Confutation of Unwritten Verities, Chapter 3
¶That the general counsels / withoute the worde of god / are not sufficiente to make articles of oure fayth.
¶The .iii. Chapter.
EVsebius in his ecclesiastical historie.Thei wer gathered in the spirite of pride and enuy, and not in the spirit of mekenes and louelove. lib. 1. Cap. 8. The head rulers of the churche / forgettynge gods commaundementes / were inflamed one againste another wyth contencyon / zeale / enuy / pride / malice and hatred: so that they thoughte rather that they occupied the rome of tirānes then of priestes. And also / forgettinge Christian humilite and sincerite / they did celebrate the holy misteries wyth vnholy handes.
GRegorye Nazianzen to Procopius.Note these words diligentlye and forget them not. Vndoubtedli I thīk thus if I must nedes wryt the truth / that al assembles of Byshoppes are to be eschued. For I neuer sawe good end of any synode / that did not rather bryng in euils / then put them awaye: for the lustes of stryfe and desyer / and of lordshyp reigne there.
AVgustine in his lib. 2. Capit. 3. agaynst the Donatists.Counsails are not of such authorite, that what so euer thei decree must be holdē for truth The coū sels / which are kept through eueryevery region or prouince / wythout all clokinges / ought to geue place to the generall counselles / whiche are made of all Christendome: yea and the former generall counsels / oughte ofttimes to be reformed by the latter counsels / if any thynge in them dooe chaunce to erre from the trueth.
AVgustine against Maximinum the bishop of the Arrians. lib. 3 Ca. 4. But now neither ought I to alledge the counsel of Nice / nor thou the coūsel of Arimine / to tak aduaūtage therby:The scripture must trie all. for neyther am I bounde nor helde by the authorite of this / nor thou of that. Lette matter with matter / cause wyth cause or reason with reasō / trye the matter by the aucthorite of scriptures / not proper witnesses to any of vsus / but indifferent witnesses for vsus both.
GErson.Marke thys. We ought rather beleue the sayīg of any teacher / armed with the Canonycall scripture / then the Popes determynacyon.
THe same.Reade ye Papistes and be no longer ignorāte More tredite is to be geuen to a mā / that is singularlye learned in the Scripture / bryngying forth catholyke aucthorite / then to the generall counsel.
PAnormitan in cap.Coūsails may and doe erre oftimes. Significasti. A simple laye man / bryngynge forth the scriptures / is to be beleued / rather then an hole counsel. For a counsell may erre / as it hath afore tymes erred / as did the counsell of Melchildense and Aquisgranum of contracting of Matrimonie. The councel of Cōstance among other articles of Iohn Husband Hierome of Prage / vniustly condemned / condemned also this article for heresye: that the two natures (that is) the diuinite and humanitie be one Chryst / whych is a necessarye article of our fayth / expressed in the Crede of Athanasius called qui cunque vult / where it is red:Read the Psalme. the right fayth is / that we beleue and confesse / that our Lorde Iesus Chryst the sōne of god is god and mā / and a litle after: lyke as the reasonable soule and the flesh is one man / so god and mā is one Christ: the same is also decreed by the counsell of Nice and dyuerse other catholike counsels / and it is the doctrine of the churche at thys tyme. Finally it may be proued by the expresse word of god / and yet these malycyous cleargy were not ashamed to condemne the same for an heresy. Note here iētle reader / vntounto what shameles and detestable heresyes theyr Popishe / yea Antichristian general counsels hauehave fallē / of the which they boast so much / that they cannot erre / and wherevpon chē fely they builde al their errours and heresyes. Moreouer the most part of the good lawes and Canons be in maner altogether abrogated and no wher kept: part wherof I shall expresse.
¶Canons of the Apostles and counsels not kept nor vsed.
CAnone .3. Let not a Byshoppe / priest or deacon / by any meanes put away his owne wife vnderunder pretence of relygion: but if he doe / let hym be excommunicated: and if he so continew / let hym be deposed.
