print and was published by Dr. Bernard the Text is that of the Revelation 18.4 Come out of her Babylon my people And the design of it is to prove that the See of Rome is the Babylon meant in that Text but in this he mixes an Apology for some that were in that Communion and I doubt not but he had his Friend P. Paulo in his thoughts when he spoke it The passage is remarkable and therefore I will set it down WHerein observe first he calls his people to come out of Babylon a plain Argument that there are many not only good Moral and Civil honest Men there but good Christians not redeemed only but in the possession of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ which may be confirmed by these reasons First There is amongst these that are under the tyranny of the Romish Babylon the Sacrament of entrance into the Covenant of Grace Baptism by which those that are partakers thereof are made Members of Christ the Children of God and Heirs of Eternal Life And these that have but this Seal of God's Covenant viz. Infants are no small and contemptible part of God's people though as yet they cannot hear this Voice of Christ calling out of Babylon besides this there is a publication of the tenure of the Covenant of Grace to such as are of Years though not so openly and purely as it might and ought yet so as the grounds of the Catechisme are preached sin is shewed Christ's redemption or the Story of it is known Faith in him is called for and this Faith is by the Grace of God wrought in some For the Word of God and his Calling is not fruitless but like the rain returneth not in vain and where true Faith is Men are translated from death to life he that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life Some Men perhaps may object the Faith which they describe and call by this name of Catholick Faith is none other but such as the Devils may have I answer Religion is not Logick He that cannot give a true definition of the Soul is not for that without a Soul so he that defines not Faith truly yet may have true Faith Learned Divines are not all of accord touching the definition of it But if as by the whole stream of the Scripture it should seem it be a trust and cleaving unto God this Faith many there have the Love of our Lord Iesus Christ is wrought in many there now he that loveth Christ is loved of him and of the Father also and because the proof of true love to Christ is the keeping of his Sayings there are good Works and according to the measure of knowledg great conscience of obedience Yea will some Man say But that which marreth all is the Opinion of merit and satisfaction Indeed that is the School Doctrine but the Conscience enlightned to know it self will easily act that part of the Publican who smote his Breast and said God be merciful to me a sinner I remember a good advice of one of that side Let others saith he that have committed few sins and done many good works satisfie for their sins But whatsoever thou dost refer it to the Honour of God so as whatsoever good come from thee thou resolve to do it to please God accounting thy works too little to satisfie for thy sins For as for thy sins thou must offer Christ's Works his Pains and Wounds and his death it self to him together with that love of his out of which he endured these things for thee These are available for the satisfaction for thy sins But thou whatsoever thou dost or sufferest offer it not for thy sins to God for but his love and good pleasure wishing to find the more grace with him whereby thou mayest do more greater and more acceptable Works to him let the love of God then be to thee the cause of well-living and the hope of well-working Thus he and I doubt not but many there be on that side that follow this counsel herewith I shall relate the Speech of a wise and discreet Gentleman my neighbour in England who lived and dyed a Recusant he demanded one time What was the worst Opinion that we could impute to the Church of Rome It was said There was none more than this of our merits And that Cardinal Bellarmine not only doth uphold them but saith we may trust in them so it be done soberly and saith they deserve Eternal life not only in respect of God's Promises and Covenant but also in regard of the Work it self Whereupon he answered Bellarmine was a learned Man and could perhaps defend what he wrote by learning But for his part he trusted to be saved only by the merits of his Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ and as for good Works he would do all that he could Et valeant quantum valere possint To proceed In or under the Obedience of Rome there is Persecution and that is a better mark of Christ's people then Bellarmine's Temporal felicity All that will live godly in Christ Iesus saith the Apostle shall suffer persecution ye shall be hated of all Men for my Names sake saith our Saviour and so are all they on that side that are less superstitious than others or dare speak of redress of abuses yea there is Martyrdome for a free opposing Mens Traditions Image-worshippers Purgatory and the like Add That in obedience to this call of Christ there do some come daily from thence and in truth how could our Saviour call his people from thence if he had none there How could the Apostles say that Antichrist from whose captivity they are called shall sit in the Temple of God since that Ierusalem is finally and utterly desolated unless the same Apostle otherwhere declaring himself had shewed us his meaning that the Church is the House of God and again ye are the Temple of the living God and the Temple of God is Holy which are ye It will be said that there are on that side many gross errors many open Idolatries and Superstitions so as those which live there must needs be either partakers of them and like minded or else very Hypocrites But many errours and much ignorance so it be not affected may stand with true Faith in Christ and when there is true Contrition for one sin that is because it displeaseth God there is a general and implicite repentance for all unknown sins God's Providence in the general revolt of the ten Tribes when Elias thought himself left alone had reserved seven thousand that had not bowed to the Image of Baal and the like may be conceived here since especially the Idolatry practised under the obedience of Mystical Babylon is rather in false and will-worship of the true God and rather commended as profitable than enjoyned as absolutely necessary and the corruptions there maintained are rather in a superfluous addition than retraction in any thing necessary
