their seruice craftily to build the temple It is not for you but for vs to build the house vnto our God And as Valentinian made answer to the Romaine Embassadors that made petition for the restoring of the idoll temples That which my brother Gratian taketh away how can you thinke I should restore In so doing I should both hurt religion and do my brother wrong Postulet parens Roma alia quaecunque desideret Let our mother citie Rome aske any thing else which she desireth This good Emperour Valentinian being yet but young was so resolute to continue the puritie of religion that notwithstanding the instance of the Romaine Orators and the counsell of all his Senatours that approued their petition he would not graunt any libertie to Romaine idolatrie Lycurgus answer was very fit to one that perswaded that the gouernement might be committed to the people Do thou first make triall in thy house giuing thy seruants the rule So these that would haue diuerse religions in the CoÌ„mon-weale yet mislike that there should be any but their owne profession in their houses and families their children and seruants being for the most part if they may haue their desires like affected to themselues We thanke God for your Maiesties firmenesse and constancie herein praying heartily for the encrease of Christian zeale strength and corage in your princely heart But as your excellent resolution is to haue the state of the Church and Commonwealth no worse so we reioyce to heare of your princely consultation to make them both better Alwaies the noble Princes Reformers haue added somewhat to their predecessors worke and where the other left they began Dauid brought the Priests and Leuits to order Salomon built the Temple Asa tooke away Idolatrie Iehosaphat remoued the high places Hezekiah brake downe the brasen Serpent Iosias restored the feast of the Passeouer to his first integritie vnder Nehemiah the feast of Tabernacles was reuiued So in England Henrie the eight expelled the Pope and abolished Idolatrie King Edward proceeded and abrogated the Masse Queen Elizabeth weÌ„t yet further took order for recusants seminary seducing Priests Iudasits and somewhat it may be is yet remaining either to be amended or added by your Maiestie for we doubt not but that you haue set your heart to seeke the Lord and with Hezekiah to do that which is good in his sight That saying of Alexander doth well fit a Christian Prince It profiteth not to possesse all things and to do nothing As we ioy to see you a possessor of the Crowne so we desire to behold you an agent in Christs Church we ioy from our hearts to see what reformation your Mâ—â—estie hath begun in the Common-wealth in staying of monopolies redressing of oppression and extortion by officers restraining vnlawfull games vpon the Lords day We do also as much reioyce to thinke of your princely resolution for matters Ecclesiasticall In restoring the reuenues of the Church and misliking the law of Annexation in maintaining the three estates of Parliament in seeing that all Churches in your dominions be planted with good Pastors And that euery Church may be thus planted with a good Pastor one should no longer be suffered to haue many nor he that is no good Pastor nor able to teach any and if the Pastor must be planted in his Church then to be plucked and pulled from thence by long absence is not fit Thus so many hundred Churches that want teachers shall be supplied and diuers hundred Preachers not yet called abroade shall be employed But seeing a great cause of an vnlearned Ministery is want of maintenance we thanke God for your Highnesse Christian care also herein that sufficient prouision be made for the sustentation of Ministers which may be fitly done if patrons were vrged to bestow their liuings freely and better order were taken for impropriations that such as are of the Churches fee be demised for the old rent to the incumbent Preacher such as belong to others be charged with some conuenient portion to issue forth for the maintenance of the Pastor But I presume not to prescribe a course but onely to giue my simple aduice To our great comfort also your Maiestie hath declared your princely care and desire that the doctrine and discipline be preserued according to Gods word whereas the first hath bin in this Church by some with vnsound teaching corrupted as I haue partly shewed in the Preface following the other by some much neglected by others not vsed well There are bookes abroade maintaining offensiue doctrine too much declining to poperie which haue done great hurt it might please your Maiestie that such dangerous bookes might be inhibited and because they are dispersed into many hands that they receiue some answer by publike allowance or sufficient satisfaction from the authors lest the infection spread further We also with thaÌ„ks to God take knowledge of your Highnesse Christian disposition to peace that no coÌ„tention shold be in the Church about ceremonies in your princely iudgement indifferent whereabout the Church