THE ANTIBARBARIAN: OR, A Treatise concerning an unknown tongue.  
As well in the prayers of particulars in private as in the public Liturgy.  
Wherein also are exhibited the principal clauses of the Mass, which would offend the people, if they understood them.  
By PETER DV MOULIN, Minister of the Word of GOD in the Church of Sedan and Professor of Divinity.  
LONDON, Printed by George Miller, for George Edwa●d●, and are to be sold in the Old Bailie, in Green Arbour, at the sign of the Angel. 1630   

TO THE RIGHT Worshipful, Right Reverend and Worthy Father of the Law, Sir GEORGE CROOK Knight, one of his Majesty's judges of the King's Bench.  
SIR,  
THIS learned and Orthodox divine hath both at home, and abroad, both in himself, and in his profitable and useful works given such Heroic proofs of his own worth and exquisite learning, that here to go about to use any encomium in his praise and worth would be but to light a candle at the noon day which this Sun shining in his own strength would utterly obscure. He hath done and said so much to vindicate himself from out of the jaws of obscurity, or oblivion, that no addition in that kind is needful; and were he herein wanting to himself, I would add no other testimony of him in his behalf, than his who well may be instar omnium, namely that of our late reverend & learned Bishop in his opuscula posthuma, where any that would nodum in hoc scirto quaerere, may find ample satisfaction, so that indeed for my own part I will only with the Orator, say, quid opus est verbis ubi rerum testimonia adsunt. In that I have presumed to dedicate this book thus translated, and what herein I may call mine, confined indeed within the narrow verge of my weak performance, to your judicious peruse all, grave patronage, and protection, it is out of that assurance, you have given all good men of your unfeigned love of the truth and true religion, that the same may remain upon record, for some though but a weak testimony of that my ever vowed observance and due respect, wherein for your many worthy favours, I stand so mainly obliged, wherein also being confident of your wont favour, and good acceptance, whereunto I humbly commend the same, and my farther service, I will ever rest  
At your Worship's service and command RICHARD BAILIFF.   

TO MY NEPHEW Mounsieur Bochart Pastor of the Church of Caen.  
DEAR Nephew,  
if the Church of GOD receive any benefit by this my labour her obligation will be acknowledged unto you for the same. For in the answer which I made unto the Cardinal Du Perron, when it happened I had improvidently omitted the Chapter which treateth of an unknown tongue: You advertised me of that defect, and moved me to supply the same. I have condescended to your motion, and have composed this Treatise, which I here tender unto you. You shall receive it, if you please, for a testimony of my hearty affection, and of that joy which I receive by seeing you serve in the work of the Lord with so great applause. It is a comfort to me amidst so many desolations to see that God causeth to spring up lights to shine in the darkness which grow thicker from day to day. For seeing God raiseth up good workmen and labourers, it is a sign that he will yet leave us some harvest. He who from your infancy hath endued his fear, and hath set you apart for his service, will  you with strength, and with courage not to faint under the burden. For you are entered upon your charge in a time wherein you shall have need of double zeal, and of an holy magnanimity: It shall be a great honour for you to stand in the breach, and in the shock of the main battle: and amidst the darkness of the time to be the bearer of so fair a light. There shall you have experience of those succours, which God promiseth to those which love him, and who esteem it a great honour and gain to lose their lives or goods for his service. He, who hath given unto trees, which grow on the tops of the rocks, stronger roots, because they are more exposed to the boisterousness of the winds, will give unto you also strength according to the measure of the combats, whereunto he will expose you. The match indeed seemeth very unequal, and the enterprise no less difficult, even as if with pins we should take in hand to supplant a rock. But we must remember, that we defend God's cause, who is wont to use the weakest tools or instruments for the effecting of his works of wonder: that the glory of the success might not be attributed to our strength. And that the heavenly truth, were it plunged down unto bottom of the bottomless deeps, might at last regain the upper hand. And as the Church is more firm than the world; seeing the world was made for it. Whereunto may be applied what is written of the city of jericho, to wit, that he that built it, laid her foundation upon his first borne. The same God, who at the sound of Iosua's trumpets made his enemy's walls to fall flat to the ground, will one day make to fall down the walls of Babylon at the blast of the trumpet of the Gospel. But if by reason of the ingratitude of this stiffnecked age, God putteth off unto another time so excellent a work, we which have sowed on earth with small success, shall not fail to reap abundantly in heaven. We bear, like gedeon's soldiers, this light in earthen vessels: namely, in weak bodies, the breaking whereof will be happy and honourable, if it may but serve to set forth in sight the light of the Gospel. For we which preach the Cross of Christ, should we be exempted from it? We that bear this ark, should not we pass first thorough this jordan? being patterns not only in doctrine, but also in zeal and in all virtue? as for me, having presently finished my course, & hearty breathing after that rest, which God hath promised to them that fear him, I rejoice to leave behind me men endued with his graces in greater measure: and particularly a Nephew, whom I have loved with a fatherly affection: who treading in the steps of a virtuous father, and whose memory is as a blessing to the Church of God, shall surpass and much outstrip his predecessors, and shall be an example unto posterity. But whilst I am in this temporal abode you own me the relief of your prayers, as I also on my part do beseech Almighty God to give you grace to be unto him a faithful servant, and to fight the good fight, and to bring forth fruit unto his glory.  
From Sedan this 6. of August. 1629. Your dear Uncle, and humble brother, and servant. P. DV MOULIN.   

A Table of the Chapters.  
CHAP. I. 
THat false religions love obscurity, but true religion setteth forth to view her doctrine, and holdeth nothing secret. page 1.  CHAP. II. 
Two dfferences between us and the Church of Rome, touching an unknown tongue. page 22.  CHAP. III. 
Of prayers of particular persons in a tongue not understood by themselves that pray. p. 25.  CHAP. FOUR 
That in the Primitive Church every one prayed in his own tongue. pag 41.  CHAP. V. 
That the Liturgy or public service in a tongue not understood is contrary to the Word of God, and unto reason. pag. 49.  CHAP. VI 
This assertion proved by the Church of the old Testament. pag. 81.  CHAP. VII. 
That the Primitive Christian Church thorough out the whole world, used a tongue understood in their public service. pag. 90.  CHAP. VIII. 
Two causes that move the Pope and his Clergy, to will that the Mass and the whole ordinary service be said in the Latin tongue. p. 120.  CHAP. IX. 
The third cause for the which they are not willing to have the Mass understood by the people, the clauses of the Mass which would scandalize the people, if they understood them. p. 124.  CHAP. X. 
An examination of the Adversaries reasons: especially of them of Mounsieur the Cardinal du Perron. p. 180.  CHAP. XI. 
An examination of the proofs, which Mounsieur the Cardinal du Perron draweth from antiquity for service in a tongue not understood. p. 129.  CHAP. XII. 
By what means the Latin tongue was brought into divine service in France and in Spain. p. 232.  CHAP. XIII. 
Concerning England and Germany, and how the Roman service and the Latin tongue was brought in thither. p. 252.  CHAP. XIIII. 
Concerning Africa, & how the service in the Latin tongue thither entered. p. 273.    

A TREATISE; Concerning a strange language in prayers and in the service of GOD.  

CHAP. I. That false religions love obscurity: But the true Religion setteth forth to the view her doctrine, & holdeth nothing hidden.  
IT is an opinion commonly received, that ignorance is the mother of devotion. In the matter of God's service, men admire most, what they understand least; and obscurity augments reverence, and herewith fareth it as with beauties; the which when men do nothing but stand at interview and at gaze, they kindle and inflame the more concupiscence.  
Negligence and profaneness contribute to this evil; For men having no natural inclination to be instructed in the knowledge of God, they voluntarily disburden themselves of that care upon them that make profession to instruct them; rather than they will take the pains to learn, they had rather believe without knowing, and follow others without any further inquisition to inform themselves; and this affected ignorance cloaketh itself with the specious title of respect towards the Church, and of quickness of apprehension; if there be question of putting forth a man's money, there men will be sure to inquire out the best securities, and men are in this point full of diffidence and distrust: but when the point of salvatition falleth into debate, they refer themselves to rely on the faith of another, and blindfold their own eyes with a voluntary ignorance.  
Satan that seizeth on men by natural handels, snares and nooses, useth this inclination to seduce them, it being easy for him to make them go astray out of their way that shun the light. He it is, that hath taught Magicians and conjurers to insert and blend in their conjurations, barbarous and sustian terms not to be understood. He it is, that instructed the Pagan Priests to cover and keep close their mysteries under a religious silence: and to keep aloof off at a distance the profane, who now a days are termed the lay-people or the laiques. Thus 
* Hetrusca disciplina.  the Toscane discipline, wherein was contained the old religion of the Romans, 
a Quintilianus lib. 1. Carmina Saliorum vix sacerdotibus suis satis intellecta sed quae mutari vetat religio.  and the verses of the Salic Priests sung by those Priests of Mars, were couched in rude and barbarous terms, and such as were not understood of the people. Epiphanius in the heresy of the Ossenians, 
b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  saith that the heretics taught to pray with obscure words, forbidding to inquire after the interpretation of them. Saint Augustine in his 16. Chapter, Quod vult Deus, affirms the same of the Heracleonites. And Clemens Alexandrinus in his first book of Tapisseries, saith that 
c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  men hold that prayers pronounced in a barbarous tongue have more efficacy. Hierome in his Epitaphe 
d Barbaro simplices quosque terrent sono, ut quod non intelligunt plus mirentur.  of Lucinius Andalusien: they affright the simple with a barbarous sound, so that they admire most what they understand least. The Mahometans, Turks, and Persians have their service in the Arabic tongue, which the people understand not. And the jews, whom God hath given up to reprobate sense, do read in their Synagogues the Law and the Prophets in the Hebrew tongue, whereas the most part of their people have but little or no understanding thereof.  
They that have the charge to guide and instruct the people, have been careful to foment and increase this evil; for they endeavour to keep the people in ignorance, withholding from them the key of knowledge, as our Saviour jesus Christ saith, 
Luk. 11.52.  and hindering others from entering in. By this means they make themselves respectable and of account, as such that are only capable of understanding divine matters the things that belong to God, and having only and alone a familiar communication with God. And by the self same means, they themselves take sanctuary, and hinder, that there can no clear inspection be made into their affairs; and gain the liberty to accommodate religion to their own profit, and to carve and shred it at their pleasure. Dealing as thiefs do, that blow out the candles for fear of being descried; for they are afraid, lest the things which men admire a fare off, being known and better taken notice of at a nearer distance, should become contemptible and utterly out of request: Like unto painted women, who would not willingly be viewed near at hand; having learned by experience, that there is trouble to lead the ignorant; and that it is easiest diving into a blind man's purse, and that every man that would be informed in the reason and original of things is not easily persuaded.  
Hence cometh it that they withdraw the people from reading of the Scriptures, and that they hinder the translating of them into the vulgar tongue. Hence cometh it, that they labour so much to cast an aspersion upon the Scriptures, and to make them to be suspected by the people, as a dangerous book; and that the reading thereof is the cause of heresies. Hence came in Images, which serve to amaze, and to hold at gaze the eyes whilst they blind their understandings; and to afford them recreation, whilst they withdraw and bereave the of instruction Hence came that heap of Ceremonies, which are shadows, which grow apace, and stretch out themselves in length, when the night of ignorance is near at hand. Hence came that implicit faith, which relieth on the faith of another, and which believeth that which the Church of his country believeth, without ever knowing that which the Church ought to believe: and which serveth God by custom, following the throng, and involveing themselves in the multitude. Hence came in the Liturgy in a strange tongue, and not understood; as if the english tongue were too base and trivial for divine service. Hence came in the custom of praying to God without knowing what they asked of him; as if they were afraid to understand themselves. Hence came it to pass, that as in the public reading of the Scriptures; God is a barbarian unto men, so also in public prayers the Priest is a barbarian to the Assembly, and in the prayers of particulars, every one is a barbarian to himself.  
The occasions and the change of affairs, have hereunto often contributed: For the vulgar tongue of a country coming to be abbasterdised by laps of time, or being suddenly changed by the confused medley, the blending, and inundation and violent breaking in of strange people, the Pastors and leaders of the people have not been careful to accommodate the public service unto the understanding of the new inhabitants, and to the tongue in use: So that the Liturgy became in less than fifty years, not to be understood by the people And this came to pass in Italy, where the Latin was the vulgar in the time of the Apostles, and many ages after: But the Latin being corrupted by the inundation of the Goths, Lumbards' and French, and by the extinguishing & abolishing of good letters and learning; the Bishops still retained the service in the ancient tongue, and suffered the people to lose the understanding of it: The like happened in France and in Spain, as we shall see hereafter.  
True religion taketh a quite contrary way. It resists this natural inclination of men, by which they fly instruction, fearing to learn the will of God, lest thereby they should oblige themselves to follow it: thorough the brightness of the Gospel it dissipates the kingdom of the Prince of darkness: For the people ought to be clearly instructed in the doctrine of salvation; seeing they have as great a share in salvation as the Pastors. Who shall not answer for the people, at the day of judgement: if the blind lead the blind, 
Matth. 25.24.  they will both fall into the ditch. The Prophet Habacuk tells us, 
Habac. 2.4.  that The just shall live by his faith, and not by the faith of another. He which believes in God by proxy, or attorney, deserves that another should be saved for him between the false and the true religion; there is as much difference, as between two Temples; the one whereof hath his windows and lights shut and stopped up, the other receiveth in lights on all sides; in the one, the people make profession of a blind obedience; in the other, the people demand instruction. The one setteth forth to the view the Lamp of God's Word; the other suppressing this spiritual light, lighteth up candles at high noon: And like as the light which struck Saint Peter on the side when he slept in prison, 
Acts 12.  made the irons to fall off from his hands, and opened him the prison: even so the light of the true doctrine breaks asunder the bands of superstition, & sets a man at liberty; according to that which our Saviour jesus Christ teacheth in the 8. of S. john. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Whereupon also God said in the 5. Chapter of Esay. My people are led captive, because there is no knowledge; and jesus Christ in the 22. of S. Matthew said to the Sadduces, You err, not knowing the Scriptures: Whereupon he also said to the jews: 
john 3.39.  Search the Scriptures; which is a commandment, which is not made to the people by the Church of Rome. And God himself by his Prophet jeremy, in his Chapter 31. promiseth a happy time, wherein every one shall not teach his brother, saying, Know ye the Lord, for, saith the Lord, they shall know me from the least to the greatest. God rejecteth a Zeal without knowledge, Rom. 10.2. and the Apostle desireth that the charity of the Philippians might be with knowledge and all understanding. 
Philip. 1.9.  This is the condemnation of the world (SAITH THE LORD) that light is come into the world, 
john 3.19.  but men love darkness better than the light. 
Matth. 10.16.  God indeed would have us to be simple and innocent, but withal, he will have us to be prudent and wise, he forbids curiosity in things he hath concealed from us; but it followeth not thence, that we must be ignorant of things necessary, and which he hath manifested to us in his Word.  
For these causes have we taken away images out of our Churches, which speak not, and have set in their places the holy Scriptures, wherein God speaketh unto us, these images are fallen down to the ground before the doctrine of the Gospel, as Dagon before the Ark of the Covenant, 
1. Sam. 5.3.  and we have brought in the Scripture in the vulgar tongue; and have established again the service of God in words understood: for teaching no other doctrine, then that which is contained in the holy Scriptures; we are not ashamed of our religion; and we do desire that our doctrine might be known of every one, and examined by the Scriptures, 
john 10.38. john 17.8. Rom. 10.17.  having learned by the holy Scriptures, that faith consisteth in knowledge; and that jesus Christ will, that men know before they believe; and that faith is by hearing of the Word of God: whence it followeth, that we must hear the Word of God, and be therein instructed, before we can have faith: we reject the counsel of our adversaries, who would have men believe before they choose the way of salvation, in stead of that, they must know to the end to choose aright: Can there a greater abuse then to make the faith of Christians to consist in ignorance, 
Bellar. lib. 2. the iustificatione cap. 7. § judicium. Fides distinguitur contra scientiam, & melius per ignorantiam quàm per notitiam definitur. Du Perron in his book against the King of great Britain. lib. 6. ch. 1. pag. 1080.  as Cardinal Bellarmine doth, who saith, that faith is distinguished against knowledge, and is better defined by ignorance then by knowledge. Whereupon likewise the Cardinal du Perron thinks, that the greater ignorance is, the greater is the merit of faith; saying, that when as any one understands not the public service, for that the Priest speaketh in an unknown tongue, and not understood, that defect is recompensed by the merit of the endeavour and greater excercise of faith. Which is a new kind of merit, to endeavour to know nothing, and an endeavour of faith which consists in negligence; and a faith which consists in having none at all, seeing that faith cometh by hearing of the Word of God; for it is not to hear the Word of God, to hear a sound without understanding; the Apostle then by this reckoning, was destitute of reason, when he gave thanks to God, for that, that the Corinthians were rich in all knowledge. 
1. Cor. 1.5.  And that wish he made, that the Philippians might abound in knowledge and understanding, was very inofficious and unkind; seeing that by that knowledge the endeavour of their faith slackened and enfeebled, 
Coloss. 3.16.  and their merit diminished. Hereon we have an excellent passage of Saint chrysostom in his Homily, 61. upon Saint john, wherein after he had in many words reproved the people, and reproached them too for their ignorance, and for their incapacity and disability to defend the cause of God, and to render a reason of their faith, and had laid before them the Apostles commandment, that willeth that the Word of God should dwell plentifully in every one of us in all wisdom; 
Col. 3.16.  he asks 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  What answer hereunto make those persons more unprofitable than drones? They say that the soul is blessed which is simple, and that he which walks in simplicity, walks with affiance: That this is that which is the source and fountain of all this evil, to wit, that amongst the people, there are but very few of them, that could in time of need allege any testimonies of Scriptures. This complaint of this good Doctor, was at this day ridiculous: for the people would answer him, how should we be able to allege the Scriptures, whereof you have forbidden us the reading? And indeed there is not extant any approved and allowed translation in the vulgar tongue. It is now adays a badge of an heresy to read carefully the Scriptures and to allege them.   

CHAP. II. Two differences between us and the Church of Rome, touching an unknown tongue.  
COncerning an unknown tongue; when we speak unto God, or when God speaketh unto us; we have two sorts of differences with the Church of Rome, the one concerning the prayers of particular persons, the other touching the public service: For in the Church of Rome the people use to pray without understanding themselves, and to speak unto God and unto the Saints in a tongue, which he that prayeth understandeth not, as if it were suspected to themselves, or they were afraid to understand their own prayer: thinking that the Latin hath something in it that's more holy, and that barbarous terms have more efficacy, and that prayer in 
* Or in any other tongue than Latin.  English is less acceptable to God.  
The very same abuse hath intruded itself into the public service, which is performed in Latin, where the people of France, Germany and Spain, understand nothing. Whereupon also the people use to say, let's go hear a Mass; but not, let us go observe the words, or understand the Mass, they might say fare better if they said, let us go see the Mass; for they go to it, as unto a show, and not as unto an instruction; and as if it were not enough that the Mass is said in Latin; a great part of the Mass is pronounced exceeding low, and with a deep silence: the rest is said in confused terms, and with quivering of an inarticulate voice: whereof their Doctors render us the reason, namely, for that Shepherds in hearing of the Mass having learned the words of consecration, 
Durand. Rat. lib. 4. c. 35. Cum quidam pastores Canonem in agro canta●ent, & panem super lapidem posuissent, ad verborum ipsorum ptolationem panis in carnem conuer sus est, ipsi tamen divino iudicio igne coelitùs misso percussi sunt. Propter quodsancti Patres statuerunt verba ista sub silentio dici.  pronounced them over the bread of their meal, which was incontinently transubstantiated into flesh: whereupon withal they were struck with thunder from heaven. This History is recited by Durand in his 4. book of his Rational chap. 35. and by Pope Innocent the III. in his third book of the mysteries of the Mass, chap. 1.   

