Christ The Lambe is the passeouer The circumcision is the couenaunt The sacrifice is the clensing of the law and Christ is the church For out of question all these textes are to bee interpreted figuratiuely Thus may you see that the doctrine of the Protestauntes touching the holy sacrament of the supper is grounded vpon the pure word of God. But now as touching the canons The Catholickes thinke they make altogether for them and for the vpholding maintayning of their transubstantiatiō as in deed there be of them which do and chiefly the canon before alleadged which is an abiuratiō that pope Nicolas caused to bee made at Rome by one Beringarius a deacon of the church of S. Mawrice of Angiers by which abiuratiō they inforced this poore man of Angiers to say and protest that he renounced the doctrine that he had holden aforetime wherby he had maintained that the bread and wine of the sacramēt remained bread and wine stil after the consecration that the body and bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ could not be handled with the handes of men nor eaten with their teeth Declaring that contrariwise he there allowed the doctrine of the Romish church and of pope Nicholas that is to wit that after the cōsecration the bread and the wine doe chaunge and transubstantiate themselues into the very body and bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ and that the priest in putting the sacramēt into the mouthes of the faythfull doth sensibly handle Christes very body it selfe and that the faythfull doe crowze and crashe it betwixt their teeth But agaynst this goodly abiuration racked by pope Nicholas and a hundred and fourtene bishops out of this pore Deacon whom they helde amongest them in their clawes there are many other canōs to be opposed which are of a better stampe Thus sayth one of them which is taken out of S. Augustine wher he interpreteth these wordes of the Lord The wordes which I haue spoken vnto you are spirit life meaning of the eating of his flesh and of his bloud These words sayth he are spirit and life to those that vnderstande them spiritually But to those that vnderstand them carnally they are neither spirit nor life You shall not eate this bodye that you see neither shall you drinke the bloud which they shall shed that shall crucifye me the thing that I commend vnto you is a sacrament If you vnderstād it spiritually it will quicken you the fleshly vnderstanding thereof auayleth nothing at all Afterwards he concludeth thus The Lord shall be still aboue vntill the end of the world but yet in the meane while his truth shal remayn here amongest vs For it must needes be that the body wherein he is risen agayne is in a place certayne but his truth is spred euery where throughout the worlde And to shew that the flesh of our lord is not crushed so betwixt the teeth as Beringarius sayth in his abiuration here is an other canon taken also out of S. Augustine which sayeth thus To what purpose doost thou prepare thy teeth and thy belly beleue and thou hast eaten for to beleue in the Lord is to eat the bread and to drinke the wine who so beleueth in him eateth him And an other Canon following sayth thus That which is seene and perceiued with the eies is the bread and the cuppe but as in respect of sayth which seeketh to be taught the bread is Christs body and the cup is his bloud And because the receiuing of the sacrament is spirituall It followeth that at that supper the wicked receiue but the signes onely not the things signified whiche are the spirituall meat of Christes body and bloud And the same is auowed by an other Canon which sayth He that agreeth not with Christ eateth not his flesh nor drinketh his bloud though he receiue the sacrament to his vtter vndoing and damnation By these Canons it appeareth plainly that transubstantiation is reproued and condemned and so by cosequence the locall worshipping of the body of christ in the sacrament of the bread and wine But before I passe out of this matter I will alleadge one text of S. Augustines which is so cleare and fitte to confute this transubstantiatiō as is possible For first of all that men may learne to know what manner of speaches in the scriptures are to be taken figuratiuely and what are to be taken according to the letter he setteth downe this rule which is a very notable one If there be any thing sayth he so spokē in Gods word as that it can not properly agree with the comelines of good maners nor with the trueth of fayth you must take the same to be figuratiuely spoken Afterwardes to make this rule plain by examples he sayth these very wordes If then the maner of speaking be a precept so as it forbiddeth any crime and misbehauiour or commaundeth the thing that is good and behoue full such maner of speaking is not figuratiue But if it seeme to commaund an euill fact or to forbidde the thing that is good and behouefull then is it spoken figuratiuely Vnlesse you eate the fleshe of the sonne of man sayth our Lord and drinke his bloud you shall haue no life in you By this maner of speaking he seemeth to commaunde a cruelty and an euill facte in eating of his fleshe and drinking of his bloud therefore it is a figure wherby we be commaunded to become partakers of the passion of our Lord and to imprint gentlye and profitably in our memories that his flesh was māgled and crucified for vs. The Scripture sayeth likewise If thine enemye hunger feede him if he be a thirst geue him drink no doubt but in this case he commaundeth a good deede But wheras it