of England hath bene much distracted Lycurgus is said to auoide drunkennesse to haue forbid the vse of vines Your Highnesse in good time may more easily remoue the iust occasions of offence or so indifferently moderate them that they breede no strife God giue your Maiestie strength in due time to reforme both those and what other abuses are in Church or Commonwealth Some perhaps would haue your Maiestie to minister no phisicke at all as though the Church ayled nothing which were nothing else but with Herodotus Selymbrianus in Plato to make a long and lingring sickenesse who falling into an incurable disease deuised how to prolong death where he could not preuent it Some would haue Heraclitus phisicke vsed to do nothing but purge who being sicke of a dropsie desired the Phisitian to purge him throughly to turne the abundance of showers into drought so they would haue all purged not the superfluous humors onely but some profitable parts as the very calling it selfe of reuerend Pastors and Bishops who while they attend the sincere preaching of the word and the vncorrupt administration of discipline may no doubt do the Church much good But the better sort desire neither with Heroditus nothing to be purged nor with Heraclitus all things to be euacuated and purged but rather approue Hippocrates method that what is euill may be purged the rest to be coÌ„forted strengthened This was Saint Pauls course to purge out the old leauen that there might be a new lumpe We would not the leauen lumpe of dough and all to be cast out but the lumpe to be renewed the old sower leauen to be reiected Thus shall your Maiestie shew your selfe as Hierome saith of one to be Hippocrates Christianorum A right Hippocrates of Christians indeed that you may say with the kingly Prophet Dauid The earth and the inhabitants
great many of other diseases Christ and his Apostles were but bunglers in working miracles to these if they may haue their saying Origen to Celsus who counted it as a fable that Christ raised some from the dead maketh this answere Si fabulosa haec essent multos resurrexisse finxisset If these things were fabulous they would haue fained more to haue risen whereas now three onely are said to haue been raised We may therefore worthily doubt of these straunge reports of miracles wherein they haue no measure bringing foorth such a beadrole of them Thirdly we haue the aduersaries owne confession who themselues suspect the credit of these tales therefore Alexander the 3. forbiddeth a certaine Popish saint to bee worshipped although miracles were done by him without the authoritie of the Church of Rome Innocentius 3. also decreeth that Prelates should not suffer those which come to their Churches to be deceiued varijs figmentis aut falsis documentis with diuers figments and cousening trickes The Abbot of Clumack testifieth that he noted foure and twentie lies in the song of Benedict as he sung it in the Church Espencaeus a learned Papist holdeth that to be but a fable reported by Christianus Massaeus lib. 8. Chronic. of Trophimus that hauing buried his wife in a rocke dying in trauell with the childe sucking at her breasts two yeere after sailing that way found her aliue and the childe sucking Many fables are current among the Ignatian Fathers of the straunge visions which their founder Ignatius Layola had As how he was rapt into heauen where hee saw the Trinitie in three persons and one essence how the tooles and paterne were shewed vnto him whereby God made the world how at the eleuation of the hoast he saw Iesus Christ in it in bodie and flesh iust as he was vpon the earth c. The like stuffe they haue vented of Xauiere one of the Ignatian sect who wrought great wonders among the Indians how he raised sixe dead men to life how sending a little child with a crosse to one possessed with diuels they went out fretting at this most of all quod per puerū pellebantur because they were cast out by a child as saith the fabulous author How a diuell being cast foorth scratched him by the back and bellie as he prayed to the Virgine Mary that he was constrained to keepe his bed till the skin was healed How when he was dead a blind man by rubbing his hand vpon his eies receiued his sight how with his whip wherewith he vsed to beate himselfe and a piece of his girdle an infinite number of diseases were cured All these tales though magnified by Bellarmine who is readie to take any occasion to grace his own order yet by other Papists not so light of credit are reiected as meere fables and old wiues tales as they well deserue Fourthly many of these Monkish miracles and Frierlie fables are ridiculous and not beseeming the grauitie of right holie men such is that of Dunstanes holding the diuell by the nose with a paire of tongs and of the diuell scratching Xauiere by the backe Are not these very worthie matters thinke you to bee registred Such tooles Hierome calleth Prandiorum coenarumque fabulas table talke and mimum Philistionis vel Marilli stropham he compareth them to