CHAP. III. Of prayers of particular persons in a tongue not understood by themselves that pray.  
I. PRayer is a request or supplication, which man presenteth unto God, forwarded and suggested by the sense and feeling of our want and necessity, it is a kind of alms which man asketh of God. Whence it followeth, that he that prayeth aught to pray according to his feeling, and to apply his prayer accordingly unto his necessity; this cannot be done by him that prayeth without understanding himself, and who by custom sayeth a prayer in terms not understood: very often it falleth out, that the party which hath an intention to ask of God something, saith in his Latin prayers things fare from his own intention: Thus Courtesans and women, that understand the Latin just as much as the Greek, do say in Latin their seven Psalms; 
Psal. 38. & 143.  wherein David being sick, complaineth that he halteth as he goeth, and that his raines were inflamed, and speaketh as one shut up in a dark Cave, whither Saul had brought him: is it credible, that a silly woman pronouncing these things in Latin, once thinks of ask salvation or the forgiveness of sins?  
II. The Apostle Saint james in his 1. Chap. willeth, that when we ask any thing of God, we ask it in faith, not doubting at all. Now it is impossible to ask of God any thing in faith and in full assurance, when the thing is not known which is asked of God, for faith implieth and bringeth knowledge. Whereupon also our Saviour jesus Christ conjoineth ordinarily knowledge with faith, as in the 10 of Saint john, ver. 38. That you may know and believe that the Father is in me: and in the 17. Chap. ver. 8. They have known and believed that thou hast sent me. Wherefore instead that Saint Paul so often saith, that we are justified by faith. Esay in his 53. Chap. ver. 11. saith, that we are justified by knowledge.  
III. One cannot accuse a man in plainer terms to be out of his wits, then in saying to him; You know not what you say. But all things which in civil conversation would be esteemed absurd, in the Romish religion are held for good: as if religion served to trouble the wits, or were a receptacle of absurdities; and that which otherways is a folly, here is a devotion. God then shall deal justly to grant nothing to that person, that knows not what he asks; and by consequent knoweth this, that God hath denied him.  
iv Here experience and necessity reform men by force; for they who shall have all their life long, made their prayers in latin without understanding of themselves, in sudden afflictions and in great griefs will change their language, and will cast forth unto God their fervent prayers in their ordinary tongue. A man which is in the pangs of death, or that is upon the jibbet (unless he be utterly brutish) will never say Beati quorum, nor the Pater in Latin.  
V But what good grace can a Latin prayer have, which a poor silly woman saith to S. Marry the Egyptian, or to S. Magdaleine who never understood the Latin? And albeit that indeed they had learned their Latin in Paradise, yet so it is, that all that is nothing to understand the voice without knowing the heart: it is required that he on whom we must call, do know the faith and the repentance of him, that prayeth lest he hear an hypocrite. Now the Word of God teacheth us, that God alone knoweth the hearts of men, 2. Chron. 6. ver. 30.  
VI Above all to be pitied is the Latin prayer of a woman, or of an Artisan, which prayeth to S. Ursula, or to S. Margarite, or to S. Catherine, or to S. Chrystopher, or to S. Martial, or to S. Longius, or to S. Lazarus patron of lepers, or to the eleven thousand Virgins, which are Saints, and yet never were men, and which are placed in heaven, and yet never lived upon the earth, by this means he that prayeth, speaketh to a Saint, which hath no being at all, in a tongue which he himself that prayeth understandeth not, which is an heap of absurdity. 
* These are not the calves of the lips, but the lips of calves. Osee 14.2.  High non sunt vituli labiorum, sed labia vitulorum, Osea 14.2.  
VII. That if unto a man that prayeth in Latin, not understanding that which he saith, any one had given one of Esop's fables in Latin, persuading him, that it is a prayer to the Virgin Mary: such a man, according to the doctrine of the Church of Rome, pronouncing this fable with fervent affection, should not cease to pray in faith, and should not lose the merit of his prayer.  
VIII. That if a French man not understanding the German tongue, should come and ask something of the King in the high Dutch, the King although he understood the high Dutch, would take this discourse for a mockery, or would think such a man to be beside himself.  
IX. In this point the example of jesus Christ ought to serve us for a rule, who prescribing a form of prayer unto his Disciples, gave them one in their usual and ordinary tongue, saying unto them, When you pray, say our Father which art in heaven, etc. He gave them not this prayer in the Byscane, nor in the Arabian. For he would have them when they prayed, know what they asked of God; and what were the things whereof they stood in need.  
X. And with such excellent art is this prayer framed and composed; that the faithful speaking unto God, speaketh also unto himself, and that every petition is a commandment; for as the commandments of God are the matter of our prayers, and teach us that which we ought to ask of God; so also the petitions which God hath prescribed us contain the commandments. In ask of God that his kingdom may come, we oblige and bind over ourselves to labour for the advancement of this kingdom. In ask and praying that the name of God may be hallowed, we are advertised to hallow it ourselves; and we are taught by this prayer, not to covet another man's bread, and to forgive them that have trespassed against us, and to eschew the temptations of evil; lessons which cannot be comprised by him, that understands not himself, and prayeth in a tongue which he understands not.  
XI. True it is that God understands all tongues; but withal, his pleasure is, that he that speaketh unto him, know what he saith, and that he speak as a man, and a reasonable creature, that is to say, with reason and understanding. God indeed understands thy tongue; but withal, he understands that thou understands not thyself; it is a grand abuse to think that we speak unto God, to the end he might understand our language; for before we opened our mouths he knew our thoughts; and it is be that puts prayer into the heart of them that fear him: now it is the heart that must move the lips, and suggest to the mouth words conformable to the thought.  
XII. Thus prayed the Prophets: David prayed in his own tongue, and dictated unto the Israelites the Psalms in a tongue they understood: who whilst they pronounced the Psalms of David, had this contentment, whereof the Church of Rome hath deprived herself: reading in particular, and hearing read in public the Psalms of David without all understanding of them.  
XIII. The prodigal child returning home to his Father and saying; Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee, I am not worthy to be called thy son, understood himself well: Luke 15.21. Thus prayed the poor Publican, smiting his breast, and saying, O God be merciful unto me a poor sinner, Luke 18.13.  
XIV. Thus prayed the Primitive Christians for the Apostle to the Colossians, Chap. 3. ver. 16. had taught them to exhort one another mutually in Psalms and praises; so prayed the Apostle Saint Paul being at Philippi, where the faithful used to go forth of the town, and met together by a river side to pray: Act. 16. verse 13. For Lydia a seller of purple had not been touched either with his prayers, or with his exhortations, if he had prayed, or spoke in a tongue which she understood not. And none hath hitherto doubted but that the faithful of the Church of jerusalem, in the time of the Apostles prayed in their vulgar tongue, when they prayed for the deliverance of Saint Peter being prisoner: 
Act. 12.5.  and that the Fathers when they prayed in their families, were understood by their children.  
XV. The Apostle Saint Paul in the first to the Corinthians, hath a whole Chapter upon this subject; namely, the 14. wherein he utterly condemns prayers in an unknown tongue: 
1. Cor. 14.  If (saith he) I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. If he forbidden to be a barbarian to another in praying, then how much more to be a barbarian to one's self? And in the 15. ver. I will pray with the spirit, 
verse 11.  and will pray with the understanding also: but this passage shall be handled hereafter more at large, when we shall come to speak of public prayers.  
XVI. Thomas Harding a Doctor of Lovane an English man, the Target of Popery in England, in his Treatise of prayers in a strange tongue, in the 33. Section, constrained by the evidence of the truth, passeth his sentence of condemnation against it, saying, 
a Est optabilius ut populus preces publicas vernacula sua lingua recitaret.  it were to be wished that the people could say their public prayers in their vulgar tongue; 
b Hardin. Section. 9 Non potest populus fateor, dicere Amen ad benedictionem Sacerdotis aequè ac si Latinam linguam perfectè calleret.  and in the 29. Section, he acknowledgeth that at this day the people cannot so easily say Amen to the blessing of the Priest, as if they understood the Latin.   

CHAP. IU. That in the Primitive Church every one prayed in his own tongue.  
We have already in the first Chapter alleged many of the Ancients, who derided the superstition of those that thought that prayers in a barbarous tongue have more efficacy in them.  
Origen in his 8. book against Celsus: 
a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  The Grecians in their prayers use Greek words, and the Romans the Roman language, and so every one according to his tongue prayeth unto God, and praiseth him, as he is able. Note that he setteth not down only his opinion, but that he showeth forth the custom and practice of the Christian Church.  
chrysostom in the Homily 35. upon the first to the Corinthians: 
b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,  If any one speak only in the Persian tongue, or in any other strange tongue, not knowing what he saith, he shall be a barbarian to himself, and not only to another man.  
Hierome in his 18. Epistle to Marcelia: 
c In tota Christi villa tota rusticitas est. Extra Psalmos si●entium est Quocunque te vertetis arator stivam tenens alleluia decantat: Sudans messor Psalmis le avocat: & curva attondens vites falce vinitor aliquid Davidicum canit.  Thorough out the whole City of jesus Christ they are all country swains. Without Psalms there's not a word spoken: which way so ere thou turnest thee, the very husbandman holding the plough sings praises to the Lord: and the reapers and the sweeting harvest-men withdraw themselves aside with Psalms: and the vine-dressor with his hooked vine-knife shragging his vines, sings something out of David. This is not, nor cannot be done by the common people of the Church of Rome, that have no mind to sing at the Cart, or in their shops Latin Psalms which they understand not, and where to sing Psalms in English is a badge of heresy.  
The same Father in his Epitaph of Paula, saith that at the performing of the funeral rites of Paula, Psalms were by course sung in the Hebrew, the Greek, in the Latin, and in the Syriack tongue, Hebreo, Greco, Latino, Syroque sermone Psalmi in ordine personabant. Every one singing according to the language of his own country.  
And not to weary the Reader with a multitude of passages in a matter so evident: Thomas himself the Angelical Doctor, whom the Pope hath made a Saint, in his Commentary upon the 14. Chapter of the 1. to the Corinth: in the 4. Lect: hath these words: It is a thing certain, that he that prayeth and understands what he saith, profiteth more than he, which prayeth only with the tongue, but understandeth not that which he saith, for he which understandeth is edified, both in his understanding and in his affection, but his understanding that understands not, receiveth not any fruit whereby to be edified. And in the same Lect: he acknowledgeth that the Primitive Church prayed in the vulgar tongue, but that this course was changed afterward.  
It would be a very pleasant conceit to bring in the Virgin Mary, or Elizabeth her Cousin, saying their hours in a barbarous tongue and not understood, turning over a chapelet, prayer of beads or rosary: according to the custom of the Church of Rome, who say their hours by dropping down the grains of a consecrated pair of beads. The good women rub these their beads against the feet of an image; they bring from Rome chests full of hallowed grains, Consecrated by the Pope, which are sold dearer, because they have more virtue. M. the Cardinal du Perron coming back from Rome, brought back with him a budget full of hallowed grains, every of which grains filled on a pair of beads had that virtue, that but kissing of it, one might purchase an hundred years of pardon; but this privilege was but only for the French: one might see silly women saying their Pater-nosters in Latin, in their way going to market, and the Spanish talking and conferring of affairs, turning over fair and softly the grains of their beads, saying at every grain a Latin prayer, which is to be repeated fifty times over, blending the Pater's with the Aves, and by saying five Aves, for one Paternoster; for the virtue of prayers now adays consists in number, repeated over in the same words not understood: And the poor people, when they say their Ave think they pray to the Virgin Mary; whereas indeed they pray for the Virgin Mary. At the end of all this, there is said, It is the Church, etc. and It is an Apostolical tradition. For this word Church is become a cloak to cover a multitude of abuses.   

CHAP. V That public service in a tongue not understood, is contrary to the Word of God, and to reason.  
I. ABuse in the Liturgy and public service is yet more pernicious, because God himself is therein wrapped up, and made a barbarian unto men, and his word by this means becomes not intelligible: as if men would frustrate God of his intention, which is to speak unto us to instruct us; as if jesus Christ came down from heaven of purpose to speak to men without being understood. For in the Mass there are not only prayers unto God, but also therein are read places of Scriptures in which God speaks unto men. In prayers in a tongue not understood, there is used this impertinent excuse, that God understands all tongues, as if we spoke with the mouth; to the end, to be understood by God: But here where the business is concerning God speaking to men, this excuse hath no place; for when God speaketh unto men, he will be heard and understood: and indeed when for excuse it is said, that God understands all tongues, it is presupposed that he unto whom he speaketh, should understand that which is said unto him.  
II. Therefore the Scripture teacheth us that when God is provoked to displeasure against his people; he makes them heavy of hearing, that they may not hear, and that their hearts may not understand; as God himself speaketh by his Prophet Esay. Chap. 6. verse 10.  
III. Besides it is also one of God's curses, wherewith he punisheth the ingratitude and the contempt of his word, when he speaks to a people in a strange tongue, that they may not understand, as the Apostle teacheth in the first to the Corinthians, Chap. 14. where he bringeth in God speaking thus by his Prophet Esay. 
Esay 25.11.  I will speak to this people by men of another tongue, and by strange lips, and thus they shall not understand, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign not unto believers, but unto infidels. This threatening is fulfilled in the Church of Rome; wherein God punisheth the hardness of men's hearts by speaking unto them in a tongue which they understand not.  
FOUR In this matter this maxim taken out of the nature of man, and from the intention of the creature ought to be laid for the foundation; namely, that the tongue was given unto man to be the interpreter of his thoughts, and messenger of his conceptions. Whence it followeth that to use the tongue to a contrary end, and to speak to the end to be not understood, is to turn nature topsy turvy and quite to overthrow her; and as much as in us lieth to frustrate the Creator of his intention: and to change humane speech into an unprofitable Echo, and into a sound beating the air. Now if this be true in him which speaketh to others in a tongue which he understandeth not, it is yet more true in him which is understood neither by himself nor by another.  
V Out of the self same maxim, it followeth that when the Priest speaketh Latin in the Church, he ought to speak to be understood by some body. Our adversaries must tell us, whether he speak to be understood by the assistants, or to be understood by himself, or to be understood by God, for there is no fourth. Now he speaketh not to be understood of the bystanders, seeing he speaketh so very low, and in a tongue which the people understand not: and beside, in private Masses he speaketh alone and without any assistants: Besides he speaketh not to be understood of God; for God understands us without our speaking, though we speak not at all, and before we open our mouths: nor can it rather be said, that the Priest in the Mass speaketh to the end to be understood by himself, for he knew his own thought before he spoke: speech was given man not to inform himself in his own thoughts, but to the end to make it known to another; he is utterly beside himself that speaketh to himself, to the end, to understand himself.  
VI Add hereunto, that in many places of the Mass, the Priest speaketh to the people, saying unto them, Oremus, etc. and Orate pro me fratres, etc. and many other such like things, wherein the Priest bids the people ask of God such and such things, and to join their prayers with his: but the people have no mind to obey that his commandment, not so much as knowing what the Priest bids them do; the people might justly say to him, make us understand thee, if thou wilt be obeyed.  
VII. Wherefore in the Church of the Old Testament, the whole public service was performed in the vulgar tongue; and the prayers which Aaron and his Successors made for the Hebrew people were made in the Hebrew tongue: which after the captivity of Babylon being corrupted, yet was still understood by the people, as we will show hereafter.  
VIII. Our Lord jesus Christ instituted and celebrated the holy Supper amongst his Disciples in the vulgar tongue, and that which was understood by the assistants; his will was, that when the faithful shall eat of that bread, and drink of that cup, they show forth the Lords death until he come again. 1 Cor. 11. ver. 26. Now this is not to show forth a thing, to propound it in an unknown tongue, not understood.  
IX. To this very self same end he gave unto his Apostles the gift of diverse tongues, to the end, that in all nations they might establish the service of God in the tongue of the country, and that in every tongue God might be served, in such sort, that the diversity of tongues which at the building of Babel was a curse, at the building of the Church is become a blessing.  
X. The Apostles followed their Master's example; for the Apostle writing to the Corinthians, that were Grecians, gave them in their own tongue the form of the Celebration of the holy Supper. 1 Cor. 11.  
XI. Would jesus Christ who is the light of the world come to plunge it in darkness, and to make things more obscure? And God having spoken to his people by Moses in a tongue understood, would he now wrap and enfold up himself in darkness by propounding his Word, and by giving his Sacraments in a barbarous and an unknown tongue?  
XII. But that which is yet of more strength in this matter, and which clearly decides, and fully determins this controversy, is the authority of the Apostle Saint Paul, who employed the 14. Chapter of his 1. Epistle to the Corinthians, in a manner wholly to condemn the use of strange tongues, and not understood in the Church. If (saith he) the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall be prepared to the war? So likewise you, except you utter words which may be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For ye shall speak unto the air, and a little after. Wherefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be a barbarian to him that speaketh, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian to me: and a little after: If thou bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the place of the unlearned, say Amen, at thy giving of thankes; saying, he understandeth not what thou sayest? Thou verily givest thankes well, but another is not thereby edified. Whereupon he concludeth, I had rather in the Church speak five words with my understanding, that I may teach others also then ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.  

