¶ The Preface to the Reader.  
plutarch a noble Philosopher, & a diligent Historician, writeth in the life of Demetrius a king of Macedon, that when an old woman came to him, beseeching him to hear her speak, and he made answer that he had no leisure, the woman looking upon him, said to him again with a loud voice: why, have you no leisure to rule, as a king should? Which words so pierced the kings heart, and so greatly prevailed in him, that he forthwith gave her audience, and from that day, none came to him for any matter, but gently, and with all diligence he did hear them, & discuss their causes. Boysteouslye were these words spoken of a subject, and not with that reverence that was meet to be given to a king. Notwithstanding, as Cicero witnesseth in the second of his Tusculans: Tristis res est dolour, sine dubio, aspera, amara, inimica naturae, ad patiendum tolerandumque difficilis: Sorrow is a grievous thing, without doubt sharp, bitter, and an enemy to nature, hard to suffer and forbear. Sorrow (as I suppose) constrained the séelye woman to speak as she did, & veras exprimere voces, and to utter the truth. On the other side consider, not only the gentle nature of this noble prince, but also his great wisdom, in considering nothing to be more seemly for a governor, then to hear men's causes indifferently, and to see all wrongs redressed. Nihil (sayeth the same plutarch) tam egregium tamque proprium Regis esse videtur, quàm justiciae opus, Nothing is so excellent & so properly pertaining to him that is a magistrate, as justice. I have read that the Tribunes, which were officers chosen for the defence of the Commons of Rome, had their gates or doors never shut, neither by day, nor by night, in token that thither might be the recourse of all them that had need of succour. So aught every governor, whether he be spiritual or temporal, to be a succour, and as it were a castle and a fortress to them that be under his tuition. Dion Cassius in his books that he wrote de principe, amongst other precepts, willeth chiefly and above all things, that whosoever be the head of the people, be a diligent worshipper & follower of God: next, that he be loving to his subjects, if he will have them to be faithful to him, and love him as subjects should their prince. For it is not of likelihood, said Dion, neither doth nature permit, but that he that loveth, should be loved, when we see dogs to fawn, and horses to neye to them, of whom they be cherished. Again, he would have such rulers to call themselves shepherds and feeders of men, rather than otherwise. So Homer calleth a king pastorem populi, a shepherd and feeder of the people. And Plato in his Dialogue called Minos, writeth, that Minos and Radamanthus, which gave laws to the men of Crete, were the true shepherds of men, which was not spoken of so noble a Philosopher without a just cause: for nothing doth more nourish, maintain and uphold a common wealth than law, which, as Tully in secundo de natura deorum saith, est recti praeceptio, pravique depulsio, a commander of that which is good and honest, and an expulser of all that is nought and unhonest. Now, as a shepherds care is to see his sheep fed in wholesome pastures, and to be kept safe from wolves, & all other beasts that would weary and destroy them: and if any in the flock be infected with any outward scab, or inward malady, to remedy it betime: or if the contagion admit no help, but is incurable, to have such a one away from the flock, that he hurt none of them that be whole: Even so must he that will be a shepherd of men, study for the good ordering and quietness of the multitude, over whom he hath charge, and that all enormities that might disturb a common wealth, whether it be spiritual or civil, be expelled, and that all faults be redressed with due correction, using lenity and severity, after as hope or despair of amendment shall appear. Neither hath the name of a shepherd lacked his pre-eminence at any time. That good Abel, ad cuius munera deus respexit, to whose gifts & sacrifice God had respect, was a shepherd: Abraham, in whose seed God promised, that all nations should be blessed, was a shepherd: so was Isaac his son, and jacob his nephew, and his sons also. Moses' that noble captain, and deliverer of God his people, was a shepherd in the land of Madian. David, of whom S. Steven said, that God gave this testimony: inveni David filium less, virum secundùm cor meum, qui faciet omnes voluntates meas: I have found David the son of jesse, a man after mine own heart and mind, which shall do all my william. Act. 13. This noble king David was a shepherd. These I suppose almighty God would have to be ensamples to all them that be in authority, for as Paul saith: Quaecunque scripta sunt, ad nostram eruditionem scripta sunt, All things that are written, are written for our instruction, that as they fed that seely innocent cattle, so should all Magistrates that profess his son's name, learn to govern the people in the obedience of his doctrine, that they might be innocentes manibus, & puro cord: nec iurantes in dolo proximo suo, Innocents of their hands, and of a pure heart, which use no deceit towards their neighbours, but in all their doings show themselves to be veras oves pascuae Christi, the true sheep of the pasture of jesus Christ, who sayeth: Bonus pastor animam suàm dat pro ovibus suis, A good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. Few words, but full of pith: And never could more things be spoken more compendiously. For what will he refuse to do? what labour, what travail, what pain will he forsake, which for that performance of that he goeth about, will not spare his own life? If a good shepherd setteth so great store by his sheep, if he love them so tenderly, that he will rather loose his life then to see than in any danger, what will he not do else for them? How can it be otherwise, but that he will see his flock fed in wholesome pastures? how can it be thought, that he will not tarry with them to keep them from wolves, from dogs that fall to biting of them, and from other like ravenous beasts? Who would imagine him to be so negligent, that he will not in the evening bring them home to the cote or fold? Will he not, trow you, if any be strayed, go seek him out, and bring him again to his fellows? If any be sick, will he not see him holpen with all diligence? See therefore what a great matter our Saviour did comprehend & fold up, as it were, & knit together in a bundle, all that can be desired in a good herdesman. O that governors whom god hath put in authority, per quem reges regnant, by whom kings do reign, who had Peter, if he loved him, to feed his sheep, who hath also constitute under him feeders upon the earth, some spiritual, some temporal, O, I say, that they would diligently look upon these words: A good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep, & seriously ponder in their mind what a charge is hid in this short sentence, how many things princeps pastorum, the prince of shepherds, as Peter calleth him, doth require of them whom he hath made herdsmen under him, whose duty is to be good pastors and faithful feeders like to their master. O that they would call to their mind, that they must at length departed hence, & come where it shallbe said to every one of them: Red rationem villicationis tuae, give account of thy bayliwike, Come forth and show how thou hast fed my flock that I committed to thy hands: Thou Bishop, how hast thou visited thy diocese, what Parsons, what Vicars hast thou admitted? Thou archdeacon, how often hast thou visited & seen every curate to do his duty? how hast thou redressed all enormities and slanders within thy jurisdiction? Thou parson, thou vicar, thou curate, how hast thou fed thy flock with good ensamples of charity & virtuous living, with keeping of hospitality to thy power, by preaching wholesome doctrine, in reverently ministering my Sacraments? Thou king, how hast thou ruled thy Realm? What laws laws haste thou made for the setting forth of my glory, for the extirpation of heresies, for maintenance of equity, for punishment of wrong, for provision, that things may be sold at a competent price, that covetous men make no dearth to their condemnation, when I give plenty? Thou Lord, how hast thou governed under thy prince? Thou man of worship, how hast thou endeavoured to have quietness kept, and the prince's laws to be obeyed? Thou justice, how hast thou ministered right indifferently to all persons? Thou Mayor or head officer in any City or Town, how hast thou kept thyself clear from perjury? how hast thou seen good order observed, and all idleness & dissolute manners to be banished? Finally, thou, whatsoever officer or Magistrate thou be, how hast thou regarded the common wealth, and preferred it afore thy private lucre or commodity? O that these things were considered: for as sure as God liveth, these accounts will he call upon straightly. None shall escape, Cui multum datur (as S. Gregory sayeth) multum ab eo quaeretur, He that hath much given him, shall make a great account thereof, and much shall be of him required: And at that day percase he shall reckon himself most fortunate and happy, that had least in this world, and lest to do. And he peradventure most infortunate, that hath most to do in this world, unless he order it well, unless he order it righteously, justly, and ordinately.  
Now, good Reader, thou haste heard, that Christ sayeth: Bonus pastor animam suam dat pro ovibus suis, And to put thee out of doubt who is this good shepherd, he sayeth: Ego sum pastor bonus, & cognosco oves meas, & cognoscunt me meae. I am the good shepherd, which will give my life for my sheep, by my death to purchase them life, that as I will rise, and die no more, so shall they after their bodily death arise at the last day, never to die any more, but to live always with my father and me. I know my sheep, not all only that they be mine, but I so know them for mine, that I willbe their succour in their tribulations, I will strengthen them in their persecutions, I will receive them into my joy and glory, I know them, and they know me. This is then required of the sheep, that they know their shepherd. Three properties must be in every man or woman that shall have this worthy name to be called a sheep of Christ. The first property is, that our Saviour sayeth, that his sheep do know him. This knowledge have Christ's sheep of him, that by his godhead he is their father, by his manhood he is their brother, and by his benefits he is their loving lord and master. They know it is he, and none other, that hath made their peace with God his father: Ipse enim est pax nostra, for he is our peace (Ad Ephesios secundo) he hath gotten us forgiveness of our sins, he hath delivered us out of the bondage of the devil, he hath purchased heaven for us, he is to us Turris fortitudinis, the Tower of our strength. The second property of Christ's sheep is, to hear their shepherds voice, and to give no ear to the voice of any stranger. You will ask me peradventure, how you should hear him, which although he be verily and bodily here with us in the Sacrament of the Aultare, yet in his human form he is ascended up into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of his father? Whereunto I answer, that we must hear his voice sounding by the mouth of his Church, which is the very true spouse of jesus Christ, Quam sanctificavit, mundans eam lavacro aquae in verbo vitae, whom he hath sanctified and purified with the bath of water in the word of life, ut exhiberet ipse sibi gloriosam ecclesiam non habentem maculam aut rugam, to make it a glorious Church to himself without spot or wrinkle (Ad Ephesios'. 5.) If we hear the church, we hear Christ: for as the holy Bishop and Martyr Irenaeus writeth in the forty Chapter of his third book, Vbi ecclesia, ibi & spiritus, & ubi spiritus dei, illic ecclesia & omnis gratia, spiritus autem veritas, where the Church is, there is the spirit of God, and where the spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace, and the spirit is truth. Wherefore as the same godly father writeth in the forty and three Chapter of his fourth book, we be bound to be obedient to the Prelates of the Church, his qui successionem habent ab Apostolis, to them that have their succession from the Apostles. Reliquos verò (saith he) qui absistunt a principali successi-, & quocunque loco colliguntur, suspectos habere quasi haereticos oportet, As for all other that go away from the principal succession, we aught to suspect them as heretics. These are Ireneus words in the place now alleged. And Christ saith himself: Qui vos audit, me audit, He that heareth you, heareth me. Wherefore, if we will hear Christ, as his father hath commanded us, Ipsum audite, Hear him, Math. 17. than must we hear the Church. The Church is our most holy Mother, whom we aught to have in great reverence, and to commit ourselves wholly unto her, to hear her, and, like obedient children, to do what she biddeth us. What the Church holdeth in matters of religion, that must we hold: what the Church prescribeth, it is our duty to follow: what the Church forbiddeth, that are we bound, under pain of damnation to avoid in any wise. S. john in the fourth Chapter of his first Epistle biddeth us be ware, that we believe not every spirit, but to try the spirits, whether they be of God or not. Then, how can they be of God, which go from the Church? S. Augustine in the exposition of this Epistle of S. john, tractatu primo, writeth thus: Qui ecclesiam relinquit, quomodo est in Christo, qui in membris Christi non est? Quomodo est in Christo, qui in corpore Christi non est? He that leaveth the Church, how is he in Christ, that is not in the members of Christ? how is he in Christ, that is not in the body of Christ? By the which S. Augustine affirmeth, that the Church, which is the spouse of Christ, is also the mystical body of Christ, and Christ is the head of the Church. As many therefore, as be Christ his sheep, they hear their shepherds voice in the Church. They will not hear the voice of strangers, as of Luther, Oecolampadius, Zuinglius, Caluine, & like heretics, which for all their gay words, and crying still, Christ and the Gospel, may have every one of them, these verses of Persius in his fift Satire worthily spoken to him:  
Pelliculam veterem retines, & front politus Astutam vapido seruas sub pectore vulpem. Thou keepest still thine old hide upon thee, and bearing a fair face, thou wrappest a wily fox under thy vaporous breast. These be they, of whom S. Peter speaketh in the second Chapter of his second Epistle: Magistri mendaces, qui introducunt sectas perditionis, Lying masters, bringing in sects of perdition, and denying the God that bought them. Howbeit, sithen it is so, as Paul sayeth, There will be always ravening wolves, 
Act. 20.  non parcentes gregi, not sparing the flock, And among our own selves will men arise, speaking perverse things, And such is our frail nature, that as the witty Horace sayeth: 
Decipimur specie recti,   
We be soon deceived under the colour of truth. It behoveth us to follow the counsel of our head and principal master jesus Christ, which teacheth us an excellent document of heavenly philosophy, saying: Attendite vobis à falsis Prophetis, Take ye heed to yourselves, and beware of false Prophets, which come unto you, in vestimentis ovium, in sheeps clothing, but inwardly they are Lupi rapaces, Ravening wolves: We must, I say, beware, that we be not deluded, and under colour of evangelical verity, be made to receive pernicious and damnable heresies, as alas the more pity, hath miserably chanced to our noble Realm of England, under colour of bringing us to truth, leading us away from the truth, to the utter decay of all godliness, and setting up of counterfeit religion. The weed hath now over grown the corn, evil, hurtful, and soulequelling weeds of heresy have overgrown, oppressed, pulled down to the ground, and utterly choked the good corn of christian religion, and all ecclesiastical constitutions. All you therefore that have been seduced, and taken weeds for wholesome flowers, beware lest with the stench of such rotten weeds, ye infect your soul to everlasting damnation. The infallible truth is daily opened unto you, The falsehood is mightily convinced, as shall plainly appear in the Discourse here following. Stand no more in the defence of that, which you may easily know and see with your eyes, if ye will not be wilfully and obstinately blind, to be nothing but deceit: What do I call it, deceit? nay, I call it a most venomous poison to the soul, yea, and an hellish draft of endless death. Play not the part of a mad man, of whom Horace writeth in the second book of his Epistles, that he was angry with his friends, for that they had caused him to be healed of his frenzy, and restored to his wits again: Be not angry, that you may (if you will) be brought out of the fowl mist, into the clear air, from darkness to light, from an horrible frenzy to godly wisdom. Follow the wholesome counsel of Saint Paul in the fourth to the Ephesians, ut non simus amplius pueri, qui fluctuemus, & circumferamur quovis vento doctrinae, per versutiam hominum, per astutiam qua nos adoriuntur, ut imponant nobis, That we be no longer children, and fleet too and fro, carried hither and thither with every blast of doctrine, by the wiliness and craftiness of men, wherewith they set upon us to deceive us. There have been a great many such sprongen up in our Realm of late, which have taught us wrong Lessons: Emendemus ergò in melius, Let us amend therefore. The third property is, that the sheep do follow their Shepherd: This property is of so great importance, that without it the other two cannot avail. It is not enough to know Christ to be our refuge, our help and succour: It is not enough with that also to hear Christ speaking to us in his Church, except we follow Christ and his Church, and show ourselves willingly to do that which the Church commandeth us. We must fast, when the Church commandeth us, and as it biddeth us: We must pray as the Church instructeth us, We must do those good works that the Church teacheth us to do. In obeying the Church, we obey God: if we be disobedient to the Church, we disobey God. For as Chrysostom sayeth upon the first Epistle to the Corinthians, ut corpus & caput unus est homo, ita unum est ecclesia & Christus, As the body and the head is but one man, so is Christ and his Church one thing. Do therefore as the wise man biddeth thee, Audi disciplinam patris tui, & ne dimittas legem matris tuae, Hear the discipline of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: I mean, thy mother the holy Church, whom as many as forsake, they forsake God also. For as holy Cyprian writeth de simplicate praelatorum: Habere non potest deum patrem, qui ecclesiam non habet matrem, He can not have God to be his father, that knoweth not the Church for his mother. ye may see here evidently, that this holy man would have us to be obedient unto, and diligently to keep, the ordinances of our fathers, & not to institute every day new fashions, as men most unconstant, and full of new fangles. The Lacedæmonians are praised, that they suffered no strange ware to be brought into their City, whereby the Citizens might be effeminated and corrupted in their manners, and for the same cause they extol greatly Lycurgus, which made the same law. Now, if the Lacedæmonians were so serious observers of their old laws and customs, what a shame shall this be to us Christian men (which were not taught of Lycurgus, but of Christ himself) daily to altar and change, not content with those rites and Ceremonies that were ordained of ancient time out of memory? Irenaeus teacheth in his third book against the heresies of Valentine, and such other: whose words taken out of his fourth Chapter of the said book, I will briefly rehearse: Si quae de aliqua modica quaestione disceptatio esset, nonnè oporteret in antiquissimas recurrere ecclesias, in quibus Apostoli conversati sunt, & ab eis de praesenti quaestione sumere quod certum & re liquidum est? If any controversy should be of any question, were it never so little, must it not be meet to have our recourse unto the most ancient Churches, in the which the Apostles were conversant, and of them to receive the plain certainty thereof? It followeth, Quid autem si neque Apostoli quidem Scripturas reliquissent nobis, nonnè oportebat ordinem sequi traditionis, quam tradiderunt his quibus committebant ecclesias? But what if the Apostles left nothing written of that matter, must we not follow the tradition of them, to whose governance they committed the Churches? Here have you the mind of Irenaeus, who was near unto Christ his time: for as S. Hierome testifieth in an Epistle to one Theodora, he was Disciple to Papias, who was S. john the Evangelists scholar. He would have men to be taught of Christ, of his Apostles and their successors, and not of every one, which rashly and without lawful authority taketh upon him to be a teacher. Christian men should be obedient to christian ordinances, and follow that doctrine that is allowed by them that are lawfully called, and have the censure of doctrine committed to them. Such were the Apostles, called and put in authority by Christ. Such were they, to whom these again gave the charge over any faithful congregation. Such are all they which have so from time to time been lawfully called by them that have power to put others in authority, and so succeeded in due order, else, Quomodò praedicabunt nisi mittantur, How shall they preach, except they be sent, as it is written in the tenth to the Romans, and sent by them which have authority to send. Did not S. Paul for that purpose leave Titus in Crete? Did he not also give Timothy charge to say hands to quickly on no man? To these that be thus lawfully ordained and called to have cure and charge of souls, ye are bound to give an ear: by these ye must be ruled in matters of religion, as obedient children to their spiriritual fathers. And this biddeth S. Hierome, writing to Nepotian: Esto subiectus pontifici tuo, & quasi animae parentem suspice, Be subject to thy Bishop, & reverence him as thy soul's father. The same lesson teacheth Chrysostom in an homily, De recipiendo Severiano, where he beginneth thus: Sicuti capiti corpus cohaerere necessarium est, ita ecclesiam sacerdoti, & principi populum, As it is of necessity, that the body cleave to the head, so it is likewise of necessity, that the congregation cleave to their Priest and spiritual ruler, and the people to their prince. And within a few words after he allegeth for the confirmation of this matter the Apostle writing thus to the Hebrews, in the thirteenth Chapter: Obedite praepositis vestris & obtemperate eyes, quia ipsi pervigilant pro vobis, quasi pro animabus vestris rationem reddituri, Obey them that have the oversight of you, and do as they would have you, for they watch for your sakes, as they which shall give accounts for your souls. This obedience doth our Saviour require of all men, saying: Qui vos audit, me audit, He that heareth you, heareth me. This obedience to Christ's Church hath continued throughout all Christendom time out of mind. And if the authority of the learned and holy fathers aught to bear sway and prevail, as of right it aught to do in deed. Arrogantium enim hominum est, maiorum suorum authoritatem aspernari, & se illis ingenio vel sapientia anteponere: For it is the manner and property of proud arrogant persons to contemn the authority of their elders, and to prefer themselves before themin wit or learning. If the consent of all christian Regions should be regarded, probabilia (saith Aristotle in the first Chapter of the first book of his Topikes) quae videntur omnibus vel plurimis, Those things are probable, which all men, or at the lest, the most part do judge to be so. If the long continuance of time must be of importance, In his enim (as witnesseth S. Hilary upon the hundred and eighteen psalm) tanquàm in coelo verbum dei permanet, in quibus hoc verbum non offenditur, In them doth the word of God abide, among whom that word is not offended. If these three, I say, The authority of the learned Fathers, The common consent of christian Regions, The long continuance of time, may be a sufficient testimony for the verity, we have the true Gospel, and the true sense of it: Our religion is the very christian religion, The order of Ceremonies that the Catholic Church doth use, is the right order, Our fasting and praying is according to the Scriptures, Our Church is the true and lawful spouse of Christ, from the which as many as separate them selves, they are no sheep of Christ's fold, they are reprobate persons, they are the children of belial, they are imps of hell. You know what order your fathers kept, how they lived, and how they believed: You are not ignorant, how you have been brought up, instructed and trained in the laws of Christ. Whosoever goeth about to infringe or break any part of that godly order, of that ancient custom and laudable usage, he is an heretic, an enemy to God, a murderer to man's soul, a disturber of the common wealth, a subverter of all honest discipline, and therefore most unworthy to live among men.  
I have heard, read, and seen many things, yet can I not read, hear, or see any world more contaminate and prove to all kind of vices than this our age is. And howbeit afore our days have been in all times and ages men and women very vicious and monstrous in their living, yet then virtue was virtue, and vice was vice: But now in our corrupt time, we have lost the true names and use of all things, and virtue with us is taken for vice, and contrarily, vice is counted for virtue. They that be studious of modesty, observers of temperancy, and lovers of sobriety, they be now a days called Pinchepennyes, and such that hunger droppeth out of their noses. If any be virtuous, & followers of the Catholic, which is the true religion, they be called Pharisees & Papists: The discrete man, he is called an hypocrite, & the small talker a fool and an ignorant person. On the other side, they that lead their lives in all kind of riot, they be called handsome men, men of the right making, and such as can tell how to keep honest men's company. Again, the statelyer that one goeth, the higher that he looketh, and the stouter and malapertlier that he speaketh, the more is he praised among the worldlings for a wise man, who will not suffer himself to be overtrodden and made a laughing stock to every Rascal. With such vain glorious praises be such proud Thrasoes extolled and magnified of the more part, and no small number are given to flattery, and enhausing of Clawback's, that never could that saying of Terence be better verified than it is now: Obsequium amicos, veritas odium parit, To hold up men's yea and their nay, in holding with the hare, and running with the hound, getteth a man friends, but he that will lay flattery aside, and tell the plain truth, shall get nothing but hatred. Thus in these days vice is extolled, and virtue contemned: Ill rule is made of, and good rule neglected.  
O heart dissimuled, which under colour to be just and true, canst cloak unto us hypocrisy for devotion, ambition for gentleness, covetousness for competency, cruelty for zeal, bold babbling without learning for eloquence, flourishing, Rhetoric without fruit or reason, folly for gravity, wiliness without wit, and fleshly wanton liberty, for liberty of the Gospel. This is nothing else but the devils drift, always covering his poison under some taste of sugar: Fallit enim vitium specie virtutis & umbra: For the sum and end of all their false doctrine, is nothing else but malice with murder, to the overthrow of Christ's religion, and the true ministers thereof. This is their sheeps clothing, for an unhappy reformation: Nam impia sub dulci melle venena latent, Under sweet honey is deadly venom hid. O blind ignorance, and ignorant blindness, O cruel & damnable mischief coming from the bottomless pit of hell. O intolerable furiousness and heresy more detestable than it may any longer be suffered: The great displeasure, the extreme vengeance, the cruel plagues of God hang over our heads, if this horrible heresy be not shortly removed from men's minds. O good God, how long wilt thou suffer this intolerable abomination? It shameth me, it abhorreth me to think, that these shameless beasts are not ashamed to speak of the most belssed Sacraments of Christ's Church: who is able to express either by tongue or pen their wicked abomination? why have we a pleasure to forsake the true understanding of Gods most sacred word, and become followers and bondslaves of the devils counterfeit▪ and deceitful expositions, and carnal reasons set out by his ministers, who in religion are so divided, that now they dream one thing, and now another: this day they like, to morrow they mislike, and one is against another of them, even in the highest mystery of Christ his religion. And no marvel, for the devil is their chief head, whom they serve, and he is full of lies, variance, division, and discord: and under him their Schoolmasters were Hus, Luther, Zuinglius, Oecolampadius, Bucer, Melancthon, and the arch-heretic calvin, whose heresies are confuted in the Discourse hereafter ensuing. These with the rest of that rabble did never agree one with another, in their doings there is no unity, no certainty at all: and therefore such masters, such scholars come of them. And this division, this unconstancy of doctrine was a manifest token, that they were not the children of our true mother the catholic Church, nor ministers of of Christ, but the children of the devil, and ministers of antichrist, yea, very Antichristes. For whosoever (saith S. Augustine) is gone from the unity of the Catholic Church, he is become an antichrist. These Antichristes have borne a great stroke now too long time in our Realm of England, in whom is no constancy, no steadfastness of religion and doctrine: These are they that have damnably deceived you, & have with their damnable preachings enticed you from Church to Church, from an heavenly Church, to a malignant Church: from a loving mother, to a flattering harlot: from the condition of grace, to the state of perdition: from truth to falsehood, from faithful believing to carnal reasoning, from saving Christ to deceiving antichrist. But (good Reader) beware, be not deceived, and be not ashamed to arise, that haste so shamefully fallen, be not ashamed to come home to your mother the Church, sith she is not ashamed to receive you: Let not folly loose the thing that grace hath so preciously offered & purchased: Let not wilfulness and blindness put out so great light as is now showed unto thee, but embrace most humbly the doctrine of our Mother the Catholic Church, so shall you sit in the lap of so tender a mother, which will cherish you into life everlasting. Choose the best, whiles choice lieth in lot.   

