so manifest and so important Doctrins as are in controversie between Us and Protestants should be let pass without Note or Contradiction if they had been either New or Erroneous How should it come to pass I say that no one of these ancient Fathers should ever impugn any of these Doctrins if they were New Opinions and brought into the Church contrary to the Doctrin that was before as these men do say Yea how should it fall out that no one Record in the World should be left by our Ancestors that at such a time by such or such occasions began the Doctrin of Purgatory of Praying to Saints of the Real Presence of the Vse of Images of Mass and Sacrifice of seven Sacraments and the like that were not held in the Church before 23. And that this is impossible may be shewed by this experimental Deduction which now I will set down Let us imagin that none of these Doctrins were in the first Age under the Apostles and namely that then there were but two Sacraments no Purgatory at all or any External Sacrifice held We ask them concerning the second Age wherein Justinus Polycarpus Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus and Tertullian were chief Teachers whether these Doctrins were in this Age or no If they deny it tho' we might prove the contrary out of their Works yet not to pass from this first kind of Argument we ask the like of the third Age under Origen Cyprian Dionysius Alexandrinus Pamphilus Arnobius and the rest And if they deny of this Age also that these Doctrins were not held by them we go to the fourth Age under Athanasius Hilarius Optatus Basil Nazianzen Ambrose Hierom Chrysostom Epiphanius Cyrillus In whose Writings
Lo here these Mens censures of the first Conversion of our English Nation to Christianity They compare Paganism to Gods blessing and our new Christian Religion to the warm Sun and all our Forefathers Faith and Religion more than 900 years together they define to be nothing but Superstition Treachery and Idolatry no less hurtful than the Paganism it self which they professed before and that they lived and died only with the bare name of Christians without the Substance c. And consequently are most certainly damned all eternally Now if the worst Devil that is found in hell had a mouth and should be let forth to preach curse or scold against us as these men do could he speak worse or more blasphemously think you against the first Christianity of our Nation or against God himself that testified the Truth and Sanctity thereof by so many rare miracles as before hath been shewed Could this Divel I say in his own shape or language speak more opprobriously of our primitive English Christian Church then these new Gospellers do especially if we add that which Friar Bale hath in these words Carnalis illa Anglorum Synagoga quae Roma venerat illam persequebatur Ecclesiam quae secundum Christi Spiritum apud Britannos erat That Carnal Synagogue of English Christians that came from Rome did persecute the Church that was in England according to the Spirit of Christ bfore Augustin came 18. Behold our first Christian English Church not only call'd a Synagogue but a carnal Synagogue and the British Church which a little before Holinshed condemned as you heard of Heresie is now called the true Church according to the Spirit of Christ But what spiritual Man think you was this that so speaketh of Spirit and condemneth our primitive English Church of Carnality You shall hear him described by his own pen and first of his Vocation how he became a Frier Duodecim annorum puer saith he in Carmelitani Monachatus Barathrum Nordovici detrudebar When I was a Boy of twelve years old at Norich I was thrust into the pit of being a white Friar So he saith and out of these words two things may be noted of his spirit which is no doubt of lying for that both of them are slanderous fictions of his own first that he was made a Friar at the Age of twelve years for that no Religious Order can admit Men to the same according to the Ecclesiastical Canons but of convenient years and fit to make their choise for so great an attempt as is to renounce the World and lead a Religious Life according to the vows they make which before the Council of Trent was at Fourteen years whereunto the said Council added two years more It might be then perhaps that this Boy was put into the White Friars Monastery at Norwich at twelve years old to sweep the Church or cleanse Candlesticks or other such Offices fit for that Age and his Person but not to be a Friar or to be admitted into the Order it self and much less which is the second lie can it be probable that he was forced thereunto as here he telleth his Readers for that it is well known that such Profession were not available for which cause every Order of Religion hath their Noviceships or times of Probations appointed wherein Men are to be proved and to prove also themselves and to have free liberty to make their Elections without force or constraint at all And so do all true Religious Men know and profess albeit this miserable Apostate having lost all spirit and sense of Religion and become wholly carnal indeed would have it thought that he was put into Religion against his will. 19. But how did he get himself out again trow you from this Servitude into Liberty of the Flesh World and Devil and of his new Gospel you shall hear it also from himself Apparente Dei verbo saith he deformitatem meam vidi c. The Word of the Lord appearing I saw mine own deformity of being to wit a Priest and a Friar Well and what followed Horribilis bestiae maledictum charecterem deinceps erasi I did presently then scrape out the cursed mark or character of the horrible Beast So he calleth his old Character of Priesthood his Vows of Poverty Chastity and Obedience and other Obligations of Religion 20. But what was the means to scrape out these Characters you shall have it from himself in like manner Non enim saith he ab homine neque per hominem sed speciali Christi verbo dono uxorem fidelissimam accepi Dorotheam For that I took unto me and you must mark the word enim that yieldeth the cause a most faithful wife Dorothy some Nun you may imagin as faithful in keeping her Vow of Chastity as himself and this not from any Man nor by any Mans help but by the special gift and word of Christ c. Lo here Christ made a wooer for this Friar to marry a Nun against both their Vows and Promises made to him before and is not this a fit Spiritual Father to call the whole Primitive Church of England a Carnal Synagogue c. 21. But yet hear him out further what he writeth of our first Christian King Ethelbert and of the Religion receiv'd by him from St. Augustin and thereby consider what manner of Men this new Gospel bringeth forth Ethelbertus Rex saith he Romanismum cum adjunctis superstitionibus tandem suscepit hac nimirum adjectâ conditione ut omnino liber non coactitius esset novus ille Deorum cultus King Ethelbert at length having heard the Preaching and considered as Fox saith the Miracles and vertuous Life of St. Augustin and his Fellows admitted the Roman Religion with all the Superstitions adjoyned thereunto but yet with this condition that this new worship of Gods which he now admitted should be altogether free and no way subject to Coaction c. In which words the Apostate if you mark him doth not only speak blasphemously of our whole first Christianity calling it a new Worship of many Gods but seemeth also to insinuate that it was so admitted by King Ethelbert at the beginning as it might be free for Men to leave it again when they would Than which contumelious slander if he mean it so nothing can be spoken or imagined more absurd or wicked Let any Man read St. Gregories letters to King Ethelbert after his Conversion and he shall see an other Lesson there taught him to wit his great and perpetual Obligation to God for so singular a Benefit confirmed from Heaven with so many Miracles and such other points 22. But by this we may see whither these Mens drifts do tend which is to discredit all Antiquity and Religion and to bring in question whether Englishmen were ever true Christians hitherto or no. And as for the space of 900 years together after St. Augustin's time unto Luther
Roman in the next Ages after when St. Gregory sent St. Augustin to convert the English or that the Roman Religion brought in by St. Augustin should be different from the British except only in certain Rites or Reliques of Pelagianism which yet were not generally received of all as before hath been declared Reason V 8. The fifth Argument standeth upon some Observations taken out of Histories and other Monuments of Antiquity whereby it may be gathered more or less what points of Religion among such as are now called in Controversie by Protestants were believed in those days by the ancient Britans For albeit the Story of that Church before the coming of St. Augustin be not so left written by any authentical Writer as were to be wished and as other Countreys have and namely ours by St. Bede and this in respect of the manifold Wars great Miseries and continual Calamities fallen upon the British Nation for 200 years together before the Conversion of the English whereby neither the orderly Succession of their Bishops neither their meeting in Synods and Councils neither the observation of Ecclesiastical Discipline neither their Communication with the Churches of other Countreys and especially the See of Rome could be so well performed or recorded yet of the small Sparkles and Reliques that do remain it is not hard to guess besides the Reasons and Considerations before-alledged what Religion the Britans were of and whether their Faith agreed more with the Protestants of our days than with the Religion of St. Augustin brought in from Rome and continu'd by Catholics unto this present 9. For first if we will hear external Authors St. Chrysostom testifieth against the Gentiles in his days that in Britanny there were Altari a Christi dedicata Altars dedicated to Christ which Altars do infer Sacrifice and Sacrifice Priesthood as in his Books de Sacerdotio he proveth So as in St. Chrysostom's Age which was the very same wherein the Saxons entred into Britanny the Britans Religion was Catholic according to St. Chrysostom agreeing as well with the Western as Eastern Church whereof himself was For if they had been different or had followed any other Religion than the Common he would not so much have bragged of them as against the Gentiles he did 10. But let us return to British Authors themselves If we read over with attention the little Treatise or Epistle of Gildas which he writeth of the Destruction and Conquest of his Countrey he being the only Author indeed of entire credit which we find extant of those ancient times we shall find signs and footsteps enough what Religion the Britans were of tho' his purpose was not to write any Ecclesiastical History He lived a good while before the coming of St. Augustin and in