Du Perron against the King of great Britain, book 6. chap. 1. p. 109. the word tongue in S. Paul, signifieth an unknown tongue.  XIII. Mounsieur du Perron answereth, that Saint Paul speaketh not of an unknown tongue which was in the Church, but of tongues infused and miraculous. This I willingly agree to, for this augments the force of that place against the ordinary service in an unknown tongue. For these miraculous gifts of tongues were rare, and given unto some Christians for a small time; to the end to declare the power of God, and by consequent the use of them in the Church brought with them a benefit, which the Mass in Latin cannot bring. Nevertheless, the Apostle forbids them the use of this miraculous gift in the Church, unless they interpret them instantly; because he will have nothing spoken in the Church which is not understood. How much more condemns he a strange language in the ordinary service, wherein that extraordinary evil which the Apostle would avoid, would become ordinary? The Apostle forbids not an unknown tongue in the Church, for that it is miraculous: but because it is not understood, and because that he which speaketh is a barbarian to him that heareth him; & because that is not understood, which is spoken, & because it is to speak in the air, & because the people cannot say Amen to the thanksgiving, they understand not; and because that they that hear are not thereby edified, which are truly reasons of moment: be it that he which speaks in an unknown tongue in the Church, have learned that tongue by miracle or by study, the question here is not of the manner by which a tongue is learned, but of the people's instruction. Saint Paul had learned without miracle the Hebrew tongue; and yet for all that would he not celebrate at Corinth, or at Rome the holy Supper amongst the Gentiles, in the Hebrew tongue; in a word he gives two general rules and without exception. The one it is better to speak in the Church five words understood, than ten thousand not understood. The other, it is a curse of God, when he speaketh to a people in a tongue they understand not.  
XIV. Others go about to escape by another way. They say that Saint Paul speaks not of the ordinary service which is said in the Church, but of certain hymns and spiritual songs. In speaking thus they would persuade us, that such hymns ought to be pronounced in a tongue understood, but that the rest of the service was said in a tongue not understood by the Corinthians, but this they know to be false. It being a thing well known, that in Greece the public service was ever performed and said in Greek, and is so said yet to this day. So that if such hymns and spiritual songs ought to be pronounced in a tongue understood, then much more the ordinary prayers and the reading of God's Word, whence the people receive more edification.  
XV. But it is easy for us to prove that the Apostle in this place speaketh of another matter then of hymns and spiritual songs. For when he saith that strange tongues are for a sign, not unto the believers, but unto unbelievers: and ranketh that amongst the threatenings and curses of God; when God threatens to speak to a people in a strange tongue, to the end, not to be understood; it is clear that he speaketh not of hymns or songs in which men speak unto God, but of the Word of God, which is directed unto men.  
XVI. And when the Apostle saith, that he had rather speak five words in the Church understood to instruct others, than ten thousand in a tongue, it is evident he speaketh of whatsoever is spoken in the Church.  
XVII. And these words, If I know not what is signified by the words, I shall be a barbarian to him that speaketh, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me; are they not also as true in him that readeth the Scriptures in public, as in him that pronounceth hymns? For barbarians are all they esteemed, whose tongue one understands not: and this is it that Ovid saith of himself being banished among the Geteses. 
Ovid Tri●●ium lib. 5. Eleg. 10.   
Barbarus hîc ego sum quia non intelligor ulli.  
Et rident stolidi verba Latina Getae.  
XVIII. Moreover, when the Priest pronounceth prayers in the Mass, and the people understand not so much as one word of them; may we not, and ought we not to apply unto him the Apostles sentence: how shall he which occupieth the place of the unlearned, say Amen unto thy giving of thankes? for he knoweth not what thou sayest.  
chrysostom commenting on this place, understood it as we do. For he brings in the Apostle speaking thus: 
a Chrys. Hom. 35. in 1. ad Corinth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  If I speak not the thing to you, which may be understood by you, and which may be plain and evident unto you: but show you only that I have the gift of tongues, when you have heard strange tongues, you shall go your way from me without any benefit at all thereby. For what profit can there redound to you from a voice you understand not?  
Saint Ambrose in his commentary on this place, hath given it the very same sense. 
b Si utique ad aedificandam Ecclesiam conveneritis, ea debent dici quae intelligant audientes Nam quid prodest ut quis loquatur lingua quam solus scit, ut qui audit nih●l proficiat? etc.  If (saith he) you meet together to edify the Church, those things must be delivered which the Auditors understand: for to what purpose or profit is it that any one speak a tongue which he himself only understands, and whereof he that heareth can reap no fruit? and a little after 
c In Ecclesia volo qumque verba loqui per legem, ut & alios aedificem quam prolixam orationem habere in obscuro.  The Apostle saith, I had rather speak five words in the Church according to the law, that I edify withal others, than any long and large discourse with obscurity.  
Saint Hierome in his commentary on this place, 
d Omnis sermo qui non intelligitur barbarus iudicatur.  Every word which is not understood is adjudged barbarous. And in the same place, 
e Ibid. Si quis incognitis aliis linguis loquatur, mens eius non ipsi efficitur fine fructu, sed audienti: quic quid enim dicitur ignorat.  if any man speak in a tongue not understood unto another, his spirit is unfruitful, not to himself, but unto his hearer, for he understands not what is heard.  
Basil in his Ascepticks is very express for this point, in his 278. answer of his brief definitions. He asks, 
f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  what is this that the spirit of a man prayeth, but his understanding is without fruit? Then he answers it. This was spoken [by the Apostle] touching those that make their prayers in an unknown tongue unto them that hear them; for he saith, if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is without fruit. For when the words of the prayer are unknown to them that are there present, his understanding that prayeth is without fruit, not profiting at all. But when the assistants understand the prayer, which may profit them which hear, than he which prayeth hath this fruit, namely, the bettering of those that have thereby profited. And so it fareth with ALL, and with whatsoever is delivered out of the Word of God. For it is written, if there be any word profitable for the building up of faith. This holy man understands this place of the Apostle, not only of hymns or songs, but of all prayer, and of all reading and pronouncing of the Word of God.  
And concerning this we have a law of the Emperor justinian which is in Nouvelle 123. in the Greek Editions in these words, 
g Ad haec iubemus ut omnes Episcopi pariter & Presbyteri non tacito modo, sed clara voce quae à fideli populo exandiatur sacram oblationem & preces in sancto baptismate ad hibitas celebrent, quo maiore exinde devotione in depromendis Dei laudibus audientum animi efferantur. Ita enim & Divus Apostolus docet 1. ad Cor. epist  we will and command that all Bishops and Priests celebrate the sacred oblation, and the prayers thereunto added in holy Baptism not in a low voice, but with a loud and clear voice which may be understood by the faithful people, that thereby the minds of the hearers may be raised up with greater devotion to set forth the praises of the Lord God. For so teacheth the holy Apostle in the first to the Corinthians. This Imperial law is extant in the Greek Copies of Haloander, and is alleged by Cassander the Divine of Cologne, and is acknowledged by Cardinal Bellarmine in his 2. book of the Mass, Chap. 12. Whence detestable is the fraud and perversity of those that have razed it out of the Latin versions of justinian.  
Hereunto Bellarmine answers, that it belongs not to the Emperor to give laws touching sacred matters. But if this N be not received for a law, at the least it serveth for a testimony of the custom of the Church in the Roman Empire unto the time of this Emperor, who died about the year of our Lord 165.  
He saith also that commandment is only given to the Greek Churches: This Cardinal could not be ignorant that the City of Rome, and the Bishop thereof were then in the Emperor justinian's Subjection, which might appear by the same Nouvel; in the which, the Bishop of Rome is taxed by the Emperor at four thousand Crowns for his entrance into his charge, and the other Patriarches at three thousand: For then the Bishops of the principal Seas, paid first fruits to the Emperor, and the same Emperor created two Bishops of Rome, namely, Silverius, and Vigilius.  
In a word, this passage of the Apostle Saint Paul of the 14. Chapter of the 1. to the Corinthians; wherein is condemned the use of strange tongues in the Church, doth so rack our Adversaries, that some of them of better conscience let fall from them a voluntary condemnation thereof.  
Nicholas de Lyra in his notes on this Chapter speaketh thus: 
a Hic consequenter idem o●●endit in oratione publica, quia si populus intelligat orationem seu benedictionem sacerdotis, melius reducitur in Deum, & devotius respondet Amen.  Hear consequently the Apostle showeth the same concerning public prayer, for that if the people understand the prayer and blessing of the Priest, they are the more easily carried on to think on God, and to answer more devoutly Amen. Also, if the Priest bless in mind, that is to say, without being understood of the people, what benefit reap the simple people that understand him not?  
Anselme whom the Pope hath Canonised for a Saint, in his exposition on this Chapter. 
b Bonum est quod joqueris, sed alter non aedificatur in verbis tuis quae non intelligit. Ideo cum ad Ecclesiam propter aedificationem conveniatis, ea debent in Ecclesia dici quae intelligantur ab hominibus, & praestent aedificationem audientibus.  That which thou sayest is good, but another is not edified by thy words, which he understands not; therefore seeing you are assembled together in the Church for edification, there must be nothing spoken in the Church, but what is understood by the people, and may bring edification to the hearers.  
Thomas the chief of the Schoolmen in his commentary upon this very Chapter of the Apostle, in the fourth Lect: findeth himself so puzzled, that at the last he is fain to say, that this commandment of the Apostle was good for the Primitive Church, but that now it is no more in practice, because the faithful are better instructed. 
c Sed cue are non dantur benedictiones in vulgari, ut intelligatur à populo, & conforment se magis eyes? R. Dicendum est quod hoc forte fuit in Ecclesia primitiva, sed postquam fideles instructi sunt & sciunt quae audiunt in communi officio, fiunt benedictiones in Latino.  Wherefore (saith he) are not the blessings given in the vulgar tongue, that the people might understand them, and conform themselves the better unto them? His answer is; We must say, that it may be this was done in the Primitive Church, but since, the people were afterward instructed, and knew what they heard in the Common service, the blessings were delivered in Latin. And in his fifth Lect: he saith, that in the Primitive Church, it had been a folly to pray in an unknown tongue, because men were rude, but that now all are instructed, wherein he much deceiveth himself. For never were the people more ignorant than they were in the time of this Thomas, and in the two hundred years following And even now that the Scripture is set forth to the sight, and that learning flourisheth, scarce of an hundred persons of the Church of Rome, shall there be found two, that know what is contained in the Mass, or that so much as take the pains once to inquire after it.  
Harding a great defender of Popery in England, in his 3. Article of his disputation against jewel in the 30. Section hath followed the impiety of Thomas, speaking thus. 
d Hardin. Art. 3. Sect. 30. Quod autem Divus Paulus morem precandi lingua in Ecclesia tanquam fructus & aedificationi● ex pertem improbare videtur, & quinque verba aut sententias intellectas & perceptas, ex quibus reliquus populus instituatur decem mil libus pe reg●ino incognito sermone pronuntiatis anteponere, ista omnia ad illorum temporum conditionem referenda sunt, quae hodierno Ecclesiae statui longè dissimilis est.  As for that it seemeth that Saint Paul disalloweth prayer made in the Church in an unknown tongue, as being fruitless, and without edification, and that he preferreth five words or sentences understood wherewith the people might be instructed, before ten thousand pronounced in a strange tongue and not understand; all things ought to be referred to the condition of those times, which is very unlike to the estate of the Church of this time. Mark this audacious boldness and impiety, which hews down the authority of God's Word even by the very root. For if it be permitted unto men to say, that was the law at the beginning, and so they were taught in the time of the Apostles; but now this is changed, and the Church being better tutored doth otherways. What remains there but to change the whole Word of God? And to give the Pope authority to cashier God's laws, and to pluck God out of his throne to set up the Pope above God?  
Cardinal Cajetan was ashamed of this: For in his commentary upon the fourteenth of the first to the Corinthians, he speaketh as one desiring, that the Latin were banished out of the public service, and that it were performed in the vulgar. 
e Ex hac Pauli ùoctrina habetur quod melius ad aedificationem Ecclesiae est orationes publicas quae audiente populo dicuntur dici lingua communi clericis & populo quam dici Latiné.  By this doctrine of Saint Paul (saith he) it is to be gathered, that it is better for the edification of the Church, that the public prayers which are said in the hearing of the people, were said in a tongue common as well to the Clergy as to the people, then to say it in the Latin. Which is a very notable confession of a Cardinal of so great authority in the Church of Rome.   

CHAP. VI Proof hereof even by the example of the Church of the old Testament.  
BY what hath been hitherto said, it appeareth that in this question concerning a tongue not understood, which is used in the public service, we have the Word of God, and reason, and the confession of our Adversaries on our side. Whereunto we must add the example of the ancient Church, as well of the old as of the new Testament, which ought to serve us for a rule.  
I. To fetch the matter from the beginning: God gave his law in a tongue understood: and the form of prayers and blessings, which God prescribed to Aaron to make before the people, was in the vulgar tongue of God's people; as are those prayers and blessings which are read in the 6. of Numbers, verse 23. and following, and in the 10. Chap. ver. 35. and 36. and then of thanksgiving in the oblation of first-fruits, Deut. 26. ver. 3. and the form of prayer after the payment of Tithes in the third year, Deut. 26. ver. 13. in a word, all the public prayers which were made by the Priests or by the people, were made in a tongue understood by the people. And David dictated to the people Psalms which were sung in the Temple upon instruments of Music in the Hebrew tongue, which was the tongue used in Israel.  
II. During the captivity of Babylon, the Hebrew tongue degenerated from it purity. Notwithstanding the which, the change was not so great, but that the Hebrew tongue, in the which Moses and the Prophets writ, was still understood by the jews. Not only for that the people were exercised in the reading and hearing of those books, as well in their private houses, as in the Synagogues every Sabbath; but also for that the corruption was not so great, but that the common people easily understand the Hebrew, by reason of the proximity and near resemblance between the jewish and the Hebrew tongue. Whence also in the new Testament the judaique tongue is often called the Hebrew; as in 27. of Saint Matthew, verse 33. where Golgotha, which is a word of the judaique tongue, is said to be an Hebrew word: but the Hebrews say Golgoleth, that is to say, scalp or scull, and in the Chap. 19 of Saint john, verse 19 it is said that Gabbatha in Hebrew signifieth pavement, although Gabbatha be a Syrian word. For that the jews after their return from the captivity of Babylon, understood the Hebrew tongue, and the Text of the books of the Law, appears by the 8. Chapter of Nehemiah, ver. 2. where it is said that Esdras the Priest brought the law before the congregation of men and women, and of all them of hearing; and it is added that Esdras read in the book in the presence of the men and of the women, and of as many as were capable to understand: and the ears of the people were attentive to the reading. This could not be done in the Church of Rome, in the which the Deacon reads the Gospel, and the Subdeacon reads the Epistle in Latin before women, peisants, and tradesmen, that understand them not, and consequently cannot be attentive thereunto.  
The exposition which the Levites added unto this Lecture, which is mentioned in the Sequel, was not to interpret the terms thereof into another tongue, but to expound the meaning and sense of them, as Nicholas de Lyra acknowledgeth upon the 8. of Nehemiah. 
f Esdras legit in eo aperté, id est intelligibiliter declarando ea quae videbantur obscura. jospehus  Esdras read in the book plainly, that is to say, intelligibly, opening and declaring the things which seemed obscure.  
III. 
g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc.  josephus in his 12. and in his 16. Chapter of his book of the Empire of reason, describes the Martyrdom of seven brethren, and of their mother, by the cruelty of King Antiochus th'illustrious: and saith, that the mother exhorted her children, and especially the youngest to die constantly for the law of God, and that she spoke to them in the Hebrew tongue. It is to be presumed she spoke in Hebrew that she might not be understood by Antiochus, who was a Grecian: and seeing she spoke thus to the youngest and least, it appears that then amongst the jews, even women and children spoke Hebrew.  
FOUR In the fourth Chapter of Saint Luke, verse 16. and following; our Lord jesus being in the Synagogue of Nazareth, taketh the book of the Prophet Esay, and reads before the people a long passage of Esay: then addeth, This day is accomplished this Scripture which you hear: which words do witness that the auditors and bystanders well understood the words of that place. Is it credible, that in the Synagogues of the jews the Scriptures were read in a tongue not understood, seeing that in the Scriptures God speaks to the people to the end to be understood.  
V In the 22. of the Acts verse 2. the Apostle Saint Paul makes an oration to the jews in the Hebrew tongue, which made them the more attentive: Which he would not have done if they had not understood it. And this Apostle would not have spoken to a people in a tongue not understood: as also the sequel of the Chapter, especially the 22. verse, showeth that the jews understood him very well.   

