EXCELLENTLY (as all o­ther thinges) doth the ho­ly Ghost by the mouth of Saint Paul reckon amongst the works of the flesh, con­tentions, emulations, angers, debates dissentions, and sects: these vnfortunate fruits of this wicked tree I hauing ta­sted, or rather out of the corrupt disease of my minde greedily deuoured, haue now thought requisite, after the hole­some receite of Gods grace, to cast vp a­gayne, and make a perfect euacuation of this contracted filth. This that I might the more safely and readily doe, and my selfe openly reprehend, and con­demne the manifold errours that haue [Page 6] ensued of the wicked resolution of my former bad departure; I resolued with my selfe the best course to be, leauing the schoole of errours, falsities, and he­resies, to returne of myne owne accord to the holy Roman Church, the one & only pillar, and singular foundation of truth, and mother of all Catholikes, frō which so wickedly I had departed; & therefore first of all I will explicate this reprehension, condemning, and dete­station of my errours past: after that I will recount other causes for which I was to leaue England, and other here­ticall countreyes, and to returne a­gayne to the holy Catholike Roman Church.

2. It is a most ancient disease of our corrupt nature, as it were by inhe­ritance conueighed from our first parent vnto all his posterity, that when we erre and doe agaynst that which is com­maunded, we eyther coyne friuolous excuses: Genes. 3. The woman whome thou hast giuen me &c. or else defend our faultes, and with the counterfeit garment of iu­stice, and vertue, labour all we can to maske and couer them. This to haue [Page 7] befallen vnto me I doe both confesse, & lament. The disease of my soule where­with I was sicke before my departure was, in that I trusted to much to my own prudence agaynst that wholesome counsayle of the Wise-man, Prouerb. 3. ne innitaris prudentiae tuae, and out of the confidence of my small wit, being of so small reach I iudged too rashly of matters of Fayth: besides this a certaine frenzy of rage, not that which some ignorant companions only wise in their owne conceit, obie­cted vnto me when I was to returne out of England, for that, forsooth, cer­tayne Promotions, which in vayne I thirsted after were denyed me, but al­togeather caused of my vnreasonable im­patience whiles I tooke it most grieuou­sly to be vnder them, of whome in the Booke of the causes of my departure I haue without all cause complayned: these things carryed me vpon the shelfs and sands, these did beate my barke a­gaynst the rocks, these sharpened my wit to pestiferous thoughts, these were the cause why I fondly feigned errours of the Roman Church, wherby I might excuse my departure; these finally cast [Page 8] me on those extreme coastes, vvhere I went, and that I might seeme to haue done well, and in some sort endeauour to auoyd the imputation of imprudency and rashnes, and of heresy also, first for defence of my departure I set forth my purpose and intention in the same, then other volumes, and bookes fraught with such things as eyther the art of fei­gning, or forging suggested, or the wis­dome of the flesh did prompt vnto me: and vvhiles the sicknes boyled in my brest within, and the stings of wrath did pricke my exulcerated mynd, the itch of my tongue, and pen did breake forth into an impostume. Many things which heretikes, enemyes of the Sea Aposto­like did belieue, affirme, and professe, seemed to me, now blinded by my selfe to be credible, some to be true; when as yet I had neuer brought these contro­uersies to the touchstone of true diuini­ty, nor had throughly discussed them, for I had not ended any part of the Ec­clesiasticall Commonwealth in which I had determined to treat of points of religion, and rules of fayth; nor yet had I so much as begunne it, howsoeuer in [Page 9] the booke of the cause of my departure I sayd, that I had already finished all these books. Hence it came that I rash­ly relying on the slaunders of heretikes and not on the Catholike fayth, entitu­led one of my books, Of the cause of my departure, and another in Italian, The rockes of Christian shipwracke, and another A certayne sermon, which I filled ful of er­rours, and heresies for the most part, in hatred of the holy Roman Church, and Sea Apostolike, and of those Popes by whom I thought my selfe to haue byn iniured; and affirmed those and many other things vvhich before I knew to be false, and hereticall, and after at least in part, my selfe misliked, and did whils I wrote in England from my hart detest them, because they conteyne open he­resyes, agaynst the Catholike truth, and are contrary to sound doctrine; I meane to that which the Catholicke Roman Church hath alwayes held, and holds at this day: agaynst which whatsoeuer, or whersoeuer is written or sayd by me, that in al and euery part I do condemne and detest; and I will better, & more at large by Gods help, condemne and [Page 10] detest the same, in the confutation of my bookes of the Ecclesiasticall Com­monwealth, & other bookes that I haue written agaynst the truth: for I submit my selfe, and all my bookes to the most holy iudgement, and censure of the ho­ly Roman and Apostolicall Sea, the mi­stresse and guide of all other Churches.

3. In the meane tyme here in this exchange for a new, and sounder resolution, I most detest the former of my departure, the Infamous Rockes of the shipwrackes, of my selfe especially, and heretikes, but not of Catholikes, & moreouer the Sermon mentioned; nei­ther shall I shame by casting of the gar­ments which I had made for myselfe, to shew my nakednes, because I was not ashamed agaynst all law and cons­cience to breake forth into vayne fi­ctions, open slaunders, and filthy he­resies. Diosco­rides l. 6. c. 44. The sting, and poyson of the scorpion by bruzing of the same scorpi­on that stong, hath a present remedy. If the voluntary breaking, and bruzing of my selfe bring remedy to this poyso­ned wound (in case any so wounded haue repented him himselfe) I shall [Page 11] esteeme this my bruzing, deiection, and mortification for happy: let the glory of the Catholike Church and Sea Aposto­like stand immoueable, yea euen with the greatest losse of temporal goods that can befall me; and since that so wic­kedly I haue gone about to weaken, and infring it, this course cannot (at least before God) but be glorious vnto me.

4. First therfore I confesse, & in conscience truly, & sincerly testify that I wrote that booke of the Cause of my de­parture, and the other two, to wit the Rocks, and Sermon, not out of sincerity of hart, not good cōscience, not out of vn­feygned faith, but that I might cast some colourable excuse on my shamefull de­partur, & that I might be the more grat­full, and welcome vnto the heretickes, to whom like a wretch I went, or with whome I did conuerse. The ten yeares labour which I bragged of in the book of my departure, was not imployed in maturity of deliberation, grauity of iud­gement, discussion of truth, but all that vvhile I studyed hovv to finish that vaine, fruitles, and pernicious worke [Page 12] of the Ecclesiasticall commonwealth, & coyne bold, and hereticall fictions, and with­all satisfy the impotent force of myne owne rage; in so much as that vocation was not deuine, but diabolicall, not in­spired by the holy Ghost, but suggested by a bad spirit, vexing me worse then it did Saul with the spirit of giddines: 2. Reg. 18 v. 10. but for my returne I doubt not but that it is to be ascribed vnto Gods true voca­tion, his diuine spirit calling me backe to my Mother, the holy Catholique Church.

