these Men deny it flatly for so much as they say that our first Faith received from Rome was not the true Faith of Christ nor of Christendom but a particular Romish Faith full of Error Superstition and Idolatry as you have heard yea worse if we will believe Holinshed Hooker and Harrison than was the Paganism which Englishmen professed before their Conversion And then followeth that for so much as they hold also that the longer Religion endured in England the worse it waxed needs must they conclude that when Luther began his Gospel our Fathers and Grandfathers were no Christians at all and much less true Christians And this for them 23. But if we will talk of our selves that now live in England we must needs also conclude the same to wit that after all Mutations made in England about Religion since Luther began the Protestants cannot be sure with any Reason that they are true Christians or have yet received the right Faith or Gospel unto this day Which I prove thus First for that the Gospel preached by Luther was never yet admitted wholly into England For at the very beginning thereof under King Henry it was contradicted by him and the State during his whole Reign yea condemned for Heretical as by many Decrees as well of Parliaments as otherwise by particular Ordinances is manifest his Majesty always holding Luther's Opinions for Heresies and according thereunto burned the Professors thereof for Heretics unto his dying day as is notorious Tho' in one Article about the Popes Supremacy he concurred with them but not as taking the same from Luther or his Doctrin So as Luthers Gospel if it were a Gospel as John Fox calleth it every where in his Acts and Monuments was never yet received in England For that in King Edwards days the Doctrin of Zuinglius and not of Luther was admitted Which Doctrin Luther always held for opposite to his and for plain Heresie as before at large hath been declared 24. And as for her Majesties time that now is clear it is that neither of both the former Doctrins or Gospels have formally or fully been admitted I mean neither the Lutherans or Zwinglians but rather the Doctrin of a third opposite in many Points to them both to wit of John Calvin And yet neither hath this Gospel been so frankly or generally received or practised as the chief Professors thereof and such as take themselves to follow the same most exactly I mean the Puritans do remain content but rather complain that their true Doctrin indeed and Gospel was never hitherto truly established in our Country as in the first Encounter against Sir Francis we have shewed abundandtly 25. So as if the first Gospel of St. Augustin brought into England from Rome wherewith our Ancestors lived and professed Christianity for 900 years together were not the true Gospel of Christ indeed nor the other Gospel of Martin Luther that appeared to the World in the year 1517 was ever admitted into England in King Henry's time that died in the year 1547. And if from thence forward under King Edward Zwinglius's Doctrin and not Luthers was established for the English Gospel of that time And if under her Majesty that now is neither of these two but Calvins Doctrin and Gospel hath been admitted tho' yet with such Restrictions and Alterations as the purest Patrons thereof say it is not their Gospel but a patched thing as before at large we have declared what followeth then I say but that we Englishmen have yet no true Gospel at all nor ever had and consequently we were never yet true Christians nor are at this day For that the Christianity of the antient English from King Ethelbert to King Henry VIII was no true Christianity as these men say and much less will they grant of the Religion established by King Henry as opposite as well to Protestants as to Catholics That also of King Edward's days was different from all and that which now is in England is contradicted as well by Lutherans Zuinglians and Puritans as by Catholics Where then and among whom shall we find the true Gospel 26. One only shift these people do pretend which is to run to the Britans Religion at that time when St. Augustin came into England for this both Fox and Bale do acknowledge to have been the right Religion and to use their words the naked unspotted Gospel and far different from the Romish Religion that Augustin brought in from Gregory wherefore that point resteth now to be examined And albeit you have heard a little before how Holinshead accuseth the Britans Religion of Pelagianism and other Heresies yet Bale writeth thus Priùs illic fuerit Christianismus c. Christian Religion was in Britanny before the coming of Augustin and his Fellows But it was not to their commodity for that it was without Masses and without distinction of Meats or Days and the Britans observed the bare naked Gospel without Jewish Ceremonies c. 27. So writeth he And Fox as before you have heard said That for 400 years after Pope Eleutherius and King Lucius Religion remained in Britanny uncorrupt and the Word of Christ truly preached till about the coming of Augustin and his Fellows from Rome c. And yet he cannot deny but that in this space both the Pelagian and other Heresies had entred also among them and that some Reliques thereof remained even when Augustin arrived And whereas they say that the British Religion before the coming of Augustin was uncorrupt and free from all Jewish Ceremonies it is ridiculous forasmuch as we have shewed before that the chiefest difference between these two Religions at that day was about a Jewish Ceremony observ'd by the Britans against the Order and Faith of the Church of Rome to wit the superstitious keeping Easter day upon the fourteenth of the first Moon of March together with the Jews 28. But as for other substantial points of Faith especially such as be at this day in controversie between Us and Protestants as Mass Sacrifice Fasting observing of Holydays and the like here named the old Britans Religion did agree with that of Rome brought in by St. Augustin and so hath continued until this day and this shall we shew in the Chapter following So as if the old British Faith was the true Faith We have it among Catholics at this day and not Protestants as shall be declared CHAP. IX That the Roman Religion brought into England by St. Augustin under Pope Gregory was the very same that was brought in before under Pope Eleutherius by Fugatius and Damianus and continued afterward among the Britans until the coming of St. Augustin to the English Nation WE have shewed before how that the Christian Faith preached in England in the Apostles time was the Roman Faith and that the increase or public Establishment thereof again under King Lucius was also from Rome and finally that the third
be altered it must be done by the same Authority by which it was delivered to them to wit by the whole Church Councils and General Pastors thereof 26. This was the Defence and Pleading of Catholics under King Henry the Eighth to excuse themselves from Treason objected against them for holding the Popes Supremacy wherein you see divers notorious differences between the Defence of the Sectaries and them for that amongst the Sectaries every one held what himself thought best of things invented by themselves every one cited Scriptures and interpreted them as he listed without Authority President or Example of former Ages and consequently they are justly called Heretics that is to say choosers For that they chose to themselves what to believe in every Sect and reduced the last and final resolution of all things to their own Wills and Wits which in matters of belief is the highest Crime that against God and his Church can be committed 27. But on the other side the state and condition of the Catholics and their cause is quite opposite to this for that they stick to Authority Obedience Integrity Example of their Ancestors they bring nothing of their own they invent or innovate nothing They stand only upon that which they have found Established to them not by this or that Man or by this or that Author of any Sect or by this or that particular Congregation fellowship or Faction or by this or that Town City Province Kingdom or Country but generally by the whole universal Church and Pastors thereof and therefore properly and truly are called Catholics which is to say Vniversal and general 28. And this shall suffice to shew the difference between the Catholic Martyrs and Heretical Malefactors put to death in King Henries time whereof yet we shall Treat more largely in the third part of this Treatise where we are to handle the particular Stories of Fox his Calendar-Martyrs and to compare and paralell them with ours shewing that yet never Dogs and Cats nor yet Sampsons Foxes did ever so disagree in natures and conditions as these good Martyrs did in Faction and contrariety of opinions amongst themselves and consequently could not be Martyrs or witnesses of any one Faith whatsoever 29. And with this also will we end the Discourse of King Henries Life having sufficiently shewed as to me it seemeth that the Catholic Religion held her footing and continuance also under ther Reign of this King no less perhaps than before yea she shewed her self much more to the World by the Persecution which then she suffered than before in the time of peace for that the Famous and Illustrious Martyrdoms of such excellent Men as were Bishop Fisher Sir Thomas More Dr. Forest and many other such Worthies that suffered Martyrdom in those days did more Illustrate her and made extern Nations to talk more of the Zeal and Constancy of English Catholics than ever they would have done if that Persecution had not fallen out and the like success hath happened since both under King Edward the Sixth and her Majesty that now is as briefly we shall here declare 30. And as for King Edwards Reign as it was but short and the first passage from Catholic Religion to open Profession of Heresie So was it not so sharp for effusion of Blood as under King Henry For that the King being very young and those that Governed in his Name not thorowly settled in their States and Affairs troubled also with much Division and Emulation among themselves could not attend to prosecute matters so exactly against Catholics as some of their desires and Appetites were yet began they very well as we may see by the most unjust Persecutions and Deprivations of two principal Bishops Gardiner of Winchester and Bonner of London by such violent Calumnious manner as was proper for Heretics to use The particulars whereof John Fox doth set down at large whereby a Man may take a taste what they meant to have done if they had had time For that Cranmer and Ridley that had been Bishops in King Henries time and followed his Religion and humor while he lived being now also resolved to enjoy the Preferment and Sensuality of this time so far as any way they might attain unto getting Authority into their hands by the Protector and others that were in most Power began to lay lustily about them and to pull down all them both of the Clergy and others whom they thought to be able or likely to stand in their way or resist their inventions 31. And hereupon divers were laid hands on and Imprisoned divers fled over Seas sundry most Captious and Calumnious Questions and Demands were devised to entangle Men As Namely Whether a King of one year old were not as truly a King as at Forty or Fifty which if you did grant concerning the Title and Right of his Crown which is true then presently they inferred that King Edward being but Nine years old wanting yet discretion might also be lawful Head of the Church and determine Controversies of Religion yea change the Faith and Religion which his Father and all his Ancestors Kings and Princes of England all Parliaments Synods and Councils before his days had left unto him for the space of a Thousand years and more And albeit he had not sufficient judgment to understand what Religion meant yet was he made judge thereof by vertue of his Birth and Succession to the Crown And this Point was wonderfully urged by the Protector Seymor to all Preachers Prelats and Bishops of that time that they should inculcate the same to the people in their Sermons to the end that himself taking all the said Child Kings Authority upon him might be Head and Judge in his place Whereunto that he might seem the more fit and able for his excellent learning John Bale the Apostata Friar that lived under him was not ashamed to Publish in Print and place him for a Learned Author amongst his Illustrious British Writters for that some Proclamations perhaps passed by his hands tho' otherwise he was known to be so unlearned as he could scarce Write or Read. 32. But yet as I said this Doctrin or rather Paradox of the Child Kings supereminent ability high Authority and Supreme Ecclesiastical Power to determin alter change and dispose of matters of Religion at his pleasure tho' he were but of one year old was sounded in Pulpits every where at this time whereof Sir John Cheke the Kings School-master amongst others Wrote a several Treatise besides the large Message sent in the Kings Name but of his Writing to the Catholic people of Devonshire as after shall be shewed The same also was objected grievously against Bishop Gardiner and Bishop Bonner by Name that they had not in their Sermons appointed unto them by the Protector so sufficiently urged this Point of the Kings Ecclesiastical Power in his Nonage as was required And this especially for that the people in
Pope 6. But what did he from his breach forward Did he spare the new Gospellers any thing more for his breach with the Pope Truly it cannot be denied but that for some years he wink'd at their doings somewhat more than before considering the new difficulties wherein he had cast himself by his new disunion and breach as before we have noted in the end of the former Part. But as soon as he had put his Domestical Affairs in some quiet and security he returned again to his former course and custom of restraining these new unruly Spirits by calling them to account for their Innovations and proceeding juridically against them according to Church Canons and according to his former judgment in matters of Religion Which as I might shew by divers ways of proof as well of Acts of Parliament as Proclamations Injunctions and other Declarations of his Will and Opinion in this behalf so will we allege only two or three Examples in the first kind besides those which we have set down in the former Part. 7. In the 31st year of his Reign which was seven or eight years after his breach with the Pope there was made an Act for abolishing of diversity of Opinions about Christian Faith which beginneth thus Whereas the King 's most Excellent Majesty is by God's Law Supreme Head immediately under him of the whole Church of England c. intending the conservation of the same Church in a true sincere and uniform Doctrin of Christ's Religion c. Thus beginneth his Preface And then he determineth together with the Parliament That whosoever shall deny the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar or affirm that the Communion is necessary under both Kinds or that Priests may by God's Law take Wives after Priesthood or that Vows of Chastity are not to be observed or that private Masses are not to be said or that Sacramental and Auricular Confession is not necessary c. All these he condemneth as Heretics and for such to be Apprehended Arraigned Condemned and Burned as at large is to be seen in the Statute 8. And the very next year after perceiving that notwithstanding his former Statute against Protestant Opinions the same did grow and were spread abroad in England he ordained another Statute which beginneth thus Whereas the King 's Róyal Majesty of his blessed and gracious disposition c. well weighing that out of sundry outward parts and places there have sprung been sown set forth divers heretical erroneous dangerous Opinions Doctrins in the Religion of Christ whereby his Grace's Leige-people may be induced to unfaithfulness misbelief miscreancy and contempt of God to the utter confusion and damnation of Souls c. For this cause his Majesty according to the very Gospel and Law of God meaneth to have matters determined and declared c. Thus he writeth in the Statute remitting himself to his further Declaration which is wholly against Protestants whose Faith and Religion you see here called by the King unfaithfulness misbelief miscreancy contempt of God heretical erroneous and dangerous Doctrin tending to utter confusion and damnation of Souls c. And this proved by the pure Word of God and the very Gospel it self as his Majesty affirmeth 9. And will you have more clear testimony of his settled judgment against Protestants than this But yet hear further For that the same King divers years afters after this again towards the end of his days having had good experience of the falshood of Protestants in corrupting the very Scriptures themselves by their crafty Translations Notes and Commentaries he was forc'd to forbid under grievous punishments the reading of the foresaid Scriptures in English which before he had permitted as appeareth by a peculiar Statute made for that purpose and for inhibiting Protestants Books Sermons and Preachings in the 34th and 35th years of his Reign this Statute being entituled An Act for the Advancement of true Religion saying therein as followeth Whereas the King 's most Royal Majesty Sumpreme Head of the Church of England and also of Ireland perceiveth that notwithstanding such holy Doctrins and Docucuments as his Majesty hath hitherto caused to be set forth besides the great liberty granted unto them in having the New and Old Testament among them which notwithstanding many seditious arrogant and ignorant Parsons pretending to be Learred have the perfect and true knowledg understanding and judgment of sacred Scriptures c. intending to subvert the very true and perfect Exposition thereof after their perverse fantasies have taken upon them not only to preach teach declare c. but also by printed Books Ballads Plays Rhythmes Songs and other fantasies subtilly to beguile his Majesty's Leige-subjects c. 10. Behold King Henry's description of Protestants their Wit Nature Condition and Doctrin But now followeth the Remedy Wherefore to ordain and establish a certain form of pure and sincere Teaching agreeable to God's Word and true Doctrin of the Catholic and Apostolical Church c. Be it enacted That all manner of Books of the Old and New Testament in English being of the crafty false and untrue Translation of William Tyndall and all other Books or Writings in the English Tongue teaching or composing any matter of Christian Religion contrary to that Doctrin which since the year of our Lord 1540 is hath or shall be set forth by his Majesty is clearly and utterly abolished c. Thus ordained King Henry of the Protestants Books and Doctrin and this Censure he gave of William Tyndall's Truth and Honesty in translating the Scriptures whom John Fox calleth not only the true Servant and Martyr of God but the Apostle also of England in this our latter Age. 11. Wherefore I do not see how Fox can with any reason make King Henry to be a Gospeller of his Religion or so earnest a Defender of the same or why he should paint him with the Bible in his hand holden up by Cranmer and Cromwell as before hath been said and seen in his Painting seeing he contemned ever their Doctrin and burned the Professors thereof as notorious Heretics unto his dying-day Which is evident by many Examples but most clear and notorious by that of John Lambert a famous Zuinglian with whom in solemn public Audience he disputed in presence of all his Clergy and Nobility of the Realm and caused Cranmer to do the like and in the end made Cromwell as his Vicar-General to give the Sentence of Death against him and burn him in Smithfield and this not two years before Cromwell's own Condemnation for like Heresie by the King 's own pursuit as may appear by the Act of his Condemnation yet extant And the same no doubt would he have done with Cranmer which was the other Upholder of his Arm to maintain the new Gospel according to Fox his Picture if he had known or suspected him not only for an Upholder of
by violence that he attended more to get tythes and oblations for Masses than to preach the Gospel and that he was cause of the slaughter of 1200 Monks and other such like reproachful lies against whom I could propose the whole stream of the best Authors ever since his time both domestical and extern if it were worth the striving with so contemptible an Adversary and if nothing would restrain the Liberty of so reproachful a Tongue yet at leastways the respect of our Nation converted by him and so many great miracles wrought by him to that effect as both St. Bede and others do recount and Fox dareth not deny ought to have some bridle to this shameless Apostata For that not only St. Bede Malmesbury Marianus Scotus Sigebert and others do recount them but even St. Gregory himself wrote the same by his own pen to Eulogius Archbishop of Alexandria who had written unto him of some like miracles wrought in Egypt also about that time in the Conversion of new Christians St. Gregory's words are these 12. Sed quoniam c. But for that truly the good which they do there is much encreased by the joy you take in other mens good also I will requite you with the like good News as you have written to me Know then that whereas the English Nation placed in the corner of the World have remained hitherto in their Infidelity worshipping stones and blocks I did by the help of your Prayers these days past God as I hope moving me thereunto send unto that Nation a Monk of my Monastery to preach unto them who upon my License afterward being made Bishop in the Countreys near unto them arrived at last unto that end of the world And now Letters are come unto us both of his Health and his Work that he hath in Hand and surely either he or they that were sent over with him do work so many miracles in that Nation as they may seem therein to imitate the Power and Miracles of the Apostles themselves and in this very last Solemnity of Christ's Nativity past there were above ten thousand Englishmen baptized by the hands of this our Brother and fellow Bishop c. 13. Thus far St. Gregory who is another manner of Witness than Fox or Bale tho Fox doth confess as you have heard before both the vertuous Life and Miracles of St. Augustin and his fellows And if he do so indeed and do think them to have been wrought by Gods Power and not by the operation of Satan then it is great Blasphemy both in him and his fellows to think that God would concurr by Miracles to the planting of false Doctrin and Error which scornfully they call the Papistical Faith. Whereof now we shall treat more in particular having disputed these things about Saint Augustin's Person 14. About which Doctrin these good Fellows seem to quarrel much more giving simple People to believe that he brought from Rome a different Christian Religion from that which was in Britanny before as out of Sir Francis own words alledged may appear And albeit John Fox in his History treating of this matter doth not dare to affirm it plainly but rather seeketh here and there to pick out some differences between the Roman Religion that St. Augustin brought in and that which is now as for example where he saith Note by the way Christian Reader that whereas it is said that Augustin baptized ten thousand English Saxons upon a Christmas day in a River it followeth saith he that then there was no use of Fonts c. Yet in a certain Preface of his which he calleth his Protestation to the whole church-of-Church-of-England he hath these words All this while about the space of 400 years after the Conversion of King Lucius Religion remained in Britanny uncorrupt and the Word of Christ truly preached till about the coming of Augustin and his Companions from Rome many of the said Britan Preachers were slain by the Saxons And after that began the Christian Faith to enter and spring amongst the Saxons after a certain Romish sort yet notwithstanding somewhat more tollerable than in other times which after followed c. 15. Thus writeth Fox maliciously enough as you see to bring in doubt and discredit our first Christian Religion planted by St. Augustin but yet hereby it is evident that if Englishmen were ever true Christians either at their first Conversion or for more than 900 years after they were Roman Christians But whether they were ever true Christians indeed or not that Point Fox dareth not plainly to determine in this place but only as the fashion of Hereticks is to call matters in question and leave them in doubt so doth he and as one said well To lay the Eggs for another to hatch the Serpents For that Fox his Scholars Holinshed Hooker and Harrison and other like have presumed upon this foundation to determine resolutely the matter that Englishmen were never true Christians indeed before Luther began his Doctrin which appeareth in these their words following speaking of the Inhabitants of Britanny When the sheep of Gods pasture say they would receive no wholsom fodder it pleased his Majesty to let them run on headlong from one iniquity to another Insomuch that after the Doctrin of Pelagius they received that of Rome also brought in by Austin and his Monks whereby it was to be seen how they fell from the Truth into Heresie and from one Heresie still into another until at last they were drowned in the pits of Error digged up by Antichrist c. 16. Thus do write these Companions of the first Conversion of Englishmen by St. Augustin but whether they mean of the Britans or of Englishmen or of both that fell into these pits it is not so easie to judge For they name both to determin or distinguish neither People and which way soever you take it it hath not only falshood and impiety but open contradictions also in it self For it they mean the Britans then it is evidently false that they were converted by St. Augustin and his Monks And if they mean of the English it is much more false that they ever received the Doctrin of Pelagius or fell from Truth to Heresie as these phantastical Men both ignorantly and maliciously do affirm But let us hear yet further their blasphemous and desperate Speeches of our first Apostle St. Augustin This Augustin say they after his arrival converted the Saxons indeed from Paganism but as the Proverb saith bringing them out of Gods Blessing into the warm Sun he imbued them with no less hurtful Superstition than they did know before For beside the only Name of Christ and external contempt of their pristin Idolatry he taught them nothing at all but rather an exchange from gross to subtil Treachery from open to secret Idolatry and from the name of Pagans to the bare Title of Christians c. 17.
