A DISPUTATION against the Adoration of the relics of Saints departed. WHEREIN NINE PALPAble abuses are discouvered, committed by the popish Priests in the veneration thereof. Together with, The refutation of a jesuitical Epistle, and an Index of the relics, which every seventh year, are shown at Awcon in Germany unto the superstitious people and pilgrims, compiled by the Canons of S. Mary's Church An. 1608. By john Polyander Professor of Divinity in the University of Leyden in Holland, & translated by Henry Hexham, out of French into English. At Dordrecht. Printed by George walter's, Anno. 1611. TO THE TRVEly religious & honourable Lady, The Lady Vere, spouse unto my honourable Lord, Sir Horace Vere knight, Lord Gouvernour of his majesties cautionary town of Briell, & chief Commander under his Excellency of the English forces in the service of the most illustrate Lords the States of the United Provinces. Madam: it were in vain for me to seek to embellish your christian graces by a dead letter: Seeing they are most lively, & give a far greater lustre in yourself, where God hath planted them, then can be expressed by the blunt & unlearned Pen of a Soldier. But seeing God hath made them so transparent, & hath kindled in you so holy a flame of love and zeal unto the true & only worship of his name: methinks this plain translation of mine, not for any worth that is in me, but for the subjects sake, hath found out a fit Patroness, whose person & practise affordetth a real confutation of that superstition which is here unmasked, And so much the more presuming upon your ladyships favour & gentle acceptance: in regard I dedicated this same Authors former refutation upon the invocation of Saints, unto my honourable Lord your husband; so that now, as God hath made you one, I may make you both equally interressed in this one subject (though diversely handled) striving for that honour, which is due unto his name. These Popish jugglings cannot be unknown to your Ladyship, seeing the unholy blood of Hales (which did clear & thicken as the Pilgrim's purse was light or heavy) is of your own house, & of so fresh remembrance, whereby your honourable Ancestors did learn to detest such devilish cozenage, as the burned bones of your most worthy Granfather did long ago witness, to all the world. Moreover, (Madam) there are also some abhomiations in this disputation, which I know made my Author's pen to tremble in copying of them out, and mine to quake in translating them: others again, which may draw from your Ladyship a chaste smile and a modest blush: but let the shame light upon their heads, who are the authors thereof: & the more they blaspheme and dishonour our blessed God & Saviour, the more let us worship and honour him, and learn as Bees to suck honey from baneful weeds, or as cunning Physicians to extract Antidotes from poison, since God turneth the very abominations & execrations of the wicked, as examples for the good & edification of his children. Here with (Madam) as with the chief end of this labour I end, beseeching God to bless my honourable Lord and you, with all happiness and joy in this world, and everlasting felicity and bliss in the world to come. From our Garnison of Dordrecht this 18. of October. 1611. Your ladyships in all dutiful respect. Henry Hexham. To the Christian Reader. Worthy Reader, for variety sake, to employ my idle time to some use, and to offer my mite unto the Church of God, that the grave and learned men of our nation may see, that the Ministers of other reformed churches, march pouldron to pouldron with them unto the Lord's combat: I have undertaken this translation, free from ostentation: only my ambition is (in tracing after the steps of my Author) to have one flirt at Antichrist, and one push at the fall of the great whore of Babylon, and so much the rather, because mine eyes have seen some of her fornications, which some others have but heard. But it may seem strange to some, that a soldier should undertake such a task, as not appertaining to his profession: as that man judges me a soldier, so I entreat him to esteem me a Christian, and then both he and I shallbe consonant. Well then, into whose hands soever this poor translation of mine shall come, whom God hath already enlightened, let us sing an everlasting Halleluiah, & give praise unto that great God, which hath translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into his merveilous light. And if it fall into the hands of any that are infected with this deadly contagion, I entreat them to read it, not to refute it, for alas they are not able: because it is grounded and bounded upon & within the sacred word of God, and seconded by the opinions of the most holy Fathers. That were as if they should run in upon God's two-edged sword. That were as if a falling and a running enemy, beaten on all sides should turn back upon a stand of charged pikes, which are ready to receive them. Therefore, it were better for them to suffer it to graze upon their stony hearts then to resist. And for my part, I will daily pray unto the Father of lights, to illuminate and water their souls with the beams and streams of his Sun of righteousness, that as Eagles we may soar up only unto him with the wings of our faith, in whom alone is found the wellspring of living waters and noewhere else. As concerning the grave & learned Author of this little treatise, it were mere presumption in me, to make an attestation of his worth, when the no less wise than H. Lords of this state, have abundantly testified the same to all, by resolving on him, as the sittest they did know to re-establish the truth by his public profession at Leyden. This I will only day, that if a few spare hours could bring forth this, we may well expect and promiss ourselves no small fruit of those holy labours, which shall hereafter be undertaken. Thus I beseech God to accept of my weak performance, and give a blessing unto this and them. Thy loving Countryman H. Hexham. To the most noble and virtuous Lord, MONSIEUR ARNHOVLT DE GROENEVELT, Lord of the Lands and Lordships of F●llignies, Godimont, & Ramegnies in Neufville lez Sorgnies etc. And ancient Colonel unto the most illustrate and mighty Lords, the States of the united Provinces. MONSIEUR: IT is more than two years past, since a merchant of this city, one of the members of our French Church, came to show me in my lodging two copies of an Epistle, published by the Canons of Awcon in Germany, touching the veneration due unto their relics: which a friend of his, a zealous lover of the truth had sent him, with express charge to present it unto me in his behalf, & earnestly to request me, to return some answer upon it. Whereunto, considering that I could not so suddenly accomplish his desire, because of my other employements, he thought good not to limit me any prefixed time: but that I should undertake & finish this work at my leisure. This is the cause, that I have made no great haste in composing this treatise, which I have distributed into three parts: In the scope there of, I have followed the order & the example of the ancient Prophets and Apostles, as also their true Successors, and Imitators, who have all maintained with one common accord, that God only ought to be worshipped by his people, & will not have this service given to any other, by the authentic, and irreprehensible testimonies of holy Scripture, the which God hath armed with an inviolable authority, to the end, that those which fear him, might make no scruple to receive it wholly, and to give full belief thereunto. True it is, that I have annexed unto it some attestations of the ancient Fathers, not to approve the foolish imagination of the Romanists, but that the holy Scripture may take more force & credit: seeing she hath received it already from God, who is the author thereof: or that the truth of it, which is infallible, should depend upon the advice and judgement of our ancestors & predecessors, which might err: but rather to show the Doctors of the Roman church, who rely more upon the authority of men, then upon Gods in the points which concern our controversies, that their condemnation is not only found in the decrees of divine Law: but also in the records of the pastors of the primitive Church: yea even in theirs whom they choose for their judges and defendants. I call the Epistle of these Canons jesuitical in the beginning of my disputation: because after I had conferred it with Beauties' book, the first tutor of these Jesuits upon this subject, I find it is but a patching together of his arguments, whereby he sought to prove the worshipping of the relics of Saints. I meant not to use in the resutation of their Epistle any elegant speech, or any circumlocution and readiousnesse in words: because the truth (without borrowing else where) hath ornaments enough in herself: and when she is simple, and in her naked robes, she taketh the more delight in such as fetts her forth, & represents her before the view of all men, in roundness and simplicity. Forasmuch then, as we cannot resist to much, nor too often the heresies which daily multiply in this wicked world: especially the foolish superstition of those which would attribute to the relics of mortal man, the honour belonging unto the sole majesty of the immortal God: although that Calvin, Chemnicius and some other excellent Divines, have taken pen in hand to oppose themselves against the first inventours and advancers of this Idolatry: yet I have also thought it my duty, to give forth this disputation against the new protecters of this superstition, and in particular against the Canons of Awcon: because it may be available to the Christian church (as S. Augustine saith) that many books be written upon one subject: provided that they be made in diversity of style, but not in diversity of belief, seeing that by this means heretics are the more convicted, and on the otherside, we open the more passages for the Children of God, to escape from the call, and out of the snares of these fowlers, & offer them sundry sorts of counterpoisons to preserve their brains from the venoume of their Sophistry. As for the rest, there are many considerations, which moved me to dedicate this treatise unto you: For I will not here speak of that holy zeal, which made you expose your person and goods, from your youth, aswell in the defence of our just cause at S, Amands, and in some other places adjoining thereunto, wherein you bore the brunt of the first persecution: as for the preservation of our Churches here in these United Provinces: so long as it pleased the Lord of Hosts to maintain you in the government of the Town of Sluice, & so long as your age would permit you to continue in that of Nemegen, and to follow his Excellency with your foot Regiment in many feiges, assaults, & admirable recouvering of many Towns and forts, brought under the obedience of our Superiors in the face of our enemies. Neither, will I speak of that zeal, and your other virtues which recommends you among the gentlemen of our Commonweal, and in particular among us: for which I must acknowledge myself indebted, to testify the same publicly in the name of the members of our Church, that for this respect we honour you and your like, who loves true godliness with their hearts, and seek to worship with us our only God and heavenly Father in spirit and truth. Beside, having known in sundry sorts your singular favour and benevolence towards me and mine, for which I feel myself obliged to present you with this small gift in acknowledgement thereof. Whereunto also, your commendable resolution hath moved me, in consecrating the rest of your aged days in the lecture of ecclesiastical books, and your capacity in judging well of our disputations against the traditions of the papistical Doctors, and chiefly in this, upon the relics of the Saints departed. For as in the days of your ignorance, you have seen the abuse of this superstition, & quickly after your conversion manifested unto the world, that you had it in abomination: so having as it were this small treatise already printed your heart: I assure myself that you will approve it, and will find that whatsoever I have alleged therein, is grounded upon the experience of truth, the instruction of the Orthodox Fathers, and the authority of the holy Scripture. In confidence whereof, I offer unto you this memorial as a token of the affection I bear to your L. beseeching the Lord, who after the trial of a dangerous prison, no less courageous, than a long resistance against the alarms & pernicious enterprises of our adversaries, hath at last transported you from your gouvernment of the City of Nemegen (in which our most illustrate LL. would willingly have held you still) into this City of Dordrecht, to live here among us, for the more tranquillity & ease of your agedness, overworn & weakened through the travels and wearisomeness of the wars, It will please him. MONSIEUR, To establish your heart in the assurance of his grace, towards those which reverence him, by the remembrance of so many notable deliverances & victories which he hath given in our time to our Churches, & to fortify you with constancy, to persever with us in the sole invocation of his blessed name, for the repose of your soul, & the advancement of his glory. From my study, this 2. of Septem. 1611. Your most humble servant, and most affectionate brother in Christ our Souveraine Lord. john Polyander. The Second part of the fifth Psalm, put into French meeter by Cl. M. 6 Ta fureurperd & extermine Finalementious les menteurs, Quant'aux meurtriers & decepteurs, Celui qui terre & Ciel domine Les abomine. 7 Mais moien la grand ' bonté mainte, Laquelle m'as fait savourer, Ira●encores t'ado●er En ton temple, en ta maison saint, Dessous ta crainte, 8 Mon Dieu guide moi & connoye Par ta bonté, que ne soys mis Sous la main de mes ennemis, Er dress devant moi ta voye, Que ne fouruoye. 9 Leut bouche rien de vrain'ame ne, Leur coeur est, faint faux & cowert, leur gosier unsepulchre owert, De flattery fausse & vain leur langue est pleine. 10 O Dieu, monster leur qu'ils mesprenent, Ce qu'ils pensent fair, desfaits, Chasse les pour leurs grands mesfaits, Carc'est country toiqu'tfs se prennent, Tant entreprennent. 11 Et que tous ceux se resiousissent Quien toi ontespoir & foi, joy autont sans fin deffcus toi, Aucc eeux qui ton Nom che●issent, Et te benissent. 12 Car de bien fair tu es large Al'homme just, o Vrai Saweur, Etle cowres de ta faveur, Tout ainsi commed une targe Espesse & large. A DISPUTATION against the worshipping of the Relics of Saints departed. OF all the Idolatries in the world, there is none more displeasing to God, nor more hurtful to a superstitious man, then that which he committeth by the religious worshipping of the bones and relics of the dead. For, if God would never suffer, that we should worship his living creatures, created after his own image & likeness; Noah not his Angels themselves, which are pure and immortal, and have no participation with our human corruption: how much less will he permit us to attribute that honour due unto his only Majesty, to the bones & garments of rotten bodies returned into ashes? Moreover if the worshippers of the false Gods have estranged themselves from our Creator, jer. 13. 17. 13. who is the fountain of living waters, to dig them pits that can contain no water: how much more are all those gone astray out of the right way of salvation, which run after I know not what pieces of old rags, invented at their pleasure, and seek for the light of life, among the shadows of death. Now whereas the Canons of Awcon in Germany, have not long since put forth an index of their relics, with a jesuitical Epistel stuffed with false gloss and sophistical reasons, to stirt-up thereby the poor abused people of this age unto the visitation of their said relics, and to change at an instant, their natural stupidity into a self-obstinacie, by preferring the deceitful shows of religion, before he service which God prescribs us in his holy word. So I desiring to accomplish the earnest request of some of my friends, and also my vocation which binds me to pre-advertise the ignorant to take heed of these blind-leaders, which leads them unto perdition, have spent some hours in composing of this Treatise, that may serve as a preservative to the weak, against the venomous errors eontained in the said writing, as a morning-watch to awaken & rouse up the sluggish, as a Guide to such as are gone astray out of the path of truth, and as a spur to the dull to convert them to God, & to divert them from the pernicious adoration of things dead & corruptible, unto the wholesome worship of our heavenly Father the only God living & incorruptible, who is a spirit, and loves such as worship him in spirit & truth. Whereunto I will endeavour to bring them by three degrees. First, The deputation divided into three parts. I will lay down to them the principal causes for which Christians are not permitted to do any religious service unto the relics of the dead. Afterward, I will refute the arguments of the Canons of Awcon, whereby they seek to prove the contrary. Finally, I will advertise the Reader of the falsities of those relics specified in their index. I will confirm this my proposition (that Christians are not permitted to do any religious service to the relics of the dead) by three reasons: whereof the first shall be, that the tradition of visiting and reverencing religiously the relics of the departed Saints, hath no foundation in the holy Scriptures, nor from the example of those which have followed invariably their pattern. The second, how some Christians inconstant in their ways, having learned this superstitious ceremony in the School of the Gentiles, have brought it into the Primitive Church about four hundred years after Christ. The third, that the consideration of the sundry abuses, sprung from this wicked custom, nourished and maintained yet unto this present in the Idolaters Synagogue, aught to move and stir up the true worshippers of God, wholly to banish it from out of the christian Church. Touching the first point of my admonition, surely we find in the Bible, The second part. that the holy patriarchs and their children have buried honourably their dead, according to the ordinance of the Lord, Gen. 3. 19 Thou art dust, & to dust shalt thou return; but we read not in any place of it, that they have torn their bodies, and transported them by piece-meal after their decease: placed their bones in sundry places, shown their garments to the vulgar people with command to worship them, and promiss that in calling upon them they should be heard, Neither read we also in it, that God hath commanded us by his ancient prophets, to go on pilgrimage to those parts where their inheritors had carried them, to offer up there unto them burning tapers and holy candles, to touch, salute & kiss their bones with great devotion: Much less read we in it, that God hath prescribed them to solennize the memory of their relics by certain convocations of the people & publications of solemn feasts, nor yet to load the Churches & Altars with them, nor to carry them upon their necks & shoulders, nor to walk up & down with them in processions; to the intent to move every one to reverence them, with confidence to obtain succour from God and his Saints by worshipping them. And albeit that the Patriarch jacob, and joseph his son, grounding themselves upon the truth of God's promiss, that he would give for an inheritance to their posterity the land of Canaan, enjoined their children to transport them forth of Egypt, when the hour of their deliverance should come into the country which God had promised them: and that Moses took their bones along with him when the children of Israel came forth of Egypt: notwithstanding he never showed them unto the people of God in his greatest distresses, either in his passage through the red sea, or in the wilderness: much less did he lift them up into the air, and set them upon a Perch (as he did the brazen serpent) or ordained that any should behold them, with stead fast assurance that every of them should be delivered from their evils by contemplating them: but contrary wise he kept them secret, & close in their coffins: and the Elders of the people that survived Moses and joshua, caused them to be buried so soon as they arrived in the land of Canaan, jos. 24. 