highest Ecclesiasticall corruption tyranny shewyng himselfe that he is God And for the maintenance of his high exaltation he thought it requysite aboue all other to take care of these two thinges First how to keepe under the temporall Princes Lords which had long raigned before him and to set up his spirituall Lords as his owne creatures which should be apperteyning and beholding to himselfe onely for all their Lordly estate The highest ecclesiastical corruption and tyranny that at the last both the Lords temporall spirituall might serue him to his great glory Now this great Antichrist reignyng over his temporall Lords and Princes who by the ordinance of God were appoynted to reigne themselues to the honor of Christ and not to the glory of Antichrist and specially triumphing by his spirituall Lords as his owne creatures created unto their Lordships and Archlordships by himselfe onely and not ordeyned therevnto by God but by him appoynted for his speciall gard and defence of his owne person and of his wife the great whore of Babell It pleased the Almightie God which created heaven and earth in the time by him appoynted reformation beginyng to rayse vp againe agreeable unto his first institution certayne poore Ministers Bishops Pastors to whom he committed the word of God which is the sword of the spirit therwith to fight against this glorious Antichrist and all his spirituall Lords And therefore as you haue heard before the auntient Fathers utterly condemning the great livyngs and Lordly estate of Bishops both by their doctrine decrees and practise of their owne lyues Now likewise let us heare what these men thus newly raysed up of God hold and affirme also in the practise of their owne liues approue touching the same Lordship of Bishops and other unwritten Traditions of men And first of Wickliffe of whom our booke of Martyrs saith This is out of all doubt Iohn Wicleffe Act. Mon pag 323 edit 1570 that at that time all the world was in most desperat and vile estate and that the lamentable ignorāce and darknes of God his truth had overshadowed the whole earth this man stepped forth like a valiant Champion Vnto whom it may be iustly applyed that is spoken in the booke called Ecclesiasticus of one Simon the sonne of Onias Even as the morning starre being in the middest of a cloude and as the Moone beyng full in her course and as the bright beames of the Sunne so doth he shine and glister in the temple and Church of God This Wickliffe in his answer unto King Richard the second as touching the right and title of the King and the Pope joyning old Barnard before named with himselfe saith How could the Apostle giue unto you that which he had not himselfe Harke what he saith Not bearing rule saith he as Lords in the cleargie but behaving your selues as ensamples to the flocke And because thou shalt not thinke it to be spoken only in humilitie and not in veritie marke that the Lord himselfe sayth in the Gospell The Kings of the people doe rule over them but you shalt not doe so Heere Lordship and Dominion is plainly forbidden to the Apostles and darest thou then vsurpe the same If thou wilt be a Lord thou shalt loose thine Apostleship or if thou wilt be an Apostle thou shalt lose thy Lordship For truely thou shalt departe from the one of them If thou wilt haue both thou shalt lose both or else thinke thy selfe to be of that number of whom God doth so greatly complaine saying They haue reigned but not through me they are become Princes and I haue not knowne it now if it doe suffice thee to rule without the Lord thou hast thy glory but not with God But if we will keepe that which is bidden us let us heare what is sayd he that is the greatest among you saith Christ shall be made as the least and he that is highest shall be as the Minister and for example he set a child in the middest of them So this then is the true forme and institution of the Apostles trade Lordship and rule is forbidden ministration and service is commaunded Ye heare what this bright mornyng starre which is likened to the full Moone in her strenght and to the sun-shining in the Church and temple of God sayth and concludeth that Lordship and rule is forbidden to Bishops and ministration and service is commaunded And in another place he saith To enrich the Cleargie is against the rule of Christ Fox tom 1 art 31 pag 55 16 art 34. Silvester the Pope and Constantine the Emperour were deceaved in giving and taking possessions into the Church And in another article he saith The Pope with all his Cleargie having those great possessions as they haue be heretikes in so having and the secular power in so suffering of them doe not well And touching the practise of his owne life It is written of him that he went in a simple russet gowne Fox tom 1 pag 526. and yet he was specially favored mainteined by the great Duke of Lancaster sonne to King Edward the third with the Lord Henrie Percie high Marshall of England and many other Lords and men of great account who esteemed him as an excellent learned man true Preacher of the gospell imbraced his doctrine even to the danger of their owne liues were able enough to maintaine him like a Lord or at the least to haue put him out of his simple russet gowne into a Mathematicall capp with foure angles deviding the whole world into foure partes as our booke of Martirs termeth it with a great and large sarcenet scarf about his necke and a wide sleeved gowne with a standing coller as an Archdeacon if he or they had thought it meete for him to haue been so like a Lord or pettie Lord mainteyned The next that we read of which God raysed up after Wickliffe was Iohn Husse Iohn Husse who being of so great reputation amonge the Bohemians that they came to the Counsell of Constance to make his defence for the gospell of Christ He was accompanyed and assisted besides others of his frends with divers Noble men of the Bohemians who stood by him and spake boldly in his defence even to the day and time of his Martirdome yet was he never nor would be mainteyned with the great living and high estate of a Lord Bishop as plainely appeareth by his last farwell to his deare frend brother Martin farwell saith he in Christ Iesus with all them that keepe his law Acts Mo. to 1. p. 747. My graye coat if you will keepe to your selfe for my remembrance but I thinke you are ashamed to weare that gray colour therefore you may giue it to whom you shall thinke good My white coate you shall giue the Minister N my scoller To George or else to Zuzicon 60 groats or else my gray coate for he hath faithfully served me