Lo here these Mens censures of the first Conversion of our English Nation to Christianity They compare Paganism to Gods blessing and our new Christian Religion to the warm Sun and all our Forefathers Faith and Religion more than 900 years together they define to be nothing but Superstition Treachery and Idolatry no less hurtful than the Paganism it self which they professed before and that they lived and died only with the bare name of Christians without the Substance c. And consequently are most certainly damned all eternally Now if the worst Devil that is found in hell had a mouth and should be let forth to preach curse or scold against us as these men do could he speak worse or more blasphemously think you against the first Christianity of our Nation or against God himself that testified the Truth and Sanctity thereof by so many rare miracles as before hath been shewed Could this Divel I say in his own shape or language speak more opprobriously of our primitive English Christian Church then these new Gospellers do especially if we add that which Friar Bale hath in these words Carnalis illa Anglorum Synagoga quae Roma venerat illam persequebatur Ecclesiam quae secundum Christi Spiritum apud Britannos erat That Carnal Synagogue of English Christians that came from Rome did persecute the Church that was in England according to the Spirit of Christ bfore Augustin came 18. Behold our first Christian English Church not only call'd a Synagogue but a carnal Synagogue and the British Church which a little before Holinshed condemned as you heard of Heresie is now called the true Church according to the Spirit of Christ But what spiritual Man think you was this that so speaketh of Spirit and condemneth our primitive English Church of Carnality You shall hear him described by his own pen and first of his Vocation how he became a Frier Duodecim annorum puer saith he in Carmelitani Monachatus Barathrum Nordovici detrudebar When I was a Boy of twelve years old at Norich I was thrust into the pit of being a white Friar So he saith and out of these words two things may be noted of his spirit which is no doubt of lying for that both of them are slanderous fictions of his own first that he was made a Friar at the Age of twelve years for that no Religious Order can admit Men to the same according to the Ecclesiastical Canons but of convenient years and fit to make their choise for so great an attempt as is to renounce the World and lead a Religious Life according to the vows they make which before the Council of Trent was at Fourteen years whereunto the said Council added two years more It might be then perhaps that this Boy was put into the White Friars Monastery at Norwich at twelve years old to sweep the Church or cleanse Candlesticks or other such Offices fit for that Age and his Person but not to be a Friar or to be admitted into the Order it self and much less which is the second lie can it be probable that he was forced thereunto as here he telleth his Readers for that it is well known that such Profession were not available for which cause every Order of Religion hath their Noviceships or times of Probations appointed wherein Men are to be proved and to prove also themselves and to have free liberty to make their Elections without force or constraint at all And so do all true Religious Men know and profess albeit this miserable Apostate having lost all spirit and sense of Religion and become wholly carnal indeed would have it thought that he was put into Religion against his will. 19. But how did he get himself out again trow you from this Servitude into Liberty of the Flesh World and Devil and of his new Gospel you shall hear it also from himself Apparente Dei verbo saith he deformitatem meam vidi c. The Word of the Lord appearing I saw mine own deformity of being to wit a Priest and a Friar Well and what followed Horribilis bestiae maledictum charecterem deinceps erasi I did presently then scrape out the cursed mark or character of the horrible Beast So he calleth his old Character of Priesthood his Vows of Poverty Chastity and Obedience and other Obligations of Religion 20. But what was the means to scrape out these Characters you shall have it from himself in like manner Non enim saith he ab homine neque per hominem sed speciali Christi verbo dono uxorem fidelissimam accepi Dorotheam For that I took unto me and you must mark the word enim that yieldeth the cause a most faithful wife Dorothy some Nun you may imagin as faithful in keeping her Vow of Chastity as himself and this not from any Man nor by any Mans help but by the special gift and word of Christ c. Lo here Christ made a wooer for this Friar to marry a Nun against both their Vows and Promises made to him before and is not this a fit Spiritual Father to call the whole Primitive Church of England a Carnal Synagogue c. 21. But yet hear him out further what he writeth of our first Christian King Ethelbert and of the Religion receiv'd by him from St. Augustin and thereby consider what manner of Men this new Gospel bringeth forth Ethelbertus Rex saith he Romanismum cum adjunctis superstitionibus tandem suscepit hac nimirum adjectâ conditione ut omnino liber non coactitius esset novus ille Deorum cultus King Ethelbert at length having heard the Preaching and considered as Fox saith the Miracles and vertuous Life of St. Augustin and his Fellows admitted the Roman Religion with all the Superstitions adjoyned thereunto but yet with this condition that this new worship of Gods which he now admitted should be altogether free and no way subject to Coaction c. In which words the Apostate if you mark him doth not only speak blasphemously of our whole first Christianity calling it a new Worship of many Gods but seemeth also to insinuate that it was so admitted by King Ethelbert at the beginning as it might be free for Men to leave it again when they would Than which contumelious slander if he mean it so nothing can be spoken or imagined more absurd or wicked Let any Man read St. Gregories letters to King Ethelbert after his Conversion and he shall see an other Lesson there taught him to wit his great and perpetual Obligation to God for so singular a Benefit confirmed from Heaven with so many Miracles and such other points 22. But by this we may see whither these Mens drifts do tend which is to discredit all Antiquity and Religion and to bring in question whether Englishmen were ever true Christians hitherto or no. And as for the space of 900 years together after St. Augustin's time unto Luther
what they say or avouch so they say somewhat against Rome and those that any way favoured the same wherein passion doth so greatly blind them as they cannot discern when they alledge matters plainly against themselves as you have seen in the former enumeration of British Teachers Pastors and Prelates whom they would have us think to have been of a different Religion from that of Rome whereas their own words testimonies condition and state of life do testifie the contrary And so I leave these men to their folly and impudency in this behalf CHAP. XI The Deduction of the aforesaid Catholic Roman Religion planted in England by St. Augustin from his time to our days And that from King Ethelbert who first received the same unto King Henry VIII there was never any public interruption of the said Religion in our Land. HAving shewed before how that the Roman Catholic Faith was first preached in our Island under the Apostles and then again in the next Age under Pope Eleutherius and thirdly four Ages after that again under Pope Gregory and that all this was but one and the self-same Religion continued renewed and revived in divers times under divers States and People of the Realm there may seem to remain only now two other points considerable in this affair The first Whether this Religion brought in by St. Augustin to England were held at that day for the only true Religion of Christendom and so accepted by all the World The other Whether that Religion then planted hath come down and been continued in England ever since by continual Succession until the first public alteration made thereof in our days For if this be so then is the demonstration easie to be made even from the Apostles Times to Ours 2. And for the first tho' we have handled the same somewhat before yet briefly we will add now That there can be no doubt at all in this matter with men of Reason and Judgment but that St. Augustin and his Fellows brought in with them the whole Body of Religion as well touching Articles of Belief as Ceremonies and Ecclesiastical Customs which were at that time in use at Rome whence they came and in other Catholic Countreys by which they passed namely Italy France and Flanders from which Countreys Pope Gregory himself exhorteth them by his Letters to take such good Ecclesiastical Uses as they should see most agreeable to Piety Edification and Devotion which is a sign that all those Countreys agreed fully in Faith and Belief with Rome at that day and were perfectly Catholic tho' in some external Ceremonies belonging to Devotion there might be difference And forasmuch as the French Bishops St. German St. Lupus and St. Severus 150 years as hath been said before the entrance of St. Augustin planted in Britanny the French Catholic Faith against the Pelagians and these men coming from Rome found no fault therewith most certain it is that all was one And finally if we do consider the Works Writings and Actions of Pope Gregory related by us before partly out of St. Isidore living at that time in Spain partly out of his own Epistles yet extant written to the chiefest Bishops of the Christian World and their Answers to him again together with their agreement in Faith and Religion If we do consider also the Heresies condemned in his days by Him and his Authority as the Eutychians Monothelites and others which our Protestants also do condemn for Heresies at this day By all this I say and by infinite other Arguments and Demonstrations that may be made it is most evident that either Christ had no Visible Church or Catholic Religion in those days which were most foolish and wicked to imagin or that the Religion of St. Gregory and his Church of Rome and others of others of the same Communion was in that Age the only true Catholic Church and consequently had in it the only true Catholic Faith and Religion of Christ whereby Christians might be saved which also is proved most evidently by infinit Miracles wrought in England and in divers other Countreys upon manifold occasions during this time of our Primitive Church as shall appear more in particular in the deduction of our second point which is the continuance of this same Religion from St. Augustin to Thomas Cranmer the first and last Archbishops of Canterbury following by Succession the one the other for the space of above 900 years the first dying a Saint the last ending in Apostacy as after shall be shewed 3. Wherefore to come to the second point about the deduction of Catholic Religion in our Nation from St. Augustin downward first of all St. Bede talking of the planting thereof and of our first Primitive Church whose progress and increase he describeth for the space of almost 140 years after the entrance of St. Augustin hath these words Gregorius Pontifex Divino admonitus instinctu servum Dei Augustinum alios plures cum eo Monachos timentes Dominum misit praedicare verbum Dei genti Anglorum c. Gregory the Pope being admonished by heavenly Instinct did send God's Servant Augustin and others Monks with him that feared God to preach his Word to the English Nation in the 14th year of Mauritius the Emperour which was of Christ 596 and the 4th after that St. Gregory was made Pope 4 These holy men landed in the Isle of Thanet belonging to the Kingdom of Kent for that the whole Dominion of the Saxons in those days which was all the Land except Scotland and the other part now called Wales whither the reliques of Britans were retir'd was divided into seven several States and Dominions which they called Kingdoms The first whereof to speak of them according as they received the Faith was the Kingdom of Kent whose King Ethelbert being the fourth in number from Hengistus that began the same about the year of Christ 450 afterward first of all other received the Christian Faith at the preaching of St. Augustin about the year of Christ 600 that is to say an hundred and fifty years after they had reigned as Pagans there 5. The second Kingdom was of the East-Saxons and contained the Shires now called Essex Middlesex and Hartfordshire The first founder of which Kingdom was Erchenwine about the year of our Lord 527 as Stow and some others do hold tho' Malmesbury doth write otherwise but both do agree that under King Seebert or as Bede calleth him Sabered those Provinces were converted to Christian Religion by the preaching of St. Mellitus Fellow to St. Augustin and first Bishop of their chief City of London whither he was sent by St. Augustin from Centerbury in the year of Christ 604. 6 The third Kingdom was of the East-Angles which contained the Shires of Norfolk Suffolk Cambridge and the Isle of Ely. Which Kingdom was begun about the year of Christ 492 by one Vffa but converted after to
of this King Canutus saying amongst other things thus Monasteria per Angliam c. He did repair all the Monasteries in England that were overthrown or defaced by the Wars of his Father Swanus or himself He did Build Churches in all the places where he had fought any Battels And appointed Priests for the said Churches who should Pray continually to the Worlds end for the Souls of them that had been slain in those places He was present at the Consecration of a goodly Church in a place called Aschendum where he had his chiefest victory causing both the Nobles of the English and Danish Nation to offer with him Rich gifts to the said Church c. 22. Over the Body of Blessed St. Edmund which the Ancient Danes had slain he Builded a Church worthy the greatness of his Kingly Heart appointing there both an Abbot and Monks and giving them many Possessions In so much as by the greatness of his gifts that Monastery at this day is above all the rest in England He took up with his own hands the Body of St. Elphegus Arch-bishop of Canterbury slain not long before by his Danes and caused the same to be be carried unto Canterbury Reverencing the same with worthy honor He gave such great Gifts and rare Jewels to the Church of Winchester that the shining of pretious Stones did dazle the Eyes of such as did behold them c. In the Fifteenth year of his Kingdom he went to Rome by Land and having stayed some days there and redeeming his sins by Alms in those Churches he returned by Sea to England c. 23. Thus and much more doth William of Malmesbury write of this notable King Canatus a terrible and fierce Warrior before his Conversion and much given to Blood and Impiety whereby may easily be seen what force Catholic Religion is of to make change in a Mans manners where it truly entreth Let Protestants shew us some such examples of Princes Converted to their Religion But to go forward in Malmesbury he setteth down after all this a large Epistle of King Canutus which he wrote from Rome or in the way homeward unto the two Arch-bishops Egetnothus and Alfricus the first of Canterbury the other of York and by them to the whole Realm giving them account of his Journy to Rome Where amongst other things he writeth thus Canutus Rex totius Angliae Denmarkiae Norvegiae partis Suecorum c. notifico vobis me noviter ivisse Romam oratum pro Redemptione peccaminum meorum c. I Canutus King of all England Denmark and Norway and part of Swecia c. do give you to understand that of late I went to Rome to pray for the Redemption of my sins and for the health of my Kingdoms and people having made a vow of this Journy long ago but could never perform it until now by reason I was hindred by the Affairs of my Kingdoms And now I do yield most hearty thanks to Almighty God that he hath granted me this Grace to come and visit in my Life time the Blessed Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and all the Sanctuary that is within and without this City and according to my desire to honor and worship the same in my own person c. 24. Thus he wrote And moreover adjoyned many other pious Ordinances in the same Epistle to be observed in England for Restitutions to be made Alms to be given and other good deeds to be done exhorting all to perform them willingly and threatning them that should do the contrary And William of Malmesbury saith that returning after to England he caused the same to be strictly observed And gave many new priviledges to Churches And one among other to the Church of Canterbury which Malmesbury setteth down at length and in the end hath these words Si quis verò c. If any Man shall perform this my Ordination with a prompt will Almighty God by the Intercession of the most Blessed Virgin Mary and all his Saints increase his portion in the Land of the living And this Donation of Priviledge is written and Promulgated in the Presence of me King Canutus in the Wooden Church in the year of Christ 1032. 23. Thus far writeth William of Malmesbury of this Kings Pious disposition after his coming from Rome And John Stow addeth out of Henry of Huntington as followeth After this time Canutus never bare Crown upon his Head but he set the same upon the Head of the Crucifix at Winchester c. And thus much of his Piety and other Fruits of true Christian Faith which he had received And it is no small Argument of the Divine Power thereof that it could so mollifie and change so fierce a Warriour and cruel a Persecutor as this King was before his Conversion 26. So as now we have brought down the continuance and succession of one and the self same Christian Religion in England from St. Augustin and King Ethelbert unto King Canutus for the space of 400 years And that this was no particular Religion of England alone but the Common General Faith not only of Rome but of all Christendom besides at that day and consequently the only Catholic Religion of those Ages appeareth in like manner by other words of the Kings former Letter Recorded by Malmesbury where he saith Sit autem vobis notum c. Be it known unto you that in this last solemnity of Easter there was a great Assembly of Nobility here in Rome together with Pope John and the Emperor Conrade to wit all the greatest Princes from the Hill Garganus unto this other next the Sea all which did receive me most honorably and did present me with Magnificent Gifts c. Thus wrote the King Whereby we may easily perceive that King Canutus was held in all Points for a perfect Catholic Prince seeing that both Pope John the 20th and the Emperor Conrade the 2d did esteem and honor him so highly 27. After Canutus succeeded in the Kingdom of England his two Sons Harold and Hardicanutus for two or three years And then King Edward the Confessor for Twenty-three years together After whose Death the second Harold Son of Earl Goodwin holding the Kingdom by violence against both English and Danes scarce one year William Duke of Normandy came in as all Men know and Conquered the Land towards the end of the year 1066. and held the same all days of his Life and so hath his posterity after him by Male or Female unto our time and have continued the same Religion which he found or brought into England for all was one for the space of 500 years unto King Henry the Eighth's time which may be proved beside other ways by the Succession of our Arch-bishops of Canterbury Stigand an English Man being the Twenty-third from St. Augustin holding the same when William the Conqueror got the Crown to whom succeeded Lanfranc and to him
Anselmus and so successively one after another none of them ever being noted to be contrary to his Predecessor in Religion until Thomas Cranmer in King Henry the Eighth's time Who applyed himself to the Religion which the State and Prince liked best to allow of in that time And after the Kings Death agreed to break his last Will and Testament in changing that Religion into Zuinglianism most detested by his Majesty And after again Conspired to put down and destroy all the Kings Children and to set up the Duke of Suffolks Daughter And finally was put to Death both for Heresie and Treason in Queen Maries time as after more particularly shall be shewed And this was the first change of Religion in any Arch-bishop of Canterbury from the beginning unto his days 28. So as from King Ethelbert the first Christned English King unto King Henry the Eighth being the Eighteenth from William the Conqueror and more than Eighty from the said Ethelbert one and the self same Faith endured in England and the self same Church florished under so many different both Kings and Nations as before hath been shewed And the like we have declared to have been for the first 600 years under the Britans to wit that they never were known to have changed their Religion Which being so the deduction and demonstration is so clear as any reasonable Man can either make or require for proof that one and the self same Religion endured from the beginning to the ending among them 29. Unto which kind of proof the Ancient Holy Father and Martyr St. Irenaeus giveth great Authority by a like Argument For that having made the like Enumeration of the Bishops of Rome as we do now of our Arch-bishops of Canterbury against the Heretics of his days and that from St. Peter downward to Pope Eleutherius that lived with him he inferreth this conclusion Est plenissima haec ostensio unam eandem vivificatricem fidem esse quae in Ecclesiis ab Apostolis conservata tradita in unitate c. This is a most full proof that one and the self same lively Faith hath been conserved in the Church from the Apostles days unto our time delivered from one to another in unity c. And if that were a most full proof and demonstration in St. Irenaeus judgment against the Heretics of his time The same is now much more to us having seen the Succession of so many Ages since and noted the manner of like proof and Argument in all other Fathers after him As namely of St. Augustin Numerate sacerdotes velab ipsa Petri Sede in ordine illo Patrum quis cui successit videte Number the Priests that have succeeded the one to the other even from the Seat of Peter himself And then further In hoc ordine Successionis nullus Donatista Episcopus invenitur No one Donatist Bishop is to be found in this rank of Succession And yet more 30. Et si in illum ordinem Episcoporum quisquam traditor per illa tempora subrepsisset nihil praejudicaret Ecclesiae And if any Traytor in those days should have crept into that order and rank of Roman Bishops for of them he speaketh it should not have prejudicated the Church of God. 31. Which saying of St. Austin may serve us not only to Answer whatsoever Heretics do or may object true or false against the Lives of any latter Roman Bishops but for defence also of the Rank and Succession of our Archbishops of Canterbury notwithstanding the Apostasie of Thomas Cranmer or any other his like that for these latter years may have crept in as St. Austin saith or been thrust in and by violence occupied that See and Seat unworthily either in respect of his life or Religion or both seeing that the former Succession as well of Men as of Doctrin from St. Austin to Cranmer is manifest and evident for the space of 900 years without interruption as also that they were united all this time in Faith and Doctrin with the Universal Church of Christendom as Members and Branches of their Head and Body and that the first breach and interruption made thereof in that See by Cranmer and continued after him by some of his followers was noted presently and contradicted yea censured and condemned also by Sentence of the whole Church and thereupon rejected and abhorred by the principal of his own people both Clergy and Laity at that time 32. And the same contradiction endureth to this day and will do ever in those that conserve their Ancient Faith and Religion and do adhere to the lawful Succession of his Predecessors against him and his partners until it please Almighty God to put the said order and lawful Succession in joynt again and restore that chief and head conduct of our Country to his former integrity whereby the Water of true Catholic Religion was wont to be derived to the people of our Land and will be again when Gods wrath for our sins shall be pacified and his mercy induce him to permit as often otherwise he hath done that all return to the accustomed Ancient course of Catholic Faith and Religion again seeing in very deed there is none but that for so much as Sects and new Religions are but inventions and entertainments of time whilst God punisheth some sins in his Servants and after all returneth where it was before 33. And this have we spoken by the way and by occasion of Cranmer that was the first Arch-bishop of Canterbury that ever brake from the Roman Faith but notwithstanding his Apostasie Catholic Religion was not extinguished in England by that but remained there still all King Henries time as also during the Reigns of his three Children King and Queens Edward Mary and Elizabeth unto these our days as in the next Chapter following more largly and particularly we are to demonstrate CHAP. XII How Catholic Religion hath continued and persevered in England during the times and Reigns of King Henry the Eighth and his three Children King Edward Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth notwithstanding all the troubles changes alterations and tribulations that have fallen out and that the same Religion is like to continue to the Worlds end if our sins hinder not THE deduction which we have hitherto made of Catholic Religion from our first Conversion under St. Gregory and King Ethelbert of Kent unto the Reign of King Henry the Eighth with whom concurred in the See of Rome Leo the Tenth and Clemens the Seventh and other Popes Successors of St. Gregory hath been for the most part in time of Peace and without any public discontinuance at all but now are we to prosecute the same matter from the alteration made by King Henry downward unto our days and therein to shew that albeit in the external Face and Form of Religion there have been divers Mutations as Tempestuous Winds and Storms for the present yet hath the Catholic
Religion held firm her continuance throughout all these Tempests yea shewed her self more clear eminent and notorious by the Confession of her most constant Members then she did before in peace which is the proper privilege and excellency of truth and of the Catholic Church that is the Pilar of Truth above all Sects and Heresies as St. Cyprian St. Austin and other Fathers do note to come out of Persecution as Gold out of Fire more bright illustrious and eminent than before or as an excellent Ship well Tackled and skilfully guided breaketh thorow the Waves without hurt at all 2. And this hath been proved now by the experience of 1600 years wherein this Ship of the Catholic Church hath passed thorow no fewer storms than there are years and overcome them all whereas many hundred Sects and Sectaries in the meane space have been broken in pieces perished and consumed either by division among themselves or with a little externe Persecution or Discipline of the Church whereof I shall not need to alledge many examples for that the World is full of them and all Histories do testifie and our former deduction hath made it clear and one Domestical example of our own days there is before our eyes which may serve for all the rest to wit that some severity being begun by our State against two opposite Religions in England the Catholics and Puritans tho' much more rigorous against the former than the second yet hath Catholic Religion increased thereby and Puritanism been broken and in a manner dissolved The Reason of which different success we shall touch afterwards Now to the purpose we have in hand 3. For the first Twenty years of King Henries Reign unto the year of Christ 1530 no Man can deny but that the integrity of Catholic Religion Union and Communion with the rest of Christendom and perfect subordination to the See Apostolic of Rome remained in England whole as the said King had received it from the most prudent Religious and Victorious Prince his Father King Henry the Seventh and he again from his renowned Ancestors whom yet King Henry the Eighth as he did excel in knowledge of Learning So was he nothing inferior to them in zeal of defending the purity of Catholic Faith as may appear by the multitude of Sectaries and Heretics as well Waldensians Arrians Anabaptists Lollards and Wickliffians as Lutherans Zuinglians Calvinists and the like burned by him for dissenting from the universal known Church and Roman Religion in the first said Twenty years of his Reign which Fox setteth down with great complaint and regret and we shall after declare more at large in the Second and Third parts of this Treatise 4. And when Luther afterward rose up in the Eighth year of this glorious Kings Reign which was the year of Christ 1517 King Henry caused first the Famous Learned Bishop John Fisher of Rochester to confute the Mad fellow and after he vouchsafed to do the same himself by a most excellent Book which I have Read and seen subscribed with his own hand with the Dedication thereof by his Ambassador Dr. Clark after Bishop of Bath and Wells unto Pope Leo the Tenth who in gratification thereof gave his Majesty and all his Posterity the most Honorable Style and Title of Defender of the Faith. 5. And thus continued King Henry and the Religion under him in England until the foresaid year 1530. at what time there happened a most fatal and unfortunate contention between Clement the Seventh the Pope and him about his Divorce from Queen Katherine He began first to shew his grief and displeasure against Cardinal Wolsey and secondly against the whole Clergy of England Condemning the one and the other in the Forfeiture of Premunire who in their submission and supplication for Pardon either of fear or flattery called him Supreme Head of their Church of England 6. The King also began to shew openly his disgust with the Pope for not yielding to his pretence and Petition But what Was the Kings Religion changed by this Or did he alter his judgment in Faith for this disaffection towards the Pope No truly as well appeareth by his other actions For he frequented the Mass no less than before he burned Heretics more than ever as appeareth by Fox his accompt and so you shall see in all the residue of his Life which were Sixteen years after this And albeit at this time being much troubled with this breach with the Pope he attended less to repress Heresie for some years than he had done before yet was his judgment no less against them than from the beginning and the longer he lived the more grew his aversion from them as may easily appear to him that will but look over the years that ensued after this disgust and breach with Pope Clement the Seventh For albeit in the next year after to wit 1531 he proceeded to shew his aversion from that Pope yet did not he neglect the punishment of Lutherans as may appear by the burning of David Foster Valentine Freese John Tenkesbury the old Man of Buckingham and other which Fox doth complain of 7. In the year 1532. The King proceeding in the same discontentment with the Pope did certain things rather to terrifie him than to make any change of Religion as making Sir Thomas Audley Chancellor in the place of Sir Thomas More which Audley was suspected to favor Lutheranism In using also familiarly Thomas Cromwell a Man of the same humor or worse To which end also he going over into France conferred with Francis the French King and persuaded him to Summon the Pope to a General Council but he would not whereupon King Henry returning into England not only spake open words against Pope Clement but suffered one Dr. Cutwyn Dean of Hertfort to Preach publickly against him in a Sermon before the King himself in the Church of the Franciscan Friers of Greenwich who passed so far in that vein as a grave Religious Father Named Elstow reprehended him publickly out of the Quire or Roodloft for which he was sent to Prison And this was the first open contradiction that King Henry had within his Realm about this Controversie with the Pope and yet doth Fox recount unto us divers of his Martyrs most opposite to the Pope that were burnt by the Kings Authority this year as namely James Baynam Robert Debnam Nicolas Marish Robert King and others 8. There followed the year 1533 wherein his Majesty was Married to Queen Ann Bullen and consequently this year passed most in Triumph about Coronation of the said Queen as also the Birth and Baptism of her Majesty that now is So as little was done in matters of Religion any way but a great Gate seemed to be opened to the Protestants and to Luthers favorers by this Marriage in so much that Fox doth assign the ground of his Gospel principally from this year in respect both
of the Kings and Queens inclination as he presumeth and of the great Authority of Cranmer Cromwell and some other that he calleth his Gospellers or Patrons rather of his Gospel And yet if you behold the external Face of the English Church at this day all these named and others held the Catholic Faith Use and Rites and both King and Queen Cranmer and Cromwell went as Devoutly to Mass as ever before and so remained they in outward shew I mean the former three even to their Deaths And Cromwell when he was to die protested on the Scaffold that he was a good Catholic Man and never doubted of any of the Church Sacraments then used and the like would Cranmer have done no doubt if he had been brought to the Scaffold in King Henries days as he was to the Fire afterwards in Queen Maries which had been a happy case for him 9. There ensued the year 1534 which was the year indeed of open breach with Rome for that an Excommunication being set forth by Pope Clement VII against King Henry VIII upon notice given of his Marriage and the said Excommunication set up in Dunkirk and other Towns in Flanders which did import the consent also and concurrence of Charles the Emperour and then certain Prophesies being blown about at home as coming from Elizabeth Barton sirnamed the holy Maid of Kent about the King's Deprivation he was much more exasperated than before and so calling a Parliament caused the Pope's Authority to be wholly extinguished and transferred to himself and made divers Bishops in order to preach at Paul's Cross against the Pope's Supremacy over the Catholic Church But what may we think that these Bishops did in so small a time change their belief in matters of Faith The King also being angry with divers Friars as namely with F. Elstow beforenamed that contradicted Cutwyne the Preacher when he inveighed against the Pope's Authority did this year upon the 11th of August ordain That all the observant Friars of St. Francis's Order should be thrust out of their Convents beginning with Greenwich where the said contradiction was made and to seem somewhat to favour the Augustin-Friars of whose Order Luther had been he commanded them for the present to be put in their places yet did he at the very same time cause John Frith to be burn'd in Smithfield for denying the Blessed Sacrament and this by his own particular order which Frith and his Master Tyndal were the greatest Enemies that Friars had 10. He burned also this year Henry Poyle William Tracy and other Protestants as Fox testifieth in his Calendar So as we may see that the King's Faith was as before and tho' he were content to suffer some new-fangl'd Spirits to ruffle at this time as namely Friar Barnes in London where he preach'd most seditiously and Hugh Latimer in Bristol where as Stow saith he stirred a notorious Tumult causing the Mayor to suffer Lay men to preach and to prohibit and imprison Priests and other like Disorders yet what the King thought inwardly of them he declared afterwards by his acts when he burned Barns and cast Latimer into the Tower and kept him there with evident danger of his life so long as himself lived which disposition of King Henry Tyndal smelling at the same season wrote from Flanders to his Scholar John Frith Prisoner in the Tower of London in these words And now methinketh I smell a counsel to be taken c. But you must understand that it is not of a pure heart and the love of Truth but to avenge themselves and to eat the Whores flesh and to suck the marrow of her bones c. So wrote that honest man signifying that King Henry was resolved to make an outward shew in favouring the Gospellers not for love or liking he had of them but to revenge himself of the Pope and to enjoy the Goods of Monasteries and other spiritual Livings which he in his blasphemous heretical vein calleth the Whores flesh and marrow of her bones 11. Well then this was the beginning of their Gospel in England by their own Confession and Interpretation and so whatsoever was done from this year forward against Catholics or Catholic Religion unto the 31st year of his Reign which was of Christ 1540 to wit for five whole years was upon these grounds and to the former ends of Revenge and Interest if we believe Protestants themselves in which point notwithstanding for that divers Godly Learned and Zealous men could not be content to follow the King's affections as others did and namely Bishop Fisher of Rochester Sir Thomas More late Chancellor of England and divers most Reverend and Venerable Abbots Priors and Doctors and other their like they were content to give their Blood in defence of Catholic Unity against this Schism as the Abbots of Glastenbury of Whaley of Reading Dr. Forest Queen Catharine's Confessor Dr. Powel and the like 12. Some others and amongst them one most near to the King himself both in Blood and Affection namely Cardinal Pool opposed himself by public Writing from Padua as we may see by those three learned Books left by him in Latin De Unitate Ecclesiae Others also of the same Blood-Royal as the Marquess of Exceter and Countess of Salisbury the said Cardinal's Mother shewed their dislike which afterwards was the cause of their ruin and many Shires also of the Realm at this time not being so patient as to bear these Innovations took Arms and fell into great Commotions as in Lincolnshire Yorkshire Somersetshire and some other Provinces making all their Quarrels for matters of Religion 13. So as by this we see that Catholic Religion remained still in England both in Prince and People but that the Prince for a time thought good for other ends to tolerate and wink at disorders therein until the aforesaid year of 1540 when calling all his Realm together both Spiritual and Temporal to examin well this matter of Religion they decreed that famous Statute both in Parliament and Consistory Ecclesiastical called the Statute of six Articles or as John Fox nameth it the whip with six strings or lashes in which Decree are condemned for detestable Heresies all the most substantial points of Protestants Doctrin especially of Zwinglians and Calvinists and most severe punishment of Death appointed unto the Defenders and Maintainers thereof whereby the Catholic Judgment and Censure of the whole Realm in that behalf was seen and the King himself made further declaration thereof presently for his own part by putting away his German Wife Anne of Cleve by which the Gospellers had thought to have drawn him further into League and Religion with the Protestant German Princes and by punishing Cromwell the Head and Fountain of most of these Innovations by the loss of his Head. He burned also immediately after this Statute in Smithfield upon the promulgation thereof three famous Heretics Barns Jerom and Gerard
