Holy Fathers the Prophets the Apostles against St. Peter St. Paul and even against Christ himself 7. BUT now if they are so ambitious of the Honour of being thought polite and eloquent Slanderers it does so much the less befit us to be mute and careless in the Defence of our most excellent Cause for it is certainly the part only of dissolute Men who can securely and wickedly shut their Eyes when the Divine Majesty is injured to be wholly unconcern'd what is tho' falsly and unjustly said of them and their Cause especially when it is of that Nature that the Glory of God and the Affairs of Religion are at the same time violated for although other and those often very great Injuries may be born and dissembl'd by a modest Christian yet He saith Ruffinus who shall patiently put up the Name of an Heretick does not deserve to be called a Christian Permit us then to do that which all Laws and the very Voice of Nature commands us that which Christ himself did when he was in a like Case assaulted with Reproaches that is suffer us to repel their Defamations and with Modesty and Truth to defend our Cause and Innocence for Christ himself when the Pharisees charged him with Conjuration as if he had entered a Combination with impure Spirits and by their Assistance wrought many Wonders replied I have not a Devil but I honour my Father and ye do dishonour me and St. Paul when he was undervalued by Festus the Proconsul as a Mad-man answered I am not mad most noble Festus but speak forth the Words of Truth and Soberness And the Primitive Christians when they were traduced to the People as Murtherers Adulterers Incestuous Persons and Disturbers of the Government and saw that the Excellence of their Religion might be call'd in question especially if they held their Peace and by their Silence seemed to confess the truth of these Accusations and so the Course of the Gospel might be hindered they thereupon made publick Orations wrote supplicant Books and discoursed before Emperors and Princes in the publick defence of themselves and the Chruch 8. BUT we perhaps may seem not to need any Defence so many thousands of our Brethren in the last twenty years having born testimony to the Truth amidst the most exquisite Tortures and Princes in endeavouring to put a stop to the Progress of the Gospel and to that purpose using several Methods having yet in the end been able to effect nothing and the whole World now beginning to open their Eyes and to see the Light and therefore it may seem as I said that enough hath been spoken and that our Case is sufficiently defended the thing speaking for it self for if the Popes themselves would or indeed if they could consider with themselves the Beginning and Progress of our Religion how theirs without any Resistance without any humane Force hath fallen and in the interim ours hath increased and by degrees been propagated into all Countries and hath been entertained in the Courts of Kings and the Palaces of Princes even whilst it was opposed from the beginning by Emperors by Kings by Popes and almost by all others these things I say are clear Indications that God himself sights for us and doth from Heaven deride and scorn their Projects and Endeavours and that the Power of Truth is so great that no humane Force nor the very Gates of Hell shall ever be able to prevail against it for so many free Cities so many Princes cannot be supposed mad as at this day have fallen from the See of Rome and chosen rather to joyn themselves to the Gospel 9. FOR although Popes have not as yet at any time been at leisure to think attentively and seriously of these things or although other Thoughts may now hinder and distract them or they may think these things light and beneath the Dignity of the Popedom is our Cause therefore to be thought ever the worse or if perhaps they will pretend not to see what indeed they do see and that they choose rather to oppose the Truth even then when they are convinced of it are we therefore presently to be reputed Hereticks because we cannot comply with their Wills If Pope Pius the IIII. had been such a Person as his Name speaks him and as he so much desires to be thought nay indeed if he had but been so good a man as to have esteem'd us as his Brethren or as MEN certainly he would diligently have considered our Reasons and what could have been alledged for and against us and not with so rash and blindfold a precipitancy have condemned without hearing our cause or allowing the Liberty of a Defence so considerable a part of the World so many learned so many Religious men so many Common-wealths so many Kings and so many Princes as he has sentenced in his Bull concerning his late pretended Council 10. BUT now because We are so publickly in this unjust manner noted by him left by our silence we should seem to confess the Crimes charged upon us and the rather because we could in no manner be heard in any publick Council where he would suffer none to have any Suffrage or propose his Judgment who was not first sworn to him and intirely addicted to his Interest for of this we had too great an experience in the last Council of Trent when the Ambassadors and Divines of the Princes and free Cities of Germany were totally excluded out of the Council nor can we forgot that Julius the III. above ten years since took a mighty care by his Rescript that none of our Men might be heard in the Council except it were one that was disposed to recant and change his Opinion For these causes I say we have thought fit by this Book to give an account of our Faith and to answer truly and publickly what hath been publickly objected against us that the whole World may see the Parts and Reasons of that Faith which so many good men have valued above their Lives and that all Mankind may understand what kind of men they are and what they think of God and Religion whom the Bishop of Rome has inconsiderately enough before they had made their Defence without Example and without Law condemn'd for Hereticks upon a bare report that they differed from him and his in some points of Religion 11. AND though St. Jerome will allow no man to be patient under the Suspicion of Heresie yet we will not behave our selves neither sowerly nor irreverently nor angerly tho' he ought not to be esteemed either sharp or abusive who speaks nothing but the truth no we will leave that sort of Oratory to our Adversaries who think whatsoever they speak although it be never so sharp and reproachful modest and apposite when it is applied to us and they are as little concern'd whether it be true or false but we who defend nothing but the Truth have no need of such base
God to its ancient Purity Why do they presently make an Out-cry that these Princes disturb all things break in upon other Mens Offices and do act ill things and immodestly What Scripture I pray hath excluded Christian Princes from hearing these Causes Who besides these Men ever decreed any such Laws But they will reply that Civil Princes have learned to govern their States and to manage Arms but they understand nothing of the Mysteries of Religion And now what is the Pope at this day but a Monarch or Prince and what are the Cardinals who are now scarcely suffered to be any other but the Children of Kings and Princes What are the Patriarchs and for the most part the Arch-bishops Bishops and Abbots others than Princes Dukes and Earls in the Papal Kingdom and accordingly whithersoever they go they aâ—â— attended with a great Retinue and adorned with Chains and Collers of Gold and otâ—â—â— Ensignes of Honour And they have sometimes also a peculiar Habit belonging to them as Crosses Pillars Hats Myters and Palls which Pomp the ancient Bishops St. Chrysostom St. Ambrose and St. Augustin were not acquainted with but then excepting these outward Ornaments what do they teach what do they speak what do they do and what do they Live so as becomes I will not say a Bishop but a common Christian Is it then of so mighty a Consequence to go under this or that Title and by changing nothing but a Mans Cloaths to be called a Bishop 9. CERTAINLY it is a proud injurious and unjust thing and not to be born by Christian and Prudent Princes to permit the summ of all that concerns Religion to be managed by such Men as these alone who know nothing of the Mysteries of Religion nor care to know any thing more than what belongs to their Bellies and Kitchins and do not value any thing of Religion as worth aâ—rush who are no better than blind men placed in a Watch-tower and that in the interim a Christan and a Catholick Prince should stand like a trunk or a stock and without vote and without giving his judgment only observe what they are pleased to command and impose upon him and as if he had neither Ears nor Eyes nor Mind nor Heart of his own to receive without Exception and with a blind-fold submission do whatever they are pleased to command him altho they are Blasphemous and wicked things yea altho they should command him to extinguish all Religion and to crucisie his Saviour For why Can Caiphas and Annas judge well of Matters of Religion and cannot David and Ezechias Is it lawful for a Cardinal a Martial and a bloody Man to sit in a Council and is it unlawful for an Emperour and a Christian Prince For we attribute nothing more to our Princes than what is allowed them by the Word of God and approved by the Examples of the best Governments For besides that the care of both Tables is committed by God to a Faithful Prince that he may thereby understand that not only the Civil but the Ecclesiastical Polity belongs to him and his Office And besides all this God hath often expresly commanded Princes to cut down the Groves and overthrow the Statues and Altars of Idols to transcribe for himself a Book of the Law and Isaiah saith that Kings should be nursing Fathers to the Church and their Queens her nursing Mothers Besides all these things I say we see by Histories and the Examples of the best times that Pious Princes did never think the Administration of Ecclesiastical Affairs a thing that was foreign to their Duty 10. MOS ES who was the Civil Magistrate and Leader of the People received from GOD the whole Body of their Religion and the Order of their Sacred Rites and delivered them to the People and severely and sharply chastised Aaron their Bishop for making the Golden Calf and violating the Religion by Law established And Ioshua tho he were no other than a Civil Magistrate yet when he was first inaugurated and set over the People he received express Commands concerning Religion and the Worship of God David the King when their Religion had been miserably disordered by Saul a wicked King brought back the Ark of God that is restored Religion And he was not only present as an Admonisher or Perswader of the Work but he published Psalms and Hymns disposed the Priests and Levites into Classes and Orders and in a sort governed the Priests as a Priest Salomon the King built a Temple to the Lord which his Father David had only designed in his thoughts and after made an excellent Oration to the People concerning Religion and the Worship of God And after this he removed Abiathar the High Priest and substituted Sadoc in his place And when after this the Temple was wretchedly ruined by the Vice and Negligence of the Priests Ezechias the King commanded it to be cleansed of its Rubbish and Dirt the Lamps to be lighted Incense to be offered and the Sacred Rites to be performed according to the ancient Order And caused the Brazen Serpent that was then irreligiously worshipped by the People to be taken away and reduced to Dust Iosaphat the King overthrew and took away all the High Places and destroyed the Groves by which he perceived the Worship of God was hindered and the People by a Private Superstition diverted from attending the Service of God in the publick and common Temple to which they were bound to go three times in the Year out of all Parts of his Kingdom Iosias another King diligently admonished the Priests and Bishops of their duty Jods the King repressed the Luxury and Iâ—â—olence of the Priests Jehu slew the wicked false Propliets And that I may trouble the Reader with no more Examples out of the Scriptures and rather pass to see and consider how the Church has been governed since the Birth of Christ and the Publishing of the Gospel Heretofore Christian Emperors called Councils of the Bishops Constantinus called the Nicene Council Theodosius the First the Constantinâ— stantinopolitan Theodosius the Second the Ephesian Martianus the Chalcedonian and when Ruffinus had alledged a Synod as making for him his Adversary St. Jerome that he might confute him replyed Tell us what Emperor commanded it to be assembled And he also in his Funeral Oration for Paula a Roman Lady cites the Letters of the Emperors who had commanded the Greek and Roman Bishops to meet at Rome for the holding of a Council 11. IT is most certain that for Five hundred Years the Emperor alone took care of calling all the General Councils and Sacred Meetings and therefore we do now the more admire the unreasonableness of the Bishop of Rome who tho he knows that during the subsistence of the Roman Empire in its Greatness this was the sole right of the Emperor and that now Kings have succeeded to part of the Caesarean or Imperial Majesty this