A notable discourse, plainly and truly discussing, who be the right ministers of the Catholic Church.  

¶ The first Chapter  
CAluin your Patriarch doth lay to our charge a great and an outrageous boldness, saying (according to his opinion) that we have introduced or taken in hand the ministery of jesus Christ, without being called to it by him that did institute Aaron in the said estate. And because that he himself can better than I express his complaint or accusation, I think it best to set forth his own writings, which, according to his disciples opinions, are of great force and virtue. 
In his book of Insti. ca 18. Art. 58.  His words, as you may read, are these. Seeing that the Papists hear S. Paul say, that no person aught to take upon him, or usurp the name and the honour of Priesthood, 
Heb. 5.  but he that is called to it as Aaron was. And that jesus Christ took it not upon himself, but did obey the vocation of his father, either they aught to show, that God is the Author and institutor of their priesthood, or else they must confess, that they are not called of God, seeing that of their own boldness they have taken it in hand.  
These are Caluins words, by the which the reader may gather, that Caluin doth enjoin us to tender him an account of our vocation. And although that it be so, that by the Civil law one aught to try the right of the possession, 
L. Si quis ad se ad leg. lul. de nil. publ. etc.  before he come to demand it, and the spoil (as we are to him and his fellows, as touching our Temples and Revenues in many places) aught to be restored again before the suit proceed: Yet, releassing this, that the law doth allow us, we are content to answer to his demand: adding this request thereto that both you that are his disciples, and he, do make ready your papers to answer us the like as touching yours. But before I proceed in mine answer (under correction of a man that thinks to have such good eyes) me seemeth, that his argument is but very simple: to say, that of we cannot show, that God is the Author of our Priesthood, that we should be constrained to confess, that it is not of God, seeing that without being called, we take it upon us. For, what reason is there, I pray you, in this? for although it were so, that of our own private power and authority, without being called, we should take it upon us, it should not follow by that, that it is not of God. For by that reason one might say, that GOD was not the author of the priesthood of Aaron, seeing that Dathan, 
Num. 16.  Abyron, and Ozias took it upon them of their own boldness: 
2. Paral. 26  the which is not true. And as touching this, that he saith, that our order of priesthood is not of God, we will prove that false in some other place, but at this time we must treat of our vocation, to answer him & his complices, how and by what virtue we exercise our ministery. We are called to this estate, according to the ordinary way: that is to say, by the right succession of Bishops and Pastors, and by the continuance of one Catholic faith, derived from the Apostles to our days, without the interruption of it universally: for in divers places of the world it hath been ever clear and certain, manifestly shining like the light set on the table, 
Math. 5.  to give light to all those of the house, and not under the bushel, to be shadowed with darkness. 
Ephe. 4.  S. Paul, after that he had recited by order the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, I mean, of the Apostles, Prophets and Evangelists, he doth declare at the last the cause why they were instituted, being for the edification of the mystical body of Christ, the which is the Catholic Church, until (saith he) that in the unity of faith we go to meet him. He taketh his similitude of many that come from diverse ways, and meet all in one way. And thus he means, that the spiritual edification of the Church, ordained of Bishops, Pastors and Doctors, shall endure, until that the Gospel be preached through all nations. By the effect of the which Gospel, both French, Spanish, English, Greek, Persian, Arabian, Latins, and Barbares, with many other nations which were to tedious to name, have met together, having of great antiquity, all one kind of Catholic faith by the Apostles and their successors for ever. As the son of God, before he suffered, did attain and arrive to the perfection of his age: even so, his mystical body of the Church shall continued in this world, until it be perfect in his members, and that the number of the chosen be accomplished. And even as a material building cannot be perfectly achieved without continuance of workmen and Masons: even so the spiritual building of the Church cannot be achieved without the succession of Bishops and Pastors, preaching, or causing the word of God to be preached, which is the very spiritual building, the which hath been ever common and visible in the Church, according to the prophecy of Esaye. Sap. 61. who meaning to declare the care that God taketh as touching the preservation of his Church, he did say, as it were representing the state of Jerusalem. I have established and ordained watchmen upon the walls, the which shall never hold their peace, neither day nor night. These watchmen are those, that have announced to us our salvation: They are the trumpets of jesus Christ, which never have left their sounding in the true Church of God, from the Apostles time unto this present day.   

¶ The .2. Chapter.  
SAint Paul followeth this discourse in the fourth Chapter unto the Ephesians, where as he doth declare unto us the fruit that doth proceed of this succession of Pastors, and of the perseverance of the reasonable sheep in one kind of spiritual doctrine, called the unity of faith. For he sayeth, that God established this order to that end, that we should not be like light children, carried away with every blast of false doctrine, through the subtility of men, & their crafty words, full of deceit. In these words you do see, how the Apostle doth declare unto us the counsel and the intention of the holy Ghost: I mean, that we should be constant in our faith, the which is grounded upon the word of God, & interpreted and declared unto us by the Doctors and Pastors, that successively have continued in one kind of faith and Catholic religion, from the first time that it was preached, without turning with every wind, but rather that we aught to stand firm and stable. Here is to be noted, that when the Apostle doth tell, how he hath left us pastors and doctors, to warn us of the subtility of false teachers, he doth use a certain greek word very apt for this purpose, the which hath in English the signification, of the playing or cogging at dise. And even as he that hath no great skill, if he play with such a one, he will soon lose his money, because the other can cast what he will: Even so, if a simple man, being unlearned, do chance to talk with such a one as can cog, or (to speak plainly) falsely interpret the Scriptures, he may soon be deceived: as we see it daily happen to many, that play away and put in hazard the rest of all their spiritual inheritance, I mean, the faith, which hath been left to them by their fathers, from age to age, since Christ's time. Thus have the Arrians, the Nestorians, and divers other heretics deceived many a man, as I will show more at large hereafter.   

The .3. Chapter.  
THe place that I have quoted of the Apostle doth show, how dangerous a thing it is to fall into the hands of such Coggers of the scriptures, and likewise how certain a thing it is, to follow the interpretation of the ancient Doctors, standing to that, that ever the Catholic Church hath taught, and not to turn at every blast. Upon this matter one Vincentius Lyrinensis, who flourished above a thousand years agone, 
Lib. con. haer.  he saith thus: If any man perchance demand, saying: Since that the rules of the Scripture are certain and sufficient of themselves: And what need have we then of the authority of the Church? He answereth: For that (sayeth he) that the secrets and mysteries of the holy Scriptures are such, that every man doth not understand them, and interpret them after one sort, but that of one place this man and that man shall seem to maintain their opinions, being clean contrary one to another, so that, look how many men, so many interpretations: For, one way it is interpreted by Nestorius, another way by Arrius, another way by Sabellius, and so forth, according to divers heresies that have risen from time to time. And therefore it is necessary for the knowledge of the truth, among so many errors, to draw the right line of the Prophetical and Apostolical interpretation, according to the rule and true sense of the Catholic Church.  
This is the learned opinion of this ancient father Vincentius Lyrinensis.   

¶ The .4. Chapter.  
WHose discourse doth make me remember the Complaint that the Soul doth make unto her Spouse JESUS CHRIST, being both represented, 
Canti. 1.  by Solomon, and his legitimate spouse. I pray thee (saith she) O my dear friend, tell me in what place thou dost lie and rest at noon days, for I would be very glad and desirous to follow the flocks of thy fellows? The which is as much to say, as if she meant thus: I see many shepherds in these mountains, which have great abundance of sheep, I see those of the Roman Church, I see Donatistes, I see Novatians, or, to speak of our time, I see one flock follow Luther, another flock follow Zuinglius, another follow Caluin, another the Anabaptists, another the Sacramentaries, and so forth divers others, of whom when I demand particularly, Whose is this flock? they do all answer me, It is of Christ, and every one saith, this is the Catholic Church, every one doth say, that he is his fellow, that is to say, as touching the guiding of his flock. Now it is not possible, that they do all teach the truth, considering how they vary among themselves: therefore I do desire thee to tell me, where thou dost rest thyself at noon days? that is as much to say, teach me, which is the true Catholic Church, which doth celebrated the true mystery of the Cross, which is the place, where thou wast nailed at noon days, being nailed both hands and feet? Hear now the answer of jesus Christ: If thou dost not know the place where I rest, O most beautiful among all women, follow thou the path that thy flock hath made before thee, setting thy tabernacle or thy lodge, hard by the tabernacle of thy Shepherds. If we well note, and understand this answer, it will learn us that, that shall suffice to keep us from running ever astray. The sense is this: O thou Christian, which art troubled in thy conscience, not knowing, because of so many heresies, which way thou shalt go, or how thou shalt decern the true religion from other false doctrine, take my counsel, the which is, to follow step by step the flock that went before thee. If that a thousand, or two thousand sheep run over a plain, those that come afterward, do not they know well the path that is made before them? do not they discern the way that the first went? Yes surely, although there be no shepherd to guide them. And if thou dost answer, that this doth not suffice, for I do see divers paths, I see the path of the calvinists, the path of the Lutherans, and the path of those of the Roman Church: but yet do not I know which flock I should choose. To this I answer thus: 
Canti. 1.  Set thy Tabernacle by the Tabernacle of the shepherds, and of thy Pastors, I mean, that I would have thee to lean to that flock, that can lead thee from age to age, and from year to year, unto the Cross of jesus Christ, on the which he was nailed at noon days: and there it is where thou oughtest to quiet thyself and thy conscience. Then to begin: If thou dost ask the calvinists, Where is the true faith (the which, as they say, doth consist in the true preaching of the word of the Lord, and in the administration of the Sacraments, according to the institution of jesus Christ) they will answer: It is at Geneva, the Lutherans will answer, At Wittemberge, and the anabaptists will answer at Monasterium: The Ubiquitaries, they will answer, At Tubinge: and the Trinitaries, At Petricone: and so consequently of the rest. And then pursue, and ask farther, where it was twenty years agone? They will say, in the said Cities: but if thou come to demand of them, where it was a hundred or two hundred years agone, if they are ashamed any thing at all to lie, they will not answer at all, for there is none of them, that can deny, but that Luther, who began to preach his new Gospel the year. 1517. was the first beginner of all these troubles, & the father of all those that teach this reformed religion. Then is it far from that place, where thy friend was nailed at midday, or where he was crucified above. 1500. years agone, before the new Church was dreamt of. And therefore thou mayest easily perceive, that this flock cannot lead thee to the place that thou dost desire: and consequently, that is not the flock that we should follow. Then let us come unto the Roman Church, & demand, where was this flock an hundred years agone? They will answer thee, In France, Spain, England, Germany, and so over all Christendom. And if thou ask, where it was. 500 years agone, they will say, In the said places. And a thousand years agone likewise: and likewise, a thousand and five hundred years agone. This flock than will not leave thee by the way, as the others do, but it will lead thee unto the very time of the death and passion of Christ, by continuance of one doctrine, and by succession of pastors, which Solomon doth call the tabernacle of the shepherds: And therefore this is the place where thou must seek thy Tabernacle, and quiet thy conscience to the end, that thou be not a lost sheep, and that thou be not ready to turn at every blast of new doctrine, that our new Coggers of the Scriptures do set forth, to deceive the simple sheep.   

¶ The .5. Chapter.  
THe like unto this is confirmed by Vincentius Lyrinensis (of whom we have spoken before) for he saith in the book above named that that person aught to be esteemed a true Catholic, that hath nothing in greater commendation than the true religion of the Catholic faith: yea, although it were the wisest man in the world, and the greatest Philosopher, & the fairest speaker that ever was, if he came to speak against the old doctrine that hath been taught us of our forefathers, time out of mind, we aught (saith he) to disdain that learned Clerk with all his philosophy & cunning, and to hold ourselves to the ancient opinion of the Church, the which hath continued until this present day. And if that now one should bring a new doctrine, that was not heard of before, contrary unto that, that hath ever been taught in the Church, say, that it doth not appertain unto the state of the Catholic faith, & that it is no religion, but a temptation. And therefore, if we willbe saved, we aught to live and die in that faith that hath continued by succession of Pastors, even from Christ's time unto these days. 
Lib. 4. contra haeres. cap. 65.  S. Irenaeus a very famous writer, in his fourth book against heresies, the. 65. Chapter, who was within a few years of the Apostles, Archbishop of Lions, writeth the veri like, saying that the true faith and the true knowledge of God, is the doctrine of the Apostles, and the ancient estate of the Church throughout the world, according to the succession of those Bishops, unto whom only the Apostles committed the custody of the Church throughout the world, the which (sayeth he) is come to us. This said Irenaeus doth writ in his third book, and second Chapter, that he and his fellows did withstand the Valentinians and the marcionists, which were great heretics, by the traditions of the Apostles, that is to say, the doctrine not written, but received from age to age of the Apostles, and so continued till their time. He saith likewise: unto the Traditions which are of the Apostles, and that by succession of pastors have been used in the Church, we do persuade & provoke those that speak against Traditions. He writes as much more in the third Chapter of the said book: Forasmuch (saith he) as it were to tedious to set forth in one book the Successors of all the Churches, and to tell them one by one, we do overthrow those, that for vain glory do seek to gather disciples together, teaching them contrary to that that doth appertain unto the Traditions of the Apostles, the which we do show to them by the said Traditions, and by the faith that hath been taught and is come to us by succession of the Bishops of the great and ancient Church of Rome, the which was founded by the two glorious Martyrs and Apostles, S. Peter and S. Paul. These are his words in his third book adversus haereses, the fifth Chapter. And at the beginning of the said Chapter he saith thus: All those that will understand the truth, may presently regard the traditions of the Apostles, which are manifest throughout the world, and we cannot count the number of those that have been instituted and ordained Bishops in the Church, & their successors till our days, which have neither known nor taught any thing like unto the fables and tales that these do preach unto us. etc. Not without cause we may now a days say the like of the Lutherans, calvinists, & other sects of our time. After this he doth set forth all the Popes of Rome, from S. Peter unto Eleutherius, which was Pope in his time. And he did affirm, that that number did suffice to prove, that the doctrine of Marcian and Valentinian was false and very hurtful, because that it was unknown, or at the lest not received or approved by the Church, being under the governance of any of those Popes. Then with greater reason aught prescription to take place against a new doctrine, which hath been unknown this 1500. years, or at the lest, if any body sought to publish it, he was condemned as a false pernicious heretic   

¶ The .6. Chapter.  
S. Augustine in his Epistle. 365. about the like matter, doth set forth all the Popes by order, which have been from S. Peter's time until Anastasius, which was pope in his time, and by his continual succession he doth prove, that the doctrine of the Donatists is heretical, because that none of those pope's which he did recite, nor no part of the Church did receive it. I pray you, may not we say the like by the calvinists and other heretics. The said S. Augustine in the Epistle that he doth call Epistola fundamenti. Cap. 4. doth writ the reasons that did keep him under the obedience of the Catholic Roman Church. And among other, he doth allege the common consent of all nations, and the continual succession of Bishops. And in his book which he made against the adversary of the old and new law, he doth name the succession of the bishops, as most certain to answer to that that we said before of S. Paul: 
Ephe. 1  I mean, that he would not have us to be wavering & doubtful in our doctrine, but that we should be firm & stable, the which stableness is obtained by the knowledge and intelligence of the Scriptures, according to the traditions of the Church, and the succession of the Apostles and Bishops. The Church (saith S. Augustine) from the Apostles time hath continued through the certain succession of the Bishops, until our days.   

¶ The .7. Chapter.  
YOu do study as much as you can, to reject our succession, and not without cause, knowing that this only doth suffice to overthrow all the heresies of those new reformed Gospelers. Caluin, as the most apparent, doth seek to prove that our reason is of no force, because that the greeks have had ever succession of Pastors, and yet we do not hold them as Catholics. But if the Reader do well note that, that we have already said, he shall find the answer unto this objection, I mean, because that the greeks have not had succession and continuance of doctrine, called unity of faith by the Apostles, the which aught ever to be joined to the continuance of the Pastors, to show the true recognisance of the Catholic religion. There is none that do study & read of those matters, but that do know the unconstant faith of the greeks, as touching the proceeding of the holy ghost: the which error they had abjured at the last Council of Florence, and yet notwithstanding they did turn to it again, besides divers other light things, to speak moderately, which are not approved by their ancient fathers, S. john Chrysostom, S. Cirill, S. Basil, and Athanasius, nor yet by our adversaries at this present time. The which errors I have no need to set forth in this book: for my intent is but to speak of that, that pricks us at hand, because of ill neighbourhood. Some do allege unto us the negligence of our pastors, and their ill lives, for the which cause they say, that the mentioned succession cannot take place. But this argument is of no force: For although that the careless lives of some Bishops and ecclesiastical persons have been so great and so hurtful unto the blood of our Saviour Christ (I mean, to the souls bought with it) yet notwithstanding that, the Church hath not lost the succession & continuance of one doctrine, as touching the administration of the Sacraments by those that were deputed by the Bishops. If one should see a Prelate doing nothing, and his lieutenant doing all, which of those two would you take to be Bishop? they have both divided their charges: the one receiveth the profit, the other takes all the pain. If they be both content, what loss do you feel? he that hath any interest, let him value the damage. And although that the negligence of the Bishop be not excusable before God with the diligence of the deputy, nor his conscience clear, yet this aught to suffice, that though his faults be through negligence, or through evil living, yet that aught not to perturb the assurance of our doctrine, the which we have taught us by the word of God, interpreted by the true doctors, that have been before us, agreeing in unity of faith, as I have already said: For neither the naughtiness of Achas, Num. 1. nor of joram, nor of divers other great sinners, which are enrolled in the book of the generation of jesus Christ, were not able to withstand the fulfilling of the promise of God made to Abraham, that is to say, that he would be borne of this line: Even so, the ill lives and conversation of divers wicked Popes, that have followed after Saint Peter, have never been able to move Christ to break his promise, that is to say, that the faith of his Church should never fail, Math. 16. and that the gates of hell, (that is to say) of infidelity, which are the ports of damnation, should never prevail against it. Esa. 58. Our adversaries therefore, that take such great pains to set forth in golden legends the lives of the wicked pope's that have been since S. Peter's time, thinking thereby to overthrow the succession of the Catholic ecclesiastical faith, do no less offend God, then if they should go about to prove the promise of God made to the patriarchs to be vain, because of the evil lives of their successors. Therefore those that do reproach unto us now, that the pope's of our days are not altogether so holy as S. Peter, we do confess it. But they cannot deny, or they will confess unto us, that the above named evil kings, Achaz, joram, Manasses, Amon, jechonias, and others did lead no such holy lives, as Abraham, Isaac, jacob, or David: and yet notwithstanding those evil kings have been set forth in the generation of our Saviour, as the Fathers of the just jesus Christ. Let them judge them that have any wit, whether this be a great folly or not, to see how these crafty Coggers of the Scriptures should make many simple persons refuse to be the Pope's spiritual children, because they were sinners, seeking thereby to overthrow all the ancient customs of the Church.   

¶ The .8. Chapter.  
Upon Moses' Chair there sitteth (sayeth our Saviour Christ) who? not the godliest men of the world, but the Scribes and pharisees: Do that they say, but not that that they do. But if our new Gospelers had been in those days, they would have told Christ, that his commandment was not to be observed, because the lives of Anna and Cayphas were not correspondent unto those of Moses and Aaron: for the first came to the vocation of priesthood, being called of God: but the last attained to it by the vocation of their purses, and yet notwithstanding, rather than our Saviour would break this harmony of the mystical body of the Church, he was not only content to permit, that Caiphas should execute his office (although he was unworthy, as one that came to it by Simony) but rather he did confirm his Pontificate with the gift of the spirit of prophesying, with the which he was as fully inspired as ever was David, Esay, or any of the rest, & all to teach us that, that I have already said: I mean, that the Ecclesiastical order, & the administration of the Sacraments, do not consist in the good or evil lives of the Pastors, but only of God and of his word, interpreted by them. As touching that that appertaineth to our health, God hath no regard to the life of the magistrate temporal or ecclesiastical: for he can aswell serve him with an evil person to do good to the common wealth, as of a good, as the godly prophecies of the wicked Balaam do well witness. Num. 24. And here is to be noted, that when we talk of the succession of Bishops, and of the doctrine continuing in the Church, we do not mean only to talk of the Popes, but of all the Bishops and other having Ecclesiastical charges, not only at Rome, but through all other places, where the true preaching, and right administration of the Sacraments be used. And therefore you do pretend in vain, to prove, that the above mentioned succession hath been interrupted by the dissension of Popes and Antipopes, and by the Civil wars that have been at Rome in times past. For although that the Sea of Rome was vacant for a time, the Chairs of the Bishops in France, Spain, England, and over all Christendom were not vacant, they did not for their debates let to administer the precious body of jesus Christ, and the rest of the Sacraments, to preach and teach the people, doing many other godly deeds. And to be brief, the Civil dissension at Rome did not 'cause the rest of the people throughout Christendom to break the unity of their faith, which they held before their discords. The ambition of the pope's of Rome was in nothing prejudicial unto those that held the integrity of their faith, nor through the reason of their ill governance our saviour Christ did not loose his rightful inheritance.   