CAnone. 4. Let no Byshoppe / Pryest or deacon be receaued in to another Byshoppes diocese / wythoute a testymoniall of his good behaueour: and when they hauehave deliuered their writinges / let them be diligently examined if they be godly preachers. ¶If these .ii. lawes wer throughly executed by indifferent iudges / beyng no Priestes / the realme of England should not swarme so ful of runnagates / adulterous and sodomicall Pryestes. For in wales / for theyr cradel crounes payde to the ordynary / they kepte theyr cōcubines or harlets openly: and in Englande many greate benefyced men kepe theyr harlettes at racke and maunger without any punishment / excepte it be by brybyng of the ordinaryes priuely: and all shame sette asyde / they hauehave their own knowen bastards wayting vponupon them in sighte of the whole worlde. But the poore purgatorie Priestes / when thei be taken in open aduoutrie / flee from easte to weste / from north to southe / frō diocese to diocese / and there be receaued wythoute any letters testimoniall at al: where they be taken for honeste and chaste Priestes. But if the riche Priests wer depriued of al their promotions / so oft as they be knowē to be fornicators (as they ought to be) and the poore priestes not receaued into any straūge diocese / without testymonye of his honeste demeanure / frō his former ordinary: you shold skarcely fynde Priestes for eueryevery thirde benefice of Englande / and the Pryestes themselues would be the firste earnest suters / that they mighte hauehave their lawfull wyues of their own: but as long as they be their owne iudges (according to the olde prouerbe / one skabbed horse gnappeth an other) what for fauour and frendshippe / what for moeny and for slaunderynge of theyr order: they wynke one at anothers faultes / and helpe to cloke the same in so much / that within my memorye / whiche is aboue. xxx. yeares / and also by enformacion of other / that be .xx. yeares elder then I:O what a court is this, that in suspicion of heresye acquiteth no man, and in cause of adultery condē neth no priest, be his crime neuer so openlye knowen I coulde neuer perceaue or learne / that any one Priest / vnderunder the Popes kyngdome / was euer punished for aduoutrye by his ordinary. And yet not long ago / a Petye canon of a Cathedrall church in Englande was accused of buggerye / by .iii. boyes of the grāer schole / to the vicedeane or subdeāe of the same church / a man not vnlyke to a monke called Iodocus: of whō Erasmus maketh mencion / that he wer worthy to walk openly with a bell and a cocks combe / if he were not set forth vnderunder the holy habit of a mōke. But when he perceaued / that the sayd Pryest could not pourge himself of the foresayd crime / he priuely payed him his quarters wages before hande / and suffered hym to departe without farther tryall of the sayd cryme: and now he ietteth in lō don / wyth side gown and sarcenet typet / as good a virgin priest as the best. If I should but brefely touch al the histories / that I hauehave knowen of the incontinency of Pryests / it wold grow to a worke thryse greater / then al my whole boke / and it would make some of the proudeste of them to blushe / if they be not past all shame: but I wyll not blot my good paper with so euyll matter: although thei be not ashamed openly to blot and stayne their owne good names with crimes / worthy of such reproche and ignominy.
LEt not any Byshoppe / Pryest or Deacone / in any wise take vponupon him any secular busynes:Cano. 7. but if he doe / let him be excommunicated. ¶But now suche shameles cōtēners they be of their owne lawes / whyche they so greatly extoll and bynde all … ther to kepe: that they bee hunters / faukon…ors, stewardes / surueyars and receyuers to all greate men / yea and to the Byshoppes themselues.
IF any Pryeste or Deacone / or any other of the nomber of Priesthod / doe not receaue at the Cōmuniō / let him shewe his cause:Cano. 9. if it he reasonable / let him be pardoned: if not / let hym be depriued from the Communion.
IT is mete to put of from thē Communion all Christen men (whiche enter into the churche / and heare the scriptures / but continue not in prayer vntil masse be done:Can̄o. 10. nor receaue ther the holy Communion:) as disturbers / of the quietnesse of the churche. ¶By these .ii. Canons be subuerted / and vtterlye ouer throwen / all priuat masses / where the priest onelyonly receiueth.
