the appearance of a visible Congregation can hardly bee imagined When our Sauiour had selected out his Apostles they then were termed by the name of a Flocke but yet by their Master they were called but a little flocke where the Rhemists do confesse that in the beginning it was little indeed At the death of Christ when his body hanged on the crosse for our sakes and his Disciples were all fled no man daring to shew himselfe Mary and Iohn and a fewe women were all the faithfull that now appeared vpon earth and afterward while the Apostles their followers walked very priuately or were assembled in a chamber the Priestes and Scribes and Pharisees were they who ruffled it in the streetes and bore the sway in the Temple so that if a weak body had enquired for the Church he might rather haue been directed to them who had the Law and the Altars and all sacred things in their custody then to any other When Steuen had been stoned and for feare of the persecution which was at Ierusalem the Disciples were all scattered besides the Apostles it may well be presumed that for a time they which remained in the citie where Steuen had lost his life did not walke very openly Truth it is that after these things the Church was better setled and the truth was more spread but yet neuer was there any such priuiledge bestowed vpon it but that in the dayes of persecution or some grieuous apostacy the faithfull might bee brought to a small visibilitie Our Sauiours wordes intend so much when alluding to the time of his second appearance to iudge the quicke and the dead he asketh Neuerthelesse when the Sonne of man commeth shall he find faith on earth as meaning that very little should then bee found in comparison of the Floodes and Ocean of iniquitie which euery where should abound But God to the end that he might not haue vs ignorant but warned before hand into what straights the Church should bee brought informeth vs by Saint Paul that the Lord shall not come except there first bee an apostacie or reuolt or falling away wherein Antichrist with great pride and disdaine should shew himselfe This is solemnly spoken of by the Apostle and by all both old and new intreating of it is obserued to some matter of great note that is to say some maine declining from somwhat Many of our Papists fearing to touch this sore which can in no case turne them to good would haue that interpreted to note nothing else but the slipping of diuers regions countries from their subiection to the Romane Empire But Gregory Martin and the other Rhemistes being ouercome with the euidence of truth are heere a little more honest then ordinary and speake to other purpose Indeed they cannot tell how it will be taken at other Papists hands that contrary to the custome of their fellowes in a matter of such moment they should giue way vnto vs and therefore they doe vse these words in vvay of excuse â— Be it spoken vnder the correction of Gods Church and all learned Catholiques But to the poynt concerning the Apostacie they deliuer this It is very like that this great defection and reuolt shall not bee onely from the Romane Empire but especially from the Romane Church and withall from most poynts of Christian Religion in the Margent it is and from most Articles of the Catholique Faith Heere they would haue vs take the Romish beleefe for the Christian Religion and Catholique faith but that deserueth a long pause we rather obserue out of them that this reuolt is in matter of faith and not onely from the Empire then which Glosse nothing can be truer Well then if there must bee so egregious an Apostacie it will follow that Antichrist so domineering as by the Apostle he is described will not bee negligent so to represse the publike seruice of God that it shall not carry any liuely head or countenance where hee hath to doe So that certainely our Rhemistes yeelding to this Exposition doe in substance confesse so much as that the apparancy of Gods Congregation in the time of the great defection must bee mightily ecclipsed Now the Lord to the end hee might establish his faithfull and arme them to expect this paucitie of beleeuers and inconspicuousnes of his Church and yet not be discouraged for that which should bee past present or to come And againe that there might bee no doubt in a matter of this moment letteth vs further know that the woman fled into the wildernesse where shee hath a place prepared of God It is not doubted of betweene the Romanists and vs but this Woman doeth represent the Church concerning whom being in the wildernesse it doth manifestly follow that for the time of her abode there which the Almightie had decreed she should not be discerned that is by her enemies who did would chase her notwithstanding it is not to be doubted but shee knew where her selfe was If the Romanist therefore and persecuting aduersary did not euer see the Professors of the Gospell it was no wonder the woman was to remaine in the Wildernesse a part and hidde from them The euidence of which matter is such that as Master Fox obserueth for feare of diuers things in the Reuelation of Saint Iohn whereof this may worthily be one scant any Popish Writer for many yeares together durst aduenture to comment any thing vpon the Apocalyps vntill our Rhemistes being desirous to shame the Pope and