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A10345	The summe of the conference betwene Iohn Rainoldes and Iohn Hart touching the head and the faith of the Church. Wherein by the way are handled sundrie points, of the sufficiencie and right expounding of the Scriptures, the ministerie of the Church, the function of priesthood, the sacrifice of the masse, with other controuerises of religion: but chiefly and purposely the point of Church-gouernment ... Penned by Iohn Rainoldes, according to the notes set downe in writing by them both: perused by Iohn Hart, and (after things supplied, & altered, as he thought good) allowed for the faithfull report of that which past in conference betwene them. Whereunto is annexed a treatise intitled, Six conclusions touching the Holie Scripture and the Church, writen by Iohn Rainoldes. With a defence of such thinges as Thomas Stapleton and Gregorie Martin haue carped at therein.	Rainolds, John, 1549-1607.; Hart, John, d. 1586. aut; Rainolds, John, 1549-1607. Sex theses de Sacra Scriptura, et Ecclesia. English. aut	1584 (1584)	STC 20626; ESTC S115546	763,703	768

as it appeareth by S. Hilarie Who giuing him the title of the foundatiō of the church expoundeth it some times of his faith in Christ some times of Christ himselfe in whom he beléeued But admitte that Christ had meant Peters person when he promised him that he would build his church vpon him What conclude you of it Hart. This I do conclude that séeing the church was built vpon Peter and the Apostles themselues were part of the Church therefore the Apostles were built vpon him and so was he their foundation By consequent whereof séeing the foundation is the same to a house which a head is to a bodie I do conclude againe that Peter was the head of all the Apostles And so my purpose is proued Rainoldes This conclusion hath neither foundation nor head For by as good reason you may conclude also that séeing the Church was built vpon Peter and Peter him selfe is a part of the church therefore was Peter built vpon him selfe and so was he his own foundatiō And because a foundation is the same to a house which a head is to a bodie therefore S. Peter was S. Peters head Or if you sée not either the necessitie or folly of this consequence as it is made of Peter you may frame the lyke of any other of the Apostles and you will espy it For the church of Christ is the great Citie that holie Ierusalem whereof the wall had twelue foundations and in them the names of the Lambs twelue Apostles Then séeing that the church was built vpon euerie one of those twelue as vpon Iames by name and Peter was a part of the church it foloweth that Peter was built vpon Iames and so was Iames his foundation And séeing a foundation is the same to a house which a head is to a bodie it followeth againe that Iames was Peters head which if your self denie you must denie that wherof it doth folow by force of like reason And so your purpose is not proued Hart. But we do imagine that in this building of the church and laying the foundations of it Christ did laie Peter next vpon himselfe as the foundation of the rest and other Apostles vpon him Rainoldes Indéede you doo imagin it And you consider not that your imagination is crossed by it selfe not onelye by the truth For if the twelue Apostles of the Lambe on whom hee built his church were laid as twelue foundations one vpon an other Peter lowest of them then as Peter was foundation of eleuen so the next to him must be of ten the next to him of nine and likewise ech of the next vntill the last of none A thing flatte repugnant to your imagination wherein you make Peter onely head of the rest the rest of them equall all amongst themselues Neither doth it stand with that proportion of the building which the scripture maketh reseruing the prerogatiue of the onely singular foundation to Christ and ioyning the Apostles all in equall honour of the twelue foundations as I haue shewed For Christ in this house is as it were a rocke a rockie sure and firme ground on which both the Apostles and all his church is built as the citie of Dauid was on the mount Sion The Apostles are as stones as twelue most pretious stones which being laid ioyntlie one by an other all on Christ are as twelue foundations and walles of chosen stones are raysed vp on them vntill the whole number of the elect be laid on and the building finished One of these foundations might excell an other in pretiousnes of graces For the first foundation saith Iohn was a Iasper the second a Sapphire the third a Chalcedonie the fourth an Emeraude and so forth the rest Or because I know not the vertues of these stones the stones which the Disciples of Christ did meruaile at in the temple of Ierusalem for the fairenes and greatnes of them were as Iosephus writeth fiue and twentie cubites long eight cubites hie and twelue cubites broad Now as among such stones one might be fairer or better wrought then other so might one Apostle of Christ excell his felowes in zeale or other giftes as namelie S. Peter Unlesse perhaps S. Paul whom Christ did adde to the twelue excelled both him and them which I do thinke rather for he labored more then they all and by your owne confession conuerted more vnto the faith But neither Paule nor Peter were foundations of the rest they were altogither ioint-foundations of the church laid on Christ the onely and singular foundation to speake of a foundation properly UUherefore though our Sauiour in saying to Peter Thou art stone and vpon this stone will I build my church had meant that he would build it vpon Peters person which serueth best your fansy yet doth not that saying inferre a supreme-headship But doubtles if your fansy can yéeld vnto the truth he meant not Peters person but his faith and function in preaching of the faith For the onely person that the church is built on as on a foundation by the strength and vertue whereof it is vpholden is the sonne of God our Sauiour Iesus Christ beside whom no other foundation may be laid in whom all the building being coupled togither groweth vnto an holy temple in the Lord. Now because that faith in the sonne of God doth make the liuing stones whereof the building is compact and knitte vp on Christ a stone of which sort Peter had shewed himselfe to be by beleeuing and professing that faith Christ told him that he was according to his name stone a stone indeede and hauing chosen him to preach the same faith whereby there shoulde be laide more stones on that building hee saide vpon this stone will I build my church UUherin as he shewed that whosoeuer should be members of his church must be members of it by felowship with Peters faith so he shewed withall that hee would impart that faith to his church by the ministerie of Peter As appeareth farther by that which he added To thee will I giue the keyes of the kingdome of heauen Hart. Yet euen this doth argue still the same prerogatiue which we giue to Peter For séeing Christ said that he woulde build his Church vpon that stone or rocke as I take it and that which a church is builded vpon must needes be a foundation it foloweth that Peter was a foundation of the church Not a principall foundation for that is Christ onely of whom it is true that other foundation no man can laye beside that which is laid which is Christ Iesus but as wee terme it a ministeriall foundation UUhich by the proportion of a foundation to a house and a head to a bodie is enough to proue that Christ would make Peter head of the Apostles I meane a ministeriall head Rainoldes But here againe you fal into your former fault and

Peters patrimonie Their vsurpations tyrannicall S. Peters royalties Their good will His fauour Their communion His peace Their indignation His curse Their signet His ring Their closet His See Their Citie His borough Their poll mony euen Peter pence too Yea it may be that shortly they will take vp Peter for a surname as the Romane Emperours did the name of Caesar. For a famous Lawier Patrone of the Papacy saith that the Popes may al be called Peters And our countriman who was sent to display the Popes banner chalenge highest honour for him doth name him the Bishop of the first See that is to say Peter And Cardinal Hosius one of the Popes lieutenants in his Councell of Trent doth write that there is onely one vniuersall patriarke Who Peter of Rome and that Peter of Rome did send his messengers vnto English French Dutch and other nations to call them to the Councell of Trent Not Peter of Bethsaida but Peter of Rome did it Hart. These thinges are small the most of them and vsed to encrease a reuerend estimation and opinion of that Sée to the which our Sauior committed the principalitie and gouernment of his church As for the pointes that séeme greater in the words of Leo they may be defended For where he saieth that Christ tooke Peter into the fellowship of the indiuisible vnitie hée might meane vnitie in will not in substance as Christ doth pray for his disciples Holy father keepe them in thy name that they may be one as we are Where he doth honour Peter with the title of my Lord it is a common title and giuen men of state both spirituall and temporall yea Mary Magdalen called him Lord the word in Latin is the same whom shée supposed to be a gardiner The like might be said for the defense of the rest with as great probabilitie and perhaps greater then you haue to mislike them Rainoldes The smaller thinges which you call are some of them small I graunt but like small holes in ships at the which a great deale of water wil come in inough to drowne the shippe if they be left open as long as these haue beene in the shippe of the church They had encreased such an opinion of the Pope of Rome Saint Peters See as they tearmed it that although hee practised not a principalitie geuē him by Christ but an outragious tiranny vsurped by him selfe ouer Kings and Nations yet neither kings nor Nations almost durst speake against him at the least resiste him For if they did offend the Pope they thought they did offende S. Peter Now of S. Peter they were taught that he is porter of heauen gates They feared the porter would let none in sauing the Pope his vicars frends So to get eternal life they serued and pleased and féeed the Pope least that if he shoulde frowne vpon them Saint Peters fauour should be lost UUherfore how small soeuer those things of Peter séeme in trifling kindes of common spéeches they brought no small aduantage to Peter of Romes Court and wealth into his Treasurie It is recorded of King Oswy in our English Story that when vpon a controuersy about the celebrating of Easter there was a Synode assembled and the one part alleadged that they followed the East Churches which had receiued their rite of Iohn the Euangelist the Disciple whom Christ loued the other part replyed that they followed the Church of Rome which had receiued theirs of Peter to whom Christ gaue the keyes of the kingdome of heauen the King tooke vp the matter and iudged with the Church of Rome For I tell you quoth he that Peter is the porter whom I wil not gainesay nay I wil obey his orders in all respectes as farre as I skill and can leaste when I come to the doores of the kingdome of heauen there be none to open if hee be displeased who doth keepe the keyes This grosse imagination of the keyes and porter and corrupt opinion of power to shut and open committed vnto Peter only which the good king conceyued of simplicitie his Cleargie should haue taught him better but they did all agrée vnto it and their successors praise King Oswy the Captaines of the Church of Rome perceyuing it to be commodious for the aduauncement of their kingdome and conquering of all the earth haue nourished very cunningly by their lessons their titles their armes their ensignes their pictures and other legions of policies all in S. Peters name And on the credite of S. Peter they haue pronounced that all ordinances of their See must be receiued euen as if Peter had confirmed them They haue taughte that their Church persisteth pure from all error by the grace and helpe of Peter They haue decreed that although it lay a yoake almost intolerable on vs yet we must beare it patiently in the remembrance of S. Peter They haue set abroach in the donation of Constantine that he gaue them his owne crowne of golde most pure and pretious stones to weare in honor of S. Peter and that hee held the bridle and stirrope of the Popes horse in reuerence of S. Peter They haue made the Emperour as the Popes vasall to become S. Peters knight and take his oath vnto S. Peter that hee will restore S. Peters lande vnto the Pope if he get any of it and wil helpe the Pope to defende S. Peters land They haue brought Archbishops to thinke their power is nothing vnlesse the Pope do send them from S. Peters body a pall which hath the fulnesse of the pontifical duetie Bishops they haue bound to promise by their oath allegiance and fealtie to Saint Peter the Romane Church and their Lord the Pope Yea from Bishops they haue brought the oath vnto them who receyue dignities And that which passeth all the rest whereas the forme of the oath in the Canon Law doth bynde them to defend regulas sanctorum patrum the rules of the holy fathers the Pope hath heretofore and now doth put in stéed thereof regalia sancti Petri the roialties of S. Peter Such praies your Eagles take though you do count them flyes But let them be flyes or fowles I wil not striue Onelie this I say let the wise consider it and marke the degrées of encrease in the Papacie and they shal perceiue in this what shall I call it of Saint Peters name that although it were not any of the greatest it was one of the finest trickes of spiritual coosinage that hath enriched the Pope and set the Church of Rome so hie Now to come from these lesser vnto the greater pointes in Leo I know if a man list to be contentious it is an easie matter to say somewhat probably for the defense of his words Yea though hee had named

by which an entrance into heuen is opened because the gates of heauen are as it were vnlocked to them who haue remission and forgiuenes of sinnes and locked to the rest Which thinges being so this summe ariseth of them that sith the keyes of the kingdome of heauen are all one with the power of binding and loosing of remitting and reteining sinnes Christ therefore when he promised the keyes meant that power and when he gaue that power gaue the keyes But he gaue that power to all the Apostles It followeth then he gaue the keyes to them all Hart. You expounde these places I cannot tell how For much of that which you say is said by vs also and yet you agrée not with vs in the principall Howsoeuer you cast the parcels of your count there is a fault in the summe Wherefore you must pardon me if I allow it not For to vse his wordes whose opinion though you mislike him I farre estéeme aboue yours by the name of the keyes of the kingdome of heauen which Christ promised to Peter he simply meant all power whereby the kingdome of heauen in whatsoeuer sense you take it may bee shutte and opened As for that which followeth and whatsoeuer thou shalt binde on earth shall bee bounde in heauen and whatsoeuer thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heauen this is not as some haue thought an explication or limitation of the keyes For so by those words should Christ haue restrained the power of Peter to the only outward ecclesiasticall court For it is the common opinion of all the Schoolemen that by those words whatsoeuer yee shall binde and so forth which are like to these wordes spoken vnto Peter and haue the same meaning an ecclesiasticall iudge in the outward court is made as by those other words whose sinnes ye remit and so forth an ecclesiasticall iudge in the inwarde court is made Wherefore if in this place that whatsoeuer thou shalt binde were an explication or limitation of the keies then by the name of keyes were promised to Peter a power iudiciall onely in the ●utward court which is but a part and that a lesser part of the power of the keyes For a great deale more excellent is the power of remitting sinnes then of excommunicating or suspending a man from his office or honour and therfore this may be exercised by him that is not a Priest whereas the other belongeth vnto Priestes onely Againe because our Sauiour addeth with a coniunction whatsoeuer thou shalt binde it must note differently some distinct power at the least in speciall euen as the other things all that go before vttered coniunctiuely are things distinct and different to wit and I say to thee and vpon this peter and hell gates shall not preuaile and to thee will I giue the keyes and lastly and whatsoeuer thou shalt binde on earth and so forth Wherefore in these last wordes is promised to Peter not onely power of binding and loosing in the court either outward or inward which both are onely partiall actions of the keyes But because the keyes themselues were promised him indefinitly and were not restrained to any one kinde of opening or shutting doubtlesse all the power which is conteined in the keyes was promised to him how great soeuer it be and of what sort soeuer Now the whole power and correspondent fully and euenly to the keyes is to open and shut what meanes soeuer it be done by For to open and shut is the duetie of keyes in token whereof the keyes of the citie are brought vnto the chéefest magistrate that by his commandement the citie may be shut and opened To receiue the keyes therefore of the kingdome of heauen is to receiue the power of shutting and opening the kingdome of heauen whither you take the name of the kingdome of heauen for euerlasting life or for the communion of the militant church Now this is done by diuers and many other wayes beside those of binding and loosing in either court For Pastors doo open and shut the kingdome of heauen the one by exercising that power the other by withdrawing it in their whole spirituall gouernment in preaching of the word in ministring of Sacraments in making of lawes in expounding of the holy scripture in declaring articles of faith in deciding pointes of cōtrouersie and doubt To be short the keyes of the church may be diuided into the keye of knowledge and the key of power To open the scriptures belongeth to the key of knowledge which Christ himselfe exercised in the foure and twentieth of Luke and whereof he saide to the Lawiers ye haue taken away the key of knowledge and so foorth The key of power is either of order or iurisdiction And iurisdiction it selfe is either in the outward court by excommunicating by suspending from office by granting of pardons and making of lawes or in the inward court by forgiuing of sinnes All this most ample power correspondent wholly and euenly to the keyes is promised in this place by Christ to Peter onely Which as the force and meaning of the worde keyes so the kinde of spéech of holy scripture sheweth For in Esay the Prophet when it had béene sayd to the hye Priest Eliakim in the figure of Christ The key of the house of Dauid will I laye on his shoulder the scripture declaring the vse of this key dooth by and by adde and he shall open and none shall shut he shal shut and none shall open Which likewise is spoken againe of the person of Christ in the Apocalypse for he is called the holie one and true which hath the key of Dauid which openeth and no man shutteth shutteth and no man openeth Wherefore as Eliakim in figure Christ in truth receiuing the key of the house of Dauid that is of the church or the kingdome of heauen receiued withall the power of shutting and opening in like sort S. Peter being to receiue in the roome and stéede of Christ the keyes of the kingdome of heauen is out of controuersie to receiue withall the power of shutting and opening that is to say not onely of binding and loosing in iudgement of both the courtes which are onely partiall not totall and lesser not chiefe actions of the keyes which also were committed to all the Apostles in the eightienth of Mathew and twentieth of Iohn wheras the keyes were giuen to Peter alone but also besides of gouerning of teaching of disposing and dooing all thinges which may any way belong to the generall duetie of a Pastor which actions are fully and euenly correspondent to the keyes themselues and therefore in those words were promised to Peter alone principally before and ouer all the rest This is D. Stapletons iudgement of the keyes promised to Peter wherein the ground of Peters supremacy and headship ouer the Apostles is set downe verie plainly

