and namely in Nero for one affirming also the Grand Seignior now to be the Head of the Church in Turky as you may see in the Conference between Dr. Martin and him at his Tryal in Fox p. 1704. Which Relation if any think false let them say what other answer upon the former Suppositions there can rationally be returned § 60 3. For their refusing to officiate or celebrate Divine Service 3. and administer the Sacraments according to the former established Church Liturgies received and used by the whole Catholick Church for near a 1000 Years or so much as to be present at it which Divine Service they accused not only of many superstitious Ceremonies but of many Errors also and of flat Idolatry in the Adoration of Bread in the Eucharist See Fox his Preface to the Reign of Queen Mary p 1270 and Bishop Ridley's Conferences with Latimer Fox p. 1560 and 1562 1563. § 61 For their maintaining several Tenents 4. especially about the Holy Eucharist such as had been formerly declared Heresies by the Definitions of lawful Superior Councils As 1. First the denying of any corporal Presence of Christ either with the consecrated Elements or with the worthy Receiver whether by way of Transubstantiation or Consubstantiation urging that because this Body was in Heaven ergo it could not be in the Sacrament and affirming only a Real Presence I give you the very words of Bishop Ridley if taken generally and so as it may singnify any manner of thing which belongeth to the Body of Christ Hence Bishop Ridley's expressing of the manner of Christ's Presence in the Eucharist are such as these That the Consecrated Bread is the Body of Christ in remembrance of him and of his death That besides a signification of Christ's Body set forth by the Sacrament the Grace also of Christ's Body i e. the Food of Life and Immortality is given to the faithful That we recieve the vertue of the very Flesh of Christ the Life and Grace of his Body The Grace and the Vertue of his very Nature Spiritual Flesh but not that which was Crucified That Christ's Body is in the Sacrament because there is in it the Spirit of Christ i e. the Power of the word of God which seedeth and cleanseth the Soul That the Natural Body and Blood even that which was born of the Virgin Mary c is in the Sacrament verâ— realiter and that the difference from the Roman Church is only in modo in the way and manner of Being how is that for we saith he confess it to be there Spiritually by Grace and Efficacy because that whosoever receiveth worthily that Bread and Wine receiveth effectuously Christ's Body and Blood i e. he is made effectually Partaker of his Passion But otherwise Christ's Body is in the Sacrament really no more than the Holy Ghost is in the Element of Water in Baptisme therefore the Question proposed thus An Corpus Christi realiter adsit in Encharistiâ In King Edward's time was held Negatively See Disput. Oxon. 1549 and King Edw. 28. Article Thus Ridley who spake most clearly Fox p. 1703 and whose Schollar in this Opinion Cranmer was he being formerly a Lutheran and holding a Corporal Presence See these words of Ridley Fox p. 1598. in his last Examination and p. 1311 1312. in his stating of the first Question disputed on at Oxford which was not about Transubstantiation but about the Corporal Presence of Christ or the Real Presence of Christ's Body in the Eucharist which those Bishops denied as well as Transubstantiation The very same with whose Doctrine was that of Peter Martyr published in King Edward's days Disput Oxon 1â—49 Fol. 88. Illud idem corpus nos habere in coenâ Domini quod Christus obtulit in Cruce quoad substantiam veritatem naturae fateor sed non eodem modo quia spiritualiter i e. per fidem ipsi percipimus id vero substantiali corporali praesentiâ pependit in cruce Cum Chrysostomo id ipsum nos in Eucharistiâ habere corpus quod in Cruce fuit oblatum fatemur Sed non est modus recipiendi per praesentiam corpralem sed per praesentiam fidei quae potest res absentes spiritualiter praesentes facere Secondly The denying that the Eucharist might be offered as a Sacrifice propitiatory and asserting that there was in the Eucharist no other Oblation of Christ's Body than the Oblation of our Thanksgiving for Christ's Body offered on the Cross To use Peter Martyrs words Substantia hostiae nostrae est gratiarum actio de Corpore Christi tradito in Crucem Disput Oxon 1549. hac gratiarum actione fide atque confessione dixerunt Patres in Caenâ offerri corpus Christi Which matters are contrary to the Doctrines and Definitions of former lawful Superior Councils if those Positions stand good which have been said at large in the Discourse of the Eucharist §. 