Right is devolved to all Princes in common yet has so unjustly usurpt it to himself alone and thinks it sufficient to communicate his design of holding a Council to the Greatest Prince in Christendom as to his Servant But if the Modesty of Ferdinand the Emperor be so great perhaps because he doth not thorowly understand the Papal Arts that he can digest this Injury yet the Pope who pretends to so much Sanctity ought not to have offered him this Affront and thus to have arrogated to himself another Mans Right 12. BUT some of his Party may reply that the Emperor then called the Councils because the Bishop of Rome was not then arrived to that height of Greatness and yet he did not even then sit with the Bishops or at all interpose his Authority in their Deliberations and Consultations Yes as Theodoret acquaints us Constantine the Emperor did not only sit with the Bishops but admonished them to determine the Controversie then depending out of the Prophetick and Apostolical Writings In this Disputation said the Emperor concerning Divine things there is set before us which we ought to follow the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost for the Books of the Evangelists and Apostles and the Oracles of the Prophets do sufficiently shew us what we ought to think of the Will of God Theodosius another Emperor not only sat amongst the Bishops as Socrates saith but also was Moderator of the Dispute and rent the Papers of the Hereticks and approved the Sentiments and Doctrine of the Catholicks And in the Council of Chalcedon the Civil Magistrate who under the Emperor governed that Council condemn'd three Bishops Dioscorus Juvenalis and Thalassius by his Sentence for Hereticks and gave judgment that they should be deposed from that degree In the Third the Constantinopolitan Council the Civil Magistrate not only sate with the Bishops but also subscribed the Canons with them We have read said he and subscribed them In the Second Council of Orange the Ambassadors of the Princes being Noble-men themselves sate and not only voted concerning Matters of Religion but also subscribed amongst the Bishops for thus it is written in the end of that Council Petrus Marcellinus and Felix Liberius two Noble and Illustrions Praefecti Praetorio of Gaul and Patricians have consented and subscribed Syragrius Opilio Pantagathus Deodatus Cariatho and Marcellus honourable Men and Magistrates have subscribed But if the Praefecti Praetorio and Patricians or Noble-men could then subscribe the Councils may not Emperors and Kings do it now There were no need to prosecute so plain and apparent a point as this is but that we have to do with a parcel of Men who use to deny the clearest things oven those things which lye plain and open before their Eyes out of a contentious Disposition and a desire of Victory The Emperour Justinianus made a Law for the correcting the Manner and curbing the Insolence of the Clergy and altho he was a most Christian and Catholick Emperor yet he deposed Sylverius and Vigilius two Popes Successors of St. Peter and Vicars of Jesus Christ as they are now called 13. AND now seeing that Princes have imployed their Authority upon Bishops received commands from God concerning Religion brought back the Ark of God composed Sacred Hymns and Psalms governed the Priests made publick Discourses concerning the Worship of God purged the Temple demolished High Places burnt Idolatrous Groves and have admonished the Priests concerning their Office and given them Laws of Living have slain wicked Prophets deposed Bishops called Councils of Bishops and sate with them and taught them what they should do have punished Heretical Bishops have taken cognizance of Religion subscribed Councils and given Sentence in them and done all this not by the command of another but in their own Names and that rightly and piously shall we say after all this that the care of Religion belongs not to them Or that a Christian Prince who is pleased to concern himself in these things acts ill immodestly and wickedly In all these Affairs the most Ancient and most Christian Kings and Emperors have intermeddled and yet were never accused of Impiety or Immodesty for so doing and will any pretend to find either more Catholick Princes or more Illustrious Examples 14. BUT now if they might do all these things tho they were only Civil Princes and governed their several States Wherein have our Princes offended who tho they are in the same Authority may it seems not do the same things Or wherein consists the wonderful force of their Learning Wisdom and Holiness that contrary to the Custom of all the Ancient and Catholick Bishops who have heretofore deliberated with Princes concerning Religion they should now reject and exclude Christian Princes from the cognizance of the Cause now depending and from all Participation and Congress with them in their Councils But yet it cannot be denied they have taken a prudent care for themselves and the upholding their Kingdom which they foresaw otherwise would soon have perished For if they who are placed by God in the highest Station had once seen and understood these Mens Arts that the Commands of Christ are contemned by them that the light of the Gospel is obscured and extinguished by them that they play tricks with and delude them and shut up against them the entrance into the Kingdom of God They would never so patiently have suffered themselves to be so proudly despised and injuriously scorned and abused But now on the other hand they have rendred all Princes obnoxious and subject to them by their blindness and Ignorance 15. WE as I said before have done nothing in the changing of Religion either insolently or rashly nothing but with great deliberation and slowly Nor had we ever thought of doing it except the Will of God undoubtedly and manifestly opened to us in the most Sacred Scriptures and the necessity of our Salvation had compelled us so to do for altho we have departed from that Church which they call the Catholick Church and thereupon they have kindled a great envy against us in them who cannot well judge of us yet it is enough for us and ought to be so to any prudent and pious man who considers seriously of his Salvation that we have only departed from that Church which may enr which Christ who cannot err so long since foretold should err and which we see clearly with our Eyes has departed from the Holy Fathers the Apostles Christ himself and the Primitive and Catholick Church And we have approached as much as possibly we could to the Church of the Apostles and ancient Catholick Bishops and Fathers which we know was yet a Perfect and as Tertullian saith an unspotted Virgin and not contaminated with any Idolatry or great and publick Error Neither have we only reformed the Doctrine of our Church and made it like theirs in all things but we have also brought the Celebration of ☞ the Sacraments and the
against King John another of our Princes the Bishops and Monks and some part of the Nobility and absolved all his Subjects from that Oath of Allegiance they had taken to him and at last by the highest Impiety not only deprived him of his Kingdom but his Life and they wounded Henry the VIII a most noble Prince with their Curses and Excommunications and stir'd up against him sometimes the Emperor and sometimes the King of France and as much as in them lay exposed our Kingdom to be a Prey and a Booty to them like a company of silly men as they were to think so great a Prince would be frighted with Vizors and Rattles or that so great a Kingdom could be devoured at one mouthful and as if all this had not been enough they would needs make England a tributary Province and yearly most unjustly exacted a considerable Revenue out of it so much has the Friendship of the City of Rome cost us Now if they extorted these great Advantages from us by Impostures and ill Arts there is no reason why we should not by good Methods and Laws recover them back again but if on the other side our Kings induced by an Opinion of their simulated Holiness in the darkness of those times freely bestowed these things on them upon the account of Religion there is now very good reason that our latter Kings having discovered the Error of their Ancestors should take them away again they being possess'd of the same Power with the former Kings for every Donation becomes void when it is no longer approved by the Will of the Giver but it can never seem a Will which is clouded and impeded by Error The Conclusion THUS I have acquainted thee my Reader that it is no new or strange thing to see the Christian Religion in these days upon its Restitution and Revival in the World entertain'd with Slanders and Reproaches for the same things happened to Christ himself and his Apostles And yet least thou shouldest be misled and imposed upon by these Clamors of our Adversaries we have represented to thee what the whole manner of our Religion is what we believe concerning God the Father concerning his only Son Jesus Christ and concerning the Holy Ghost what our Opinion is concerning the Church the Sacraments the Ministry the Holy Scriptures the Ceremonies of the Church and all the other parts of the Christian Religon We have declared also that we detest as pernicious to the Souls of Men and plagues all those Ancient Heresies that have been condemn'd by the old Councils and Holy Scriptures That we have reduced into practise again as much as we can possibly the Ecclesiastical Discipline which our Adversaries had much weakned and that we punish all Licentious Courses of Life and Debauchery in Manners by our ancient and established Laws and that with as much 〈◊〉 as is fit and possible That we pâ—â—serve all Kingdoms in the same State we found them without any Diminution or Mutation and preserve the Majesty of our Princes intire as much as we can possibly That we have departed from that Church which they had made a Den of Thieves in which they had left nothing sound or like a Church and which they themselves confessed to have erred in many things as Lot left Sodom or Abraham Chaldea not out of Contention but out of Obedience to God and have sought the certain way of Religion out of the sacred Scriptures which we know cannot deceive us and have return'd to the Primitive Church of the ancient Fathers and Apostles that is to the beginning and first Rise of the Church as to the proper Fountain 2. THAT we have not indeed expected the Authority or consent of the Council of Trent in which we saw nothing was manag'd well and regularly where all that entered took an Oath to one Man where the Ambassadors of our Princes were despised and ill treated where none of our Divines could be heard where Partiality and Ambition openly carried all things and according to the Practice of the Holy Fathers and the Customs of our own Ancestors we have reformed our Churches in a Provincial Synod and according to our Duty we have cast off the Yoke and Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome who had no just Authority over us nor was like either Christ or St. Peter or the Apostles or indeed like a Bishop in any thing Lastly we do all agree amongst ourselves in all the Doctrines and Points of the Christian Religion and do with one Spirit and one Mouth worship God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ 3. WHEREFORE O Christian and Pious Reader now thou feest the Reasons and Causes of the Reformation of Religion