at this day and holden for undoubtedly true in all the Churches of Christendome who lived in the most tumultuous time times of greatest contention that ever was in the Church even in the time of publike broyles and strife between the Arrians the Catholiques when the manner of election by the people must needs if ever be most dangerous unto the quietnes of the common wealth unto the estate of Kings and Princes Yet when Athanasius was chosen Bishop of Alexandria and the matter brought in questioÌ„ before the Emperour whether he was lawfully chosen which his enimyes denyed the Synod of Alexandria make rheir Apologie for his defence in these words Aiunt igitur post obituÌ„ Episcopi Alexandri cum paucissimi essent qui Athanasii mentionem facerent Synod Alexandr apol 2 sex vel septem Episcopos clanculum et in loco obscuro eum in presulem elegisse c. Nos autem contra cum tota civitate et universa provincia testamur omnem multitudinem populuÌ„que Catholicae Ecclesiae in vnum coactum quasi in speciem unius corporis et animae clamoribus vociferationibusque postulasse Athanasium Ecclesiae Episcopum dari They say that after the death of Bishop Alexander when there were very few which made any mention of Athanasius six or seaven Bishops privily and in an obscure place did choose him to be Bishop But we contrary wise with the whole Cittie and generally with all the Province doe testifie that the whole multitude and people of the Catholique Church beyng gathered to gether in one as it were in the forme of one body and soule with exclamations and out cryes requyred to haue Athanasius to be given unto them the Bishop of their Church If six or seaven of our Lordbishops with their traines of twentie thirtie or fortie horse apeece should meet together about an election with such of their frends as they could gather togeather in their assemblie trow you the thing might be sayd to be don obscurely and in a corner or may we thinke that those christian and most mightie Emperours had neither witte nor knowledg how to governe their coÌ„mon wealthes Or that Athansius the great and all the excellent Fathers of the Primitiue Church and Luther and Zninglius and all the lights of the Gospell set up by Gods wonderfull worke in this our age for the casting downe of Antichrist and the great whore of Babell upon all the golden Candlestickes in Germanie Helvetia Savoy France Scotland and the Lowcountryes and many other places understaÌ„d not what by the word of God ought to be done in the election of Bishops and Pastors and onely the Lord Bishops of England by their Lordly looks upon their learned bookes or by some secreat inspirations haue the contrary reveled unto them But if all the christian Emperours and all the auncient Fathers did thinke this manner of election might well stand with the godly goverment of the Common wealth and ought not to be altered and that both the election of Bishops Pastors and Ministers and excommunication also ought never to be don without consent of the people even wheÌ„ the Bishops were growne up to be litle petie Lords and the regiment of a Bishop was crept to the limits bouÌ„ds of a Dioces and over whole Cityes where by the reason of the exceeding greatnes of the multitude there must needs follow great sturres and troubles with what facility and easines might this order be brought in agayne if the Bishops were reduced unto the pristinat estate appoynted unto them by the word of God and by the holy scriptures namely to be the Bishop or Pastor of one congregation onely Upon which poynt I will set downe breifly the words of that excellenr light Francis Lambard joyned by God with Luther in Germanie touching the limits of a Bishops regiment F. Lambard together with the right of election of the Pastors and excommunicatioÌ„ of the offendors and of Zuinglius the first light set up by God among all the golden caÌ„dlesticks of Helvetia This noble and famous Francis Lambard in the preface of his booke intituled The sum of Christianitie translated into English and dedicated unto the most Noble Queene Anne mother to our late Soveraigne Queene Elizabeth In his Epistle to the Noble Prince of Lausanna he saith Nor you shall not marvaile that I sayd there be many Bishops of one Citie for verely every Citie hath so many Bishops as it hath true Evangelists or Preachers for every Preacher of the truth I say of the truth that doth not preach lyes decrees inventions dreames lawes and counsells of men but the most pure and simple word of God is a true Bishop although he be not called so of many the Church of God hath no other Bishops but these And a non after he saith For verely every Parish ought to haue his proper Bishop the which should be chosen of the people and confirmed by the Comminalty of the Church of every place and to doe this thing they haue no need of letters rings seales tokens and such other of this kind very much used cleane contrarie to the word of God And so long