The Players Scourge — William Prynne

The Players Scourge · William Prynne

SCENA TERTIA.

THe third Objection in the behalfe of Playes is this;Objection 3. zSee Haywoods Apologie for Actors, where this Obiection is made.that they are not onelyonly commendable but necessary in a Commonweale; and that in three respects: First, for the solemne entertainment and recreation of forraigne Embassadours, States and Princes: Secondly, for the solemnizing of festivals and triumphes: Thirdly for the exhileration and necessary recreation of the people. Therefore they ought to be countenanced, continued, not suppressed.

Answ. 1.To this I shall first reply; that Stage-playes are so far from being commendable or necessary in a Cōmonweale, that they are the very greatest mischiefes which can befall it: aSee Act. 6. Scene 5. & Act. 7. Scene 6, 7.whence the wisest States and Magistrates have beene so farre from tollerating, that they have quite discarded them as inconsistent with the publike welfare. So that the very ground of this objection failes, and then the particulars cannot stand, which I shall now examine. For the first of them; that Stage-playes are necessary for the solemne entertainment of Embassadours, and forraigne States; though I will not take upon me to define what entertainment will befit such personages; yet with all humble submission to better judgments, I conceive, that common Stage-playes (to which every cobler, tinker, whore, and base mechanicke may resort from day to day,bSee Act. 4. Scene 2. as many of them doe) are no meete sports or entertainments for cNon …adem vulgusque decent et lumina rerum. Ouid, ad Li…iam pars 1. p. 323.Christian Princes, States, and Potentates; whose pietie, majestie, gravitie are so transcendent, that they cannot but disdaine the sight, the presence of such ridiculous, infamous, scurrilous, childish Spectacles, as common Stage-playes are, which savour neither of state, nor royaltie, but of most abject basenesse, though too many great ones (I know not out of what re…pects) have vouchsafed to honour them (or dIohn Sarisbury, De Nugis Curialium, l. 1. c. 7, 8. Bodinus De Repub. l. 6. c. 1. Chrysost. Hom. 13. in 1 Cor. Tom. 4. p. 356. accordingly.rather dishonoured themselves) with their presence. For my owne part it is beyond my Creed to beleeve, that Christian Monarches, Peeres, or forraigne Embassadours, who are (at leastwise should be) men of eRom. 13.1. 1 Pet. 2.13, 14.highest dignity, of fPrinceps par omnibus, sed in caeteris maior quo melior. Plin. sec. Pa…eg…r. Traiano dictus, p. 18.eminentest piety, severest gravity, deepest wisdome, sublimest spirit, and most sober, gFacere recte cives suos princeps optimus faciendo docet, et cum imperio maximus sit, exemplo maior est. V…lleius Pater…. Rom. Hist. l. … p. 134. Vita Princis censura est, ea que perpe…ua: ad hanc dirigimur, ad hanc convertimur: nec tam imperio nobis opus est quam exemplo, quippe infidelis recti magister est metu…. Melius homines exemplis docentur; quae in primis hoc in se boni habent, quod approbant quae praecipiunt fieri posse. Plin. Panegyr. Traiano dict. p. 38.exemplary conversation, without any mixture of levitie, vanitie, or childish folly, (the least tincture of which in men of supreme ranke, (though it be but in their hNihil est in Rege ferendum ne ludo quidē quod non aptum atque decorum sit. Osorius De Regum Instit. lib. 2. f. 35.sports) is iAlia est conditio …orum qui in turba quam non excedunt latent: quorum et virtutes ut appareant diu luctantur, et vitia tenebras habent: vestra facta dictaque rumor excipit, et ideo nulli magis timendum est qualem famam habeant, quam qui qualemcunque habue…int magnam habituri sint. Senc…a de Clemential. 1, c. 8. See Plin. Paneg. Traiano dict. p. 72.no small deformity, no meane ecclipse unto their fame) should so farre degenerate, or kSummae enim magnitudinis servit…s est non posse fieri minorem. Seneca De Clementia l. 1. c. 8.descend below themselves, as to admit of common Plaies or Actors, (the lSee Act. 4. Scene 1. & Act. 6. & 7. throughout.most infamous, scurrilous, ignoble pleasures and persons that the world affords) into their royal presence. We know that mSee Act. 7, Scene 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.many Christian, many Pagan States and Emperours, have long since sentenced, exiled Playes and Players, and that the whole Church of God, with all faithfull Christians from age to age have execrated and cast them out, as the very greatest grievances, shames and cankerwormes both of Church and State: We know, that n4 H. 4, c. 27. 3 H. 8, c. 9, 34, & 35 H. 8, c. 2. 1 Ed. 6, c. 1.14 Eliz. c. 5.39 Eliz. c. 4.3 Iacobi c. 21. & 1 Caroli c. 1.many publike Acts of Parliaments, even of this our Realme, have branded Players with the very name, the punishment of Rogues and Vagabonds, and condemned Stage-playes as unlawfull Pastimes. And can any one then be so brainsicke, so shamelesse to affirme, that these anathematized heathenish Spectacles, these stigmatized varlets, (which all times, all Christians, all men of gravity and wisdome have disdained as the most lewd infamous persons, are fit to entertaine the noblest Princes, or to appeare before them in their royall Pallaces, at times of greatest state? Certainly as oAquila magnas praedas, non muscas; leo lupos, non mures capit. Case Polit. l. 2. c. 5. p. 136.Eagles scorne to stoope at flies, or as magnanimous lions disdaine to chace a mouse; even so those generous Christian Monarches, who have cast out Playes and Actors as intollerable mischiefes in their meanest Citties; will pAEquum quidem est ut quam quis in alios legem statuit, …andem etiam ipse non gravatim sub…at. Diodorus Sic. Bibl. Hist. l. 13. sect. 30, page 494.never so farre grace them, as to deeme them worthy to approach their Courts, as necessary ornaments and attendants, on dayes of most solemnitie. It was King Davids godly protestation; qPsal. 101.4, 5, 6, 7, 8.that he would set no wicked thing before his eyes; that the worke of those who turned aside should not cleave unto him: That a froward heart should depart from him, and that he would not know a wicked person: who so privily slandereth his neighbour, him (saith he) will I cut off: him that hath an high looke and a proud heart, I will not suffer: he that worketh deceit shall not dwell in my house; he that telleth lies shall not tarrie in my sight, &c. Certainlie, there is never a true Christian Prince or Potentate this day living, but is, but must, or ought to be of Davids mind, r1 Sam 13, 14. Acts 13, 22.he being a man after Gods owne heart: therefore hee can never suffer Stage-plaies, which are wicked, lewd and heathenish Pastimes; or common Actors, (who are sSee Act. 4, Scene 1, 2.perverse, yea froward, wicked, proud, deceitfull, slanderous, lying persons in the highest degree) to come into his presence, or harbour in his pallace. tProv. 20.8, 26 See Rom. 13.3, 4. 1 Pet. 2.13, 14.A King that sitteth in the throne of judgement (saith the wisest King) scattereth all evill with his eyes: yea,vSee Gualther, Hom. 11, in Nahum, p. 214, 215. A wise King scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheele over them, Prov. 20.8, & 26. Needs therefore must a just, a prudent Christian Prince, abandon Playes and Players from before his eyes, the one being the xAct 6, Scene 5.greatest evills to a State: the other, the ySee Act. 4 Scene 1.very worst and most infamous men. It is true indeed,xSee Suetonii Caligula, sect. 18, 19, 20, 52, 54, 55. Nero, sect. 12, 13, 20, 23, 25, 26, 30, 32. Philo Iudaeus De Legatione ad Caiū, p. 1342, …o 1351 & the Authors forequoted, p. 144. that some dissolute Roman Emperors, as (z)before: and those other quoted in the margent, p. 144, letter …. See Plinius Secundus Panegyr. Traiano dict. p. 38, & 45. where he much inveighes against them.Caligula, Nero, Heliogabalus, Carinus, and others, have beene much enamoured with Playes and Actors: but this was onelyonly the blot, the infamie of these shames of Monarchy, as *De Legatione ad Caium, pag. 1342, to 1358.Philo Iudaeus, aEpistle 12, to Lambert.Marcus Aurelius, bSatyr. 8.Iuvenal, cDe Nugis Curialium l. 1, c. 7, 8.Iohn Sarisbery, and their dSuetonius quaowne Historians witnesse: who have recorded it onelie for their greater shame: eIuvenal. Satyr. 8. Iohn Sarisbury De Nugis Curialium, l. 1, c. 7. Polychronicon l. 4, c. 9.Res haud mira tamen cytharaedo Principe mimus, Nobilis &c. being the sole encomium, that they have lest behind them for it. Their examples therefore can be no good argument to second this objection, especially since fSee Act. 6. Scene 5. & Act. 7. Scene 7. & P…in. Panegyr. Traiano dict. p. 38, 45.the best Roman Senators, Monarches, both Pagan and Christian have exiled Stage-players, and suppressed Playes, as even Nero himselfe (who gSee Iohan. Sa…isbur. De Nugis Curialium l. 1. c. 7. & Suetonii Nero, sect. 20. to 31.was most devoted to them, and most honoured Players) was hSuetoni… Nero, sect. 16. Marcus Aurelius cap. 14. Plinius Secundus, Panegyr. Traiano dict. p. 38, 45. Alexander ab Alexandro l. 6. c. 9.at last enforced to doe, by reason of those intollerable oft-complained mischiefes which they did occasion. I confesse, that many Christian Writers both of ancient and moderne times, and among sundry others whom I spare to mention, *See-Vincentius Speculum Historiale l. 29. c. 41. See here p. 471, 472.Vincentius, *Historiae lib. 15. cap. 31, 34.Olaus Magnus, iHinc enim mimi, salii, balat…ones, aemiliani, gladiatores, palestritae, gignadii, praestigiatores, malefici quoque multi, et tota ioculatorum scena procedit. Quorum adeo error invaluit, ut a praeclaris domibus non arceantur, etiam illi qui obscaenis partibus corporis, oculis …mnium eam ingerunt turpitudinem, quam …rubescat videre vel Cynicus. Quodque magis mirere, nec tunc eiiciuntur, quando tumultuantes inferius crebro sonitu aerem faedant, et turpiter inclusum, turpius produnt. Nun quid tibi videtur sapiens qui oculos vel aures istis expandit? De Nugis Curialium, l. 1. c. 8. s…e…. 4. & 7.Iohn Sarisbery, and kRegis n…curiam sequuntur assidue, histriones candidatrices, aleatores, dulcora…ii, caupones, nebulatores, mimi, balatrones, id genus omne. Epist. 14. Bibl. Patrum Tom. 12. pars 2. p. 714. B. See Epist. 85. p. 769. E.Peter de Bloyes, …rchdeacon of Bath (two ancient English Writers; lMagna peccandi facultas sequitur principatum: adest irritamentum gulae, copia vini, et lautae gloria mensae; assunt corruptores, adulatores, ioculatores, histriones, qui a…cem adolescentiae undique nituntur expugnare. Quod si tempus disserendi daretur, monstrarem, omnes homines stultos esse qui vitam habentes aliam in qua possint honeste vivere, in curi…s principum se praecipitant. Ideo vos tantum moneo, ut agrum hunc histriones et adulatores, ac alios nebulones metere sinatis, quinigrum in candida vertunt; nullus enim vi…is bonis apud principes locu…, nulla emolumenta laborum &c. Epist. lib. 1. Epist. 105. p. 604. & Epist. 166. p. 711. See p. 723, 726, 727.AEnaeas Sylvius (afterwards Pope Pius the 2) and Mr. mComprehenduntur ergo hoc titulo molles et delicatuli, omnes que voluptarum illicitarum ministri sive artifices, quales sunt mimi, ludiones, circulatores, cantores, cytharaedi, parasiti, lenones, et his omnibus deterioribus eunuchi, spardones, atque cynaedi. Solent tales regum magnorum aulas, et urbes celebriores frequentare, eo quod in illis quaestum uber… im… sibi propositum videant &c. Hom. 11. in Nahum pag. 214, 21…. See here pag. 479, 480, 481.Radolphus Gualther, have publikely complained and bewailed in their writings; that Stage-players, Tomblers, Fidlers, Singers, Iesters, and such like idle persons, have followed Princes Courts, and haunted great mens houses; that they have there found accesse and harbour, when as experienced, vertuous, well-deserving men, have beene excluded, contemned, and sent away without reward; these caterpillars and pests of the commonweale, not onelyonly anticipating in the meane while their charity to the poore, their bounty to men to best desert, but even exhausting their treasures, depraving their manners, fomenting their uices to the publike prejudice, and their owne eternall perdition: But this they censure as their shame, their folly and oversight, not their praise; as did St. Chrysostome long agoe, whose words I would these Objectors would observe: nVis enim alia audire quae eorum ostendant dementiam? Quaenam autem sunt illa? Theatra congregant, et meretr…cum choros illic inducentes, et pueros scortantes, et qui iniuria ipsam afficiunt naturam; totum populum in loco superiore faciunt con sidere. Sic civitatem recreantes; sic magnos reges, quos semper propter trophaea et victorias admi…rantur, coronantes. Atqui quid est hoc honore frigidius? Quid voluptate illa iniucundius? Ex his ergo quaeris factorum tuorum la…datores? et cum saltatoribus, mollibu… et mimis, et meretricibus, vis dic quaeso, lauda…i? Et quomodo haec non fuerint extremae dementiae? At sunt, inquis, infames. Cur ergo per infames reges honoras? Cur civitates enecas? Cur autem in eos tam multa impendis? Nam si sunt infames, infames oportet expelli: nā cur eos fecisti infames? &c. Hom. 13. in 1 Cor. 4. Tom. 4. Col. 356. B, C, D.Wilt thou heare againe (saith he) some other things which shew the folly and madnesse of these wise Law-givers? They gather together Players & Theatres, & bring in thither troopes of harlots, of adulterous youthes &c. making all the people to sit on scaffolds over them: Thus recreate they the Citty; thus doe they crowne great Kings, whose victorious trophees they admire. But alas what is more cold than this honour? What more unpleasant than this pleasure? Doest thou then seeke applauders of thy actions among these? Tell me, I pray thee, wilt thou be praised with dancers, with effeminate persons, Stage-players, whores? And how can this be but the very extremity of folly and frenzie? But thou wilt say, these are infamous persons. Why then doest thou honour Kings, why doest thou murther Citties by such who are infamous? Why doest thou bestow so much upon them? For if they are infamous, they ought to be cast out, &c. It is therefore no lesse then madnesse, then extremest folly in St. Chrysostomes judgement, to honour, to Court Kings or great ones with Playes or common Actors: and a farre greater frenzie is it for such to foster, to applaud them, and to be praised by them; oPraetereo Histriones a…que ioculatores, et totius vulgi laudes, quas v…r prudens pro nihilo reputabit: quia nulla est vera laus, nisi a veris proveniat laudatis. AEneas Syluius Epist. l. 1 Epist. 166. pag. 723. See Plin. Paneger. Traia…no dictus p. 45.because no true praise can proceed from any, but such who really deserve applause themselves. Adde we to him the verdict of laborious Gualther, pMagnum ergo corruptae et eversae disciplinae argumentum est, quod hodie in regum auli… et civitatibus opulentis, mimi, …udiones, molliculi, et voluptatum inhonestissimarum ministri summo in pretio habentur, exclusis interim et contemptis viris gravibus, qui consilio valent, et qui mu…tiplici rerum experientia instructi sunt; ut interim de pauperibus et egenis nihil dicam quibus principum aulas ne inspicere qui…em licet, et quibus per urbes opulentiores vix transitus conceditur. Hom. 11. in Nah…m p. 224, 225.who reputes it an argument of corrupted, of everted discipline, that at this day Players, Iesters, effeminate persons, and furtherers of most dishonest pleasures are in great request in Princes Courts and in great cities, &c. which he there proves at large. To him I shal annex that notable passage of Olaus Magnus to the like purpose, well worth all Princes, all Players and Play-haunters most serious consideration: in his Historiae l. 15. c. 31. De Histrionibus et Mimis. Where he writes thus.qSo stiles he the profession of a Stage-player. Nemo miretur quod hac etiam pessima occupatione repl…t… sit haec chartula pusilla, nempe talibus hominum generibus, quorum nume…us est infinitus, et tantae reputationis in curijs et mensis sublimium Dominorum, ut fere vel nullum vel exiguum credatur adesse solatium praeter unicum hoc quod emanat ab infamibus his Protomimis. Refert Trebellius, *Galien…m. See here p. 465.Galerum in tantum dilexisse scurras et parasitos, et id genus infamiae hominum, ut poneret eos in secunda sua mensa. Si consilium rSuetonii Octavius, sect. 45. See here p. 459, 460.Suetonij locus habuisset, tales mimi publico spectaculo virgis et flagris caesi, remotiusque effugati fuissent: quod et Vincentius in speculo. Historiae lib. 29. c. 41. de rege Galliae Philippo attestatur; quem asserit dixisse, Histrionibus dare est daemonibus immolari, &c. And cap. 34. De abjecta commendatione Mimorum, et utili laude prudentium: where he thus expresseth himselfe. Sed nec ignotum universis relinquitur, QVANTA IGNOMINIA PRINCIPIEVS SIT, aut laudis cupidis à talibus commendari, sThe profession and end of Stage-players, what it is.quorum praecipua professio est infamibus colludere, turpibusque colloquijs bonos mores corrumpere, eos que effaeminatos efficere, a… libidinosos reddere et luxuriosos; praeterea comaediarum more adulteria et stupra representare vel concinnere, unde spectandi enascatar voluptas et consuetudo, ac turpissima quaeque faciendi licentia perniciosa, et denique ad omnium virorum gravium obmutescere rationem et censuram. Cujus rei testis est illa tPlutarchi Cato.Massiliensis meretrix, quae in actu publico prostans vestem que deducens, gravi Catone vis… descendere in Spectaculum, à gestu se statim continuit, et alijs mirantibus, ait, severum virum adesse: qua quidem voce ostendit, longe pluris esse *Aliquis vir bonus nobis eligendus est, ac semper ante oculos habendus, ut sic tanquam illo spectante vivamus, et omnia tanquam illo vidente faciamus: nec immerito. Magna enim pars peccatorum tollitur, si peccaturis testis assistat. Senec… Epis…. 11. Vid. Ibid.gravissimi viri aspectum, quàm totius populi applausum. Quocircà, etsi cuncti, maxime principes laudari appetant, TAMEN INTIME CAVEANT, ne id procurant vel admittant fieri AB HISTRIONIBVS ET PROTOMIMIS NISI SIMILES ILLIS AESTIMARI ET FORSAN ESSE VOLVNT. Vera enim laus haberi debet, quae à laudato viro proficiscitur, quia à tali viro emanat qui virtute praeditus cum laude venit. Sed haec peramplius verior esse judicatur, quae ex rectè factis et justis meritis, multitudinis etiam laude …oncurrente procedit…: alioquin nihil aliud nisi popularem auram aut scurrarum fucum captant: quo nihil instabilius aut detestabilius inveniri potest. Igitur attendendum erit unicuique, *Nota bene.MAXIME PRINCIPI in sublimiori dignitate constituto, ne sic scurrarum, mimorum, histrionum, protomimorum brevi tempore delectetur spectaculis, uti immemor salutis, perdito tempore, honore, laude, et bone nomine in uno momento rapiatur ad aeterna tormenta, quae ab immundis spiritibus forsitan in umbra et forma histrionum apparentebus et flagellantibus importunius sustinebit; sentietque perpetuo flendum esse cum diabolis, sicuti in momentanea vita inconsideratè risit cum stultis. Exclamandum hîc merito foret contra quosdam alti nominis viros, in sublimitate constitos, qui pro summa voluptate ducunt, scurras videre et a…dire, nudas mulierum *See here p. 387.picturas intueri, et ijs delectari, atque alijs praebere videndas; quasi propria caro, mundus, et daemonia non sufficerent ad infatuandum hominem, creatum ad imaginem Dei, ni et studiose in suam irreparabilem damnationem excitarent tot importunatissimos hostes, ignorantes verbum beati Gregorij, dicentis; Talem te ostendis in corde diligere, qualem imaginem ante te geris in oculis, &c. All which recited premises, together with that memorable xSee here p. 462.fore-mentioned worthy speech of the Emperor Trajan to a Courtier, who intreated him to heare an active Player: and that private advice of Macro, unto Caius the Emperour; yPhilo Iudaeus, De Legatione ad Caiū, p. 1341, 1342, 1343.insane spectantem saltatores ità ut unà gesticularetur, aut ad mimorum scurrilia dicteria non subridentem, sed cachinnantem pueriliter &c. who whispered thus into his eare, ne quis audiret alius, blandè admonens: Non decet te alijs audiendo spectandoque et usu caeterorum sensuum esse similem, sed tantum debes in ratione vivendi excellere, quantò eminentiorem te fortuna constituit: absurdum enim fuerit terrae marisque principem, cantibus, cavillis, et hujusmodi ludis succumbere: oportet illum semper et ubique meminisse majestatis imperatoriae, tanquam pastorem gregi praepositum, et undicunque dictis factisque in melius proficiscere: (a good lesson for this scandalous, ignoble, dissolute Emperour, who was not onelyonly a spectator, an applauder, but sometimes zDion Cassius, Rom. Hist. l. 59. p. 829. & here p. 462.an actor too of Masques and Stage-playes to his eternall shame:) are sufficient to disprove this crack-brain'd frentique Objection of an infamous Player; That Stage-playes are necessary pastimes for the recreation, the solemne entertainment of Christian Princes, States, Embassadours, Nobles; whose majesty, whose greatnes cannot but disdain such base infamous spectacles, which make their aSee Act. 4. Scene 1. & Act. 7. Scene 3.Actors and Spectators infamous. Certainly he who shall reade the bMarcus Aurelius Epist. 12. Guevara, Diall of Princes, l. 3. c. 45. to 48.Epistle of Marcus Aurelius, unto Lambert; the cPag… 38.45. here p. 462, 463Panegyricke of C. Plinius Secundus, to the …mperor Trajan: the answer of dPlutarchi Lacon. Apothegmata p. 462.Agesilaus, to Callipides the expert tragicke Player; (who saluting this royall King, and thrusting himselfe into his presence, expecting and hoping that this noble Prince would have taken some speciall notice of him, and spoken kindly to him; and then perceiving that he slighted him, demanded of him; Doest thou not know me ô King, and hast thou not heard whom I am? who looking upon him, returned him no other reply but this, Art not thou Callipides the Player? intimating, that Kings should wholly contemne such lewd infamous persons as not worthy their least respect:) or Guevara his Diall of Princes, lib. 3. c. 43. to 48. & Act. 6. Scene 5. Act. 7. Scene 2, 3, 6. will presently adjudge all Stage-playes, all Actors, unworthy a Pagan, how much more then a Christian Emperours, Kings or Princes royall presence; who have farre more honourable, majestique, heroicke sports and exercises to refresh themselves withall: as tilting Barriers, Iusts, and such like martiall feates, (the eSee Munsteri Cosmogr. l. 3. c. 453. Halls Chronicle, part 2. fol. 5, 6, 7, 155, 156. & 75. to 85.ancient solemne festivall entertainments of Kings and Nobles, wherein our warlike fMatthew Paris, p. 802, 819. Thomas Walfing…am, Hist. Angl. p. 112. Halls Chronicle, part 2. f. 76. to 85.English Nation have farre excelled others;) with an hundred such like laudable exercises, …avouring both of royalty, valour, and activity; which if they were now revived insteed of effeminate, amorous, wanton gSee Act. 5. Scene 8.dances, Enterludes, Masques and Stage-playes, hSee Act. 6. throughout.effeminacy, idlenesse, adultery, whoredome, ribaldry and such other lewdnesse would not be so frequent in the world as now they are. But admit this idle surmise as true as it is fabulous, it then administers a pregnant argument against all common Stage-playes: for if Stage-playes be meet ornaments for Princes pallaces at times of greatest state and royallest entertainment, great reason is there to suppresse their daily acting, and to appropriate them to such times, such places, such purposes as these, iVsu enim praeciosa degenerant, quorum autem difficilis possessio, eorum grata perfunctio. Ambr. De Elia et Ieiunio, c 9 Naturale est potius nova quam magna mirari. Ita enim compositi sumus, ut nos quotidiana si admiratione digna sunt, transeant; contra minimarum quoque rerum si insolitae prodie…unt spectaculum dulce fiat. Seneca Naturalium Qu…st. l. 7. c. 1.for feare their assiduity, their cōmonnes should make the kNe Numidiae quidem reges vituperandi, qui more gentis suae nulli… mortalium osculum ferebant. Quicquid enim in excelso fastigio positū est, humili …t trita consuetudine quo …it venerabilius, vacuū esse convenit. Valer. Max. l. 2. c. 6. s. 17.despitably base and altogether unmeet for such sublime occasions. Extraordinary royall occasions, persons, entertainments will not suite with common prostituted Enterludes, which every tinker, cobler, foot-boy, whore or rascall may resort to at their pleasure, as they doe unto our Stage-playes; which as they are every mans for his penny, so they are every dayes Pastime too, at every roguish Play-house. And are such common hacknie Enterludes, thinke you, fit for high-dayes, for Princes Courts and presence? If therefore you will exalt these sordid Stage-playes to such sublime imployments as you here pretend, you must now shut up our standing Play-houses, and sequester all Stage-playes from the vulgar crew, appropriating them onelyonly to some certaine solemne publike festivities, and times of royall entertainment, (as the lSee Act. 2. Dionys. Hallicarnass. Antiq. Rom. l. 7. sect. 9. Dion Cassius, Rom. Hist. l. 59. p. 829. Polybius Hist. lib. 4. p. 340. Guevara, Diall of Princes, l. 3. c. 43, 44 Arias Montanus in Iudicum l. c. 16. p. 567. to 575.ancient Greekes and Romans did; who had no constant (much lesse any private) Enterludes acted day by day, but onelyonly publike Stage-playes, at times of publike triumph, or on the great solemne Feast-dayes of their Idol-gods, to whom they were devoted:) that so their mOmne rarum praeciosum: gaudeo itaque de illis posse esse, qui quanto rariores, tanto apparebunt esse gloriosiores. Bern. Ep. 1. f. 178. A. Ardentiu… appetitur quicquid est rarius. Hierom. advers. Vigilantium cap. 4. Voluptates commendat rarior usus. Iuvenal Satyr. 11. p. 111.raritie may ennoble them to such royall services as are pretended, when as their nHoc stabunt, hoc sunt imitandi quos n… que pulcher Hermogenes unquam legit, neque Simius iste. Nil praeter Calvum, et doctus cantare Catullum. Haec ego ludo, Quae neque in aede sonant, certantia iudice Tarpa, Nec redeant …erum atque iterum spectanda theatris. Horat. Ser. l. …. Sat. 10. p. 19….assiduous commonnesse hath now made thē & their Actors base; too base (I dare say) for any Princes presence, when as they deeme themselves highly honoured, with the very meanest varlets.