the second part of his said Treatise reprehendeth grievously the most horrible sins of the Britans for which these Calamities of the Picts Scots and Saxons came upon them And he beginneth his complaint first of their Kings and Judges saying Reges habet Britannia sed Tyrannos Judices habet sed impios crebro jurantes sed perjurantes voventes sed continuò propemodum mentientes Britanny hath Kings but they are become Tyrants it hath Judges but they are impious swearing often but forswearing making Vows but presently almost breaking the same c. 11. Here we see that breaking of Vows was held for no small sin in those days But he goeth further talking of the said Princes Inter Altaria jurando demorantes haec eadem ac si lutulenta paulò pòst saxa despicientes cujus tam nefandi piaculi non ignarus est Constantinus They run to the Altar and swear when they are in necessity and a little after they despise the said Altars again as if they were but dirty Stones of which wicked Sacrilege King Constantine is not ignorant c. Here you see Altars made of Stone in those days and Princes accustomed to swear by Altars and to seek their Refuge in peril or necessity by running to them and staying by them in Sanctuary or when they would do any act with religious solemnity and that it was counted a heinous sin to break promises made upon Altars in those days which yet Protestants make no scruple of 12. But now what this Oath of King Constantine was whereof Gildas speaketh and in what form it was made it appeareth in the next words after which amongst other are these Hoc anno post horribile juramenti Sacramentum quo se devinxit c. Deo primum Sanctorum demum Choris Genetrici comitantibus c. latera Regiorum tenerrima puerorum vel praecordia crudeliter inter ipsa ut dixi sacrosancta Altaria nefando ense hastaque prodentibus laceravit ita ut Sacrificii coelestis sedem purpurea pallia coagulati cruoris attingerent c. Even this year after a most dreadful Oath whereby Constantine bound himself c. first to God and then to the whole Choir of Saints and the Mother of Christ accompanying the same c. he pierced with his wicked Sword and Spear the most tender sides and hearts of two young Princely Children and this so near to the holy Altars as their Purple Cloaks all besprinkled with Blood did touch the seat of the heavenly Sacrifice c. Behold here an Oath broken which was made to God upon the holy Altars in the sight of his Mother and of all the Saints of Heaven for the preservation of the said two Princely Children committed to Constantine and most cruelly murder'd by him even at the side of the said Altars so near that their Purple Cloaks did touch the seat of the heavenly Sacrifice Which is the same phrase that other ancient Fathers did use to describe holy Altars calling them the Seat of the blessed Sacrifice or which is all one the Seat of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Quid est enim Altare saith Optatus nisi sedes Corporis Sanguinis Christi What is an Altar but the seat of the Body and Blood of Christ 13. And now I would ask our men whether these speeches of Gildas do agree better to Protestants Religion or to Ours Would any Protestant speak or write thus But let us hear how he goeth forward against another Britan Prince of that time called Aurelius Among many other Crimes he objecteth this Propriâ uxore pulsâ furciferam germanam ejus perpetuam Deo viduitatis castimoniam promittentem suscipis Thou having driven away thine own Wife takest unto thee her wicked Sister which had promised to God perpetual Chastity of Widowhood And then to another wicked Prince Maglocunus he objecteth That having made a Vow to be a Monk he returned to the World again saying Coram omnipotente Deo Angelicis vultibus humanisque perpetuò Monachum vouisti c. O quà m profusus spei coelestis fomes desperatorum cordibus te in bonis permanente inardesceret ô qualia
erroribus This man did Caelestinus Bishop of Rome send to the Scots and Irish-men especially those that lived in Britanny after Palladius the Grecian to defend them from the Errors of the Pelagians 16. Behold the Care and Authority of the Bishop of Rome in those days But what followeth in Bale This man saith he did preach the Gospel unto the Irish-men with incredible fervour of spirit for forty years together and did convert them to the sincere Faith of Christ He was most excellent both in Learning and Holiness and among other Miracles that he did he continued in Praying and Fasting forty days and forty nights founded many Churches healed many sick deliver'd many possessed of Devils and raised to life sixty that were dead c. 17. Behold the effects of Preachers sent forth by the Bishops of Rome recounted by the Heretics themselves Let Fox or Bale shew us any such Example of Miracles wrought by Preachers sent by them and their Sect. And that this man also was made Bishop by Caelestinus the Pope and sent hither after Palladius is testified by St. Prosper that lived in that time and after him by St. Bede Marianus Scotus Sigibert and others who say also that he died in the year of Christ 491 being of the age of 122 years and his Memory is held in the Roman Calendar upon the 17th day of March c. And now our Fox and Bale being taken in these Examples to speak against themselves we might pass over the rest with silence assuring the Reader that all is like unto this Yet some points more we shall note 18. The fourth before named Bacchiarius tho' he be not mentioned by John Bale yet other Authors do report that he was brought up in Rome and in good credit with Pope Leo I. to whom he dedicated a Book written in defence of his Pilgrimage to Rome He had been the Scholar of St. Patricius and by this you may guess of what Religion he was 19. Congellus is the sixth Preacher of true Religion cited in Fox's Catalogue for of Dubritius which is the fifth we spoke before whom Bale saith to have flourished about the year of Christ 530 and that he was the first Abbot of the Monastery of Bangor But what more think you Ab isto Monachismus à Pelagio introductus c. From this man saith he the Religion of Monks brought in by Pelagius the Heretic was not only spread over Britanny under shew of true Religion but was dilated also into other Countreys c. Behold how Fox and Bale agree Fox saith He was a true Preacher of the Word of God and Bale saith He was a Father of Pelagian Monks And note here by the way that Fox professing to shew the continual Succession of the Britan Church leapeth from Patricius to Dubritius of whom we spake before and between whom there was above 100 years distance if we believe Bale and other Authors And then followeth Kentegernus and Helmotus before David Menevensis who should have come after him in respect of time tho' of Helmotus Bale maketh no mention but of Kentegernus he saith That he flourished in the year 560 and lived in all 185 years which if it be so he must needs be alive long after the entrance of St. Augustin He saith He was a Monk and had three hundred Scholars in one Colledge which he sent to preaching here and there c. And then he addeth further Melote utebatur c. He used a Garment made of Goats skins with a streight Hood having a white Stole about his Neck after the fashion of the Primitive Church He converted many to the Faith of Christ recall'd many Apostatas drove out Pelagians built Churches ministred to the sick and healed their sickness and lived in very great Abstinence c. Thus he describeth him and whether this description doth agree to a Protestant Minister or to a Catholic Abbot let the Reader consider 20. There do follow in Fox's Catalogue David Daniel Sampson Elnodugus Asaphus and Gildas But of St. David the first of this number we have spoken before in this Chapter And as for Gildas which is the last of this Rank Bale saith He was a Monk of Bangor And further it may easily appear by the speeches themselves which before we have alledged out of him in the former Chapter of what Religion he was Of Daniel Sampson and Elnodugus tho' John Bale speak little or nothing yet Capgrave Leland and others shew that they were of the same Religion with the rest Daniel being the first Bishop of Bangor and Sampson next after St. David was Bishop of that place 21. Of Asaph Bale saith He was Scholar to the foresaid famous Abbot Kentegern and was made Bishop of Elgoa in Wales which of his name was called Asaph ever since He flourished in the year 590 and saw the coming in of Augustin and his Fellows from Rome and was the first of the Britans saith Bale qui à Gregorii Romani Discipulis in Angliam adventantibus Auctoritatem Unctionem accepit that took his Authority and Vnction or Consecration from the Disciples of Gregory Bishop of Rome that came into England So writeth Bale and by this sheweth that St. Asaph held nothing against the Roman Religion seeing he accepted his Authority and Consecration from the Bishop of Rome Besides this this Bishop St. Asaph hath his Memory celebrated in the Roman Martyrology upon the first day of May which he should not if he had been different in any one point from the Roman Religion 22. And so being come down now to St. Augustin's time it is to no purpose to go any farther or name the rest that do ensue in Fox to wit those five Herlanus Elbodus Dinothus Samuel and Nivius for that they lived after St. Augustin's entrance whereas Fox's promise was to cite only British Teachears that were before him and different from the Roman Religion whereof he hath named hitherto none Besides that of three of these five Bale writeth not and as for Dinothus Abbot of Bangor he was the chiefest of those who opposed themselves against Augustin and set other men against him also in Synodo Wiccionum and was severely punished afterward for the same by the Providence of God as St. Bede noteth to wit by the Sword of Ethelfredus a Heathen King of Northumberland long after the Death of St. Augustin when the said Dinothus and 1200 Monks were slain at Chester by the Souldiers of the said Ethelfride Augustino jam multo ante tempore saith St. Bede ad Coelestia Regna sublato St. Augustin being taken to Heaven long before tho' Bale be not ashamed to say that it was done by his suggestion praising the foresaid Dinothus and his Confederates for that they would not preach Baptism and celebrate Easter-day according to the Custom of Rome and Universal Catholic Church 23. So as now we see that these men care not
