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reformed, and that which is good may remain. Neither is there any just cause of offence to be taken, if divers men make divers senses of one sentence of Scripture; so that all the senses be good and agreeable to the analogy and proportion of faith: for otherwise we must needs condemn all the ancient fathers and doctors of the Church, who most commonly expound one and the same text of the Scripture diversely, and yet all to the good of the Church. Therefore doth St. Basil compare the Scriptures to a well; out of the which the more a man draweth, the better and sweeter is the water.

I trust, when your Majesty hath considered and well weighed the premises, you will rest satisfied, and judge that no such inconveniences can grow of these exercises, as you have been informed, but rather the clean contrary. And for my own part, because I am very well assured, both by reasons and arguments taken out of the Holy Scriptures, and by experience (the most certain seal of sure knowledge), that the said exercises, for the interpretation and exposition of the Scriptures and for exhortation and comfort drawn out of the same, are both profitable to increase knowledge among the ministers, and tendeth to the edifying of the hearers, I am forced, with all humility, and yet plainly, to profess, that I cannot with safe conscience, and without the offence of the Majesty of God, give my assent to the suppressing of the said exercises: much less can I send out any injunction for the utter and universal subversion of the same. I say with St. Paul, “I have no power to destroy, but to only edify;" and with the same apostle, "I can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth."

If it be your Majesty's pleasure, for this or any other cause, to remove me out of this place, I will with all humility yield thereunto, and render again to your Majesty that I received of the same. I consider with myself, Quod horrendum est incidere in manus Dei viventis. I consider also, Quod qui facit contra conscientiam (divinis juribus nixam) ædificat ad gehennam.? "And what should I win, if I gained" (I will not say a bishoprick, but) "the whole world, and lose mine own soul?"

Bear with me, I beseech you, Madam, if I choose rather to offend your earthly Majesty than to offend the heavenly Majesty of God. And now being sorry that I have been so long and tedious to your Majesty, I will draw to an end, most humbly praying the same well to consider these two short petitions following.

The first is, that you would refer all these ecclesiastical matters which touch religion, or the doctrine and discipline of the Church, unto the bishops and divines of your realm; according to the example of all godly Christian emperors and princes of all ages. For indeed they are things to be judged (as an ancient father writeth) in ecclesia, seu synodo, non in palatio. When your Majesty hath questions of the laws of your realm, you do not decide the same in your court, but send them to your judges to be determined. Likewise for doubts in matters of doctrine or discipline of the Church, the ordinary way is to refer the decision of the same to the bishops, and other head ministers of the Church.

Ambrose to Theodosius useth these words: Si de causis pecuniariis comites tuos consulis, quanto magis in causa religionis sacerdotes Domini æquum est consulas ?1 And like

1 "That it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Hebrews x. 31.)

That he who acts against his conscience (resting upon the laws of God) builds for hell.

3 In the church, or a synod, not in a palace.

"If on affairs of money you consult with your counts, how much more is it fit that you consult with the Lord's priests on affairs of religion?"

wise the same father to the good emperor Valentinianus: Si conferendum de fide, sacerdotum debet esse ista collatio; sicut factum est sub Constantino augustæ memoriæ principe, qui nullas leges ante præmisit, sed liberum dedit judicium sacer. dotibus.5 And the same father saith, that Constantius the emperor, son to the said Constantine the Great, began well, by reason he followed his father's steps at the first; but ended ill, because he took upon him de fide intra palatium judicare (for so be the words of Ambrose), and thereby fell into Arianism; a terrible example!

6

The said Ambrose, so much commended in all histories for a godly bishop, goeth yet farther, and writeth to the same emperor in this form: Si docendus est episcopus a laico, quid sequetur? Laicus ergo disputet, et episcopus audiat; episcopus discat a laico. At certe, si vel scripturarum seriem divinarum vel vetera tempora retractemus, quis est qui abnuat, in causa fidei, in causa, inquam, fidei, episcopos solere de imperatoribus Christianis, non imperatores de episcopis judicare?7 Would God your Majesty would follow this ordinary course! You should procure to yourself much more quietness of mind, better please God, avoid many offences, and the Church should be more quietly and peaceably governed, much to your comfort and commodity of your realm.