To the second clause of this Objection, That Stage-playes are necessary for the true solemnizing of our Saviours Nativitie, and other such solemne Christian Festivalls; it is so diametrally opposite unto truth, above 40 severall Councels, besides Fathers and other Christian Writers professedly contradicting it, (See Act. 6. Scene 12. & Act. 7. Scene 3.) that I cannot so much as name it but with highest indignation. Alas into what atheisticall heathenish times are we now relapsed, into what a stupendious height of more than Pagan impiety are we now degenerated, when as Stage-playes (the very zSee Act 1. Scene 1, 2, 3. & Chorus.chiefest pompes and ornaments of the most execrable pagan Idols festivities) are thought the necessary appendants of our most aQualis haec religio, aut quanta maiestas putanda est, quae adoratur in templis, illuditur in theatris? Et qui haec fecerint, non paenas violati nu…minispendunt, sed honorati etiam laudatique discedunt. Lactan…. De Ius…itia l. 5. c. 16.holy Christian solemnities? when as we cannot sanctifie a Lords-day, observe a fift of November, or any other day of publike thanksgiving to our gracious God, nor yet celebrate an Easter, a Pentecost, or such like solemne Feasts, (much lesse a Christmasse, as we phrase it) in a plausible pious sort, (as too many bNon imitandi nobis sunt qui sub Christiano nomine Gentilem vitā agunt, et aliud professione, aliud conversatione testantur. Hierom. Epist. 14. c. 2.paganizing Christians now conceit) without drinking, roaring, healthing, dicing, carding, dancing, Masques and Stage-playes? which better become the sacrifices of Bacchus, than the resurrection, the incarnation of our most blessed Saviour, cMr. Stubs his Anatomy of Abuses, p. 130. Mr. Samuel Bird his Dialogue, of the use of the pleasures of this present life. London 1580. p. 15. to 31. & Nicolaus de Clemangis, De Novis celebritatibus non instituendis, p. 143 …o 154.which are most execrably prophaned, most unchristianly dishonoured with these Bacchanalian pastimes. What pious Christian heart bleedes not with teares of blood, when he beholds the sacred Nativitie of his spotlesse Saviour, transformed into a festivitie of the foulest Divels? when he shall see his blessed Iesus, dMatth. 9.13. Tit. 2 14.who came to redeeme, to call men from their sinnes, and eHebr. 10.29. c. ….6. Re…. 1.7.to purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes; entertained, honoured, courted, served like a Divell, yea rather eHebr. 10.29. c. ….6. Re…. 1.7.crucified and nailed to his crosse againe, with nought else but desperate notorious sinnes… by an unchristian crew of Christians, (I might say fNomine Christiani… re Pagani. Bernard in Vita Sancti Malachia.Pagans, o… gIohn 8 44. Ephes. 2.2.1 …ohn 3.8.incarnate Divels) who during all the sacred time of his Nativity, when they should be most holy, are more especially and that professedly too… a most impure people, zea…ous of nothing but of Stage-playes, dicing, dancing… healthing, riot…ng, and such evill workes, as would make the very hSee Salvian De Gubern. Dei, l. 4. p. 136, 137, 138. & my Healths Sicknesse, p. 21.lewdest Pagans to blush for shame. iPropterea igitur publici hostes Chri…iani quia imperatoribus ne que vanos, neque mentientes, neque …eme…arios honores dicāt, qui a verae religionis homines etiam solennia …orum conscientia potius quā lascivia celebrant. Grande scilicet officium socos et thoros in publicum educere, vicatim epulari, civitatem tabernae habi…tu obole…acere, vino lutum cogere, …atervatim cursitare ad iniurias, ad impudentias, ad libidinis illecebras? Siccine exprimitur publicum ga…dium per publicum dedecus? Haeccine solennes diesprincipum decent, quae alios dies non decent? Qui observant disciplinam de Caesaris respectu, ii eam propter Caesarem deserunt, et malorum licentia pietas erit; occasio luxuriae religio deputabitur? O nos merito damnandos! cur enim vota et gaudia Caesarum expungimus? …ur dielaeto nos laureis postes adumbramus? nec lucernis di…m infringimus? Honesta res est solennitate publica exigente inducere domui tuae habitum alicuius novi lupanaris. Tertul. Apologia adversus Gent…s, cap. 30, 31. Tom. 2. pag. 682. Which may be most aptly applied to our Christmas…e….Is this the honour, the entertainment, the gratitude, the holy service, the welcome we render to our Saviour, for his Nativity, his incarnation or his passion, to court him thus with heathenish Playes or hellish pastimes, as if he were no other, no better than a Pagan Idol or infernall Divel, who were alwayes w…rshipped, courted with such solemne Enterludes? Are k2 Cor. 6.15, 16.Christ and Belial (thinke we) reconciled? or is there no difference betweene our Saviours Nativity, and a Divel-Idols birth-day, that we thus commemorate them in the selfesame manner? For how did the lSee here Act. 1. Scene 1, 2, 3. & Act. 5. Scene 8. & Holkot Lectio 172. in Lib. Sapientiae, fol. 133.idol…trous Gentiles honour, or please their Iupiter, Venus, Flora, Apollo, Berecynthea, Bac…hus, and such like Divel-gods upon their gaudiest feast-dayes, but with healthing, dancing, Masques and Stage-playes; the very workes and pompes of Satan, invented for, appropriated to these Idols service, as I have largely proved? and how doe we Christians spend or celebrate for the most part, the Nativity of our Saviour, but with such heathenish sports as these, which Turkes and Infidels would abhorre to practise? mQuis unquam crederet u…que in hanc contumeliam Dei progressuram esse humanae bupidita…is audaciam, ut id ipsum in quo Christo in…u…iam faciunt, dicunt …e ob Christi nomen esse facturos. O inaestimabile sacinus et prodigio…um… Salvian De Gubern. Dei l. 4. p. 134.O wickednes, O prophanesse beyond all expression! even thus to abuse our Saviours solemne birth-time, as to make it a patronage for all kinde of sinne! Were wee to celebrate the very foulest Idol-Divels birth-day (as nIohn 8.44. Ephes. 2.….many wretches doe in deedes, whiles they solemnize Christs in shew) how could we please or honour him more, than to court him with lascivious Masques or Stage-playes, (an *See Act. 1. Scene 1, 2, 3.invention of and for himselfe, which he hath oft exacted from his worshippers upon his solemne festivals:) or to give him the very selfesame welcome that most men give to Christ, in the feast of his Nativity; when the Divell hath commonly more professed publike service done him, than all the yeare beside? For may I not truly write of our English Citties, and Country villages in the Christmas season, as Salvian did of Rome: *De Gubern… Dei l. 7. p. 258, 259.Video quasi scaturientem vitijs civitatem; video urbem omnium iniquitatum generi servientem, plenam quidem turbis, sed magis turpitudinibus: plenam divitijs, sed magis vitijs: vincentes se invicem homines nequitia flagitiorum suorum, alios impuritate certantes, alios vino languidos, alios cruditate distentos, hos sertis redimitos, illos unguento oblitos, cunctos vano luxus marcore perditos, sed penè omnes una errorum morte prostratos: non omnes quidem vinolentia temulentos, sed omnes tamen peccatis ebrios. Populos putares non sani status, non sui sensus, non animo incolumes, non gradu, quasi in morem baccharum crapulae catervatim inservientes &c. Those who are temperate and abstemious at all other times, prove Epicures and drunkards then. Those who make conscience to pEphes. 5.16.redeeme all other seasons, deeme it a qFiunt etiam nunc et delicta religiosa. Cyprian Epist. l. 2. Ep. 2. Donato.point of Christianity to mispend all this, rExod. 32…6. 1 Cor. 10.7.eating, drinking, and rising up to play, whole dayes and nights together. Those who are civill at other seasons, will be now deboist; and such who were but soberly dissolute before (if I may so speak) will be now stark mad, forgetting not onelyonly their Saviour but themselves. Those who repute it a shame to be unruly disorderly any other part of the yeare; thinke it an honour to be outragiously disordered and distempered now, sDetrimentum iam dies senti…. Sunt qui officia lucis noctis que pervertunt, nec ante diducunt oculos hesterna graves crapula, quam appetere nox caepit. Qualis illorum conditio dicitur, quo… natura (ut ait Virgi…ius) pedibus nostris subditos e contrario posuit, Nosque ubi primus equis oriens, afflavit anhelis, Illis sera rubens accendit lumina vesper. Ta…is horum contraria omnibus non regio sed vita est. Sunt quidam in eadem urbe Antipodes, qui nec orientem solem unquam viderunt, nec occidentem. Hos …u exis…imas scire quemad modum vivendum est, qui nesciunt quando? Et hi mortem timent, in quā se vivi condiderunt? tam iufausti ominis quam nocturnae cives sunt. Licet in vino unguentoque tenebras suas exigant, licet epulis, et in multa quidem fercula distentis, totum perversae vigiliae tempus diducant, non convivantur, sed iusta sibi faciunt. Mortuis certe interdiu parentantur, &c. Seneca Ep. 122. Vid. Ibidem.turning day into night, and night into day, against the course of nature, like Seneca his Antipodes, setting no bounds to any lust. That which is not tollerable at other times seemes laudable unto most men now: that which were it done at any other season could not but be condemned as an execrable sinne, becomes now a vertue, at least a veniall crime. In a word, those who make a kinde of conscience of drinking, amarous dancing, healthing, dicing, idlenesse, Stage-playes, and of every sinne at other times… tNunc facilius invenias reos malor…m omnium, quam non omnium: facilius maiorum criminum quam minorum: id est, facilius qui et maiora crimina cum minoribus, quam qui minora tantum sine maioribus perpetrant. In hanc enim morum probrositatem prope omnis Ecclesiastica plebs redacta est; ut in cuncto populo Christiano genus quodammodo sanctitatis sit, minus esse vitiosum &c. Salvian De Gu…e…. Dei l. 3. p. 86.deeme it a part of their piety to make no bones of these, of any deboistnesse or prophanesse now: those who are constant in religious familie-duties, now discontinue them; those who remembred their Saviour and sinnes before, now qui…e forget them: those who seemed Saints before, turne Divels incarnate now: those who were reasonable men before, are metamorphosed into beasts or monsters now: those who were formerly good at least in outward shew, doe now turne bad; and all who were bad before, prove now ten…times worse; & all under this pretence of solemnizing Christs Nativitie, as if he were delighted onelyonly with their sins. Thus doe we even crucifie our blessed Saviour in his very cradle, and like that [v] Tyrant Herod, seeke to take away his life, as soone as he is born, whiles we thus impiously celebrate & prophane his birth, & evē pierce him through with these grosse disorders which are now too frequent among many Christians. Should Turkes & Indels behold our Bacchanaliā Christmas extravagancies, would they not thinke our Saviour to be a glutton, an Epicure, a wine-bibber, a Divell, a friend of publicanes and sinners, as the *Luke 7.34. Matth. 9.3, 4. Iohn 7.20.Iewes once stiled him; yea a very Bacchus… a God of all dissolutenesse, drunkennesse and disorder, since his Nativitie is thus solemnized by his followers, who are never so dissolutely, so exorbitantly deboist in all kindes, as in this his festivall? Would they not take up that speech in Salvian. *De Gubernatione Dei l. 4. p. 137, 138.Ecce quales sunt qui Christum colunt? falsum plane illud est quod aiunt se bona discere, quod jactant se sanctae legis praecepta retinere. Si enim bona discerent, boni essent. Talis profecto secta est, quales et sectatores: hoc sunt absque dubio quod docentur. Apparet itaque Prophetas quos habent impuritatem docere, et Apostolos quos legunt nefaria sensisse, et Evangelia quibus imbuuntur haec quae ipsi faciunt praedicare. Postremo sancta à Christianis fierent, si Christus sancta docuisset. AEstimari itaque de cultoribus suis potest ille qui colitur. Quomodo enim bonus magister est, cujus tam malos videmus esse discipulos? Ex ipso enim Christiani sunt, ipsum audiunt, ipsum legunt: promptum est omnibus Christi intelligere doctrinam. Vide Christianos quid agant, et evidenter potest de ipso Christo sciri quid doceat. Would they not condemne our God, our Saviour, our religion, and loath both th…m, and us? qui ita agimus ac vivimus, ut hoc ipsum quod Christianus populus esse dicitur, opprobrium Christi esse videatur;*Salvian Ibidem p. 136, 137, 134. as the same Father speakes. O inaestimabile facinus et prodigiosum! Quid non ausae sint improbae mentes, in the Christmas season? Armant se ad peccandum per Christi nomen; auctorem quodammodo sui scele…is Deum faciunt: et cum interdictor ac vindex malorum omnium Christus sit, dicunt se scelus quod agunt agere pro Christo. Such are our gracelesse unchristian Christmas lives: who when as our Saviour daily cries unto us: *Matth. 5.16.Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good workes, and glorifie your Father which is in heaven: we on the contrary live so in the Christmas season, (that I speake not of other times) that the sonnes of men, that Infidels and Pagans may openly behold our evill workes, and blasphem… ou… Father… our most blessed Saviour, who is now grieving in heaven, whiles we are thus dishonouring his Nativitie here on earth. And should not our hearts then smi…e us, should not shame confound us all for this our heinous sinne? for this our indignity to our blessed Lord and Saviour, who never findes worse entertainmen… in the world than in the feast of his Nativity, when he expects the best? O let us now at length remember, that our holy Saviour was borne into the world for this very purpose, xMatth. 9.13. Titus 2.14. 1 Pet. 1.18, 19.to redeeme and call us from (not to) those sinnes and sinfull pleasures; y1 Iohn 3.5, 8.to destroy out of us (not to erect within us) those very workes and pompes of Satan, which now we more especially practise at his sacred birthtide: as if he were borne to no other purpose, but to set hell loose, to give a liberty to all kinde of wickednesse, and to prove a meere broker (for such a one men then make him) to the very Divell. Did we but seriously consider and beleeve, that our Saviour Christ was for this end borne into the world; zTit. 2.14. 1 Iohn 1.7.9. Rev. 1.5. Heb. 9.14.that hee might purifie and wash …s both from the guilt, and power of all our sinnes in his most precious blood: aEphes. 5.26, 27. 1 Cor. 6.10, 11.that hee might sanctifie and cleanse us with the washing of water by the word from all iniquitie, and present us to himselfe a glorious Church without any spot or wrinkle: bTit. 2.12, 13.that he might teach us to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present evill world, expecting every day his second comming: cTit. 2.14. 1 Iohn 3.8.that he might quite destroy out of us the workes of the Divell, purge us from all iniquitie, and purifie us unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes: dLuk. 1.74, 75.that wee being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our lives, ePhil. 2.15.shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation: f1 Pet. 4.1, 2, 3.that we should henceforth cease from sinne, and no longer live the rest of our time in the lusts of the flesh to the will of men, but to the will of God: g1 Pet. 1.15, 16.that we might be holy in all manner of conversation and godlinesse, even as hee is holy, especially at holy s…asons: h2 Cor. 5.15.that wee should not henceforth live unto our selves, but unto him who died for us and rose againe: iRom. 14.7, 8.that whether we live we might live unto him, or whether we die we might die unto him, and that living and dying we might be his; k1 Cor. 6.20.glorifying him both in our soules and bodies which are his. And did we withall remember, that this our blessed Saviour l1 Thess. 4.7. & Rom. 1.7.hath called us, not to uncleannesse, but unto holinesse: that he hath likewise enjoyned us, mRom. 13.12, 13.to cast off all the workes of darknesse, and to put on the armour of light: to walke honestly as in the day; not in chambering and wantonnesse, not in rioting and drunkennesse, nTitus 3.3.not in divers lusts and pleasures, oEphes. 2.2, 3. &c. 4.16, 17, 18.according to the course of this wicked world, according to the power of the Prince of the ayre, which now worketh in the children of disobedience. That he hath seriously charged us, pEphes. 4.17. to 30.That wee walke not from henceforth as other Gentiles walke, in the vanity of their mindes, who having their understandings darkned, and being alienated from the life of God, and past all feeling, have given themselves over unto all lasciviousnesse to worke all uncleannesse with greedinesse. That wee put off concerning our former conversation the olde man which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts; and that we put on the new man which after God is created in holinesse and true righteousnesse. qLuke 21.34.That we take heed unto our selves, lest at any time (how much more at times of greatest devotion) our hearts be overcome with surfetting and drunkennesse, and that day come upon us at unawares. rGal. 5.24. Col. 3.5. 1 Pet. 2.11.That we crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof, and abstaine from fleshly lusts which warre against our soules, s1 Pet. 4.3, 4.since the time past of our lives may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles; when as we walked in lasciviousnesse, lusts, excesse of wine, revellings, banquettings, and abominabl… idolatries: tRom. 12.1, 2.That we give up our soules and bodies as an holy and living sacrifice unto God; not fashioning our selves to the course of this present evill world, vIam. 1 27.but keeping our selves unspotted from it: xEph. 5.15, 16. Rom. 13.14.walking circumspectly as in the day, not as fooles, but as wise, redeeming the time because the dayes are evill; and making no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Did we (I say) but seriously ponder and unfainedly beleeve all this, it would soone yIam. 4 9. & 5.1, 5.turne our dissolute Christmas laughing, into mourning; our bacchanalian jollities into sinlamenting Elegies; our riotous grand-Christmasses into such pious Christian duties, as would both honour our Saviours birth-day, and make it welcome to our soules. Let us therefore cordially meditate on all these sacred Scriptures, on the ends of our Saviours blessed incarnation, (which was, zTitus 2.12, 13. Eph. 5.26, 27. 1 Pet. 1.15.18. 1 Iohn 3.8, 9.to redeeme us from all these our sinnes and sinfull pleasures; to crucifie our lusts, to regenerate and sanctifie our depraved natures, to make us holy even as he is holy, and to conforme us to himselfe in all things:) and then this inveterate heathenish aPudorem rei tollit multitudo peccantium, et desinet esse probri loco commune maledictum. Sen…c. De Beneficijs l. 3. c. 16. Consensere iura peccatis et caepit esse licitum quod publicū est. Cyprian. Epist. l. 2. Epist. 2. Donato.common custome of prophaning Christs Nativitie with all kinde of lasciviousnesse, wickednesse and delights of sinne, (which should be …pent in honouring, blessing and praising of our gracious God for all his mercies to us in his Sonne: in Psalmes, in hymnes and spirituall songs; in holy and heavenly contemplations of all the benefits we receive by our Saviours blessed incarnation, in charitable relieving of Christs poore members, and mutuall amity one towards another:) will become most execrable to your pious soules. The damnablenesse of which much applauded unruly Christmas keeping that you may more evidently discerne, I shall for learning and religions sake discover whence it sprang; and that was, originally from the Pagan Saturnalia, from whence Popery hath borrowed and transmitted it unto us at the second hand.

