The Relics of Rome, Part 35
Of the ceremonies of the popyshe Churche. Of holy water.
POpe Alexander the fyrst (as ye papistes fayne) ordayned water mingled with salte to bee halowed,Holi water & afterward sprinckled vponupon the people, to put away their sinnes, and to make thē holy and pure: He also commaunded, yt it shoulde bee kept both in churches and in houses to chase and dryue away deuills and wicked spirites,The verts of holy water. not onelyonly oute of houses wher mēdwel, but also out of ye hearts of the faythfull: as though fayth and ye deuel could dwel together in one heart In the yere, &c. 110. Grat. Plat. Sabel. Lib. Concil. D. Barns. P…antal.
The wordes of pope Alexanders canon ar these.Blasphemye agaīst the bloude of Christ. We blesse ye water mingled with salte for thys purpose, that all that bee sprinckled therewith, may bee made holy and pure: whiche thyng we commaunde all Priestes lykewyse to doe.Leuit. xvi. For sayeth he, if the ashes of an heyfer sprinckled, made holy and clensed the people from veniall synnes: Muche more water sprynckled wyth salte, and halowed with holye prayers, doth sanctifye, make holye, and clense the people from veniall synnes.liii. Reg. ii.
And if the salte being sprynckled by Helizeus, the barennesse of the… water was healed: Howe muche more salte being halowed with Godlye prayers, taketh awaye the barennesse of such thynges as appertayne to man, and sanctifyeth and pourgeth them yt are defiled, and multiplyeth suche goodes as we hauehave nede of, and turneth away ye disceates of the deuill, and defendeth men from al naughty and wicked fansies, &c. De conse. Dist. 3. Cap. Aquam sale conspersam. Lib. Concil.
Is not this good stuffe? is not this worthy to be called gods seruice? Oughte not ye people to ryse vp & make curtesy to the Popyshe shauelynge, when he sprinckleth thē with water of so great vertue? Are not the scriptures here wel applied? Doth not this ceremony make Christ Iacke out of office, with all hys workes and merites? God hauehave mercy on vsus, and shortly confoūd Antichrist.
Guilihelmus Durādus sayth,In …at. di. off. yt the holy water hath deserued to hauehave of God so great vertue, that as outwardly it washe…h the body from filthynesse: so inwardly clēseth the soules from sinnes. O blasphemye intollerable. This is ye goodly Godlye Catholyke doctrine, wherwith the vngoodly vngodly Papistes infecte the mindes of such Christians, as are simple and light of belief, yea, wherwith they caste the soules of all suche, as put their confidence and trust in these pylde, begarly, and lousy ceremonyes, into euerlastyng damnation. And yet must they be called laudable ceremonies, well worthy (and God will.) to be frequented and vsed in the Churche of Christ. And the teachers of thys doctrine, & the ministers of these ceremonies must alone be coūted worthy to beare office in the Church, to be reputed and taken for the only pyllars of our mother holy Churche, to be had in estimation aboue all men, and to be reuerenced as Gods of all men: and so many as be of contrarye opinion,☞ teaching that our whole saluation commeth only from God thorowe fayth in the bloude of Christ, must be adiudged seditious persons, sowers of discorde, authors of new learning, teachers of straūge doctrine,How the ceremonye of holy water came first into the church. and heretikes. But as I may by coniecture speake my minde cōcerning this ceremonie: I thinke verelye, that as the ceremony of dealing holy bread on the Sondayes (wherof we shal hereafter speake) was ordained of ye fathers of Christs Church at that time, to put the people in remembraunce of Christes body breakyng: so lykewise at the same time was this ceremony of water sprinckling brought into the Churche to put the people in remembraunce of Christes bloud sheadyng on the altare of the Crosse for their sinnes. But as the papistes in processe of time lost the signification of holy bread, & of al other ceremonies, & therfore ioyned vntounto the certain doctrines of error & false faith, so likewise hauehave thei done in ye ceremonie of holy water. They not knowing the cause of the first instititution, hauehave fayned the holy water, as they cal it, to be of such and so greate vertue,The manifolde vertues of holy water. might, and power, that it is able to put away sinne, to geue health both of minde & body, to make so many holy and pure, as be sprinckled with it, to geue abundaunce of thynges, to dryue awaye deuils, to chase awaye all the power of our ghostly enemye, yea and to plucke him vp by the rootes and vtterly to destroy him with all his Apostatike aungels, to put backe diseases, to expell all corrupte and pestilente ayres, to dispatche all ye guyles, subtilties, sleyghtes and disceates of the lurkyng enemye, …o banyshe al thynges that be contratye to the healthe, prosperitye, and quietnesse of all such, as dwel in ye houses where it is sprinckled, to geue securitie of hope, corroboratiō & strengthning of faith, to bring the holy ghost, & at the laste what not? Are not all these things read in their exorcismes & coniuratiōs of their bewitched & salted water as we hauehave tofore hearde, and in other Popishe treatyses?
Reade we not these wordes in their Popish primare, which we are taught & commaūded to say, whē we sprinckle our selues with ye water in the Church porche, before we enter into ye Church.
Aqua benedicta sit mihi salus … vita. Praesta mihi domine per hanc creaturam aspertionis aquae, sanitatem mentis, integritatem corporis, tutelam salutis, securitatem spei, corroborationem fidei nūc & in futuro. Whiche is thus Englished.
The blessed water mought be vntounto me health and life. Graunt me, O Lord, by thys creature of the sprincklyng of water, health of mynde, wholenesse of body, defence of health, safegarde of hope, strengthnynge of faith, now and in tyme to come.
And bicause this their dreame should be of the more credit: they hauehave fathered those their lyes, as they do many other, of an auncient Byshop of Rome, called Alexander the first, whiche liued. In ye yere. &c. 119. And here mayest thou see, what a lying generatiō the Papists are, as I maye speake nothyng of their pestilent and abhominable doctrine.