they should be accounted for Bishops as the preach most purely the Gospell of the kingdome of God From the which if they swarue one iote teach strang doctrine they ought to be deposed and put out of theÌ„ by whom they were elect and chosen that is to say of the comminalty of the Church a forenamed and other more fit for the purpose to be elect And in the fift chapter in the sayd booke of the Summe of Christianity he hath these words It is the most greevous crime by no meanes to be suffered that many childreÌ„ of perdition do depriue the people of God of their right iust title that is to choose them a Pastor And afterward he saith All Canon of the world caÌ„not lawfully choose one Bishop of the Church of Iâ—suâ— Christ And agayne he sayth Deacons of the Church be those that the faithfull choose for to gather and distribute to the poore the almes of the faithfull And a non after The Church of God hath no Ministers besides these Bishops and Deacons Zuinglius Artic 8 explanat Now to the words of Zuinglius he in a certaine place sayth thus A multis iam seculis ad nostra usque tempora quae sit Ecclesia certamen fuit ortum nimirum ex regnandi cupiditate Nam hoc sibi quidam arrogarunt ut se dicerent esse Ecclesiam c. There hath been contention what a Church is from these many ages untill our times which verily hath risen from the desire of bearing rule For some men haue arrogated this unto themselues to say that they are the Church that all thinges might be ordered by their hand But omitting the devises of men wheroÌ„ som in this cause doe rest we will write of the Church out of the holy scriptures and the minde of
not foure or fiue thowsand pounds by the yeare nor made him a Lords grace nor an Archprophet but let him liue in-such a meane estate as hath been before declared and as the Prophet thought meetest for himselfe to continew in And not unfitly heerevnto may be joyned the history of Constantin the great and his singular loue and favour towardes the Ministers and Preachers of the word of God in his time that we may see together what was the estate both of the Prophets in the old Testament and of the Preachers of the word of God in the New And how Kings Princes maintayned thē which most dearly loved them In the life of Constantine thus it is written Dei vero administros ad se accersitos semper honore praecipuo dignos censebat et omni officio prosequebatur Vit. Const apud Euseb nihil circa devotos addictosque numini benignitatis aut humanitatis omittebat Homines quidem de vultu ornatuque tenues alia tamen apud eum nota convictores erant haud asseclae The Ministers of God being called unto him he ever thought them most worthy of speciall honor and did reverence them withall duetifulnes and he omitted nothing towards them who were devoute and dedicated to God which pertained to loving kindnes or curtesie yet they were men indeede in countenance and garnishment but poore but in another note they were familiar companions with him and not waiting servants I neede not to amplifie this matter ye see as I haue saide the estate of the Ministers of Gods word both in the old Testament and in the New vnder those Kings and Princes which so highly favoured honored and so dearely loved them And yet never made thē Lords nor Archlords nor maintayned them in any pompous or lordly estate And heere I will ad the example of Athanasius who must needs haue been extolled and lifted up unto a Lordly dignitie by that great and mightie Emperour Constantine if he had not thought it vtterly unlawfull so to exalt any Bishop in the world Being the onely man aboue all the rest among all the three hundred Bishops in the Counsell of Nice which confuted and confounded the horrible heresie of Arius which then was readie to overrunne the Church of God in so much that he was called Oculus mundi the eye of the world And whose Confession is set up and received even to this day in all christian Churches and called Athanasius Creed yet when he was accused to haue turned the corne which the Emperour sent unto the Citie to other uses then the Emperour had appoynted The Synod of Alexandria in their Apologie for Athanasius maketh this answer Synod Alexan. Apol 2. Quid Athanasio remotius a crimine qui si vel in ipsa Alexandria fuisset quid tamen ipsi cum negotiis prefecti What could be further of from fault then Athanasius Which if he had ben at that time even in the Citie of Alexandria yet what had he to doe with the affaires of the Magiistrate And further they say Nec fieri posse vt homo privatus et pauper tantum virium haberet Neither could it be possible that such a private and poore man should be able to doe it Heere you see the estate that Athanasius the most famous Bishop in the world at that time was in and how the Bishops themselues and the most godly Princes and Emperours thought fit for thē to liue in All these things being considered I conclude that the Pastor or Preacher of the word of God ought to be so maintayned that being freed from all other busines he might haue one man at all times to waite upon him Whereunto a convenient proportion of living as the state and rate of thinges stand at this day in England cannot be lesse then one hundred pounds by the yeare considering that he may not attend upon any other occupying affayres or busines but onely and continually upon prayer and administration of the word Wherefore I say at the least one hundred by the yeare for so the sound judgment of reason requyreth Howbeit if some one be aboue other charged with many children or other wayes A reasonable proportion for a Pastors maintenance or in speciall sorte with excellencie of guifts be found worthy to be preferred before other the living unto such may ought to be encreased yet so that none exceede the