A Retentive to Stay Good Christians, Title page · Motive 2
The second motiue is the seauenth demaunde.
Name of Heretikes, that very name a certayne marke of very Bristow.Heretikes. Luthers consciens his side to be Heretikes.
If the very name of Heretikes were a certayne marke of Heretikes, the Christians in the Apostles time Fulke.should bee verye Heretikes, for they were so called. yea (sayth Bristow) of the blind and vnbeleuing Iewes, and so are we called by the blind and vnbeleeuing Papistes: so were all true Catholikes alwayes by al Heretikes, which is so strange to Bristow, that he would hauehave vsus bring an Example of any Christians that euer called any people Heretikes, whiche prooued not Heretikes indeede. You may see his reading is very great, whiche thinketh no exception may be brought out of any Historie, or writings of the Fathers, for this matter. I wyll sende him to that vnperfecte worke vponupon S. Mathewes Gospell, written by an Arriane, yet among Papists commonly taken for Chrysostom, wherein the Author calleth and counteth the true Christians Heretikes, which defendeth the Godhead of the Father, the Sonne, and the holy Ghost to be equall, in Cap. 23. Hom. 45. Consequenter & …aercticis dicitur hoc. consequently this is said to the Heretikes. And least you should doubt whome he calleth Heretikes, it followeth immediately: Quando enim vides haereticos tres per omnia aequales dicentes eiusdem esse substantiae, eiusdem esse authoritatis, sine principio omnes hos aliqua parte distantes a se, non mireris: implent enim mensuram patrum suorum Gentilium, quoniam & illi similiter multos deos colebant. For when thou seest the Heretikes, saying, that there be three in al things equal of the same substance, and of the same authoritie, all these being without beginning, yet differing in some respect one from another, maruell not: for they fulfill the measure of theyr fathers the heathen men, for they did likewise worship many Gods. By this one example in stead of many, it is cleere, that the Arrians did as commonly call the true Christians heretikes, as the true Christiās called thē so. But if Bristow cauil, yt the Arrians were not Christians. I answere, they were as good Christians as the Papistes, who only almost cal vsus heretiks, euen as we do likewise cal them. And it were a shamelesse begging of the principle, to require that we shuld accompt Papists for true Christians, whē the question is whether they be heretiks or no. But it is a fine quarel yt he piketh against our trā slations of the Byble, where we cal Hereticum a man that is author of Sectes, as though we feared to call hym an Heretike, least men should thinke the Apostle spake against vsus. Nay Bristow, thei yt so trāslate, would hauehave Englishmen to vnderstand when S. Paule calleth an Heretike, that they mighte acknowledge the Pope to be an Archheretike, bycause he is an author of so many Sects, contrary to the word of God. Neyther did ye Author of the Apollogie meane, that men should lesse auoide Heresies, accounted by S. Paul among ye works of the flesh. Gala. 5. where he alledged that S. Paules doctrine was called Heresie of the Iewes, Act. 24. or that they should not thinke ill of thē, which are adiudged Heretikes by true Christians, but that they should no more regard yt slanderous and malitious rayling of the Papistes, than the Apostles did of the Iews, who were not much worse thā the Papists, & in some things were more tollerable. Last of all, where Luther cōfesseth, that the members of the true Church were commonly called Heretikes, his conscience did not accuse him, yt his side were Heretiks, for he was able to put a difference betwene him that by heretiks is called an Heretike, and him yt is so in deede, although Bristow, eyther for his blockish wit can not, or for his spitefull malice will not conceyue it.