returned home again To conclude I accounted my self still in debt and was I confess to you unwilling to dye in it and sometimes vowed to God in the midst of my troubles if I might once see an end of them to endeavour to discharge it And now having by his mercy not only attained that but a new occasion presented me presently thereupon by your calling for satisfaction to pay it and means offered me to send it safely I take this motion to proceed from God and do humbly desire his Majesty to turn it to good It remains therefore good Mr. Waddesworth that I do intreat your pardon of that slackness that is past and gentleness to take it as I shall be able to pay it My employments both ordinary and extraordinary are many The bulk of it is too great to convey in one Letter consisting of sundry Sheets of Paper and at this present there lies an extraordinary task upon me so as I cannot presently write it out I do therefore no more now but acknowledge the debt and promise speedy payment Vnless I shall add this also that I do undertake to pay interest for the forbearance and according as I shall understand by Mr. Austen shall be fittest and safest to send it in parts or all at once To the conclusion of your last Letter wherein you profess your desire to spend the rest of your life rather in the heat of Devotion than of Disputation desiring pardon of coldness that way and of all other your sins and that it would please God to guide and keep me in all happiness as your self through the redemption of our sweet Saviour and by the intercession of his holy mother and all Saints I do most thankfully and willingly subscribe Amen Returning unto you from my heart your own best wishes Neither is it my purpose to call into question the solidity of truth or firmness of the hope of Salvation which you find in your present way This only I say Et pro nobis Christus mortuus est pro nostra Redemptione Sanguinem suum fudit Peccatores quidem sed de ipsius grege sumus inter ejus oviculas numeramur This is my Tenet And if the Doctrine of the Holy Bible do contain solid truth and believing in the name of the Son of God do give firm hope of salvation according to Gods own Record 1 John 5.10 11 12. we are perswaded we have both I will add this more We know that we are translated from Death to Life because we love our Brethren With this Oyle in our Lamps which we desire may be alwayes in store in our Vessels also our hearts we attend the coming of the Bridegroom and say cheerfully Etiam veni Domine Jesu To whose gracious protection I do most heartily commit you and do rest Your assured Friend and loving Brother W. Bedell Horningesherth August 5. 1619. ✚ To the Worshipful Mr. William Bedell at Horningesherth near S. Edmundsbury in Suffolk these Salutem in Crucifixo Worthy Sir I Was exceeding glad to perceive by your kind modest and discreet Letters of the fifth of August last that you are still permanent in your own good nature and constant in your love to me not like Mr. Ioseph Hall neither bitterly reviling nor flourishing impertinently Unto whom I pray you return his scoffing railing Letter with these few marginal Notes I pray God forgive him and make him a more humbler and meeker Man And I for my part do freely pardon all his foul terms against me And though in gratitude and justice I am bound and so do love and respect you more than him for your greater courtesie to me and for your better value in your self yet even him I can and do and am bound to love not only as an Enemy or a Creature of God or as I do you for an honest moral good discreet Man but even further and beyond that which you seem to understand that we cannot by our Doctrine proceed in love viz. As Men having Souls for whom our Saviour hath dyed and so as possible members though indeed not actual branches of his mystical Body Yea for such as may come to be ingrafted and bear Fruit in him when we may be withered cut off or fallen away As for your serious Apology and excuse for not answering my first Letters all this while I do easily admit it and assure my self that all the circumstances impediments and occasions were such as you affirm nor did I expect nor urge in my first nor second Letters any answer about Controversies in Religion for I ever said we could say nothing of substance which before had not been said but only gave you by Mr. Hall's occasion some few reasons of my Faith wherein still I protest I had rather be devout than be troubled to dispute not for fear or doubt but because I am so fully resolved in my self and do think it a very superfluous labour toties melius ab aliis actum agere So that I desired rather answer of courtesie than of Controversie which now by Mr. Astons means I received and do much esteem it and heartily thank you for it Nevertheless when your Reply unto my plain and few reasons come I will for your sake both read them over and according to my little health less leisure and my poor ability which is least of all return you some such short Rejoynder as it shall please almighty God to enable me being glad to perceive by your last that you do subscribe to our intercession by our blessed Lady and other holy Saints which also I hope and wish you would fully extend to our invocation of Saints as Intercessors not as Redeemers for that were Blasphemy indeed and Idolatry from which our sweet Saviour deliver us and ever keep you my good dear Friend as I desire Madrid in haste Octob. 