revenues of two hundred or there about Which thinge agreeeth well with the words of his Majestie in his second booke of his Basilicon Doron where he saith As some will deserue to be preferred before other pa. 44. so chaine them with such bonds as may preserue that estate from creeping to corruption And surely a foule and shamefull corruption it is that any Ecclesiasticall person should be maintained upon and by any Ecclesiasticall lyving exceeding the reasonable estate and proportion before named For so he is both corrupted himselfe and also robbeth other of that which by right belongeth unto them while the one is lifted up to a Lordship and the other kept under in a beggerly estate Now to goe forwarde with the proceeding and growing up of Antichrist and his Babilonish whore When the Bishops had taken a degree aboue the rest of the Pastors and had the name of Papa as it were written one their foreheads and usually given them in their titles and their regiment creaping up to whole Cities Diocesses So that some of them began to maintaine themselues as Lords and to claime a Lordly estate The godly learned Fathers not seeing the mischeifes that were alreadie by a generall and common consent crept in whereby it was imposible to keepe out the foule corruptions following not onely tollerated the foule abuses brought in but also they themselues in their simplicitie with a zeale of God though not accordyng to knowledge brought in many bald Ceremonies and corruptions which for brevityes sake I will passe over and onely set downe the words of our English Father George Alley Bishop of Exeter of the corruptions in the Sacrament of Baptisme brought in by the auncient Fathers Alley Whereby we may see the weaknes even of the first times and former ages Tertullian writeth saith he that when we come to the water we stay somewhat before in the Church vnder the hand of the Preist and doe protest that we will renounce the Devill his pompe and all his Angels After that we be thrise dipped in the water de coron militi◠answering no more then the Lord hath determined in his gospell And then being taken out we tast of milke and hony And from that day we abstaine from being washed by the space of a whole weeke Here you may see saith our Bishop of Exeter by the words of Tertullian what rites were added unto Baptisme as abrenunctions three immersions tasting of milke and hony abstinence from washing lib. 15. in Esa In his first booke against Martion he maketh mention also
this vseth our reverend English Father M. Nowell in his great Catechisme Nowell Catech. where commending and speaking of the Discipline of the Primitiue Church he saith But this Discipline since long time past by litle and litle decayed as the manners of men be corrupt and out of right course specially of the rich and men of power which will needs haue impunitie and most free libertie to sinne and doe wickedly But to returne to Ierome ye see wherevnto the superiority of Bishops was come even then and what fruite this corne of evill seed being then but newly sowed hath brought forth vnto this day a man may easily judge And this is the cause why Ierome so often as hath been before declared putteth the Bishops in remembrance that they are greater then other Elders or Ministers by custome and not by any truth of the Lords appoyntment and that they ought to rule in common But the Discipline liked them much better whereby they might haue free liberty to sinne and that no man might dare or be so bould to reproue them much lesse to punish them Yet Ierome in his Epistle to Nepotian is bould with the Lordship of Bishops saying Illud etiam dico quod Episcopi sacerdotes se esse noverint non dominos This also I say that Bishops should know that they be preists and not Lords And further he saith to Nepotian Negociatorem clericum et ex inope diuitem et ex ignobili gloriosum quasi quandam pestem fuge A man of the Clergy saith Ierome that is an occupier and that is become of a poore man a rich man and of a man of low degree to be a man of honorable estate flye from such a one as it were from a certaine pestilence And touchyng his owne estate he saith being then one of the most famous christian Pastors in the whole world and in many things greater better learned then Augustine Altaris oblatione sustentor habens victum et vestitum his contentus ero et crucem nudam nudus sequor I am susteined by the offring of the Altar and having food and rayment Epistlo 11. and being a naked fellow my self I follow the naked Crosse of Christ And in his Epistle to Augustine he saith Ego in paruo tuguriolo cum monachis id est cum compeccatoribus meis de magnis statuere non audeo I in my poore litle cottage saith he with certaine monks that is to say sinners dare not determine of high matters You see how far Ierom was from Lordly estate he lived not in a Princly Pallace but in a poore litle cottage Yet for the excellencie of his fame and learnyng inferior to none which then lived For proofe whereof and for the worthynes of the matter I will set downe one example though I shall make there in a litle digression Algasia a gentle woman of Fraunce dwelling at the least as far from Ierom as England from the Iles of Canarie hearing of his excellent learnyng and knowledg in Divinity sent purposely vnto him from the borders of the Ocean sea and the furthest part of all Fraunce and passing by Rome she sent unto him dwellyng at Bethleem to be resolved in divers poynts of the scripture Among which the Eleaventh question was how she should vnderstand the words of the Apostle speakeyng of Antichrist 2 Thes 2 ca. In answering which question Ierom saith Ad Algas q. 11 Nec vult aperte dicere Romanum inperium destruendum quod ipsi qui imperāt aeternam putant vnde secundum