in those days should revive and preach again in these days would his Brethren the Protestants in England or out of England receive them think you And if it be certain that they would not how were they true Preachers then and not now or how can these and they be true Brethren of one Faith Religion or Church Doth not every simple Man or Woman see this Folly and absurd Contradiction 29. But to return to the matter in hand about rejecting Parliaments and other public Testimonies we see that John Fox with the same facility both reciteth and rejecteth the Letter of the Archbishop of Canterbury written to the Pope about those Wickliffians of his time twenty years after the former Parliament was held but yet in conformity of that which the said Parliament under King Henry IV. and the other before under King Richard II. did testifie as well of the said Sectaries Hypocrisie and Dissimulation as of their wicked Errors and Heresies All which Fox contemning saith to the contrary That they served faithfully the living Lord within the Ark of his true spiritual and visible Church c. 30. And it is to be noted that scarce ever throughout this whole Volume of Acts and Monuments from Christ downward for the space of 1400 years doth Fox talk of any visible Church on his side but only now when he cometh to these Wickliffians and other like Sectaries And yet to speak warily also he adjoyneth unto it the word spiritual to have some starting-hole to run out when he shall be pressed about the true nature of visible Succession which we mean to do in the next Chapter following But in the mean space it is a matter worth good laughter to hear him say That Papists do brag of their painted Sheath concerning their Churches Antiquity and Succession and that he hath sufficiently proved before by the continual descent of his Church after the Doctrin that now is reformed that it hath stood and been continued from the beginning for so are his words yea and that visibly as now he addeth Whereat I know no man can choose but laugh that hath read this our Treatise wherein we have shewed all the contrary to wit the visible Descent of the Roman Church by orderly Succession from the Apostles time and that John Fox hath not so much as named any different Succession or Descent of his Church distinct from the other until the time of Innocentius III. 1200 years after Christ And what manner of deduction or collection of Heretics and Sectaries he bringeth down from thence and how well they agree and hang together either in Time Place Function or Faith we shall examin a little after 31. But now before we end this Chapter we are to advertise the Reader that besides the Sects before named of the Petrobusians Henricians Waldensians or poor men of Lyons the Albigensians and Wickliffians there was another Sect in England called Lollards more famous than the rest in respect of Lollards Tower some what renowned in London for the Imprisonments of those Sectaries in that place But when and how this Sect of Heretics began is not so clear for that some as Prateolus and others seem to affirm that it took its Origin in England as a Brood of the Wickliffists for that they were more famous there than in other places And therefore he saith Lollardi ex Anglia ex Wickliffistarum Secta originem duxerunt The Lollards had their beginning from England and from the Sect of the Wickliffians And he addeth That it was about the year 1360 which cannot stand for that we have shewed before how Wickliff began to publish his Doctrin after this to wit about the year 1370. Wherefore the Abbot Tritemius a German Chronicler declareth the matter more particularly and truly saying That there was a certain Heretic in Germany called Gualter Lolhard who about the year of Christ 1315 taking certain Doctrin from the Albigenses and Waldenses that went before him and adding as the fashion is of Sectaries divers new Opinions of his own made a particular Sect who were called Lolhards Whereby it appeareth that this Sect began in Germany above fifty years before the Sect of Wickliff in England and hereby ensued that Wickliffians taking afterwards divers Opinions from the said Lolhards were commonly also called Lolhards And John Fox himself reciting the Sentence of Condemnation of Bishop Tresnant of Hereford against one William Swynderby an Apostata Priest for Wickliffian Heresies in the year of Christ 1391 the 24th of June he setteth down these words of the said Bishop We being excited through the Information of many credible and faithful Christians of our Diocese to root out pestiferous Plants as Sheep diseased with an incurable Sickness going about to infect the whole and sound Flock that is to say certain Preachers or more truly execrable Offenders of the new Sect vulgarly called Lolhards c. 32. Lo here Wickliffians at this time for such a one was this Swynderby were commonly called Lolhards twenty years and more after Wickliff had begun his Doctrin So as rather Wickliffians are to be said to have come forth of Lolhards than Lolhards of Wickliffians 33. And albeit these two Sects beginning as you have heard the one in Germany and the other in England with the distance of some fifty years of their Off-spring had many Opinions common to them both especially against the Roman Church against Invocation of Saints Fastings Prayers and the Sacraments of Penance Matrimony Extreme Unction and the like yet had they their peculiar Opinions also whereby they were made a several Sect. As for Example the Lolhards impugned not only the foresaid three Sacraments of Penance Matrimony and Extreme Unction as some Wickliffians did but Baptism and the Eucharist in like manner They held also for their peculiar Opinions as Tritemius saith That Lucifer and his Angels were injuriously thrust out of Heaven by Michael and his Angels and consequently to be restored again at the Day of Judgment and that Michael and his Angels are to be damned for the foresaid Injury and to be delivered over to everlasting Punishment from the Day of Judgment forward That our Lady could not bear Christ and remain a Virgin for that so he should have been an Angel and not a Man. That God having given the Earth to the use of Man according to the saying of the Psalm Terram autem dedit filiis hominum God hath given the Earth to the children of men he doth consequently punish such Wickedness as is done upon Earth but if any thing be done under ground it is not punishable And therefore in Caves and Cellars under ground they were accustomed to exercise all manner of Abomination And of this he relateth a certain Story happened in Germany which was That one Gisla a young woman of their Sect coming to be burned for Heresie she was asked whether she were a Virgin or no whereunto
endured you will easily see the Fruits of that new Gospel 4. For first all begun with manifest perfidiousness against the old King that was dead For whereas he had two things in abomination above the rest First that his Son should have a Protector considering the fatal events thereof in former times for which cause he appointed sixteen Tutors to govern with equal Authority during the Minority of his Son the other that Heresie but especially Zwinglianism should enter into his Realm both these things were determined contrary to the said Kings Will and Ordination within three days after his death and above a dozen before he was buried For that the young Child being Proclaimed King upon the 28. of January and his Father not buried until the 14. of February his Uncle the Earl of Hartford was made Protector both of the King and whole Realm upon the first of the said Month of February following and this by the private Authority of the greater part of the Executors only without expecting any Parliament or consent of the Realm for so great a change and charge as that was 5. And albeit for obtaining the consents of the greater parts of Executors to this mutation great advancements and Dignities were promised and some of them also performed for that the Lord Dudley was made Earl of Warwick the Lord Parre Marquess of Northampton the Lord Chancellor Wriothesley was created Earl of Southampton Sir Thomas Seymor was made Lord Sudley and High Admiral of England and other the like and this within fifteen days after the Protectors Advancement and tho' hope also was given to those that were Catholicly inclined as the most of them were if they had followed their Consciences that no great alteration of Religion should be made for the present yet twenty days had scarce passed after this advancement but that the Protectors Fingers did so eagerly itch to be doing and tampering about Innovation in Religion as upon the 6. of March next following he sent away Commissioners into all parts of the Realm to pull down Images and other Ecclesiastical Ornaments throughout all the Churches of the Realm and to make other Innovations by his Authority which now in all things he would have to be the Kings And for that the Chancellor Wriothesley resisted the same and would have had it stayed until a Parliament might be called his Office was taken from him thereby to terrifie others from speaking in like Cases Bishop Tonstall also was put beside the Council for like offence though he were one of the sixteen Executors appointed by King Henry So as now the Protector would needs have all things absolutely in his own Hand both without Law and before Law yea expresly against the Laws of King Henry yet in force 6. And for that both he and his followers did easily see the affection of the Realm to be wholly against these Mutations as before we have shewed in the end of our former part he devised with the Lord Dudley who soothed him in all at that time the Journey into Scotland of Musselborough Field which all men know under pretence to gain the young Queen by force to Marry with the King. But yet every man of judgment and discourse did easily see that not to be a thing likely to get such a Princess by way of Arms from her Subjects Neither was King Edward of such Age as they needed to have hastened so much to get him a Wife so soon he being but nine years old but that the matter might have been treated peaceably with the Scots to have concurred willingly for their own interest to that conjunction of both Realms by that Marriage according as they had done in King Henry's time And so wrote Bishop Gardener to the Protector presently upon the first Sermon he heard the Bishop of St. Davids in Wales make in London about that matter I mean to exhort the people to the enterprise of Scotland For that now all Preachers were set a work by the said Protector and Earl of Warwick to shew the great Glory and utilities of that Attempt 7. But the true cause of this Enterprise was indeed to have thereby a just pretence and occasion to raise an Army within the Land and to call in Foreign Forces as they did both Germans and Italians under Petro Gamboa that had served King Henry at Bologne and other Leaders who they thought would be always more sure unto them than English Soldiers in occasions of Religion And so it fell out indeed For the very next year after these Foreign Soldiers did stand the Protector in very good stead when divers Shires of the Realm took Arms for defence of their Religion in the third year of King Edward's Reign as after you shall hear 8. This then was the first Summers work after King Edward's Coronation to wit that the Protector made his Voyage towards Scotland having first sent Commissioners and Preachers as you have heard into all Shires to preach against Images Procession Litanies Pilgrimages Mass praying to Saints And this of his own Authority without and against Law for that no Parliament had yet disannulled the Religion left by King Henry Which thing so much grieved the common Catholic people as they began to exclaim every where against the said Commissioners and one of them called Body was slain in Cornwall for which divers Men were Executed in sundry places of that Shire and a Priest sent up to be Hang'd Drawn and Quarter'd in Smithfield for the terror of others for that he was said by some to have been Accessary to the said Body's death 9. And this was the beginning of planting new Religion in England by Authority of the Protector under a child-Child-King which Protector notwithstanding for that he mistrusted his home-Doctors as well as his home-Souldiers to be sufficient for so great a Work as the planting of a new Religion he sent over into Germany for divers strange Sectaries of what Religion soever so they were not Catholic But especially he desir'd to have Apostate-Friers that had ty'd themselves to Sisters assuring himself that they would be most pliable to his purpose And so there came into England Martin Bucer a Dominican Frier who unto that day had been an earnest Lutheran and Peter Martyr a Canon-Regular that inclin'd to Zuinglianism but yet came with great indifferency to preach and teach what he should be appointed Bernardinus Ochinus was the third who had been a Franciscan Frier and by taking a Woman had lost all Religion writing a Book de Polygamia for having many Wives at once and died after a Jew 10. These three were distributed into three principal Fountains of the Land London Oxford and Cambridge and with these joyned other of the same Coat and Profession as Coverdale an Augustine Frier Bale a Carmelite and other-like English-men as before we have shewed All which beginning to preach in divers parts of the Land filled mens heads with Novelties and
Contentions but had not the Gift of the old Apostolical Preachers to preach the self-same Faith and Doctrin every where but so many men so many Opinions were set abroach every man following his own fancy only they agreed in impugning the Catholic Church Rites Doctrin and Service but among themselves they could not agree 11. Which thing being signified to the Protector both before his departure and while he was in the Scottish Journey it grieved him exceedingly and wrote back to Cranmer Ridley and the rest that they should seek some means of Agreement and Conformity and that they should make hast to end the Common-Service-Book or Book of Common Prayer Doctrin and Rites which they had begun to treat of before his departure out of London But this was not so easie to do for that new Factions and Divisions were grown now among them especially upon the arrival of the foresaid new Preachers as well English as strangers from beyond the Seas For albeit the strangers could not much help in making this English Communion-Book or rather new Mass-Book yet did they hurt and hinder the same much by the variety of Opinions which they brought with them in matter of Doctrin some of them coming from Saxony and others from Switzerland where there were different new Sects and Doctrins held and taught And forasmuch as in this Book not only the Rites and Ceremonies of Service and Administration of Sacraments but the Doctrin also of their Number and Nature and other Articles of Belief were to be expressed or at leastwise insinuated hereof arose a great War for that Bucer would have one thing Peter Martyr another Ochinus a third and then stepped in John Bale and Milo Coverdale freshly come with their new Doctrin and wanton Women from beyond Seas and would have room amongst the rest 12. But above all others did trouble the Market at this time two heady married Priests come also from beyond the Seas to wit John Hooper and John Rogers the one from Wittenberg with a German Wife the other from Argentine with a Burgundian Sister as Fox testifieth who dissenting wholly from the Course begun by Cranmer and Ridley and bearing special emulation against them as accounting themselves more Learned and zealous and more reformed than they as in their Lives we shall shew when we come to their places in the Calendar they being potent in Speech and Faction and had in estimation of the people in respect of their former Banishment they made this Agreement at the first beginning much more difficult Especially for that one Hugh Latimer more turbulent than any of them all and of more regard with the common people for that he had been Bishop in King Henry's days joyned with Hooper and Rogers against Cranmer and Ridley for that they were not inclined to restore him his Bishoprick of Worcester whereof he had been deprived by King Henry VIII 13. Whereupon the Protector when he returned to London from the Scottish Voyage in the end of the Summer he was greatly troubled to see these Divisions But especially for that he found nothing ready as he had hope for the new Communion-Book but only that the old Religion was impugned and the new not yet framed and infinite strife was raised both about the one and the other Yet a Parliament being called together upon the Fourth of November Anno Domini 1547 and the First of King Edward they thought to give an attempt to see what might be done to have some Alteration established But it would hardly be notwithstanding all Art Power and Persuasion was used by the Protector and his people to obtain the same For that in this Parliament they gat only two things of moment to be determined about Religion The first was that all former penal Statutes made against any Heretic or Sectary whatsoever from King Edward the Third downward to wit for the space almost of 200 years should be revoked But namely the Statutes made against Lollards Wickliffians Hussits Anabaptists and the rest in the 1. Year of King Richard the Second and in the 2. Year of King Henry the Fifth and in the 25.31.33.34 and 35. Years of King Henry the Eighth against what Heresies Heretics or Sectaries soever All these Laws and Statutes I say were recalled annulled and taken away together with their punishments prohibitions or other restraints whatsoever So as now every Man might think say preach or teach what he thought best And this judgeth Fox to be a goodly sweet Liberty of the Gospel where no Man is bound nor forced to any thing And this determined a Child of Nine years old against the Decrees of all his prudent Ancestors for 200 years upward 14. But yet in all this free liberty of Sectaries to say write and teach what they list the punishment of Death was reserved unto Catholics that should speak in defence of the Doctrin of the Pope's Supremacy or in derogation of the Supreme Ecclesiastical Headship of this young King. And this was the first and principal beginning of the Gospel in King Edward's time to give every Man liberty to do and believe what he would so he were not a Catholic Which is much like the opening of Prisons and common Jayls in the beginning of a Rebellion when all Malefactors are made free from fear of Laws so they will joyn in Faction with the Rebellious And upon the opening of this Gate no marvail tho' all Sectaries rushed in and among others divers Arians Anabaptists Trinitarians and like Heretics began to preach presently their Doctrins with such publicity as Cranmer and his Fellows for repressing thereof were enforced to sit in publick Judgment and condemn divers of them to Death albeit I do not see by what Law having now revoked and annulled all former Statutes made against Heretics for their punishment as hath been said And namely he condemned Joan of Kent alias Joan Knell that had been a Handmaid of Anne Askew burned before in the last year of King Henry VIII for denying the Real Presence And Joan had profited so much under Anne's Doctrin as now she denied Christ to have taken Flesh of the Blessed Virgin who was so resolute with her Scriptures against Cranmer and his Assistants sitting upon her and her Fellows in our Lady 's Cappel of S. Paul's Church in London upon the 27th of April when he gave Sentence of Death against her that she reproached him greatly for his inconstancy in Religion telling him that he condemned not long before Anne Askew for a piece of Bread and now condemned her for a piece of Flesh And that as he was come now to believe the first which then he had condemned so would he come in time to believe the second c. 15. And for that O. E. in his Defence of Sir Francis Hastings would not seem to think this matter to be true I do assure the Reader in all sincerity that I have it by relation and asseveration
of a worshipful and honorable Knight that afterwards was of Queen Mary's Privy Councel and was either present when these things were spoken by Joan of Kent or heard it from them that were present from whom also I received divers other Particularities which in this Chapter and the former are touched by me Knowing the Man to be of such Wisdom and entire Credit as I can hardly follow a better Author in things of his time 16. Well then this is the first point obtained in this first Parliament of King Edward that all Sects had impunity whereof Fox glories much in these words These meek and gentle times of King Edward under the Government of this noble Protector have this one Commendation proper to them that during the whole time of the Six years of this King 's much tranquillity and as it were a breathing-time was granted to the whole Church of England c. Neither in Smithfield nor any other Quarter of this Realm was any heard to suffer for any matter of Religion either Papist or Protestant either for one Opinion or other except only two one an Englishwoman called Joan of Kent the other a Dutchman named George Paris who died for certain Articles not much necessary here to be rehearsed Behold here Fox unwilling to rehearse the Articles of these two new Gospellers which were no other but the Denial of Christ himself And for that he saith no man suffered for Religion it self either Catholic or Protestant in all King Edwards days I would ask him what he would say to so many hundreds as were slain and put to death in Somersetshire Devonshire Cornwall Lincolnshire Norfolk Yorkshire and other places in the Third year of King Edward's Reign that were forced to take Arms for defence of their Religion violently wrested from them against all Truth Reason Law and Order Was not this Suffering also for Religion But let us hear John Fox himself confess unto us the manner of entrance of his Gospel into England 17. After softer beginnings saith he by little and little greater things followed in the reformation of the Churches and a new face of things began now to appear as it were on a Stage new Players coming in and the other thrust out For the most part the Bishops of Churches and Dioceses were changed c. Bonner Bishop of London was committed to the Marshalsea and deprived Gardener Bishop of Winchester and Tonstal Bishop of Durham were cast into the Tower c. Lo here by Fox his own Confession what Peace and Meekness there was used in these gentle times of King Edward under the Government of this noble Protector tho' they were but Six years in all And let the Reader confess that Fox hath a special Gift to contradict himself tho' it be in the self same page But now to the second point concluded in this Parliament about matters of Religion 18. The second Point was about the blessed Sacrament of the Altar and use thereof which as it was a very important and principal Point for these New Gospellers of King Edward's days to declare their Opinions whether they would be Lutherans or Sacramentaries so they being wholly divided among themselves in this point some of them coming from Wittemberg and other places of Saxony which followed Luther some other from Strasburg Basil and other Towns among the Switzers where the Doctrin of Zuinglius bare Rule others that were home-Protestants and desired to pass no further in neither of these two particular Sect and Factions but only so far as was needful for holding their Women they had taken as Cranmer and his Fellows they could in no case come to any accord or agreement in this matter but only to publish an Act or Statute like a Ship-man's Hose that determined neither the one nor the other the Title whereof was this An Act against such persons as shall unreverently speak against the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ commonly called the Sacrament of the Altar and for the receiving thereof under both kinds And then beginneth the Statute thus 19. The King 's most Excellent Majesty meaning the Governance of his most loving Subjects to be in most perfect Vnity and Concord in all things and especially in the true Faith and Religion of God and wishing the same to be brought to pass with all Clemency on his part as his most Princely Serenity and Majesty hath already declared c. This is the Preface and after coming to the matter they say In the most comfortable Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Savior Jesus Christ commonly called the Sacrament of the Altar c. which Sacrament was instituted by no less Author than our Savior both God and Man when at his last Supper he did take the Bread into his holy Hands and did say Take you and eat This is my Body which is given and broken for you c. Which words spoken of it being of eternal infallible and undoubted Truth yet the said Sacrament all this notwithstanding hath been of late marvelously abused by such manner of men before rehearsed who of Wickedness or else of Ignorance and want of Learning for certain Abuses heretofore committed of some in misusing thereof have condemned in their hearts and speech the whole thing and contemptuously depraved despised or reviled the same most holy and blessed Sacrament and not only disputed or reasoned unreverently and ungodlily of that high Mystery but also in their Sermons Preachings Readings Talks Tunes Songs Plays or Tests do name and call it by such vile and unseemly words as Christian Ears do abhor to hear rehearsed For reformation whereof be it Enacted c. 20. This is their Narration and according thereunto they do set down remedy and punishment for them that shall speak any contemptuous words to deprave despise or revile this Sacrament But what the words or sense thereof are in particular or what they mean by this despising or depraving they do not set down as they ought to have done if they had meant plainly tho' by the words of their said Narration it may appear this Statute was made principally against Sacramentaries that deny the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of our Savior and do dispute and reason unreverently and ungodly thereof this being the highest Injury Contempt or Depravation that can be done to it But it pleased not the Makers of this Statute to be understood or to deal clearly for the present in this behalf but rather to speak obscurely and doubtfully to the end they might afterward have a starting-hole to get out at and become Zuinglians or Calvinists when they would The other Clause of administring the Sacrament under both kinds to all sorts of people they put down more clearly with this Exception only except necessity otherwise require By which words they allow also the use under one kind in time of necessity which is far from that which since
from p. 887 to 912. and again from p. 949 to 957. That K. Henry after his breach with Rome was still an enemy to Protestants Religion * Cap. 12. See Stat. 31 H. 8. cap. 14. Statutes in Religion made by K. Henry against Protestants Stat. an 32 H. 8. c. 26. The very Gospel against our new Gospellers by K. Henry's judgment K. Henry forbiddeth the Protestant Translation of the Scriptures Stat. an Reg. H. 8.34 35 c. 1. The very true and perfect exposition of Scriptures prescribed by K. Henry against the Protestants Will. Tyndall's Translation of the Scriptures condemned together with the Protestants Books Fox p. 981. The solemn Judgment Condemnatian of Lambert by the King. Anno 32. H. 8. Fox p. 1026. col 1. n. 78. Fox and King Henry fallen out Fox p. 1086. The Protestation of Cromwell at his death that he was a Catholic John Fox is sore pressed about the L. Cromwell Fox p. 1084. Tyndall's judgment testimony of the first motives towards Protestancy in K. Henry Fox p. 977. Hall. in chron an Reg. H. 8.28 fol. 228. The first Book of alteration of Religion in England devised by King Henry A certain Conference between a Courtier a Lady about devising Novelties in Religion Cocl in vit Luther Sur. ann Dom. 1516 1517. The Reply of the Lady with the Courtier 's Answer * Of these Hollanders see Holinshead an 27 H. 8. mensè Maii 1535. * See Holinsh and Stow of this Polling an 1535. The growing and going forward of the new Gospel under King Henry Fox p. 1036. Fox ib. See before cap. 7. Fox p. 991. col 2. n. 30. King Henry's beginning of alteration af-the death of Q. Anne Bullen The chiefest credit of Cromwell when new Gospellers were most punished by King Henry Hol. an 1540. pag. 950. The first point of spiritual misery of the Gospellers Church under King Henry Confusion Luth. in parva Confess de coena Domini Melancthon lib. de suo Judicio ad Elect. Rhen. an Dom. 1560. Freder Staph. l. de Concord Luth. Lyndan in dubitant Praet initio lib. de vit sectis haeret The different Classes and sorts of Sectaries sprung from Luther since the year 1517. How John Fox coupleth all Sectaries in his Church The second spiritual misery of J. Fox's Church contradiction among themselves in their Belief See part 3. of Bilney die 10. Martii an 1531. Tho. Bilney Jo. Frith Will. Tyndall * Part 3. die 2 Jan. die 6 Octob. Frier Barns Gerrard Jerom Lambert Ridley Hooper Rogers Latymer Andrew Hewit * Part 1. c. 12. Peter German * See his day part 3. 13 Octob. Colyns and Coubridge made Martyrs Fox p. 1033. Fox's Confessors under King Henry Erasmus Roterodamus * die 26 Decemb Erasm l. 16. ep 11. Picus Mirandula Bucer Melancthon Friar Bucer's Answer to the Duke of Northumberland Of King Edward VI. Two fond Pageants of King Henry and K. Edward Other ridiculous Paintings of Fox What the Roman Ship carried away and what the Protestants Ship brought into England A Picture of the Protestants Agreement Promotions made by the Protector in the beginning of King Edward's days Holinshead Stow and others an Dom. 1547. The Journey into Scotland why it was devised in King Edward's time The rushing in of Apostates into England Bernard Ochinus Vid. Sander l. de visib Monarch p. 627. The causes of jars between the new Protestant Preachers Stow. Anno 1539. Statut. Anno Domini 1547. Edw. 6. An. 1. Liberty and Impunity granted to all Heretics Joan Knell condemned and burned by Cranmer Sto. in Chron. An. 1549. Sir Francis Inglefield Fox pag. 1180. col 2. n. 40. Fox his impertinent Brag of impunity under King Edward The suffering of Catholics under King Edward Fox pag. 1180. n. 14. The 2d Point handled in the first Parliament about the Blessed Sacrament Stat. an 1. Ed. 6. cap. 1. The Statute about the B. Sacrament Mat. 26. Luc. 22. 1 Cor. 11. Deceitful dealing in this Statute The first Communion Book in English rejected The allowance of Priests and Friers Marriages rejected in this Parliament The resolute proceeding of the Lord Protector Fox p. 1183. Candles Ashes Palms forbidden by the Protector Fox ib. Col. 2. Images taken away by the Protector 's Letter before the Parliament A new Communion Book thrust upon Catholics by the Protector 's only Authority Fox p. 1184. Col. 1. The Confusion that insued in England upon the first Innovation The troubles and garboils in Temporal Affairs ensuing upon Ecclesiastical Confusion Bal. de script Britan. fol. 238. The second Parliament of King Edward An. 1548. 4. Novemb. Statut. Anno 2. Edw. 6. cap. 21. Anno Domini 1548. The Statute of Impunity for Priests and Friers to Marry The second Contention about their new Communion Book The Zwinglian Faction did over-bear the Lutheran in King Edwards days Two men cast into Prison by Cranmer for speaking against the Sacrament of the Altar Fox p. 1180. 1181. The perpl ex ty of Peter Martyr in Oxford about expounding Hoc est Corpus meum Dissembling and tergiversation of Peter Martyr Stat. an 2 Ed. 6 cap. 1. The new Communion-Book made upon the frailty and weakness of Subjects The judgment and speeches of the purer sort of Protestants against the foresaid Communion-Book Fox p. 1355. Catholics excepted from pardon in the Statute The apprehension and condemnation and death of the Lord Thomas Seymor by his Brother and other new Gospellers Stat. an 2 Ed. 6. cap. 18. Anno Dom. 1548. The Revel that ensued presently upon this Parliament of 4th of Novemb. 1548. Holinsh Stow. Anno Dom. 1549. The Protector cast into the Tower Octob. 4. an 1549. Stow an 3 6. 1555 The conclusion concerning the occasions means events and fruits of the new Gospel A consideration of much importance Holinsh An. Dom. 1553. pag. 1089. Stow in Chron. An. 1553. The Duke of Northumberland's Confession of his Faith at his Death Fox pag. 120. The form and fashion of Fox's new Church and Religion Pag. 8. The sleights and shifts of John Fox in his Writings A Comparison expressing the different dealing of Catholics and Protestants about seeking the true Church and Religion Three differences 1. The different estimation of the Church and lineal descent thereof between Catholics and Protestants Aug. l. 1. cont Crescon c. 33. Lactant. lib. 4. divin Instit cap. ult Lactant. ibid. All Heretics do challenge to be the true Church Cyp. l. de simpl Praelat Aug. Ep. 204. ad Donatum Presbyt Donatist No man can be saved out of the true Church Cypr. Tract de unit Ecclesiae How much it importeth each man to consider whether he be in the true Ch. or not The benefits by being in the Church Marc. ultim Mat. 18. Joan. 20. a The contemptibility of the Protestants Church even among themselves b See Luth ep ad Alb. March. Prusiae ep ad Jacob. Brem Aurif tit haer West ph l. cont Calvin Stanch l. de Trin. Mediat Heshus in defens con Calvinum Calv. admonit contra West ph Kemnit ep ad Elector Brandiburg Confess Tigur tract 3. c. c See also the two English Books the one called Dangerous Positions the other A Survey of Disciplinary Doctrin c. August cont ep fund c. 5. Lactan. l. 4. c. ult What Church S. Cyprian and S. Augustin do call Catholic Aug. l. 3. contra Gaudent Donat. cap. 1. Cypr. l. de unit Eccl. Fox's Protest pag. 8. The baseness and obscurity of the Protestant Church by their own confession Fox in Protest ibid. See S. August of this very Point Tract 1. in ep Joan. lib. contra ep Petil. c. 14. in Psal 30. conc 2. alibi Chrysost Hom. 4. de verbis Isaiae vidit Dominum c. Fox ibid. Fox in the difference c. betwixt the old Roman Church and the new pag. 26. Acts and Monuments pag. 1560. Fox p. 1561. col 2. n. 74. August contr ep Fundam cap. 5. What John Fox taketh from his Church The Protestants believe the Devil as much as their own Church The second principal point wherein Catholics and Protestants do differ Cypr. l. 4. ep 2. Epiph. in haer Cathar Aug. l. de haer c. 69. 88. l. 3. contr Par. men c. 2. The Conference at Carthage between Catholics and Donatists Aug. in Breviculo Collat. 3. cap. 3. The first point discussed between S. Augustin and the Donatists about the Name Catholic The second point between the Doatists and Catholics August Coll. 3. cap. 8. The third point discussed between the Catholics and Donatists at Carthage Câ—llat 3. cap. 8. A contention about the Parables of Christ concerning the Church Matt. 13. Matt. 3. Luc. 3. Marc. 3. 13. Mat. 29. Collat. 3. c. 9.10 11. The third principal difference about the proprieties marks of the true Church A Comparison of different giving of notes to find a thing by Proprieties and Marks the true Church given by Catholics Luth. lib. de conc parte ult The marks of the Church fondly set down by Heretics Magdeb. cent 1. lib. 2. c. 4. Calv. l. 4. Instit cap. 1. Protestant Ministers do flie publick Conference as the Donatists did Aug. in Brevit Praefat. ad coll 1. diti Coll. 1. cap. 8. The tergiversation of the Donatists to flie publick Trial. Coll. 1. c. 11.12 13 14. How English Ministers have fled publick Conference hitherto Coll. 3. c. 25.
