Rejoinder to Bristows Reply, Part 1 · Chapter 2
CAP. II.
That he confesseth the knowne Church of the first 600 yearès Bristowe.after Christ and the knowne members thereof.
I beleeue that the Church of Christ, hath continued from the Apostles vntounto this day, and shall doe from Fulke.henceforth to the ende of the worlde. And I do confesse that for 600. yeares and more, after Christ, the doctrine of saluation in all necessarie articles was taught in the knowne and visible Church, although with all, in the later times, was receiued much corruption. I acknowledge also the auncient writers, Bishops, Emperors and Monkes of those times, to hauehave beene members of the same visible Church. But whereas Bristowe saith, to that I adde of the late Emperors, I signifie that I meane the Emperors Constantine, Iouian, Valentinian, &c. to hauehave beene such as I woulde wish for: I aunswere, he is no good interpreter of my meaning. For although in comparison of the later Emperors, they were much more excellent, yet I neuer ment to acknowledge them to be such, as I would wishe for: For both in the religion and in their manners, diuers thinges are founde, which I woulde wish had beene more agreeable to the worde of God, & yet were they in their time, very godly and Christian Princes, holding the foundation of Christ. I hope, to their eternall saluation.
Other bymatters there be in this Chapter, in which I am carped of Bristowe. First, that ignorantly I affirme, somewhere, namely Purg. 371. that the controuersie betwene the Britains and Saxons about the celebration of Easter, was the same, that was betweene Victor Bishoppe of Rome, and the Christians of Asia: whereas I saide, they defended a ceremonie receiued of the East Church, euen as the East church did long before against Victor …. of Rome: for they defende it by example and authoritie of S Iohn the Euangelist, Bed. hist. lib. 3. cap. 25. and so did the Asians, Euseb. lib. 5. Cap. 24.
Secondly where I saye, that Athanasius and a fewe other, that were banished and persecuted, were the true Catholike Church: he noteth in the margent, such is his skill in the story of that time: Belike he is offended, that I say they were but a fewe, that tooke parte with Athanasius. How smal or great my skill is in ye storie of that time, Bristows practise of logike is but little, which remembreth not yt many & fewe are relatiues, and spoken in comparison: I say againe they were but few in comparison of ye Arrians, yt tooke parte with Athanasius against his aduersaries, whē he was banished. How many councels helde the Arrians in the East against the trueth? The Emperor himselfe infected with the heresie: let the worlde iudge where the greater shewe of multitude was, with the Emperor, and with the councels; or with Athanasius and his fautors. Yea when Liberius Bishop of Rome in the West, had subscribed to the same heresie of the Arrians, & Constantius after both his brethren were deade, ruled both in the East, and the West: what thinke you was the vaunting multitude of the Arrian faction, insulting against the true Christians, calling them heretikes, Homousians, Athanasians, &c? Vincentius Lyrinensis saith: Arrianorum vene… non iam portiunculam quandam, sed penè totum orbem contaminauerat, ade…ut prope cunctis latini sermonis episcopis, partim vi, partim fraude deceptis, caligo quaedam mentibus offunderetur: The poyson of the Arrians had defiled not nowe a little portion, but almost all the worlde, insomuch that almost all the Bishops of the Latine speach, partly by force, partly by fraude being deceiued, a certaine myst couered their minds. You see what skill this proude censor hath of the hystorie of that time.
Last of all, he saith I make a proper distribution, the Popes of all ages, to be theirs, and yet the Apostles and doctors to be mine. But he maketh an vnproper application of the name of Popes to ye Bishops of Rome of al ages, where as a great number of the most auncient were godly men, and of true religion, members of the same Church wherof the Apostles and Doctors were, and not antichristian tyrants, as the later sort of degenerated bishops hauehave shewed themselues to be.
I doe not meane to prosecute eueryevery trifling matter after this manner, but to let the reader see by these fewe what great pyth is in his marginall notes and friuolous quarels.