Apocalipsim Iohannis infronte purpuratae meretricis scriptum est nomen blasphemiae id est Romae aeternae Nether would the Apostle saith Ierom say in plaine termes that the Empire of Rome should be destroyed which they that raigne there thinke to be eternall where upon accordyng to the Revelation of S. Iohn in the forehead of the purple coulered whore there is written the name of blasphemie that is of Rome eternall A religious and right noble Lady In which discourse diuers things of speciall note are worthy to be observed As first the great zeale carefull diligence of that Noble gentlewoman seekyng so far to know and understand the scriptures O that our Ladyes and gentleweomen of England were so carefull to seeke after God that their soules might liue Secondly that she passed by Rome beyng right in the way to Bethleem with the proud Pope which boasteth himselfe to haue all knowledg within the coffer of his owne breast together withall his colledge of Carnalls and seeketh after Ierom the poore Minister of Bethleem Thirdly of how great fame poore Ierom was for his knowledg and learnyng in Divinity Fourthly that the name of Rome eternall is the name of blasphemie which is written upon the forehead of the purple coulered whore Now to returne againe to the state of the Church in Ieroms time leaving him to his poore cottage with his Monkes Hom. against peril of Idolatry part 2 let us see in what lordly estate Augustine liued and what his judgment is concernyng the same of whome it is written in the Homilie of our English Church that he was the best learned of all the Auncient Fathers And Possidonius testifieth of him Posid de vit Aug cap. 31. how excellent and dilligent a Preacher he was Verbum Dei usque ad ipsam suam extermam aegritudinam impraetermisse alacriter et fortiter sana mente sanoque consilio in ecclesia praedicavit He preached the word of God in the Church saith Possidonius without pretermission with sound mind and advised judgment even vnto the time of his extreame sicknes Where marke the word impraetermisse without pretermission how far the Lord Bishops are from this dilligence in our dayes Now touchyng this matter Augustine saith lib de Pastor cap ◠Vnde enim vivitur c. It is of nessitie saith he to take so much as the Pastor may be able to liue on and charitie requyreth so to be given unto him not as though the gospell were a thing to be sould and that should be the price thereof which they take that preach it for so they should indeed sell a great thing for a smale price but they ought to take of the people the sustentation of their necessitie and of the Lord a reward of their stewardship But let us heare what Augustine and all the Bishops of that parte of the world with him not onely say but also in full assemblie decree in the third Counsell of Carthage And first touchyng their titles Canon 26. Carth Coun 3. Vt primae sedis Episcopus c. We decre say they that the Bishop of the first seate shall not be called the cheife preist or hie preist or any such manner of thing but onely he shal be called Bishop of the first seate And marke that they say nor any such manner of thing And also these words but onely by which two wordes they clearly
Lord and other a Servant Where Luther useth this word vel parochis which must needes be englished either after the Popish phrase Parish priests or in better English parish Ministers Which you see heere M. Luther maketh as great a Lordbishop as a Diocesan Bishop or Bishop of a Diocese and unto this rule he pulleth downe the proud Pope himselfe and so breaketh the necke of his Popedome For he saith that Bishops in all the world are not other in right and truth but Parish Ministers and that the one ought not to liue like a Lord and the other like a Minister or servant And upon the 5 chapter of Peter aforesaid he saith Furthermore S. Peter calleth it peculiarly the flocke of Christ In chap 5 2. as though he should say Thinke not that the flocke is any of your owne ye are but onely Servants and Ministers to looke unto it ye ye are no Lords nor Masters over it And further afterward he saith For we haue but one Lord Iesus Christ and he it is which governeth over soules Elders Pastors haue no further charge then to feed And heere in one word S Peter overthroweth all the kingdome of the Pope and concludeth that no Bishop hath any authority so much as in one word to clogg and tye the consciences of the faithfull to the observation of their precepts For they themselues ought to be servants and Ministers and to say thus saith the Lord and these be the words of Christ it is not we the words are none of ours and therefore ye ought to doe that which is here commanded According to that which Christ saith Luke the 22. The Kings of the Gentiles reigne over them and they that beare rule overthem are called gratious Lords but ye shall not be so Contrary whereunto the Pope boasteth and brageth saying we ought to be Lords and to us onely it belongeth to excercise cheife rule and supreme authoritie The second thing that I speake of to be observed in the former saying of M. Luther is this That the state of Bishops in those dayes was such that a Bishop could not be knowen by any Lordly countenance or attendance from a plaine man of the countrie The third thing is that in his apparell he differed nothing from the common sort of men he had not on his head as our booke of Martyrs of a certaine Bishop saith a Geometricall that is to say a square cap although his head be round nor a white rochet vpoÌ„ his blake coat nor a priests cloke nor a formall gowne For by those Mathematicall marks he must needs then haue been knowen froÌ„ a plaine man of the Country as that foresaid Bishop in Africa was not Yea though he had been an unpreaching Prelat and so could