32 in a field which Abraham & jacob had bought before time of the sons of Hamor the father of Sechem. Also the Prophet Samuel showeth us, 2 Sam. 21 13. 14. that K. David having taken the bones of Saul and jonathan from the inhabitants of Gabish Gilead which had taken them up from the street of Beth-shan, brought them from thence into the country of Benjamin, caused them to be buried in the sepulchre of Kiss the father of Saul, and that in the Solemnisation of their funerals his subjects did all that the King commanded them: but there is no mention made of any pilgrimage, or any religious service: which they should do in honour of them about their Sepulchre. Likewise, 2 Kings. 23. 17. in the second book of kings, the Author of this History writeth, that King josiah willing to profane the Altar which King jeroboham had caused to be built in Bethel, and to dishonour eternally the Priests & other Idolaters, which he had maintained there; caused the bones of the false priests & other their confederates to be digged up, commanding them to burn them upon the same Altar: But on the contrary espying an other Tomb in the same City, demanded of the citizens thereof, What title is that which I see? & having understood by their answer, that it was the sepulchre of the man of God, which before prophesied the things which the said King came then to do upon that very Altar, to show the public reverence he bore unto that man of God even after his burial, bade the inhabitants of Bethel Let him alone, let none remove his bones, whereto this Historian addeth, that the citizens of the said city obeyed therein king josiahs' commandment. Although the holy Scriptures gives us to understand, that among all that are borne of women, God hath not raised up more excellent servants of his house, than Moses and john Baptist: nor a more faithful Martyr of his son Christ jesus then S. Stephen, one of the seven deacons of the Apostolic Church, & one of the first witnesses of Christ persecuted in jerusalem: Neveverthelesse their bodies were presently interred after their departure, that of Moses by God himself after a miraculous manner, Deut. 34. 6. in the country of Moab, in a place unknown unto the children of Israel, and inaccessible for the devil, to the end, they might not abuse it by Idolatry: that of S. john Baptists by his disciples, and S. Stephens by some men that feared God, Marc. 6. 29. Act. 8. 2. jud. ver. 5 as appeareth by the History of Moses, the Gospel according to S. Mark, the book of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle of S. jude. Among all the ancient Prophets, there is none whose burial is more memorable than that of the Prophet Elishas; in regard it pleased God to raise up miraculously by touching of his dead and buried body: a man which in great haste for fear of their enemies they had cast into the grave of this prophet, as we read in the second book of Kings & 2. Chap, howbeit the Author of this history addeth not for all that, that the Priests of the old Testament, have commanded the people of God to resort unto that tomb, to offer up their prayers and sacrifices, or that they instituted any Feasts upon certain days in memory of this miracle, or enclosed the bones of this Prophet into a shrine, or chose out any express place to raise up some altar in his honour, or did persuade any to resort thither from all parts, to offer up there their prayers and sacrifices in the name of the vulgar people, as if it were before the face of God himself. Morover the prophet Isaiah, having respect unto the ancient custom of interring the dead, and hiding them in their graves, compareth the sepulchres of the righteous unto beds, to show by this similitude, that we can do no greater pleasure to God, nor a greater honour to his welbeloved Saints after their departure, then to wrap up their bodies in the beds of the Earth, to rest there from their labours until the day of their resurrection, in which Christ will come to awaken & call them unto him, & bring them into the possession of life eternal. I say moreover, that the greatest hypocrites among the last Doctors of Israel, to wit, the Scribes and pharisees, who through hypocrisy and vain glory built up the sepulchres of the prophets, and repaired the tombles of the righteous, stoned & massacred to death by their ancestors did not deter their corpses to dismember them, and show their bones unto the meaner sort of people, or to adorn the Altars of the Tempel of jerusalem with them, but suffered them to rest in their graves, as Christ himself witnesseth in the 23. Chap. of S. Mathews Gospel, the 27. verse and the next following. Touching the Apostles & disciples of our Saviour Christ, the history of his burial shows us, that S. Peter & S. john approaching near unto his sepulchre, to see whether he was truly risen or Noah, found there his kerchief with his linen clothes laid aside, but the Evangelist S. john noteth more expressly, that they came thither one after another, to behold the more earnestly his handkerchief and linen which he had left behind him after his resurrection, addeth not (which nevertheless would have been so much the more remarkable) that they either handled than, or bore away those relics with them, to show them unto their condisciples, or put them into any shrine or box, which with out all doubt they would have done, if they had received any such charge from there Mr. or if they could have gathered by any of his familiar speeches he had with them before, that such a collection & transportation of his relics would have pleased him after his resurrection, & have been as a fit means, to confirm their brethren in the Christian faith. As for S. Luke who discribs unto us all the memorable acts of the Apostles, since the ascension of Christ, until the second year of S. Paul's imprisonment at Rome, to the intent they might serve as a miror and example to all our actions, he makes no recital, nor reckons up in his second book any of Christ's relics, his Parents or faithful Martyrs, collected by his Apostles, or given into the custody of their friends: but he shows that the christians of his time persevered with the Apostles in the sincere doctrine of the H. Gospel, and in breaking of bread, the true reliquaries and memorials of the instructions & Act. 2. 42 sufferances of our sole Redeemer jesus Christ. In like manner the Apostle S. Peter while he was living, would not promiss the faithful dispersed throughout Pontus, Galatia, Capadocia, Asia, and Bythinia, to leave after his death any other relics behind him, than his Epistles which he wrote unto them, as himself declareth by these words, that he would endeavour always (to wit, 2 Pet. 1. 15. by his writings) that they also might be able to have remembrance of those things after his departure. I could here allege for this purpose many excellent admonitions, and notable examples of the ancient Fathers, and true successors of the Apostles: by which they show us, that they understood right well, that the last degree of honour, and charitable office which survivours are bound to yield unto the dead, according to the rule of holy Scripture, and the custom of the chiefest fathers, aswell of the old, as of the niew Testament, consisteth in burying of their corpses: but for this present I will only recite that which Origen writeth thereof in his disputations against Celsus, S. Augustin in his first book of the City of God, S. Athan. in the life of S. Anthony, Eusebius in his history of Policarpus martyrdom, and what Prudentius the Poet saith thereof in his verses upon the death of one of his friends. human bodies (saith Origen) having once been the soul's mansion, Origen. ought not to be cast away after their death: Cont. considering that through the permission of good Laws, Celsus lib. 5. & 8 we must do them that honour, as is befitting them in laying them into the Earth. We have learned to honour the reasonable soul, and to bury honourably the Corpse, which is the instrument thereof. According to which S. Augustine saith, that we ought not to dishonour and reject the bodies of the departed, especially those of the faithful, which the H. Ghost used as vessels & instruments unto all good works. For if our affection hath been great towards our Parents, the more pleasing is their garment or ring unto posterity, their corpse which touch us more nearly; and with whom we have more familiarity, aught in no wise to be despised, sith they serve not only for an aid & ornament, but also partly unto human Nature. From hence it proceedeth that through a serviceable piety they have heretofore taken care for the burial of the righteous, solemnized their funerals, and provided for their interring. Tob. 12. 13. As for Toby he obtained that special grace of God to bury the dead, as the Angel witnesseth. joh. 12. 3 Moreover, our Lord which was to rise again, commendeth the good work of the religious woman that had cast the costly ointment upon his body, commandeth to divulge it abroad because she had done it for the preparation of his sepulchre. Matt. 27. 57 The like honourable mention is made of those which took down his body from the Cross, and were careful to bury it honourably. Marc. 15. 42. So then all these testimonies teach us, Luk. 23. 50. though there be no sense in the dead bodies; yet they fortify us in the belief of our resurrection, joh. 19 38. and shows us that these bodies appertains also unto the providence of God, & that such Godly offices are pleasing unto him. S. Athanasius reporteth, that S. Anthony told his friends a while before his death, Athana. in the life of S. Anthony. let none (saith he) carry my relics into Egypt: lest my body be honoured with a false honour, and lest the solenities and obsequies, which so many times I have condemned (as you know) should be practised upon me. For the shunning thereof am I chiefly come hiether. cover then with earth this poor corpse of your Father, and hide him, forgetting not this commandment from me your aged Father. Eusebe lib. 4. 15. & 5. 1. Eusebius having in his history commended the zeal of the Christians of his time, which with the danger of their lives had gathered up the most precious ashes of Policarpus the Martyr, to bury them: complaineth afterward of the Tyrants of that age, which commanded their hangmen to cast the bodies of those holy maryrs to their ravenous curs, appointing beside certain guards to restrain & keep back the faithful from taking up the torn pieces of their corpses, gnawn by the dogs, and from laying them into the earth. Prudentius comparing the Churchyard wherein they went to bury one of his friends unto a Mother that embraceth her child, Prudent. and foldeth him up in her arms. as if she would put him again in to her belly, crieth out. Nunc suscipe, terra fovendum Gremioque hunc suspice molli: Hominis tibi membra sequestro Generosa & fragmina credo. That is. O earth receive & wrap, Within thy gentle lap The members of this man: To the bequeath I than, And to thy embracements These generous remnants. We must not forget also how Bellarmin himself confesseth, Rob. Bellarmin li. 2. de Eccl. trium. c. 3 & lib. 2. de purgat c. 19 that God being willing to honour the body of Moses his faithful servant, buried it with his own hands, & that to lay abroad dead corpses in the air & before the view of the world, is the way to dishonour them: whereas on the contrary to inter them, is to use them honestly & to do them honour. Prima utilitas (saith he) quae mortuis accedit ex sepultura, est quòd consulitur honori eornm adhuc in hominum memorijs viventium. Non enim caret ignomina quadam, quòd faeditas nostri corporis aliorum conspectibus pateat, that is to say, The first benefit that befalleth the dead from their burial. is, that we have respect unto their honours which are yet living in the memories of men. For it is not without some shame that the foulness of our bodies should stink before the sight of others. A most true saying where by this Cardinal condemneth the impudency of these Porters of relics. and imitators of Ham, who uncouver before their brethren the nakedness and shame of their fathers, & are not ashamed in some places to show the navel and foreskin of our blessed Saviour, and at Rheimes in Campania the print of his buttocks. True it is, that in those days some of the imitators of the Gentiles, began (as we shall understand hereafter) to attribute more honour unto the Martyrs than in times past, and to solemnize the constancy of their faith and other christian virtues, with the like pomp and solemnity, as the Athenians did, which yearly assembled about the graves of the Grecians to call there to mind, and to extol to the Heavens the valour of those which had resisted courageously the army of Xerxes, and who for the good of their country had lost their lives in the battle of Marathon. Nevertheless, their principal advocate S. jerom allegeth for their excuse, that the ceremonies which they did about the tombs of the Martyrs, was neither superstitious nor contrary to that only adoration due to the name of God. Hierone in his dispute against Vigilantius. Who is he (saith he in his dispute against Vigilantius) which hath ever worshipped the Martyrs? who ever hath thoguht man to be God? O brainless head Paul & Barnabas did they not ren● their clothes, and said they were even men, when the Lyconians hold them for jupiter and Mercurius, and would have offered them sacrifices? So far is it them, that the christians of his time should be so debauched, as to transfer the worship due unto God, unto the ashes of their Martyrs, that contrariwise he denieth, that they did not once think to worship any other creature, which he preferreth before the relics of Saints, by this manner of speech following. We neither serve nor worship, I say not only the relics of Saints, but also the Son and Moon, neither Angels nor Archangels, neither Cherubins, nor Seraphins, nor any name which is named, either in this world, or in that which is to come: Lest we should rather serve the creature, than God, who is blessed for evermore. Now we honour the relics of the Martyrs, to worship him whose Martyrs they are. From whence it appeareth plainly, that the collection and religious service which those of the Papacy do unto the relics of such as God hath withdrawn long since out of this world, being not grounded upon any command of the Lord, nor from the example of any of the true worshippers of his divine Majesty, Col. 2. 23 can neither be acceptable to God, nor available unto those superstitious men which give themselves to this Idolatry through a voluntary devotion, without faith or assurance that God doth approve it in his holy word, which is the light of our faith, the rule of our religion, the measure of all our devotion, the guide of our conversation, & a law for all our works, Rom. 14 23 Herald 11. 6 1. Sam. 15. 22. without which all our actions & intentions are but sin, displeasing to our Sovereign Lord, who had rather that we should obey, and be attentive to his voice, then to offer sacrifice. Now if there were no other consideration, than this which I have expressed, it were sufficient enough to make them renounce this error: but the perversity and obstinacy of such, as take for a light their foolish imaginations, for a rule their false traditions, for a law their absolute will, for a guide their old customs, and for a pattern the example of their predecessors, constrains me to proceed forward unto the second point of my discourse, and to prove that the Christians in time past have learned this superstitious veneration of the relics of the departed, in the Gentiles school, and since have followed it, and brought it into the primitive Church by certain steps and degrees, to the great heart break of their faithful teachers, and lawful successors of the sacred and holy Apostles. I say, that this corruption is entered into the Christian Church by certain steps; The second part. because that heretofore the source and beginning thereof was but small and simple: whereof Eusebius and some other Historians propounds us a clear example in the life of Constantine the Emperor: For they all confess with one accord, that this Emperor thought good to council the Christians to imitate many sumptuous ceremonies, which the gentiles used in solemnizing the funerals of their ancestors, especially in tansporting the dead corpse of illustrate personages, and men of great renown in their Country, out of base and unknown places into Churchyeards, and others that were more public, to make the memory of the Martyrs & other faithful servants of God the more commendable, and the Christian religion so much the more pleasing unto all sorts of men. But they witness in no place, that he commanded his Bishops to lock them up in their Church-Coffers, neither to transport them by mamockes into diverse places, to represent them upon festival days unto the vulgar sort of people, with an exhortation that they should salute and kiss them: but on the contrary enjoined his subjects to bury them honourably, and lay them in the Earth. Notwithstanding the Devil taking hold and making use of the Carnal wisdom of this Emperor turned it little by little into a censurable superstition. For since that time many Christians have suffered themselves to be carried away through there in considerate Zeal from one vanity unto another, imagining with themselves, that the bodies of the faithful deserved more, or as much service after their departure as the infidels: were not only contented to remove them from far and remote places of their countries, into there Churchyards, wherein they ordinarily assembled in those days to watch & pray, and to do therein some others rites of religion, because than they had no Churches. And even thus sought to eternize the memory of their virtues, by building them Sumptuous tombs, & solemnizing, their funerals with too excessive praises. To show then to every man, that Satan the Athenians Law giver and other Idolaters, instituted this Ceremony, I will only allege without reciting the testimonies of other Historians, what Plutarch writeth thereof in his discourse upon the interring of Theseus and Cimon. His words are these, that when Cimon before of arms had conquered the I'll of Scycros, be remembered with himself, that the ancient Theseus' son unto Ageus, flying from Athens came into that Ileland, where Lycomedes for some bad suspicion he had of him, caused him to be slain by tresaon. Now by all means he laboured to find out his grave, in regard the Athenians had received before an or Oracle or prophesy from Apollo (or to speak more properly from the Devil,) by which he commanded them to bring back to Athens the bones and ashes of Theseus, & to honour him as a demi-god: but he knew not where they had interred him, because the inhabitants of that I'll kept his grave secret and unknown, and would suffer no man to seek it out: Howbeit; Cimon using all expedition to search it out, espied by chance an Eagle, which struck the ground with her beak and talents, in a place some what higher than the rest, whereupon it came into his mind, (as it were by divine inspiration) to cause that place to be digged, where they found the grave of some great corpse, and the point of a brazen lance with a sword. In such sort, that having at last found the tomb, he took forth Theseus' bones, and brought them into the Admirall-Galley somptuously adorned, and transported them presently into his Country four hundred years after Theseus had departed from thence. For this service the people received him with great joy and he got thereby the good will of the Athenians, which received these relics with great Applause, with sumptuous sacrifices, & processions, as if Theseus himself had been living, and had returned back again into the City. And his relics are in the midst of the Town, yet unto this day, near unto the Park where the young men resort together for the excercising of their bodies, & where is freedom both for slaves and all poor afflicted ones. Moreover, the Sepulchres which yet unto this day are called Cimonia testify that Cimon● bones & ashes were brought back again into Attica. Notwithstanding the inhabitants of the town of Citium honour still a certain Tomb which they affirm should be Cimons, because that in the time of a great dearth & famine they had an oracle (that is an answer from the Devil) which commanded them to have a care unto Cimon, and not to neglect him, but to honour and reverence him as a God, as Nancicrates the Orator hath recorded it in writing. The like he saith also of Demetrius and photion in the story of their death whereunto for brevity sake I will send the Reader. Now al-be it that the Christians & members of the primitive Church, were borne away with the torrent of this heathenish custom, whereunto the Emperor Constantine had opened the sluices, passing beyond the bounds of Christian purity & simplicity: yet the honour which they did about the graves & bons of their Martyrs, was in no wise comparable, nor so superstitious as that was of the Athenians, and other pagans, nor like to that which at this day is committed amongst the Idolaters of the Roman Church. For let us consider what S. Augustine saith thereof in his 8. book of the city of God. We neither (saith he) build Temples, August. 