Acts and Monuments Volume 2 Part 2, Book 12 · Oration 1
¶The Oration of D. Scot B. of Chester, before the condemnation of Bucer and Phagius.
The Oration of Doctour Scotte Bishop of Chester, before the pronouncing of the Sentence of condemnation.YE see (ꝙ he) how sore the Vniuersitie presseth vponupon vsus, how earnest intercession it maketh vntounto vsus, not only to denounce Bucer and Phagius, which these certayne yeares past hauehave spred most pernicious doctrine among you, to be heretickes (as they be in deede) but also that we will commaund their dead carcasses, which vntounto this day hauehave obtayned honourable buriall among you, to be digged vp, and as it is excellently ordained by the Canon law to be cast into fire, or whatsoeuer is more grieuous then fire,What dissembling is here in thes… Pope holy Catholickes? if any can bee. For the degrees of the Vniuersitie deale not slightly nor slackly with vsus in this case, but do so presse vponupon vsus, and follow the sute so earnestly, that they scarse geue vsus any respite of delay. And I assure you, albeit this case of it selfe be such, as that euen the vnworthinesse of those persons, though there were no further cause,Tyranny couered with the visor of mercy. ought to induce vsus to the doyng thereof, much the rather mooued with these so wholesome petitions, it is meete and conuenient we should graunt it. For howe soeuer we of our selues are enclined to mercye in our heartes, (then the which wee protest there is nothyng vnderunder the Sunne to vsus more deare and acceptable) yet notwithstandyng, the very law riseth vp to reuengement,Sathan transforming himself into an Aungell of light. so that the common saluation of you all, which the law prouideth for, must bee preferred before the priuate charitie of our mynds. Neither ought any such negligence to ouertake vsus for our partes, that we beyng scarce yet escaped out of the shipwracke of our former calamitie, shoulde now suffer this vnexpiable mischiefe, to disquiet any longer the consciences of the weake.
O Lord God? as though this were the doing of the Vniuersity, and not your owne.Moreouer, it is but reason that we should doe somewhat at so earnest intreatance and sute of the Vniuersitie. It needeth not me to speake much of our selues. For if we had bene desirous to enterprise this matter, it had bene lawfull after the first Citation, to hauehave proceeded to iudgement: but for because we were willyng that their defendours should be heard, and that the matter should be denounced and tried by law, we sent out the seconde processe.
If we had desired reuengement, we myght hauehave shewed crueltye vponupon them that are alyue:The Wolfe pretendeth to be a Lambe. of the which (alas the more pitie) there are too many that embrace this doctrine. If we thirsted for bloud, it was not to be sought in withered carcasses and drie bones. Therefore ye may well perceiue, it was no part of our wils that we now came hether,As though the Cardinall sent you not downe before you came to the Vniuersitye. but partly induced at the intreatie of the Vniuersitie, partly mooued with the vnworthinesse of the case it selfe, but especially for the care and regard we hauehave of your health and saluation, which we couet by all means to preserue.
For you your selues are the cause of this busines: you gaue occasion of this confession, among whom this day ought to be a notable example, to remayne as a memoriall to them that shall come after, as in that which ye may learne not onelyonly to shake of the filth which ye hauehave taken of these persons, but also to beware hereafter that ye fall no more so shamefully as ye hauehave done. But I trust God will defend you, and geue you myndes to kepe your selues from it.
As concernyng the parties themselues,Bucer and Phagius falsely accused of hipocrisie by false hipocrites. whose case now hā geth in lawe, they bare about the name of the Gospell, where as in deede they wrought nothyng els than the eueryevery and deceite. And so much the wickeder were they, in that they sought to couer so shameful actes, with the cloke of so faire and holy a name. Wherefore it is not to be doubted, but that God will punish this despite of it selfe wicked, to you pernicious, by the authors therof shamefull and abhominable.
But if God, as he is slow to wrath and vengeance, wil winke at it for a tyme, yet notwithstandyng, if we vppon whome the charge of the Lordes flocke leaneth, should permit so execrable crimes to escape vnpunished, we should not lyue in quiete one hower.
When he had thus spoken, hee recited the sentence out of a scroll, and condemned Bucer and Phagius of heresie: the form and tenour of which sentence, framed after ye barbarous rude stile of that church, thus followeth.