5. I sayd, that the behauiour of the court of Rome was the cause why I should for euer abhorre it: I am not ig­norant, that herein I spake ill, for there were not wanting then, nor yet are at Rome very many cōspicuous examples of piety, & all Christian vertues which are able to delight, and allure religious, or well disposed mynds. I sayd that out of the forbidding of hereticall books to be read, do spring euill suspitiōs which get credit to the books of heretiks, and induce men to belieue somewhat to be in them vvhich Catholikes could not confute, and this I acknowledge to haue [Page 13] been spoken by me, not without great iniury to the Catholike saith, who haue found in their bookes, I meane of here­tikes, false, hereticall, scandalous, and pestiferous doctrine, from reading of which, least the Faythfull be infe­cted they are worthily to be restray­ned: for not vnto priuate men who read those bookes, but vnto the Pa­stours, the iudgement of fayth hath euer and doth still appertayne, that they may know which are poisoned pasturs, and remoue their flockes far from them. Moreouer the arguments of heretiks are deceytfull, sophisticall, and haue most easy solutions. I affirmed the doctrine of those who oppose themselues to the Church of Rome, nothing at all, or ve­ry little to degenerate from the pure do­ctrine of the primitiue Church, and this also is false: for the opinions in which they differ from Catholiks, are all of them most cōtrary to those which that Church held, & nothing can con­uince them more certainly of errour thē the authority of the ancient Church frō which they by these noueltyes haue very far departed: in so much as for this [Page 14] cause they are condemned as heretikes by the Church of Rome: it is therefore to be detested, & I doe detest that which I sayd, Therefore the religion of Prote­stants to be condemned of the Church, because it is contrary to the sense, and corrupted manners of the Court of Rome. I said, that in Rome by extreme violence were coyned new articles of beliefe, and this truly I did say both a­gaynst my knowledge and conscience, for I neuer saw any such matter, nor any man else, as most certainly I know, for none can say that there are new articles coyned, when there are only added the true declaratiōs & explicatiōs of the true articles, & those gathered out of the holy scripturs, traditiōs of the Fathers, & very rules of religion. Againe I endeuored to depriue the Roman Church of the titles of Catholike, and Vniuersall, wherin I exceedingly erred: for by the Roman Church is not vnderstood that speciall, and particuler Church alone, which is at Rome, but the collection of all other Churches adhering to the Roman in v­nity of the same fayth, and subiection to the same chiefe Bishop, wheresoeuer [Page 15] they be, albeit in the vttermost coastes and corners of the earth. And doubtles this is most true, & of me, both by word of mouth, as England it selfe can testify, and in my written treatises of the Eccle­clesiasticall commonwealth, and in that part which last of all (I heare) is printed in Germany, I haue euinced, that there is no other Catholike Church but the Ro­man, vnderstanding thereby that parti­cular with the other adhering thereun­to; wheras all other companies of Chri­stians are defiled with heresies, and be­ing by schisme deuided and separated from the truth, are out of the Catholike, vniuersall, and true Church of Christ; and these blind soules with their blynd guides, rush and fall headlong into the pit of hell, which I in my errour most wickedly and without grieuous iniury affirmed of the Roman Catholikes: for from the Roman Church at all times to all other Churchs the most shining light of the pure and incorrupted fayth hath flowed, and at this present flowes. I re­member also, that in the preface of my bookes of the Ecclesiasticall commonwealth, I vsed certayne wordes, by which I in­sinuated [Page 16] all such to be in the Catholike Church, who had receaued baptisme in the name of the Trinity; but albeit the words haue an ill sound, & make all he­reticall Churches true & sound mēbers of the true Catholike Church, which is most false, and hereticall, yet my mea­ning was, that the Arian, Nestorian, Eu­tichian, all hereticall and condemned Churches in tymes past, should be ex­cluded, and only the true belieuers to be retayned: which true belieuers I thought then to be many more then in­deed they are, and many Churches tain­ted with these latter Heresyes, and by Schisme deuided, I erroneously iud­ged to pertaine to the Catholike; but though the Catholike Church be so denominated for her Vniuersality, yet this Vniuersality includes no o­ther then the true orthodoxe, or right belieuing Churches, spread ouer the whole world, which remayne in vnity with the Roman. And truly the vni­uersality of the Roman Church doth consist not only in the cōtinual durance neuer yet interrupted, or euer after to be, and constance of sound beliefe, but also [Page 17] is vniuersall, because the selfe same fayth of Rome, and supreme gouernement are extended after the cōming of Christ to all places, and all Nations: for which respect euen in these latter ages, it is no lesse to be tearmed Catholike, then it was in the tyme of the ancient Fathers, because the fayth of the Roman Church euen at this tyme, is propagated in the most remote, & vast regions of the East and West Indyes, euen vnto the furthest corners of the earth; in so much as the children of this Church euen in these dayes passing by continuall trauel from the rising of the Sunne vnto the setting, and carrying with them the Fayth of Christ, & offering cleane sacrifices, that now may be sayd especially to be fulfil­led, which God pronounced by the mouth of Malachy: Malach. 1. v. 11. Ab ortu solis vsque ad occasum magnum est nomen meum in gentibus, & in omni loco sacrificatur, & offertur nomi­nimeo oblatio munda. From the rising of the sunne vnto the setting my name is great amongst the Gentills, & in euery place there is sacrificed and offered vnto my name a pure oblation. Neither was it a lesse iniury, and slaunder, when I [Page 18] said that I had noted very many nouel­tyes, and errors of the Court of Rome; which nouelties, which errors, I ney­ther now, or euer yet noted, and I ac­knowledge it to be most false, & con­fesse it for such, that euer there were, or are in Rome such errors, out of which the ruine, and slaughter of soules doth proceed, the peace of the Church is troubled, or publick scandalls haue, or doe arise; truly next after God all peace of the Catholike Church, her totall tranquillity, and the euerlasting sal­uation of soules is to be ascribed to the care, and sollicitude of the Roman Church. I sayd, that the more potent Bishops vnder the Bishop of Rome were but equiuocall, or counterfeit Bishops: and this saying cōteins no lesse falshood then iniury in it, and therefore as ray­latiue I condemne it; for they are true, and lawfull Bishops, made by lawfull ordination. I affirmed others who were not Potentates, and Princes to haue lost the proper dignity and power of Bish­ops: and truly this is also a slaunder, for hierarchical subordinatiō in the Church hath been alwaies necessary: much more [Page 19] doe I cōdemne as an heresy that which I said, the Church no longer to remayn vnder the Bishop of Rome; for as be­fore I specifyed, and earnestly auouched only the Church of Rome with the rest adhering therunto, is the true Church of Christ, & that others are no Churchs at all. And to conclude much in few, I perceyue that in the first booke of my departure, I specially endeauoured to infringe the primacy of the B. of Rome, in which poynt I deny not, but that I spake against the fayth of the whole Ca­tholike Church, and therefore greatly to haue erred, for both by the Euange­licall ordinance, traditions of the Apo­stles, definitions of the holy Synods, & Generall Councells, by very many de­crees of Popes, and common testimony of Fathers, and ecclesiasticall histories, it is manifest, and cleere the B. of Rome alwayes to haue been taken for head of the whole Church, to haue beene so ap­pointed by Christ our Lord, and al­wayes to haue been taken for a singular oracle, to whome no lesse the East then the West, in all doubts of fayth should sue for instruction of beliefe, definition, [Page 20] & secure doctrine, as a maister appointed vs by God, who should by his office teach and direct his Church, any schol­ler may obserue very many examples in which the Bishops of Rome direct the Patriarkes, and Bishops of the East, they warne them, rebuke them, teach them, condemne them, absolue them, depose them, restore them, controle them, and that euen out of their office, and power ouer them; and the others checked by the Popes, humbly gaue them eare, o­beyed, resisted not, or reclaymed; and briefely, it is cleare by the confession of all the Catholike Church, the whole spirit of Christ, for determining of these things which belong vnto fayth, to re­side in the sole, and one visible supreme head of the same Church, which is on­ly the Pope, the chiefe Bishop, and S. Peters succcessor.

5. I freely confesse that the booke which I called the Rockes of Christiā ship­wrack did exceedingly displease me pre­sently after that it was set forth, for without all choyce had of the matter, without all discussion or search of truth I hudled it vp, that I might some way [Page 21] or other please the Englishmē, after my arriuall amongst them; in writing of which I considered, and layd open not what was true, but what pleased best the enemies of the Church, especially the vulgar, and vnlearned multitude: and this booke whiles I was in England, & preparing for my departure being obie­cted vnto me by the King, and other men, I did in plain wordes detest it, and my selfe withstood the greater part of heresyes which it conteynes, and as far as I was able impugned them: al which here agayne I reiect, abhorre, and detest. The heresies were these. The B. of Rome not to be Christs vicar on earth, and vi­sible head of his Church; that he had no power ouer temporall things; implicite fayth to auayle nothing but much to hurt the faithfull; the excommunicati­ons of the law to be vain buggs; the cō ­mandements of the Church not to bind vnder mortall sinne; the vnity of the Church not to be taken from one visi­ble head; the Pope to be the capitall e­enemy of the whole Church; the Masse to be no true sacrifice; the ceremonies of the Masse to be light Comical gestu­res, [Page 22] no transsubstantiation to be made; auricular confession with absolution to be no true Sacrament; that there is no purgatory; satisfaction for release of the punishment after that the fault is forgiuen not to be necessary; no In­dulgences to be, but of such penaltyes only as are imposed; the Saintes not to be inuocated; the worship of Re­likes, and Images not to be lawfull; that there is no merit of good wor­kes to euerlasting life. These, and the the like errours, and manifest heresies not so much myne, and new, as of the auncient, and modern heretickes, and their bablings, and doating dreames, condemned alwayes by the Catho­like Church in many holy generall Councells, are miserable rockes vn­to which such as approach make la­mentable shipwracke of their faith and euerlastinge saluation; and therefore I fly from them as far as I am able: and least that I should haue beene cast a­way vppon them in England, I was of necessity to depart from thence, and rerurne to the true Church, the port and harbour of Catholickes, and forsake, [Page 23] detest, anathematize or accurse all the foresayd errors, and whatsoeuer o­thers if there be any other in those bookes, which agree not with the faith expressed in the sacred Councells, es­pecially in the late Councell of Trent: on the other side I imbrace, and auer the contrary truthes, to wit, the chiefe Bishop of Rome by Christs iustituti­on to be his Vicar on earth; to be the visible head of the militant Church which alwayes hath beene visible, with full power receaued from God to gouerne and order the same; the same Bishopp of Rome to haue po­wer ouer temporall thinges in ordi­ne ad spiritualia; the implicite fayth to be profitable, and sometymes neces­cessary, as when one without his fault hath no expresse faith, or beliefe of some articles; the excommunications of the law, or deliuered ipso facto, to be of force, and to be feared, as induced by exceeding great reason, and lawfull power; the Popes to be able to ex­communicate all faithfull people of what place, or countrey soeuer, in case they deserue to be so censured, [Page 24] the commaundements of the Church bynd all vnder mortall sinne to obserue them; the vnity of the Church chiefly to depend vpon the one, visible head thereof; the B. of Rome to be the true, lawfull, & towards the sheepe of Christ as it behoueth, the profitable Pastor of the whole Church, the only eternall saluation of which I desire he may al­wayes thirst, and seeke with all care; in in the Masse to be offered vp vnto God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacri­fice, the ceremonies of the Masse ordai­ned by the Fathers, and Pastors of the Church by the inspiration of the holy Ghost, to be holy, mystical, profitable, and by all meanes to be retayned; tran­substantiation to be made in the Sacra­ment of the Aultar, that is the conuer­sion of turning of the whole substance of bread into the body, & of the whole substance of wine into the bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ; by Sacramentall ab­solution wherby the priest absolues the penitent, to be exercised a true and pro­per power of binding, and losing sins, which our Lord gaue to the ministers of his Sacraments in the Church, to be [Page 25] purgatory in that manner, as the holy Roman, & Apostolicke Church teach­eth it to be graunted; satisfaction to be much avayleable for the releasement of the punishment after that the sinne is forgiuen; the vse of pardons in the Ca­tholike Church to whome Christ hath giuē power to bestow them, to be most ancient, most soueraygne, and appro­ued by the authority of holy Councels; the Saints not only without all errour of the faithfull to be inuocated, but fur­ther that it is good, & profitable to haue recourse to their prayers, and help; the worship of Reliques, and images to be good, lawfull, and profitable; which cannot be abrogated without the spot of heresy; the merit of eternall life to depend of our good workes. The later General Councels which are of suprea­me authority in the Church, my stomak being ouer charged with ill humours, I did often despise, especially the Coun­cells of Florence, & Trent, many times also that of Constance, and through my procuring a certayn history came forth in print of the Councell of Trent, of the truth of which history I had no [Page 26] certainty, yea it is worthily suspected of imposture: in these thinges also I confesse that I erred very much, for I affirme all the most wholsome de­crees of these Councells with full fayth to be imbraced by all the Catholikes.