1. 8. civitat. Dei. c. 27 nor make priesthood nor sacrifies, nor any other divine service, as a religion to the Martyrs. For they are not our Gods, but their God is ours. Truth it is, that we honour their memory, as the holy men of God. Which have fought valiantly for the truth even unto the death of their bodies, to the end, that true religion might be known & the false convicted. What man is it among the faithful that ever heard a priest say standing before an Altar, built upon the corpse of Some Martyr to the honour and service of God, Peter, Paul or Cyprian I offer thee Sacrifice, seeing that in memory of them we offer up unto God who hath made them both men and martyrs, & hath conjoined them through a celestial glory unto his angels, that in the assembly of the people, we might give thanks unto the true God for their victories, and by the remembrance of their crowns & palms, might exhort others unto the imitation of their virtues. The funerals then which the religious solemnize by the monuments of the Martyrs, are no otherwise then ornaments of their memorials, & no sacrifices which they do offer unto the dead as unto Gods. These are S. Augustins words, by which he testifieth, that notwithstanding the overture, which the Christians of his time made unto this paganish superstition, in solemnizing the Martyr's feasts: yet true piety & the right invocation of the name of God bore some sway and authority among them. But if S. August. and his fellow-soldiers, could have been able to have prevented the evils and mischiefs that this superstition drew after her tail, they would then have redoubled their forces and fell upon her with all their might, to have hindered her from winning so many countries in Christendom. So than it is my duty to excuse them, considering they opposed themselves against her, both by word and writing. To begin with S. Ambrose, S. Augustin gives him this testimony, Aug. li. 6. de confess. cap. 2. that he did dissuade his Mother, and some other of his friends, from frequenting of those public feasts, which the Christians solemnized yearly in praise of their Martyrs, & that for sundry reasons, among others, Quia illa quasi parentalia superstitioni Gentilium essent simillima, (that is to say) because that these funeral banquets, and solemn feasts, held in honour of their nearest kindred, was almost like unto the superstition of the Gentiles. As for S. Augustin himself, he plainly condemns it in his eight book of the City of God, wherein he doth not colour it, but says that such as brought their victuals unto the sepulchres of the Martyrs, to solemnize there their feasts, were not of the better sort of Christians. The same author returning an answer unto the reproach which the Manicheans made against him, to wit, that those which vaunt themselves so much at the name of Christians, worshipped notwithstanding the Tombs of Martyrs, following therein the example of the Heathen, saith (Pick me not out from among the Christian name; those which neither know, nor follow the virtue of their profession? seek me not out the troops of ignorant men which are superstitious, even in the true religion, and so much given over unto their pleasures, that they have forgotten what they promised unto God. I know (saith he) that there are many which adore the monuments & pictures. etc. and among so great a multitude of people it is no wonder. Cease than I pray you at last from slandering the Catholic Church, in blaming the fashion of those, which herself condemneth and hath evermore sought to correct as wicked children. Also he complaineth in his Epistle he wrote unto januarius. That they had overladen men's consciences with servile burdens, and addeth thereunto, that the condition of the jews was more tolerable than that of the Christians, because men had made them subject only to the burdens of the Law: but Christians unto human presumptions, that is, according to the opinions taken among themselves, obstinately to maintain them to prejudice the truth. He confesseth likewise therein, that the church of God being planted among much chaff & daernell tolerated many things which neverthelese herself did neither doc, approve, nor conceal. Also he plainly signifies in that Epistle, that he could not allow of diverse things which they had instituted in the Church of God, over and beside the ancient custom of the fathers, of the old Testament, as if it were the observation of a Sacrament, which yet notwithstanding he confesseth, on th'other side, he durst not so freely reject for avoiding the scandal of some persons, whereof some were holy and others seditious, where upon he openeth his mind more clearly by the distinction which he propounds against Faustus saying, One thing is that which we support, August. contra Faustus. Lib. 20. cap. 21. another that which we are commanded to teach, & another that which we are commanded to amend; and constrained to bear with, until we have amended it. If S. Augustin having conceived some hope, sought to cure his auditory of this contagious malady, rather by gentleness then by severity. Notwithstanding called them wicked Children, superstitious even in the true religion, given over to their delights, forgetful of that which they had promised to God, and finally that they were not of the better sort of Christians, would he not cry out with greater vehemency, against the Idolaters of the Romish Church, who scornfully and obstinately, refuse the fit remedies which should purge them of their bad humours, being laden with so many corruptions almost incurable? would he not cry out louder, and tell them that they are not of the better sort of Christians, but of the wickedest? would he not call them with the Prophet Esaye a sinful nation: Esa. 1. a people laden with iniquity, a seed of the wicked, corrupt children: which have forsaken the Lord, and have provoked the holy one of Israel to anger? I could here produce many other testimonies to the like effect, were not these sufficient to convict all contradictours, and to show the ignorant, that S. Augustin & his fellow labourers (which lived four hundred years after Christ) perceived no sooner the bitter fruit of this dangerous plant, which Satan the wicked spirit had brought from the Athenian School into their churches, but they laboured with all their power to root it up; & hue down the branches thereof. From whence necessarily we may infer, that these Canons of Awcon, which anon we will refute more particularly, brag of the antiquity of this tradition with false bravadoes, since God who is the ancient of days, hath never taught it to our Fathers, in the first days of his grace, by his ancient Prophets, nor in the beginning of the latter by his Son Christ jesus and his Apostles, nor for some hundred years after their time by their true successors: but on the contrary, raised up holy and faithful Doctors to resist & contradict it. So that the title of Heretics which they so usually give us in all occurrences, may by a good consequence be returned upon them. And hereupon I entreat the unpassionate Reader, to censure whether this reproach which S. Tertullian made heretofore unto their predecessors, who always had antiquity in their mouths and novelty in their brains, may not justly be appropriated to them. Tertul. in Apog. cap. 6. Where is the religion? where is the reverence you owe unto your ancestors? you have renounced the custom of your Grandsires in education, in apparel, in sense & in speech itself: You evermore praise anti quity & live from day to day after novelty, whereby it is evident, seeing that of yourselves you forsake the good institutions of your predecessors, you remember & keep the things which you ought not, and observe not those which you should. Now resteth the lait part of our disputation, The discovery of nine several abuses. that this law and custom of going to salute the relics of the dead, aught to be abolished & banished out of the Christian church, because of the maniefold abuses which heretofore have been committed, & which they yet commit unto this day in Christendom by observing them. The first abuse. The first is, It withdraweth the hearts & spirits of men, from the right way by which it hath pleased God to draw us to the knowledge, and enjoying the benefits of his son Christ jesus. For in stead that God commandeth us to seek his son in his word and sacraments, & in th' assemly of the living, which worship him in spirit and truth, amongst whom he is found. It persuadeth us the contrary to seek him among the shrines and relics of the dead, and in the compagny of those which dwell in the dust of the earth, Luc. 24. 5. where he forbids them by his Angel to seek him. Again, instead that the Apostle exhorteth us to seek Christ in Heaven where he sitteth at the right hand 2 Cor. 5. 7. 16. Col. 3. 1. 2. of God his Father, and learns us to know him after the spirit and to ascend up unto him in the high Places with the feet of our faith, it counsel us the contrary, to seek him and know him after the flesh, to seek him now here, and now there, sometimes by pilgrimages from one Country into an other, and sometimes to descend into the caves of the earth, Mat. 24. 23. 24. to contemplate there the relics of his body, directly against his own express prohibition quoted by S. Matthew in the 24. Chap. of his Gospel. The second abuse is, that they have transported the relics of Saints into divers places, and admonished every one to resort thither upon festival days dedicated to their memory, and so they intoxicate the simple with this false opinion, that not only the saints but God himself taketh delight in such pilgrimages, and that their prayers made near to the these religious relics, are sooner heard of the Saints, & of God himself, then when they are made else where, as appeareth by the decree of the Council of Trent, and the prayers which are forged by the Priests of the Roman Church, according to the tenor thereof. The decree of the Trent Council is this. The decree of the Council of Trent touching relics. Mandate sancta Synodus omnibus Episcopis & caeteris docendi munus curamqué sustinentibus, ut juxta Catholicae & Apostolicae Ecclesiae usum à primaevis Christianae Religionis temporibus receptum, sanctorumqué Patrum consensionem & sacrorum Conciliorum decreta de sanctorum inter cessione, invecatione, reliquarum honore & legitimo imaginum usu fidelis diligenter instruant, docentes eos sanctorum Martyrum & aliorum cúm Christo viventium sancta corpora, quae viva membra fuerunt Christi & templa Spiritus sancti, ab ipso ad vitam aeternam suscitanda & glorificanda, á fidelibus veneranda esse, per quae multa beneficia à Deo ●ominibus praestantur: ita ut affirmantes Sanctorum reliquijs venerationem atque honorem non deberi, vel eas aliaquè sacra monumenta à fidelibus inutiliter honorari, atque cornm opis impetrandae causa, Sanctorum memorias frustra frequentari, omnino damnandos esse, prout jampridem eos damnavit & nuncetian damnat Ecc. that is, The holy Counsel enjoineth all Bishops & others, to whom the charge and care of teaching is committed, that (according to the use of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, received from the first age of Christian Religion, the consent of holy Fathers, and the decrees of sacred Counsels) they diligently instruct the faithful in the Doctrine of the interecssion and invocation of Saints, in honouring their relics, and in the Lawful use of images, admonishing them touching the relics, that the holy bodies of the Martyrs & other Saint's living with Christ, who while they lived in this world were his lively members & temples of the holy Ghost, whom one day he will raise up and glorify unto eternal life, aught to be reverenced by the faithful, because GOD bestows many benefits one men through those relics. So that those which maintain that their relics are neither to be reverenced, nor honoured, & that the faithful reverence them, and other holy memorial to no end. Moreover that they in vain frequent the places, wherein such relics are, to obtain succour from the Saints, ought expressly to be condemned, as for a long time the Church hath condemned them, and condemns them yet unto this present. The first prayer consormable to this decree made by their Presbyters is this. Domine, nerespicias piccatanostra, sed respice ad deprecationem genitricis tuae Mariae, & perejus sancta merita, & perintercessionem sanctorum tuorum Apostolorum Petri & Pauli, atque omnium Sanctorum tuorum, quorum reliquiae sunt in isto loco, adiuva nos, sicut tuvides necessitatem nostram. That is to say, Behold not our Sins o Lord, but behold the Prayer of thy mother Marie, and through her holy Merits, and through the mediation of thy holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and of all thy Saints, whose relics are in this place, help us according to our necessity. The second is. Deus, qui ex omni coaptatione Sanctorum aeternum tibi condis habitaculum, da aedificationi tuae incrementa caelestia, ut quorum hic reliquias pio amore complectimur, eorum semper meritis adiuvemur. That is to say. O God which through the Sainets that thou hast appropriated to thyself, buildest thee an everlasting Tabernacle, give celestial augmentations to thy building, that always we may be succoured by the merits of those, whose relics we here embrace with a holy affection. The third is, Propitiare nobis, quaesumus Domine, famulis tuis per horum sanctorum tuorum N. & N. atque aliorum, qui in praesentirequiescunt Ecclesia, merita gloriosa, ut eorum pia intercessione ab omnibus semper protegamur adversis. That is to say. O Lord, be favourable unto us thy servants, for the glorious merits of these Saints. N. & N. and of all others which rest here in this Church, to the end, that through their Godly intercession, we may evermore be preserved in all our adversities. I maintain that this opinion is false, that God heareth sooner our Prayers near unto the relics of the dead, then else where; because it is grounded on principles directly contrary to the infallible instructions of holy Scripture, where of the first is. That Christians are permitted to invocate the departed Saints, and to honour religiously their relics. The second, that the deceased Saints know whatsoever is done under the Sun, and consequently understand the Prayers of those which cry unto them in this world. The third, that the Saints after their departure, should regard the service of such as salute, kiss, and honour their relics, by way of religion. Fourthly, that God hath instituted the pilgrimages which they observe in the Roman Church, and had rather be worshipped in a place, wherein there is some relics, or memorial of the Saints, them where there is none. Now inregard they have not long ago reimprinted at Sedan my refutation against the invocation of Saints, by which I have represented unto the reader the falsehood of the three first principles, I will send the Reader unto it. But for the latter, I will set down before him, that which S. Gregory Nyssene judgeth thereof in his Epistle against the pilgrims, that went to jerusalem, to see the sepulchre of Christ, and the most remarkable memorial of our Redeemer. When the Lord (saith Gregory Nyssene) Gregory Nyssene. calleth the blessed into the inheritance of the kingdom of Heaven, he places not among the number of their works which brings them thither, the pilgrimage unto jerusalem, neither maketh he any mention of such a work, among the number of the Blessed. And why should men employ their time then, in doing that which neither makes them happy, nor is available unto the Kingdom of Heaven? Wherein can that man advantage himself, which should come into those parts, as if more abundance of the holy Ghost were there, and that his grace were more ample in that place? If Grace were more abounding in jerusalem, than sin would not be so rife among those that inhabit there: but at this present, there is no manner of wickedness which is left uncommitted among them. Let our example offend no man, but let rather our persuasion find belief, seeing we dissuade them from that which we have seen with our eyes. As for us, before and after we came thither, we always confessed that Christ is true God, and our faith was neither impaired, nor engmented thereby. This good I have gathered by it, that by the conference I have had thereof, I must always acknowledge, that there is more sanctity in us, which dwell farthest from it. You then which fear God, praise him at home in the places were you make your abode, for the alteration of the place makes not God to come the nearer unto you: But wheresoever thou shall be, he will come unto the, if he finds the Lodging of thy soul ready to entertain him. But if the inward man be laden with wicked thoughts, thou shalt not receive Christ, though thou wert in Golgotha, in mount olivers, or in the tomb of his resurrection. Persuade the brethren then, that they go on pilgrimage out of their Bodies unto the Lord, & not out of Cappadocia into Palestina. If that which was done there in the beginning did last still, the holy Ghost dispensing his gifts in the likeness of fire, then would it behove us all to be present there, where he maketh such distribution to all: But if the Spirit bloweth where it pleaseth him, those which have believed there, are made partakers of his divine gift, according to the proportion of their faith, and not according to their pilgrimage unto jerusalem. I could here likewise copy out S. Chrisost. admonition, Chrys. ad Philem. hom. 1. that to obtain pardon for his sins, he needed not to make any long journeys into far Countries, neither to spend his money. August. serm. 3. de ●art. Also that of S. Aug. that God commands us not to go into the East, nor to sail into the West to seek out righteousness: likewise that of S. Bernard's, Bernard. serm. 1. de advent. that to find the Lord it behooves us not to pass the Seas, and Alps, but that every man should go unto God within himself: & many other instructions of the true Doctors & Fathers of the primitive Church, conformable to those of Christ & his Apostle S. Paul, that God will be worshipped by us in all places, in Spirit & truth; if I feared not to abuse the Readers patience, and knew moreover, that our adversaires makes no account of the Doctrine of the Orthodox Fathers, whensoever it refelleth their inventions, & is repugnant unto the authority of their Pope, whom they prefer, as we can prove by their writings, before a thousand Chrysostom's, Augustins, Bernard's, and Gregory's. The third abuse is, that through the visiting of these relics, the hearts of superstitious men are moved, to transfer that worship which is due only unto the living and incorruptible God, to dead & corruptible things. For as in the time of S. jerom S. Christostom, & S. Augustin, the Christians were addicted unto this ceremony, of going to visit the sepulchres and monuments of the Martyrs, and other holy men, and to solemnize yearly certain solemn feasts in memory of them. So ever since, their foolish Imitators, have built Temples & Altars in honour of their relics, lighted up Candles about them, and have craved succour and help by their prayers, not only of God himself and his saints, but also from these dead an insensible things, which never had any communion with human life, neither could in any wise understand them, nor never shallbe capable of having participation in the knowledge of our God, and of that eternal life, which he hath promised unto his children. For confirmation whereof, I will not here speak of the Monks, which in time passed worshipped the arm of S. Maurus, nor of some other Idolaters which prayed to the bones of their Saints; nor of those which adore our saviours cross unto this day, only for the present, I will but re●ite the prayer, which the Monks of the Abbey of Fons make ordinarily unto the tablecloth upon which, & according to their tradition, they say our Saviour and Lord jesus Christ hath celebrated the holy Sacrament with his disciples. And those which the Monks of Cahors sing usually going in procession, in honour of his kerchief, and to the great dishonour of the person of our blessed Saviour, and only mediator jesus Christ. The Monks of Fons, esteeming more of an old and false tablecloth, then of our Lord jesus Christ, the author of truth and niewnesse of life, call upon it for aid in this manner, Sanctissima Dei mappa ora pro nobis, O most holy tablecloth of God pray for us. The Monks of Cahors addressing themselves rather unto the Napkin or kerchief, which our Redeemer left behind him to rot in his sepulchre, them unto this high Priest who shortly after his resurrection was taken up by his Father into Heaven, to make there continual intercession for us, cries unto it singing in this manner Sancte Sudari ora pro nobis that is, O holy handkerchief pray for us. again, Sudarium Christi liberet nos a peste & morte tristi. that is, O kerchief of Christ deliver us from plague and a heavy death. Moreover, they creue that for his kerchiefs sake representing the face of Christ by picture, it would please him to let them behold his face above in Heaven. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui in memoriam passionis unigeniti filii tui, sanctam eius sindonem, cum expressaipsius effigie venerandam reliquistiin terris, tribue, quaesumus, ut per virtutem eius sanctae sindonis faciem tuam contemplari mereamur in coelis: That is to say. O Almighty and Eternal God, which in memory of the passion of thy only begotten son, hast left behind him on earth his holy Sindon with his shape printed upon it, grant that through the virtue of this holy lunen we may merit to contemplate thy face in Heaven. O Lord how long wilt thou endure this idolatry? jer. 4. 13. o poor Superstitious men, how long will ye continue on, in seeking our Lord jesus Christ, who is all in all of us, in things that are nothing worth? The fourth abuse consisteth, THE fourth abuse. in the adoration of false relics, so artifcially counterfeited and invented by the one, as foolishly believed and received by the other. The cause why S. Augustine complaineth in his treatise, Augus. de Labour Mon. c. 28. touching the traveling Monks, that Satan had dispersed throwout Christendom, many Hypocrites under the habit of vagabond Monks, straggling up & down through countries not sent, never still, nor never settled, whereof some of them made Merchandise of the members of the Martyrs, which made him to doubt & suspect, that they were not the right members of the Martyrs. To this purpose Socrates reporteth in the 14. Chap. and 7. book of his History, Socrates l. 7. c. 14. that the Christians for some time honoured through ignorance, the dead carkiese of a seditious Monk called Ammomus, thinking it had been the body of some holy Martyr. Also, Erasmus of Rotterdam reporteth in his Conferences, Eras. coll. de pilgri. that two Pilgrims arriving at Canterbury, the one of them was so amazed, at the impudency and deceit of those, which presented before them all sorts of relics to be worshipped, and among the rest an Arm bleeding with the flesh upon it, that they seemed thereat to be horribly affrighted, & flying back would not kiss it. Gregory surnamed Turonensis, and divers other Historians affirm, Gregory Turonensis. that in the shrine of a departed Saint, they found the roots of sundry plants, the teeth of Moses, the bones of Mice, and the feet of foxes, in stead of the true relics of his body. It is most manifest, that presently after the reformation of the Churches in France, Helvetia, Germany, and some other adjoining places, they found in the shrines & chests of the papal relics, the bones of divers Beasts, pieces of bricks, sprigs of trees, cords, and many other trifles, & small trash, which these superstitious men had worshipped, during the night of their ignorance, & the thick darkness of their idolatries. Calvin noteth in his admonition against the relics of the Romish Church, Calvin. that they found at Geneve the tail of a Hart, which these Superstitious people had often times kissed, imagining that it had been S. Anthony's Arm: and a pumeise stone saluted by these Dolts besotted with this opinion, that it was S. Peter's brains. Theodorus Besa proveth by the testimony of more than fifty eye-witnesses, Theodorus Bela. in his Apology against the calumnies of a certain Apostate, by name Francis Bauldwin, that at Bourges they found a wheel turning about upon a staff adorned with this lascivious and magical verse written upon a scroll of parchment. Quand ceste rove tournera, Celle que saime, m'aimera. That is to say, When this wheel shall turn about, She whom I love, shall love me. And at Tours a Card which gamesters call the knave of Dyamants, with a bawdy and villennous song written upon it by some whoremonger, & put into a silver Arme. And after that a silver cross beset with many precious pearls, and with an Agath, whereupon was engraven the picture of Venus bewailing the death of Adonis her Lover lying by her, which the vulgar sort of people adored upon the day of the death and passion of our Lord jesus Christ. Rodulphus Hospanian attesteth likewise, Rodolphus Hospinian. in his recital of the original of Relics, that in the shrines & treasuries of the Catholic Church at Zurich, they found some of the ribs of a Cat, or some such like creature with a cord twelve else long, which before the reformation of the said Church, was worshipped by the blind people there persuaded thereunto by the guileful gloss of their pastors, that they were the relics of Felix, and of some other holy Martyr. Although these Testimonies are worthy of belief, and approved by every man without contradiction: yet I assure myself, that our adversaries will take a small occasion, at the very name of these Authors, to quarrel at the Title of their books, & to call them in question and reject them. I fear I shall not get much more, by inserting here the words of George Cassander one of their chiefest writers, Cassander. whereby he admonisheth the emperors Ferdinand and Maximilian, that this abuse began to thrust up her head little by little through the often visiting of the monuments of the renownedst Martyrs, that in S. Augustins and S. Ambroses' time, the custom of bringing victuals in memory of the martyrs, was forbidden by S. Ambrose himself: that in the ages ensuing, they have attributed too much honour unto the memory of the Saints, that some men of no note, had persuaded the simple, to place a false confidence in a superfluous & fond service, and had added many other evils unto it, to wit, that the priests & monks covetous of dishonest gain, have counterfeited relics, & preached false miracles, to nourish superstition in the hearts of men, and drew them, rather unto the admiration of their miracles, then unto the imitation of the Saints. Finally, that the Devil making use of the superstition of these men, revealed every day new relics, when he saw that the Bishops of the Romish church, were so earnestly given to inquire forth the inventors and promoters of those relics, and they should find therein (as he saith) abuses, & deceits, as great and as abominable, as that was which S. Martin discouvered, who passing by the sepulchre & reliquaire of a Martyr greatly renowned in his Country, & having understood (after he was thoroughly and seriously informed thereof) that it was the tomb of a Murderer, caused it to be demolished, and cast down, that no more mention might be made thereof, nor that they might use it any more after that superstitious manner. I say, I shall not get much more, by repeating Cassander's words upon this matter, because the Jesuits who dommineere at this present in the Roman Church, approve not all what this Catholic Doctor hath writ, but according to the authority which was given them by the Council of Trent, commands all Readers to cancel & deface the best sentences in his writings, extracted from the holy Scripture, and from the true fathers and successors of the Apostles. As for example, they command in their index which they term purgative, printed at Antwerp by Chrystopher Plantine Anno. 1521. to purge his writings of that, which he teacheth in them, of the true & natural signification of the word Merit, and of the ancient custom of the Fathers & Apostolic Doctors, concerning the administration of the holy Sacrament of the lords supper, under the two signs of bread and wine, used for more than a thousand years after the coming of Christ. Likewise they condemn therein his book entitled Preces ecclesiasticae, that is ecclesiastical Prayers; and his exhortation touching the extenuation of the invocation of Saints, and all his Disputations upon their merits. Now if these Physicians make no conscience, to prescribe unto Christians, that they should apply their expurgatory index unto Cassander books, to draw from them the pure blood and vital sap, & leave nothing in them but the corrupt and bad humours: have not I then just occasion to suspect the like answer upon the allegation of his testimony, and that they will say Cassander passed the limits of their rules and traditions in his discourse abovesaid, & so consequently they ought to cut of whatsoever they judge therein vicious and superfluous? Notwithstanding, there is the body of a whole Council, called the Council of the ancient Bishops, which their chiefest Doctors hold for perfectly found, and can in no manner be stained with any corruption, and wherein they can find nothing that is worthy of purging and correcting, whereby we can show them, that many ages ago, the relics of Saints have been suspected by their predecessors, assembled in the ancient Councils. We read then in the 14. Canon of the 5. Council of Carthage, that Aurelius Bishop of the Carthagian Church, accompanied with two and seventy Bishops of the neighbouring Churches, reproved therein certain relics, counterfeited by some falsifiers, & privily brought into the primitive Church, for lo, the Contents of the Canon run thus. Placuit ut altaria quae passim per agros aut vias tanquam memoriae Martyrum constituuntur, in quibus nullum corpusaut reliquae Martyrum conditae probantur, ab Episcopis qui cisdem locis praesunt (si fieri potest) evertantur. Si autem hoc propter tumultus popularis non sinitur, plebis tamen admoneantur ne illa loca frequentent, ut qui recta sapiunt, nulla tibi supestitione devincti teneantur: Et omninò nulla tibi memoria Martyrum probabiliter acceptetur, nisi aut ibi corpus, aut aliquae certae reliquiae sint, aut ubi origo alicuius habitationis, vel possessionis, vel passionis fidelissimâ origine traditur. Nam quae per somnia & per manes quasi revelationes quorum libet hominum ubique constituntur altaria, omnino reprobent●r. That is to say. It hath pleased us (to decree in this Council) that the Altars which are built up and down in fields, and by the way sides, as in memory of the Martyrs, In which one cannot find, that there hath been enclossed the Bodies or relics of the Martyrs, should be cast down if it be possible by the Bishops of those places. But if they cannot do it because of the popular tumult, Let them nevertheless admonish the people, not to frequent such places, to the end, that those which be wise, may not be carried away with superstition. And let them receive no where, any memory of the Martyrs, but in those places wherein their is some corpse, and certain relics, or some tradition of the sure original, of the abode of some Martyr, or of his suffering: For we have thought it good, that they wholly cast down the Altars, established by the dreams and revelations of all sort of persons. By these words it appeareth then, that we are not the first which have warned the superstitious, first, that the simplicity of their ancestors, and their natural inclination in giving ear unto the dreams and lies of all sort of Doters, hath opened the way unto many false relics. Secondly, that their foolish devotion made them lay them under, and afterward near unto Altars. Thirdly, that their obstinacy hath by all force, withheld the good Bishops from purging the Churches of them, mentioned in the Canon already cited. Moreover, we could here copy out the decrees of some other Counsels, especially that of Lions, whereby their Priest's in former times have been advertised of this abuse, and exhorted to seek remedy for it. We could also produce many sentences of the Fathers, conformable to them: But in doing it, we should offend the Romanists, who believe that Counsels cannot err, to allege them for a proof unto the said Cannon, approved long ago by their predecessors, and which they hold still for authentic. The fifth abuse testifies, THE fifth abuse. that one superstition hath drawn many others after her. For as the Prelates of the Roman Church make no conscience to allure the silly people unto the adoration of their relics: So to induce them the more, to put their confidence therein, they promiss indulgences and pardons, to such as will kiss them, & permits their Idolaters to carry them upon their necks, & to swear by them, trampling underfoot by this means, the second and third commandment of the divine Law, and maliciously contradicting the Doctrine of the ancient Prophets & Apostles, who teach us all with one common accord, that no man ought not to underprop his faith upon any other, then upon God himself, nor to swear by any other, then by him, nor to seek the remission of his sins in any other, then in our only Saviour jesus Christ. Therefore, these Sacrilegious persons, willbe so much the more inexcusable before God, at the day of judgement, because they are not ignorant, that God threatens with a Curse, by his Prophet jeremiah the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm. jer. 17. 5. For if the Lord, which in his word permitteth us, to crave the assistance of living men, as those whom he hath ordained dispensators of his blessings, to relieve us in our necessities, condemneth notwithstanding those which assure themselves of the help which they expect from mortal men, hath he not far greater reason to curse those Idolaters, which put their confidence in the bones and garments of the dead, Deut. 18. 11. to whom he forbids us to go to inquire, or to have any recourse unto them, to ask their Counsel or help in our distresses? Also, they have read for the most part, that the mark whereby God discerneth the way of his people from strangers, who are not yet converted unto him, is, according as the same Prophet jeremiah propounds it, that the people of God swear by his name, to wit, jer. 12. 16. The Lord liveth: but the idolatrous people which have no communior. with him, swear by Baal. Beside, they are not ignorant that the Apostle. S. Paul (according to the translation of the two & seventy interpreters) translateth in his Epistle the word swearing which the Prophet Isaiah useth in the 45. Chapter of his prophesy, for a Confession, from which exposition of the Apostles, every man of a sound judgement may discern by a necessary consequence, that as the Apostle, calleth the swearing, made by the name of God, a confession, and an acknowledgement of his divine Majesty, and of the Souveraine authority he hath over all his Creatures: So on the contrary, we may term a denial, and abjuration from his name, every oath which is sworn in the name of the departed Saints, or of their relics. But this is not all. For even by their own consciences they are convicted. First, by that testimony which S. Peter gives us, in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, that there is no salvation in any other than in Christ, Act. 4. 12. neither is there any other name under Heaven given unto men, whereby we must be saved. Secondly, by that of S. Paul's in his Epistle to the Hebrews, that by the only Sacrifice of Christ, Heb. 9 12. we have full deliverance, & remission of our sins. Thirdly, jam. 4. 12 by that of S. james in the fourth Chapter of his Epistle, that there is but one Law giver, (to wit God) which is able to save, and to destroy. Who can then excuse the malice and impiety of these Doctors, which with holding the truth in unrighteousness, attribute to their Pope this divine authority, of forgiving and binding the sins of men, according to his Law and will, & to the rotten relics of dead bodies, the incommunicable power, only proper to Christ, who is able perfectly to save them, that come unto God by him, seeing he ever-liveth, to make intercession for them? And how is it possible, that God should be so gentle and full of long sufferance, as to endure these sacrileges so long? The sixth abuse is, that the Monks and Priests of the papacy, more zealous in keeping a good fire in their kitchen, than the ashes of the Martyrs and other deceased Saints to make their relics the more to be respected, have attributed to them the power of doing many miracles, after the manner and imitation of the Sorcerers, & false Prophets of the Heathen. For, as S. Augustine reporteth in the one and twentieth, and two and twentieth book of the city of God, that the Heathenish Sorcerers, maintained heretofore night & day (throw a diabolical slight, admirable to the eyes of the ignorant) the light of Venus' lamp, & bragged because they had the relics of Hercules, Romulus, and Bacchus, which had done some miracles in the temples dedicated to their memory: so before that the ancient pagans, went oftentimes on pilgrimage out of Egypt (witness Epiphanus) unto the Prophet jeremias sepulchre, because their Diviners made them believe, that their Gods had revealed, that the bones of this Prophet could preserve them from the stinging of Asps, and Crocodiles. And that Ptolomeus their king, was persuaded to have the corpse of Alexander the great transported into Egypt, through the prediction of Aristander, who told them, that the Country wherein the body of king Alexander rested, should abound in all riches, and should be preserved from the oppression of their enemies, as Aelian gives us to understand in the 12. book of his sundry Histories. If the Priests of the Roman Church used but this in common with the abovesaid Sorcerers and sooth sayers, that many miracles have been done, by touching and worshipping the relics of some great personages, renowned in their Countries: then they would not be so much offended with us; because we make no reckoning of them. But they proceed further: for some of their Sorcerers have also done miracles & cured many diseases with the brains of a Cat, the head of a Raven, & such like relics of dead beasts, as Bodin proveth in his third book of Sorcerers, by the testimony of Idocus Damhouder of Bruges, and other credible Historians. So that there is no more likelihood of truth, in the one sort of miracles, them in the other, seeing that the former have been done with as much show of devotion towards the departed Saints, and their relics, as those which at this present are so much esteemed in the papacy. For Bodin reporteth in the same book, and second Chapter, how a Sorceress of Bruges cured an infinite number of diseases, and that she told such as came unto her, that they must steadfastly believe, that she had the power to help them of their sicknesses. Afterward, she commanded them to fast, and then to repeat over certain times a Paternoster, or that they should go on pilgrimage to S. james or to S. Arnoult. What an impudency is it then, in these Boasters of relics, to brag and vaunt themselves, at there miracles, wherein often times hath been discowered many deceits and illusions. For behold how S. Augustin answered the miraclers of his time, especially the