251 and Conc. Sacrif § _____ and which have been laid down concerning Councils in Ch. Gov. 4. Part which former Positions it must not be expected that I prove again wherever I make use of them § 62 To justify which Tenents not to be Heresies those Bishops were fain to appeal from Councils to Scripture and not to deny such Councils to be General or Superior but to deny the Authority of General or Superior Councils to be obliging when contrary to the Holy Scriptures i e. to that sense wherein themselves contrary to the Exposition of the Church interpreted the Holy Scriptures as was soberly urged to Bishop Ridley at his Tryal by the Bishop of Glocester Fox p. 1602. You saith he refusing the Determination of the Catholick Church bring Scripture for the Probation of your Assertions and we also bring Scriptures You understand them in one sense we in another How will you know the truth herein If you stand to your own Interpretation you are wise in your own conceit and Vae qui sapientes c. Isa 5.21 But if you say you will follow the minds of the Doctors and Ancient Fathers semblably you understand them in one meaning and we take them in another How will you know the truth herein If you stand to your own judgment then are you singular in your own conceit and cannot avoid the Vae It remaineth therefore that you submit your self to the determination and arbitrement of the Church with whom God promised to remain to the world's end Thus the other side argued with them But meanwhile what aversion they had of submitting to the judgment of the Church or Councils see in the forecited Conference of Bishop Ridley with Latimer Where having objected the Authority of General Councils for the Mass he answereth thus That whensoever they who rule and govern the Church are the lively Members of Christ and walk after the guiding and rule of his Word Councils gathered together of such Guides do indeed represent the Universal Church and have a
Thomas Dobb a Master of Art upon the same Account who also dyed in Prison Fox p. 1180. In Queen Elizabeth's days one Jo. Lewes and Matthew Hammond were burnt for Hereticks after they were first condemned by the Bishop and so delivered over to the Secular Power as those were in Queen Mary's Reign So also was Hacket executed then partly for Heresy and Blasphemy See Hollin Qu. Eliz. A. Reg. 21. 25. and Two Brownists Coppin and Thocker hanged at St. Edmunds-bury An. Dom. 1583 for Publishing Brown's Book written against the Common-Prayer-Book Likewise several others in her time condemned and recanting bare their Faggots See Stow p. 679 680. Stow p. 1174 Cambden 's Hist Eliz. p. 257. In King James's time Bartholomew Legat was burnt for an Heretick And in his time An. 3. Jac. 4. c. a Law was Enacted concerning Hanging Drawing and Quartering any who should turn Papist and be reconciled to the Pope and See of Rome tho a meer Laick tho one taking the Oath of Allegiance as several reconciled do The Words are If any shall be willingly reconciled to the Pope or See of Rome or shall promise Obedience to any such pretended Authority that every such Person or Persons shall be to all intents adjudged Traytors Is not this putting to death for pretended Heresy And to a Death worse than Burning So in Protestant States abroad Servetus by that of Geneva Valentinus Gentilis by that of Berne were burnt for Hereticks Calvin approving § 66 This to shew the Protestant's judgment concerning the justness and equity of the Law of burning Hereticks But whether this Law in it self be just and again if just whether it may justly be extended to all those simple People put to death in Queen Mary's days such as St. Austine calls Haereticis credentes because they had so much Obstinacy as not to recant those Errors for which they saw their former Teachers Sacrifice their Life especially when they were prejudiced by the most common contrary Doctrine and Practice in the precedent times of Edward the Sixth and had lived in such a condition of life as neither had means nor leisure nor capacity to examine the Church's Authority Councils or Fathers ordinarily such persons being only to be reduced as they were perverted by the contrary fashion and course of the times and by Example not by Argument either from reason or from authority and the same as I say of these Laity may perhaps also be said of some illiterate Clergy whether I say this Law may justly be extended to such and the highest suffering death be inflicted especially where the Delinquents so numerous rather than some lower Censures of Pecuniary Mulcts or Imprisonment these things I meddle not with nor would be thought at all in this place to justify Tho some amongst those unlearned Lay-people I confess to have been extreamly Arrogant and obstinate and zealous beyond knowledge and tho they had suffered for a good Cause yet suffering for it on no good or reasonable ground as neither themselves being any way Learned nor pretending the Authority of any Church nor relying on any present Teachers but on the certainty of their own private judgment interpreting Scripture as you may see if you have a mind in the Disputations of Anne Askew Fox p. 1125. Woodman the Iron-maker Fox p. 1800. Fortune the Smith Fox p. 1741. Allen the Miller Fox p. 1796. and other Mechanicks with Bishops and other Learned Men concerning the lawfulness of the Mass the Authority of the Church the Number of the Sacraments the manner or possibility of Christ's Presence in the Eucharist c themselves afterward penning or causing to be penned you may judge with what Integrity the Relations which we have of the said Disputations See more concerning the erroneous zeal of such like Persons in Fox Monuments later Edition Vol. 3. Fol. 242. 286. 396. 