of the state of the Church both in generall and particular the Roman and the reformed Churches of sundry nations it commeth first to be declared what is the holy catholike church whereof we professe in our Creede that wee beleeue it And hereof I say the holy catholike church is the whole company of Gods elect and chosen Which is termed a Church that is a company ofmen and an assembly of people called togither holy because God hath chosen this company and sanctified it to him selfe Catholike for that it consisteth not of one nation but of all spred through the whole world For God to the entent that he might impart the riches of his glorious grace vnto mankinde did choose from euerlasting a certaine number of men as a peculiar people who should possesse with him the kingdome of heauen prepared for them from the foundations of the world And although this people be sundred by the distance of places and times for the seuerall persons and members thereof yet hath hee ioyned and knit them all togither by the bond of his holy spirit into the felowship of one body and a ciuill or rather a spirituall communion as it were into one citie The name of which citie is the heauenly new and holy Ierusalem the citie of the liuing God the king is God almightie who founded establisheth and ruleth the citie the lawes are Gods word which the citizens heare and folow as sheepe the voice of the shepheard the citizens are the Saintes euen all and singular holy men who therefore are called felow-citizens of the Saintes and men of Gods houshold the register wherein their names are enrolled is called the booke of life finally the liberties and commo●ities which they enioy are most ample benefites both of this life and of the life to come to wit the grace of God the fountaine of goodnes the treasures of Christ who is heire of all things the forgiuenes of sinnes the peace of conscience the giftes of righteousnes of godlines of holines one spirit one faith one hope of our calling and sacraments which are the seales of our hope in a worde all thinges which are expedient for vs to the necessarie maintenance of our earthly life and after this life the inheritance of life eternall in heauen with endlesse blisse and glory But because the citizens of this citie of God hauing disobeyed rebelled against him had lost their fréedom through their treason and being put therby from euerlasting life w●re to suffer death in the chaines of darkenesse God the father of infinite mercy and compassion did send his onely begotten sonne into the world that he being appointed king of Gods citie should redéeme the citizens from the powerof darkenesse out of the thraldom of the diuell and translating them a fresh into his kingdom should blesse them and endow them with all the priuileges and liberties of the citizens of God And so it pleased him though we had played the traitors in reuolting from him to his and our enimie yet of his frée fauour to make a league with vs enter into couenant Which couenant being one and the same in substance yet diuersly considered and by reason of this diuersitie diuided into two the one called olde grounded on Christ being promised to come the other new on Christ being come into the world God hath set it downe in the instruments of his c●uenant wherein he hath said I will be your God and ye shall be my people What is the tenour how greate the vse how vnspeakable the benefit of this holy couenant made with the Patriarkes the Prophets the Apostles and all the Saintes of God it is recorded in the sacred instruments of the olde and new testament or couenant An abridgement whereof containing the summeof the Apostles doctrine is deliuered in the articles of our Christian faith or Creede as we terme it gathered out of Gods worde Wherefore as the couenant consisteth of two branches so the Creede expressing it conteineth two partes One of them instructeth our faith touching God who saide to his seruants I will be your God the other touching the people of God that is the Church to whom God saide you shall be my people Touching God it teacheth vs to beleeue in him who is one God in nature distinct in three persons the Father the creator the Sonne the redéemer the holy Ghost the sanctifier Touching the people of God it teacheth vs to beleeue that they are a Church holy and Catholike which hath communion of the Saints to whom their sinnes are forgiuen whose bodies shal be raised vp againe from death and being ioyned with their soules shall liue euerlastingly Now to make the matter more euident and plaine that this citie of God and company of the chosen is the holy Catholike Church first it is certaine that the people of God is called effectually out of the filth of other men to know and serue him by Christ who doth lighten their mindes and moue their hartes through the power of the holy Ghost and ministerie of the word And the whole company of them who are so called is named the Church by an excellencie not a common one but a passing eminent and most noble Church as wherein the faithfull all are comprehended that eyther be or haue béene or shal be to the end from the beginning of the world Which is termed in scripture the Church of the first borne who are writen in heauen Which God did predestinate to be adopted in him self according to the good pleasure of his wil. Which Christ being giuen to it by his Father as a head to the body loued as his spouse redeemed it from Satan and quickneth it with his Spirit hauing suffered death him selfe to deliuer vs from the gulfe of death Moreouer as it is cleere that this Church is called out of the rascall sort of the world to be partaker of the inheritance of the kingdom of heauen so is it cléere too that it ought to be holy For the holy one of Israell can not abide them who are workers of iniquitie neither shall any Cananite be in the house of the Lord of hostes and into the heauenly citie there shall enter no vncleane thing nor whatsoeuer worketh abomination or lye Christ therefore the Sauiour of the Church his body who as he called them whō he predestinate so iustified them whom he called hauing clensed the Church from her sinnes by his blood renueth her from the filth of the flesh vnto holinesse which he beginneth in this life and perfitteth in the life to come when he shall present her without spot and wrincle a glorious spouse vnto him selfe So that both the Church may well be termed holy and the communion of Saintes the Churches communion which militant on earth is holy in affection triumphant in heauen is holier in perfection both militant and triumphant is in

Louan to himselfe and to raze out his notes of thē all sauing of Abdias a forgerie cōdemned by the Pope Papists the Roman Inquisitors many yeares ago with D. Hessels Censure wholly Sigonius in his storie of the Weststerne Empire hath written so of Constantine that he hath not onely not proued the charter of Constantines donation a fable that hee gaue the Western Empire to the Pope but hath disproued it Cardinall Sirletus sent him worde from Rome that Balsamon Caleca Gennadius hungrie Greekes haue mentioned that charter A miserable euidence against all ancient writers But such as it was Sigonius must enroll it and vse it gently as he doth Though ouerthrowing afterward the foundation of it yet fearfully poore man and making his excuse that he thought it his dutie to shew what Eusebius and many more had writen albeit not agreeably to the Church of Rome So the dealing of Cardinall Sirletus with Sigonius of many with Molanus of the Diuines of Louan with Ludouicus Viues may teach you my brethren to what sort of seruice or seruitude rather you are trained vp by the Popes officers who if you vtter a worde beside the artes and toung of the Romans will gag you by and by and cut your toungs if they be long Yet this is a freedome in respect of that slauerie which your Masters fat you too Alas yee knowe not seely soules nor yet doo vnderstand The thraldome of the Romish crew yoke of Popish band For it is a small thing that they should restraine you from reprouing falsehood or force you to furder it in points of lesser waight a hard thing for ingenuous mindes but small for them vnlesse they leade you also with heresie and treason to band your selues against the Lord and his anointed in the Popes quarrell that he may bee exalted as God of Gods vpon the earth The anointed of the Lord are the higher powers ordained to execute iustice and iudgement ouer the good and euill The Lord hath giuen charge of these his anointed that all euē euery soule should be subiect to them yea though they be infidels as they were when this charge was giuen Your Masters doo teach you that if they indeuor to withdraw their subiects to infidelitie or heresie then ought they not to raigne and the Pope as iudge thereof must depose them It were a point of scandalous doctrine and erroneous to say that the persons ouer whom the power of the sword is giuen them are lay men onely not the clergie Much more to adde thereto that the things and matters wherein they haue to gouerne are onely temporall not spirituall Bu●●o say that the Pope may depriue them of their kingdomes nor onely take from them some of their subiects in all causes all their subiects in some causes but all their subiects and causes both it is so vngodly that Sigebert a moonke who liued fiue hundred yeares since when Hildebrand the Pope did first vsurpe that power against the Emperour Henry Sigebert an historian alleaged by your champions for a speciall witnesse that the Church of Rome had neuer any heresie nor changed ought in faith Sigebert condemneth it in the Pope as noueltie and though halfe afraid to cal it so heresie This is the golden image which your Nabuchodonosor hath raised vp to bee worshipped Beware of him my brethren who hath raised it vp and commaundeth you to fall downe before it Though he haue ensnared you with his meate and drinke yet learne of your felow and friend M. Hart to disobey him in this point If you haue not the courage to doo it where you are as Ananias Misael Azarias did returne out of Babylon into your natiue country serue the Lord with feare not in the hye places but in his holy temple But if you will neither returne vnto vs will persist there to be the Popes slaues heretikes traitors I call heauen and earth to witnesse this day that I haue warned you to turnē from your wickednes I haue discharged my dutie your bloud vpon your owne heads LVK. 23.34 Father forgiue them for they know not what they doo ¶ THE CONTENTS OF THE Chapters diuided by numbers into sundrie partes for the sundrie pointes entreated of therein The first Chapter THe occasion of the conference the circumstances and pointes to be debated on 2 The ground of the first point touching the head of the Church Wherein how that title belongeth to Christ how it is giuen to the Pope and so what is meant by the Popes supremacie Pag. 33. The second Chapter The promise of the supremacy pretended to bee made by Christ vnto Peter 1 in the wordes Thou art Peter and vpon this rocke will I build my Church 2 and To thee will I giue the keyes of the kingdome of heauen Of expounding the scriptures how the right sense of them may be knowne and who shall iudge thereof 3 What is meant by the keyes the power of binding and loosing promised by Christ to Peter and in Peter to all the Apostles Pag. 55. The third Chapter The performance which Christ is supposed to haue made of the supremacie promised 1 in saying to Peter Feede my lambes feede my sheepe 2 and Strengthen thy brethren With the circumstances of the pointes thereof Doest thou loue me and I haue prayed for thee Peter What and how they make for Peter how for all Pag. 121. The fourth Chapter The practise of the supremacie which Peter is entitled to imagined to be proued 1 by the election of Matthias to the Apostleship 2 by the Presidentship of the Councell held at Ierusalem 3 and by Paules iourney taken to see Peter and his abode with him Wherein as in other of the actes of the Apostles the equalitie of them all not the supremacie of one is shewed Pag. 151. The fifth Chapter The Fathers 1 are no touch-stone for triall of the truth in controuersies ofreligion but the scripture onely 2 Their writings are corrupted and counterfeits do beare their names 3 The sayinges alleaged out of their right writings proue not the pretended supremacie of Peter Pag. 184. The sixth Chapter The two maine groundes on which the supremacie vsurped by the Pope doth lye The former that there should bee one Bishop ouer all in earth 1 because Christ sayd There shall be one flock and one Pastour 2 And among the Iewes there was one iudge and hie Priest The later that the Pope is that one Bishop 3 because Peter was Bishop of Rome as some say 4 and the Pope succeedeth Peter Both examined and shewed to faile in the proofe of the Popes supremacie Pag. 230. The seuenth Chapter The scriptures falsly sayd to bee alleaged by the Fathers for the supremacie of the Pope as successour to Peter 1 Feede my sheepe strengthen thy brethren and that thy faith faile not belong

all the coastes of the earth of reconciling any that are excommunicate of excommunicating suspending or inflicting other censures and penalties on any that offend yea on Princes and nations finallie of all things of the like sort for gouerning of the church euen what soeuer toucheth either preaching of doctrine or practising of discipline in the church of Christ. Rainoldes And all this you meane by the Popes supremacie A power verie great in weight and large in compasse for one man to wéeld yea for one Apostle much more for one Bishop Bishop of Rome is he or Bishop of the whole world You said that you call him a head improperlie I wéene you giue this power improperlie to him also For out of all doubt you can neuer proue that it belongeth to him properlie The second Chapter The promise of the supremacie pretended to be made by Christ vnto Peter 1 in the wordes Thou art Peter and vpon this rocke will I build my church 2 to thee wil I giue the keyes of the kingdome of heauen Of expounding the scriptures how the right sense of them may be known and who shall iudge therof 3 what is meant by the keyes the power of binding and loosing promised by Christ to Peter and in Peter to all the Apostles HART How large and great soeuer this power and supremacie doth séeme in your eyes it belongeth properlie to the Bishop of Rome And that is alreadie prooued by the reason which before I made S. Peter was head of all the Apostles The Bishop of Rome succeedeth Peter in the same power ouer Bishops that he had ouer the Apostles The Bishop of Rome therefore is head of all Bishops and by consequent of their dioceses that is of all the church of Christ. Rainoldes Remember in what sense you take the name of head and I denie both the propositions of this argument Hart. I will proue them both and first the former Christ did promise Peter that he would make him head therefore hee did make him Rainoldes He did not promise him Hart. Christ did say vnto him Tu es Petrus super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam Thou art Peter and vpon this peter will I build my church Therefore he did promise him Rainoldes The reason doth not folow But why do you english it so Thou art Peter and vpon this peter Your doctors were wont to cite it Thou art Peter vpon this rocke and to that rocke you tyed all Doo you feare shipwracke there now Hart. No syr But to make our anker-holde the surer the which is fastned on S. Peter Doctor Allen thought good that in the translation of the new testament into our tongue which wée were about at Rhemes it should be thus englished Thou art Peter and vpon this peter The which I rather folow then the other of the rocke because it is agréeable vnto the originall Rainoldes It is not For the originall is the Gréeke text and that hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherto your latin olde translation agreeth with Petrus and petra as your selfe alleaged it The wordes of both which though they differ not so much as Peter and rocke yet they are not one as your Peter and peter Hart. Although the Gréeke wordes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 differ in termination yet they are one in meaning and signify the same thing For as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifyeth a rocke so doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Athenian language And it must be noted that Christ spake in Hebrue or rather in the Syriake tongue wherein the name that hée gaue Peter is Cephas Now in the Syriake translation of the testament that word is the same without difference in both places For thus are the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if a man would say Thou art Cephas and vpon this Cephas or Thou art Rocke and vpon this rocke For Cephas in the Syriake doth signifie a rocke as Guido Fabricius a learned linguist sheweth wherfore the meaning of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be the same in greeke And so we may kéepe it well in both places Thou art Peter and vpon this peter Rainoldes The wordes which you alleage are not of the Syriake translation they are Hebrue But as the Hebrue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is one in both places so the Syriake I graunt hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in thē both And I gladlie take it because our Sauiour Christ spake in that tongue as an exposition of his wordes to Peter Yet I note by the way that although your councell of Trent hath allowed the latin olde trāslation alone as authenticall and hath decréed thereof that no man shall dare or presume vnder any pretense to reiect it notwithstanding you your selues will depart from it and that not onelie to the originall which wee should not bee suffred but also to translations if they maye séeme to make for you in any point more then your olde doth Hart. We do not reiect that authenticall translation but open the sense of it by comparing it with the greeke and the gréeke with the Syriake Rainoldes But if we should doo so in any point against you this answere would not serue vs it would be accounted a colour or pretense such as your Councell hath condemned Hart. You doe vs great iniurie in that you séeme to make it all one to reiect the authenticall Latin and to take aduantage for our selues out of the originall textes Rainoldes For your selues Nay I make not that all one I sayd If we should doo so not If you should do so For doo you what you list and all must be soothed as agréeing with your Latin and opening the sense of it But if we should take aduantage for our selues by the originall textes our aduantage would be nipped on the head as a pretense For example Andreas Masius a learned man of yours hath written a Commentarie on the booke of Iosua in the which he launceth your authenticall Latin almost in euerie Chapter yea he saith that S. Jerom if hee be the Authour of it doeth seeme to haue translated wittingly a place against the meaning of the Hebrue that he might vouch a fansy of his owne thereby Yet the Popish Censour who allowed it to the print witnesseth of that Commentarie that it lighteneth and openeth the common olde translation greatly Let vs doe much lesse let vs but raze the credite of it and will you giue that Censure of vs Nay if wée do note that where your old translation hath of the frame or imagination of mans hart that it is prone to euill the Hebrue text hath not prone to euill but euill the Censure of Coolein will answere that it is farre better to say as your olde translation saith prone to euill and will fetch in also the Rabbins of the Iewes not to