followeth for in so doing thou shalt heape coales of fire vpon his head forasmuch as thou mayest thinke that he commaundeth a malicious deed doubt not but that this manner of speache is figuratiue and that those wordes may be taken two manner of waies the one to do hurt the other to do good Thou oughtest therfore rather to construe them according to charitye than otherwise and by those burninge coales to vnderstand the burning sighes of repentaunce wherby the pride of the party is healed in that he repenteth himself to haue bene an enemy to such a one as releeueth his misery and necessity Also it is written who so loueth his soule shal lose it Now It is not to be thought that he forbiddeth so requisite a thing as the sauing of a mans owne soule but that this speache ought to bee taken figuratiuely He shall lose his soule that is to say he must suppresse and forsake the froward vntoward dealing wherunto his mind is now geuen by meanes wherof he is so greatly wedded to these temporall things that he hath no regard of the euerlasting things Agayn it is also written Shew mercy and receiue not the sinner The latter
was once a Priest yet as now he hath resigned that office vnto others The Apostle testifyeth that he is a Priest still and euer shall be saying thus of him Thou art a high Priest for euer after the order of Melchizedech And because we shold not thinke that there should be any other priest thā he the Apostle teacheth vs that there may be none other in that he saith that no man may take the honor of high priest vnto himselfe except he be called of God as Christ was called to that office by his Father These be his very words No man may take that honor vpon him but he shall enioy it which is called of God as was Aaron Neyther hath Christ presumed of himselfe to be made high Preest but he hath bestowed that dignity vpon him which fayde vnto him Thou art my sonne this day haue I begotten thee Now as we are taught by this text that neyther there is nor ought to be any mo then one Sacrifice for the forgeuenes of sins that is to wit Iesus Christ which is and shal be the high preest for euer So are we taught also by other texts that there is but one only Sacrifice once offered for all sinnes and to obtayn euerlasting life which is the death and passion of Iesus Christ our Saviour And that we need none other Sacrifice for the remission of our sinnes but only that This is the very text of the Apostle which is so playn and cleere as nothing can be more By the which will we are made holy euen by the offering of the body of Christ once for all For by that one offering hath he made them perfect for euer which are to be sanctified where remission of sinnes is there needes no more Sacrifice for sinne Which words of the Apostle are a very definitiue sentence pronounced against the Masse For if there be no more offering for sinne what shall become of the masse seeing it is no other thing in substance as the very words of the consecration doe declare but a Sacrifice and an offering for the forgeuenes of the sinnes of the quick and the dead And in very deede the Catholick Schoolemē not being able by any meanes to rid themselues of these textes which are so playne and cleere do say for their refuge that the Mas is not a very Sacrifice in deed but a remembrance of the only and true Sacrifice of our Lord Iesus Christ But the answere to this shift of descant is very easie For seeing they doe maintayne that the very body of Christ is in the mas and that the bread of the singingcake is changed into his very body and the wine into his very bloud And that they breake his body in peeces and offer vp both the body and the bloud in Sacrifice vnto God It followeth of necessitie that their opinion is that it is a very Sacrifice and not a remembrance only On the other side the protestants doe say that the remembrance of the true Sacrifice of Iesus Christ ought to be done by celebrating his holy supper after the same maner that he hath appointed it For he hath ordayned that his Supper should be celebrated by many at once because it is a sacramentall communion of the body and bloud of our Sauiour by the which we are made one body and as it were one loafe in Iesus Christ become partakers of one selfesame bread of euerlasting life These are the wordes of S. Paule vpon the same matter Is not the cup of blessing which we blesse a partaking of the bloud of Christ And is not the bread which we breake a partaking of the body of Christ For we that are many are one loafe and one body because we be al partakers of one bread By which text it appeareth euidently that the remembrance of the Sacrifice of our Sauiour ought to be vsed in celebrating the holy Supper by many together accordingly as when he did institute and celebrate it with his Disciples they were many together And so consequently it followeth that the Mas neither is nor can be a true remembrance of the sacrifice of Christ seeing that none taketh part of it but the priest him selfe Now let vs come to the Canones The Canons which we haue alleaged in the former Chapter when we spake of the Lordes Supper doe sufficiently confute this Transubstātiation which is the very principall parte and foundation of the Masse And therfore we will speake no more of that point But I will speake of certain difficulties into the which the Transubstantiatiō hath led the schole diuines as it hapneth commonly according to the saying of the Logicians that in admitting one absurditie there follow many moe The schole doctors hauing once