¶ The .9. Chapter.  
Now seeing that we have yielded you a full account of our vocation to the ministry: if we may be so bold, I think it is no great presumption to demand the like of yours. For even as Caluin hath heretofore called upon us to have us prove, that we are the children of God, or otherwise he would absolutely affirm, that God can not be called the author of our vocation to the ministry. We say likewise, that if you do not show the like of yours, you shall give us leave (although it be against your wills) to say that yours cometh not from God, but from the procurement of his adversary.  
Tertulian, who, as you know, above 1200. years agone, speaking against such as you are, in his book de prescript. haeret. doth writ these words. Edant origines Ecclesiarum suarum, evoluent ordinem Episcoporum svorum per successiones ab initio decurrentem. Hoc enim modo Ecclesiae Apostolicae cursus suos deferunt, sicut Romanorum Clementem Episcopum à Petro ordinatum: id proinde, utique et coeteri, exhibeant, quos ab Apostolis in Episcopalibus constitutos, Apostolico semine radices habeant.  
You see well by these words, how that Tertulian doth continued with the succession of the Pastors, the which he doth affirm to be necessary, saying: that you, and such as you are, aught not to be received to the ministery of the Church, nor to teach the people, contrary to the ecclesiastical order, except that you show the antiquity of your table. And it is necessary (saith he) that you reckon your Pastors and Bishops by order, and how they have succeeded one after another: for this is the way that the Churches do maintain their right. The said Tertulian doth ground his similitude upon the custom of the Civil governance. For when that those yare princes or Lords do survey their lands, the subjects are bound to show, what bands they hold of them, setting it all forth by account, showing by what tenure they hold their copy, and whether it be demeans or freehold, coming by inheritance or bought: they aught likewise to name him that had it before, and by their own title to overthrow all other persons that may make claim unto it. According to this pattern and order we have given you account of our inheritance, although we were not bound to it, setting before your eyes the similitude of Solomon, by whom our Saviour jesus Christ is represented. That same Solomon doth give the sheep that runs astray counsel, to set his Tabernacle by the Tabernacle of the shepherds, and to follow their flock, until he come to the place where Christ was nailed on the Cross at noon days. The which counsel, as the most certain (according to Tertulian his opinion) we do follow, thinking it sufficient, to keep us firmly in the right and ancient Catholic faith. For we that are the sheep of Christ, do follow, as touching our religion, the steps that our fathers led before us, and, as it were, going up upon the ladder of jacob. Gen. 28. we mount by degree and degree, I mean, from year to year, and from age to age, until that we come to S. Saturim, S. Denice, S. Marcial, and S. Gratian, which were those that did first teach the Catholic faith in Tholose, in Paris, and to those of Guyenna and Lorraine, and so consequently to all the rest of the Saints, that first did teach the Catholic faith through all Christendom, whom we do call in judgement before God, to defend that faith which they have given us, from hand to hand, they may call upon the Apostles which sent them, and the Apostles may direct themselves to Christ, who by the mouth of his most loving Apostle doth command us to continued in that that was taught us at the beginning. 1. joan. 2. And so we shall continued and rest with the Father, the Son and the holy Ghost. And if any body doth come to teach us any other doctrine, then that which hath been taught us at the beginning: I do not say, written in book, but printed in our hearts, that he be holden as an Anathema, 
Galat. 1  or an excommunicate person, yea, although it were an Angel of heaven. The which doth persuade us, not to receive your new doctrine or Gospel, but to keep ourselves under the governance of our old Pastors and Bishops, without having any respect to their evil or good lives: for as touching our faith and salvation, that doth unport nothing. The good and holy lives of jesus Christ and his Apostles hath profited nothing, neither to the obstinate jews, nor to the unbelieving Gentiles: Nor in the like case the depraved life of many evil Bishops that have been at Rome and in other places have not shut the doors of heaven against those that are true Catholics, and lead particular lives, the which are two principal points that do quiet our consciences: I mean, the one, that we believe that, that our Pastors & the universal Church have believed these thousand and five hundred years: and the other, that their evil lives cannot hurt us. For as the Apostle doth say, Every man shall bear his own bundle.   

¶ The .10. Chapter.  
Now to turn unto the taking of your accounts, may it please you to show us, how you have followed the steps of the flock of Christ, according to the counsel that we gave to his reasonable sheep, as we have said before, Who hath taught you the way that you do follow? what doctors were your first tutors? who hath taught you, that the precious body of our Saviour is not really in the Sacrament of the Aultare? who hath taught the doctrine (or, if it be not grief unto you, heresy) which you would have us to receive as a Gospel? I know before hand, that you will allege me jesus Christ, and his holy Apostles, whose steps you do profess to follow, preaching every where, that there is no difference between your Church (or to say truth, synagogue) & the church of the Apostles. But I pray, Let me understand by what means you can join yourselves unto the Church of the Apostles, seeing that you condemn and cut off all the Christians that have been and are between you and them. For to verify this, I will allege no other but your own works: for Caluin in his Institutions at the Treatise of the Supper of the Lord, speaking of the oblation of the body of our Saviour Christ, as it was offered in old time, he doth writ punctually these words: Calvinus, in sua institutione tradita de Coena Domini. I find (saith he) that those of old time have changed this fashion, otherwise then the Institution of our Saviour did require, seeing that their supper did represent a certain spectacle of a strange Invention, or at the lest, of a new manner. There is nothing more sure unto the faithful, then for them to hold themselves unto the pure ordinance of the Lord, by whom it was called a supper, to the end, that only his authority may be our rule. Yet it is true, that when I consider their good meaning, and that their intent was, never to derogate from the only sacrifice of Christ, I dare not condemn them of folly, and yet I think, that one cannot excuse them, that they have not somewhat failed in the exterior form: for they have followed more the Ceremonies of the jews, than the order of jesus Christ did permit. And this is the point, in which they aught to be resisted: for they have conformed to much unto the old Testament, not contenting themselves with the simple institution of Christ, they have to much inclined themselves unto the shadowed Ceremonies of the jews law.  
These are Caluins words. The Reader may by them see well, how this noble Reformer of the Gospel doth correct all ages and Churches, be they of Martyrs, Confessors, Doctors, Interpreters, Preachers, or any others, from the Apostles time unto our age, yet doth he not deny, but that having some regard of their simple ignorance, he is content to be so good to them, as for this time not to condemn their error or impiety, because that which they did was with a good intent: but yet fearing, that the bearing them to much favour would trouble his conscience, he giveth sentence against them, saying, that they aught to be resisted, because they were not content with the only institution of Christ, but rather, that in this case they have followed the shadows of the jews. Now, for my part, I think Caluin and his fellows so scrupulous, that they would not join themselves unto persons that are spotted with jewish Ceremonies. And because that all manner of people, how wise soever they were, from the Apostles time until our days, have fallen into this error, he doth counsel my masters his deformed followers (according to his sentence) to follow none of them at all, but only the pure word of the Lord, preached by jesus Christ, and by his above mentioned Apostles.   

¶ The .11. Chapter.  
YOu do know very well, that S. Paul doth compare many times the mystical body of the Church unto a natural body, seeing that jesus Christ is the head, unto whom the body is joined by joints, bones, & sinews. If one should then demand of you, how the feet are joined to the head, you will answer me, by the legs, which are next unto the feet. And if I ask you, how the legs are joined to the head, you will answer, by the joints and by the reins of the back, & so consequently from member to member. 
1. Cor. 10.  I do believe, that we are all of one accord, that the end of the world is at hand, and so consequently, that we are the lowermost part of the body, so that we are the feet or the legs. Then my masters, you that have made so fine an Anatomy of the Mass, at my request make another of the ministery of your congregation. If you should see such another as Apelles, that would paint a man, and that he had drawn his head, and without painting the rest of his body, he had set his feet under his ears, what would you say to such a Table? (Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici:) Would you not think, that he was a simple painter, or else a great jester? Even so do you deserve, that one should laugh at your ministery: For you will join your Church (if it may be so called) unto the Church of the Apostles, without setting forth any members between them. You take but scant measure, when you will cut of all the Bishops, Pastors and doctors that have been from the Apostles time till our days, they being the members that follow the head of the Church. This may well be called a new Religion, or to say the truth, it is a mere presumption, to fly without wings, or to climb without a ladder. And I say to you again, that this is not the way to follow the Counsel of the great Shepherd that I mentioned before, who doth say to us, that if we will not miss the way of the Catholics, we aught to follow the flock of those sheep that have gone before us, that is to say, that we should reckon by succession the Pastors that have succeeded in continuance of one kind of doctrine, the which, as we have showed, the Catholic Church doth, and hath ever done.   

¶ The .12. Chapter.  
AS touching the rest, you have accustomed in your ministery, to use the imposition, or laying on of hands, and you say, that it is an ancient and honest Ceremony, 
Exod. 29.  In this you say the truth. For as we read, of great antiquity this Ceremony hath been used, aswell in the old law, as in the law of grace. And unto that did redound the imposition of hands laid upon the Weather that was brought to the immolation of the Sacrifice of Moses' law: 
Levit. 4.  to declare, 
Num. 8. &. 17.  that those that are ordained unto the service of God, and unto the ministery of the Church, aught to retain the like Ceremony: & so the Israelites did say their hands upon the Levites, and Moses likewise did say his hands upon josua, when he was made a captain of the Israelites, who did represent the Church of Christ. The apostles have used the like, as we found, where we read, 
Act. 8. 19 &. 13.  that S. Peter and S. john did lay their hands upon the Christian people of Samaria, & S. Paul upon the Ephesians, and likewise the Apostles upon the seven Deacons, & upon S. Paul and Barnabas. 
Tim. ●.  S. Paul doth admonish Timothe, not to despise the grace that he had received by the imposition of hands, & that he should set forth the gift of God that he had received with the imposition of the hands of S. Paul upon him. 
A &. 7.  He doth likewise command him, not to use this imposition of hands without discretion, to the end that he do not communicate with the sin of another. Caluin according to these authorities in his institution book (Ar. 8. ca 50.) of faith doth command the like to be used in his Church. It doth appear (saith he) that the Apostles have used no other Ceremony in the vocation to the ministry but this imposition of hands. Now I think, that they took this custom of the jews, who did present unto god by the imposition of hands that, that they would bless & consecrated. After this sort jacob (Gen. 48.) when he would bless Ephraim and Manasses, he laid his hands upon their heads. Our Saviour did the like upon the little children, when he did pray. Math. 19 And as I think, it was all to one end ordained in the law: and therefore, the Apostles, by the imposition of hands, did signify, that they did offer unto God him, that they did receive into the ministery, although they did use it likewise with those, unto whom they did distribute the visible gifts of the holy Ghost. How so ever it be, they have used this solemnity as many times, as they did ordain any body to the ministery of the Church, as we see by example, aswell touching the Pastors and doctors, as the Deacons. Now, although there be no special commandment, as touching the imposition of hands: yet notwithstanding, seeing that we read, that the Apostles did use it continually, that which they did use so diligently aught to be unto us as a precept. And surely, it is a profitable thing, to set forth to the people the dignity of the ministery by such a Ceremony, and to make him know, that is thus ordained minister, that he appertaineth no more to himself, but that he is dedicated to the Service of God and of his Church. etc. Thus, seeing that Caluin doth confess the imposition of hands to be so necessary for the ministery of the Church, and that it is approved, aswell by the law of nature, as by the law of Moses or of the Gospel, Answer us then, who was he, that laid his hands upon Caluin, to safe conduct the charge of his conscience? You will answer me, Zuinglius, or Oecolampadius, or the others of his time. And if by chance one would be so curious, as to pursue this demand, mounting a little higher: I mean, to know of whom these abovenamed have received their blessing and imposition of hands, I think you will not name the Apostles, if you will not have every man to laugh at your folly: for there is none so simple, but doth know, that they died above. 1500. years agone. And seeing that your patriarch hath made us so goodly an oration, as touching this imposition of hands, affirming it to be necessary, both by the law of Nature, the law of Moses, and the law of Grace how doth it come to pass, that Zuinglius hath not used it, to confirm his ministery.   

¶ The .13. Chapter.  
If that the good doctor S. Cyprian had been in these our days, 
Cip. 1. epist. cap. 6.  might he not well have said against your Scholars, that which he did writ against Novatus? there needed no other, but in steed of Novatus to put in Calvinus or Zuinglius, et nomine mu tato, de vobis fabula narrabitur.  
Seeing that the said S. Cyprian doth hold & affirm, that Novatus ought to be accounted as no Bishop, because he succeeded no body, but rather that he did make himself a Bishop, without any imposition of hands. Then to what purpose, I pray you, are ye of the opinion, that Caluin and Zuinglius are such faithful ministers, considering that they are as far from proving that confirmation of their ministery, as ever was Novatus. You will answer me, that you have no need of the imposition of hands of the Papists, superstitious Idolaters & Infidels. But this maketh your cause never the better: for if you are so scrupulous by nature, that it goeth against your consciences to come to kneel to our Bishops, you should (I say in times past) have required your ancient ministers to have given you a warrant for the confirmation of your estate, when one doth demand of you, since when your religion begun, you are not content, to claim the beginning from the Apostles, but rather, stepping hardly forward, ye are not content to stay at David or Abraham, but you must needs fetch it from Abel, yea, from Adam. And if one should spur you forward, you would go, I know not whether. Then seeing that your Church is so ancient, and that it hath endured till our days (if we will believe you) it is not like to be true, that it hath been destitute altogether of ministers: for although it be so that God did greatly afflict the Israelites with the captivity of Babylon, yet did he never leave them without comfort of good doctors, such as Daniel, Ezechias, Abdias, and many others: Even so you, that think in your own heads, to be the people of God, I cannot think (if it be so) he would so have given you over, as to want ministers to comfort you in your afflictions, and to ordain your ministery, by the imposition of hands, What stays you, that you do not go to them, seeing that you have nothing to do with ours? And if you say, that you have done so, do us so much pleasure, as to let us hear their names, and in what time they did flourish, or otherwise you may pardon us, if we give no credit to your feigned imaginations.   

¶ The .14. Chapter.  
CAluin doth allege to us, that the Apostles do say, that is, that no body aught to take upon him the honour of the high priesthood, except he be called to it as Aaron was, meaning by that to conclude, that of our own authority we have usurped the dignity of priesthood. We have answered him at large of our vocation by the succession of Pastors joined with the imposition of hands. I do demand of him, or of his, if they can make any true answer to the like objection. You do lay to our charge the ill lives of our Popes & Bishops, and the naughtiness that you pretend to found in our Preachers: but all those invectives serve to no other purpose, but to show how you keep a learned school of railing, the which pre-eminence we do yield to you without any debate or process, for ye may attribute that unto yourselves as your own by right, in steed of the imposition of hands, which ye want. But in one thing to my judgement you are greatly overseen, and that is this: Why do ye not fill both sides of your Book, in the one you set forth at large without omitting any point of their ill doings, all the naughty lives of our Pastors and bishops: but the other sides of the leaves are empty, you should have written on them the holy lives of your Ministers succeeding one after an other this thousand and five hundred years. When the Pope's Bonifacius and Gregorius did govern ill their Seats at Rome, which were the good and holy Ministers that did their duty at Geneva? When our Doctors did preach against god in times passed, in what part or under what sign were your Ministers lodged, that did then preach the pure word of the Lord: if they did hide themselves, they did not follow the pure word of the Lord, the which you say is necessary too know the true and faithful believers. For Christ doth say, Matthew. 10. That he that shall deny him before men, him will he deny before his father in heaven. And S Paul doth say: Rom. 10. That with the heart one doth believe to justice, and with the mouth one must confess to salvation. But to say the truth, your religion was not then found out, and the Grandfathers & great Grandfathers of Caluin had never dreamt of the heresies that now their reformed child hath set so newly abroach. And therefore think it not strange, if that those people that are not light headed, sand you to preach in new found lands, as one that hath here at home given manifestly judgement against himself, confessing, as we have alleged above, that the Church of God hath used the imposition of hands, yours hath not done so: & therefore it doth follow, that it is not of God, and that, that doth follow consequently, is, that it is of the devil. For we know, that you allow no Purgatory, I mean, no mean between them both.   

¶ The .15. Chapter.  
YOu will say to me, that this argument aught to take place in an ordinary Commission, but yours is extraordinary, as that was of the Prophets of the old Testament, whom God did send to correct the Scribes and pharisees: and that even so God hath inspired you and others of your sect to the like effect, that is to say, to correct the superstitious lives and doctrine of the Papists Idolaters: and by this, as far, as I can see, ye are Commissaries of God in his behalf: and ye may say well with S. Paul (although ye have not been ravished unto the third heaven) that ye are not sent by man or of man, 
Gal. 1.  but by the authority of our Saviour Christ. But what would you say, if we should speak against it, as a number do, and that to revenge this quarrel, we should writ against your Commission, we might well aid ourselves with a syllogism of our saviour Christ, if we would come to plead the matter, 
joh. 6.  which is this: He that is of God, doth obey the word of God: but you do not obey the word of God, therefore ye are not of God. I know that you will deny the Minor, and therefore it doth appertain to us to prove it. Christ doth say: Give unto Caesar that, 
Mat. 22.  that appertaineth to Caesar: and to God that, that appertaineth to God. That is to say, to speak familiarly, give Geneva unto his Lord, and the Bishopric unto his Bishop. Now, you do not obey this commandment, and therefore, as one that doth not appertain unto God, you have provided yourself a new master. And because we would not have some to think, that we that are not of the country do bear false witness against you, or, that we do it without having any interest unto the matter: I am sure, that all the world doth know, that ye have set all France in as ill an estate, as ye have done the dukedom of Savoy: In that that appertaineth to the Church, is there any Bishopric or diocese left, where ye have not sought with all your power to preach your holy doctrine? where have ye forgotten, that, that Saint Paul doth say, which is: 
Rom. 10.  How shall they preach, if they are not sent? What right have you, to come to reap other men's corn? Do not you remember that, that Tertulian doth writ against your elders that did persecute the Catholic Church, against whom he sayeth in his book de praescriptione haereticorum: What are ye, and from whence do ye come? By what right, O Marcian, dost thou cut down my wood? why dost thou, O Apelles, remove my lands? And a little after he sayeth: The place is mine, I have been thus long time in possession, and before thee I have good title and evidence, to maintain my right, of those, to whom it did appertain, which left it me by inheritance from the Apostles. etc. Our Church of France, which is one of the principal members of all the Catholic Church, might with good cause say unto you the like. And I pray, what would you answer? you cannot deny, but that above a thousand years before ye were borne, that the faith in which ye were baptised, and the which you have falsely denied, was planted, I do not say, in this only kingdom of France, but over all Christendom. If you pretend any right to the contrary, show the reason of your possession by the evidence of the ancient doctors, and after come to demand it, as I have said before: I mean, that you should yield the ecclesiastical government, which you have usurped in many places with to great liberty of conscience, & licence to do evil, which is the very death of the soul, as Saint Augustine doth say. Epist. 166. And after that ye have restored France to his old estate, than there willbe more apparaunce of the matter, that ye are sent to preach the true word of God, then there is now. But in this estate that ye are, although that God had given you commission (the which he never thought) he would have called it back, because of your noble acts. Theodosius and Arcades, which in old time were Emperors of Rome, (L. si quis in tantam. cod. unde vi.) did establish or make an Edict, that if the true owner or lord of a thing should use any force, or to seek by the way of violence (without staying for the sentence of the judge) to get possession of his own from another man, yea, although the other had no right to it, he should not only loose the possession, but likewise the property: but if it were found, that he that did enter by force, had no right to the Mannur, he should not only be deprived of it, but moreover he should be condemned to give as much more of his own unto him, against whom he had used the force, as the thing was valued at, that he sought to usurp. If one should call you, my masters the new reformed Gospelers, to such a reckoning, ye might well pack up your pipes, and transport your fidelye into another country, for you should have no other remedy, but to run away with the goods, and preach poverty.   