disciples of Donat, August. l, de Vnit. Eccl. cap. 16. Let not the Donatist (saith he) tell me that this or that is true, because that Donat, Pontius, or some other, hath done such and such like miracles, or because some men, which pray unto the memory of our dead, are heard, or because that upon it, there comes to pass such and such like things, or that this our sister hath seen waking such a vission, or dreaming hath dreamt such a dream. Away with all these fictions of lying men, or showers of guileful Spirits. For either that which they say is false, or if the Heretics do some wonders, so much the more ought we to take heed of them, because the Lord after he had said, that there should come many deceivers, which in showing great signs and wonders, should deceive the Elect, If it were possible, addeth thereunto worthy of great commendations, Behold, I have told you before. It were an endless labour then, to utter all the fallacy and guiles, whereby they deceive the people, yea, which their own Doctors have found out & among others, that which Nicolas Lyra, heretofore perceived in the miracles, which the Priests of his age feigned (as this writer speaketh) for temporal gain. Now these juggling tricks of the ministers of Antichrist, are so much the more detestable; in regard they attribute not only the power of doing miracles to the relics of Christ, of the virgin Mary, of the Apostles, of the holy Martyrs, and other excellent personages, renowned for their good life & pureness in doctrine, but also to the relics of the greatest deceivers of the world. To begin then with the relics of S. Francis, (who for his impiety was condemned by Pope john the 22. as a pervertour of the Christian religion,) it is written in the book of Conformities, that a woman troubled with the bloody flux for the space of thirteen years, was cured thereof by touching the hem of his gown, and that a blind man recouvered his sight by touching of his hood. S. Gregory also rehearseth in the first book of his Dialogues, & second Chapter, That a provost of the monastery of Funda in Italy called Libertinus, having drawn on a stocking of the Abbot S. Honorats, met a woman that went to bury her Son, who importuned him with many prayers to raise him from the dead, & this good provost granting her her request, laid the stocking over her said son, and put life into him again through the virtue thereof. He likewise reporteth in the third book of his Dialogues, that in the time of a drought, the Citizens of Spoleta made great store of rain to fall upon their Soil, by lifting up towards heaven the gown of S. Eutychus. We know also that some women with Child, following the Counsel of their Monks, have kissed S. joostlings breeches in Flaunders, others lifted up S. Arnoults—, others have stradled over S. Guerchilous' image, hoping by this means to be the more safely delivered of their children. We are not ignorant likewise, that many Idiots of the Roman Church, believe, that there is in the city of Orleans some residue of the marriage wine, of Cana in Galilee, which never diminisheth although they drink oftentimes thereof. And in our Lady's Church at Rome, and at S. Salvader in Spain, some of the morsels of those Loaves, wherewith Christ fed five thousand persons in the wilderness, which never lesseneth, although they oftentimes eat their bellies full thereof. Moreover they believe, that the Prelates of Rome have in some of their Churches, divers relics of a wonderful force and virtue, as at S. john Latrans, the waistcoat of the Apostle S. john, which being heretofore laid over three dead bodies, made them to rise up alive in the field. At S. Paul's, that crucifix which spoke unto S. Brigit, Queen of Sweethland, when she came to pray in that place. At S. john del' Isle, that image of the virgin Maries, which at the overflowing of the Tiber, could not be spoiled, nor her lamp put out with the water. At S. Francis the body of S. Lodovica, a a Roman lady, which doth many miracles. At S. Mary's Transpontina a crucifix, which spoke heretofore to S. Peter & S. Paul. To S. Mary en voy large, a small picture of the virgin Maries, which hath wrought many miracles. At S. Mary's laneufve, an other small picture of the virgin Maries, which was miraculously preserved in the midst of a great fire, which burned the other ornaments of this Church. At S. Augustins, an image of the virgin Maries, painted by S. Luke, which did also many miracles in the time of pope Innocent the eight. At S. Martin's, a gown which the virgin Mary made for her son Christ jesus in his minority, which miraculously groweth to the same stature as himself grew. In S. Pontials' Churchyard an host consecrated by a Priest, singing mass in the Chapel, which because he doubted, whether it was the body of Christ, sprung out of his hand in a wonderful manner; and falling upon the ground made a mark of blood which is to be seen within a little grate of iron yet unto this day. A jest not unlike to that of the jesuits, and advocates of that horrible conspiracy of Garnet, and of his complices, against the Crown of the King of great Brittany, who were so impudent (as this wise King accuseth them, thereof, in the preface of his Apology dedicated to the Emperor, & all other Princes in Christendom) that thy were not ashamed to say and write, that after the execution of that Traitor, quartered with his confederates in London, a woman found a straw tinctured with a drop of blood which sprung from the body of of this traitor, and was miraculously metamorphosed into the resemblance of his head chopped off, with a crown set upon it. But as this deceit was soon after discouvered, and manifested to the world, aswell by the pen of this King and Solomon of our age, as by the art of his painters, who according to his majesties desire, drew a picture upon a straw and a drop of blood taken from some other body like unto the same in all things: So, I beseech God, that it will please him by this example and advertisement, to awaken all other Christian Kings, to sift out and examine more diligently than they have done in times past, the other juggling tricks of the forgers of relics, and lying wonders. This is that (Gentle Reader,) which our josiah my dread Souverain (upon whose sacred person, the Lord hath experimented his preservations from their damnable treasons: because he dwelleth in the secret of the most high, Psal. 91. and shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty; he will cover thee under his wings, & thou shalt be sure under his feathers: A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come near thee,) toucheth in his premonition as in a passage, having reference to that straw, which the fathers the Jesuits would have fathered upon Garnet their auricular-traitour, but as my Author saith, his Majesty ingeniously found out as cunning a Parrahsius in his great Isle of Brittany, as a Zeuxes in Italy. At S. Maries de la consolation an image of the virgin Maries, which hath done many miracles. In S. Vitus Church an oil drawn from the relics of that Saint, which being mixed with them, healeth the biting of mad dogs. At S. Sabina's a huge black stone, chained to the great Altar, which the Devil threw at S. Dominicus to overwhelm him while he prayed in that place: but it chanced, that this stone burst miraculously, & that S. Dominicus was not hurt therewith. At S. julians' a water distilled with the relics of S. julian whi●h helpeth all manner offevers and diseases. In the same Church an Image of the virgin Maries, brought from the city of Edessa, which upon a day, seeing the holy man S. Alexis coming towards her, after his wont manner to say his prayers, and hearing him knock at one of the Church-doores spoke twice together unto the Sexton, Open, and let in that holy man of God S. Alexis, for he hath merited Heaven. In S. B●bians Churchyard an herb which she herself planted, that cureth the falling sickness. At S. Anastases a pillar whereupon they cut of S. Paul's head, which being fallen from his body, gave three jumps, and at every jump sprang forth three fountains a miraculous- lie, which (if you will believe it) are to be seen there yet unto this day. At S. Maries de la voy, an Image of the virgin Maries, which hath done diverse miracles. By the Church of the Abbey of Save, a fountain, which cureth many diseases, but especially the bloody flix. Also they approve the fallacy of the parisian Priests, who say, that the Crucifix, which they keep in S. Denis Church, spoke in time past to testify that this Church was dedicated unto him: and other Deceivers which maintain that their Crucifixes have wept heretofore, and that they still have of their tears. They approve also that palpable jest of their Doctors, that the spear of pilate's soldier called Lonchè, was transformed into a blind man, which they call Longin, and that being advanced from a soldier to a Captain, recouvered his sight after he had washed his eyes with the water and blood, which issued forth of Christ's side, which himself had wounded, and through this miracle, was moved to make profession of the Christian religion, & to seal it with his own martyrdom. But who is able to reckon up all the false miracles, which the Quacksalvers of the Roman Church, attribute to the gowns, doublets, hose, jackets, shirts, smocks, girdles, and other rags of the departed? And who dares make any question of it, but that the Pope, who at this present liveth in Rome, & maketh himself to be worshipped as a God, 2 Thes. 2 hath received this power of doing signs and lying wonders, seeing it is found in the relics of the dead, and especially in theirs, who while they lived in this world, would not suffer none to worship them, Act. 10. 25. 26. but acknowledged themselves always to be but dust & putrefaction? Who would not wonder at their Priests, which no sooner swallow down their little God, which to their thinking is the very body of Christ, but presently after it they do some new sign or wonder to solace and ●ase those which daily frequent them, seeing those which at some times do only behold but his garments, which is of a far lesser price than his body: & also divers others, which salute his Mother's image, or touch the hood of some Monk, or the gown of some departed Nune, receive some ease for their grievances. The seventh abuse is worthier of laughing then of refuting. The 7. abuse. For these Gypsians ranks in the number of their relics one of the feathers of Gabriel the Archangel, as though he had appeared to the virgin Mary in the likeness of foul. An another of the H. Ghosts, as if the holy Ghost descending upon Christ in the likeness of a dove, had let fallen one of his feathers in Iorden, to be taken up, and to be enclossed into a reliquary in memory of his lighting upon our Saviour, & of his apparition to S. john Baptist. They also put among the pieces of their relics, things invisible and impossible to be shown, as the sound of the bells in the Temple of jerusalem, the puffing of joseph when he clove wood, which they keep all Court-cheverni. They give likewise to the Angels and invisible Spirits, corporal and visible arms. As for example, they glory at Carcassonnae & at S. julian de Tours for having S. Michel's buckler and poniard. Also they show with them the tail of that ass that carried out Lord jesus Christ into jerusalem when he made his royal entry therein: The feathers of the chickens procreated by the Cock which crew when S. Peter denied his master: and a morsel of the broiled fish which S. P●ter presented to Christ after his resurrection, when he appeared unto them by the Zea side, which hath lasted ever since without rotting, and can be better preserved from corruption, than Christ's flesh, which notwithstanding the Consecration of the host, which serveth him as a couver●ed, spoileth if the priest keep it too long in his box. Beside all this, they show at Rome the impression of Christ's feet, which is to be seen in S. Laurences Church, where our Saviour meeting with S. Peter after his ascension, told him that he should suffer at Rome. And who would not mock at these & such like relics of these coney-catches, when they themselves mock at one another, and take delight in deceiving each other, and sporting some crafty devise or another upon the poor ignorant people, which attend and wait with great devotion for the representation and sight of them? Whereof we find sundry examples in our modern Histories, of which I will only, allege two, which are so abominable that no man that feareth God and is pure in heart, can consider them, without disdain and horror. So then, Martinus Chemnicius reporteth in his treatise of relics, made against the decree of the Counsel of Trent, touching the veneration of them, That a certain Orator & porter of the pope's bulls, vaunted upon a day, that among other of his relics, he had some of the feathers of the holy Ghost, now a chief companion of his consort, over hearing him, picked cunningly his box and taking away his feathers, laid coals into it in stead of them. On the morrow this Orator was to make a long Sermon and discourse upon the feathers of the holy Ghost, and seeing the people fallen down upon their mariebones to behold & worship them, opening his box to pull forth his feathers, found coals in it, whereat he neither blushed nor was put out of countenance, but presently changing his discourse, was so expect in his art of lying, that he told them he had mistaken his box, & that those were the coals taken up from under the gridiron, whereupon S. Laurence had been carbinadood. Another German Divine named jacobus Herbrandus, avoucheth in his disputation de Sceloatriae, that a certain priest of Rotenborough near unto Nicre, called Pfaff Isele, having been at Rome and created the pope's Indulgentiar, returned from thence into his Country furnished with divers relics, among others one of the wings of Michael the Archangel: Now to make it the more beneficial unto him, he extolled the virtues thereof in all his Sermons. But upon a Sunday, being lodged in an Inn, within the village of Altingue, and being overcome with wine, he kept not his box of relics so carefully as he had done before. So that through this mischance, his relics were stolen: On the morrow being got up, & perceiving the theft, spoke not a word thereof to his Host, because he suspected that she knew it: but went and fott a handful of hay out of the next cratch in the stable, & laying it in his box, called his Hostis and told her. See, here are my relics, whereat she began to laugh, notwithstanding he told her, that when she came to church, to be an assistant in the holy service, she should also kiss those relics, she replied upon it she would not, but he wagered that she should. After this coming to Church, this priest began to preach of the admirable virtues of his relics, and to declare unto the people, that he had a handful of the hay of the stable in Bethelem, whereupon our Redeemer jesus Christ had oftentimes slept, when he was a babe, which had the power to preserve from the plague (wherewith Germany was then infected) all those which did but kiss it, and to drive away all Adulterers and Adulteresses which came near unto it: Now his Host that knew full well the deceit of this shameless Priest, seeking on the side to spare her money, and fearing on the other side to lose wholly her good name, because her chastity was called into question before, choose rather at last after long deliberation, to cast away her money, then to bring her reputation into a further danger, so that she was the very last that came to kiss the relics of her own stable, and the priest told her in her ear, What, art thou come too? The same Doctor annexeth unto this story, that many Germanies having heard say of the virtue of his relics, ran in all haste unto this Priest to kiss them, but for all that, they were not preserved from the plague, but miserable addicted therewith. Beside, that Duke Everhard being advertised of the cossenning tricks of this Priest, commanded the Divines of Tubinque to call him in question before them into their University, to reprove him therefore: but he too well understanding his craft, answered them impudently, that he neither had lied, nor beguiled any man. In fine, after a serious warning, which these Divines gave him, that it was more than mainfest to all the world, that many which had kissed his relics, were notwithstanding dead of the plague, he replied in a flouting manner at those poor superstitious people, that they had not kissed his relics; but the glass only wherein he had put them. The eight abuse is noted in that they place in the Catalogue of their religious relics, as worthy of Adoration the instruments and means which the enemies of our Lord used to intrapp, crucify, and pierce him, as the lantern which judas carried to lighten the Sergeants that sought his Master: the money which he had received of the hie-Priest to betray him: The Crown of thorns which they put upon his head, and the nails and spear of pilate's hangman, unto which they pray in this manner. Felix hasta, nos amore per te fixi sauciae, That is, Happy spear, wound us with his love, whom thou hast pierced. To which also they add the Cross, where unto pilate's soldiers had nailed the body of our Lord jesus Christ, which they bless and call upon in this manner. O crux, lignum triumphale! Mundi vera salus, vale, Inter ligna nullum tale Frond, flore, germine. Medicina Christiana, Sanes salva, aegros sana, Quodnon valet vis humana, Fit ●n tuo nomine. Assistentes crucis laudi; Consecrator crucis audi. Atque servos tuae crucis, Post hanc vitam, verae lucis Transfer ad palatia. Quos tormento vis servire Fac tormenta non sentire, Sed cum dies erit irae, Nobis confer & largire Sempiterna gaudia. Amen. That is, O cross triumphant wood! All hail worlds true health! among all the trees in the wood, there's not thy like for blossom, bough, and bud. Christian's Physic, save the sound and heal the sick. That which no human power can do, is done in thy name. O consecrator of thy cross! hearken unto the assistants thereof, and transport after this life, the servants of thy Cross into the palace of thy true light. Grant that those whom thou hast commanded should suffer torment, may feel no torments, but when the day of thy wrath shall come, grant us eternal joy. Amen. Again. O crux ave! spes unica Hoc passionis tempore Qua carne, carnis conditor Suspensus est patibulo, Auge pijs justitiam Reijsque dona veniam. That is to say. All hail o Cross our only hope in the time of this passion, on which gibit the Creator of all flesh, according to his flesh was hung. Increase righteousness in the Devote, & pardon the guilty. And again, Dulce lignum, dulces clavos Dulcia ferens pondera, Quae sola fuisti digna sustinere Regem coelorum & Dominium, That is to say. O sweet wood, bearing the nails & sweet burdens, which alone hast been worthy to bear the King and Lord of Heaven. And although at some time they address their prayers to God himself, or to his son our Redeemer; yet they attribute not only to the cross, whereto Christ was nailed, but also to the sign thereof, made by the hand of man, the virtue of purchasing us his grace, and maintaining us therein, which cannot be attributed to any other (without Idolatry) then to the very person of our Saviour, heretofore crucified, and now sitteth at the right hand of God his father, to make intercession for us, and to entreat him to be merciful & favourable unto us. First they crave of Christ by this prayer. Concede nobis, Domine, ut qui ad sanctam crucem tuam adorandam vemunt, nexibus peccatorum liberentur. That is to say. O Lord grant, that they which come to worship thy holy Cross, may be delivered from the bands of their sins. By the Second, O crux gloriosa! o crux adorandi! o lignum pretiosum! & admirabile signum! Christ, Rex pijssime, huius crucis signaculo, horis & momentis omnibus munire nos non abnuas. That is to say, O glorious cross! o cross worthy of adoration! o most precious wood and admirable sign! Christ! most godly King, refuse not to preserve us at all hours and moments, by the sign of this cross. The third. Redemptor mundi, signo crucis ab omni adversitate custodi, qui salvasti Petrum in mari, miserere nobis, That is to say, Redeemer of the world, preserve us in all adversity by the sign of this cross, and thou which savedst Peter in the Sea, have mercy on us. The first prayer they address to God the Father is, Deus qui unigeniti filii tui pretioso sanguine vivificae crueis vexillum sanctificare voluisti, concede, quaesumus, eos qui eiusdem sanctae crucis gaudent honore, tua quoque ubique protectione gaudere. That is to say. O God which was willing to sanctify the sign of the cross, quickening it by the precious blood of thy only begotten son, grant us we pray thee, that those which rejoice in the honour of the sign of this holy cross, may rejoice in all places with thy protection. The Second. besiege, Domine, plebem tuam par signum sanctae crucis ab omnibus in●idijs inimicorum omnium, ut tibi gratam exhibeamus servitutem, & acceptabile tibifiat sacrificium nostrum. That is, Lord protect thy people by the sign of this cross, from all ambushments of their enemies, that we may yield the acceptable service, and that our sacrifice may please thee, But yet this is worse, For they attribute more honour to the cross, then to Christ's resurrection, saying in their prayer to Christ, Crucem tuam adoramus, Domine, resurrectionem tuam sanctam glorificamus. That is, Lord we worship thy cross, and glorify thy resurrection. And to the one, & to the other: Ecce lignum crucis in quo salus pependit, venite, adoremus. That is, Behold the wood of the cross, whereon salvation hath hung, come, let us worship it. Is not this then to seek in rotten wood which serves christians for no use that which cannot be found; but in that immaculate Lamb Christ jesus, which is without blemish, who was taught unto us by our Fathers, who hath redeemed us from our vain conversation, not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, or by the wood of the cross, but with his most precious blood, 1 Pet. 1. 