not name him And S. Ambrose saith of that promise of Christ I will giue thee the keyes of the kingdome of heauen and the rest which followeth that what is said to Peter is said to the Apostles And Ierom saith that the foundation and firmenesse of the church lay on all the Apostles equally and they did all receiue the keyes And Origen saith that Christes promise of building his church of giuing the keyes of binding and loosing made as to Peter onely was common vnto all And Hilarie saith in like sort that through the worthinesse of their faith they obtained the keyes of the kingdome of heauen and the power of binding and loosing in heauen and earth Neither doo I doubt but other of the Fathers haue said as much as these in the expounding of these words But haue they or not this is no path for vs to walke in if we séeke the right way For neither might we hope for an ende of our trauels because of sundrie expositions one contrarie to an other and we should faint for thirst in time of heate and drouth looking for water in the wildernesse as the trauellers of Tema and that is woorst of all sometimes wee should leaue the pure water of truth and swill vp puddle in stéed of it For although the Fathers were men indued of God with excellent gifts and brought no small light to vnderstanding of the scriptures yet learned men in our dayes may giue a right sense of sundrie places thereof which the Fathers saw not yea against the which perhaps they consent Hart. The Councell of Trent condemneth them that say so Rainoldes As learned men as any were at that Councell say it And they doo it too Hart. Who Caluin and Beza Rainoldes Truely I doo iudge no lesse of their learning And if I be of any iudgement I iudge not parcially in it But thinke of thē as you list S. Austin hauing folowed S. Cyprian in expounding a certaine place of Scripture afterward did finde in Tyconius the Donatist an other exposition which thinking to be truer he preferred it before Cyprians Whereby you may sée that although you thought as yll of Caluin and Beza as did S. Austin of the Donatists yet if you had S. Austins minde you would rather follow the sense which they giue sometimes of the scriptures then that which is giuen by auncient godly Fathers Neuerthelesse my minde was not of them when I mentioned learned men For to what purpose Sith I am not ignorant how small account you make of them My minde was of your owne men who say so and doo so Hart. What Against the Councell of Trent UUho bée they Rainoldes First the flower of your Cardinals the Cardinall Caietan beginning to expound the scriptures dooth set it downe for a principle that God hath not tied the exposition of the scriptures vnto the senses of the Fathers UUherefore if he fall vpon a new sense agreeable to the text though it go against the streame of the Fathers he doth aduise the reader not to mislike of it Hart. But the flower of our Bishops Bishop Melchior Canus misliketh the Cardinal for that his rash sentence and reprooueth it as an errour yea as the common sentence of heretikes and schismatikes Rainoldes But the flower of your Doctors D. Payua Andradius rebuketh this your Bishops reproofe as more rash yea defendeth Caietan against it as a slander He teacheth first that the Fathers doo in many places not expound the Scriptures according to the literall sense the onely which hath weight to proue pointes of faith but allegorically and morally We may leaue their allegories and expound them literally He teacheth next that when they seeke the literall senses of the scriptures they doo not alwaies finde them but giue diuers senses one vnlike an other We may forsake their senses all and bring a new vnlike to theirs Moreouer to make the thing euident by examples him selfe expoundeth sundry places otherwise then the Fathers haue declaring that hée doth it vpon sufficient ground Againe he proueth by the sayings of the chiefe of the Fathers that they spake not oracles whē they expounded the Scriptures but might therein be deceiued He sheweth furthermore that the ouersightes of the translatiō which they followed must cause them needes to misse sometimes the right meaning of the holie Ghost Finally he addeth that experience forceth vs to confesse vnlesse we will be vnthankfull to most excellent wittes that verie manie things in Moses and the Prophets are in this our age expounded more exactly through the diligence of learned men then euer they were before Whereupon he concludeth that the holy Ghost the onely and faithfull interpreter of the Scriptures would haue manie things to be knowne to vs which our auncestors knew not and hath wrought by meanes vnknowne to vs knowne to him that the Fathers noted good and godlie mysteries out of verie manie places of the Scriptures whereof the right and naturall sense hath beene found out by the posteritie This is in few words the iudgement of Andradius which he prosecuteth more at large in the defense of Cardinall Caietan against quarellers who did cauill at him because he wrote that it is lawfull to go against the streame of the auncient Fathers in expounding of the Scriptures Hart. I care not for the iudgement of Andradius or Caietan or any other priuate man though you could bring a hundred of them I doo not build my faith on them Rainoldes Although you care not for their iudgement yet you should care for their reasons Of which the light is so great that vnlesse a man haue altogether lost his eyes he can not choose but see the truth and brightnesse of them Neither may you set so litle by their iudgement chiefly the iudgement of Andradius If you doo it may be the price of his contempt will helpe to purchase your confusiō For the Councel of Trent the fairest flower of your garland chiefest piller of your faith is but the consent of a few such as Andradius was or rather none such perhaps Let the Italians witnes it who wondred at his gifts Theyloue not them selues so ill as to woonder at common thinges in straungers A great token of it that the faith of Trent most iustly charged by Kemnicius who tried the Spirit of the Councell and proued it the Spirit of errour found no man to defend it but Andradius to speake of For Tiletan is a trifler not woorthy to be named the same day that he is But let the Authours with their reasons be proofes of no value and grant that if the Fathers all consent in one their exposition must be stood too What if the Fathers dissent in expounding a place of the Scripture as oftentimes they doo Which of their expositions must we follow then Hart. If one expound a thing otherwise then all the rest the rest must be

haue Nor yet am I ashamed of that kinde of triall and iudgement by the godly who haue not learned toonges and artes but Christ onely And I comprised it in that which I said that Christ is the iudge and they which vnder him haue it committed to them euen the church of Christ. For himselfe hath giuen by speciall commission two sortes of iudgement to his church the one priuate the other publike priuate to all the faithfull and spirituall as God calleth them who are willed to iudge of that which is taught and to trie spirits whither they be of God publike to the assembly of pastors and elders for of that which Prophets teach let Prophets iudge and the spirites of Prophetes are subiect to the Prophets In both of the which the church must yet remember that God hath committed nothing but the ministerie of giuing iudgement vnto her The soueraintie of iudgement dooth rest on Gods word For Christ is our onely Doctor Law-giuer according to whose written will the church must iudge And so to returne vnto the wordes of Christ from which we digressed the sense I gaue of them will I proue by scripture according to the rule of faith the proofe of the sense I submit to the priuate and publike iudgement of the church The wordes of Christ to Peter conteined a promise of the keyes I will giue thee the keyes of the kingdome of heauen The occasion of the wordes was a question of Christ asked of the Apostles answered by Peter whom say yee that I am Thou art Christ the Sonne of the liuing God The sense which I gathered by laying these together was that as Peter answered one for all so the keyes were meant to him one with all To proue the former point that Peter answered one for all the scripture is most plaine in the sixt of Iohn where before this time Peter had confessed in their common name We beleeue and know that thou art Christ the Sonne of the liuing God To proue the later that the keyes were meant to him one with all the scripture is as plaine in the twentieth of Iohn where Christ performing that which he had promised to Peter doth say to him with the rest As my Father sent me so doo I send you Whose sinnes soeuer ye remit they are remitted to them whose sinnes soeuer ye reteine they are reteined Wherefore sith the keyes were promised by Christ on the profession of their fayth which was common to them all and the promise was performed when he sent them all with power to binde and loose to remit and reteine sinnes it followeth that the keyes belonged no more to Peter then to all the Apostles And therefore the promise of the keyes to him importeth no headship of his ouer them Hart. That which was promised by Christ vnto Peter was not performed to the Apostles For he gaue not them the keyes of his kingdome but the power of remitting and reteyning sinnes Rainoldes These things differ in wordes but they are one in sense as Ioseph said to Pharao Both Pharaos dreames are one For as God to teach Pharao what he would do in Egipt by seuen yeares of plentie seuen yeares of famine did vse two sundrie dreames of kine and eares of corne the surer to resolue him of his purpose in it so Christ to teach vs what he doth for mankind in ordeining the ministerie of the word Sacraments vseth two similituds the one of keyes the other of binding loosing that we may know the better the fruit force of it Touching the keyes he speaketh of heauen as of a house wherinto there is no entrance for men vnlesse the doore be opened Now we all Adams ofspring are shut out of heauen as Adam our progenitour was out of Paradise through our offenses and sinnes For no vncleane thing shall enter into it But God of his loue and fauour towards vs hath giuen vs his sonne his onely begotten sonne that whosoeuer beleeueth in him should not perish but haue eternall life which is the inheritaunce reserued in heauen for vs. We cannot beleeue vnlesse wée heare his word We heare not his word vnlesse it be preached Wherefore when God the Father sent his sonne Christ and Christ sent his Apostles as his Father sent him to preach his word to men that they who repented and beleeued in Christ should haue their sinnes forgiuen them the faithlesse vnrepentant should not be forgiuen then he gaue authoritie as it were to open heauen to the faithfull and to shut it against the wicked Which office to shut and open because in mens houses it is exercised by keies and the stewarde of the house is saide to haue the key of it to open it and to shut it therefore Christ the principall steward of Gods house is saide to haue the key of Dauid and he gaue his Apostles the keies as you would say of the kingdome of heauen when hee made them his stewardes to shut out to let in The other similitude of binding and loosing is to like effect For we are all by nature the children of sinne and therefore of death Now sinnes are in a maner the same to the soule that cordes to the body and the endlesse paines of death that is the wages of sinne are like to chaines wherewith the wicked are bound in hell as in a prison From these cordes of sinne and chaines of death eternall men are loosed by Christ when their sinnes be remitted their sinnes are remitted if they beleeue in him If they beleeue not their sinnes are reteined whose sinnes are reteined they doo continue bound For he that beleeueth not shall be condemned he that beléeueth shall be saued None shall be condemned but they whose sinnes are reteined to binde them with the chaines of darkenesse none saued but they whose sinnes are remitted and the cordes vnloosed by which they were holden UUherefore sith the Gospell is preached to this ende a sauour of life to life vnto beléeuers vnto the vnbeléeuers a sauour of death to death as we reade of Christ that the Lord sent him to preach deliuerance to the captiues and opening of prison to them that are bound in like sort his ministers whom he sent to preach it are said to binde and loose to reteine and remit sinnes So that both these kinds of spéech import the same that is signified by keyes For to binde and to reteine sinnes is to shut to loose and to remit sinnes is to open the kingdome of heauen Your owne church dooth take the keyes in this meaning euen the Councell of Trent For whereas Christ gaue to his Apostles and their successours the power of binding and loosing that is of remitting and reteining sinnes as your selues expound it this power you call the power of the keies as

I spake before fiftly the first charge of feeding the lambes the last of the shéepe are vttered with the Gréeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is feede the second of the shéepe hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is rule to shew that the lambes euen lay-men as I said are onely to be fedde but the sheepe I meane Bishops and Pastors are both to be fedde and to be ruled of Peter Sixtly the worde to feede hath a great force and signifieth a power most full and absolute as the which implieth all other actions of ecclesiasticall regiment For they are all directed to the food of soules There are obserued more such notes to like effect but either not so pithie and sound as these are or treated of alreadie Wherefore I content my selfe with these sixe Which if you lay togither and marke what may be saide in seuerall for each of them you haue inough to proue a great worthines of Peter in any mans iudgement in ours a supremacy Rainoldes That which is written in the Prouerbes of Salomon Hee that wringeth his nose causeth blood to come out may be truely saide of the proofes which you presse out of these circumstances The most pithie of them if any of them haue pith are they which touch the matter the question of loue required the charge enioyned of feeding and each of them repeated thrise Which all in verie truth as Christ did vse them to Peter were rather a stay of his weakenesse then a marke of his worthinesse much lesse a proofe of his supremacy For Peter had pretended greater loue to Christ then had the rest of the Apostles In so much that when Christ had told them of their frailtie the night before his passion All ye wil be offended at me this night for it is written I will smite the shepheard and the sheepe shal be scattered Peter answering said vnto him though al should be offended at thee yet will I neuer be offended Whereto when Christ replied verily I say vnto thee this night before the cocke crow thou wilt denie me thrise Peter answered him againe though I should dye with thee yet will I not denie thee This promise as it was made by all the Apostles but chiefely by Peter so was it broken by them all but chiefely by him For they did all forsake Christ Peter did not only forsake him but forsweare him too Wherefore when our Sauiour after his resurrection would gather them togither to confirme them from their feare and giue them power to preach the Gospell to all Nations he that in comforting them all before his passion remembred Peter chiefely as néeding it most but I haue praied for thee did then in sending for them to méete him in Galile remember Peter namely by the voice of his Angell saying to the women tell his disciples and Peter that he wil go before you into Galile Peter a disciple yet named beside the disciples as who might thinke him selfe not worthy of the name of a disciple that had denied his Maister thrise Now when they were come to him into Galile and had receiued common both comfort and commission to execute the charge whereto they were chosen Christ admonished Peter particularly of his duetie and moued him beside the rest to do it faithfully as he particularly before had betraied it and had behaued him selfe most fearefully aboue the rest To encourage him therefore with assuring his conscience of the forgiuenes of his sinne and strengthē him to constancie that he offend no more s● Christ demaundeth of him whether he loue him and thereupon chargeth him to feede his lambes and sheepe In demaunding of him doost thou loue me more then these first he toucheth his faulte who had professed more then these but had performed lesse then these Then he sheweth that it is pardoned For hee who loueth more to him more is forgiuē his greater loue is a token of it In charging him to feede his lambes and his sheepe he sharpneth his care that now he be faithfull and firme in following Christ though he shall come to daunger yea to death therby Both which the demaund and charge are thrise repeated the demaund that Peter by his threefold answere may counteruaile his threefold denial of Christ the charge because that nailes the oftner they are strooken the déeper they do pearce To write the same to Christians it greeueth not our Apostle it is a safe thing for vs. And although the truth of this exposition be very apparant by conference of Scriptures yet that you may take it with the better appetite who loue not to eate meate without this sauce you may know that I finde it for the chiefest pointes which touch the matter néerest in Cyril Austin Ambrose and other auncient Fathers Wherefore your pithiest notes out of the circumstances of the text haue colour of some proofe for Peters infirmitie but nought for his Supremacie As for the other three which you picke out of the wordes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to feede they haue no pith at all they are as bones without marrow If this be the fruit of the studie of the toongs renued in your Seminaries that by shew thereof you may out face the Protestantes who by helpe therof haue ridde your filth out of the church then your tongues will proue as good as the miracles which Iannes wrought and Iambres to harden Pharaos hart by doing like as Moses did You cast vs in the téeth with a kingdome of Grammarians but you would raise a Popedome of thē And as Erasmus saith that Schoolemen speaking barbarously saide it was not meete for the maiestie of diuinitie that it should be bound to keepe the lawes of Grammarians so the Popedome of Grammarians dealing too too Pope-like in expounding of wordes as Popes do full oft in dispensing with thinges will not haue them bound to the Grammaticall sense wherein their authors vse them But if we may obtaine that iustice be ministred according to the ciuill lawes of our kingdome then shall the poore wordes which your Popedome forceth to speake for the Papacye that which they neuer meant be rescued from that iniurie For the Scripture sheweth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signyfyeth as feruent loue as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in deede the verye same chyefe●y in S. Iohn who declaring the perfit and entire loue of God towardes Christ of Christ towardes him one where expresseth it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 other wher by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more oft then by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that if the wordes had any difference in sense it would be verie likely that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rather the more significant of the two sith it is vsed also commonly to note the loue which the Lord doth beare towardes vs and we should beare one to an other and

persecution though they repented after refused to communicate with them and thereupon did separate themselues from the societie of the Catholike church and assemblies of the faithfull as vncleane also for that they receiued into their felowship and communion vpon repentaunce such as had fallen Against these Nouatians the firebrands of schismes and dissensions in the Church S. Cyprian hath writen a notable treatise touching the vnitie of the church wherein he dooth instruct and exhort Christians to keepe the vnitie of spirit in the bond of peace and be at concord among them selues And to winne this of them by reasons and perswasions out of the holy scripture as among the rest hee bringeth sundrie figures wherein is represented the vnitie of the church as the arke of Noe the coate of Christ the house of Rahab the lambe of the Passouer so among the figures he placeth Peter first in that our Sauiour said to him Thou art Peter and on this stone wil I build my church To thee will I geue the keyes of the kingdome of heauen againe Feede my sheepe For albeit Christ saith he gaue equall power to all the Apostles after his resurrection and said As my father sent me so I send you receiue ye the holy Ghost whosoeuers sinnes ye remitte they are remitted to them whosoeuers sinnes y● reteyne they are reteyned yet to declare vnitie he disposed by his authoritie the originall of that vnitie beginning of one No doubt the rest of the Apostles were the same that Peter was endued with like felowship both of honour and of power but the beginning doth come from vnitie that the church of Christ may be shewed to be one Now this place of Cyprian which by the former printes was thought to make rather for an equalitie of all the Apostles in power then a supremacie of one as it dooth in deede is farsed with such wordes in the Romane Cyprian that in shew it maketh for Peters supremacie and so for a supremacie in power like the Popes as you teach men to gather of it For wher it was in Cyprian that the rest of the Apostles were equall both in honor and power vnto Peter but the beginning doth come from vnitie the Romane Cyprian addeth these words and the primacy is geuen vnto Peter Where it was in Cyprian that Christ did dispose the originall of vnitie beginning from one the Romane Cyprian addeth he appointed one chaire And againe where Cyprian said that the church of Christ may be shewed to be one the Romane Cyprian addeth and the chaire to be one This was well to beginne with that vnto Peter the primacy is geuen that Christ appointed one chaire and as the church must be one so the chaire must be one Yet because one chaire in Cyprians language dooth make no more for the chaire of the bishoppe of Rome then of the bishop of Carthage the Cyprian of Anwerpe to helpe the matter forwarde doth bring in Peters chaire And where it was in Cyprian euen in the Romane print too Hee who withstandeth and resisteth the church doth he trust him selfe to be in the church the Anwerp Cyprian addeth Hee who forsaketh Peters chaire on which the church was founded dooth he trust himselfe to be in the church So whereas aforetime S. Cyprian shewed the vnitie of the church in an equalitie of Peter with the rest of the Apostles now by good handling hee sheweth Peters primacie and that by good expounding is the Popes supremacie For we must imagine that by Peters chaire is meant the Popes chaire which chaire be forsaketh who is not obedient and subiect to the Pope according to Gratian in the canon law The only difficultie and scruple that is lefte to breede a doubt thereof in suspicious heads is that clause of Cyprian that Christ gaue equall power to all the Apostles and the rest were the same that Peter was endued with like felowship both of honor and of power Which wordes if you could hansomly take away out of him in some new print and why not take away so few as well as adde so many then would this be a passing fine place for you to perswade men that the vnity of the church doth presuppose your one chaire to which all must be subiect who wil be of the church and that they by consequēt are no right Christians who stand against the Popes supremacie Hart. You are much to blame to lay vnto our charge the corrupting of Cyprian chiefly in those editions which are best and soundest the Romane of Manutius and Anwerp of Pameliu● For Pius the fourth a Pope of worthy memory desirous that the Fathers should be set forth corrected most perfitly and cleansed from all spots sent to Venice for Manutius an excellent famous printer that he should come to Rome to doo it And to furnish him the better with all things necessarie thereto he put fower Cardinals very wise and vertuous in trust with the worke Now for the correcting and cleansing of Cyprian specially aboue the rest singular care was taken by Cardinall Borromaeus a copie was gotten of great antiquitie from Verona the exquisite diligence of learned men was vsed in it Wherefore I am perswaded that whatsoeuer they did adde vnto Ciprian they did not adde it rashly or of their owne head but with good aduise vpon the warrant of writen copies Which although they haue not declared in particular yet may we gather it by Pamelius a Canon of the Church of Bruges and Licentiat of diuinitie by whom the Anwerp-Cyprian was afterward set foorth For he doth note that al the words which you spoke of added by Manutius in the Romane-print he appoynted one chaire and the chaire to be one and the primacie is geuen vnto Peter are in a written copie of the Cambron-abbey which was the best of all the copies that he had Yea those of Peters primacie not onely in that copie but in an other too which Cardinall Hosius occupied As for the rest which were added by himselfe in the print at Anwerp he who forsaketh Peters chaire on which the church was founded doth hee trust himselfe to bee in the church hee noteth that they also are in the Cambron-copie and confirmed by Gratian who hath the same words and citeth them with Cyprians name Whereby you may perceiue that wee haue not corrupted those places of Cyprian either in the Roman-print or the Anwerpe we haue corrected rather that which was corrupt But I see the Poet hath said very truely Nothing is done so well but with euill speeches a man may depraue it Rainoldes And it is as truely said by the Orators Nothing is done so euil but with faire colours a man may defēd it The Pope sent for Manutius to print the Fathers corrected he appointed foure Cardinals to see the worke done Cardinall Borromaus had singular care of Cyprian