¶ The .16. Chapter.  
FOr your defence you allege no other reason but your good zeal, and your ardent Apostolical affection, the which hath moved you to sow this seed of sedition. You say, that the field is great, and there are few good reapers, but if you mark that, that doth follow afterward, and to take the counsel of the wise: Christ doth not command therefore, that every one should take his sickle, and go, and cut down other men's corn. But he sayeth: 
Mat. 15.  Pray the master of the work, to the end, that he send more woorkemennes to his vine. He doth teach us, that if we see any estate out of order, we should pray to God to redress it: And in the mean time we aught to correct and amend our own lives: for if every man were for himself, God would be for us all. Yet, notwithstanding this, it is not reasonable, that under the colour of a good zeal, a servant should take in hand an act of so great importance, without express commandment of his master, as it is said. But now that we are come to talk of your good zeal (if it please you) let us know, if those ardent flames of charity have so inflamed you, that you have overthrown the Chairs of the negligent Pastors and Bishops, and in their rooms ye have collocated your ministers in every place, where ye could bear any sway, as it doth appear in many towns and Cities in this Realm. I do not doubt, but that you will do the best that ye can to do the like with the rest, I mean, aswell Temporal as Spiritual. For even as God (of whom ye speak so often) doth make no exception of persons, even so you, that call yourselves his Lieutenants will make no difference between the evil estates & the good. Every one doth know that the administration of justice is very honourable before God, and that there be many in this vocation that would not for any thing do any wrong unto the widow & fatherless child, and yet we see and know by experience, that there are many others that without any conscience, do take bribes and offer wrong, both to the fatherless and to the widow, the which crimes are no less in that estate, than the careless living of the Bishops and Pastors. So that I think by this, that he that hath given you charge and power to turn the Bishops out of their seats, the Curates out of their benefices, and the Monks & Abbots out of their Abbeys, because of their evil livings: would likewise extend your commission, to put down Lords, Knights, judges and Gentlemen, because of the corrupt lives of many of them. And to make an end of the reformation, your holy Ghost, and those zealous flames of the spirit, would move you to go a little higher: for there is nothing done, but the spirit may amend it. Against the great trees, strive the great winds, and against great dignities great abuses. It is not unknown to all men, that there are good and godly Catholic princes and kings, which are surely to the people the great gifts of God: but likewise one cannot deny, but that there hath been and are divers ill princes that do govern their people carelessly and without justice. And if by chance your Gospel should fall into some kingdom, where the prince were not so sage nor so wise as you would have him: in your conscience, what would you do to him? I think, that that very zeal (if you could) that hath moved you, under the colour of a refor- Gospel, to trouble so much our state, would likewise command you, to dispossess those kings that do abuse their own kingdoms, even aswell as to deprive those Bishops that do abuse their bishoprics. But, O Lord, what a Gospel is this, if it be permitted, that the people shall call their princes to account, or, that they may correct their superiors under the colour of a reformed gospel, what seditions, troubles & wars shall we see over all Christendom? we shall see fulfilled, to our great harm, the prophecy of Esay, who saith: 
Cap. 3.  The people shall seek to raise one against another, and every one against his neighbour, the young man shall disdain the old, and the ignoble the noble. etc. But what colour soever ye cloak your new gospel withal, ye run far wide from him that doth command us to obey all creatures for the love of God. 
Rom. 13.  He doth not regard, whether they do acquit their charge or not, for the obedience of the inferiors is not limited by the duty of the superiors. 
Rom. 13.  All power doth come of God, saith the Apostle, and he that resisteth that power, doth resist the ordinance of God, and they that do with say it, acquire for themselves damnation for ever. He doth make no distinction of persons, whether it be a Magistrate Ecclesiastical or temporal, whether it be a king or a Pope, a Bishop or a Lord, he doth talk generally of all powers that are established by God, to make us live in peace & tranquillity. God had not chosen of his good will Caesar the Emperor of Rome to be king of jerusalem, as he did choose Saul, David, Solomon and the rest, for of his own ambition and unsatiable cupidity, he had usurped the kingdom appertaining to the house of David: yet our Saviour did command that they should pay him tribute. Math. 22. The which commandment he himself did fulfil to teach others obedience. God did like wise permit that the wicked king Nabuchodonozor should destroy the kingdom of Jerusalem, to punish the wickedness of those that dwelled in it. And although he had invaded the kingdom of juda, to the which he had no title nor right, yet doth god protest that he gave it him, and he willeth and doth command that they should obey him, even as if he were the best prince of the world. Behold (saith God by the Prophet jeremy, Cap. 27.) you shall tell your Lords that I make the earth, the men, and the beasts that walk on the face of the earth, through my great strength and mighty arm, and I have given it to whom it pleaseth me: And so now I have given all these Lands and countries to Nabuchodonozor my servant king of Babylon. Besides this, I have given him the beasts and the fields to serve him, his son, and his son's son, until the time of his earth come: also of him many people and great kings shall come, and shall ordain, that the kingdom, or the people that shall not serve Nabuchodonozor king of Babylon, I will visit that people (saith the lord) with the sword, pestilence, and hunger, until that I consume them in his hands. etc. But if you my masters the new reformers of the Gospel had been in those days, what would have bridled your burning zeal? Could ye not with a little better cause report of Nabuchodonozor that, that ye report of the Pope: for who is that Nabuchodonozor, that we should submit ourselves unto him? He is not a king, he is not a tyrant, he is not an Emperor, but a Robber, a Cuthroat, more cruel than any kind of wild beast. Is it not by him, that the Prophets have represented the spoiler of nations? for God, when he would 'cause Esaye to talk of the fall of Lucifer, 
Cap. 14.  he doth descry it under the person of Nabuchodonozor: then how will you have us to submit ourselves to be subject unto him, whom God doth liken, not only to a devil, but to the Captain of all the devils of hell? Many causes do persuade us, not to obey him. first, his wicked and abominable life. secondly, our religion, for we believe in God, that created heaven and earth: but as for him, he is more than a worshipper of Idols, for he is one that called himself a God. thirdly, he is not of the line of David, by whom God had promised to establish his Kingdom, for he was a stranger, and such a one as got into the kingdom by force, making himself a king, not by righteous election, but by violent compulsion, so that, considering all these things ye might well, according to your zeal, have found fault with his reign, but god would have stopped your mouths, saying as I have written above, I have created all things, and I give them to whom it pleaseth me. Or as he saith in job, 
Cap. 34.  It is I that cause Hypocrites to reign, to punish the sins of the people. Or as he saith in the. 4. of Daniel, I have the pre-eminence over the kingdoms of men, and I give them to whom it pleaseth me. And he that speaketh against him that is put in authority, although he be as evil as Nabuchodonozor, he shall perish through the sword, famine, or pestilence, or that that is worse, through eternal death. These are the very words that god spoke by the Prophet, 
Math. 11.  and therefore saith Christ, Come unto me, and learn in my school, for I am humble and mild of heart, I have obeyed pilate, and Annas, and Cayphas, I have suffered the sentence of death, and have been nailed between two thieves, and I took it patiently for your sakes. Learn of me to be my disciples in the school of humility, and you shall found rest in your spirits. The which true rest in deed is for every man to examine diligently his own conscience, and to commit to God the consciences of his Superiors.   

¶ The .17. Chapter.  
ANy man may easily perceive by this discourse, that you have no great reason, in saying that that you say, & much less to do that that you preach, I mean, to begin the reformation of the Church by the way of force, the which is a thing contrary to all laws divine and human, 
Cod. ut nemo in sua causa iud.  which defend that one should be judge in his own cause: and you will not only be a judge, but a party, resembling in this him that gave the blow to Christ, 
joh. 15.  unto whom the answer was made, If we have done ill, prove it before the judge, seeing that you are our accusers. If you say, that God hath given you power, to know, to judge, and to exempt, that is to say, to drive us out of our possession, and to 'cause the people to forsake that religion, which they have maintained these 1500, years and upwards, show us your commission with as sure a warrant, as so great a matter doth require, seeing that you say, that ye are sent extraordinarily, as Moses was to redeem the children of Israel out of the captivity of Egypt, that is to say, according unto your interpretation, the children of God, and the true faithful out of the false religion of the Papists, of that which the Pope antichrist, & worse than Pharaoh, is the head and master. Thus ye use to expound and morali●●te the figures of the old Testament, in favour of the Catholic Church: yet is it so, that when God spoke unto you about so zealous a thing as this, ye forgot one thing that doth hinder greatly your Commission. You should have showed god, that the Commission which he gave you, was like to breed no less mischief amongst the Papists, than Moses did among that Egyptians. For I am sure (if any to try you, would take your oath) that you would swear, that the Pope is as ill as Pharaoh, and we as hard hearted as the Egyptians. Therefore, why did ye not demand of him a Rod to convert into a Serpent, and to pass dry foot over the red Sea? Why did ye not require at his hand, that it might please him to authorize his word preached by your ministers with Signs, miracles and tokens, as he did, when he sent your fellows the Apostles, seeing that you are Prophets, how cometh it to pass, that you have not foreseen, that we would not believe you: for who is he (although he were a devil) that could not say as much. But we have one disavow which God hath given to many, which do report that they do come from him, which doth greatly overthrow the authority of your commission. He doth say in the .14. of Hieremie, The Prophets preach falsely in my name, I have not sent them, I have not commanded them, nor I have not spoken unto them: but they prophecy unto you false visions and naughty divinations, to deceive your hearts. And likewise in the .27. Chapter, I have not sent them (saith the Lord God) and they prophecy in my name falsely, to th'intent I should forsake you, and that aswell you as your prophets should perish. Item in the .29. Let not your Prophets seduce you, that are amongst you, nor your Soothsayers, and do not mark the dreams that ye dream, for they do prophecy falsely unto you in my name, seeing that I have not sent them, saith the Lord. etc. So that, although it were true, that God hath sent you (as it is false) we might with a just cause pretend an excuse of ignorance, and to say with great assurance that, 
Gen. 20.  that Abymilech said unto God, where he threatened that he would kill him, because he kept Abraham's wife. O Lord God (said he) would you kill a poor simple nation? Shall it be said, that we believe all those that fain to come in your name? have not you commanded us by the Apostle, That we should not believe every spirit: 
1. joh. 4.  and that the Angel of darkness doth transform himself into an Angel of light? Have not you commanded to be written, that we should beware which way we take, & that such a way doth seem good, the which notwithstanding doth lead unto damnation and perdition. If any, saying, that he is our prince's servant, should come to demand a sum of money in his master's name and that he had neither his hand nor his seal to warrant his demand, would not we send him away like a false merchant, fearing that he would deceive us? then with greater reason aught we to fear the committing of our faith, and the hope of our salvation into their hands, whom we know not, nor that cannot show any miracles, to confirm their preaching, as the Apostles did. 
Mat. 28.  Qui confirmabant sermonem, sequentibus signis. That is, which did confirm their preaching with Signs or miracles following: why do not they say, as he said, whose successors they profess to be, the signs of my commission & Apostleship have been accomplished among you with signs and miracles. 2. Cor. 12.   

¶ The .18. Chapter.  
YOu do answer us, as that jews were answered by Christ, when they did demand him to show some Miracles: 
Mat. 12.  The generation adulterous and perverse doth demand signs, but no sign shallbe given them. etc. But this comparison can not be applied unto us, for we are not so hard of belief as the jews, nor you such faithful messengers of God, as Christ was, of whom the jews did demand some signs of obstinate hatred, after they had seen so many lame healed, so many blind receive their sight, so many deaf hear, & so many dispossessed that had spirits: but as for you, we have seen your commission not to have extended so far, as to restore a fly to life again, or to heal a lame goose, although that greater matters are required to confirm so strange and so new a reformed Gospel. These words do make you mad, crying out and preaching in every place, that your Church aught not to be called new, but rather, that it is old and Apostolical, and that your doctrine is the very same that S. Peter and S. Paul did preach. And to draw the simple people to believe that, that you say, you do declare your faith, saying that you do believe, & do preach, that there is one God in Trinity of persons, and the second, which is our Saviour become man from the womb of the virgin, and that he suffered and did rise again, and to be brief, you show, that you have profited in your religion, for you have been but forty years (which is the time since it began) in learning the great Creed, & the Pater noster, the which you could not learn in a thousand and five hundred of ours. But in all this you say nothing to the purpose: for we do not demand of you, whether you can well your catechism, the which you having learned of us, you teach to others. And as Samson said: jud. 15. If you had not laboured with my Cow, ye would never have hit my Riddle. That is to say, That if that our Church had not nursed or taught you, which are her rebellious children, you would have known nothing: for it is of our Church, that you have learned the principles of your faith. She is the Cow that hath nourished Caluin in a Chanonrie of Noyon, & Theodore de Bexa in the Priory of Lovinnam hard by Paris: and consequently all the other ministers, which have learned all that they know, at the Convent of S. Frances, S. Dominick, S. Augustine, and of S. Bennet, where ye were nourished spiritually, as touching your doctrine: and temporally, as touching the maintaining of your study, at the charge of that Church, against the which ye do now so strive, as the Camels, which sometime reward their masters for their good keeping with jerking & biting: so that colour it how you list, ye cannot deny, but that ye set forth new devices. For although it is so, that your heresies (which to please the ears of the unlearned, ye call the reformed Gospel and pure word of God) have been in times past, yet they were buried in the very depth of hell, and you have raised them again, cloaked with new colours. But although it were so, that your doctrine were not new, but very old, yet aught not you to be more privileged than Moses and the Prophets, whose simple and plain words the world would not believe, although they preached no new doctrine, no more than you say that you do. Moses' did show many miracles in Egypt, 
24.  and why? was the principal cause to deliver the children of Israel out of the captivity of Pharaoh? Not surely: for to what purpose, I pray you, should God show such great power and might against a simple worm of earth? Is it like to be true, that he should move the whole heavens with such great darkness, 
Exod. 19  to sand so many notable plagues, to bring him to yield, which had confessed his wickedness, for the torment that he suffered with the flies, the frogs, & Grasshoppers? Surely no, he himself doth show the cause, it is to the end, that my name be known over all the earth: that is to say, that men should know, that he is God. If we come to the Apostles, we shall find likewise, that their doctrine was not new: for when they began to preach, unto the Gentiles & Idolaters, they did not at the first preach jesus Christ, but they did seek to blot out of the minds of the simple people, the foolish opinion that they had in the multitude of gods, & to teach them, that there was but one god, who had created the heaven & earth, who sendeth rain in time of need, and all things else that are required for the sustenance of in. This is the doctrine that S. Paul did preach, as we read in the Acts. 
Act. 14.  This doctrine was not new among men, although it were so, that they were Paynims: for not only in Moses' law, nor in the law of Grace, but even by the law of Nature God hath been known, even of those which were not of the family of Abraham, Isaac and jacob, unto whom the promise of the Incarnation of Christ was made. Of this doth Abimilech the king of Gerar bear witness, who did excuse himself before god, for the wife of Abraham: he could never have known, how to talk thus with God, if he had not known him. Besides this, he made Abraham to swear by the invocation of the said God, 
Gen. 20.  that neither he, nor his heirs should suffer any damage by his posterity. 
Gen. 24.  Bathuell did likewise know God, when he confessed, that he was the author of the marriage of his daughter with Abraham's son: even so Abimilech the king of the Palestines, and Phicol & Ochosath said unto Isaac: We hear that God is with thee, and therefore we are come to make alliance together. 
jud. 2.  Adonibezeth, although he were a Gentle, did not he confess one God, when he said, that he had given him the self same punishment that he had given the 70. kings? job & all his friends, although they were Gentiles, have avouched one God to be the Creator of heaven and earth, even aswell as the Israelites, as it doth appear by the discourse of the said job. If we read the histories of the Paynims, we shall found, that they bear witness of one God among themselves. Diogenes Laertius in the lives of the Philosophers, doth writ, that the Emperor Adrian did demand of a philosopher called Secundus, what God was. He answered: God is an immortal spirit, incomprehensible, containing all the world, a light, and a sovereign goodness. True it is, that this Secundus was bolder to speak of God, than another Philosopher called Simenides, of whom Tully doth writ in his first book De natura deorum, unto whom, when the tyrant Hyero did demand of him, what God was, and that he had given him divers days of respite to answer him, at the last he said, that he did acknowledge in him an infinite of all things. Cicero himself in the first question of his Tusculans, doth govern & give the being to all things. And in divers places of that work he doth well express, that he knew well, that there was one God, & that the gods that the Gentiles did worship, were but mortal men, And in the said book he saith, that we know God by his works, in the which he doth not much differ from David, saying: That the heavens declare the glory of God, 
Psal. 18.  and the firmament doth anounce his works. And in the 40. chapter of Esay, when god did talk with the Gentiles, he did call his works to bear witness of his greatness. Lift up your eyes (saith he) and behold who hath made this. 
Sap. 13.  And the Sage doth say, that men through their vaniti have not known God by his works. 
Rom. 1.  And S. Paul doth absolutely condemn them, saying, the they can procure no excuse of ignorance, for the invisible things (such as is the divinity of God) may be know by the visible things. And therefore they are unexcusable, having hidden the truth of God to unjustice: for after that they have known him, they have not given him that thanks and honour, that they should have done, but they have been deceived through their own subtility, & making a profession of knowledge, they have been found foolish and ignorant. S. Augustine. 8. lib. de Ciu. dei. ca 24. doth reckon Mercurius, called Hermes Trimegistus, among these, forasmuch as he did continued in his own error, although he knew by that (that one may see in his own writings) that his ancestors did err greatly in the making and worshipping of so many Gods.   

¶ The .20. Chapter.  
LActantius Firmianus in his book of his divine Institutions. Cap. 5. writing against the Gentiles, doth prove, that there is but one God, and he doth allege as witnesses all the old learned Philosophers, such as Thales, Milesius, Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Cleanthus, Anaximeus, Crysippus, Heno, Plato, Aristotel, Seneca, & others. Octavius likewise, a christian Orator, disputing against Caecilius, as then a Gentle, doth allege likewise, to confound these old Philosophers, and he doth add more, Xenophon, Spensippus, Demaritus, Strato, 
Act. 12.  Theophrastus and many more. S. Paul likewise, preaching to the Athenians, doth protest, that he doth teach them no new thing, but rather him whom they did worship, and did not know. By the which it is plainly to be seen, that the Apostles did not announce unto the people any new law, for it was very old, and notwithstanding, they did confirm it with miracles. And if you say, that although those learned Philosophers had a knowledge of God, as it doth appear by their works: yet there is found in them no mention of jesus Christ, and therefore, that it was necessary to approve that doctrine with signs and miracles. But contrariwise, that you in your new reformed Gospel, do preach the old Apostolical law, I do answer you to this, that the .9. Sybilles' did speak of his coming and birth, even as plainly as any of the Prophets: and amongst other Sibylla Erithrea did as fully prophesy of the coming of our Saviour to judge the quick and the dead, as any other prophet, as S. Augustine doth testify. Lively 1. de civi. dei. cap. 23. Likewise of his death and passion, and of the miracles he should do before his death. The Oracles of the false gods have likewise declared unto the Gentiles the coming of Christ, as Lactantius Firmianus doth writ, 
Lib. ●. ca 15.  lib. 4. cap. 15. in his book of the divine institutions. Nicephorus in like manner doth writ how Augustus Caesar sacrificing to the God Apollo, Pythius in his temple could get no other but a very brief answer, than Caesar did demand why he could not make him then as fully answer as he did at other times, Apollo was constrained to say the truth, the which was, that a young Hebrew child borne of late did commanded him to retire himself into his hell, unto whom he was forced to yield obediently, forasmuch as he was god, and governor of the other gods, and therefore that he did counsel the said Caesar quietly to retire himself, and to make no more ado: the verses are these, 
Me puer Hebraeus divos deos ipse gubernans  
Cedere sede jubet, tristemque redire suborcum,  
Aris ergo dehinc tacitus abscedito nostris.    

¶ The .21. Chapter.  
THus you see that jesus christ was anounced among the gentiles before the coming of the Apostles, who notwithstanding this did not let to set forth the doctrine that they were sent to preach, with many notable miracles, although they did not reach but that doctrine that was very ancient: And although that their doctrine was new and unknown to the Gentiles, yet you cannot allege, that it was so unto the jews: for they being studied & learned in Moses' law, they heard nothing of the Apostles, but had been prophesied by the Prophets. Doth not S. Paul say at the beginning of his Epistle to the Romans, that he was separated to preach the Gospel, the which God promised by the holy Scriptures. S. Peter talking with the jews, 
Act. 3.  doth give them plainly to understand, that his was no new doctrine, because that he did preach jesus Christ, of whom Moses had prophesied long before, saying thus. God shall raise a Prophet among your brethren, 
Deut. 16.  you shall obey him as you do me, and he that doth refuse it, shallbe put to death. S. Peter saith afterward: All the prophets that have been from Samuel unto this time, do announce unto you these days, that is to say, the doctrine that we do preach. That that the Apostles did preach unto the jews, that is to wit, the remission of their sins, by the death and passion of Christ, it was no new thing: for as S. Peter said unto Cornelius, 
Act. 10.  All the Prophets have witnessed, that these that believe in him, shall obtain remission of their sins: for it had been so prophesied by Esay. cap. 55. unto the people, above .800. years, saying that he had laid upon his son all our iniquities, as it doth appear in his book, in the which he doth show himself more an Evangelist than a Prophet: for there he doth writ the torments of our Saviour, even as if he had been present at his passion. David likewise doth talk of the like, where he doth mention, the extreme affliction of our Redeemer, and of the gall, the Isope, and the vinegar. Daniel did not only descry the death of our Saviour, but therewithal, the very time that he should come. And to be brief, all the Prophets have announced unto the jews that, that the Apostles did preach unto them. Now, if we desire to know why this old doctrine preached, aswell to the gentiles as to the jews by the Apostles, was confirmed with many miracles, which they did in the name of God, who sent them, the cause is this: the devil had so obscured and hidden the truth over all nations, that superstitious idolatry had taken place in steed of the true service of God, so that the poor paynim did not put their trust in one God, but in a multitude of gods. And in like manner, the true religion given by god to the Israelites, had been troubled, and almost clean abolished by the traditions of the Scribes and pharisees, in the which they did trust, for the justification and remission of their sins. The like do you report of us, and of your great courtesy ye are content to match us with the superstitious jews, and Idolatrous Paynims, plating yourselves in the degree of the pure Gospelers, and the true children of God, taking upon you the Succession of the Apostles, and calling your Congregation, the true Catholic and Apostolical Church. This sounds notably well, but seeing that your cause is absolutely to reform the Church, as they did, preaching the ancient doctrine of God, as they did, and dealing with superstitious Idolaters, that cleave more to the traditions of men, then unto the pure word of god, as the jews. seeing then, that our case is reported unto the similitude of the jews, and yours to the Apostles & Prophets, how comes it to pass, that you do not as they did, seeing that you are sent from one master? Why do ye not make your commission appear by signs and miracles, seeing that God hath ever done the like heretofore, when he hath sent the like Commission to yours?   

¶ The .22. Chapter.  
YOu do conjure us by the name of the living God, to receive your Gospel and pure word of God, or else you do threaten us, that you will shake off the dust of your feet in testimony against us, because that we will not believe your words. But in this matter ye do allege a wrong text: for we were very simple, if we should forsake or remove the foundation of our Church, upon such an occasion as I will show by this discourse that doth follow, I am sure that you are not ignorant, how that Luther, after he began to preach, his Gospel was not found barren: for immediately after his beginning, he did engender another gospeler, that is to wit, Andrew Coralstadius, and from thence was produced another, called Zuinglius, & of Zuinglius, Oecolampadius. Then, Thomas Muncerus, considering, that he had no less the gift of the spirit than the rest, he began to forge a new Gospel of the Anabaptists, with the which he thought to gratify the Town of Milhouse, who had received already the Gospel of Luther. But the Senate of that Town, being wearied already with to many strange Gospels, they advertised Luther your first Apostle of it. And he wrote to them again, that Thomas Muncerus aught not to be received, if he could not prove his vocation by some miracle. And if you demand where I have found this, I say to you, not in the works of some lying Papist, but in the Commentaries of your dear Historiographer master Sleydon, 
Lively 8. fo. 4.  who hath so good a grace in his writing, and is so moved with the truth of his spirit, that he doth omit nothing in his History, but that, that doth go against himself, and the professors of his religion. I do wish those that do understand the Latin, to read this answer of Luther in the Commentaries themselves, and for the rest, I will set it forth, translated, not by me, but by a minister of your own sect, called Robert provost, who dwelleth in a signory of Berne. According to his translation, the words are these. Luther was of opinion, that the Senate of Milhouse should do very well and wisely, to demand of Muncer, who had given him commission to teach, and who had called him unto it. If he say, that it is God, let them demand of him, to show some sign or miracle to prove his vocation: and if he could not do it, that they should banish him: for it is common to God, to declare his will by some miracle, at any time when he will have the common custom and order changed.  
These are the words of Luther. We aught to yield that that is right to every body, and not deprive any man of the praise that he doth deserve. And so I say, all the Catholic Church is bound to give praise and thanks to Luther, for the memorable good & wise counsel that he hath given, for he hath taught us, how we shall expel & overthrow, not only the heresies that he did preach unto us, but likewise yours, & those of all the rest. For if it be so, that every time that god will change the ordinary custom (such as ours) to an extraordinary (such as yours) there aught miracles to be showed by those that come extraordinarily. By this good & godly advise, we know, that Martin Luther, nor none of you all, which do come extraordinarily, as he did, do come from God, but rather from the prince of darkness. Caluin doth confirm this opinion of Luther, as touching the vocation of the ministery: for upon the third Chapter of S. Luke, in his harmony, he doth say thus, None aught to attribute unto himself by authority any office, forasmuch as it is great temerity: such persons did nothing of themselves except it were, being called to it by God. Of this we gather, we aught to enterprise nothing of ourselves: for if that the great Prophets have attended to be called of God, what are those, that in these days take it upon them of themselves, we aught to answer, that they are presumptuous fellows. etc. like unto Caluin and his fellows.   

