Answer unto a Crafy and Sophistical Cavillation, Debate · Confutation of book 4 · Section 21
Caunterbury.
HEre apeareth your sincerity in proceeding in this matter. For you leaue out those wordes of S. Ambrose, which maketh his meaning playne, that the prophet spake of the mistery of Christes incarnation. Si negant quia in Christo etiam incarnationis adoranda misteria sunt. &c. If they deny (sayth he) that the misteries of ye incarnatiō in Christ be to be honored &c. And a little after Qua ratione ad incarnationis dominicae sacramentum spectare videatur, quod ait Propheta, Adorate scabellum pedum eius, consideremus. Let vsus consider, by what meanes this saying of the prophet (worship his foote stoole) may be seene to pertayne to the sacrament of Christes incarnation. And after the wordes by you rehearsed, foloweth by and by, Cum igitur incarnationis adorandum sit Sacramentum. &c. Seing then that the Sacrament of the incarnation is to be honored. In these wordes sheweth S. Ambrose playnly that the worshipping of Christes flesh is vnderstand of the mistery of his incarnation. So that S. Ambrose ment not onelyonly that men should worship Christ, when they receaue the Sacrament, but that all creatures, at all tymes, should worship him. And therfore he expresseth there by name, how the Angels did worship him, and also Mary Magdalene and the Apostles after his resurrection,Math. 28. when they receaued not the Sacrament.Luc. 2. Math. 2. And so did also the shepherds and the wise men worship him, yet being in his infancy, and the prophet (after the mynd of S. Augustine and S. Ambrose) commaunded to honor him before his incarnation, & we likewise honor him sitting now in heauen after his ascentiō. For so farre is fayth able to reach, without eyther tentering or stretching.
Thus hauehave I aunswered to all that you hauehave brought agaynst my fourth booke, not obscurely (as you like a cuttell hauehave done, hiding your selfe in your darke colours) but playnly to the capacity of all men, asmuch as I can. And this hauehave I done with some payne of writing, but little or no study for the matter, being a very easy thing for defence of the truth to answere by gods word, and auncient authors to an ignorant lawyer, being well exercised in neyther of both, but making such diuinity a she can dreame in his sleape, or deuise of his owne brayne, or hath sucked out of ye Papistical lawes and decrees, and for lacke of arguments, furnishing vp his booke with prety toyes, with glorious bosting, and scornfull taunting. And with picking out of my booke such sentences, as he perswadeth him selfe, that he can make some colour of apparaunt answere, to deceaue the reader. And such places as he seeth his rhetorike will not serue, he passeth them away slightly, bicause he is afrayd to file his hands therwith. Wherfore I may now right well and iustly conclude here myne answere to his confutation, with the wordes of my fourth booke, which be these.
But our sauiour Christ himselfe hath geuen vsus warning before hand, that such false Christians and false teachers should come, and hath bydde vsus to beware of them, saying:Math. 24. If any man tell you that Christ is here, or Christ is there, beleue him not. For there shall rise false Christes, and false prophets, and shall shew many signes and wonders, so that if it were possible, the very elect should be brought into erroure. Take heede, I hauehave told you before hand.
Thus our Sauiour Christ (like a most louing pastor and sauiour of our soules) hath giuen vsus warning before hand of the perilles and dangers that were to come, and to be wise and ware, that we should not geue credite vntounto such teachers, as would perswade vsus to worship a peece of bread, to kneele to it, to knocke to it, to creepe to it, to follow it in procession, to lift vp our hādes to it, to offer to it, to light candels to it, to shut it vp in a chest or boxe, to do all other honor vntounto it, more then we do vntounto God: hauing alway this pretence or scuse for our idolatry, Behold here is Christ.Math. 24. But our Sauiour Christ calleth them false Prophets, and sayth: Take heed, I tell you before: Beleue them not, If they say to you: behold Christ is a broad, or in the wildernes, goe not out. And if they say, that he is kept in close places, beleue them not.
And if you will aske me the question,Chap. 10. They be the papistes that hauehave deceaued the people. who be these false prophets and seducers of the people, the aunswere is soone made: The Romish Antichristes and their adherents, the authors of all erroure, ignorance, blindnes, superstition, hipocrisie, and idolatry.
For Innocentius the thyrd (one of the most wicked men that euer was in the sea of Rome) dyd ordayne and decree,Innocentius tertius. that the host should be diligently kept vnderunder locke and key.
And Honorius the third, not onelyonly confirmed the same,Honorius tertius. but commaunded also, that the priestes would diligently teach the people from tyme to tyme, that when they lifted vp the bread, called the host, the people should then reuerently bowe downe, and that likewise they should do when the priest carieth the host vntounto sicke folkes. These be the statutes and ordinaunces of Rome, vnderunder pretence of holines, to leade the people vntounto all errour and idolatry: not bringing them by bread vntounto Christ, but from Christ vntounto bread.
Cap. 11. An exhortation to the …rew honoring of Christ in the Sacrament.But all that louelove and beleue Christ himselfe, let them not thinke that Christ is corporally in the bread, but let them lift vp theyr hartes vntounto heauen, and worshipping him, sitting there at the right hand of his father. Let them worship him in them selues, whose temples they be, in whome he dwelleth and liueth spiritually: but in no wise let them worship him, as being corporally in the bread. For he is not in it neither spiritually (as he is in man) nor corporally (as he is in heauen) but onelyonly Sacramentally, as a thing may be sayd to be in the figure, wherby it is signified. Thus is sufficiently reproued the third principall errour of the Papistes, concerning the Lordes supper which is, That wicked members of the deuil, doe eate Christes very body, and drincke his bloud.
¶ Thus endeth the fourth booke.