Defense of the Translations of the Scriptures into the English Tongue, Treatise · Chapter 18
CHAP. XVIII.
Hereticall translation against the honour of SAINCTS, namely of our B. LADIE.
Martin.
LEt vsus passe from Gods holy Sacraments, to1. his honourable Saincts in heauen, and we shall finde that these translations plucke from them also as much honour as they may. In the Psalme 138. where the CatholikePsal. 138. Church, and all antiquitie readeth thus, Nimis honorati sunt amici tui Deus, &c. Thy friendes O God are become exceeding honourable, their princedome is exceedingly strengthened: which verse is sung and sayd, in the honour of the holy Apostles, agreeably to that in an other Psalme, Constitues cos principesPsal. 44. super omnem terram, Thou shalt appoint them Princes ouer all the earth: what meane they in all their English Bibles to alter it thus: Howe deare are thy counsels (or thoughts) to me O God: O how great is the summe of them? Doth not the Hebrew make more for the olde receiuedforeign Latine translation, than for theirs, because the Hebrew word is vsed more commonly for to signifie friendes, than cogitations? doth not S. Hierom so translate in his translation of the Psalmes according to the Hebrew? doth not the great Rabbine R. Salomon? Doth not the Greeke put it out of doubt, which is altogitherforeign. according to the sayd auncient Latine translation?
Fulke.
THe context of the verse going before, & also1. the verse following, not any enuye against the Saincts of god, hauehave moued our translators to depart from the vulgar translation, which is neither so proper for the words, & altogither impertinent to the matter of the text. For when the Prophet had in the verse going before, celebrated the wonderfull worke of God, in the framing of his body in his mothers womb, in this verse, he breaketh out into an exclamatiō, to behold the maruelous & vnsearchable wisedom of gods councels, whose strength is aboue mans reach, whose nūber is as the sand of the sea. To answer R Salomō, we hauehave R. Dauid Kimchi, as great a Rabbine as he, and a more sincere Interpretor, that expoundeth the whole verse euen as we doe.
MART. 2. And you my Maisters, that translate otherwise, I beseech you, is it in Hebrew, How great is the summeforeign of thē: & not rather word for word most plainly, how are the heades of them strengthened, or their Princedoms, as in the Greeke also it is most manifest? Why do you then hunt afterforeign. nouelties, & forsake the troden path of the auncient, & passe the bounds which our holy forefathers hauehave set and appointed, preferring your owne singularities & newe deuises., euen there where you can not iustly pretend either the Hebrew, or Greeke?Epito. Thesau. Pagn. an. 1570. in radi…. When the Hebrew Lexicon hath giuen the cōmon interpretation of this place, & then saith, Quidam exponunt, Some expound it otherwise: why had you rather be of that lesser, some that expoundforeign otherwise, than of the great societie of all auncient interpreters.
FVLK. 2. The Hebrew is as we hauehave translated, how great is the summe of them. So doth Kimchi expound it, so doth Pagnin, and to the same effect, Iustinian. And theforeign same word, …atsemu missapel▪ the summe of them is greater than can be numbred, Psal. 40. Where the Prophet speaketh of the counsailes or thoughts of God as in this place. Where you quarrel at vsus, for following the lesser number when Pagnin saith, Quidam, &c. You may know if you list, that Pagnine him selfe is one of those quidam, that translateth euen as we doe, Howe precious are their thoughts vntounto me, howe are the summes of them multiplied? As for Hierom, whom you would hauehave vsus to follow, in steede of Princes, hath poore men. And therefore you doe iniuriously, to require vsus to follow him, whome you followe not your selues. You must therefore indite Pagnine of hereticall translation, beside all Protestants, or els you are very partiall.
MART. 3. But this new fangled singularitie of teaching and translating, otherwise than all antiquitie hath done, shall better appeare in their dealing, about our B. Ladie, whose honour they hauehave sought so many wayes to diminish, and deface, that the defense and maintenance thereof against the Heretikes of our time, is growen to a great booke, learnedly written by the great Clerke, and Iesuite, father Canisius, entituled, Mariana.
FVLK. 3. I thinke Canisius in all his great booke called Mariana, medleth not with our English translations, and therefore very idlely was this matter brought in, to tell vsus of Canisius booke, called Mariana. I hauehave seene a blasphemous booke against, I may iustly saye, (though it were pretended in the honour of) the blessed Virgine, called Mariale. I hauehave seene that horrible blasphemous Psalter of Bonauentur, peruerting all the Psalmes vntounto the honour of the Virgine Marie, with intollerable blasphemie against God, and the holy mother of Christ, whose greatest honour is in the kingdome of her sonne, and in his infinite glorie.