not haue been knowen by his preaching But let us heare what M. Luther further saith In our booke of Martyrs many thinges are specified which are most worthy to be noted concernyng him Fox Edition 1570 to 2. pag 976. Election of Ministers ought to be by the Church to whom they belong but for brevities sake I will onely obserue this one thing namely that he affirmeth the voyces of the people ought not to be severed from the choosing of Ecclesiasticall persons in which poynt all the auncient Fathers doe with one voyce agree with M. Luther they were also chosen themselues in that manner and so caused other to be chosen And so likewise all the Protestant writers and lights of the gospell do generallie affirme in their writings that by the law of God and by the holy Scriptures it ought to be still observed in the Churches of God And yet at this day it is exploded out of many Churches as namely here with us that professe the Gospell as a thing that cannot stand with a Christian common wealth wherein I will onely recite the wordes of our booke of Martyrs and one worthy sentence and also one notable example out of auncient Fathers and so leaue it to the consideration of the Christian reader and to the consciences of all christian Magistrats that profess the Gospell with myne owne prayers to God that this Apostolicke order of chosing of Ministers may be againe restored to all Christian Churches Fox pa. 5 ed. 1570. col 2 After which time of the Apostles saith our booke of Martyrs the election of Bishops and Ministers stood by the Cleargie and the people with the consent of the cheife Magistrate of the same place and so continued during all the time of the Primitiue Church till the time and after the time of Constantine the fourth Emperour which Emperour as writeth Platina and Sabellicus Enead 8 lib 6 published a law concernyng the election of the Romane Bishop Platina Sab. Ene 8. lib 6 that he should be taken for true Bishop whom the Cleargie and people of Rome did chose and elect without any tarying for any authoritie of the Emperour of Constantinople or the deputie of Italie so as the custom and fashion had ever been before that day anno 685. And a non after in our booke of Martyrs it is thus written â—owsons â—â—uralities of â—enefices likewise vowsons and pluralities of benefices were things then asmuch unknowen as now they are pernicious to the Church taking away all free election of Ministers from the flockes of Christ Heerunto I add touching this matter as I promised first a most worthy senteÌ„ce out of Cyprian who florished about 260 yeares after Christ He in his 68. Epistle saith â—yprian Epi â—8 iuxsta â—amelium Plebs obsequens preceptis Dominicis et Deum metueÌ„s a peccatore preposito seperare se debet nec se ad sacrilegi sacerdo tis sacrificia miscere quando ipsa maxime habeat potestatem vel eligendi dignos sacerdotes vel indignos recusandi Quod et ipsum videmus de diuina auctoritate descendere vt sacerdos plebe praesente sub omnium oculis deligatur et dignus atque idoneus publico iudicio ac testimonio comprobetur The people beyng obedient unto the commandement of God and fearing God ought to seperat themselues from a wicked Pastor or Minister and not to joyne themselues to the sacrifice of a sacrilegius Priest seeing the People it selfe cheiflie hath power either to choose priests that are worthy or to refuse those that be unworthy which thing we see doth come from the authority of God that the Priest may be chosen in the presence of the people that he which is worthy and meete for the place may be allowed with a publicke judgment and testimony And a litle after he concludeth saying Et sit ordinatio iusta et legitima que omnium suffragio et iudicio fuerit examinata And let the ordination be just and lawfull which is tryed by the judgmeÌ„t and voyce of all Athanasius And now as I said take one example namely of Athanasius the great The confession of whose faith is read in our Churches of England
Bucer desired to haue a better reformation of religion in England then was in King Edwards time appeareth evidently in his booke De Regno Christi written to King Edward that most gratious and religious King of England whom both Ridly Bishop of London and Cranmer Archbishop of Caunterburie confessed to haue more divinitie in his litle finger then they thēselues in their whole bodyes as you may read in our booke of Martyrs such an excellent impression of true Divinity had God ingraven in his brest beyng then but a child Who no doubt if he had lived as he had in many things well begun so would he haue made a full reformation of those foule corruptions that remayned and yet remaine to this day and would haue reduced all the Churches in his Dominions unto the Primitiue and Apostolike order and Discipline which M. Bucer in his sayd book of the Kingdome of Christ written unto him for the same purpose so earnestly desireth Whose words in his first booke and 15. chapter are these Vt vero claris Dominus et gravissimis verbis disciplinam suam cum vitae vniversae De regni Christi 1 15 tum agendae penitentiae tumetiam sacrarum ceremoniarum sancivit etc. With what playne and cleare words saith M. Bucer hath the Lord established his Discipline as well of the whole course of life as of shewing publike repentance also of the holy Ceremonies Yet how few shall you find even among those which are coūted men of speciall note among Christians which I will not say desire with all their heart to haue this Discipline restored which is the only Discipline of health or salvation but that thinke it a thing worthy once to go about it They say the times are now farr otherwise then it was when this Discipline florished in the first Churches men are now of an other sorte And it is to be feared least