themselues with all who are wise and adventured to set pen to paper Hauing then a purpose to set forth and corrupt the New Testament partly by their Translation but most of all by their Annotations they could not choose but say somewhat of the Reuelation although they professe that it is as sparingly as may be and as briefly which is not for that the Volume of the Rhemish Testament groweth great as they would colour it but for feare least they should too much lay open their owne weakenesse which while that Booke is in the Bible will neuer bee concealed Howsoeuer therefore through their Volume in many maine matters they bee very silent where they should most speake as of the Question of imputed righteousnesse where the Apostle doeth most handle it a sore argument of their owne conscience distrusting their cause and euen sinking vnder the waight of that chapter yet here God ouer-ruling them to say the truth as hee did Caiaphas they interpret the woman to be the Church flying from the great persecution which shall be in the time of Antichrist Indeed to keepe peace with their Lord and Mastes the Pope they will not haue this flight to bee but in the very ending of the world and so they would fetch it with a backe Racket that the woman should continue so in secret but three yeares and a halfe which to keepe all vpright they assigne
was not long after that Conradus the Archbishop himselfe became a Hussite also as the Authour calleth him Vnder this Conradus as President of the assembly these Hussites held a Councell at Prage in the yeare 1421 and there they compiled a Confession of their faith This cause did the said Archbishop and many Barons of Bohemia afterward stiffely maintaine complained against the Emperor Sigismund for offring wrong to those of their Religion Alexander also the Duke of Lituania did giue these Hussites ayd which moued Pope Martin the fifth to write vnto him in this sort Know that thou couldest not giue thy faith to Heretikes which are the violaters of the holy faith and that thou doest sinne deadly if thou shalt keepe it because there cannot be any fellowship of a Beleeuer with an Infidell Thus did the vertuous Pope write In processe of time there grew a parley betweene Sigismund the Emperour and the Bohemians There among the Compacts this was one That the Bishop should promote to holy Orders the Bohemians euen the Hussites which were of the Vniuersitie of Prage And they might well deserue to be reputed Vniuersity men for Cochleus himselfe witnesseth that the Priests of the Thaborites were skilled in arguing and exercised in the holy Scripture Kakizana one of them did vndertake to dispute with Capistranus a great and learned Papist By that time that the yeare 1453. was come Aeneas Syluius doth complaine that the kingdom of Bohemia was wholly gouerned by Heretikes Now all the Nobilitie all the Comminaltie is subiect to an Heretike That was one George of Gyrziko Gouernour of the kingdome of Bohemia vnder King Ladislaus But when Ladislaus was dead this George himselfe was by the Nobles and people chosen King of that Countrey And continuing the ancient profession of his Religion about the yeare 1458. those of Vratislauia and Silesia doe refuse to obey him as being an Heretike Notwithstanding Pope Pius the second then intending warres against the Turke did by all meanes perswade them that they should yeeld obedience vnto him This George saith the Authour was borne and brought vp in the heresie of the Hussites Now when Pope Pius did interpose himselfe as a Mediator betweene the King and his subiects George did require of the Pope that hee might keepe the Compacts agreed vpon at Basil in behalfe of the Bohemians And when Pius would not yeeld thereunto the King calleth together the Estates of his kingdome and protesteth that hee would liue die in those Compacts and so did also the nobles which were Hussites This was done at Prage in the yeare 1462. This resolutenesse of his caused that Pope to tolerate many things in him But Paul 2 who succeeded in that See of Rome did excommunicate that King set vp a Croisado against him Also he gaue to Matthias the King of Hungary the title of King of Bohemia Onuphrius in the life of Paul the 2. saith that the Pope did excommunicate him and depriue him of his kingdome Indeed for seuen yeares this George Matthias did war for it and Matthias got from him Morauia and Silesia a good part of the kingdom of Bohemia Vratislauia also and some other Prouinces and Cities did put themselues in subiection to Mathias Yet did not George deale hardly with the Papistes which were in Prage but in his greatest extremity did vse both the aduise and aid of many Nobles of the popish belief At length after the continuance of warre for seuen yeares Mathias concludeth a peace with king George both against the wil of the Pope and the Emperour And then this King was content to aske of the Pope an absolution from the Excommunication some Princes being mediators for him in that respect But before the Agents could returne from Rome the King died in the yeare of our Lord 1471. By this Story it is manifest that both noble and learned of high account were of that Christian Beliefe which Iohn Hus taught and were contented to aduenture al things which they had in the world for the maintenance of