A TREATISE OF Three Conversions of England FROM PAGANISM TO Christian Religion I. Under the Apostles in the First Age after CHRIST II. Under Pope Eleutherius and King Lucius in the Second Age. III. Under Pope Gregory the Great and King Ethelbert in the Sixth Age with divers other Matters thereunto appertaining The First Two PARTS Dedicated to the Catholics of England with a new Addition to the said Catholics upon the News of the late Queens Death and the Succession of His Majesty of Scotland to the Crown of ENGLAND By N. D. Author of the Ward-Word Enquire of ancient times before you remember the old days of your Forefathers consider of every Age as they have passed ask your Father and he will tell you demand of your Ancestors and they will declare unto you Deut. iv 32. LONDON Re-printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel MDCLXXXVIII THE Epistle Dedicatory TO THE CATHOLICS of ENGLAND THo ' when I wrote the Preface that doth ensue I had no purpose to add any Epistle Dedicatory most dearly-beloved and worthy Catholics yet afterwards thinking of some other circumstances both of Matter and Time I deem'd it not amiss to say somewhat also in this kind of Dedication both for presenting this Work to whom principally it is due as also for Advertisement in some few Points which the present State of your Affairs doth seem to require 2. And for the first Who doth not see and consider that this Treatise of the first Planting of Christian Catholic Faith in England with the Continuance and Preservation thereof from Age to Age unto our Times doth chiefly and principally belong to You that are Catholics at this day most worthy Children of so renowned Parents most honorable Off-spring of so excellent Ancestors most glorious Posterity of so famous Antiquity whom future Ages will both esteem and extoll above many of your Predecessors for retaining That in times of War which they left unto you in possession of Peace and for defending that by so singular Constancy of Sufferings which they both received and bequeathed unto you by quiet Tradition 3. Which Tradition being set down proved and declared most clearly in this ensuing Work I do by offering the same unto you but present you with your own to wit the History of your own House the Records and Chronicles of your own Family the Pedigree and Genealogy of your own Forefathers the Antiquity and Nobility of your own Progenitors together with your just Title and Claim to their Inheritance producing jointly for the same your undoubted Charters Enrollments Evidences Writings and Witnesses which no man with reason can deny or call in doubt 4. And furthermore I do add in the end for more full Complement of this whole Cause all such former false and wrong Suits Pretences Pleas Intrusions Surreptions or other like Shifts or Wranglings which any Heretics to this day but especially these of our times have made hitherto about the same for shew of some Title or Right on their part to this Inheritance and Succession of yours And lastly I do produce also the Judgments Censures Sentences and Arrests of all Christian Parliaments of the World to wit the Determination of all the highest Ecclesiastical Tribunals in your favor By all which I doubt not but that your Right and Title remaineth most evident and clear to all Men of Judgment even to the Enemies or Adversaries themselves Wherefore most justly I do Dedicate this Treatise unto you which so many ways and for so many reasons is your own And so much for the first Point 5. The second also about the Circumstances of the present Time is already somewhat touched in that we have said How by God's holy Providence you are born in this time of War Tribulation and Contradiction instead of that large and long Peace and Tranquility which your Ancestors enjoyed in the use of that Catholic Religion for which you strive and suffer now which thing tho' for the present it seem unpleasant and distastful to Flesh and Blood yet will the hour come when it shall prove a most singular Benefit and Privilege to such as have received Grace to manifest themselves by this occasion seeing that according to the Apostle this is one principal End in God's Everlasting Wisdom for permission of Heresies ut qui probati sunt manifesti fiant that those that be of proof be made manifest by this occasion 6. Wherefore seeing as the same Apostle saith in another place it is given to you dear Catholics that live in England at this day not only to believe in him but also to suffer for him a singular privilege by his account yea and that we may say of You as he said and gloried of Himself and his Fellows Vincula vestra manifesta fiunt in Christo in omni praetorio Your Bonds for Christ are made notorious throughout all the Tribunals and Judgment-seats of our Country And yet further as he wrote to his dear Thessalonians in their highest praise and commendation You are become such Followers of Christ and his Apostles as receiving the Word of God with Joy of the Holy Ghost in great Tribulation you are made an Example or Spectacle to all other faithful people in Macedonia and Achaia for that from you is divulged the Word of God not only in Macedonia and Achaia but also in all other places by reason of your Faith which is published every-where throughout the World. 7. Seeing I say all this may be truly written of you and that our Country hath gotten more honorable Renown in Foreign Catholic Nations and the Church of God more Glory and Comfort by this your Patience and Sufferings in these few latter years than by the peaceable Calm of many former Ages of your Ancestors I know no true Servant of God that together with the commiseration of your present hard afflicted state receiveth not also particular Consolation by your Integrity and Constancy praying for your perseverance in that most honorable Course which hitherto you have held of true Obedience to Almighty God in matters of your Soul and Loyal Behavior of Duty towards your Temporal Prince in all worldly Affairs which course tho' it have not escaped the calumnious Tongues and Pens of some carping Adversaries yet is it justifiable and glorious both before God and Man where Reason ruleth and not Passion And I doubt not but that the Wisdom and Moderation both of her Majesty and her sage Council will rather in this Point ponder your own facts than your Adversaries words as also consider how rare such Examples of Patience are in these our days where so great a multitude for so many years hath passed under the Rod of so sharp Afflictions which is your singular commendation with all wise and godly men let Cavillers and Calumniators say what they will to the contrary 8. But God's holy hand hath not
for her only Son I hold to be that other Blessing before-mentioned of so many rare Parts discovered in His Majesty's Person which truly tho' I have had ever in great esteem upon the reports of other men yet hath the same been exceedingly increased upon the late reading of a Book written I suppose some years agon by His Highness but printed in London this very year 1603. This Book is entituled in the Greek Tongue Basilicon Doron to wit A Kingly Gift sent by His Majesty unto the Prince his eldest Son now also our Lord being in truth a Golden Gift in respect of the excellent matter contained therein and it discovereth so many rare Parts in the Writer as may justly give all Catholics good hope to see one day that fulfilled in His Majesty which most they desire And would to God this singular Treatise had appeared earlier to the World. 6. For setting aside one Point only therein handled which is Religion wherein His Majesty must needs speak according to his Persuasion and Education in that behalf all other matters are such and so set down as you will exceedingly delight therein and profit also thereby if you read with attention and ponder all well but especially Three Points above other I noted with no small admiration to my self which I speak in all sincerity of truth as in the sight of Almighty God. The first is the great variety of select Learning in such a Person and so occupied otherwise as His Majesty is Secondly the great maturity of Judgment in applying the same so fitly to the peculiar Affairs of Scotland The third is the fervent and extraordinary affection of Piety towards God and Godliness uttered in so effectual words and upon so good occasions throughout the whole Book as a man may easily see it cometh from the heart And how highly this one Point of Piety is to be esteemed in so High and Mighty a Prince especially in these our days when Contentions in Religion have wrought so great coldness of Religious Piety in many Great Mens Hearts every Wife and Pious Man will easily consider 7. But I will go no further in this matter lest I may seem to flatter which I hate with my heart and His Majesty detesteth the Vice most prudently and Christianly in this his Book Only I will add for our common comfort That it seemeth impossible unto me that such a Wit and so godly-affected a Mind as God hath bestowed upon His Majesty can be long detained with the vanity and inanity of Sects and Heresies where no Ground no Head no certain Principle no sure Rule or Method to try the Truth no one Reason at all can be found why a man should rather be of one Sect than another but only every ones own Will and particular Judgment grounded as each one will pretend upon the Scriptures whereof yet himself only will be the Judge and Interpreter Which things being of themselves most absurd in so weighty a Cause as Religion is that concerneth the Eternal Salvation of our Souls it is to be hoped that His Majesty having the former two parts of Judgment and pious Affection in that Excellency as hath been said will easily come in time to discover the same and therewithal the contrary substantial Grounds and clear Demonstrations for the Catholic Religion whereunto this Treatise also of the first planting of Christian Religion in our Country may in my Opinion give no small help and light if it might please His Majesty to bestow the casting of his eye upon the same 8. Wherefore to conclude this Addition to my former Letter God having wrought so strangely this Change as here is reported with so general Peace and Applause of the whole Realm you are to expect at His Divine Majesty's hands the Effects that are conform to his Fatherly Love and Care ever hitherto shewed towards you And as for the Person now advanced I know most certainly that there was never any doubt or difference among you but that ever you desired his Advancement above all others as the only Heir of that Renowned Mother for whom your fervent Zeal is known to the World and how much you have suffered by her Adversaries for the same Yet do I confess that touching the disposition of the Person for the Place and manner of his Advancement all zealous Catholics have both wished and pray'd that he might first be a Catholic and then our King this being our bounden Duty to wish and his greatest Good to be obtained for him And to this end and no other I assure my self hath been directed whatsoever may have been said written or done by any Catholic which with some others might breed disgust 9. Now it hath not pleased Almighty God to give us our desires in the order of our wishes but first to make him our King and then to leave us in hope of the other at his due time What shall we say in this and all the rest but as Heli did Dominus est quod bonum est in oculis suis faciat He is Lord let him do as he thinketh best And with Patience Humility Longanimity and Obedience seek by continual Prayer to hasten that time of our full Joy by His Majesty's Conversion which we trust in his everlasting Wisdom and infallible Providence is already determined to be suo tempore And in the mean space seeing it is here reported that Catholics according to their Abilities have shewed themselves in every Country both ready and forward to advance His Majesty's present Admission to the Crown I do not doubt but they shall find the Effects of his Clemency for their delivery out of such Afflictions Calamities and Oppressions as lately they have suffered by the instigation principally of such people whose Manners are most excellently and prudently described by His Majesty in the second Book of his worthy Treatise as to himself well experienced 10. And it is no small comfort in this behalf to have a King of whom we may truly use the words of St. Paul which he spoke of Christ Didicit ex eis quae passus est c. He hath learned by that himself hath suffered by the same kind of Men. And truly tho' in his own Person he cannot be said nor would perhaps to have suffered properly for Catholic Religion as You have done yet if we respect his nearest either in Nature Blood or Affection and their Number Rank and Quality that among them have suffered for the same Cause He may be said to have suffered perchance far more than You for that more of his Princely Blood hath been shed in England France and Scotland about the quarrel of Catholic Religion than of all other Christian Princes joyned together 11. And forasmuch as His Majesty doth vouchsafe of his Princely Gratitude to profess in one part of his Instructions to his Son the Prince That in all his Troubles Streights and Dangers he hath found none so sure and confident
unto him as those that remained Loyal and Faithful to his good Mother the Queen who all for the most part were known to have been good Catholics it is to be hoped that he will make the same Account also of You that remained Constant and Dutiful not only to Her Majesty while she lived but to God's Divine Majesty also in standing and suffering for your Conscience in Religion which was the Mark and Badge if you remember whereby the foresaid famous Governor Constantius Father to our Constantine did try his Christian Courtiers tho' he were a Pagan himself rejecting those who upon his Commandment and Invitation had yielded and done against their own Religion and retaining and honoring others that had been Constant even against himself Which fact Eusebius recounteth with exceeding praise of the Man's Judgment Justice and Piety therein whose Example I hope our now King will imitate and you follow the Example of the better sort of those Christians whom Constantius for their Constancy so much esteemed and advanced THE PREFACE TO THE CHRISTIAN STUDIOUS READER CONCERNING THE Edition and Argument of this Treatise and of the Method held therein and principal Points to be Treated MAN to be mutable or as the Scripture speaketh uncertain in his foresight and Providence if no other Arguments were to prove it as there be infinite yet my own Experience gentle Reader of the success of this Treatise were sufficient having altered so often my first intention about the same as it being now ready to come forth it seemeth nothing less than that which at the beginning I had purposed 2. My first design was to have written only some few Leaves or Sheets of Paper in answer to Sir Francis Hastings who in his Reply to the Seventh Encounter of the Warder which Encounter concerneth principally the Bishop and See of Rome would seem to diminish that obligation of gratitude which the Warder said that England had above many other Nations to that See for Two Conversions of our People to Christian Religion receiv'd from thence The Knight I say endeavored to strike out or diminish that Obligation by calling in doubt the said Conversions or cavilling at least at some particulars thereof Whereupon I thought it needful not only to confirm that which had been written before of the Two foresaid Conversions under Pope Eleutherius and Pope Gregory I. but also to add a Third more ancient than these Two to wit under S. Peter himself and some other Apostles And albeit all this was meant so briefly as I have said in the first designment yet when I came to the Work it self it grew more long and could hardly be dispatched in so many Chapters as I had purposed Leaves or Sheets at the beginning 3. The reason of this increase was for that coming to the examination of the matter I found Sir Francis to have taken all that he had said concerning that Point out of John Fox tho' he cited him not and Fox again the most part of his Cavils out of the Magdeburgians So as of necessity I was forc'd to encounter all these Three Adversaries together to examin their Arguments discover their Frauds and refel their Follies Which to do with any sufficiency as also with the clearness and perspicuity which I desir'd drew the matter on to a bigger Bulk than well could be set forth as a Part only of that Encounter whereunto it belonged Whereupon at the persuasion of some Friends resolution was taken to have it divulg'd in a several Treatise as before hath been shewed in the end of the Second Encounter already printed 4. But now when it was taken in hand to be reviewed for the Edition divers things occurred to be added for the more fulness of the Treatise and namely that not only the Planting of Christian Faith in England should be averred by these Three several Conversions but that the Continuation also thereof I mean of One self-same Faith and Belief should be shewed and demonstrated from the First to the Second Conversion and from the Second to the Third unto our days And with this came the Discourse to occupy a dozen whole Chapters which was more than twice as much as in the first design was purposed 5. But being arriv'd hither there offered it self a new cogitation of adding a Second Part no less important than the First for searching out our Adversaries Religion in all this time according to the Advertisement both of the Philosopher and Orator That it is not sufficient only to confirm our own Cause except we infringe and refute the contrary Whereupon it seemed necessary not only to shew the first second and third Planting of our Religion in England together with the manifest and visible Continuance thereof unto our Age but also to demonstrate the contrary in the Religion of the Protestants to wit That it was never planted in England I mean in such Points of Doctrin wherein they differ from the Catholic nor ever was received nor had essence or being under the name of Christian Religion from Christ's time to ours And for that John Fox above all other English Protestant-Writers taketh upon him of purpose and by promise to prove the contrary in his huge Volume of Acts and Monuments to wit to shew the course and race of his Church for so are his words from the beginning of these latter Ages I was forc'd to joyn Issue with him in particular upon both these parts I mean in shewing the beginning and continuance of our Church and Religion and the not being or continuance of his for performance whereof I have had occasion as you see to peruse over the first Part of the said Volume from the beginning of Christian Religion to King Henry VIII containing above 500 Leaves 6. But for that the second Part of that Volume from K. Henry downward being of no less bulk than the former treateth of the principal Pillars of his Religion since that time whereof some he maketh Confessors and other Martyrs and distributeth them into a certain Ecclesiastical Calendar according to the days of every Month wherein their Festival memories are to be kept and placeth the said Calendar in the front of his Acts and Monuments it seemed convenient also to the end that nothing should remain wholly unsearch'd or unexamin'd in that Work of his to add a third Part to the former two for the discussion of this Calendar and some other necessary Points belonging thereunto 7. Lo here good Christian Reader a brief sum of all my cogitations about that matter which if they may serve thee for thy spiritual utility either for confirming or establishing thee in Catholic Religion if thou have it already or for thy reducing unto it if hitherto thou be not partaker of so high and heavenly a Blessing I shall be glad and think my Labor happily bestow'd therein well knowing of what importance this matter is for thy Eternal Salvation 8.
Writings for his Defence he should never so much as look them over or take a view of them but should suffer himself to be cast and overthrown in the whole Suit without pleading at all for Himself or his Interest Which is the very case of many negligent Christians in our days who seeing so many assaults to be made by different Sectaries against the old possession of Cath. Religion which was their Ancestors Inheritance to Salvation and must be theirs if ever they be sav'd do yield so dastardly in this conflict and injury offered them as they never so much as examine what Proofs or Evidences they have or may have for their Defence A negligence no doubt inexcusable and worthy of infinite rebuke and confusion 40. Out of the Third Point concerning the necessity of pious Affection in him that must profit by these Arguments of Credibility I do infer how highly it doth import every man that meaneth seriously to treat of his Salvation in this behalf to dispossess himself of his Passions and sinister Affections against the Truth at leastwise while he treateth this Great Affair and that he place himself in such an indifferency equanimity and serenity of mind as he may be able to discern and look upon the Truth with an unpassionate Eye if she chance to appear unto him 41. The saying of our Savior in the place before-alleged of S. John's Gospel to such as were ambitious and intangl'd with the Wealth and Honor of this World and thereby letted to believe the Truth is terrible and dreadful For having demanded How it was possible for them to believe and thereby come to Salvation that were so intangl'd and evil-affected in mind he addeth presently Nolite putare quia ego accusaturus sim vos apud Patrem est qui accusat vos Do not you think that I shall have need to accuse you to my Father for these corrupt affections of yours rising of Ambition for there wanteth not one to accuse you Whereby Christ insinuateth amonst other things that Himself at the Day of Judgment was not to be Accuser but Judge and that the Condemnation of these men was to be most grievous who for Ambition Honor Wealth Dignities and Promotions had neither Time nor Will to attend to matters of Faith and true Religion whereby only Eternal Salvation may be atchieved which is a Point greatly to be considered and born in mind especially by such who are in the same or like Case with those Men of Jewry to whom Christ our Savior used that dreadful speech 42. Out of the Fourth and Last Point is inferred That considering all the premisses and that this matter of true Religion is of so great Moment as hath been shewed and that in this Treatise so short and clear a way is taken for discussion thereof as by only joyning Issue about the Planting Continuance Succession and Descent of Christian Religion in England from the Apostles Time unto Ours the whole Controversie between Us and the Protestants may fully be cleared and that with such evidence of Reason and necessary Consequence as supposing only that Ghrist was Christ and his Promises true all the rest doth follow by most certain sequel of Argument and moral Demonstration All this I say being so it may encourage and animate the studious Reader to run over this short Treatise Which if he do with that indifferency and attention which in the Second and Third Point of this Discourse have been touched I do not doubt but that he shall not need to read many other Books for resolving himself either about the grounded certain Truth of Catholic Religion or the Vanity Inanity Inconstancy Lightness and Folly of all Sect and Heresies that ever have or shall arise up against the same And with this good Reader I leave thee to the holy Protection and Benediction of Almighty God and to his merciful direction of thee in so weighty an Affair This Vigil of the Nativity of our Savior 1602. The First PART of this Present TREATISE CONCERNING Three Conversions OF ENGLAND TO THE Christian Catholic Roman Religion The ARGUMENT THe purpose of this first Part gentle Reader is to declare by evident demonstration both of Histories Reasons Antiquities and Succession of Times and by confession and other testimonies of the Adversaries themselves That this our Isle of England and People thereof the Britans Saxons and English have at three several times received Christian Faith from Rome and by Romish Preachers First under the Apostles in the first Age after Christ And then under Pope Eleutherius in the second Age And thirdly under Pope Gregory in the beginning of the sixth Age And that this Faith and Religion was no other than the Roman Catholic Faith generally received over all Christendom in those days And that it was One and the Self-same Faith at all these three times and that the same was continued and professed afterward in England publicly for almost 1400 years together to wit from the Apostles days unto the Reign of King Henry VIII under divers Nations States Governments and variety of Times by Britans Saxons Danes Normans and English and that the self-same Faith continueth at this day in the Church of Rome and Christian Catholic World abroad without change or alteration of any one substantial Article or Point of Belief and that all Cavils and Calumniations of Heretics and Sectaries in this behalf are vain and foolish and most manifestly here confuted And finally a most clear easie evident and infallible deduction visible to the Eye and Vnderstanding of every mean intelligent Reader is set down and brought from hand to hand without interruption from the first Conversions of our Realm unto this day and this so perspicuously as no man that will not wilfully shut his eyes but can see and behold the same as by the Chapters following God willing more particularly shall appear CHAP. I. Whether England and English-men have particular Obligations to the See of Rome above other Nations And of the first Conversion of Britans to Christian Religion in the time of the Apostles AFTER a certain Narration made by me in my Answer to Sir Francis Hastings about the seventh Encounter between him and N. D. wherein I declared what Reverend Respect other Nations and Kingdoms of the Christian World have ever born to the See Apostolic and Bishop thereof until this miserable Age of Heretical Spirits who ridiculously do hold the same to be Antichrist I do infer the conclusion and comparison following about the particular Obligation of English-men towards the same See and Bishop above many other Kingdoms saying in my Ward-word thus 2. And if all Christian Nations have and ought to bear such Reverence and Respect to the See of Rome then much more out little Island of England as this man calleth it for that it hath received more singular benefits from thence than any one Nation in the World besides having been twice converted from
missus est Augustinus à beato Gregorio c. In the mean space was sent into Britanny Augustin by Blessed Gregory to preach to English-men the Word of God who were yet blind in Pagan Superstition c. Though among the Britans that Christianity was yet in force which being received from the time of Eleutherius the Pope had never failed until that day c. Among whom there was an Abbot of Bangor named Dinoot that had above 2000 Monks under his charge who answered to Augustin when he requir'd Subjection of the British Bishops and that they would joyn with him to convert the English Nation That the Britans owed no Subjection unto him nor would bestow the labour of Preaching upon their Enemies seeing the Britans had an Archbishop of their own and that the Saxons took from them their Country for which cause they hated them extremely nor did not esteem their Religion nor would communicate with them more than with Dogs 14. Lo here all that is to be found in Geffry of Monmouth to this purpose which is nothing else as you see but a passionate and choleric Answer of the Britans as of men afflicted and exasperated Here is no one word of their not acknowledging the Popes Supremacy as the Magdeburgians write but only that they acknowledged not the Superiority of Augustin over the Britans seeing he was only sent to the English and that the Authority of their own Archbishop was not taken away by his coming for any thing they yet knew but remained as before Which question of Jurisdiction between two Archbishops falleth out daily even where the Pope's Authority is acknowledged and so we see that it is a manifest Lie which the Magdeburgians affirm so resolutely That the Britans would not acknowledge any Primacy of the Bishop of Rome over them For they speak as you see of Augustin's Authority and not of the Bishop of Rome from whom we read not that he had yet shewed to them any Authority to place him over their Archbishop and consequently it is a vain and malicious Inference which the Magdeburgians here do make out of this Answer of the Britans if it had been true that forasmuch as they admitted not St. Augustin's Authority they acknowledged not the Primacy of Rome and that this again was a clear sign that Religion was not planted in Britanny by the Romans 15. For how clear is this I pray you or how hangeth this together might not this Error of not acknowledging the Power of the Roman See if it had been among them have crept in after the first planting of Christian Faith Will these Germans or Sir Francis or Fox their Scholars deny that Ravennae in Italy for Example was converted by St. Apollinaris sent thither from St. Peter for that afterwards the Bishops of that place for many years waxing proud and presumptuous upon the presence and Court of the Exarchs and Vice-Roys of the Emperours residing amongst them did refuse to yield to the Bishops of Rome Or for that England at this day by Error of Protestant Religion refuseth to acknowledge any Subjection in Spiritual Affairs to Rome will our men deny that the English Nation was ever converted to Christian Faith from Rome Who seeth not the impertinency of this kind of Argument And yet with such-like kind of Arguments and Inferences these absurd People do deceive the World. 16. But the last point of these Germans Assertion about Pope Innocentius I. is a most egregious Impudency to say of so holy a Father so highly commended by St. Augustin and other Fathers that lived with him and after him That he spake of Vain-glory and desire of Temporal Power when he wrote above 1200 years agone That all the West-Churches and the British amongst the rest were founded by St. Peter or his Disciples and Successors And let any indifferent or prudent Reader in the World consider of what weight these words of the Germans may be when having said That albeit Innocentius I. wrote so yet we judge that to have been spoken of Vain-glory c. A proud Censure of so great a man by three or four poor Companions that wrote Books for their Bread and begg'd the same commonly of every Prince to whom they dedicated their several Centuries That so contemptible People I say should presume to touch the Honor and Truth of so great and worthy a Saint and Father as was holy Innocentius so called commonly by St. Augustin St Hierom St. Basil Orosius and others and whom all the rest of the World together with these men admired and respected in his Life for such Sancti Innocentii saith St. Hierom to the Virgin Demetriades qui Apostolicae Cathedrae beat ae memoriae Anastasii successor filius est tene as fidem nec pergrinam quamvis prudens callidáque videaris doctrinam recipias Hold the Faith of holy Innocentius which is the Successor and Son in the Seat of St. Peter's Chair of Anastasius of blessed Memory that went before him and do not admit any new or foreign Doctrin though thou maist seem perhaps wise and subtle to thy self 17. Thus wrote St. Hierom which is another manner of Judgment of Innocentius both for his Holiness of Life and Authority of Place to direct men in Religion than the Magdeburgians give who would make him Vain-glorious But thus they use all ancient Fathers that are against them And so much for this Chapter CHAP. III. The former Controversie is more particularly handled how the Grecian Custom of celebrating Easter-day after the Fashion of the Jews came first into the British and Scottish Church and how untruly and wickedly John Fox and John Bale do behave themselves about this matter BUT now let us return if you please to speak a word or two more of the entrance of the foresaid Custom of celebrating Easter with the Jews into Britanny to wit how and about what time or upon what occasion it is probable that it entred Wherein first it seemeth most certain that it could not be brought in by the first Preachers of Christian Religion to John Fox and Sir Francis and the Magdeburgians would have men believe And this is proved as well by the Reasons and Authorities alleged before to shew that the first Preachers in Britanny either came from Rome or preached Roman Doctrin as also by the Reasons following First for that if Damianus and other Preachers sent into Britanny by Pope Reason I Eleutherius to instruct King Lucius and the rest in Christian Faith about the year 180 had found any such Custom there contrary to the Roman Use from whence they were sent they would have removed the same or at least wise have made some mention thereof forsomuch as at that time the contrary Custom of celebrating Easter upon the Sunday was public in the Use of the Roman Church and Pope Pius I. had made a Decree for confirming the same against the Asian Use about 40 years