6. In a certayn sermon of mine had in Italian at London the first sonday in Aduent, and printed, I set down these errours, which being after repeated a­gayne in the booke of the Rocks, now I haue worthily detested. In that ser­mon I framed a certayn night of papall errours in the Roman Church, wheras indeed in the Roman Church alone and others conioyned therewith there is true light, the true, and only most shining day, out of which (in England especially) is continuall, & most darke night. In the Church of Rome, the light of truth, the true, and sincere vnder­standing of the holy scriptures driues far away from it al the darkenes of errours, with which darknes miserable Englād being ouercast, groapeth like a blind man at noone day. I sayd in the same sermon, and reiterated agayne in the booke of the Rocks, that S. Peter was [Page 27] neuer at Rome, but this as a soule, and ignorant lye I freely confesse is to be condemned. I made all the Apostles in planting, and gouerning the Church to be equall, whereas notwithstanding the supremacy of S. Peter ouer them is cleare by the very gospells and Aposto­licall traditions. I affirmed the Bishops to succeed the Apostles with equall power, and to be Bishops in solidum of the Vniuersall Church, whereas yet Bishops are but Pastors of particuler Churchs, & haue but a particuler charge, the generall primacy being reserued to him who in the same succeedeth S. Peter who is the B. of Rome, and chiefe Pa­stor. I sayd that holy water, graynes, crosses, hallowed images, Papal, and E­piscopall blessings, the stations, diuersity of habits, cords, leather girdles, visiting Churches, and Altars, beades, pro­cessions, and the like to be toyes; when as it sufficiently appeareth, almost all of these thinges to be auncient and al­lowed in the Catholicke Church, which vse is to be cōtinued, yea euen in those things which are more fresh indu­cements to piety & deuotion. I affirmed [Page 28] that there were only two Sacraments, Baptisme, and the Supper; whereas yet the Catholike Church lightned by the holy ghost, doth plainly teach & define that there be seauen true Sacraments: all which, and what other heresyes soeuer condemned by the Catholike Roman Church, I doe also condemne, and with firme faith belieue, hold, and professe the contrary to these heresies defined by the same: for it is most certayn, that in the decrees of the holy Roman Church, reason is not seuered from authority, & the schoole doctrin especially in articles religion, to be altogether conformable to the sense, or doctrine of the holy Fa­thers. This further I confesse, that I haue without cause complained in my books of the Court of Rome, as if it had vsur­ped authority belonging to others; for vnles that Church out of her lawfull authority ouer Archbishops & Bishops keep them both in order, the violating of all lawes will easely follow by their dissension. It is truly the greatest happi­nes of the Church, when her inferiour Pastors vnder one most vigilāt Pastour receaue and execute from him who hath [Page 29] supreme authority ouer all, reformati­on of life, and the charge of sound, and sincere doctrine. And truly should not the mild, and Fatherly care of the ho­ly Inquisition watch attentiuely ouer our Lords flocke, the scabbed sheep would find no cure, and that most wic­ked infectiō would soone farre & neere spread it selfe. The ordinary armour of that tribunall are sound doctrine and in­struction full of charity, and not these others which I out of my exulcerated mind haue with so many falsityes, and slaunders exaggerated: but in case the festered soares doe not yield to lenitiue medicines, then is it both fit, and ne­cessary that the Phisitian apply more sharp, and corrosiue plaisters.

7. But now euen the inward fyre of the diseases of my mynd did rage al­most by miracle, after the entrance of Gregory the fifteenth to the gouernment of the Church (whose eminēt piety, sin­gular wisdome, and continuall sancti­ty of a most innocent life, I indeed be­lieued to haue aduaunced him to that high honour) I began to thinke of some more healthfull course, the holy ghost [Page 30] enlightning me with the beames of his grace, in so much that now the dangers of my soule in the state I liued in, be­ganne to shew themselues euery day more cleerly vnto me, and I now wō ­dered that I had gone so farre in folly, and errour, that I would conioyne my selfe with them who were heretikes, & playne, and absolute scismaticks. Such in tymes past was the guilefull deceite of a few Arrians in the Councell of Ari­mini, that by secret collusion they had as it were drawne almost all the Ca­tholikes into Arianisme, tunc (sayth S. Hierome) Hieron. cō ­tra Lucife­rianos. totus mundus ingemuit, & miratus est se esse Arrianum, then all the world groaned, and merueyled to see it selfe become Arrian: so (alas) & much worse it befell me, that I saw, wondered, and lamented my selfe an heretike amongst heretiks, & scismatick amōg scismaticks. And that the Englishmen cōplayne not of me that I doe them wrong, but that they may know my departure from thē & return to my mother the holy Catho­like Church to haue been lawful, & for iust cause, I am constrained to lay open their heresy, and schisme with which it [Page 31] was no way cōuenient, that I should be further entangled or taynted.

8. In England (if we speake of Reli­gion) are many sects: there are Puritās, or rigid Caluinists: there are more mo­derate who call themselues only Prote­stants, & Reformed: there are Anabap­tists, & those deuided into diuers sects: neither want there Arrians, Photinians & such like raffe of lewd mē, who albeit they be not allowed openly to professe their errours, yet are they not banished the land, nor punished at home, but are tolerated, whiles in the mean time they spread their poyson, & infect others: that the Anabaptists hold many heresies none that is not an Anabaptist will de­ny but they in Englād freely haue their conuenticles, and his Maiesty himselfe one day told me, that lately in London, at the assēbly of the Anabaptists, a wo­man had made a sermon, & ministred their Sacramēts. The heresies of the Pu­ritans are notorious, to wit, that there is no free will, God to be Author of sinne, God merly, because so it pleaseth him to damn many; Christ not to haue dyed for al, to haue vndergon the punishment of hel, that infants baptized be dāned &c. the [Page 32] more moderate Protestants, although they goe about, touching points of do­ctrine, to free themselues in some sort from heresy, because they doe not ad­mit entirely the heresies eyther of Cal­uin or Luther, if they follow the pure doctrine of the English Church, which they call Reformed; yet can they not so escape or rid their hands from Puri­tans and Anabaptists with whome they fully communicate: and if any Ana­baptist or Puritan come to their Ecclesi­astical Conuenticles, they neither auoid him, nor exclude him; yea almost all the Puritan Ministers handle, and mini­ster the very Sacraments of the false En­glish Church vnto all commers, at least vnto all Caluinists. And if Acacius of Constantinople, for that he had com­municated with Peter Mogge an heretick of Alexandria, & if all the East Church for persisting in communion with Ar­rius, was separated by a long anathema or curse from the Roman, and West Church; how much more are the Prote­stants of England to be esteemed for he­retikes, because they continually com­municate which heretikes; neyther do [Page 33] they cōdemne them; or deny them their company, but rather admit them al that will communicate in their ceremonies, rites, and Sacraments with the English Church? Doth not the deformed Church of England publickly and plainly pro­fesse cōmunion, & Ecclesiastical league or fryendship with Geneua the mother of Puritans, and all other forrayn Cal­uinists? Are there not euen in London the Kinges Citty, and that by publicke graunt of the King, Churches of the French, Flemish and Italian Caluinists, which hate and abhorre the doctrine, profession, & rites of England, & yet are most deerely beloued sisters of the En­glish Synagogue? And by them Purita­nisme is especially maintayned, and set forward in Englād. Moreouer with the Lutherās, polluted with very many he­resies, the English Sinagogue is most ready to communicate, and labours all that it can, to the end that these mōsters of many heads may like Hercules hydra agree in one body, and a vnion (as they terme it) be made of all the reformed Churches: but of purging the faith and doctrine of these different sects, & roo­ting [Page 34] out their heresies no care is had; & yet the Lutherans hate the Sacramenta­ries cane peius, & angue. Other heresies of Englishmen concerning faith, & good workes, and iustification, as also the B. Sacrament, priuate Masses, Merits of good workes, praying vnto Saints, worshipping of holy Images, holy rites and ceremonyes, the soules of the depar­ted, and the like, which they out of an hereticall spirit doe condemne, and a­bolish, and which I with the same spirit in part haue once condemned, and abo­lished, I meane not now further to dis­cusse; somewhat (I meane as much as this place requires) I shall after touch, and more els where in a larger worke. I come to their schisme.

9. Sure I am that the English Sect which the deformed English men call the Reformed Church, to be more deui­ded, & separated from the Church truly Catholike then they are themselues de­uided from the whole world, diuisos toto orbe Britannos. That they are perfectly de­uided frō the Roman Church, & other Churches subiect thervnto, & commu­municating with the same in Religion [Page 35] and fayth, they will thēselues willingly confesse, and the thing is most euident, most notorious. Now wheras the Romā Church with the others aforsaid is truly & properly according to the Cath. Faith, the Cath. Church of Christ, doth it not necessarily follow the English Church as they call it, to be cleane cut of frō the Catholike Church, and consequently that it is not the body of Christ, nor his house, nor, absolutly speaking, to be cal­led a Church? Which when at length I plainly perceyued, I was no longer to [...]emain therin. They will obiect, & say, [...]s this now plain vnto thee, who yet in [...]hy book of Ecclesiastical cōmon wealth didst stile Rome, Babylon, who diddest deny the Church of Rome, who didst teach vs that it was properly schismati­cal; but that which thou affirmest of our Church doth not so plainly appeare vn­to vs. So they. Wherfor I shal goe about to mak this point euident vnto the En­glish, who know ful well that I am not Pithagoras whose only authority amōg his schollers for any thing that he sayd, was held for best proofe: let thē not ther­fore be moued with those things I haue [Page 36] sayd, without other argument, yea fur­ther let my wordes want their weight, & credit euē where I bring my reasons and proofes, if they be found to be weak and feeble. Truly my reason on which I relied, when I made Christian Rome to be Babylon, was because the prophesy o [...] S. Iohn could no be explicated of Rom [...] as it was heathen, before it imbraced the fayth of Christ. Apocalip. 8. But this reason is of no force; for albeyt that this were granted, yet it followeth not that the Christian Rome is Babylon, for it is the opinion o [...] many Catholik interpreters, that in the persecution of Antichrist, the heathen Idolaters, & enemies of Christ are per­haps to subdue Rome; and that of them this prophesy not yet accōplished may conueniently be vnderstood: yet so, as the fayth of the Catholike Church stil [...] continue safe, and sound; by this inter­pretation my affection of Rome as Chri­stian, is ouerthrown, and conteyns in i [...] a meer slaūder; for I know the Christiā Rome not to be Babylon, nor that it can without exceeding iniury be so called▪ But God forbid that in this prophesy o [...] the Apocalyps, we should conceaue th [...] [Page 37] Roman Church it selfe the mother of all Churches, & head of Religiō, hertofore [...]o haue been, or herafter that it shalbe Ba­ [...]ylon, for those things which are spoken of the Citty, are not to be transferred or explicated of the Church. I denyed the Church to be at Rome, but proued it not, and therefore that deny all is to be [...]laced amongst my curses and raylings, [...]ea also amongst my heresyes, especial­ [...]y my self refuting the same, by reason in my other workes, in which strongly I [...]aue affirmed the Roman Church with [...]he others adherent to be the true & on­ [...]y Catholike Church of Christ, & now [...]oe as much as I can professe, & auer the [...]ame. I sayd that it had made a schisme; [...]ut then I sayd it, when as yet I had no [...]xact knowledge of schisme or nature [...]herof, & I erred grossly herin, because it [...]s a manifest falsity: the argumēt brought [...]or the contrary is of no moment, & cō ­ [...]ludeth nothing; for he who being law [...]ully made head of any body, & doth so [...]ile and proclayme himselfe, doth not [...]eperate himselfe from the body, neither [...]oth he cast away the body from him, [...]ut ioyneth himselfe vnto it, which is [Page 38] a farr different thing from schisme; but this I will further prosecute in the re­uiew, & correction of that worke: now only I declare how it is euident to me that the Englishmen, and much more a [...] Sectaryes of our age are truly, and pro­perly Schismaticks, for that without all lawfull cause they haue cut themselues from the true Church of Christ, which is the Catholike Roman Church, & all those that communicate therewith.