The ancient Pagan Romans, upon the bSeneca Epist. 18. Horatius Serm. l. 2. Satyr. 7. pag. 226. & Bond Ibidem. Polydor Virgil de Inventoribus Rerum, lib. 2. c. 14. See Lypsius De Amphithea…ro, Saturnalibus &c. Dion Cassius Rom. Hist. lib. 59 pag. 830 Herodian, Historiae lib. 1. pag. 59.Ides of December, cMacrobius Saturnal. lib. 1. cap. 7. pag. 273.consecrated to Saturne, and their Goddesse Vesta, (not in the MonethMonth of Ianuary, as dSaturnalium, lib. 1. cap. 10.Macrobius misreports) accustomed to keepe their Saturnalia, or annuall Feast of Saturne for 7 dayes together, which they spent in feasting, drinking, dancing, Playes and Enterludes: at the end of which they celebrated their eOvid. Fastorum lib. 1. p. 2. to 10. Suetonii Tiberius sect… 34. Asterius Homil. in Festum Kalendarum. Alexander ab Alexandro lib. 3. cap. 16.Festum Kalendarum, on the first of Ianuary, (now our New-yeares day) to the honour of their Idol Ianus, which they likewise solemnized with Stageplayes, Mummeries, Masques, dancing, feasting, drinking, and in sending mutuall New-yeares gifts one to another, for divers dayes together. *See Suetonii Octavius sect. 71.75.In these their Saturnalia and feasts of Ianus, all servants were set at lihertie, and became checke-mates with their masters, with whom they sate at table: fMacrobius Saturnal. lib. 1. cap. 7. & 10. Polydor Virgil. De Invent. Rerum lib. 5. cap. 2 & the ensuing Authors… Holkot, Lectio 166 167. in lib. Sapientiae. Hospinian… De Origine Festorum lib. Francis De Croy his first Conformity, cap. 19.every man then wandred about without controll, and tooke his fill of pleasure, giving himselfe over to all kinde of luxurie, epicurisme, deboistnesse, disorder, pride and wantonnesse; to pastimes, Enterludes, Mummeries, Stage-playes, dan-cing, drunkennesse, and those very disorders that accompany our grand unruly Christmasses: which Saturnalia and Festivalls the ensuing Authors thus describe. Servicum Saturnalia caenant (writes gNon posse suaviter vivi secundum Epicuri decreta. Commentar. Moral. Tom. 2. p. 202.Plutarch) aut Liberalia, in agro vagantes celebrant, ululatio eorum et tumultus ferre non possis prae gaudio et imperitia rerum pulcrarum, talia agentium et loquen…um:

Quid desides? quin bibimus et capimus cibos?

Sunt haec miselle, in promptu: cur tibiinvides?

Vocem statim hi dedêre: tum Bacchi liquor

Infunditur; et corona aliqui… ornat caput.

Laurique pulcram ad frondem turpiter canit,

Inducia Phaebo, januam que alius domus:

Pulsam operiens, excludit caram conjugem, &c.

Saturnalibus tota servis licentia permittitur: ludi per urbem in compitis agitantur (writes hSaturnalium l. 1. cap. 7.Macrobius:)

Maxima pars Grai…m Saturno, et maxima Athenae

Conficiunt sacra, quae Cronia esse iterantur ab illis.

Cumque diem celebrant, per agros urbesque ferè omnes

Exercent Epulis laeti, famulosque procuraut

Quisque suos… nostrique itidem, et mos traditur illinc

Iste, ut cum dominis famuli epulentur ibedeus, &c.

Parallell to which is of iEpistola 18.Seneca: Decemb…r est mensis quo maximè Civitas desudat: jus lu…uriae publicè datum est: ingenti apparatu sonant omnia, tanquam quicquam inter Saturnalia nunc intersit, et dies rerum agendarum. Adeo nihil interest, ut non videatur mihi errâsse qui dixit, olim mensem Decembrem esse, nunc annum, &c. And that of Horace:

kSermonum l. 2. Satyr. 7. p. 227.Age libertate Decembri—

(Quando ita majores voluerunt) utere: narra, &c.

lCarminum, l. 1. Ode 37.Nunc est bibendū, nunc pede libero pulsanda tellus;

Nunc saliaribus ornare pulvinar Deorum, tempus &c.