¶ The .23. Chapter.  
ALthough that by the testimony of your own doctoures ye are condemned, yet you do still maintain your ill cause, saying, that ye aught to be received to preach the Gospel extraordinarily, that is to say, without the commission of the Pastors & Bishops, being those that are sent us by the permission and ordinance of God. And you say, to maintain your Commission extraordinary, that you have the holy Scriptures, which you do allege, the which alone aught in this behalf to be of more credit, than all the miracles that ever the Apostles did. For it may so chance, that by subtle devices and impostures of the devil, miracles may be falsely counterfeited, but not the Scripture which is the touchstone of the truth, as it shallbe seen by experience, when the child of perdition, otherwise called antichrist shall come. For he, to confirm his saying, shall show such great Signs and Miracles, that the very elect should be seduced, if it were possible. Now to answer unto this, which is a notable way to deceive the simple and unlearned, I say, that if the alleging of Scriptures should maintain you, and favour your cause so much as you do say, our side were driven to hard shifts: for than we might be blamed before the seat of God, not only for not receiving your Gospel, but likewise, for refusing the Gospel of divers heretics that have been many hundred years before you were borne: which did all allege the Scriptures, as it doth appear by the three passages written unto the Hebrews above mentioned. 
Cap. 6. 10. &. 12.  By the which the novatians did pretend, to verify, that the mercy of God was denied unto him, that did offend after his Baptism, joined with that that is written in the first book of the Kings. If man (said the good Helye) doth sin against man, he may agreed with him again: but if he come to offend God, who shall he be that shall pray for his sin? Did not the Arrians allege Scriptures, to maintain, that Christ was not God and man? Yes surely, as many places or more than the Catholics. Saint Augustine doth writ in his book De haeresibus, ad Quoduultdeum, That there was in his time a certain sect of heretics that taught, that for a man to be saved, he aught to be gelded. And they did allege the nynetenth Chapter of Saint Mathewe, where CHRIST doth praise the eunuchs, which have gelded themselves for the Kingdom of heaven. And if a man were disposed to forge another heresy like this, he might soon find scripture to maintain it, being ill interpreted: for he doth command, that we should pull out our eyes, and to cut off our hands and feet every time, that through them we are scandalizated: for (saith he) it were better for one to enter blind or lame into the kingdom of heaven, then to be condemned, having all our members: so that, taking these words as they are plainly written, we aught to cut the members from our body. Besides this, he that would forge an heresy somewhat more pleasant and easy, one might soon do it: the which is, that for to go to Paradise, we have no need of hose, shoes or money, because that our Saviour did so command it to his Apostles. 
An heresy of the Puritans.  One may likewise prove by the Gospel, that we have no need of Magistrates nor other Superiors, forasmuch as our Saviour hath said, that one is your Lord and master, namely Christ. Moreover, a man may prove by Scripture, that one aught to retain nothing unto himself, if any other demand it, forasmuch as it is written, If one demand of you your coat, you aught not only to give it, but your doublet also: and if that one give us a box on the ear, it is not enough to take it patiently, but we must turn the other cheek also. jovinian a great heretic, did teach, that a Christian after his baptism doth no more offend God, yea, that he could not, although he would. Who would not hate such a blasphemous error as this? yet if the alleging of the Scriptures aught to suffice, he may be preferred before master Caluin as more ancient: for he doth allege S. john in his first Epistle, 
Cap. 5.  who saith: We know, that he that is borne of God, doth not sin, for the generation of God doth preserve him, and the ill spirit shall not touch him. And in the same Epistle he sayeth: 
Cap. 3.  Every man that is borne of God, that is to say, baptized, he doth not sin, for the seed of God doth devil in him, and he cannot sin, for he is borne of god. S. Augustine doth writ in his .89. epist. ad Hilarium, that the Pelagians and Manichees, among other heresies that they did maintain, they said, that it was impossible for rich men to enter into Paradise, until they had sold all their goods, and given them to the poor, and that all things aught to be common. The which doctrine is easily to be maintained by the Scripture ill understood: 
Math. ca 10. &, 16.  for our Saviour doth say, that for to be his Disciples, we must forsake and renounce all that we have, in testimony of the which the first Christians at jerusalem did cell all their possessions, and presented the money of them to the Apostles to give to the poor. And that that is worse, the Adamites did maintain a greater error than this, and more brutish, the which is, that all men's wives should be common, and they did call this the true Gospel, and the pure word of God, alleging for it the first & eight of Genesis, where God doth say: Increase and multiply, and replenish the earth. If you do say, that this is a foolish opinion, I confess it to be so: but that very Church which hath condemned this heresy of theirs, doth likewise condemn yours. When the devil determined to fight with Christ, he thought he could in no wise aid himself so well, as with the holy Scripture, persuading him, that the best way for him to show himself to be the son of God was to break his neck, casting himself down from the Pinnacle of the TemTemple. And he did allege this text saying, 
Psal. 90.  as it is written: That the Angels of God should so preserve him, that he should not hurt his foot against the stones, following that David said. And if I should go about to writ all the places of Scripture that the heretics have alleged, to maintain their horrible errors, I think surely, I might make a bigger book than the Bible.   

¶ The .24. Chapter.  
IF that the son do hate the father, or the father the son: or if the wife do hate the husband, or the husband the wife, they may take the word of God, ill understood, to defend their cause: for he doth command us, that we shall hate those that are nearest unto us, as under the pain of not entering into Paradise, if we do contrary. But this aught to be understood, that we aught not to prefer the love of any creature, how near soever they be to us, before the love of God. In like manner, he that will say, that we should not eat of the blood of those beasts that are smothered, he may soon allege the Scripture for it, which doth say, That at the Council that the Apostles held at jerusalem, being present the holy Ghost, this ordinance was made, as we read in the .15. Chapter of the Acts. And if that one should take in hand to bring all the places of scripture, that the heretics have alleged to maintain their opinions, I dare boldly say, that he shall find it an endless piece of work. For among so great a number of false prophets, there hath been very few, or almost none, but they have sought to maintain their opinions by Scripture, drawing the places, as it were by violence, to a depraved and a corrupt sense, being this the manner of interpreting of the Scriptures, called at this day the pure word of God, by those that have professed to be as long as they live, enemies to the truth. The learned and ancient Doctor Epiphanius, in his first book against heresies, doth allege, as touching this matter, a very familiar example, saying, that if some good Carver had made the Image of a king, adorned with many jewels and precious stones, and that another should come afterward, and should take the same jewels & precious stones, and make with them the Image of a Fox or a Dog, and that he should say: Behold, here is the Image of a king, would not every body laugh him to scorn, and say, that he did it in mockery, or else, that he were mad? Yes surely: for although they be the same jewels, and that very stuff, wherewith was made the Image of the king, yet, because that this other workman hath taken them away, and fashioned them after another sort, it aught no more to be called the Image of a king, but the picture of a fox or a dog. Even thus is it with the holy Scriptures, which were left us by the Apostles and Prophets, for to paint in rich colours the Image of the great king of glory: but seeing that you take those precious stones from the Image of this king, and do appropriate them unto the Image of a fox, making them serve to cloak your heresies withal, it aught no more to be called the word of God, nor the holy Scripture, but the word of men, and false doctrine. And therefore, if you will have it to bear the first name, you must set it in the first estate, that is to say, that it aught to be interpreted by him, that did first indite it. It is not by the will of man, saith S. Peter. Epist. 2. Ca 1. That the prophecy was brought, but by the inspiration of the holy Ghost, that holy persons have spoken. etc. I know well, that you attribute the intelligence of the Scripture unto your synagogue: But how shall we believe, that the holy Ghost doth devil more in you, then in all the universal Church, which hath continued from the passion of Christ, until this time? I pray, do so much as answer me, if you my masters be the lodging of the holy Ghost, where did he make his residence before ye were borne? I know already your answer, the which is, In the hearts of the faithful. And where were those faithful? Marry, where the holy Ghost was. Answer thus still, and ye shallbe sure, that ye shall not be overtaken: for it is as good as to play handy dandie, and so ye shall accomplish the old Proverb, the which sayeth: It is as far from Dover to Caleys, as from Caleys to Dover. But to the end that all the world may see the great hazard of eternal damnation that those run into, that are so ready to believe every body, thinking that they are assured of their health, forasmuch as those that seduce them, say behold, there is the Scripture, it is the pure word of God and the very Gospel, I will set forth some heresies, that have been in times past condemned by the Catholic Church: the which notwithstanding have been aswell, yea, and more largely confirmed by Scripture, than you can confirm any of yours.   

¶ The .25. Chapter.  
THe Catholic Church continually hath faithfully holden, and doth hold, that our Saviour jesus Christ is true God and man, having taken natural flesh in the womb of the virgin mary, wholly like unto ours, as touching the corporal essence, that is to say, excepted only sin, the which body he did form of the very flesh and substance of his mother, by the operation of the holy Ghost, who hath wrought so notable and excellent a work, that two contrary or divers natures are miraculously joined and united in one person, without confusion or conversion of the one substance into the other, but by conjunction and union of them both, called by the divines, Hypostatique. This doctrine hath ever been received and holden by the Church in equal degree of truth and reverence, with the rest of the points of religion, which now you seek to abolish. And notwithstanding this, divers Ministers and Preachers derived from the sacred consistoryes of Valentinus, Photinus, Manes, Theodorus, Nestorius, Apollinaris, Eutichus, Macharius, Eutiocheus, besides a great number of other famous heretics that I cannot here name, have sought to teach the contrary, saying, that they were sent from him that sent the Apostles, to reform the Church, not by the Traditions of men, which you call Papistical, but by the pure word of God. For even like you, my masters, did Valentinus and his fellows begin the reformed Church, taking upon them the correction of all the Magistrates and Fathers in times past, saying that they did abuse the people, because that they taught, that jesus Christ had taken flesh and blood of the Virgin mary, saying, that this was a great error: the which aught to be reformed, and that the people should believe, that he brought his body from heaven, and that he caused it to pass through the womb of the virgin mary, as the water doth through the channel. This Gospel was very strange, yet the said Valentinus did not want Scripture, as you have to confirm it, interpreting it, even as you do interpret here in France. He did allege for his text the third of john, where Christ doth say: Not person is ascended to heaven, but he that did descend from heaven. And therefore did he maintain, that seeing Christ is in heaven, and descended from heaven, that he took no flesh of the virgin mary. Nestorius' another notable heretic, did link his Gospel to Apollinaris opinion in this case, separating the manhood from God, and saying that the son of man aught not to be called GOD: for seeing (said Apollinaris) that this man is descended from heaven, it doth follow, that he took no flesh of the virgin: and besides this, 
joh. 6.  Christ saith: I am descended from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of my father. Here he doth not speak, as one that is God, for if it were so, he would have no other will but the will of his father, and so he doth speak like a man. And he sayeth, that he is descended from heaven: for the which cause this same Valentinus did take the conclusion of this Gospel to his advantage, for the third authority that is written in the first to the Corinthians, where S. Paul saith: the first man is of earth earthly, the second is of heaven heavenly. The which passage or place is as fit to serve Valentinus opinion, as all the places that you, and all those that hold your opinion can allege.   

¶ The .22. Chapter.  
ANother Minister likewise called Apollinaris followed after these, sent by the said master, and yet according to his saying, he did preach the pure word of God, affirming that the Church aught to be reformed, which had believed, that the two natures were contained in jesus Christ, & that the true religion was, to believe, as it is written in the first of john, that the word was in deed become flesh, or converted into flesh: And to confirm this, he did allege the said place, where S. john doth say: And the word was made flesh: & when the Catholics did reply against him, saying that that verb or word took flesh, and not as touching the conversion of one substance into another: he did fortify his Gospel with another text, where S. john doth writ of the marriage at Canaa, where the water was changed into wine, that is to say, as touching the very substance of the water, which was turned into wine: Even so saith he, that it become at the very Incarnation of Christ, alleging that that we have said, And the word was made flesh. Arrius, which was the most famous heretic that ever hath been, did pretend to verify an other Gospel: and his was, that our Saviour Christ had not taken at his Incarnation, a perfect soul, as other men have, but that he had only a body, and that his divinity did supply the absence of his soul. Of this opinion was Apollinaris, Theodorus, Mossnestenus: and Nestorius came after, and they did blame the Catholic Church, because it did teach the said union, called, as I have said, Hipostaticque, that is to say, of the two natures in one person. And they did allege for their argument a very subtle reason, the which was, that God did inhabit within the body of our saviour, as he did within a Temple, that is to say, by grace, and not by being united together. And therefore, even as it were a great folly, to say that God is a Temple, that so it is to say, that God is a man. This Gospel did seem very new, yet did not they want Scripture to maintain it, and that more plainer, than ever I could see any place, to maintain your heresies. Christ did say unto the jews: 
joh. 2.  Undo this Temple, and in three days I will build it again. He meant it by the Temple of his body, saith S. john. Then the body of jesus Christ is the Temple of god, & god is not his temple. See whether this be not a notable argument to deceive the simple man that is not used to read how the doctors expound these hard places. And moreover they did allege S. Paul in the first to the Colossians, where he doth say, that the plenitude or fullness of divinity doth devil in jesus Christ corporally, they do allege this place greatly to their purpose, to prove, that God is a Temple, that is to say, by grace, and not being united. For the third place they take the. 8. of john, where Christ doth say: He that hath sent me, is with me, and he hath not left me alone. And therefore Theodorus & his fellows did conclude, that there was no more union between the divinity and humanity of our Saviour, than there is between God and us. 
1. Cor 5.  Of the which S. Paul doth speak, where he sayeth: He that is joined to God, is made one spirit with him.   

¶ The .27. Chapter  
IT doth suffice, that one may see by these fellows, how soon one that is ill disposed may allege scripture in corrupt sense, to maintain such heresies as these, the which I will not stay to confute: for (thanks be to God) they do not reign now, for they have perished and their avauthours, as you shall and your followers, if ye do not repent in time. And besides this, our doctors have fully answered by texts of Scriptures these old heresies, as you may see in all the ancient ecclesiastical writers, and confuted them, not only with pithy reasons, but with the true word of God, and the authority of divers general Counsels. And if I have noted here some part, both of their authors, and of them, to show, how they did seek to confirm their damnable opinions, I do it, only to warn the simple people, that they should not so soon give ear to false Pastors, which have nothing in their mouths but the holy Scripture, and the pure word of God, covering the cups of their poison with the gold and precious stones which they have taken from the Image of the eternal king, to paint those subtle Foxes that will lead them all to damnation. And therefore in the name of God I do desire those that are not much used to read the Scriptures, nor to hear how the Church and the Doctors do expound the hard places, to beware, how they read them, for fear of falling into error, taking only the letter, which many times hath a contrary sense to that that is outwardly written. For if so many men of great learning and excellent understanding have found such great rocks in this rough sea, which have many times overthrown their ships: how dangerous then must it needs be unto those that will take it in hand so doubtful a navigation, having little skill or none at all. But as for you my masters of the contrary side, you can sail with all tides and all winds giving the governance of the ship or the guiding of the stern, without consideration to all kind of people. We have at this day in France (I will not say in England) many that have the holy spirit, Interpreters of the Scriptures: And forsooth, what are they? Marry peddlers, Cobblers, Tanners, Bankrupts, Runnegates, and such others: which having no other living, sue to my Lord Bishop, and he makes them ministers, being not one of them, but hath the holy spirit: for assoon as they can say, the Lord, and rail upon the Pope, the Bishops, and all the learned men that have been in times past, O, these are great doctors, no place of Scripture to them is hard, all the ancient doctors were men, and the general Counsels did err. I know, that you do maintain your opinion with the saying of Christ, 
joh. 8.  alleging it as other heretics have done, the which is, That the heavenly father hath hid these high and profound things from the great Clerks, and hath revealed them unto the meek and humble. This is true, but it aught to be understood, to the humble and meek of spirit, and not to those which trust so much to their own wits, being puffed up with arrogant ignorance, that they think to know more in three days reading, than the Doctors could in fifty years study, feigning themselves to be like the Apostles, as if that god, governed by their appetites, did send every month the feast of Pentecost.   

¶ The .28. Chapter.  
I Pray Sirs, since you are so absolute, answer me to this objection: Is it good to believe all manner of people, that do allege the Scriptures, or no? If ye say, yea, why do not you believe the abovenamed Valentinus, Apollinaris, Hebion, Cherintus and Nestorius, with divers others that have sought to maintain their errors with the new and old Testament. If you say no, but that we aught rather to follow the counsel of S. john in his first Epistle, cap. 4. The which is, not to believe every spirit, but that we aught to prove, whether it be of God or no: What proof will you show us of yours? Show the privilege that you have, by the which God doth enjoin us to believe your Gospel, rather than the Gospel of the Pelagians, novatians, Nestorians, and other such false Apostles, considering that they have alleged the Scriptures aswell as you. If you say, that they were heretics, abusers of the people, and ravishing wolves clothed in lambs Skins, and false Interpreters of the Scriptures, all this is certain: But what though the like report goeth of you? You say, that ye are sent from God, to reform the Church, They say as much. They preached, that the Pope was antichrist, shewing themselves very eloquent in detracting and railing against the Catholic Roman Church, you do the like. At every word they did allege the Scriptures in their Sermons, to confirm their doctrine, as you do for yours. That that they preached, was called by them the Gospel, and the pure word of the Lord: these are the very terms that you use among your holy prophets: they have been condemned as heretics by the general Counsels, you are so likewise. They did appeal unto the pure word of God, you do the like: Yet are they proved to be false cogging knaves, and so shall you. Then seeing there is so great an uniformity between you, upon what ground shall we confirm that reason that should condemn them as heretics, and allow you for Catholics. S. Augustine in his Epistle .161. did put unto a Donatist called Honoratus this problem: We desire thee, not to think it much to answer us to this: what cause dost thou know, or what thing hath there been done, that hath made Christ loose his inheritance, spread over all the world, to come to be contained only in Africa, & there only to remain? We put the like question to Caluin, Beza, Virett, and the rest, that it may please them to tell us, if that by chance they have been advertised, through what occasion our Saviour Christ hath lost his inheritance, that is to say, the Church spread over all the world, to remain now in the latter days, with a company of rude Switzers, or in two or three corners besides, and not among the rest, (for there is a great number of good Catholics) what badge can ye show, or what sign to make us know, that you are the successors of the Apostles of Christ? If that the Scriptures that you allege, aught to be a sufficient proof, we are content to accept it, if you will be content to grant the like unto the abovenamed heretics, which have fortified their camp with as many places more, than you do allege. Now if that (notwithstanding the Scriptures by them alleged) you do condemn them as heretics, because that they did interpret them contrary to that that the Church doth teach (and to say truth, you can imagine no other excuse) to what purpose do you take upon you the names of Catholics, seeing that you commit the like offence? The diversities of those old heresies grounded upon the Scriptures ill interpreted, do teach us, that we should not permit the noise of your reformed Gospel that soundeth so shrill, to make us reel from our ancient faith, and without going so far to seek that that we have so near at hand. Let us talk of the present time, how many contrary sects doth there reign? how many heads of heresies? Some are Lutherans, some Anabaptists, some Puritans, some Protestants, some Precisians, and all these do fortify their camps with Scriptures, to fight one against another. The zwinglians and the Caluinists on the other side do writ, that all these do err, and they prove it by Scripture. The Anabaptists laugh at all the rest. The prophets Celestes, which is another sect, do no less, grounding themselves upon their revelations, because that David sayeth: 
Psal. 84.  Hear what the Lord doth speak in me. The Deists or Trinitaries, which are come last of all, cry out and say, that all they are heretics, and they prove it by the old and new Testament. I pray now tell me, which of all these shall I receive, seeing that they do all allege the holy Scriptures? If we receive some and not all, those that are refused will say, that we offer them wrong: for they have their shops stored with as good stuff of the Scriptures, and as well alleged as all the rest. If we receive them all, it will be a renewing of the old confusion of Babylon, through the neglecting of so many Gospels. If you say, that we ought to follow those that conform themselves most unto the pure word of God, that will come to one end: for if I do demand of you, how we shall know which do conform themselves most unto the truth, you answer me, that it must be done by the grace of the holy Ghost, sent by the Lord, if with a true heart he is invocated of the faithful. Seeing you know so well the way how to agreed together, how comes it to pass, that you have not used it this forty or fifty years, which are the precincts of the time, since your ancient Church began: seeing that you have assembled so many times together, why have ye not prayed unto the Lord, to send the spirit of truth to make peace amongst his Apostles? I think that you are not so unshamfaste, that you will deny the quarrels and debates that have risen among you: I do not say, in light words, but in great battles, in railing processes, in horrible excommunications, sent from the Churches of the Lutherans unto the Caluinists, and from the Caluinists unto the Lutherans, as I have set forth at large in the book that I made of the Sacrament: and therefore ye are greatly overseen, that ye have not invocated the spirit of the Lord, as Caluin hath taught you in his catechism, to the end that you may come to some accord.   

¶ The .29. Chapter.  
Now to turn again to our former purpose, if it were so, that of our own free deliberation we were minded to forsake our Catholic religion, the injurious disputations that you use among yourselves, were sufficient, to make us to suspend our judgement, without leaning to any of both parties, until that we could see you more resolute in your opinions, being the hardest matter, the knowing in what country the residence should be kept for that matter. You have given absolute sentence, saying, that the Catholic Church hath erred, even from the Apostles time unto this present, in praying to God for the souls of those that are dead, constituted in a third place called purgatory. You should, me think, at the lest allow a third place, although it be not that, to receive the souls of those, whose consciences you have so troubled, that they know now, neither what is their faith, nor of what religion they should be: for when they read Luther's works they are Lutherans, when they meet with Caluins works they are Caluinists, and at the last they do not know, which side in deed is the truest, being both false: and therefore I think it were good, that a sequestration were made, that neither God nor the Devil might have part of their souls, till there were a farther inquiry made of such a number of sects, and that some good and honest arbitrator might give judgement as concerning which party hath most right. And in the mean while I beseech God, to open so the eyes of the people, that they may see both your errors and their own, and that through the abundance of their sins he permit them not to fall into an Heathenism, unto the which you do seek to draw them with so many contrary Gospels.   

¶ The .30. Chapter.  
IT doth appear well by that that I have said, how the assurance of your vocation to the ministery is but founded upon sand, forasmuch as you do seek particularly a contrary meaning every one to his own particular sense, being not this the way that an extraordinary minister sent from God, should use to confirm his doctrine: for this hath been the custom of all old heretics, as I have already said. There is a very great difference between setting forth the Scripture to reform one's religion, & to reform one's conditions: for when there is any question of the reforming of one's manners, there is no need to regard, whether the doctrine be new or old: for (as the Apostle saith) let every man take it to his own sense: but when it is to be talked of, as touching one's faith, the Catholic aught greatly to beware of singular interpretations, and to hold them as very suspicious. He aught to follow the sentence that is holden and taught by the ancient Catholic Church, without making any account of all these new devices: for even as, when one will repair an old house, he dares commit it to any Mason, although his cunning be but small: but if the foundation must be touched, he will seek the best masters he can find: Even so, when one will correct me for my evil life or conditions, although that it be so, that he that seeks to reform me be not of the wisest of the world, and that he allege to me some place or figure of the Sceipture, not altogether to the purpose, yet all this aught to turn to me to one effect: for I know his meaning, although he cannot well express it, the which is to have me change my naughty life, and to leave my ill conditions. But when he shall come to touch my faith, and to persuade me from that that all my ancestors did ever hold, from that that the Catholic Church derived from the Apostles hath holden and doth hold, and from that that both the Scripture, and the general Counsels, and all the ancient doctors teach and affirm: In the repair of this foundation I aught to trust none but even the very best, I mean not one or two, but all these that I have named. And now, if you say, that they may all err, I pray, remember the old proverb that saith: He is a fool that thinks that he only is wise, and all the other fools, and that it is more agreeable to reason, that one only should err, than one great multitude: for as they say commonly, two eyes see more than one, and four more than two.   