what he thought best in this little Sentence to make those Fathers seem to say as he would have them in favor of a condemn'd Heresie To which effect he putteth out as you have seen the word Dominica which maketh or marreth all the matter and then for post 14 Lunam written at large in St. Bede he putteth in prima 14 Luna short in numbers only to make it more obscure adding prima of his own and putting out post from the words of the Council thereby to make the sense more clear in favor of the Heresie for that prima 14 Luna Mensis primi which are his words do signifie the fourteenth day of the first Moon of March expresly And moreover he addeth of his own these words upon one certain day which the Decree hath not meaning thereby that this fourteenth day must be observed with such certainty as it may not be altered or deferred to any Sunday but must be observed as an immovable Feast which out of Luther we have shewed before also to be his meaning And thus much of the first Decree 17. The last and tenth Decree hath no less fraud and malice used against it by Fox than this first for the malicious shameless Fellow would make those Fathers of that Synod to favor the Doctrin and Practice of the Protestants in putting away their Wives for Fornication and marrying another for to this effect he citeth the Canon Tenthly That no man may put away his Wife for any cause except only for Fornication after the Rule of the Gospel And there breaketh off as tho' the Council had said no more nor added any further caution or explication of their meaning Whereof it would ensue as Protestants do infer that seeing a man may put away one Wife for Fornication and is not bound to live unmarried if he have not the gift of Continency he may lawfully take another Wife as the practice of Protestants is at this day in England But the Reader must know that immediatly after the former words by him recited there follow in the Canon others that mar all his Market for thus they lie together 18. Nullus conjugem propriam nifi ut sanctum Evangelium docet Fornicationis causa relinquat Quòd si quisquam propriam expulerit conjugem legitimo sibi matrimonio conjunctam si Christianus esse rectè voluerit nulli alteri copuletur sed ita permaneat aut propriae reconcilietur conjugi Let no man leave his own Wife but only as the holy Gospel teacheth us for the cause of Fornication and if any man should put away his Wife that is joyned unto him by lawful Marriage if he will be a true Christian let him not marry another but either remain so in Continency or be reconciled to his own Wife again 19. Lo here the fidelity of John Fox in relating matters This Canon determineth two things you see First That a man may not leave the company or cohabitation of his Wife but only for the sin of Fornication committed by her The second That being so separated he may not marry another for any cause but either must remain continent or be reconcil'd to his former Wife again And this was the Doctrin of the Catholic Church then and is now which our Fox would fain have concealed from his Reader and have made him believe that the old primitive English Church had been for Them and their Practice at this day But the poor Reynard is taken at every winding when he is followed which were impossible to do in all his false doublings And so these two Examples only shall suffice to shew his tricks in this first point of Falsification Let us pass to the second of wilful Omission 20. There remaineth to say a word or two of his Omissions whereby he leaveth out of purpose from his Story those things which might give Credit or Reputation to our English Church in these ancient times which he seeketh by all means to make ridiculous and contemptible As for Example the Number and Quality of the Prelates and Learned Men that then flourished and were present in these Synods the Reasons and Arguments and other like Circumstances partly set down by St. Bede and other Authors upon divers occasions and partly registred in the very Prefaces of the Synods themselves As for Example in this first Synod here cited they begin thus 21. In Nomine Domini Dei Salvatoris Jesu Christi c. In the Name of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ reigning for ever and governing his Church it pleased him that we should meet together according to the Custom of the Venerable Canons of the Church to handle necessary business of our English Church Wherefore we met together upon the 24th day of the Month of September in the first Indiction in a place called Herudfrod I Theodorus tho' unworthy appointed by the See-Apostolic Bishop of the Church of Canterbury and our Fellow-Bishop and Brother the most Reverend Bisy Bishop of the East-Angles and our Brother and Fellow Priest Wilfrid Bishop of the Nation of the Northumbers was present by his proper Legats there were present also our Brethren and Fellow-Priests Putta Bishop of the Castle of Kent commonly called Rhofessester Eleutherius also Bishop of the West-Saxons and Winfrid Bishop of the Mercians And when we were all come together and every man set according to his Order and Degree I said unto them Most dear Brethren I beseech you for the Fear and Love of our Savior that we may handle here in common the things that belong unto our Faith to the end that these things which have been decreed and defined by the Holy ancient Fathers about the same may be kept uncorrupt by us all c. 22. This is part of the Preface to the first Synod out of which the former Decrees related and corrupted by Fox as you have heard were taken and by the very words of this Entrance or Preface there is more serious gravity signified than Fox would seem to acknowledge at this day in England But seven years after this again the said Theodorus made another Synod passed over in silence by Fox but St. Bede relateth the same in these words 23. His temporibus audiens Theodorus c. At this time Theodorus the Archbishop hearing that the Church of Constantinople was greatly troubled by the Heresie of Eutyches that deny'd two Natures to be in Christ or that his Flesh was like ours and desiring greatly that the Churches of England over which he had Jurisdiction should continue free from such Infection he gathered together a Synod of very many Venerable Priests and Learned Bishops and finding them after diligent enquiry made to agree all together in one Catholic Faith he thought good to set the same down by Synodical Letters for Instruction and Memory of Posterity which began thus In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ our Savior in the Reign of our most
will shew thee my Faith by Works And that these good works did proceed of Faith contrary to the Cavil of John Fox is evident by those pious words of the King where he saith Seeing Almighty God of his Mercy and Clemency without any precedent Merit of mine hath given me my Crown I do willingly restore to him again c. 7. But Fox goeth forward in jesting at the said King Ethelwolf saying That he that had been once nuzl'd up in his Youth among Priests he was always good and devout to holy Church c. And then passeth he on to shew How after he had established matters in his own Kingdom he went to Rome and carried with him his little Son Alured or Alfred committing him to the bringing up of Pope Leo IV. as before hath been said where also he re-edified the English School founded by King Offa and destroy'd by Fire a little before under King Egbert Moreover he gave saith Fox yearly to be paid in Rome 300 Marks to be distributed in this manner 100 Marks to maintain the Lights of St. Peter 's Church and another hundred Marks to maintain the Lights of St. Paul 's Church and the third hundred to be disposed in good works at the Pope's appointment At all which Fox jesteth also merrily building his Church by these Mocks and Mews 8. And to like effect he reciteth a Miracle registred by William Malmsbury and by the Charter of King Ethelstone Son and Heir to King Edward the elder which King having escaped a great Danger at Winchester where one of his Subjects named Duke Alfred and other of his Nobles conspiring together presently after his Father's Death would have put out his eyes But he escaping that Danger took the said Alfred Prisoner and for that he denied that he had any such intention the good King thought there was no better Trial than to send him to Rome to Pope John XI to be try'd by a solemn religious Oath before him The Pope made him swear before St. Peter's Altar who forswearing the said Conspiracy fell down presently before the said Altar in the sight of all the People and was carried thence in the arms of his Servants to the aforesaid School or English-men where he died the third night after wherewith the Pope and all Rome remain'd astonished and the Pope sent presently into England to know of the King whether he would pardon him and suffer his Body to be buried in Christian Sepulcher which King Ethelston after consultation had with the rest of his Nobility and by the earnest intercession of Duke Alfred's Friends was content that he should be so buried but yet by Sentence of the whole Realm the Possessions of the said Alfred were adjudg'd to the King's use who bestow'd them all upon Churches and Monasteries to the Honor of God and St. Peter which had given this Judgment in the Controversie 9. All this is testified by the said King's Charter recorded by Will. of Malmsb. and recited by Fox and the said Charter towards the end hath these words Et sic judicata est mihi tot a possessio ejus in magnis modicis quam Deo Sancto Petro dedi nec justius novi quà m Deo Sancto Petro hanc possessionem dare qui emulum meum in conspectu omnium cadere fecerunt mihi prosperitatem Regni largiti sunt And by this means the whole Possession both great and small of Duke Alfred was adjudged unto me which I gave unto God and to St. Peter nor do I know to whom I should more justly give the same than to God and to St. Peter who made my Adversary to fall down in the sight of all men and gave unto me the Prosperity of my Kingdom Thus wrote he about the year of Christ 933 as John Fox counteth and I marvel he would relate this Story being so much against himself and his Religion and in confirmation of ours as it is for that it sheweth that God and St. Peter in those days wrought Miracles in Rome when Fox saith that the Faith and Religion of Rome was far out of order from the true Gospel But this is the misery and calamity of this poor Fellow and his Cause as often before I have noted that either he must write nothing at all of these Times and Ages or else he must write Testimonies against himself 10. I will give you one short Example more where he allegeth us a Narration of a very old Writer which he saith he had in Manuscript lent him by one named William Carre and thereupon he citeth it still by the name of Historia Cariana this Story being written as it seemeth in those Ages and of the Miseries that happened to England by the Incursions of Danes and other Infidels seeketh out the causes of God's wrath in this behalf saying thus In Anglorum quidem Ecclesia primitiva Religio clarissimè splenduit c. In the primitive Church of England Religion did most clearly shine insomuch that Kings Queens Princes Dukes Consuls Barons and Rulers of Churches incensed with the desire of the Kingdom of Heaven laboured and stirred as it were amongst themselves to enter into Monastical Life and into voluntary Exile and Solitariness forsaking all to follow their Lord where in process of time all Virtue so much decay'd among them that in Fraud and Treachery none seemed like unto them neither was to them any thing odious or hateful but Piety and Justice nor any thing in price and honor but Civil War and shedding Blood Wherefore Almighty God sent upon them Pagan And Cruel Nations like swarms of Bees 11. This relateth Fox out of his Carian Story and I know not to what end he should relate it but only to shew that while English-men lived Godly according to the fashion of their primitive Church they esteemed and honored highly Religious and Monastical Life and many leaving the World with the Pleasures and Possessions thereof entred into that Religious Course endeavoring to follow and imitate their Lord and Master therein and that so long was England happy and blessed by God To which effect if John Fox do allege the same then is it evident what a good Conclusion he doth make against himself his Religion at this day that are such professed Enemies to that kind of life so highly here commended and consequently the Relator thereof doth shew himself to be as well John Fool as John Fox not considering what maketh for him or against him 12. But to the end that we should not think that he hath made Peace or Friendship with Monks for all this or that he liketh their Life or Profession any thing the better for so many praises given them by ancient Authors he scoldeth at them every where and upon every occasion writing over the Pages and Titles of his Book these Superscriptions Monks Superstitious Monks Monks married Monks meer Lay-men in old times and the like