CHAP. VII. That the Primitive Christian Church thorough out the whole world, used a tongue understood in the public service.  
HEre we have for us the whole Primitive Church. It is a thing without all contestation, and witnessed by the Ancients, that every country and nation, even unto the most barbarous, had the holy Scriptures translated into their vulgar tongues, to the end, that the people might be instructed by the reading of them. chrysostom in the first Homily upon the 8. of Saint john. 
a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  The Syrians, Egyptians, Indians, Persians, Ethiopians, and infinite other nations having translated into their tongues, the instructions propounded by him, (to wit by Saint john) being barbarous people have learned to be lovers of wisdom. And Theodoret in his 5. Sermon of the means how to correct the indispositions of the Grecians. 
b Theod. Graec. affectionum curationis Sermon. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc.  The Hebrew hath not only been translated into Greek, but into the Latin, into the Egyptian, Persian, Indian, Armenian, Scythique, yea and even into the Polonian: and to speak in a word, into all languages, which the nations use at this day.  
Saint Hierome translated the Bible into the Dalmatick tongue, as himself witnesseth in his Epistle to 
c Hieron. Sophronio. Quorum translationem diligentissimè emendatam, olim meae linguae hominibus dederim.  Sophronius.  
Saint Augustnie in his book of Christian doctrine Chap. 5. 
d Ex quo factum est, ut etiam Script●ra Divina, qua tauti● mor bis humanarum voluntatum subvenitur, ab una lingua pro fecta, quae opportunè potuit per totum orbem disseminari, per varias inter pretum linguas longè latéque diffusa innotesceret Gentibus ad salutem.  Hence came it that the holy Scriptures which cures such a number of the diseases of man's will, having begun to be set forth in a tongue which might fitly be dispersed abroad thorough the whole earth, was manifested to the nations unto salvation, being spread abroad fare and wide, by the means of the diverse tongues of sundry interpreters.  
And Vlfilas a Bishop of the Goths translated the holy Scriptures into the Gothique tongue, 
Sozom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  as Sozomene witnesseth in his 6. book of his history, Chap. 37.  
We may be bold to avouch that the holy Scriptures were very common among the common people, seeing that Saint Hierome in the Epistle to Laeta, exhorteth her to exercise her daughter Paula in the reading of the holy Scriptures, and commends Fabiola 
e Deus bone, quo illa feruore, quo studio intenta erat divinis voluminibus.  for her diligence in the reading of the holy Scriptures, those sacred books especially the Prophets, and the Evangelists, and the Psalms. So chrysostom in his 3. Homily of Lazarus, and in the Homily 2. upon Saint Matthew, and in the 3. upon the 2. to the Thessalonians, and often elsewhere, exhorteth tradesmen, women, simple Idiots to the often and careful reading of the holy Scriptures.  
The Epistle unto the Virgin Demetrias, which is the 142. amongst the Epistles of Saint Augustine, in the 23. Chap. 
f Ita Scripturas sanctas lege, ut semper memineris Dei illa verba esse. Athanas. Tomo 2. p. 249▪ adver. eos qui nec quae rendum, nec loquendum ex Scriptura praecipiunt. Edit. Commel.  So read the holy Scriptures, that thou remember evermore that they are the words of God.  
Athanasius 2. Tom. page 249. saith, that the Heretics dissuaded the people from the Scriptures, saying, they were not of easy access, but (saith he) the truth is; It is because they fly from being reproved by them.  
All this presupposeth that the Scripture in the vulgar tongue, was in the hands of the people: for otherwise the exhortation to read them had been vain and ridiculous.  
This Scripture was read in the Church in a tongue understood by the people, as appeareth in these words, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  frequent in the Homilies of the Fathers both Greek and Latin, As it was read to you to day, this had been a great absurdity to put the people in mind of a reading, wherein they had understood nothing.  
Sulpitive Severus in the life of Saint Martin reciteth, 
Inter Episcopos qui affuerant praecipué Defensor quidam nomine dicitur restitisse, etc. Nam cum fortuitu lector, cui legendi eo die officium erat, interclusus à populo d● fuisset turbatis ministris, dum expectatur qui non aderat, unus è circumstantibus sumpto Psalterio, quem primum versum invenit artipuit: Psalmus autem hic erat, ex ore infantium, etc.  that one called Defensor opposed himself against the receiving of Saint Martin into his Bishopric, saying, that he was a gross and sordid fellow, but when one day as in the absence of the Deacon, one of the people taking up the Psalter, began to read in the Church the 8. Psalm, where it is said, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast established thy praise, because of thine enemies, to destroy the enemy and avenger. Whereupon was raised a cry of the people against this Defensor: believing that, that Lecture so fell out to be read by the very providence of God.  
Our Adversaries themselves acknowledge that in the Church of the Apostles and many ages after; the service and the prayers were made and performed in a tongue understood by the people. Lyranus upon the 14. Chapter of the first to the Corinthians, 
In Primitivae Ecclesia benedictiones & caetera omnia fiebant in vulgari.  In the Primitive Church blessings and all other things were done in the vulgar tongue. We have heard before Thomas Aquinas, and Harding the Englishman, who acknowledge that in the Primitive Church men prayed in a tongue understood, but they say, that it was good for that season and time, but that afterwards that custom was changed, because the people are better instructed.  
Lactantius in his 5. book of divine Institutions in the 20. Chapter, derides the Pagans who conceal their mysteries from the people fearing to be mocked, and lest their error should come to be known. 
a Hinc fida silentia sacris instituta sunt ab hominibus callidis ut populus nesciat quid colat.  Hence it cometh (saith he) that subtle men have taken order that there should be kept a faithful silence and nothing should be made known of their sacred service, lest the people should know what they worship.  
Saint Augustine in his book of the Master, 1. Chapter. When 
b August. lib de Magistro c. 1. Quare non opus est locutione cum oramus, id est sonantibus verbis, nisi fortè sicut sacerdotes faciunt significandae mentis suae causa Non ut Deus sed ut homines audiant.  we pray (saith he) there is no need of of words, that is to say, of words which are sounded forth, unless it be as the Priests do, to make the people understand their minds and conceptions, not that God should hear them, but that men might hear them.  
In the Council of Lateran held under Innocent the III. in the year 1215. in the 9 chapter is extant this ordinance or Canon. 
e Queniam in plerisque partib intra eandem civitatem atque dioecesim permixti sunt populi diversarum linguarum habentes sub una fide varios ritus & mo●es, districtè praecipimus, ut Pontifices hujusmodi civit●tum sive dioecesum provideant vi●os idoneos qui secundum diversitatem rituum & ling●arum di●●●a officia illis celebre●●, & Ecclesiastica Sacramenta ministrent, instruendo cos verbo pariter & exemplo.  For as much as in most parts in one & the same City or Diocese, the people of divers tongues are blended and mixed together, having under one and the same faith, sundry Ceremony and rites we straight charge & command, that the Bishops of such towns or Dioceses provide men fit, who may celebrate divine service according to the diversity of ceremonies and tongues, and administer the Sacraments of the Church, instructing them both by word and example. Behold here a Council which our Adversaries reckon amongst the General Councils to be one of them, authorised by the presence and approbation of so renowned a Pope, who not only permits, but withal commands to celebrate the divine service in another tongue, then in the Latin amongst people of divers tongue; and observe that he speaketh of people diverse in language, but agreeing in faith. That it might not be thought, that he spoke only of the Greeks and Latins, who at that time were already of divers beliefs, and separated in Communion one from the other, and this not only in some few places, 
In plerisque partibus.  but in most parts and places.  
Isidore in his first book of Ecclesiastical Offices, Chap. 10. 
e Est autem lectio non parua audientium aedificatio. Vnde oportet ut quando psallitur, ab omnibus psallatu●: cum oratur, oretur ab omnibus. Quando lectio legitur facto silentio aequè audiatur à cunctis.  Reading is no small edification to them that hear. Whence it is meet, that when the Psalms are said or sung, they should be said or sung by all, and when prayer is said, it should be said by all, and when reading is in hand, that it be heard with reverend silence of all.  
And yet even unto this day in the Church of Rome, the order of reading is conferred by the Bishop, pronouncing to him these words: 
f Studete verba Dei, videlicet lectiones sacr●s distinctè & ane●rè ad intelligentiam & aedificationem fidelium ab que omni me●dacio falsitatis proffer, etc. quatenus auditores vestros verbo patiter & exemplo vestro docere possitis.  Study you to pronounce the words of God, that is, to say the sacred lessons, distinctly and plainly, to the end, that the faithful may understand them, and be edified by them, without all error of falsehood: And alitle after, In such sort that you may instruct your Auditors both by word, and by example. This is found extant in the Pontifical, deformed by Pope Clement the Eighth, in the Chapt: of the ordination of Readers. This form of ordination is ancienter than the abuse which crept in afterward: And I wonder at this, that the said Pope having corrected many things in the Pontifical, caused not this clause utterly to be expunged and put out, which enwraps and infolds in flat perjury the readers of the Church of Rome, who are bound in their ordination to read in such sort and manner that the faithful may understand their readings, and that they may edify their hearers: for in making them read the Scriptures in Latin, they bereave them of the means to accomplish that promise, which they have made unto God.  
Wherefore john Bellet in his recital of Cassander in his Sum of divine Offices, in the Prologue, after he had commended the custom of the Primitive Church, wherein it was not permitted any thing should be spoken in the Church in a strange language, without a present addition of the interpretation thereof; he addeth: 
g Quid autem in nostris temporibus est agendum? ubi nullus vel rarus invenitur legens vel audiens quod intelligat? videns vel agens quod a●●maduertat? jam videtur esse completum quod à Propheta dict ur: Et erit sacerdos quasi de populo unus. Videtur ergò potiù● ess● tacendum quam psallendum: potiùs silendum quam tripudiandum.  What cou●se must we take in these our times, wherein either none, or but very few are found, that understand what they read, or what they hear? that seethe, or practiseth what they observe? now seemeth to be come to pass that which was said by the Prophet; The Priest shall be as one of the people. It seemeth then that it were better to be silent, then to sing, and rather to hold our peace then to danse. Thus derided he the singing and mimic gestures of the Priest.  
All the Churches of the world, which are not subject to the Pope, yea and even some of them which are subject to him are for us in this point. For in Greece the service is said in Greek, and by more than a thousand years after jesus Christ the tongue of the liturgy was the vulgar tongue; and now whereas by the empire of the Turks, and by the abolishing of schools and learning the tongue is altered, yet so it is, that the vulgar Greek is not so fare corrupted, that the Greek of the liturgy is not understood of the people: and if it were otherwise, yet so it is that the example of antiquity by the space of a thousand years & upward, aught to be more considerable with us, than the corruption of but yesterday birth.  
Cassiodore who writ about the year 520. or 530. of our Lord, hath an excellent passage upon this subject, upon the Psalm 44. 
h Perscrutemur cur Ecclesia Dei de vestis varietate laudetur, cui totum simplex convenit atque unum. Sed hic varietatem aut linguas multiplices significat, quia omnes gen tes secundum suam patriam in Ecclesia psallunt, ut authori virtutum pulcherimam diversitatem demonstrent.  Let us carefully seek out, why the Church of God is praised and commended for her variety of party coloured garments. But here this signifieth the variety, or diversity of tongues for that all nations said the Psalter in the Church according to their several tongues of their countries to show forth unto the author of virtues a most beautiful diversity.  
Harding 
i Hardingus lib. de precibus linguae perego. Sect. 38. Quae gentes preces publicas vernaculo semper sermone habuerunt, etc. quales sunt Moscovitae, Armenij, & Aethiops, etc. Ruscianis, Moravis, alijsque quibusdam any 600. ab hinc annos permissum fuit ut Missam lingua Dalmatica celebrarent.  acknowledgeth that the Muscovites, Armenians, and Ethiopians have ever had their public prayers in their vulgar tongue, and that to the Russians, Moravians, and to other people it was permitted from about 600. years to have the service in the Dalmatick tongue.  
The Churches of the Abyssines or Ethiopians have their service in the Ethiopian tongue, as witnesseth Francis Aluares a Portugal Monk, who lived seven years in the Court of the Great Neguz of Ethiope in his 3. Chap. of his Ethiopian History. 
k Et in tanto consecra nella sua lingua con le proprie nostre parole, & non la lieva. Et il medesimo fa nel chalice, & non l'alza. Dice sopra quello le proprie nostre parolo nella sua lingua.  Only (saith he) he consecrates in his own with our very words, and he makes no elevation, he doth the same over the cup, and elevates it not, and saith over the same our very words in his own tongue. Cassander in his Liturgicks hath translated these very words of Alvares into Latin.  
Who also in the 15. Chapter of the same book, cities the commentaries of Sigismond Liber De rebus Muscoviticis, speaking thus. 
l In singulis templis unicum tantum altar, & in dies singulos unum quod que sacrum faciendum putant. To tum sacrum seu Missa gentili ac vernacula lingua apud illos peragi solet.  The Muscovites have but one altar in every temple, and think that every day they ought to celebrate once the Sacrament and all the service, where the service is used to be said in the country language and vulgar tongue.  
In a word, no Church, nor people had divine service in Latin, saving they that are subject to the Pope. Nay there will be some Churches found, which obey him, the which yet in this point would never be conformable to the Church of Rome. Bellarmine in his revisalls of the books de verbo Dei, acknowledgeth that among the Muscovites, and Armenians, and Maronites, there are some Roman Catholics, that have not their public service in Latin.  
The Custom of the Ancient Church, as well in the East, as in the West, was that the Priest and the people answered one another, the Priest saying, Lift up your hearts on high; and the people answering, We lift them up to the Lord. The Priest saying, the Lord be with you; and the people answering, And with thy spirit: and every where saying, Amen to the prayers of the Priest with a great noise, as it were a thunder, as appeareth in the Liturgies attributed to Basil, & to chrysostom, and Hierome in his preface upon the second book of the Epistle to the Calathians, saith 
m Ad similitudinem coelestis tonit●ui Amen reboat.  that at Rome the (peoles) Amen echoed like the thunder from heaven. Which Bellarmine in his 26. Chapter of his second book of the Word of God. 
n Tunc quia Christiani erant pauci omnes simul psallebant in Ecclesia, & respondebant in divinis officij: at postea crescente populo divisa sunt magis officia & solis clericis relictum est ut communes & preces & laudes in Ecclesia peragant.  Then (saith he) because the Christians were but few in number, all did sing together in the Church, and answered one another in the divine service. But afterwards the people increasing, the divine service was more separated and divided, and was reserved and sequestered to the Clergy men only to say in the Church common prayers and praises. This he saith, according to his wont fidelity, for he knew well enough that the most populous Churches that were ever in the world, were the Churches of Constantinople, and of Rome in the fourth and fifth Ages: in the which these responds of the people were made, as well as in the less frequented, and wherein all the service was done in the vulgar tongue. Besides this is not to divide a service, but rather to have reduced the people to silence, and not to permit any to speak but the Clergy.  
I say then that these answers of the people are an evident proof, that the people understood that which the Pastor said, for otherwise how could they have made answer to words not understood? But this custom ceased in the Church of Rome, when the people lost their understanding of divine service, the Priest being become a barbarian to the people, the people likewise became mute and deaf to the words of the Priest.  
And hereupon it is to the purpose to take into our consideration the words of the jesuit Salmeron in his commentary upon the first to the Corinthians, Chap. 14. 
o Disp. 22. §. Ac subdit Ne benedicens sacerdos dicat, Ego quidem intelligo, & gratis ago peregrina lingua, respondet Apostolus [At alter non aedificatur] id est inde nullam derivari aedificationem Ecclesiae, cuius imprimis ratio habenda erat. Nam omnia tunc ad aedificationem Ecclesiae fieri solebant, ut docet Apostolus, ita ut nolit ullas preces publicas, in Ecclesia celebrari ignoto prorsus sermone.  Lest the Priest that gives the blessing, might say, I understand well what I say, when I give thankes in a strange tongue; The Apostle tells him, YEA BUT ANOTHER IS NOT edified THEREBY, that is to say, there redounds not thence any edification to the Church, unto which chief and above all there should regard be had. For then AT THAT TIME ought all things to be done to the edification and consolation of the Church, as the Apostle teacheth, in such sort, that he will not have any public prayer to be made in the Church in a tongue which is not understood of all. Now if this was the Apostles decree, as this jesuit acknowledgeth, who gave the Pope power to change it? and to forbid to perform divine service in vulgar tongues? as Bellarmine acknowledgeth, saying, 
p Bellar. lib. 2. de verbo Dei c. 15. §. At Catholica. Prohibetur ne in publico & communi usu Ecclesiae scripturae legantur vel canantur vulgaribus linguis.  is it forbidden to read or sing the Scriptures in the Church in the vulgar tongue? But if in the Apostles times all the public prayers ought to be said in a tongue understood, because (saith this Doctor) all things ought to be done to the edification and consolation of the Church; have not we now the same necessity at this day? and should the now Pastors of the Church have less care of the edification of the Church?  
Wherefore when the Council of Trent 
q Si quis dixerit lingua tantùm vulgari Missam celebrari debere anathema fit.  in the 9 Canon of the XXII. Session anathematised, and scorched and overcast with thunderbolts all those that say, that the Eucharist which they call the Mass, aught to be celebrated in the vulgar tongue; do they not include and enwrap the Apostle Saint Paul, and the Prophets and the Apostles, and the whole ancient and Primitive Church in this excommunication?  
Sixtus Senensis in his sixth book of his Bibliothek in the Annotation 263. to refute Cardinal Caietan, who saith, that public prayers ought rather to be said in a tongue understood, then in Latin, allegeth Ambrose de Compsa, who 
r Miratus sum Caietanum non esse deterritum à fructu huiusmodi traditionis, quae primum à Luthero, immò à diabolo in Luthero loquente inventa est.  saith, that this tradition was invented by Luther, or rather by the devil that spoke in Luther: in the mean while Luther hath taught in this point, nothing else but what the Apostle Saint Paul hath taught, by the very confession even of our Adversaries, as we have proved.  
But Polidore Virgil, a learned man amongst our Adversaries, taketh up his complaint against the abuse which is committed in the Church of Rome, saying, 
s Polidor. Virgil: de Inventor. rerum lib. 6. cap. 2. Cantores nostri in templis nostris constrepunt, ut nihil praeter vocem audiatur, & qui interfunt, ejusmodi vocum concentu quo eorum aures maximè calent, contenti de vi verborum nihil curant. Vnde ventum eò est, ut omnis divini cultus ratio in istis cantoribus sita esse videatur.  Our singers make a noise in our Churches, so that nothing can be heard but their voices, and all that are present, contenting themselves with the harmony of such voices, wherewith their ears are tickled, take no care at all for the sense of their words, whence the matter is come to this pass: That amongst the people, the whole divine service consists in nothing else but in these Chanters or singers, and a great sort of the people come to Church to hear them, as it were to the Stage.  
But which is yet more, Sixtus Senensis on the place above alleged, after Ambrose de Compsa, acknowledgeth that in the Church of Rome very often the very Priests themselves understand not that which they say. 
t Illud potiùs vituperandumerat, quod solùm qui suppient locum idiotae, ●lerumque non intelligunt quid oretur, verum etiam saepenumerò nec ipsi presbyteri aut diaconi, qui orant aut legunt.  Not only (saith he) they that fill the place of the simple and unlearned understand not for the most part that which is said in the prayer, but also very often, Noah not the very Priests themselves, nor Deacons that pray or read understand them, which is a gross abuse, etc. This the 
u Du Perron in his book against the King of great Britain, book 6. chap. 1. pag. 1079.  Cardinal du Perron could not dissemble, saying, that if there be any Churchmen, that understand them not, it is their fault that gave them orders. For he was not ignorant that the Country is full of Priests, that hardly can read, so fare are they from understanding the Latin.  
Estius a Doctor of Douai in his Commentary upon the 14. Chapter of the first to the Corinthians, forbids to the utmost of his power an unknown tongue in the public service. Nevertheless this confession slipped from him. 
x Quamvis per se bonum sit ut officia divina celebrentur ea lingua quam plebs intelligat, id enim per se confert ad plebis aedisicationem, ut benè probat hic locus.  It is (saith he) a good thing of itself, that divine service should be celebrated in a tongue understood by the people: for that serveth of i● self unto the edification of the people, as it is well proved by this place of Saint Paul. And therefore Caietans' opinion being formally and abstractedly considered is true.   

CHAP. VIII. Two causes which move the Pope and his Clergy, to will that the Mass, and the whole ordinary service be said in the Latin tongue.  
Papistry is a pile or tympany rather of doctrines and ceremonies, cemented and built with admirable skill. All the subtleties and counsels & cunning sleights of humane wit have been employed in the framing of it. Whereupon it is not to be wondered at, that the Apostle styles this structure of the son of perdition the mystery of iniquity.  
In this very point, whereof we treat, the Pope and his Clergy have propounded to themselves two ends, whereof the former is to keep the people in ignorance, and to enure them to believe without knowing, and to follow their eyes being blindfolded, and to obey without all enquiry into any thing: this evidently appears in this, that they have entertained a fear, least in deed the Latin should be too well understood, and therefore have ordered that the principal parts of the Mass should be said in so low a fumbling murmur, that the Priest's voice cannot be heard; to the same end tends their forbidding to read the Scriptures. And Images, and implicit faith, and their Maxim that the Pope cannot err in the faith. For in effect his empire is founded upon the blindness of the people, and public ignorance is his firmest prop.  
The second end which the Pope propounds to himself in the establishment of the Latin tongue in the public service, hath been to plant among the nations, he hath conquered the badges and cognisances of his Empire. The custom and manner of great Monarchs', is to give their language to the people subdued by them, to the end to civilize and reclaim them unto their government. Thus did the Romans to the Gauls and Spanish, and the King of Spain ties the Indians to speak Spanish: who becoming Spanish in their language, become also such in affection. The Pope doth the like, in giving to the people he hath conquered, his tongue together with his religion. The simple people think, that their religion ought to be Romish as well as the tongue, which is used in that religion, and that the Christian faith, and the tongue came both to them from the same place.   

