Confutation of Unwritten Verities, Chapter 11
¶The Papystes obiectyons with answers vntounto them.
¶The .11. Chapter.
MOreouer they boast thēselfes of the certētie of their doctrīe and proue it to be true / by the long continuance therof and luckye prosperite of their kyngdome:argumēt and their aduersaries doctrine to be false / by the persecucions / plages / myseries / and afflictyons / which they dayly suffer for their doctrines sake.
IF the trial of true religion shoulde rest vponupon antiquite of tyme / or vpō worldly prosperite:Answere thē should the gentyls / and pagans / hauehave a great aduauntage of vsus Chrystians: and their religion should be better then ours / by the restimonies of our owne scriptures. For idolatrye and wor…ipping of false gods and their image… was vsed long before the law of god / writtē and geuen to Moses / in which errors and idolatry the heathen continewe vntounto thys day / in great prosperite & wealth vnderunder most victorious Emperours and Princes: whereas the true churche of Chryst hath been most miserablie affllicted / from tyme to time: first vnderunder the Egiptiās / after by the Philistines / Cananites / Pheresites / &c. then by the Babilonians / Assirians / Medes / Persians / Sirians / and Romanes / both subdued / conquest and led awaye captyues. And last of all (by the turke and the pope / the .ii. hornes of Antichrist; the true church of christ hath been mostcruelly persecuted vntounto death / with prison / famine / water / fier / fagot / and sworde / these .vii. or viii. yeares last past. Which Turke & Pope / although they be mortall enemies the one to the other / yet as Herode / Pilate / the Bishops / Scribes & Pharisees / although they were vtter foes ech to other / conspired agaīst iunocent Christ / causeles condemning him to death on the crosse: In lyke maner / I say / the Pope and the Turke do fully agree in this one poynt / to persecute and murther Christ in hys faythfull members. For as the sonne can not be withoute hys brightnesse / nor the fier without his heat: so cannot the true churche of God / be long without the crosse of persecucyon / as witnesseth S. Paule: al they that wil liue godly in Iesus Chryste shal suffer persecucion. And our sauiour Christ sayeth plainly / that his kingdome is not of this world.
For if they persecute me (sayeth he) they shal also persecute you:Christes bage. & Chryste geueth not to his Apostles earthlye peace in this world / but peace and quietnesse of conscience / ioyned with persecucion. For if the wicked persecuted Christ himselfe / shal they not also persecute hys seruauntes? And if they so handeled Christ / being the liuely tre… / what thinke you shall they doe to vsus / his withred braūches? And as the true churche of Chryste can neuer be long wythout persecution: in lyke maner can the false churche of Sathan / and Antichriste / neuer ceasse from persecutynge / as it appeareth throughe oute the Historyes of the whole byble. Of the tyrannye / and crueltye of Antichrist in persecutyng of Chrystes true church / prophesied Daniel lōg before:Dani. 7. speaking of the Empire and regiment of Rome.The mark to knowe antichrist by, is to preuaill (by persecucion) againste gods elect saints Daniel. 8. And the marke of the true churche is to be persecuted of Antichriste. The .4. beast (saith he) shalbe the .iiii. kyngdome / whyche shal be greater then all other kyngdomes: it shall deuoure / treade downe and destroye all other landes / he shal speake wordes agaynst the higheste of all▪ he shal destroye the sainctes of the moste highest / and thinke that he can chaūge tymes and lawes: & agayne he saieth of Antiochus / which was a figure of Antichrist: there shall aryse a king vn shamfast of face / he shalbe wise in dark speakyng / he shalbe mightie and strōg / but not in his own strēgth / he shal destroye aboue measure / and all that he goeth aboute shall prosper in hys hande: his hearte shall be proude / he shal slaye the stronge and holy people / and through his craftines falseheade shall prosper in his hande / and manye one shall he put to death in his weal thynes: he shall stande vp agaynst the Prince of Princes / but he shalbe slain without hande. Of the tyrannye and prosperous successe of antichrist in slaying of the sayuctes of god / and the rewarde of them that bee