Philistions iests who made verses to moue laughter and died of laughing or Marillus toyes Fiftly the end of these Popish miracles is to be considered which is not to perswade faith in Iesus Christ or to stirre vp to godlines of life which was intended by our Sauiour Christ and his Apostles in their miracles But this was the drift of them to confirme their owne superstitious deuises in the adoration of Images inuocation of Saints visiting the tombes of the dead worshipping their reliques and such like This difference Origen well obserued betweene the miracles of the Christians and the Pagans Magorum nemo per ea quae facit sicut Iesus ex rebus quas factitârit mirandis ad morū imitationem inuitat None of the Magicians by their miraculous workes as Christ did by his doe moue men to amendment of their manners May we not now iustly wonder that any are so simple to giue credit to such grosse fables but that it is a iust iudgement of God vpon those that will not receiue the truth to beleeue lies These false teachers as Ambrose saith Per ea quae placida sunt suadent foeda By pleasing tales perswade beastly stuffe And their blind schollers as Hierome sayth sub martyris nomine bibunt de aureo calice Babylonis vnder the colour of martyrs and of their miracles do drinke of the whore of Babylons golden cup but like as Satyrus the Sauian his friends are said to haue stopped his eare with waxe that he should not heare the rayling speech of his aduersaries so men had more neede to stop their eares against these flattering and pleasing tales as against the Syrene songs But I haue stayed too long in raking in this channell and stirring in this dunghill of popish legends The seauenth Perswasion 1 I Defend not a religion tossed and tennised vp and downe with so many bounds and rebounds both in head and members contayning so many falsities by their owne proceedings 2 So many contradictions in essentiall things as there be essentiall questions 3 Neither do what it could hauing the temporall sword hath hitherto condemned vs. 4 But a religion which in the space almost of 1600. yeares neuer changed one point of doctrine neuer admitted error in faith or the least contradiction therein either in decree of Pope or confirmed Councell The Disswasion 1 ANd I defend that religion which hath not beene tossed vp and downe chopped or changed in head or members as this alogisticall discourser sclandereth the Gospell but hath continued one and the same for these 60. yeares since the first abolishing of the Masse in England all which time the profession of the Protestants in England in the substantiall points of faith hath not altered hitherto neyther I trust shall hereafter The Communion booke hath been but once altered among vs all this while whereas the forme of the Masse in the Romane profession hath beene often chopped and changed patched and pieced by adding to it and taking from it which was for the space of 700. yeares in fining and refining before it came to that deformed perfection which now it hath Reade Platina and Polidore Virgil there shall you finde how and by whome and in what processe of time euery part of the Masse was deuised 2 Which conteyneth neither falsities nor contradictions in any essentiall points as poperie doth neither shall this trifler be able to shew any such falsitie or cōtrarietie who herein and euery where almost would haue vs take his owne word as though he were the
running in a maze and not knowing where he is he speaketh contraries affirming vnawares what he before vntruely denied that the Magistrates chiefe care and sollicitude must be in taking order for such causes he meaneth of religion pag. 49. lin 13. And thus as Augustine fayth Impij in circuitu ambulant qui in gyrum it nunquaÌ„ finit c. The vngodlie walke in a maze as he that goeth in a compasse neuer is at an end And thus this obliuious discourser runneth himselfe out of breath saying and vnsaying for if the Magistrates chiefe care must be in taking order for causes of religion how do they not properly belong to the iudgement and redresse of those which rule in the common-wealth Much like he is to the roape-maker in Purgatorie who as fast as he twisteth the roape an asse behind deuoureth it So his wrested speeches as the ouer-runnings of his mouth are licked vp by a contrary breath Now right honorable this Popes-creature at the first discouereth himselfe he is his grand-masters factor to engrosse all ecclesiasticall causes to his vnholines and would cut your honors short both of iudgement and power in matters of religion And thus full well like a wise Orator he doth wisely at the first exasperate them to whom he would insinuate himselfe But go on my Lords in your honorable course to whom I do not only wish all excellent knowledge and iudgement in religion as S. Paule said vnto King Agrippa I would to God that not only thou but all that heare me to day were both almost and altogether such as I am c. but prosperous successe also in the defense thereof And I say with Hierome to