as Plato did excell among the Philosophers for witte and giftes of witte In the which conclusion that you may perceiue what I geue to Peter and refuse it if you mislike it by the giftes of grace I meane all the blessings wherewith the Lord did honour him by excelling in them I meane that he did passe not all the Apostles in them all but euery one in some or other For Iohn the disciple whom the Lord loued who wrote the Gospell so diuinely In the beginning was the worde who sawe by reuelation the things that were to come and wrote them by the spirite of prophecie Iohn excelled Peter in many giftes of grace as Ierom declareth And Paule excelled him farther euen in the chiefest giftes in so much that Austin who geueth excellent grace to Peter dooth geue most excellent grace to Paule and saith that he receiued more grace and laboured more then al the rest of the Apostles and is therefore called the Apostle by an excellencie But Peter of the other side excelled Paule in primacie that hée was chosen first and Iohn in age that he was elder in respect whereof hée was preferred before him by Ieroms opiniō to be the chief of the Apostles And this is it which Ierom and other Fathers meant by Peters principalitie if you will geue them leaue to be their owne interpreters They did not meane to call him Prince of the Apostles as the Pope desireth to bee Prince of Bishops Hart They did meane to call him the mouth and the top the highest the President and the head of the Apostles For these as I haue shewed are their own wordes by which a preeminence in gouernment is prooued and not in grace onely Rainoldes These in déede come néerer to the point in question because they touch gouernment at the least some of thē For some as the highest and so the toppe it may be too séeme to haue béene meant rather of preeminence in grace then in gouernment But if you will referre them vnto both it skilleth not For they can betoken no more then the rest And the rest doo signifie although a preeminence in gouernment such as it is yet nothing in comparison of your supremacie This is plaine by that which was agreed betwixt vs when wee spake of the practise of Peters autoritie in the Actes of the Apostles For when I graunted him to be as the Speaker of the Parlament in England or the President of a court of Parlament in Fraunce and shewed the great difference out of a lawier of your owne betweene this preeminence and that supremacie which you claime you reiected the lawier as either ignorant or vnfaithful and refused this préeminence as not importing that supremacie because it hath not soueraine power nay in power is vnder the body of the assembly aboue which it is in a prerogatiue of honor Yet this preeminence is all that is geuen to Peter by the titles of the mouth the head the President of the Apostles Wherefore it is euident that by those titles your Papall supremacie is not geuen to him Hart. It may by your similitudes be probably thoght that some of the rest might note such a preeminēce in gouernment as you speake of without a souerainty of power But the title of head hath greater strength in it For the Speaker is not called with vs in England the head of the Parlament That title is reserued to the Princ e alone Rainoldes But the President of a Court of Parlament in Fraunce is called head of the Court and Austin or rather he whom you alleadged in the name of Austin expoundeth head by President and the name of head as I haue prooued out of the Scriptures is vsed to note a preeminence of other things not of power much lesse of Princely power only Then what reason is there but Ierom in saying that Peter was appointed head might signifie the preeminence not of a Prince but of a Speaker We geue not in England the name of head vnto the Speaker True Neither geue we the name of Speaker to the Prince But Peter hath them both For hee is called the mouth and head of the Apostles If the one debase him not to the meanenesse of a Speakers function why should the other aduaunce him to the highnesse of a Princes soueraintie Hart. S. Ieroms reason sheweth that hée rather meant a soueraintie as of a Prince For he ●aith that Peter was chosen one amongst the twelue to the intent that a head beeing appointed occasion of schisme might be taken away And how can occasion of schisme be taken away vnlesse that one haue souerain power to gouerne all Rainoldes Why Doo you not thinke that Fraunce appointed Presidents in the Courts of Parlament for the better ordering of them in their dooings that occasion of strife might be taken away What In frée States which are ruled in commō not by one Prince but by the best men or by the whole people doo not their stories shew that one had a preeminence as the Consul at Rome the Prouost at Athens though the soueraintie were in many who had like authoritie and power amongst themselues And did they not appoint this one to be the chiefe and head of their company that occasion of strife might be taken away So fared it with Peter amongst the Apostles in gouerning the church whose state if wée compare with the states of common wealths we shall finde that it was an aristocratie not a monarchie as the Philosophers terme it not hauing Peter as a Prince but the Apostles as the best men to gouerne it in common Yet as in all assemblies wherein many méete about affaires of gouernment there must néedes be one for orders sake and peace to beginne to end to moderate the actions so was that preeminence geuen to Peter amongst the Apostles that all things might be done peaceably and orderly And this to be the headship which S. Ierom meant himself in that very place in which he toucheth it dooth shew manifestly For hauing set downe his aduersaries obiection But thou saiest the church is built vpon Peter he answereth thereto Although the same be done in another place on all the Apostles and they all receiue the keyes of the kingdome of heauen the strength of the church is grounded on them equally yet therefore is one chosen amongst the twelue that a head being appointed occasion of schisme may be taken away Of the which sentence the former branch sheweth that by the name of head vsed in the later he could not meane that Peter had a soueraine power ouer the Apostles For all Peters power is comprised in the keies that Christ did promise him and in the building of the church vpon him But all the Apostles receiue the keyes by Ieroms iudgement and the church is builte vpon them

and some of ceremonie so there are some pointes essentiall in iustice and some accidentall The essentiall pointes of iustice are the same in lawes of all common-wealthes For what is a law but a diuine ordinance commanding thinges honest and forbidding the contrarie The accidentall pointes doo and may vary according to circumstances of places times and persons So lawes of religion must be the same for substance in all Christian Churches in ceremonies they may differ as in the primitiue Church they did Wherefore the same faith and lawes of religion do no more inforce all churches to obey one Bishop then the same right and ordinances of iustice do require one Prince to rule all common-wealthes But what soeuer your fansie make you thinke of this point the place in Deuteronomie adiudging them to death who disobey the Priest can not helpe your fansie though it had béene meant of no other Priest but of the high Priest onely For Christ whē he sent his Apostles to preach the Gospell said vnto them Whosoeuer shall not receaue you nor heare your wordes when yee depart out of that house or that city shake of the dust of your feete Truely I say vnto you it shall be easier for them of the land of Sodome and Gomorrha in the day of iudgement then for that citie Which wordes being spoken to all the Apostles not to Peter onely and therefore belonging to all their successors as well as to Peters doo shew that euery Bishop hath as great authoritie giuen him by Christ as the Priest had by that law in Deuteronomie In so much that Cyprian doth alleage it often by a better reason of proportiō then yours to proue the authoritie of Bishops each in seuerall ouer the flockes committed to them Hart. And what if a matter of religion be harder then Bishops each in seuerall be able to decide it What if they disagree and will not yéeld one to another Doth not wisedome shew that there must be a chiefe iudge to ende the controuersie to keepe the truth of faith and peace of the Church that it be not pestered with heresies and schismes Rainoldes The wisedome of God hath committed that chieftie of iudgement so to call it not to the soueraine power of one but to the common care of many For when there was a controuersie in the Church of Antioche about the obseruation of the law of Moses some Iewes teaching contrarie to that which Paule and Barnabas taught they ordeined that Paule and Barnabas and certaine other of them should go vp to Ierusalem to the Apostles and Elders about that question And so by their common agreement and decrée the controuersie was ended the truth of faith kept and peace maintained in the Church After which example the Bishops that succéeded them made the like assemblies on the like occasions and by common conference tooke order for such matters both of doctrine and discipline as concerned in common the state of their Churches So did the Apostles and Apostolike men prouide against schismes heresies Their wisedome reached not vnto your policie of one chiefe iudge Hart. The profit of Councels and Synods of Bishops is very great we graunt For many eyes see more then one But it wil be greater if they be all counsellors vnto one gouernor then if they gouerne eche his owne and all in common For reason doth teach vs that the regiment of one which wee call a monarchie is better and worthier then the regiment of many as the Philosophers shew who write of Common-weales Rainoldes Reason is a notable helpe of mans weakenes if it be obedient to faith as a handmaide not rule it as a maistresse And humane artes wherein the Philosophers haue séene many sparkles of the truth of God by the light of reason are profitable instruments to set forth the truth so farre as they haue peace not warre with Gods worde But if the Philosophers haue erred as naturall men who neither doo conceiue the things of the spirit of God nor can know them if reason haue her eyes as it were dazeled because the light shineth in darkenesse and the darkenesse did not comprehend it then is it to be feared least as the Serpent seduced Eue through his suttletie so he beguile you by reason and you forget that lesson of the holy Ghost beware least there be any man that spoyle you through philosophie Which I say not so much in respect of this point of the Church gouernment as of your whole doctrine a mightie ground whereof in your Schoolemen is philosophie and your Iesuites challenge doth offer to proue it by naturall and morall reason For here if I would iustifie the cause by Philosophers it is ●asily shewed that the Churches state is a most perfite monarchie wherein Christ is king his lawes are the scriptures his officers are the Bishops not ordained to bée assistantes vnto one deputie but to be deputies all them selues euen Pastors of his flock guides rulers of his Church Howbeit if it differ from the kingly states of worldly cōmon-weales which philosophie writeth off as it doth in part Philosophers must not maruel sith Christ hath declared his kingdōe is not of this world Indéede the Apostles thought of such a kingdome but Christ saide it should not be so amongst them as with the Princes of the Gentiles Which sentence of Christ your Popes not vnderstanding and wéening the Apostles to be forbidden nothing but an heathnish tyrannie and liking well a monarchie because Philosophers prayse it they haue raised a visible monarchie of their owne in steede of Christes monarchie and haue chaunged his kingdome which is not of this world into a worldly kingdome the kingdome of the Romanes as a Iesuit calleth it Neither contenting them selues with such a kingdome as Princes of the Gentiles had they make them selues Princes ouer all the kingdomes and nations of the earth Which is a greater monarchie then Philosophers like off as I coulde proue out of them if the Popes cause were to be handled in their schooles But because I list not to trifle out the time with idle discourses about pointes of State as your Rabbines doo to proue that a monarchie is the best regiment therefore against such reasons I laye that exception which Tertullian did of olde against heretikes What hath Athens to do with Ierusalem the schoole of philosophy with the Church of Christ The duetie of Christians is to search and weigh in matters of faith not what reason but what religion not what the Philosophers but what the Prophets Apostles not what mans fansie but what the Spirit of God doth say And so the former parts of your maine argument for the Popes supremacie are too weake to proue it The last is weaker then they both For that there should be one chiefe and highest Pastor of the Church in earth it hath some

wiser and discréeter legates writing by them vnto him that there was no cause why hee should be offended with his former letters For though other men saith he take the word benefit in an other sense yet you should haue taken it in that in which we tooke it and which it seemeth to haue by the first originall For it is compounded of two wordes good and fact and it signifieth not a thing that is giuen in ●ee but a good fact As it is vsed throughout the whole course of the holy scripture wherein we are saide to bee guided and nourished by the benefit of God not as though wee had these thinges of him in fee but as of his blessing and a good fact of his Now we as you know did set vpon your head the crowne of the Empire so well and so honourably that all men may iudge it was a goodfact And so were the other wordes mistaken also we bestowed on you the crowne of the Empire For by this worde bestowed we meant nothing els but we set it vpon you The Emperour had required the picture to be razed out the writing to be called backe But hée must be content and so he was with this Papall mitigation of the writing made somewhat ●mother by the Legates The picture was too good an euidence to be defaced And for all this smoothing of the writing too Pope Breake-speare ceased not to quarell with him still and to encroch vpon him The Emperour exacted hi● tribute to be taken vp in the Popes dominion the Pope sent him worde that he should not exact it but at his coronation onely The Emperour required Bishops to doo him homage and to be sworne to him the Pope wrote sharpe letters and reproued him for it The Emperour being offended with the Popes letters wrote somewhat sharply backe and set his name before the Popes and spake to him in the singular number the Pope againe wrote to him that he marueiled why he gaue not due reuerence to S. Peter and to the holy Church of Rome The Pope required him not to binde the Bishops of Italie to doo him homage the Emperour saide he was content not to seeke their homage if they would be content not to hold his lordships The Pope would not haue him send messengers to Rome vnlesse he made him priuie to it sith all in that citie were S. Peters magistrates with the whole royaltie the Emperour said that that point did neede more consultation for so the Roman Emperour should haue the bare name of a ruler onely if the Citie of Rome whence he is named the Roman Emperour were not subiect to him Upon these dealinges and answeres too and fro the matter was debated betwéene the Popes legates foure Cardinalls and the Emperour to bring them to agréement The Emperour professed that hee would both giue and receiue iudgement The Popes legates answered that it was meete he should receyue it onely sith the Pope is not subiect to any mans iudgement Whereto when the Emperour saide that he would stand to the arbitriment of sixe Cardinalls and sixe Bishops or Princes the legates were content to write thereof vnto the Pope They wrote and the Pope refused the condition To be short they agréeed not while Pope Breake-speare liued But the lustie Cardinall Rowland who succéeded him and being Pope was named Alexander the third did so rowse vp Fridericke with their olde policy of excommunications Papall and rebellions that after great daungers of his state and life he was enforced to yeelde at length and aske him pardon Which being graunted on conditions he came to Pope Rowland in the citie of Venice and kissed there his feete and gaue him the vpper hand and held his stirrup while he was m●unting on his palf●ie So by treading downe the Emperour Fridericke the Popedome was aduanced to be the highest state in earth and Peters chaire got Caesars right If Henry the fifth the sonne of Fridericke sought to stay it by seazing on S. Peters lands giuing them to thrée Dukes to be held of him in fée he sought to stay a water-course which the more you stoppe it the fiercer it doth breake out For Philip his brother the greatest of the thrée was excommunicated straight and Pope Innocentius the third watching his time drew the two swordes out against them all discharged their subiectes of their allegiance and oth and set both his clergie and laitie vpon them neither left them til he h●d vanqui●ht them what with curses what with warres and that which Pope Rowland had well begoon he nobly finished Thus haue I touched briefly the storie of the temporall state and kingdom of the Popes how ●h●y clime● vp to the soueraintie of it The truth of which storie is cléere by the monuments of historians worthie credit Paulus Diaconus Otho Radeuicus Aimo●nus Rhegino Sigibertus and others who liued at the same times wherein the seuerall thinges were done Yea they in sundrie pointes and circumstances of importance haue opened partly more partly the same more forcibly then as I haue touched it But lest you should suspect that some of them perhaps speake somewhat of affection against the Popes or for the Emperours I haue contented my selfe to touch no more nor with more aduantage then Sigonius in his storie of the kingdome of Italie presented to the Popes sonne and writen for the Popes glory as it became the Popes reader hath set downe out of them and other monuments as most true Whereby it is verie apparant and euident th●● vnder pretense of the Churches state of the Church-discipline in excommunication of the Church-doctrine in meritorious workes of the Church autoritie in forgiuing sinnes in teaching men their dueties in dispensing with othes and lastly of the Church-solemnities in setting crownes on Emperours heads the Pope hath gathered iewels to decke the triple crowne of his worldly kingdome and hath made himselfe not onely a Prince but also a Prince of Princes of the earth It was almost twelue hundred yeares after Christ when he obtained this soueraintie Sith the which time he hath more notoriously built vp his Babylon with the stones of Sion The common wealth is witnesse hereof in the calamit●●s of her ciuill gouernours Whom by the deuises of the same treacheries he hath depriued of kingdomes goodes libertie and life when they haue stoode in his light as the realmes of England of France of Germanie of Boheme of Nauarre the states of Florence Vrbine Venice in Italie haue tried to their smart But the Church hath tried it with greater smart in her spiritual pastors For as Samuell when the Israelites would haue a king to rule them as other nations had tolde them that the king who should raigne ouer them would play the king with them