slaine for the witnes of gods trueth / speaketh also sainct Iohn in the .vi. Chapter of his Apocalips / vnderunder the openyng of the iiii.Read the places. and .v. seales: and in the .xvii. chapter / he lyuely setteth foorth the Pope in his own colours / vnderunder the person of the whore of Babilon / being dronken with the bloud of saynctes: pointyng as it were with his finger who thys whore of Babilon is / and the place wher she shal reigne / saying: the woman / whiche thou sawest / is that greate citie / which reigneth ouer the kyngs of the earth. Now what other citie reigned at that tyme or at any tyme since vnderunder the Christian kings of the earth / but only Rome: Wherof it foloweth Rome to bee the seate of Antichrist / and the Pope to be verye Antichrist himselfe. I could proue the same by many other scriptures / olde wryters & strong reasons. But for as muche as Rodulphe Gualter hath writtē herof a notable worke in Latē / & now of Laten translated into Englishe by I. O. I remit the reader to his boke / wherin he may be fully satisfied herof. Of the prosperite and securite / that the false churche hath in worldlye pleasures / vsynge the same with al gredines & voluptuousnes of carnal lustes / with the wicked deuices of tiranny against Christ and his true members / wherwith the vngodly daily persecute and murther gods electe for his trueth / wyth the rewarde also of them that suffer for the same truth sake: it is most playnly wrytten in the ii.Read the Chapters and .iii. Chapters of the booke of wisdome.
By these scriptures now rehersed it appeareth most plainly / that worldly prosperite of the Pope and his clargy proue not the trueth of their doctryne: nor yet persecutyon of Goddes true preachers / and other faythfull people / argueth their doctrine to bee false. But if thou wilt nedes knowe where the true churche of Chryst is & where the false / and not be deceyued: herin take this for a plaine and ful answer / that wheresoeuer the worde of god is truly preached without addiciō of mans doctrines and tradiciōs / and the sacramentes duly ministred according to Christs institucion / ther is the true church / the very spouse of god / Christ bēig the head therof. But how many / and who of that nomber / that heare the word of god / and receiue the sacramentes / be gods elect and church and true mēbers of Chryst / is knowē to god onelye. For the Lorde knoweth who he his / and no man can tell / of an other man / whether he be worthy louelove or hatred / although their works seme neuer so holy and gloryous afore men / so great a wytch is Ipocrisie.
LAst of al / to make all coke suer / and to maintaine their Idolatrye besyde / yea and also contrarye to the worde of GOD / as itruocacion and prayinge to Saynctes / worshyppyng of Images & reliques / with pilgrimages / and offerynges &argumēt the sacrifice of the masse / for the quick and the dead / and pardons to delyuer dead mens soules from purgatory / holy breade / holy water / ashes / palms and suche other baggage: they alledge reuelacions of Aungels / of our Ladye and other sainctes / and dead mennes soules appearyng to diuers men and wemen / bidding them to cause certen masses / trentalles / pilgrimages / and offering to Images and reliques / of this and that saincte / to bee done for them / and they shoulde be delyuered from the fier of purgatorye / where the paynes be greater (say they) than mans wit can comprehende. And whā suche masses / pilgrimages with offringes to suche sainctes reliques and images be done for them / they appear to the same persons agayne / sayinge / that by suche meanes they be deliuered out of purgatory into the eternal ioyes of heauen: they tel also of many wonders and straunge miracles / to proue their doctrine / in all these afore sayed thynges / to be true. And because they hauehave great profyte and aduaūtage therby / they (counting gains godlynes) hauehave fylled all theyr bookes with suche vanites and lyes: of which some be so fonde / & so directly againste gods glory / that the most earneste papistes (hauing either learnyng or wit) be ashamed of thē. Yea and the pope himselfe hath cleane put them out of gods seruice / vsed in the churche of Rome: and yet must we reade them / beleue them as necessarye articles of our fayth / or els burne therfore lyke heretikes.