10. Two causes only there may be of lawfull separation, that one or more Churches of Christ, may wholy repell one or more Churches from their com­municating with them, without the in­curring of schisme: the one is heresy, the other schisme it selfe. The heretical [...] Churches that are incorrigible are to b [...] eschewed of Catholikes, who are to hau [...] no Ecclesiasticall cōmunion with thē ▪ This is a point well knowne among [...] Christians. I often demaunded of th [...] Englishmen why they separated themselues from the Roman Church, takin [...] the same as it comprizeth all other besides that adhere therunto; was it for an [...] heresy? But truly none of them al coul [...] [Page 39] eyther in writing, or by word of mouth shew eyther the Roman Catholikes of of our tymes, or our Predecessors, in their publick profession to be, or haue been tainted with any true heresy. The most soueraigne King of great Britaine playnly, and publickely graunted this vnto me: this the wiser of their chiefe, and inferiour Ministers graunted, and many other learned men affirmed the Church of Rome not to erre in the fun­damentall fayth: wherfore by the graūt of English Protestants this Church is not hereticall. They will obiect per­haps, the Church of Rome not to erre in the fundamentall fayth (which I in the booke of the causes of my departure, & in the sermon made at London see­med to defend) but to erre, and to haue fallen into heresy in other not funda­mentall articles; but first of all I know not what article there is of true fayth which is not fundamentall: neyther could I euer conceaue, or were they able to explicate, how that distinction should be admitted amongst the articles of faith, that some were fundamentall, & some not; for truly I alwayes iudged [Page 40] all and euery of those articles which are truly to be fūdamētal, but I erred in this that from the number of fundamentall, and consequently from the true articles, I excluded many which are indeed ar­ticles of faith, and consequently were all fundamentall, and cannot without heresy be denyed, howsoeuer they be not of these principall, of the Trinity, Incarnation, Necessity of grace, Bapti­zing in the name of the Trinity &c. as are the Sacraments, Iustification, the ne­cessity of workes, merits, indulgences, and the like which before I set downe, as now defined by the Church, because these no lesse rely on Gods reuelation then the former, and therefore as much belong vnto faith as they, for he who makes God deceitfull in any one article whatsoeuer, he must necessarily ac­knowledg him to be deceiptfull in all the rest: agayne I demaunded of such as meāt sincerely that they would produce but one article, in which the Roman Church doth hold, and teach amisse: they are wont to vrge that of Transub­stantiation of bread and wyne into the body, and bloud of Christ, out of which [Page 41] they gather certayne heresies, to wit, Christ not to haue a true body, but a fā ­tasticall one, because we put the whole body in so litle a compasse, or quantity of bread, in so much say they, as the bo­dy is no more a body: again, that Christ is not in heauen if he be on the altar on earth, against the article of his Ascensiō: finally Christ not to haue beene borne of the Virgin Mary, because that we doe make him of bread. In these men truly that is veryfyed which S. Hierom writes, In Epist. ad Titum c. 3. nullum esse Schisma quod non sibi aliquam hae­resim confingat, vt meritò ab Ecclesia recessisse videatur. There is no schisme which fra­mes not to it selfe some heresy, that it may seeme with some reason to haue departed from the Church. And as for Trāsubstantiation which the Catholiks teach, that is most far frō these heresies, for in this all the properties of a body are out of danger from being destroyed, although we graunt the same body to be conteyned vnder neuer so little for­mes and accidents of bread: albeit these propertyes in ordine ad locum, as they are referred to place, which is a thing extrin­secall to the body, may by Gods power [Page 42] be separated, which thing is fully expli­cated by the schoole Doctors; but what heresy can they imagine in vs, if we doe al constantly affirme that we belieue as an article of fayth, Christ to haue had & still to haue a true body with all natural propertyes, in it selfe, which propertyes we belieue & cōfesse by the same omni­potēt power may be preserued although the body be reduced to neuer so litle an external place; neither can any by The­logical proofe infring the same: humane Philosophy neither can, nor must mea­sure Gods power, let that iudge what can be done by nature, but those things that are aboue nature, let it reuerence, but not iudge: neyther doth it follow hence, Christs body not to be in heauen but on the altar: we all by diuine fayth belieue Christ haue ascended into hea­uen, and there for euer to sit at the right hand of his father; notwithstanding we affirme that by diuine power one and the selfe same body may be in many places at once, at least sacramentally, and this cannot be impugned, but only out of humane Philosophy, and see­ming arguments: and lastly we say not [Page 43] the body to be made of bread, as if it had not beene before, but we hould the bread to be transubstantiated into the body of Christ, which body did preexist, or was before the consecrati­on, and before transubstantiation, the body of Christ borne of the Virgin Mary is extant and existent, into which the bread is transubstantiated; truly these men do ignorantly forge these heresies, for he is an heretick who directly vt­ters heresy: but if they aske of vs what we belieue of the truth of Christes body, of the Ascension, of the Incarnation, they shall heare vs deliuer the true, and Catholike beliefe, notwithstāding that we affirme other things out of which they imagine to follow these erroneous opinions, which we vtterly, and truly deny to follow of them, and they can­not Theologically conuince vs to the contrary. In so much then as pertaineth vnto heresy, they can pretend no cause wherefore they haue iustly, & for good cause separated thēselues frō our Church, therfor they made an vnlawful schisme.

11. The more moderate English Prote­stāts that are not Puritās, vrge not much [Page 44] the heresy of the Roman Church, nor from that ground free themselues from the foule spot of schisme, but they vrge fiercely idolatry, and obtruding of new articles of fayth, by which meanes they will haue the Roman, that is the Ca­tholike Church, to haue fallen from the true faith, and hereby chiefely they de­fend the equity of their separation; this idolatry they will haue to consist in the worship, & inuocation of Saints, and reuerence of Relikes, and Images, and most of all in the Adoration of the B. Sacrament: & a more secret Idolatry they will haue to lye lurking in the cō ­fidence we repose on salt, water, oyle, and other thinges exorcised & blessed: they also cōplain of new articles thrust vpon them by Catholikes, in the defi­nitions of the Councell of Trent, about Iustification, Workes, Merits, Purga­tory, Indulgences, and the like; but all in vayn. Certainly if we Catholikes were indeed Idolaters, we should not only be heretickes, but much worse then most heretickes, & therefore ought to be auoyded, and altogether separa­ted far from all the faithfull. And I wō ­der [Page 45] how any man that is in his right wits, can charge them with idolatry, who dayly professe themselues to be­lieue in one God, and for this ground, or foundation of fayth are ready to shed their bloud; who dayly preach and teach that no diuine worship can be gi­uen to any pure Creature. This then is a base slaunder. Are we for our inuoca­ting of Saints, worshipping of images, adoration of the B. Sacramēt held guil­ty or suspected with these men of ido­latry? Let them seeke, let them vnder­stand, let them penetrate what we hold of the vnity of the true God, what of di­uine honour not to be imparted vnto creatures, and then they shall presently perceaue all such to be very Sots, who iudge and affirme vs to be idolaters, that is worshippers of creatures with diuine honour; neither let them breake out in­to open schisme, vntill they haue found in our doctrine and practise, true Idola­try.

12. No Catholike euer auouched dead men, or Angells to be worshipped with diuine honour; we are not such fooles. Vigilantius in tymes past obiected [Page 46] this vnto the Catholikes, but falsely as S. Hier. writing against him doth shew: and in this as in other thinges of this na­ture, we haue the ancient Fathers, our good maisters, from them we doe not dissent, we doe not depart, we doe not disagree: we willingly imbrace & most exactly practise their most hole­some doctrine, and euery way Catho­like, touching the worshiping of Saints Originis lib. 8. contra Celsum. Epiphanij hae­res. 79. August. Epist. 44. & libro de quan­titate animae cap. 34. & lib. de vera relig. cap. 55. & contra Faustum lib. 23. cap. 21. Cyrilli Alexand. lib. 6. contra Iulianum. Theodoreti in historia Sāctorum Patrum cap. 21. I cite not the wordes of these, and other Fathers because the shortnes of this smal treatise doth not comport it. From whence then haue these late blind mai­sters borrowed their new eyes, when as the Catholike Church long ere they were born was most excellētly furnish­ed with most resplendent, most secure, & shining lāps of learning & sanctity?