or two you shall be able to judge of the rest I read and find saith Fox that in a Council held at Rome by Pope Hildebrand and other Bishops they did enact three things First That no Priest hereafter should marry Wives Secondly That all such as were married should be divorced Thirdly That none hereafter should be admitted to the Order of Priesthood but should swear perpetual Chastity 15. Truly it is a strange thing to see and consider the wilful obstinacy and precipitation of Heretics Fox hath gathered out three Points decreed in this Council which Council yet he citeth not nor any Author for it and so with more safety he playeth the Davus He leaveth out a fourth Point which was the principal or rather only Point touching Priests Marriage handled in that Council to wit That what Priest soever should be known to keep a Concubine under pretence of his Wife or should be known to have bought his Benefice by Simony and would not repent or amend they were forbidden to enter the Church and say Mass and other men were forbidden to hear their Mass With which Decree many licentious Priests that would not be restrained from their loose Life being offended and many more Lay-men that depended on the said Emperour taking their part cried out against this good Pope for that he went about to reform these two scandalous Abuses Simony and Fornication in the worser sort of Priests And two notable Calumniations amongst others they raised against him The first That he did not hold the Mass to be good or available which was said by a Simoniacal or Adulterous Priest which he never said nor meant but only that for a punishment and in detestation of those sins he would have men to forbear the hearing of such Priests Masses seeing there wanted not other good Priests to supply their places and Functions Neither was he the first Pope that made the like Decree for punishing of Concubinary Priests by forbidding other men to hear their Masses for that both Pope Alexander II. and Nicholas II. his Predecessors made the same Decree as appeareth in their Canons yet extant 16. The other Calumniation against this Pope was this which Fox and the Magdeburgians do here set down That he was the first that began to forbid Marriage of Priests in the West-Church for so are the words of the Magdeburgians And hereupon hath John Fox framed out of the Council the three Points before mentioned as handled and decreed then which is false and passeth over the fourth with silence wherein the only Controversie consisteth And this appeareth in the Lines immediately following in Fox where he putteth down the Copy in English of Pope Gregory's Bull about this matter wherein he saith thus If there be any Priests Deacons or Subdeacons that will still remain in the sin of Fornication we forbid them the Churches entrance till they amend and repent but if they persevere in their sin we charge that none presume to hear their Service 17. By which words we see that Pope Gregory did not treat here as Fox saith That no Priest hereafter should marry Wives as tho' it had been in use or lawful before or that such as were married should be divorced by this new Decree And much less was it decreed now as Fox deviseth That none hereafter should be admitted to the Order of Priesthood but should swear perpetual Chastity All these Points I say are either feigned or fraudulently set down by our Fox as tho' these things had been in lawful use before and that now by Pope Gregory began this prohibition But you have heard by Pope Gregory's own words that he presumeth that all Priests that after Priesthood have Carnal Conversation with Women do live in Fornication according to the Doctrin Custom and Practice of the ancient Catholic Church of Christ And therefore where Fox useth the words Marriage and Lawful Wives Pope Gregory calleth it Fornication and Concubinary Life And so it is in the Canon Officium Simoniacorum in Fornicatione jacentium scienter nullo modo recipiatis Do you not wittingly admit the Office or Service of such Priests as live in Simony or Fornication And Tritemius relateth the matter thus Laicis interdixit ne Missas Sacerdotum Concubinas habentium audire praesumant Pope Gregory forbad Lay-men to hear the Mass of such Priests as were known to have Concubines 18. This then was the Controversie Whether Priests that lived with Women contrary to the ancient Canons of the Catholic Church were rightly punished by Pope Gregory Pope Alexander Pope Nicholas and some other Popes by debarring them to say Mass publicly or other men to hear their Masses The Controversie was not Whether it was lawful for them to marry or no or whether they should promise Chastity at their entrance into Priesthood For this Pope Gregory took as a thing determined from all Antiquity before him especially in the Latin Church And so testifieth Marianus Scotus that lived in his time Iste Papa saith he Sinodo facta ex decreto S. Petri Apostoli S. Clementis aliorumque Sanctorum Patrum vetuit interdixit Clericis maximè Divino Ministerio consecratis Vxores habere vel cum Mulieribus habitare nisi quas Nicena Synodus vel alii Canones exceperunt This Pope Gregory VII having made a Synod did according to the Decree of St. Peter the Apostle and St. Clement his Successor and of other holy Fathers forbid unto Clergy-men especially to such as were consecrated unto God's Service to have Wives or to dwell with Women excepting such only as the first Council of Nice and other Ecclesiastical Canons did except or permit 19. This testifieth Marianus of the Pope's intention and that he made his Decree according to the Decrees Canons meaning and practice of all holy Fathers his Predecessors from St. Peter downward in the Latin Church And if we go to the Council of Nice for the exception here mentioned what Women were allowed to dwell in house with Priests in those days we shall find all Women to be forbidden to live with Bishops Priests or Deacons praeter Matrem Sororem vel Amitam the Mother Sister or the Aunt But no mention at all of the Wife which should have been the first that should have been excepted by the Council if any such thing had been lawful or permitted in those days For albeit in the Greek Church where this Council was held some were made Priests that were married before yet were they never permitted to marry after they were Priests nor are they at this day And if we consider the whole stream of Greek Fathers in this behalf we shall see them no less by their Writings than by their Doings and Examples joyn with the Latin Church in this Point about the Continency of Priests and Bishops even from the beginning Illius solius est offerre Sacrificium saith Origen above 1400 years ago
wrong Cause 32. How large a Treatise Fox maketh of St. Thomas Becket and his contention with King Henry II. and how shamefully he doth bely and revile him every-where hath been shewed sufficiently before in my Answer to Sir Francis Hastings as also of the Fable of the poysoning of K. John. And as for the Histories the Waldenses Albigenses whom he meaneth to lay for the first Foundations of his visible Church upon Earth he handleth matters so falsly and partially contrary to the testimony of all Antiquity as a man may easily see that the whole contexture of his Story is nothing else but a perpetual woven thread of wilful and malicious Falshoods and for that I shall have occasion to speak again of these Heretics in the next Chapter wherein we have to handle the Succession of John Fox his visible Protestant Church from Wickliff downward I shall say no more thereof here but remit me to that which ensueth CHAP. IX Of the time from John Wickliff unto the beginning of the Reign of King Henry VIII containing about 140 years And how the Roman Church and John Fox his Church passed in these days BY that which hath been said before from Age to Age of the apparent and manifest Descent Progress and Continuation of the Catholic Roman Church and of her State and Condition as well in England as in other parts of the Christian World at the rising of John Wickliff an English-man about the year of Christ 1371 it is not hard to make the like deduction of the same Church from that time unto the year of Christ 1560 when her Majesty that now is had a little before begun her Reign and established the form of Religion that now is held in England For as for the Popes and chief Ecclesiastical Governors of the Roman Church in this time they are publicly known their Names Number and Succession one to another from Innocentius VI. Vrbanus V. and Gregory XI who first condemned Wickliff's Doctrin unto Pope Pius V. that entred the Roman See at the beginning of her Majesties Reign being in number about Thirty and all of one Faith and Religion the one with the other 2. The Emperours also both of the West and East Empire so long as it lasted are known to have been of the self-same Religion excepting some Disobedience and Schismatical Opinions in some of the Greek Emperours against the Church of Rome for which it may be thought that God of his Justice gave them over at length together with their Empire into Infidels hands about the year of Christ 1450 Constantinus the Twelfth of that Name sirnamed Paleologus being the last of that Race 3. The manner also of proceeding in Ecclesiastical matters by this Church in this time was like unto the former to wit by conserving and continuing the Faith of their Ancestors and precedent times defending the same with like diligence against Innovations of Heretics partly by the Writings of Catholic Learned Men Doctors and Preachers which in these Ages were as Gregorius Ariminensis Laurentius Justinianus Thomas de Kempis Bartholomeus Vrbinas Thomas Waldensis Joannes Gerson Alphonsus Tostatus Sanctus Vincentius Sanctus Antoninus Sanctus Bernardinus Senensis Nicolaus Cusanus Jo. Tritemius Jo. Naucleras Albertus Pius Eckius Empserus Clicthoveus and many other Learned Catholic Writers By whose diligence the Heretics in these Ages were every-where refuted But especially were they repressed by the Authority of Synods and Councils as well Provincial and National as General also to which effect were their latter General Councils the first of Florence under Pope Eugenius IV. against the Heretics and Schismatics of those times about the year of Christ 1432 the second of Lateran under Julius II. and Leo X. about the year of Christ 1513 and the third of Trent against Lutherans Zwinglians Calvinists Anabaptists and other such fresher Heretics of our days under Pope Paulus IV. Pius IV. and Pius V. which Council was begun about the year 1445. 