great and horrible Persecutions of Christians in Rome and of their often Martyrings and that they remained constant notwitstanding in their Christian Faith to all mens admiration and that their number did increase daily even of the chiefest Nobility and that two worthy Senators in particular Pertinax and Tretellius had been lately converted from Paganism to profess Christ yea that the Emperour himself Marcus Aurelius then living began to be a Friend to Christians in respect of a famous Victory obtained by their Prayers all which things Baronius sheweth the Emperour's Legat in England to have told Lucius For these causes I say and for that he hated the Romans and their Old Religion to whom he understood the Christians to be contrary he resolved to be instructed in that Religion And understanding the chief Fountain thereof to be at Rome contented not himself either with Instructions he might have at home by Christians there nor yet from the Christian Bishops flourishing then in France as St. Irenaeus Photinus and others but sent men to Rome to demand Preachers of Eleutherius the Pope who directed to him two Romans named Fugatius and Damianus by whom the said King and his Countrey were converted about the year of Christ 180 as John Fox holdeth but as Baronius thinketh 183 from whom Pamelius Genebrard Nauclerus and other Chronographers do little dissent tho' Marianus Scotus doth put it in the year 177. And this Conversion of Britanny under King Lucius is testified both by the ancient Books of the Lives of the Roman Bishops attributed by some to Damasus as also by the ancient Ecclesiastical Tables and Martyrologies yet extant as Baronius proveth and by St. Bede in his History of England and after him by Ado Archbishop of Trevers and Marianus Scotus anno 177 and all Authors since 3. This then being so and John Fox the Father of Lies not â—â—â—ing openly to impugn the same yet granteth he the thing with such difficulty and strainings and telleth the story with so many hems and haws ifs and ands Interpretations and Restrictions as a man may see how greatly it grieveth him to confess the substance thereof I mean of this second Conversion by Pope Eleutherius and therefore he turneth himself hither and thither now granting now denying now doubting now equivocating as is both ridiculous and shameful to behold For as on the one side he would gladly deny the Truth of this Story so on the other side being press'd with the Authorities before alledged and general consent of all Writers he dareth not to utter himself plainly but endeavoureth to leave the Reader in suspence and doubtful whether it were true or no which is the effect most desired commonly of Heretical Writers to bring all things in doubt and question and there to leave the Reader And to this purpose doth the Fox tell us first That divers Authors of later Times do not agree about the certain year wherein this Conversion of King Lucius did happen some saying more and some saying less But what is this to the overthrow of the thing it self For that about the particular times wherein things were done there is often found no small variety among principal Writers and about principal Points and Mysteries of our Faith as about the coming of the Magi and Martyrdom of the Infants about the time of Christ's Baptism yea also of his Passion what Year and Day each of these things happened which yet doth not derogate from the certainty of the things themselves 4. And this is his first Cavil or rather light Skirmish whereby he would somewhat batter or weaken the credit of the Story before he cometh to lay the full Assault which ensueth immediately with seven double Cannons planted by him which he calleth seven good conjectural Reasons against the Tradition of Antiquity about this Conversion of Britanny from Pope Eleutherius Wherein notwithstanding you must note That he proposeth the Controversie as tho' his purpose were only to prove that Pope Eleutherius was not the first that converted England which thing as it might be granted in the sense before often touched if he spake or meant plainly so finding him to deal guilefully and to go about to prove in the end as appeareth by his Conclusion that Eleutherius converted not King Lucius at all but only helpt perhaps to convert him or to instruct him better in Religion being a Christian before I am constrained to examin briefly the Force or rather Fraud and Folly of these his seven Arguments to the end you may judge thereby how he behaveth himself in so main a Volume as his Acts and Monuments do contain seeing that in this one matter he beareth himself so fondly and maliciously And for brevities sake I will reduce the said seven Arguments to three general Heads or Kinds shewing first that all are Impertinent secondly that some besides Impertinency have also gross Ignorance thirdly that others besides these two commendations have Fraud and plain Imposture in them 5. To the first kind of Impertinent do appertain his fourth fifth and sixth Arguments handled by me before against the Magdeburgians to wit that St. Bede said in his time That the Britans celebrated Easter after the fashion of the East-Church that Petrus Cluniacensis testifieth the same in his days of some Scots and that Nicephorus saith that Simon Zelotes preached the Gospel in England All which three Arguments as they do serve to no purpose here but to shew that Fox stealeth all out of the Magdeburgians so no other Answer is needful to be made unto them than that which before hath been written seeing that all being granted that here is said yet proveth it nothing that the Faith of Britanny came not from Rome and consequently all is impertinent 6. Of the second sort both Impertinent and Ignorant Arguments are his second and third probations My second reason is saith he out of Tertullian who living near-about or rather somewhat before this Eleutherius testifieth in his Book contra Judaeos that the Gospel was dispersed abroad by the sound of Apostles in divers Countreys and then among other Kingdoms he reciteth also the parts of Britanny c. Thus you see how impertinent it is to the purpose we have in hand for that it concludeth not but that Pope Eleutherius after the Apostles time might convert King Lucius and his People publicly by Fugatius and Damianus as we affirm And then secondly it includeth notorious Error and Ignorance in that he saith Tertullian lived before Eleutherius for that it is prov'd out of Tertullian's own Works and Words especially in his Book de Pallio wherein he yieldeth the reason wherefore he changed his Habit from a Gown to a Cloak as Christians were wont to do in those days that he was converted to the Christian Faith in the tenth year of Pope Victor that was Successor to Eleutherius which was Anno Domini 196. And moreover he wrote
his Book contra Judaeos cited by Fox divers years after that again as Pamelius and others do demonstrate in his Life So as Eleutherius reigning fifteen years before Victor as all Authors do agree it followeth that he was Pope twenty five years before Tertullian was a Christian And forsomuch as the Conversion of England is assigned to have been in the fifth year of Eleutherius it followeth that Tertullian was not a Christian in twenty years after that time And thus much for his second Reason now let us hear his third 7. My third probation saith he I deduct out of Origen whose words are these Britanniam in Christianam consentire Religionem That Britanny did consent in Christian Religion whereby it appeareth the Faith of Christ was sparsed here in England before Eleutherius Mark his own Contradiction mark his Inference and note his Imposture He affirmeth out of Origen That Britanny did consent in Christian Religion and yet he saith in his Inference Whereby it appeareth it was sparsed in England Sparsing importeth that particular men here and there were converted Consent importeth a general Conversion So that by Origen's words of consent it may seem that he meant the public Conversion made by Eleutherius and by Fox's own false Interpretation and foolish Inference he is made to say that there were only certain sparkles of Christian Religion in his days in Britanny But the true words of Origen corrupted by Fox do make the matter more clear who disputing against the Jews urgeth them with this Question Quando enim terra Britanniae ante adventum Christi in unius Dei consensit Religionem For when did the Land of Britanny agree in the Religion of one God Before the coming of Christ 8. Here you see the words of Origen first not truly but corruptly alledged before by John Fox and secondly that Origen doth speak them of a consent in Religion throughout all the Land of Britanny and thereby seemeth to signifie not the particular Conversion of several men before Eleutherius his Time as Fox would enforce it but rather the public Conversion as I have said under King Lucius and Eleutherius which Conversion according to the former Account of Fox himself who saith it was in the year of Christ 180 was about 76 years before the Death of Origen for that as Eusebius testifieth Origen died in the year of Christ 256 and was of age 69 when he died so as he was born seven years after our said Conversion under Lucius and consequently he might mean of this Conversion in his former Homily And it is not only Ignorance but wilful Malice and Imposture also in John Fox to make his Reader believe as before in Tertullian so in this Man that he was either Equal or Elder than Pope Eleutherius And for this cause that Origen in his foresaid Homily must needs mean of a former Conversion of Britanny that came not from Rome Consider the Man's Honesty and Wit in these shifts 9. And albeit this may be sufficient and more than enough to shew his false Dealing and lack of Fidelity in every thing he handleth yet will I add his two last Arguments which he calleth his first and seventh and in which as I said before that not only the former two qualities of Impertinency and Error are to be found but manifest Fraud also and wilful Deceit Let us hear his words But first I must both pray and prevent the Reader to take in patience the hearing of one and the self-same thing many times repeated for that we having to deal with three several Parties that do tell us Tales by retail one to another of them to wit Sir Francis Sir Fox and Messieurs the Magdeburgians we cannot well see or set down what each of them saith and borroweth one of another but by repeating the same things yet shall it be very briefly Thus then writeth Fox in that which he calleth his first probation against the first Conversion of England by Eleutherius 10. My first probation saith he I take out of the Testimony of Gildas who in his History affirmeth plainly That Britanny received the Gospel in the time of Tiberius the Emperour and that Joseph of Arimathea was sent by Philip the Apostle from France to Britanny Gild. lib. de Victoria Aurel. Ambrosii Here you see first not only crambe recocta according to the Proverb that is to say Coleworts and other Trash twice sodden but many times also both sodden and set before us for all this you heard before more than once both out of Sir Francis and the Magdeburgians And when all is granted yet is the whole Argument but a vain and childish Cavil for it proveth only that Damianus and Fugatius sent by Eleutherius were not the very first of all that preached Christian Faith in Britanny which we never affirmed but only that Britanny was converted publicly under Eleutherius which this impugneth not And secondly for the receiving of Christ's Faith under Tiberius the Emperour I have shewed before that it is unlikely seeing Tiberius lived but five years after the Ascension of our Savior and that the place alledged for it out of Gildas if he mean the true Gildas now extant proveth it not but only that Christ himself appeared to the World in the time of Tiberius and that the Faith of Christ entred Britanny afterward under Claudius as may appear evidently to him that will read and examin the place with attention Which the Fox perceiving thought it not best to alledge us the said true Gildas published by Polydor Virgil and allowed by all Learned Men of Christendom whose Title is De excidio Britanniae but runneth to a forged Gildas De Victoria Aurelii Ambrosii to confirm his Allegation withal of which Gildas the said Polydor after due Examination of the matter writeth as followeth 11. Extat item alter libellus ut tempestive lectorem nefariae fraudis admoneamus qui falsissimè inscribitur Gildae commentarium haud dubie à quodam pessimo impostore compositum c. Sanè is nebulo longè post homines natos impudentissimus c. There is extant besides another Book also that I may by this occasion advertise the Reader in time of a wicked Imposture which is most falsly entituled The Commentary of Gildas devised no doubt by some naughty Deceiver c. Truly he was the most impudent Knave that ever lived c. Thus said Polydor of the Inventer of this Book and as much would he have said of Sir John Fox that obtrudeth the same for a true Author if he had lived in our days And seeing that the Calvinists themselves of Heidelberg in Germany taking upon them to set forth all the British Writers Anno 1587 as Gildas Geffrey of Monmouth Ponticus Virunnius and others durst not set forth this feigned Gildas alledged by Fox but only the former true Gildas printed before by Polydor it is a token that Fox is
Calixtus the Second Whereby appeareth that the Britans were not only Papists in those days before the coming of St. Augustin but had Papist Gods and Saints also there Yet this Man might live according to Bale to have seen the times of St. Augustin's entrance for that he saith he flourished in the year 440. and lived in all 146 years tho' Gerrad Cambrensis Polydor and others do make him somewhat more ancient 10. And for that we have talked here of John Bale and that the testimonies taken from Enemies themselves are of greatest weight against themselves we shall in this place touch certain Points briefly of the chief Preachers and Pastors among the Britans in those days to wit for the next two hundred years before the coming of St. Augustin into England Which Preachers are mentioned and much praised both by Fox and Bale as true Teachers in those days whereof Fox writeth thus In this Age to wit after the Peace restored to the Church by Constantine followed here in the land of Britanny Fastidius Ninianus Patricius Bacchiarius Dubritius Congellus Kentegernus Helmotus David Daniel Sampson Elnodugus Assaphus Gildas Henlanus Elbodus Dinothus Samuel Nivius and a great sort more which governed the Britan Church by Christian Doctrin a long season albeit the civil Governours for the time were dissolute and careless as Gildas very sharply doth lay to their Charge and so at length were subdued by the Saxons And all this while about the space of 400 years to wit from the time of King Lucius Religion remained in Britanny uncorrupt and the word of Christ truly preached until about the coming of St. Augustin and his Companions from Rome c. 11. Here now you see the chief Teachers of the British Church Nineteen in number for the space of 400 years as Fox avoweth set down in order and highly praised by him but neither his Order or Argument is worth a rush For as for his Order he beginneth with Fastidius that lived not two hundred years before St. Augustin's coming tho he name four hundred And then he putteth some before that lived long after the rest and sometimes skippeth over 100 years together from one to another as you shall see by the Examen And for his Argument how many lies and errors it containeth shall easily appear by the Sequel of this Discourse For first concerning two of the chief in this Catalogue contained to wit Dubritius and David Archbishops of the Britans you have seen before that they were Roman Catholics and canonized many Ages after their Death by Roman Bishops which they would never have done if they had differed from them in any Point of Religion But now let us see of the rest for I see not what reason there is why Fox should so commend these two 12. The first four are Fastidius Ninianus Patricius and Bacchiarius all which are found to have been Catholic Men and held the common Faith of Rome in those days nor any of them ever favoured any of these new Doctrins brought in by our new Gospellers Trithemius maketh mention of Fastidius whose Sirname was Priscus Bishop of the Britans a Man of rare Life and great Learning in the Scriptures and a singular Preacher and lived in the time of Honorius and Theodosius the Emperors about the year of Christ 420. The same do write of him both Honorius Gennadius and Bergomas And John Bale concurreth with the rest adding that he was Archbishop of London and that amongst other his Works he wrote one De Viduitate servanda of keeping Widowhood without marryig again By which only work you may know that he was not of John Bale's Religion What we have written also of the Religion of St. German and his fellow Bishops that came into England may easily declare what Religion this Man was of who being then Archbishop of London must needs be presumed to have had a great part in their calling in as also to have joyned with them against the Pelagians which he would not have done if they had not been all of one Religion And thus much of him 13. Of St. Ninianus who converted the Picts to Christian Religion St. Bede maketh most honorable mention in the Third Book of his Ecclesiastical History and the Roman Martyrologe doth cite him for a Saint upon the Sixteenth day of September Which would never have been permitted if he had been in any one thing different from the Roman Faith. Nay John Bale writeth of him thus Ninianus Bernitius ex Regio Britannorum sanguine procreatus Italiam adhuc adolescens petiit Romae apud divini verbi ministros mysteria veritatis edoctus ad plenum celer in patriam remigrabat c. miraculis ac sanctitate clarissimus obiit anno 432. St. Ninian Bernitius being descended of the Blood of the King 's of Britanny went in his youth into Italy and being fully taught the Mysteries of Gods Word in Rome he returned swiftly to his Country again where he flourished exceedingly in Miracles and Sanctity of Life and after died in the year of Christ 432. Mark here that Princes Children became Priests in those days and went to Rome to learn Divinity and that this Man having done so and brought back into Britanny the Christian Doctrin of Rome wrought Miracles thereby Ergo he was no Protestant so that here Bale testifieth against himself 14. There followeth of Patricius in John Fox but indeed he should have put Palladius before Patricius For so doth Bale and he hath Reason for that he was a famous Teacher in Britanny and sent from Rome by Pope Caelestinus before Patricius as Bale doth note saying first of Palladius Hic à Caelestino Romanorum Pontifice Antistes mittebatur c. This Man was sent Bishop from Caelestinus Pope of Rome to drive out of Britanny the Pelagian Heresie which at that time had infected the greater part thereof and to reduce the Scots to true Piety c. He flourished about the year of Christ 431. c. So saith he And the same is confirmed by that which Prosper a far better Author than Bale writeth in his Chronicle where he saith that Palladius was sent by Caelestinus Pope in the year 432 into Britanny but especially to the Scots as testifieth also St. Bede in his Story So as in this time also the Popes of Rome had Supreme Care in Spiritual Affairs both among the Britans and Scots seeing he appointed them Bishops from Rome 15. And this is confirmed also by the other Example of Patricius who as John Bale saith was sirnamed Mangonius and was born in Britanny of the Family of Senators and thereby called Patricius but yet of kindred by his Mother to St. Martin Bishop of Tours study'd Divinity in Rome and thence sent by Caelestinus the Pope to preach to the Irish-men Istum saith he ad Scotos Hibernos post Palladium Graecum misit ut eos à Pelagianorum tueretur
erroribus This man did Caelestinus Bishop of Rome send to the Scots and Irish-men especially those that lived in Britanny after Palladius the Grecian to defend them from the Errors of the Pelagians 16. Behold the Care and Authority of the Bishop of Rome in those days But what followeth in Bale This man saith he did preach the Gospel unto the Irish-men with incredible fervour of spirit for forty years together and did convert them to the sincere Faith of Christ He was most excellent both in Learning and Holiness and among other Miracles that he did he continued in Praying and Fasting forty days and forty nights founded many Churches healed many sick deliver'd many possessed of Devils and raised to life sixty that were dead c. 17. Behold the effects of Preachers sent forth by the Bishops of Rome recounted by the Heretics themselves Let Fox or Bale shew us any such Example of Miracles wrought by Preachers sent by them and their Sect. And that this man also was made Bishop by Caelestinus the Pope and sent hither after Palladius is testified by St. Prosper that lived in that time and after him by St. Bede Marianus Scotus Sigibert and others who say also that he died in the year of Christ 491 being of the age of 122 years and his Memory is held in the Roman Calendar upon the 17th day of March c. And now our Fox and Bale being taken in these Examples to speak against themselves we might pass over the rest with silence assuring the Reader that all is like unto this Yet some points more we shall note 18. The fourth before named Bacchiarius tho' he be not mentioned by John Bale yet other Authors do report that he was brought up in Rome and in good credit with Pope Leo I. to whom he dedicated a Book written in defence of his Pilgrimage to Rome He had been the Scholar of St. Patricius and by this you may guess of what Religion he was 19. Congellus is the sixth Preacher of true Religion cited in Fox's Catalogue for of Dubritius which is the fifth we spoke before whom Bale saith to have flourished about the year of Christ 530 and that he was the first Abbot of the Monastery of Bangor But what more think you Ab isto Monachismus à Pelagio introductus c. From this man saith he the Religion of Monks brought in by Pelagius the Heretic was not only spread over Britanny under shew of true Religion but was dilated also into other Countreys c. Behold how Fox and Bale agree Fox saith He was a true Preacher of the Word of God and Bale saith He was a Father of Pelagian Monks And note here by the way that Fox professing to shew the continual Succession of the Britan Church leapeth from Patricius to Dubritius of whom we spake before and between whom there was above 100 years distance if we believe Bale and other Authors And then followeth Kentegernus and Helmotus before David Menevensis who should have come after him in respect of time tho' of Helmotus Bale maketh no mention but of Kentegernus he saith That he flourished in the year 560 and lived in all 185 years which if it be so he must needs be alive long after the entrance of St. Augustin He saith He was a Monk and had three hundred Scholars in one Colledge which he sent to preaching here and there c. And then he addeth further Melote utebatur c. He used a Garment made of Goats skins with a streight Hood having a white Stole about his Neck after the fashion of the Primitive Church He converted many to the Faith of Christ recall'd many Apostatas drove out Pelagians built Churches ministred to the sick and healed their sickness and lived in very great Abstinence c. Thus he describeth him and whether this description doth agree to a Protestant Minister or to a Catholic Abbot let the Reader consider 20. There do follow in Fox's Catalogue David Daniel Sampson Elnodugus Asaphus and Gildas But of St. David the first of this number we have spoken before in this Chapter And as for Gildas which is the last of this Rank Bale saith He was a Monk of Bangor And further it may easily appear by the speeches themselves which before we have alledged out of him in the former Chapter of what Religion he was Of Daniel Sampson and Elnodugus tho' John Bale speak little or nothing yet Capgrave Leland and others shew that they were of the same Religion with the rest Daniel being the first Bishop of Bangor and Sampson next after St. David was Bishop of that place 21. Of Asaph Bale saith He was Scholar to the foresaid famous Abbot Kentegern and was made Bishop of Elgoa in Wales which of his name was called Asaph ever since He flourished in the year 590 and saw the coming in of Augustin and his Fellows from Rome and was the first of the Britans saith Bale qui à Gregorii Romani Discipulis in Angliam adventantibus Auctoritatem Unctionem accepit that took his Authority and Vnction or Consecration from the Disciples of Gregory Bishop of Rome that came into England So writeth Bale and by this sheweth that St. Asaph held nothing against the Roman Religion seeing he accepted his Authority and Consecration from the Bishop of Rome Besides this this Bishop St. Asaph hath his Memory celebrated in the Roman Martyrology upon the first day of May which he should not if he had been different in any one point from the Roman Religion 22. And so being come down now to St. Augustin's time it is to no purpose to go any farther or name the rest that do ensue in Fox to wit those five Herlanus Elbodus Dinothus Samuel and Nivius for that they lived after St. Augustin's entrance whereas Fox's promise was to cite only British Teachears that were before him and different from the Roman Religion whereof he hath named hitherto none Besides that of three of these five Bale writeth not and as for Dinothus Abbot of Bangor he was the chiefest of those who opposed themselves against Augustin and set other men against him also in Synodo Wiccionum and was severely punished afterward for the same by the Providence of God as St. Bede noteth to wit by the Sword of Ethelfredus a Heathen King of Northumberland long after the Death of St. Augustin when the said Dinothus and 1200 Monks were slain at Chester by the Souldiers of the said Ethelfride Augustino jam multo ante tempore saith St. Bede ad Coelestia Regna sublato St. Augustin being taken to Heaven long before tho' Bale be not ashamed to say that it was done by his suggestion praising the foresaid Dinothus and his Confederates for that they would not preach Baptism and celebrate Easter-day according to the Custom of Rome and Universal Catholic Church 23. So as now we see that these men care not
in this manner was Religion first planted among us according to that which St. Mark the Evangelist saith of the first Preachers and Preachings among other Nations and Gentiles in his time To wit Domino cooperante sermonem confirmante sequentibus signis Christ working with them and confirming their Preaching with Signs and Miracles And this Faith being once planted did take such deep Root by the said watering of Christ the Author thereof as it continued and held out from time to time through all difficulties and differences both of times Men and State and by Peril Divisions Enmities and cruel Wars that fell out every day between those Seven Kingdoms until they were united all under one Monarchy some 200 years after to wit under King Egbert King of the West-Saxons And from him again the same indured other 200 years unto King Edward the Confessor before the Conquest 17. And that which is worthy also the noteing in this case is that during the time of all this Enmity Emulation Suspicions Jealousie of Kingdoms and States and Bloody Battels between these Kingdoms for the space of the foresaid 200 years from their Conversion to Christianity until they came to be a Monarchy They all lived under one Arch-bishop and Primate of Canterbury holding their due subordination and good correspondence with him and by him with the See of Rome and other Catholic Countries for matters of Faith and Ecclesiastical Affairs no otherwise than if they had been all Friends yea Subjects and Provinces of one and the self same Kingdom and this is the vertue and force of Catholic Union Whereas amongst Sectaries every little difference of Temporal States yea of Towns Cities and Governments doth presently cause a diversity also in Faith and Religion As we see at this day that Saxony for example where the name of the Protestants first began being under a different Prince hath a great difference also in Religion from other parts of Germany that call themselves Protestants and the Kingdoms of Denmark and Swedeland tho' they profess all Lutheranism yet is the manner so different in these different States as not only the one will not depend of the other in any sort of subordination or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as in England we see they did but neither do they agree in any one Form of Religion or substance of belief in all points no nor in one state it self where all profess themselves to be Lutherans as in Saxony where the higher Saxons allow only rigid or streight Lutherans But the lower Saxony alloweth only the softer sort and expelleth the rigid or severe Lutherans as the other do them where they get Dominion 18. Geneva and Berne are both Cities and States of the Switzers and both of them profess Protestancy tho' not according to Luthers Doctrin But yet the Temporal State of the said two Towns being different the Magistrates have appointed a different and distinct Form. Which in England also we see by experience how much they differ from those of Scotland Holland and France who profess themselves Protestants of the same Calvinist School But every Nation and Church after his own fashion And finally what differences have risen in England it self during her Majesties only Government betwixt Puritans Brownists Family of Love and State Protestants as Thomas Diggs calleth them no Man can be ignorant But to what differences and divisions they would grow in two or three hundred years if Sects could last so long and that the States which profess them were Enemies in Temporal Affairs as it was in England is easie to guess But the reason hereof is manifest to wit that for so much as Sectaries making their own judgments and inventions the Rule of their Belief and Religion and their Temporal Princes their absolute Guiders and immediate Heads in Ecclesiastical matters it must needs follow that as these Princes or States do change or alter for any respect whatsoever as they do for many Religion also must needs alter and change for contentment or interest of the said States or Princes 19. But to return to our Deduction and Continuation of Catholic Religion among the English Saxons after they came to be a Monarchy to wit from the year of Christ 800 it is first to be noted that assoon as God had delivered them from one affliction which was the continual Civil Wars of one Kingdom with an other he sent them a second Calamity far greater perhaps than the first induring for other 200 years which was the continual incursions and devastations of the Danes Who pursued them not only for Temporal respects to get their Country from them but also for Religion it self the said Danes being then Pagans as appeareth by the cruel Murders and Martyrdoms as well of St. Edmund King of the East-angles Martyred by them about the year of Christ 885 as of Holy Elphegus Arch-bishop of Canterbury some Ages after about the year 1011 and of divers others overlong hear to recount And yet notwithstanding when the said Danes with their King Canutus Son of Swanus came once by Gods Holy grace to be Christians which was soon after the foresaid Martydom of the Holy Arch-bishop Elphegus they submitted themselves with Humility and fervor of Spirit to that very same Christian Faith of their Enemies the English-men which they had persecuted in them before taking them also for their instructors Which is a token that there was no other Christian Faith known in the World at that day for them to embrace but only that which the English professed to the embracing whereof there is no doubt but the Miracles wrought continually in confirmation of the truth of that Faith as well at the Tombs of the foresaid Martyrs St. Edmund and Elphegus slain by the Danes themselves as other ways also did greatly move and animate them 20. But whatsoever the chief motives were to move this Nation to embrace Christian Religion this is certain that soon after this time of St. Elphegus his Death God delivered the whole Kingdom of England into the Danes hands under the foresaid King Canutus about the year of Christ 1020. And he Reigned and held the same peaceably for almost twenty years In which time he being now Christian did many notable Acts of a good Religious King Went to Rome for Devotion to visit the Holy Sepulchres of St. Peter and St. Paul gave great Alms there and else where made just Laws in England loved and favored exceedingly the English Nation used them with all confidence both at home and abroad Married King Emma Mother to King Edward the Confessor thereby to unite himself the more to the Nation And finally became of a Persecutor and Conqueror one of the best Kings that England perhaps had in many Ages to Govern her 21. William of Malmesbury living as it hath been said some 500 years agone under King Henry the first Son to William the Conqueror writeth many most excellent Religious Acts