MART. 4. Concerning our purpose, what was euer more common, and is now more generall, and vsuall, in all Christian Countries, than in the Aue Marie, to say, Gratia plena, full of grace, insomuch, that in the first English Bible, it hath continued so still, and eueryevery child in our countrie, was taught so to say till the Aue Marie was banished altogither, and not suffered to be sayd, neither in Latine, nor English? What auncient father of the Latine Church, hath not alwaies so redde, and expounded? What Church in all the West, hath not euer so sung, and sayd? OnelyOnly our new Translators hauehave found a new kind of speeche, translating thus: Haile thou that art freely beloued▪ Bib. 1579. & 1577and, Haile thou that art in high fauour. Why this, and that, or any other thing, rather than, Haile full of grace? S. Iohn Baptist was full of the holy Ghost, euen from his birth, S.Iuc. 1. v. 15. Act. 7. v. 8. Steuen was ful of grace, as the scripture recordeth of them both: why may not then our Ladie much more be called full of grace,Ambr. lib. 2. in 1. …uc. who (as S. Ambrose sayth) onelyonly obtained the grace, which no other women deserued, to be replenished with the author of grace?
FVLK. 4. The salutation of the Virgine, may be sayd still, either in Latine, or English, as well as any parte of the holye Scripture beside. But not to make a popish Orizon, of an Angelike salutation. That we hauehave translated Haile Marie freely beloued, or, that art in high fauour, we hauehave followed the truth of the Greeke worde, not so denying there by, but that the virgin Marie of Gods special goodnesse without her merites, as she confesseth was filled with all gratious giftes of the holy spirite, as much as any mortall creature might be, except our Sauiour Christe, whose onelyonly priuiledge it is to be free from sinne, and to hauehave receyued the giftes of the holy Ghost without measure in his manhood.
MART. 5. They will say, the Greeke worde doth not so signifie. Doth it not? I make them selues witnesses of the contrarie, and their owne translation in other places shall confute them, where they translate an other worde of the selfe same nature and forme and in all respectes like to this, ful of sores. IfLuc. 16. v. 20. foreign be full of sores, why is not foreign full of grace? Let any Grecian of them all, make me a difference in the nature and significancie of these two wordes. Againe, if vlcerosus (as Beza translateth) be full of sores, why is not gratiosa (as Erasmus translateth) full of grace? or why doth Beza maruell, that Erasmus translated, gratiosa, when him selfe translateth the like word, vlcerosus? All which adiectiues in osus (you knowe) signifie fulnes, as, periculosus, aerumnosus. Yet what a sturre doth Beza keepe here in his annotations, to make the Greeke word signifie, freely beloued?
FVLK. 5. The signification of the Greeke worde, with your foolish cauillation of Vlcerosus, I hauehave discussed sufficiently. cap. 1. sect. 43.
MART. 6. But hath it in deede any such signification? tell vsus you that professe this great skill of the tongues, what syllableforeign. is there in this word, that soundeth to that signification? S. Chrysostom, & the Greeke Doctors, that should best know theComment. in Eph. …. nature of this Greeke word, say that it signifieth, to make gracious & acceptable, & beloued, & beautiful, & amiable, & so to be desired, as when the Psalme saith, The king shal desire thyPsal. 44. beautie. Beza him selfe saith, that it is word for word, gratificata, made grateful, & yet he expoundeth it, accepted before God, & translateth it, freely beloued, because he wil hauehave no singular grace or goodnes, or vertue, resident in our B. Lady, but all by imputation, & acceptation, wherof I hauehave spoken before. S. Athanasius a greke doctor saith, that she had this title foreign,S. Athan. de S. deip. because the holy ghost descended into the Virgin, filling hir with al graces and vertues, and I beseech the reader, to see his words, which are many moe concerning this fulnesse ofEp. 140. in expos. Psalm. 44. grace and al spiritual gifts. S. Hierome, that knewe the Greeke word as wel as the Protestants, readeth, Gratia plena, and findeth no fault with this interpretation. but saith plainely, she was so saluted, full of grace, because shee conceiued him, in whom al fulnesse of the deitie dwelt corporally.