26. 1619. Iames Waddesworth To the Worshipful my very good Friend Mr. James Waddesworth at Madrid deliver this Salutem in Christo Jesu YOur Letters of the 26 of October beloved Master Waddesworth were long upon the way and came not to my hands till the 23 of May. In them I received your courteous acceptation of my excuse for my former silence and censure of Dr. Hall's Letter with the profession of your love to me and him further than I accounted you could by your Doctrine proceed viz. as redeemed by Christ and possible Members of his mystical Body Truly Sir I will not change Words with you hereabouts but I account still to be an honest Man restraineth from that to be redeemed by our Saviour since that is as large as humane Nature this is given to fewer of whom a Man may say as our Lord doth of one in the Gospel that they are not far from the Kingdom of God Howsoever I have still my intention that we out of our Profession may love you better than you can us since it is more to be an actual than
whom he addressed his advice would give over all thoughts of mending the world which was grown too old in wickedness to be easily corrected and would only set themselves to do what good they could with less noise and so to give less occasion to angry people to quarrel with them and to justifie those abuses which are by such indiscreet opposition kept in some credit and preserved whereas without that they must have fallen under so general an Odium that few could have the face to excuse them And now I have done with this digression which not being at all foreign to my design of raising the credit due to that venerable Order I shall make no Apology for it but shall come next to the subject of the following Book I had a great Collection of Memorials put in my hands by a worthy and learned Divine Mr. Clogy who as he lived long in this Bishops House so being afterwards Minister at Cavan had occasion to know him well And as he had a great zeal to see the Justice done to his Memory and the Service done to the World which the putting these in order and the publishing them must needs produce so he judged it would come better from another hand than his that was so much obliged by him that it might be thought affection and gratitude had biassed him too much I confess my part in this was so small that I can scarce assume any thing to my self but the copying out what was put in my hands Lives must be written with the strictness of a severe Historian and not helped up with Rhetorick and Invention But there are two great Imperfections that must be pardoned in this account The one is That there is so little said of him gathered from any of his own Writings which would raise his Character much higher than any thing that others though of his most intimate Acquaintance could preserve in their Memories The other is That such Journals as perhaps some that intended to give a full representation of him to Posterity might have writ were all lost in the same common Shipwrack of the Irish Rebellion In which though our Bishops Works were swallowed up yet he himself met with a most distinguished Fate more suitable to his own rare merit than to the enraged fury of those Cannibals And it was so unlike their deportment in all other places and to all other persons that it ought rather to be ascribed to a tender and watchful Providence and to be reckoned among its Miracles than to any impressions that his worth made on those Barbarians who seemed to be as incapable of all the tendernesses of Humane Nature and as regardless of Religion and Vertue as Bears or Wolves are Or if there was any difference it lay in this that the one are satiated with Blood and Prey whereas these burnt with a thirst of Blood that seemed unsatisfiable And their cruel tempers being excited by the Priests of a Religion whose proper character is Blood as their Element is Fire no wonder if they made havock of all that fell in their way The greatest Wonder was how one that had so just a title to the rage of their Priests that is chiefly founded on extraordinary Worth and great zeal for the Truth should have been so preserved among them when he fell into their Hands and so honoured by them at his Death By which it appeared that the same mighty Power that saved Daniel's three Friends from the violence of the Fire and himself from the rage of the Lions is not yet exhausted The Memorials here put in order are nothing but what the memory of that good Man could afford together with some few Remnants of the Bishops own Pen gathered up like Boards after a Shipwrack But in them we may find all that is Great in a Man in a Christian and in a Bishop And that in so eminent a manner that if the fame of the person were not so great and if the usage he met with among the Irish were not a Testimony beyond exception I could scarce hope to be believed I will give only a bare and simple Relation of his Life and will avoid the bestowing on him or his Actions such Epithets and Praises as they deserve But will leave that to the Reader For in writing of Lives all big Words are to be left to those who dress up Legends and Make Lives rather than Write them the things themselves must praise the Person otherwise all the good Words that the Writer bestows on him will only shew his own great kindness to his Memory but will not perswade others On the contrary it will incline them to suspect his partiality and make them look on him as an Author rather than a Writer Letters inserted in the Life of Bishop Bedell 1. A Letter of Sir Henry Wottons to K. Charles I. concerning Bishop Bedell pag. 31 2 A Letter of Bishop Bedells upon his being invited to go over to Ireland p. 34. 