Arundel Shrewsbury Paget and others they all died Catholicly and most of them in this Queens days when with much favour of the State they might have shewed themselves Heretics 40. And thus much for the Reign of King Edward after whom Queen Mary succeeding restored Catholic Religon to her seat and ancient possession again which having endured only five years it pleased God to give another trial and probation to his Servants by a new alteration in the beginning of her Majesty's Reign that now is but yet not so forsaking them nor their Cause but he left sufficient testimony in our Realm at that time what Religion had born rule unto that day and how and when the change began For first of all the Bishops and chief Prelates of the Realm not only resisted this mutation but most of them suffered Imprisonment or Banishment for the same as London Winchester Durham Carlisle Worcester Lichfield Ely Lincoln Peterborough Asaph Chester tho' some few other were not at first put in Prison but detained only in Custody and deprived as York Exceter Bath and Wells I will omit other principal men as Deans and Archdeacons of Churches as Dr. Cole of London Dr. Steward of Winchester Dr. Robinson of Durham Dr. Setland of Worcester Dr. Rambridge of Litchfield Dr. John Harpesfield of Norwich Dr. Joliff of Bristol Dr. Boxall of Windsor Dr. Nicholas Harpesfield of Canterbury Dr. Dracott of York Dr. Peter of Buckingham Dr. Cheasey of Middlesex and many others which were over-long to rehearse all I omit also Dr. Fecknam Abbot of Westminster and the two learned Priors of the Carthusians Chasey and Wilson and many other Religious Men that left their Livings and the Realm not to be forced to yield to this change Which multitude of learned Witnesses not to speak of infinite others of less degree being the chief throughout all Shires of England where they dwelt did well shew by their constant profession unto their dying days what root and foundation Catholic Religion had in England at that time and hath yet I doubt not as after shall be shewed 41. And albeit in these forty years and more that have endured since the beginning of this change the Temporal State of our Realm hath for our sins been opposite and enemy to this Religion with full intent to extirpate and extinguish the same yet such is the everlasting force of Truth and so faithful is the holy Providence of Almighty God for defence thereof in times of most need and pressure that the Catholic Faith and Profession thereof hath never been more eminent and illustrious in England than in this time of so grievous affliction there having been above an hundred Priests not to speak of others of other Degree that have made profession thereof at the Bars and Benches of most of all the Tribunals and Judgment-seats of England and have sealed also their Confession with most willing offering of their Blood. 42. And indeed that which is most rare and worthy noting in this affair is that most of them were born and bred in England during the time of her Majesty's Reign and were brought up in the Religion that now is professed within the Realm divers of them also had study'd at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge where they had heard the adverse Part alledge for themselves what they could and themselves had read and examined with no small diligence what grounds the Protestants had for their Opinions which being done they went over the Seas to hear and see the Catholic Party and so resolve themselves more substantially in such matters as nearest concerned their eternal Salvation wherein being throughly satisfied in all their doubts they passed further and became Priests and so returned into England again to impart to others the hidden Treasure of Truth which themselves had found out And albeit divers of them were of that Kindred and Parentage and so qualified also in themselves that they might have lived both wealthily and at their ease if they would have followed the World and present course of Times yet made they choice rather to fall into manifold Dangers Imprisonments and Death it self than to forsake the truth of Catholic Religion or forbear to communicate the same to others which is another manner of ground and foundation for their Constancy than John Fox recounteth in many of his Martyrs who upon toys became Protestants and of meer ignorance and obstinacy went to the Fire for the same as namely Joan Lashford a married Maid as he saith of twenty years old that took aversion from the Mass when she was but eleven years old upon very good grounds you must imagin in those years of her Age as also Agnes Potten and Joan Trunchfield the Wives of a Beer-brewer and Shoe-maker of Ipswich resolved to go to the Fire upon a certain Vision that one Samuel a Minister told them that he had in the Prison with them And upon the same ground it seemeth another Wench called Rose Nottingham embraced the said Minister and kissed him in the street as he went towards burning 43. Andrew Hewit in like manner an Apprentice of London of nineteen years old determined to die with John Frith then in the Tower of London for the Opinions that he would die for tho' yet he did not know what his Opinions were William Hunter also another Apprentice of London and of the same age of nineteen years running away from his Master and finding an old English Bible lying in the Chappel of Burntwood fell to reading thereof and thereby presently became a Protestant in divers Opinions and would needs burn for the same Rawling White likewise is recounted by Fox to have been an old poor Fisher-man in Wales and hearing of a certain new fresh Doctrin to be had out of the Scriptures in English and grieved that himself was not able to read them he put his little Boy to School to learn to read who being somewhat instructed in that Art he caused him to read Scriptures unto him and profited so much therein within a little time that the old Fisher-man began to be a Preacher and so leaving his Occupation went up and down Wales with his Boy after him bearing the Bible out of which he took upon him to preach at every Town and Tavern thereof seeking thereby to pervert such as were no wiser than himself nor could he be restrained from his wilful folly until the Bishop of Cardiff apprehended him whom afterward also he was forced to burn for that he stood obstinate in his fantastical Opinions which were such as scarce agreed with any Sect whatsoever And finally Laurence Sanders a famous scarlet Martyr of theirs being a married Priest and seeing a little Bastard of his brought to him in Prison by the Woman that bare it he was so tenderly affected thereunto as in great vehemency of spirit he said to the standers by What man of my Vocation would not die to
make this little Boy legitimate and prove his Mother to be no Whore 44. And of this I might give infinit Examples out of John Fox what substantial grounds and motives many of his Martyrs had to run to the Fire or rather how without all ground or probable reason in the world but only wilful Pride and Obstinacy most of them thrust themselves to death no less than in old times did the Massilians Montanists Circumcellians and Martyrians most famous Heretics upon the like madness as after we are to shew more at large in the third Part where I am to treat of these matters more particularly and to give you if I be not deceived large matters of laughter or rather of compassion in this behalf Now this shall be sufficient to shew both the great number and respective quality of domestical Witnesses for the Catholic Faith and continuance thereof in our Countrey during the time of this sharp Persecution under her Majesty and that never more than in this time hath the Catholic Church been perspicuous honorable and eminent in our Realm which is altogether contrary to that which John Fox ascribeth to his Church whose Invisibility Obscurity and lurking from the eyes of men he both granteth and excuseth by the presence of Persecution against her whereas we hold on the other side that the true Church and consequently Ours is ever more visible and notoriously known in time of Affliction and Persecution than in Peace 45. And so we have shewed by Example of our English Church especially in this present Age wherein not only domestical sufferings at home have come by Fame Books and Writings to the knowledge of Foreign Nations and thereby also the notice of so many worthy constant Catholics that are within the Realm but whole Troops also both of English Men and Women in Exile for their Consciences do represent the same daily to their eyes as it were by a lively spectacle to the wonder of the Christian World. But above all the rest they must needs be greatly moved with the sight of whole Companies Families and Communities of English of both Sexes of tender Age and those for the most part of very principal good Birth and Parentage that have come forth of our Countrey for the love of Religion and lived with great Edification in other Nations partly in Colleges and Seminaries partly in Religious Convents and Monasteries yielding great admiration to strangers for their rare Vertues of Piety Patience Contentment and Devotion And as for Colledges and Seminaries those of St. Omers and Doway in Flanders of Rhemes in France of Rome in Italy of Valliadolid Sevill and St. Lucars in Spain and of Lisbon in Portugal do sufficiently testifie And as for Monasteries both of Men and Women they are not unknown as that venerable Company of English Carthusians in Mechlyn the honorable Religious Houses of English Noble and Gentlewomen in Bruxells Lovain and Lisbon whose rare Vertues do singularly edifie all those that know them and greatly illustrate the Name of our Countrey for Religious Piety with Foreign Nations All these I say do bear witness at this day to the whole World and to us also that God be thanked the fire and fervor of Catholic Religion which Christ came to plant upon Earth is not extinguished by so long and grievous Persecution in our Countrey but rather increased at least in Intention as Philosophers do speak tho' not in Extension 46. And truly when I consider the matter more seriously with my self I doubt much whether England if it had continued Catholic had ever enjoy'd such excellent Education for their Youth at home as by occasion of this Tribulation God hath given them abroad in Foreign Nations Certainly the Example is rare and never heard of in former times and at this day the like is seen in few other Nations besides Us but in none of those that have suffered for Catholic Religion is this Blessing found so abundantly as in Ours God make us grateful for it for if our Ingratitude turn not the course of his Mercies hitherto used towards us it seemeth evident that he will not suffer the Seed of Catholic Religion to be extinguished in England having conserved the same so potently and strangely unto this day which is from the first preaching of the Apostles and Apostolic-men to the Britans unto the time of Pope Gregory I. under whom our English Nation was converted as hath been declared and from thence again downward unto Us which is more than a thousand years and so I doubt not but he will to the Worlds end if our sins deserve not the contrary And this shall serve for this first Part containing the Deduction and Continuance of Catholic Religion in England without interruption for more than fifteen hundred years together Now will we pass to the second Part to examin the same Succession in Protestants Religion throughout all these Ages if it may be found making our Conclusion as after you shall see That as our Religion entred first and hath never left England unto this hour so the Religion of John Fox in the form that he would have it was never yet admitted into England publicly by any Prince or Potentate whatsoever until this present day nor ever like to be And this shall serve for the first Part of our Treatise The End of the First Part. The Second PART of this TREATISE CONTAINING The SEARCH after the Protestants Church From the beginning of Christendom to Our Days The ARGUMENT HAving declared in the former Part of this Treatise how the Faith of Christ was first preached to the Britans at two several times and then to the English Nation and all by Roman Preachers and that the same Faith hath continued from Age to Age in a visible conspicuous Church until our days there remaineth now that we examin in this second Part Where the Protestants Church was in all this time and whether they had any at all And if they had of what sort of men it consisted and whether it were the same with the Church before-described or partly the same partly different or whether they could stand together being opposite in any one point of Faith Moreover whether the one did persecute the other or might be reconciled or agreed together And finally what is the state of the one and the other at this day For examination of which points we shall have occasion to run over again with more advice all the former sixteen Ages from Christ downward and therein to see and consider What Church either flourished or prevailed throughout every Age either Ours or that of John Fox and which of them is likeliest to have come down from the Apostles As also Whether that Church which was visibly founded by the Apostles and put on foot by them and theirs could perish or vanish away to give place to another And these are the principal Points of this second Part discussed in the Chapters following
by that Succession of Roman Bishops the true Succession of one and the self-same Catholic Faith to have endured not only in these several Countreys but also over all Christendom and that from Christ to those times esteeming this to be a most invincible Proof and certain Demonstration or to use St. Irenaeus his own words plenissimam ostensionem a most full probation against all Heretics whatsoever 7. According to which Principle and sure Foundation all other Fathers also that have ensued since from Age to Age have stood very resolutely upon this point of Succession against the Heretics of their times Brevem saith St. Hierom apertamque animi mei sententiam proferam in illa esse Ecclesia permanendum quae ab Apostolis fundata usque ad diem hanc durat I will utter briefly my sentence and judgment we must abide in that Church which being founded by the Apostles hath endured unto this day As if he had said We must be and abide in that Church which as it was visibly founded and spread over the World by the Apostles Preaching so it hath visibly been continued under her Bishops and Teachers unto this day Which sentence of his St. Augustin that lived with him tho' somewhat younger confirmeth in these words Dubitabimus nos illius Ecclesiae considere gremio quae ab Apostolica sede per Successiones Episcoporum frustra haereticis circumlatrantibus culmen Authoritatis obtinuit Shall we doubt still to rest in the lap of that Church which hath kept continually the height of her Authority by Succession of Bishops from the See-Apostolic unto this day notwithstanding the vain barking of Heretics on every side of her 8. Thus said St. Augustin of the visible Church in his days which had not continued much more than 400 years But what would he say if he liv'd in our days after almost 1200 years Succession more since he wrote this when he should hear far greater and more spiteful barking of Heretics against the same than he heard in his days tho' then also he heard much and much of that which we hear now But if St. Augustin should live now again there is no doubt of one thing which is that he would make this his Argument of Succession far more strong against our Heretics and esteem it so much the more by how much the Power of Christ hath shewed it self more Omnipotent in continuing the same since for so many Ages more after him amidst so many troubles and turmoils changes and alterations of Empires and Kingdoms and Temporal States as before we have noted And if in England we can number above seventy Archbishops of Canterbury all of one Religion the one succeeding the other since our first Conversion by St. Augustin our Apostle not to speak any thing of the British Church before us as you may see confessed by Cambden and other new heretical Writers of our own and that this English Church was the same in Faith and Belief with the British as before hath been shewed and both of them one with the Roman and General Church from the very beginning to this time what an Antiquity is this and how clear and evident a Succession And how would St. Augustin urge this Argument against our Protestants if he were now alive again 9. Sure I am that if any one Baron Earl or Duke in England could shew but the half of these years for the continuance and possession of any Temporal State Lordship or Land in England he would highly esteem thereof and thereby make a glorious defence against any wrangling Companion that should presume to pretend the same and deprive him thereof if he could truly say and prove as we do in the Cause of our Church that his Ancestors for 1300 years together had continued in that possession But no man can prescribe any such time in temporal matters and therefore are they well called Temporal for that they change in a little time And he that will read the foresaid Cambden's Story towards the end of every English Shire where he taketh upon him to recount the Earls or Dukes that have had their States and Titles over that Shire he shall see such a broken Succession in those States and Signories as it is pitiful to behold no Dukedom or Earldom continuing lightly three or four Generations together in any one Name or Family And this is the frailty and uncertainty of human things 10. But for matters of Religion appertaining to the Soul Almighty God hath given another manner of force unto Succession both of Men and Faith. As for example in the Law of Nature he made the same to endure by only Tradition without Writing for more than 2500 years under the ancient Patriarchs before and after the Flood of Noe. And afterward again in the written Law the Jews continued the possession of their Religion by Succession of Bishops and Ecclesiastical Governors from Moses unto Christ above 1500 years notwithstanding all varieties of times and calamities And no less from Christ to our Age hath he continued the same in a much more glorious sort and manner In which latter time of Christian Religion to speak only of this for the present so many mutations have been made both in the Roman Empire it self and all other Realms and Kingdoms round about us as all men know and may be seen in Histories And yet hath the Succession of the Catholic Church and Pastors thereof together with the Union of Faith therein taught been most miraculously conserved amongst all these tossings and turmoils breaches and divisions of Temporal Kingdoms which could never have been but by the Omnipotent Hand of our Savior that hath defended it especially considering withal the great multitude of Sects and Heresies that from time to time have risen and attempted to impugn the same but could never prevail And this is sufficient for this first and principal point of the vertue and force of Ecclesiastical Succession 11. The second point to be considered is That when Luther's new Religion began and could alledge no Successors of Bishops or ancient Teachers for it self but was much pressed with this other of the Catholics he devised a certain notorious and ridiculous shift to say that the true Church was invisible to the eye of man and only seen by God and consequently had no need of any visible or external Succession of Men. And this shift of his is discovered by that he writeth both against Erasmus and Catharinus and in his wicked Treatise de abroganda Missa privata for taking away private Masses where having had Conference with the Devil as himself confesseth he asketh very stoutly Who can shew us the Church seeing she is secret and to be believed only in Spirit To whom if any man would oppose S. Aug. that saith digito ostendimus Ecclesiam we can shew the Church with our finger should not Luther be well match'd think you 12. The like held
from King Egbert his death but 234. So as Fox is in no one thing exact or punctual And these 264 years may be counted the fourth station or parcel of Time from Christ downward which now we are briefly to examin and run over as we have done the former Stations and Limitations appointed 2. First then concerning the general Roman Church it continued in these Ages as in the former by continual Succession of her Bishops and Governors altering nothing in Belief and Doctrin from her Ancestors And briefly to repeat the sum of all there ruled in the See of Rome in these two Ages and an half as supreme known and acknowledged Pastors of this great visible Church some sixty Popes from Leo III. that crowned Charles the Great and thereby restor'd the Western Empire unto the time of Alexander II. under whom Duke William of Normandy conquered England And in the Western Empire there reigned some eighteen Emperours in this space from Charles the Great to Henry IV. and in the Eastern Empire some twenty five from Nicephorus I. to Constantine X. All which Popes Emperours and Princes were of one Religion Faith and Belief in those days And albeit soon after the See of Constantinople and Greek Church by occasion of Emulation against the Roman Empire did begin to withdraw their due Obedience from the Roman Church and thereby fell by little and little into divers errors of Doctrin also and finally were delivered over as all the World seeth into the Subjection and Servitude of the Turks yet in these Ages there was Union and due Subordination between both Churches Which may appear by that one only General Council being held at Constantinople even against Phocius that was Patriarch of the said City being gathered by order of Pope Adrian II. and Basilius the Grecian Emperour concurring therein This Council was of 300 Bishops and confirmed by the said Pope Adrian being the eighth General Council in order and the fourth of those that were held in Constantinople Whereby it cometh also to be noted That all the General Councils held hitherto in the Christian Church for the space of 900 years being eight in number as hath been said from the first Council of Nice unto this and from this to the first General Council of Lateran holden in the year of Christ 1115 under Pope Innocentius III. were all held in Greece but yet by order of the Bishops of Rome sending thither their Legats and confirming the same afterwards by themselves without which confirmation they were never held for Lawful in the Christian World which is no small Argument of the Greatness and Authority of the Church of Rome from time to time 3. It shall not be needful to speak of the particular Heresies of these two or three Ages which in effect were none of any name but only two the Iconoclasts or Image-breakers and the Berengarians or Sacramentaries both of them agreeing in their particular Heresies with the Calvinists of our Times tho' in many other things different as it is wont to be The first of them was begun before these Times by Leo III. Emperour of Constantinople sirnamed Isaurus about the year of Christ 750 as before hath been noted and renewed again by Claudius Taurinensis The second was begun 300 years after by Berengarius about the year of Christ 1050 and abjured by him again as hereafter shall be shewed The chief Doctors and Fathers that defended true Religion in these Ages were Turpinus Eginhardus Haymo Rabanus Frecolphus Hincmarus Jo. Diaconus Remigius Theophylactus and others in the ninth Age and then in the other Odo Ado Rhegino Luitprandus Rhatbodus Abbo Floriacensis and others and the other half of the eleventh Age Bruchardus Petrus Damianus Lanfrancus and many others 4. And this was the state of the Universal Christian Church in these Ages whereunto in all respects was conform the particular Church of England as the Daughter to her Mother which may be demonstrated partly by the continual Descent of Archbishops in England which were to the number of Sixteen from Celnothus that lived with King Egbert unto Stigand that possessed the See of Canterbury when William the Conqueror came in tho' afterward he caused him to be deposed by a Commission from Rome in the year of Christ 1070 as John Stow and others do note 5. I do pretermit the Succession of other Bishoprics in England for Brevities sake the Kings also of England that possessed that Crown from Egbert to William the Conqueror were some Twenty in number if we count Canutus the Dane and his two Children among the rest All which Kings of what Nation or State soever agreed fully in Faith and Belief with the said Archbishops and Bishops of our Land and They again with the whole Universal Roman Church as appeareth by their Acts and Monuments and John Fox also confesseth 6. Which being so it is hard to say or imagin where John Fox in these Ages will pick out a different Christian Church tho' it be never so poor and creeping for Him and His either in England or out of England during this time And much more hard it is to think how he can devise any visible Continuation of the said obscure and trodden-down Church as he promised to do even from the Apostles Time to our Age. His only refuge must be as before we have often noted to run to the condemned Heretics of these times if he find any for his purpose Which yet he dareth not openly to do as you have seen throughout all the former Ages But afterward when he cometh near home to wit after Pope Innocentius III. and John Wickliff he taketh more heart affirming Our Church to have utterly perished and a new visible Off-spring of his Church to have started up to wit all the Sectaries and Heretics cast out and condemned of our Church as you shall see more particularly when we come to that place 7. For the present Ages that we are now in he doth not so much as lay hands upon the Iconoclasts or Berengarians nor doth seem to count them for his Brethren tho' in the principal Points of their Heresies they agree with Him as is notorious And John Fox to have some visible Members of his Church in these Ages ought to have shaken hands with them but the poor Fellow was asham'd to build his Church openly of so ancient Heretics tho' afterward when he beginneth to build indeed and to gather Stones together he calleth for the Berengarians again which now he casteth away as after you shall see 8. But now perhaps you will ask me If John Fox do set down no Succession in these Ages as neither in the former of His Church or Ours what doth the simple Fellow in all this third Book of his Whereto I answer first That albeit he promiseth in the Title That this third Book shall contain the Acts and Monuments of 300 years together with the whole
will shew thee my Faith by Works And that these good works did proceed of Faith contrary to the Cavil of John Fox is evident by those pious words of the King where he saith Seeing Almighty God of his Mercy and Clemency without any precedent Merit of mine hath given me my Crown I do willingly restore to him again c. 7. But Fox goeth forward in jesting at the said King Ethelwolf saying That he that had been once nuzl'd up in his Youth among Priests he was always good and devout to holy Church c. And then passeth he on to shew How after he had established matters in his own Kingdom he went to Rome and carried with him his little Son Alured or Alfred committing him to the bringing up of Pope Leo IV. as before hath been said where also he re-edified the English School founded by King Offa and destroy'd by Fire a little before under King Egbert Moreover he gave saith Fox yearly to be paid in Rome 300 Marks to be distributed in this manner 100 Marks to maintain the Lights of St. Peter 's Church and another hundred Marks to maintain the Lights of St. Paul 's Church and the third hundred to be disposed in good works at the Pope's appointment At all which Fox jesteth also merrily building his Church by these Mocks and Mews 8. And to like effect he reciteth a Miracle registred by William Malmsbury and by the Charter of King Ethelstone Son and Heir to King Edward the elder which King having escaped a great Danger at Winchester where one of his Subjects named Duke Alfred and other of his Nobles conspiring together presently after his Father's Death would have put out his eyes But he escaping that Danger took the said Alfred Prisoner and for that he denied that he had any such intention the good King thought there was no better Trial than to send him to Rome to Pope John XI to be try'd by a solemn religious Oath before him The Pope made him swear before St. Peter's Altar who forswearing the said Conspiracy fell down presently before the said Altar in the sight of all the People and was carried thence in the arms of his Servants to the aforesaid School or English-men where he died the third night after wherewith the Pope and all Rome remain'd astonished and the Pope sent presently into England to know of the King whether he would pardon him and suffer his Body to be buried in Christian Sepulcher which King Ethelston after consultation had with the rest of his Nobility and by the earnest intercession of Duke Alfred's Friends was content that he should be so buried but yet by Sentence of the whole Realm the Possessions of the said Alfred were adjudg'd to the King's use who bestow'd them all upon Churches and Monasteries to the Honor of God and St. Peter which had given this Judgment in the Controversie 9. All this is testified by the said King's Charter recorded by Will. of Malmsb. and recited by Fox and the said Charter towards the end hath these words Et sic judicata est mihi tot a possessio ejus in magnis modicis quam Deo Sancto Petro dedi nec justius novi quà m Deo Sancto Petro hanc possessionem dare qui emulum meum in conspectu omnium cadere fecerunt mihi prosperitatem Regni largiti sunt And by this means the whole Possession both great and small of Duke Alfred was adjudged unto me which I gave unto God and to St. Peter nor do I know to whom I should more justly give the same than to God and to St. Peter who made my Adversary to fall down in the sight of all men and gave unto me the Prosperity of my Kingdom Thus wrote he about the year of Christ 933 as John Fox counteth and I marvel he would relate this Story being so much against himself and his Religion and in confirmation of ours as it is for that it sheweth that God and St. Peter in those days wrought Miracles in Rome when Fox saith that the Faith and Religion of Rome was far out of order from the true Gospel But this is the misery and calamity of this poor Fellow and his Cause as often before I have noted that either he must write nothing at all of these Times and Ages or else he must write Testimonies against himself 10. I will give you one short Example more where he allegeth us a Narration of a very old Writer which he saith he had in Manuscript lent him by one named William Carre and thereupon he citeth it still by the name of Historia Cariana this Story being written as it seemeth in those Ages and of the Miseries that happened to England by the Incursions of Danes and other Infidels seeketh out the causes of God's wrath in this behalf saying thus In Anglorum quidem Ecclesia primitiva Religio clarissimè splenduit c. In the primitive Church of England Religion did most clearly shine insomuch that Kings Queens Princes Dukes Consuls Barons and Rulers of Churches incensed with the desire of the Kingdom of Heaven laboured and stirred as it were amongst themselves to enter into Monastical Life and into voluntary Exile and Solitariness forsaking all to follow their Lord where in process of time all Virtue so much decay'd among them that in Fraud and Treachery none seemed like unto them neither was to them any thing odious or hateful but Piety and Justice nor any thing in price and honor but Civil War and shedding Blood Wherefore Almighty God sent upon them Pagan And Cruel Nations like swarms of Bees 11. This relateth Fox out of his Carian Story and I know not to what end he should relate it but only to shew that while English-men lived Godly according to the fashion of their primitive Church they esteemed and honored highly Religious and Monastical Life and many leaving the World with the Pleasures and Possessions thereof entred into that Religious Course endeavoring to follow and imitate their Lord and Master therein and that so long was England happy and blessed by God To which effect if John Fox do allege the same then is it evident what a good Conclusion he doth make against himself his Religion at this day that are such professed Enemies to that kind of life so highly here commended and consequently the Relator thereof doth shew himself to be as well John Fool as John Fox not considering what maketh for him or against him 12. But to the end that we should not think that he hath made Peace or Friendship with Monks for all this or that he liketh their Life or Profession any thing the better for so many praises given them by ancient Authors he scoldeth at them every where and upon every occasion writing over the Pages and Titles of his Book these Superscriptions Monks Superstitious Monks Monks married Monks meer Lay-men in old times and the like