by the restoring of this Discipline the Churches should be more troubled then edified and that more men should therby be frayed from the Gospell then should be brought unto it To conclud that it is to be feared that by this meanes it should grow into a new tyranny of a false Cleargie upon the people of Christ But do not these men even by their owne wordes manifestly convince themselues of their horrible ignorance concernyng the profit of the kingdome of Christ and the true benefitts therof For know not they that the kingdome of Christ is a kingdome of all ages and of all men which are elect to salvation They are ignorant that King Iesus that is to say the Saviour of men and the best Pastor or sheepheard of his owne sheepe hath instituted nothing at all and commanded nothing to those that are his which is not healthfull unto them in all times and places if it be used as he instituted commanded the same Bucer in Ephesians 4. And upon the 4 chapter to the Ephesians he sayth Sathan goeth about to make men beleiue that by the restoring of the disciplin the faithfull Ministers should be thought to seeke ambitiously the same tyrannie which Antichrist did Yee see with what force of wordes M. Bucer lamenteth the lacke of true Discipline in England even in King Edwards time and how vehemently he desired the King to restore and establish the same which in his time could never be performed by reason of his suddaine death in the minoritie of his yeares And afterward in the dayes of Queene Elizabeth the Gospell was receaved aboue 40. yeares and no fault by publik authority amended which King Edward left in the Discipline of the Church wherin by the way I cannot but note one pretie litle poynt of the Dragon that subtle serpent Sathanas for the better safegard of his sonne Antichrist his creedit and his deare daughter Babilon the great whore of Rome for slily and cunningly he so scraped out this peece of publique prayer in all Queene Elizabeths time which both in King Hēries time and King Edwards time was used that it could never be restored unto this day Namely From the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities good Lord deliver us For he knew full well no small number of his owne enormious abominations were yet reteyned in the Discipline of the Church to the great comfort of himselfe and of his sonne Antichrist the Pope and his deare daughter the Church of Rome And it might justly be taken for a Prophesie that we should not in her dayes be delivered from the detestable enormities of the Bishop of Rome left unreformed in King Edwards time But let us heare further what M. Bucer sayth to King Edward in his second booke of the kingdome of Christ and the 1 chapter Primum haud dubito serenissime Rex Maiestatem tuam ipsam videre hanc quam requirimus imo quam requirit salus omnium nostrum regni Christi restitutionem ab Episcopis nullo modo expectandam c. First I doubt not most gracious King saith M. Bucer to King Edward but your owne Maiesty doth see that this restoring agayne of the kingdom of Christ which we require yea which the salvation of us all requireth may in no wise be expected to com of the Bishops seeyng there be so few among them which do understand the power and proper offices of this kingdom and very many of them by all meanes which they possible can and dare either oppose themselues against it or deferre it and hinder it And after in the same booke he concludeth saying De reformando itaque Episcoporum ordine serenissima Maiestatis tuae cum primis animus intendendus Therefore the mind of your most excellent Maiestie must principally be set upon reforming of the order of Bishops Of these places before cited first the reader may plainly see with what vehemency this Angell and starre holden in the right hand of Christ desireth and requyreth to haue the reformation in England which yet cannot be obteyned to be squared according to the first Churches which were in the Apostles time Secondly that the objections which are now commonly made against the reformation are even the same which Satan and his childrē made in King Edwards time the wilfull horrible ignorance wherof M. Bucer manifestly discovereth Thirdly that no hope of this reformation and the restoring of the kingdom of Christ which even the salvation of us all requyreth was to be expected at the hands of the Bishops Fourthly that that the King ought specially to bend his mind to reforme the order or estate of the Bishops And to speake the truth ye might truely affirme that the King began at a wrong end when he began at the parish Priests and leapt over the Lord Bishops for that was a tithing of mint and annis and a leaving of the waightier matters of the law undone It is a memorable and a true saying that Sigismund the Emperour used in the Counsell of Constāce Sigismund
him Tell me saith Harpsfield were not the Apostles Bishops Brad No except you will make a new definition of a Bishop that is giue him no certaine place Harps Indeede the Apostles office was not the Bishops office for it was vniuersall But yet Christ instituted Bishops in the Church as Paul saith He hath giuen Pastors Prophets c. so that I trow it be proved by the scripturs the succession of Bishops to be an essentiall poynt Brad The ministery of Gods word and ministers be an essentiall point But to translate this to the Bishops and their succession is a plaine subtiltie And therefore that it may be plaine I will aske you a question Tell me whether that the scriptures know any difference betwene Bishops Ministers which ye call priests Harpsfield No. Brad Well then goe on forwards and let vs see what ye shall get now by the succession of Bishops that is of Ministers which cannot be understood of such Bishops as Minister not but Lord