BY thē manifest and plaine words of the Scriptures / and the consent of the most auncyente authours before written / it is euydente / that neither the visions of Aungels / apparitions of the dead / nor miracles nor all these together ioyned in one / are able or sufficient to make anye one newe article of our fayth / or stablyshe any thyng in religion / wythout the expresseAnswere wordes of god: because that all such thyngs (as is before proued) may be / yea and hauehave been (throughe gods permission for oure sinnes and vubelefes sake) done by the power of the deuill hymselfe / or fayned and counterfeited of hys lyuelye members / Monkes / and Friers / with other such hipocrites.
But what shal sathan nede to tell oracles / vse visions / shew apparitiōs / or worke miracles now a daies? what should he nede to toyle herin himself? or why should he not / like a gentle mā / take his ease in his inne? seing his subtil seruaūtes Monkes / Friers / Nōnes and other Pope holye hipocrites / can and doe counterfeit such thynges day lye / and from their beginning hath dō diligently: par…e whereof I shall rehearse.Iohn sleidane. About fourtene yeares paste at Orleāce in Fraunce the Profestes wife died / willing to beburied at the friers in the same citie / without pōpe or other solemnite cōmonly vsed at burialles. Wherfore the friers / fearinge to lease a great pray / if this shoulde be suffered to enter into the heades of the people / caused a younge frier to speake in a vawte in a womās voice / many people hearinge it: & sayd that she was the soule of the Profests wife condemned in hell for contemnyng of the suffrages of the holy churche / commaunding also her body to be cast out of Christian buriall. But the profeste so boolted out the mater / that the yōg frier confessed the place and the maner of his speaking: and all the friers were openly punished for that fault / in the common market at Orleance. But let vsus come home to oure owne realme of Englande. About .xxx. yers paste in the borders of wales / wythin a Priory called Lymster / there was a younge woman called the holy maide of Lymster: whiche / as the fāe was / lyued onelyonly by Aungels foode / and was enclosed wythin a grate of Irone. VntoUnto whom certain daies / when the Prior of the place sayede masse / the thirde parte of the hoste went hanging in the ayer (by miracle / as it semed) from the aulter / wher the Prior massed / into the maids mouth: whiche thing broughte the people into a great opinion of holynes in her / and caused great pilgrimage to be ther vsed. But when the Lord of Burgauenny, with his brother sir Edward …euel and diuerse other ientle men & ientle wemē / came to trye the trueth her of: thei caused the doore to be opened / and strayghte wayes the dogges fought for bones / that wer vnderunder her bedde. Whervpon they / searching farther / founde a priuye doore / whereby the Prior myght resort to her and she to hym / at their pleasures. And then the confessed that she made (as it wer) .ii. fine thredes of her own heres sīgly tyed together wyth fyne knottes: and then made a bigge hole with a bed kin / thorowe the corner of a quarter of the hoste / and fastened one ende of the sayed heere to the corporas / where the sayed Prior sayd masse / and the other ende to her own bedde / wherein the laye: & tyed the other heer faste to the quarter of the hoste / and wrapped the other ende aboute her own finger. And whē the Prior had receiued his porcion of the hoste / she wōde vy the threde (wherto the hoste was tyed) vponupon her fingers / and so cōueyed the ost into her mouth. Thys both the Prior and she confessed / and dyd open penaunce for the same. To Sainct Albans / about .xxviii. yeares past / came a mayde / crepyng vponupon her knees and lening vponupon .ii. short staues enquiring after Sainct Albās bōes / affirminge that she shoulde bee made whole and goe vpright / so sone as she should come to the place / where saīct Albans bones were. In token wherof an Aungell had deliuered her a keye / wherby she should certenlye knowe where his verye bones were. And when she passed thus throughe the streates of Sainct Albans creping on her knees till she came to Sainte Albans shrine / after she had made her prayers deuoutly there / she toke out the key of her purse / whiche she sayed an Angel had deliuered to her: and thē she stode vpright & opened the shrine with the sayd key / and then kneled agayne to pray and to geue thankes to god and sainct Albāe for her healing & geuing her strēgth to walke / whiche was borne lāe. And by & the mōkes would hauehave had it rōge for a miracle: but some wiser men thought it mete to trye the matter better & to examine her further / before they tēpted to rīge a miracle op̄enly. And vponupon her examinacion / the sayd that she had bene lame from her birth: declarynge both her …inred and place / where she was borne.