graunted that the bread and wine in the Masse are Transubstantiated into the very body and bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ are greately troubled how to resolue diuers other questions which haue growen vpon the same matter Pope Innocent the third reciteth one of them which he sayth was greatly debated amongst the sayd Scholedoctors howbeit in such sort as they knew not how to determine it That is to witt whether the water which the preest putteth into the chalice with the wine be transubstātiated into bloud or not for they imagine that water must nedes be put into the chalice where the wine is bicause it is written that out of the side of our Lord Iesus Christ there did issue both bloud and water Notwithstanding their opinion is that there ought to be more wine than water For Pope Honorius the third did sharply checke a certayne Bishop who in singing masse did put more water in his chalice then wine wherupon grew a great disputation amongst the Scholediuines as Pope Innocent reporteth For some of thē held opinion that the water was not Transubstantiated into wine but remayned naturall water still bicause say they there was water in the bloud which issued out of the side of our Lord Iesus Christ when he was vpon the Crosse And therfore seeing that the wine in the Chalice at the masse tyme is Transubstantiated into the very bloud it must needes be that the water remayneth water still to the ende that there be an answerable resemblance aswell of the water as of the bloud Others sayd that although it were graunted that water must needes remayne still in the Chalice with the bloud yet notwithstanding it must alwayes be beleeued that the water which the priest putteth into the Challice is turned into the selfe same water which issued out of the side of our Lord Iesus Christ Which opinion seemeth to haue most shew of wit and most proportionble resemblance agreeing to the matter though at the first sight it might seeme an absurde thinge to saye that water is turned into other water For looke by what reason the wine is trāsubstantiated into the very bloud by the same reason is the water changed into the
whoredome and bawdry which is amongst the most parte of Priests And moreouer the Canons denounce those persons to be Idolaters which heare the Masse of any Priest or Deacon that is a Fornicator For thus saith a Canon taken out of S. Gregory If any Priest Deacon or Subdeacon be stayned with the sinne of fornication we in the name of the father almighty by the authoritie of S. Peter doe vtterly forbid bim to come into the Church vntill he haue done penance and made amendes And if they continue in their sinne let no mā presume to heare their diuine seruice for their blessings shall be turned into cursings their prayer into sinne And this doth the Lord himselfe witnesse where he saith by his Prophet I will curse your blessings And as many as disobay this holesome commaundement shall fall into the sinne of Idolatry Were this Canon wel vnderstood of the infinite number of pore ignorant soules that hold of the Romish Religion and doe ordinarily hear the Masses and other Church seruices of lecherous priestes I beleeue they would rather forbeare it vtterly than defile themselues so wretchedly with Idolatrie And as saith this Canon receiue the curse of God in receiuing the blessing of such a priest But ignorance accompanied with error which hath been long bred and rooted in the Romain Church doe cause the poore people to be content to heare the masses of these Fornicators But if a maryed Priest should sing them a Mas they would stone him to death and not allow his masse to be good Behold what power long forgrowen error hath ouer poore ignorant people and how strangely the tirany therof causeth their wretched consciences to goe astray For by the auncient Canons it is a cursed thing to shun the offering of a maryed priest or to beleeue that the same is to be despised because he is marryed These be the very words of a Canon taken out of the councell of Gangra If any man make difference of a marryed Priest in forbearing to come to his offering as though he might not doe it because he is marryed Cursed be he And there is yet another Canon which saith that no Priest hath power to consecrate singingcakes except he be a man of good life Which thing should make the Romish Catholicks to thinke that they put them selues in great danger of Idolatry when they worship the singing cake although it were admitted that their doctrine of Transubstantiation were true which thing the Protestants doe still deny For questionles by this Canon all be Idolaters which worship the singing bread that is consecrated by priests of euill life as the most part of them be These be the very wordes of the Canon The priestes which minister the body and bloud of the Lord vnto the people doe wickedly in beleeuing that by the law of Christ it is the wordes which the priest speaketh and not his good life which make the consecration of the Sacrament And that to doe the same there nedeth but only the solemne pronouncing of the prayer without any merit of the priest for it is written that the Prieste which hath any blemish in him may not approch to the Lord to offer any Sacrifice vnto him So then by this Canon it may be well said that in these dayes there are very few Priestes which haue power to consecrate Moreouer in these dayes they obserue no parte of the Ceremonies appointed by the Canons in the saying of their Masse For they ought to sing the Masse in single linnen