CHAP. IX. The third cause for the which they will not have the Mass understood by the people. The clauses of the Mass which would offend the people if they understood them.  
But the principal cause why the Pope will not have the Mass to be understood by every one, is because the Mass contains many things, which if the people understood, they would thereby be either instructed, or scandalised.  
For the Mass is full of clauses, whereof some of them are contrary to Popery, and are conformable to our Religion, others of them are clearly opposite and contrary to the doctrine of the Gospel, and some of them contrary to common sense.  
I. For example, the people should be instructed and taught not to believe the point of merits, if they understood the words of the Mass. Which condemns them, when the Priest asks of God that he would receive us into the company of the Saints: Non aestimator meriti, sed veniae largitor: Not by regarding or having any respect to our deserts, but by granting us pardon.  
II. Also the people that are taught to pray for the souls departed out of this life which broil in purgatory, would be astonished to hear the Priest pray for the deceased in these words: 
a Memento etiam, Domine, famulorum & famularum tuarum qui nos praecesserunt cum signo fidei & dormiunt in somno pacis.  Remember, Lord, thy servants, and handmaids which have gone before us with the signet and stamp of faith, and who sleep the sleep of peace. He that hath given the Priest money to pray for one of his deceased friends, at this Memento of the Mass, would say, I gave money indeed for a soul, which I believed was tormented in burning fire, but now that I perceive it sleeps in peace, I'll beware hereafter how I give any money to draw it out of torment.  
III. So the poor people being taught to believe, that after the words of consecration the bread is transubstantiated into the body of our Lord, and that, that which the Priest holds between his hands, is not bread, but the natural body of jesus Christ, would be much amazed to hear the Priest say these words over the consecrated Host: Per quem [Christum] haec omnia, Domine, semper bona creas, sanctificas, vivificas, benedicis, & praestas nobis. By the which jesus Christ, o Lord, thou createst for us daily all these good things thou sanctifiest them, and dost bless them, and dost bestow them upon us. For he would think it very strange, that the Priest calls the body of jesus Christ, all these good things: and that the Priest says, that God creates daily jesus Christ, seeing that God creates only the things which had no being before they were created: and that God doth no more create the glorious body of his Son jesus Christ, and that it is a great abuse to say that God doth always create a thing, which is always in its perfection. He would wonder, hearing that the Priest saith, that God daily quickens jesus Christ, as if every moment God raised him up again. And scruples would arise in the minds of the people, hearing the Priest say these words unto God. Per Christum haec omomnia bona creas & praestas nobis, thou createst for us, and bestowest and conferrest upon us all these good things by jesus Christ: for he that hath any liberty of judgement, would say in himself. A man may well say, that these good things which the Priest hath before him, are not jesus Christ himself, seeing God gives us them by and thorough jesus Christ. And God doth not create nor quicken jesus Christ by jesus Christ. Hereupon every man in his right wits would say, questionless this prayer was said in times passed in another sense; for every word is proper and fitting to be said over a quantity of Bread and Wine set upon the table, but not over the body of jesus Christ.  
FOUR The people would not be less astonished, seeing the Priest offering unto God the consecrated Host in these words, 
b Supra quae propitio ac sereno vultu respicere digneris.  Upon the which things vouchsafe to look with a merciful and gracious countenance. For he would say, how comes this to pass? That the body of jesus Christ, which is but one, is called, these things, as if he had many bodies? And what an abuse is this that the Priest prayeth that God would deign to look upon his Son jesus Christ with a merciful and gracious eye; as if he feared that jesus Christ were not acceptable and pleasing to his Father; or as if jesus Christ had need to be prayed for unto God, or to have our recommendation unto God to accept him? For observe, that by these things the Priest understands and means the Host, which he holds, and not the faith, and the devotion, or the prayer of the people, as it appears by the words next afore going, where he saith that he offers unto God an immaculate Host, an holy bread, a cup of everlasting salvation: and then he adds, upon which things vouchsafe, etc.  
V 
Supra quae propitio & sereno vultu respicere digneris, & accepta habere sicut accepta habere dignatus es munera pueri tui iusti Abel, & sacrificium Patriarchae nostri Abrahae.  The people would be yet more offended by the words, which follow: Upon the which things (saith he) deign to look with a propitious and gracious countenance, and to accept them as thou didst deign to accept the offerings of thy righteous son Abel, and the Sacrifice of our Patriarch Abraham. For enquiring but what were the offerings which Abel offered unto God, and having learned, that it was a calf, or a lamb, he would be provoked to the heart to hear this comparison, wherein jesus Christ is compared to a beast: and wherein the Priest beseecheth God, that the body of jesus Christ may be as acceptable unto him, as a calf or a lamb offered by Abel. For we have already showed that by These things, he means the consecrated Host; and the Cup which he parallels and compares with the offerings of Abel, and not our faith or devotion with that of Abel.  
VI The like subject of scandal would offer itself in the words following, wherein the Priest adjoineth, 
c Supplices te rogamus, omnipotens D us, i●be haec preferri per manus sancti Angeli tui in sublime altar tuum in conspectu divinae majestatis tuae.  We humbly beseech thee, o Almighty God, command that these things may be carried by the hands of thine holy Angel, unto thine high Altar into the presence of thy divine Majesty. This surely is enough to offend a mind that hath but never so little clearness and light of judgement in it: what (will he say) ask we of God, that an Angel may come, and that he may take the Ho●st out of the Priest's hand? Needeth it that the eternal Son of God, be offered unto his Father by an Angel? Or hath he any need of the mediation of Angels to be acceptable to his Father? Or if the Priest desire the Angel to come, and take the Host from between his hands, Why doth he eat it a little while after these words? Why stays he not the coming of the Angel? It seems then he fears he is not heard, as also that in calling jesus Christ These things, he speaks manifestly against his own intention, for jesus Christ is not these things, but a person.  
And here will present itself again the same thought: that is, that these prayers are good being said over the Alms, and over some quantity of Bread and Wine not Transubstantiated, set upon the Table, according to the custom of the Primitive Church; but are absurd being spoken of jesus Christ. Without doubt these prayers elder than the belief of Transubstantiation, have lost their first signification thorough the change of the doctrine.  
VII. The words following afford like subject of offence, when the Priest adjoins;  quotquot ex haec altaris participatione sacrosanctum filij tui corpus sumpserimus: To the end that all and every one of us, which have taken from this Altar the sacred body of thy Son. For to what purpose useth he these words, when none participates with him? seeing in the most of their Masses the Priest eateth alone, and drinks always alone? And in private Masses there are none present, and yet the Priest speaks in them, as if a number partaked in the same.  
VIII. There would be also a subject whereout to take offence in the words, which are used as the consecration is made which they speak only by way of recital, that is to say, in form of narration and rehearsal as when a history is related. Whereas the Church of Rome will have them spoken effectiuè as seconded with an effect, and as if God thereby declaring that he will have that bread become flesh. When God said, Let th●re be light, and let the earth bring forth herbs, etc. these words were effective and operative, and produced light and plants. But he that recites what God spoke, Let there be light, by this recital produceth not light. Yet for all that, the words of the Priest are but a mere recital of that which jesus Christ spoke. The words of the Priest are, Who 
d Qui pridie quàm pateretur acce pit panem in sanctas & venerabiles manus suas & elevatis oc●lis in coelum ad te Deum patrem suum omnipotentem tibi gratias agens, benedixit fregit, deditque discipulis suis dicens, Accipite & manducate ex hoc omnes, Hoc est enim corpumeum.  (meaning jesus Christ) the day before he suffered, took bread into his sacred and venerable hands, and when he had lift up his eyes to heaven unto thee his Father Almighty, giving thee thankes blessed it, broke it, and gave it to his Disciples, saying, For this is my body. All this is but a mere recital of that which jesus Christ hath done: Which cannot have any effective virtue, and this is fortified by these words, Accipite, Manducate, by which it is evident that the Priest expresseth not that which he doth, or would do, but only that which jesus Christ hath done. For ordinarily when the Priest pronounceth these words, there is no body that taketh or eateth after the Priest. And the private Masses are without Communicants.  
IX. It might also fall out that some one of the people more curious than others would take the boldness to search the holy Scriptures, and would observe that the Apostle Saint Paul in the first to the Corinthians, Chapter 11. verse 24. witnesseth that jesus Christ said, This is my body which is broken for you. And there above out of a curiosity which is doubtless the way to heresy, would be inquisitive, why the Priest omits these words, which is broken for you. For these are the words that are the deciders of the difference. It being most clear and evident, that as the body of our Lord in the Eucharist is not broken really, but sacramentally; that so also the body of our Lord is not really but sacramentally between the hands of the Priest. Nor is there any reason to require that these words which is broken for you should be a Sacramental and figurative manner of speech, and that these words, This is my body, should be taken in any other manner. In a word, it is certain that the bread in the Sacrament is in the same manner the body of Christ, as that it is broken in. Now broken it is not really, nor then likewise is the body of jesus Christ therein broken really. But Satan hath endeavoured to damn and stop up this window, through which the light shineth in unto us so clearly, having this Word utterly out of the Bibles of the Church of Rome, wherein, in steed of frangitur, there is inserted tradetur, in steed of is broken, they have put shall be given.  
X. From the bread the Priest passeth to the Cup, and recites the words of our Lord, saying, that jesus Christ having taken the Cup, said, Accipite, bibite ex eo omnes. Hic est enim calix sanguinis mei novi & aeterni Testamenti, mysterium fidei. Take ye, drink ye all hereof: for this is the Cup of my blood of the New and eternal Testament, the Mystery of faith. There also many subjects of scandal offer themselves. For seeing the Priest witnesseth that jesus Christ said, Drink ye all hereof. Why is it the privilege of Priests and Kings only to drink of this Cup? If it belong to Priests and Kings only, that this word Drink ye is directed, then must the like be said of this word Eat ye: For these words are directed to the same persons. Then should there be none but Priests and Kings, that aught to eat of the Sacrament. Add moreover that the Apostles being in the company of jesus Christ, held not the rank of Pastors, but of sheep, and of Disciples. Therefore the Apostle willeth, that the people of Corinth examine themselves, 
1 Cor. 11.28.  and so eat of this bread and drink of this Cup.  
XI. Above all, these words afford subject of offence in this, that the Priest changeth the words of our Lord: For the words of the Mass are neither found in Saint Paul, nor in any of the Evangelists. Saint Paul saith, that the Lord said, This Cup is the New Testament in my blood: do this in remembrance of me Excellent words. For these words This is my body, and those, This Cup is the New Testament, aught to be understood after the same manner. Now neither the Cup, nor that which is in it, is really a Testament, but sacramentally and in signification. Nor then the bread, which they call the Host, is really the body of jesus Christ, but sacramentally, and in signification. Therefore that this might not be discerned, the words of our Lord have been changed in the Text of the Mass. For in the place of these words, This Cup is the New Testament, The Priest saith, This is the Cup of my blood of the New and eternal Testament.  
XII. To the same end in the place, and instead of these words, Do this in remembrance of me, the Priest saith, The Mystery of faith, which is a strange depravation, made of purpose, because the word in remembrance, expounds these words, This is my body, to ●it, that the bread is called the body of the Lord, because it is the commemoration of it, according as the Scripture denominates the signs and commemorations by the names of the things signified.  
XIII. Behold here yet another subject of scruple & of scandal, that the people would receive if the Mass were said in a tongue understood: And this is it, A great while before the words which are called the words of consecration, there are prayers in the Mass, wherein the unconsecrated bread is called the sacrifice, or immaculate Host, which is offered to God for the sins of the quick and the dead, in these words, 
a Suscipe hanc immaculatam hostiam, quam ego indignus famulus tuns offero tibi Deo meo vivo & vero, pro innumerabilibus peccatis & offensionibus & negligentijs meis, & pro omnibus circumstantibus, sed & pro omnibus fidelibus Christianis vivis atque defunctis.  Receive this immaculate Host, which I thine unworthy servant offer unto thee my living and true God for my numberless sins and offences, and negligences, and for all them that stand round about, and withal for all faithful Christians quick and dead. He saith, the like thing over the unconsecrated Cup. All this is full of difficulties. For the unconsecrated bread is not the same Host with that which is consecrated, which is said to be the true body of jesus Christ; by this means behold in the Mass two Hosts of diverse natures, and two sorts of Sacrifices. And that which is more strange and of more difficult digestion is, that the Priest offers unto God in Sacrifice unconsecrated bread, for satisfaction for our sins: Which is to offer a morsel of bread for payment for our sins, and for the price of our redemption.  

b Bell lib. 2. de Missa cap. 17. §. Offertorium Quinque illae orationes, Suscipe sancte pater, etc. Offerimus tibi Domine, etc. Veni sanctificator, etc. In spiritu humilitatis, etc. Suscipo Sancta Trinitas, etc. Neque antiquae admodum sunt, ●eque in Romana Ecclesia ante quingentos annos legebantur.  Bellarmine in his 2. book of the Mass, Chap. 17. seemeth to condescend and to yield as much touching these prayers, for he saith, that they are not very ancient, & that until within these five hundred years they were not said in the Church of Rome: for there are five prayers in rank of like nature in that part of the Mass, which is called the offertory, the which this so renowned Cardinal hath been bold to accuse of novelty, and hath observed, that Innocent the III. who writ of the Mass in the year 1214. hath made no mention of them.  
But that by these prayers the Priest makes an oblation, and offers in sacrifice unconsecrated bread, Bellarmine acacknowledgeth it in his first book of the Mass, Chap. 27. saying, 
c Bellarm. c. 27. §. Primo Negari non debet, panem & vinum aliquo modo in Missa offerri, & proinde pertinere ad rem quae sacrificatur. Haec propositio patet primum ex ipsa Liturgia. Nam cum ante consecrationem dicimus, Suscipe sancte Pater, hanc immaculatam hostiam, certè pronomen HANC demonstrat ad sensum id quod tunc manibus tenemus, id autem panis est. Et similes sunt in Liturgia non paucae sententiae, quae panem offerri manifestissimè demonstrant.  It must not be denied, that bread and wine are in some manner offered in the Mass. This may appear first of all by the Liturgy itself: for when, before consecration, we say, Suscipe, sancte pater hanc immaculatam Hostiam: Receive o holy father, this immaculate Host: Certainly this Pronounce HANC demonstrates sensibly that which we then hold in our hands: but it is bread which we hold. And in the Liturgy (so he calls the Mass) there are many sentences, which manifestly show that bread is offered. Behold here then in the Mass an Host offered in sacrifice for the sins of the quick and of the dead, which is not the body of Christ, but unconsecrated bread.  
But as concerning that, which the said Cardinal saith, that these prayers are new, and brought in within these five hundred years, he saith true in some sort. It is true, that it is a very new thing to sacrifice unto God unconsecrated bread for the sins of men. But to call the bread and the wine of the holy Supper, which the people brought, and which the Pastor offered unto God, sacrifices, and holy oblations, it is a thing very ancient, and a prayer conformable to the Word of God, which calls Alms & prayers, and all holy actions, sacrifices. 
d Bellarm. Ibid. §. Deinde. Veteres Patres passim ita tradunt. Ireneus lib. 4. cap 32. dicit Ecclesiam offerre Deo sacrificium ex creaturis, id est ex pane & vino. Cyprianus lib. 2. Epist. 3. dicit Christum obtulisse patricalicem vino & aqua mistum. Et in sermone de eleemosyna, reprehendens divites foeminas, quae non adferebant panem consecrandum. Locuples (inquit) & dives, in Dominicum sine sacrificio venis, & partem de sacrificio, quod pauper obtulit, sumis. Vbi per sacrificium panem intelligit, qui per sacerdotes Deo sacrificandus erat.  The fathers of the first Ages spoke thus. So spoke Ireneus in his 4. book, Chap. 32. saying, The Church offereth to God a sacrifice of his creatures; that is to say of bread and wine. And Cyprian in the Epistle 3. of the 2. book, saith that Christ offered unto his Father a Cup blended with wine and water. And in his Sermon Of Alms, reproving the rich women, that brought not bread to Church for an offering, said unto them, Thou rich and wealthy woman, that comest to the Supper of the Lord without a sacrifice, that takest part of the sacrifice which the poor hath offered: Where it is evident, that by these sacrifices he calls the offerings of bread and of wine not consecrated, brought by the people, as freely acknowledgeth the same Cardinal in the same place.  
But that which is more express in this matter, is that the Priest on Christmas day, adjoineth, 
e Oblata, Domine, munera nova unigeniti tui nativitate sanctifica.  O Lord Hollow by the new birth of thy Son, these offerings which we have offered unto thee. He speaketh of an oblation already offered, and yet this is spoken before consecration.  
The title of the 24. Canon of the third Council of Carthage is such, 
f  in sacrificio tantùm panis & calix offeratur.  That in sacrifice nothing be offered but bread and the Cup. 
g Ipse Canon  in Sacramentis corporis & sanguinis Domi i, nihil ampl●ùs offeratur, quàm ipse Dominus tradidit, hoc est panis & vinum aqua mixtum. Nec ampliùs in sacrificijs offeratur, quàm de uvis & frumentis.  And in the Text of the Canon there is, That in the Sacraments of the body and blood of our Lord, nothing be offered but what the Lord hath ordained, namely of bread and of wine mingled with water; and that nothing be offered in sacrifices, but that which cometh of the grape and wheat.  
XIIII. But behold here the things, which as much, or more than the precedent, would give the people a very strong impression, and would discover unto them the abuses of the Mass, were it but pronounced with an audible voice in the vulgar tongue. The Priest in the beginning of the Mass saith his Confiteor, in these words, 
h Confiteor Deo omnipotenti, beatae Matiae, semper Virgini: beato Iohanni Baptistae, sanctis Apostolis ●etro & Paulo: omnibus Sanctis, & vobis, fratres; quia peccavi nimis cogitation, verbo, opere Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Ideò precor b●atam Mariam semper Virginem, be●tum Micha●lem Archang●lum, beatum johannem Baptu●●a●, sanctos Apostostol●●ke trum & Paulum, omnes Sancto●, & vos fratres, orate pro me ad Dominum Deum nostrum.  I confess unto Almighty God, and to the blessed Marie ever a Virgin: To blessed john Baptist, to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, to all the Saints, and to you brethren, I have too exceedingly sinned in thought, word, and deed. Mine offence, mine offence, mine exceeding great offence. Wherefore I beseech the blessed Marie ever a Virgin, the blessed Michael Archangel, the blessed john Baptist, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, all the Saints, and you brethren, to pray for me unto the Lord our God. In this confession the Priest confesseth his sins to the dead departed this life, contrary to the example of all the prayers and confessions, which are found in the Scriptures, all which are made unto God only. For even as it is God only, whom we have especially offended, Tibi soli peccavi, Psalm 51. verse 6. I have sinned against thee only, so also is it God alone, that can forgive us our sins, and it is he alone that understands the prayers of the heart: because he it is only that knows the hearts of men, 2. Chron. 6. ver. 30. and it is to be noted, that by the 23. Canon of the third Council of Carthage it is expressly forbidden to direct in the Eucharist any prayer to any other then to the person of the Father, 
 cum altari assistitur, semper ad Patrem dirigatur oratio.  not permitting so much as to address it only to the person of the Son. How much less would these fathers have suffered, that in the Eucharist there should be offered prayers to Saints, and to Angels?  
XV. But that which is yet worse in this confession, is, that the Priest prayeth to have for intercessors unto God the Archangel Michael, john Baptist, Peter, and Paul, etc. never so much as making in one word mention of the intercession of jesus Christ, who nevertheless went up into heaven of purpose to make request for us, as Saint Paul teacheth us, Rom. 8. verse 33. We have an Advocate with the Father, to wit, jesus Christ the righteous. For he it is, who is the propitiation for our sins, 1 john 2. ver. 1. and 2. thus in their Litanies they say to every Saint, Ora pro nobis, But unto jesus Christ. Miserere nobis, dispoiling him of the office of Intercessor.  
XVI. That if the Mass were said in English, would not the people be offended, hearing the Priest saying in his entering into the Mass, We beseech thee, 
Oramus te Domine, per mertia Sanctorum, quorum reliq●iae hic sunt, ut indulgere digneris omni peccata mea.  Lord, by the merits of the Saints, whose relics are hereunder, that thou wilt vouchsafe to forgive me all my sins. What? (would the people say) must then the Lords Table needs be changed into a Sepulchre? And must the Mass be said over dead-men's bones? And why is salvation prayed for thorough the merits of the Saints? As if jesus Christ had not sufficiently satisfied for us? or as if to obtain remission of our sins, it were behooveful that men, that have been sinners, and that have had need of pardon themselves, do merit the remission of our sins for us? For the effecting whereof must there be found out payments for debts already paid, and for which jesus Christ hath fully satisfied? And if the Saints have merited any thing, God in giving them eternal salvation hath more than sufficiently paid them their merits. It is a point of injustice to will, that the same money should serve to make two purchases, when scarcely they have been sufficient for to compass the first. Besides, they told us that the Saints are not Mediators of redemption, but only of intercession: but now I see that the Mass speaks of them as of mediators of redemprion, in as much as it saith, that they have deserved for us salvation, and remission of our sins.  
XVII. But if the people knew that amongst these Saints, whose bones are stooved up under the Altar, and unto whose merits the Priest hath recourse, that there are many of them, whose Sanctity is very doubtful; namely, those whom the Pope hath foisted into the Catalogue of his Saints with commandment to call upon them: and that of those relics, the greatest part of them are false and suborned: 
Buckler or shield of faith, in the Chapt. of the invocation of Saints.  and that many of these Saints never were men, being imaginary persons, or forged at pleasure, as we have elsewhere showed, they would be yet much more astonished, and would groan under the burden of so cruel a captivity.  
XVIII. The people likewise would have a just ground to be offended, knowing that the Priest in private Masses, and without assistants, saith Orate, fratres, etc. pray brethren, etc. For who are these brethren, to whom he speaketh being all alone? Pope Innocent III. in the second book of the Mysteries of the Mass, 
Piè creden dum est, & sacris authoritatibus comprobatur, quod Angeli comites assistant orantibus.  Chap. 25. answereth, that these brethren are the Angels: But the words immediately following contradict his answer; Pray my brethren, that my sacrifice, and yours may be acceptable unto almighty God: For this sacrifice is not made for Angels, nor by Angels. As also that if these words, Pray ye, my brethren, be directed to Angels, even so also these words, Take ye, eat ye, will be directed unto them: and so must we believe, that in solitary Masses the Angels are present in the room of the people to eat.  
XIX. But what would the people say hearing these words of the Canon of the Mass, Communicantes & memoriam venerantes imprimis gloriosae semperque Virginis Mariae. Communicating and honouring the memory chief of the glorious and ever a Virgin Mary. To what purpose is it to say, Communicating together, when none communicates? But who could endure that the Communion of the holy Sacrament should be celebrated IN THE FIRST PLACE for the honour the memory of the Virgin Mary? Seeing that the Institution of the Sacred Supper by jesus Christ carrieth it expressly, that it is instituted in remembrance of jesus Christ, who said, Do this in remembrance of me? By this relation, jesus Christ should have said, Do this IN THE FIRST PLACE in remembrance of my Mother. We ought to speak of the holy and blessed Virgin with all respect and reverence: but for all this, ought we not to change the nature of the Sacred Supper, nor to divert or alienate it from it true end. For it is instituted to show forth the Lords death, but not to show forth the death of the holy Virgin: sith she suffered not death for our redemption.  
XX. Some comfort had it been, if the Priest having said, that this communion is celebrated in the first place, to honour the mememorie of the blessed Virgin, he had added, that it is likewise done in the remembrance of jesus Christ. But this is it which he omits: 
i Communicantes & memoriam venerantes imprimis gloriosae semperque virginis Mariae genetricis Dei & Domini nostri jesu Christi, sed & beatorum Apostolo rum ac mart●●um tuorum Petri, Pauli, etc. Lini, Gleri, Clementis, etc. Cosmae, Damiani, & omnium Sanctorum tuorum, quorum meritis precibusque roga●●nus ut in omnibus protectionis tuae muniamur auxilio, per eundem Christum, etc.  Communicating and honouring the memory in the first place of the glorious ever Virgin Marie, Mother of our God and Lord jesus Christ, but likewise of all thy holy Apostles, Peter, Paul, etc. Cosmus and Damian, and all thy Saints by the merits and prayers of whom we beseech thee, that in all things we may be furnished with the succours of thy protection by the same jesus Christ our Lord. He maketh indeed mention of jesus Christ, but he doth not say, that this communion is done in his memory, only he saith that in the first place he celebrates the memory of the Virgin Mary, and next the memory of the Saints, amongst whom he thrusts in many Popes. And always falls back upon the merits of the Saints, and saith, precibus meritisque. Not contenting himself that the prayers of the Saints bestead us, he willeth, that they merit for us the grace of God.  
XXI. About the end of the Mass the Priest having taken the Host and the Cup, maketh his prayer for himself. 
k Corpus tuum, Domine, quod sumpsi, & sanguis que potavi adhaereat visceribus meis.  Thy body, Lord, which I have taken, and thy blood, which I have drunk, cleaveth close to my entralles: He should rather have prayed with the Apostle, that jesus Christ would dwell in his heart by faith, Ephes. 3.19. and that his body might be the temple of the holy Ghost, 1 Cor. 6.16. for as Saint john saith in his first Epistle, Chap. 4. verse 13. By this we know that we abide in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his spirit. But to imagine that the body of jesus Christ sitting at the right hand of God sticketh fast to the guts and entrailes of a Priest, it is in dishonouring jesus Christ to defile one's self with carnal thoughts. And the rather for that our Adversaries hold that the wicked; yea beasts, do also eat the body of our Lord, into whose entrailes also we must believe that the glorious body of the Son of God, is clapped up. And that he was annexed to judas his entrailes after he had participated in the Sacrament. Pope Innocent III. in 4. book of the Mysteries of the Mass, Chap. 16. propoundeth an important question: 
l Si fortè secessus vel fluxus aut vomitus post solam Eucharistiae perceptionem evenerit, ex accidentibus & humoribus generatur.  If (saith he) any one having nothing else in his belly but the consecrated Host, and the blood of the Cup, be seized on by a scouring, or flux of the belly, of what manner, and of what nature are those excrements? The solution is, that they are accidents and humours: but he clears not that difficulty, namely, if jesus Christ stick fast to his entrailes.  
XXII. It would be a thing too infinite to set forth all that may be met withal in the Masses of the whole year, and in the whole public service of the Church of Rome, which might offend the people, were it but propounded in the vulgar tongue. As that which is said on Good-fryday. 
m Ecce lignum crucis, in quo salus mundi pependit, venite adoremus. Deus misereatur nostri, Evovac.  Lo here the wood of the Cross, whereon the salvation of the world hung, come, let us worship, God have mercy upon us, Evovac. The which word, Evovac, is a word of triumph, which the furious and drunken Priests of Bacchus used as they did sing in the honour of their God Bacchus. Then puts the Priest off his shoes to worship barefoot the wood of the Cross.  
Then is said this Anthem. 
n Crucem tuam adoramus, Domine, & sanctam tuam resurrectionem laudamus. Crux fidelis, inter omnes, arbour una nobilis, nulla sylva tantùm profert, frond, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulces clavos, dulce pondus sustinet.  We adore thy Cross, O Lord, and praise thy resurrection. And in speaking of the Cross, Faithful Cross, only noble amongst the trees, there is no forest brings forth so much in leaf, flower, or bud, This sweet wood sustains sweet nails, sweet weight. Whilst these words are spoken, every one worships the Cross, and when they lift up the Cross, they say, Ave lignum triumphale, etc. I salute thee, or hail triumphant Cross: which is manifestly spoken to the wood. And hereupon most of the Doctors maintain, that the Cross ought to be adored with the worship of Latria, which is the highest kind of adoration.  
XXIII. The Saturday before Easter Mass is said in violet: wherein they hollow Incens, and there is virtue given it to drive away devils: and they put out all the candles in the Church, and then they light them again with hallowed fire: and the Deacon brings three great wax candles at the end of a staff: then he sticks five grains of incens in a great wax Candle in form of a Cross; upon which wax candle, this blessing is said in singing it in a style, whereof the impiety is absurd, and the terms ridiculous. Lo here the very words 
o In huius igitur noctis gratia, suscipe, sancte Pater, incensi huius sacrificium vespertinum, quod tibi in hac cerei oblatione solenni per ministorum manus de operibus apum sacrosancta reddit Ecclesia. Sed iam columnae huius praeconia novimus, quam in honorem Dei rutillans ignis accendit. Qui licet sit divisus in parts, mutuati tamen luminis detrimenta non novit. Aliter enim liquantibus ceris, quas in substantiam pretiosae huius lampadis apis matter eduxit. O verè beata nox, quae spoliavit Aegyptios, etc.  In the grace of this night, receive, holy father, the evening Sacrifice of this incense, which the holy Church offereth up unto thee in this solemn oblation of waxed Candles by the hands of Ministers, of the work of Bees. But already we acknowledge the praises of this column, which the glistering fire kindles in the honour of God, which although it be divided into parts, acknowledgeth no loss of borrowed light, for it is fed by the liquid wax, which the mother Bee hath produced into the substance of this precious lamp. O truly happy night, which despoiled the Egyptians, and enriched the Hebrews. Night wherein earthly things are blended with celestial, and divine with humane; We pray thee then Lord, that this waxed candle consecrated to the honour of thy name, may hold out without failing, to destroy the darkness of this night, and being acceptable in the odour of a good sent, may be blended and ranked amongst the heavenly lights above. Let the morning bringer Lucifer meet with it flames, that Lucifer I say, that cannot set, or go down. All this gallimaufry and medley of absurd terms, which give to a waxed taper, that which belongs to the doctrine of the Gospel, and placeth a waxed taper composed of the work of Bees amongst the stars of heaven, is fare from the language of the spirit of God.  
XXIIII. On the same Saturday they hollow their fonts, in which is the water for baptism, in these words, Make this water by thy Majesty's Empire, 
Note. The God head blending itself with water, gives it virtue to regenerate souls, and maketh the water to become a new creature, and a celestial race by the immaculate womb of the fountain.  take the grace of thy only Son by the holy Ghost, which by the secret admixtion of his Godhead make fruitful this water prepared for the regeneration of men; to the end, that having conceived sanctification thorough the immaculate womb of the divine fountain, borne again, as a new creature, may become a celestial race, and let the mother grace bring forth in the infancy all them, that the Sex distinguisheth unto the body, or the age unto time. Set fare away from hence, thou that commanding Lord, every unclean spirit, let all wickedness of diabolical fraud keep fare away, let the mixture of any contrary power here have place, let it not hover over about it to lay any ambushes, let it not slide in covertly, let it not corrupt by annoying it Let this holy and innocent creature be free from all assaults of the enemy, and be purged by the departure of all wickedness. Let this water be a living well, a regenerating water, a purifying wave, that all they that shall be washed in this wholesome lavor, the holy Ghost working in them, may obtain indulgence of perfect purgation; wherefore I bless thee creature of water, by the living God, † by the true God, † by the holy God, † by the God, who in the beginning by his word separated thee from the dry land, etc. Then he breathes upon the water in form of a Cross, and prays that those waters may be efficatious to purify the understanding, and dipping the taper three times into the water, he saith, Let the power of the holy Ghost descend in fullness upon this fountain. Then he blows thrice upon the water in this figure. † Then poureth he oil and cream into it in form of a Cross. There is even as much sense in all these words, as efficacy in the ceremony. I think some broken-winded Monk, whose brain swarmed out extravagant conceptions, made these prayers in an ignorant age; or that some profane fellow sported himself in ridiculous terms to mock God.  
XXV. Thus when they consecrate salt, the Bishop, or Priest saith, I conjure thee, creature salt, etc. And speaking to salt, as if it understood him, gives it power against evil spirits.  
In the Mass-book which is in use at Paris, in the Mass of the holy Virgin Mary, is extant a Passage, which saith, O faelix puerpera, nostra pians scelera; iure matris impera, redemptori. O thou happy woman in childbed, who expiatest our sins, command by the right of a mother, the redeemer.  
XXVI. These things and many other the like wherewith swarmeth the whole Romish service, could they but be pronounced in English without exasperating the minds, and without moving in some distaste, in other some laughter, in others execration? Who would laugh hearing the Priest saying in the beginning of the Mass. Ad Deum qui laetificat iuventutem meam. Unto God that gladds my youth, Albeit this Priest have a grey head.  
In a word, the whole body of the Romish service, principally the Canon of the Mass, is composed in such a manner, that I doubt not but that the Popes would willingly correct many things in it, if it were in their power: and that they would make the same alteration, which they have made in the Masses of the Saints, out of which the Popes, Pius the V and Clement the VIII. have razed out many Proofs and prayers to the Saints, which are still extant in most of the Masse-bookes. In the which Canon that which most displeaseth our Adversaries, is, that there are many clauses, which contradict Merits, Purgatory, and Transubstantiation. In private Masses; In the Communion under one kind, and in an unknown tongue, and that it is evident, that the prayers of this Canon are in a manner all made to be said over the Alms, and over the bread and wine, and not over the body of our lord 
Syn. Trid. Session. XXII. Can. 6. Si quis dixerit Canonem Missae errores continere, ideoque abrogandum esse, anathema sit.  But they dare not touch this piece, because the Council of Trent in the XXII. Session thundereth and Anathematiseth every man that shall say, that in the Canon of the Mass there is any thing to be corrected, they have bound their own hands by this decree. This is the sole remedy, that remains for them, to estrange the people from the understanding of the Mass, whereunto serveth the barbarous tongue, and the low murmur, and the confused and inarticulate singing thereof.   