it Beside that if Constantine had made this pretensed donation in déed yet cometh it short of that for proofe whereof you cite it to wéet that the temporall dominion of the Popes is much lesse now then it was almost thirteene hundred yeares since For the citie of Rome which in this donation is saide to haue béene giuen them is but a litle corner of their dominion now Hart. But if you ioyne thereto that which I added of S. Peters patrimonie belonging vnto them within two or thrée hundred yeares after Constantine it cometh home to the proofe of that which I purposed at least to the disproofe of that which your men auouch in their Centuries For although they say that this encrease of wealth in the Church of Rome began after S. Gregories time yet are they notably disproued by S. Gregorie himselfe in whose reigne as it may probably be thought the Churches possessions were more then they bée now at this present And this appeareth by sundrie of his epistles where hee maketh expresse mention of S. Peters patrimonie in Africke in Naples in Campania in Dalmatia in Fraunce in Italie in Sicilia in Sardinia and in many other countries Rainoldes You haue heard M. Hart of sir Thomas More and perhaps you haue read the historie writen by him of king Richard the third Hart. A worthie worke of a worthieman Who if he had gone through in like sorte with all our English historie we might compare with Greekes or Romans But what of that historie Rainoldes In it he reporteth that Richard was a tyrant and did vsurpe the regall dignitie vpon him selfe defrauding Prince Edward whose it was by right Doth sir Thomas More say true in this of Richard or doth he misreport him Hart. True out of question as it is apparant by all our historians who consent therein Rainoldes Yet there is a writer who saith that king Richard did not vsurpe the crowne And for proofe thereof hee bringeth forth sundrie old recordes and euidences of the house of Yorke by which it is shewed that Richard had landes in Calice in Canterburie in Kent in Northumberland in Ireland in England in Garnsey and in Iersey before Prince Edwardes time wherein ●ir Thomas More reporteth him to haue vsurped Hart. He might haue those landes while he was Duke of Glocester and not king of England Wherefore the writer who bringeth this to proue that he vsurped not the crowne disproueth not the historie of Sir Thomas More but bewrayeth his owne frowardnesse or follie Rainoldes You are the writer M. Hart. I shewed by the historie of Sigonius and others most worthie of credit that the Popes vsurped Rome and the dominion of the Roman Dukedom defrauding the Emperour of his right by treason You affirme the contrarie And for proofe thereof you alleage sundrie epistles of S. Gregorie whereby it appeareth that they had possessions in Afrike in Naples in Campania in Dalmatia in Fraunce in Italie in Sicilia and in Sardinia before the time wherein Sigonius declareth them to haue vsurped But as your selfe answered they might haue these possessions while they were Bishops and not Princes Wherefore in bringing this to proue that they vsurped not the Princedome so to terme it and temporall dominion of the Papall State you disproue not the historie of Sigonius and the rest but bewray your owne frowardnesse or follie Nay you bewray greater fautes of euil guilful dealing as you h●ndle it For whereas Sigonius the rest whom I cited to p●oue the Popes vsurping are of y● Popes religion therefore of greater credit against the Popes you say nought to them but name in their steed our autors of the Centuries Euen as if the writer whom I told you of being vrged with the credit of sir Thomas More and English historians should answere that although Funccius a German report in his Chronicle that Richard did vsurpe yet is he notably disproued by the euidences of the house of Yorke Againe where your conclusion ought to be resolute that the Churches poss●ssions were more in S. Gregories time then they be now you say they were more as it may probably be thought To ouerbeare veritie with probabilitie the truth with likelihood of truth and leaue your selfe a lurking hole that although the thing be found to be false yet you may escape who vouch it not as true but probable Moreouer the time of Gregories being Bishop you terme it his reigne thereby to bréede opinion that he had the temporall dominion as they haue now Wherein that worde is vsed so much the more deceitfully because it prepareth a way to the mistaking of that which you alleage out of Gregories epistles touching S. Peters patrimonie For. S. Peters patrimonie doth signifie the temporall dominion of the Popes in that of Clemangis which you began your answere with And so by this reigne a man would take it here Whereas Gregorie meaneth the landes of the Church and Bishopricke of Rome by S. Peters patrimonie not the dominion temporall which they had not then But in these fautes you are the more excusable because you doo folow the footsteps of Genebrard whose Centurie-writers and perhaps and kingdome and sophistrie might bring you to them vnawares In the next your shame can no way be couered For whereas your lodesman hauing searched Gregories epistles of purpose for S. Peters patrimonie could finde it in no more places but in those which you rehearsed by name you thinking such flyes too small for the Pope doo adde with flat vntruth and many other countries beside that other countries is brought in so too as if Campania Naples and Italie were sundry count●ies where Naples is a towne Campania a shire of Italie And yet as though your dealing were sincere and sound you knit it vp thus that seeing for this which is the greatest part so good proofes may be made no doubt but the Popes can shew verie good euidence when neede shal require for sundry other verie great and large giftes which were bestowed vpon their See by diuers Princes many Nobles men and women The question is of the temporall dominion of the Popes The proofe you bring thereof from Constantine is forged from Gregorie is fond So that no part is proued yet much lesse the greatest The chiefest of the rest that Popes can shew for it is Pipines donation and the successours of Pipine In it I haue conuinced them also of vsurping who first did begge and take the territories and ditions which should haue béene restored to their old Lord the Emperour and afterwarde did vse their n●w Lord as a vasall and made themselues soueraines of that which was giuen them to hold in fée To be short the vanitie of this vaunt of euidence which the Popes can shew when neede shall require may be perceyued by Eugubinus their atturney generall and principall proctor in this cause Who being enflamed with a Popish deuotion to say the best that

he knew and furnished with the treasures of the Popes librarie to know the best that might be saide yet after many floorishes for Constantines donation of the largest sise he addeth in conclusion that the Pope Gregorie the third did excommunicate Leo the Emperour and caused Rome and Italie to rebell against him absoluing all his subiectes from their oth of fealtie And so he confuteth the lye which himselfe and Genebrard doo build on that Rome after Constantine was not the Emperours but the Popes and graunteth by consequent that the Popes temporall dominion in Italie was vnlawfully gotten and wrongfully vsurped by this deuise of treason Hart. Nay Genebrard hath other reasons to defend the right of the Pope if these doo not content men For I saith he answere to heretikes impugning the donation of Constantine that which Iephte did in the eleuenth of Iudges to the king of Ammonites requiring the land of Galaad to bee restored him we will possesse that which the Lord our God hath conquered and obteined Vnlesse perhaps thou canst shew that any man did striue about it for the space of three hundred yeares here for a thousand yeares and more Why so long time haue you attempted nothing for the recouerie of it Chiefly sith the prescription of certaine yeares sufficeth in groundes and possessions Moreouer the consent of Italie and of the Church and of the whole world is of force enough to giue the Pope that right Finally that Constantine remoued the seat of the earthly Empire to Constantinople through Gods speciall prouidence to the end that the kingdome of the Church forespoken of by Daniel the Prophet might haue his seate at Rome it appeareth by this that straight the westerne Emperours Constans and the rest who folowed for certaine ages left Rome still and placed the seate of the westerne Empire at Milan or Rauenna and also that Constantius the nephiew of Heraclius Michael and certaine others would haue brought it in againe to Rome but could not Wherefore howsoeuer the Popes dominion temporall began or whensoeuer it is sure that he hath right vnto it now Rainoldes The point that we reason of is not M. Hart what right he hath now but what wrong heretofore hee hath doone the Emperour to obteine this right Though neither can you proue his right by these reasons For that which Iephte spake of gotten by the Israelites they got by lawfull warre The Pope hath gotten his by vnlawfull treacherie And prescription holdeth not in thinges that are stollen and detained by force if you beleeue the law As for the thousand yeares and more which Genebrard addeth that no man stroue about it if he meane about Constantines donation no maruell if they stroue not about that which was not If he meane about that which Popes claime thereby it hath two vntruthes one that they haue helde it a thousand yeares and more an other that no man stroue with them about it For to passe ouer the Emperours before touched and namely Friderike the first the Romans them selues had many bickerings with them for the temporall rule and gouernment of the citie contending that the Pope should medle with the spirituall onely Whereby withall appeareth how vaine the bragge is of the consent of Italie the church and the whole world Though neither their consent can giue the Pope that right vnlesse the Roman Emperours the right owners of it do consent also And how they consent you may learne by late Emperours of whom one desired to recouer Rome and all the Popes dominion as being his of right an other did more then desire i● or rather by late Popes who are afraide of nothing more then of the Emperours comming into Italie Now the last reason of Gods speciall prouidence remouing the seate of the westerne Empire to Constantinople to the end that the kingdom of the church forespoken of by Daniel the Prophet might haue his seate at Rome beside that it is seasoned after Genebrards maner with vntruth of storie as that the western Emperours who succeeded Constantine for certaine ages left Rome still which is disproued by Honorius it wresteth Gods worde to the maintenance of mans pride For the Churches kingdome which Daniel forespake of is the kingdome of the Iewes touching the temporall state touching the spirituall the kingdome of the Saintes that doth endure for euer And if we presume vpon the secret workes of the prouidence of God to gather what the fansie of man doth imagin not what the wisedom of God hath reuealed the Turkish impietie may bee as well proued as the Papall kingdom because as the seate of the westerne Empire is fallen to the Pope so Constantinople the seat of the Easterne is fallen to the Turke But whatsoeuer right these reasons may afforde to the Pope now they acquite him not from hauing doon wrong to the Emperours heretofore in that he got his temporall dominion from them by treason and rebellion And this is the first point wherein you went about to cléere his supremacie The next is his tyrannie in spirituall things Wherein your defense of him is so tempered that although you cannot choose but acknowledge his faute in those excesses which I laide open yet doo you smooth them as abuses onely of lawfull autoritie and not vnlawfull actes of vsurped power For you say that if any of the Bishops of Rome abused their wealth to any euill purpose or els their autoritie in any of the pointes mentioned by me you are so farre off from iustifying them therein that rather you rew to see it and you condemne them therefore A short and sclender answere to all their crimes that I touched Howbeit if you speake vnfainedly M. Hart as I pray God you doo I am glad that you seeke not to iustifie the Popes in any of the pointes that I charged them with but rew and condemne their abuses therein For I laide to their charge that they haue oppressed both the ciuil state and the ecclesiasticall the ciuil in taking vpon them to giue Empires to depose Princes to discharge subiectes of their allegiance and oth the ecclesiasticall in making of Church-officers ordering of Church-causes disposing of Church-goodes executing of Church-censures and establishing of Church-lawes to serue their owne desires and lustes In all the which pointes if you condemne their doinges as abuses of their autoritie you condemne the practise of their whole supremacie as nothing els in grosse but an heape of abuses Hart. Not of their whole supremacie For though some of them abused their autoritie in sundrie pointes which you mentioned yet others haue not doon so As we had experience in Quéene Maries dayes wherein there were not so many Church-liuings bestowed in England vpon Italian Pastors as you spake of vnder Gregorie the ninth or Innocentius the fourth But howsoeuer they dealt with practise of their power which they abused I graunt the power

as Canus D. Stapleton shew but not in the conclusion that is the principal point which they entend to teach Rainoldes Now you may sée how vainely you st●iue for the Pope For this which is your last hold when all is doone I oue●threw at first by the example of Honorius The conclusion and principal point of whose decrees set forth to teach the Church was the Monothelites heresie Whereby he did not strengthen his brethren in the faith but confirmed their wicked errors against the faith as the Councel pronounced of him Hart. Why doo all the Fathers then apply this priuilege of not failing and of confirming other in faith to the Roman Church and Peters successors in the same Rainoldes They doo not But your Rhemists who report that of them do shamefully misreport them For Austin Chrysostom Prosper and Theophylact doo vnderstand by faith a liuely Christian faith and say that Christ prayed that Peter might continue therein vnto the end Which grace neither they nor any Father saith that all the Popes haue Nay your selfe your Doctors yea Rhemists do confesse the contrarie Hart. Yet the rocke no doubt whereon Christ did promise that he would build his Church and the gates of hell should not preuaile against it is applyed by the Fathers to Peters successors in the church of Rome S. Austin is a witnesse thereof against the Donatistes whom he biddeth number the Priestes that is the Popes euen from the seate of Peter and marke their succession affirming it to be the rocke against which the proude gates of hell preuaile not And S. Ierom writing to Damasus the Pope auoucheth as much I am ioyned saith he in communion to your holinesse that is to Peters chaire I know that the Church is builded vpon that rocke Rainoldes The poore shippe of Christ hath made almost shipwracke vpon this rocke of yours I haue alreadie proued that the word petra which you translate a rocke doth signifie in Christes spéech a stone not a rocke Howbeit rocke or stone it mak●th no difference to the sayings of the Fathers which you alleage concerning it For whether they meant a stone as it is properly or a rocke as it may be they did at least S. Austin through doutfulnesse of the worde they meant not to build the Papacie therby Wherfore if you thinke that the name of stone either hath not so great aduantage for your purpose or doth not yéelde so fully the meaning of the Fathers I am content with out preiudice to that which I haue spokē touching the right sense thereof in Christes spéech to vse your rocke in steede of it Hart. So you must doo if you will deale with my argument For the maiestie of the Church of Rome is much aduanced by the name of the rocke and in my iudgement the Fathers meant no lesse when they applyed the words of Christ to that Sée Rainoldes The Fathers vsed those wordes to aduance the maiestie of the Church of Rome but neither to aduance the church of Rome alone neither to import the Popes supremacie by that maiestie And this may be gathered plainely by S. Cyprian who although he giue a speciall ti●le of honour preeminence to the Church of Rome yet doth he apply that of the rock to the Church in general For he affirmeth that our Lord tooke order for the office of a Bishop and the state of his Church by saying vnto Peter Thou art Peter and on this rocke will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not preuaile against it and to thee will I giue the keyes of the kingdome of heauen and whatsoeuer thou shalt binde on earth shall be bound in heauen and whatsoeuer thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heauen Thence by course of times and successions there floweth the ordeining of Bishops and the state of the Church that vpon the Bishops the Church should be set and euery action of the Church should be gouerned and guided by the same rulers In the which wordes S. Cyprian you see accounteth all Bishops the rocke of the Church That as by the church built vpon the rocke the whole Church is meant and not the Church of Rome or of Carthage onely so neither the Bishop of Rome nor of Carthage may be represented alone by the rocke and yet as well the Bishop of Carthage as of Rome Hart. Howsoeuer it seemed in S. Cyprians iudgement to belong to all Bishops and so after a sort to the Bishop of Carthage as he applyeth it yet other of the Fathers apply it in speciall to the Bishop of Rome giue it particularly to that Church Sée Rainoldes They doo but in such sort that they might haue done it to any faithfull Church euen to the Church of Carthage as S. Cyprian did For that which is verified of a thing in generall is verified in the speciall As for example the Catholike Church in generall is named the house of God and the spouse of Christ. The Apostle applyeth those titles in special the one to the Hebrewes the other to the Corinthians if they continue faithfull And so what Christ hath said of his whole Church that the gates of hell shall not preuaile against it that is true in euery part of his Church And if he named Peter a rocke in respect of the faith that hee professed on the which he said he would build his Church then al on whom professing the same faith of Christ his Church in part is builded may in a proportion be called rockes also Wherefore sith the Fathers did speake of the Church of Rome when it was holy and of the Roman Bishops when they professed the faith of Peter no maruaile if they said the Church was built on that rocke and the gates of hell did not preuaile against it Howbeit I deny not but that in their spéeches of the Church of Rome they giue more vnto it then they could haue giuen to euery faithfull Church For whereas of the sundry Churches of Christ some were planted by the Apostles them selues as Ierusalem Antioche Corinth Rome some receiued the faith from them which the Apostles planted they had the former sort in greater reputation and called them Apostolike Churches amongst which they counted the Church of Rome a chiefe one as planted by the chiefe Apostles Peter and Paule And because it was famous that Peter had preached the Gospel there whom as the first Apostle it séemeth that the Romans did more reioyce in then in Paule thence it commeth that in speaking of the Church of Rome they mention oftentimes the seat and chaire of Peter For they who did teach were wont to teach fitting as I shewed before by the example of Christ and his wordes of the Scribes and Pharises