cloth and not in silks of colors These are the expresse words of the Canon By the opinion of vs all we ordain that no man presume to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Altar in cloth of silke nor in any other cloth of color but in linnen cloth only consecrated by the Bishop That is to say made and wouen of flax which groweth vpon the earth Euen in such like sorte as the bodye of our Lord Iesus Christ was buried and wrapped in a simple white sheete made of flax Neither ought they to sing or say Masse without two assistantes least they should offend in the congruity of Grammer in hauing but one when they said Dominus vobiscum and Orate pro me fratres speaking in the plurall number But yet this notwithstanding the most part of Masses are said nowadayes but with one Clarke to accompany the priest yea and often times the Priest is constrayned to answere himselfe as it is sayd by a common prouerbe of a priest named Martin These be the very wordes of the Canō It is also ordayned that no priest shal presume to say masse except he haue two assistants so as he himselfe may be the third For when he saith in the plurall number the Lord be with you these words of the Memento Brethren pray for me it is very conuenient that other folks should answere of themselues to his salutation So as if all these Canons be well considered euery man may well perceiue that the Romish Catholicks haue no great reason to make so great account of their Mas or to thinke the Protestants to be in error in that they will neither come at it nor allow of it Of Maryage The ix Chapter AS cōcering marriage the doctrine of the Protestauntes differeth not much from the doctrine of the romish catholickes In deed the Catholickes do terme it a sacrament and the protestantes say it is a holy institution of God but not a sacrament because that in euery sacramēt there must be an outward signe to bee discerned with the eie and an inward thing signified which is inuisible as I haue sayed of Baptisme heretofore shewing that in that sacrament the water is the outward signe and the washing of the soule is the inward inuisible thing signified And in the supper of our lord the bread and the wine are the outward signes and the body and the bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ bee the things signified which our soules do receiue inwardly and spiritually But it cannot be sayd that in marriage ther is an outward visible signe and an inward inuisible thing signified And therfore it is not a Sacrament Agayne the Protestants affirm that marriage is honorable amongst all sorts of people be they lay men or men of the church noble or vnnoble rich or poore because God hath instituted it and hath permitted the vse thereof to all persons of what quality soeuer they be and to celebrate the same at all seasons And that to make gloses and limitations or restrayntes of the which God hath set at liberty is to goe about to be wiser than God which in deede is starke foolishnesse beastly presumption and heddy trayterousnesse Contrarywise the romish Catholickes holde opinion that it is not lawfull for men of the church to be married at all nor to celebrate any marriage in Lent in Aduent and in the foure ember weeks And the reason whereupon they haue
purpose to haue the vnderstanding of all secretes and all knowledge vnles it be matched with charity And as for charitye they can haue no peece thereof by doing nothing els but study without making their neighbors partakers of the giftes that god hath bestowed vpō them And if they reply yet again and say that there are many moonkes which geue themselues to preaching and teaching of the people I answere therunto first that not one among a hundred of thē doth so and secondly that such of them as preache doe agaynst the profession of moonkes for by the Canōs a moonk ought to bee alwayes shut vp in his cloyster and not in any wise meddle with preaching or teaching These are the very wordes of the Canon The office of a Monke is to weep and not to teach for he ought to look for the comming of the Lord with feare mourning for himfelfe and for all the world And in an other place it is sayd thus According to the tenor of the good counsel of Calcedon we geue cōmādement as well to the Moonkes of S. Benets order as to other religious persones to keepe themselues within their cloysters that they stray not abroad in Cities Castles and Townes and we charge them to forbeare preaching to the people in any wise sauing onely to such as are willyng to take their habit vpon them for the remedying of their soules health Seeing then that it is agaynst the profession of Moonkes to preache it followeth that they cannot iustifie their contemplations to be good vnder pretence that some of them doe deale with preaching for as much as in so doing they doe against their generall profession And as for their watchinges Mattines Euensong and such other Seruices wherto they binde themselues by their vow of obeoience we will speak of them hereafter It is inough for me at this presēt to haue shewed in few wordes that the works wherunto the Monks do binde themselues as well by their vow of obedience as by their other vowes cannot be called good works because they be to farre of from the word of God. It is also to be prooued by the Canons that these pretended good works be neither good nor merytorious And first as touching their garmēts the Canons doe cursse and ban all such as repoze any holynes in them So that by the sayinges of those Canons we ought to abhorre all