13. Festiual daies belong vnto the ho­nour of Saints, which we celebrate in their remembrance, praysing God and [Page 47] thanking him, that he hath aduaunced mortal men, and sinners to so high a de­gree of holines: neither is this a late no­uelty in the Church by annuall deuotiō to keep festiuall daies in the honour of Saintes; it is an ancient vse, (and so an­cient that it may well be referred to the traditiō of the Apostles) that besides the Sōday, the birth-daies of Saintes should be kept holy; which thing I see appro­ued by the anciēt custom of the Church. I find S. Cyprian very careful to haue the dayes noted, Lib. 3. Ep. 6. in which the Christians were martired, vt talibus (saith he) celebrē ­tur hic à nobis oblationes, & sacrificia ob cōme­morationes ipsorū, that on those daies they suffred we in remembrāce of them may celebrate here the oblatiōs, & sacrifices. S. Iohn Chrysostome, & S. Augustine exhort the faithful to the due obseruance of the feastes of Saints. Chrysost. serm. in martyrem Pelagiam. Augu. in Psal. 88. part. 2. in fine. Wherfore I cannot but exceedingly merueil at the new scruples of Protestants, not soberly So the Protestāts translate non plus sapere quā oportet sa­pere, sed sa­pere ad so­brietatem. Rom. 12.3 but more highly thinkinge of themselues then they ought, whiles they haue fully iud­ged, and taught all feastes of the Saints, yea of the B. Virgin mother of God, of the Apostles, and most famous martirs to be [Page 48] abrogated and taken away, albeyt the English Protestants, be not so rigorous; for in this matter they haue left som­what to remayn as before, though it be very little.

14. To inuocate Saints departed, say these mē, is nothing els thē to make many Gods, and this our calling vpon them, and worshipping of their images not to differ frō the customes of Pagans, vnder which pretext they abhorre and auoid vs all they can: but for vs it were easy (if this place would beare so long dispute) to beate backe, and refell all these slaunders of heretikes: for they are forced, if they beleeue the Scriptures, to admit this; (as certayn that the soules of the Saints with God pray for vs mortall men, and that not in generall only, but also in particuler, and it is most euident in this life the faithfull to be holpen by the prayers of the vertuous;) for Moyses often by his prayers turned away the wrath of God from the people of Israel, Iob 42.18. and God exhorted the friends of Iob to intreate his prayers, thereby to obteyne pardon for their folly. Eph. 6. Coloss. 4. 1. Thes. 5. 2. Thes. 3. Hebr. 13. &c. S. Paul ofter cō ­mended himselfe to the prayers of the [Page 49] faithful: & these men may learne if they list, the Saints, whose soules liue in the the sight of God, and raign with Christ, to pray for such as are yet liuing in the militant Church, out of Hieremy Eze­chiell, and the Apocalips. Hierem. 15 Ezech. 14. Apocalip. 5.8. & 8. That for their sakes God graunteth many fauours vnto them, they haue in the same holy Scriptures, and that in many places, as Genes. 26.4.5.24. Exodus 32.13. 3. Re­gum 18.36. 1. Paralip. 29.18. 3. Reg. 11.12.32.34. & 15.4. 4. Reg. 8.19. & 19.34. and 20.6. and Isa. 37.35. See the commentaries which are sayd to be S. Chrysostomes, in the second Homily vp­on the 50. Psalme. Christ warneth vs to make fryends of the mammon of ini­quity, Luke 16. Vt cum defeceritis recipiant vos in aeter­na tabernacula, that when you fayle, they receyue you into their euerlasting taber­nacles: August. de ciuitate Dei lib. 21. c. 7. Gen. 28.12. Heb. 1.14. out of this place S. Augustine attri­buteth much to the intercessiō of Saints.

15. This intercession of Saints the holy Fathers acknowledg, admit, and confirme▪ And truly of Angels the Lad­der of Iacob, and their other employ­ments for vs are notorious. See Origen contra Celsum lib. 8. Of the Angells atten­ding [Page 50] vpon vs, see S. Augustine; Aug. Epi. 122. and of our guardian Angell the Scriptures doe often, and plainly make mention, Gen. 48. Exod. 23. Psalm. 33. Math. 18. Actor. 1 [...]. and the Fathers also most cleerely. Nyssenus in vita Moysis. Basil. in Psal. 33. Hieron in 18. Mat. If there­fore euery man haue to assist, and guard him an Angell of our Lord, what shall hinder but that he may craue his help? I heard once in Englād, with great gust one of my fellow Chanons of Windesor preaching before the King, and affir­ming roundly in his sermon that he saw no reason to the contrary, why euery faythful man might not turne, and con­uert himselfe towards his good Angell, and say, Sancte Angele custos ora pro me, ho­ly guardian Angell pray for me. Of the intercession of Angells, & their labours for our helpe, and benefit, any one besides the former may also reade these Fathers, S. Anton. Monachorum Parentem Epist. 2. ad Arseonitas, Anastasium Synaitam in Hexam. lib. 5. Antiochum Abbat. Hom. 61. Chrysost. de incomprehensib. Dei natura. Hom. 3. & Hom in Martyres Aegyptios. Hie­ron. in Epist. 1. Cyrill. Alexandrinum apud Anastasium Nycaenum quaest. 61. Theodoretū ibidem. Damascen. Lib. 1. Parales. cap. 7. &c.

16. For Intercession of Saints, we [Page 51] haue the common consent of the aun­cient Fathers. See S. Cyprian Lib. de mortalitate. Hieron. aduersus Vigilantium. August. de Baptismo. Lib. 5. cap. 7. & Lib. 7. cap. 1. & de verbis Apost. Sermo. 47. & Sermon. 46. de Sanctis. & Lib. 9. Confess. cap. 3. & Lib. de cura pro mortuis agenda cap. 16. & contra Faustum Lib. 20. cap. 21. & in Meditatio. c. 20. Leo Magnus Sermon. de Sancto Laurentio. Gaudentius Brixian. Serm. 17. Gregorius Magnus lib. 7. Indictione 2. Epist. 25. Bernard. in Cantic. Serm. 77. I pretermit innume­rable others of later tymes: the Scrip­tures therefore, and Fathers, and con­sent of the vniuersall Church doe se­curely warrant vs, that the Angells and soules of Saints departed this life, doe pray for the liuing, and that also in particular. Why then should not eue­ry faythfull man take courage to inuo­cate, or call vpon them whome most certainly he knowes to pray for him in heauen?

17. That the Inuocation of An­gels & Saints, to the end that they pray for vs, and ioyne their prayers with ours, as S. Chrysostome speaketh, Serm. in Sanctum Meletium. cannot [Page 52] be doubted of, is most euident; and of the B. Virgin Mother of God a part, that she is to be inuocated by vs, that she pray for vs to her sonne, we haue most eui­dent testimonyes Iraeneus lib. 5. cap. 19. Athanas in Euang. de Deipara: Nazianzen orat. in Cyprianum. Basilius Seleuciae orat 1. de verbo incarnato. August. sermo 1. de Annun­ciatione. Cosmas Hierosolym. & Sophronius item Hierosolymitanus orat. 6. de Angelorum excellentia▪ Hildefonsus Toletanus &c.

18. Now for the Inuocation of o­ther Saints, besides, the sacred Virgin, that the most auncient practice of the Church doth so much as I sayd before, it appertaineth to the tradition of the A­postles, for this inuocation hath alwaies beene in vse, and neuer reproued by any who was not held for an heretike. It were to long a labour to recount the Fathers who inuocate Saints, or teach them to be inuocated; that, elsewhere I haue aboundantly performed. And this perpetuall custome of the Church of Inuocating Saints, that they pray for vs, and help vs with their prayers, was neuer so much as found fault withall, but rather the contrary errour was con­dēned [Page 53] by S. Hierome in Vigilantius, which condēnatiō the whole Church allowed, and therefore our new Vigilantians are to be condemned by the iudgement of the whole Church, whose temerity in ma­king our Inuocation to be idolatry is very singular; neyther haue these Vigi­lantians any thing of moment that they can oppose: their obiections I haue else­where fully refuted, and I thinke that in another worke I haue fully defended the reuerent regard of holy Reliques, which God himselfe, as most pleasing vnto him, hath confirmed by most ma­nifest miracles.

19. But our Aduersaryes bouldly affirme, that in worshipping of holy images, we commit idolatry: and from hence they will haue their departure frō vs to be lawfull: but this also is a most vayn pretext of theirs: neyther can they thereby free themselues from the infa­mous note of most filthy schisme; for in case we honour images with a proper, & peculiar honour, & worship, which is exhibited to the thing it selfe repre­sented by the image, that is not supreme honour and worship, nor that true ado­ration [Page 54] which alone is due vnto God; whereas therefore we doe most playn­ly professe diuine honour and supreme worship, not to be due, eyther vnto Saynts, or to their Reliques, & much lesse to their Images, why doe they obiect Idolatry vnto vs? The vse of Images belongs to Ecclesiasticall rites, and in these the sure, certayne, and in­fallible rule to know, whether they be lawfull, and to be approued, is the practise, and vse especially of the pri­mitiue Church: In so much as they are to be esteemed good, and law­full rytes, which eyther the Apostles, or some Apostolicall men haue or­dayned, or haue eyther silently, or ex­presly approued; and it is most cer­taine, yea most vncontrollable, the Christian Church euen most auncient, whole, and vniuersall, with ioynt, and singular consent, without all opposi­tion, or contradiction, to haue reue­renced, or worshipped holy Images, eyther paynted or kerued. S. Iohn Da­mascen hath collected in his three Ora­tions which he wrote for Images most aboundant testimonyes. The Fathers [Page 55] of the seauenth Generall Councell haue done the like: and after these many others of our Church: What igno­rant companion then dare condemne that which the most holy, and most learned Fathers haue commaunded, haue taught, haue practized? that which the Catholike Church, taught by the Apostles, hath alwayes obser­ued? that which God himselfe by ma­miracles hath confirmed? Are they not then, accordinge to the verdict of S. Augustine, August. Epist. 118. most insolent mad men, who retayne not the vse of Images, nor deuoutly keepe them with that pecu­liar honour, due vnto them (so as the supreme be not giuen them) but rather abuse, prophane, and sacrilegiously cast them away?