FVLK. 6. Looke in the best Greeke Lexicons, and you shal finde it the same signification, that we translate, and none other. Chrisostome is of the same iudgement, as I hauehave shewed, in the place aboue mentioned. That the Virgine Marie was iustified before God by faith, imputed to hir for righteousnes without workes or iustice, as you wil hauehave it called, we doubt no more of hir, than of Abraham. But, that shee was also sanctified with moste excellent graces, and indued in hir soule, with al christian vertues, Beza, and all that esteeme Beza in the word, wil confesse as muche as is conuenient for hir honour, so nothing bee derogated from the honour of God. That which Athanasius saith, we do likewise admit, and that which Hierome writeth also. But this is all the controuersie, whether the Virgine Marie were freely accepted and beloued of God, & so by his spirite indued with gratious vertues, or whether, for her vertues which she had of her selfe, she were worthie to be beloued of God, and deserued that honour, whereof she was vouchsafed to become the mother of God. Athanasius saith expresly, that all those graces and giftes were freely giuen her by the obumbration or ouershadowing of the holy Ghost, which the Angel promised should come vponupon her.
MART. 7. Now let the English Bezites come with theirIohn Keltridge preacher of the word in Londō. In his Sermons vvithin the tovvre, printed, fol. 14. Grosse ignorāce and singular pride in many of the nevv Clergie. So he called the Priestes of the Seminarie, as if one vvould call a Monke a Monasterie, or a Nonne a Nōry. new terme, freely beloued, and controll these and all other auncient fathers both Greeke and Latine, and teach them a new signification of the Greeke worde, which the… knew not before. Let Iohn Keltridge one of their great Preachers in London, come and tell vsus, that the Septuaginta and the beste trāslatiōs in Greeke hauehave no such words as we vse in the Aue Marie, but that the word which the Septuaginta vse, is foreign &c. Who euer heard such a iest, that the preacher of the worde of God in London (so he is called in the title of his booke) and preacher before the Iesuites and Seminaries in the tower, which is next degree to the disputers there, whose sermons be solemnely printed, & dedicated to one of the Queenes Councell, who seemeth to be such a Grecian that he confuteth the vulgar Latin translation by the significatiō of the Greeke word, and in other places of his booke alleageth the Greeke texte: that this man for all this, referreth vsus to the Septuaginta eitherPag. 37. of the …. parte. as authors of S. Lukes Gospel, which is too ridiculous: or as trā slators thereof, as though S. Luke had written in Hebrue, yea as though the whole newe Testament had bene written in Hebrue (for so no doubt he presupposed) and that the Septuaginta had translated it into Greeke as they did the old, who were dead three hundred yeares before S. Lukes Gospell and the new Testament was written.
FVLK. 7. Concerning Iohn Keltridge, agaynst whose ignorance and arrogancie you insult, I can say nothing, because I hauehave not seene his booke. But knowing how impudently you slaunder me, M. Whitaker, Beza, and eueryevery man almost, wyth whome you hauehave any dealing, I maye wel suspecte your fidelitie in this case, and thinke the matter is not so hard against Iohn Keltridge, as you make it seeme to be. If he hauehave ouershot himself (as you say) he is the more vnwise, if you slaunder him, as you do others, you are moste of al too blame.
MART. 8. Al this is such a pitiful iest, as were incredible, if his printed booke didde not giuegive testimonie. Pitiful, I say, because the simple people count such their preachers iolly fellows and great Clearks, because they can talke of the Greeke and of the Hebrewe texte, as this man doth also, concerning the Hebrue letter, Tau, whether it had in olde time, the forme of a Crosse, orFol. 11. part. 2. no, euen as wisely and as skilfully, as he did of the Septuaginta, and the Greeke worde in S, Lukes Gospel. Whose incredible follie and ignorance in the tongues, perhaps I would neuer hauehave mentioned (because I thinke the reste are sorie and ashamed of him) but that he boasteth of that, whereof he hath no skill, and that the people may take him for a very paterne and example of many other like boasters and braggers among them, and that when they heare one talke lustily of the Hebrewe and Greeke, and cite the text in the said tongues, they may alwaies remember Iohn Keltridge their Preacher, and say to themselues, what if this fellow also be like Iohn Keltridge?