with us and of our Departure from them thou oughtest not to wonder that we should rather choose to obey our Saviour than Men. St. Paul hath admonished us that we should not be carried away with every Wind of false Doctrine and especially that we should mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which we have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own Belly and by good Words and fair Speeches deceive the Hearts of the simple Their Impostures accordingly like Batts and Owls do now sometime since begin to flie and steal away before the rising Sun and cannot indure the Light of the Gospel and altho they were in some sense built and heaped almost up to Heaven yet they sink down into Ruins of their own accord For thou oughtest not to think that those things happened accidentally or by chance It was certainly the Will of God that in these times the Gospel of Jesus Christ should in defiance of all opposition be spread abroad in the World and therefore men being moved by the Word of God freely betook themselves to the Doctrine of Christ and as for us we sought neither Riches nor Pleasure nor case by this Change for our Adversaries abound in all these and we had a much larger Share of them whilst we continued with them 4. NOR do we decline Concord and Peace with Men neither but yet we will not continue in a State of War God that we might have Peace with Men. The Name of Peace saith St. Hilary is Pleasant but then Peace and Servitude are not the same thing for if according to their desire the Name of Christ should be supprest the Truth of the Gospel betrayed their wicked Errors be dissembled the Eyes of Christian Men be deluded and a plain and apparent Conspiracy be carried on against God himself this is not saith that great Man Peace but the conditions of a most base Slavery There is saith Nazianzen an unprofitable Peace and there is an useful sort of Discord for we must pursue Peace with Conditions as far as 〈◊〉 lawful and in us lyeth and unless these Limitations may attend it Christ himself came not to bring Peace into the World
IOHANNES IEWEL S. T. D. Episcopus Sarisburiensis THE APOLOGY OF THE Church of England AND An Epistle to one Seignior Scipio a Venetian Gentleman Concerning the Council of Trent Written both in Latin By the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of Sarisbury Made English by a Person of Quality To which is added The LIFE of the said Bishop Collected and written by the same Hand LONDON Printed by T. H. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1685. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THE ensuing Discourses are all designed for the Good and Service of the Religion by Law established and two of them are so excellently adapted to that end by their Author that if I have not spoiled them by an ill version there can be no doubt made but they will be of great use Of the Third I beg leave to give somewhat a larger Account because I am a little more concerned in it THE Life I have collected from Mr. Humfrey's who wrote Bishop Jewel's Life at large in Quarto 2. The English Life put before his Works which was pen'd about the Year 1609. 3. Mr. Fuller's Church History 4. Dr. Heylyn's Ecclesia Anglicana restaurata and others who wrote any thing that related to those times and fell into my hands in that short time I had to finish it in Mr. Humfrey's alone would have been sufficient if he had observed an exact Method in Writing this Life or been altogether free from Affections But tho he tell us Bishop Jewel kept a Diary of his Life and that he had assistance from Dr. Parkhurst Bishop of Norwich Aegidius Lawrence Mr. John Jewel the Bishops Brother and one Mr. John Garbrande and others and Printed his Piece in the Year 1573. Which was not much above two years after the Death of Bishop Jewel yet he has not observed any exact order or method in the History of his Life and he no where tells us in what Year he was made a Fellow or received Orders nor from whom only he tells us Mr. Harding took his Orders at the same time Nor has he acquainted us when Mr. Harding published his first or second Antapologies nor when the Bishop went to Padua nor how long he staid there nor who were his Partners in his Visitation for the Queen Nor has he marked almost any of the principal Actions of his Life when they were done and tho he mentions a Sermon at Paul's Cross and a Conference with the Dissenters not long before his death yet he neither tells us the time or occasion of either of them but instead of these runs out into Discourses against Harding and others of that Perswasion which were nothing or very little to his purpose THE English Life before his Works is only an Extract out of Mr. Humfrey's Latin Work but yet was helpful to me in many Particulars being done by a wise Man and who doth not seem to have been biassed as the former was who makes it his business to represent both the Church of England and Bishop Jewel as wonderous Friends to the Churches of Switzerland that is to the Calvinists because he Good Man was one himself tho not so mad as those that followed and upon this very account I do suspect he has left out many things that he might have related and would have afforded great light to the Church History of those times and especially to Bishop Jewel's Life Fuller is barren in his Relations of those times the Bishop lived after his Consecration tho he afforded me some good helps Dr. Burnett has continued his History but a little way in Queen Elizabeths time and Dr. Heylyn ended his with the beginning of the Year 1566. which was about Five Years before the death of Bishop Jewel and I have neither time nor leisure nor Interest to search the Records of those times and compare the Editions of Books and other things by which this Life might have been put into a better Method as to the timing of things And besides all this it were perhaps indecent to put a long Life before two such small Tractates as I am to entertain my Reader with but yet I hope the Life such as it is will give some light to the Discourses and raise a venerable Idea of this good Bishop in the Readers mind which were the things I chiefly aimed at in the Writing of it As to the Pieces the first of these the Apology was written in Latin in the beginning of the Year 1562. or the latter end of the foregoing Year and was occasioned by Pope Pius the Fourth his calling the Council of Trent and sending his Nuncio Martiningo to invite the Queen to it and the interposition of most of the greatest Princes of Christendom who wrote to the Queen to entertain the Nuncio and submit to the Council Whereupon it was thought but reasonable to give the World an account of what we had done in the preceding Parliament and the reasons of it and to retort the many Accusations brought against our Church by the Papists And therefore it was but reasonable that it should be in Latin that being the most common Language and understood by the Learned Men of all Nations and accordingly it found entertainment in all places and was read in them Which is more perhaps than can be said of any other Book written for our Church since the Reformation Mr. Harding had a great Quarrel against it because it was not inscribed neither to the Pope nor to the Council But there being no reason to make them our Judges and they having no right to claim that Authority over us it had been a great oversight to have made any such Inscription which would have been a kind of making them what they had neither right nor reason to expect to be and from whom we could expect no Justice The Natives had without doubt a great desire to see what was in this Book which then made so great a noise in the World and the Learned Men being then otherwise imployed a Lady who was one of the most Learned of the Age undertook that task and made a very Faithful and perhaps Elegant Version of it for the time when it was made She was then Wife to Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England second Daughter to Sir Anthony Cooke Knight one of the Tutors to King Edward the Sixth who being an excellent Scholar had taken care to improve his Five Daughters so much in Learning that they became the Wonders of the Age and were sought in Marriage by great Men more for their natural and acquired Endowments and Beauty than for their Portions tho they did not want that neither Mildred the eldest married William Cecil Lord Treasurer of England Anne the second was this Lady Bacon Katherine the third married Sir Henry Killigrew Elizabeth the fourth married Sir Thomas Hobby the fifth whose name is lost married Sir Ralph Rowlet all three Knights
to read the word of God in their own Tongue 16. Or that it was then Lawful for the Priest to pronounce the words of Consecration closely or in private to himself 17. Or that the Priest had then Authority to offer up Christ unto his Father 18. Or to communicate and receive the Sacrament for another as they do 19. Or to apply the vertue of Christs Death and Passion to any Man by the means of the Mass 20. Or that it was then thought a sound Doctrine to teach the People that Mass Ex opere operato that is even for that it is said and done is able to remove any part of our sin 21. Or that any Christian man called the Sacrament of the Lord his God 22. Or that the People were then taught to believe that the Body of Christ remaineth in the Sacrament as long as the accidents of Bread and Wine remain there without Corruption 23. Or that a Mouse or any other Worm or Beast may eat the Body of Christ for so some of our Adversaries have said and taught 24. Or that when Christ said Hoc est Corpus meum the word Hoc pointed not to the Bread but to an individuum vagum as some of them say 25. Or that the Accidents or Forms or shews of Bread and Wine be the Sacraments of Christs Body and Blood and not rather the very Bread and Wine it self 26. Or that the Sacrament is a sign or token of the Body of Christ that lieth hidden underneath it 27. Or that ignorance is the Mother and cause of true Devotion The Conclusion is that I shall then be content to yield and subscribe This challenge saith the Learned Dr. Heylyn being thus published in so great an Auditory startled the English Papists both at home and abroad but none more than such of our Fugitives as had retired to Lovain Doway or St. Omers in the Low-Country Provinces belonging to the King of Spain The business was first agitated by the exchange of friendly Letters betwixt the said Reverend Prelate and Dr. Henry Cole the late Dean of St. Pauls more violently followed in a Book of Rastal's who first appeared in the Lists against the Challenger followed herein by Dorman and Marshall who severally took up the Cudgels to as little purpose the first being well beaten by Nowel and the last by Calfhill in their Discourses writ against them but they were only Velitations or preparitory Skirmishes in reference to the main encounter which was reserved for the Reverend Challenger himself and Dr. John Harding one of the Divines of Lovain and the most Learned of the Colledge The Combatants were born in the same County bred up in the same Grammar School and studied in the same University also Both zealous Protestants in the time of King Edward and both relapsed to Popery in the time of Queen Mary Jewel for fear and Harding upon hope of Favour and Preferment by it But Jewel's fall may be compared to that of St. Peter which was short and sudden rising again by his Repentance and fortified more strongly in his Faith than before he was but Harding's like to that of the other Simon premeditated and resolved on never to be restored again so much was there within him of the gaul of bitterness to his former standing But some former Differences had been between them in the Church of Sarisbury whereof the one was Prebendary and the other Bishop occasioned by the Bishops visitation of that Cathedral in which as Harding had the worst so was it a Presage of a second foil which he was to have in this encounter Who had the better of the day will easily appear to any that consults the Writings by which it will appear how much the Bishop was too hard for him at all manner of Weapons Whose learned Answers as well in maintenance of his Challenge as in defence of his Apology whereof more hereafter contain in them such a Magazin of all sorts of Learning that all our Controversors since