4. And albeit in this time as in former Ages there wanted not troublesom Spirits and new-fangling Heads to impugn and exercise this Church as the Wickliffians Hussites Pickards Adamites Thaborites Orebites and other such Sectaries going before Lutherans Zwinglians Calvinists Anabaptists Trinitarians and other like new Dogmatists of our days yet were they always discovered resisted vanquished and condemned by the same ordinary Process of Ecclesiastical Censures and Judgment excommunicated anathematiz'd and delivered over to Sathan by the Authority of this Church as all other Heretics were in former Ages and consequently are like to have the self-same final end howsoever they ruffle or resist for a time 5. And this being now the demonstration of our Catholic Church most clear and evident to all them that have Eyes of Understanding to see and Grace to consider the Truth let us pass over to the view of John Fox's Church which having been hitherto invisible from Christ downward and only imaginary or Mathematical as you have seen for that he hath scarce named any to have been of that Church yet now from this time forward he will begin to exhibit unto us a real visible Church on his part that is to say a Succession or rather Representation of divers Professors of his Religion or of some Points thereof at leastwise wherein they differ from the Roman For he doth not think it needful for those of his Church to agree in all Articles nor doth he bind himself to the Rule of St. Augustin Ecclesia universaliter perfecta est in nullo claudicat The true Church is universally perfect and doth halt in no one point of Belief But he thinketh it sufficient for his men to agree in some things against the Roman Church and to have some sparkles of Truth in it as before he affirmed albeit therewithal they should have some blemishes and errors also as a little after we will declare 6. The Catalogue of these Protestant Professors whereof Fox would make up his Church we shall handle in the Chapter following Now we are only to tell you that from this time of Wickliff downwards he meaneth to lay down the visible Succession of his Church and to that effect he storeth up all those that held the Articles of the foresaid Wickliff or Husse for Gospellers of his Church whatsoever they held otherwise against him or different among themselves And if any of them or others were punished for their Opinions by our Church then doth he register them for Martyrs or Confessors of the same Church which yet he never durst do before this time albeit there were divers other Sectaries in former Ages that symboliz'd with him in divers Articles as hath been shewed 7. Yea in this matter we may see John Fox also play the Fox and fetch many windings and turnings to deceive his Reader for that at the very entrance of his prolix and tedious Treatise of John Wickliff whom he proposeth as a chosen man raised
up by God for lightening the World and impugning the Church of Rome he leaveth to himself a starting-hole for all necessities when he shall be pressed telling us That albeit in John Wickliff 's Opinions and Assertions some blemishes perhaps may be noted yet such blemishes they be which rather declare him to be a man that might err than which directly did fight against Christ our Savior c. 8. Consider I pray you what a Defence this is Perhaps saith he some blemishes may be noted as tho' the matter were in doubt whether he had any blemishes in his Doctrin or no. Which yet after the Fox is forced to confess and to disclaim them openly And further he addeth full wisely That if he have blemishes or errors in Doctrin they are such as do rather prove that he was a man and might err than that he did directly fight against Christ Mark the manner of his Defence His errors do prove only That he was a man and might err And so I say also of the worst Heretics that their errors and blemishes in Doctrin do prove that they were men and erring men yea wicked men also in that they obstinately defended their own errors And so I say of Wickliff in like manner But mark what followeth Rather than that he did fight directly against Christ Which is as much as to say that it importeth not much tho' he impugned Christ indirectly if directly he did not fight against him And may not any Heretics that ever lived be defended in this sort No Heretics do openly and directly impugn Christ but rather pretend to honor him above others bearing ever the Names not only of Christians but also of the best and most reformed Christians and consequently they never fought directly against Christ but indirectly pretending one thing and doing another 9. After John Fox hath greatly justified Wickliff by divers Leaves of Paper together he cometh to set down 23 of his first Articles condemned by the Church of England at that day and that as Fox confesseth by special chosen Judges gathered together to wit eight Bishops fifteen Religious Learned Men of divers Orders fourteen Doctors and six Batchelors of Divinity all which Fox doth name and contemn And yet these Articles tho' in divers points they concur with Luther Zwinglius and Calvin's Doctrin in these days yet in others they do greatly disagree and Fox I think will not defend them As for Example The fourth Article is That if a Bishop or Priest should give Holy Orders or consecrate the Sacrament of the Altar or minister Baptism whiles he is in mortal sin in were nothing available 10. Will Fox yield to this Article think you For if he do we may call in doubt whether ever he were well baptiz'd and consequently whether he were a Christian seeing it may be doubted whether the Priest that baptiz'd him were in mortal sin or no when he did it And again the ninth Article is That it is against Scripture for any Ecclesiastical Ministers to have any temporal possessions at all This Article if Fox will grant yet his Fellow-Ministers and his Lords the Bishops I presume will hardly yield thereunto but will pretend Scriptures to the contrary against Wickliff Let us see the rest The tenth Article is That no Prelate ought to excommunicate any person except he know him first to be excommunicated by God. The fifteenth is That so long as a man is in deadly sin he is neither Bishop nor Prelate The sixteenth is That Temporal Lords may according to their own wills and discretion take away the Temporal Goods from any Church men whensoever they offend The seventeenth is That Tythes are meer Alms and may be detained by the Parishioners and bestowed where they will at their pleasure 11. These were some of Wickliff's first Articles condemn'd at Oxford about the year of Christ 1380 but after he published many worse And I would here know of John Fox Whether He and his Fellow-Ministers will allow of these Articles or no And if not but that they will have them accounted for his blemishes or errors as Fox calleth them then may we also with better reason account for blemishes and errors his other Propositions wherein he agreeth with the Protestants against Us as I doubt not but that John Fox will account those also wherein he agreeth with Us against Him which are many and far more than the former wherein he joyneth with Him against Us as may be gathered by these few Articles alleged here by Fox himself whereby tho' mingled with much other erroneous Doctrin as you see it is evident that Wickliff held divers Points also of Catholic Religion as Holy Orders Consecration Excommunication distinction of Venial and Mortal Sins and other like For which cause I marvel why John Fox would allege these Articles but only to confound himself and to shew that his holy Patriarch Wickliff is so full of blemishes as scarce any unspotted thing can be found in his Doctrin 12. But this is the beggery of this new Church that it cannot be made up but by such Dunghil-clouts gathered together from under the feet of their Adversaries For albeit Wickliff Husse and other like Sectaries did hold many more Articles with Us against the Protestants than with Them against us yet such is the Integrity Purity Severity yea Majesty of our Church that forasmuch as they agreed not in all and every point of Belief we according to the Creed of Athanasius reject them and as spotted and blemished Rags do cast them out to the Dunghil whom poor Fox gathereth up again with great diligence putting them into his Calendar for Saints and chief Pillers of his new Church and so consequently maketh his Church of our Shoe clouts which how honorable thing it may be esteemed let every man judge For if these Heretics did agree with him in all Points of his Doctrin tho' by joyning with them he should shew himself an Heretic yet they not agreeing but in some Points only and impugning him in the rest it sheweth a marvelous base mind and lack of common sense to make them Pillars of his Church as he doth 13. But there is yet another point worse than this which is that he doth not only allow of the Religion of these men but defendeth also and justifieth their Life and Actions in what case soever and tho' never so orderly and lawfully condemned by the Church or State of those days yea tho' they were convinced to have conspired the King's Murther and Ruin to the State or had broken forth into open War and Hostility against the same As did Sir John Oldcastle by his Wife called Lord Cobham Sir Roger Acton and many other their Followers in the first year of King Henry V. which Story you may read in John Stow truly related out of Thomas Walsingham and other ancient Writers 14. He setteth down also without blushing I mean Fox as well