euery one of your honors Cur qui in seculo primus es non in Christi familia primus sis Why should ye not that are chiefe in the world be chiefe also in Christs familie 2. Motiue Because you are sworne Councellers to assist our Princesse whose chiefe stile and title is graunted to her father King Henry the 8. by Pope Leo the 10. defender of the faith for defending the Catholike Romane religion against Luther c. The remooue 1. This title to be defender of the Church or faith was due vnto the Prince and giuen to the Kings of England long before King Henry in Edward the Confessors time Illos decet vocare reges qui vigilanter defendunt regunt ecclesiam Dei It is meete to call them Kings that vigilantly defend and gouerne the Church of God 2 Her Maiestie according to her princely stile hath shewed her selfe in deede while she liued a most constant Defender of the faith and to none of her predecessors was this stile more truely giuen for it is not conteyned in her Maiesties stile to be defender of the Romane or Papall but simplie of the faith 3 What if it were bestowed vpon King Henry for writing against Luther c. that famous King did not receiue it in that sense or at the least reteined it not neyther is it now annexed to the imperiall Crowne in that regard for writing c. which concerned the King only then being not his succession nor yet as a gift from the Pope but as a right due to all Christian Princes to defend the faith What the occasion first was of this title it skilleth not neither by whom nor for what it was taken vp so long as it is not a vaine title but the Princes proceedings are answereable to the stile 4 The heathen Emperors of Rome first vsed in their stile to be called Pontifices maximi High Priests as it may appeare by the Epistle of Antoninus Pius to the people of Asia yet the Christian Emperors continuing that stile to be named Pontifices maximi as Flauianus Valentinianus pontifex Inclytus Flauius Marcianus pontifex Inclytus c. yet were not bound by their stile to maintaine the idolatrous religion of the Pagane Emperors from whom it was descended but they in another sense did call themselues high priests as hauing the chiefest care of the Christian faith as the other had before of idolatrie So the Queenes highnes then and the Kings Maiestie is now called a Defender of the right Christian faith howsoeuer their predecessors might be defenders of another religion And as Pilate did write Christ King of the Iewes ignorantlie confessing the truth so did the Pope name the King of England Defender of the faith prophecying as Caiphas against himselfe and foretelling vnawares that the Princes of this land should become true defenders of the faith indeede 5 This title of Defender of the faith is more truly annexed to the Crowne of England then the stile of Holines to the Popes chaire and of Catholike to the King of Spayne who I could wish indeede were that which they are called But I feare me these titles do agree vnto them euen as the titles of benefactors and of Sauiours were vsurped of Antiochus and the Ptolomies which were cruell tyrants And as Dionysius the yonger called his daughters by the names of vertue chastitie iustice being an enemie to them all Who herein are like vnto those qui titulos potentiorum praedijs suis affigunt who the better to hold their lands do entitle great men with them against which fraude Arcadius made a lawe And as Augustine sayth Haeretici ad defensionem possessionis suae Christi titulos ponunt sicut nonnulli faciunt in domo sua c. Heretikes to defend their possession pretend the title of Christ as many vse to do in their houses entitling some great men with them to keepe them from wrong Ipse vult possessor domus frontem domus suae de titulo alieno vult muniri He will be the owner of the house himselfe yet will haue another beare the name So the Pope will be the master of faith himselfe yet pretendeth the name of Christ of holines of Catholike religion So are not our late Queene and now soueraigne Lord defenders of the faith but their Christian proceedings thankes be giuen vnto God are answerable to their honourable titles The third motiue Our vniust persecution vnder your predecessors requireth amends and I hope at the least shall receiue a toleration The Remoue 1. The punishment which hath been inflicted vpon treacherous Iudasites is no more persecution then for felons and murderers to be executed at Tiburne they suffer worthily for their traiterous conspiracies and practises shamelesse men they are that complaine of persecution when as they hold most traiterous positions against the Prince and state as whereas the secular Masse-Priests professe if it bee in truth that if the Pope should attempt by force of armes to inuade the land they would resist him in person and that if they knew of any designements by the Pope to enter by force c. to reforme religion they would reueale it to the State Disloyall Pâ—rsons in the name of that