18. 19 as the Apostle S. Peter witnesseth in the first Chapter of his first Epistle? Is not this to attribute as much honour to a creature dead & insensible, whereunto none of us would willingly resemble, as to the living God the creator of heaven & earth? The last abuse is daily seen, in the sundry opinions, The 9 abuse. and disputes, which the one hold directly contrary to the other, touching the right place, and the true Guardians, and keepers of these relics, whereby one lie overthroweth another: For it is not possible for ●hem, to agree without giving each other the lie, and without giving to the Saints, more bodies and members, after their departure, than they had while they were living. Which is easy to be shown by their own writings, and the inventories of their relics. To begin with the relics of Christ, as our adversaries are not ashamed to maintain, that the body of Christ, (which is ascended up into Heaven, to remain there, until the restoration of all things, Act 3. 21 which God hath spoken by the mouth of his holy Prophets) is also here beneath on earth, in all the hosts consecrated by their Priests, which administer the sacrifice of the mass: so they make no conscience to affrme, that they have the foreskinn & navel of Christ in divers places, which they keep and adorn with this fine verse, Circumcisa caro Christi, sandalia clera Atque umbilici viget hîc praecisio clara. That is to say. The foreskin of Christ, his pantofles also With his Navel, are inclossed within this place. For they have shown heretofore the first foreskinn of our Lord jesus Christ in our Lady's Church at Awcon, which we shall come to speak of more amply in the third part of our disputation. The second, in our Lady's Church at Antwerp. The third at Hildesham in Germany. The fourth is to be seen yet according to their saying at Rome in S. john Latrans church. The fifth in the city of Byzanson in the free-Countie: and the sixth in the Abbey of Charroux in France. So that by this reckoning, they would make Christ jesus not a man, like unto us in all things, save in sin, but in stead of a small skin of his circumcision, he should have six, and consequently as many bodies. Also S. john Baptist, according to their tradition hath had many heads & visages: For notwithstanding that the Monks of Rome, glory in that they have his whole head in the Cloister of S. Sylvester, those of Malta vaunt that they have the hinderpart, and they of Amiens with those of S. john Angelique for having the forepart with the gash of a knife, which Herodias should give him overthwart the eye, as the hangman brought her his head, to present it by her daughter in a platter to Herode & his friends, invited to the feast of his nativity But who would not think it strange and incredible, that the Evangelists, which have represented unto us in their history, all the marks, which could be perceived in this incestuous strumpet of a cruel heart, thirsting after the innocent blood of S. john Baptist, should have forgotten to show us this last, which if it had been true, would have been more remarkable than all the rest. And although that Eusebius, and some other Historians attest, that the body of this Forerunner of Christ, was burned to ashes, yet: these forgers of relics, would make the Idolaters of the papacy believe, that the finger wherewith Saint john Baptist showed our LORD jesus Christ unto his Disciples, in saying: Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world, was miraculously preserved by the providence of the Lord, & multiplied into so many fingers, that their at least six of them found, to wit, one at Lions, another at Bourges, the third at Bezanson in S. john the greats Church, The fourth at S. Fortuits, the fifth at Thoulouse, and the sixth at Florence. As for the Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul. Albeit the Prelates of Rome say, that they keep in S. john Latrans church their whole heads, & their bodies parted in the midst, weighed, and divided in to equal shares by S. Sylvester in S. Paul's Church: yet those of Poitiers seek to persuade the common people, that they have S. Peter's chin and his beard, those of Argenton in Berri, that they have one of S. Paul's shoulders, those of Trier that they have many of the bones of these two Disciples of our Lord jesus Christ. Likewise those of Thoulouse show one body of S. Andrews, and those of melphe another. The Priests of Rome also wrangle with those of Trier and Padova for S. Mathias body; because every one of these three towns, think they have his corpse in his own Church. The same presbyters strive for the body of S. james the younger, S. Phillips, S. Symons, and S. judes, with those of Thoulouse, which maintain aswell on the one side, as on the other, that they have in their Churches the same bodies of these Apostles above said. The Romanists show beside, two several bodies of two other Saints in two other places, as the body of S. Anne mother unto the virgin Marie, and Magdalen's sister unto Lazarus, the wise men of the East, S. Denises, S. Anthony's S. Petronelles, S. Susannas, S. Hilaries, S. Honorats, S. Gilses, S. Williams, and S. Ferreols. For they show one of S. Ann's bodies at Apt in Provence, and another at our Ladies the ●isle at Lions. Then one of Magdalen's corpse at Vezelè by Auxerna, and another at S. Maximnis in Provence. Likewise the bodies of the three wise men of the East, both at Milan, and Cologne S. Denises at S. Denis in France, and at Regesbourgh in Almain, S. Anthony's at Arles and at Vienna, S. Petronels daughter unto S. Peter at Rome, and at Man's in the jacobins Covent: S. Susannas at Rome and at Tholose: S. Hilaires at Poitiers, & in two other churches▪ the one in that which the Canons of that place dedicated unto him, & the other in the Monks Church at Sella: moreover, S. Honorats' body at Arles, and in the I'll of Lyrnis near unto Anti●ou: S. Gilses in a town in Languedoc, which beareth his name, and at Tholose: S. Williams at an Abbey in Languedoc called S. William upon the desert, and in a town in Anssoy called Ecrichen: S. Ferrcels at Uses in Languedoc & all Breienda in Auvergne: and S. Longins transformed from a spear by a monstrous metamorphesy into a blind man, both in our Lady's church de l'isle by Lions, and at Mantova in Italy. Upon others they bestow three bodies, as to S. Mathias, to Lazarus, to S. Gervis, to S. Protis, and to S. Wolf. For they show the corpse of S. Mathias at Rome, at Padova and at Trier. S. Lazuruses, at Marseille, at Authun, and at Avalon: S. Gervises and S. Protises at Milan, at Brisac, and at Bysanson: S. Wolves at Lions, at Senes and at Ausserre. To some others they attribute four, as to S. Sebastian whereof the one is nigh unto Narbonna, in the place of his nativity, the second at Rome in S. Laurences Church, the third at Soissons, and the fourth at Piligni near unto Nantes. They attribute to Mathias four heads, whereof one is to be seen at Padova, an other at Trier, and the other two at Rome: and also seven arms, three at Rome, two at Trier, and two at Padova. To S. Andrew, three heads, one at Thoulouse, and other at Melphe, and the third at Rome: and five arms, two at Thoulouse, two at Melphe, and one at Rome: then five feet, one at Awcon in Provence, two at Thoulouse and the other two at Melphe. To S. Barthelmew five hands, one at Pisa, two at Rome, and two in the kingdom of Naples. To S. Philip three feet, one at Rome, and two at Thoulouse. To S. Stephen two heads, one at Arles, an other in his own Church at Rome. To S. Laurence three arms, two at Rome in his own church another in the church surnamed Palisperna. To S. Anthony five knees, one in S. Augustins Church of Albi, two at Arles, and two at Vienna. To S. Sebastian twelve arms, one at Mombrison in Forest, an other at S. Servins de Tholose, an other at Case-Dieu in Auvergne an other at Angers, two at Soissons, two at Piligni, two in the place where he was borne, and two at Rome. To S. Lambert two heads, one at Trier, and an other at Liege. To S. Anne five heads, one at Lions, an other at Apt in Provence, the third at S. Anne's in Turingue, the fourth at Duran in juilliers, and the fifth at Trier. To S. Vrsell two, one at S. john Angeliques, an other at Cologne. Likewise to S. Hilary two, one with his Corpse at Venise, the other separated from his body at Cologne. Moreover, they show the blood of Christ in so many places, and in so many goblet's, that on may plainly see, they mock at the effusion of the most precious blood of our Redeemer, and willingly are ignorant, that the blood of Christ could not be shed in such an abundance, as th●y show, in divers of their Church's, neither was it taken up so fluently, by some of the Apostles, or friends of Christ, when his hands and fe●te were nailed, and his breast wounded with the push of the spear. To conclude, I could hear speak of the multiplication of the virgin Maries milk, through the craft of these Alchemists, of her smocks, kerchiefs, phillits, girdles, gowns, pantofles, combs, Needles, desks, Linen, pictures, and jewels: Likewise, of the garments of Christ, of his tears, of the Cup, out of which he drank with his Disciples, of the linen girdle, wherewith he girded himself when he washed their feet, of his purple garment, of his spear, which wounded his side, of the dice which in those days were not in request, of the stone pichers of Cana in Galilee: of the miraculous Loans wherewith our Saviour fed five thousand persons, of his garment without seam, of the reed which they put into his hands in stead of a Sceptre, of the sponge wherewith they put gall into his mouth, of the Crown of Thorns they set upon his head, of the pillar whereunto (according to their tradition) they bound him to scourg him, of the Stairs of the Sessions-house of Pontius Pilate, besprinkled with the drops of the blood which fell from his body. In like manner, of the bones, ashes, garments, chains, and other relics of the Apostles and Martyrs of Christ: but who is able to number up all the inventions of the old rags found out in the shops of the brocards of the Roman church? For albeit Calvin hath made a book expressly against them, yet he confesseth therein, that the number of them is innumerable. I entreat therefore the Reader to content himself at this present with the proofs of these brasen-faced inventors of relics, which I have uttered, and to consider them without passion. By means whereof, I assure myself he will judge, that we have just reason, to have in abomination these deceivers of the ignorant, and to hold the adoration of their relics for a heathenish superstition and Idolatry, condemned and forbidden by the Lord, and not to be tolerated by those whose eyes God hath opened to see the abuses thereof. FINIS. A jesuitical Epistle TOUCHING THE SAINTS RELIQVES, WHICH OF late they have shown at Awcon unto the Superstitious people, from the 10. of july, until the 24. of the same Month, Anno. 1608. Published by the Canons of Awcon: translated out of Latin into French and briefly refuted, By john Polyander, Professor in the University of Leyden. And since Turned out of French into English, by Henry Hexham, 1611. S. Augustine in the preface of his Hypognostiques against the ●●elagians. WHen the Adversaires of the Catholic faith, seek to impugn the rule of truth, through diabolical arms, they make us the more vigilant and careful to answer them: and when they lurk in hypocrisy to annoy us, they a waken us, as it were out of a Slumber, to the intent that taking the buckler of truth, we may watch with hearts, resisting their falsehood: the Trumpet of God sounding in our Ears, Watch, and pray, that ye enter not into tentation. THE INSCRIPTION AND PREFACE OF THIS Jesuitical EPISTLE, touching the visitation of the holy relics which are to be seen in our Lady's Church at Awcon, put forth by the Canons of the said Church. The Provest, Deane, and Chapter, of the royal Church of our B. V. Marry at AW●on, wish all health and happiness unto the godly and Benevolent Reader. IT was ordained in holy writ, (benevolent reader) that the devote & lovers of religion, should spend their limited weeks, not only for a certain number of days, but of years, & tha● during the same time, as well those of their own country as strangers, shoul● rest from their labours & keep a feast, watching after an extraordinary fashion to the praises of the Lord The which our an cestor● here at Awcon, & in som● other places throw a godly ceremony have brought into a custom, and many years ago, began to ope● every seventh year th● sacred and most precious treasury of their holy Relics, & to lay them abroad for certain days unto the view of all sorts of people, to move them by the contemplation thereof to reverence them. In which times, but especially before the wars & dangeroes ways, people resorted not only from adjoining places, but also from far, as out of Hungary, Germany, France & the Lowcontries', in such ●n abundance, that this seemed not an (obscure) city, but rather an assembly of many provinces an● kingdoms together. Refutation. The inscription of this Epistle shewe● that these Canons are of the same hum●● and complexion, as the Scribes & Phari● were in the time of Christ, & his Apost●● who gloried in them-selves for being 〈◊〉 pillars of the church. There is this difere● betweme the swelling Titles, which the Scr●● & pharisees attributed to themselves, to represent their dignity to the common people▪ 〈◊〉 they were some what Ecclesiastical; in 〈◊〉 of these, that the Canons of the Sy●gogue of Awcon assume to themselves which are rather politic. The preface of this Epistle demons●teth, that these new Scribes and Phari● would fain constrain the Christians our age to judaisme, and observe the customs of the ceremonial law, long 〈◊〉 abolished by our Lord jesus Christ, 〈◊〉 hath purchased us the freedom, to assemble ourselves every day in his name, and worship him in all places, after th' example of his Apostles, and other Christians well instructed in the faith, which accounted all days a like, Rom. 14. 5. & the one as the other, and reproved the Superstition of those which condemned their brethren in the distinction of a holiday, Col 2. 16. of the new Moon, or of the Sabbath. Hier. in Com. ad Gal. 2. 4. Whereunto, S. Hierome having respect, acknowledged every day was alike, and that Christ was crucified, not only upon the day of the preparation, or rise again upon the Sunday: but adds that his resurrection is always, and that always we may live by the flesh of Christ. He addeth morover, that after the decease of the Apostles, some wise men instituted certain days, for fasting and convocation, to the intent, that such as waited more upon the world, then upon God, who could not, or at least would not assemble them-selves so much as one day in their lives, to come & offer up unto God the sacrifices of their prayers & human actions, might watch & pray upon those days if they would. Whereby it appeareth painely, that the observation of the judicial feasts were not instituted by our Lord jesus Christ, or his Apostles, but by the Doctors of the primitive Church, to express and record more clearly unto the common sort of people, the principal benefits of our Redeemer jesus Christ, and to accustom them, to employ some extraordinary days in meditating upon them. Whereunto this testimony of Socrates may serve, as a sufficient proof, whereby he declareth, that neither Christ nor his Apostles was of meaning, to suspend their judgements touching Easter-day, or any other feast: nor instituted any laws for them, that they should be kept, nor yet denounced any condemnation against such as did not observe them, or did lay any curse or penalty upon them, as the law of Moses usually did: but the mark whereat they aimed, was to recommend to every one that virtue and life, which was pleasing to God. And what an impudency is it, in these Canons of Awcon, to appropriate their abuse unto the feasts of the old Testament: seeing there is as much difference, between their seventh years Sabbath, & that of the jews, as is between light and darknesse●▪ For, that of the jews was neither consecrated nor employed but only to the glory of God: whereas that of the Canons of Awcon and their pilgrims, is dedicated to the honour of the bones and rags of mortal men. Touching their pilgrimages unto the relics of the departed Saints, they are in no wise grounded upon any institution of our Lord: neither from any example of the ave jews: nor from the doctrine of the Apostles, and first Doctors of the primitive Church. For jesus Christ our Redeemer was so far from commanding his disciples to transport themselves from one place to another, to adore the ashes of their predecessors, that on the contrary, speaking unto the Samaritanish woman, he told her that the hour immediately should come, when strangers should not come any more unto the temple of jerusalem, john. 4. 23. to worship God his Father: but that the true worshippers should worship him in Spirit and truth at home in their own Country. As for the jews the true Children of Abraham, as it cannot be proved by holy Scripture, that God enjoined them to go into any foreign Country, to visit the relics of the Saints departed: so they never resorted any whether, but where God only was invocated in all purity: shunning all other places into which they had transferred the honour of God to his creatures ●ead and insensible, following therein the prophet Hoseas exhortation, Though thou playest the Harlot ● Israel, at the least let not judah sin: come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go 〈◊〉 up to Beth-avan. Hosea. 4. 