886. § 67 This concerning the lawful Ejection of those Protestant Bishops in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign And therefore others lawfully introduced in their places To. γ. 1. which if lawful so also will be the introduction of those who were chosen in their rooms tho this Introduction was * 1. whilst they Living or * 2. without their or the Metropolitan's Consent 1. Tho whilst they Living if such Election of them be after that the other are justly ejected Of this none can doubt Now most of the Protestant Bishops were ejected at the very beginning of Queen Mary's days for being married tho some of them not so speedily sentenced for Heresy But suppose the Introduction of the other was whilst they living and before their lawful Ejection yet these Bishops that are so unjustly I grant introduced if after that the others are ejected then their Superiors having the power to elect into such place do acknowledge and approve them from thence forward begin to be legitimate and enjoy a good Title § 68 2. To δ. 2. Tho without their or the Metropolitan's Consent For if the Arch-Bishop without whose consent the Canon permitteth not any Bishop to be consecrated in his Province be upon just cause and especially upon suspicion of Heresy in any restraint so as he cannot safely be suffered either in respect of the Church or State any longer to execute his office till cleared of such guilt here his Office is rightly administred as in Sede vacante by some other whether it be by some Bishop of the Province his Ordinary Vice-gerent or Substitute in such Cases or by the Delegates of that Authority which in the Church is Superior to the Arch-Bishops or by the consent of the major part of the Bishops of such Province And so Arch-Bishop Cranmer being at Queen Mary's first Entrance accused 1. of being Married an Irregularity incurring Deposition and also confessed and 2. of Treason and 3. of Heresy and for the Second of these being by the Queen's Council immediately imprisoned and shortly after condemned to dye before the Consecration of any new Bishop his Office was now lawfully supplyed by another either by Cardinal Pool the Popes Legat or by the Bishop the next dignified Person after the Arch-Bishop in the Province or by whomsoever the Queen should depute as for any exceptions that the Arch-Bishop could make against it since he acknowledged her for the Supreme Head of the English Church Or if notwithstanding such his restraint or condemnation according to the Canon no new Bishop could be made without the Arch-Bishop's consent yet could Arch-Bishop Cranmer justly claim no such Authority from the Canon as indeed he never did 1. Because he held the abrogation of such Canons to be in the Power of the Prince as the Supreme Head of this Church at least when assisted with the Parliament and major part of the Clergy And so then was this arguing ad homines abrogated by Queen Mary appointing allowing these new Elections 2. Because he had consented to the Statutes made formerly 25. Hen. 8.20 c. and 1
was no small occasion of sorrow unto them to understand by the complaints of many that the said Book so much travelled for remaineth in many places of the Realm either not known at all or not used or if used very seldome and that in such a light and irreverent sort that c. The fault whereof say they to the Bishop we must of reason impute to you and others of your vocation And thus Fox in the same Page What zealous care was in this young King concerning Reformation by these Injunctions it may tight well appear Whereby we have to note not so much the careful diligence of the King and his learned Council as the lingring slackness and drawing back on the other side of divers but especially of Bishops and old Popish Curates he meaneth the Clergy such as had not been changed by King Edward by whose cloaked contempt wilful winking and stubborn disobedience the Book of Common Prayer was long after the publishing thereof either not known at all or else very irreverently used throughout many places of the Realm And the same thing may be collected from the many Risings in several Counties that were in King Edward's days chiefly for matter of Religion First in Somerset-Shire and Lincoln-shire then in Essex Kent Suffolk Norfolk Cornwal and Devon-shire and afterward also in York shire Which Risings of the Laity in such numbers for their former way of Religion would not have been had not their Clergy justified it unto them § 123 To these give me leave to add yet further the testimony of Bishop Ridley one who knew well the pulse of those times in his Treatise lamenting the State of England apud Fox p. 1616. Even of the greatest Magistrates saith he some spurned privily and would not spare to speak evil of those Preachers who went about most wholsomely to cure their sore backs As for the common fort of other inferiour Magistrates as Judges c it may be truly said of them as of the most part of the Clergy Parsons Prebendaries Arch-Deacons Deans yea and I may say of Bishops also I fear me for the most part altho I doubt not but God had and hath ever whom he in every state knoweth to be his but for the most part I say they were never perswaded in their hearts but from the teeth forward and for the Kings sake in the truth of Gods word i. e. in the Protestant tenents and yet all these did dissemble he meaneth many for of all it is not true See before § 107. and bear a Copy of a countenance as if they had been sound within Hitherto Bishop Ridley Where note that some outward compliance at the first of those Bishops who made an open opposition afterward might be upon a fair pretence because the first Acts of the Reformation