3 A Letter of B. Bedells to Archbishop Laud concerning the state of the Clergy and other particulars relating to his Diocess p. 45 4. A Letter of B. Bedells to Archbishop Usher against Pluralities p. 52 5. A Letter of B. Bedells to Archbishop Laud setting forth the insolence of the Irish Priests p. 69 6 7. Two Letters of B. Bedells to Archbishop Usher concerning the abuses of the Spiritual Courts and of the Lay Chancellours p. 94 96 8. A Letter of B. Bedells to Archbishop Usher justifying himself in several particulars p. 126 9. A Letter of B. Bedells to the E. of Strafford concerning the Translation of the Bible into the Irish Tongue p. 131 10. A part of a Sermon of B. Bedells concerning brotherly love and moderation in the managing of Controversies p. 148 11. A part of a Sermon of B. Bedells excusing some well meaning persons that were in the Church of Rome p. 156 12. The Conclusion of that Sermon exhorting to a more entire Reformation of abuses p. 166 13. The Remonstrance of the Rebels in the County of Cavan setting forth the Grievances that had provoked them to the Rebellion p. 185 14. A Letter of B. Bedells to the Popish Bishop of Kilmore when he was beset by the Rebels p. 188 15. A Letter containing Christian directions in time of Persecution writ by B. Bedel for a Lady that desir'd them p. 192 16. B. Bedells last Words p. 210 At the end of the Life there are added some Papers in Latine 1. B. Bedells form of Institution to Benefices p. 235 2. The Decrees of a Diocesan Synod that he held at Kilmore p. 237 3. B. Bedells Declinator of Archbishop Ushers Lay Chancellour upon an Appeal p. 243 4. His Letter to Bishop Swiney p. 251 THE LIFE OF WILLIAM BEDELL D. D. Bishop of KILMORE IN IRELAND WILLIAM BEDELL was born at Black Notley in Essex in the year 1570. he was the younger Son of an ancient and good Family and of no inconsiderable
he might be the instrument of bringing about a great change even at Rome went thither He was at first well received by the Pope himself But he happened to say of Cardinal Bellarmine that had writ against him That he had not answered his Arguments Upon which a complaint was carried to the Pope as if he had been still of the same mind in which he was when he published his Books He excused himself and said That though Bellarmine had not answered his Arguments yet he did not say they were unanswerable and he offered to answer them himself if they would allow him time for it But this excuse was not accepted so he was cast into the Inquisition but was never brought to any Tryal He was poysoned not long after and his Body was cast out at a Window and all his Goods were confiscated to the Pope This was the tragical end of that great but inconstant Man If he had had as good a Soul as he had a great understanding together with vast learning considering his education and other disadvantages he had deserved to have been reckoned among the greatest Men of his Age. In his Fate it appeared how foolishly credulous Vanity makes a Man since he that was an Italian born and knew the Court of Rome so well could be wrought on so far as to believe that they were capable of pardoning and promoting him after the mischief he had done their Cause This account of that matter my Author had from Master Bedell's own Mouth But now Mr. Bedell had finished one of the Scenes of his life with great honour The most considerable addition he made to his learning at Venice was in the improvements in the Hebrew in which he made a great progress by the assistance of R. Leo that was the chief Chacham of the Jewish Synagogue there From him he learn'd their way of pronunciation and some other parts of Rabbinical learning but in exchange of it he communicated to him that which was much more valuable the true understanding of many passages in the Old Testament with which that Rabbi expressed himself often to be highly satisfied And once in a solemn dispute he prest his Rabbi with so clear proofs of Jesus Christ being the true Messias that he and several others of his Brethren had no other way to escape but to say that their Rabbins every where did expound those Prophecies otherwise according to the Tradition of their Fathers By Leo's means he purchased that fair Manuscript of the Old Testament which he gave to Emmanuel Colledge and as I am credibly informed it cost him its weight in Silver After Eight Years stay in Venice he returned to England and without pretending to Preferment or aspiring to it he went immediately to his charge at S. Edmundsbury and there went on in his ministerial labours with which he mixt the translating Paulo's immortal Writings into Latine Sir Adam Newton translated the two first Books of the History of the Council of Trent but was not master enough of the two Languages so that the Archbishop of Spalata said it was not the same Work but he highly approved of the two last that were translated by Mr. Bedell who likewise translated the History of the Interdict and of the Inquisition and dedicated them to the King But no notice was taken of him and he lived still private and unknown in that obscure corner He had a Soul of too generous a composition to stoop to those servile compliances that are often expected by those that have the distribution of Preferments in their power He thought that was an abjectness of Spirit that became not a Christian Philosopher much less a Churchman who ought to express