kind of Moonkes For all of them accompt themselues to deserue somewhat at Gods handes by theyr wearing of that kind of apparell and of those shirtes of heare next their skinne and that they should do ill if they should wear such garmentes as other men doe These wordes here following be the very wordes of the Canon which is a chapter of the counsell Grangrene If any man thinke him selfe to be the better furthered to chastity by his wearing of the Moonkes cowle or take himselfe to be the more righteous for it and ther upon holde scorne of such as modestlye weare hoods and other attyres after the common fashion Cursed be they And touching their vow of abstinence from meates the auncient Canons speake thereof in such sort as generally they alow of sobriety without prescribing of any abstinēce more from fleshe then from fishe These be the expresse words of the Cannon For there is nothing so delectable as meates well drest and digested Nor any thinge better for our health or for the sharpning of our wits or for the preseruing of our bodyes frō sicknes than sober and moderate feeding for as suffizance nurrisheth vs so doth it also maintayne vs in good plight and pleasures By this Canon it appeareth that moderate dyet is so commended as that wee must haue a regard to our health and not appayre it eyther by to much pyning of our selues or the eating of meates that are cōtrary to our health And in good sooth the same Canons do lykewise witnes with vs that to abstayne from iniquitie is the true manner of keeping and obseruing the Lent and that therein consisteth the perfection of fasting These be the very wordes of the Canon It is a great and generall fast to abstayne from iniquitie and vnlawfull pleasures of the worlde and that is the most perfect kinde of fasting in this world For we obserue the Lenton fast when wee liue honestly keeping our selues from iniquitie and vnlawful delights And truely as sayth an other Canon mens prayers and fastinges are nothing worth if the ill lyfe be not amended Vppon this poynt of abstynence from meates this history which Eusebius reciteth is worthy to be noted In the tyme of the Emperour Marke Antonius ther was a great persecution of the Christians in Vienna nigh vnto Lyons Emong others two noble personages named Alcibiades and Attalus were put in prison Alcibiades did punish himself greatly in prison through hys to great abstinence eating nothing but bread and salt and drynking nothing but water forbearing to eate eyther fleshe or any kinde of meate Where upon it was reuealed vnto Attalus that Alcibiades did euill in forbearing to vse the creatures of God and ministred occasion of offence to the other christians Which thing when Attalus had told to Alcibiades Alcibiades began to eat of all kinds of meats without any kind of scrupulosity gaue thāks to God being perswaded so to doe sayth Eusebius by the same spirit which had reuealed it vnto Attalus It is also a very notable thing whiche we read in the history Tripartite concerning the greate diuersitye which was vsed in old tyme in abstayning from meates and in keeping of lent For in auncient time the Romayne Churche did make their lent of three weekes and no more And all Greece Slauonia and Alexandria made it of sixe weekes And neither the one nor the other did make their lent of fortye dayes as it ought to haue bene in following the signifacatiō of the word Moreouer some of them did abstayne from all thinges that had life Other some did eate onely fysh And some others which were not of the grossest diet did feede onelye on flying soules and fish and did eate neyther beefe Mutton nor other such gros fleshe There were some other so scrupulous as they would eate neither egs nor whitemeate And others which were not scrupulous at all did eate of all kindes of meates sauing that vpon the fasting dayes they would not eate til late towards night All which diuersities sayth the historye were in those dayes practised in sundrye churches without finding any faulte or chalinging one an other for so doing Wherby it appeareth that the christians which liued in those dayes were of much greater modestye than those which haue liued in our dayes in whom we haue seene all kind of crueltie in burning and persecuting of such as haue not followed the traditions and superstitions that are obserued in the Romish Church As touching Pilgrimages They also are reproued in their Canō law For euery body knoweth that
among the number of the Gods the Emperor Dioclesian who dyed at that time and had resigned vp the Empire about a ten yeres before Now then seeing that the Senate was at that time in so great authority as to canonise Dioclesian the greatest enemie and persecuter of the Christians that euer was in despite of Constantine being then Emperor Consul and a Christian I leaue it to your discretions to cōsider how they wold haue suffered the thing which this pretended donation speaketh of namely that Siluester should haue been set vp as soueraigne Lord ouer the Senators themselues and ouer all the West Empire and that the rest of the Clergie should haue been made fellow like and equall with the Senators Consuls States of the Empire Surely they would no more haue suffered it than the Presidents and Councellars of our Parliament would nowadaies abide to haue a minister of the Gospell set ouer thē to controll them Or the ouerseear of a Consistory to be made fellow with them And yet furthermore the history doth witnes vnto vs that this Constātine the great did leaue vnto his sōne