That the ancient Romanes (yea and the Graecians too) in times of Paganisme) did spend their Saturnalia, *See H…spinian De Origine Festorum; and the Authors here quoted in the margent, pag. 225, 226, 233, 234, 235, 236. Robertus Holkot Lectio 166, 167, in lib. Sapientiae.Feriae, and other solemne Festivals in dancing, drinking, feasting Mummeries, Masques and Enterludes, the Poet Virgil, Ovid, Tibullus, Philo Iudaeus, with *Fuitautem priscis temporibus in Delo frequens Ionū ac accolarum in insulis circumiacentibus habitantium conventus; nam cum uxoribus et liberis ad spectacula conveniebant, ut nunc Iones ad ludos in Dianae Ephesiae honorem institutos confluere solent. Et civitates …o saltatorū choros mittebant, &c. Thucidides Historiae lib. 3. pag. 291. Vid. Ibidem.sundry others, will plentifully informes us.

The first of these describes it thus.

nVirgil. Georgicorum lib. 2. pag. 56, 57.Veteres ineunt proscenia ludi

Praemia que ingentes pagos et compita cir…um

Thesai… posuêre, eatque inter pocula laeti,

Mollibus in pratis unctos saliêre per utres.

Necnon Ausonij Troia gens missa coloni

Versibus incompt…s ludunt, risuque soluto;

Oraque corticibus sumunt horrenda cavatis,

Et te Bacche vocant per carmina laeti, tibique

Oscilla ex altâ suspendunt mollia pinu.

The second, thus.

oOvid Fastorum lib 3. p. 51. See here pag. 225, 226, 234, 235, in the margent.Plebs venit ac virides passim disjecta per herbas

Potat, et accumbat cum pare quisque sua.

Sub jove pars durat: pauci tentoria ponunt,

Sunt quibus è ramis frondea facta casa est.

Sole tamen vinoque calent; annosque praecantur

Quot sumunt cyathos, ad numerumque bibunt.

Invenies illic qui Nestoris ebibat annos;

Quae sit per calices facta Sibylla suos.

Illic et cantant qui…quid dedicere theatris,

Et jactant faciles ad sua verba manus.

Et ducunt posito duras cratere choreas,

Cultaque diffus…s saltat amica comis.

Cum redeunt, titubant, et sunt spectacula vulgi

Et fortunatos obvia turba vocat, &c.

pFastorum, l. 3 p. 57.Rusticus ad ludos populus veniebat in urbem

Sed dîs, non studijs, ille dabatur honos.

Luce sua ludos unvae commentor habebat

Quos cum taedifera nunc habet ille dea, &c.

qFastorum, l. 4. p. 64.Ibunt semi-mares, et inania tympana tundent…

AEraque tinnitus are repulsa dabunt.

Scena sonat, ludique vocant, spectate Quirites

Et fora marte suo litigiosa vacent.

Annuimus votis; Consul nunc consule ludos, &c.

rTristium l. 2. p. 159.Talia luduntur fumoso mense Decembri

Quae jam non ulli composuisse nocet.

The third, thus.

sTibullus, lib. 2. Eleg. 1. p. 82.Nunc mihi nunc fumo veteris proferre falernum

Consulis et Chio solvere vincla cado.

Vina diem celebrent, non fes…a luce madere

Est rubor; errantes et malè ferre pedes.

Sed bene Messallam sua quisque ad pocula dicat;

Numen et absentis singula verba sonant, &c.

Agricola assiduo primùm satiatus aratro

Cantavit certo rustica verba pede.

Agricola et nimio suffusus Baccho rubenti

Primus inexperto duxit ab arte choros &c.