VponUpon whiche confession she was cōmitted to a nōnery called Sopwel / there to ta…y vntil messengers / which they streight way sente furth / myght returne and testifie the trueth. And so she dayly and holyly visited saynct Albans shrine. But the night before the returne of the messengers she was conueyed awaye and neuer hearde of nor seen after. And the messengers declared to be lies al that euer she had said: for there was neuer none borne lame / nor of her name / where she sayed she was borne.
A straunge thinge it is / to heare of the wonderful traunces & visions of mistres A…ne Wētworth of Suffolk / whiche tolde many men the secretes of their hertes / which they thoughte no man could hauehave tolde but god only: she cut stomagers in peces & made them whole againe / & caused diuerse men / that spake agaynst her delusiōs / to goe star…e mad. Al which thynges were proued and openly by her confessed to be done by necromancy & the desceit of the deuill.
But yet Elizabeth Barton / telled the holy mayde of Cou…top streat in kēt / passed al other in deuelish deuises.Elzabeth Barton. For she could (when she life)O diuilishe illusion. faine her selfe to be in atraunce / disfigure her face / draw her mouth awrye toward the one eare / faynynge that she was thus tormented of Sathan for the synnes of the people / & deliuered from his power by our blessed lady of Courtop streat / and by her led into heauen / hell and purgatory:Reade more of herin her boke set forth in print and in Halles cronicle. and there saw all the ioyes and paynes of those places / and toke vpō her to prophesy of thīgs to come / and of the kyngs death. This instrumente of the deuill drewe into her confederacie both of heresy and treason / holy monkes of the Charter house / obstinate (they woulde be called) obseruaunt Friers of Grenwich / nice Nōnes of Sion / blacke monkes (bothe of coules and condicions) of Christes churche and sainct Austyns of Canterbury / Knightes / Squiers / learned men Priestes and many other: of which sort (whether they wer blīded by her or els of their own mere malice and ypocrisie dissembled the matter) some / by d…e profe made against them / were iustlye condemned / both of heresy and treason / and suffered wyth the saict Elizabeth Bartō / accordyng to their demerites: & some / acknowledginge their own offence / wer delyuered by the kynges pardon. This wicked woman caused a letter to be made by a monke of Sainct Austins of Canterbury in golden letters / feining the same to be deliuered to her by an Angel frō heauen.A letter forged as thoughe it had come frō heauen. This mōster was conuented both beefore William Warhā / Archebishop of Cāterbury / and Thomas Wolsey / Cardinall and Archebishop of Yorke. Who eyther because that generacion of the cleargy hath alway defended idolatrye and supersticion / or beecause she knewe to much of their incontinency and other wickednes of liuing (for she threatned them with eternall dānacyon / except thei repented and amēded their liues)Bishops euer hauehave been bolsterers of idolatry. they clearly discharged her wythout finding of any fault in her at al. But when the matter came to be examined by Thomas Craumer / Archebishop of Canterbury / and Thomas Cromwel / then master of the rolles: they so handeled the matter / that they foūde out the whole nest of that conspiracy: wherin was disclosed the whole nomber of those confederates / their bokes of heresye and treason / the authors & wryters of the same / and of the letter feyned to be sent frō heauē. Al whose detestable factes / as well of idolatry / heresy and also of treason / wer so wittely and learnedly by Goddes worde conuinced at canterburye by Doctor Hethe / now chaunceler of Englande / (she being present and openly confessing the same) and also by another lerned mā at Pauls crosse: that the most part of them / whiche were beefore by her seduced / did then vtterlye abhorre her shameles and abominable factes. what a crafty poynt of legerdemaine was plaid about the beginning of king Edwardes reigne by a Pryest? which being at masse pricked his own finger and caused it to drop vponupon the ost / perswading the people that the oste bled of it selfe by the miraculoꝰ workyng of god / for to make the worlde beleue the body of Chryst to be as really and naturally in the sacramēt / as he was born of the virgin Mari his mother.A notable miracle. For