Tythes and if any man will needs give he may give to whom he will excluding thereby their Curates Another Article also was of the said Brute That a Priest receiving by bargain any thing of Yearly Annuity is thereby a Schismatic and Excommunicate Which if it be true then are his Ministers in a hard case at this day in England who do bargain for their Service and Wages due thereunto 40. And so goeth Fox on from Point to Point to ratifie John Wickliff's Doctrin or at least the Professors thereof not considering simple Fellow how much they differ from him or make against him so they be contrary to the Pope of Rome or condemned by him For further proof of which Folly and blind Ignorance we shall pass now to treat in a several Chapter what manner of Continuance and Succession of his Church he deviseth thro'out the Rabble of these opposite Sects from the time of Pope Innocentius III. to the Reign of King Henry VIII whereby I doubt not but the Reader will remain sufficiently instructed of these Mens madness that of so contrary and repugnant Spirits will needs frame to themselves the Unity of a true Christian Church CHAP. X. The most absurd and ridiculous Succession of Sectaries appointed by John Fox for the Continuance of his Church from Pope Innocentius III. downward where also by this occasion is declared the true Nature and Conditions of lawful Ecclesiastical Succession HAving now followed John Fox throughout all this Treatise from Christ's time to ours to see what visible course and race he would set down as well of His Church as Ours according to his promise made in the beginning of his Acts and Monuments we have found him hitherto to have talked only in a manner of Our Church that is to say of the Universal Roman Church perspicuously come down by succession of Years and Ages from the Apostles to Us neither did John Fox for twelve hundred years together so much as name unto us any other Congregation of Men or Women small or great good or bad that in this time bare the Name of a Christian Church besides the other nor did he pretend any Succession fearing perhaps those words of Tertullian before recited Confingant tale aliquid Haeretici c. Let Heretics presume to feign or devise any such Succession of Bishops Teachers and Pastors for Their Church as we have alleged for Ours if they dare 2. But now from Pope Innocentius's time downwards John Fox presuming that all the other Church was fallen from God a great presumption indeed as before hath been shewed he bringeth us forth in place thereof another Company of Men which he saith in those days made the true Church for that they were condemned by the other Church which he holdeth for the false And these were a certain Rabblement of Sectaries different in Opinions and Professions not only from Us but also from John Fox and his Crew and most of all among themselves being of divers Countries Sects Times Ages Offices and Functions and cohering together in no other form at all of Succession but that one rose or sprung up after the other For which cause Fox himself in his Acts and Monuments doth not handle their Affairs as of any Congregation that ever met together or saw perhaps one another or had Conference Order Subordination or Succession among themselves but only tieth them together in a certain List or Catalogue as Sampson's Foxes were by the Tails Which List or Catalogue he setteth down in his foresaid Protestation to the Church of England telling us first That during the time of the last 400 years from Pope Innocentius downwards the true Church of Christ durst not openly appear in the face of the World being oppressed by Tyranny but yet that it remained from time to time visibly in certain chosen Members that not only bare secret good affection to sincere Doctrin but stood also in the defence of Truth against the Church of Rome 3. This is his Assertion which he proveth by a large List or Catalogue as I have said of sundry that were in this time censured and condemned in some part of Doctrin by the said Roman Church In which Catalogue saith he first to pretermit Bertramus and Berengarius which were before Pope Innocentius III. a Learned multitude of sufficient Witnesses here might be produced whose Names neither are obscure nor Doctrin unknown as Joachim Abbot of Calabria Almaricus a Learned Bishop that was judged an Heretic for holding against Images besides the Martyrs of Alsatia of whom we read an hundred to be burned by Pope Innocentius in one day Add likewise saith he to these the Waldenses and Albigenses Marsilius Patavinus Gulielmus de Sancto Amore Symon Tornacensis Arnoldus de nova Villa Joannes Semica besides divers others Preachers in Suevia standing against the Pope Anno 1240 c. 4. Thus beginneth Fox his Catalogue and then goeth he forward with Joannes Anglicus a Master of Paris Petrus Joannis a Minorite burned after his death Robert Grossehead Bishop of Lincoln called Malleus Romanorum c. And further he addeth Joannes de Ganduno Eudo Duke of Burgundy that counselled the French King to receive the Popes Extravagants Dante 's an Italian Poet that wrote against Popes Monks and Friars together with Petrarcha and them Conradus Hagaz imprisoned for preaching against the Mass Anno 1339 c. And to these again he coupleth Franciscus de Arcaterra and others burned for new Opinions Gregorius Ariminensis Armachanus Occham and others as tho' these had been all of the same Opinions And finally he falleth upon the Lollards Wickliffians Hussites and their Followers in England and Bohemia succeeding one after another now in this Country now in that now upon one occasion and now upon another until the Reign of King Henry III. when Martin Luther began his Profession who did agree and symbolize in divers Points with the said former Sects of Waldenses and Albigenses Lollards Wickliffians and Hussites and differed in others as before hath been declared And after the Lutherans did follow again others partly agreeing and partly disagreeing as Zuinglius Calvinus Beza Oecolampadius and others unto our days and every one affirming his Opinions to be the New Gospel 5. And this is the visible Succession forsooth which John Fox hath devised to set down for the proof of his new Church and the Antiquity thereof for 400 years past And it is like as if a man in England to disgrace the City of London should seek out the Records of all those that have been hanged at Tyburn for Theft or Murthers for 400 years and having found them out should produce them for Witnesses of the truth and for honest men and good Citizens condemning both the Judges and Jurors and whole Country that gave Sentence and Verdict against them And yet if you will see how John Fox playeth the Fool indeed and braggeth of this Succession
Pope 6. But what did he from his breach forward Did he spare the new Gospellers any thing more for his breach with the Pope Truly it cannot be denied but that for some years he wink'd at their doings somewhat more than before considering the new difficulties wherein he had cast himself by his new disunion and breach as before we have noted in the end of the former Part. But as soon as he had put his Domestical Affairs in some quiet and security he returned again to his former course and custom of restraining these new unruly Spirits by calling them to account for their Innovations and proceeding juridically against them according to Church Canons and according to his former judgment in matters of Religion Which as I might shew by divers ways of proof as well of Acts of Parliament as Proclamations Injunctions and other Declarations of his Will and Opinion in this behalf so will we allege only two or three Examples in the first kind besides those which we have set down in the former Part. 7. In the 31st year of his Reign which was seven or eight years after his breach with the Pope there was made an Act for abolishing of diversity of Opinions about Christian Faith which beginneth thus Whereas the King 's most Excellent Majesty is by God's Law Supreme Head immediately under him of the whole Church of England c. intending the conservation of the same Church in a true sincere and uniform Doctrin of Christ's Religion c. Thus beginneth his Preface And then he determineth together with the Parliament That whosoever shall deny the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar or affirm that the Communion is necessary under both Kinds or that Priests may by God's Law take Wives after Priesthood or that Vows of Chastity are not to be observed or that private Masses are not to be said or that Sacramental and Auricular Confession is not necessary c. All these he condemneth as Heretics and for such to be Apprehended Arraigned Condemned and Burned as at large is to be seen in the Statute 8. And the very next year after perceiving that notwithstanding his former Statute against Protestant Opinions the same did grow and were spread abroad in England he ordained another Statute which beginneth thus Whereas the King 's Róyal Majesty of his blessed and gracious disposition c. well weighing that out of sundry outward parts and places there have sprung been sown set forth divers heretical erroneous dangerous Opinions Doctrins in the Religion of Christ whereby his Grace's Leige-people may be induced to unfaithfulness misbelief miscreancy and contempt of God to the utter confusion and damnation of Souls c. For this cause his Majesty according to the very Gospel and Law of God meaneth to have matters determined and declared c. Thus he writeth in the Statute remitting himself to his further Declaration which is wholly against Protestants whose Faith and Religion you see here called by the King unfaithfulness misbelief miscreancy contempt of God heretical erroneous and dangerous Doctrin tending to utter confusion and damnation of Souls c. And this proved by the pure Word of God and the very Gospel it self as his Majesty affirmeth 9. And will you have more clear testimony of his settled judgment against Protestants than this But yet hear further For that the same King divers years afters after this again towards the end of his days having had good experience of the falshood of Protestants in corrupting the very Scriptures themselves by their crafty Translations Notes and Commentaries he was forc'd to forbid under grievous punishments the reading of the foresaid Scriptures in English which before he had permitted as appeareth by a peculiar Statute made for that purpose and for inhibiting Protestants Books Sermons and Preachings in the 34th and 35th years of his Reign this Statute being entituled An Act for the Advancement of true Religion saying therein as followeth Whereas the King 's most Royal Majesty Sumpreme Head of the Church of England and also of Ireland perceiveth that notwithstanding such holy Doctrins and Docucuments as his Majesty hath hitherto caused to be set forth besides the great liberty granted unto them in having the New and Old Testament among them which notwithstanding many seditious arrogant and ignorant Parsons pretending to be Learred have the perfect and true knowledg understanding and judgment