¶ The .31. Chapter  
Our Saviour Christ did approve his vocation after another sort than you do yours. Search (saith he) the Scriptures, 
joh. 5.  for they bear witness of me: he doth not say, that they are judges, as you say, for you will have none other arbitrator but the word of God. You know, that they are two different things, to bear witness, and to be a judge, & yet the scriptures of the old Testament do contain, not only the verity of the doctrine of our Saviour Christ, but therewithal the very sufficient probation of his person, to teach us the true word of God, & to overthrow & destroy the whole kingdom of Satan, as it is plainly seen by those that list to look upon the oracles of the old patriarches and Prophets. It is written in the third of Genesis, that God said unto the woman that her seed should break down the serpents head. And likewise in the said book there is mention made of this divine seed of Abraham: 
Gen. ca 12 15. 19 22. &. 24.  & in the. 15. and. 53. Chapters of Esay, & in the. 2. Psalm David doth talk of it. And in like manner Daniel, Moses & Aaron with all the rest of the prophets in their sacrifices have very perfectly painted the coming and passion of our Saviour. Moses' left written in the prophecy of jacob, that the Messiah should come, when the Royal sceptre and the administration of it should be taken from the line of juda. Daniel was not content to say as the rest, that he should come, but he did assign the very time, that is to say, by the seventy two weeks, counting from the fourth year of the reign of Zedechias, until the time that our Saviour was nailed upon the Cross, the which time was just five hundred years. Then, seeing that Christ came at the very prescribed time, he might well have said unto the jews, that the scriptures did bear witness of him. But yet to say the truth, if he had done no other but this, he had not fully approved his vocation, to condemn their incredulity. For they might have said unto him: We know well, that by the saying of the old prophets the Messiah should come of the line of jacob, about this time, forasmuch as the Sceptre of this kingdom is taken from the line of juda, to be delivered unto Herode: But what though, is this a good consequence: the Messiah aught to come about this time, therefore it is I? Not not, show us your Commission, let us see some Signs, how we shall know it: for if we should receive you as our king, it may be, that some other would come and crave the like, saying that we were abused. Our Saviour Christ sore fearing this objection, took another witness with him besides the scripture, I mean his Miracles. The works that I do (saith Christ) in the name of my father, 
joh. 5.  bear witness of me. The like proof is made, when S. john Baptist sent his Disciples to our Saviour, 
Mat. 11.  to have him teach the true belief that they should have in him: this question was put to him, Art thou he that should come, or aught we to attend for some other? Go your ways (said Christ) and tell john what ye have heard and seen. The blind receive their sight, the lame do walk upright, the dumb speak, the deaf hear, the lepers are cured, the dead are raised again, and the poor are preached unto, the which is as much to say as, tell john, that I am the true Messiah, and that he aught to attend no other. I do verify my doctrine both by the Scripture and by Miracles. For first Esay doth writ, that when the Messiah should come, he should do the Miracles above mentioned. Then, seeing that I have done them in your presence, it followeth, that I am he that should come. Thus you see Sirs, that both the Scripture and Miracles were necessary for the confirmation of the coming of Christ among the jews, who were never harder of belief than we are, according to your opinion: and therefore blame us not, if we send you packing like Coggers of the Scriptures, the which do neither bear witness of your coming, nor yet do any miracles, the which two things and more are necessary to make us believe your reformed Gospel.   

¶ The .32. Chapter.  
YOu do allege the invincible patience of your holy Martyrs in times past, for at this present, if it pleased God that you did martyrizate no more souls with your false preaching, then there are bodies that suffer for your doctrine, your sect were nothing so dangerous as it is. You glory in your Martyrs of times past, which have sealed with their own blood the doctrine of that holy City Geneva. But in this ye are much deceived, for S. john Chrysostom in his first oration against the jews doth say, That the pain doth not make the Martyr, but the cause: for otherwise the thieves and murderers might claim the like title, although they suffer for another cause: for we honour and love the Martyrs (saith he) not for the torments that they do suffer, but for that it is for Christ, and that they suffer for justice. And S. Augustine in his first book contra Epistolam Parmeniani, Capit. septimo, writing against some of your fellows that presumed to be Martyrs, he doth say, that every one is not a Martyr that is punished by the Emperor, or by the king for matters of religion, otherwise (saith he) the devils might attribute unto themselves the glory of martyrdom, because they suffered persecution at the christian Emperors hands, when throughout the world, their Idols were pulled down, and they cast out, and those that did offer sacrifice unto them grievously punished: then (saith he) the justice is not certain through the passion, or for having suffered death: but the death and passion is glorious, when it is for the sustaining of the true faith. And therefore (sayeth he) our Saviour, because he would not have the simple deceived under this colour of truth, he did not only say: Blessed are those that suffer (but he added) for justice. But this can in no wise be attributed ununto those heretics that suffer, to separate the union and concord of the Catholic Church. And in his book de unitate Ecclesiae, contra Epistolam Petiliani, he doth writ, that the Donatists, which were a sect of heretics that reigned in his time, to confirm their doctrine, they did not attend, that others should put them to death, but they did cast themselves down from high places: Others did burn themselves in the fire, to be honoured after their death as Martyrs: and that is more, they did threaten men, if they would not kill them. S. Cyprian in like manner doth writ in the first book of his Epistles, in the first Epistle, that though an heretic suffer death for Christ, that doth not confirm him as a Martyr, but that his death is the very punishment of his error, and that he cannot go to heaven, which is the mansion of the humble: for seeing that he doth separate himself from the house of peace, which is the Church (ye know well of what Church he doth speak) that he cannot be received into heaven. etc. All those that have written the histories of the Bohemians, do say, that in the time of one Zischa a martial minister of the heresy of the Heborites or Hussites, there were a certain sect of heretics called Adamites, like unto the old heresy of the Nicholaites: for they did say, as these do, that men's wives should be common, and they went all naked, every one taking the woman he liked best, whom he did carry unto their minister, and before him he did say, The holy Ghost doth inspire me to lie with this person: then the said reverent father did give him his blessing, saying: Increase and multiply, & so they went away. This abovenamed Zischa, although he had done a number of wicked deeds, yet he determined to abolish and take away this sect, and so he caused two women to be burnt for this abomination, the which two (notwithstanding the torment of the fire) did sing & give thanks to God, for that it had pleased him to permit them do die for so holy and so just a quarrel. Did not Michael servet, who was once master Caluins' darling, rather desire to suffer at Geneva, than he would confess, that Christ was God? and yet, notwithstanding his great patience, (or to say the truth, devilish obstinacy) cannot be sufficient to make him a Martyr, nor to persuade you, to believe his doctrine. There is a certain minister of the Lutherans called joachim Westphall, who in a work of his doth mock at Caluin, who did vaunt, that within these five years above an hundred had suffered death, to sustain the Gospel of Geneva: & he doth answer him at large, proving that the sect & doctrine of the said place aught not to be approved for the multitude of false martyrs, for the Anabaptists whom he doth justly condemn, have had of their sect a great many more, for in less than three years there hath suffered a great number more than ever there did suffer of calvinists in fyveteene. And to conclude this matter, the said Westfal. doth say, that the devil hath his Martyrs (even as well as god) with whom like a good Sergeant he doth march, giving the vauntward unto the martyrs of the Caluenistes that have suffered at Geneva. So that if one demand of the Lutherans, whither go those that die in the religion of Caluin, of Beza, or of the anabaptists? they say, To the Devil. And if one demand of the Caluenists in like manner, Wither go the Anabaptists and the Lutherans? they say in likewise, To the devil. And who would put the like question to the Anabaptists, I am assured they would say as the others, To the Devil. For my part I believe you, I assure you, all three, And seeing that ye agreed so well, that one serve for an others harbinger, we were very fools if we should stay your passage, but let you go all to the devil for company, for I think if you were all gone, our debates would cease, and hell would be so full, that the devil would long for no more.   

¶ The .33. Chapter.  
THere is a certain minister of the Lutherans called Heshusius, the which within these three years hath made a book against calvin, Peter Boquin, Theodore de Beza, and Guliel mus Elcimalcius: & he saith amongst other things, that Carolstadius, Zuen feldius, Caluine, and Beza do show well the uncertainty of their faith by the diversities of opinions that there is amongst them, the which fault (saith he) doth proceed of this, that they have forsaken the true sense of the scripture to follow the opinions of their own heads. And in that very book the said Author doth give the lie to Caluin, because that in that he wrote against the abovenamed Westphal, he saith that Martin Luther and his adherentes did acknowledge him as their brother, the which thing he maintains to be false. Thus seeing ye agreed together like dogs and cats, and that all these sects have confirmed their false doctrine with the shedding of their own blood, it is best to conclude, as we have said before, That it is not the pain nor the torment that doth make the righteous martyr, except we should say, that divers contrary messaungers are sent from one master, the which is notoriously false, for that good king from whom the truth doth come in deed, hath so good a memory, that he doth never sand contrary messengers, but rather his faithful servants do all with one voice and one accord honour him, as the father of our Saviour jesus Christ.   

¶ The .34. Chapter.  
SOme of your godly sect (to verify that the vocation of your ministry doth come of God) do set before our eyes the holiness of those new Christians, that is to say, how they never swear, but yea for yea, and no for no, that they do no wrong to no man, that they do neither rob nor steal, but that they are content with that that god hath sent them, & that they are very charitable to the poor: then seeing that our Saviour doth say, that one shall know the tree by the fruit, we aught to confess (say they) that the tree being good, the fruit is good that is to say, their religion is good, seeing that by the grace of god it doth produce such sweet & pleasant fruit. I answer you first to this, that our saviour doth not give general rules, but that that most commonly doth happen, as when he saith, 
Luk. 6  that of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, would you affirm by this, that his meaning was universally? God forbidden that he that is the author of all truth should mean so stark a lie. Do you not remember what speech he did use to the Pharisees, 
Mat. 15.  when he said, This people do honour me with their mouths, but their hearts are far from me? you see that this sentence is contrary to the other, if you do not understand it as I have said, that is to say, that many times a man doth utter that that is in his heart: as a Ruffian takes great pleasure to talk of quarrels, a proud person to talk of haughty enterprises, a covetous man to talk of riches or gains, and so it is of all other sins. But with all this a man may not affirm truly, that hypocrisy doth never reign in their hearts, whose mouths are full of God's word. 
Dani. 15  The judges of S. Susan, had not they God and his laws in their mouths, and the devil in their hearts? 
john. 18.  We have a law (said the jews and Pharisees against Christ) and according to this law given us by Moses, he aught to die. The zeal of justice did sound in their mouths, and hateful envy did devil in their hearts. And therefore you see many times that man doth speak contrary to that that he thinketh, and even so it is of the sentence of our Saviour, when he saith, that by the fruit one shall know the tree. For many times naturally the fruit is good, although the tree be worth nothing, as the famous lives and works of divers heathen Philosophers do witness, of whom the holiness and scrupulosity of conscience was such, that I do believe assuredly that at the day of judgement a great number of Christians which lead Paynims lives, willbe confounded with the example of those men that knew not god. Thus of the first, the fruit is good, but the trees are worth nothing, for their religion was false & Idolatrous, applying as S. Paul doth say, 
Rom. 1.  the truth of God to unrighteousness. And as for the second, the trees are good, being grafted upon the true Catholic Religion, but the fruits do degenerate from the stock.   

¶ The .35. Chapter.  
IF that the sense of this Proverb be hard for you to digest, I am content to stay until your stomach be somewhat better, assuring myself that you can interpret it no way unto your advantage. There is nothing more certain than the good tree to bear good fruit, if one doth not make him change his own nature, but if one do graff upon it some Crabstocke or some other kind of wild fruit, the tree can bear no other but Crabs or wyldinges: Even so we Christian persons, who are the trees of God planted by the pleasant fountain of his grace, and purged with the holy water of Baptism to bear fruit at our season, so that we take ever to prospet withal, the dew of his grace that planted us, I mean, the faith of our Saviour jesus Christ, so long we bear good fruit, as it is said before, alleging the 3. of S. john, ill understood by jovinian, He that is borne of God doth not sin, for the generation of God doth preserve him, & the enemy of our health shall not touch him. And in the said Chapter he saith again, All men, or every man that is borne of God doth not sin, for the seed of God is in him, and he can not sin, because he is borne of God. By this it is not meant that Baptism (the which he doth call the being borne of God) doth take away from man the power or liberty to do evil, for if he will degenerate from the grace that he hath received by the Sacrament of regeneration, & that in steed of growing grafted upon the stock of the love of God, which is the true life that he will fructify towards his death and destruction, in this case he is no more the son of God, for as Christ saith, 
john. 8.  If ye be the children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham. But as he doth continue and hath this good will, which was taught by the Angel unto the Shepherds, & that he doth continued, having the grace that was inspired in him by the holy ghost at his baptism, so long he doth not sin unto eternal death, for the generation of God, that is to say, the grace received by this holy Sacrament, doth so defend him, that the devil can not persecute him to death, being not able to prevail against him, and as long as this good seed, which is the word of god, doth dwell in him, he cannot sin, and if he did sin, the seed would no longer remain in him. The holy ghost saith, 
Sap. 1.  The wise man shall refuse the hypocrite and dissembler, and shall departed from the vain and crafty cogitations, and therefore the grace of God and sin can not dwell together, nor we ought not think S. john's words strange, in that he saith, That he that is borne of God doth not sin, for it is as much to say, as that one can not serve two masters, and that he that serveth god can not serve the devil. 
1. Cor. 10.  For S. Paul saith, You can not assist at the Table of god and of the devil altogether, for what communication is there between justice and Iniquity, or between jesus Christ & Belial. And he that doth love this world declareth himself an enemy unto God. And a little before he had said, He that doth commit sin, is the son of the devil, the which doth not affirm, that a sinner cannot be the son of God, if he repent and do penance: but in the mean while, he that is in actual sin, or hath a mind to do evil, is as than not the son of God, but the son of the devil. The good tree doth not bear ill fruit: for although the fruit do rot or perish upon the tree, that corruption doth not proceed of the tree, but of the worms, birds, or of some other kind of vermin: & therefore, when they say, that by the fruit we shall know the tree, and by the works the faith, this aught to be understood, when the fruit doth ripe in season, & that it hath the natural humour and property of the tree. And in a man, that he have the influence of the true faith, and not otherwise: for even as the rotten fruit hanging upon the tree, doth not digress nothing from the good Stock: even so the yil works of us that are Christians, aught not to stain our holy and Catholic religion. For the corruption of our ill fruits cometh of ourselves, and not of our religion, the which doth defend us from doing that we do, I mean, to swear, to blaspheme, to commit adultery, to do any man wrong, or to offend God any way. He that doth desire then by the fruit, to know whether the tree of our religion be good, he aught not to bend his eyes to look upon the rotten fruit, as if that were sufficient to prove the goodness of the tree: but let him look upon the good fruits, Such are all the Doctors, aswell of the Greek as Latin Church, so many good Emperors and virtuous Kings, Princes, Dukes and earls, which have reigned in France, Spain, Germany and England, and over all the world, and have died in the faith, leaving their works to bear witness of their good fruits. The which have builded so many fair hospitals, to help and relieve the poor, so many goodly Colleges to entertain fatherless children at their books, so many foundations & works for the common wealth, and that have builded so many sumptuous Abbeys and houses of Religion, the which you with your godly zeal have not only rob & spoiled, but that that is more odious, you have pulled than clean down, to deface the memory of our Ancestors, and to acquit all these which are notable monuments, you brag of the good deeds that your good Christians do, which are much like unto the gains of those that use to cog at dise, for although they win much it is never seen: or like the jews, which to colour their horrible cruelty in putting our Saviour unjustly to death, they went and bought with the money that they gave to judas a field to bury the dead. And so you having rob & spoiled from the religious houses and Abbeys more than you are able to restore, you think to acquit it all with giving a little to the poor. Not, not, these devices are but vain, if by the fruit the tree be known (as Christ saith) let them that have any judgement, look upon the fruit of our trees, and then judge, whether they be good or no.   

¶ The .36. Chapter.  
Now seeing that you have visited our garden, If a man may be so bold, I pray lend us the keys, that we may in like manner visit yours, & that we may see the fruits of your religion. Read all the histories written from the Passion of Christ to our days, and you shall find, that all those sects that have left our Roman Church, have done more mischief in one year, being separated from the said Church, than they did in an hundred years before. But because our meaning is not to recite all the acts of your predecessors, enemies to the Catholic church, it shall suffice to make a short discourse of those that have been of late days, I mean the Bohemians or Hussites, whose followers you do affyrm yourselves to be: for in your godly book of Martyrs, you have placed john Hus as the first Martyr of your ancient Church (who was burnt for an heretic about a. 120. years agone) even as we account S. Steven to be the first Martyr of our Church. Now, to know, whether ye be of the opinion of the Hussites or no, that I leave for some other time, and for this present I am content to condescend to that that you have written, I mean, that john Hus did preach your Gospel, and made a number of such faithful persons as you are, and that he suffered death to sustain your religion. Then let us see, what good fruit this did produce unto us: Those that have written the stories of Boheme, and among others Aeneas Silvius, do testify, that in the year of our Lord God. 1418. there was a certain monk that become an Hussite in the City of prague, which is the Metropolitan of that Kingdom, the which accompanied with a number of companions as zealous as himself, they did execute so horrible a cruelty, that eleven of the principal Magistrates were driven to flee from the City, to save their lives, and seven more (for in all they were. 18.) being taken by them, they did cast them out at the windows of their own houses, & did kill them with their spears as they fell. This was done, Sigismondus being then Emperor, in the time of Martin the first Pope of Rome of that name, & Vneslaus being then king of Boheme. The next year after the death of this said Vneslaus, they did spoil all the monasteries, Abbeys and Churches of the said kingdom. And among others, one john Zischa, who was their captain in the City of prague, he made them all pass through the edge of the sword, without sparing man, woman or child. And the like was done in another Town of the said kingdom called Messim, the year. 1423. It were to tedious to writ all their cruelties, they did not care, whether those of their company were of their sect or not, for some were Idumeans, some Palestines, some Moabites, and some other Amelecites: even as of your bountiful goodness ye call all those that will not be of your sect, Papists, Infidels, Hypocrites and Idolaters: and therefore we may justly say, that you are their right heirs apparent, although ye have gone somewhat before them, & (as our Saviour said) accomplished the measures of your fathers by the heroical acts that you have done in this (almost desolate) kingdom of France, there needeth no other witness to prove it, but the testimony of your own eyes & ears, which have heard and seen more almost than any man can writ. Therefore I beseech you, not to reproach any more the abuses of our ecclesiastical ministers: for although it be so, that they have need of some reformation, yet I do think it is necessary to choose some better stayed persons than you are, for you have done more harm in five years, than ours have done in a. 1500. S. Augustine in the first book of the City of God, doth magnify in the Christians behalf the divine favour of God: for he doth writ, that when the Goths did destroy & spoil the City of Rome, the Romans (although they were not Christian) did retire themselves for their safeguard into the Churches and Temples of the Martyrs. And the Goths being but a barbarous nation, had that respect to God, that they never durst nor would enter into those holy places to do them any displeasure. You which make so great profession of the Gospel, have showed yourselves a great deal more cruel than those barbarous people: for they did pardon all those that went to the Temples, and you have in many places spoiled the Churches, and murdered all those that ye found in them, so that one might well say to you that that Optatus Mylevitanus in his book con. Parm. Donatist. the which was, that the Donatists aught to be content (& you likewise) to have wounded the members of the Church, and to have divided the people of God, at the lest you should have spared the altars and the temples, & not to make war against the stones.   

¶ The .37. Chapter.  
YOu make us but a very slender answer, saying, that we were the first, & that you do no other but that that we have taught you. If we should say the contrary, I know who should say the truth: but to avoid all quarrels, the best is (following the council of our Saviour) to give you more than you demand. Let us put the case, that we should confess to be the first, doth it follow therefore, that your matter is good? I pray do but consider the verdict that you both give of yourselves & of us. We are (according to your sacred gospel & Apostolical judgement) no other but poor & simple Infidels, & superstitious Idolaters: but contrariwise, you are Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, the true children of God. seeing then, that god hath showed you so much favour, and poured upon you the bountiful gifts of his grace, how have ye sought so cruelly to revenge yourselves against his express commandment. Is this the way of reformation, to show yourselves as ill as we or worse? seeing that the matter falleth out so plainly, I pray you be not so obstinate, give place unto the best to reform the rest, for to be worse than you I think none can be found. You my masters, that can make such tedious sermons, and rail at large against our Popes and Bishops, why do you pass over so lightly the faults of your ministers? you set out gloriously the titles of Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, & extraordinary messengers of God for yourselves: as good Godfathers ye now christian our pope's & bishop's, calling them ravening and greedy devouring wolves. In this ye do greatly abuse the intellection of the scriptures: for if you mark well that that our Saviour doth say, 
john. 10.  ye shall found, that ye run far wide of the text, and the similitude of the wolf doth full well appertain unto your ministery. There he doth declare the difference that is betwixt the good shepherd and the bad (which he doth call Mercenarium) & the wolf. The good Shepherd is he, that doth hazard and venture his life for his flock: The ill Shepherd is he, that taketh the milk and the wool from the sheep, & letteth them roam without taking any care to keep them. The wolves seeing them roam abroad, scattered from the flock, doth devour all those that are ill kept. The good Shepherd is our Saviour Christ and his Apostles, and all the good Bishops that did flourish in old time, and all the holy Confessors and martyrs that have lived in the golden age, when the blood of our Saviour Christ was yet hot boiling in their hearts. The ill shepherds have followed after, which have not cared for their sheep. The wolves (which are the heretics) seeing this have scattered the sheep out of the fold of Christ, which is the catholic Church, where they had been borne spiritually, that is to say, regenerated with the grace of the holy ghost, & the Sacrament of baptism, to follow the sects of perdition. If all our shepherds had been as careful to keep their flocks as they aught to have been, your Congregation had never been so strongly builded as it is at this day in France. And therefore you offer your Church (if it may be so called) great wrong, when you speak against the abuses of ours, for our sins have been and are the principal foundation of your building. And even as the worm is nourished in the Aposteme with the ill humours, even so you feed of our faults, and are nourished with our sins, your fire burns with our wood: and if we would amend our lives, I know how soon your religion would decay. And therefore our Pastors are not wolves, but they have permitted the wolves to devour their sheep, and so they shall answer for them before the throne of the eternal judge, who doth advertise them by the Prophet Ezechiell, that they shall answer for all the mischiefs that happen unto their sheep, many of the which are scabbed and full of diseases: and therefore I would have you to 'cause some body to choose among yours and ours those that are best,, to the end, that through this division, and your aid, we may take the rest. I think, that if any thing condemn us, it willbe this cause, forasmuch as we have continued in that doctrine which was preached unto us at the first, as you yourselves can not deny, if you will confess the truth.   