Whom tDe Cherubin. lib sol. 174, 175.Philo Iudaeus (writing of the Romans festivals) doth second in this manner. In omni festo nostro e… celebritate quae miramur, sunt haec: securitas, remissio, ebrietas, potatio, …ōmessationes, deliciae, oblectamenta, patentes januae, pernoctationes, indecentes voluptates, insolentiae, exercitiū intēperantiae, insipientiae meditatio, studia turpitudinis, honestatis pernicies, *Gentiles idololatrici, in…aniae plenas vigilias habebant. Sic in sacrificiis Bacchi et Cybeles matris Deorum festivitatibus, lusibus et luxuriis vacantes totam noctem turpitertransibant… quos arguit Apostolus ad Ephesios 5. Nolite com…unicare operibus infructu…osis tenebra…um, sed magis…edarguit…. Quae autem i… occulto fiunt ab ipsis turpe est dicere. Propter huiusmodi faed…tates subtraxit Ecclesia mul…as vigilias quae solebant ab omnibus populis celebrari de nocte et solennitatibus sanctorum: Holcot. Lectio in 166. in …ap. 14. Sapienti…, fol. 152. See Augustin. …nar. in Psal. 80.nocturnae excitationes ad cupiditates inexplebil…s; somnus diurnus quando vigilandi tempus est, naturae ordinis perversio; tunc virtus ridetur ut noxia, vitium tanq…am utile rapitur: tunc in contemptu sunt quae oportet facere, quae vero non oportet in precio. Tunc philosophia, et omnis eruditio, divinae animae divina revera simulachra, tenent silentium: ac istae artes quae suis lenocinijs ventri, et his quae sub ventre sunt, voluptatem conciliant, ostendunt suam facundiam. Haec sunt festa istorum qui se faelices dicunt: quorum …urpitudo quamdiu inter privatos parietes locaque prophana continetur, minus peccare mihi videntur: ubi verò torrentis in morem populans omnia, vel in sacratissima templa irrumpit, quicquid in his sanctum est sternit continuò, facie…s prophana sacrificia, victimas absque litatione, praeces irritas, prophana enim mysteria simul et orgya, pietatem sanctitatemque fucatam et adulterinam, castitatem impuram, veritatem falsatam, cultum Dei superstitiosum. Ad haec quidem corpora abluuntur lavacris et purificationibus, affectiones verò animae quibus vita sordidatur, nec volunt, nec curant eluere. Et ut candidati templa sub…ant dant operam, diligenter emaculatis vestibus amicti; mentem verò maculosissi…am in ipsa sacraria penitissima inferre non verentur. A most accurate Character, both of our unruly Christmasses, and such Christmas-men. If wee now parallell our grand disorderly Christmasses, with these Roman Saturnals and heathen Festivals; or our New-yeares day (a chiefe part of Christmas) with their Festivity of Ianus, uHerodian Historiae l. 1. p. 59. Asterius Hom. in Fes…um Kalenda…um. Ovid Fastorum lib. 1. Lockmai… Sermo 21. Holcot Lectio 167 in lib. Sapien…iae. Alcu…inus, De Divinis Officis lib. cap. 4.which was spent in Mummeries, Stage-playes, dancing, and such like Enterludes, xIdibus Ianuariis tibicines festum diem agere multa licentia et las…ivia, muli…rique habitu per urbem vadere solebant. Alexander ab Alexandro l. 3. c. 18. fol. 154. See here p. 197, 198, accordingly.wherein Fidlers and others acted lascivious effeminate parts, and went about their Towns and Cities in womens apparrell: whence yHae Kalendae Ianuarii secundum Oentilium dementiam, potius dicendae sunt cavendae, quam Kalendae. Nam imperiti homines velut Deum colentes, diem ipsum multis spurcitiis sacraverunt. Quidam mutabant se in speci…s monstrosas, in ferarumque habitus transformabant. Al… in faemineo gestu muta…i, virilem v…liu… effaeminabant aliqui fanaticis anguriis profanabantur, perstrepeban… sal…ando pedibus, tripudiando plausibus: et quod his turpius est nefas, nexis inter se utrius que sexus chori, inops an…mi, fu…ens vino turba misc…tur. Diabolicas etiam strenas, et ab aliis accipiebant, et ipsi aliis tradebāt. Necnō etiā mensulas plenas ad manducandum tota nocte paratos hab…b…t, credētes quod Kal…ndae Ianuarii p…r totum annum praestare possēt. Et quia his atque aliis miseriis mundus universus …epletus erat, statuit universalis Ecclesia i…iunium publicum in isto die fieri, quatenus istis calamitatibus auctor vitae finem imponeret, &c Al…hu…us D… Diui…is Officijs cap. 4. Col. 1013 1014. …s…odor Hisp. De Officijs Ecclesiasticis l. 1. c. 40. p. 400. C. …o…nnis …a…ghecrucius De Vita et Honestate Ecclesiasticorum, l. 2. c. 13. Ambrose Sermo 11.the whole Catholicke Church (as Alchuvinus, with others write) appointed a solemne publike fast upon this our New-yeares day, (which fast it seemes is now forgotten) to bewaile those heathenish Enterludes, sports, and lewd idolatrous practises which had beene used on it: prohibiting all Christians under paine of excommunication, from observing the Kalends or first of Ianuary (which wee now call New-yeares day) as holy, and from sending abroad New-yeares gifts upon it, (a custome now too frequent;) it being a meere relique of Paganisme and idolatry, derived from the heathen Romans feast of two-faced Ianus; and a practise so execrable unto Christians, that not onelyonly the whole Catholike Church; but even the 4 famous Councels, zConcil. Altifiod. Can. 1. Surius Tom. 2. p. 715. Bochellus Decreta Eccles. Gal. l. 4. Tit. 7. c. 8. See here p. 580, 581.Altisiodorum, viz. bQuoniam cognovimus nonnullos inveniri sequipedes erroris antiqui, qui Kalendas Ianuarii colunt, cum Ianus homo Gentilis fuerit rex quidem, sed Deus esse non potuit. Quisquis ergo unum Deum Patrem regnantem cum …ilio suo et Spiritu Sancto credit certe hic non potest integer Christianus d…ci qui aliquid de Gentilitate custodit. Contestamur illam solicitudinem tam pastores quam presbyteros gerere, ut quoscum que in hac fatuitare viderint, eos ab Ecclesia sancta auctoritate repellant, nec participare sancto Altario permittant qui Gentilium observationes custodiunt: Quid enim daemonibus cum Christo commune, cum magis sumendo iudicium delicta videatur addere quam purgare? Synodus Turonica 2. Can. 23. Surius Concil. Tom. 2 p. 647. Bochellus Decreta Eccl. Gal. l. 4. Tit. 7. cap. 7. & Tit 12. c. 6.Towres; Capit. Graecarum Synodorum, here p. 581. & Concil. Constantinop: 6. here p. 583. together with *Sermo 11.St. Ambrose… dDe Rectitudine Catholicae conversationis, Tom. 9. p. 1448.Augustine, *Homil… in …stum Kalendarum. See here p. 197, 316, 317.Ast…rius, fDe Officiis Eccl. lib. 15. c. 60.HRabanus Maurus, gDe Officus Ecclesiast. cap. 4. See Y before.Alchuvinus, hCausa 26. Quaest: 27.Gratian, iDecretalium, pars 11. cap. 16, 17.Iuo Carnotensis… kDe Ecclesiast. Officiis l. 1. c. 40. See Y before.Isiodor Hispalensis, lSi quis Kalendas Ianuarii ritu Paganorum colere, vel aliquid plus novi facere propter novum annum, aut mensas cum lampadibus …el epulis in domibus praeparare, et per vicos et plateas …antores et choros ducere praesumpserit, anathema sit. Gratian Causa 26. Quaest. 27.Pope …achary, mNon licet iniquas observationes agere Kalendarum et ociis vacare: neque lauro au… vi…ditate arborum cingere domos. Omnis enim haec observatio Paganorum est. Ibi….Pope Martin, nOratio in Fe…tum Kalend. Bibl. Patr. Tom. 5. Col. 798, 799.Saint Chrysostome, oSermo 21. Y, Z.Michael Lochmair, pDe Vita et Honestate Ecclesiasticorum… l. 2. c. 13.Ioannes Langhecrucius, qDecreta Ecclesiae Gall. lib. 4. Tit. 7. c. 7, 8. & Tit. 12. c. 6.Bochellus, rDe Ludo Tractatus. In Tractatu Tractatuum, Pa…i…iis 1545. Tom. 1. fol. 157, 158.Stephanus Costa, sHis first Conformity cap. 20.Francis de Croy, tDe Inventoribus Rerum, l. 5. c. 2.Polydor Virgil, vRationale Divinorum Officiorum l. 6. c. 15.Durandus, with xSee here pag. 24.sundry other, have positively prohibited the solemnization of New-yeares day, and and the sending abroad of New-yeares gifts, under an anathema & excommunication, as unbeseeming Christians, who shovld eternally abolish, not propagate, revive, or recontinue this pagan festivall, and heathenish ceremonie, which our God abhors. If wee compare (I say) our Bacchanalian Christmasses & New-yeares tides, with these Saturnalia and feasts of Ianus, we shall finde such neare affinitie betweene them both in regard of time, (they being both in the end of December, and on the first of Ianuary:) and in their manner of solemnizing; (both of them being spent in revelling, epicurisme, wantonnesse, idlenesse, dancing, drinking, Stage-playes, Masques, and carnall pompe and jollity:) that wee must needes conclude the one to be but the very yParia sunt unius sementis germina, et quod latebat in radicibus manifestatur in fructibus. Prosper-Contra Collatorem, c. 41.ape or issue of the other. Hence zDe Inventoribus Rerum, l. 5. c. 2.Polydor Virgil a…firmes in expresse tearmes; that our Christmas Lords of misrule, (which custome, saith he, is chiefly observed in England,) together with dancing, Masques, Mummeries, Stage-playes, and such other Christmas disorders now in use with Christians, were derived from these Roman Saturnalia, and Bacchanalian festivals; which should cause all pious Christians eternally to abominate them. If any here demaund, by whom these Saturnalia, these disorderly Christmasses & Stageplayes were first brought in amōg the Christians? I answer, that the paganizing Priests and Monkes of popish (the aSee Ormerod his Paganopapismus, & Francis de Croy his first Conformity.same with heathen Rome) were the chiefe Agents in this worke: who as they borrowed their Feast of bDurandus, Rationale, Divin: Offic. l. 7. c. 34. Beda Ecclesiast. Histor. l. 2. c. 4. Pla…ina, Onuphrius, Luitprandius, Fasciculus Temporum, Balaeus et Barns in vita Bonifacii quar…i; Thomas Beacons Reliques of Rome, cap. 59. Polydor Virgil, De Inventoribus Rerum, lib. 6. cap. 8. Petrus, de Natal. l. to. c. 1. Francis de Croy his first Conformity chap. 19. Volateranus Comment. l. 12. f. 127. accordingly.All-Saints, from the heathen festivall Pantheon; and the feast of the cMichaelis Lochmair Sermo 32. Thomas Beacon his Romes Reliques, cap. 48, 59. Equidem quod negari non potest, ceremoniae ardentium cereorum quos hodie Christiani eo die qui purificatae Mariae dicatus est, ex more circumferimus, a Februalibus Romanorum sacris originem sumpsere. Pertinaci paganismo imitatione subventum est, quem rei in totum sublatio potius irritasset. Rhenanus Annot. in lib. 5. Tertul. adversus Marcion. p. 478. Francis de Croy his first Conformity, cap. 17, 25. Polydor Virgil. de Invent. Rerum, l. 5. c. 1. Iacobus de Voragine Sermo 82. De Sa…ctis; Innocentius, 3. Sermo in Fes…o Purificationis. Baronius Martyriologium in Febr. 2.Purification of the Virgin Mary, (which they have christned with the name of Candlemasse) from the festivall of the Goddesse Februa, the mother of Mars; dPolydor Virgil de Invent. Rerum, lib. 5. cap. 1.to whom the Pagan Romans offered burning tapers, as the Papists in imitation of them now offer to the Virgin Mary on this day at evening: (answerable to which, are their ordinary eAras Saturnias non mactando viros sed accensis luminibus excolunt. Inde mos per Saturnalia missitandis Cereis caepit. Macro…. Saturn. lib. 1. cap. 7. pag. 276.burning Tapers on their idolized Altars, borrowed frō fSee here pag. 22, 23. Illic accendunt geminas pro lampade pinus, Hinc Cereris sacris nunc quoque taeda datur. Ouid Fast. lib. 4. pag. 71. Accipiunt fragili simulachra nitentia cera, Et matutinis operatur festa lucernis. Iuuenal. Satyr. 12. pag. 115. Tunc Salii ad cantus incensa altaria circum &c. Virgil. AEn…id. lib. 8. pag. 230. See Francis de Croy his first Conformitie, cap. 25. & Ormerod his Pagano-papismus.Satur…e and those other Idol-Gods whose gAccendunt lumina velut in tenebris agenti. Lactan…ius, De Vero Cul…u, cap. 2.blindnes stood in need of those burning torches which the Pagans placed on their Altars; they hPsal. 105.5. & 135.16.having eyes and yet not seeing: though our Saviour Christ (the iMal. 4.2.Sunne of righteousnesse, kLuke 2.78, 79. Iohn 1.8, 9.the light that lightens every one that commeth into the world, lIames 1.17. Ephes. 1.18.the Father and author of all light, mRevel. 21.23. cap. 22.5.the light of the heavenly Hierusalem it selfe, which needes neither Sunne nor Moone, because he is the light thereof, and the n1 Iohn 1.5, 6, 7.light it selfe wherein is no darknesse,) needes no such Tapers, asoVel si coeleste lumen quod dicimus solem, contemplari velint, iam sentient quod non indigeat lucernis eorum Deus, qui ipse in usum hominis tam candidam lucem dedit. Num igitur mentis suae compos putandus est, qui auctori et datori luminis candelarum aut cerarum lumen offe…t pro munere? De V…ro Cultu lib. 6. cap. 2. Lactantius tells us…) So they have deduced (not the celebration of our Saviours Nativity in a Christian manner, which was ancient) but the riotous solemnizing of this sacred festivall, from these Pagan Saturnalia; which having pCum scriptum sit, Non nominabis nomen Domini Dei tui in vanū in reverentia Christi decidit, ut inter caeteras seculi vanitates nihil iam paene vanius quam Christi nomen esse videtur. Denique ad hoc res cecidit, ut cum per Christi nomē iuraverint, pu…ant se scelera etiam religiose esse facturos. Saluian. De Guber. Dei l. 4. p. 131, 132.baptized or new guilded over with this glorious pompous title, of CHRIST-MASSE, (a name I am sure of their owne imposing, not knowne to the ancient Fathers, as the MASSE therein imports:) they transmitted it as a most sacred Relique or Tradition to dissolute posteritie: who are so farre besotted with its bacchanalian pastimes, Enterludes, and other heathenish disorders, that they have both lost their Saviour and themselves, whiles they thus celebrate his Nativitie; which in regard of those qSee Mr. Stubs his Anatomy of Abuses, p. 130. Mr. Samuel Byrd his use of the pleasures of this present life, p. 15. to 31.infernall prophanesses, of that licentious libertie of sinning which men now take unto themselves more than at other seasons, may more truly bee stiled DIVELS-MASSE, or SATVRNES-MASSE (for such rGuagninus Rerum Polonicarum, Tom. 2. pag. 171.too many make it) than Christ-masse; there being farre more affinitie betweene the Divell, Saturne, Masse, and riotous Christmas-keeping, than betweene Christ and them: who as he sSee Morney Sutcliffe and others of the Masse: & Bishop Morton his Institution of the Sacrament, l. 7, 8.never approved idolatrous sacrilegious pompous Masses, which rob him of his honour, worship, and all-sufficient sacrifice once for all: so he cannot but abhor these bachananaliā pagā Christmasses, which deprive him of his service, praises, love, and proclaime him an open patron of those notorious sinfull Christmas practises which hee doth most abhorre. When these disorderly extravagant kinde of Christmasses crept first into the Church, I cannot certainly determine, yet this I doe conjecture. After that Pope tSee Beda Ecclesiast. Hist. l. 2. c. 4. with the Authors at b. before.Boniface, and uGregorius Mag Epistolarum ex Registro lib. 9. Epist. 71.Pope Gregory the first, under pretence of drawing men from Paganisme to Christianity, had changed divers of the xSee Durandus Rational. Divin. Offic. l. 7. c. 34. Polydor Virgil. de Inventoribus re…um l. 5. c. 1, 2. Thomas Beacon his Romes Reliques, cap. 59.… Francis de Croy his first Conformity, c. 19, 20, 25, 26. Hospinian de Origine Festorum, Ormerod his Pagano-papismus, …um pluribus aliis.Pagan Festivalls into Christian: as Pantheon into All Saints; Februalia, Lupercalia, Proserpinalia and Palilia, into the Feast of Candlemasse; Quirinalia, into Innocents; the Feast of the Kalends of Ianuary, into our Saviours Circumcision or New-yeares day; these Saturnalia into our Saviours Nativitie; and the like: (contrary to the judgement ofySermo 11. St. Ambrose, zDe Civit. Dei l. 8. cap. 27. & Confessionum l. 6. c. 2.St. Augustine, the aCanon 27.28. See here p. 18. to 25. Beat Rhenanus, Annot. in l. 5. Tertul. contr. Marcionem p. 478. Polydor Virgil de Invent… Rerum l. 5. c. 1, 2.whole Councell of Affricke, and bRhenanus & Polydor Virgil Ibidem. Francis de Croy his first Conformity, cap. 19, 20, to 28. & Ormerod his Pagano-papi… mus.others, who wished all Pagan Festivals not changed into Christian, but quite abolished, the better to avoid all heathenish customes:) it came to passe, that the observation of these Pagan Festivalls, (whose names they onelyonly changed) cHospinian, Francis de Croy, Ormerod, Rhenanus, with others qua b.brought in all Pagan rites and ceremonies that the idolatrous heathens used, (as drunkennes, health-quaffing, wantonnesse, luxurie, dancing… dicing, Stage-playes, Masques with all other Ethnicke sports) into the Church of God; (she being never defiled with these prophane abominations, till these Pagan holy-dayes were metamorphosed into Christian;) which by reason of mens naturall pronesse unto evill, did soone transform… all Christian Festiualls into Pagan, as good Authors witnesse: partly through the dSee Exod. 32. 6. 1 Cor. 10.7. See here page 77. to 82. Polydor Virgil. de Inventoribus Rerum lib. 5. cap. 1. 2. Nicolaus de Clemangis, D… Novis Celebrit…ibus non instituendis …ractatus, page 143. to 159. accordingly.p…oples strong propensity to carnall pleasures, to heathenish rites and ceremonies to which they naturally adhere; but principally through the eSee Francis de Croy his first Conformity, cap. 19.20. Turco-papismus, Londini 1604. lib. 1. cap. 17. Episcopus Chemnenfis, Onus Ecclesiae, cap. 20, 21, 22, 23. Geffry Chaucher his Plow-mans Tale, Peirce Plowman his Creed, Bernardi ad Gulielmu… Abbatem Apologia, & Concio ad Cl…rum in Concilio Rhemens…. Ioannis Wickliffe Dialogogorum lib. 4. cap. 3…. to 39. Ioannes Aventinus Annalium Boiorum lib. 6 & 7. Iohn Bale his Acts of English Votaries & Clemangis de Corrupto Ecclesiae statu, Tract.int…llerable luxurie and voluptuousnesse of the Popish Clergie; whose excessive …ndowments power, pride and lordly pompe… drew them on by little and little to that stupendio…s Epicurisme and dissolutenesse of life, that to stop the peoples mouthes, and to palliate, if not authorize these their luxurious courses, they not onelyonly stuffed their fSee Calendarium et Martyriologium Romanum, HRabani Mauri et Baronii Martyriologia, Nicolaus Clemangis de Novis Celebritatibus non instituendis accordingly.Kalenders with new-invented Festivals and Saints dayes; but likewise gSee Act. 7. Scene 3. Nicolaus Clemangis De Novis Celebritatibus non instituendis, Polydor Virgil de Invent. rerum l. 5. c. 2. Lodovicus Vive… Commen…. in August. De Civit. Dei lib. 8. c. 27.countenanced all Pagan sports and customes on them, exhibiting publike banquets, Enterludes, Mummeries, Dances, and merriments to the people; who being bribed with their belly-cheare, and soothed with their pleapleasures, hPopuli plaudunt non consultoribus utilitatum suarum, sed largitoribus voluptatum. August. De Civi…. Dei lib. 2. cap. 20.applauded them for the present, and then fell to iCum enim maiores ipsi voluptati deserviunt, minoribus lasciviae fraena laxantur. Quis enim sub disciplinae se constrictione contineat, quando et ipsi qui ius constrictionis accipiunt sese voluptatibus relaxant? Greg. Magnus Moral. lib. 2. cap. 16.imitate them for the future; till at last kPerniciosius de Republica merentur vitiosi rectores, quod non solum vitia concipiunt ipsi, sed ea infundunt i… civitatem: neque solum obsunt, quod illi ipsi corrumpunt, …ed e…iam quod corrumpuntur, plusque exemplo quam peccato nocent. Cicero De Legibus lib. 3.all Christendome was over-runne, yea all life, all power of Christianitie quite eaten out with these Pagan Christmas pastimes and delights of sin. That the Popish Clergy (whose extravagancies and most intollerable luxurie in this kinde, lSynodus Turonensis sub Car. Mag. Can. 5. to 10. Surius Tom. 3. pag. 274. Synod. Cabilonense 2. Can. 9, 10. Ibid. p. 279. Moguntina Anno 813. cap. 10. & 36. pag. 289, 290. Concil. Aquis…ranense Can. 100. p. 333. Parisiense l. …. c. 19, 21, 37, 38, 46. & lib. …. cap. 18. Rhemense Anno 813. cap. 17, 18. Moguntinum sub HRabano cap. 13. Lateranense sub Innocentio 3. cap. 15, 17. Coloniense sub Radolpho cap. 17. with s…ndry others. See Act. 7. Scene 3.many Councels and mBernard ad Gulielmum Abbatem Apologia, De Consideratione lib. 3, 4. Ad Clerum et ad Pastores Sermo, Col. …276. &c. In Cantica Sermo 77. Declamationes, et Epist. 42.78. Gregorius Magnus Hom. 17. in Evangelia, & Pastoralium lib. Guildas in Ecclesiasticum ordinem acris Correptio. Bibl. Patr. Tom. 5. pars 3. p. 682, &c. Petrus Blesensis Epist. 7, 18, 23, 42, 56, 61, 76, 85, 102, 152. & Compendium in Iob c. 1. A…lredus Sermo 1…. & 12. in cap. 13. Isaiae. S. Brigittae Revelationes l. 4. c. 132. to 136. l. 6. c. 15, 17, 19. Alvarus Pelagius De Planctu Ecclesiae lib. 2. Artic. 2. & 28. Robertus Holkot Lect. 182. super Lib. Sapientiae. E. fol. 167. Episcopus Chemnensis Onus Ecclesiae lib. cap. 21, 22, 23. Nicolaus Clemangis, Epist. 23, 15, 28, 75, 77, 85, 102, 133. & De Corrupto Ecclesiae statu lib. throughout. Espencaeus in 1 Tim. 2, 3. in Titum cap. 1, 2. & De Continentia l. 3. c. 4. Ioannes Aventinus Annalium Boiorum l. 7. & 8. Guicciardine Histor. l. …, 11, 12, 21, 22, 3…. Fabian Histor. part 6. cap. 170. Iohn Bale his Acts of English Votaries: Turco-papismus l. 1. c. 17. Platina de Vita Pontificum, Matthew Paris, Theodo…icus a Niem: cum infinitis aliis.Authors have declaimed against at larg) were the chiefest instruments of ushering in these Pagan Christmasses, together with Stage-playes, dances, and such like bacchanalian practises into the Church of Christ, it is most apparant, not onelyonly by those nSee Act. 7. Scene 3.Councels and Authors which crie out against them, for their strange unparalleld excesses in all these kindes; and by that elegant oration of King Edgar to our English Praelates, worthy to be registred in golden Characters, where he thus displayes the Epicurian lives of the Clergy in his raigne: oBibliotheca Patrum Tom. 13. p. 153, 154. Mr. Fox Booke of Martyrs, Edit. 1610. pag. 153. Henry Lord Stafford, in his Booke of the true difference betweene regall power and Ecclesiasticall, London 1550. fol. 84, 85, 86. where it is englished; & Mr. Selden in his Eadmeri spicilegium p. 161.Taceo, quod Clericis nec est corona patens, nec tonsura conveniens; quod in veste lascivia, insolentia in gestu, in verbis turpitudo, interioris hominis loquuntur insaniam. Praeterà in divinis officijs quanta negligentia, cum sacris vigilijs vix interesse dignentur, cum ad sacra Missarum solennia ad ludendum vel ad ridendum magis quàm ad psallendum congregari videantur. Dicam, dicam quod boni lugent, mali rident, dicam dolens (si tamen dici potest) quomodo diffluant in commessationibus, in ebrietatibus, in cubilibus, in impudicitijs, ut jam domus Clericorum putentur prostibula meretri…um, et conciliabula histrionum. Ibi alea, ibi saltus et cantus, ibi usque in medium noctis spatium protractae in clamore et horrore vigiliae: (the chiefe ingredients of our exorbitant Christmasses.) Sic, sic patromonia regum, eleemosynae pauperum, imo (quod magis est) illius pretiosi sanguinis pretium profligatur. Ad hoc igitur exhauserunt thesauros suos patres nostri, ad hoc fiscus Regius, distractis redditibus multis, detumuit, ad hoc Ecclesijs Christi agros et possessiones Regalis munificentia contulit, ut delicijs Clericorum meretrices ornantur, luxuriosa convivia praeparentur, canes et aves et talia ludicra comparentur? Hoc milites clamant, plebs submurmurat, mimi cantant et saltant, et vos negligitis! vos parcitis! vos dissimulatis! &c. But likewise by sundry pSee Act. 7. Scene 3. throughout.forequoted Councels, and canonicall Constitutions; by which it appeares most evidently; that divers of the Popish Clergie were common Iesters, Actors, Dicers, Dancers, Epicures, Drunkards, Health-quaffers; that they both acted & caused Playes and Enterludes to be personated both in Churches & elswhere, especially on the feasts of Innocent…, New-yeares day, and the Christmas holy-dayes; the commonnesse of which abuses, was the onelyonly cause of those severall Canons and Constitutions to suppresse them, on which you may reflect. Hence Aven…ine records qAnnalium Boiorum l. 7. p. 582.of Pope Boniface the 8. that he made and brought in secular sports and Enterludes, endeavouring to reduce the golden age: and of rIbidem p. 668.Pope Nicholas the 5. that he instituted secular Playes at Rome, contrary to the Councell of Constans; and that 560 persons were crushed to death, and drowned with the fall of the Tiberine bridge, who flocked to Rome to behold those Enterludes. Hence sDe Inventoribus Rerum l. 5. c. 2.Polydor Virgil, tNotae in Augustinum De Civit. Dei l. 8. c. 27.Lodovicus Vives, vDe Vita et Honestate Ecclesiasticorum, l. 2. c. 11, 12, 20, 21, 22.Ioannes Langhecrucius, and vDe Vita et Honestate Ecclesiasticorum, l. 2. c. 11, 12, 20, 21, 22.Didacus de Tapia, cry out against the popish Clergie, for acting and representing to the people, the passion of our Saviour, the Histories of Iob, Mary Magdalen, Iohn the Baptist, and other sacred Stories; together with the lives and legions of their Saints; and for erecting Theaters for this purpose in their Churches, on which their Priests and Monkes, together with common Enterlude-Players, and other Laickes did personate these their Playes. Which grosse prophanesse though thus xIn tertiam partem Divi Thomae Salamancae 1589. Artic. 