of sacred Scriptures c. intending to subvert the very true and perfect Exposition thereof after their perverse fantasies have taken upon them not only to preach teach declare c. but also by printed Books Ballads Plays Rhythmes Songs and other fantasies subtilly to beguile his Majesty's Leige-subjects c. 10. Behold King Henry's description of Protestants their Wit Nature Condition and Doctrin But now followeth the Remedy Wherefore to ordain and establish a certain form of pure and sincere Teaching agreeable to God's Word and true Doctrin of the Catholic and Apostolical Church c. Be it enacted That all manner of Books of the Old and New Testament in English being of the crafty false and untrue Translation of William Tyndall and all other Books or Writings in the English Tongue teaching or composing any matter of Christian Religion contrary to that Doctrin which since the year of our Lord 1540 is hath or shall be set forth by his Majesty is clearly and utterly abolished c. Thus ordained King Henry of the Protestants Books and Doctrin and this Censure he gave of William Tyndall's Truth and Honesty in translating the Scriptures whom John Fox calleth not only the true Servant and Martyr of God but the Apostle also of England in this our latter Age. 11. Wherefore I do not see how Fox can with any reason make King Henry to be a Gospeller of his Religion or so earnest a Defender of the same or why he should paint him with the Bible in his hand holden up by Cranmer and Cromwell as before hath been said and seen in his Painting seeing he contemned ever their Doctrin and burned the Professors thereof as notorious Heretics unto his dying-day Which is evident by many Examples but most clear and notorious by that of John Lambert a famous Zuinglian with whom in solemn public Audience he disputed in presence of all his Clergy and Nobility of the Realm and caused Cranmer to do the like and in the end made Cromwell as his Vicar-General to give the Sentence of Death against him and burn him in Smithfield and this not two years before Cromwell's own Condemnation for like Heresie by the King 's own pursuit as may appear by the Act of his Condemnation yet extant And the same no doubt would he have done with Cranmer which was the other Upholder of his Arm to maintain the new Gospel according to Fox his Picture if he had known or suspected him not only for an Upholder of
Christian Men have to procure their Salvation tho' all do not use the same to their best benefit and thereby do miscarry For to come to some particulars we say That in this Church and no where else is the truth of Faith and certainty thereof and this by the perpetual assistance of the Holy Ghost promised thereunto by the Founder God himself In this Church is the infallible Judgment both about the Books of Scripture and their Interpretation as all other Doubts and Controversies according to that you have heard before out of S. Augustin In this Church alone and no where else is there true Priesthood by lawful Succession Unction and Imposition of Hands and consequently Remission also of Sins by the Authority they have from Christ to that effect In this Church is the true number use and force of holy Sacraments and Grace given by them In this Church is Unity of Faith and Doctrin Communion of Saints and of Merits and Prayers which no where else is to be found And finally in this Church alone is there warrant and security from Error assurance from overthrow failing or fading which security is established by the promise of Christ himself as our God Creator and Redeemer and to endure unto the worlds end 10. All these utilities and most singular benefits do we believe to be in this Catholic Church above all other Congregations in the world In respect whereof we hold this Church to be our ship our rock our castle our fortress our mistress our mother our skilful pilot throughout all storms of heresies our pillar and firmament of truth against falshood our house of refuge against tribulation our protection our direction our help aid and security in all points and if any man perish in her it is by his own default but out of her none can but perish And this is our estimation of this Affair 11. But now how different an account Protestants do make both of this or their own Church is easily seen by their own words and doings For as they contemn and impugn our Church which we hold for the only true so do they seldom speak of their own For when shall you hear a Minister or Protestant Writer allege the Authority of his Church against us or against his own Fellows when they fall out as often they do or if he should how lightly is it esteemed even by themselves You may read the eager Contentions of the Protestant Churches of Saxony which are Lutherans against those of Heidelberg and other Towns of the Palsgrave's Country that are of a different Sect and of these again against other Consorts of other Provinces both of Switzerland and other parts of Germany yea between the soft and severe Lutherans themselves as between the Calvinian Churches of England and Scotland and in England it self between the Protestants Puritans and Brownists at this day who are nothing else but soft and severe Calvinists In all which sharp Contentions if any part do but name the Authority of their several Church which is very seldom the other presently falleth into laughter holding the Authority thereof so ridiculous as it is not worth the naming so as the Argument taken from the Authority of the Church which with us is of so high esteem as we say with S. Augustin That we would not believe the Gospel if the Authority of the Church did not move us thereunto with these Fellows is most base and contemptible 12. Moreover when they talk of their own Churches tho' every Sect and Sectary for Honors sake would be content to have them accounted Catholic as Lactantius before testified of the Heretics of his time yet do they speak it so coldly and do use the word Catholic so sparingly as they will shew that in their Consciences they do not believe it and a man might answer them as S. Augustin answered Gaudentius the Donatist whose Sect being a particular company of Heretics in Africa presumed by little and little first in jest and then in earnest to call themselves Catholics and their Church the Catholic Church as Protestants do at this day and being reprehended for it by S. Augustin and others would needs prove the same by the Definition of Catholic taken out of S. Cyprian S. Augustin I say after a long refutation thereof out of S. Cyprian's words to the contrary concludeth thus Quid igitur vos ipsos c. Why then do you go about both to deceive your selves and other Men with impudent Lies against S. Cyprian If your Church be the Catholic Church by the testimony of this Martyr shew us that your Church doth stretch her beams and boughs throughout the whole Christian World as ours doth for this S. Cyprian called Catholic c. So as by S. Augustin's Argument if the Protestants cannot shew that their Church hath her beams and boughs spread throughout all the Christian World and that her Faith is the general Faith received amongst all Christians and not only of particular Provinces then cannot they call her or esteem her for Catholic as indeed they do not but for fashion sake and from the teeth outward as hath been shewed 13 For when they come to set her out in her best colours they make her but a very obscure base and contemptible thing first in outward shew calling her the poor oppressed and persecuted Church as Fox's words are troden under foot neglected in the World not regarded in Histories and almost scarce visible c. So as where all the ancient Fathers do triumph and vaunt against both Heretics and Heathens as we do at this day against Protestants that the Catholic Church is more eminent and splendent than the Sun it self and more famously known than any other Temporal Kingdom or Monarchy that ever was in the World Fox of his Church confesseth that she is scarce visible neglected in the World not regarded in Histories c. 14. And then again he playeth fast and loose making her visible and invisible Altho' saith he the right Church be not so invisible in the world as none can see it yet neither is it so visible again that every worldly Eye may perceive it So saith he But how contrary to this was S. Chrysostom who would not yield that the right Catholic Church could be so much as obscured by any force or means whatsoever and thereof vaunting against Infidels saith It may be perhaps that some Heathen here will despise my arrogancy about the Majesty of our Church but let him have patience to expect until I come forth with my Proofs and then shall he learn the force of truth and how it is easier for the Sun it self to be wholly extinguished than for the Church to be so much as darkned or obscured Thus said S. Chrysostom And mark good Reader the difference of Spirits S. Chrysostom vaunteth of the outward splendor and majesty of his Church and John Fox contrariwise doth
The Use of Epact Golden Number and Cycle of Dominical Letters for observing Easter day * Euseb lib. 5. Ecc. hist c. 23. S. Amb. ep ad Episcopos per. Aemiliam constitutos and St. Bede l. de ratione temp c. 57. Where also they do yield the reasons of this Ordination The Sectaries of our time allow of the celebrating Easter with the Jews Camp. in ration reddit cap. 1. Luther 's Opinion of Easter Lib. de Concil Gal. 4. John Bale defendeth the Jewish keeping of Easter lib. 3. c. 25. Bed. l. 3. c. 25. l. 4. c. 3.14 An. Dom. 677 678. Bal. cent 1. script Brit. Bed. l. 3. c. 25. Act. 20. Bal. cent 1. script Brit. in Colman Absurd calumniations of John Bale Bal. ibid. Bal. cent 1. in Wilfrid A most malicious speech of Bale against St. Wilfrid Crimes objected by Bale to St. Wilfrid * Bal. cent 5. descript Brit. fol. 244. Cent. ibid. See the Martyrology of Vsuard and the Annot. of Molan die 12. Oct. and Baron upon the Rom. Martyr eodem die Epiph. haeres 50. Aug. har 29. Philast in catal hares Tert. de praescrip advers Haeres Concil Ant. cap. 1. Concil Laod. cap. 7. Theod. l. 3. c. ult de fab haer Niceph. l. 4. hist c. 36. Damasc haeres 50. Theod. l. 6. c. 9. Euseb l. 3. de vit Constant c. 17 18. Socrat. l. 6. hist c. 10 20. Tert l. de praesc cont haeres Why the Asian Custom of celebrating Easter was condemmed Gal. 2. Gal. 5. How the celebrating of some Ceremonies or Customs for a time might be lawful Acts 15.29 Acts 16.3 How the Roman Use began of celebrating Easter upon a Sunday Bed. l. de ratio temp c. 42. Ignat. ep 6. ad Magnes 8. ad Philip. Apoc. 1.10 Euseb in Chron. an 148. De consecrat dis 3. cap. Nosse ibid. dis 4. cap. Celebritatem Euseb l. 5. hist c. 23 24. Ibid. cap. 22. The Decree of Pope Victor about keeping Easter Niceph. l. 4. c. 36. Theod. l. 6. c. 9. The testimony of Constantine the Emperor Euseb l. 3. de vit Constant c. 17. Euseb ibid. c. 8. The wicked Spirit of our Sectaries Reasons moving King Lucius to