throughout the World for Christ's Church are wicked and rebellious unto God and Acts of the Devil's Synagogue from the time that John Fox assigneth of her Fall and Apostacy and that on the contrary side all the Writings Actions and Gests of all sorts of Heretics against this Church from that time are the Acts and Monuments of the true Church of Christ Supposing all this I say as Fox doth there cannot want matter either on the one side or the other to fill up Volumes And the lower he passeth downward the more matter he findeth for that Sects and Sectaries increasing daily whom he registreth for Saints and Pillars of his Church the Volume of his Book must needs grow greatly And so is it seen by this fourth Book wherein from the Conquest to the latter-end of King Edward III's Reign when Wickliff began containing 300 years to wit from Anno Domini 1066 to 1370 there are spent above 100 Leaves of Paper which is much more than was in the former 1066 years But in the fifth Book from John Wickliff's time to King Henry VIII which are but 140 years are contained upon the point of 200 Leaves and then again from the beginning of King Henry's Reign to the entrance of Q. Elizabeth being but fifty years he spendeth above 600 Leaves And by this you may judge both of the Subject and Substance of John Fox's huge Volume tho' we are to look into the same somewhat more particularly also as we pass it over in this and the ensuing Chapters 3. Well then this being his device and resolution for the present to have no longer patience with our Church but wholly to deny the same his greatest difficulty seemeth to be about the Time and Causes to wit where or when or how or upon what occasion she perished or vanished away for seeing she hath continued by his Confession also for so many Years and Ages and come down unto our days under the self-same Succession of Bishops Pastors and Teachers as before and consequently also with the self-same Doctrin and Religion and with the same external Power and Majesty which it was wont it seemeth a very hard thing upon the sudden either to annihilate so Great and Mighty a Kingdom or which is much more difficult to make so strange a Metamorphosis and Mutation in her as that she having been hitherto the Church of Christ his Spouse his Kingdom his dearest Beloved and beautified with his Graces directed by his Spirit enriched with his most precious Gifts and Endowments and so acknowledged also by Fox ' himself in former Ages that now she should become Christ's Enemy and Adversary upon the sudden and the Kingdom of Satan his Eternal Foe and yet to retain still the Name Place Estimation and external Dignity which she had before professing with no less shew of duty her Obedience and Love to Christ than in former times she was wont This Change and Metamorphosis I say is most wonderful and incredible to all those that believe Christ to be God and to have been able to perform his promise that Hell-gates should never prevail against this Church Wherefore we are to examin somewhat more diligently in this Chapter how this matter could fall out and when and by what occasion come to pass for that so great and rare a Mutation as this is never fell out yet in the World before Tho' Temporal States and Kingdoms have had their changes nay all temporal mutations of Empires Kingdoms States and Monarchies have been made principally to shew the contrary stability and immutable continuation of Christ's Church once planted in the World as in part we have declared before shewing how that in all times and seasons in all variety and variations of States People Countries and Dominions as well in England as elsewhere the Christian Catholic Religion remained one and the same among them all To which effect also is that notable Prophesie of Daniel when foretelling first the breaking and overthrow of all four Monarchies by him mentioned he addeth as a notorious opposition to the same the stability and immortality of Christ's Church and Kingdom once set on foot in these words In the days of these Kingdoms God of Heaven shall raise up a Kingdom that shall never be dissipated neither shall this Kingdom be given to another people This Kingdom shall consume and wear out all the other Kingdoms but it self shall stand for ever 4. Thus saith Daniel and the most of these Points we have seen verified and fulfilled already for God of Heaven hath raised this Kingdom and visible Church of Christ which then seemed a strange matter he hath increased and continued the same for a thousand years and more as Fox will confess which is a longer time than any Temporal Monarchy lightly hath continued without change he hath overthrown in this time and consumed the other Kingdoms and Monarchies mentioned by him Now remain the other two Clauses to be fulfilled in like manner to wit That it shall stand for ever or as Christ expoundeth it usque and consummationem saeculi to to the Worlds end and then quod alteri populo non tradetur that this Kingdom shall not be delivered over to another People from that which possessed it from the beginning The quite contrary whereof teacheth here John Fox affirming this Church that hath been accounted the true Church and Kingdom of Christ for a thousand years past is now no more his Church or Kingdom nor these Popes Bishops and Pastors that are found in her to have come down by continual Succession are now no more the true and lawful Guides or Governors thereof but that it appertaineth to others and consequently this Kingdom of Christ is taken from them and delivered to another People to wit to the Berengarians to the Waldenses to the Albanenses to the Wickliffians Lutherans Zuinglians and other like people of latter Ages 5. This is John Fox his mad Assertion wherein you see he should prove two Points First That our Church is lost and fallen and our Men rightly dispossessed of the Interest thereof And then That his Men to wit these new Sectaries have entred into a just possession of that Name and Title of the true Church Both which Points we deny You shall see how he beginneth to prove the first that is to say the Fall and Overthrow of the Universal visible Church sirnamed the Roman And thus hitherto saith he stood the condition of the Church of Christ meaning the next Ages before the Conquest albeit not without some repugnance and difficulty yet in some mean state of the Truth and Verity till the time of Pope Hildebrand called Gregory VII which was near about the year 1080. and of Pope Innocentius III. in the year 1215. by whom all was turned upside down all Order broken true Doctrin defaced Christian Faith extinguished c. 6. Here you see John Fox to assign two Times and two Popes when and
Realm of ancient times and therein consider the course of times where he may find and read Anno 5 Reg. Rich. 2. in the year of our Lord 1380 of a great number that there be called evil persons going about from Town to Town in Frize Gowns preaching unto the People c. Which Preachers tho' the words of the Statute do term them to be dissembling persons preaching divers Sermons containing Heresies and notorious Errors to the emblemishment of Christian Faith c. yet notwithstanding may every true Christian Reader conceive of those Preachers to have taught no other Doctrin than now they hear their own Preachers in Pulpits preach c. 22. Mark here three Points good Reader First That if all this were true that the Wickliffians had preached no other Doctrin than the Protestants do now yet nothing followeth of this but that Protestants Doctrin was condemned for Heresie not only by the Church-Laws but also by divers Acts of English Parliaments above 200 years past Which thing what help or credit it can bring to Fox his Religion which standeth chiefly in England by Authority of far latter Acts of Parliament I do not see for that hereof only may be inferred two Conclusions if his premises be true The first That Protestants were condemned for Heretics by Acts of Parliament 200 years agone The second If those ancient Acts of Parliament were of little force in matters of Religion then latter Acts that have established a different Religion may also be called in question and that with much more reason and probability 23. Secondly I say That this Assertion of Fox is most apparently false to wit that the Wickliffian Preachers taught no other Doctrin than the Protestant Preachers now teach if the Articles before alleged out of himself be truly written by him For neither do the Protestant Preachers in England at this day teach the Real Presence in the blessed Sacrament of the Altar or the Doctrin of Purgatory as you have heard Sir John Oldcastle a chief Wickliffian profess a little before nor yet do Protestants hold those Articles of John Wickliff himself which in this Chapter we have mentioned as held neither by Them nor Us. And much less do they hold any other Catholic Opinions which the Wickliffians did together with their Heresies So as this is a notorious untruth and cannot be denied or dissembled 24. Thirdly We may consider of the particular Point which before I noted That John Fox is not ashamed to cite a whole Parliament against himself and then in a word to reject the same as of no credit in the World in respect of Him and his Denial or Rejection The Parliament saith he calleth these Frize gown-Preachers the Wickliffians dissembling persons but you must think notwithstanding they were very honest men The Parliament saith That they preached Heresies and notorious Errors but John Fox saith it was true Christian Doctrin Whom shall we here believe either the whole Parliament who lived with them and examined both their Doctrin and doings or John Fox that cometh more than 200 years after them and will needs make himself their Brother whether they will or no and judge also of the Parliament But let us hear him yet further 25. Furthermore saith he you shall find likewise in Statuto anno 2 Hen. 4. cap. 15. in the year of our Lord 1402 another like Company of godly Preachers and faithful Defenders of true Doctrin whom albeit the words of the Statute there through corruption of time do falsly term to be false and perverse Preachers under dissembled Holiness teaching in those days openly and privily new Doctrin and heretical Opinions c. Yet notwithstanding whoever readeth Histories and the orderly descent of times shall understand these to be no false Teachers but faithful Witnesses of the Truth c. 26. Lo here the testimony of another Parliament of our Country held 22 years after the former which John Fox rejecteth with the same facility that he did the other For whereas the Parliament that had examined the matter protesteth That they had found them false perverse and dissembling People teaching new Doctrin and heretical Opinions Fox averreth the contrary That they were good Preachers and faithful Defenders of true Doctrin and holy Witnesses of God's Truth And for proof hereof he saith That whosoever readeth Histories and conferreth the Order and Descent of times shall understand thus much to be true But how and by what means a man shall gather this understanding he telleth us not And by the Historical Discourses and Conference of times which we have hitherto made in this Book we understand the contrary finding indeed by Descent and Order of times that these Opinions of Wickliff Husse and Lollards and the like were new heretical Opinions indeed and taken and judged so by Christendom at their up rising and appearance in the World. Wherefore this is plain impudence in Fox to say that by reading Histories and noting descent of Times these men are by him justified from being Sectaries 27. It followeth in Fox Of the like number also saith he of like true faithful favourers and followers of God's holy Word we find in the year of our Lord 1422 specified in a Letter sent from Henry Chichesley Archbishop of Canterbury to Pope Martin V. of many infected here in England as he said by the Heresies of Wickliff and Husse c. who tho' they be termed for Heretics and Schismatics yet served they the living Lord within the Ark of his true spiritual and visible Church And where is then the frivolous brag of the Papists which make so much of their painted Sheaths c 28. Do you see in what jollity of mind John Fox is put by finding out this Succession of his new visible Church for above 200 years downward Do you hear how he vaunteth of Antiquity and long Continuance albeit indeed he nameth not continuance nor can he for that I think he will not grant that the Wickliffian Church doth endure unto this day or that if a number of those Wickliffian holy Teachers and faithful Witnesses of the Truth so much praised here by him should come into England at this day or Scotland or into Germany or Geneva or among any other Sect or sort of Protestants whatsoever and should preach that Doctrin which they preached then to wit against the Church of Rome in many Points but yet defending that number of Sacraments which they did the Real Presence Sacrifice of the Mass together with those extravagant Articles also before mentioned to wit That it is against the Scriptures that Bishops or true Ministers should have any Temporal Lands and Livings and that Tythes are not due and that both Princes and Prelates do lose their Offices Authorities and Dignities whensoever they fall into mortal sin c. If these men I say that were so true Preachers and principal Guiders of the Ark of John Fox his true visible and spiritual Church
That the chief Heads thereof must be Bishops Secondly They must succeed orderly one to another Thirdly They must come down from the very Apostles as before hath been shewed Fourthly Christian Nations must agree in the same Faith under them All which four Points are to be found in the Succession of the Universal Roman Church as you have seen but no one of them and much less all are to be found in this Rabble of Heresies and Sectaries scrap'd together by Fox in his former Catalogue For neither were they Bishops at all but private men as after shall be shewed tho' Fox most falsly doth affirm one of them to have been a Learned Bishop Nor did they succeed in Office Function Charge or Jurisdiction the one to the other or concurred in one Time Country or place but one in one corner and another in another One stept up in Germany another in France another in Italy and another in England the one a Priest another a Friar another a Merchant and the other a Souldier or Crafts-man of different States Professions and Conditions yea of different Faith and Religion also as presently shall be shewed Neither had they any relation one to the other more than Botley to Billingsgate or Canterbury to Constantinople And as for Antiquity and coming down by Succession from the Apostles they are far from it as Fox himself confesseth in that he beginneth his Catalogue only from Pope Innocentius 1200 years after Christ as you have heard So as if Christ had any visible Church before this time it must needs be Ours by Fox's own confession 14. And finally the last Point mentioned here and so highly esteemed by St. Augustin of the consent of People and Nations tot populorum consensione firmatur whereof he maketh such account in another place as he saith Anathema erit quisquis annunciaverit Ecclesiam praeter Communicationem omnium gentium He shall be accursed whosoever shall say the Church to be any other but the Communication of all Nations This quality I say he that shall consider and examin in these poor Fellows alleged by Fox who were but a few Outcasts of every Country where they sprung shall find it so ridiculous and contemptible a thing in respect of the main consent of Nations under the Roman Church as without laughter it cannot be spoken of 15. Finally of this ridiculous Succession of Heretics the same holy Father writeth fitly in these words Videtis certè multos praecisos à radice Christianae Societatis quae per Sedes Apostolorum Successiones Episcoporum certa per Orbem propagatione diffunditur de sola figura Originis sub Christiano nomine quasi arescentia sarmenta gloriari quas Haereses Schismata nominamus Truly you see many cut off from the root of this Christian Society the Church which Society is spread over all the World by the Seats of the Apostles and Succession of Bishops as it were by a most certain Propagation or Generation and these Fellows do brag of a certain figure or similitude of a Beginning or Succession under the name of Christians but are indeed wither'd Branches cut off from the Vine and these we call Heretics and Schismatics Thus saith St. Augustin And could any man describe better the Apish Imitation of John Fox endeavouring to bring in his Succession of a few condemned Heretics de sola figura Originis sub Christiano nomine gloriantes bragging only of a certain similitude of Beginning and Succession under the name of reformed Christians but indeed cast out and condemned by the Universal Church 16. This then is the second Point to be noted about the quality of Ecclesiastical Succession But another there is of no less moment but rather more And this is That those who succeed one another in the self-same Church be also of one Faith and Belief in all Articles of Religion For if they differ tho' it were but in any one substantial Point they cannot be of one Church nor of one Communion nor be saved together for that as there is but one God one Christ one Church and one Baptism as the Apostle testifieth so is there but one only Faith in the same Church to be saved by which all men must hold unitedly wholly and inviolably or else as in the Creed of St. Athanasius is affirmed absque dubio in aeternum peribit without doubt he shall perish eternally that disagreeth or dissenteth 17. It were a long matter to stand here upon the proof of this Point to wit how exact and severe the Catholic Church is and ever hath been in defending this strict Simplicity Union and Conformity of Faith in all those that will be her Children St. Thomas handleth the matter at large and very substantially and so do other School-men after him shewing That whosoever erreth in any one Article of Catholic Faith obstinately loseth his whole Faith in all the rest which he seemeth to believe And yieldeth most evident reasons for the same And of the same severity were the ancient Fathers in this behalf as St. Cyprian who applying to this purpose those words of Christ Qui non est mecum adversum me est He that is not with me is against me saith It was meant by Christ of all sorts of Heretics whatsoever Gregory Nazianzen also writeth Qui uno verbo tanquam veneni gutta inficiunt c. They who by any one word as with a drop of Poyson do infect the simple Faith of Christ are to be cast out of the Church as Heretics c. And St. Hierom Propter unum etiam verbum aut duo c. For one word or two contrary to the Catholic Faith many Heresies have been cast out of the Church And finally St. Augustin having reckon'd up Eighty particular Heresies in his Book to Quod-vult-deus he saith That there may chance to lurk many other petty Heresies unknown to him Quarum aliquam quisquis tenuerit Christianus Catholicus non erit Of which Heresies whosoever shall hold any one he shall not be a Catholic Christian and consequently cannot be saved 18. Mark the severity of this holy Man affirming That whosoever holdeth any the least hidden Heresie whatsoever cannot be saved A dreadful Sentence no doubt for many of our Country-men at this day if well they thought of their own case who think it lawful or at leastwise not much dangerous to hold private Opinions at their own pleasure yea many of them thinking as the old Donatists did which St. Augustin relateth and greatly condemneth Nihil interesse credentes in qua quisque parte Christianus sit believing that it is not of great importance in what part Sect or Faction soever a man be a Christian so he believe in Christ Thus thought the Donatists and are much reprehended by St. Augustin for it And this no doubt is the Opinion of many English-men at this day who being tossed hither and thither with
certain Alterations did not take counsel nor direction from the new Gospellers to do it but rather set forth a Book of his own entituled thus Articles devised by the King's Highness So do testifie both Hall Hollinshead and Stow. And then Hall who lived in those days addeth further In this Book are especially mentioned but three Sacraments with the which the Lincolnshire men were offended And then again afterwards he writeth This Book especially treated of no more than three Sacraments where always before the people had been taught seven Sacraments c. Which Articles being delivered to the people the Inhabitants of the North parts being very ignorant and rude and not knowing what true Religion meant c. said Now you see Friends that four Sacraments of seven are taken from us and shortly you shall lose the other three also except you look about you c. Thus writeth Hall of the beginning of the Insurrection of Lincoln York and other Shires by occasion of these new-devised Articles in Religion Whereby notwithstanding we see that King Henry thinking best to make some alteration tho' he meant not indeed to take away any Sacrament as afterwards appeared yet disdained he to take his Platform from the Protestants or Gospellers of those days but devised of himself the Innovation which for the present he meant to make Whereof I have heard of a certain Story not unpleasant nor from the purpose which therefore here I will set down 17. A certain Courtier at that day some say it was Sir Francis Bryan talking with a Lady that was somewhat forward in the new Gospel about this Book of the King 's then lately come forth she seemed to mislike greatly the Title thereof to wit Articles devised by the King's Highness c. saying That it seemed not a fit Title to authorise matters in Religion to ascribe them to a mortal King's device Whereunto the Courtier answered Truly Madam I will tell you my conceit plainly If we must needs have devices in Religion I had rather have them from a King than from a Knave as your Devices are I mean that Knave Frier Martin who not yet 20 years agone was Deviser of your new Religion and behav'd himself so lewdly in answering his Majesty with scorn and contempt as I must needs call him a Knave tho' otherwise I do not hate altogether the Profession of Friers as your Ladyship knoweth Moreover said he it is not unknown neither to your Ladyship nor Us that he devised these new Tricks of Religion which you now so much esteem and reverence not for God or Devotion or to do Penance but for Ambition and to revenge himself upon the Dominican Friers that had gotten from him the preaching of the Pope's Bulls as also to get himself the use of a Wench and that a Nun also which now he holdeth And soon after him again three other married Priests his Scholars to wit Oecolampadius Carolstadius and Zuinglius devised another Religion of the Sacramentaries against their said Master And since these again we hear every day of other fresh Upstarts that devise us new Doctrins and there is no end of Devising or Devisers And I would rather for my part stick to the devising of a King that hath Majesty in him and a Council to assist him especially such a King as ours is than to a thousand of these Companions put together 18. It is true said the Lady when they are Devices indeed of Men but when they bring Scriptures with them to prove their sayings then are they not Mens Devices but God's Eternal Truth and Word And will you say so Madam quoth he And do you not remember what ado we had the last year about this time with certain Hollanders here in England whom our Bishops and Doctors could not overcome by Scriptures notwithstanding they held most horrible Heresies which make my Hairs to stand upright to think of them against the Manhood and Flesh of Christ our Savior and against the Virginity of his Blessed Mother and against the Baptism of Infants and the like wicked Blasphemies I was my self present at the Condemnation of fourteen of them in Paul's Church in one day and heard them dispute and allege Scriptures so fast for their Heresies as I was amazed thereat and after I saw some of these Knaves burned in Smithfield and they went so merrily to their Death singing and chanting Scriptures as I began to think with my self whether their Device was not of some value or no until afterward thinking better of the matter I blessed my self from them and so let them go 19 Oh said the Lady but these were Knaves indeed that devised new Doctrins of their own heads and were very Heretics not worthy to be believed But how shall I know quoth the Courtier that Your Devisers have not done the like seeing These alleged Scriptures no less than They and did one thing more which is that they went to the fire and burned for their Doctrin when they might have lived which your Frier and his Scholars before named have not hitherto done And finally Madam I say as at the beginning I said If we must needs follow devising we Courtiers had much rather follow a King than a Frier in such a matter For how many years Madam have Friers shorn their Heads and no Courtier hath ever follow'd them hitherto to therein But now his Majesty having begun this last May as you know to poll his Head and commanded others to do the like you cannot find any unshorn Head in the Court among us Men tho' you Women be exempted And so I conclude that the device of a King is of more credit than the device of a Friar And with this the Lady laugh'd and so the Conference was ended 20 And thus much for the first devising or setting up of new Religion in England Now for the going forward thereof let us hear a large testimony of John Fox himself and thereby judge how Apostolic the manner was of promoting the same To many which be yet alive saith Fox and can testifie these things it is not unknown how variable the state of Religion stood in those days how hardly and with what difficulty it came forth what chances and changes it suffered even as the King was ruled and gave ear sometime to one and sometime to another so one while it went forward and another season it went as much backward again and sometime clean altered and changed for a season according as they could prevail which were about the King c. 21. Here now you see both the beginning and progress of Fox's Gospel whereof in the Margin he maketh this Note The course of the Gospel interrupted by malicious Enemies Here you do hear him say that the Birth of his Gospel came forth hardly and with great difficulty and straining and then that it grew or went backward as the King was ruled by others and gave credit
to this or that Man or Woman For so he cometh in presently with his Examples of Queen Anne and Cromwell So long saith he as Queen Anne lived the Gospel had indifferent success but after that she by sinister instigation of some about the King was made away the course of the Gospel began again to decline But that the Lord then stirred up the Lord Cromwell opportunely to help in that behalf who did much avail for the increase of God's true Religion and much more had brought it to perfection if the pestilent Adversaries maligning the prosperous Glory of the Gospel had not by contrary practising undermined him and supplanted his vertuous proceedings 22. Behold here a wise Discourse of John Fox Whereby if nothing else were you might perceive how justly and truly that Spirit of Majesty that spake to him in his Bed upon a Sunday in the morning if you remember called him Thou Fool For that no man but a very Fool indeed would have brought forth these Examples to have proved his purpose being both impertinent and clearly false in themselves 23. And first they are impertinent or rather against himself for that they shew that his Gospel had no other beginning in England but upon Affection of Men and Women False also are the Examples if we consider the Times themselves for that the foresaid new Book of devised Articles mentioned by Hall and Hollinshead as the first public Alteration in points of Religion discovered in King Henry was made and set forth after the death of Queen Anne Bullen to wit upon the 8th of June 1536 whereas the Queen died upon the 19th of May before And Fox himself having related the said Articles and Book as set forth after the death of Queen Anne he saith thus This Book treated especially but of three Sacraments Baptism Penance and the Supper of the Lord for which the Lincolnshire men took Arms c. And then he addeth this Note in the Margin Alteration of Religion a little beginneth And after again presently this other Note Commotion in Lincolnshire Whereby is evident out of his own words that the first beginning of any alteration in points of Religion towards his Gospel was after the death of Queen Anne Bullen and consequently it is a ridiculous foolery which he writeth before That so long as Queen Anne lived the Gospel had indifferent success c. 24. The other Example also of Cromwell is no less apparently false for that besides the particulars which you have heard before of his assisting to punish and burn Protestants and his Sentence of death given against Lambert with the Protestation he made at his own death of his being Catholic and never doubting of any one Point of Catholic Religion Besides all this I say it is notorious that when the severe Statute of Six Articles was made against all sorts of Protestants in the 31st year of King Henry's Reign which was in the Month of April 1540 as appeareth both by the Book of Statutes it self and Hall Holinshead and other Chroniclers Cromwell was then in his highest Authority and Favor with the King as is evident for that in the time of the very same Parliament besides all his other great Offices before received as of Baron Chancellor Knight of the Garter Master of the Jewels Vicar-General in Spiritual Affairs and other like Titles he was created also Earl of Essex and High-Chamberlain of England which Holinshead setteth down in these words The 18th of April at Westminster was Lord Thomas Cromwell created Earl of Essex and ordained Great Chamberlain of England which Office the Earls of Oxford were wont ever to enjoy Also Gregory his Son was made Lord Cromwell c. Thus writeth he And if in Cromwell's most flourishing time this Act of Six Articles came out for punishment of Protestants the most severe that can be imagined how fond and childish a babling was that before used by Fox when he telleth us that as long as the good Lord Cromwell was in credit or bare Rule with the King their Gospel went prosperously c 25. Well then by all this we may see how poor and troden down a state John Fox's Church and Religion held under King Henry notwithstanding all his brags and flattering of him in his Pictures Which yet that you may not think we mean only of the temporal or external condition or contemptibility of his Church for of that perhaps he would brag seeing he defines his Church by the words obscure and troden down I would have you here consider briefly but two things only for the end of this Chapter which directly do appertain to the true spiritual misery of Fox's Church and Religion in those days under King Henry if a Confusion of fantastical Opinions Errors and Heresies may be called a Religion 26. The first is That in King Henry's days at leastwise for a great part thereof the Protestants Sects were not yet fully distinguished into their Classes or Orders but were a great confused heap of new Opinions all going under the name of Gospellers or Protestants as well Lutherans Oecolampadians Zuinglians and other Sacramentaries as Waldensians Wickliffians Anabaptists Libertines and other such-like So as in this first Heap and Mass of Gospellers were contained all the several Sects that since have been distinguished as the four Elements and particular parts thereof were contained according to the Poets Fiction in that great confused Chaos of the World before it was distinguished or to speak more properly they were as the Bears Whelps when first they are born and new fallen from their Mothers Womb to wit certain disform gross confused things which by often licking of their Parents are polished at last and brought to some fashion of handsom Creatures such as you know Bears Whelps to be 27. And even so was it in those days with Protestants Religion For that every man that would hold a new Opinion of what Sect soever or would speak against the Catholic Church or Doctrin then used was admitted presently for a Brother of the new Gospel and for a sincere Servant of God and holy Gospeller as John Fox every-where calleth them without distinction whether he were a Lutheran Zuinglian Anabaptist Waldensian Wickliffist Lolhard or whatsoever else but since that time this Chaos hath been somewhat more distinguished and polished and every sort of Sectaries divided into their Classes Which Luther himself began first to do noting nine distinct Sects to have risen in few years after him out of his Doctrin and these only of Sacramentaries Whereunto his chief Scholar Melancthon a little before his death in his Judgment written to the Palsgrave or Prince Elector of Rhene added six more to be among the Lutherans themselves But others that have gathered them more exactly and distinctly as Staphilus a most Learned Man and Counsellor to the Emperour Bishop Lyndan Dr. Gabriel Prateolus and others do divide them into a far great number