as may witnesse that bloodie massacre of France and the continuall ciuill warres for many yeeres together wherein not so few Christian people as 100. thousand haue perished England thankes be to God hath no such flowers growing in her garden neither I trust euer shall Neither doe wee desire nay wee would not for all the kingdomes of the world chaunge our state with any of those flower countries Italie France Spaine which in deede are flowers and leaues without true fruite Though the Popes iurisdiction hath been large yet can hee not compare with the pontifices maximi among the Romans which was an office of such high authoritie and great commaund that the title was afterward annexed to the Empire and the Emperours tooke vpon them to be called the high Priests The other Patriarchall Seas also did equalize Rome in largenes of iurisdiction especially Alexandria to the which was subiect al Egypt Libya Pentapolis with all the Christian Churches of Africa The Pope hath no great cause to brag of his greatnes for his wings are well clipped and I doubt not but to see yet more of this proud birds feathers pulled Neither is largenes of dominion a good argument for religion for then Pagane idolatrie which was more vniuersally receiued at once in the 〈◊〉 then Christianitie should thrust out the Gospell of 〈◊〉 And as for the King of Spaine◠〈◊〉 he may thanke the poore Indians for it whose throates the Spaniards haue cut for their gold neither is it such but that hee knoweth how to spend it and for all his great treasure his coffers are often emptie enough But let it be remembred how these popelings measure religion by riches and outward glorie which if it were a good rule the rich Chaldeans Assyrians Persians should rather haue bin the people of God thē the poore Israelites the rich Scribes and Pharisies should be preferred before the Apostles 2. Popish religion denieth dutie to God making other Mediatours beside Christ teaching inuocation of Saints adoration of images which are peculiar to God neither doth it giue honour to Magistrates abridging them of their lawfull authoritie in matters ecclesiasticall and giuing the Pope authoritie to excommunicate and depose Princes and to absolue their subiects of their oath Concerning the particulars of Popish profession what little comfort is in them how derogatorie to God contrarie to Scriptures I haue shewed before in the answere to the 5. section 3. The Pope so well appeased the quarrels betweene Henry the 2. and his Nobles that after the King had reconciled himselfe to the Pope for the death of Thomas Becket and yeelded to doe penance his troubles began afresh betweene him and his sonnes Richard and Iohn that he died for griefe And the Pope by his Legates and factors in England and other countries hath been a mouer not a compounder of strife a raiser rather then layer of warre Did not Gregorie the 7. set vp Rodolphus against Henry the 4. the Emperour betweene whom many bloodie battels were fought Did not Pope Paschalis incite Henrie the sonne against the Emperor Henrie the father and dispossessed him of the Empire Vrban the 2. did put downe Hugo Earle of Italie discharging his subiects of their oth and obedience Gregorie the 9. did excommunicate Fredericke the 2. and raised vp the Venetians against him And in England Pope Innocent the 3. commaunded vnder paine of his great curse that no man should obey King Iohn he gaue definitiue sentence in his consistorie that he should be deposed from his Crowne and appointed Philip King of France to execute this sentence promising him full remission of his sins to kill or expell King Iohn Vrban the 4. set Henrie the 3. and his Nobles together by the eares absoluing the king of his oth made to performe certaine articles agreed vpon at Oxford whereupon the Barons warres were renewed Pope Boniface set variance betweene England and Scotland in the raigne of Edward the 1. challenging Scotland as proper to the Sea of Rome But in steed of easing the people of rigorous exactions imposed by Princes the Pope himself hath vsed vnreasonable extortions Rigandus de Asteri◠the Popes Legate in England in Edward the 2. his raigne demaunded of the Clergie 8. pence in the marke toward the Legates charges but they graunted only 4. pence in the marke He also laboured to bring in a new manner of collection of Peter pence but was resisted by the King The like did Henricus the 3. Repressit impetum Legati propter violentiam denariorum He restrained the attempts of the Popes Legate touching his violent exactions of money The Bishops of England after great and forcible intreatie agreed to pay to the Pope 11000. markes The King of England saith the same author made payment to Pope Alexander the 4. vpon a very friuolous and fond matter 950000. markes Bonner himselfe witnesseth that the Popes pray in England came almost to as much as the reuenewes of the Crowne The Pope had the first fruites of all the Bishopricks in England which came to a great summe Canterburie paied 10000. Florences and 5000. for his pall Yorke as much Winchester 12000. Elie 7000. The whole