LEt the olde custome continue still in Egipt / Libia and Pentapoli / that the Byshoppe of Alexādrie hauehave power ouer all these:The counsel of nice Cano. 6. forasmuch as the Byshoppe of Rome hath a like custome. At Antioch also / & other prouinces: let their honour bee reserued to eueryevery churche.The coū cel of nice cano. 20. Because there be sōe that knele at their praiers on the Sonday and in Whitsō weke: be it therefore ordeyned by this holye counsell / that all men stande at their praiers / for so much as it is a cōueniēt custome / fyt to be kept in al churches.
¶But nowe Antichriste of Rome / contrarye to thys decree / hath extolled himselfe aboue hys felowe Byshoppes / as goddes vicare / yea rather as god hymselfe: and taketh vponupon him authorite ouer kings and Emperors / and sitteth in the temple of God, that is / in the consciences of men / and causeth hys decrees to be more regarded / then gods lawes: yea and for monye he dispenseth with gods lawes and al other / geuynge men lycence to breake them.
IF any Pryest be founde eatyng in a common ale house / let hym be excō municated.The coū cell of Nice. 6.
IF any man iudge / that a maryed Pryeste oughte not to offer / as it were for his mariage sake:The coū cell of Gāgrēse and for that cause doe abstayne from his oblacyon / let hym be excommunicated.
¶But nowe maryed Pryestes bee excommunicated / and except they wil forsake their lawfull wiues / thei shal be burned therefore.
FOr asmuche as there ar some / which praye standyng both on the Sōday & in whitsōe we…:Ibidē. 7. it is therfore ordeyned / by thys holy / counsell / that because it is a conveniēt custome / and agreable throughout al churches / that men should make their prayers to god stādīg. ¶This law is no where kept.
LEt no priest be made beforeThe coū sel of Neocesario.. 30. yeares / yea though he be of an honest life / but let him tarye to the tyme appoynted: for the lord was baptised at .30. yeares & thē preached.
¶How this law is kept / the whole world may iudge / for the Cardynall of Loreyn was made aboute the .12. yere of hys age. And Pope Clemence made .ii. of his nephews cardinals / being veri boies. And of late in the pops kīgdō childrē hauehave bēe made Archedeacōs / & denes of Cathedral churches.
NO mā may be receaued to baptisme in lente / afterThe coū cel of Laodicia. ii. wekes.
BReade ought not to be offered in lent but in the saterday & sōday.Ibidem. ¶He speaketh of the bread of the holye Communion. But who kepeth these lawes?
LAy men oughte not to sing any made & cōmōly vsed sōgs in the church / nor read ani boke beside the canō:Ibidem. but only the canonical bokes of the new & old testamēt / those bokes which oughte to be red and receued for authoritie / those bokes / whiche be deuided frō the bokes called apocrypha / in the gret bible. VntoUnto the which S. Cipriā / Hierō / Austē / with all the old writers / agre. ¶But the .3. coūcell of carthage added to these the bokes of wisdom / Ecclesiasticus / Tobie / Iudith / Hester / & the bokes of the Machabees / vntounto which latter coūsel the papistes cleaue with toth & nayle / and ther vpō stay their purgatory / prayīge to sainctes / with diuerse other errors and heresies: cōtrary to the elder & better coūsels. Herby you may most easely perceiue / how shamefully their general coūsels hauehave erred / as wel in the iudgemēt of the scriptures / as also in necessary articles of our fayth & good maners. Yea & the chefest and oldeste coūsels be (as Anacharsis said of the lawes / made by Solon for the Atheniens) like to cobwebbes / wherin smal flies / gnattes and Miges be takē / and deuoured of the spiders: but greate hornettes and hōbellbees flie through and breake them / without any daunger or hurt. And generally there is no lawes regarded / kepte or maintained amonge them: but suche as make / (as they turne thē) pro pane lucrādo / that is / for their dignities / immunites or libertes and prophetes. Wherefore the words of our sauiour Christ maye be rightly veryfied of thē:Mat. 23. they laye heuy & importable burthēs on other mens shoulders / but wil not once moue thē with their fīger. For all their lawes be but nettes to take / & kyll the poore fishes / and to fyl their own paūches.