enquire of Christian Religion Baron in annal Ecc. an Christi 183. tom 2. When K. Lucius was converted * Bed de gestis Angl. l. 1. c. 4. de sex aetat sub Ant. Vero. Ado in chron sub Commodo Imp. Mar. Scot. in 6. atat Pol. Virg. l. 1. John Fox his Tergiversation Fox Act. and Mon. p. 96. col 2. First Cavil The effect of 7 Cannons planted by Jo. Fox to batter the story of K. Lucius conversion from Rome Fox his first kind of Arguments Impertinent The second kind of Arguments Impertinent and Ignorant Fox pag. 95. The Age of Tertullian falsified Tert. lib. de pallio c. 3. n. 42. Jac. Pamelius in vit Tertull. pag. 29. Fox ibid. col 2. n. 73. Orig. hom 4. in Ezechiel circa medium The Age of Origen perverted Euseb l. 7. hist c. 1. A request and prevention to the Reader Fox pag. 96. A forg'd Gildas brought in by Fox Pol. Vir. l. 1. hist pag. 16. Fox pag. 96. Fox's last and falsest Argument Contempt of the Testimony of Antiquity About the Epistle of P. Eleutherius to K. Lucius cited by Fox Fox pag. 96. col 2. n. 40. Fox's subtilty in concealing the Original in Latin. Fox pag. 96. Fox Act and Monument pag. 96. col 2. n. 30. Act Mon. ibid. Holinsh p. 24. descript Angl. col 2. n. 40. The contrariety between Fox and his Scholars About the substance of Eleutherius's Epistle to K. Lucius 183. First Cause Second Cause Hol. l. 4. hist Ang. c. 19. p. 52. Jewell fo 119. Fox Acts and Mon. p. 96. Hol. descript Brit. pag. 25. The first point of Eleutherius's Epistle How Temporal Princes are God's Vicars also Rom. 13. Ephes 6. Reasons which make the Epistle of Eleutherius suspected John Fox playeth Reynard the Fox Encount 2. c. 4. Fox 's Confession Act Monum pag. 96. 1 2 3 4. Comparison between the Fox and the Cub Wast p. 192. Points of Religion not expresly handled or determined by the Church within the first two hundred years Two ways of Proof the one negative the other affirmative The first way of argument negative against Protestants The first ground of St. Augustins rule Ang. l. 4. de Bapt. cont Donat c. 6. Lib. 4. de bapt c. 24. Two reasons why that which is generally received in the Church and hath no known beginning may be presumed to come from the Apostles Ioan. 14.15 16. Mat. 16. The second ground of St. Augustin's rule The proper state of the Question Transubstantiation ever in the Cath. Church Amb. l. 4. 5 9. de Sacramentis The Council of Lateran under Innocentius III. Anno 1215. A silly shift of the Heretics The Inference upon all the former Negative Argument That Heresies could not creep into the Church without being espied An experimental deduction A Consideration of much importance The difficulty of bringing in five new Sacraments * Sess 7. cap. 1. * 4 dist 5. q. 10 art 2. part 3. q. 64. act 4. Sess 21. c. 7. Impossibilities The difficulty of bringing in the use of Confession Two means of proofs by citing Authors Ordinary cavillation of the Adversary The story of the Magdeburgians A proud title against the Fathers Writings Magd. in praef Ep. dedicat ad Elizab. Angl. Reginam in cent 4. Magdeburgians against the Calvinists Cent. ib. pag. 9. Tom. 4. The Magdeb. speech to her Majesty against Calvinists Iren. l. 3. c. 3. advers haeres A notable speech of Irenaeus that lived with Eleutherius A collection upon Irenaeus's words About the Primacy of the Pope and Ch. of Rome Cent 2. cap. 4. pag. 63. Ignat. epist ad Rom. Tert. l. de praescrip Cent. 3. cap. 4. pag. 84. Cyp. l. 1. ep 8. Cyprian egregiously abused by the Magdeburgians Cyp. c. 4. ep 8. Tract de simplic Praelat Cyp. l. 1. ep 6. l. 4. c. 4. ep 9. Origen tract 1. in Mat. hom 15. in Levit. Greg. de Valent. The ridiculous manner of proceeding of the Magdeburgians About Mass and Sacrifice Three manner of fraudulent shifts in alledging discrediting the Fathers Cent. 3. c. 4. Cent. 2. c. 4. p. 55. The judgment of the Magdeburgians concerning the second Age. Cent. 3. c. 4. p. 17. Magdeburgians Quips against the Fathers About Freewill Cent. 2. c. 4. p. 53. Iren. l. 4. c. 72. Clem. Alexan. All Doctors in Eleutherius's time said to be in darkness about Free-will Cent. 3. c. 4. p. 77. Cent. 4. c. 4. p. 291. The Controversie of Justification Cent. 2. p. 59. Cent. 3. p. 79. Cent. 4. p. 191. About the Sacrament of Penance Cent. 2. p. 62. Cent. 3. p. 81. Cent. ib. About Good Works Ibid. p. 59. Clem. l. 5. strom Enc. 2. c. 16. Ibid. p. 80. Orig. l 8 in Ep. ad Rom. Cyp. l.
respect of obscurity and contemptibility John Fox may easily joyn his Church with them as also in having some sparkles of true Doctrin but not the whole body of true Doctrin among them 5. He may joyn also in divers particular Doctrins which these men held as peculiar Heresies to themselves and were condemn'd by the Church for such in those days and are held also in these days by John Fox his Church in the very self-same words sense and meaning as they were held by those Heretics As namely he may joyn with the Donatists who said that thy were the only true Church and called the Succession of Bishops in the Church of Rome as Sectaries do at this day the Chair of Pestilence and moreover that the whole Church besides themselves had erred c. which is the common Song of our modern Protestants And further if you will see how near of Kin these Donatists and our Protestants be both in Manners Conditions Doctrin and Belief read St. Augustin Optatus and other Writers that objected against them these things following to wit That they had cast the blessed Sacrament of the Altar to Dogs overthrew Altars broke Chalices and sold them cast a Bottle of holy Chrism out of the Church-window shaved Priests heads to take away their Unction turned Nuns out of their Monasteries to the World polluted all Church stuff and the like And whether John Fox and his Fellows do not joyn also in these Points let the Reader judge 6. They may joyn in like manner with the Eunomians for their only Faith who affirmed as St. Augustin saith quòd nihil cuiquam obesset guorumlibet perpetratio ac perseverantia peccatorum si hujus quae ab illis docebatur Fidei particeps esset That the committing and perseverance in never so great sins could not hurt him that was partaker of their Faith. They may also joyn with the Novatians of that time in denying the Churches power in forgiving sins They may joyn with the Aerians who taught as St. Angustin saith non oportere orare vel Oblationem offerre pro mortuis that we ought not to pray or offer Oblations for them that be dead and further That solemn Feasts are not to be appointed by the Church but every one to fast when he would lest he should seem to be under the Law c. 7. Thus testifieth St. Augustin of him and of Jovinian that followed him both the said Father and St. Hierom that wrote against him do accuse him to have held That all sins were equal before God that fasting from certain meats was not profitable that chast Marriage was equal in honor and merit to professed Virginity in Nuns and that he had been cause that some Nuns had married in Rome and finally that the reward in Heaven was equal to all men And is not this good currant Protestant Doctrin and Practice at this day But let us go forward They may joyn also with the Helvidians or Antidicomarians in impugning our Blessed Lady and equalling Marriage with Virginity And much more with Vigilantius in impugning the continent sole Life of Clergy-men Worship of Martyrs at their Tombs use of Candles and Torches in the Church by day-time Invocation of Saints Vows of Poverty and the like 8. I will go no further for that this is sufficient to see what Communion John Fox his Church did hold in these three Ages either with the common known Catholic Church of Christ or with these lurking Assemblies of Heretics pursued and persecuted by the said Church and for that John Fox is guilty to himself in this behalf he hath proceeded accordingly in his Acts and Monuments For whereas he promiseth a several Book of these second 300 years under this Title The second Book containing the next 300 years after Christ c. he not finding any sufficient matter for his purpose to patch up this second Book withal as he did the former with recounting the Martyrs of those days what shift deviseth he think you to blear his Readers eyes with all and to seem to say somewhat in the continuation of his Story You shall hear briefly and by this one trick you may learn to know the man and his meaning for the time to come 9. First he writeth but five leaves in all for the continuation of the Story of these second 300 years A short Volume you will say for so great and copious an Argument And yet further you must know that of these five leaves he passeth two in telling tales and matters that fell under Pope Eleutherius and King Lucius more than a hundred years before and consequently it should have been told in his former Book by order of Time and Story and then the other three leaves he spendeth in setting down the entrance of the Saxons into England about the year of Christ 449 and the Succession of their Pagan Kings unto St. Augustin's coming So as of all the foresaid glorious Christian Church for 300 years together to wit from Pope Sylvester and Constantine unto Pope Gregory and Mauritius the Emperour wherein she flourished more than in any other three Ages we find only five Leaves designed but scarce three Lines performed Whereby you may perceive how little part John Fox persuadeth himself to have in these three Ages for his hidden Church You may consider also what an honest Bargainer he is and how well he performeth his promise made in the first page of his whole Work wherein he saith That he will set forth at large the whole Race and Course of the Church from the Primitive Age to these latter times of ours c. whereof you see he hath performed nothing at all hitherto either largely or briefly I mean of this Race or Course of any Church General or Particular Domestical or Foreign Good or Bad True or False His or Ours for of the first 300 years he wrote only the ten Persecutions as you have seen and of the second 300 years he writeth nothing at all 10. Which if you consider well is a strange confession of his own weakness and poverty seeing that these three Ages to wit the fourth fifth and sixth are the most abundant of matter that are to be found in the Church of Christ from the beginning and so might he see by the Centuries of his Masters the Magdeburgians who do enlarge themselves much more in these three Ages than in the former enforced thereunto by the multitude of matter tho' all against themselves as before hath been noted and here will also appear which John Fox well perceiving thought best by slight of silence to avoid that inconvenience of treating a History so apparently against himself Which slight notwithstanding or rather flight every man of mean understanding doth easily see considering that according to the Argument of his Book and particular promise made before he should have declared to us That the Religion of Britanny in these 300