Ierom therein where Ierom saith the same that he doth so plainely fully that your Hosius is faine to shape one answere to them both that they beleeued a false rumour Wherewith your Bellarmin doth cast them off too And this shift of laying the blame on false rumours séemed so hansome to your Surius that he belike misliking Onuphrius shift of Anastasius applyeth it to Damasus also For colouring wherof he saith that very auncient historians and writers beare witnesse of Liberius most constant perseuerance in defense of the Catholike faith But being not able to name as much as one of these very auncient historians and writers of whom hee boasteth with shamelesse lye he sendeth his reader a thing most ridiculous to Nicephorus a late writer who saith he doubtlesse did draw his writings out of the auncient In déede that which Nicephorus hath of this point he drewe it out of Sozomen and if the Gréeke were extant the truth were easily tryed but either he did change his autour in three wordes which is not likely sith he folowed him through all the chapter foote by foote or which is most likely your Langus who translated him out ofa writē copie was as bold with him as Christopherson with Sozomen Such follies and treacheries you wrappe your selues in to kéepe men from opinion that a Pope subscribed to the Arian heresie Which had you not hardened your faces as flint to sooth the presumption of the Papall See I sée no cause why you should doo chiefely sith your selues do teach as I haue shewed that the Pope may be an heretike and not subscribe to heresie onely But if you be affected so tenderly to the Pope that you will rather graunt any fault in others then such a spot in him if you can say with out blushing that Damasus was corrupted Athanasius light of credit Marcellinus a false Chronicler that Sozomen is truer in Latin then in Gréeke in your translation then his owne tounge that Marianus Scotus Martinus Polonus Ado Rhegino Antoninus Platina other later writers were deceiued by Ierom that Ierom was abused himselfe by false rumours to be short that the Papistes who liue in our daies can tell what was done twelue hundred yeares ago better then them selues who liued at that time andsince from age to age yet you cannot say but that Ierom thought that Liberius subscribed to the Arian heresie yea that Felix the next Bishop of Rome after Liberius was an Arian he thought it Wherefore if he had meant of the whole succession of the Roman Bishops that which he wrote to Damasus I am ioyned in communion vnto your holinesse that is to Peters chaire I know that the Church is builded vpon that rocke then hee must haue meant that before the time that Damasus was Bishop he ought to haue béene ioyned in communion to the Arians and that the Arians holinesse was the chaire of Peter and that the Church was built vpon the rocke of Arians But this abomination was farre from S. Ierom. S. Ierom therefore meant not the succession but Damasus who succéeded Peter as in chaire so in doctrine and taught the faith which Peter did a faith as cleane contrarie to the Arians faith as light is to darkenes as life is to death Hart. But questionlesse S. Austin meant the whole succession of the Bishops of Rome when he wrote against the Donatistes Number ye the Priestes euen from the very seat of Peter in that ranke of Fathers marke who succeeded whom that is the rocke against which the proud gates of hell preuaile not The gates of hell saith Austin preuaile not against the Priestes that is the Bishops who succeede Peter Then by his iudgement all the Roman Bishops are frée from all heresie For the gates of hell are heresies and the principall autours of heresies as Epiphanius witnesseth Wherefore ifthe gates of hell preuaile not against the succession of the Bishops of Rome it foloweth howsoeuer you auoide S. Ierom that neither Arians nor Donatistes nor any other heresies doo preuaile against it Rainoldes Did preuaile against it in the time of Austin so you should conclude You haue a pretie policie in citing the testimonies and sayings of the Fathers touching the Church of Rome that what they did speake of the time present then you vse it as spoken of the time present now There was a gentlewoman in Rome named Fabia who being waxed olde yet willing still to séeme young said in Tullies hearing that she was thirtie yeares of age That must needes be true quoth Tullie for I haue heard it of you twentie yeares ago The Church of Rome hath defiled her selfe with idolatrie gone a whoring from the Lord yet she would séeme a maide still and so shee saith her selfe to be I thinke you iest not with her as Tullie did with Fabia yet you proue her maidenhead as Tullie did the youth of Fabia You say that it must néedes be true for it is writen ofher twelue hundred yeares ago But that you may sée how small cause you haue to build so much on those wordes The gates of hell preuaile not against the succession of the Bishops of Rome consider what is meant by the gates of hell and your graunt is past that against some Bishops of Rome they haue preuailed The state of the faithfull and chosen of God in this present life is as it were a warfare whereof the Church is called militant The aduersaries and enimies whom we must fight against our Sauiour speaketh of them as of a strong kingdome which he calleth hell because it warreth all for hel and the deuil is prince of it The gates of hell therefore doo signifie the holdes the fortresses and munitions wherewith the powers of hel doo fight against vs and assault vs that is euen whatsoeuer the deuill can doo by force or fraude All the which is meant by the name of gates because the gates of fortes are wont to haue the best munition and to be fensed most strongly So the gates of hell are not onely heresies though heresies are of them as Epiphanius and Austin note but also persecutions and specially sinnes and in a word all euils sweete or sower faire or foule that séeke to subdue vs to euerlasting death as Origen Chrysostom Gregorie Theophylact and others well obserue Now ifyou apply this to the Bishops of Rome you may sée your error For it is confessed by your selfe and yours that sinnes haue preuailed and preuailed monstrously against sundry of them Whereof it doth folow that against sundry of them who haue succéeded in the seate of Peter the gates of hell haue preuailed As for S. Austins iudgement that heresies of the Arians or Donatistes or others did not preuaile against them I know no cause to the contrarie but hee might iustly say

as our ancestours vnder the Pope as Ionathan Nor was it such turpitude for the nation of the Iewes to haue had religion reformed by two Kings though in a few yeares it caused sundrie alterations as for the nation of the Romans to haue kept idolatrie without alteration vnder high Priests for a thousand yeares together Hart. Well Whatsoeuer opinion you haue of the Princes supremacie your own Centurie-writers cōtrol it in generall Caluin in particular the grant thereof to King Harrie For they both reproue the title of head And it is al one to be head of the Church to be chiefe gouernour of causes ecclesiasticall Rainoldes Caluin reproueth not the title of head as the Protestants graunted it but that sense thereof which Popish Prelates gaue namely Steuen Gardiner who did vrge it so as if they had meant thereby that the king might do thinges in religion according to his owne will and not ●ée thē d●on according to Gods wil. In like sort is the headship of the Church controlled by the Centurie-writers For they say that Princes ought not to be heads to coine formes of religiō frame new points of faith as Ieroboam did his calues So what they mislike y● we grant not to Princes What we grant to Princes that they mislike not Nay the Centurie-writers do giue the same supremacie to our Prince that we do nor only to ours but to al in general Which Caluin also doth Nor only hée or they but the reformed Churches whole with one consent I might say euen your owne men too Yea euen your selfe too M. Hart. For when vpon occasion of spéech that I had with you touching this poynt before we did enter into conference by writing I brought you M. Nowels answere to Dorman wherin he hath confuted pithily and plainly the cauils which your Maister blancheth out of Caluin and the ancient Fathers against the Quéenes supremacie requesting you to reade it ouer you told me hauing read it that you had mistaken our doctrin● of that point and that if we gaue the Prince no greater soueraintie then M. Nowell doth you did agrée with vs. Hart. Indéed I had thought so do many take it that you meant to giue as much to the Prince by the title of the supremacie as we do to the Pope Where you giue no more me thinkes by M. Nowel thē S. Austin doth who saith that Kings do serue God in this as Kings if in their own realme they cōmaūnd good things forbid euil not only cōcernīg the ciuil state of mē but the religion of God also And thus much I subscribe too Rainoldes Wil you procéede then to the later point wherein you would proue you sayd that the faith which we pro●esse in England is not the Catholike faith Hart. I haue proued it alredy in part For the Catholike faith is the which we professe in the Church of Rome You professe not ye. As the points that you haue touched by the way of scriptures of traditiōs of merits of sacramēts of Priesthoode of the Masse the real presēce the worship of Saints sūdry others shew But I wil cōfer no farder herof vnles I haue greter assurāce of my life Rainoldes Assurance of your life to procéede in cōferēce by Gods grace you haue At least as great assurance as hetherto you haue had But you should rather say you wil conferre no farder vnlesse you had better assurance of your cause For that is the catholike faith which the Apostles did preach to al nations The Apostles preached that which is writen in the holy scriptures Therefore that which is writen is the catholike faith But the faith which we professe is all writen The faith which we professe then is the Catholike faith And this should appéer● as well in other pointes as in those alreadie touched if you would sift them The Lord grant you grace to consider of it that whatsoeuer become of your life temporall you may haue assurance of eternall life through knowledge of his holy truth SIX CONCLVSIONS touching THE HOLY SCRIPTVRE AND THE CHVRCH Proposed expounded and defended in publike disputations at Oxford by Iohn Rainoldes 1 The holy scripture teacheth the Church all things necessarie to saluation 2 The militant Church may erre both in maners and in doctrine 3 The authoritie of the holy scripture is greater then the authoritie of the Church 4 The holy Catholike Church which wee beleeue is the whole company of Gods elect and chosen 5 The Church of Rome is not the Catholike Church nor a sound member of the Catholike Church 6 The reformed Churches in England Scotland Fraunce Germanie and other kingdomes and common-weales haue seuered themselues lawfully from the Church of Rome Ierem. 51.9 We would haue healed Babylon but she is not healed forsake her ô children of God and let vs goe euerie one into his owne countrey TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL and reuerend in Christ the heads of Colleges and companie of students of the Vniuersitie of Oxford Iohn Rainoldes wisheth grace and peace from God the father and from our Lord Iesus Christ. WHen Anna the mother of Samuel had brought vp her child whom she had obtained of God with earnest prayers to put from her selfe the reproch of barennesse she consecrated him to God before Eli the Priest that he might liue and serue in the temple of the Lord. In like maner I desiring to consecrate to the temple of the Lord my Samuel as it were the first child of trauaile that God hath geuen to my barrennes haue thought good to present him to God before you fathers and brethren welbeloued in Christ who either are already or shall be put in trust with the charge of the temple to serue if it may any way the temple of the liuing God Perhaps a rash enterprise vndertaken somewhat more boldly then aduisedly chiefly séeing that it is so far inferior to the ripenes of Samuel And truely I haue hetherto béene stil of the minde that I had leiffer the things which I had brought foorth rather as vntimely fruites then perfit children should be kept within then come abroad into the light stay in the court of the temple then presse into the temple For I haue béen dealt with both oft and earnestly by my very frends that I would suffer to be printed and published as other sclender exercises made rather for the fence-schoole as you would say then for the field so chiefly my Orations which when I read the Gréeke lecture in our College I made to mine audience cōcerning the studies of humanitie and philosophie Which yet I haue refrained to doo not of enuie for I haue addicted my selfe to wish well vnto the Church common wealth neither of vnkindnes as though I were not willing to gratif●e them whom I was greatly bound too but partly

opinion and sound in points of faith yea so sound and right that they think no pestilent disease may attache her no contagion infect her no spot of vnfaithfulnes any way defile her Of the which assertion they alleage the Fathers to omitte the residue men of baser credit for principall patrones And therein Andradius dealeth somewhat wisely For he dooth heape together witnesses without testimonies the geuers of euidence without euidence Austins Ieroms Basils Athanases and Chrysostoms But Sanders much more gloriously For he hath laide on such a l●ade of testimonies that if the sayings should be numbred and not weighed we must léese our suite no remedy But all the Fathers whom this pety-lawier produceth as speakers for the Popes monarchie doo either deny that the Church of Rome did erre or that it may erre did erre as Irenaeus In the Church of Rome that doctrine hath beene kept still which was deliuered by the Apostles may erre as Cyprian that the Romanes are they whose faith is commended and praysed by the Apostle vnto whom vnfaithfulnes can not haue accesse The former who deny that the Church of Rome did erre speake not against vs. For we doo not say that it did erre in Irenaeus time but that it dooth erre now He denyeth that it did erre we say that it dooth erre doo we gainesay one another Ierusalem is called the citie of God by the Psalmist and he is said there to be serued Esay termeth it an harlot The temple of the Lord is named the house of God the house of prayer by Salomon by Christ it is reported to be a denne of theeues Dooth Esay speake against the Psalmist or Christ against Salomon No but the Psalmist sheweth what Ierusalem was in his time Esay what in his The faithfull citie is become an harlot it was a faithfull citie but it is become an harlot Salomon teacheth what the house of God ought to be Christ what it is made You haue made it a denne of theues it was not to Salomon but you haue made it So Rome was likewise sound in the time of the Fathers but the faithfull citie is become an harlot the soundnes it hath lost it hath got a leprousie it was the house of God it is a denne of théeues it held the faith of Christ but it is fallen from it It had kept the doctrine still which was deliuered by the Apostles vntill the time of Irenaeus but that it hath kept still vntil our time the doctrin which was deliuered by the Apostles doth it thereof folow Unlesse perhaps the Popes Courtiers will proue that the whoores the Courtisans which keepe their stewes are virgins because they were virgins when they were litle babes The former Fathers then who deny that the church of Rome did erre doo not gainsay vs. The later who deny that it may erre gainsay vs in deed but they gainesay the holy Ghost too By whose inspiration the blessed Apostle exhorting the Roman church not to lift vp it selfe against the Iewes Be not high minded saith he but feare For if God spared not the natural branches take heed least he also spare not thee Behold there fore the bountifulnes and seueritie of God seueritie toward thē which haue fallen but toward thee bountifulnes if thou continue in his bountifulnes or els thou shalt also be cut off The church of Rome therefore may be cut of if cut of then erre if erre then vnfaithfulnes may haue accesse vnto it What and was Cyprian of an other minde Pardon me O Cyprian I would beléeue thée gladly but that beléeuing thee I should not beléeue the word of God But whether we should rather beléeue God or man let the Papists iudge At least if they beléeue rather man then God let them beléeue the reason and iudgement of their owne men For Sotus Alfonsus Hosius Verratus the lightes of the Papists doo witnesse that any particular church may erre But that the church of Rome is a particular church the same Verratus affirmeth nor can the rest deny it Wherefore if Cyprian did thinke that the church of Rome can not erre in that he must him selfe be condemned of errour by the Papists iudgement And so whereas all the testimonies of the Fathers are of two sortes the one of them true but cleane beside the purpose the other to the purpose enough but vntrue it foloweth that the sicknes of the Church of Rome can finde no helpe in any medicines of the Fathers What haue we then to doo with them by whom olde Rome is praysed and reported to gather together Christians to peace and repaire their faith to minister reliefe vnto the brethren the Churches to be a schoole of the Apostles a mother-citie of godlinesse a sanctified Church and such like things a number We haue to doo with new Rome whom her owne stories actes and monuments doo conuince to be a nurse of wars a parent of vnfaithfulnesse a spoyler of the brethren a worshipper of idols a seate of couetousnesse a ladie of pride a cherisher inflamer of lustes of outrages of abominations whose most louing sonne complaineth of his mother that her old fame continueth but her goodnesse is gone that her Pastours are turned into the shape of woolues the neerer you come the filthier all thinges be that trifles are giuen gold is receyued and onely money raigneth there that the Church-goods are made to serue for scoffers the altars for wantons the temples for boyes abused by vnnaturall monsters that the lawes diuine and humane are denyed men and God deceiued holinesse put to flight godlinesse despised renounced and afflicted Yet that a holy life would leade from Rome see that ye flee Though al things els be lawful there yet good ye may not be And these may séeme I hope both weightie causes and iust why the reformed Churches to come to the last Conclusion in England Scotland Fraunce Germany other kingdomes commō wealthes haue seuered them selues from the corruption of Rome Though if this were al that it were not lawful to lead a holy life at Rome that we might not be good as Mantuan affirmeth we would haue departed from the citie of Rome as Mantuan aduiseth vs but we would not haue gone frō the Church of Rome If onely smal infirmities had cra●ed the health of Rome in pointes of faith such as certaine did in the time of the Fathers we would haue lamented but tolerated it taking compassion of men being vnwarily fallen into a faute we would haue born their burdens But sith in the felowship of the Church of Rome it was not lawful for vs either to serue God with a holy worship or to beléeue God with a holy faith as God hath commanded sith the Church of Rome being taken with contagious diseases a frensy did put her counsellers to