CHAP. X. An examination of our Adversaries reasons: especially of those of Mounsieur the Cardinal du Perron.  
AS touching the prayers of particulars in a tongue not understood so much as by him himself that prayeth, our adversaries cast down the bucklers and defend not themselves, but abandon their cause, only they say, That it is the Church. For this word Church is a covert and starting hole, for every sort of abuse, and a plaster for every sore. This is it they oppose against the Word of God, and unto all antiquity, unto reason, and unto common sense, which in this point are contrary to the now Church of Rome of this time.  
But as for the public service in an unknown tongue not understood, our adversaries propound some slender reasons, which we must examine.  
I. They say that the title of the Cross was writ by Pilate in three tongues, in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, they will have Pilate; that was a Pagan judge, give this law to the Christian Church. For being a man of great prudence, it is to be presumed that he had a care that the Mass should be sung in a fit tongue. Thus pilate's authority carrieth it away, above the Word of God, and against the examples of jesus Christ, of the Prophets and of the Apostles. That if, according to the custom of the Romans, the title of the Cross had been written but in one tongue, then should they not, by this reason, sing the Mass but in one tongue, or if Pilate had writ nothing, the Mass had not been sung at all.  

Du Perron lib. 6. of his book against the King of great Britain.  II. They have no better grace when they say, that it is expedient that divine service be said throughout and in all places in the same tongue, that strangers may understand it. This reason contradicts the former, for if it be expedient, that divine service be said in one and the same tongue every where, then shall we be forced not to rest upon the inscription of the Cross in three tongues, and we shall be driven to say service in one only tongue throughout the whole universal Church.  
By the same reason, Sermons ought to be made every where in the same tongue in favour of strangers. Certainly the service in Latin doth in no measure at all comfort the strangers that are in France: For of these strangers, three fourth parts at the least understand not the Latin, and there will be found in France, ten times more strangers which understand the French, than the Latin. And these strangers which understand the Latin cannot understand the Mass, whereof a great part is pronounced in so low a voice, that they that are near the Priest cannot hear his voice. But what shadow of reason is there for it, that in favour of a few strangers, which are in great towns, all the people of France must be deprived of the understanding of divine service? and especially all the towns and Burrougheses wherein there are no strangers? That if in one great Town, as in Paris, they would gratify strangers, there should be assigned for the Italians one Church, wherein service should be said in Italian, and so of other nations, by this means every nation should have at Paris the service in their own tongue.  
III. They further add that to have every where the same tongue, is a sign of union, and of concord in the Catholic Church. In thus speaking they declare that it would be expedient, that the service should neither be said in Greek, nor in Hebrew, tongues nevertheless which they say were authorised by the inscription of the Cross. But the union which God approveth and applaudeth in his Word, is not the union of one and the same tongue, but of faith and charity. Which union may be amongst those of diverse tongues; as on the contrary, men of the same tongue do often descent in faith. Which is more. God is glorified, when in diverse tongues he is purely and unanimously served & called upon: as God himself witnesseth saying, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow before me, and every tongue shall give glory unto God. Rom. 14. verse 11. Esay 45.23. For this it was that God gave to his Apostles the gift of diverse tongues, to the end, that in all tongues God might be served and called upon.  

Du Perron the same.  FOUR Also presupposing that divine service be not done for the instruction of the people, but only to glorify God by prayers, and thanksgiving, and by their assistance to bring their consent unto that which is done in the Church, and to be partakers of the fruits which the Church obtains of God by the Liturgy, they say, that the people which understand not, lose not these fruits, nor the ends for the which divine service is instituted: because that the Church's authority is a sufficient caution and security for the people: And that it is enough that the Pastors understand for them. But by the same ends for the which they say that divine service is instituted, it is easy to convince them. For persons assembled and met together to glorify God by prayers and giving of thankes, aught to know that which they ask, and what they give thankes for. Now these Rabbins will have the people ask they wots not what, and give thankes for they know not why. And seeing that they will have the people assemble to yield their consent to what is done and said in the Church, how will they have them approve, and assent unto things they understand not? But if the people assist to participate in the good things which the Church receiveth by the public service, they assist then to be instructed and comforted, for that is one of the fruits for which divine service is instituted. And seeing that in the Mass the Priest speaketh to the people, in vain speaks he to a people that understands him not. And seeing that in the Mass are read Chapters of the Scriptures, wherein God speaks unto men, they ought not to hinder, that God be not understood by men. The Apostle to the Romans, Chapter 10. tells us, that faith comes by hearing of the Word of God, not then by an assistance without understanding that which God propoundeth unto us in his Word. And the same Apostle speaking to the people of Corinth, 
1. Cor. 11. ver. 26.  will that in eating the bread of the Lords Supper, and in drinking of the Cup, they show forth the Lords death, which cannot be done by persons that assist without understanding the same. Of all these fruits are they deprived, that assist and are present at a service where they understand not,  
V As for that, that Du Perron saith, that the Church stands for the people's caution and security: as if it could answer for the people at God's judgement Seat; I say, that for this Church, that boasts itself to be a caution, it shall stand in need of another caution to give us assurance that it errs not, and that God receives her for caution. Surely at the day of judgement, Priests shall not answer for the people. He shall find himself deceived and foully mistaken; who then would give his Curate for his caution. Above all those Pastors shall not be currant, who to enhaunse their authority, and to lead the people on in ignorance at their pleasure, have estranged them from all understanding. But why may not the Greek Church as well be caution as the Roman? Seeing the Greek Church is more ancient than the Roman, and the Church of Rome is but her daughter, and received from her the Christian religion, and boasts herself as well to be Catholic, and to have the chairs of Saint Peter and of many Apostles?  