the same Perhaps here it may bee asked but how shal we know that Iohn Hus and his followers did imbrace that Religion which is now professed in England We find in Aeneas Syluius some opinions of theirs which peraduenture will scant be reputed currant among all English Protestants Hee rehearseth these foure of theirs That they would receiue the Sacraments in both kinds that ciuill dominion is inhibited to Clergie men that Preaching of the Word was permitted to al men that publik crimes are in no sort to be tolerated I answer that truth it is that hee there mentioneth onely those and whether he relateth them truly or no it may be doubted as anon I shall shew by laying open the custom of the enemies of the Gospell in misreporting their doctrine But elsewhere he deliuereth other opinions of theirs as against the Supremacy of the Pope against Purgatory against Inuocation of Saints and such like matters If we returne to Cochleus who was best acquainted with their matters we shal find much more As thus Hus translated all the Books of Canonicall Scripture into the Bohemian tongue and the people did most diligently read them They would haue the holy Scriptures to be the onely Iudge in Controuersies They held that all Bishops and Priestes are the Successors of the Apostles that not the Pope but Christ is the head of the Church neither are the Cardinals the body but all that beleeue in Christ that that the Pope is not a member of the Church but of the Deuill and his Synagogue that one Pope was a woman yea Hus did preach that the Pope is an abomination and Antichrist Also he calleth the generall Councell at Constance The Synagogue of Sathan Another of his articles was The Pope is the Beast in the Apocalyps His Schollers after his death brake downe the Images in Churches and Monasteries yea Zisca did cast down all the churches which were dedicated to the virgin Mary or to any Saint as if it were lawfull onely to build a Church to Almighty God In his time the professors began to be distinguished in two companies the one of thē did not so much dissent from the Pope as the other Those which in fewer matters diffred from the Bishop of Rome retained still the name of Hussites they which disagreed in more were called Thaborites of Thabor the citie which Zisca built for them And these were the greater number and the stronger There is in Cochleus a confession of faith made by one Iohann Pezibram a Bohemian who was but a Hussite and not wel affected to the Thaborites because he accounted them as a kinde of Precisians or Puritans in comparison of himselfe yet this more mild man doth wish and beg of God to see a reformation of the Church that there might be redressed Symonies throughout all
the same time liued Archdeacon Nicholaus Clemangâ—is who rebuked many things in the Ecclesiasticall state and spake excellently in the matter of generall Councels and their circumstances as hereafter may be declared Petrus de Aliaco Cardinall of Cambray gaue a Tract to the Councell of Constance touching the reformation of the Church There doth he reproue many notable abuses of the Romanists giueth aduise how to represse them There should not be multiplied saith he such varietie of Images and pictures in the Churches there should not be so many holy dayes there should not be so many new S t s canonized Apocryphal writings should not be read in the churches on holy dayes such numerosity variety of religious persons not expedient there are so many Orders of begging Friers that their state is burtheusome to men hurtfull to hospitals and to the poore few doe now study diuinity for the abuse of the Church of Rome who hath despised Diuines all now turne to the law artes of gaine He saith that it was then a prouerbe The Church is come to that estate that it is not worthy to be ruled but by reprobates He hath very much more and in the end concludeth That as there were 7000 who had not bowed to Baal so it is to bee hoped there bee some which desire the reformation of the Church Imagine whether this Cardinall if he had found company to haue ioyned with him would not haue sayd much more About that time liued Leonardus Aretinus whose little book against Hypocrites is worth the reading So is the oration of Antonius Cornelius Eynniâ—hanus laying open the lewd lubricâ—â—e of Priests in his dayes So doth he detect many abuses and errours who wrote The ten grieuances of Germany but those who compiled the hundred grieuances of the German nation doe discouer many more Finally he who list to see further that God euen in those dead dayes had diuers seruants who by more then a glimpse did see the truth and desired yet to be more plentifully instructed in religion let him read the Catologus testium veritatis lately set out and there he shall find diuers whom I haue not named By this time I trust it is manifest how fals a slander that of the Papists is that before the daies of M. Luther there was neuer any man of our religion Til the time of the Councell of Constance this case is cleared And beyond that it is as easie to shew that I. Hus Hierom of Prage had their imediat antecessors in witnessing the faith of Christ For they were instructed much helped by the Books of Io. Wiclif an English man and therefore saith Platina as spectators of Wiclife they were condemned