a contempt of the World a contentedness with a low condition and a resignation of ones outward circumstances wholly to the conduct of Divine Providence and not to give that advantage which Atheists and Libertines take from the covetousness and aspirings of some Churchmen to scoff at Religion and to call Priesthood a Trade He was content to deserve Preferment and did not envy others who upon less merit but more industry arrived at it But though he was forgot at Court yet an eminent Gentleman in Suffolk Sir Thomas Iermyn who was a privy Counsellour and Vice-Chamberlain to King Charles the First and a great Patron of Vertue and Piety took such a liking to him that as he continued his whole life to pay him a very particular esteem so a considerable Living that was in his Gift falling void he presented him to it in the Year 1615. When he came to the Bishop of Norwich to take out his Title to it he demanded large Fees for his Institution and Induction But Bedell would give no more than what was sufficient gratification for the Writing the Wax and the Parchment and refused to pay the rest He lookt on it as Simony in the Bishop to demand more and as contrary to the command of Christ who said to his Apostles Freely ye have received and freely give And thought it was a branch of the sin of Simony to sell Spiritual things to Spiritual persons and since whatsoever was askt that was more than a decent Gratification to the Servant for his pains was asked by reason of the thing that was granted he thought this was unbecoming the Gospel and that it was a sin both in the Giver and in the Taker He had observed that nothing was more expresly contrary to all the Primitive Rules Chrysostome examined a complaint made against Autonine Bishop of Ephesuâ— for exacting Fees at Ordination Autonine dyed before the Process was finished but some Bishops that had paid those Fees were upon that degraded and made incapable to officiate any more though they pretended that they paid that Money as a Fee for obtaining a Release from such Obligations as lay on them by Law to serve the Court. Afterwards not only all Ordinations for Money but the taking Money for any Imployment that depended upon the Bishops Gift was most severely condemned by the Council of Chalcedon The Buyer was to lose his Degree and the Seller was to be in danger of it And after that severe censures were every where decreed against all Presents that might be made to Bishops either before or after Ordinations or upon the account of Writings or of Feasts or any other expence that was brought in use to be made upon that occasion and even in the Council of Trent it was Decreed That nothing should be taken for Letters dimissory the Certificates the Seals or upon any such like ground either by Bishops or their Servants even though it was freely offered Upon these accounts Mr. Bedell resolved rather to lose his Presentation to the Parsonage of Horingsheath than to purchase his Title to it by doing that which he thought Simony And he left the Bishop and went home But some few days after the Bishop sent for him and gave him his Titles without exacting Fees of him
His Devotion in his Closet was only known to him who commanded him to pray in secret In his Family he prayed alwayes thrice a day in a set Form though he did not read it This he did in the Morning and before Dinner and after Supper And he never turned over this duty or the short Devotions before and after Meat on his Chaplain but was always his own Chaplain He lookt upon the Obligation of observing the Sabbath as moral and perpetual and considered it as so great an Engine for carrying on the true ends of Religion that as he would never go into the liberties that many practised on that day so he was exemplary in his own exact observation of it Preaching alwayes twice and Catechising once and besides that he used to go over the Sermons again in his Family and sing Psalms and concluded all with Prayer As for his Domestick concerns he married one of the Family of the L' Estranges that had been before married to the Recorder of S. Edmondsbury she proved to be in all respects a very fit Wife for him she was exemplary for her life humble and modest in her Habit and behaviour and was singular in many excellent qualities particularly in a very extraordinary reverence that she payed him She bore him four Children three Sons and a Daughter but one of the Sons and the Daughter dyed young so none survived but William and Ambrose The just reputation his Wife was in for her Piety and Vertue made him choose that for the Text of her Funeral Sermon A good name is better than Oyntment She dyed of a Lethargy three years before the Rebellion broke out and he himself preached her Funeral Sermon with such a mixture both of tenderness and moderation that it touched the whole Congregation so much that there were very few dry Eyes in the Church all the while He did not like the burying in the Church For as he observed there was much both of Superstition and Pride in it so he believed it was a great annoyance to the Living when there was so much of the steam of dead Bodies rising about them he was likewise much offended at the rudeness which the crowding the dead Bodies in a small parcel of Ground occasioned for the Bodies already laid there and not yet quite rotten were often raised and mangled so that he made a Canon in his Synod against burying in Churches and as he often wisht that Burying-Places were removed out of all Towns so he did chuse the most remote and least frequented place of the Church-Yard of Kilmore for his Wife and by his Will he ordered that He should be laid next her with this bare Inscription Depositum Gulielmi quondam Episcopi Kilmorensis Depositum cannot bear an English Translation