15. I acknowledge that some of the ancient● Fathers, travelled to jerusalem to beholds the sepulchre of our Redeemer jesus Christ, and some other monuments of the Saints departed: but I add thereto, that in the beginning they went not thither to worship their relics, but God only, neither had they any such, foolish imagination, as once to think, that the grace of God, was tied more to one place then to an other, but their only desire was, to consider the remarkable signs of Christ's redemption, & the place of his abode with his disciples▪ Hereupon S. Hierom speaking of S. Hilarions, journey to jerusalem, rebuketh such: thought that any thing was wanting in the faith, who had not seen jerusalem, and ●●steemed others that had been there, mo●● holy than they which had not. The kingdom of God (saith he) is among you, The pal●● of God is as accessible in Britainie, as in jerusalem. Anthony & the Monks of egypt saw not jerusalem, and yet notwithstanding found the gate open. While S. Hilarion ●●●in Palestina, he went and saw jerusalem, ●●●cause he would not despise the holy places in su●●● a journey: nevertheless, he remained there but for a day, because it should not seem he meant to shut up the Lord into a certain place From hence it followeth, that these Canons of Awcon and their predecessors, takes for an example the jewish ceremonies, and ancient customs which some Christians through a superstitious imitation, introduced into the primitive church by some of their hirelings only to increase their dishonest gain, but let us proceed to the first part of their Epistle, whereby they show the reasons, where fore many superstitious men in times past have visited the Relics, which are to be seen in their Church. The first part of this jesuitical Epistle. They perceived what great benefits God hath imparted to mortal men, through those holy Relics, and how many sundry sorts of miracles have been wrought by them, through a supernatural force. For, not only the words of the Saints (as S. Chrysostome saith) but all so the garments of their bodies, Hom 8. ●d popul. & ●6. de virt & vir. are more manificent than any other possession. 2 King. 2 8. For the cloak of Eliah made of the skin of a Lion divided the waters of Iorden hither and thither. Dan. 3. 25. The shoes of the three young men marched through the midst of the fire, the wood of Elisha, was able to change the nature of the water, 2 King. ● & force it to bear the iron of the Axe upon the face thereof, as if it had been upon their back. Exo. 14 Moses divided the Sea with his rod, Nom. 20 & broke asunder the rock. The garments of S. Paul, Act. 19 12. chased away diseases, S. Peter's shadow drove them away. The ashes of Martyrs have cast out Devils, Yea, God himself did a singular honour to Moses when he buried him with his own hands, as S. Hierom saith, Christ commendeth the woman's faith who was troubled with an issue of blood, whereby she believed she should recover her health, if she did but touch the hem of his garment. Refutation. I have already proved by the sixth abuse of relics, that the miracles done by them, are no otherwise, than the illusions of Satan & the juggling tricks of the hirelings of Antichrist, which tend to this evil end to provoke their Idolaters, to the adoration of bones & rotten garments: which are o● afar basser rank, than the deceased Saints, which God nevertheless forbids us to invocate. I say moreover, that if our fathers have not adored the true things, wherewith our Lord jesus Christ, & some other holy men of God have wrought true signs and miracles: much less are Christians bound to worship those, by which the Romish priests feign to do their lying wonders? So then, the holy Scripture makes no mention of any adoration, which our Fathers should do in honour of Moses rod, of Elias cloak, of Elishas' wood, of S. Peter's shadow, or of S. Paul's garments. For these holy men, were so far from suffering the vulgar people to worship their garments, or shadows, Act. 10. 26. that chose even S. Peter himself, for bad Cornelius the Captain to worship his person. S. Paul and Barnabas would not suffer the Priest of Lystra to offer them Sacrifices. S. Peter by commanding Cornelius, who was fallen done at his feet, to stand up, & showing him that he was b●t a man as he was. S. Paul and Barnabas by renting their clothes, and crying out in the midst of the throng, O men why do ye these things? Act. 14. 14. 15. we are men subject to the like passions that ye be, & preach unto you, that ye should turn from these vain things unto the living God, which made Heaven & Earth, and the Sea, & all things that in them are. Then their power of doing miracles, proceeded not from their garments, or shadows, nor from their humane nature, but only from the divine might which really was in Christ, & accompanied in old time his faithful servants after an extraordinary manner. For as the three first Evangelists aver, that Christ of himself di●● acknowledge that virtue that issued forth of him, to cure the woman that was troubled with the issue of blood, by touching the hem of his garment: So we read also in the third Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, that S. Peter & S. john, seeing the people astonished and amazed, because▪ they had healed a man which had been a creep●● from his mother's womb, S. Peter showeth them, that this miracle was not done through their own power or sanctity, but through faith in the name of jesus Christ. As for S. Chrysostom, though at sometimes he extolleth (through the art of his Rhetoric) the relics of the departed Saints too excessively: yet notwithstanding the Canons of Awcon, or rather their Schoolmasters which have dictated them this Epistle falsify his words, and wrest them into a sense contrary to his meaning: For in the text which they cite of S. Chrysostom's, he speaketh not there of any miracles, which it pleased God to work by the garments of any of the holy Fathers after their departure, but whilst they were living, to show by this argument, that their very garments which to the outward appearance of men, were base and contemptible, were more precious in the sight of God, than all the sumptuous raiment of Achab and other infidel kings. Touching the honour which it pleased God to do uno Moses his servant, by interring him, (as S. Hierom saith) with his own hands, whosoever hath but any jott of judgement or reason, will conclude from this interment of Moses corpse, the clean contrary to that, which the Canons of Awcon here infer, to wit, that God himself intended to hide his bones in a place unknown unto the children of Israel, to hinder them from taking them up, & lest they should abuse them with Idolatry, even as the superstitious men of the Romish church do, who worship the bones, which in times past have been taken out of the graves of their ancestors. Concerning that which they allege of our Lord jesus Christ, for commending the faith of the woman which was troubled with the issue of blood, because she said to herself, If I may touch but his garment only, I shall be whole: I answer that although her faith was so weak, that she quaked for fear when she came near unto Christ, to confess that she had touched the hem of his garment, and by that means was comforted by our Saviour who commanded her to be of a good courage, yet nevertheless her faith was not defiled with such a superstition as that of the Romanists is. For when she came trembling towards our Saviour, she fell not done before him to kiss the hem of his garment, but to worship his person, & to show him before all the people, for what cause she had touched him, and how she was made whole immeadiately upon it. Now resteth the second part of this Epistle, by which they rebuke the censors of the Superstitious veneration of their relics, and applaud the Adorers thereof. The second part of this Epistle abovesaid. From the reasons above said we may gather, with what spirit aswell the old Heretics (namely, Eunomius, Vigilantius & Eustachius, as many other new Innovators of Religion in France) have been inspired, who have heretofore burned the precious Relics of the Apostles of that Kingdom, to wit, S. Hilaries at Poitiers, S. Ireneus at Lions, & S. martin's at Tours, giving hereby sufficiently to understand that they were not of that rank, nor of that Religion, as they were whom they detested with so great a hatred & ill will, nor so worthy as their holy ashes, & some other holy memorials of faith & piety, which rested there. The first founders of the Catholic Church did not so, neither those doctor's tha● delivered as it were from hand to hand, unto their posterity the Catholic faith: as they received it from Christ, much more pure, more sincere, and less corrupted than it is at this present, as most evidently is seen in the books of the Eastern Doctors, and Historians, that he which would go about, to prove it by any other testimonies, should seem to add brightness unto the Sun at noon day. Charles truly great for his piety, & eminent deeds or rather thrice most great Emperor and excellent Founder of this Church, imitating herein the steps of those holy personages, was amongst other his graces and virtues, worthy a Christian Emperor endued with this, that his only desire was, to gather fro● all parts whatsoever, a● sorts of holy Relics 〈◊〉 our Lord jesus Christ, of his holy mothers, and of the other Saints: and after he had made them to be transported from all countries, caused them all so to be honoured & adored religiously, as we may conclude from his Acts, the signs whereof are yet to be seen. Now the notablest & remarkeablest of them all is, the privilege which is found in the ancient monuments of our Church, by which he ordained in a general assembly of the whole Empire, that this City of Awcon should be enriched with many immunities, and established for his royal Seat on this side the Alps. The privilege containeth these words. I have in this place built the monastery of S. Marry, the mother of our Lord jesus Christ: with as much labour and expense as I could, and have adorned it with many precious stones & with marble. etc. Therefore the ●●●●●lent workmanship of this great royal church, being fully finished, not only according to my wished desire, but also through divine grace, I have collected together (from diverse countries & kingdoms, but especial out of Greece) sundry signs & marks, of the Apostles, of the Martyrs, of the Confessors, of the virgins, & have brought them into this holy place, that the Kingdom might be established thereby & the remission of sins be granted through their sufferings. The same care & desire flowed downward upon and with his paternal inheritance, and posteretie, until the glory of the French (who had taken their Source and growth through Godliness, being destitute of his vnderprop●ping and foundation) began to decay little by little as S. Sigebert Gemblacensis testifieth, by the very words of the french history itself in his treatise and translation of S. Vit, and Modestia. For this cause, all the most famous Cities, all Kingdoms and principalities, endeavoured by all means to obtain some body of some one Saint or another, as their principal Patron and Protector, or at least some small relics from some whole corpse to assure & confirm their common wealth through help thereof, trusting to the great liberality of the great miracles which God had wont to work, for the love he bore unto those holy relics. Refutation. I find in this discourse many faults, the first is, that in accusing the Condemners of this superstitious adoration of Relics, they place in the first rank of them Eumonius, Vigilantius and Eustachius, who were not so well grounded in the reprehension of this Idolatry, as we are in ours. For proof whereof, because I will not be too tedious, I only will allege Vigilantius censure upon it, & S. Hieromes answer unto it. Vigilantius censure then, as S. Hierome propounds it was this. What needeth this, not only to honour with such a reverence, but also to worship I know not what, carried up and down and enclossed within a small vessel? We may see, that the pagans custom is almost brought into the Church, under the colour of religion, and that while the sun shineth, they still light up a great number of Candles, and that some of them kiss and worship a little dust, wrapped up in a costly sheet, and put into a little vessel. Let us see on the other side, what answer S. Hierome gave him, Who hath ever worshipped the Martyrs? Who hath ever thought man to be God, o brainless head! If the Romanists should answer us in that manner, at this day, Who hath ever worshipped the Martyrs? Who hath ever thought man to be God? may not we justly reply, they are even your Doctors, who have seduced you, not only to adore the Martyrs themselves, but also their bones and relics. The second fault is, they rank Vigilantius in the catalogue of their Heretics, who by S. Hierome his own adversairy, was called Holy Father, who feeling himself moved with the same zeal, as S. Chrysostome was, condemned the unprofitable expense, which was employed about the garnishing of tombs and the relics of Saints departed. Epist ad Paulin For as Vigilantius termeth, this ceremony of kissing the relics of the Saints, and lighting up of Candles about them, a heathenish custom introduced into the Church under a false pretext of religion: So S. Chrysostom calleth it in his 12. Setmon upon the first Epistle to the Corinthians, Chris. Hom. 12 1. Cor. a foolish devotion, a devilish observation, maintained by the corrupt iugments of senseless men that did but suck, therefore, to turn them from this superstition he showeth them, that the Martyrs take no delight to be honoured with their money, for which the poor cry out, in that they did not rather employ it for their relief, & that the consideration of our Lord's resurrection, who rise naked from death, aught to learn them to leave of from the foolish expense of funerals. For whereto is it good (saith he) seeing it bringeth but loss to such as do it, Chrys. Hom. 84 in evang. john. and no benefit to the dead, but rather harm. The third fault is, they liken our Doctors unto Eunomius, Vigilantius, and Eustachius, wherein they are in no wise to be compared. For the Eunomians were by the holy fathers taxed of Heresy, because they made it a difficult matter to enter into the Churches of the Apostles & Martyrs, who have taught in time past, that Christ is true God & equal to the Father: whereof they cannot reprove our Doctors, seeing they preach in the Churches, adorned with the names of S. Peter & S. Stephen, & other of the Apostles and Martyrs, & seeing beside, that they maintain the doctrine of the Godhead of our Lord jesus Christ, against the disciples of Eunomius. Neither can they charge our Divines (unless wrongfully) with that Crime where with S. Hierome attached Vigilantius, (to wit,) because he held unclean the bones of the Saints departed, and would have had their ashes ignominiously cast upon a dunghill, to the end that he alone (though drunk and a sleep) might be adored, but ours teach the clean contrary, that their bodies ought to be buried honourably. The fourth fault is, they accuse our Predecessors for having burned in France the relics of some departed Saints, as those of S. Ireneus, S. Hilaires, and S. Martin's: yet they cite not so much as one witness, herein they do not imitate their Cardinal Bellarmin, who to give some colour and show of truth upon this false calumniation, allegeth in his treatise of Relics, the A●estation of a certain Monk, called Surius, which many Papists themselves believe not, because another grey Friar, named Feuardant, speaking of the body of S. Ireneus in his preface unto his latin Irenea, denieth that S. Ireneves corpse was burned at Lions, or that his ashes were cast into the Rosne. I say again, that this accusation of theirs it false; because they impute to the first Reformers of our age (whom wrongfully they term Innovators of religion) the insolences committed by some undiscreet soldiers, in the beginning of the troubles without their council or avouchment. For they were so far from exhorting them to burn the bodies of the Saints, or to throw their ashes into rivers, that contrariwise, they preached against such outrages, and admonished their anditorie, therein to follow the example of the ancient Fathers, and that every man was obliged to lay them into the Earth, and honourably to bury the bones and ashes of those whom God had taken out of this world. The fifth fault is, they rank among the number of the first founders of their Catholic religion, the Emperor Charles the great, who approved not all the point● thereof. For sundty Historians, yea, and his book which he wrote, against the second Council of Nice, shows evidently, that he condemned the decree of that Council for the worshipping of images, calling it, a most impudent tradition, and a foolish and profane invention, coming near unto that infidelity, which always keeps her Adorers in error. Touching their allegation of the double diligence, which many towns & provinces used in searching out, and in honouring the relics of the deceased Saints, we reply, that we are not bound to follow the customs of men, but only the rule of divine law, which neither hath enjoined us, nor our fathers unto any such superstitious worshipping of relics. Let us now proceed forward to see what these Canons of Awcon can say unto us in the third part of their Epistle. The third part of this jesuitical Epistle. This abundant liberality of God (say they) seemeth no new thing to those that are read in holy writ, and History: because they know, that by S. Peter's shadow (though nothing seemeth more vain) and by the kerchiefs and hand kerchiefs, which they brought from S. Paul's body all sorts of griefs presently & most happily have be● driven from diseased bodies, & the infernal Spirit● cast forth of their Souls▪ From which example, th● Godly custom of our ancestors proceeded, tha● in imitating joseph of ●●rimathea, & Nicodemu●▪ represented by the bodies of our Lord jesus Christ, and S. Stephen: they usually wrapped up the most precious relics of their Church in silken clothes, which they called (Sanctuaires) of holy coverleds as ecclesiastical historians write the which they have since distributed, & sent abroad according to the ancient custom of the church, to such as through piety and love unto religion desired them, in such sort, that the Roman church, hath not bestowed no other relics upon Emperors, or any other great personages, whatsoever, than such sanctuaires and Couverleds, as appeareth by the letters pope (Hormisda) wrote unto his Ambassadors, and unto justinian the Emperor. And to the end, those Sanctuaires might be in the greater request, among us, it pleased the divine goodness (as it evident to many of our church) to illustrate & manifest them through the operation of many great miracles, & so much the more, because that without this means, they could not satiate the piety, which was kindled in many. Now this custom of going on pilgrimage, towards thee places renowned for their relics, and other memorials of the Saints, was brought up in Christendom, from the first age of the Catholic church, & in that time, when she had some rest from the oppression of Tyrants, and other perverse Enemies of the faith. And because we will not here speak of the Ceremonies of the ancient law whereby every one was enjoined to go yearly on pilgrimage to the feasts, as God himself had commanded it, & many other most religious personages, yea Chris● himself & his most holy parents, accomplished it with so great a zeal of going on pilgrimage, principally unto the holy places of the land of judea, which zeal was kindled also in the hearts of men after Christ's death, in imitating their ancestors, as the testimony of divine write, and S. Hierome also speaking upon this matter doth avouch, that all the words in the holy Scripture recommend to us this godly work. And in another place they run hither: (saith he) from all the corners of the Earth, the city is full of all sorts of people etc. But chiefly with those which hold the highest degrees of honour in this world meet here with one accord. And verily our Patron Charles of most holy and famous memory, without producing any other examples at this present, of any other Emperors, & most noble parsonages, who were so much given unto the exercise of these holy pilgrimmages, that oftentimes they went a foot to Rome, only to excercise themselves in this godly work. And have attributed so▪ great honour unto S. Peter's Cathedral church at Rome, as they have kissed the very stars thereof one after another. So that one may say of him, & these Emperors, that which Austin heretofore objected against the Idolaters of Madaure, ye see that the highest dignity of the most noble Empire, supplicates with an humble crown by the Sepulchre of S. Peter the fisher. The like also have been found in England, Demmarke, France & Splayne, who being touched with this desire of pilgrimages, discharging themselves for the present fro● all the affairs of their earthly kingdoms, transported themselves thither-wards