in the Councell of Constance AEneas Syluius sheweth the meanes how those Bohemians came to know the doctrine of Wiclife he saith thus He who first raised vp the opinion of the Hussites had them froÌ„ Oxford carying thence into Bohemia Wiclefs books de Realibus Vniuersalib ' Coehleus who by his good will would bee taken for a great defender of Popery giueth yet a larger testimony for he saith That as a Bohemian brought first into Bohemia Wiclefs books de Realibus Vniuer salibus so there was afterward one Peter Paine a Scholler of Wiclefs who after the death of his Master came also into Bohemia and brought with him Wiclef bookes which were in quantity as great as S. Austins works many of these books did Hus afterward translate into their mother tongue In plaine termes after this the Author deliuereth it That the Hussites Thaborites were branches of Wiclefe And in the same book Hus did commit spiritual fornication with many strangers with Wiclefist the Dulcimist c. And in the next he auoucheth that Hus Hierom tooke their heresies froÌ„ Wiclef And once againe he termeth the Protestant GermaÌ„s new Wiclefists What an opinion of this man I. Hus had may be fully seen by that wish of his wherin he praied that he might there be where the soul of Wiclef was Now what Wiclef did teach may be easily gathered if by nothing else yet by the deadly hatred which the Romanistes did carrie towards him The Councell of Constance did define him to be an Heretike long after his death commanded that his bones should be taken vp burnt Also Pope Iohn 23. in a general Councell at Rome did before that time condemne him for an heretike which the Hussites did but laugh at but no man had a harder conceit of him then Cochl who sticketh not to affirme that he thinketh that the torments of Wiclefe are greater in hell then those of Iudas or Nero. If God almightie had no better opinion of him the man were in an ill case But the best is this cholerick Criticke is not the Iudge of all the world He was angry belike in behalfe of Transubstantiation concerning which he citeth this article of Wiclefe There was neuer a greater heresie then that which putteth the Accident without a Subiect in the Eucharist But hee might haue named more points wherein that holy man did differ from the Church of Rome The Councel of ConstaÌ„ce picketh out 45. articles of his Positions which the learned Reader may find there Yet doubtles many of them are falsly reported which is a matter common with enemies of the truth to peruert misconster that so they may more freely defame There was one Wilh Wideford who tooke on him to answer 18. articles said to bee Wiclefs whence a man may gathersome of his doctrine But that all things there said against him were not true may wel be obserud out of the same answere declaring that he had many things concerning Wiclef but only by a fame and report and that is not the most certaine relater What positions indeed he held may be seen in M. Fox reporting his life and actions as also in Catalogo testium veritatis And those who be not learned may esteem of theÌ„ by the doctrine of Io Huâ— before rehearsed who by the testimony of the Papists themselues as I haue shewed maintained the opinions of Wiclef Now that this worthy Champion Preacher of the Gospel of Iesus Christ went not alone but had many English men and women who in his life time after his death beleeued as he beleeued and professed as he professed is in the next place to be shewed Among the chiefe of his fautours were Iohn of Gant as Parsons the Iesuite confesseth and Lord Henry Percy the one of them Duke of Lancaster the other Marshall of England M. Fox citeth out a Register of the Archb. of Canterbury a Mandate that the Conclusions of Wiclefe were preached in diuers and sundry places of the Archbishops Prouince generally commonly and publikely The same also is manifested by a letter of the Archbishop to the Bishop
their pleasure or to put in and pull out and they had power to search poore mens houses and to destroy what was thought fit by them to bee destroyed But God who would not haue his truth vtterly burned or buried in ashes suffred a remnant to remaine yea and that in England albeit Potydor Virgil with an Italian trick of his owne did heer consume and destroy many worthy and antient Monuments By this time I may wel suppose that some vehement Papist is euen ready to swell with his belly full of exceptions against these things heer said And first he will begin say that we rake together as the Ancestors and forerunners of our faith such as were notorious Hereticks as Wicklef or Hus or the Waldenses men condemned by Popes or generall Councels and Hereticks as Campian telleth vs are the dregges and the bellows and the fewell of hell These as our Papists commonly say are already fire-brands of hell and frying there in flames It is no rare matter with the Synagogue of Rome to pronounce such Sentences as these are Our Rhemists by their Consistoriall or Imperiall Decree haue defined that Caluin and Verone are not onely Hereticks but Reprobates for writing so as they haue done touching the Article of Predestination Yea they call Master Beza a Reprobare also although hee were then aliue and long after too how â—oeuer the Iesuites some few yeeres since did by a most ridiculous pamphlet