that time they have taught 21. These were the two things of most moment determined about Religion in this first Parliament Two other things were attempted by the Gospellers with most earnest endeavor but they could not be obtained The first was to have a Book of Common Prayer pass which they had composed in hast out of the Mass-Book for altering the Service and Mass into English or rather for abolishing of the Mass and bringing in the new Communion in place thereof And this Book was composed by certain appointed by the Protector and Cranmer But when it came to the Parliament to pass it was misliked and contradicted not only by Catholics but by many Protestants also Especially those that were the most forward as Hooper Rogers and some other Who according to Fox were Puritans in those days and would neither take the Oath of Supremacy to the young King as we shall shew more largely when we come to treat of them severally in the next Part of this Treatise nor yet wear Typpet Cap or Surpless And misliked moreover the whole Government Ecclesiastical in that time neither agreed with the Opinions of Doctrin set down by that Book And so it was rejected with no small grief both of the Duke Protector and Archbishop Cranmer 22. The other Point proposed and rejected also was about allowance of Priests and Friers Marriages and Legitimation of their Children Wherein great force was made by them that had taken Women first and sought approbation afterwards but could not get it for the present Though in the next Parliament about a year after they obtained a certain mitigation therein as you shall hear 23. Now then this Parliament being thus past and ended upon the 20 day of December and the Protector much grieved that no more could be obtained therein to the favor of the new Gospellers he thought good for the time to come to use his Kingly Authority under the Name of the young Child for the altering of divers Points in Religion using Cranmer and some other also of the Council for his Instruments And first they began with Bishop Bonner as may appear by a Letter from the said Bonner written to Bishop Gardiner of Winchester the 28. of January 1548. wherein he writeth thus My very good Lord these be to advertise your Lordship that my Lord of Canterbury 's Grace this present 28. of January sent me his Letters Missive containing this in effect That my Lord Protector 's Grace with Advice of other the King's Majesties most Honorable Council for certain Considerations them moving are fully resolved that no Candles shall be born upon Candlemas-day nor from henceforth Ashes nor Palms used any longer Requiring me to cause Admonition thereof to be given unto your Lordship and other Bishops with celerity c. Thus much there 24. And after this again upon the 11. of the next Month of February the said Protector with some others of the Council at his appointment wrote to Cranmer and by him to all Bishops of the Realm Commanding them to pull down all Images in these words amongst others We have thought good saith he to signifie unto You that His Highness pleasure with the Advice and Consent of Vs the Lord Protector and the rest of the Council is that immediately upon the sight hereof with as convenient diligence as You may You give order that all Images remaining in any Church or Chappel c. Be removed and taken away And in the Execution hereof we require both You and the rest of the Bishops to use such foresight as the same may be quietly done with as good satisfaction of the People as may be c. From Somerset Place the 11. of February 1548. Your loving Friends Edward Somerset Henry Arundell Anthony Wingfield John Russell Thomas Seymer William Paget 25. And now Candles Ashes and Images being gone as you see there followed in the next Month after to wit of March that the Protector desiring still to go forward with his designment of Alteration sent abroad a Proclamation in the Kings Name with a certain Communion Book in English to be used for Administration of Sacraments instead of the Mass Book but whether it was the very same that was rejected a little before in the Parliament or another patched up afterward or the same mended or altered is not so clear But great care there was had by the Protector and his Adherents that this Book should be admitted and put in practice presently even before it was allowed in Parliament To which effect Fox setteth down a large Letter of the Council to all the Bishops Exhorting and Commanding them in the King's Name to admit and put in Practice this Book We have thought good say they to pray and require your Lordships and nevertheless in the King's Majesty Our most Dread Lord's Name to Command You to have a diligent earnest and careful respect to cause these Books to be delivered to every Parson Vicar and Curate within your Diocese with such diligence as they may have sufficient time well to instruct and advise themselves for the distribution of the most holy Communion according to the Order of this Book before this Easter time c. Praying you to consider that this Order is set forth to the intent there should be in all parts of the Realm one Vniform manner quietly used To the Execution whereof we do eftsoons require you to have a diligent respect as you tender the King's Majesties pleasure and will answer to the contrary c. From Westminster the 13 of March 1548. 26. By all which and by much more that might be alleged it is evident that all that was hitherto done against Catholic Religion for these first two years until the second Parliament was done by private Authority of the Protector and his Adherents before Law and against Law. And now what a Babylonical Confusion ensued in England upon these Innovations in all Churches Parishes and Bishopricks commonly is wonderful to recount For some Priests said the Latin Mass some the English Communion some both some neither some said half of the one and half of the other And this was very ordinary to wit to say the Introitus and Confiteor in English and then the Collects and some other parts in Latin. And after that again the Epistles and Gospels in English and then the Canon of the Mass in Latin and lastly the Benediction and last Gospel in English And this mingle mangle did every man make at his pleasure as he thought it would be most grateful to the people 27. But that which was of more importance and impiety some did Consecrate Bread and Wine others did not but would tell the people before-hand plainly they would not consecrate but restore them their Bread and Wine back again as they received it from them Only adding to it the Church Benediction And those that did Consecrate did Consecrate in divers forms some
aloud some in secret some in one form of words and others in an other And after Consecration some did hold up the Host to be Adored after the old fashion and some did not And of those that were present some did kneel down and Adore others did shut their Eyes others turned their Faces aside others ran out of the Church Blaspheming and crying Idolatry 28. And as this Confusion was in Spiritual Matters during these two first years of King Edward's Reign so no less was it in Temporal Affairs especially in tne City of London where a great Mortality and Pestilence was among the People as Stow saith And no less amazement to see three chief Bishops sent to Prison Gardiner of Winchester Bonner of London and Tonstall of Duresme But the greatest banding was betwixt the Protector and his Brother the Admiral and between their Wives Queen Katherine Parre and the Duches of Somerset In which Contention divers Chief Ministers and Apostate Friers were sticklers but especially Hugh Latymer that inveighed in his Sermons against the Admiral in favor of the Protector On the other side Frier Bale was wholly addicted to Queen Catherine and her praises having Printed and set her forth in those very days for a famous Writer and one of the Miracles of Womankind in his Book De scriptoribus Britannicis For so he saith Ingenii viribus literarum peritia verborum elegantia animi generositate foemine as dotes exuperat c. She doth exceed the Gifts of Womankind in the force of her Wit in the skill of her Learning in the elegancy of her Words and generosity of Mind And again Magnarum virtutum ac unicum hoc saeculo pietatis exemplar c. She is the only Example of great Virtues and Piety in this our Age. With which excessive praises the Duches of Somerset that thought her self as Wise and Learned as the other was so offended that Frier Bale could get no Preferment while her Husband was in Authority 29. But now came on the second Parliament which was upon the 4. day of November 1548. and second year of King Edward's Reign The Protector and his Gospellers had made all the preparation possible to get Voice therein for Establishing of that which they desired in Religion As it is no marvel if it were not hard to do seeing the chief Bishops were now restrained terrified or put in Prison some other of the Laity also disgraced as the Earl of Southampton Arundell and others The Lord Protector and Dudley Armed with the remainder of their Forces made for Scotland And the displeasure of the said Protector being held now for so dreadful a matter to any that resisted his Designs as it was expected daily that his own Brother the Admiral should be made away by him upon like displeasure 30. But to speak of this Parliament begun now as we have said two things as you remember were excluded in the last Parliament that could not pass though never so much desired and urged by the Protector and his Friends To wit the new Communion Book and the allowance of Priests and Friers Marriages but now both of them passed albeit the second with a greater limitation as you may see for the Title of the Statute is only this An Act to take away all Positive Laws of Man made against the Marriage of Priests Whereby you see that the Parliament being importuned by Priests and Friers that had gotten them Women to have them allowed by Parliament they only obtained to be free from Temporal Punishment appointed for the same leaving them to God for the rest whether after their Vows made of Chastity they were bound to observe the same or no. Nay in the very Act it self they do highly commend Chastity in Priests saying That it were not only better for Priests and Ministers of the Church to live Chast sole and separate from the company of Women c. But that it were most to be wished that they would willingly and of themselves endeavor to keep a perpetual Chastity and Abstinence from the use of Women Yet forasmuch as the contrary hath been seen c. Be it Enacted that all Laws Positive Canons or Constitutions heretofore made by Authority of Man only which doth Prohibit or forbid Marriage to any Ecclesiastical Person c. Shall be utterly void and of none effect together with the Pains Penalties Crimes Actions thereunto Annexed c. 31. Thus goeth the Statute Wherein you see there is nothing but Impunity given to Incontinent Priests and Friers to use Women without fear of Punishment in this World. And thereby you may consider that the first and chief endeavors of these new Gospellers tended principally to break down Hedges and to dissolve Catholic Discipline and to take away Punishments appointed as well to Heretics and Heresie in general as by the former Parliament you have seen as also to loose and Incontinent Clergy-men for their dissolute life And thus much of the first Point Let us come to the second about the new Communion Book 32. This Book though it were made new again by great diligence both of the Composers which the Protector and his Followers had chosen for that purpose as also by the view of Cranmer Ridley and others of chief Authority in the Clergy yet had it marvellous difficulty to pass as may appear by very Act of Parliament it self For that it was not only contradicted by Catholics but also by many Protestants themselves Misliking not only the Rites and Ceremonies therein appointed but the very Articles of Doctrin also And in this were most vehement the foresaid Faction of Hooper Rogers Latymer and some others being at that time Puritans as before we have noted 33. But the chiefest and hottest Contention of all whereof the principal Point of their new Religion seemed to depend was whether they should be Lutherans or Zwinglians concerning the blessed Sacrament Seeing they longer well could not dissemble the same as they had done in the former Parliament though otherwise as I have said it was somewhat hard to determin For that to the Lutherans enclined not only Cranmer Ridley and other in Ecclesiastical Authority that had lived and born Rule under King Henry VIII before But many of the Noble Men also and Counsellors that were half Catholics and half Protestants Protestants for liberty of eating of Flesh on forbidden days Possessing Church-Livings disobligation of Confession and Restitution and other such Motives But yet for other matters were rather Catholic in judgment and with these concurred such as were come out of Saxony and had Studied under Luther as Bucer Bale Coverdale and others All which seemed to stand for the real Presence at that time But against these were the Sacramentaries whose Profession being of the fresher Frame more pleased the Protector and some other itching Ears and thereby did overbear the other side at length by the number of some few Voices in Parliament but yet
they cast him into the Tower deprived him of his Protectorship and had cut off his Head also at that time had not the Dutchess of Somerset prudently pacified the Earl of Warwick by presenting a rich Casket of Jewels unto the Countess his Wife whereunto my Author was pâ—ivy and moreover she offered a new Complot of Affinity between the said Earl and Duke which afterward was effectuated to wit the Marriage between the Son of the Earl and Daughter of the Duke All which together with a most humble lowly and base Submission made by the said Protector which is extant in our Chronicles moved the Earl to pardon him for the present and to restore him to a kind of Liberty at his own House and after that again to the Council and King's presence for of all he was deprived but never to the Protectorship Nay soon after he cast him into Prison again and cut off his Head as all men know and had thereunto the help of many chief Gospellers who not long after this laid other Complots conform to the turbulent humor and fruits of this Gospel and made other new Alliances between the House of Suffolk that was most forward of all others in Gospelling and the said Earl of Warwick now Duke of Northumberland which Alliances are supposed to have shortned the young unfortunate King's Life and known to have meant the Subversion of the whole Course of the Royal Line and Succession appointed by King Henry VIII cutting off his two Daughters Mary and Elizabeth that remained after King Edward if God had not strangely defended them by cutting off these Evangelical Contrivances 43. Wherefore to be no longer in this matter which is clear enough of it self we do see how the first public Introduction of Protestant Religion that ever was admitted in England from Christ to that time came in both under King Henry and much more under King Edward his Son to wit how and upon what occasions by whom and what men the same was both preached and favored and what effects by what means and in what form and fashion it was performed for as for the occasions they have been declared before But under King Edward it is evident that they were the Childhood and Infancy of a tender young Prince together with the Ambition Covetousness Pride and desire of sole Command in his Uncle the Protector which motives made him break the Will and Testament Laws and Ordinances of his old Dread Lord King Henry before almost his Blood was cold after his death and the like Inductions of Promotions drew after him others who seconded his Actions as long as they were profitable unto them 44. As for the men that first and principally broached these Doctrins they were for the most part married Friers and Apostate Priests that living in Concupiscence of Women and other Sensuality desired to maintain and continue the same by the Liberty of this new Gospel The Promoters and Favorers of these Men were such especially of the Laity and Clergy as had more Interest by the Change for their own Promotion and Advancement than Conscience or persuasion of Judgment for the Truth of their Religion as would appear if we should name them one by one that then were of the Council and chief Authority The Effects and spiritual Fruits of this first Change were as you have seen and heard the most notorious Vices of Ambition Dissimulation Hatred Deceit Tyranny and Subversion one of another together with Division Dissention Garboils and Desolation of the Realm yea plain Atheism Irreligion and contempt of all Religion that ever was known to have risen up in any Kingdom of the World within the compass of so few years And that which is most remarkable there followed presently the Overthrow of all the principal Actors and Authors of these Innovations by God's own wonderful hand and this more in these six years than in sixty or six score or perhaps six hundred hath been seen to have fallen out in England in other times And no doubt but it is of singular consideration that whereas true Christian Religion but especially any Change or Reformation to the better part is admitted there presently do ensue by usual consequence great effects of Piety Devotion Charity and vertuous Life if the Reformation be sincere come from God indeed here on the contrary side the Providence of God did shew a notorious document to the whole World of the falshood and wickedness of this new Gospel in that the first professors and promoters thereof in our Land fell to more open wickedness in these Five years than in so many Fifties before as hath been said 45. And the chief Captain and Ringleader of all this Dance of Innovations after the Protector himself to wit the Duke of Northumberland coming soon after to Calamity fell into the accompt and reckoning of this matter and made a long vehement declaration thereof in the Chappel of the Tower before divers of the Council the day before he was put to death to wit upon the 21. of August 1553 shewing that he had found true by good experience that this new Gospel which he had followed hitherto tended to nothing but to Atheism in Religion dissolution of Life and perturbation of the Common-wealth which he repeated again at his Death and the same was presently put in Print and so it remained Tho' Holinshed Hooker and Harrison like false Companions as they be do leave it out wholly of their large Chronicle telling only that he and the Duke of Somerset were buried one by the other in the Tower. But Stow proceedeth more handsomly for tho' he omit the larger rehearsal of the matter and do speak of other things less odious yet doth he so set down the thing as the truth may easily be seen thereby which the other Companions do hold from us of purpose for thus he writeth 46. The rest of the Duke's Speech almost in every Point was as he had said in the Chappel of the Tower saving that when he had made Confession of his Belief Stow dare not tell what Belief for that it was wholly Catholic with many vehement Protestations against the Heresies of that time he had these words Here I do protest unto you good People most earnestly even from the bottom of my Heart that this which I have spoken is of my self not being required nor moved thereunto by any man for any flattery or hope of Life I take witness of my Lord of Worcester here my old Friend and Ghostly Father that he found me in this mind and opinion when he came to me But I have declared this only upon my own mind and affection and for the zeal and love that I bear to my natural Country And I could good People rehearse much more even by experience that I have of this Evil that is happened to this Realm by thâ—se occasions But now you know I have another thing to do whereunto I
Epist ep 25. About Fasting Virginity observation of Holydays Cent. 2. p. 65. Cent. 2. p. 65. Ignat. Epist ad Phil. Against Martyrdom Sacred Virginity Page 65. Cent. 3. p. 86. St. Cyprian accused to hate Women Cyp. l. de bono Puditiae Cyp. Serm. de nativ Christi Martyrdom Page 83. Invocation of Saints Cent 4. c. 4. p. 295. Ibid. p. 304. Traditions Monastical Life Reliques Page 300. Lib. 2. ad Marcell Ephr. l. de luctamin spiritus cap. 2. Page 301. Amb Serm. 6. de marg tom 3. in orat funeb de obitu Theodosii Cent. 4. p. 293. The sum of this Chapter and shameful shifting of Heretics Cap. 5. num 2 Supra ibidem Bed. l. 1. hist Ang. c. 23. deinceps Malm. de gest Regum Ang. l. 1. de Pont. Angl. l. 1. Galf. mon. hist Ang. l. 11. c. 22. Huntingt hist l. 3. c. 1. Two new wicked devised shifts Fox Act. Mon. p. 107. coll 2. n. 84. The defence of St. Gregory against Heretics Ioannes Diac. in vita Gregor Magni Isid de viris illustris c. 27. The testimony of Isidorus concerning St. Gregory Hildef libel de viris illustr The judment of St. Hildefonse Fox Act. Mon. col 2. n. 5. p. 105. Fox praiseth St Agustin our Apostle against his Will. Fox Act. p. 107. col 1. Fox seeketh to discredit St. Augustin Bed. lib. 1. hist c. 35. Jo. Bale cent 1. scrip Brit. fol. 35. Bales scurrulity against St. Augustin Of the miracles wrought by St. Augustin Greg. l. 7. Epist 30. Ind. 1. St. Gregories Relation of English Affairs About the Doctrin brought in by St. Augustin Fox p. 107. col 2. * A wise consequence for that now also Fonts would hardly suffice to baptize 10000 in a day Fox in Protest p. 9. Whether St. Augustin taught the Saxons true Religion Holin in descript Britan. c. 27. col 1. Whether Englishmen were ever true Christians before Luther's time Holinsh ibid. Most vile blasphemy against the first Christian Englishmen Baleus descript Britan. cent 1. fol. 35. Ibid. cent 5. fol. 245. How John Bale became a Friar De Reg. juris l. 6. c. Non solum Caet in Sum. Concil Trid. sess 28. cap. 15. How Bale was unfriared and made an Apostate Bale ibid. Fox p. 105. col 2. nu 5. Bed. l. 1. hist. c. 33. The wicked intents of our Sectaries That Protestants cannot be sure that they are Christians according to Fox and Holinshed See the Acts of Parliament Anno 31. Hen. 8. c. 14. anno 32. c. 26. anno 34. c. 1. Enc. 1. c. 3 4 5. Super ibid. * Enc. 1. c. 6.10 and 12. Baleus descrip Brit. cent 1. fol. 35. Fox in his protestation to the Church of England p. 9. * Sup. cap. 3. Sup. c. 1 3 5 6. That Rome changed not her Faith from Eleutherius to St. Gregory That the British Christian Faith was the same with the Romans Sup. c. 3. Fox pag. 117. col 2. a Greg. l. 5. ep 14. b Philas l. de haeres c Greg. l. 3. ep 32. d Greg. l. 10. in Job c. 29. e Niceph. l. 18. c. 53. Bed. l. 1. c. 25. Greg. l. 2. ep 36. indict 10. l. 9. ep 61. indict 4. The presence of British Bishops in Foreign Councils * See Syn. 2. Arelatens to 1. Concil and the subscriptions Cap. 2 3. Athan. Apol. 2. cont Arrian Hilar. de Syn. advers Arrian Observations out of Histories Chrys orat cont Gentes quod unus est Deus Gild. de excidio Britan. c. 26. The Britans use of taking Sanctuary swearing upon Altars Gildas ibid. Optat. lib. 6. Against King Aurelius Gild. ibid. pag. 122. Against King Maglocunus for leaving to be a Monk. Fox Act. Mon. p. 103. Against Priests that said Mass seldom and ill Gil. ibid pag. 132. Gildas ibid. Ibid. p. 133. Buying of priesthood Act. 2. Gildas ibid. Altars and Sacrifice among the Britans * Aug. to 10. ser 237. 251. de temp in concil Milevit c. 12. Cartha 2. c. 3. Concil Carthag 4. c. 84. quibus interfuit Augustinus Epiph. haeres 50. Euseb l. 5. hist c. 23. in vita Constant l. 3. c. 17. Bed. l. 1.6 c. 27. A Church dedicated to St. Martin among the ancient Christian Britans An evident Demonstration that the British Religion agreed with that of St. Augustin St. German and St. Lupus Bed. l. 1. hist c. 17 18 19 20 21. That St. German St. Lupus and St. Severus were Roman Catholics Relics of Saints Ibid. c. 18. Ibid. c. 18. The use of Lent among the Britans St. Dubritius Primate of Britanny Anno 522. Galf. hist Brit. l. 9. c. 12. and 13. Ibid. p. 70. Procession and Organs Bal. descript Eccles fol. 30. St. David of Wales Anno Domini 540. Camb. in Catal. script Britan. Polid. l. hist Angl. in fine Fox in his Protestation to the Church of England p. 9. 19 British Bishops and Doctors pretended by Fox to have been Protestants Neither Order nor Argument good in Fox Fastidius Priscus Trit de script Eccl. Bal. fol. 23. St. Ninianus Bed. c. 4. Hector Boet. l. 7. 15. Ioan. Fordonius l. 3. c. 9. Bal. ibid. St. Patricius St. Palladius Bal. ibid. fol. 23. Marian. Scotus in Chron. eodem Anno 430. Prosper in Chron. ann 432. 434. Bed. l. 4. hist cap. 30. St. Patricius Bal. descript Frit Cent. 1. fol. 25. Ibid. Prosp cont lib. Collat. in fine Bed. hist Ang. l. 1. c. 13. in l. de sex aetat Mar. Scot. l. 2. sex aetat an 432. Bacchiarius Joan. cap. in catal SS Brit. Polid. Virg. 1. histor Harpesf §. 6. cap. 22. Congellus Bal. fol. 29. Kentegernus Bal. fol. 32. Jo. Capg in catal Sanct. Brit. St. Asaph receiv'd his Consecration from Rome Bal. ibid. f. 34. Bal. ibid. f. 135. Bed. l. 2 hist c. 2. That the Religion brought in by St. Augustin was Catholic Greg. in epist ad Aug. Bed. l. 1. hist. c. 18 19 c. Either no true Church or Religion was in St. Gregory's time or else it was the Roman The continuation of Religion from St. August downward Bed. hist Ang. l. 1. c. 22. St. Aug. his Company landed in the Isle of Thanet The 1 Kingdom of Kent converted to Christian Faith anno Dom. 600. Bed. l. 1. hist Malm. l. 2. hist 2 Kingdom of East-Saxons converted 604. Lib. 2. cap. 5. 3 Kingdom of the East-Angles converted an Dom. 609. Malm. l. 1. hist c. 6. The 4 Kingdom of Northumbers converted an 626. 5 Kingdom of West-Saxons converted 635. 6 Kingdom of Mercians converted 635. 7 Kingdom of the South-Saxons converted anno 662. Marc. 16. Greg. hom 29. de festo Ascens Domini Marc. 16. Why Miracles ceased afterward The Primitive Church of Kent Malms l. 1. de gestis Pont. Ang. pa. 112. An infalliable principle Catholic Religion planted in England with great power of Miracles Marc. ultimo One Catholic Religion under States that were
Paganism to Christian Religion by the especial Diligence Labor and Industry of the same See. Once in the time of the Britans about 180 years after Christ at what time Eleutherius that holy Pope and Martyr converted King Lucius and his Subjects by the Preaching of St. Damianus and his Fellows sent from Rome to that effect And the second time 400 years after that again when our Predecessors the English Saxons were converted by St. Augustin and his Fellow-Preachers sent by St. Gregory the Great then Bishop of Rome to the same end And if it be most certain and cannot be denied that these two so great and universal benefits rightly considered are the highest under Heaven that our Land could receive from any mortal then and that the Obligation of this double Spiritual Birth of ours is so much greater than the Bond we owe to our carnal Parents by how much more weighty and important is our Eternal Salvation than our Temporal Life and Generation let all men consider the barbarous ingratitude of this man that barketh with such spite against the See of Rome the Mother of our Christianity and against her Bishops the Workers of so high a Blessing to us And with this consideration I leave the modest and discreet Readers to judge of the matter as Reason and Religion shall induce them and not as the rage of this and other such raving people would incite them 3. Thus I wrote then and to this declaration and conclusion of mine our Knight taketh upon him now to answer in these words Whereas this Roman Advocate saith That this Land ought to bear more reverence to the See of Rome than other Nations for that it hath received more singular benefits from thence namely that it was converted from Paganism to Christian Religion by the special Diligence Labor and Industry of the same See I answer First That it is apparent by sundry Testimonies that this Land was converted to the Faith long before that time by you specified and not by the Bishop of Rome Gildas testifieth that Britanny received the Gospel in the time of Tiberius the Emperor and that Joseph of Arimathea was sent by Philip the Apostle from France hither where he remained till his death And Bede our Country man likewise doth testifie That in his time this Land kept Easter after the manner of the East Church by which my be gathered that the first Preachers came hither from the East parts of the World and not from Rome More proofs might be set down but I spare them 4. Mark good Reader what manner of Answer this is to my former Speech and how directly these people do go to the matter I said before That the Isle of England wherein so many at this day do rail against Rome hath more obligation of Love towards the same for benefits received than divers other Countries for that the people of this Island have been twice converted by men sent from thence once under Pope Eleutherius almost 200 years after Christ and again under Pope Gregory the Great about the year of our Lord 600. Now to this the Kt. thinketh to have answered well by affirming two or three things First out of Gildas That Britanny received the Gospel in the time of Tiberius the Emperor before any or these two Conversions named by me Which how likely it is Tiberius living but five years after Christ's Ascension shall after be examined Secondly That Joseph of Arimathea was sent by Philip the Apostle out of France into Britanny which yet the true Gildas hath not But by these two Examples the Knight would shew That in Britanny the Faith of Christ was not first of all planted from Rome nor by the Popes thereof or by their industry And to the same effect he allegeth out of Bede the used of observing Easter after the manner of the East Church remaining amongst the Britans in his time whereof he inferreth as you see That it is most like that our first Preachers were from the East and not from the West Church 5. But suppose all these things were true do they overthrow that which I said before in my Ward-word that the Britans were converted under Pope Eleutherius or the Saxons under Pope Gregory and by several Preachers sent from Rome by them They prove only that before these two public Conversions which we owe to the Church and Popes of Rome there might be some sparkles of Christian Faith also in Britanny by other means which I never deny'd but only said that I would have English-men grateful to Rome for these two which Conversions no man can deny without apparent impudence as after more amply shall be shewed where also these Examples alleged out of Gildas and St. Bede shall be examined how far they are true or do make for the purpose here in hand 6. So that this first part of Sir Francis's Answer being nothing to the purpose as you see tho' all were granted which he allegeth Let us hear his second part Secondly saith he tho' it be granted that Eleutherius sending hither Preachers from Rome in King Lucius his time did frist convert this Land to the Christian Faith I say that there is not now the same Faith in Rome that was then There were then no Masses said no setting up of Images in Churches c. Here now if we will take Sir Francis's word we have a sure warrant by his I say that the Faith in Rome is not the same now that it was in Pope Eleutherius his time and that in particular there were neither Masses then nor Images Wherein you may note first that cunningly he holdeth his peace of the Conversion of English-men under St. Gregory which most concerneth us that be of this Nation for that he dareth not deny that both Mass and Images were in use in his time in the Roman Church and Faith and so brought into England by St. Augustin that converted us which is evident in St. Bede in every place of his Story and particularly where he relateth the first entrance of St. Augustin and his Fellows into Canterbury in Procession with a Cross and Image of our Savior in a Banner and that they said their first Masses there in an old Church of St. Martin builded as he saith by the old Christian Romans before their departure out of Britanny 7. And for the time of Eleutherius under whom the Britans were converted tho' it were not hard also to prove the same particulars yet will I not take that disputation now in hand but shall leave it to a better occasion afterward in this Treatise where without standing upon these particular two Doctrins of Mass and Images here mentioned by the Knight I shall shew more general and firm Arguments that the Faith of the Church of Rome under Eleutherius 200 years after Christ was the very same and no other than was that under St. Gregory 400 years after that again nor this