that time have furnished themselves with Arguments and Authority from it THUS far that Learned man has discoursed the event of this famous Challenge with so much brevity and perspicuity that I thought it better to transcribe his words than to do it much worse my self WHEN Queen Mary died Paul the Fourth was Pope to whom Queen Elizabeth sent an account of her coming to the Crown which was delivered by Sir Edward Karn her Sisters Resident at Rome to which the angry Gentleman replied That England was held in Fee of the Apostolick See that she could not succeed being illegitimate nor could he contradict the Declarations made in that matter by his Predecessors Clement the Seventh and Paul the Third he said it was a great boldness in her to assume the Crown without his Consent for which in reason she deserved no favour at his hands yet if she would renounce her Pretensions and refer her self wholly to him he would shew a fatherly affection to her and do every thing for her that could consist with the dignity of the Apostolick See Which answer being hastily and passionately made was as little regarded by the Queen But he dying soon after Pius the Fourth an abler man succeeded and he was for gaining the Queen by Arts and Kindness to which end he sent Vincent Parapalia Abbot of St. Saviours with courteous Letters to her dated May the fifth 1560. with order to make large proffers to her under hand but the Queen had rejected the Popes Authority by Act of Parliament and would have nothing to do with Parapalia nor would she suffer him to come into England In the interim the Pope had resolved to renew the Council at Trent and in the next year sent Abbot Martiningo his Nuncio to the Queen to invite her and her Bishops to the Council and he accordingly came to Bruxells and from thence sent over for leave to come into England but tho France and Spain interceded for his Admission yet the Queen stood firm and at the same time rejected a motion from the Emperor Ferdinando to return to the old Religion as he called it Yet after all these denials given to so many and such potent Princes one Scipio a Gentleman of Venice who formerly had had some acquaintance with Bishop Jewel when he was a Student in Padua and had heard of Martiningo's ill success in this Negotiation would needs spend some Eloquence in labouring to obtain that Point by his private Letters which the Nuncio could not gain as a publick Minister and to that end he writes his Letters of Expostulation to Bishop Jewel his old Friend preferred not long before to the See of Sarisbury Which Letter did not long remain unanswered that Learned Prelate saith my Author was not so unstudied in the nature of Councils as not to know how little of a General Council could be found at Trent And therefore he returned an answer to the proposition so
Pietate Humanitate egregie Praedito Theologiae cum primis cognitione Instructissimo Gemmae Gemmarum Immaturo fato Monkton-farleae Praerepto Sarisburiae Sepulto Coelorum civi Laurentius Humfredus Hoc Monumentum observantiae ergo Et Benevolentiae Consecravit Anno salutis Humanae Christi Merito Restitutae MDLXXIII ix Kal. Oct. Vixit Annos XLIX menses IV. Psal 112. In memoria aeterna erit Justus A Letter written to the Reverend Father in God Dr. John Jewel Lord Bishop of Sarisbury by Dr. Peter Martyr BY the favour of the Bishop of London most worthy Prelate and my very good Lord there was brought me one of your Apologies for the Church of England which neither I nor any others hereabouts before had seen It is true in your last Letter you rather intimated that it might come out than signfied that it should but however it came not hither till about the middle of July And from hence your Lordship may consider how much we suffer from the distance of places It hath not only given me an intire satisfaction who approve and am strangely pleased with all you do but to Bullinger and his Sons and Sons in Law And it seems so very wise admirable and elegant to Gualter and Wolphius that they can put no end to their Commendations of it as not thinking there hath been any thing printed in these times of so great a Perfection I do infinitely congratulate this great felicity of your Parts this excellent Edification of the Church and the Honour you have done your Country and I do most earnestly beseech you to go on in the same way for tho we have a good Cause yet the Defenders of it are few in comparison of its Enemies and they now seem so awakened that they have of late won much upon the ignorant Multitude by the goodness of their Stile and the subtilty of their Sophistry I speak this of Staphylus and Hosius and some other Writers of that Party who are now the stout Champions of the Papal Errors But now you have by this your most elegant and learned Apology raised such an hope in the minds of all good and learned men that they generally promise themselves that whilst you live the reformed Religion shall never want an Advocate against its Enemies And truly I am extreamly glad that I am so happy as to live to see that day which made you the Father of so illustrious and eloquent a Production May the God of Heaven of his goodness grant that you may be blessed in time with many more such Zurick Aug. 24. 1562. The Reader is desired to amend these few Errata's with his Pen the rest being generally nothing but literal mistakes are left to his Candor PReface to the Reader Page 14. Line 19. for to his Envoy read by his Envoy Apology p. 10. for Sardus r. Sardis p. 12. l. 22. for last r. late p. 66. l. 5. r. and because the Gospel p. 76. l. 3. for or r. for p. 140. l. 13 14. for security p. 151. in Marginal note for August 1560. 4. 1562. THE APOLOGY OF THE Church of ENGLAND Written by the very Learned and Reverend Father in God John Jewell Bishop of Sarisbury CHAP. I. Of the true Religion professed in the Church of England with a short Account of the Opposition the Truth and truë Religion hath met with in all Ages IT is an old Complaint deriv'd down to us from the very times of the Patriarchs and Prophets and confirm'd by the Evidence of all Histories and the Testimonies of all Ages that Truth is a Stranger upon Earth and doth too easily find Enemies and Defamers because she is not known and although this may seem perhaps incredible to those who have not attentively reflected on it because Mankind by the instinct of Nature without any Teacher doth spontaneously breathe after Truth and Christ himself our Saviour whilst he convers'd with Men chose to be call'd the TRUTH as if that Name did aptly express all the Power and Force of his Divine Nature yet we who are acquainted with the Holy Scriptures and have read and considered what hath happenned to pious men in almost all Ages what befel the Prophets the Apostles the holy Martyrs and Christ himself with what Slanders Curses and Injuries they were vexed whilst they lived only for the sake of Truth We I say see by this that it is no new thing but usual and the Custom of all Ages Indeed it would appear much more wonderful and incredible if the Father of Lyes the Devil that Enemy of all Truth should now of a sudden change his Mind and entertain any other hopes of oppressing the Truth than by Lyes or should now begin to establish his Kingdom by other Arts than those he hath hitherto imployed For in all Ages we shall scarce find any Period of time in which Religion encreased established it self or was reform'd but that at the same time Truth and Innocence were most unworthily and most injuriously treated by men for the Devil knows very well that if Truth doth flourish in safety his Affairs can neither be safe nor prosperous 2. FOR to speak nothing of the Ancient Patriarchs and Prophets no part of whose Lives as I said was free from Reproaches and Slanders We know that of Old there were some who averr'd and publickly told the World that the Ancient Jews who we doubt not worshipped the only true God perform'd their Religious Rites to a Swine or an Ass and that all that Religion was a meer Sacriledge and a Contempt of all Deities We know that the Son of God our Saviour Jesus Christ whilest he taught the truth was reputed an Impostor an Inchanter a Samaritan a Beelzebub a Deluder of the people a Wine-bibber and a Glutton Who knows not what was said of St. Paul that powerful Preacher and Assertor of Truth sometimes he was a seditious man and listed Soldiers and designed a Rebellion and at other times that he was an Heretick a mad man that out of a contentious and perverse Disposition he was a Blasphemer against the Law of God and a Despiser of the Customs of the Fathers Who knows not that so soon as ever St. Stephen had admitted the Truth and suffered it to take Possession of his Soul and thereupon as he ought began freely and stoutly to preach and own it he was immediately call'd in question for his Life as one that had spoken Blasphemy against the Law against Moses against the Temple and God or knows not that the Holy Scriptures have been accused of Vanity and Folly upon pretence that they contain'd things contrary and repugnant one to another and that all the Apostles of Jesus Christ disagreed amongst themselves and that St. Paul differed from all the rest And that I may not trouble you with all the Instances of this nature which are upon Record for they are infinite who knows not what Slanders were of old raised against
Arts. 12. NOW if we make it appear and that not obseurely and craftily but bona fide before God truly ingeniously clearly and perspicuously that we teach the most holy Gospel of God and that the antient Fathers and the whole Primitive Church are on our side and that we have not without just cause left them and return'd to the Apostles and the antient Catholick Fathers and if they who so much detest our Doctrine and pride themselves in the name of Catholicks shall apparently see that all those Pretences of Antiquity of which they so immoderately glory belong not to them and that there is more strength in our Cause than they thought there was then we hope that none of them will be so careless of his Salvation but he will at some time or other bethink himself which side he ought to joyn with Certainly if a man be not of an hard and obdurate Heart and resolved not to hear he can never repent the having once considered our Defence and the attending what is said by us and whether it be agreeable or no to the Christian Religion 13. FOR whereas they call us Hereticks that is so dreadful a Crime that except it be apparently seen except it be palpable and as it were to be felt with our Hands and Fingers it ought not to be easily believed that a Christian is or can be guilty of it for Heresie is a Renunciation of our Salvation a Rejection of the Grace of God and a departure from the Body and Spirit of Christ But this was ever the Custom and Usage of them and of their Fore-fathers that if any presumed to complain of their Errors and desired the Reformation of Religion they condemn'd them forthwith for Hereticks as Innovators and factious men Christ himself was call'd a Samaritan for no other cause but for that they thought he had made a defection to a new Religion or Heresie And St. Paul the Apostle being call'd in question was accused of Heresie to which he replied After the Way which they call Heresie so worship I the God of my Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets 14. In short all that Religion which we Christians now profess in the beginning of Christianity was by the Pagans call'd a Sect or Heresie with these words they fill'd the ears of Princes that when out of prejudice they had once possessed their minds with an Aversion for us and that they were perswaded that whatever we said was Factious and Heretical they might be diverted from reflecting upon the thing it self or ever hearing or considering the Cause but by how much the greater and more grievous this Crime is so much the rather ought it to be proved by clear and strong Arguments especially at this time because men begin now adays a little to distrust the Fidelity of their Oracles and to inquire into their Doctrine with much greater industry than has heretofore been imployed for the People of God in this Age are quite of another Disposition than they were heretofore when all the Responses and Dictates of the Popes of Rome were taken for Gospel and all Religion depended upon their Authority the Holy