summe of all the first fruites in Europe which came to the Popes coffers amounted to 2460843. Florences which maketh well nie 6. hundred 15. thousand two hundred and ten pound starling Iudge by this now Christian Reader what an impudent man this is to make the Pope a mitigator of great exactions whereas he hath been the most cruell extortor and exactor in the world As is his credit in this so let him be beleeued in the rest 4. Popish confession is so farre from keeping subiects from deuising against their Prince as that it hath been the speciall engine and instrument to contriue treacherie against the state Simon the Monke was confessed and absolued of his Abbot when he enterprised to poyson King Iohn Frier Forrest in secret confession declared to diuers subiects that King Henry the 8. was not supreame head of the Church and so abused confession to sedition Peter Barriere was confessed in the Colledge of the Iesuites in Paris and tooke the Sacrament whē he intended to murder the french King that now is Iohn Chaestell also that conspired the like had been often schooled in the Iesuites chamber of meditations These are the fruites of popish confession deuising of treasons reuealing of secrets seeking occasion to do euill for by this opportunitie diuers lewd Priests sollicited the parties that came to be confessed vnto euill As mention is made in the papall rescripts of one qui cum alterius coniuge frequenter in ecclesia dormiuit which oftentimes in the Church slept with another mans wife And this should seeme to be so vsuall a practise that for restraint thereof they decreed against it non debet episcopus vel presbyter commisceri
before they vsed to call theÌ„ their nephews Alexander the 6. had also diuers basely begotteÌ„ as Caesar Borgia another Duke of Candie and Iuffredus Paulus the 3. had a wicked sonne like the father Petrus Aloisius Bloudie Bonner here in England had diuers base children to whom he gaue in farme diuers of the lands belonging to his See An hundred such examples might be shewed of popish Prelates that kept their concubines and filled the Church with bastardie But would any man thinke that this Ignatian Frier so much misliking concubines would not therein cleare his owne order and discharge themselues of that crime whereof they accuse others yet let vs heare what one of their fellow Masse-priests reporteth Haue you not beard I pray you how not long since a Iesuite here in London erected a kind of familie of loue lecturing by night three or foure nights together to his auditors all of women and those faire ones for the most part Haue you not heard of the night meeting for feare at leastwise I am sure you haue heard of many do know some who missing their wiues the while haue scratched their heads where it itched not and bit their lips Therefore this obiection I returne and cast it as his owne dirt vpoÌ„ the libellers face We may say vnto him as S. Paul to the Iewes Thou that teachest another teachest thou not thy selfe And that old saying is verified vpon him He taketh vpon him to be a phisician of others and is diseased himselfe Hierome well said Perdit authoritatem docendi cuius sermo opere destruitur He loseth the authoritie of teaching whose speech is ouerthrowne by his owne doing And Menander could haue told him That not the words but the manners of the speaker perswade THE ANSWERE TO THE TENTH Section of the Authors defence to all inferior subiects The Apologie THe summe of the Epistlers defence here is this to perswade the inferior sort to embrace Poperie Because all their auncestors were of the same religion they liued by pensions farmes annuities almes of religious houses no fines or enhanced rents c. no forfeitures turning out of farmes destruction of woods c. no wife to prouide for ioynture no daughter to endowe c. no elder sonne to enrich with new inheritance not so many iarres and quarels in lawe The Antilogie THis Popes Pedler openeth his pack to euery one and is odious in obtruding the same wares for like a tired hackney he keepeth his old tract and still treadeth in the same steps He hath said nothing in this Section which is not alleadged before he broacheth the same stale stuffe wearying his reader with his vaine repetitions and long periodes that I may say to him as Hierome against Iouinian Quotiescum que â—um legero vbicunque me defecerat spiritus ibi est distinctio totum incipit totum peâ—det ex altero totus sermo omni materiae conuenit quia nulli conuenit As often as I reade him I finde no distinction till I want breath euery sentence begins and yet hangs vpon another whatsoeuer he saith is fit for euery matter because it fitteth indeede none But to answere this babler and Battist although not all yet most of our Auncestors were popish what then So were their Auncestors Paganes Few of the Apostles Auncestors were of their faith If this Achitophels counsell had taken place neither the Apostles should haue receiued Christ and refused the Elders traditions nor England haue embraced the Christian faith