¶ The .38. Chapter.  
ALl our ancient doctors, aswell of the Greek, as of the Latin Church since the Apostles time, and the Christians of all the four quarters of the world, which were in those days, have made their promises and vows unto God, even as we do now, & at their baptism they did use even those very Ceremonies that we do, with the self same exorcisms, adjurations and anointings, that we do use in our Catholic Church, which you call Papistical: & to prove this true, we will bring the said ancient doctors as witnesses, if it please you to read the places that we will quote. Tertulian (who lived very near the Apostles time) doth make mention in his book that he entitled, De resurrectione carnis, of the anointing used at the Baptism, and of the renouncing the devil and all his pomp. In his book De corona militis, he doth speak of the third dipping under the water, in the name of the father, the son, and the holy Ghost. S. Cyprian the Martyr, who was above. 1300. years agone, doth writ in the second volume of his Epistles, Epist. 12. how they did use in his time to give the holy Chrism unto the children that were baptized. Origen in his twelfth Homily, and in divers other places of his works doth make mention of the renouncing of the devil at ones baptism, and of the making of the sign of the Cross upon children's faces when they were christened. S. john Chrysostom in his. 12. Homily, upon the first Epistle to the Corinthians. Cap. 4. And in his first Homily upon the first Chapter to the Ephesians, he doth make mention of the said renunciation made from the devil and all his works. Read I pray, if it be your pleasure, S. Aug. in Psal. 31. Aug. li. 15. contra julia. Pelag. li. 1. Cap. 2. Item de nuptiis et concupiscentia. Lib. 1. Cap. 20. In Joannem, tract 33. In Canonicam joannis, tract. 3. et Tractat. 6. Et de ecclesi. dogmat. Cap. 31. De Simbolo, lib. 1. Cap. 7. et lib. 2. Cap. 11. Et libro de his qui initiantur sacris. Cap. 1. Basilius de Spiritu Sancto, Cap. 15. et. 75. Arnobius in Ps. 27. All these Doctoures, which were above a thousand years agone, if you read in them the places that here I have quoted, you shall find, that they did use at the Baptism of their children those very Cerimonyes that we do now use, and that you do so mislike. And as for Confession, before the receiving of the Sacrament, our Saviour Christ doth teach us, that the Ecclesiastical Ministers have authority to bind and forgive sins. 
joh. 20.  S. Cyprian in his fifth Sermon De lapsis, 
Mat. 16.  Origen upon the thirty and seventh Psalm, and in Leuit. Hom. 2. S. Augustine lib. 2. de visitatione infirmorum Cap. 4. S. Ciril. libro. 12. in joannem, Cap. 56. S. Hierom in Ecclesi. Cap. 10. All these Doctors, according to the Scriptures, in these places do confirm auricular confession. And as for praying unto the Saints in Paradise to help us with their prayers, read Origen, in his third Homily upon the Canticles, and in his second book upon job, and in his eight book in Ecclesi. Read Chrysostom, in his eight Homily upon the Epistle to the Ephesians, the fourth Chapter, and S. Augustine, in his twenty book against Faustinus, the one and twenty Chapter, and Saint Hierom against Vigilantius. All these make mention of the praying unto the Saints. And for praying for the dead, Read Tertulian in his book De Monogonia, and in his book De Corona militis, and Saint Cyprian ad plebem Furnensem, and in the first book of his Epistles: and Origen in Hieremiam. Hom. 12. Item in Epist. ad Ro. lib. 8. cap. 11. Read Chrysostom, in his third Homily upon the Epistle of S. Paul to the Philippians, and S. Aug. li. 2. de gen. against the Manichees, Cap. 20. and in the Incheridion ad Laurent. Cap. 110. Item, libro de cura pro mortuis agenda. All these Doctors, whose works have continued these. 1200. years, do teach us all these things that now we do observe, the which they left in writing by the ordinance of God, to confute such heretics as you are.   

¶ The .39. Chapter.  
ANd if I did not think, that it would be to tedious for the Reader, I would set forth the rest of our Catholic doctrine, & the confirmation of it by the testimony of such a number, of not only Doctors, but therewith all holy Confessors & Martyrs, which have suffered for our religion, and that have taught us, both by word of mouth, and by writing, all that we do use at this day, teaching us to live and die in it and for it. I would have you answer me unto this: Do you think, that they be in heaven or in hell? I know well, that mere scrupulosity of conscience will make you not express plainly that, that your works do teach, and that you will remit this question to the judgement of God. But this is not to the purpose, for I do not demand of you any absolute answer, as if you had been in heaven or hell to see it: but this, to utter in your conscience, what you think of those that have holden, maintained and confessed our faith (whom you call Infidels and superstitious Papists) are they condemned? If you say, yea, Then wherefore was the blood of Christ shed on the Cross? it had been better that he had never suffered, if this were true. If you say, that God would be merciful to them, because their error proceeded of ignorance, and so, that he will have pity of us, because of ours. But I know, that you will say, that we are now unexcusable, because that we do refuse the truth that you do preach. By the self same reason our ancestors can allege before God no good excuse, forasmuch as they do make no account of the receiving of such ministers as you are, and that have preached the like Gospel that you do announce unto us. S. Hierome and all the Christians of his time are then condemned, because they would not receive the Gospel of Vigilantius, who did even as you do preach, that we should not allow the exposition of the doctors, nor honour the relicques of Martyrs. S. Augustine is likewise condemned, because he wrote & preached against the Arrians, who taught as you do, that it is an offence to pray for the dead. And to be brief, if that which you do preach aught to be called the Gospel and true word of God, since the Apostles time there hath been never a Christian Doctor in the Church: for they have all taught the contrary to your forged Gospel, as every man may see, that will take the pain, but to look in their works, or to read those places that are quoted by me and divers others that have confuted your heresies many a hundred year agone by their authorities. Let them then that have any eyes, behold the hazard that ye run into, and so many others throughout the world, which follow your opinion. If one should come to accuse another of falsehood, and that before he be assured of this matter, wherewith he did seek to attaint the defendant, would not one think his matter very great, or his knowledge very small, to run headlong into the danger of that crime, which, if he could not prove, he should be condemned for himself. What then shall become of you, O most simple sheep, which seek with feigned arguments to condemn, not one or two, but all the Christians and Catholics that have been in this world since the Passion of Christ, the which have refused and reproved your doctrine as heretical, & have taught us this that we hold at this day? But now to answer unto that that was mentioned a little before, and that which a number of your flock have told me, when I have conferred with them, which is, that the error of our predecessors was not imputed unto them, forasmuch as these good simple people went to work after the grossest sort, thinking to do well, and that as than they did not understand well the truth, which is now brought to light through your Gospel. I say, that in this ye are deceived more than half the value of your religion: for before some of them died, they had forgotten more than ever you have learned, for all that, that you know you have learned it of their books (or stolen it, to say the truth) interpreting both their works and the Scriptures contrary to the truth of their meaning. And although it were so that they had all erred, your coloured excuse of simplicity could avail them nothing, for the word of God would accuse them. 
2. Cor. 4.  If the Gospel (saith S. Paul) had been hidden, it hath been hidden to those that have perished, the spirits of the which the God of this world hath blinded: then if that those unto whom the truth hath been hidden have perished, wherefore doth your excuse serve them? This being true, as it is most like, I mean, that they have not erred, nor that you only shallbe saved, and they all condemned. To my judgement our ancestors with all their simplicity did never err so much as your disciples do, to follow such masters, as condemn that faith that the catholic church hath taught & maintained these. 1500, years, to maintain those heresies that have been buried in hell many an hundred year agone, and now are called up again by Martin Luther, Caluin and his fellows.   

¶ The .40. Chapter.  
IF that by a good and a right title your disciples call themselves the children of god, this makes me believe that the saying of our Saviour is fulfilled in them, 
Luk. 16.  the which is, The children of this world are wiser in their generation then the children of light: To prove this true, we see this daily experience: for a wise worldly man when he doth put out his money to gain, he will not trust the promise so soon of one or two or three, as he will do the bonds of a whole Town or City that should warrant or assure his gain. But you nor your disciples have not done thus, but rather the contrary. It had been better for you to have first put your faith and trust in God, believing that he hath given his holy spirit, and declared the meaning as touching the Scriptures unto the Catholic Church, and not to hazard the hope of your salvation, putting it into the hands of Luther, Zuinglius, Oecolampadius, and three or four other such pelting merchants, which have newly set up shops at Wittemberge, Geneva and Losane, which one of these days we shall see bankruptes, as their predecessors have been before them, the which after that they had deceived the poor simple Catholics, and gained some of their souls for the devil, they have at the last sold all their their honesty and credit, so that at this day, except that it be those that read the ancient histories, no body else doth remember, that ever they lived in the world. You are come now last of all to make up their merchandise, but your credit can hardly be good before God: for you shall have against you all the ancient Catholic Church, which hath continued visible since the coming of Christ unto this day, all the doctors of all the universities, all the Empires, Kingdoms and private state throughout all the world, which have received & honoured this doctrine, that you call Papistical. And if you say, that you will not trust men, but the very word of the Lord, we agreed to the like, that we aught all to believe the Scripture, but we vary about the interpretation, for you interpret it after one sort, and we after another: you expound it after a new sort, and the Catholic Church doth follow the old exposition of the ancient Doctors and traditions which you have forsaken: or to say the truth, your Ministers have led the sheep astray from the old flock, at the departing from the which they have been all scattered abroad, some following Luther, some calvin, some the Anabaptists, and so forth, for the which the Popes and kings and others that have had the government of the Church, shall answer at the last day of judgement, for as much as while they slept, you have come and sowed weeds among the good corn. Then seeing you are the sheep that room astray, what excuse can they make before God, that wilfully follow your steps? We confess, that we are the poor sheep of God that have continued with our old flock steadfast and whole, as touching our religion, but very weak & sickly as touching our manners: that is to say, full of sins and vices, attending some sage physicians to heal us, and good pastors to keep us, casting out the chaff from the corn, I mean, cutting off those abuses that are offensive not to such scrupulous consciences as you have, but unto him that doth threaten them for the careless lives of their sheep, and so to continued in that ancient faith that by succession of pastors we have received from the Apostles.   

¶ The .41. Chapter.  
I Know well, that you will take this confession of mine to your advantage, saying that for fear of being infected with our superstitious diseases, you have separated yourselves from the common flock: but if you do consider my first words, they have barred you all manner of ways to reply justly: for I have already said, that although we be sickly and weak sheep, as touching our doings or manners, yet, in regard of our faith (thanks be to God) we are safe and sound, keeping still that integrity of religion that by succession of pastors we have received from the Apostles, without adding or diminishing any thing to the ground of our catholic belief: for as for ceremonies the Church hath used them ever as touching that time & the place, to the honour of god, & edification of our neighbour: and therefore, if you did separate yourselves from our kind of living, to lead a holy solitary life, as the holy hermits and saints have done in times past, forsaking the conversation of the common people, to live in contemplation, without separating themselves from the communion of the Church, in the which they have been baptized, and had received their faith, your doings had been as much worthy of praise in that respect, as now they are damnable, considering how you forsake the common tabernacle, within the which both you and we have received the Sacraments of regeneration, and our spiritual food altogether. And to the end that no body run astray from the right path that he should follow, the good Christian aught to fix in his mind this resolution, I mean, to serve God, and to live in the Catholic faith, commonly or privately: for when there is any question put, as touching the life, the common way, 
Mat. 7.  as Christ doth say, doth lead one to perdition, and the narrow way doth guide unto the port of salvation. But if one speak of religion, the contrary is verified: for the common way is the way of health, & the private way is the path of damnation. The Prophet David in the. 24. Psalm, had a regard to this, when he prayed god to teach him his ways by the religion, and his paths, by the manners and customs.   

¶ The .42. Chapter.  
NOw to turn to the partition that we have upon the. 34. and. 37. of Ezechiell, and upon the tenth of john, it is plain, that we are the flocks of weak and sickly sheep: and your disciples are the sheep that run this way and that way astray: those that are our ill prelates take upon them the title of Mercenarij pastoris, but unto your Ministers the titles of devouring wolves, may be applied without any scrupulosity of conscience: for you watch to none other intent, but to make the sheep run out of the fold, and to devour them, because that our pastors have not taken care to keep them. And although they be not excusable, aswell for their silence, as for their naughty lives, I see not your Patriarchs and zealous Ministers amend much themselves, the faults that they find in us: for besides the true and certain experience that we have had by the trial that we have seen to our cost in this Realm within these five or six years, I have read full many a golden Legend of your sacred martyrs and holy Bishops, which do not altogether redound to the honour of your pretended reformed Church. And among others Theodore de Beza Caluins' successor in the Pontificate seat of the holy City of Geneva, of whom such things are preached abroad, that if the one half of them be true, he is scant so good a man as S. john Baptist. And because I would not have you to mislike them for their religion, I will not allege, to verify this, any Catholic author, but some of Luther's Successors your first founder, who taught you to writ so learnedly (I would say raylinglye) against the Church of Rome. 
In his book of the true body of Christ in the sacrif. written in Latin.  Tilemanus Heshusius a Minister of the Lutherans, in the book that I have already noted, doth openly accuse the said Beza of great infamy, that he did not only content the fancy of his mind, with leading a luxurious and a licentious life, and to stain his vow with a bolt of adulterous love, but that that is worse, he himself hath set forth in writing all his lascivious acts, the which (saith he) he hath song in sacrilege rhyme to the Instrument, to manifest his sin to the whole sight of the world. And in that very book he doth say, that Beza, who (as I have told you) is a Bishop of the holy City of Geneva, is an infamous monster, whose naughty life any man may read set forth by himself in his own Epigrams: & notwithstanding (saith he) to hear him speak, you would think he were Saint john Baptist, for he can talk of nothing but of his holy life. This same very Minister in the book where he writeth these things, he doth say to Bezas' charge that he took with him to Geneva another man's wife, without the knowledge of her husband, whose name was Candida. Thus seeing by the very testimony of those that are our enemies, & that are your brethren, as touching the seeking to overthrow the Catholic Church. The principal pillars of your Church are bawds, thieves and adulterers, ruffians: why do ye not first begin to reform yourselves, to this intent, that when we see, that you have taken the block out of your own eyes, we may be the better content, that you should spy the mote in ours. Remember that our Saviour saith in the Gospel, that the physician aught to cure himself.   

¶ The .43. Chapter.  
YOu that can say so well, that one aught to live according to the scripture, and that you will by it reform us, why do ye not begin with your selves, to give us the better example. From whence come so many kind of usuries and excessive interests as you do use? You call our Church abominable and adulterous. He that is among you without sin, let him cast the first stone. You do abhor our Idols (as you term them, talking of our Images) how cometh it to pass then, that some of yours should come so near us that are Idolaters, as to rob our Churches, and to carry away the Images and relics, and to go and cell them in other places? But now to make an end of this discourse, although it were so, that your works were the best of the world, yea, wholly without spot or sin (as some of you do affirm) yet were not they sufficient to move us to change our religion, nor to forsake that that our forefathers have taught us: for although it be so, that our Saviour Christ was as just and as innocent as any can be, hath been, or ever shallbe, yet neither his holy life, nor the Scriptures that he did allege, to prove his coming by the authority of the Prophets, nor the testimony of S. john Baptist: all these things together were not sufficient to persuade the jews to forsake their old laws, and to receive the Gospel, without the testimony of the great miracles that he did in their presence. He doth confess this plainly, where he saith: If I had not done in their presence the works and miracles that never any had done, they should have no sin. This sentence is most notable and worthy to be graven in the hearts of all Catholics, to assure their consciences which are troubled with such diversity of opinions. For although it were so, that you my masters were the honestest men of the world, sent from God to teach and preach a true doctrine, yet should we be excusable before God for not receiving of your commission, even as the jews had been for not receiving of our Saviour Christ, if he had not done so many miracles. For we know no cause, why you should be more privileged than Christ. And seeing that you have showed nothing to verify it this way, and that the Scriptures make no mention of your vocation, nor you show no miracles, and that your lives are at the lest as ill as ours: what moves you to be so bold and so unshamefaced, as to threaten us with eternal damnation, if we receive not your heretical doctrine, the which is so full of discords and divisions, that one may easily gather by this, from whence it came, and whither it doth lead one, although ye have nothing in your mouths, but the Gospel & the word of the Lord? and as S. Augustine said unto your semblables. Sola personat apud vos veritatis pollicitatio. I say no more at this time, but that I beseech God to draw you as near to us as you are far from us, and to inspire your minds to turn to the flock of Christ, the which, both to your own harm and ours you have forsaken.   
FINIS.   