it signifying somewhat given to another in Trust so he considered his Burial as a trust left in the Earth till the time that it shall be called on to give up its dead The modesty of that Inscription adds to his Merit which those who knew him well believe exceeds even all that this his zealous and worthy Friend does through my hands convey to the World for his memory which will outlive the Marble or the Brass and will make him ever to be reckoned one of the speaking and lasting Glories not only of the Episcopal Order but of the Age in which he lived and of the two Nations England and Ireland between whom he was so equally divided that it is hard to tell which of them has the greatest share in him Nor must his Honour stop here he was a living Apology both for the Reformed Religion and the Christian Doctrine And both he that collected these Memorials of him and he that copies them out and publishes them will think their Labours very happily imployed if the reading them produces any of those good effects that are intended by them As for his two Sons he was satisfied to provide for them in so modest a way as shewed that he neither aspired to high things on their behalf nor did he consider the Revenue of the Church as a property of his own out of which he might raise a great Estate for them He provided his eldest Son with a Benefice of Eighty Pound a Year in which he laboured with that fidelity that became the Son of such a Father and his second Son not being a Man of Letters had a little Estate of 60 l. a year given him by the Bishop which was the only Purchace that I hear he made and I am informed that he gave nothing to his eldest Son but that Benefice which he so well deserved So little advantage did he give to the enemies of the Church either to those of the Church of Rome against the marriage of the Clergy or to the dividers among our selves against the Revenues of the Church The one sort objecting that a married state made the Clergy covetous in order to the raising their Families and the others pretending that the Revenues of the Church being converted by Clergymen into Temporal Estates for their Children it was no Sacriledge to invade that which was generally no less abused by Churchmen than it could be by Laymen since these Revenues are trusted to the Clergy as Depositaries and not given to them as Proprietors May the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls so inspire all that are the Overseers of that Flock which he purchased with his own Blood that in imitation of all those glorious patterns that are in Church-History and of this in the last Age that is inferior to very few that any former Age produced they may watch over the Flock of Christ and so feed and govern them that the Mouths of all Adversaries may be stopt that this Apostolical Order recovering its Primitive spirit and vigour it may be received and obeyed with that same submission and esteem that was payed to it in former times and that all differences about lesser matters being laid down Peace and Truth may again flourish and the true ends of Religion and Church-Government may be advanced and that instead of biting devouring and consuming one another as we do we may all build up one another in our most holy Faith Some Papers related to in the former History Guilielmus Providentiâ Divinâ Kilmorensis Episcopus dilecto in Christo A. B. Fratri Synpresbytero salutem AD Vicariam perpetuam Ecclesiae Parochialis de C. nostrae Kilmorensis Dioecesios jam legitimè vacantem ad nostram collationem pleno jure spectantem praestito per te prius juramento de agnoscenda defendenda Regiae Majestatis suprema potestate in omnibus causis tam Ecclesiasticis quam Civilibus intra ditiones suas deque Anglicano ordine habitu Lingua pro Viribus in dictam Parochiam introducendis juxt a formam Statutorum hujus Regni necnon de perpetua personali Residentia tua in Vicaria praedicta quodque nullum aliud Beneficium Ecclesiasticum una
that he had been too vehement and excusing himself by the importunity of the Pardoners and of those that had written against him promising to use more modesty in time to come to satisfie the Pope and not to speak any more of Indulgences provided that his Adversaries would do the like This was Luthers manner at the first till the Bull of Pope Leo came out dated the ninth of November 1518. Wherein he declared the validity of Indulgences and that he as Peters Successor and Christs Vicar had power to grant them for the quick and dead that this is the Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Mother and Mistris of all Christians and ought to be received of all that would be in the Communion of the Church From this time forward Luther began to change his stile And saith he as before he had for the most part reserved the Person and Iudgment of the Pope so after this Bull he resolved to refuse it and thereupon put forth an Appeal to the Council c. You see then how submissively Luther at first carried himself But extream tyranny overcomes often a well prepared patience Touching his causing Rebellion also against the Emperour ye are mis-informed His advice was asked about the Association of the Protestants at Smalcald he said plainly He could not see how it could be lawful further than for their own defence Ioh. Bodin in his second Book de Repub. cap. 5. hath these Words We read also that the Protestant Princes of Almain before they took Arms against the Emperor demanded of Martin Luther if it were Lawful He answered freely that it was not lawful whatsoever tyranny or impiety were pretended He was not believed so the end thereof was miserable and drew after it the ruine of great and illustrious Houses of Germany As for the war in Germany it began not till after Luthers death neither