8. p 546. See here Act. 3. Scene 5, 6.declaimed against by many of their own Authors, & condemned by their Conncels, ySee Act. …. Scene 5. & Act. 7. Scene 3. throughout.is yet still in use among them, as not onelyonly zQua (x)Didacus de Tapia, and others who much lament it, but even daily experience, & the Iesuites practise, together with Iohn Molanus, Divinity-professor of Lovan, witnesse: who in his Historia SS. Imaginum & Picturarum Antwerpiae 1617. lib. 4. cap. 18. De Ludis qui speciem quandam Imaginum haben…, in quibusdam anni solennitatibus, p. 424, 425, 426, 427. out ofaLib. de Imaginibus c. 17. Conradus Bruno, and bWilh…lmus Lindanus In Apologe…ico ad Germanos Tom. 3. cap. 55.Lindanus, writes thus in justification of these their Enterludes. Now even Stage-playes have a certaine shape of Images, and oft times move the pious affections of Christians, more than prayer it selfe. And after this manner truly Stage playes and shewes are wont to be exhibited on certaine times of the yeare, the certaine pictures of certaine Evangelicall histories being annexed to them. Of which sort is this, that on Palm-sunday children having brought in the picture of our Saviour, sitting upon an Asse, sing praise to the Lord, cast bowes of trees on the ground, and spread their garments on the way. And that likewise upon Easter Eve, when as the presbyter after midnight receiving the image of the crucifixe out of the sepulcher, goeth round about the Church, and beates the doores of it that are shut, saying, *Psal. 24.7, 9, 10.Lift up your gates yee princes, and bee yee lifted up yee everlasting gates, that the King of glory may come in: and he who watcheth in the gates demanding, Who is this King of glory? the Presbyter answers againe, The Lord strong and mighty in battaile; the Lord of hoasts he is the King of glory. Likewise, that on the day of the resurrection of our Lord in the morning after morning prayers, Angels in white garments, sitting upon t…e sepulcher, aske the women comming thither and weeping, saying; Whom seeke ye women in this tum…lt, weeping? dLuke 24.4, 5, …, 7.he is not here whom ye seeke: but goe ye quickly, and tell his Disciples; Come and see the place where the Lord lay. And that on the same day the image of our Lord, bearing an ensigne of Victorie, is carried about in publike procession, and placed upon the altar to be gazed upon by the people. Likewise that of Ascention day in the sight of all the people, the Image of the Lord is pulled up in the midst of the Church, and shewed to be taken up into heaven. In the meane time about the Image are little winged images of Angels, carrying burning tapers in their hands, and fluttering up and downe, and a Pr…est singing; eIohn 20.17.I ascend unto my Father and your Father; and the Clergy singing after him, and unto my God and your God: with this solemne hymne, Now is a solemne &c. and this Responsory: fMark 16.15, 16.Goe ye into the world &c. And that upon White sunday, the image of a dove is let downe from aboue in the midst of the Church, and presently a fire falls downe together with it with some sound, much like the noyse of guns, the Priest singing, gIohn 20.22.Receive ye the holy Ghost &c. and the Clergy rechanting; hActs. 2.1.There appeared cloven tongues to the Apostles, &c. By all which and other such like spectacles, and those especially which represent the passion of our Lord, nothing else is done, but that the sacred histories may be represented by these exhibited Spectacles and Enterludes to those who by reason of their ignorance cannot reade them. And these things hi…herto out of Conradus Bruno in his Booke of Images, cap. 17. Thou hast the like defence of these shewes and Enterludes in iTom. 3. cap. 55.William Lindane the reverend Bishop of R…remond in his Apologie to the Germans, where among other things he saith: For what other are these Spectacles and Playes than the living histories of Lay-men? with which the humane affection is much more efficaciously moved, than if they should reade the same in private, or heare thē publikely read by others &c. Thus he. O the desperate madnesse, the unparalleld profanes of these audacious Popish Priests & Papists, who dare turne the whole history of our Saviours life, death, Nativitie, Passion, Resurrection, Ascention, and the very gif… of the holy Ghost descending in cloven tongues, into a meere prophane ridiculous Stage-play; (as even their owne kSee here page 122, 123.impious Pope Pius the 2. most prophanely did…) contrary to the lSee Act. 3. Scene 5. throughout; & Act. 7. Scene 3. Yea contrary to the Decree of Theodosius the Emperor, who made this Edict. Nullus penitus oportet Spectacula solennia orbis aeternae populo exhibere. Co…ex Theodosij lib. 15. Ti…. 5. Lex. 4. How much lesse then of our Saviour Christ?forequoted resolutions of sundry Councels and Fathers, who would have these things onelyonly preached to the people, not acted, not represented in a shew or Stage-play. No wonder then if such turne the sacred solemnity of our Saviours Incarnation into a Pagan Saturnal, or Bacchanalian feast; who thus transforme his humiliation, his exaltation, yea his whole worke of our redemption into a childish Play. But let these Playerlike Priests and Friers, who justifie this prophanesse, which every Christian heart that hath any sparke of grace must needes abominate, attend unto their learned Spanish Hermite, Didacus de Tapia, who reades this Lecture both to them and us. *Iam vero illud ut in scenis vita Iob, Francisci, conversio Magdalenae, &c. representantur, om…ino est intollerabile Cum enim theatro…u… mo… prophanus sit, minus malum est (ut siferendus est,) repraesentarentur prophana, sancta vero non nisi sancte tractanda sunt &c. …am vero ut theatrum, lo…cus scilicet ille daemonibus familiaris, invisus Deo, in me…dio ipso corpore Ecclesiae coram altari maiori et sanctissimo sacramento statuatur, ille solus ferat, qui ob peccata sua nondum cernit ac sentit, quam haec adversa et pugnantia sint cū Dei sanctitate. In tertiam parte… diui Thom…, Artic. 8. Qu…stio. Vtrum Sacramentum davi possit histrionibu…? pag. 546. Vid Ibidem.That this verily is altogether intollerable, that the life of Iob, of St. Francis, of Mary Magdalen, (how much more then of Christ himselfe) should be acted on the Stage. For since the very manner and custome of Play-houses is prophane, it is lesse evill (if it were tollerable) that prophane things onelyonly should be acted, and that holy things be handled onelyonly in a holy manner &c. But now that a Theatre, A PLACE SO FAMILIAR TO DIVELS, AND SO ODIOVS VNTOUNTO GOD… (pray marke it) should be set up in the very middest of the body of the Church, before the high Altar and the most holy Sacrament, for Playes to be acted on it, he onelyonly can brooke it, who by reason of his sins hath not yet knowne or felt, HOVV CROSSE AND OPPOSITE THESE THINGS ARE TO THE HOLINES OF GOD. It is evident then by all these premises, that our riotous, ludicrous & voluptuous Christmasses, (together with Stage-playes, dancing, Masques and such like Pagan sports) mSee Polydor Virgil De Invent. Re…rum lib. 5. cap. 1, 2. Francis De Croy his first Conformity, cap. 19, 20, 60, 62. Mr. Samuel Byrd his Dialogue of the use of the pleasures of this present life, pag. 15. to 33. Nicolaus …ema…gis De Novis Celebritatibus non Instituendis; & Hospinian De Origine Festorum accordingly.had their originall from Pagan, their revivall and continuance from Popish Rome, who long since transmitted them over into England: For if nAngliae Historia, Basileae 1570 p. 215.Polydor Virgil may be credited, even in the 13. yeare of Henry the second, Anno Dom. 1270. it was the custome of the English to spend their Christmas time in Playes, in Masques, in most magnificent and pompous Spectacles, and to addict themselves to pleasures, dancing, dicing, and other unlawfull prohibited games, which *See 13. H. 7. c. 2.19. H. 7. c. 12.33. H. 8. c. 11.then were tolerated and permitted; contrary to the usage of most other Nations, who used such Playes and wanton pastimes not in the Christmas season, but a little before their Lent, about the time of Shrovetide. What therefore Salvian writes of Sodomie and publike stewes, (from *See Taxa Camerae, Agrippa De Vanitate Scientiarum, cap. 64. Espencaeus De Continentia lib. 3. c. 4. & in Titum cap. 1. p. 67, 68, 69.which the Popes Exchequer receives no small revenue) oDe Gubern. Dei l. …. p. 268.Haec ergo impuritas in Romanis et ante Christi Evangelium esse caepit: et quod est gravius, nec post Evangelium cessavit: the same may I say of Stage-playes and unruly Christmas-keeping: they had their first originall from heathen Rome (I meane from their Saturnalia, Bacchanalia, Floralia &c.) before the Gospell preached to her; and they pSee Ioannis Langhecrucius De Vita et Honestate Ec…lesiasticorum, l. 2. c. 7. to 25. accordingly.have beene since revived, continued, propagated by Antichristian Rome, even since the Gospell preached: which should cause all pious Protestant Christians eternally to abandon them, conforming themselves to the most ancient practise of the primitive Christians, who celebrated this festivall of our Saviours Nativitie in a farre different manner. For when as the qLuke 2.8, 9, 10… 11.Angel of the Lord appeared to the shepheards, abiding in the fields, (not feasting and playing in their houses) and keeping rVigilent itaque nato Domino Pastores supra gregem ovium …ua…um, significent eius di…pensatione m…nifesta vigilaturos in Ec…clesia Pastores animarum castarum: quibus dicatur; Pa…cite qui in vobis est gregem Dei. …ene autem vigilantibus pastoribus Angelus apparet, …osque Dei claritas circumfulget, quia illi prae caeteris videre sublimia merentur, qui fidelibus gregibus praeesse sciunt; dumque ipsi pie super gregem vigilant, divina supereos gratia largius coruscat. Beda Expos…t… in Luc. c. 2. See Ambrose Sermo 7. Tom. 5. p. 5. F.watch over their flockes (not dancing, dicing, carding, drinking or keeping Christmas rout) by night; and said unto them; feare not: for behold I bring unto you tidings of great joy which shall be to all people: for to you is borne this day in the City of David, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord: What Christmas mirth and solace was there made, but this which St. Luke hath recorded for our everlasting imitation? sLuke 2. v. 13, 14. Digna plane ac iusta sententia quae in Na…ivitate Christi, et Deo honorem repraesentat in caelis, et hominibus pacem prae…entat in…terris. Ambrose Si…o 9. p. 6. F.Sodainly (saith hee) there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly hoast praising God and saying; Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will towards men. This is the onelyonly Christmas solemnity which the holie Ghost, which Christ himselfe, the whole multitude of the heavenly hoast, and the very best of Christians have commended to us from heaven; this I am sure is the tIta ex ipso ordine manifestatur, id esse dominicum et verum quod sit prius traditum; id autem extran…um et falsum quod sit posterius immissum. Ter…ul. De Praescript. ad. …rs. Haer…icos, c. 11 p. 178. Potiora sunt ad instruendam animam priora quam postera. Teri…. de Testimonio Anim…, c. 5.ancientest and the best patterne of Christmas-keeping, that we reade of; why then should we be unwilling or ashamed for to imitate it? When our Saviour was borne into the world at first, we heare of no feasting, drinking, healthing, roaroaring, carding, dicing, Stage-playes, Mummeries, Masques or heathenish Christmas pastimes; alas these precise puritanicall Angels, Saints and shepheards (as some I feare account them) knew no such pompous pagan Christmas Courtships or solemnities, which the Divell and his accursed instruments have since appropriated to his most blessed Nativitie. uSee Ambrose Sermo 7. & 9.Here we have nothing but Glory be to God on high, on earth peace, good will towards men: this is the Angels, the shepheards only Christmas Caroll: which the Virgin Mary in the former chapter, hath prefaced with this celestiall hymne of prayse. xLuk. 1.46, 47.My soule doth magnifie the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour: and Zacharias seconded with this heavenly sonnet: yLuk. 1.68, 69Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people: And hath raised up an horne of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. This was the only sport and mer…iment, these the soule-ravishing Ditties, with which men and Angels celebrated the very first Christmas that was kept on earth; yea this is the zRev. 4.8… 9, 10, 11. c. ….12, 13, 14. c. 7… 9, to 13.onelyonly Christmas solemnity that the blessed Saints and Angels now obserue in heaven: why then should we so earnestly contend for any other? If we reflect upon the Christians in aApologia advers. Gentes, c. 39, 40.Tertullians, bPaedagogil. 2 c… 3, 4, 5.Clemens Alexandrinus, cDe Vita Con…templa…iva lib. pag. 1210. to 1215.Philo Iudaeus, dOctavius p. 102.Minucius Felix, eEpist. l. 10. e…. 97.Plinie the seconds, fContra Gentiles T…m. 5. Col… 877.Chrysostomes, and gDe Martyribus l. 8. Tom. 2. p 390. ….Theodorets times: wee shall finde them hSee my Healthes Sicknes, Edit 2. p. 5… 9, 22. & Ioanni Langhecrucius De Vita et Honestate Ecclesiasticorum l. 2. c. 7 to 25. Ioannes F…edericus De Ritu bibendi ad Sanit…tem lib. 1. cap. 2, 3.banishing all gluttony, drunkennesse, health-quaffing, intemperance, dancing, dicing, Stage-playes, fidlers, jesters, baudie songs and lewd discourses from their feasts, and Christian Festivals; which they celebrated in this manner. iCoimus in caetum et congregationē, ut Deum quasi manu facta praecationibus ambiamus orantes. Haec vis Deo grata est. Coimus ad divina…um litterarum cō memorationē, si quid praesentium temporū qualitas aut praemonere cogit, aut recognoscere. Certe fidem sanctis vocibus pascimus, spem erigimus, fiduciam figimus, disciplinam praeceptorum nihilominus inculcationibus densamus; ibidem etiam exhortationes, castigationes, et censura divina: nam et iudica…ur magno cum pondere, etapud certos de Dei conspectu: summumq, futuri iudicii praeiudicium est si quis ita deliquerit; ut a communione orationis, et conven…us, et omnis sancti commercii relegetur. Apolog. advers. Gent. cap. 38, 39. pag. 692.First of all they assembled themselves together into one companie, that so they might as it were assault and besiege God with their united prayers: kCaena nostra de nomine rationem suam ostendit, vocatur enim Agape, id quod penes Graecos dilectio est, &c. Nihil vilitatis, nihil immodestiae admittitur: non prius discumbitur quam oratio ad Deum praeguste…ur: editur quantum esurientes caplunt, b…bitur quantum pudicis est utile: ita saturantur ut qui meminerint etiam per noctem adorandum Deum sibi esse: ita fabulantur, ut qui sciant Dominum audire. Post aquam manualem ac lumina ut quisque de Scrip…uris sanctis vel de proprio ingenio potest, provocaturin medium Deo canere: hinc proba…ur quomodo biberit. AEque oratio convivium dirimit; inde disceditur non in catervas caesionum, neque in classes discursationum, nec in eruptiones lascivarum, sed ad eandem curam modestiae et pudicit…ae, ut qui non tam caenam caenaverint quam disciplinam. Ibidem cap. 39. …ag. 696.after that they did feed their faith, erect their hope, settle their confidence, inculcate their discipline with the Scriptures and holy conferences, and with the often inculcations of divine precepts, using withall exhortations, corrections and ecclesiasticall censures: after which they kept their Agape, or feasts of Love, wherein no immodesty was admitted; at which feasts they never sate downe to eate, till they had first praemised a solemne prayer unto God: and then falling to their meat, they did eate no more than would satisfie their hunger, and drinke no more than was fit for chast persons: satiating themselves so, as that they remembred they were to worship God in the night: discoursing like such as those who knew that God overheard them. After the bason and ewer and lights are brought in, every one as he was able, was provoked to sing a psalme unto God out of the holy Scriptures, or out of his owne invention: and by this it was manifested how he had drunke. And as prayer began, so it likewise concluded their feasts; after which every one departed, not into the routs of roaring swashbucklers, nor …et into the company of riotous ramblers, nor into the lashings out of lascivious persons; but to the same care of modesty and chastitie, like those who had not so much repasted a supper as discipline. Yea such was the puritanicall rigidnesse of the primitive Christians on the solemne birth-dayes and Inaugurations of the Roman Emperors, when as other men kept revel-rout, feasting and drinking from parish to parish, making the whole Cittie to smell like a taverne, kindling bonefires in every street, and running by troopes to Playes, to impudent prankes, to the enticements of lust &c. accounting their licentious deboistnesse at such seasons their chiefest piety and devotion, (as our Grand Christmas keepers now doe:) that they would neither shadow nor adorne their doores with laurell; nor diminish the day-light with bonefires and torches, nor yet drinke, nor dance, nor runne to Play-houses, which they wholly abandoned; but kept themselves temperate, sober, chast and pious; lPropterea igitur publici hostes Christiani, quia Imperatoribus neque vanos neque mentientes, neque temerarios ho…nores dicant; quia verae religionis homines solennitates eorum conscientia potius quam lascivia celebraut. O nos merito damnandos! Cur enim vota et gaudia Caesarum cas…i et sobrii et prob…i expungimus? cur die laeto non laureis postes adumbramus… nec lucernis diem in…ringimus? Honesta res est solennita…e publica exigente, inducere domui …uae habitum alicuius novi lupanaris &c. Ibidem p. 68….celebrating their solemnities, rather with conscience and devotion than lasciviousnesse; whence they were reputed publike enemies, as Tertullian, mDe Vita Contemplativa p. 111. &c.Philo Iudaeus, and nPaedagogi l. 2. c. 4.Clemens Alexandrinus most plentifully informe us. Hence Theodoret writes, oPro Pandiis etiam Diasiisque ac Dionysiis hoc est Iovis Liberi que patris solennitatibus, Petro, Paulo, Thomae, Sergio, Ma…cello, Leontio, Antonino, Mauritio, aliis que sanctis Mar…ribus solennitates populari epulo peraguntur. Proque i…la vete…i Pompa, pro turpi obscaenitate atque impudentia fiunt modestae, castae, ac tempe…an…iae plenae fes…iuitates, non illae quidem mero delibutae, non commessationibus leves, non cachinnis solutae; sed divinis canticis personantes, sacris que sermonibus audiend is intentae. In quibus ad Deum praeces non sine sanctis lachrymis ac suspiriis Deo summittuntur. The…do…e… de Martyribus, l. 8. Tom. 2. p. 390. F.That the Christians of his time, in stead of solemnizing the festivals of love and Bacchus, did celebrate the festivities of Peter, Paul, Th…mas, Sergius, Marcellus, Leontius, Antoninus, and other holy Martyrs; and that in stead of that ancient pompe, that filthy obscenity and impudency that the Pagans used on their festivals, the Christians instituted holy-dayes full of modesty, chastity and temperance: not such as were moistned with wine, lascivious with riotous feasts, dissolute with shoutes and laughter; but such as resounded with divine songs, as were spent in hearing holy Sermons, on which prayers were humbly powred out to God not without teares and sigh…s. Thus did the primitive Christians spend their solemne holy-dayes; and so should we doe too, as our owne Statute of 5. & 6. Ed. 6. c. 3. expresly enjoynes us. How the primitive Christians celebrated the Nativitie of our Saviour in particular, and in what manner we also ought to solemnize it, let Gregory Nazianzen in his 38 Oration upon our Saviours Nativity, now at last informe us; where thus hee writes: pPage 58…, 584, 585. Natalis Chri…ti dies quomodo celebrandus. Vide Nicetae Comment. Ibidem.Hoc festum nostrum est, (treating of our Saviours Nativitie) Hoc hodierno die celebramus, Dei nimirum ad homines accessum, ut ad Deum proficiscamur, aut, ut aptiori verbo ut …r, revertamur, abjecto que veteri homine novum induamus; et quemadmodum in veteri Adamo mortui sumus, ita in Christo vivamus, unà cum eo nascentes, unà crucifixi, unà sepulti, unà resurgentes. Praeclara enim vicissitudo atque conversio mihi sentien…a est, ut quemadmodum ex secundioribus rebus adversae natae sunt, sic contra ex adversis ad laeta prospera que redeam. Vbi enim abundavit peccatum, superabundavit gratia: et si gustus condemnavit, quantò magis Christi passio justificavit? Quocirca non ostentoriè, sed divinè; non mundi ritu, sed supra mundi ritum; non res nostras sed nostri, vel ut rectius loquar, Domini; non ea quae infirmitatis sunt, sed quae curationis; non ea quae creationis, sed ea quae recreationis instaurationisque celebremus. Id autem hac demum ratione consequemur, si nec domus limina sertis coronemus, *Yet how d…ametrally opposite is our pra…ctise now to this advice.nec choreas agetemus, nec vicos ornemus, nec oculum pascamus, nec aurem cantu demulcea…us, nec lenocinijs gustum titillemus, nec olfactum effaeminemus, nec tactui obsequamur, promptis inquam illis ad vitium vijs, peccatique januis, nec teneris et circumfluentibus vestibus emolliamur, quarum ut quaeque pulcherrima, ita maximè inutilis jacet, nec gemmarum splendori…s nec auri fulgoribus, nec colorum artificijs nativam pulchritudinem ementientibus, atque adversus imaginem divinam excogitatis, qRom. 13.nec commessationibus et ebrietatibus, quas cubilia et lasciviae comitantur, quandoquidem malorum magistrorum mala doctrina est, vel potius malorum seminum mala seges. Nec thoros altos servamus, ventri delicias sternentes: nec vina generosa, coquorum lenocinia, liquorum profusas magnificentias in precio habeamus. Nec terra et mare charum nobis ac preciosum stercus offerant: hoc enim nomine deli…ias ornare soleo. Nec alius alium intemperantia superare contendamus. Mihi enim intemperantia est quicquid superfluum est, usibusque necessarijs superest, idque esurientibus alijs atque inopia laborantibus; ijs inquam, qui ex eodem luto et temperatione creati sunt. Verum haec prophanis atque ethnico fastui solennitatibusque relinquamus: qui cùm ijs deorum nomen tribuant, qui sacrificiorum nidore oblectantur, congruentur profectò eos helluando colunt, mali utique m…lorum daemonum et fictores et sacerdotes et cultores. At nos à quibus Verbum adoratur, verborum delicijs (si quid tamen delicijs dandum est) indulgeamus, atque ex lege divina et narrationibus, cùm alijs, tum ijs praesertim, quibus praesentis festi mysteria explicantur, voluptatem capiamus. Ita enim commodae, minimaeque ab eo, à quo convocati sumus, alienae deliciae nostrae fuerint. Which thus he seconds, in his 48 Oration against Iulian. rPag. 796, 797 & Vincent…i Speculum Historiale l. 1…. cap. 94. Festa Christianorū quomodo celebranda.Ac primum quidem fratres laetemur non corporis splendore, non vestium permutationibus et magnificentijs, non sRom. 13.commessationib…s et ebrietatibus, quarum fructum cubilia et impudicitias esse didicistis: nec floribus plateas coronemus, nec unguentorum turpitudine mensas, nec vestibula ornemus, nec visibili lumine splendescat domus, nec tibicinum concentu plausibusque personent: hic enim Gentilitiae festorum celebrationis mos est. Nos vero ne his rebus Deum honoremus, ne praesens tempus indignis rebus attollamus; verum animae puritate, et mentis bilaritate, et lucernis totum Ecclesiae corpus illustrantibus, hoc est divinis speculationibus …t sententijs super sacrosanctum candelabrum erectis, et excitatis, orbique universo praelucentibus. Parvum meo quidem judicio ac tenuè, si cum hoc comparetur, lumen illud omne est, quod homines festos dies celebrantes privatim publicèque accendunt, &c. Hymnos pro tympan…s assumamus, psalmodiam pro turpibus et flagitiosis cantibus, plausum gratiarum actionis et canoram manuum actionem pro plausibus theatricis, gravitatem pro risu, prudentē sermonem pro ebrietate, decus et honestatem pro delicijs. Quod si etiam te ut festum laeto animo celebrantem, tripudiare convenit; tripudia tu quidem, sed non obscenae tMatth. 