A Confutation of a Popish and Slanderous Libel, Treatise · Answer 24 – Papist opinion 25
The aunswere.
For buildyng of Churches in any sumptuous maner, the primitiue church was not careful, but vntil Constantines time, continued in such places as thei could get, sometimes & most commōly in caues vnderunder the yerth, when thei were persecuted and durste not assemble in open places. And we at this time, if we had not conueniēt places for the holie assembles would and wher suche conuenient howses lacke doe builde, Churches and Oratories. But not in the honour of Sainctes and Aungels as you doe, whiche thing the primitiue and auncient Churche, did not, but iudged it to be meare Idolatry, sacriledge, and blasphemie. As Basile in his. 141. Epistle proueth the holy ghoste to be God, because he hath a temple, so doeth Didymus in his treatise de spiritu sancto, because no creature but God onelyonly, can hauehave a temple S. Augustine de vera religione, Cap. 55, saieth, concernyng sainctes. Quare honoramus eos charitate, non seruitute, nec eis Templa cōstruimus. &c. Wherfore we honor theim with louelove and not with seruise, neither doe we build churches vntounto theim, for thei will not be so honoured of vsus. Likewise in the. 8. booke. 27. cap. de ciuitate dei, he saith, that christians builde no temples to Martyres, and in verie many other places, he writeth to the same effecte. And as for Alters and Sacrifies, the primitiue churche vsed none, more then wee. The auncient churche in deede, nameth Aulters and sacrificyng, but they meaned nothyng lesse, then suche Aulters and sacrifices, as the Papistes vse. For the fashione of their alter, whiche was the Communion Table, & so called of them also, is to be seen in the Panegyricall oratiō made before Paulinus Bishop of Tyrus, wher also the fashion of their Temples is described. Euseb. lib. 10. Cap. 4. There was but one Aulter in all the Churche, whiche stoode not againste the furthest wall, at the East ende of the Churche, as your Aulters, but in the middest of the Churche, and was compassed rounde aboute with Grates or Lattesses of woodde, which were called Cancells, the Chauncel, with in whiche place so incloased, the Communion was ministred, and at the time of the ministration, the Ministers and Deacones, stoode round aboute the Aulter, whiche is a manifest proofe, that it was not an Aulter against a wall, like youres, but a Table standyng in the middest as ours is. Laste of all, what they vnderstode by the name of sacrifice, I will discloase by one Testimonie of Chrisostome, whiche shalbe in steade of a greate number. For this he writeth vponupon the. x. chapiter to the Hebrues. Hom. 17. Speaking of the sacrifice, whiche the Churche doth offer. Hoc autem quod facimus in comemorationē quidem fit eius quod factum est. Hoc enim facite inquit in meam comemorationem. Non aliud sacrificium sicut Pontifex, sed ipsum semper facimus, magis autem recordationē sacrificijeperamur. This Sacrifice (saieth he) that we doe, is done in remembrance of that whiche was doone. For he saied, doe this in remembraunce of me, we dooe not offer an other Sacrifice, as the high Prieste, but wee offer the selfe same alwaies, or rather we exercise the remembrance of that sacrifice. By this testimony of Chrisostome, it is euident, that the olde writers, when thei spake of Sacrifice, did not meane the Popishe sacrifice of the Masse, but onelyonly the remembrance of the sacrifice of Christe, which is the ministration of the Communion. The Testimonie of Beda, concernyng Augustine the Monke, that came into Englande, which you alleged, is neither aunciente, beyng aboue sixe hundred yeres after Christe, neither yet of auctoritie to bee followed, the same Augustine beyng a superstitious proude, cruell, and vnlearned Monke. For his superstition, Bede testifieth, his pride and crueltie is set forthe in our Englishe histories, his ignoraunce, in doubtes and questions, whiche he propoundeth to Gregorie B. of Rome.
The Papiste.
Sixt in the Primitiue churche both men and women, made solemne vowes to the abdication of all proprietie in worldlie goodes and possessions, and also of perpetuall chastitie, as it maie appeare. Actes. 5. Math. 19 and. 1. Corinth. 7. 1. Tim. 5. Exā ple wherof, was in the time of the Apostles in Iphigenia a professed virgine, whō Hirtacus Kyng of Ethiopia woulde nedes hauehave takē to his wife, but the Apostle S. Mathew vouched to him, that he coulde not so doe for that she had vowed her virginitie to God. VVherupon Hirtacus put the Apostle sainct Mathewe to death, as witnesseth Abdias and others. The Canons of the Apostles doth prohibite the mariage of priestes. The counsel holden at Chalcedon and all the aunciē fathers, Dionysius, Areopagita. S. Basile. S. Ambrose. S. Augustine. S. Chrisostome, Epiphanius, and diuers others. This notwithstandyng our reformatours dooe defende suche mariages to bee lawfull and good, hauing no regarde of anie vowe or profession made to the contrarie.