or other newes spread it in France and Italy that hee was then dead and that dying had recanted his Religion and was returned to the Romish faith which also Geneua did by his example It is no newes with Iesuites to lie and therefore Master Beza must beare with them and so had he neede to doe with the Rhemists also who got hastily into Gods Chaire and there concluded him to bee a Reprobate But indeed these good Christians before-named of whom many lost their liues for the maintenance of Gods truth were Hereticks in such a manner as Christ was said to bee a blasphemer who indeed was both called so and condemned to bee such a one by the counsell of the high Priests Scribes and Rulers of the Synagogue We doe not beleeue that aâ—l those are Hereticks whom your Papists will so call or account for you giue vs that name which maugre your malice you shall neuer bee able to proue against vs. They are truely orthodox and right Catholiques who teach nothing but that whereof they haue euident warrant out of the Word of God And this wee haue as hath beene oft shewed by men of our side and in that question wee are ready at all times to iump with you for any part or all the Doctrine wee professe With Saint Paul therefore wee say that After the way that you call heresie so worship wee the God of our Fathers The same which you maliciously and presâ—mptuously tearm schisme and heresie is that whereupon vnder our blessed Sauiour wee rest our soules and by the Confession thereof wee hope to bee saued in the day of the generall Iudgement Do not you therfore take that for granted which is so highly questioned betwixt vs and you but rather if you can prooue our Profâ—ssion to bee hereticall by Gods grace we shall not shrink at any of your biggest obiections Yea but say you further The Writers which make mention of these your Predecessors doo brand them with the holding of some most grosse and damnable doctrine which you your selues will not auouch My answer is that wee our selues doo easily beleeue so much for did malice I pray you euer say well The Apostles were at more times and in more places than one charged with many accusations which yet in truth were but calumniations The old Christians in the Primitiue Church were slandered to vse incestuous company each with other like Oedipus and to eat vp mans flesh at the banquet of Thyestes yea their owne seruants for fear were induced to lay such matters to their charge Athanasius was accused to haue cut off ones hand and a harlot to his face would haue calumniated him to haue committed fornication with her This practice was neuer more liberally frequented than by the enemies of the Gospell in the late daies of Popery You may remember what I cited before out of Du Haillan concerning matters falsely obiected to the Albingenses There is extant an excursitory Oration of the Waldenses wherein they say that for that their faith which they were ready to iustifie they were condemned iudged captiuated and afflicted and afterward that they were called Hereticks but in their Confession they haue it directly Of these criminations whereof we are blamed of tentimes we are nothing at all guilty The Pope and his Chaplains were fell furious against them because they did bite so neer and therefore to disgrace them both in present and to posterity they held it fit that by speech preaching and writing it should be divulgated that they taught monstrous blasphemies that by that meanes the credulous people might be preiudicate and so not onely frighted from hearkning to them but bee much the readier to ioyne in the prosecution of them to prison and to death But what they indeed held is declared before When Iohn Hus was at the Councell of Constance hee did openly call God to witnes that Hee did neither preach nor teach those things which his Aduersaries did obiect against him neither that they euer came into his minde Neither is it to be maruelled that they did load his scholars with the like false accusations when their malice was such towards them as that they burnt many thousands of them in Barnes which was done by the treachery of one Mainardus In other places the Romanists haue still held the same course of slandering which caused the Protestants to professe in the Diet at Augusta that Diuers opinions were falsely reported vp and down which wrongfully were fathered on them and that those were not only estranged from the holy Scriptures but that they were abhorrent euen from common sense And is it not probable that long since when much darknesse did couer the face of the earth that few had grace to perceiue their dooings and fewer had authority to question their doctrine the Pope-holy Clergie which hated the true gospellers with all their harts would pay them with vile odious reports when in this Age wherein God hath affoorded more plentifull meanes to discouer their false-hoods they doo dare not onely in their Sermons or in their secreter whisperings but in their printed books to proclaim abroad concerning vs most false and vngodly calumniations and imputations as that wee doo teach all loosenesse of life and libertinisme by this our new Gospell that we maintain that All sinnes are equall that we hold it as a Maxime that God is the Author of sinne and whatsoeuer it pleaseth Master Campian and his