the which hein…us fact / proued against him and also by him confessed / he did open penaūce at Pauls crosse. I wyll rehearce one sermon / made in Quene Maryes beginning by a momysh Mōke / & so leaue of their vayn & wicked lyes. A new vpstert precher / being sōe time a mōke of Chrysts church in Cātorbury / stept into the pulpit in saynct Paules church / saying that the very body of christ is realli & naturally in the sacramente of the aulter:Christe prouedre alli in the hoste by 2. horses, the deuil sp…aking in one of them. yea by gods body is it / quoth he: & because that nether oth nor periury can proue a good argumēt / he proued the same by three notable miracles. The first of an horse / refusing to eat wafers so lōg / as their cakye god was amōg thē: the. 2. by the deuil speaking in the likenes of an horse / being cōiured of a Prieste by gods body to tel what he was: and the 3. a maide of Northgate parish in Cā terburi / who he said in pretēce to wipe her mouth kept the ost in her hādkercher. And whē she cāe hōe / she put the sāe īto a pot close couerd & spitted ī an other pot: and after a few dayes she / loking in the one pot / founde a lytle young prety babe / about a shaftmond long / and the other potte was full of gored bloud. Here is goodly pulpit matters to proue new articles of our fayth. For if the Priestes / that tolde the stories of the 2. horses / or the maid that sayd that the bread was turned into a litle childe / or the monke / that preached these shameful blasphemys / or the deuill himselfe / who is father of lies / could lye / speakyng in the horse or in any of them: then doe all these foresaid miracles proue nothinge his purpose, But O mercyfull God / in what a miserable state were we thine afflicted mēbers / if it wer true / which they say / being both enemyes to thee and to vsus also for thy truethes sake? For we shold not onli suffer extreme miseries / as losse of our goods / good names / & the cōpany of our dere frēds in our natiue country: but also burne as heretikes in this world / if we came in their cruell handlyng / & also burne eternally in the vnquencheable fire of hell / if their cruell curses myght take effect. Wherefore we yelde thee most harty thākes / O father of al mercies / and to thy sonne Iesus Chryst our sauiour: whiche haste promysed for hys sake and in his name thy kyngdome of heauen to al them / which suffer persecucion for thy righteousnesse sake. How shal we then knowe true visiōs of Angels from false / true apparitiōs and miracles from counterfayte / but by the scripture of god? which is the rule / and true measure / where wyth we must try all thynges as S. Iohn sayeth: beeleue not euerye spirite / but proue them / whether they be of God. For manye false Prophetes are gone out into the world. Herby is the spirite of god knowen / sayeth he: euerye spirite / whiche confesseth that Iesus Chryst is come in the fleshe / is of god &c. Whoso euer therfore sayeth / that there is anye thyng / that pacifieth the wrath of god or obtaineth his fauour and forgeuenes of synnes / but onelye Christes death and passiō: he denieth Christ to be cōe a sauiour in the flesh. Wherfore these Angels / saincts / souls of the dead / and miracles / tha… alowe worshipping of sainctes by inuocaciō and prayinge to them / the sacrifice of the masse for the quicke and the dead / worshipping of images / pilgrimages / offeryngs to holy reliques / to forgeue synnes or to delyuer the deade oute of purgatory: denye Christe to be come an only sauiour by hys fleshe. For theī make all these to be sauiours frō purgatory / or at the least / coadiutores to helpe him in that office of saluacyon and deliuering those soules frō sinne and the paynes due for the same: and so they cannot be of God but of Antichrist. Thus I hauehave plainly / fully and truly without fraud of cloking or coloure of rhetorike and darke speache / to blind the eies of the sīple people / answered to al (that I remember) which the Papistes doe or can alledge / either by writing / preaching or reasoning / for the defence of their vnwrittē verites / wherevpon they builde so many detestable idolatries and heresies: and the same answers / if they be aptly applied and placed by a discret and witty reader / wil suff…ce for the answere to all that euer they hauehave or can bryng furth for the maintaining of their vnwrytten and vncertayne verites.