20. Two thinges especially, doe our Aduersaryes vrge agaynst this our worshippinge of holy Images, by which they contend, that we cannot auoyd this charge of Idolatry, and by [...]he same they ground themselues in [...]heir schisme, as if it were lawful. One is Gods cōmandement, which forbiddeth [...]ll Images to be made; the other that [Page 56] they cannot be excused from true exter­nall idolatry who adore the true God in any exteriour signe that is a meere creature. These men with Caluin will haue the golden calfe to haue beene vsed by the children of Israel to represent the true God: and in this aboue all others doth Reynolds the English Puritan settle and ground his Treatise of the Idolatry of the Romā Church: but with me there is no doubt, neyther can there be with our aduersaries, but the most auncient Fathers, and Catholike Church to haue known the ten Commandements, and the history of the Calf, and yet without all difficulty, and scruple they vsed ho­ly Images with honour and reuerence: but neyther doth this disputation be­seeme this short discourse, the tyme wil come when I shal haue opportunity to to refute this booke of Reynolds Of the Idolatry of the Church of Rome, on which England doth most of all main­tayn her schisme. Now to deale briefely▪ I call to their remembrance the doings of Salomon, who endewed with diuine wisdome, not only adorned his temple with those Images and workes of art [Page 57] which God had caused to be made, as were the Cherubims &c. but added of him selfe, so many shapes and kerued pictures of trees and beastes, as we read in Scripture, 3. Reg. 10. 19. 20. for there were brazen Oxen, Palmes, Pomegranats &c. and his Throne he set out with great, & little golden Lyons. Doubtles Salomon vnderstood this commaundement of not making Images, & hath by his own fact explicated the same vnto vs suffici­ently, to wit, that it was not comman­ded for all tymes, nor that it was of the diuine natural law (but so farre forth as it denyed supreme worship to be giuen vnto them) but only of the diuine po­sitiue law Temporall, and Conditio­nall, then and so long to be obserued, when and how long there should be danger least the picture should be cause and occasion of Idolatry: wherfore see­ing in vs now so well instructed, there is no danger of committing idolatry by Images, that prohibition of the law which forbiddeth pictures to be made, hath no place with vs; and therefore the Image-breakers abolishing the vse of I­mages, breaking them in peeces, and [Page 58] vnworthily handling thē, haue alwaies been esteemed of the Church, & held for most wicked hereticks, & nūbred amōg the enemies of Christian Religion.

21. The children of Israel in adoring the Calfe to haue cōmitted Idolatry, is a thing most euident; neither will I euer graūt, that this Calfe represented to thē the true God; & it is most false & against the true sense of the Scripture to say, the Israelites in that Calf to haue adored the true God; they adored the same golden Calfe, which they erring most beastly, thought to haue had in it the diuinity of the true God: this as I hope in due place, & time I shal cōuince out of most cleere passages of the holy Scripture, & shal re­fute the light argumēts of Caluin & Rey­nolds, Latria. & shew thē that God himselfe may be adored with highest honour in cor­poral signes, without al danger of com­mitting Idolatry: and that the English rely on a most filthy errour, whiles they dreame out of Reynolds follyes, to triūph ouer the Roman Church, as if it were truly Idolatricall, & therfore by them lawfully reiected, and forsaken. In our vse of holy Images, wheras euery ill cir­cumstance, [Page 59] & all scandall are ordinarily wanting, because we lyue not amongst Idolaters, and are, or may be well in­structed touching the lawfull worship of Images, most farre off from the su­preme worship giuen vnto God, ther­fore we may lawfully kneele before an Image, and so adore the person repre­sented therby with supreme honour, in case he be capable therof. So did the chil­dren of Israel adore God in the cloud at the gate of the tabernacle, Exod. 33. but they ado­red not the cloud; lykewise in the fyre: 2. Paralip. 7.3. neyther did they cōmit idolatry, whiles they adored God in these corporal signs: such therfore as condēne this adoration, as of it self purly & properly idolatrical, haue not in them so much as one drāme of a pure, & soūd Deuine. In vain therfor doe the Protestants cōplaine of this Ido­latry, that they may defēd their schisme, & in this very thing first of al they defile themselues with heresy, & further they remaine true Schismatikes, because there was no lawful cause of their separation.

22. They obiect vnto vs a most cleere Idolatry, or bread-worship in the adoration of the B. Sacrament of the [Page 60] Altar, and by this also they seeke to excuse themselues from sinne; but they are fowly mistaken: for to vs the real & corporall presence of the body, & bloud of our Lord Iesus-Christ in the sacred mysteries of the Eucharist, is most cer­tayn, and vndoubted; we adore the same body of Christ, capable of it selfe by reason of the hypostaticall vnion with the Word of supreme honour, ly­ing hidden vnder these formes of bread, and wine; but hereof I cannot much dispute in this place. This reall and cor­porall presence we suppose, and this supposall by our fayth is certayn, be­cause we take it from the gospell, Christ saying when he had bread in his hands, Hoc est corpus meum, this is my body, ac­cording to the promise he had made saying, Ioan. 6. Panis quem ego dabo caro mea est: the bread which I will giue is my body and therefore our aduersaryes cannot suspect that in this adoration we are ly­able vnto the errour of idolatry, and so neither from this can they pretend any excuse for their schisme, but they are tru­ly, and properly not only schismatiks, but also heretiks, and therefore I was [Page 61] to depart from amongst them, and no longer to adhere vnto their errours.

23. Besides the former, they obiect vnto vs a certayn hidden or secret ido­latry, when after the Exorcismes, and blessings, we place a spirituall confi­dence in salt, in water, in oyle, and the like: all which they heape together out of a desyre to slaunder vs, and that they may seeme by any meanes to ex­cuse their schisme: but they know full well, that we place no certayn confi­dence in these things, as if we taught these creatures to receaue any certayn, and infallible force from our exorcismes and prayers: these things we say are Sa­cramentalls, but not Sacraments, and hallowed to the end we may stirre vp our deuotion by them: all our confi­dence is placed in God alone, who mo­ued by the prayers of the Church, euen by these creatures, by vertue of the same prayers & blessings, bestowes his guifts vppon vs: the greatest part of those and the like rites the Church hath receaued from Apostolicall tradition, and from hād to hād of the most ancient Church, which who so followes cannot erre, & [Page 62] he who contemnes, and casts away, is himselfe to be cast forth as a rash man, and enemy of the Church. Tertullian sets down the vse of holy Oyle: Tertul. li. de Baptis­mo. and a­mongst the matters of the Sacraments S. Augustine reckons Oyle. Aug. Ep. 119. The hal­lowing of the water of Baptisme hath been obserued from tyme out of mind; for S. Cyprian makes mention of the hallowing of water, and oyle, and of Vnction also. Cyprian. li. 1. Epist. vltima. The holy Churches, I meane the materiall, in case by any chaunce they should be defiled, were wont to be cleansed by exorcisme, and washing of the walls: this we haue de­liuered by Optatus Mileuitanus. Optatus Mileu. lib. 2. con. Par­menian. S. Basill also from tradition deduceth the com­mon ryte of annoyntinge with oyle the party that was baptized: Basil. lib. de Spiritu sā ­cto cap. 27 all anti­quity doth further teach vs the signe of the Crosse to haue beene vsed in e­uery blessing and consecration: Iusti­nus quaestione 118. Nazianzen Orat. 1. in Iulian. & Orat. in funere Patris. Chry­sostom. Hom. 55. in Matthaeum. Augustin. tract. 118. in Ioan. & sermo. de tempore, 181. cap. 3. Areopagita & alij. There are perhapps some rytes now vsed in the [Page 63] Church not so auncient, in which we vse thinges blessed, and consecrated; but as the primitiue Church, taught by the Apostles, neuer feared any dāger of secret Idolatry if it vsed cōsecrated oyle and the lyke, why should we now feare who attribute no more to these new cō ­secrated things, thē antiquity attributed vnto the other? For these things to fly to Schisme, is supreme impiety: these rytes are good, most of them were instituted by the Apostles, others haue had their be­ginning from the deuotiō of Catholike Churches, no way cōtrary to Faith, yea most conforme & agreeing therunto: the variety of rites and ceremonyes was in auncient tyme in Churches, and yet none vnder that pretence did depart frō mutuall communion amongest them­selues: The Auncients (sayth Sozomen) Sozomen lib. 7. c. 19 [...] did worthily iudge yt a friuolous, or foolish matter, that they for custome sake should be separated from one another, who in the chiefe points of Religion did agree; therefore this separation of the Englishmen is friuo­lous, yea rash, and wicked, by which they haue deuided themselues from the true Catholike Church, and haue [Page 64] broken forth without cause into open schisme, with whom to communicate in diuine things, is to consent to their most vniust, and pernicious schisme.

24. Touching the new articles of which they make their complaynt and excuse their schisme, I wil not now dis­pute. I should be too prolixe if I should now turne aside to these pointes in due place to be handled: only here I demād of thē, whether they thinke these new articles (as they call them) to be contra­ry vnto fayth or not. If they were con­trary to fayth, they should be heresies; and they would make the maintayners hereticks, and worthily to be detested, and separated from the communion of all Catholike Churches. But I haue now proued that there is no heresy in the Church of Rome; the most soue­raygne King of great Britanny, & very many learned men in that kingdome confessing, that the Church of Rome stands entier in the fundamentall faith; but I haue shewed before that there is no true Article that it not fundamental, and with assured fayth to be beleeued; therefore it hath no articles, which are [Page 65] contrary to the Catholike fayth, and in case they be not cōtrary to the true faith but contayn the same, they can yield no occasion of schisme. But (say they) be­cause we reiect, and refuse these articles, the Church of Rome hath separated, & cut vs of from that body. Truly I lamēt and bewayle these men to haue made a beastly, and perfect schisme, before any thing was done, or defined concerning those which they call new Articles, in much as they cānot without exceeding vanity couer their schisme by these new articles, for the effect cannot goe before the cause. I endeauour to shew that they made a schisme without cause, & hence I knew them to be true schismatiks, and for that I departed from them. And fur­ther, these very Articles which they call new, can euidently be demonstrated out of the Scriptures, tradition, and Fathers: and the contrary decreed by themselues to be conuinced of open heresy, if we will follow the iudgement of Antiqui­ty; howsoeuer some latter Protestants taking a more mild, & moderate course are wont to bring for some poynt such fauourable explications (of which my [Page 66] selfe haue heard many) as they seemed not to differ much from the Catholicke opiniō, & these seeme to admit some pi­ous agreemēt; who then without per­nicious errour, yea true heresy, wil place his saluation on only Faith, and exclude the necessity of Good works? Who will absolutely deny our Merits, and that iust men cannot loose their grace, and that they are impeccable, and cannot sinne? And such as stiffly hould these, and the like to be Articles of fayth, and the contrary to be heresies, they vn­doubtedly doe erre in matters of fayth, and shew themselues to be heretiks, and consequently to be well and worthily by the Catholike definitions placed a­mongst such: no heresy therefore of the Church of Rome, no Idolatry open, or hidden, could giue occasion to the schisme of Protestants. Neither can they obiect Schisme to the same Catholike Church, for it hath made no schisme, but suffered it. From her hath Luther, from her Caluin, from her haue their first followers separated themselues, whiles stubbornly they refused to stand to her iudgement; these haue made a schisme, [Page 67] these haue deuided the garmēt of Christ, these haue erected altar against Altar, & finally these haue left, and forsaken the Catholike Church.