14.Herodiadis tripudium, ex quo Baptistae caput secuta est, verum u2 Regum 6.Davidis ob arcae requietem saltitantis, quo quidem itineris sancti ac Deo grati agilitatem volubilitatemque mysticè designari existimo. These are the Christmas exercises, this the only Christmas-keeping, that the primitive Christians used, all and this godly Bishop calls for. To passe by that excellent passage of Salvian, against our Christmas Enterludes, which fully meetes with the Objectors frenzie: * Christo ergo ô amentia monstruosa, Christo Circenses offerimus et Mimos, tunc et hoc maximè, cum ab eo aliquid boni capimus, cum prosperitatis aliquid ab eo attribuitur, aut victoria de hostibus à divinitate donatur? Et quid aliud hac re facere videmur, quam si quis homini beneficium largienti injuriosus sit, aut blandientem convitijs caedat, aut osculantis vultum mucrone transigat, &c. which I have formerly englished. As also to pretermit xDe Nativita…te Christi Sermo, Tom. 2. p. 250.St. Cyprian, yDe Tempore Sermo 1. to 36.St. Augustine, zDe Nativitate Domini Sermones 10. Operum fol. 28. to 53.Leo, aIn Natali Domini Serm. Col. 62, 63, to 66.Bernard, with bChrysostome De Beato Philogonio Oratio Tom. 2. Col. 834, 835, 836… B…da Homiliae Hyemales… In Na…ali. Domini Tom. 7. Col. 298. to 310. HRabanus Ho…mil. 1, 2, 4, 5. Operum Tom. 5. p. 581, 582, 583. De Institutione Clericorum l. 2. c. 31. Tom. 6. p. 21. with divers others.sundry other Fathers, who have written of our Saviours Nativitie, how it ought to be celebrated with the greatest holinesse, sobriety, and chiefest devotion; I shall relate the summe of all their Mindes in the words of St. Ambrose, who is somewhat copious in this theame… Sermo 2. Dominica 1. Adventus, he writes thus. cOperū Tom. 5. p. 2.Hoc tempus, fratres charissimi, non immerito Domini adventus vocatur, nec sine causa sancti Patr…s adventum Domini celebrare caeperunt, et sermones de his diebus ad populum habuerunt, id namque ideo instituerunt, ut se unusquisque fidelis praepararet et emendaret, quo dignè Dei ac Domini sui *Telesphorus Papa apud Romanos natalis Domini celebrationis primus author legitur extitisse. HRabanus Ma…rus De Institut. Clericorum l. 2. c. 31. Operum Tom. 6. p. 21. ….Nativitatem celebrare valeret. Nam si aliquis vestrum seniorem suum in ejus domum suscepturus, ab omnibus sordibus et immundis rebus ipsam domum mundaret, et quaeque honesta et necessaria essent, secundum suam possibilitatem praepararet; et hoc facit mortalis suscepturus mortalem; quanto magis se mundare debet creatura, ut suo creatori apparenti in carne non displiceat: Ille justus venit ad nos peccatores, ut ex peccatoribus faceret justos: pius venit ad impios, ut nos faceret pios: humilis venit ad superbos, ut ex superbis faceret humiles. Quid plura? ille natura bonus venit ad homines qui erant pleni omnibus malis. Quapropter hortamur vos, ut his di…bus abundantius eleêmosynas faciatis; ad Ecclesiam frequentius conveniatis, confessionem pec…atorum vestrorum purissimè faciatis, et ab omni immunditia vos studiosissimè contineatis. Odium nihilominus, iram, et indignationem, clamorem et blasphemiam, superbiam atque jactantiam cum omni carnali delectatione procul a vobis repellatis: ut cùm dies Dominicae Nativitatis advenerit, salubriter ipsum celebrare possitis. Et sicut multi sunt soliciti de carnalibus divitijs, et de preciosis vestimentis, ut honorabiliores caeteris videantur in illa die; ita vos solicitiores estote de spiritualibus divitijs et vestimentis: quia sicut anima melior est carne, ita deliciae spiritales meliores sunt quàm carnales. Et multò melius est animam ornare virtutibus, quàm corpus preciosis induere vestibus. Haec admonitio Fratres, idcirco ad vos facta est, ut qui boni sunt per hanc sint meliores; et qui malos se esse recolunt, certissime convertantur; ut pariter in die Dominicae Nativitatis laetari spiritaliter mereātur. Which he thus prosecuts in his 4. Ser. Dominica 2. Adventus. dOp…rum Tō. 5. p. 3. A, B. Which Homily I… finde ve…batim i… HRabanus Maurus his Workes, Homilia 1. ante Natalem Domini… Operum Colon. Agrip. 1626. Tom. 5. p. 580, 581.Laetitia quanta sit, quantus que concursus, cum Imperatoris mundi istius natalis celebrandus est, bene nostis quemadmodum duces eius et principes omnes militantes accurate sericis vestibus accincti, operosis cingulis auro fulgente pretiosis ambiant solito nitidius in conspectu regis incedere. Credunt enim maius esse Imperatoris gaudium, si viderit majorem suae apparationis ornatum; tantoque illum laetum futurum, quanto ipsi fuerint in ejus festivitate devoti; ut quia Imperator tanquam homo corda non conspicit, affectum eorum circa se probet vel habitum contuendo, ita fit ut splendidius se accuret quisquis regem fidelius diligit. Deinde quia in die Natalis sui sciunt eum largum futurum ac donaturum plura vel ministris suis, vel ijs qui in domo ejus abjecti putantur et viles, tanta prius thesauros ejus replere divitiarum varietate festinant, ut in quantum prorogare voluerit, in tantum prorogatio copiosa non desit, et ante voluntas donandi deficiat, quàm substantia largiendi. Haec autem ideo solicite faciunt, quia majorem sibi remunerationem pro hac solicitudine sperant futuram. Si ergo fratres saeculi istius homines propter praesentis honoris gloriam terreni regis sui natalem diem tanta apparitione suscipiunt, qua nos accuratione aeterni regis nostri Iesu Christi Natalem suscipere debemus? qui pro devotione nostra non nobis temporalem largietur gloriam, sed aeternam; nec terreni honoris administrationem dabit quae successore finitur, sed caelestis imperij dignitat… ̄, quae non habet successorē. Qualis autē nostra remuneratio sit futura, dicit Propheta. eIsay 66. 1 Cor. 2.Quae oculus non vidit, nec auris audivit, ne… in cor hominis ascendit, quae praeparavit Deus diligentibus …e. Quibus indumentis nos exornari oportet? Quod autem diximus nos, hoc est animas nostras: quia rex noster Christus non tam …itorem vestium, quam animarum requirit affectum, nec inspicit ornamenta corporum, sed considerat corda meritorum: nec fragilis cinguli praecingentis lumbos operositatem miratur, sed fortis castimoniae restringentis libidinem ad pudicitiaem plus miratur. Ambiamus ergo inveniri apud ipsum probati fide, compti misericordia, moribus accurati; et qui fidelius Christum diligit, nitidius se mandatorum ejus observatione componat: ut verè nos in se credere videat, cùm ita in ejus solennitate fulgemus, et magis laetus sit, quo nos perspexerit puriores. Atque ideo ante complures dies castificemus corda nostra, mundemus conscientiam, purificemus spiritum, et nitidi ac sine macula immaculati Domini suscipiamus adventum: ut cujus nativitas per immaculatam virginem constitit, ejus Natalis per immaculatos servulos procuretur. Quisquis enim in illo die sordidus fuerit ac pollutus, Natalem Christi ortum que non curat: intersit licet Dominicae festivitati corpore, mente tamen longiùs à Servatore separatur. Nec societatem habere poterunt immundus et sanctus, avarus et misericors, corruptus ac virgo; nisi quod magis ingerendo se indignus offensionē contrahit cū minimè se cognoscit. Dum enim vult officiosus esse, injuriosus existit: sicut ille in fMatth. 22.Evangelio, qui in caetu sanctorū invita…us ad nuptias venire ausus est vestem non habens nuptialem: et cùm alius niteret justitia, alius luceret fide, alius castitate fulgeret, ille solus conscientiae faeditate pollutus, cunctis splendentibus deformi horrore sordebat. Et quantò plus simul discumbentium beatorum candeb at sanctitas, tantò magis peccatorum illius apparebat improbitas, qui poterat minus displicuisse forsitan, si in consortium justor…m minime se dedisset. Igitur fratres suscepturi Natalem Domini, ab omni nos delictorum faece purgemus, repleamus thes…rum ejus diversorum numerum donis, ut in die sancta sit unde peregrini accipiant, reficia…tur viduae, pauperes vestiantur, &c. gSermo 5. D… minica 3. Adventus, p. 3. G.Supervenientem festivitatem ejus omni ambitione retinere debemus: Retinere, inquam, ut si dies solennitatis transeat, apud nos sanctificationis ejus beatitudo permaneat. Haec enim gratia Natalis est Domini Salvatoris, ut in futurū ad *Nota.praedestinatos transeat, in praeteritum remaneat ad devotos. Oportet ergo esse nos sanctitate pur…s, mundos pudicitia, …itidos honestate, ut quò diem fest… advenire propinquius cernimus, e… accuratius i…cedamus. Si enim mulierculae solent aliquas ferias suscepturae, maculas vestium suaru… aqua diluere: cur non magis nos accepturi Na…alem Domini, ma…ulas …nimar… nostrarum fletibus abl…amus? hSermo 7. in Die Natalis Domini p. 5. H. …. A.Vnusquis que ergo quicquid in se reprehensibile recognoscit, in hac die in q…a Filius Dei nascitur, corrigat: id est, qui fuit adulter, voveat Deo castitatem: qui avarus, largitatem: qui ebriosus, sobrietatem; qui superbus, humilitatem: qui detractor, charitatem voveat et reddat: secundum illu… Psalmi versiculum: iPsal. 75.Vovete, et re…dite Domino Deo vestro. Nos fideliter voveam…s, ille dabit possibilitatem solvendi. Valde quippe …onestum est fratres, ut nullus sit qui non …odiè domino aliquid offerat. Regibus vel amicis susceptis munera damus, et creatori omnium ad nos venienti nihil dabimus? Nihil enim à nobis magis requirit, quàm nosmetipsos. Offeramus igitur …i nos ipsos, quatenus et à praesentibus malis, et ab aeternis cruciatibus, ipsius ineffabili pietate liberati, in caelestis regn… beatitudine suscepti perpetuò valeamus gaudere. And Sermo 6. Dominica quarta Adventus: he proceedes thus. kPag. 4. E, F, …Propria divinitate fratres dilectissimi, jam adveniunt dies, in quibus Natalem Domini Servatoris cum gaudio desideramus celebrare, et ideo rogo et admoneo, ut quantum possumus cum Dei adjutorio laboremus, quatenus in illo die cum sincera et pura conscientia, et mundo corde… et casto corpore, ad altare Domini possimus accedere, et corpus, vel etiam sanguinem ejus non ad judicium, sed ad remedium animae nostrae mereamur accipere. In Christi enim corpore vita nostra consistit, sicut et ipse Dominus noster dixit… lIoan. 6.Nisi manducaveritis carnē Filii hominis et biberitis ejus sanguinem, non habetis vitam in vobis. Mutet ergo vitā, qui vult accipere vitā. Nā si non mutat vita…, ad judicium accipiet vitam, et magi… ex ipsa corrumpitur, quam sanetur; magis occiditur, quàm vivificetur. Sic e…im dixit Apostolus: m1. Cor. 11.Qui manducat corpus Domini, et bibit sanguinem ejus indignè, judicium sibi manducat et bibit. Et ideo licet omni tempore bonis operibus ornatos ac splendidos esse conveniat, praecipu… tamen in die Natalis Domini, sicut in Evangelio ipse dixit, nMatth. 5.ut lucere debeant opera nostra coram hominibus. Considerate quaeso fratres, quando aliquis homo potens aut nobilis n…talem aut suum aut filij sui celebrare desiderat, quanto studio ante plures dies quicquid in domo suo sordidum viderit ordinat emundare, quicquid ineptum et incongruum projicit, quicquid utile et necessarium praecipit exhibere: domus etiam si obscura fuerit, dealbatur, et diversis respersa floribus adornatur: pavimenta autem à scopis mundantur, quicquid etiam ad laetitiam animi, et corporis delicias pertinet omni sollicitudine providetur. Vt quid ista fratres charissimi nisi ut dies natalicius cum gaudio celebretur hominis morituri? Si ergo tanta praeparas in natalicio tuo, aut filij tui; quanta praeparare debes suscepturus Natalem Domini tui? Si talia praeparas morituro, qualia praeparare debes aeterno? Quicquid ergo non vis inveniri in domo tua, quantum potes labora ut non inveniat Deus in anima tua. Certè si Rex terrenus aut quivis potens paterfamilias ad suum natalicium te invitasset, qualibus vestimentis studeres ornatus incedere? quàm novis vel nitidis, quàm splendidis, quo nec vetustas, nec vilitas, nec aliqua faeditas oculos invitantis offenderet? Tali ergò studio, in quantum praevales Christo auxiliante contende, ut diversis virtutum ornamentis animam tuam compositam, simplicitatis gemmis, et sobrietatis floribus adornatam, ad solennitatem regis aeterni, id est, ad Natalem Domini Salvatoris, cum secura conscientia procedas, castitate nitida, charitate splendida, eleëmosynis candida. Christus enim Dominus noster si te ita compositum ejus natalitium celebrare cognoverit, ipse per se venire, et animam tuam non solùm visitare, sed etiam in ea requiescere, et in perpetuum in illa dignabitur habitare, sicut scriptum est: *2 Cor. 6.Et inhabitabo in illis et inambulabo inter eos: Et iterum, *Apoc. 3.Ecce sto ad ostium et pulso; si quis surrexerit et aperuerit mihi, intrabo ad illum, et caenabo cum illo, et ille mecum. Qu…m faelix est illa anima qui vitam suam ita Deo auxiliante studuerit gubernare, ut Christum hospitem in…abi…atorem mercatur excipere. Sicut è contrario quàm infaelix est illa conscientia, toto lachrymarum fonte lugenda, quae se i…a malis operibus cru…ntavit, ut in …a non Christus requiescere, sed diabolus incipiat dominari. Talis enim anima si medicamentum paenitentiae non citò subvenerit, à luce relinquetur, à tenebris occupabitur, vacuabitur dulcedine, replebitur amar…tudine; à morte invadetur, à vitae repudiabitur. Ideo etiam ab omni inquinamento ante Christi Nat…lem mult…s diebus abstinere debemus. Quotiescunque Fratres aut Natalem Domini, aut reliquas solennitates celebrare disponitis, *Let our Christmas health quaffers consider this.ebrietatem ant… omnia fugite, iracundiae quasi bestiae crudelissimae repugnate, odium velut venenum mortiferum de corde vestro rep…llite, et tanta in vobis sit charitas, quae non solùm ad amicos, sed etiam usque ad ipsos perveniat inimicos, &c. And in …is Sermo 11. in Die Circumcisionis Domini nostri Iesu Christi; as if he had purposely written against our moderne Christmas disorders; he concludes thus. qPage 7… H. & …. A, ….Est mihi adversus plerosque vestrum fratres, querela non modica, de his loquor, quinobiscum Natalem Domini celebrantes, Gentilium se ferijs dediderunt, et post illud caeleste conviviū superstitionis sibi prandium paraverunt; ut qui ante laete laetificati fuerant sanctitate, inebriarentur postea vanitate; ignorantes, quod qui vult regnare cum Christo, no… possit gaudere cum saeculo: et qui vult invenire justitiam, debet declinare luxuriam. Alia est enim ratio vitae aeternae, alia desperatio lasciviae temporalis. Ad illam virtute ascenditur, ad istam perditione descenditur. Atque ideo qui vult esse divinorum particeps, non debet esse socius idolorū. rNote this well.Idoli enim portio est inebriare vino mentem, ventrem cibo distendere, saltationibus membra torquere, et ita pravis actionibus occupari, ut cogaris ignorare quod Deus est. Vnde sanctus Apostolus haec praevidens dicit: s2 Cor. 6.Quae portio justitiae cum iniquitate? aut quae societas luci cum tenebris? aut quae pars fidelis cum infideli? qui autem consensus templo Dei cum idolis? Ergo si nos sumus templum Dei, cur in templo Dei colitur festivitas idolorum? Cur ubi Christus habitat, qui est abstinentia, temperantia, castitas, inducitur commessatio, ebrietas atque lascivia? Dicit Salvator, tMatth. 6.Nemo potest duobus Dominis servire; hoc est, Deo et Mammonae. Quomodo igitur potestis religiose Epiphaniam Domini procurare, qui jam Kalendas quantum in vobis est, devotissime celebrastis? Ianus enim homo fuit unius conditor civitatis, quae Ianiculum nuncupatur, in cujus honorem à gentibus Kalendae sunt Ianuariae nuncupatae: unde qui Kalendas Ianuarias colit, peccat, quoniam homini mortuo defert divinitatis obsequium. Inde est quod ait Apostolus: uGal. 4.Dies observatis, et menses, et tempora, et annos, timeo ne sine causa laboravero in vobis. Observavit enim diem et mensem qui his diebus aut jejunavit, aut ad Ecclesiam non processit. Observavit diem qui hesterno die non processit ad Ecclesiam, processit ad campum. Ergo Fratres omni studio Gentilium festivitatem et f…rias declinemus, ut quando illi epulantur et laet… sunt, tunc nos simus sobrij a…que jejuni, quo intelligant laetitiam suam nostra abstinentia condemnari. *Augustine Ena…. in Psal. 81. Tom. 8. pars 2. p. 18.Illi habeant mare in theatro nos habeamus portum in Christo. If then our Saviours Nativitie ought thus to be celebrated by us; if all xNullus vestrum se inebri…t, quia ebrius insano fimilimus est. Nolite in no…minibus bibendo nomina vestra delere de coelo: sunt quidem multi, quod peius est, qui non solum seipsos ineb…i…nt, sed etiam alios cogunt, et adiurant, ut amplius quam expedit bibant, &c. Ille Chri…stianus qualis est, qui etsi locum invenerit ad vomitum usque bibet et posteaquam se in…briaverit, furget velut phreneticus et insanus, diabolico more balare et saltare, verba turpia et amatoria, vel luxutiosa can…are, &c. HR…banus Maurus, Homilia in Dominicis Di…bus. & De Bonorum Christianorum …t Malorum Moribus. Operum Tom. 5. …. 605. D. 607. ….drunkennesse, epicurisme, health-quaffing, dancing, dicing, Enterludes, Playes, lascivio…snesse, pride and pagan customes must now be laid aside; if all kinde of sinne and wickednesse whatsoever must now be banished our bodies, soules, and houses; if our soules must now especially be cleansed by repentance from all their spirituall fil…hinesse, adorned, beautified with every Christian grace, and made such holy spirituall Temples, that yPsal. 24.7, 8, 9, 10.Christ the King of glory may come and dwell within them: if nought but z1 Pet. 1.14, 15 16. 2 Pet. 3.3.holinesse, temperance, sobriety and devotion must now be found within us, yea, if fasting and abstinence must now be practised, as all these Fathers teach us, let us now at last for very shame abandon all those bacchanalian infernall Christmas disorders, Enterludes, sports and pastimes which now overspread the world, as aSee Mr. Samuel Bird his Dialogue of the use of the pleasures of this present life, p. 15. to 31.diametrally contrary not onelyonly to Christians, but to our Saviours Nativitie, which they most desperately dishonour and prophane. And if there be any such deboist ones left among us (as alas there are too too many every where) who will still support and pleade for these abominable Christmas excesses, not onelyonly in despite of God, of Christ, of Angels, Fathers, bSee Act. 7. Scene 3.Councels, and godly Christians who condemne thē, but even of our owne pious Statute, viz. 5. & 6. Ed. 6. cap. 3. Which expresly enjoynes men… cAll Stage-playes and dancing therfore, together with carding and dicing are unlawfull sports and pastimes by thi… very Statute, and so punishable by the Statute of 1 Car. cap. 1. See here p. 240. to 244. accordingly.even in the Christmas holy-dayes, as well as others; to cease from all other kinde of labour, and to apply themselves *Ambrose Ser. 11.ONELYONLY AND WHOLLY to la…d and praise the Lord, to resort and heare Gods word, to come to the holy Communion, to heare, to learne and to remember almighty Gods great benefits, his manifold mereies, his inestimable gracious goodnesse so plentifully powred upon all his creatures, and that of his infinite and unspeakable goodnesse, without any mans desert: and in remembrance hereof to render him most high and hearty thankes, with prayers and supplications, for the reliefe of all their daily necessities; because these holy-dayes are separated from all prophane uses, and sanctified and hallowed, dedicated and appointed no… to any Saint or creature, but onelyonly unto God and his true worship. (Which Statute excludes all Stage-plaies Masques, *See the Statute of 21 Iacobi, for the keeping of the Lords day; Which names dancing, and passed the Lower house.dancing, dicing, and such other Christmas outrages from this sacred festivall; it being separated from all prophane uses, and onelyonly and wholly devoted to Gods worship, and the forenamed duties of religion, which are inconsistent with them:) If there be any such, I say, as these within our Church, I only wish them banished into Nelewki in Moscovia, every Christmas; where if we beleeve dIn Nelewki oppido, quod cognomen ab infundendis poculis habet, omnibus extraneis militibus et advenis satellibusque principis, inebriandi vario potus genere, facultas conc…s…a est, quod Moschovitis gravi sub poena prohibetur; exceptis aliquot diebus in anno, videlicet tempore Nativitatis et resurrectionis Dominicae, pro festo Pe…tecostes, et in quibusdam solennioribus fe…tis divorum, praecipue vero Nicolai, quem di…vino fere cultu prosequuntur, et beatae virginis Mariae, Petri et Iohannis festis: interea vero velut vinculis emissi, Bacchum et non festum illius divi (cuius diem tunc temporis celebrant) advenisse gratulantur, et sacris nondum peractis, vel ut sues vario potus genere obruti, temulenti, …brii que identidem vociferantes, seque velut obsessi, mu…uo caedendes, et contumeliis var…is afficientes vagan…ur. Si autem huic genti quotidie, inebriandi facultas concessa esse… …ese m…tuis caedibus funditus exterminarent &c. Guagninus, Rerum Polonicarum Tom. 2. f. 171.Guagninus, all Moschovites are prohibited to health, to be drunke, or to keepe revelrout, except onelyonly in the Christmas, Easter, Whitsontide, and certaine other solemne feasts of Saints, especially of St. Nicholas their Patron, and the festivities of the Virgin Mary, Peter and Iohn; on which like men let out of prison, they honour Bacchus more than God, or these their Saints; healthing and quaffing downe sundry sorts of liquors so long, till they are as drunke as swine, and then they fall to roaring, shouting, quarrelling, abusing, and from thence to wounding, stabbing and murthering one another; Insomuch that if this drunkennesse and disorder were permitted every day, they would utterly destroy one another with mutuall slaughters. This is the Moschovites Christmas-keeping, who have liberty granted them to be drunke all Christmas, yea these are their drunken fatall ends, which if our Christmas roaring boyes affect, they may doe well to keepe their Christmas commons with these beastly drunken swine, where strangers have libertie to be drunke, to carouze & health even all Christmas, & at all times else. But let all who have any sparkes of sobriety, temperance or grace within them, abominate these unchristian Christmas extravagancies; e1 Pet. 1.17.passing all the time of their sojourning here in feare, concluding with that speech of holy Peter; f1 Pet. 4.2, 3, 4The time past of our lives may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, and to have walked in lasciviousnesse, lusts, excesse of wine and riot, revellings, banquettings, abominable idolatries; bacchanalian Christmas pastime… and disorders: And thereupon resolving, g1 Cor. 5.7.to purge out all this old leaven, (of dancing, dicing, healthing, Playes and riot) that so they may be a new lumpe, because Christ their Passeover is now sacrificed for them: casting away all these workes of darknesse, and putting on the armour of light: walking honestly as in the day, (especially in the dayes of Christs Nativitie) hRom. 13.12, 13, 14.not in rioting and drunkennesse, not in chambering and wantonnes, strife and envying, (no nor iSee Ambrose, Sermo 11. & here Act. 6. Scene 3, 4, 5.yet in dancing, dicing, carding, Stageplayes, Mūmeries, Masques, and such like heathenish practises, which are altogether unsuitable for Christians, especially at such sacred times as these, as sundry kSee Act. 7. Scene 3.forequoted Councels have resolved:) but putting on the Lord Iesus Christ, (who about this time put on our nature, as wee must now put on his grace, his holinesse) and making no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof: So shall wee celebrate our Saviours Nativity, and all other Christian Festivals, with which Stage-playes are altogether inconsistent, both to our Saviours honour, our owne present comfort, and our eternall future joy.