of the right way it is the death not of captiues but of Carthaginians not opinions of men but the truth of God is hazarded not life not health not wealth and possessions but the inheritance of heauen and saluation cometh into controuersie Lend me therefore I pray you the presence of your mindes and patience of your eares to that which shall be spoken remembring that we haue not toyes as on a stage but serious thinges in hand And because we handle the matters of the Lord I pray him to sanctifie with his holy spirit our tongues and your eares and the mindes of all that neither we dispute to any other end then to bring foorth the truth into light by conference of reasons neither you in hearing haue any other minde then to beléeue the truth when it shal be brought foorth and proued To beginne therefore with the first Conclusion and so runne ouer the rest briefly the holy scripture teacheth the Church all things necessarie to saluation God the father of eternall goodnes and mercy did choose of his frée and singular fauour before the foundations of the world were laide a great number of men whom he would indue with euerlasting life and make them heires of heauenly glory Now that the chosen might come to this inheritance they were to be made the children of God by adoption through Iesus Christ. For this hath euer béene the onely way to saluation In consideration whereof the holy ghost speaking of the company of such as God hath chosen termeth them sometime the children of God by adoption not by nature yet felow heires with Christ sometime the wife of the Lambe which is indowed with al the wealth of her husband some time the body of Christ by the power and vertue of whom as of a head they are gouerned and moued sometime the citizens of heauen appointed to bee inhabitants of the new Ierusalem finally Christ him selfe to omit the rest doth call them his Church which the gates of hell shall not preuaile against This Church then euen the company of the elect and chosen the children of God the wife of the Lambe the body of Christ the citizens of heauen that is to say the holy Catholike Church as it is chosen and ordained by God to life euerlasting so hath it béene alwayes taught by his worde the way of saluation whereby it might come to the possession of that life His word being vttered in old time sundry wayes was published at length in writing And so it came to passe that the holy writinges of God did teach the Church such thinges as must be knowne for the obteining of saluation For who could reueale the way to obtaine the inheritance of the kingdom of God but God alone And he reueled it to his Church as first without writing in such sort as séemed best to his wisdome so afterwarde in writing by the hand of his seruants inspired with the holy Ghost without writing to Adam and from Adams time till Moses in writing to Moses and from Moses forwarde till the ende of the world Wherfore in these writings giuen out by the holy Ghost and penned by the seruants of God which writings S. Paul calleth scripture by an excellencie as you would say the writings which surpasse all others the way of saluation whereby wee come to heauen the light of our soules which shineth in this worlds darkenesse the foode of life which nourisheth vs to grow in Christ is deliuered to the Church For cléerer proofe whereof let vs diuide the Church into the olde and the new the olde before Christ the new since Christ was borne The Prophets taught the old Church the way of saluation the Apostles with the Prophets together teach the new more plenteously and fully The doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles is comprised in the holy scripture The scripture therefore teacheth the Church whatsoeuer is behoofefull to saluation For the Church is the company of the elect and chosen Now they who are elect are of the houshold of God and they of his houshold are built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophetes Iesus Christ himselfe being the chiefe corner stone But this foundation of the Apostles and Prophets is the doctrine touching Christ which they preached to the Church And that doctrine which they preached is enrolled in scripture Wherefore the scripture teacheth the Church all thinges that for saluation are requisite to be knowne Moses to beginne with the first of the Prophets hauing published the law of God to the Israelites Giue eare saith he O Israel to the ordinances which I teach Ye shall not adde to the worde which I command you nor shall you take from it but whatsoeuer I command you that shall ye obserue to doo that ye may keepe the commandements of the Lord your God Now the Israelites were to labour for the obtaining of saluation But they might do nothing which was not prescribed by the law of God Therefore the writen law of God did deliuer whatsoeuer was needfull for the saluation of the Israelites And there is no dout but the Israelites were the Church The law then did teach whatsoeuer was needfull for the saluation of the Church The Prophets who folowed were expounders of the law that as they were inspired with the same spirit by which Moses wrote so they neither added any thing to his law nor tooke from it onely they vnfolded it to the edifying of the Church as it séemed best to the holy ghost I let passe Dauid in whom there are not many mo Psalmes then there are testimonies of the sufficiency of the law Esay examineth both the faith and life of the Priestes and people by the law and testimonie Idolaters are condemned by the Lord in Ieremie for dooing in their sacrifices thinges which he commanded not In Malachie the last Prophet God willeth his people to remember the law of Moses that he as a schoolemaister may leade them to Christ whose forerunner should be Elias But these thinges could not haue beene spoken by God or the seruants of God vnlesse the law of Moses had shewed the whole and perfit way of saluation The law of Moses therefore did wholy and perfitly instru●● the Church therein Which if the law of Moses did performe alone much more all the Prophets together with Moses How may it then be douted but the olde Church was taught out of the scriptures the way of saluation wholly and perfitly S. Iohn to passe ouer from the Prophets to the Apostles after that the sunne of righteousnesse was risen not to abolish the law but to fulfill it and to bring a brighter and cléerer light into the worlde declareth in the gospell how Iesus Christ our Sauiour doing the office of our soueraine Prophet Priest and King accomplished our saluation by teaching by dying by rising from the dead Our saluation then is fully wrought by Christ. But

there is any faute in the diall I meane in the Church for that can not be as Pighius proueth pretily but because perhaps either Christ him selfe hath tooke an other course and is altered I know not by what changeablenes of God or els the whole scripture is slipt from the point in the which it stood But let vs right woorshipfull who know that the dials and clockes doo mysse often but the course of the sunne is certaine and constant let vs make more account of the sunne then of a diall of heauen then of Plinie of the Zodiake circle then of the field of Flora of God then of men of Christ then of Pighius of the holy scripture then of the church For God forbid there should be any amongst vs so beastly a monster in the shape of man as to set vp Antichrist in the temple of God aboue God and to attribute more to any either man or multitude of men then to the Lord of maiestie But so doo they no dout who haue the Church in greater regard then the scripture For the voice of the scripture is the voice of God the voice of the Church is the voice of men Then if it be impious to set vp men aboue God doubtlesse to set vp the Church aboue the scripture it is Antichristian Nor yet doo I deny that the Churches voice is sometimes the voice of God For in appeasing the offenses and reprouing the sinnes of brethren if thy brother saith Christ refuse to heare the church let him be to thee as a heathen man and a Publican But the holy spirit that is the spirit of truth doth speake both alone and alwaies in the scripture An humaine spirit that is a spirit of errour hath a part sometimes in the spéech of the Church Both which pointes I haue proued by the word of God the euidence of the thing and the confessions of our aduersaries Why doo we not then acknowledge that the royall prerogatiue of this priuilege to bee altogither exempt from all errour is due to scripture onely and confesse as Austin doth against the Donatistes that it is peculiar and proper to the holy canonicall scripture that all things which are writen therein be true and right but the letters and writings of Bishops as of Cyprian yea the very Councels not prouinciall onely but also full and generall haue often times somewhat that may be amended I for my part doo gladly both allow this sentence of Austin and iudge it woorthy to be allowed as agréeable to the trueth And therefore I conclude the point which I proposed that the holy scripture is of greater credit and autoritie then the church Thus you haue my iudgement right learned Inceptors touching the Conclusions which are to be disputed of opened in more wordes perhaps then your wisedome in fewer then the weight of the things required But I haue waded so farre in the opening of them as I thought the Proctors might wel giue me leaue by the straitnes of time As for that which néedeth to be discussed farther I will assay to open it as well as I can if occasion serue when the aduersarie arguments shall bée proposed in disputation CONCLVSIONS HANDLED IN DIVINITIE SCHOOLE THE III. OF NOVEMBER 1579. 1 The holy Catholike Church which we beleeue is the whole company of Gods elect and chosen HE who the sea the earth the skyes made by his worde of nought Who by eternall power doth guide and rule all things he wrought Did choose from out the sonnes of men before the world was pight Such as with blessed angels aye should ioy his blisfull sight The Iewes are not the onely men that make this holy band But they are souldiers chosen out of euery toung and land Where on the south the mightie prince of Abissines doth raigne Where on the north the coasts do lye that looke to Charles waine Where Phaebus with his glistring beames doth raise the dawning light And sinking in the westerne seas doth bring the darksome night The fle●h can not by natures light such hidden truthes pursue But Christian faith by light of grace this Catholike Church doth vew 2 The Church of Rome is not the Catholike Church nor a sound member of the catholike Church THey do not well who shut the world within the Roman boundes Christs Church is spred through al the earth without restraint of mounds Rome was I grant a faithfull branch of this renowned vine Rome was a myrrour that in grace in zeale in loue did shine Rome was commended farre and wide for faith in Christ his name For Peters doctrine taught and kept Rome was of worthy fame But where Rome was now ruines are The Capitoll is s●ooried The groūd is bathde in Christians blood whō Romish woolues haue wooried Her Churches are with idoles stained her guides with maners vile Whom lustfull traines and wicked hearts and beds vnchast defile O thrise vnhappie Babylon that Sions spoyle doost woorke Under the noble name and hue of Sion wouldest thou lurke 3 The reformed churches in England Scotland France Germany and other kingdomes common wealthes haue seuered them selues lawfully from the church of Rome A Place of haunt for deuils and sprits is Babylon waxt saith Iohn Art thou desirous to be saued from Babylon be gon The names and trickes of Babylon Rome on it selfe doth take Then if ye séeke eternall life sée that ye Rome forsake This haue the noble Germanes done bidding the Pope a dieu England hath followed Germany Romes thraldome to eschew Beholde the Lord hath called on the Flemish French and Dane And Scotland hath escaped eke the Papall deadly bane O that the remnant of the world by faith to Christ were knit And Princes to the Prince of all their scepters would submit Build vp O Lord O father deare the church and Sions for t That vnto thée from Babylon thy people may resort AMongst many singular benefits of God bestowed vpon our Vniuersitie fathers and brethren which may be very fruitfull to the aduancing of Gods glory and saluation of the Church if they be well husbanded there is scarse any more excellent in my iudgement then that it is ordered that the truth giuen by inspiration of God and registred in the Scripture should be not expounded onely by publike lectures but also proued by disputations A woorthy and profitable ordinance no doubt and most méete for schooles which serue to traine vp Christians that is for schooles of God For what can there be more pretious then the truth which teacheth vs the knowledge of God the way to life And what more conuenient to strengthen the truth then to haue it proued by discussing the reasons brought of both partes For as golde being digged out of the veines of the earth is seuered from earthy substance mixt therewith by the mettall-workemen knocking it together and as husbandmen are wont to sift wheat from the chaffe by winowing that it may be fit to nourish the body

Christ most holy Finally sith God hath called the holy church not out of this or that countrey not out of this or that people but out of all nations spred through the whole world for that cause the church is intitled Catholike that is vniuersall not Iewish not Roman not English not of one people or prouince but vniuersall and Catholike cōpacted as it were into one body out of all sorts of estates sexes ages nations Iewes Heathens Greeks Barbarians bond and free men and wemen old and young rich and poore For both the old Church before the birth of Christ which saw the day of Christ to come and was saued did gather children of God vnto her selfe at first out of any people afterward when the grace of God shined chiefly among the people of Israel she did ioyne conuertes to Israel out of the rest and much more the new Church called since Christ was borne hath enlarged her tabernacle as Esay the Prophet speaketh to all nations beginning at Ierusalem Iudaea Samaria and going forward thence euen to the vttermost endes of the earth For God hath not called the circumcised Iewes alone to be his Church as the time was when the Apostles thought through a litle ouersight the Iewes in our dayes haue too presumptuously wéened but Christ being crucified hath broken the stoppe of the partition-wall and is become the chiefe stone of the corner on which a dooble wall ariseth and as Dauid prophecied the Egyptian the Babylonian the Tyrian the Aethiopian the Philistine are borne in Sion and as the Elders in whom is represented the company of the faithfull doo sing vnto Christ Thou hast redeemed vs to God by thy blood out of euery kinred and tounge and people and nation and hast made vs kings and priests to our God we shall raigne vpon the earth Wherefore sith the church which the holy scriptures doo commend vnto vs betokeneth the company and assembly of the faithfull whom God hath chosen Christ hath sanctified and called out of all nations to the inheritance of his owne kingdome the holy Ghost who spake by the Prophets and Apostles doth warrantise me to resolue on my Conclusion that the holy catholike church which we beleeue is the whole company of Gods elect●and chosen You maruell perhaps why I propose this article of the Christiā faith to be discussed by disputation as though either any man stood in dout of it or things not douted of were to be handled as doutfull But if you consider that the true meaning therof which I haue opened most agréeable to the scripture most comfortable to the faithfull is condemned and accursed by the standerd-bearers of the church of Rome you will cease to maruell For in the Councell of Constance in which they condemned Iohn Husse for an heretike they condemned these two sayings as hereticall to be burned with him that there is one holy vniuersall Church which is the whole company of them that are predestinate and that the Church as it is takē in this sense for the company of them that are predestinate is the article of our faith Which sayings of his to be counted vngodly it séemed strange to me and so much the more because I perceiued that the Fathers whose words the Papistes will séeme to make great account of when they serue their purpose did vse the same squire to measure out the Catholike church by For Clemens Alexandrinus dooth expresly call it the company of the elect into which are gathered the faithfull and iust whom God did predestinate before the creation of the world Likewise Ambrose hauing said that the honour of God the father is in Christ and in the church defineth the church to be a people which God hath vouchsafed to adopt to him selfe Furthermore Gregorie the Bishop of Rome affirmeth that all the elect are contained within the compasse and circuite of the church all the reprobate are without it And Bernard declaring the church to be the company of all the elect which company was predestinate before the world began doth touch it as a mysterie which he had learned of Paul and saith that he will boldly vtter it As for Austin a man of sharpest iudgement of them all he neither acknowledgeth any city of God but this elect church in his most lerned worke touching the citie of God and in another touching the catechizing of the vnskilfull he saith that all the holy and sanctified men which are which haue been which shal be are citizens of this heauenly Ierusalem and in another touching baptisme against the Donatists against whom he vrgeth the Catholike church most he confesseth that those things in the song of songs the garden inclosed the fountaine sealed vp the lilie the sister the spouse of Iesus Christ are meant of the holy and righteous alone who are Iewes inwardly by circumcision of the hart of which holy men the number is certaine praedestinate before the foundation of the world Wherefore if the Prelates of the Romish Church had had any reuerence I say not of the scriptu●es ouer which they play the Lordes as they list but of the Fathers of whom as of orphans they beare men in hand that they haue vndertooke the wardship they would neuer haue wounded or rather burnt in Husses person Clemens Alexandrinus Ambrose Gregorie Bernard and Austin who taught the same point that is condemned in Husse namely that the holy vniuersall Church is the whole company of the elect of God But it is I sée an vndouted truth which a learned man liking the Popes religion but not the Popes presumption hath set downe in writing that amongst the Popes and men like to Popes it is a sure principle If wrong he to be doon it is to be doon when thou maist get a kingdome by it For they wrest the holy catholike Church taught vs in the Creede from the right meaning to the intent they may be kings hoyse vp the sayles of their owne ambition in as much as they apply it like vnskilfull men if they doo it ignorantly impious if wittingly they apply it I say not to the Catholike Church but to the militant nor to that as it is chosē but as it is visible mingled with hypocrites and vngodly persons The cause why they do so is that all Christians by reason they beleeue the holy Catholike Church may be induced to thinke that the visible Church must be held for Catholike and a visible monarchie must be in the visible Church and the Pope is Prince of the visible monarchie and all Christians must be subiect to him as Prince For this to be the marke whereat the Popes shoote it is as cléere as the light by the verie Extrauagants as they are termed of the Canon law in that royall decrée of Boniface the eighth beginning with these wordes One holy Catholike Church Where from one

Catholike Church without the which there is no saluatiō nor forgiuenes of sinnes he créepeth vp to the head of the Church euē Iesus Christ from Christ the head he slippeth downe by stealth vnto Christs vicar one and the same head as he saith with Christ euen the Pope of Rome whom yet to be the head of the Catholike Church not him selfe would say vnlesse perhaps in a dreame for thē he shuld be head of the triumphant church which is a part of the Catholike but he would be head of the visible church which he nameth Catholike therby the more easily to deceiue the simple who being astonied and snared with that name the fowler shutteth vp the net and concludeth that euery earthly creature if he will be saued must of necessitie be subiect to the Pope Thus saith Pope Boniface But vnlesse the Pope him selfe and the Fathers of his Councell of Trent being thereto forced by the truth of scripture confesse against them selues that the holy Catholike Church doth not signify the visible company of the Church militant cōsisting of the good and badde mixt together which sense the Papists giue it with their Pope Boniface to the intent they may be kings I will not request you to beleue me in it For in the Catechisme which was set foorth by Pope Pius the fifth according to the decree of the Councell of Trent hauing said that the Church in the Creed doth chiefly signifie the company of the good bad togither they adde that Christ is head of the Church as of his body so that as bodily members haue life from the soule in like sort the faithfull haue from Christs spirit and therefore it is holy because it hath receiued the grace of holines and forgiuenes of sinnes from Christ who sanctifieth washeth it with his blood and it is called Catholike because it is spred in the light of one faith from the east to the west receiuing men of all sortes be they Scythians or Barbarians bond or free male or female conteining all the faithfull which haue bene from Adam euen till this day or shall be hereafter till the ende of the world pro●essing the true faith being built vpon Christ vpon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Pope Pius therefore and the Fathers of the Councell of Trent affirme that the Church which is specified in the Creede is the body of Christ. Now the scripture teacheth that all the body of Christ is quickned and increased by the holy Ghost as if he were the soule of it But the bad and wicked are neither quickned nor increased Then are they no part of the body of Christ and therfore neither of the Church Pope Pius and the Fathers of the Councel of Trent affirme that the Church is holy being washed by the blood of Christ indued with grace of holines and with forgiuenes of sinnes Now blessed are they whose sinnes are forgiuen blessed are the cleane in heart for they shall see God But the bad and wicked shall neither see God nor are blessed Therefore neither haue they forgiuenes of sinnes nor are their harts cleane Then are they no part of the church Pope Pius and the Fathers of the Councell of Trent affirme that the church is called Catholike in respect that it conteineth all the faithfull from the first to the last professing the true faith and being built vpon Christ. But the wicked and hypocrites either are not faithfull or if they may be called so yet they professe not the true faith or if they professe it yet they are not built on Christ. For they who are built on Christ are built on a rocke and shall neuer be remoued But the wicked shall be remoued Then are they no part of the church Yet they must néedes be a part of the church if the name of church did signifie the visible church as we call it consisting of the good and bad Wherfore it foloweth thereof that the church mentioned in the Créede betokeneth not the visible church that is the company of good and bad together which it is imagined to do by the builders of the Popes monarchie Thus as Caiaphas in the Gospel although he spake many things amisse against Christ yet being the high Priest that same yeere he saide well in this spéech though ill meant too that it was expedient for them that one man should dye for the people so the Pope and the Fathers of the Councell of Trent being the high Priestes that same yere though they meant yll in saying that the holy catholike church which we beléeue is the company of good and bad mixt together yet being lead and moued by some diuine force to speake better then they meant they added such an exposition that their owne doctrine is ouerthrowen by it the errour of the Councell of Constance is discouered and the truth of the scripture confirmed and established Wherefore I may iustly conclude against the Papists out of the Pope him selfe and the Councell of Trent that all the good and holy men and none but they do make the holy Catholike church But séeing our faith must haue a better ground then humane decrées either of Popes or Councels whose breath is in their nosethrils whose houses are of clay and their foundation is sande therefore let vs stay our selues on that conclusion which I made before on warrant of the holy Ghost who hath spoken to vs by the Apostles and Prophets The holy Catholik Church which we beleeue is the whole company of Gods elect and chosen And let this suffice for the first Conclusion The second doth folow The church of Rome is not the catholike church nor a sound mēber of the catholike church Of the which position that we may the better perceiue the drift and truth we must search somewhat déeper and fetch the beginnings of particular churches out of the fountaine whence they flowe God hauing chosen in his eternall purpose the holy catholike church that is all his children to be the heires of his kingdome and to triumph in heauenly glory with him and his elect Angels doth first of all sende them abroade into the earth as it were into a campe there to serue him in warre against the flesh the world the deuill and all the powers of darkenes vnder the banner of Christ that they may come conquerours out of warfare to the triumph and may striue lawfully before they be crowned Whereto that they may be the stronger made and better furnished to endure the labour and hardnes of warfare God begetteth them a new by his word the word working effectually through the holy Ghost as it were by seede and with the same word he nourisheth them as with milke strengtheneth them as with meat armeth them as with a sword of the Spirit and frameth them a shield of faith wherewith they may quench the firie dartes of the wicked one Yea the more