¶ An offer made by a Catholic to a learned Protestant, wherein shall appear the difference betwixt the open known Church of the Catholics, from the hid and unknown congregation of the Protestants.  
first, seeing it cannot be denied, that our Saviour Christ before his departure and Ascension, did commit the charge and government of his Church, the testimony of his word, the truth of his Gospel, the ministration of his Sacraments, to his Apostles and Disciples, & that not only for themselves, but to their successors Bishops and priests, 
Mat. 28.  & to none other, saying only unto them: 
Mar. 16.  Euntes, docete omnes gentes. Go ye and teach all people and nations of the world, baptizing them in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost, teaching them to observe and keep all things which I have commanded you. Further Thapostle S Paul being at Miletum, in executing of his charge and government, gave this admonition to the bishops and priests there assembled before him, 
Act. 20.  saying: Attendite vobis, et universo gregi. Take heed unto yourselves, and unto the whole flock of Christ, in the which the holy ghost hath ordained you bishops. Regere ecclesiam dei, to govern the church of God.  
And in the thirteenth Chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrews he doth command all other sorts of men, without exception of Emperors, kings, Queens, & princes, to obey their bishops and priests, saying: Obedite Praepositis vestris, 
Heb. 13.  et subiacete eyes, ipsi enim pervigilant, quasi rationem pro animabus vestris reddituri. Obey your Prelates, and do what they appoint you, for they do watch, as men that shall tender accounts for your souls. Seeing that by the testimonies before alleged it can not be denied, but that the charge and government of Christ his church, the preaching of his doctrine, the administration of his Sacraments, was by him committed to his Apostles & disciples, and to all Bishops and priests as Successors of them, to plant christian faith and religion in his catholic church universally throughout all nations, coasts and quarters of the world. Seeing this is by the plainness of the said Testimonies of such an undoubted truth, that it cannot be denied: Now let the learned Protestant, affirming princes to be the supreme heads of the Church, either show by some such other like plain testimonies of the scriptures, that our Saviour Christ did commit the chief charge and supreme government of his Church to Emperors, kings, Queens and princes, to plant christian faith & religion in the same, or that any one of Christ his Apostles or disciples did convert any people, land, or country from their Idolatry & Ethnic kind of living, to Christian faith & religion by preaching the doctrine of the Protestants: as of only faith to justify, the contempt of good works, and that they be all unclean in the sight of God, the denial of free will, of the real presence of Christ's body in the holy Eucharist, of the sacrifice of the most blessed Mass, the abolishing of Christ his Sacraments, & of all grace and goodness by them conferred unto us, than I shall yield and recant, and not before.  
second, Christ his Catholic Church being on this wise planted by Thapostles & disciples of Christ, by Bishops and priests the successors of them, had at all times a special care and regard, not only of preaching God's word, but also of the preservation of the same word and Gospel by writing, of the sacred Bible, and holy Scriptures, and did discern & judge them from all other writings profane or authentic of all sorts. What Church hath had from time to time the custody of the sacred scriptures, and most safely hath preserved them for the necessary food of God's people, and from the corruption of the adversaries, aswell jews and Gentiles, as schismatics and heretics of all sorts, but only the common known Catholic Church of Christ? When therefore the learned Protestants shallbe able to bring proof to the contrary, that their private conventicles and congregations were the first bringers forth of this sacred Bible and the word of God written, the chief preservers and defenders of the same in all times and ages, from all jews, Gentiles, heretics and schismatics, Then I will, as I said before, revolt and recant.  
third, show me good reason why ye protestants do believe our catholic church enfourming and telling you this to be the word of God written, the true Bible and sacred Scriptures, and do refuse to credit her in the true sense and understanding of the same Scripture, she being undoubtedly led with the spirit of god in them both: For if the Catholic Church had the true spirit of God in discerning and judging the true Scriptures of God, from the rest not Scriptures, why should not we believe that same catholic church governed and led by the same spirit, in giving the true sense, meaning and understanding of the scriptures. When ye shallbe able to tender a sufficient reason of the one, and not of the other, I shall then yield and recant, and not before.  
Fourth, Let the protestants make sufficient proof by ancient writers of the ecclesiastical histories, what church it is, that all these fifteen hundred years past hath continued throughout firm and steadfast, whiles all other conventicles and congregations, aswell of the Atrians, as of the Nestorians, Manichees, Novatians, Vigilians, jovinians, and the rest of heretics of all sorts, have decayed, been convinced and overthrown; & that by any other church, then by the common known catholic Church of Christ, And I shall then yield and recant, and not before.  
fift, If it may sufficiently be proved, that any other Church than the common known catholic church of Christ, hath instituted and ordained all goodly ceremonies, & solemn observations in the same daily practised and used, as the festival days of Christmas, Candlemas, Easter, Whitsuntide, the feasts of th'apostles and holy Evangelists, of S. Michael th'archangel, and of all hallows & blessed Saints, the observation of the holy fast of Lent, and Imber days, the fast of th'apostles, and of all the aforesaid festival eves, beside the weekly fast of fridays & saturdays, & the rest yet observed and allowed on both sides, to the honour and glory of God, Then I will recant, and not before.  
Sixth, let the protestants show what Church from Christ his time hitherto, and for the whole space of these fifteen hundred years past, hath exercised discipline and due correction upon offenders in all degrees, and for that purpose hath not only provided and made, but continually executed laws, canons and decrees ecclesiastical, by suspension, excommunication, degradation, and such other like. Let than prove this discipline to have proceeded of the Protestants congregations, or to have continued from time to time, in any other Church, then in the common known Catholic Church of Christ, And I will then recant, and not before.  
Seventh, let me know of the Protestants, what Church hath brought forth for the space of these fifteen hundred years past, as children begotten of her own womb, so many thousands of blessed Martyrs, of stout and bold confessors, of pure and innocent virgins, and of other holy Saints of all sorts, and so acknowledged of either party. And if it shall in fine fall out, that any one of them was of the Protestants congregation, faith or belief, whiles they lived here, and not of the common known faith and religion of the Catholic Church of Christ, or that they were approved and canonised for Saintes, when they were dead, by the protestants congregation, and not only by the catholic church of Christ, I shall then submit and recant, and not before.  
Eight, Whereas the Apostle Saint Paul testifieth, that Christ gave unto his Church, some Apostles, some Prophets, some Evangelists, some pastors and doctors, ad consummationem sanctorum in opus ministerij: and so to continued to the edifying of his body the catholic Church until his coming again. Now if the Protestants shallbe able to prove by ecclesiastical histories of all ages, the continuance and use of the said functions and degrees in their congregations, and that by some orderly succession and plain account made from Christ his time hitherto, they have never lacked the said appointed officers, or that any other church than the common known catholic church of Christ, hath had at all times the continuance of the same, I shall then recant and relent, and not before.  
Ninth, whereas the protestants by the drift of reason and argument are forced of the Catholics, to acknowledge and confess their church and congregations to have lain hidden & unknown for the space of one whole thousand years together, without all the foresaid functions and ministrations of Apostles, prophets, Evangelists, pastors & doctors of their gospel, faith and religion, at the lest wise to be openly perceived and known: If therefore they shallbe able for the space of that whole time to prove by ancient writers of ecclesiastical histories, any other word, Gospel or doctrine to be universally and openly taught, any other Sacraments to be ministered, any other discipline or correction to be practised, any other judgements, Decrees, Canons, or laws to be exeuted, than those which were daily practised in the common known Catholic Church of Christ, I will then recant, and not before.  
Tenth, forasmuch as the Protestants do affirm their congregations, faith and religion, to have been practised in the primative Church of Christ, some of them for the space of the first three hundredth years, as john calvin: some for the space of four or five hundred years, as Martin Luther and his complices: some for the whole space of the first six hundredth years, as master jewel, and the authors of the Apology of the Church of Ingland, and therein not agreeing among themselves (as the manner of heretics is) I require some better stayed and certain tale of them, where and when this sudden change from the Protestants religion to the Papists should be made, as in what year of our Lord, under what Pope and Emperor? by what persons of name it was so wrought and brought to pass, and upon what occasion, & what Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and doctors of their congregations did gainsay or withstand the same? And who doth make any mention of this sudden and marvelous change of the Protestants religion to Papistry? what one eccesiastical writer, or ancient father of the whole world? And when they shallbe able reasonably to answer, and to satisfy these my demands, than I will recant & yield to them, and not before.  
Eleventh, Let the learned Protestant show me what order of service or common prayer, what order of ministration of Sacraments their Church had, before papistry (as they call it) prevailed in the world. Let him show me one book, or copy of any Communion, or what else you list, that was in English, or in any vulgar or common tongue, beside the Hebrew, Greek and Latin, or that lacked prayer for the souls departed, or invocation to Saintes, or sacrifice for the sins both of the quick & the dead, or that charged a number to receive with the priest, or that he could not else consecrated or say Mass receiving alone, or that the people should take the sacrament for bread and wine, and not for the real body and blood of Christ, or that they should give no honour to it, or not reserve the same for the comfort of the sick and diseased people, or that denied extreme unction, with the rest of the Sacraments, to be behoufull or necessary for them: Let the learned protestant bring forth and show such a Communion book, or any leaf, line, or word of any such doctrine, or any church or congregation, that ever had any authentical service or ministration of the Sacraments, other than that which is yet daily & openly practised in the common known catholic church of Christ, And I shall then recant, and not before.  
Twelfth: I demand of the learned protestant to know cause & reason, why their congregations do admit and receive all Bishops, priests, deacons, and other officers spiritual, ordered by our catholic Church, as men lawful and sufficient to preach the word of God, to minister the sacraments, and to exercise all spiritual jurisdiction in no less wise, but rather more, then if they had been ordered in their own private congregations: whereas the catholic church of Christ doth not acknowledge any man of their ordering & calling to be any whit the more fit for any spiritual function in Christ his church, than other common lay men. When therefore the learned Protestant shallbe able to show good cause and reason, why our Catholic Church, having by their own consent and approving lawful priests, Bishops and spiritual ministers, not to be also the lawful, true and catholic church of Christ, I will then recant, and not before.  
thirteen, I require of the learned protestant to express what furniture, furtherance or commodity to the honour and service of God, did christianity, or any part of Christendom receive by his Church or congregations? what temple or church did you build at any time for your assemblies, and service of god? what bishoprics for the better government of the church did you found or procure? what universities, schools or colleges did you at any time erect for the maintenance of christian doctrine, faith and religion? When the learned Protestant shallbe able to prove by ecclesiastical histories, and old ancient writers, these things to be the monuments of their conventicles and private congregations, of their faith and religion, and not of the common known faith, religion, and catholic Church of Christ, Then I shall in like manner yield and recant, and not before.  
Fourthtene, Let the learned Protestant name any one fellowship or company of believers in the whole christian world, that in all Articles of faith and religion be in one unity, in one meaning and belief, and contented also to captive & submit their several meanings to the judgements of their prelate's and spiritual governors, and of one chief head and pastor among them, in all ecclesiastical things and causes: Let (I say) the learned protestant name any one company thus agreeing among themselves, and thus humbly affected in Christian faith and religion, saving only the holy and blessed fellowship of the common known catholic church of Christ, And I will then recant, and not before.  
fifteen, Again I do demand of the learned protestant, whether the Lutherans, zwinglians, Illirians, Caluinists, Confessionists, Swenkfeldians, Anabaptists and such like, be all of one church and congregation or no? And if he be able to prove these sects, being of such diversity in faith and religion, to make one church, and that every one of them may give salvation to their fellows, being so disagreeable one with another in high mysteries and points of faith and religion, or that I aught to believe all those, rather than the one true catholic church of Christ: or yet any of these, more one then another, all of them making such a bold challenge of the truth of God's word and Gospel. When the learned protestant shall be able by good reason, or drift of argument to satisfy these my requests, Then I shall yield and recant, and not before.  
Sixteen, when the protestant shall be able to prove, that those persons which in their departure made from the catholic church of Christ, have more desire to bear the name of sectaries, as of Lutherans, Suinglians, Illyrians, Caluinists, Swenkfeldians, and anabaptists, than the name of Christians or Catholics, are the true members of Christ his Church, and not heretics and schismatics, nor yet followers therein of their forefathers, the Arrians, which took their names of Arrius, the Manichees of Manes, the Nestorians, of Nestorius: the novatians, the Vigilians, the jovinians, Pelagians, Eutychians, and others, Then I shall yield & recant, and not before.  
Seventhtene, I demand of the learned protestant, whether if the whole space of that thousand years of blindness, wherein their Church lay hid and unknown, suppressed by papistry, superstition and idolatry, as they term it, whether they which were then baptised, and openly professed Christ, were saved or not? If the Protestant do answer, yea, consequently it followeth, that they were saved without the Church of Christ, living in all ignorance, superstition & Idolatry, as they say. If he answer no, and that there was no salvation out of their hid & unknown Church, than all men of all degrees, young and old, for the whole space of the foresaid thousand years (by the Protestants judgement) perished without all hope of God's mercy, and were damned, When therefore the learned Protestant shall be able to prove by good reason and argument, either that there is a way to salvation without the Church of Christ, or that all people professing Christ, perished for so many hundredth years together, Then I will recant, and not before.  
eighteen, Let the learned Protestant make proof unto me, how their hid, unknown and secret church, not having in it the doctrine of Christ his Gospel openly taught, no ministration of Sacraments, no spirit of prophesying, no discipline of rod or correction, no ordering of Bishops, priests, and ecclesiastical ministers, nor yet any other spiritual function executed in the same, for the space of one thousand years together, Let him prove their hid & unknown Church; with the lack of all these things, to be the true spouse and Catholic church of Christ, And I will recant, and not before.  
Ninthtene, Again, on the other side, let the learned protestant prove, that it is not the true Church of Christ, that hath in the face of the world, for the space of fifteen hundred years past, exercised preaching, the conversion of nations to the obedience of the Gospel, that hath always had the administration of Sacraments, the hearing of matters in controversy, the orderly succession of Bishops, the uniformity of solemn Ceremonies, and the unity of faith, that hath in herself all holy functions of the spirit, as working of miracles, remission of sins, the true sense and interpretation of God's word, that is beautified with diversity of states commended by Christ, as with martyrs, with confessors, holy virgins, & such other. Let the protestant prove unto me, that this is not the true church, and that we are not bound to obey & believe this church, & none other, in all controversies & doubts uprising either by the difficulty of scripture, or by vain contention & pride of heretics, and I will yield & recant, & not before.  
Twenty, Moreover, let the learned protestant prove, that the true and catholic church of Christ may at any time be void of God's spirit (which he hath promised to be with his church for ever) saying: 
joh. 14.  Et ego rogabo patrem, et alium paracletum dabit vobis, ut maneat vobiscum in aeternum) or falsely to interpret any sentence of holy scripture, or to induce any error among the people, or approve unprofitable and hurtful usages among the christians, or that she suffereth any damnable abuse in her religion, without open reprehension thereof: Let the learned protestant prove any of these points, And I will then yield and recant, and not before.  
One & twenty, If unity in faith, austerity of life, sharp discipline, great penance, much fasting, large alms, godly devotion, obedience to higher powers, gravity, and true charity be not more evidently exercised and used in our common known catholic church, then in the protestants congregation: And contrariwise, if discord in religion, licentiousness in living, contempt of discipline, rejecting of penance, loathsomeness of fasting, lack of zeal and devotion, disobedience to Magistrates, Sacrilege, Apostasy, breaking of vows, unlawful lusts, wantonness in all life and manners, do not agreed better, and more clear to the protestants, then to the catholics, being the plain signs and fruits of a false church, Then will I recant, and not before.  
Two and twenty, Let the learned protestant prove unto me, that their church & congregation might rightly be called catholic, which for the space of a thousand years together was so particular, that no man could name any certain place where their church was, or that it might be called holy, which had for so long time and space neither the doctrine of Christ's Gospel taught in it, neither Baptism, nor any other Sacrament of Christ used to sanctify them withal, or that it could be called one church, which, assoon as it grew up, and showed itself to the world, was divided into so many & sundry sects, of Lutherans, zwinglians, Illiricans, Caluinists, Swenfeldians, Anabaptists, and such other: or that it might be called Apostolic, which could never make an account by orderly succession and descent from any one of Christ his Apostles, or any other Apostolic man, or that their secret, hid and unknown congregation was ever of that majesty or authority, that it had at any one time or season, the true obedience of all christian nations, or that it was ever able to assemble and gather universal and general Counsels of all nations & christian people, or to exercise any discipline or correction upon offenders throughout all kingdoms and regions professing Christ: or that these titles following properly applied by the Scriptures and doctors to the true church of Christ, could ever be challenged by any right to their hid & unknown congregation, I mean, these titles, namely Corpus Christi, The body of Christ, Sponsa Christi, The spouse of Christ, Amica Christi, The lover of Christ: Vnice dilecta Christo, dearly beloved of Christ: Columba speciosa, The beautiful dove: Domus dei, The house of God: Columna veritatis, The pillar of truth: Civitas dei The City of God: Civitas super montem posita, A City set upon an hill: Fons signatus, A spring or fountain surely signed and sealed: Sponsa Agni The spouse of the Lamb: Mulier amicta sole, A woman clothed with the Sun: Habitatio fratrum invicem, a dwelling of brethren all together, Mons dei, The hill of God, Sacra Anchora, The holy Anchor: Vinea Domini, Our lords vinyeard: Terra viventium, The land of the living: Ecclesia magna, The great and mighty Church: Archa No, noah's Arch: una, Sancta, Catholica, et Apostolica Ecclesia, One, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church: Domus pacis, The house of peace: Domus refugij, The house of refuge: Domus veritatis, The house of truth: Societas Sanctorum, The fellowship of holy Saints: Nutrix Christianorum, The nourish of the Christians: Vxor de later Christi, The Spouse out of Christ his side, sicut Eva de later Adam, like as Eve was out of the side of Adam. Let the learned Protestant make proof, that these most excellent properties and peculiar Denominations and Callings may possibly agreed to their hid and unknown congregations and private societies, or to any other known society of the whole world, but only to the holy society, most blessed company and fellowship of the common known catholic Church of Christ, And I will then relent, yield, and recant, and not before.  
Last of all, 
Certain and assured signs and tokens of false prophets, heretics and schismatics.  when these notes following, being most certain and sure signs and tokens of Antichristians, false Prophets, heretics, and schismatics, mentioned, and manifestly expressed in divers parts of the scriptures, shall by the learned protestant be proved more aptly and truly to agreed unto us of the common known catholic Church of Christ, then unto the protestants of so many sundry and divers sects and congregations, I shall submit, yield and recant, and not before.  
First sign and token appropriated to Antichristes, false Prophets, heretics and schismatics, in the scripture, is, their departure from the common known catholic church of Christ, wherein they were baptized, and first received christian faith and religion, of the which sign and token speaketh Thapostle S. john, saying: 
1. john. 2.  Ex nobis prodierunt, sed non erant ex nobis, nam si fuissent ex nobis, permansissent utique nobiscum. They departed from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us (and of our Church) they would (sayeth Thapostle S. john) have continued with us still, and not have departed from us. And here now the learned protestant, not being able to deny, that they have departed from our common known catholic church, from our faith and religion, wherein they were first baptized, and not we departed from them, but still remaining in the profession of the same faith & religion that we first received: he must needs by the drift of argument and reason grant also, that this first sign and token of false prophets, heretics, and schismatics was before spoken of the Apostle S. john, only of them, and not of us.  
Second sure mark, sign and token of false prophets, heretics and schismatics is, that they being thus departed from the Catholic church, do of themselves, and of their own authority, without warrant, being not sent, set up a new Gospel, a new faith and religion, by preaching of a new doctrine, to assemble and set up a new church and congregation. Of this sign and token, and great presumption speaketh th'apostle S. Paul: 
Rom. 10.  Quomodo enim praedicabunt nisi mittantur? How shall men preach except they be sent? And in his Epistle to the Hebrews he sayeth: 
Heb. 5.  Nec quisquam sibi sumit honorem, nisi qui vocatur a deo, quemadmodum et Aaron. Let no man take unto himself honour, except he be called of God, like as Aaron was. Certain it is, that Aaron was called unto the office and dignity of a Bishop, ordinarily by Moses, and by external and visible unction. Moses himself was extaordinarily called and sent of God, approved by miracle, as it appeareth in the fourth Chapter of Exodus. And therefore the Apostle S Paul nameth Aaron, and not Moses, to signify, that all extraordinary vocations by miracles (as Moses was) are now ceased, and that we must from henceforth be ordinarily called by external unction, as Aaron was. When therefore the learned protestant shall be able to prove their just and due vocation ordinarily or extaordinarily to proceed of God, and not only of man, I shall then yield and recant, and not before.  
third sign & token of false Prophets, heretics and schismatics, is, that they being first departed from the catholic church, and secondarily not called, do forthwith all of themselves preach and teach contentiously and seditiously against the doctrine before time taught of the common known catholic church of Christ, as against the Sacraments of Christ his Church, by a flat denial of many of them, against the real presence of Christ his body in the holy Eucharist, against the blessed sacrifice of the Mass propitiatory both for the live & the dead, against penance, and worthy fruits thereof, by fasting, watch, prayer, and all straightness of life, against vows, invocation of Saintes, prayer for souls departed, and finally against the church itself, flatly denying, that Christ hath here upon the earth any Spouse or visible church here to be heard speak, perceived or seen. The Apostle S. Paul in admonition giving unto us, to beware of this sign and token, 
Heb. 13.  sayeth: Doctrinis varijs et peregrinis nolite abduci. Be not you led and carried away with these divers and strange doctrines: so termed of Thapostle S. Paul, because they are not agreeing, but contrary to the received and common known doctrine of Christ his catholic church. When therefore the learned Protestant seal be able to prove, that they and their congregations are not the raysers up of these contentions and strifes, by their preaching of these strange doctrines, but we, that are members of the catholic Church, Then I will submit and recant, and not before.  
Fourth sign and token of false prophets, heretics and schismatics, is, Schisma in ecclesiam introducere, To bring into the church of Christ by their doctrine, schism, division and separation of one member from another, and of the whole mystical body from the true head jesus Christ. For whereas the health and salvation of Christ his flock & people doth most chiefly consist in peace, concord, and unity, they therefore which by schism do divide and disperse his flock, and of one society and fellowship before, do make many and divers, they innot sparing nor preserving in unity the flock of Christ, are become raue●●ng wolves. Thapostle S. Paul knowing the great danger and hurt uprising of schism, doth most humbly beseech us with all diligent circumspection to avoid the same, saying: Obsecro vos fratres per nomen domini nostri jesu Christi, 
1. Cor. 1.  ut idipsum dicatis omnes, et non sint in vobis schismata, sitis autem perfecti in eodem sensu, et in eadem sententia. I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord jesus Christ, that ye all say one thing, and that there be no schisms among you, but be perfect, in one mind, and one meaning. Now if the learned protestant shallbe able to prove, that whereas about the time of three score years and above, we were all (not only here in this Realm, but universally in all other Realms professing Christ) of one Church, of one faith and religion, and of one unity therein: if he shallbe able to prove, that this late schism, whereby we are so divided and dispersed, that some are become Lutherans, some zwinglians, some Caluinists, some Puritans and Anabaptists, did proceed from us, and from the common known Catholic Church of Christ, and not wholly from their private Church and congregations, and of the deceitful and false doctrine by them preached and taught, I shall then stay no longer, but yield and recant, and not before.  
fift sign and token of false prophets, heretics and schismatics is, disobedience: Et non obedire, sed resistere eyes qui praesunt in ecclesia dei: And not to obey, but resist those which do bear rule, and govern in the church of God: of the which sort of men the Apostle S. Paul giveth us warning saying: Quemadmodum jamnes et Mambres restiterunt Moysi, 
2. Tim. 3.  ita et hi resistunt veritati, 
Exod. 7.  homines corrupti ment, reprobi circa fidem. Like as jamnes and Mambres did resist Moses, even so do these resist the truth, being men of corrupt mind, and reprobates in faith. Now when the learned protestant shallbe able to prove, that this rebellion and disobedience to all Bishops, prelate's, and ecclesiastical governors, is to be found in the catholic church, and not in the private church & congregations of the protestants, Then I shall yield, submit and recant, and not before.  
sixth sign and token of false prophets, heretics, and schismatics is, the fickleness, & weak slippernes of errors & heresies: Quòd quaelibet haeresis prae catholicae fidei peepetua firmitate facile transit ac perit. For that every heresy, in comparison of the stability and perpetual continuance and firmness of the catholic faith, doth soon perish and pass away. Thapostle S Peter in speaking of these false prophets, sayeth: Magistri mendaces superducent sibi celerem perditionem, et perditio eorum non dormitat: These lying masters do bring upon themselves a quick and speedy overthrow, and their destruction shall not be slacked nor slowed. The truth of this testimony is to be tried by all sectaries and sorts of heretics that ever have been, as of the Nicolaites, Arrians, Donatists, Manichees, Pelagians, jovinists, Nestorians, Novatians, Sabellians, and the rest of heretics, whose errors and heresies being never so stoutly upholden by Emperors, kings and princes, yet by general counsels, and censures of Christ his catholic church, they had in fine their just condemnation and overthrow. What should I here make mention of the Lutherans and protestants of our time? When the Lutherans here in this Realm have taken their just overthrow already, for the great desire the protestants had to prefer the doctrine of the Oecolampadians, Suinglians and Caluinists. The Suinglians and Caluinists with the rest sectaries of all sorts are now here in this Realm at the very near and like point, they being now ready to yield up the ghost, and to tilt up their heels for the great desire the common and base sort of the people have to be Precisians and Puritans. And they being winked at of the Magistrates, there be no small number of all degrees and sorts of men that do further and favour them in this their attempt, to the great increase of them. It cannot therefore be denied, but that all sectaries and heresies are on this wise moving, sitting, and ever passing from one sect to another, without any long time of continuance or stay in any one of them, until they come ad profundum malorum, and to a most plain and open apostasy, to be miscreants, Turkish, and of Mahomet's religion, not caring or setting by God, nor the devil, neither for heaven nor hell. Now heresies being thus fickle and moving, the final end of them thus lamentable and horrible in the sight of God, Let any learned protestant living answer directly and plainly without all cavil, colour, or fraud of words, without all unprofitable and impertinent digressions, not only to this, but to all the foresaid signs tokens, and demands, And I shall for company & good fellowship with them, leave the common known church, and the plain way of salvation, beaten by our forefathers for the space of these fifteen hundred years past, and now wander with them in their uncertain bypathes, through unknown deserts, rough woods, brambles and briars, to seek in the end we cannot tell what.  
And here to conclude, and of my part to minister unto you some occasion in the relinquishing of these private churches and congregations of sectaries, to return to the unity and atonement of the common known catholic church of Christ, where stability and constancy of faith and religion is only to be found, I shall here lay before you the worthy example of the blessed martyr Sebastian, by him brought of a loaf of bread to Genserichus then king of the Vandals, a furious and a barbarous nation, which breaking into Africa, they found there many valiant captains placed by the Emperor Theodosius the second, for the defence and safeguard of the country: among the rest was this Sebastian, by dignity an earl, and a courageous and valiant captain, who with the rest yielding to the force of Gensericus, was, as Victor de persecutione Vandalorum writeth, for his great wisdom and valiantness not so much beloved as feared of the king Genserichus, who being an Arrian, intended by colour of religion to work his death. For Genserichus knowing Sebastian to be a severe and a perfect christian man, convented him before the Arrian Bishops, and under the pretence that amity and friendship might be the surer, and continued the longer betwixt them, Genserichus moved him to become an Arrian, and to profess the same manner of belief and religion, as he and his people were of. For answer this holy martyr Sebastian requested Genserichus the king to command a fine wheten loaf to be brought unto him, and taking it in his hand (and here to omit many of his words and notable sayings) he requested the king Genserichus, to command the loaf of bread to be broken in pieces, to be ground, brought to flower, and bolted afresh, to be seasoned with water and salt, and baked again, if then it should in the end prove better bread than it was before he would not fail to accomplish the king Genserichus his will & pleasure: but if it were not possible by breaking of the loaf, and baking of it again, to better it, but to make worse bread than before, he would not, nor could not consent thereunto: And in fine suffered death, in the defence of the christian faith & religion by him already professed and received, rather than he would condescend to the impairing, infringing or breaking of any part thereof. And so Genserichus caused this blessed man Sebastian to die a holy Martyr. Thus much I have briefly deducted out of the history of Victor, to that intent, that so apt and familiar an example of so holy & blessed a martyr, might in these perplexities and doubts in these oft changes & mutations of religion, comfort the weaklings of Christ his church, and bring them to some more better stay, when by this example of Sebastian's loaf, certain & sure we may be, that the loaf of the unity of Christ his Church, the loaf of his Gospel, faith and religion, being by schism and heresy never so oft broken, never so finely grinded, bolted, seared and sifted, kneaded, & baked again and again, they shall never be able to better it, or to bring it to that perfection which it had before. And therefore all their attempts to the contrary are most vain, the only remembrance of this Sebastian's loaf should suffice to confirm the faithful, to stay the wavering and weaklinge, and to pluck the deceived back again, and to 'cause them in leaving of this their fickle waveringnes of this their proceedings (as they term it) from one sect to another, from one congregation to another, and from their scatering abroad with antichrist, to stay themselves, and to gather themselves with our Saviour Christ into the unity of his common known catholic church, where they shallbe sure to ●ynd unity of religion, uniformity in all ceremonies and observances of the same, with thatonement of christian faith throughout in all Sacraments and articles of our Creed, to the pacifying of many contentions and strifes among us, to the quietation of men's consciences, causing us all professors of Christ, as brethren here to live together in quietness, peace and unity, to the more better assurance of the public estate of this Realm, and to the great glory and honour of almighty God, to whom be all praise, honour and glory world without end.  
Amen.  
FINIS.