For the third part of the Objection: that Stage-playes are necessary to recreate and delight the people.

I answer first;Answ. 1. that there are many other farre better, easier and cheaper recreations void of all offence, with which the people may seasonably delight themselves: therefore they neede not these lewd superfluous costly Enterludes to sport themselves withall. Secondly, wee see that people live best of all without them. There are lSee Chrysost. Hom. 38. in Matth. here p. 416.417. Philippus Gluverius Antiquae Germaniae, l. 1. c. 20. pag. 181, 182. & here p. 552, 553. accordingly.many Nations in the world, who never knew what Stage-playes meant; yea there are sundry shires and Citties in our Kingdome, where Players (who for the most part harbour about London, where they have only constant standing Play-houses) never come to make them sport; and yet they never complaine for want of pleasures, or these unnecessary Stage-delights: The most, the best of men live happily, live comfortably without them; yea mSee here Act. 6. Scene 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, & 19. accordingly.farre more pleasantly than those who most frequent them. Therefore they are no such necessary pastimes, but that they may well be spared. Thirdly, there are none so much addicted to Stage-playes, but when they goe unto places where they cannot have them, or when as they are suppressed by publike authority, (as in *See here Act. 6. Scene 19.times of pestilence, and in Lent till now of late) can well subsist without them, finding out far better recreations to solace themselves withall, and to passe away their idle houres: therefore they are meere superfluous pleasures which may be better spared than enjoyed. Fourthly, what people should these delight? Good people? Alas, *See Act. 4. Scene 2. Act. 5. Scene 11. pag. 291. & Act. 7. Scene 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.they hate them, abhorre them, they see nought else in Playes but filthinesse, wickednesse, and that which grieves their righteous soules: therefore their soules can take no pleasure in them. Lewd people? Alas, their hMagistratus enim non tantum id agere debet ut ipse bonus sit, sed et hoc efficere ut alii mali esse desistant. S…lvian De Gub…r. Dei l. 7. p. 269.lewdnesse should be crossed, checked, suppressed, not countenanced, not fomented with this foode of vice: yea these should rather be afflicted, nay terrified with Gods judgements, hell, and the serious contemplation of their owne forlorne sinfull estates, which might leade them on to sin-lamenting sorrow and sincere repentance; then soothed, then delighted with these momentany pleasures of sinne, which doe but iHebr. 3.13.crust their consciences, obdurate their impenitent hearts, and kIob 21.11, 12 13. Amos 6.1. to 9. Iam. 5.5.post them on to hell with more security and greater speed. Good men neede not these infernall delights to make them worse; ill men neede to want them… that they may grow better; lSee Chrysostome Hom. 8. De Poenitentia, here p. 431, 432. & Act. 6. Scen. 12. & 20.for whiles they diligently frequent them, they are altogether hopelesse of becomming good: therefore it is necessary onelyonly that all should want them, but no necessitie at all that any should enjoy them. Lastly, mSee Act. 6. Scene 5. & Act …. Scene 6, 7.all the wisest Heathen Emperours, States, Philosophers, have deemed them so unnecessary, so intollerably pernicious, that they have wholly abandoned them as good for nothing but to corrupt the peoples mindes and manners: nSee Act. 6. Scene 3, 4, 5. & Act. 7. Scene 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, accordingly.yea all the primitive Christians, the primitive Church both under the Law and Gospell; together with sundry Councels, Fathers, Christian Emperors, Kings and Writers have excluded them Church and State as unlawfull, unsufferable to remaine in either, as recreations no wayes fit for Christians, especially on festivals and holy seasons; on which no man ever thought them usefull but oHaywood the Player, in his Apologie for Actors, the onelyonly booke I know in defence of Popular Stage-playes, and that God wot a poore one, which is very well refuted by I.G. in his reply unto it.one poore scribling hackney Stage-player, for his owne advantage, who was likely to be undone if Playes should once miscarry. Wherefore I may safely conclude with the unanimous suffrage of all the forequoted Authorities: that Stage-playes are no whit usefull or necessary to recreate or delight the people, who may live well without them; but cannot live well with them, as I have more largely proved Act. 6. Scene 3, 4, 5. & 19, 20. on which you may reflect.

The Players Scourge, Part 1 · Act 8 · Scene 3

p. 733SCENA TERTIA.

SCENA TERTIA.