was it a rebellion of the Protestants the truth is they stood for their Lives The Emperor with the help of the Popes both Mony and Arms intended to root them out and although at the first the Emperour did not avow his raising Arms against them to be for Religion yet the Pope in his Jubilee published upon this occasion did not lett to declare to the World that himself and Caesar had concluded a League to reduce the Hereticks by force of Arms to the obedience of the Church and therefore all should pray for the good success of the War That Luther ever reviled the Emperour I did never till now hear or read and therefore would desire to know what Authors you have for it Touching other Princes namely King Henry the Eighth I will not defend him who condemned himself thereof It is true that he was a Man of a bold and high Stomach and specially fitted thereby through the Providence of God to work upon the heavy and dull disposition of the Almains and in so general a Lethargy as the World then was in he carried himself as fell out sometimes very boisterously But Arrogancy Schism Rebellion were as far from him as the intention it self to plant a Church As to his Vow-breaking lastly if that Vow were foolishly made and sinfully kept it was justly broken Perhaps also charitably if he would by his own example reform such as lived in Whoredome and other Uncleanness and induce them to use the Remedy that God hath appointed for the avoiding of them to wit honourable Marriage All this matter touching Luther unless I be deceived you have taken from Mr. Harding that at least touching his rancor against the Dominicans for it is his very Phrase But Mr. Harding both in this and many things else discovereth his passion and lack of true information in this affair When with one Breath he affirmeth that first it was a Pardon of a Croisade against the Turks which was preached Whereas it was an Indulgence to those that should put their helping hands for the building of S. Peters Church at Rome as the Articles of this Pardon printed in English one of the Copies whereof I have my self do shew Secondly next he saith the preaching hereof was granted to Friar John Tetzet It was Friar Iohn Thecel or Tecel Thirdly he saith The Elector of Mentz Albert granted this to Thecel and the Dominicans whereby Luther was bereft of the gain be expected The truth is it was Aremboldus a Bishop living at the Court of Rome whom having before been a Merchant of Genoa Magdalen the Popes Sister put in trust with this Merchandise that appointed the Dominicans to be the Retailers of these Pardons The Archbishop of Mentz had nothing to do with it otherwise than to allow and suffer it which occasioned Luther to write to him as to the Bishop of Brandenburgh and to Leo himself to repress the impudence of the Pardoners And Lutherâ—aith â—aith further in one place that the Archbishop undertook to give countenance to this business with that condition that the half of the prey should go to the Pope and himself might have the other half to pay for his Pall. By these Errors heaped together it may appear what credit it is like Mr. Hardings Tale be worthy of touching the remnant that of rancor and malice against the Dominicans and because he was bereaved of that sweet Morsel which in hope he had almost swallowed down Luther made this stir A hard thing methinks it is for any that lived at that day to set down what was in Luthers Heart what were his hopes his desires rancor and spleen much more for Mr. Harding most of all for you and me When the actions of Men have an appearance of good Charity would hope the best Piety would reserve the judgment of the intention to God Let us come to Calvin touching whom I marvel not much that you say nothing of all that which Bolseck brings against him who being by his means chased out of Geneva discovereth as I remember in the very entrance that he was requested by some of his good Masters to write against him I once saw the book while I lived in Cambridge it hath no shew of probability that Calvin would go about to work a miracle to confirm his Doctrine who teacheth that Miracles are no sure and sufficient proof of Doctrine I marvel rather that even in reading Dr. Banâ—roft Mr. Hooker and Saravia all Opposites to Calvin in the question of Church-Discipline and therefore not all the fittest to testifie of him or his actions all late Writers and Strangers to the Estate and Affairs of Geneva of whom therefore besides their bare Word sufficient proof were to be required of what they say you not only receive whatsoever they bring but more than they bring You say they prove what never came in their minds and which is not only utterly untrue but even unpossible As that Calvin by his unquietness and ambition revolved the State of Geneva so unjustly expelling and depriving the Bishop of Geneva and other Temporal
your Ordination there is no Word said And as little there is in Scripture of your Sacrifice which makes Christ not to be a Priest after the order of Melchisedeck c. with much more to this purpose Where my Defence for your Ministry hath been this That the Form Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins ye remit they are remitted c. doth sufficiently comprehend the Authority of preaching the Gospel Use you the same equity towards us and tell those hot Spirits among you that stand so much upon formalities of Words That to be a Dispenser of the Word of God and his holy Sacraments is all the duty of Priesthood And to you I add further that if you consider well the Words of the Master of the Sentences which I vouched before how that which is consecrated of the Priest is called a Sacrifice and Oblation because it is a Memorial and Representation of the true Sacrifice and holy Offering made