Scriptures and the Writings of the Apostles and Prophets are every where now to be had out of which all the true and Catholick Doctrine may be proved and all Heresies may be refuted 15. BUT seeing they can produce nothing out of the Scriptures against us it is very injurious and cruel to call us Hereticks who have not revolted from Christ nor from the Apostles nor from the Prophets By the Sword of Scripture Christ overcame the Devil when he was Tempted by him with these Weapons every high thing that exalteth it self against God is to be brought down and dispersed for all Scripture saith St. Paul is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction that the Man of God may be perfect and throughly furnished unto all good Works and accordingly the Holy Fathers have never fought against Hereticks with any other Arms than what the Scriptures have afforded them St. Augustin when he disputed against Petilianus a Donatist Heretick useth these words Let not saith he these words be heard I say or thou sayest but rather let us say thus saith the Lord let us seek the Church there let us judge of our Cause by that And St. Jerom saith Let whatever is pretended to be delivered by the Apostles and cannot be proved by the Testimony of the writen Word be struck with the Sword of God And St. Ambrose to the Emperor Gratian Let the Scriptures saith he let the Apostles let the Prophets let Christ be interrogated The Catholick Fathers and Bishops of those times did not doubt but our Religion might be sufficiently proved by Scripture nor durst they esteem any man an Heretick whose Error they could not perspicuously and clearly prove such by Scripture And as to us we may truly reply with St. Paul After the way which they call HERESIE so worship I the God of my Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets or the Writings of the Apostles 16. IF therefore we be Hereticks and they as they desire to be call'd be Catholicks why do they not do what they see the Fathers and all other Catholicks have done why do they not convince us out of the Holy Scriptures why do they not try us by them why do they not shew that we have made a defection from Christ from the Prophets from the Apostles and from the Holy Fathers Why do they stand Why do they draw back It is the Cause of God Why then should they fear to commit it to the Arbitriment of the Word of God But if we are Hereticks who submit all ouâ— Controversies to the Holy Scriptures and appeal to those very Words which we know were consigned to writing by God himself and prefer them before all other things which can possibly be excogitated by the Wit of Man what are they or by what Name shall they be call'd who fear and shun the Sentence of the Scriptures that is the Judgment of God himself and prefer their own Dreams and silly Inventions before them and have for some Ages violated the Institutions of Christ and his Apostles for the sake of their Traditions There is a Story of Sophocles the Tragedian that when he was very old he was accused before the Judges by his own Sons for a childish and a silly Person as one that had wasted his Estate by ill managery and stood in need of a Guardian in his old Age to take care of him and it the old Man appeared in Court and instead of a Deâ—ence recied a Tragedy which he had very elaborately and elegantly written just in that time the Suit was depending and thereupon asked the Judges if that Poem were the Work of a childish person 16.
ancient Councils and the Scriptures They have not O good God! they have not on their sides what they pretend to have they have neither Antiquity nor Universality nor the consent of either all times or all Nations And of this they are not ignorant themselves tho they craftily dissemble their Knowledge Yea at times they will not obscurely confess it and therefore sometimes they will alledge that the Sanctions of the ancient Councils and Fathers are such as may lawfully be changed for different Decrees say they will best suit the different State of the Church in different times And so they hide themselves under the name of the Church and by a wretched sham delude Mankind And in truth it is a great wonder that Men should be so blind as not to see these things or if they do see them so patient as to bear and indure them with that stupidity and unconcernment they seem to have 9. BUT tho they have abrogated the Canons of the ancient Councils as too old and overworn yet perhaps they have settled neâ— and more useful Rules in their place for they have the confidence to say that if Christ himself or his Apostles should arise from the Dead they could not administer the Affairs of the Church of God better or more piously than it is now administered by them Indeed they have put others in the place of the former but as Jeremias saith Chaff instead of Wheat or as Isaiah saith What God never required at their Hands for they have stopped up all the veins of Living Waters and have hewen for the People of God broken and polluted Cisterns being full of mud and dregs which neither have in them any pure Water nor can hold it if it were put into them They have torn from the People the Holy Communion the word of God from which all true Comfort could only be expected the true Worship of God the right use of the Sacraments and Prayers of the Church and they have given us to please our selves withall in the mean time of their own pure invention consecrated Salts Waters Oyls Spittle Palmes Bulls Jubiles Indulgences Crosses Censings and an infinite number of Ceremonies And as Plautus calls others of the like nature Ludos Ludificabiles Shews and Pageants that are very divertising and good for nothing else In these things they have made all Religion to consist and they have taught the People that by these things God is rightly appeased and that by these things Devils are put to flight and the Consciences of Men quieted and confirmed For these are the Paints and Perfumes of Christianity these are the grateful and acceptable things to the All-seeing God these are to be had in honour that Christ's and his Apostles Institutions may be taken away And as heretofore the wicked King Jeroboam when he had taken away the true Service of God and perswaded the People instead of it to accept the Golden Calves for fear they might change their minds and fall from him and return to the Temple of God at Jerusalem made a long Oration to them exhorting them to Constancy saying to them These are thy Gods O Israel thus did your God command you to worship him But it would be very grievous and troublesome for you to take so long a Journey and to go up every year to worship and adore God at Jerusalem Even so our Adversaries when they had once by their Traditions quash'd the Laws of God lest the People should afterwards open their Eyes and fall off from them and seek a better way of assuring their Salvation O how often have they exclaimed that this is the true Worship of God which he is pleased with and hath required of us and by which he will be appeased when he is angry and that it is grievous and troublesome to the People to have recourse to Christ and the Apostles and Fathers and to attend perpetually what they require of them Is this their way of bringing the People of God off from the weak Elements of the World from the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees and from humane Traditions Are the Commandments of Christ and his Apostles to be taken away that these goodly things may succeed them O most righteous Cause why should an old Doctrine which hath been approved for many Ages be antiquated and a new Form of Religion be brought into the Church of God! Ay but say they be it what it will nothing ought to be changed the minds of Men are wonderous well satisfied with these things the Church of Rome has so decreed and she cannot err for Sylvester Prierias saith That the Church of Rome is the Rule and Model of Truth and that the Holy Scriptures have received from her all their Faith and Authority The Doctrine saith he again of the Church of Rome is the infallible Rule of Faith from whence the Holy Scriptures have all their strength For Indulgences were not made known to us by the Authority of Scriptures but they were made known by the Authority of the Church and Popes of Rome which is greater than the Scriptures Pighius doth not fear to say that without the command of the Church of Rome we are not to believe the most clear place of Scripture Which is just as if one of those who cannot speak good and pure Latin and yet by use and custom has got the faculty readily and fluently to blunder on in the Lawyer 's Latin should therefore stand stoutly to it that all others are bound to speak it after the same manner that was many years since in use with Mammetrectus and the Catholicon which they still use in their Pleadings because by that means men might very easily be understood and their Humours might be gratified but on the other side that it were ridiculous to trouble the World now with a new way of speaking and to reduce into practice again the old Purity and Eloquence of the Latin Tongue used in the times of Cicero and Caesar 10. SO much are they indebted to the Ignorance and blindness of the former times that as one saith Many things are often had in great esteem because they were once dedicated to the Service of the Gods So now we see many things are magnified and applauded by them not because they judge them worthy of this Esteem but only because by Custom they were once received and thereby in a sort dedicated to the Service of God But they pretend that their Church cannot Err. I suppose they speak this in the same sense as the Lacedemonians were wont to say there was no such thing as Adultery in their Common-wealth when in truth they were all Adulterers and used an uncertain sort of Marriages and had their Wives in common Or as the Hungry Canonists now say of the Pope that he being Lord of all Benefices altho he sells Bishopricks Monasteries and Livings and suffers nothing to go from him without Money yet because he claims all
the mean time these men cannot defend themselves and propagate their own Cause except at the same time they undertake the Patronage of Annas and Caiaphas For what Council will these men ever acknowledge to be vicious and erronious who say that was a lawful and good Council in which the Son of God was most ignominiously condemnâ—d to the Death of the Crossâ— and yet considering what almost all their Councils have been it was necessary for them thus to pronounce of the Council held by Annas and Caiaphas But are they ever like to be the Men which are to reform the Church who are at once the Judges and the Criminals Will they ever lessen their Pride and Ambition Will they depose themselves and give Judgment against themselves that the Bishops shall not be unlearned slow Bellies multiply Benefices carry themselves like Princes nor bear Arms Will the Popes beloved Sons the Abbots decree that that Monk who doth not earn his Bread with the Sweat of his Brows is a Thief or that it is not Lawful for them to live in the City or in a Crowd of Men or of that which belongs to another that a Monk ought to lye upon the bare Ground to live hardly with Herbs and Pease to study hard dispute pray and labour to prepare himself for the Service of the Church It is as reasonable to expect that the Scribes and Pharisees will reform the Temple and of a Den of Thieves will again make it become a House of Prayer 7. THERE were some amongst them who observed that many Errors were crept into the Church Pope Adrian Aeneas Sylvius Cardinal Pool Pighius and othersâ— as we have said After which they had a Council at Trent in the same place where there is one now indicted Many Bishops and Abbots and others who ought to be in a Council met they were alone and there was no body to disturb them whatever they did for they had taken care to exclude all that were for the Reformation and there they sate with a great Expectation six years in the first six months they decreed many things concerning the Holy Trinity the Father Son and Holy Ghost which were pious but no way necessary for those Times and yet of all these clear manifest confessed Errors which had gotten into the Church what one single Error or Corruption have they reformed From what kind of Idolatry have they reclaim'd the People What Superstition have they