Du Perron pag. 1079.  VI But saith this Cardinal, if to profit at a Mass it were necessary to understand it, the deaf, and the persons that stand a fare off from him that saith service, should receive no benefit by it, if this reason were of any weight. Then might we as well say, that we must preach in a tongue not understood, for though it were necessary to preach in a tongue understood, yet the deaf, and such as were at too fare a distance from the Preacher, would receive no profit by him. I say then, that where the defects of nature hinder from understanding what is said, we are not for that accountable before God: for God imputes not that for a crime which he himself hath done. But we stand accountable unto him for the impeachments, and hindrances, which we ourselves lay in the way to hinder the understanding of his Word: God supplies the defects of nature by means, which are known to himself: but man after he hath done evils, cannot remedy them. If the light of the Sun be unprofitable to the blind, it thence followeth, not that the eyes of them that see, must be put out, even so if any be deaf, yet ought we not for that to deprive the rest of the people of understanding and he that stands fare of from him saith service speaking in a tongue understood, had profited more if he had been near: and another time he may come nearer.  
VII. He objects also that strangers are present in England at the English service without understanding the same, whereunto I say, that such are strangers present at it, it may be once or twice out of curiosity, and not for devotion, and that if they understood the English, they would profit more by it, and that the French have at London, and other towns the service in French.  
VIII. He saith moreover that in the time of Christ jesus and of the Apostles, the jews assisted and were present at the ordinary service, of the Synagogues without understanding any thing thereof. Which we have already shown to be false. For then the Hebrew tongue was understood generally by the people of judea. It fared not so with the jews which are called Helenists in the 6. of the Acts, who were jews' transported into Egypt by Ptolomeus Lagus, who also were called Babelim, and were dispersed abroad in very great numbers thorough out all Africa, so called, because they were issued of the people which had been transported into Babylon, for they there read in Synagogues the Greek translation of the Septuagints. Whereupon also the Apostle to the Hebrews writing to them, allegeth to them the Scripture according to their translation. Of these jews was Philo a jew of Alexandria, 
See Scaliger de emendat. Temp. p. 143.  A man learned in the Greek, but ignorant of the Hebrew. For in Alexandria the Greek tongue was there so common, that the Bishops, as Athanasius, Cyrill, Theophilus, etc. there preached to the people in Greek.  
IX. It is without reason that Du Perron objecteth unto us the example of the sacrificing Priests of the Law, interceading for the people in the Temple, the whilst, that the people were without in the Court, and by consequent could not understand that which the Priest said. For here the question is of the Priest speaking unto God in the Mass in the presence of the people. And withal, the question is of the Mass, in the which are read Chapters to the people out of the Scripture, all in a tongue, which the people understand not. And indeed there are many Priests that understand not their Mass: to what purpose then is it to bring us the example of a sacrificing Priest, who spoke not to the people, and spoke not to God before the people, the whilst that he was was within in the holy place? And read not to the people any place, nor Chapter of the Law of God? And indeed we find not in the holy Scripture that the Priest spoke, or pronounced by mouth any prayer whilst that he was in the holy place, or whilst he was in the Sanctuary as he performed the propitiation for the people. I think that if this Priest coming out of the Temple to the people that waited for his coming forth in the Court, had spoken to the congregation in a barbarous and strange tongue, this people would have stoned him.  
X. Now these Gentlemen confess, that by this unknown tongue the people is deprived of instruction and of consolation, but they say that their 
* Such prayers as they think fit for them to understand.  proneness and Sermons supply this defect in which they set forth that which is said in the Mass: Put we the case that it were so. For it is a main abuse to do evil, to the end to bring remedies for the same: to make wounds, to the end to apply plasters to them. It were better the Priest made himself understood in the Mass, instead of making the poor people hope that within some years they shall learn the explication of it in some Sermon. But it is most false, that in their Sermons there is any explication made of the Mass, neither in regard of the word, nor of the matters; take me a Peasant, or a Tradesman, that hath heard Mass fifty years, & you shall find him wholly ignorant of that which is said in the Mass; are the people made to understand in Sermons, why the Priest, praying for the dead, saith, that he prayeth for them that sleep a peaceable sleep? Or why the Priest presenting unto God the consecrated Host, which they say is the body of jesus Christ, asks of God, that he would so accept of that offering, as he did of Abel's sacrifice, that is to say, of a calse, or of a lamb offered by Abel? Or why the Priest beseecheth God in the Mass, that the Angels may take jesus Christ which is upon the Altar, and carry him up unto the celestial Altar? Or why the Priest calls the body of jesus Christ. These gifts, These offerings, which God createth daily and quickeneth? Or why the Priest in his confiteor, confesseth his sins to God, to the holy Virgin Marie, to Michael the Archangel, to Saint john Baptist, without speaking of jesus Christ? Or why in the Mass the holy Virgin is preferred before jesus Christ, in saying; communicating, and celebrating in the first place the memory of the Virgin Marie: notwithstanding that the sacred Supper was only instituted for a remembrance and commemoration of Christ, and to show forth his death.  
XI. The Cardinal du Perron findeth that the discommodity which is in the people not understanding of the service, bringeth this profit, that the merit of the people's endeavour, and the exercise of their faith is thereby the greater. He thinks that the less knowledge there is, the more merit there is in the faith: and that he that hath least understanding, he it is, that hath most faith, and that merits most. Which is the same that Harding 
a Harding. De precibus peregtina lingua factis. Hic pius animorum affectus tam est proculdubio Deo gratus, ut nulla ●erborum intelligentia conferri queat.  saith. That the people indeed understand not the Latin of the Mass, but that the pious affection which they thither bring, is so acceptable to God, that thee understanding of the words cannot be compared unto it. By this reason there is merit in knowing nothing, and ignorance shall be ranked amongst the blessings of God, and to instruct a man in the true knowledge of God, it is to diminish the merit and the price of his faith. And why not? Seeing that faith consisteth in being ignorant, and in not knowing, and is opposite to knowledge, as Cardinal Bellarmine hath before told us? Certainly this maxim is a main prop to uphold the Pope's Dominion, and the Authority of the Clergy: seeing it teacheth to believe without knowledge, and to follow the Pope and his doctrine, with their eyes shut, with not so much as enquiring at all after the will of God, nor after his Word: which is a light which God offereth us, to the end that we ourselves might know the right way. Now albeit that remediless ignorance lessens the fault, yet so it is that it is an evil: as being borne blind excuseth going out of the way. And yet going out of the way is still an evil: But to study to be ignorant, and to be afraid to learn, and to be voluntarily blind, and to think that there is merit in voluntary ignorance, besides the folly of it, is a stiff and wilful obstinacy not to have a will to learn the Will of God: nor can I conceive what that endeavour is, and that great exercise of faith, which Du Perron saith, is in those, that do believe without understanding, seeing it is no labour to know nothing, and to will not to learn.  
XII. The same Prelate insisteth strongly upon the danger, it would be to translate the Liturgy into the Vulgar tongue: saying, that the changing though but of one sole syllable, yea but of one letter, in the Mystery of the Church, might bring a change in the faith: Witness the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Arrians, that the divine service cannot be translated into so many tongues without incurring that danger, like as the phrases of the old French would at this day be ridiculous, as appeareth by the 
b In the Confines of Germany & Lorraine, ●he language that is not German is at this day called Roman.  Romans: and an hundred years hence Marots translation of the Psalms will be sottish, fond and ridiculous.  
If this objection carry any weight with it, it should rather have more force to hinder and debar the translating of the holy Scriptures into Latin, and into the vulgar tongues, lest that some depravation in a word, or in a syllable might alter the doctrine of Salvation. For the Text of the Scripture is of fare more importance, than the Text of the Mass, seeing that to change but a word in the Scripture is a fault, but the Text of the Mass hath received a Thousand changes and additions, as our Adversaries themselves acknowledge. The whilst that this fear hath not hindered the Ancients to make sundry translations of the Scriptures Greeke and Latin: the multitude whereof was so divers, that 
c Hieron. praefat. in Euangelistas ad Damasum. Si Latinis exemplaribus fides est adhibenda, respondeant quibus? tot enim sunt exemplaria penè, quot codices.  Saint Hierome saith, there were almost as many diverse versions, as there were copies thereof. 
d  ad exemplaria praecedenti● recutratur, si quam dubitationem attulerit Latinorum interpretum infinita varietas.  And Saint Augustine in his second book of Christian doctrine, Chapter 11. saith, that the multitude of Latin interpreters were in a manner infinite. And our Adversaries confess that their Latin vulgar Translation is very much different from the Hebrew and Greek Texts. But they confess not, that this diversity hath brought into the Church of Rome any change in the faith, This fear hindered not Saint Hierome to translate the Bible into the Dalmaticke tongue, nor Vlfilas to turn it into the Goticke tongue, nor any Nation to translate it into their own tongue. And so fare was it from all such issue, that the vulgar versions produced any alteration in the faith or in the authority of the original Greek and Hebrew, that on the contrary the Churches which have at this day, their service in the vulgar tongue, are they that have reduced, and brought again the Hebrew and the Greek tongues, and have brought to light and laid open to the view the Original Hebrew and Greek, and have restored the translation of the Scripture into its integrity, which the Church of Rome in their translation had deformed and disfigured.  
But there is matter of wonder in it, 
See touching these additions Platinae in the life of Sixtus I. and of Innocent III. in 2 lib. of the Mass chap. 61. Bellarmin. 2. lib. of the Mass, chap. 17. acknowledgeth that five prayers which are in the offertory of the Mass, were not in it five hundred years since.  that Mounsieur Du Perron findeth peril in the translation of divine service, and finds it not strange that so many changes have been made in the institution of the Lord, and that so many new pieces have been thrust into the Mass, many Pope's having thereunto added clauses: namely Pope Pius the V all a new caused the Masse-bookes to be reform, and razed out an infinite number of Prayers, and of Proofs, and sequences which were in the old Mass books, so that the Priests found themselves very much pusseled.  
But to what purpose is it to allege inconveniences, for the which (if our Adversaries be to be believed) the remedy is ready at hand: seeing they affirm, that the Pope and the Church of Rome cannot err in the faith? For when the Pope shall have examined and approved the Mass translated into French, or into any other vulgar, this translation will be well assured amongst our Adversaries, and there will be nothing to be spoken against his approbation.  
As for this that he saith of the French terms would become ridiculous at the end of two or three hundred years the same may be said of the Latin and of the Greek, and of every other tongue, whence it would follow that the Mass should not be said in Latin, least thorough laps of time the terms thereof might become ridiculous. The words which in the form of divine service, have been kept become not ridiculous amongst them that approve this service. In the public service of the Romish Mass there are words truly ridiculous, and which never were other then worthless, as Evovae, Miserere nobis, & Stabat matter dolorosa, and many the like, which nevertheless in the Church of Rome are not ridiculous, because they are authorised by the divine service. And these words Alleluja and Osanna have long since ceased to be vulgar, and yet for all that are not ridiculous, when they are pronounced, or in reading of the Scripture, or in public service.  
XIII. Finally, Du Perron objecteth, that if service were not said in Latin, there being no more any common tongue, there could no more any General Councils be held: And so all means would be taken away of deciding points of faith with infallible certainty, and that the Decrees, and ancient Canons would be abolished. This objection is refuted by experience. For the Greek Church and the Roman had not in time past, nor ever had a common tongue, and yet in the mean while ceased they not to celebrate between themselves Councils. There were chosen out of Italy Deputies, which understood the Greek, for then the Latin Church complied with the Greek; because the Emperors resided in Greece. By whose commandment the Bishop of Rome sent his Deputies to the General Councils, of which none of them were held in Italy, although the Bishops of Rome desired it, and humbly sued to the Emperors for it. But if for the holding of Councils in the West, it be necessary that the Latin tongue be common every where. The Universities and Colleges where the Latin are taught every where, suffice to preserve the Latin tongue; although the public service were in the vulgar. Witnesses hereof might be the Countries, whence Papistry is banished, where their youth is carefully instructed in the Latin tongue, although their service be in their vulgar tongues; there also the Councils and ancient Canons are carefully preserved. It is a great fondness to think that the barbarous Latin of the Mass serves unto the preservation of the Latin tongue: or that the Text of the Mass serveth for the understanding of Virgil, or of Titus Livius, or to speak Tully's Latin, and to make one a Ciceronian. Nay in very deed were the Latin of the Mass as elegant as it is gross and barbarous, yet would it be but a very weak means to preserve the Latin tongue, the Greek of the Greek Liturgy, which is pure, hath not hindered that the Greek tongue was not then corrupted, when the Turks abolished and bereft them of their Schools. And the Liturgy of the Armenians which is in the Armenian tongue, and the liturgy of the Ethiopians, which is in the Ethiopian tongue, have not hindered the corruption of the Ancient Armenian and Ethiopian language.  
As for their founding of the Christian faith upon the decision of Councils, which are found contrary one to another, and the new contradicting the ancient: and of whom the Pope alloweth but what makes for himself: opposing himself often against general Councils: It is another question, which is not for this place. The clear passages of Scripture and which have no need to be interpreted, are sufficient unto salvation. Whosoever writeth himself for an infallible judge of the sense of the Scripture, sets himself above God. For he makes God speak after his own will, and may change the Scripture under colour of interpreting it: and hath the open way to build and erect an Empire. And he should be exempt from all vice, lest he bring an interpretation unto it, that may serve to colour his vices, and to feed his avarice, or to undershore his Ambition.  
Such as these are the reasons of our Adversaries, which are but shifts, and humane reasons and considerations, without, yea against the Word of God, and which indeed are refuted by experience, and by common sense.   

CHAP. XI. An examination of the proofs which Mounsieur the Cardinal du Perron draweth from antiquity for service in a tongue not understood.  
IF our Adversaries reasons have been weak, their allegations out of Antiquity have no more colour. Mounsieur the Cardinal Du Perron is he that hath brought the most to this purpose.  
He saith that the service in the time of the ancient fathers was never said in the Christian Religion saving in two tongues, to wit, 
Against the King of great Britain. lib. 6. chap. 1. p. 1089.  in the Greek tongue and in the Latin, this he affirms without proof, and against the truth, and we already have given a multitude of proofs to the contrary. He himself in the beginning of that Chapter acknowledgeth that the Syrian Churches had their service in the old Syrian, and the Ethiopian in the ancient Ethiopian tongue. And the Armenians in the ancient Armenian tongue. It had been then his part to prove that the Armenians and the Ethiopians ever had their Liturgy in Greek or in Latin, which can never be made to appear. I say the same of the Indian and Persian Churches, the which never had in their Liturgy, no more then in civil use, any use of either of the Greek or of the Latin, unless that which in this last age, the jesuits have brought into some corners of the East-Indies.  
He allegeth in the Sequel the jews, who in their Synagogues used the Hebrew tongue, which is not the vulgar in any Country of the world. He beareth up himself upon the example of the sworn enemies of jesus Christ; whose example if we must follow, we must with all circumcise ourselves, and renounce Christianity. We on the contrary, do acknowledge in this, the accomplishment of Gods curse uppn this people. It is that which God had foretold of them: I will speak to this people by folk of another tongue and by strange lips, and so they shall not understand me. 1. Cor. 14. ver. 21. Esay 28.11. for as for the jews in the time of jesus Christ and of the Apostles. We have proved in the sixth Chapter, that the people than understood the Hebrew tongue.  

Du Perron pag. 1077.  It is not unto the very Pagans and Mahumetans, but the Cardinal employeth himself, and hath his recourse, thinking that the Church of Rome hath dealt very wisely to conform herself unto their example. We must needs say, that the Word of God fails him seeing he hath recourse to such examples he saith then that the Turks and Persians do their service in the Grammatical Arabic and not in the vulgar of the simple Turks and Persians, that the verses of the Saliques, in which were contained the ancient service of the Roman commonwealth, were hardly understood of the Priests: He might also add that the Magicians farce their conjurations with barbarous words, such as are not understood. If in this question the Devil which seduced the Pagans, and which blinds the Mahometans, be taken for judge, there must be no service of God, nor Gospel, needs must that cause be adjudged deplorable, and without support, that's drived to employ such poor proofs. We must observe by the way, that this Prelate making as though he were very well seen in History, discovers himself to be but a very novice and smatterer therein. For the Arabians which are near the half of the Mahometans, have the service and the Alcoran in the vulgar tongue; and the Salic verses contain but a small part of the service of the Romans, to wit, the service of Mars, and Quirinus, for they were the Priests of Mars. The body of the Roman religion was contained in the Toscane discipline, given by Numa.  
He saith further, 
Pag. 1089.  that for the regard of the East-Church, the service was therein done only in Greek: This we have convinced to be false. Never had the ancient Churches of Armenia, of Persia, and of the Indians their service in Greek. Nor must it be doubted that the Church of jerusalem in the time of the Apostles celebrated the Sacraments in the same tongue in the which jesus Christ had instituted them, 
In primitiva Ecclesia mysteria Hebraicè celebrabantur. Sed tem poor Adriani I. Imperatoris Graecè in Ecclesia Orientali Christianorum, primo celebrari caeperunt.  and was understood by the people. Durand in his Rational * lib. 4. Chap. 1. saith, that in the Primitive Church the mysteries were celebrated in Hebrew, but that in the time of the Emperor Adrian, they began to be celebrated in Greek in the Western Churches of the Christians. Understanding by the East-Church that which on the East side was subject to the Roman Empire: to wit, Syria, judea, Anatolia, or Asia the less, unto the which may also be added Egypt. In these countries' every where, where the service was done in Greek, there also their Sermons or preachings were likewise done in Greek. An evident proof that the Greek tongue was there most used, although it was different from the ancient vulgar tongues. So Athanasius and Cyrill, and Theophilus preached in Greek to the people of Alexandria: and Cyrill of jerusalem preached in Greek at jerusalem: And Eusebius in Caesaria of Palestine: And chrysostom in Antioch, Capital of Syria, and Basil in Caesaria of Cappadocia, and Gregory of Nazianzen at Nazianzen, 
Graeca leguntur in omnibus ferè gentibus, Latina suis finibus exiguis sanè continentur.  and Gregory of Nysse at Nysse. Cicero in his Oration for the Poet Archias, saith that the Greek was read in a manner throughout all nations. For the Empire of the Greek Successors of Alexandria had planted the Greek tongue in Syria, and in Egypt, and in Cilicia, and in Cappadocia, and Galatia, and had made it so familiar, that the vulgar tongues used before the reign of Seleucides, and of Ptolemy, were less familiar than the Greek: For evermore preaching aught to be accommodated to the ear of the simple people, even so in the Churhes of Gascogne, and of Languedock Sermons and public service are performed in French, although different from the tongue of the Country. But the French is there in such sort understood by the people, that they fare better love the French then the Gascogne, and understand it with like facility. Mounsieur the Cardinal was not ignorant of this, which appeareth by this, that he maintains only that in the East the Greek was not the vulgar tongue, but maintains not that the Greek was not there understood, by that means he wanders from the question. For our difference is not, that the public service ought to be said in a vulgar tongue, but whether it ought to be done in a tongue understood of the people. Saint Hierome in the preface of his second book upon the Epistle to the Galathians, saith that the tongue of the Galathians was like to that of the Gauls of Treves. But there he speaks of the tongue that the Galathians had brought to the Country, and not of that, which they there had learned. The Cardinal Du Perron useth this place of Saint Hierome to prove that in Galatia the Greek was not the vulgar tongue. But he fasifies this place according to his wont manner, which maketh wholly against him. The words of Saint Hierome are, Galatas, excepto sermone Graeco, quo omnis Oriens loquitur, propriam eandem linguam habere quam Treveros: That the Galathians besides the Greeeke tongue which all the East useth, have a tongue proper, like to that of them of Treves. This place speaks clearly, that the Greek was current in Galatia, as in all the East. But the Cardinal allegeth Saint Hierome in these words, The tongue of the Galathians was like to that of the Gauls near to Treves. This falsification is evident. Besides, the Apostle writing to the Galathians in Greek, presupposed that they understood the Greek. The Lycaonian language which is mentioned in the 14. Chapter of the Acts, verse 11. was rather a dialect, than a diversity of tongues, and though indeed it had been a tongue a part of itself; yet so it is that it appeareth, that the Greek tongue was understood by Lycaonians, seeing that Paul and Barnabas speak to the multitude, the press and throngue of the people in Greek.   

CHAP. XII. By what means the Latin tongue is brought into divine service in France and in Spain.  
FRom the East Du Perron passeth on to the West, and saith, that throughout all the West the service was done in Latin: for wheresoever the public service was done in Latin, there also were preached the Sermons in the same tongue: and the Litany was there understood by women and children. It will not be found that in times past, the service hath been in Latin in any Country. Where the Latin was not understood thus amongst the gaul's the service was done in Latin, because the Latin was there more used than the ancient French tongue, which was so abolished by little and little, in such sort, that the Gauls were called Romans, and are so ordinarily called by Gregory of Tours, and distinguished by that name from the Franks and Burgunians, which were strangers. and the tongue of the Country was called Roman: different from the tongue of the Court, which was high-Dutch, such as is spoken in Gelder's and jubiers'. This difference continued still unto the time of Charlemain. For in the third Council of Tours held under his reign, in the year 812. Chap. 17. there is commandment given to every Bishop to have 
a Et ut easdem homilias quisque apertè transferre studeat in rusticam Romanam linguam aut Theotiscam quo facilius cuncti possint intelligere quae dicantur.  Homilies or Sermons in two tongues, to wit, in the country Roman tongue, that is the tongue of the common people, and in the Theotisk or Tudesk, that is to say, in the high-Dutch tongue, to the end that all might understand the Sermons. Now this was the time wherein the French-Church began by the violence of this King, to receive the Romish service, notwithstanding the resistance of the Clergy, who before that had the Ambrosian service, and was not in any thing subject to the Bishop of Rome.  
Under the Empire of Marcus Aurelius about the year of our Lord 168. the Christian Religion began to spread itself amongst the Gauls, and then first began there to be Martyrs, as saith Sulpitius Severus a Gaulois Author, near about that time in his 2. book of his sacred History, 
b Sub Aurelio deinde Antonini silio persecutio iquinta agitata. Ac tum primum intra Gallias martyria visa, serius trans Alpes Dei religione transgressa.  under Aurelius (saith he) the Son of Antoninus the fift persecution was raised up, and then first were seen Martyrs in France, the Religion of God having very slowly passed over the Alps. At this time the Latin tongue was so familiar amongst the Gauls, that it was more used than the old Gaulois, and the language of the Country was called Roman, and the French Romans, as we have said. Besides it is to be presumed that this Latin of the Gauls or old Frenchmen was not so polished nor so congruous as that of the town of Rome. Whereupon also Pacatus in a Panegirick to Theodosius, 
Tum difficilius pro genita atquae haereditaria orandi facilitate non esse fastidio rudem hunc & incultum Transalpini sermonis horrorem.  excuseth himself in that he spoke not Latin so well as they that were borne in Italy. Then were the contracts and lawpleas, and all the acts of justice done in Latin. The Gottick laws which were observed from the straits of Gibraltar unto the river of Loire abridged by the Code of Theodosius by the Kings of the Visigots were Latins, as teacheth Fauchet the most learned French Antiquary that we have, in the life of King Clovis.  
In the year of our Lord 252. under the Emperor Decius, according as observeth Gregory of Tours in the first book of his History, Gratian came to Tours to preach the Gospel amongst the Pagans, and Saturnine to Tholouse, and Dionysius to Paris, where he was Bishop, and there suffered Martyrdom. This is he, whom they falsely surname Dionysius Areopagita. Saturnine was cast down headlong from the Capitol of Tholouse. These men's tongues being Latin, and preaching to a people that spoke Latin, it is no marvel if they established the service in Latin: not after the Romish manner, but with divers Ceremonies, according to the necessity of the times, and decency of the places, to reclaim and civilize the Pagans. Which diversity continued until the Ambrosian service was received by the Gauls, which amongst them bore the sway until the time of Charlemaigne, who brought in the Romish service.  
The Franks being entered France, and having made themselves masters unto the river of Loire: (for the rest unto the Pirene was held by the Visigots, unto the time of Clovis, who left not the Visigots, that reigned also in Spain, any more but Languedoc, which the Romans called Septimania, 
Fauchet in the life of Cloves. chap. 15.  and a small part of Given) the Latin or Roman tongue was corrupted, and fell from her purity, yet for all that not in such sort that divine service which was done in Latin, was not still understood. We have formerly heard the witness of Sulpitius Severus in the life of Saint Martin, reciting that one of the people taking up the Psalter in the place of the absent Deacon or Reader began to read the 8. Psalm, wherein there is, ut destruas inimicum & defensorem: which raised such a shout of the people against one called Defensor, who opposed himself against the election of Martin unto the Bishopric.  
Prosper of Aquitan writ about the year of our Lord, 450. He in 1. book of the contemplative life Chap. 23 will have the preachers language to be simple and plain, sit simplex & apertus etiamsi minus Latinus, disciplinatus tamen & gravis, let it be simple and open, although it be not so good latin, yet let it be regular and grave, that it may not hinder any, though he be ignorant to understand it. Now he speaks of the people of Guien.  
Much about the same time lived Sidonius Apolinaris Bishop of Clermunt in Auvernie, who married the daughter of the Emperor Avitus, by whom he had children. This Bishop, 
 nisi vel paucissimi quique meram Latiaris linguae pro prietatem de trivialium barbarismorum rubigine vindicav eris, eam brevi abolitam defleamus.  who writ all his letters in Latin, preached also in Latin. In the tenth Epistle of the second book, he complains that in his time amongst the common people the purity and propriety of the Latin tongue fell away, and degenerated into Barbarism; and in his Epistle to Perpetuus Pope (for so then were styled all the Bishops a little more respected than the common sort of Bishops) which is the ninth of the seaventh book there is a Latin Sermon made by the said Sidonius to the people of Bourges, an undoubted proof that the people of Bourges understood the Latin.  
Now albeit that the medley of the Visigots and of the Franks among the Gauls, had altered the latin tongue yet so it was that the Latin could not thereby be utterly rooted out, but rather the Kings of the Franks, whose language was that of Gelder's, to accommodate themselves unto, and to comply with their people, learned the Latin tongue, as witnesseth Fortunatus, speaking of King Aribert.  
Cum sis progenitus clara de gente Sicamber,  
Floret in eloquio lingua Latina tuo.  
But thorough laps of time the Latin being abastardised amongst the Gauls, and the Thioise abolished, the Roman was corrupted in such sort, that it became another tongue from the Latin. And already in the time of the second race of our Kings the tongue of the Country was no more Latin: and nevertheless thorough the negligence of Bishops, and by the ignorance of people, there was no care taken to put the divine service into the vulgar tongue. One might see that then the study of the Bishops was to adorn their Churches, and to heap together relics, and to find out men that had a fair Organ to diversify and descant on a Church song and make their voices sound out the loudest. Images were not as yet received into them, nor the single life of the Clergy, nor the power of the Popes, nor Purgatory, nor Romish indulgences. But the Wars of the French in Italy against the Lumbards' in the time of Pepin, and of his Son Charlemain, brought a straight communion between our Kings and the Bishop of Rome, who in that war used all his power, and was a mortal enemy of the Lumbards': Whence it fell out that Pepin, and after him Charles his Son, and Lewis le Debonnaire, Charles his Son, bestowed on the Bishops of Rome great presents, and gave them all the lands and possessions, which the Pope holdeth at this day in Italy: reserving nevertheless the Royalty. Unto these benefits Charlemaigne added this: That at the request of Pope Adrian I. 
See Durand in the 5. book of his Ratioonal chap. 2. and Fauchet in 7. book of his french Antiquities in the year. 796.  he abolished out of the Kingdom of France the Ambrosian Service, and established therein by force, and Maugre the Clergy of France, the Romish or Gregorian service. By this change the Latin tongue in the public service was fully established: for that which was but done formerly thorough the negligence of the Bishops of France, from thenceforth was done by law, according as the servitude increased, from age to age. It would be now a crime of Heresy, and a manifest rebellion against the papal Sea, to go about to have divine service in any other tongue, then in the Latin or Roman. At this day one of the most essential Marks of the Romish Hierarchy, is the Romish language. And I wots not, whether it was by chance, or by conjecture, or by inspiration, that Ireneus above fourteen hundred years ago, in this word Latin, found out the name of Antichrist, and the number of six hundred sixty six.  
The like matters happened in Spain, where the Latin tongue became so frequent and so familiar, that in the times of the Emperor's Domitian and Trajan, and a long time after them, the Latin tongue was there as familiar, as at Rome, except in Arragon, and in the Cantabrick Mountains, which is the country of Biscay and in Galicia. Seneca and Quintilian and Marshal, excellent Authors of the Lain tongue, were Spaniards; The Father and the Mother of Martial were called Fronto and Flacilla, which are Roman names, as also the names of Martial and of Quintilian, an evident sign, that the language was there Roman. Whereupon we need not wonder, if when the Christian religion thither entered, the ordinary service was done in Latin, not for all that, after the form, nor by the ordinance of the Bishop of Rome, who indeed there was respected, by reason of the dignity of the City, but had not there any power, nor jurisdiction.  
In the year of our Lord ' 408. Genseric King of the Vandals Conquered Spain upon the Roman Empire, which a while after he left to pass over into Africa, and left the place to the Visigots, who reigning formerly in Aquitane, made themselves masters of Spain in the year of our Lord, 417. The laws of the Visigots were Latin: and although their tongue was Gotick, yet did they accommodate themselves to the Latin: Whence likewise their Councils and general Assemblies were made in Latin. The office or ordinary service of the Orthodox Spaniards (for the Visigots at the beginning were Arians) was called the Mosarabicke, or Toletain office: whereof may be seen an abridgement in Isidore in his first book of Ecclesiastic offices, which Isidore borne in Sevill writ in the year of our Lord about 630.  
In the year 713. the Saracens abolished in Spain the kingdom of the Goths, slew their King Roderick in battle, and extinguished in the most part of Spain the Christian Religion. And held Spain for many ages, until that the residue of the Christians, which were retired & fled into the Mountains having recollected their forces in the end, drove out the Moors, and replaced again the Christian Religion in Spain, and established many petty kingdoms. Their service was done yet in Latin, according to the ancient form, albeit by reason of the mixture of the Saracens they had lost the use of the Latin tongue. Their office or service was the ancient, to wit the Mozorabick office: which still continued in Spain, until about the year of our Lord, 1080. in the which King Alphonsus to gratify Pope Gregory the VII. 
Roderick Archbishop of Toledo. lib. 6. chap. 25. and 26.  by strong hand, and maugre the estates of the Country established in Spain the Romish service, than the Latin tongue which heretofore was used by custom, was now established by law. And so hath continued unto this day.   