Constantine for his part the Realmes such ordinances doe burthen mennes consciences and they that obay them doe seeme rather to play the Iewes than to vse the liberty of Christians These be the very words of a Canon taken out of S. Augustine Vndoutedly I am of opinion that the traditions of the Church ought to be cut of as soone as oportunity may fitly serue thereunto For although it appeare not that they are contrary to the faith yet notwithstanding the slauish burthen of them doth oppresse Religion which God of his mercy hath apointed to be free with the celebration of few Sacramentes and those very cleare In so much that the state of the Iewes is more tollerable thā the obseruation of so many traditions For though they know not the time of their libertie yet doe they not submitte themselues to any Sacramentes at the presumptious and fantasticall appointment of man. Which Cnnon doth well declare how much they be wedded to their own affection which in these dayes doe kindle coales in all places and condemne all those of heresie which doe leaue the traditions of men to betake themselues to the word of God. For with what coūtenance dare they call it heresie not to beleeue in the inuentions of Popes seeing that euen their own Canons doe wil vs to forsake the traditions of men If this be heresie then ought they to burne their Canon Law. Moreouer it is very easie to be proued by their own Canons that al the decrees and ordinaunces of the Popes are either superfluous or wicked For if they agree accord with that word of god they are superfluous because it ought to suffise vs to obserue the ordināces of god which haue no need to be ratified and authorised new againe by men And if they be contrary or repugnant to the ordinances of God then ought they to be reiected as wicked as the auncient Canones themselues doe witnes These be the very words of an auncient Canon attributed to Pope Vrbane Ye must vnderstand that the Pope of Rome may wel make new ordinances in such things as the Euangelistes and Prophetes haue not spoaken of But in the matters that are openly resolued by the Lord himself or by his Apostles or by the auncient Fathers that followed next vnto them the Pope of Rome cannot make any law at all but ought rather to maintain that which is already ordayned yea euē with spending of his bloud and his life For if he should take vpon him which God forbid to destroy that which the Apostles and Prophets haue taught in so doing he should shew himselfe to doe amisse not to geue sound iudgement Vpon this Cannon it is worthy to be noted that the Popes authority extēdeth not so farre as to deale with any thing which the Doctors aunciēt fathers of the Church haue taught as it is farther auouched and proued by the Cannon following attributed to Pope Zosimus whiche sayth thus As touching the statutes of the fathers the authoritie of the Seate may neyther ordaine any thing contrary to them nor chaunge any thing in them for antiquitie ought to be inuiolably rooted amōg vs as beyng honorable by the decrees of the fathers By which Cannons of Pope Vrban and Pope Zosimus it doth playnely appeere that the auncient Cannons such as those be whiche we haue alleaged in this book to confute the errors of the Romish church ought to be of greater authoritie than the decrees and ordinaunces of the latter Popes of our dayes of their councels which haue no power to disanul or altar any thing in the statutes and doctrine of the auncient fathers And as touching the authority which the Pope attributeth vnto hym selfe concerning power to dampne soules and to send them into hell by great troopes without beyng lawfull for any man to say vnto him why doest thou so and to excommunicate outlawe and accurse whome he listeth a man may beat down all these hornes of hys with this vnanswerable argument taken out of his owne Canons that such as are true members of Christ and of hys Church cannot be condempned nor put out of the Church by any kinde of excomunication enterditing or accursing that if any faythful Christian happen to be wrongfully excōmunicated or accurssed by the Pope or by any other priest yet notwithstanding hee is neuer the more out of the Church but remayneth alwaies a member of the same These be the very wordes of a canon touching that poynt When any man departeth from the truth from the feare of God from the fayth and from Charitie truely truely thē goeth he out of the compas of the Church But contrariwise if any man be excommunicated and thrust out of the Church by vniust Iudgement it is certayne that if hee were not gone out afore that is to say if he haue not done any thing that deserued it he is not hurt by such excōmunication for often times he which is driuē out remayneth still within he that seemeth to be within is neuerthelesse without This Cannon teacheth vs a very good and holy doctrine which is to hould and retayne the pure doctrine of the truth the feare of God fayth charitie then not to feare the excommunications or thunderbolts of the Popes or Bishoppes the which in these dayes they do rather vse against such as will not allow their errors than against wicked liuers and such as giue occasion of offence because no man is able to put vs out of Gods Church if we cast not out our selues through our vices Now if vices and errors be the thinges which driue a man out of the Church of God are there in these dayes any people in the whole world which are more out of the Church than those which think to driue out others There remaine yet two pointes to treate