FVLK. 8. Reseruing Iohn Keltridge to the trial & defence of himselfe, I say, you hauehave shewed your selfe as ridiculous in this booke diuerse times, and so hauehave many that beare a greater countenance among you tentimes, than Iohn Keltridge doth among vsus, how so euer it pleaseth you to make him the next degree to the disputers: But if Iohn Keltridge hauehave shewed him selfe to be a vaine boaster of that knowledge whereof perhaps he is ignorant, what reason is it that other learned men, which know the tongues in deede, should be drawne into suspition of ignorance for his follie? But that you delight by al meanes to discredite their learning and good giftes of God in them, to whom if you were comparable your selfe, yet it were not tollerable, that you should seeke their reproche, before their vnskilfulnesse may plainely be reproued.
MART. 9. But to proceede: these great Grecians and Hebricians that controll all antiquitie and the approued auncient Latine translation by scanning the Greeke and Hebrue wordes, that thinke it a great corruption Gen. 3. to reade, Ipsa conteret caput tuum, she shall bruise thy head, because it pertaineth to our Ladies honour, calling it *Sand. Rocke discou. pag. 145.a corruption of the Popish Church, whereas S. Ambrose, S. Augustine, S. Gregorie, S. Bernard, and the rest reade so, as being the common receiued texte in their time (though there hath bene also alwaies the other reading euen in the vulgar Latine translation, and therefore it is not any late reformation of these new correctors, as though the Hebrue and Greeke texte before had bene vnknowen) these controllers I say of the Latine texte by the Hebrue, against our Ladies honour, are in an other place content to dissemble the Hebrue worde, and that also for small deuotion to the B. Virgin: namely Hierom 7. and 44. Where the Prophet inueigheth against them that offer sacrifice to the Queene of heauen, this they thinke is very well, because it may sounde in the peoples eares against the vse of the Catholike Churche, which calleth our Lady, Queene of heauen. But they know very well that the Hebrue worde doth not signifie Queene in any other place of the Scripture, and that the Rabbines and later Hebricians (whom they gladly folow) deduce it otherwise, to signifie rather the whole corps and frame of heauen, consisting of all the beautiful starres and planets, and the Septuaginta call itSee Pagn. in radice. not only foreign ▪ Queene, but foreign: the host of heauen, c. 7. Hierem: and S. Hierom not onelyonly, reginā, but rather,foreign and foreign militiam coeli: and when he nameth it reginam, Queene, he saith we must vnderstand it of the moone, to which and to the other starres they did sacrifice & commit idolatrie. But the Protestants (against their custome of scanning the Hebrue and the Greeke) translate here, Queene of heauen, for no other cause in the world, but to make it sound against her, whom Catholikes truly call and worthily honour as Queene of heauen, because her sonne is king, and she exalted aboue Angels and all other creatures. See the New Test Annot. Act. 1. v. 14.
FVLK. 9. We thinke it in deede a shameful corruption of the Scripture, that your vulgar Latine texte, for ipsum, or ipse, as it is in the Greeke, readeth ipsa, and blafphemous it is to ascribe that to the mother of Christe, which is proper vntounto him self. But many of the auncient Fathers did reade so, and therefore Fulke did ignorantly be like, in calling it a corruption of the Popish Church. The best propertie I finde in you, (for which I am beholding to you) is that when you hauehave made a lie, and slaundered me, you will note the place your selfe, where I may be discharged and your owne impudencie be cō uinced. My wordes in the place by you noted be these:Disc. Sand. pag. 145. Finally, howe the Romish Church in these laste dayes hath kepte the Scripture from corruption, although I could shew by an hundereth examples, yet this one shal suffice for all. The very first promise of the Gospell, that is in the Scripture, Gen. 3. That the seede of the woman shoulde breake the Serpentes head, the Popish Church hath eyther wilfully corrupted, or negligently suffered to be depraued thus: Ipsa conteret caput tuum, shee shall breake thine head, referring that to the woman which God speaketh expresly to the seede of the woman. Whether the mysterie of iniquitie working in the Latine Churche, long before the Apostasie thereof into the kingdome of Antichrist began this corruption, I leaue it in doubt, but that the Popish Church hath suffered this deprauation to continue, it is out of all question, although you say you hauehave the other reading also, whiche though some copies hauehave, yet will you not admit it to be authentical. And whereas you