25. Besides the former alleadged, and discussed causes, they pretend an­other of Reformation, forsooth, needful to be made: but I amongest them scant euer saw any reformation, or to speake more truly, saw none at all: but as for Deformations, I saw many amongst thē. For the most part, all care of conscience is cast away, they are not there (ex­cepting a very few of them) troubled with any scruples for adulteries, robbe­ryes, or deceauing theyr neighbours; and in like manner for coosenage, de­ceypts, and vsuries, for they haue wic­kedly abolished auricular Confession, fasting, pennance, and the like holy meanes for our amendment; and if these men had found amongst vs somewhat amisse, in conuersation, in actions, in gouernement, in direction, and the like, that had not argued any defect of the Church, but the errours of particuler men, which of Catholikes are not al­lowed but mysliked: neyther for these [Page 68] lesser a matters, as manners of life, and that not in all but some, were they to to make this most vgly schisme. There remaines in the Roman Church a soūd, an immoueable, and constant founda­tion: and suppose it were true, 1. Cor. 3. that we buylt thereon wood, stubble, hay; yet were we not therby debarred from sal­uation: but the Protestāts haue depar­ted from the foundatiō it self, they haue forsaken it, and except they build vp­pon the foundatiō which is Christ, gold siluer, & pretious stones, which foolish­ly they boast to be theirs, all are proiecta viliora alga, wast weedes, all fruiteles la­bours, and nothing auay leable to salua­tion. There is one foūdation, not two, one Church not two, one Christ not two: if Christ be our foūdation (which they cannot deny) he is not certaynly theirs, they haue made themselues a new Church, deuided and separated from ours, and that also cannot be a Church, because the Church is one not two, he who wilbe of their Church, he must needes be out of the true Church of Christ.

26. I confesse that I was deceaued [Page 69] by the English Protestants, before I had considered diligently the nature of schisme; for when I obiected this fault vnto them, some of them replyed, that it was not their fault that they commu­nicated not with the Church of Rome, who were ready to make vnion, and accorde; but that the Pope would not receaue them into communion, whom he had cut of from him and his, by ex­communicatiō. This excuse for a while seemed vnto me lawfull, and reasona­ble; yet when afterwards vppon this ground I beganne in priuate disputes, and publick sermons to vrge an vnion, which I tooke not to be farre off from making, and whiles I striued to put my finger deeper into this festered vlcer, I perceaued in England, not the English Cōfession which they commended vn­to me as modest, but the Confession of Caluin, and many doting dreames of Luther, to be the common rule of their fayth: this I perceaued more clearely by the counterfeyt Synod of Protestants at Dort, in the which the opinions of the rigid Caluinists, by consent, and con­currence of the English sect, by their [Page 70] ministers sent thither, were confirmed: which opinions of the rigid Puritans, if the confession of the English Church, deuided into certain Articles, doe not as they pretend, include; then why vnder the name of the English Profession, did the aforesayd Ministers yield their con­sent, and set their hands to these Calui­nian excesses? How can it be that those who professe themselues most eager e­nemies of the Church of Rome, should be thought to desire vniō with the same Church, and the defect thereof not to proceed from their fault? How can they cast the fault of their schisme vppon the Tridentine excommunications, who be­fore these Anathema's, had deuided them­selues by schisme from the Catholicke Church; and truly by a schime in some sort farre more worse, and foule, then was the schisme made by Luther, and af­ter confirmed by the instigation of Cal­uin? Because England in the begining refrayned from the opinions of Luther, and Caluin, and charged not the Ro­man Church with heresy or Idolatry, as Lutherans, and Caluinists did to couer their schisme withall, and yet notwith­standing [Page 71] long after, not with so much as any apparent cause, it yielded to the common schisme of heretiks. The En­glishmen now, for the most part, doe prayse and defend the diuision and se­paratiō that is made: for that they striue, for that they fly vnion, for that they cast away Charity; they labour all they can, that agreement doe not succeede, and fraternall vnity be fast knit in the bands of peace; and many of them say, that they would more willingly, and more easily haue vnion & society with the Turkes then with Papists? Is this to be ready to make concord? Is this the truth of their wordes, when they sayd, that it was not their fault they com­municated not with the Church of Rome? Truly it cannot possibly be, that any vnion (which I thought might ea­sily haue beene atchieued) be made, vn­lesse they detest all heresies, and here­tiks, and beleeue aright with the Catho­like Roman fayth, and be vnited vnto the same by perfect Charity.

27. Henry the 8. had in manner on­ly contention with the Pope, and out of an hereticall spirit denyed his Supre­macy, [Page 27] and tossed with many discom­posed passions, tooke the same vnto himselfe: in other thinges concerning fayth, forme of Religion, and Ecclesi­asticall rites, he carryed himselfe more moderatly. Vnder his Sonne Edward a child, and much more vnder Elizabeth, not only a separation was made from the chiefe Bishop Christ his vicar, and supreme Pastor of the Christian flocke, but also the vse of Religion by mayne force, & iniury was taken from Catho­likes, and by publicke lawes (but made by Lay men) vtterly suppressed. Was there any lawfull Councell before for this matter? Were the obiections made against Catholikes discussed? Were the reasons for their defence heard? Were they conuinced of any errour or impie­ty in Religion? Was this iudgment made by any competēt Iudge? Nothing lesse. Doth not the same violence, the same iniury, the same impiety still remayne? How much doe they striue in England, they especially who seeme to haue care of their Religiō, such as it is, least the di­uine, anciēt, pious, & prescript worship of God be restored to Catholikes? Is [Page 73] this their meaning, whē they say it is not? Their fault, that the schisme is not taken away? They vrge reformation, but refor­mation be it neuer so iust, & necessary, yet if it be made with schisme, is a most fowle deformatiō. That in deed is refor­med that remaines the same in substance. Therefore Catholike Religion ought to haue remayned in England, and the substantiall practise of the same; if any thing had beene to be reformed, that seruatis seruandis might haue beene expo­sed to reformation, but no other differēt Religion (the former being suppressed or violētly kept vnder) was to be made, in so much as now there should be two religions disagreeing among themselues and one contrary to the other: for if the latter be another Religion from the for­mer, the former is not reformed, but, as much as lay in their power, is ouer­throwne, and a new set vp; but there cannot be two Religions of Christ, for there is but one only, and that with vs, I as haue shewed, as there is but one Church, one foundation, one Christ.

28. When as therefore amongst o­ther miseryes I saw my selfe inuolued [Page 74] in inueterate schisme, and all hope of v­nion to be taken away, seeing Altar erected against Altar, & deuided frō the Charity of the Church, I neyther could nor ought, with safe conscience to be present: wherfore remorse of conscience compelled me to returne, and it was ne­cessary that my Agar retourned to the most holy Romā Church her mistresse, hearing the voyce of the Angell check­ing her, and saying: Gen. 16.9. Reuertere ad Do­minam tuam, & humiliare sub manu illius, returne to thy mistresse, & humble thy selfe vnder her hand or authority: that flight cold bring me nothing but shame and ruine: God commaunds me to be humbled vnder the hād of my mistresse, and in this I ought specially to follow God. I would to God, that they to whome folishly I fled, would acknow­ledg their most miserable spirituall estat, not only for heresies, but also for their schisme to be most desperate: frō which schisme now I haue shewed that they cannot be excused, because they haue vnlawfully separated themselues from the true Church of Christ, which is our Catholike Roman Church. And this [Page 75] point affrighted me, because schismatiks are excluded from being the Children of God: for Deum non habent patrem (saith S. Cyprian) Lib. de sim­plicitate Praelatorū qui Ecclesiam (veram) non ha­bent matrem: they haue not God for their Father, who haue not the (true) Church for their mother. Christ therfore died, Ioan. 11.51. vt filios Dei qui dispersi erant, congregaret in vnū; that he might gather in one, the children of God who were dispersed: the death therfore of Christ did worke, and still worketh, not only the redemption of men, but also the vnion of his Church. Before the death of Christ, the children of God were dispersed, and deuided, some vnder the Law of Moyses, others vnder the only Law of nature, being far asunder one from the other, making to­gether no one certayne, and vniuersall Congregatiō: but now the diuine wis­dome would so haue it, that al his faith­full followers, & true children by faith should make ouer the whole world one society, or fellowship, that they shold all make one warfare vnder their Cap­tayn, and Emperour Christ, and vnder his banner, to wit, the holy and life-gi­uing Crosse, vsing all the same milita­ry [Page 76] signes, and tokens of the Sacraments: and this society, and congregation is a singular effect of the death of Christ, which procured, that disagreeing Sects and innumerable courses of life amongst themselues so different, and contrary, should meete, and be combined in one Christiā vnity, Ephes. 2.19 which truly is his worke qui fecit vtraque vnum, who made both one, and that by the Crosse. Hereunto doth Anastasius Synaita apply the wordes of God in the creation Congregentur aquae in locum vnum; Anastas. 3. Hexam. let the waters be gathe­red together in one place: This sayth he belongeth to the Church, gathered to­gether vnder the vnity of one fayth out of different people, countries, and sects. And for this cause, Christ sayd of his own Crosse; Ioan. 12. si exaltatus fuero à terra, om­nia traham ad meipsum. If I shalbe exalted from the earth, I wil draw all vnto my selfe. S. Athanasius sayth, Athanas. de Incarnat. verbi Dei. Exaltatus enim in cruce Dominus, vtroque extenso brachio vtrū ­que populum ad se inuitauit, vt vtrumque am­plexando in sinum suum colligeret. Our Lord being exalted or lifted vpon the Crosse, with both his armes stretched abroad inuited to himselfe both people (Iew [Page 77] and Gentile) that by imbracing them both he might gather them together in­to his bosome. There is therefore one bosome, betweene the armes of our Sa­uiour.