might be not so unsupportable as the later for the Reformation winded and insinuated it self into the common practice by certain gentle degrees the greatest blow to the former doctrine and discipline of the Church being given in the later times of this Kings Reign when it was now by some success grown more bold and confident But however it be such compliance used for a while but after ward renounced does avail nothing the Protestant cause since the later judgment in such matters is to be taken especially where it is no way corrupted by but proceedeth against secular advantages Again the perpetual outward compliance of some other Bishops contrarily affected since there preceded before it penalties and fears and the seeing of the prime Bishops to be imprisoned and ejected for standing our is far from an authentical consent and unjustly reckoned as such For tho none can know mens hearts but by their outward appearance yet where mens votes are asked after penalties imprisonments of others threats which are so strong motives of dissimulation now all that conform in these are to be presumed compilers and none free voters § 124 This testimony of Bishop Ridley's I will second with Mr. Fuller's Chur. Hist. 7. l. p. 414. We find saith he the Bishops of that time divided into three sorts zealous Protestants Cranmer Ridley Hooper Farrer c. but these named were made Bishops or consecrated as Ridley in King Edward 's time all save Cranmer ' Zealous Papists Bonner Gardiner Tonstal he might have named so many of the rest as were then ejected for their Religion Voicy Heath Day Papists in their hearts but outwardly conforming to the Kings Ecclesiastical Laws as Heath then Bishop of Worcester yet Heath was ejected and many other Bishops amongst whom elsewhere he numbreth S. l. p. 11. Sampson Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield of whom Godwin in Catalogue of Bishops saith That he began to shew himself a Papist in the second year of King Edward and was put out of the Presidentship of Wales Capon Bishop of Salisbury Thirlby Bishop of Norwich Buckly Bishop of Bangor add Parfew Bishop of Asaph Kitchin Bishop of Landaff Aldrich Bishop of Carlile Goodrich Bishop of Ely Chambers Bishop of Peterborough King Bishop of Oxford who all returned to the profession of the old Religion in Queen Mary's days Some of these forenamed flinging up a good part of their lands to keep their ground and complying with the Kings commands so coldly and with such reluctancy as laid them open to the spoil tho not to the loss of their Bishopricks as Dr. Heylin relates it in Hist of Reform p. 100. And here it is worthy of enquiry saith Fuller why this later sort which so complyed under King Edward should be so stubborn and obstinate under Queen Elizabeth whereof I can give but this reason assigned that growing old and near their graves they grew more conscientious and faithful to their own tho erroneous Principles Thus he I add to the open maintaining of which Principles their long experience having seen the arbitrary and floating state of Religion under a secular Supremacy in their old age excited them § 125 Lastly for the inferior Clergy tho many of them doubtless were changed in King Edward's days yet so many of them then remained still of the old Religion either in heart or also in profession that a Synod being called within five or six days after Queen Mary's Coronation before any new moulding of this Ecclesiastical body all of them except six voted against King Edward's Reformation See before § 51. To which may be added the zeal and forwardness of the Clergy and People at the same time preventing the Queen's Edicts in erecting again the Altars and using the Mass and Latine Service c. of which see Heylin Hist Q. Mary p. 24. All which could not have happened so soon after King Edward's death if during his life they had all so really and unanimously received and observed it Which Reformation also the Lady Mary in her Letter to the Council who blamed her for inconformity to the Kings laws intimates that it was not done without partiality nor consented unto without
is not so hard to be construed Oliverus as that it may not be believ'd that a Prophet rather then an Herald gave the common Father of Christendom the now Pope of Rome Innocent the tenth such Ensigns of his Nobility viz. a Dove holding an Olive-branch in her Mouth since it falls short in nothing of both being a Prophesie and fulfilled but only his Highness running into her Arms whose Emblem of Innocence bears him already in her Mouth Life and Death of J. Fisher. Lond. 1655. Margin with the Prologue and Epilogue of that Comedy which the Author of it call's The Life and Death of John Fisher Bishop of Rochester When He has read it he will excuse me if I decline the trouble of so much as considering what relies upon the sole Autority of that raving Legendarie From which Universities the King is said to have procur'd their suffrages for his Divorce not without feeing several of them with great Summs of Money Concerning which see the Testimonies of several Authors produc'd by Sanders p. 49. c. some of those he quotes saying that they had Money offer'd to themselves some that they were Eye witnesses of it receiv'd by others I once indeed thought that Sanders was the most impudent and shameless Writer which ever pretended to History But am now