at their first conuersion from Paganisme Indeede Stephens obstinate hearers did well follow this popish counsell Ye haue alwayes resisted the holie ghost as your fathers did so do you Act. 7.51 Thus this Popeling would perswade the people of England to resist the truth because their forefathers did so 2. They had pensions farmes froÌ„ Abbeies without fines or forfeitures a great matter whereas they were before farmers and pensioners now they are owners and possessors of Abbey lands They gaue almes to maintaine idle vagabond and lewd persons and made a great rabble of impudeÌ„t beggers besides their mendicant friers And was it so great a matter for Abbeies to do all this when they possessed the third part of this land Concerning raising of fines enhauncing of rents destruction of woods these are no fruites of the Gospell they which professe it in sinceritie are as far off from these oppressions as any Papist and is it so charitable a worke to preserue woods and destroy and dispeople townes as some of your friends in Northamptonshire and other places haue done Is more coÌ„passion to be shewed to trees then men to woods then townes And it is no maruaile if many tooke no great care to prouide iointures for their wiues dowers for their daughters inheritance for their children for the Monks had inough to aduance their owne kinred and because they were so kind louing to mens wiues daughters it had been an vnnaturall part to neglect their children 3. What hath he alleaged here for Poperie which the Pagane Idolaters might not pretend for themselues thus the superstitious women reasoned in Ieremies time When we burnt incense to the Queene of heauen c. then had we plentie of victuals and were well and felt none euill But since we left off to burne incence c. we haue had scarcenes of all things and haue been consumed with the sword and famine Ieremy 44.17.18 Thus Symmachus reasoned for the Paganes Secuta est factum fames publica quando in vsum hominum concussae quercus quando vulsae herbarum radices Publike famine followed the fact when the Idols were destroyed wheÌ„ was it heard of before that men did shake downe acornes and pull vp rootes for foode Thus many simple people were wont to say it was a merry world wheÌ„ we might haue 20. egs for a penie a bushell of corne for six pence All this while they coÌ„sidered not that while they had abundaÌ„ce of earthlie things they were pined for waÌ„t of spirituall though they sate by their flesh-pots had bread their bellies full as the vnthankefull Israelites murmured Exod. 16.3 yet they considered not that all this time they were held in the spirituall bondage of Egypt Therefore we frankelie professe though the Gospell should bring scarcitie trouble warre penurie with it and yet it hath florished with all temporall blessings with peace abundance plentie yet had we rather with Moses suffer affliction with Gods people then to inioy the pleasures of sinne to possesse all the pleasures and riches of the world with an euill conscience and corrupt religion And we say with the Prophet Dauid Thou hast giuen me more ioy of heart then when their wheate and wine increased Psal. 4.7 We reioyce more in the truth of religion then all prosperitie abundance whatsoeuer and as Hierome well sayth Nudam crucem nudus sequar nec lucra seculi in Christi quaeras militia I will follow
but say with Hierome Non consueui eorum insultare erroribus quorum miror ingenia Whose wit I commend their errors will I not defend 2. What if Luther be vntruly alleaged whereof there is iust suspition because the Citer followeth not the addition at Wittemberge of Luthers workes but another at Ieane wherein it is like the aduersary hath played the part of a corrector and made Luther speake according to their owne sense For some of those bookes which he citeth as colloquium mensal I do not find extant in the addition at Wittemberge where it is most like the authentike copies of Luthers workes are kept Therefore it is not vnlike but they haue vsed Luther as Gregory complained in his time Alij tractatus nostros calumniantes ea sentire nos criminantur quae nunquam sensisse nos nouimus Others cauilling at our tractates do accuse vs to thinke that which we know we neuer thought 3. Those speeches wherein Luther is traduced if they be interpreted with fauour though the sound seeme to be somewhat harsh the sense is not hard In the two first he sheweth what temptations he had how he was troubled with many doubtfull cogitations and sometime euen with griefe as it were plunged in hell that he wished in his heart that he had neuer begun that trouble in the Church and that his workes were burned As though such tentations are not incident to the faithfull seruants of God Dauid was sometime so perplexed that he doubted of Gods promises and thought that all men were lyers Psal. 116 11. that euen the Prophets of God deceiued him Saint Paule also had fightings without and terrours within 2. Cor. 7.5 It should seeme then to be a rare thing for popish professors