29. And in the same place S. Atha­nasius thinkes it not to want mystery, that Christ chose the death of the Crosse & not Beheading, by which S. Iohn his precursor died, nor cutting or deuiding of his body as Isaias: Vt in morte (sayth he) sine mutilatione integrum corpus seruaret. & causa subduceretur ijs qui Ecclesiam in par­tes cupiunt discindere, that in the death of Christ his entire body without maiming might be preserued, and all pretext ta­ken away from them who desire to cut the Church asunder into partes. And so hartily Christ esteemed this vnity, as in that most feruent praier which he made in the last night of his life, Ioan. 17.11 20.21. he craued of his Father, that he would not suffer his disciples, and other belieuers in him to depart from this vnity, vt credat mundus quia tu me misisti, that the world may be­leeue that thou hast sent me. But our Aduersaryes little consideringe these thinges will as much as is in them, haue [Page 78] the death, and Crosse of Christ to be destitute of this most noble effect of v­nity, and by their diuisions & schismes giue occasion to Iewes and Infidells of rayling and blaspheming of Christ, and saying that he was not the sōne of God, or sent by him, seeing the society or Church founded by him, doth not sub­sist, but is euer now and then to be dis­solued, or deuided into partes; the Church of Christ is one house, and one family; he who drawes himselfe from this family, that goeth forth out of this house, he belongs not to the family of Christ, he is depriued of saluation, as who were not in the Arke, Gen. 3. were lost, and perished in the floud. The Prote­stants haue cut themselues from the bo­dy of Christ, which is the only Catho­like Roman Church, and those who are inseparably vnited with the same: therfore they are not members of Christ and therefore Christ is not their head, neyther doth he infuse his holy Spirit, and gifts into them: they are therefore rotten members, and already cut of, be­cause they haue cut themselues off wic­kedly of their own accord from the bo­dy: [Page 79] Sunt palmites (sayth S. Augustine) August. Epist. 50. à vite praecisi, nulli vsui nisi igni apti: neque potest esse particeps diuinae Caritatis, qui est hostis vnitatis: they are branches cut off from the vyne, fit for no other vse then the fire: Ezech. 15.3 neyther can he be partaker of Gods charity, who is an enemy of vni­ty. So he.

30. Of all spirituall help (if they think themselues to haue any) they haue made shipwrack by their schisme. Si lin­guis hominum loquar & Angelorum, (sayth S. Paul) 1. Cor. 13.1. Caritatem autem non habeam, nihil sum, nihil mihi prodest. If I shall speake with the tongues of men, and Angels, and haue not Charity, I am nothinge, it auayles me nothing. Out of which wordes of the Apostle S. Augustine pru­dently admonisheth, August. de Baptismo Lib. 1. c. 9. no good worke a­ny way to auayle a Schismatike. The same, and more then once, hath S. Cy­pryan deliuered. Cypriā. lib. 4. Epist. 2. Etsi occisus propter nomen Christi postmodum fuerit extra Ecclesiam con­stitutus, & ab vnitate atque caritate diuisus, coronari in morte non poterit: although one after that he is out of the Church, and is deuided from the vnity, and charity of the same, be killed for the name of [Page 80] Christ, he cannot be crowned in his death. The same he vrgeth in other pla­ces, as Lib. 1. Epist. 1. & ad Iulianum, & tract. de simp. Praelatorum, seu de vnitate Ecclesiae: & de Oratione Dominica, whome S. Chrysostome followes in Epist. ad Ephe­sios. Hom. 11.

31. Let the Protestants, I beseech them, consider what an enormous sinne they haue committed by this cursed se­paration, because that schisme destroyes the Church, for it is the saying of Christ, Luc. 11.17. Omne Regnum in se diuisum desolabitur, eue­ry kingdome deuided in it selfe shalbe brought to desolation: and of S. Paul, Galat. 5.15. Videte ne dum inuicem mordetis, inuicem con­summamini. Take head least whiles you bite one another, yee be not consumed one of another: and this cryme of de­stroying the Church may be sayd to be that sinne agaynst the holy Ghost, that Christ auouched not to be forgi­uen in this world, nor in the next, Math. 12.31. as S. Ambrose sheweth. Ambros. 2. de Paenit. cap. 4. So that most wic­ked harlot in the booke of Kings, had rather that there should be no child, thē that it should be brought vp in the bo­some of the true mother, and exclaymed [Page 81] against her, saying, 3. Reg. 3.26. nec mihi nec tibi, sed di­uidatur; let the child neither be giuen to me nor thee, but let it be deuided: the Schismaticks labour al they can that the true and entier Fayth be not kept in the bosome of the true mother the Church: they goe about to dead it, that it may neither be kept aliue with them nor vs: but they preuayle nothing; and let those know that to be spoken of them, Ecclesiast 10.8. qui dis­sipat sepem, mordebit eum coluber, the ser­pent shall byte him that breateth down the hedge.

32. And it is no meruayle that the Englishmen haue fallen into many He­resies, & that Puritanisme doth sway so much, albeyt when first they made their schisme they were neither infected with the Lutherane or Calumiā heresies. For as Irenaeus doth notably teach vs, Iren. lib. 3. cap. 40. & lib. 4. cap. 43. those who are cut of from the Church, do not drinke out of the fountayne of the spirit of God, but do digg for themselues by­lakes, and do fall into most grosse er­rours agaynst the truth of Fayth. In like manner S. Cyprian makes the Catholike Church the roote, the fountayne, the sunne; Cypriā. lib. de simplic. Praelat. that as a branch hath his life frō [Page 82] the roote, the riuer his water from the fountayne, the sunne-beame his light & spendour from the sunne: so the sin­cerity of true beleefe to be had by our v­nion with the Catholike Church: they therfore who haue cut themselues from it, cannot haue the truth of fayth, but must necessarily fall into errours; for they are trees without a roote, ryuers without a fountayne, & sunne-beames without a sunne; hereof it comes that the Fathers out of these, and the like rea­sons doe cōuince, that schisme in the end breaks forth into heresy: for he who re­fuseth to haue vnity with the Catholike Church, will also refuse to learne of her the truth of Fayth, of which she alone is the treasurer, & preseruer. S. Augustine very well defines this matter, when he sayth: Augu. lib. 2. contra Crescon c. 7. Inueteratum Schisma esse ipsammet haeresim, inueterate schisme to be heresy it selfe. And S. Cyprian worthily findeth in euery schisme that heresy at least, wherby is taken away one or two arti­cles of our Creed; Credo Sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam, & Remissionem peccatorum: I belieue the holy Catholike Church, & the Remission or forgiuenes of sinnes: [Page 83] for they who beleeue the holy Catho­like Church to be the true Church of Christ, they cannot if they thus be­leeue depart from her; and in case they depart, then truly they do not belieue the Catholike Church to be the true Church of Christ. So Saint Augustine sayth of the Donatists, Aug. hae­res. 69. ad Quod vult Deum. that they had turned their schisme into heresy. And S. Ambrose in the funeral Oration had of his brother approuing his fact for that he had fled from the Luciferian Church, as I now from the Churches of Englād, sayth: Non putauit Fidem esse in schismate: nam etsi Fidem in Deum tenerent, tamen erga Dei Ecclesiam non tenerent, cuius patiebantur velut quosdam artus diuidi & mēbra lacerari, Etenim cùm propter Ecclesiam Christus pass [...] sit, & Christi corpus Ecclesia sit, non videtur ab ijs exhiberi Christo fides, à quibus euacua­tur eius passio, corpusque distrahitur. He thought not that there was any fayth in schisme: for although they kept their fayht towards God, yet they kept it not towards the Church of God, of which they permitted certayne ioyntes to be deuided, and members to be torne: tru­ly whereas Christ suffered his passion [Page 84] for the Church, and the Church is the body of Christ, they seeme not to be­leeue in Christ, by whome his Passion is made voyd, & his body dismembred.

33. Was I then with so great do­mage of my soule to remayne amongst Heretikes, and Schimatickes? God for­bid. I am troubled with bitter griefe of mynd, that I remayned so long a­mongst them, that I tooke wicked ar­mes, and fought agaynst my Mother, agaynst the Catholike truth, and that I wrote bookes of the Ecclesiastical Cō ­mon Wealth stuffed with heresyes, which I vtterly abhorre, and detest, & that I haue warred in the infamous tents of heretiks, not without the perpetuall blot, or infamy of my Name. I now loath, and am ashamed of my so great offence, and craue humbly, and with al submission, pardon for this wickednes of God, most good, most great, of my Sauiour Christ, and of his supreme Vicar, or Substitute on Earth the Bishop of Rome: and submit all my faultes to the singular Clemency of the same chiefe Pastour, because that he be­ing to be iudged of none, sits as su­preme [Page 85] Iudge of al, most fully susteining the person of Christ in the militant Church: and I confidently hope that as our Lord doth willingly open to his Penitent the bosome of his mercy; so I shalbe imbraced in the armes of Cle­mency by his Holynes. The exāple of S. Cyprian against Pope Stephen the first, very much reprehended, and condem­ned also by the Catholike Church, con­firmed me a while in my naughtynes of resisting the Pope; but now my filthy fall hath with myne owne dan­ger taught me how easily Bishops fall from the right path of Fayth, who lea­uing the Cynosura, or Pole-starre, that is, the most certayne, and secure direction of the Bishop of Rome, follow, to their destruction, their own foolish fancyes. I would to God, that as S. Cyprian with the shedding of his own bloud, did blot out all the spot of his former animosity: so also, that there may be graunted vn­to me, who for the multitude, & great­nes of my faultes, haue incomparably exceeded his fall, opportunity, & grace to blot out also with my bloud, those soule spots, and by that meanes to te­stify [Page 86] the Catholike truth; which, when my inke should fayle me, I am most ready by the help of God, to his prayse and honour, for the aduauncement of the holy Catholike Church, and glory of the Sea Apostolike, to seale with my bloud. Adsit Deus. God second and assist me. Rome, the 24. of Nouember 1622. stylo nouo.