indeede more sound then other some according as the word is more purely prea●●ed and the spirit worketh more effectually but all of them sound But where the word of God either is not preached so that there groweth a famine or is preached corruptly mixt with mans word as it were with leauen or darnell or poyson as they who receiue no foode are like to dye through hunger such as eate bread made of corne and ●●rnel doo fall into a light fren●●● so must we néedes iudge that churches whose foode is either none or naught are apt to diseases and neere to their deathe For Amos declareth that men are cast away through want of the word in that he telleth Israel that God will send a famine and a thirst of hearing the word of the Lord which when they shall seeke for to and fro and finde no where it shall come to passe that virgins and young men shall faint with thirst and fall and neuer rise againe Now that the corruption of the worde doth hurt too the Apostle noteth in aduertising Timothee that they who teach other doctrine and consent not to the wholesome wordes of Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godlines are sick and do dote about noysome folies which edifie not to godly faith in so mu●h that their word doth fret as a kinde of canker which hauing taken hold of one part of the body doth eate out the next partes by litle litle vntill the whole body at last be cleane consumed Which if it come to passe as it must of necessitie vnlesse the better remedy be spéedily prouided for healing of the body that which was a body doth become a carkasse and is no longer a church it is left destitute of the spirit of God which is the soule thereof and of the soules instrument that is the word of God And this death is threatned by Christ to the Iewes in the old church refusing him their Messias therefore shal the kingdome of God be taken from you and geuen to a nation which shall bring foorth the fruites of it and in the new church to the Ephesiās hauing left their first loue I wil come against thee shortly wil remoue thy candlestick out of his place except thou amend Which two things foretold by our sauiour Christ were fulfilled in the destruction of the two churches of the church of the Iewes within a few yeares when the gospel was remoued from them to the Gentiles of the church of Ephesus many ages after when hauing béen sick first of sundrie heresies it died a while ago of the plague of Mahomet Thus I haue declared as briefly as I could how particular churches are called members of the catholike how they are ordeyned to learn and practise Go●s seruice how the good in them are intermingled with the bad the godly with hypocrites finally what their health is what their diseases be and when they must be counted sound when vnsound Which pointes being marked my paines wil be the lesser in opening the Conclusion the two stemmes whereof on what rootes they grow you perceiue already The church of Rome is not the catholike church it is no sound member of the catholike church The church of Rome is not the catholike church What can be more cléere For the catholike church is the church vniuersall the church of Rome is particular So that in my iudgement the Papistes speake monstrously when they call the Romane church the catholike church and make them all one Some will say perhaps that when they call it catholike they meane it to be sound and of a right beleefe such as doth hold the catholike faith as the ciuil law doth terme the right beléeuers catholike Christians and the church of Afrike is named catholike by Cyprian Yet that is false too For they geue the title of catholike church of Rome that they may put into the heads of the vnskilfull that that is the church out of which there is no saluation But out of the church of Rome there haue beene saued innumerable shall be out of the catholike church not one But let it be graunted that they meane by catholike a church holding the right faith I deny that the church of Rome doth hold the right faith and that is the other part of my Conclusion it is no ●ound member of the catholike church Now when I deny it to be a sound member of the catholike church I meane not that it languisheth of a litle sicknes or disease not dangerous which may seeme rather to haue abated somewhat of exquisite health then haue bereft her of all health For as Galen teacheth of the health of the body that it hath a reasonable bredth as you would say and certaine degrees as it were of perfitnes that they who are able to go about their businesse and doo affaires of life are to be counted whole though they enioy not a most perfit health so in the health of churches I déeme there are certaine degrées of sinceritie that they who doo the functions of spirituall life reasonably well are to be counted ●ound although they attaine not to a most absolute soundnesse And for that cause as we iudge our owne churches to be sound although there remaine some distemper in them by the relikes of those diseases wherewith the contagion of the church of Rome had cast them downe so that they could not yet be recouered fully in like sort we iudge of the churches of Germanie which are troubled with the errour of consubstantiation as it were with the grudging of a litle ague if other wise they holde Christian faith and loue soundly and sincerely But the church of Rome is not distempered with a litle ague such as hindereth not the functions of life greatly but is sicke of a canker or rather of a leprosy or rather of a pestilence in so much that she is past hope of recouery vnlesse our Sauiour Christ the heauenly physician doo giue her wholesome medicins to purge her of pernicious humours And therefore I pronounce that the church of Rome is no sound member of the catholike church Which I will proue by two reasons the one of the causes the other of the effectes whereof from the one diseases doo arise in the other they shew them selues by them both they are surely proued I would to God I might discourse hereof at large according as the weightines of the thinges requireth But we must be content to doo as time wil license vs. You wil pardon me therefore I trust if I runne them ouer somewhat hastily and as they say touch and go I will hold out my finger toward the well head gesse you the lion by his pawes Concerning the causes which doo bréed diseases and sicknesse in the church it is as I haue touched already cléere and certaine that they are either the want of food of Gods word

the which the ministers of God are remoued from gouernance by the Pope who being not a voluntarie Senator as Tully iesteth at Asinius himselfe chosen by him selfe but a voluntary tyrant doth take vpon him selfe the rule of the whole church Who to get the soueraintie that he aspireth to doth cast off the foly of Paul and of Peter and neither will him selfe nor suffereth his to be subiect vnto higher powers Who autoriseth him selfe to giue and take away the dominions and kingdomes of the whole world as if that all Princes held their right of him Who chalengeth the two swordes as he termeth them the spirituall and temporall and that by the gospell because it was saide for sooth by the Apostles Beholde her● are two swordes Who hauing committed the temporall sword in part to ciuill magistrates and reserued it in part to him selfe hath put vp the spirituall sworde of all Pastors into his owne sheath Who of church-ministers hath made him selfe Cardinals felowes of kinges gardians of Princes Protectors of nations a Senate meete for such a ●arquin Who exacteth an oth of Emperours of Bishops of Christian common wealthes Uniuersities and Churches to be obedient vnto him Who admitteth I say not Cornelius the Centurion which Peter yet would neuer haue doon but the Lordes of Centurions euen Kinges and Keisars Emperours and Empresses to kisse his blessed feete Finally who being in Princely attire and accompanied with Princely traine serued not by common but by noble men wearing not a single but a tripl● Crowne called by his Parasites our Lord God the Pope by discréete Doctors most good in grace most great in power as full of riotous pompe and pride as euer were the Persian kings z His clothes bedeckt with precious stones ●his gorgeous miter dight With iewels rare with glistring gold with Pyropus bright O very Troian truls not Troians hath taken the state ecclesiasticall of Christ appointed in noble order as an army set in aray and hath transformed it as it were with an enchauntment of the whoore of Babylon into a visisible monarchie and kingdome of the Romans And that the old saying might be fulfilled new Lordes new lawes such lippes such lettise as one said of an asse that was eating thistles this new Prince the Pope hath brought in new lawes to gouerne his kingdome in stéede of Gods lawes which Christ would haue to rule his Church and in stéede of the Canon of the holy scriptures he hath ordeined his Canon law Touching the vnrighteousnes of the which law least any man should think me perhaps to finde fault with that I haue no skill in as the shoomaker did whom Apelles warned not to presume beyond his shooe I had leiffer you should heare the iudgement of a learned Doctour and professour of the law then mine Francis Duaren a man of great skill in both the lawes ciuill and canon and named amongst lawiers the chiefest lawier of our time hath writen a learned treatise touching the holy functions and liuings of the Church as it were an abridgement of the canon law allowed by the iudgement of the Parlament of Paris● and set foorth with the priuiledge of the French king that no man can iust●y 〈◊〉 either the autor or the worke as hereticall In 〈…〉 then of the said treatise declaring that the body of the Canon law consisteth of two parts to weete Decrees and 〈◊〉 Decrees which were gathered together by Gratian 〈◊〉 epistles writen by sundry Popes he saith that in the ●ir●t volume of Decretales conteining fiue bookes set out in the name of Gregory the ninth there are many things that doo much degenerate and grow out of kinde from that old discipline comprised in the former booke of Decrees And hence arose that saying which is common and famous amongst our countriemen he meaneth the Frenchmen Things haue gone ill with men since tales were added to Decrees that is since the time that in steed of the Decrees the Decretales did beare sway For the Church-causes had lost their olde simplicitie when Decrees were patched out with those tales as the world is wont to growe worse and worse So destenies do prouide That all thinges fall vnto decay and backe efisoones they slide As for the other volume the sixth booke of Decretales which Bo●iface the eighth added it hath not bene receiued in the kingdome of France because the constitutions and ordinances thereof are thought to haue bene purposely made the most part of them in hatred and despite of Philip the French king and for the game of the court of Rome No not the Clementines neither nor Extrauagants the last part of the Decretales are voyde of like faultes nay the later lawes of the Popes be commonly worse then the former And this is the body of the Canon-law these are the Popes statutes by the which though very vnméete for the church in Duarens iudgement yet is the church of Rome gouerned and it is so gouerned that the Decrees which are the better part haue lesse autoritie the Decretales which are woorse haue greater force in Church-causes and are more authenticall Yea the matter came to that passe that Gratian the principall autor of the Canon law would haue had the Decretall epistles of the Popes to be accounted holy and reckened in the number of the Canonicall scriptures For the better compassing and credite whereof he did most shamefully corrupt a saying of S. Austins But it would not ●ay In so much that the Papists Alfonsus and Andradius are them selues ashamed of that his either wilfull fault or ouersight The Decretales therefore remaine not in the number of the Canonicall scriptures which hope the Giants fayled of through the diuision of their toungs yet equall in autoritie to the canonicall scriptures yea aboue them in deciding Church-causes at Rome For that which S. Bernard complained off to Pope Eugenius long since he might complaine off to any Pope in our time if he were aliue the lawes keepe a great sturre dayly in your Palace but the lawes of Iustinian not the lawes of the Lord. Whether iustly or no looke you to that For doutlesse the law of the Lord is vndefiled and conuerteth soules But these are not so much lawes as law-quarels and strifes subuerting iudgement Besides that the maner of dealing which is vsed in debating causes is too too abominable and such as is maruellous vnseemely for the church nay it were not seemely for the common place where ciuill matters are handled He meaneth that maner which the Popes Court of Chauncerie at Rome had bred long before though it were not growen yet to that bignesse to which it shot vp afterwarde euen that maner of dealing which is practised in the brabbles and cauils of aduocates

fruites and other policies of the Popes to the end that he and his Courtly traine may be more rich in wealth more galant in brauery more high in Princely state Hath not all Christendome borne to their griefe the yoke of the ambition and couetousnes of Rome which crieth out like Iudas what wil ye geue me There is extant in print the defense and Apologie of the Church of England shewing fresh markes of the Roman tyranny wherewith our countrie hath béen seared as with a hote burning yron There is extant a supplication of the parlament of Paris wherein the Frenchmen request their king to ease them of the cursed extortions iniuries and guiles of the Court of Rome There are extant the hundred greeuances of Germany whose complaints writen as it were with their own blood doo shew with what outrage the Sée of Rome hath throwen down oppressed brused and spoyled that most noble nation There are extant infinite bookes of lamentations writen by lerned men of al coastes quarters in the middest of the Papacy confessing all with one consent that the discipline of the church is greatly decayed The Papistes themselues in the Councell of Trent doo not confesse it onely but also witnesse it by publike writing to the world There was gathered together a Councell at Constance about an eight score yéeres since that the church might be reformed both in the head and in the members The matter not being accomplished at Constance was enterprised againe at Basill But Eugenius the fourth who was Pope then could not abide the reformation and therefore reuoked the Councell of Basill by messages and bulles which sith they disobeied he brake it vp by force of armes And whereas there was made an act by the French king with his States that sundry decrees and ordinances of that Councel should be of force in France the Popes who succéeded Eugenius neuer rested till they had gotten that act repealed The last hope remained in the Councell of Trent and truely many things were decréed there for points of reformation wisely and worthily But thrée spots of mischiefes touched by Heruetus a Papist of so much the greater weight his testimonie is against Papists doo renue the old corruptions one that the decrees although they were made were not obserued yet another that although they should be obserued yet they are not such as might restore fully the ancient good orders the last that although they restored the ancient orders yet doo they litle good because the Pope is not bound to lawes him selfe and he dispenseth with whom he list so that medicines heale not the wounds but make them woorse as long as the Pope may repeale alter peruert and breake through the decrees of the Councell with his dispensations And out of all dout that detestable clause annexed to decrees of reformation in the Councell prouided alwaies that the Popes autoritie be safe and no way preiudiced dooth shew the Roman Church to be not onely sick but also past hope of recouering her health For as in mens bodies the greater the spleene waxeth the lesser waxe the rest of the members they say so the more safe the Popes autoritie is the lesse safe will all parts of the Church be The Court of Rome with poyson strōg infected to destroy With the contagion of her sores dooth countries all anoy Wherfore to knitte vp the summe of my reason séeing it is manifest by the very euidence of the things themselues that nether the faith of Christ is taught purely nor the sacraments rightly ministred nor prayers made religiously nor discipline duely practised in the Church of Rome if the former reason of causes séeme too weake yet is it fully proued I hope by the effects that the Church of Rome is no sound member of the Catholike church How much more absurde were it to count her the Catholike Church The Church of Rome therefore is neither the Catholike nor a sound member of the Catholike Church I haue stayed longer in opening this Conclusion then I had purposed but I may runne ouer the last so much the more speedily For knowing how the Church of Rome is infected with pestilent diseases the contagion whereof as the lepers sore because it is daungerous to them who dwell neere it must therefore be remoued out of the campe of the faithfull we may be assured that the reformed Churches in England Scotland Fraunce Germanie and other kingdomes common weales haue seuered themselues lawfully from the Church of Rome For that is done lawfully which is done by the warrant of the word of God all whose commaundements are righteousnesse saith the Prophet But the reformed Churches obeyed his commandement in seuering themselues from the Church of Rome Therefore they seuered themselues from the Church of Rome lawfully For as ecclesiasticall societies and Church-assemblies were ordained by God that his elect and chosen should seeke him and praise him that is learne to know him and worship him being known so where his right faith and knowledge is not taught or he is not serued and worshipped aright thence doth he commaund his seruants to depart To depart first from that Church-assemblie where his right faith and knowlege is not taught the charge is giuen to Timothee Whom S. Paul aduertising of such as taught other doctrine then he did and not the wholesome words of Christ and godly doctrine declareth the qualities and fruites of those woolues and biddeth him depart from them from such sayth Paul depart thou depart thou frō their assembly and Church For so must such teachers be departed from as himselfe declared by his example at Ephesus Where he frequented the synagogue of the Iewes for the space of three moneths But when certaine obstinate disobedient persons spake euill of the way of God before the multitude he departed from them and separated the disciples So that hée seuered not himselfe onely but others also from that Church wherein the way of God was euill spoken of and men were not taught to know and beléeue in him aright Now that we must likewise depart from that Church wherein God is not serued and worshipped aright it is writen to the Corinthians Who being admonished to flee from idolatrie and from al communion with idolatrous worship are charged not to yoke thēselues with idolaters in their assemblies méetinges For what fellowship hath righteousnesse with vnrighteousnesse light with darkenesse Christ with Belial the faithful with the infidell the temple of God with idols Wherfore come out from among them and separate your selues sayth the Lord. Separate your selues from them sayth the Lord the Lord sayth not I. The Lord sayth to the Iewes go ye not vp to Beth-auen not Hosea but the Lord sayth It is called Beth-el but it is