through a long, dangerous, & weary some way▪ to honour there their heavenly King after the example of the three Kings▪ which came to honour the cradle of our Lord jesus Christ. Also many other Christians have done the same, whose ordinary custom was, eftsoons to visit the places, which were destined for the holy memorials & sepuleres, to the end (that as it is written of the virgin marry) their inward love might be nourished by holy signs, & inflamed with the more love of devotion, through the most joyful contemplation of the Saint's tombs, & relics. For this hath always been found by experience, & confirmed by the testimony of all antiquity, that through these pilgrimages, through this great flocking and godliness of the people, a new zeal began to kindle in our spirits, together with the piety & reverence we bore to these holy things, and also new desires to live well, and to imitate the Saints in our life and manners. And lo, next unto the glory of God, the chiefest end of our pilgrimages, which God so specially demandeth of us, was, because as S. Augustin saith, the bodies of the Martyrs have been given us, to awaken us unto the excercise of devotion, through the admonition of the places, & by the presence of these holy pledgs. For the holy place (as this Father exhorteth us) reneweth & increaseth our former affections, when as through the advertisement of the places, it is manifested, & raiseth itself up by wheating our charity, aswell towards those whom we are to imitate, as towards those, through whose assistance we do it. And therefore it happened perchance (as it were by divine disposition & providence) that almost all the holy bodies of the holy Apostles, & principal Doctors of the East, have been transported into the West, before the Turks tyranny: which sought to abolish and wholly root out the memory of the Christian religion. And indeed, we must acknowledge, that whatsoever is most precious and of the greatest importance in our treasury of Relics, was brought from beyond sea, out of those countries, through the great piety, industry, & diligence of Charles the great, as hath been shown before, by the ancient charter of our Church, and shall hereafter appear by our Index. Refutation. This third part of their Epistle, stuffed with vain repetitions & insufficient proofs, needs no long refutation. As for th●● which they allege again, concerning the miracles done by S. Peter's shadow, and by the kerchiefs & hand kerchiefs they brought from S. Paul's body, it hath been sufficiently answered in the first part of their Epistle as also that which they rehearse again touching the pilgrimages which our F●●thers did to the holy places of judea, into refuting of their preface: by which we ha●● refuted all those, which through a foo● devotion seek to tie the service of G●● more to one place than to another. Wher● upon S. Chrysostom's admonition may se●● that to obtain pardon for our transgressions, 〈◊〉 need not spend any money, neither is it necessaire to do any such thing, only the integrity of a good will sufficeth. It is in vain to take any journeys into farre-countries, or to seek unto other nations far from us, or to endure dangers and perils, only the will is enough. In like manner that of S. Augustins, God commandeth us not to go into the East, to seek out righteousness, nor to sail into the West to obtain pardon, forgive thy enemy, and it shall be forgiven thee, seek nothing of thyself out of thyself. Likewise S. Bernard's, Woman thou needest not pass the seas, nor penetrate the Clouds, thou behoovest not to pass the Alps, neither haste thou need, that any should show the any long way, Go before God into thyself. As for their proofs of the ancient custom of their fathers, in wrapping up in clothes the relics of the departed Saints, of the donation of those clothes, to all sorts of people (but especially to Emperors, & great parsonnages) of the miracles done by touching them, I call them insufficent because this custom is not grounded upon the word of God, nor from the example of the Disciples of our Lord jesus Christ. For so far was joseph of Aremathia, and Nicodemus, who wrapped up the body of Christ in a sheet (whom they make mention of in their fine discourse) from showing it, or giving it to some religious men, that on the contrary, they buried it with Christ's body and sought to keep it from the sight of men. And suppose that some miracles have been done, by the touching of such like clothes of the dead, we are not to wonder at it, seeing Satan, when it pleaseth God to let loose his reigns, & permit him to deceive men with strong illusions & errors, hath oftentimes done the like miracles by touching the relics of dead beasts, as we have amply declared in our disputation, in the discouvering it the sixth abuse of relics. I could here convict the Canons of Awcon by the testimony of holy Scripture, 〈◊〉 that the wise men of the East, which ca●● out of their own Countries into the La●● of Bethlem to worship our Saviour Christ and to present him their gifts specified by the Evangelist S. Matthew in his second Chapter, were no Kings but Philosophers Secondly, that this deed was extraordinary, and ought not to be brought into▪ law and Custom in Christenstome, b● cause our true josiah and forerunner jesus Christ is not, as he was then here beneath on Earth: but sitteth now above in Heaven on the right hand of the Majesty of God his Father: but my desire is not to surpass the limits of our disputation, therefore, I will at this present rest contented with that I have already said, touching the pilgrimages of the ancient Fathers. Yet resteth the refutation of the index of the relics of their Saints departed, but before I enter into it, I will conclude my former refutation with the same exhortation which the Apostle S. Peter gave unto all Christians upon the end of his second Epistle general, who had obtained faith at the same price with us through he righteousness of our God and Saviour jesus Christ. My Beloved, seeing ye know these things before by the discouverie of the falsifications of so many texts of the Bible, contained in the above said Epistle of the Canons of Awcon, that these unlearned & unstable pervert the holy Scriptures unto their own destruction, beware, lest ye be also plucked away with the error of the wicked, and fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord jesus Christ, to him be glory both now and for evermore Amen. The Refutation OF AN INDEX OF THE RELIQVES, WHICH EVERY SEVENTH year are shown at Awcon, unto the poor and ignorant pilgrims of the Roman Church. By john Polyander. Tertullian in the book of his prescriptions against Heretics. THe Doctrine of Heretics (saith he) compared with that of the Apostles, will show by the diversity and contrariety thereof, that it hath for author, neither any Apostle, nor Apostolic Doctor: because that as the Apostles have not taught sundry Doctrines, repugnant one to another: So the Apostolic Doctors have not uttered Doctrines, contrary unto that of the Apostles, but those which are fallen away from the institutions of the Apostles, and have taught after another manner. AN INDEX OF THE VIRGIN mary's RELIQVES, OF CHRIST'S of S. john Baptists, & some other Saints departed, composed and published by the Canons of Awcon, Anno. 1608. 1THE smock which the most bless virgin Ma●● wore, when she was delivered of our Saviour jesus Christ. 2 Two swaddling bands wherewith the Son of Go● was swaddled, presently aft●● he was borne. 3 The linen cloth which couvered the most holy body of Christ, and which was besprinkled with his saving blood. 4 The sheet whereupon Saint john Baptist kneeled in the prison, when his head was cut of by the commandment of the adulterous King. 5 The girdle wherewith our Lord jesus Christ trussed up his garment. 6 The Cord with which they bound his sacred hands, when they led him as an innocent Lamb before many judges. 7 A piece of one of the nails, wherewith they nailed him to the cross. 8 Two great pieces of the holy cross. 9 Some of the pieces of th● Sponge, & Christ's kerchief. 10 The most blessed virgin mary's girdle, with some of her hair, and her picture painted by the Evangelist S Luke. 11 A piece of the chain whereunto Saint Peter was bound, while he was in prison. 12 One of Simions' arms wherewith he imbrassed the babe jesus Christ in the temple, being but forty days old. 13 The bones and blood of the first Martyr S. Stephen, whereupon the king of the Romans ordinarily doth take his oath in our Chapter. 14 S. Leoparts Corpse. 15 The head and arm of the Emperor S. Charles the great, and his whole corpse. 16 The celestial manna, and S. catherin's oil. The Refutation of this Index. If the poor ignorant people of the Romish Church, were but permitted to read the holy Scriptures in their mother tongue; they would quickly perceive with us, th●● the relics, which the Canons of Awcon attribute in their Index to jesus Christ, 〈◊〉 his Mother, to S. john Baptist, to Simion● S. Peter & to S. Stephen are falsely invente● by some juglars, & in no wise grounde● upon the History of the holy Evangelists For the Evangelists and Authentic witnesses of Christ, elected by God his Father, to record unto us all the memorable 〈◊〉 of our saviours Conversation, and of 〈◊〉 friends in this world, and to leave behind them a faithful Index unto posterity, mak●● no mention therein of any smock of 〈◊〉 virgin mary's, of any of her hair, or of 〈◊〉 image painted by S. Luke, who was no p●●●ter, but rather a Phycisian as Eusebius and some other Historians affirm, Col. 4. 14. and prove it by the fourth Chapter of S. Paul's Epistle written to the Colossians. Neither speak they therein of any girdle of Christ's, nor of any cloth within which his body was wrapped, when they nailed him to the Cross: but one the contrary, all of them witness, that he was crucified stark naked, and that four soldiers snared his garments among them. Nor speak they word of any sheet which Herod should command his Sergeant to lay under john Baptists knees, before he beheaded him, nor of any chopping of, or any separation (which should be done unto Simeens arm wherewith he had embraced our Saviour jesus Christ in the temple of jerusalem) from his other members, or that it should be kept as a reliquaire by the Christians. Neither find we in the description of S. Stephen's stoneing and burial, that S. Luke should report, that those Godly men which buried him, took up any of this Martyr's blood, Act. 8. 2. to deliver it to the church, but carried it away with his body to be buried. The hirelings of Awcon cannot prove by their History, nor any other author worthy of belief, that the Virgin Marie was so curious as to keep her ragged swaddling bands, where with she had bound up the body of her little babe jesus Christ, or that she gave them to the Evangelist S. john to keep the well beloved Disciple of her son jesus Christ, with exhortation to recommend them after her departure to the doctors of the primitive Church, or that she did command, that they should be locked up in any place, to be shown at some times to the vulgar sort of people in memory of the nativity of our Redeemer. Much less can they prove, that the Soldiers of Pontius Pilate sold to the Apostles, or any of their Successors, the cord where with they bound the hands of our Saviour jesus Christ, or any of his garment they parted among them, or the cross whereunto they nailed him, or any pieces of the sponge they filled with vinegar when as he cried I thirst: But all these old rags have been gathered, & patched together by the Fathers of these butchers, & polished with the name of Antiquity, to transform the lively simplicity of the Sacraments, and true memorials of Christ, into a motley religion, disguised with a million of crafty devises. And whosoever will but confer the Index of these Canons of Awcon, with some other registers of the Roman Church: they shall soon perceive how they contradict one another. For those of Charters maintain, that they have the same smock which the virgin Marie had on, when she was delivered of our saviour jesus Christ, which (according as men report that have seen it) is too long for a woman of a middle stature as the Virgin Marie was, and as Nicephorus witnesseth, that the hose of joseph her husband, were too short for a man of the same shape. For the Virgin Mary's smock, which they show at Awcon unto the ignorant & credulous people, is so long & wide, that if she had been a Gyantesse (as Calvin noteth in his treatise of relics) she could scarcely have worn it. One the contrary, Joseph's hose (which the Cannons of Awcon have forgot to put into their Index) are so short and strait that they will not serve a dwarf, or a little boy. Besides these Chapmen of Rome, and Salvadour in Spain wrangle obstinately with those of Awcon, which of them should have the Swadling-bande wherewith the Virgin Marie swaddled up her little Babe jesus Christ. But yet there is a far greater contention between the Huckstars of the Roman church for the pieces of Christ's cross. For there is almost not one Abbey or Cloister in the world, which makes not a bravado & a superstitious show therewith: albeit that Eusebius shows us, in the life of Constantin the Emperor, that Helena his mother having found the same cross, sent one piece of it unto the Bishop of jerusalem, and the other unto her son Constatine, who adorned his cask with the second, & with the third, made a bit for his horse, the hirelings of Antichrist have forged & multiplied them into so many, that they show a great number of whole ones, besides many pieces in divers Countries of Christendom. Morover, there are sundry Towns which affirm, that they have the whole Sweeting cloth of our Lord jesus Christ: But especially they of Rome, Byzanzon, and Cadoin in Lymos. Is it not then a great impudence in these Canons of Awcon, to maintain against them, that they have some of the pieces of it? And if other Towns have likewise some pieces of this Swearing cloth (as they vaunt they have) what and audaciousness is it in those towns which I have named to maintain at this day, that they have his whole Sweating-cloth with the impression of all the parts of Christ's body stamped into the same cloth from the crown of his head, unto the sole of his foot: seeing we can prove the contrary by the ceremony which the jews used in burying of their dead, and also by a text of the Evangelist S. john's in his 20. Chapter and sixth & seventh verses, that this sweeting cloth, was but the kerchief which joseph of Aremathea and Nicodemus had bound about his head, and lay in a place by it self, from the other linen clothes, wherewith his body had been wrapped up by his two disciplies john and Peter. As for the rest, if the Prelates of Rome have the whole chain whereunto S. Peter was chained in his prison, do not those canons of Awcon brag falsely▪ that they have a piece of it. If they of Rome have also the whole body of S. Stephen, with all his bones, what an impudency is it in those of Awcon and some Canons of other churches to say, as it were in despite of one another, that every one of them have in his own church, the bones and blood of this first Martyr of of Christ's. Concerning the Emperor Charles the great, we confess that the Historians of his time witness, that he was buried at Awcon in Germany: howbeit we wonder much, because they mingle the relics of a politic man, who was given to whoredom (as the Apostate john de Serres withnesseth in his Inventory) with those of Christ's, the Vngin Maries, and other holy personages which led a blameless life in this world. Furthermore, If the most holy place be at Rome in S. john Lateran's church, and if the Byshope of Room keepeth therein Aaron's rod and the Heavenly Manna, do not the Canons of Awcon deserve to be controlled, in that they attribute the propriety of these relics, and call their shop furnished with all manner of false merchandise, the most holy place of the Virgin Maries Temple? For like as under the old Testament, there was but one Tabernacle, one Temple, and consequently one most holy place, until the first coming of jesus Christ. So could it not represent unto our Fathers but one Temple of the Godhead of Christ, which is his body, & one most holy place, which is the Heaven into which this Souveraine and only sacrificer hath tansported his body by his ascension. Now suppose that that should be false (as it is not) which the Apostle declareth in his Epistle to the hebrews, to wit, that the Tabernacle and Sanctuary of the old Testament were but figures of the true Tabernacle, and of the true holy places, which are not made with men's hands (but is the body of Christ & the Kingdom of Heaven) & that these figures ought not to last but until the time of their corection & accomplishment, through the death & passion of our Redeemer jesus Christ: yet notwithstanding, to show the correspondence between the shadows & the body which is found in Christ, the Doctors of the Roman church, ought but to name unto us one Temple, & one most holy place, heretofore figured unto our Fathers, first by the Tabernacle, & afterward by the Temple of jerusalem: in am of so many Temples & most holy places, which in these later days they show to the poor ignorant people, to learn them to judaism and observe the Ceremonies abolished long since through he sacrifice of Christ jesus, & condemned by the doctrine of his Apostles. As for the rest, either there is no likelihood of truth, that the ancestors of these Canons of Awcon, have had and shown heretofore unto the common people the true foreskin of jesus Christ, or that these canons their successors having received it from them, have not kept it so faithfully as the garments of our Saviour Christ, and the instruments wherewith pilate's soldiers served their turns to crucify him, seeing that they dare not name his foreskin in their Index, nor place it in the rank of his other relics afore mentioned. And that which they make up their tale withal, concerning S. catherin's Oil, and S. Leopard's corpse, it is of the same coigning as their inventoire is of the bones of the ten thousand Martyrs, which may not be touched but only seen under the altar of the Church at Rome, called the heavens Ladder: and the eleven thousand virgins whereof they of Coullen gathered up more than a hundred cart loads. For every man of understanding having regard to that which these churchmen of Awcon report of their S. Catherine, and compare it with that which those of Rome say (who maintain they have one of her fingers in the temple of the holy Ghost, and in the temple dedicated unto her the milk which gushed forth of her neck, when she was beheaded, & the oil which sprang forth of her grave) will find as much fraud and deceit therein, as in that which they recite of their Idol S. Christopher, to wit, that this Giant having been a these in his youth, at last forsook that wicked course of life, & to do a public penance for his sins, un dertooke to carry such as was desiours to pass over a great water, from one bank side to the other: Now upon this occasion jesus being willing to try his faith & obedience, came & presented himself with the rest (as he was ready to take them up) in the likeness of a little boy, and talking with him, prayed him to carry him over as he did the others, the which this thief presently agreed unto, but after he had set him upon his shoulders he found him so heavy, that being in the midst of the river he told him that he never had borne so heavy a burden: and that he should sink under him, if he did not presently ease him: Now ever since they have called Christofle, or rather Christophorus that is, Christ bearer, from which fable every man may gather, that these fine Doctors feed their wretched disciples, but with lies & illusions, where of I have discovered a great number in these three little Treatises, with assurance that the unpassionate Reader, and lover of the truth, opening his eyes & ears to see and hear them, will not only be moved through this my advertisement to reject them, but also to assist me on his behalf, to persuade these silly superstitious men, to take heed unto the service of Idols invented by these latter priests of Ball, full of all deceit, and to worship with us our only God and heavenly Father in spirit & truth. FINIS.