afraid having seen those Forgeries for which that Author has been so deeply stigmatiz'd brought upon the Stage again some may be apt to think there is one Person in the World who has a fairer title to that Character than He. For as if Sanders had not enough of imposture even his Testimony is by this Writer corrupted Some of those saying they had Moneys offer'd to themselves But the Some the they and the themselves do with Sanders amount only to one and he no other then Cochlaeus Nor was Money offer'd to him for his suffrage as it is here represented but on condition He would write a book in Defence of the King's cause or give himself the trouble of collecting the Sentences of the German Universities in favour of it So that were Cochlaeus a Person of credit and we oblig'd to believe him this would be capable of a fair Interpretation and the Money might justly be presum'd offerd not as a Bribe but a Reward Some that they were Eye-witnesses of it receiv'd by Others But the some and the Eye-witnesses are again but one unknown Bishop of Brasile As for this Calumny of Sanders concerning the buying of Subscriptions the Reader will find a full Confutation of it in a Burn. Hist Vol. 1. p. 89. 90. Dr. Burnet who amongst other undoubted Evidences of the falshood of this Scandal has given us the Original Letters of the King's Agents wherein with the greatest earnestness imaginable they labour to satisfie the King that his Instructions not to corrupt Subscribers had been religiously observ'd Tho' with your leave to make a little digression concerning this Controversie these Universities at least some of them consider'd only the point of the unlawfulness of one Marrying his Brother's Wife when such Marriage was consummate by carnal knowing her Without considering that Circumstance whether Catherine was carnally known by her first Husband It is only his Modesty to call this a Digression for it is as much to his purpose as that which goes before or follows after It is true that some of the forreign Universities do mention the Consummation But a See these Censures of the Universities Bur. V. 1. Coll. p. 89. they put no other Terms in their Answer then was propos'd to them in the Question so that this is no Argument that their Sentence did not reach the King's case but that the Consummation by Arthur was not then doubted of since the Question was propos'd by the King's Agents indifferently sometimes with sometimes without that Limitation It is therefore an impertinent Observation which is here made of their not considering whether Catherine was carnally known or not by her first Husband since they were desir'd only to answer a speculative Question not to judge of a matter of fact Prince Arthur being thought some-what infirm and being but fifteen years old when he Married her and dying shortly after In Latin thus b Sand. de Sch. p. 2. Edit Colon. 1628. Eo quod Arthurus decimum quintum aetatis annum vix dum attingens ex lento praeterea morbo laboraret cujus tabe post quintum mensem confectus ex hac vita migravit So the 2 Deponents Sanders and this Author But the c See the Depositions taken from the Original Records Herbert p. 270. Witnesses examin'd upon Oath before the Legats depos'd that Pr. Arthur was above fifteen at the time of his Marriage of a good and Sanguine Complexion vigorous and robust that he bedded with his Princess every Night and that the decay of which he died was imputed to his excesses in the Bed You may see if you have the curiosity what is said for the consummation of that Marriage in Fox against it in Sanders Not to indulge our curiosity too far it may with modesty be affirm'd that the forsan cognitam in the a See the Bull and Breve in Lord Herbert p. 264. Bull and the cognitam without forsan in the Breve and these words not put into the body of either as a Clause to make the Dispensation more large but in the Preamble as part of the matter of Fact represented to the Pope the b Bur. V. 1. p. 35. not giving Prince Henry the title of Prince of Wales for half an Year after Arthur's death the c Lord Herbert p. 270. Solemn benediction of the Nuptial Bed the d Ibid. Depositions of so many honourable Witnesses of their being constantly bedded together the e Fox's Acts and Mon. p. 1051. Edit Lond. 1583. proofs taken by the Spanish Embassadors of the consummation of the Marriage and the f Lord Herbert p. 271. Expressions of Prince Arthur to his Servants which implied the same are greater Arguments for the Affirmative then any thing which is by Sanders or can be by this Author advanc'd for the Negative Tho' the former Marriage had been consummate many Learned Men of that Age of several Nations amongst whom were Fisher Bishop of Rochester and Tonstal Bishop of Duresme whom you may find diligently reckon'd up to the Number of almost Twenty by Sanders wrote books in Justification that the Marriage of Henry with Catherine was a matter dispensable It has been already said that all the Bishops except Fisher had given it under their Hands and Seals that the King's Marriage was unlawful In all the Memorials of those times Fisher is the only Bishop we find mention'd to have wrote for it If Tonstal wrote for it yet the Bishop of Duresme did not For Tonstal's book according to a Sand. p. 42. Sanders who is this Man's Author was given in to the Legates and Tonstal then was Bishop of