bragge that this reading hath bene alwaies in your vulgar Latine translation: Hentenius confesseth that of 28. ancient copies, by which he reuised the vulgar translation, he found it onelyonly in two. As for S. Ambrose how he did reade, it is not certaine: for in his booke De fuga saeculi, Cap. 7. where this texte is cited, though the printed bookes hauehave Ipsa, yet there is nothing in his exposition that agreeth therewith, and seing that he followed the Greeke text, which hath the pronoune of the masculine gēder, it is like he did reade rather Ipse, but because his Greeke was very corrupt, so that for foreign, conteret, he did reade foreign, seruabit. There is no great account to be made of his reading. S. Augustine in Psalm. 103. readeth Ipsa, but he referreth it to the Church, not to the virgin Marie, as also for conteret, out of the corrupte Greeke hee readeth obseruabit. Gregorie followeth the same corrupt version, out of the Greeke Ipsa obseruabit, but he referreth it to eueryevery Christian man, which is the seede of the woman, not to the virgine Marie. Mor. lib. 2. Cap. 38. By whiche it is euident that your vulgar Latine texte, was not receyued in the Church of Rome for sixe hundreth yeares after Christ. For you read conteret, and not obseruabit. OnelyOnly Bernarde in deede a late writer hath your reading ipsa conteret, whiche hee expoundeth as prophecie of the virgine Marie. Who withstood the temptations of the Deuill, not vnderstāding the promise of the ouercomming of the Deuill, by Christe, euen as the Apostle alludeth to it, the Lorde shall treade downe Sathan vnderunder your feete. Rom. 16. The same Bernarde, Sermon. de villic. Iniquo, readeth the texte, Gen. 4. Si rectè offeras, & non recte diuidas, after the Greeke, by which also it is plaine, as by other argumēts, that your vulgare Latine translation was not receyued for 1000. yeares after Christe. How true therefore it is that you sayde Ipsa conteret caput tuum, was the common receyued text in the auncient fathers time, the readers may see and iudge.
But the chieefe complaint is behinde, that in Hieremie 7. Cap. 44. we translate the Queene of heauen, as the Septuaginta, Hierom, and the vulgar Latine translation doth, and wee onelyonly do it in despite of the virgine Marie, because the Papistes blasphemously call her the Queene of heauen. The Hebrue word in deede may signifie Queene, although with those pointes it be not else where redde for a Queene, & it may signifie the workemanship, but then you must supplie Aleph of the roote, that is wanting, and resteth vnderunder no long vowell, & so some Protestants do translate it, as Tremelius & Iunius. But if wee bee accused of hereticall translation, when we ioigne with your vulgar Latine, with Hierom, with the Septuaginta, it is very strange, that they should nor beare the blame with vsus. Certaine it is, no Protestant did euer teache, that the Iewes did worshippe the virgine Marie for the Queene of heauen. But the Sunne, the Moone, or some great starre as Pagnine saith. How truely you call the virgin Marie queene of heauen, and how well you proue it in your notes, vponupon Actes 1. 14. Some other more conuenient time, and place may bee graunted to consider.
MART. 10. Agine, why doth the Geneua newe TestamentAn. 1580▪ Cap. 1. v. 25. Cap. 1. v. 31. make S. Mathew to say, that He (to wit, Ioseph) called his name Iesus? Why not shee, as well as hee? For in S. Luke the Angell saith to our Lady also, Thou shalt call his name Iesus. S. Matthew then speaking indifferently, and not limiting it to him or her, why doe they giuegive this preeminence to Ioseph rather than to the B. Virgin? did not both Zacharie and…uc. 1. v. 60. and 63. also Elisabeth his wife by reuelation giuegive the name of Iohn, to Iohn the Baptist? yea did not Elisabeth the mother firste so name him before Zacharie hir husband? muche more may wee thinke, that the B. Virgine the natural mother of our Sauiour, gaue him the name of Iesus, than Ioseph his putatiue father. specially, if we consider, that the Aungel reu…aled the name first vntounto hir, saying, that shee should so cal him: and the Hebrewe word, Esay. 7. wherevnto the Aungel alludeth, is the foeminine gender, and referred by the great Rabbines, Rabbi Abraham, and Rabbi Dauid, vntounto hir, saying expresly in their commentaries, Et vocabit ipsa puella: and the maide hir self shall call. and surely, the vsual pointing of the Greeke text (for Beza maketh other points of his owne) is much more for that purpose. Now, if they wil say, that Theophylacte vnderstandeth it of Ioseph, true it is, and so it maye be vnderstoode very wel: but if it may be vnderstoode, of our Ladie also, and rather of hir, than of him, why dothe your translation exclude this other interpretation?