CHAP. XIII. Of England and Germany, and and how the Romish service and the Latin tongue were thither brought in.  
IT will not be amiss to say somewhat also of England, which in times past was called Britain. 
a Etenim circiter non gentos ab hinc annos constat plebem in nonnullis regionibus p●eces suas publicas ignota lingue recitaste, id quod in Anglia nostra fuisse factitatum, manifestum faciam.  Harding in the first Section of his treatise Of prayers in a strange tongue, saith about nine hundred years since public prayers have begun in some Countries to be said in a tongue not understood, especially in England. This Doctor very much versed in Antiquity findeth not the use of the Latin tongue in England to be more ancient since the term of nine hundred years: and he hath in this spoken according to the truth.  
We must then know that England received the Christian religion, before there were any Churches erected amongst the Gauls or old French. Nicephorus in his second book, Chap. 40. saith, that Simon Zelotes the Apostle brought the doctrine of the Gospel unto the Western Sea, and unto the Isles of Britain. Gildas an English Author who lived in the sixth age, and Polidore Virgil in his second book of his History say, that joseph of Arimathea there first preached the Gospel Balaeus in his first Centurie, allegeth many other witnesses, Tertullian 
b Britannorum in accessa loca Christo vero subdita.  who writ at the end of the second age in 7. Chap. of his book against the jews, saith, that the inaccessible places of the Britons are subject to the true Christ. 
c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  And Theodoret in his 9 book of the means to cure the indisposition of the Greeks'. Our fishers and toule-gatherers and our currier (so qualifieth he the Apostles) have brought to all men the Evangelicall Laws, and have persuaded not only the Romans, and those which are tributaries to them, but even the Scythians, Indians, etc. and those of Britain to receive the laws of him that was crucified.  
Some 
d Westmonasteriensis & Galfridus.  Authors affirm, that in the year 185. Lucius' King of Britain sent to Pope Eleutherius, praying to be instructed by him in the Christian religion, and that he abolished Paganism out of all Britain, so that there was not left so much as one infidel. Which is a a story invented in favour of the Pope. For these Historians place in this Isle peaceable Britain Kings reigning in the South-part of the Isle, which was subject to the Romans, and which had no other King but the Emperor of Rome. The estate of this Isle under the Romans, may be seen in Cornelius Tacitus in the life of julius Agricola, and in Xiphilinus an Epitomiser of Dion, in the life of Nero, and of Severus Emperors. At this time the Christians of South- Britain suffered persecution under the Romans, that were Pagans. And as for the Northerly part, which at this day is called Scotland, and the Country of Northumberland it was Heathenish, and was so a long time after Eleutherius. 
e Hieron. Oceano. Scotorum & Asotorum ritu, ac de republica Platonis, promiscuas uxores ac communes liberos habeant.  Saint Hierome in his Epistle to Oceanus speaketh of the Scots, as having in his time their wives common 200. years after Elutherius. And 
f Idem lib. 2. in lovinianum, Cum ipse adolescentulus in Gallia viderim Scottos gentem Britannam humanis vescicarnibus, & cum per sylvas porcorum greges & armentorum pecudumque reperiam, pastorum nates & foeminarum papillas solere abscindere, & has solas ciborum delicias arbitrari. Scottorum natio uxores proprias non habet, etc.  in 2. lib. against jovinian, he sayeth, he had seen the Scotch eating man's flesh. And Galfride in his 2. Chapter of his third book of his History speaketh of them as of Pagans. Furthermore the Christians of this Isle celebrated Easter precisely the fourteenth of the month of March, contrary to the rules of the church of Rome, which they would not have done, had they been brought to Christianity by the Church of Rome.  
This Isle so continued under the government of the Roman Pagans until the time of Dioclesian in the year 286. The Senate of Rome sent thither Caurasius to oppose the courses of the barbarous, but he enleagued himself with the Islanders, and thence drove out the Romans, and made himself King, and after that time, one while the Romans prevailing, another while the Islanders, that Isse was but weakly held by the Roman Empire.  
In the year of our Lord, 307. Constantine Son of Constantius and of Helen, a Christian woman governed that Island. Being Pagan, he took the title of Roman Emperor, and passed thorough the Gauls, and from thence into Italy, and made himself absolute Emperor. Then becoming Christian, he granted peace to the Churches of Britain.  
In the year 383. Maximus a Christian and Orthodox Prince governed Britain: for as then all that part of the Isle which was subject to the Romans was Christian. This Maximus invaded with a main army the Gauls, and conquered them, and took the title of Roman Emperor against Gratian, Son to Theodosius.  
In the year of our Lord, 434. The Roman Empire being fallen into the West, and rend by the Goths, Franks, Vandals, and Bourgagnions', the Romans abandoned the Isle of Britain. Which moved the Islanders to confer the kingdom upon Constantine, the brother of the King of Britain Armorique, who was issued of their nation, a Christian and virtuous man.  
In the year 446. according to Westmonasteriensis, calculation. The Pelagian heresy reinforcing itself in the Island of Britain, the Bishops of the Country assembled in a Synod, writ into France to Germanicus Bishop of Auxerre and to Lewis Bishop of Troy's in Champagne, men renowned for their learning and piety, and prayed them to come to them, to assist them with their aid and counsel, which they did, and with success, God blessing their travel. This Historian saith not that the Pope sent them, as some do fable, but that they came at the request of the Islanders.  
In the year of our Lord, 449. three ships of the Anglosaxons came from the East Frises, landed in the Isle of Britain, and took the same beaten way of those others which some four years before arrived there in great multitude. This nation was high-Dutch, and Paganish, serving Saturn, jupiter, and Mercury, who having set foot in the Isle could not be driven out a gain, and at length made itself mistress of the East and South-part of the Isle, and there established Paganism, dividing the Country into many petty kingdoms, and called the Country England. But besides the Christians living under the Dominion of the Pagan Saxons, all the Occidental part, to wit Cornwall, and the Country in times past called Cambria, and now Wales, was Christian. The Scotch had already received Christianity: in such sort that the Isle was half Christian.  
In the year 596. Pope Gregory judged the time fit to improve the authority of his Sea: for the Christians of England not being fit to give instruction to the petty Pagan kings, by reason of their continual wars, and those petty kings being savage, and easy to be persuaded: and the Christians of that Island living under other laws, and other ceremonies than those of the Church of Rome, he sent Augustine, Monk of Saint Bennet (for as then in the West, there was but that sole order of Monks) into England, a man fit and industrious to travel and to take pains for two things. The one to reduce the Christians of the Isle unto the form, and to the service of the Church of Rome, and to induce them to acknowledge his Sea. The other to endeavour to draw some of those petty Pagan kings to the Christian Religion.  
This Austin came to England with a train of forty persons, and presented himself to one of the petty kings named Ethelbert King of Kent, who re-received him with honour. A while after insinuating into the Queen's favour and good liking, he persuaded her to embrace the Christian faith. The Queen a while after drew in her husband, who was followed by a multitude of Pagans. Of this King the above named Augustine obtained permission to communicate with the Christians of the North-part of England, whom he exhorted to join themselves with him, because (as faith Westmonasteriensis) Sanctum Pascha & alia perplura unitati Ecclesiae concontraria faciebant. They did keep the holy Easter, and many other things in a contrary manner to the unity of the Church. These Christians before they would communicate with him, consulted a certain person of the Isle, who lived a solitary life, esteemed a prudent man, and of holy life, and they asked him whether at Augustine's persuasion they should part with their ancient customs. To whom this good man answered, if he be a man of God, follow him, but (said they) how shall we discern whether he be a a man of God or no? he answered them, You shall know him by his humility, and if he induce you by his example to bear the Cross of Christ. So they made their appearance in the Synod assigned, where Augustine received them with contempt, and vouchsafed not so much as to rise up from of his seat when they entered. This was the cause, that they likewise contemned him and contradicted whatsoever be propounded, accusing him of pride: and although Gregory had sent him the Pallium, 
The robe.  and had styled him Archbishop, nevertheless they declared unto him, that they acknowledged not his authority, nor would obey him in any thing. Wherewith Augustine being nettled, threatened them that the Anglo-Saxons should revenge it upon them, and he lied not. So Aethelfrid King of Northumberland, although he were a Pagan, favouring this Augustine, in hatred of these Christians his enemies, fell upon them, and made a great slaughter of them. They had in a Town called Bangor a great Monastery, wherein there were some twelve hundred Monks, who were all poor artisans getting their living by their trade: of whom this Pagan King made a massacre and a sacrifice unto Augustine, but as for the Saxon Christians converted by Augustine from Paganism, they received the Roman service, such as Augustine pleased to give them, and subjected themselves to Augustine sent by the Bishop of Rome, about the year 600. of our Lord. Which is the time which Harding pointeth out unto us, saying, that at the least nine hundred, or a thousand years since service was done in England in a tongue not understood, acknowledging that it was this Augustine, who together with the Roman service thither brought in the roman language, which ever after that time forward continued in England in their public service, unto the time of the reformation: every age from that time on-ward patched on some piece in religion. In such sort, that had Augustine lived again seven or eight hundred years after his death, he should have found in England, and at Rome too quite another religion then that which he preached. This that we have recited concerning this Augustine, and of his entry, and of his carriage and behaviour in England is extant in Bede in his second chap. of the second book of the History of the Anglosaxons. In Geffrey of Monmouth, in his 4. chap. of his eight book of the History of the two Britons, and in the flower of the Histories of Matthew of Westminster.  
Bede in the 4. book of his History saith that in the year of our Lord 668. one surnamed, Stephen taught the people of Northumberland to follow the Romish singing in public service As then the Romish service was not yet received in France, nor in Spain. This selfsame Augustine passing thorough France, and there observing the service different from the Romish Liturgy, asked advice of Gregory his Master how he should carry himself in that diversity. Gregory answered him that he should follow that which he found good, and should accommodate himself unto, and comply with the Churches wherein he was. This is extant in the Interrogatories of the said Augustine added to the end of the works of Gregory the first.  
As for Germany, Christianity came in thither very late. Radbod King of the Frisons in the year 700. of our Lord, was a Pagan: and Franconia began to receive the Gospel. And the Saxons against whom Charlemain made so great wars in the year 775. and following, were Pagans, and were ranged to Christianity by the sword, as were also the Frisons.  
Suibert in the year 704. and following, very much advanced Christianity along the Rhine, and in the Country of Brandenbourge. But it appears not to us by Histories in what tongue he established the service.  
In the year 719. Winofrid, surnamed Boniface, preached the Gospel to the German Pagans, sent by Gregory II. Pope, a great defender of images. This Boniface being wholly given to the advancing of the Papal Sea, I doubt not but that he gave to the Germans newly converted from Paganism, the service in the Roman form, and tongue.   

CHAP. XIIII. Concerning Africa, and how the service in the Latin tongue entered thither.  
COncerning Africa, Mounsieur du Perron speaks thus. 
Lib. 6. c. 1. p. 1091.  Saint Augustine witnesseth to us, that in Africa the custom which was amongst the people of pronouncing in singing of the Psalms, 
De doctrina Christiana. lib. 2. cap. 13.  Floret sanctificatio mea, instead of saying, Florebit, was so deeply rooted thorough long use amongst the people, that there was no means to bereave them or to wean them from it, and yet nevertheless it is certain that the Latin tongue was not vulgar any where out of Italy, and the towns of the Roman Colonies, spread abroad thorough the Empire: as was Carthage in Africa, wherein the Latin tongue was vulgar, whence it was that Saint Augustine (as such) saith, that he learned it from the blandishments and hugging of his Nurses.  
This Prelate doth according to his accustomed manner, which is to prove a thing, which is not in controversy, and so to wander from the question. He saith, that the Latin tongue was not vulgar in Africa: but that is not the question. We dispute not here of the vulgar tongue, but of a tongue understood by the people. It matters not whether the Latin was, or was not the vulgar tongue in Africa: the question is whether it was there understood or no. In this part of Africa, which he noteth to us, the Liturgy was said in Latin, because the Latin tongue was there more common and better understood by the people than the Punic tongue, which was their ancient vulgar tongue. It is already much that Du Perron yields us that the Latin tongue was the vulgar tongue of Carthage a Capital town of Africa. He confesseth also the like of the towns of Africa, which were Colonies. Now the vulgar tongue of the capital town of the country being Latin, where the Proconsul's Court was, and the officers of the Emperor, and where the causes were judged in Latin, and wherein there were an innumerable multitude of people, and many other towns being Roman Colonies: and thorough out all these towns, they whom the Romans called Curiales, & the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, whom in France we call les Gens du Roy, being Latin, it is no wonder, if all the people thorough the main Country were accustomed to speak Latin, and that the Latin tongue there was more usual than the Punic tongue, which was the vulgar tongue. Wherefore as at Carthage, so also at Bonne, and in other towns of Africa subject to the Romans, not only the Liturgy, but also their Sermons were made in Latin. In Latin it was that Saint Cyprian, and Aurelius, and Augustine preached. The which Augustine being borne in the town of Thagast or Tegest in Numidia, where the people were half barbarous, and fare from Carthage: yet nevertheless in the 1 of his Confessions, Chapter 14. 
Latina didici sine ullo metu atque cruciatu, inter etiam blandimenta nu tricum, & ioca arridentium.  saith, he had learned the Latin amongst the blandishments and flatteries of his Nurses: for that his Father was a Courtier and an officer of the Roman Emperor: as witnesseth Possidonius in the life of Saint Augustine. And therefore also in the books of Saint Augustine there are many passages by the which it appeareth, that the people of Africa understood the Latin, better then the Punic tongue. As in the 
a Ser. 16. de verbis Apostoli. Proverbium notum est Punicum, quod quidem Latinè vobis dicam, quia Punicè non omnes nostis.  26. Sermon of the words of the Apostle, he speaketh thus to the people. There is a Punic proverb well known, which I will tell you in Latin, because you do not all of you understand the Punic. And upon the 50. Psalm. We all know that in Latin we say not sanguines, nor sanguina. And in his second book of Christian doctrine, Chapter 10. Cum dicimus bovem, 
b Cum dicimus boven intelligimus pecus, quod omnes nobiscum Latinae linguae homines hoc nomine vocunt.  When we say OX, we mean that beast, which all they which with us are Latinists by tongue do call by that name. And in his first book of retractations, Chapter 20. 
c Volens causam Donatistarum ad ipsius humilimi vulgi & omnino imperitorum & idiotarum notitiam pervenire, & eorum, quamtùm fieri posset per nos, inhaerere memoriae, Psalmum qui eis cantaretur per literas Latinas feci.  Desiring that the cause of the Donatists might come to the knowledge of the common people, and of the most ignorant and of very Idiots, and that by our means it might be deeply imprinted in their memories, I have put it into Latin in a Psalm for them to sing.  
By all this hitherto laid open it appeareth as clear as day that the Primitive and ancient Church in Greece, Egypt, Asia, Armenia, Ethiopia, Africa subject to the Romans, In Italy, in France, Spain, and England divine service was said in a tongue understood. And this Mounsieur Du Perron covertly without any words acknowledged, in that he durst not say, that in these Church's service was said in an unknown tongue, but maintains that it was not said in the vulgar tongue, and that is false too in Italy, in Greece, and in the most part of Asia the less, In the Town of Carthage, and and in all the Roman Colonies of Africa: and in all of them it is true without exception, that Sermons and service were performed and done in the same tongue.   
FINIS.   

LONDON, Printed by George Miller, for George Edward's, dwelling in Greene-Arbor, without Newgate. 1630.