And yet I wyll not be so much wedded to myne owne witte or will / but that if they be able to answer so plainly and trulye to the Scriptures / authors and reasons rehersed by me / as I hauehave done to theirs / and to proue their doctrine of vnwrytten very…es by as playne cōsēt both of scriptures / aunciente doctours / and as pithy argumentes / as I hauehave done myne / and sette it forth in prynte to the iudgemente of the whole worlde / as myne i…: I shal not onelyonly acknowledge mine ignoraunce and erroure / but I shall gladlye returne into Englande / recāt myne heresyes / openlye submyttynge myselfe to such discipline & correctiō / as they shall thynke mete fo: myne offences. But if thei refuse to answer my boke by writing / & v…ing their olde trade burne both my boke and the readers therof: let them knowe thei shal doe nothyng but cut of the head of hibra. For for eueryevery heretike (as you cal them) which you shal burn / wil arise many faythful and cōstāt Christiās. For except the grayn or corne of wheat dye / it remaineth alone: but if it dye / it bringeth forth much fruite. Wherefore I most hartely beseche the father of heauē of his infinite mercye (if you be not indurat in your heartes wyth that synne / which is irremissible and shal neuer be forgeuen in this worlde nor in the worlde to come / and resyste the holy gost impugning the trueth of god of you knowen / and defendynge & maintaining wicked doctrines / which your consciences beare recorde to be idolatries and heresies) that he wyll mollifie your stony heartes / and geue you fleshy heartes: yea rather spirituall and godly hartes to worshyp him truly in spirite / accordyng to his godly wil / expressed in his holy word written. And I exhort al you / which feare god & be desierous to saue your owne soules / to flee from this whore of Babilon and from al her detestable idolatries and heresies / not builded vponupon the sure rocke of gods infallible word written but vponupon the qualin…re of vnwrittē verites:Which is Rome. whervpon whatsoeuer is builded furthwith eyther sinketh or quite ouerthroweth. And stāde thou fast and stay thy fayth / whervpō thou shalt builde al thy workes / vponupon the strong rocke of gods word / writtē and conteined within the old testamēt and the newe: which is able sufficiētly to instruct thee in al thinges nedeful to thy saluacion / and to the attaīmēt of the kyngdome of heauen. To the whiche I beseche the almightie father of heauen of his infinite mercy and goodnesse / and by the merytes of his only sonne / oure sauiour & redemer Iesꝰ Christ / throgh his holy sprite in vsus / bring vsus all.
Amen.
¶Faultes escaped in the pryntynge.
A. 2. pag. 1. line. 19. That apparicions of the dead. A. 2. pa. 2. li. 6. ca. 11. the papistes. C. 1. pa. 1. li. 15. were. cccc. C. 1. pa. 2. li. 18. martyrs / and al the people sayd amen. C. 7. pag. 1. li. 4. are there opened. D. 4. pa. 2. li. 6. I hauehave shewed you. D. 5. pa. 2. li. 14. ruinus house. F 1. pa. i. li. 18. scriptures only. F. 1. pa. 2. li. 15. Donatystes. G. 4. pa. 2. li. laste. The coūsel / woulde be a capitall / T. G. 5. pa. 1. li. 22. before / note / put a ¶ / which noteth my saying and not the doctors. G. 8. pa. 2. li. 1. but now / wold folowe the. 6. canon of …ice. H. 1. pa. 2. li. 15. be those bokes. H. 2. pa. 1. li. 11. midges. li. 18. terme. I. 1. pa. 1. li. 16. soule. I. 5. pa. 1. li. 7. put a ¶ before By this …. 1. pa. 1. li. 24. blot out / of. K. 3. pa. 1. li. 1. wherby you may. K. 3. pa. 2. li. 11. Christ… saith). The deuil K. 5. pa. 2. li. 2. Pōpey. N. 2. p. 2. li. 2. spiritual. N. 3. pag. 2. li. 8.. Dcc. or. Dccc. yeares. N. 5 pa. 1. li. 17. ouer. li. l…st. of late. N. 6. pa … 10. be gods elect churche.
End of the text · Archishop Thomas Cranmer, Confutation of Unwritten Verities (1556)