to feele such conflicts in their soule seeing this fresh-water souldier that neuer entred into the lists of these spirituall combats findeth fault with Luther herein In the third sentence obiected Luther doth nothing else but shew his constant resolution of the truth which shall stand in despite of Emperour Turke Pope Cardinals and all aduersaries His peremptory profession thereof might haue bene better qualified in termes which I will not euery where iustifie But his meaning is good that the truth shall preuaile and haue the vpper hand for as Hierome well saith Veritas laborare potest vinci non potest The truth may be blamed but not shamed But as for your gracelesse terme of Gracelesse Luther I doubt not but that he hath least grace that goeth about to disgrace him whom God with many excellent gifts had graced These railing speeches are but like vnto Shemei his casting of stones at Dauid wherewith in the end he hurt himselfe And as Seneca well sayth Ignominias probra velut clamorem hostium ferat saxa sine vulnere circa galeas trepidantia These opprobrious words are like the crie of the enemie a farre off and as stones that do fall downe about our eares without anie hurt So while this railing Rabsakeh vseth no better weapons we are well inough we heare him but feele him not he woundeth his owne credite he hurteth not our cause And we say to him as a certaine Rhodian to an vnshamefast man that made great outcries I regard not what you say but that another keepeth silence We more respect other mens reuerent silence of Luther then his rash loquacitie The second Inducement 1. PRide wine and women are the originals of Apostacie so was it in Luther If pride had not bene they had kept their vow of obedience if wine and riches had not bene they had kept the vow of pouertie if women and wantonnesse had not bene they had kept the vow of chastity But truth is stronger then all c. p. 126. 2. The whole Christian world twenty times gathered together in generall Councell hath giuen sentence with vs many thousands of prouinciall Councels all Kings c. all Popes Fathers Schooles Vniuersities c. all former heretikes haue approued it 3. We haue offered them all trials as great security and safe conduct as Popes Emperours and Kings could giue to come to disputation p. 127. 4. Their owne schollers condemned them Cranmer and Latimer exploded with hissing and clapping of hands in Oxford We neuer had so much as a peece of promise for equality of disputation c. The disputation in the first Parliament to their litle glory that in the Tower no man is ignorant how much it did disgrace them p. 127. The Aduertisement 1. THese three indeed are the pillars of popery If pride were not the Pope would not haue sought to lift vp himselfe aboue Emperours and Kings to tread vpon their neckes cause them to hold their stirrope to kisse his foote the papall hierarchie would not refuse to submit it selfe to the ciuill authoritie If the desire of riches were not the Pope would not so haue pilled and polled all Christian nations with intollerable taxes of First fruits annates tenthes prouisions Archbishops palles Peter pence and such like The first fruits of Bishoprikes in England amounted to the sum of 80000. florenes that is almost 20000. pounds and the value of the first fruits through Europe did arise to the summe of 2460843. florenes that is 553189. pounds or there about If the loue of women and carnall desires had not bin the popish crue would neuer haue condemned lawfull mariage to liue in adulterie incest fornicatiō openly to maintaine courtesans and strumpets as is notoriously euident and practised in Rome their Masse priests would not haue corrupted virgines detained wiues and daughters from their husbands and fathers as the States of Germany complained in the Councell of Norimberge These three then are the pillars of poperie indeed with the which Luther and the Protestants are vntruly slaundered yet hath the truth preuailed according the posie of Darius nobles And whereas he would haue this conclusion put vnder the pillow of the Prince and be awaked out of her dreame lest she should sleepe too long c. the truth is that Queene Elizabeth both awake and asleepe while she liued was resolued of this conclusion for the truth and well perceiued Poperie to be grounded vpon a sandie foundation that outward glorie commoditie pleasure and vanitie were the chiefe pillars of that religion In this faith she liued in this faith she now sleepeth and resteth in the Lord and shall be awaked in the last resurrection to receiue the endlesse reward of the same And though Queene Elizabeth now sleepeth yet God hath raised vp and awaked our gratious Soueraigne to stand vp in her place and to maintaine the same truth You may well put your conclusions vnder his pillow when he sleepeth but when he awaketh he will soone descrie that your Popish instructers are but night birds your best reasons dreames and your religion darknesse and with Darius giue sentence with the truth But of all other this