FVLK. 10. The matter is not worth the waight of an haire, whether wee reade, he called, or, she called, for both called him so. But, because Ioseph had a commandement, in the same chapiter, that hee shoulde call his name Iesus, it is more probable, that S. Mathewe, in this place meant of him, rather than hir: at the least, it is no heretical translation, to saye, that Ioseph didde that, which he was in fewe verses before, commaunded to do: and it was more ordinarie and vsuall, that the man gaue the name, rather than the woman, although, in this case, the woman had more right than the man. As for Elizabeths example, prooueth nothing, because shee spake when hir husband was dumbe.
MART. 11. Where, by the way I must tel you (and elsewhere perhappes more at large) that it is your common fault, to make some one Doctours interpretation, the text of your translation, and so to exclude al the rest that expound it otherwise, which you know is such a fault in a trāslator, as cā by no means bee excused. Secondly, the reader may here obserue and learne, that if they shal hereafter defend their translation of any place, by some Doctours exposition, agreable therevnto, that will not serue nor suffice them, because euerie Doctor may say his opinion*See chap. 1. nu. 3. 43. chap. 10. nu. 1. 2. chap 19. nu. …. in his cōmentaries, but that must not be made the tex…e of Scripture, because other Doctours expounde it otherwise: and being in it selfe, and in the original tongue, ambiguous, and indifferent to diuers senses, it may not be restrained or limited by translation, vnlesse there bee a meere necessitie, when the translation cannot possibly or hardly expresse the ambiguitie and indifferencie of the originaltexte.
FVLK. 11. The authoritie of one Doctour, agreeing with the proprietie of the originall tongue, is more worth, than an hundreth againste it. We neuer follow one Doctour, as you falsly slaunder vsus, to make his interpretation the text, but where that one Doctour did see the truth of the natural sense, according to the …ong, that perhaps was hid from other Doctours, whose wrytings we hauehave. As for ambiguities, and indifferences vntounto diuerse senses, are better reserued to commentaries and lectures vppon the Scriptures, than that they eyther can or oughte to bee retained in the translations.
MART. 12. As (for example) in this controuersie concerning2. Pet. 1. v. 15. Sainctes, S. Peter speaketh so ambiguously, either, that he wil remember them after his death, or they shall remember him, that some of the Greeke fathers gathered, and concludedforeign. there vppon (Oecum. in Caten. Gagneius in hunc locum) that the Saincts in heauen remember vsus on earth, and make intercession for vsus. Which ambiguitie both in the Greeke, and the Latine, shoulde be also kept and expressed in the Englishe translation, and wee hauehave endeuoured as neere as we could possibly so to make it, because of the diuers interpretations of the auncient fathers. But it maye seeme perhaps to the reader, that the saide ambiguitie cannot be kept in our English tongue, and that our owne translation also can hauehave but one sense. If it bee so, and if there bee a necessitie of one sense, then (as I saide) the translator in that respect is excused. But let the good reader consider also, that the Caluinistes in restraining the sense of this place, followe not necessitie, but their heresie, that Saints pray not for vsus. Which is euident by this, that they restraineEeza. it in their Latine translations also, where there is no necessitie at al, but it might be as ambiguous and indifferent, as in greke,No. Test. Grae. Henr. Steph. an. 1576. if it pleased them: yea, when they print the Greeke Testament onelyonly, wythout any translation, yet here they put the Latine in the margent, according as they wil hauehave it read, and as thoughe it might be read no otherwise, than they prescribe.
FVLK. 12. Oecumenius, who liued in a superstitious time, telleth, that some men vnderstoode thys saying of Peter, by an hyperbaton, &c. meaning to shewe, that the saincts, euē after their death, do remember those things, which they hauehave done here, for them that are aliue. But other handling this matter plainely, &c. doe giuegive the vsuall sense. First Oecumenius counteth thys an enforced exposition, because it cannot stand, but by an hyperbaton. Secondly, he speaketh neuer a word of the intercession of Saincts for vsus. Thirdly, he prese…reth the common sense, that al the fathers before him giuen of this text, as plaine and simple, and yet this must be sufficient for vsus to change our iuterpretation, although we were put in faulte immediately before, as thoughe we made one doctors interpretation, a sufficient ground of our translation. Yet is not this an opinion approoued, but reported onelyonly by Oecumenius▪ and Oecumenius himselfe, a Doctour of as little authoritie, as anye other, in respect of the late season, in whyche he liued. As for Gagneius, that came after him, who seeth not how little we are to accompt of his credite, that would wreste the deciding of an vnprofitable question, out of this place, whether Sainctes make intercession for vsus, whiche, if it were graunted, it foloweth not, that wee must make intercession to them.