taken away What part of their Tyranny and Pomp have they abated or diminished as if the World were so blind that it could not see and observe that this is a Conspiracy rather than a Council and that all the Bishops which the Pope have there call'd together are sworn and addicted to his Interest and resolved before hand not to do any thing but what shall please him and encrease his Power and which they see he desireth or that Votes there are not numbred rather than considered and weighed or that the wiser and better part of the Council is not often overborn by the greater but worse part of it And therefore we know perfectly well that many good Men and Catholick Bishops when such Councils were indicted and they saw clearly that Parties and Factions were served by them and that they should lose their Pains and harden the Minds of their Adversaries by their Oppositions without doing the least Good have wisely staid at home and refused to be present in them Athanasius would not come to the Council at Caesarea when he was call'd by the Emperor seeing he should there meet an enraged parcel of Enemies and afterwards when he came to the Council at Syrmium and in his mind foresaw from the Fury and Malice of his Enemies what the Event would be he pack'd up his Carriages and went away immediately St. Chrysostom tho he was call'd four times by Letters from Arcadius the Emperor to an Arrian Council yet staid at home When Maximus Bishop of Jerusalem sate in a Council in Palestine the old Paphnutius took him by the hand and led him out of it and then told him ' t is not lawful for us to consult about these things with wicked men The Bishops of the WEST would not be present at that Council at Syrmium from which Athanasius departed St. Cyril by Letters appealed from the Council of the Patropassians as they were call'd Paulinus Bishop of â—reves and many others would not come to the Council of Milan when they saw the Power and Intrigues of Auxentius for they saw it was to no purpose to go thither where Faction and not Reason would he heard and were Causes would be certainly determined by Affection and Passion and not by Judgment But then all these tho they were to deal with inraged and obstinate Adversaries yet if they had come they should have been freely heard in the Council 8. BUT now no man need wonder when none of us are permitted not only not to sit but not so much as to be seen in their Council so far are we from being freely heard when the Popes Legats and all the Patriarchs Arch-Bishops Bishops and Abbots are in a Conspiracy and united by their common Crimes all sworn in the same Oath only sit and have alone the Power of voting and as if all this were not enough have submitted all their Judgments to the Will and Humour of the Pope alone That he who ought to answer for his own Faults shall give Sentence in his own Cause upon himself when that ancient Christian Liberty which it is absolutely necessary should be very great in Councils is totally taken away I say after all this wise and good Men ought not to wonder if we do now that which they have seen done before in the like case by so many Fathers and Catholick Bishops That is that seeing we cannot be heard in the Council and that the Ambassadors of Princes are had in Contempt and Scorn there and that as if the thing were already determined and agreed we are condemned before we are heard if after all this we had rather sit at home and commit the business to God than to go thither where we shall have no place nor effect any thing But tho we can patiently and quietly bear our own Injuries yet why should they shut Christian and Pious Princes out of their Councils Why do they so rudely and insolently put them out and not suffer them to hear the business of Religion debated or to understand the State of their own Churches as if they were not Christians or could not judge well of it or if these Princes interpose their Authority and do that which they may are commanded and ought to do and which we know David and Solomon and other good Princes have done that is if they restrain the Luxury of the Priests and compel them to do their duty and keep them to it If they pluck down Idols extirpate Superstitions and restore the Worship of
Forms of our Publick Rites and Prayers to an exact resemblance with their Institutions or Customs And so we have only done that which we know Christ himself and all pious and good Men have in all Ages ever done for we have brought back Religion which was foully neglected and depraved by them to her Original and first State for we considered that the Reformation of Religion was to be made by that which was the first Pattern of it For this Rule will ever hold good against all Hereticks saith the most ancient Father Tertullian That that is true which is first and that is adulterated and corrupted which is later Irenaeus doth often appeal to the most ancient Churches who were the nearest to Christ and which therefore were not at all likely to have erred And why is not that course now taken also Why do we not return to a Conformity with the most Ancient Churches why cannot that be now heard amongst us which was pronounced in the Council of Nice without the least contradiction or opposition from so many Bishops and Catholick Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LET THE OLD CUSTOMS STAND FIRM When Esdras was to rebuild the Temple he did not send to Ephesus tho there was there a most beautiful Temple of Diana which was adorned most exquisitely and when he was to restore the Rites and Ceremonies he did not send to Rome tho perhaps he might have heard there of Hecatembs c. and the ritual Books of Numa Pompilius he thought it was sufficient for him if he set before him as an example and followed the ancient Temple built by Solomon according to the Prescription of God Almighty and the ancient Rites and Ceremonies which God had expresly commanded Moses When the Temple was rebuilt by Esdras and the People might seem to have a just cause to rejoyce in so very great a Blessing granted to them by the Great and Holy God yet Haggai the Prophet brought Tears from all their Eyes because they that were yet living and had seen the Structures of the former before it was destroyed by the Babylonians did well remember how far this latter was from the splendor of the former Temple But on the contrary they would have thought it excellently restored if it had answered the Model and represented the Majesty of the old Temple 16. St. Paul that he might reform the Abuses of the Lords Supper which the Corinthians began even then to corrupt proposed to them the Institution of it by Christ to follow That saith he have I delivered to you which I received of the Lord. And Christ that he might refute the Errors of the Pharisees in another case sends them up to the beginning In the beginning saith he it was not so And that he might shew the Sordidness and Avarice of the Priests This saith he in the beginning was a House of Prayer that Men might in it pray to God Religiously and Purely and so you ought still to have kept it for it was not built to be a Den of Thieves So all religious and approved Princes in Scripture are especially honoured with this Commendation that they walked in the ways of David their Father that is that they returned to the Original and Fountain and restored Religion to its first Integrity And so we seeing all things perverted by them and that there was nothing left in the Church of God but miserable Ruines thought it was but reasonable to set before us those Churches for our Example which we were sure had not erred and had neither private Masses nor unintelligible and barbarous Prayers nor that Corruption of the Holy Rites or other Fooleries And desiring to restore the Church of God to its first Integrity and Purity we would not seek any other Foundation to build upon than what was laid by the Apostles that is by our Saviour Jesus Christ 17. WHEN therefore we had heard God himself speaking to us in his word and had seen and considered the illustrious Examples of the Ancient and Primitive Church and that the expectation of a General Council was very uncertain and the event that would follow it much more uncertain and especially when we had the utmost certainty what was the Will of God and therefore thought it a Sin to be too sollicitous and anxious what the opinion of Men might be After all this I say we could no longer deliberate with flesh and blood but proceeded and have accordingly done that which may both lawfully be done and which hath already been often done by many pious Men and Catholick Bishops that is to take care of our own Church in a Provincial Synod For so we see the ancient Fathers ever took that course before they came to a General and Publick Council of the whole World and there are still extant the Canons made in Muncipial or Provincial Councils at Carthage under St. Cyprian at Ancyra Neocaesarea and at Gangra also in Paphlagonia all which as some think were held before the name of the Nicene General Council was thought of And in this manner without any General Council by a private dispute they of old opposed the Pelagians and Donatists So when Constantius the Emperor openly favored Auxentius a Bishop of the Arrian Party Athanasius a most Christan Bishop did not appeal to a General Council in which he saw nothing could be done by reason of the Power of the Emperor and the great partiality and stiffness of the Faction but to his own Clergy and People that is to a Provincial Council 18. SO it was decreed in the Nicene Council that twice in the year and in a Carthagenian Council that at least once in a year Meetings of the Bishops should be celebrated in every Province which the Council of Chalcedon saith was done that if any Errors or Abuses arose any where they might presently and upon the spot be extinguished And so when Secundus and Paladius rejected the Council of Aquileja because it was not a Publick and General Council St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan replied that it ought not to seem new or strange if the Bishops of the West assembled in Prâ—vincial Conventions or Synods for it had been not seldom done by the Western Bishops before and was very frequently by the Greek Bishops So Charles the Great Emperor of Germany held a Provincial Council in Germany for the taking away Images out of the Church against the second Nicene Council which had determined for them nor is this thing new and unheard of in England for we have heretofore had many Provincial Synods and have governed our Church by our own domestick Laws without the Interposition of the Popes of Rome or any other foreign Bishops or Churches What need is there of many words Certainly those greatest and fullest Councils of which these Men so often Glory if they be compared with all the Churches which throughout the World own and confess the Name of Christ what I pray can they seem to be