on the Altar of the Cross and joyn thereto that of the Apostle that by that one Offering Christ hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified and as he saith in another place through that Blood of his Cross reconciled unto God all things whether in Earth or in Heaven you shall perceive that we do offer Sacrifice for the Quick and Dead remembring representing and mystically offering that sole Sacrifice for the Quick and Dead by the which all their sins are meritoriously expiated and desiring that by the same we and all the Church may obtain remission of sins and all other Benefits of Christs Passion To the Epilogue therefore of this your last Motive I say in short Sith we have no need of Subdeaconship more than the Churches in the Apostles times and in truth those whom we call Clerks and Sextons perform what is necessary in this behalf Sith we have Canonical Bishops and lawful Succession Sith we neither want due intention to depute Men to Ecclesiastical Functions nor matter or Form in giving Priesthood deriving from no Man or Woman the Authority of Ordination but from Christ the Head of the Church you have alledged no sufficient Cause why we should not have true Pastors and consequently a true Church in England CHAP. XII Of the Conclusion Mr. Waddesworth's Agonies and Protestation c. YEt by these you say and many other Arguments you were resolved in your understanding to the contrary It may well be that your Understanding out of its own heedless hast as that of our first Parents while it was at the perfectest was induced into error by resolving too soon out of seeming Arguments and granting too forward assent For surely these which you have mentioned could not convince it if it would have taken the pains to examine them throughly or had the patience to give unpartial hearing to the Motives on the other side But as if you triumphed in your own conquest and captivity you add that which passeth yet all that hitherto you have set down viz. That the Church of Rome was and is the only true Church because it alone is Antient Catholick and Apostolick having Succession Vnity and Visibility in all Ages and Places Is it only antient To omit Ierusalem are not that of Antioch where the Disciples were first called Christians and Alexandria Ephesus Corinth and the rest mentioned in the Scriptures antient also and of Antioch antienter than Rome Is it Catholick and Apostolick only Do not these and many more hold the Catholick Faith received from the Apostles as well as the Church of Rome For that it should be the Vniversal Church is all one as ye would say the part is the whole one City the World Hath it only succession where to set aside the enquiry of Doctrine so many Simoniacks and Intruders have ruled as about fifty of your Popes together were by your own Mens Confession Apostatical rather than Apostolical Or Unity where there have been thirty Schisms and one of them which endured fifty years long and at last grew into three Heads as if they would share among them the triple Crown And as for dissentions in Doctrine I remit you to Master Doctor Halls peace of Rome wherein he scores above three hundred mentioned in Bellarmine alone above three-score in one only head of Penance out of Navarrus As to that addition in all Ages and places I know not what to make of it nor where to refer it Consider I beseech you with your wonted moderation what you say for sure unless you were beguiled I had almost said bewitched you could never have resolved to believe and profess that which all the World knows to be as false I had well nigh said as God is true touching the extent of the Romish Church to all Ages and places Concerning the agonies you passed I will say only thus much if being resolved though erroneously that was truth you were withholden from professing it with worldly respects you did well to break through them all But if besides these there were doubt of the contrary as methinks needs must be unless you could satisfie your self touching those many and known Exceptions against the Court of Rome which you could not be ignorant of take heed lest the rest insuing these agonies were not like Sampsons sleeping on Dalilahs knees while the Locks of his Strength were shaven whereupon the Lord departing from him he was taken by the Philistins had his Eyes put out and was made to grind in the Prison But I do not despair but your former resolutions shall grow again And as I do believe your religious asseveration that for very fear of damnation you forsook us which makes me to have the better hope and opinion of you for that I see you do so seriously mind that which is the end of our whole life so I desire from my Heart the good hope of salvation you have in your present way may be as happy as your fear I am perswaded was causeless For my part I call God to record against mine own Soul that both before my going into Italy and since I have still endeavoured to find and follow the truth in the Points controverted between us without any earthly respect in the World Neither wanted I fair opportunity had I seen it on that side easily and with hope of good entertainment to have adjoyned my self to the Church of Rome after your example But to use your words as I shall answer at the dreadful day of judgement I never saw heard or read any thing which did convince me nay which did not finally confirm me daily more and more in the perswasion that in these differences it rests on our part Wherein I have not followlowed humane conjectures from foreign and outward things as by your leave methinks you do in these your motives whereby I protest to you in the sight of God I am also much comforted and assured in the possession of the truth but the undoubted Voice of God in his Word which is more