it Wherein every Reader may obserue these things First that the Apostles were not Bishops for that a Bishop must haue a certaine place and a flocke to feede wherein he must be resident And not like an Apostle or Evangelist to travell from flocke to flocke from place to place Secondly by the scripture there is no difference between a Bishop and a Minister which is so cleere and manifest that the very Papist himselfe is driven to coÌ„fesse it Thirdly that it being true which the most rankest Papist for shame cannot denie that by the scripture Bishops Ministers differ not Then the glorious succession of the Pope and all his Diocesan and Lordbishops are utterly overthrowne For as M. Bradford saith What Lordly estate can any Bishop get when he ought not to differ from the poore and meane estate of a Minister Fourthly that they are Papists which will haue a Minister of the Gospell to be called a Priest for tell me saith Bradford whether the scripture know any difference between a Bishop and a Minister which you call a Priest Heereunto I will annexe some few sayings out of M. Iohn Bale Bale who being in Germanie wrote divers bookes and sent them hither wherby England receaved great light knowledg and was of such name note in Germanie that Pantalio that learned Germaine in his Ecclesiasticall Chronicles setteth him downe among the three speciall Englishmen which together with Bucer Peter Martyr preached the Gospell in England during King Edwards time To whom Queene Elizabeth in her very young dayes when she had translated a booke of French into English sent â—omilies Yet will I hereunto adde one place out of our owne English Homilies appoynted to be read publikely in our Churches at this day Our Saviour Christ saith our English Homilie against wilfull rebellion teaching by his doctrine that his kingdome was not of this world did by example in flieing from those that would haue made him King confirme the same expresly also forbidding his Apostles and by them the whole Cleargie of all princelie dominion over people and Nations and he with his Apostles likewise namely Peter Paule did forbid unto all Ecclesiasticall Ministers dominion over the Church of Christ which words are there referred to these places of scripture Math. 20. d 25. Mar. 10. f 42. Luk. 22. e 25. Math 23 a 8. Luke 9 f 46. 2 Cor 1. d 24. 1 Pet 5.1.2.3.4.5 Seeing therefore Christ and his Apostles both by their example practise course of their whole life and also by their doctrine and all the cheifest of the auncient Fathers in the Primitiue Church likewise by their doctrine practise of life And seeing all the principall lights of the Gospell which God hath set up from time to time in the deepe darknes of Antichrist together with all the godlie Martyrs lights of the Gospell both in other Nations and specially in this our owne Realme of England do so vehemently set forth the deformitie and require reformation of those abuses in this treatise mentioned and spoken of yet in our Churches in England remayning unreformed Doe my Lords the Bishops trow you which stand so fircely in defence of those shamefull enormities against such a cloud and multitude of witnesses being the most learned holy men and Martyrs Doe they yet I say expect till the beasts of the feild the foules of the ayre and the very stones of the streete should crie for reformation What is it possible to thinke that they themselues doe not see and know that the Pluralitie of benefices Nonresidencies the horrible abuse of excommunication and such like are untollerable thinges in a Christian Churche Yet not one of these they list to amend I will hereunto joyne the prayer of that excellent learned man Doctor Fulke in his Sermon at Hampton Court Fulk in Queene Elizabeths time printed dedicated to the Earle of Warwike in which having proved most learnedly the Pope to be the very Antichrist spoken of by the Apostle and Rome to be undoubtedly the whore of Babilon spoken of in the Revelation concludeth his sermon with this prayer saying Let us therefore pray unto Almightie God instantly that all men in their vocation may seeke the utter overthrow and destruction of Babilon that Princes and Magistrats may according to the Prophesies of them hate her with a perfect hatred and utterly abolish whatsoever belongeth to her that they may reward her as she hath rewarded us and giue her double punishmeÌ„t according to her workes and in the cup of affliction that she hath powered forth for us they may power forth double as much to her And looke how much she hath glorified her selfe and lived in wantonnes which was without measure so much they may bestow upon her of sorrow and torments That Preachers and Ministers of Gods word may playnlie and without dissimulation or halting discover her wickednes and earnestly to vrge whatsoever hath need of perfect reformation that all subiects may continue in holy obedience first to God and then to their Prince to the advancing of the honor glorie of God through Iesus Christ c. And surely all men without exception which wil be saved by Christ must in their vocation and degree not coldly but fircely fight against Antichrist And specially now when the first Angell hath powred out his Viall upon the throne of the beast so that his kingdom waxeth darke Rev. 16.10 Even now all men ought to seeke the overthrow and the utter destruction of Babilon and not to be weried with the tediousnes of time nor to giue over for the pleasures worldly profitts of this life And not to say as the wicked did in the dayes of the Prophet Malachi What profit is it that we haue kept his commandement Mal. 3 14 15 16.17 and that we walked humblie before the Lord of hosts Therfore we count the proud blessed even they that worke wickednes are set up and they that