OF old when the Athenians after they had beaten the Persians out of Greece began to rebuild their Walls which they themselves had levell'd with the Ground during the War And the Lacedemonians that they might still have the Athenians at their Mercy did severely prohibit them not to do it Themistocles the General of the Athenians promised that he would go to Lacedemon and deliberate with them about this Business and accordingly when he had began his Journey that he might gain time first he pretended a Sickness that he might stay a while by the way and when at last he got to Lacedemon he began one Delay after another one while the Articles did not please him another while he must consider of them a while now he must stay for his fellow Ambassadors without whom he could do nothing and soon after he must send Messengers to Athens to know their Pleasures and in the interim whilst he was spinning out the time the Athenians fortified their City that in case any Force were imployed against them they might be in a condition to repel it and just thus our Adversaries by gaining one day after another and pretending to refer all thins to a Council in the mean time build their own Walls whilst we sit still and expect I know not what Wonders from them and in the end when they have taken their Measures and put their Affairs out of danger then they will shut us out of doors and tell us that no Council can be held nor any thing else done 15. FOR it is worth the while to consider their Arts and Stratagems how often have Councils been call'd and yet have not met how often has a small flying Rumour defeated all their Preparations and other mens Expectations How often have the Purple Dons slipt home without doing any thing and adjourn'd the next Session to the ninth or tenth year How often has the Weather Provisions the Place or the Time not suited with their Humors For the Pope alone calls the Councils and dismisseth them when he will if any thing doth not please him or things begin to go cross to his Interest presently you hear his Valete Plaudite Clap your Hands and farewell A Council was call'd at Basil great numbers assembled from all Places many things were seriously debated Pope Eugenius is condemn'd as an Heretick and a Simonaical Prelate by all the Votes and Amideus Duke of Savoy substituted in his place Eugenius as he had reason takes this ill as a thing of bad example to Posterity his Power being very much above all Councils no Council can meet said he but by his Order nor determine any thing against his Will therefore it is a lewd thing to search into his Life in a Conventicle of Bishops So without delay he calls the Council first to Ferrara in Italy and then translates it to Florence What is the matter I pray did Pope Eugenius think the change of Air would produce a change in their Minds or that the Holy Ghost would give Answers more wisely in Italy than he had in Germany No he did not seek Christ in all his Changes but his own dear Interest he saw that in Germany Sigismund the Emperor was his Enemy and that his authority and the Favour he had there was too great and he thought that if these Fathers were transplanted from those cold Climates into Italy they might like trees removed become more mild and their Fruit more pleasant for O immortal God! that is not now any part of the Business of a Council to find out the Truth or suppress Falshood the only Business of Popes in Councils in these latter Ages has been the confirming the Roman Tyranny the promoting Wars the imbroiling the Christian Princes and engaging them one against another the Levying Mony sometimes for Expeditions into the Holy Land at other times for the building St. Peters Church sometimes for I know not what other Uses or rather Abuses which all tended to promote the Luxury and Lusts of a few ill men and these were the only Aims of all the late Councils for as for the Errors and Abuses as if there had been none nothing could ever be handled 16. Petrus Alliacensis complain'd much in the Council of Constance concerning the Avarice and Insolence of the Court of Rome But what did he gain by it What part of their Avarice or Insolence was ever restrain'd by the Authority of any Council and he moved too that the number of Holy Days and the Herds of lazy Monks might be diminished and another in a certain Work which is call'd the Tripartite and is put in the end of the Council of Laterane saith that the whole World is scandalized and speaks against the vast Multitude of begging Fryars and the Fathers in that Laterane Council say We command all men streightly for time to come not to invent any more new Religious Orders From these times to ours what has been done concerning Holy Days I know not but it is highly probable there hath been no diminution of them but the Order of Monks hath been infinitely encreased for the late Popes have added the Jesuits the Capuchins and the Theatins as if we had not had before a sufficient Swarm of Idle â—ellies John Gerson Chancellor of Paris offered to the Fathers of the Council of Constance a Catalogue of LXXV Abuses in the Church of Rome which he earnestly desired might be reformed but now of so great a number what one Abuse have they since reformed Johannes Picus Mirandula writes to Pope Leo that he would diminish the number of vain Ceremonies and curb the Luxury of the Priests After this a great number of Bishops met in the Laterane Council with a mighty expectation of the whole World but what one Ceremony did they cut off What one Priest did they punish for Luxury and Wickendess the Poet Mantuan complained by name of the Manners of the Church of Rome St. Bernard the Abbot wrote thus to Eugenius the Pope your Court sometimes receives good Men but it makes none the bad do there thrive the good are ruin'd And concerning the miserable state in which the Church then was he writes that from the Crown of the Head to the Sole of the Foot there is no soundness And again where is he that preacheth the acceptable year of the Lord they do not saith he in these times keep but corrupt the Spouse of Christ they do not keep but kill and devour the Lords Flock Pope Adrian the VI. when he sent his Legate into Germany did ingeniously and truly confess that the state of the whole Clergy was extreamly corrupt all we the Ecclesiastical Prelates saith he have declined every one into his way and there is not now one that doth good no not one Albertus Pighius confesseth that in the very Mass which they will have to be most sacred and in which they place the Center of all the Christian Religion there may be found Abuses and
has abrogated all the Decrees of a former The Council of Carthage decreed that the Bishop of Rome should not be call'd the highest Priest or the Prince of the Priests or by any other such like Title but the latter Councils have not only call'd him the High Priest but the Great Pontiff and the Head of the Universal Church The Eliberitan Council decreed that it should not be lawful that what was worshipped should be painted on the Walls of the Churches The Council of Constantinople decreed that Images were not to be endured in the Christian Churches on the other side the second Council of Nice did allow them not only to be erected in Churches but also to be worshiped The Laterane Council under Pope Julius the II. was call'd for no other purpose but to rescind the Decrees of the Council of Pisa thus the latter Bishops frequently oppose the forgoing and some Councils damm up the Lights of others and these men will not be bound even by their own Councils any farther than they please and is for their Convenience and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brings Grist to their Mill. The Council of Basil decreed that a Council of Bishops is above the Pope but the Laterane Council under Pope Leo decreed the Pope to be above a Council And the Pope doth not only carry himself so as if he thought so but also if any man is of the Opinion of this Council he commands him to bo reputed a Heretick I pray Sir what would you do here whatever you say or think either the Pope or the Council will make you a Heretick and all the Popes for some Ages have opposed these Truths of the Council of Basil and therefore in the esteem of the Council of Basil all the Popes for all these last Ages are Hereticks The same Council with one Voice deposed Pope Eugenius for Simony and Schism and named Amideus for his Successor But yet Eugenius did not regard the Decree of the Council and altho he was a Simonist and a Schismatick yet he did not cease to be the Successor of St. Peter the Vicar of Christ and the Head of the Catholick Church and in spite of all retaind his former Dignity and was born as before on the shoulders of Noble Men magnificently and loftily And Amideus a simple man like one unhorsed walked upon his Feet and thought himself happy enough that of a Pope he was become a Cardinal The late Council at Trent made a Decree that the Bishops should teach the People and that no one of them should at the same time have two or more Bishopricks they on the other side contrary to the Canon of their own Council enjoy Pluralities and teach nothing and so they make such Laws as they will not be bound by but when they please at this rate have they ever valued their own Councils and Decrees 22. AND now Sir what reason have we to expect at this time a better Event of things for for what cause upon what hope and Expectation is the Council held be pleased Sir to consider with your self but this one thing what kind of Men they are upon whose Fidelity Learning and Judgment the weight of the whole Council the debating all those great Questions and the sum of the whole Affair depends they are indeed call'd Abbots and Bishops grave Men and great Names and as it is thought of great account in the Management of the Church of God but if you strip them of the Names Robes and Personages of such Men what have they that is at all like a Bishop or an Abbot for they are no Ministers of Christ no Dispensers of the Mysteries of God they do not attend the reading nor teach the Gospel nor feed the Flock nor till the Ground nor plant the Vincyard nor light the Fire nor carry the Ark of the Lord nor perform the Ambassie of Christ nor Watch nor do the Work of an Evangelist they do not fulfil their Ministery they entangle themselves in secular Affairs they hide the Treasure of their Lord and take away the Keys of the Kingdom of God they neither go in themselves nor do they suffer others to enter they beat their Fellow Servants they feed themselves and not the Flock they sleep they snore they feast they fare deliciously they are Clouds without Water Stars without Light dumb Dogs slow Bellies and as St. Bernard said they are not Prelates but Pilats not Teachers but Seducers not Pasters but Impostors the Servants of Christ saith he serve Antichrist And these are the only men to whom the Popes will allow a Place and Vote in the Council in their Judgments and Power will they have the whole Care and Administration of the Catholick Church to be Pope Pius hath now chosen these alone to put his Trust in but O good God! what kind of Mortals what sort of Men are these and yet as they think all these Queries are ridiculous for it is not say they one farthing difference whether they be Learned or Pious or no or what they will or think for in truth it is sufficient if they can but ride upon a Mule and with great State and Noise make the publick Cavalcade to the Council and when they cam◠there say nothing If Sir you will not believe me and conceive I have fain'd all this for Diversion and Sport be but pleased to hear the Honorable Judgment and what the most sacred Faculty of the whole Sorbon decreed in this case that say they which our Master have said concerning a legitimate Assembly is That it is to be noted that to the legitimate assembling of a Council it is sufficient that the Solemnity and Form of the Law be solemnly observed for if any man would bring this in question whether the Prelates that sit there have a good Intention and whether they be learned and whether they have the Knowledge of the Holy Scripture and a mind well disposed to sound Doctrine the Process would be infinite for they it seems who sit as mute as the Statues of Mercury and know not in the least what Religion is will yet answer wondrous well and aptly concerning the sum of Religion and whatever they say cannot possibly err 23. AND all these are bound to the Popes Interest not only by their Error and Ignorance but by the Tye and Religion of an Oath so that if they should chance to think right yet unless they will be prejured they must not speak what they think and openly profess and own the Truth so that they must of necessity be false to God or man for they all swear in this very form J. N. Bishop from this hour forward will be faithful to St. Peter and to the Holy Apostolick Church of Rome to my Lord Pope N. and to his Successors canonically entering I will neither be of Counsel nor in any Action whereby he may lose his Life or Limbs or be taken Prisoner that Counsel which he shall impart
whatever the Pope approves or disapproves we ought also to approve or disapprove and what the Pope allows no other man may disallow And another Flatterer who has lost all Modesty saith that altho the whole World should contradict the Opinion of the Pope in any thing yet it seems but reasonable to stand to the Iudgment of the Pope And another no less impudently saith it would be a sort of Sacriledge to dispute concerning an Action of the Pope who tho he is not a good man is yet ever presumed to be such And another more impudently The Pope saith he hath a Heavenly Will and therefore in those things which he wills his Will is instead of a Reason to him nor is there any man who may say to him why dost then act thus And that I may pass by many other things which might be alledged here because they are without number and at length come to a Conclusion Pope Innocentius the IX more impudently than any other useth these words This Judge the Pope may neither be judged by the Emperor nor by Kings nor by the while Chrgy nor yet by all the people O immortal God! how little is wanting of the Pride of Luciser I will ascend above the North and I will be like the most highest If all these things are true and the Popes have not belyed the World what need is there of a Council or if they will hold a sincere and free Council let all these things be condemn'd as dishonest and insolent Lyes and let them not only be laid aside as to the court and use of them but be razed out of all Books that the sum of Affairs may never more be left to the Will and Lust of one man and he too for many most just causes suspected But now on the contrary the Popes say they cannot err and that the Word of God is to be regulated according to their Prescription and besides all this before they enter upon their Papal Dignity they take an Oath that they will maintain the Faith of many late Councils in which all things are most fearfully depraved and they promise most religiously that they will not change any thing and therefore what wonder is it that no good is done by Councils that Errors and Abuses are not taken away that the Ambassadors of Princes are to no purpose call'd together from such distant places out of all Lands and yet I hear that there are some good men at this time who not well considering what they say tho they condemn the Pride of the Pope and his Persian State and Magnificence and his Epicurean Contempt of all Religion yet they would preserve for all that his Authority safe and intire and tho sometimes they confess him to be Antichrist yet for all that as soon as he ascends that Chair they do not question but he is the universal Bishop and the Head of the universal Church of Christ and here they please themselves as if the Holy Ghost were necessarily fixed to the Pope Court in the Adrian Mole but there is a Proverb that the Place doth not sanctifie the Man but the Man the Place And St. Jerome as he is cited by them saith they are not the Children of the Saints who hold their Places but those who imitate their good Actions for otherwise as Christ said the Scribes and Pharisees sate in Moses his Chair and he commanded his Disciples to acknowledge and submit to their Authority so far as they answered out of the Word of God What saith St. Augustin hath Christ said more here than that the Voice of the Shepherd was heard out of the Mouth of a mercenary Servant for sitting in that Chair they teach the Law of God therefore God teacheth by them but if they will teach their own things do not hear them do not do them for St. Paul saith Antichrist the Man of Sin shall sit in the Holy Place and therefore St. Jerome doth well admonish us thou dost attend St. Peter but then consider Judas thou submitest to Stephen but cast an Eye towards Nicholas as the same time Church Dignity doth not make a Christian Thus St. Jerome and certainly it is said that Marcellinus the Pope did sacrifice to Idols Pope Liberius was an Arrian Pope John the XXII was a Heretick in the point of the immortality of the Soul Pope John the VIII was a Woman and in her Popedom by a lewd Lust committed Adultery and in a Procession in the midst of the Pomp before the Eyes of the Bishops and Cardinals she brought forth a Child and Liranus saith that many Roman Popes apostized from the Faith of Christ and therefore we must not trust too much to Places Successions and vain Titles of Dignity The impious Nero was descended from Metellus the Pious and Annas and Caiaphas succeeded to Aaron and an Idol hath often been put in the place of God 26. BUT Sir I beseech you what is that vast Power and Authority that they so very insolently boast of Or from whence had they it from Heaven or from Men Christ say they said to Peter upon this Rock will I build my Church in these words the Papal Power is confirm'd for the Church of Christ is placed upon Peter as upon its Foundation but Christ in these words gave nothing to St. Peter apart from the rest of the Apostles neither did he here make any mention of the Pope or City of Rome Christ is that Rock Christ is that Foundation No man saith St. Paul can lay another Foundation than that which is already laid which is Jesus Christ 27. And St. Augustin upon this Rock saith he I will build my Church by the Words upon this Rock saith he is understood the Confession made by Peter saying thou art Christ the Son of the living God for saith he it is not said thou art a Rock but thou art Peter but the Rock was Christ And St. Basil upon these words upon this Rock that is saith he upon this Faith I will build my Church And the most ancient Father Origen the Rock saith he is every Disciple of Christ after he hath drunk of the Spiritual Rock which follows and upon every such Rock is all the Churches Doctrine built Now Sir if you will suppose that the whole Church is built only upon Peter what will you say of John the Son of Thunder and all the rest of the Apostles Or shall we dare to say that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against Peter only but against the rest of the Apostles and Heads of the Church those Gates may prevail or rather is that Saying that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail to be understood of all and every one of them of whom it was spoken and so is that other Expression to be taken too upon this Rock will I build my Church And are the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven given only to Peter by Christ or was no other of the blessed Apostles to
Definition of the Fathers and the Decrees of the Nicene Council have most plainly committed both all inferiour Clerks and also all the Bishops to their own Metropolitans for all Affairs may be most prudently and justly ended in those places where they began nor will the Grace and Assistance of the Holy Ghost be wanting to any Province Let this Equity be â—ver of great esteem with all Christian Priests which hath been constantly retained 35. BUT Elutherius Bishop of Rome wrote much better and more pertinently to the thing we have now in hand in his Epistle to Lucius a King in Britain You have saith he desired I would send you the Roman and Caesarean Laws which you have a desire to settle in your Kingdom of Britain We may abrogate the Roman and Imperial Laws when we will but not the Law of God for you have by the Mercy of God received the Law and Faith of Christ in your Kingdom of Britain and you have with you in your Kingdom both Testaments compile out of them by the Assistance of God and the Counsel of your Kingdom a Law and then by it with Gods permission govern your said Kingdom for you are the VICAR OF GOD in that Kingdom according to that of the Psalmist the Earth is the Lords 36. IN short Victor Bishop of Rome held a Provincial Synod at Rome and Justinianus the Emperor commandeth that if need require Synods should be held in each Province and threatned that if this were neglected he would punish those that made default Every Province saith St. Jerome hath its particular Manners Rites and Opinions which cannot easily be removed or changed without a very great disturbance And why should I commemorate the most ancient Municipal Councils that of Eliberis Gangra Laodicea Ancyra Antiâ—ch Tâ—urs Carthage Milevis Toledo and Bourdâ—aux for this is no new thing So was the Church of God governed before the Fathers met in the Council of Nice for they had not presently recourse to a General Council Theophilus held a Provincial Synod in Palestinâ— Palmas in Pontus Irenaeus in Gaul Bachilus in Achaia Origen against Beryllus in Arabia and I omit many other Provincial Synods which were kept in Africa Asia Greece and Egypt which were most â—ious Orthodox and Christian tho the Pope had nothing to do with them For the Bishops then as necessity required and as things fell out presently consulted the Well-fare of their Churches in Domestick Councils and sometimes implored the Assistance of their neighbour Bishops at other they frankly aided each other without asking and if need were did by turns help one the other Nor did only the Bishops but Princes of those times think that the Concerns of the Church pertain'd to their Oâ—â—ice for to omit Nebuchadnezar who published a Capital Edict against all that should blaspheme the God of Israel and David Solomon Ezechias and Josias who did partly build and partly reform the Temple of God Constantius the Emperor without any Council took away the Worship of Idols and put forth a most severe Edict by which he made it capital for any man to offer Sacrifice to any Idol Theodosius the Emperor commanded all the Temples of the Pagan Gods to be razed to the Ground Jovinianus another of them so soon as ever he was declared Emperor made his first Law for the restitution of the Christian Exiles Justinianus was wont to say that his Care of the Christian Religion was as great as that of his Life Joshua so soon as ever he was made the Governour of the People had Precepts concerning Religion and the Worship of God given him for Princes are the nursing Fathers of the Church and the Keepers of both Tables nor was there any one Cause why God setled Governments in the World greater than this viz. That there might be some to preserve Religion and Piâ—ty in safety 37. AND therefore many Princes in this Age do sin the more grievously who being call'd Christians sit idely and enjoy their Pleasures and tamely suffer wicked Rites of Worship and the Contempt of the Deity and turn over all this Care to the Bishops and those very Bishops whom they know to have all Religion in the utmost degree of scorn as if the Care of the Churches and People of God did not at all belong to them or as if they were meer Herds-men of Cattle and to take care of Bodies but not in the least of mens Souls they remember not in the mean time that they are the Ministers of God and chosen for that purpose that they might serve the Lord. Ezechias the King would not go up to his own House until he saw the Temple of God throughly purged And David said I will not give Sleep to my Eyes no Slumber to my Eye-lids until I find out a Place for the Lord a Tabernacle for the God of Jacob. O that Christian Princes would hear the Voice of their Lord and Soveraign Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be learned O ye that are Judges of the Earth I have said saith he that ye are Gods that is men divinely chosen who should take care of my Name Think thou whom I have raised from the Dunghil and placed in the highest degree of Dignity and Honour and set over my People when thou so studiously buildst and adornest thy own House how thou canst despise and neglect my House or how thou canst every day petition me that I would confirm thy Kingdom to thee and thy Posterity What that my Name may for ever be treated unworthily that the Gospel of my Christ may be extinguished that my Servants may for my Sake he butchered before thy Eyes and in thy View that this Tyranny may rage the longer that my People may be imposed upon for ever that the Scandal may be confirm'd by thee Wo to him by whom Scandals come and wo to him by whom they are confirm'd Thou tremblest at the Blood of Bodies how much more shouldest thou abhor the Blood of Souls remember what I did to Antiochus Herod and Julian I will translate thy Kingdom unto thy Enemy because thou hast sinned against me I change Times and Seasons I reject Kings and I set them up that thou mayst understand that I am the most highest and that I rule in the Kingdoms of men and give them to whom I will I bring down and I lift up I glorifie those that glorifie me and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed FIFIS Lloyd's State-worthies p. 374 Eccles Restaurat p. 283. Tortura Torti p. 130. 1569. 13 Eli. e. a. In the English Life before his Works is called Witney November 1548. This Dispute began the 28 th of May Anno Christi 1549. and lasted five days 1551. 1553. Fuller in his Church History saith he was expelled for refusing to be present at Mass Anno 1553. 1554. Peter Martyr Ecclesia Restaurata p. 196 Peter Martyr also helped himself for he would not go without the Queens Pasport and leave and