:

The second petition I have to make to your Majesty is this that when you deal in matters of faith and religion, or matters that touch the Church of Christ, which is His spouse, bought with so dear a price, you would not use to pronounce so resolutely and peremptorily, quasi ex auctoritate, as ye may do in civil and extern matters; but always remember, that in God's causes the will of God, and not the will of any earthly creature, is to take place. It is the antichristian voice of the Pope, Sic volo, sic jubeo; stet pro ratione voluntas. In God's matters all princes ought to bow their sceptres to the Son of God, and to ask counsel at His mouth what they ought to do. David exhorteth all kings and rulers to serve God with fear and trembling.

Remember, Madam, that you are a mortal creature. "Look not only (as was said to Theodosius) upon the purple and princely array, wherewith ye are apparelled; but consider withal, what is that that is covered therewith. Is it not flesh and blood? Is it not dust and ashes? Is it not a corruptible body, which must return to his earth again, God knoweth how soon?" Must not you also one day appear ante tremendum tribunal Crucifixi, ut recipias ibi, prout gesseris in corpore, sive bonum sive malum ? 10

And although ye are a mighty prince, yet remember that He which dwelleth in heaven is mightier. He is, as the Psalmist sayeth, terribilis, et is qui aufert spiritum principum, terribilis super omnes reges terræ."

5 "If we confer about faith, the conference ought to be left to the priests; as it was done under the prince Constantine, of august memory, who set forth no laws, before he had submitted them to the free judgment of the priests."

To judge of faith within the palace.

7 "If a bishop be to be taught by a layman, what will follow? Let the layman then dispute, and the bishop hear: let the bishop learn of the layman. But certainly, if we have recourse either to the order of the Holy Scriptures or to ancient times, who is there that can deny, that in the cause of faith, I say, in the cause of faith, bishops were wont to judge concerning Christian emperors, not emperors concerning bishops ?"

As if by authority.

So I will have it; so I command: let my will stand for s

reason.

10 "Before the fearful judgment-seat of the Crucified, to receive there according as you have done in the body, whether it be good or evil ? "

"Terrible, and he who taketh away the spirit of princes, and is terrible above all the kings of the earth."

Wherefore I do beseech you, Madam, in visceribus Christi,' when you deal in these religious causes, set the majesty of God before your eyes, laying all earthly majesty aside: determine with yourself to obey His voice, and with all humility say unto Him, Non mea, sed tua voluntas fiat. God hath blessed you with great felicity in your reign, now many years; beware you do not impute the same to your own deserts or policy, but give God the glory. And as to instruments and means, impute your said felicity, first, to the goodness of the cause which ye have set forth (I mean Christ's true religion); and, secondly, to the sighs and groanings of the godly in their fervent prayer to God for you; which have hitherto, as it were, tied and bound the hands of God, that He could not pour His plagues upon you and your people, most justly deserved.

Take heed, that ye never once think of declining from God, lest that be verified of you, which is written of Ozeas [Joash], who continued a prince of good and godly government for many years together; and afterwards cum roboratus esset (saith the text), elevatum est cor ejus in interitum suum, et neglexit Dominum.3 Ye have done many things well; but except ye persevere to the end, ye cannot be blessed. For if ye turn from God, then God will turn away his merciful countenance from you. And what remaineth then to be looked for, but only a terrible expectation of God's judgments, and an heaping up of wrath against the day of wrath?

But I trust in God, your Majesty will always humble yourself under His mighty hand, and go forward in the zealous setting forth of God's true religion, always yielding due obedience and reverence to the Word of God, the only rule of faith and religion. And if ye so do, although God hath just cause many ways to be angry with you and us for our unfaithfulness, yet I doubt nothing, but that for His own name's sake, and for His own glory's sake, He will still hold His merciful hand over us, shield and protect us under the shadow of His wings, as He hath done hitherto.

I beseech God, our heavenly Father, plentifully to pour His principal Spirit upon you, and always to direct your heart in His holy fear. Amen.

Queen Elizabeth met this letter by causing others to issue her command that "prophesyings" should be discontinued. Grindal was confined to his house, and, by order of the Star Chamber, sequestered for six months, during which he might retain the name of Archbishop, but all duties of the office were discharged by others, of whom Aylmer, Bishop of London, was the chief. As Grindal, at the end of the six months, remained of the same mind, this state of things continued, and such was Archbishop Grindal's position in 1579, when young Edmund Spenser published his "Shepherd's Calendar," and, honouring the disgraced primate by the name of the wise Algrind, openly declared sympathy with him, and want of sympathy with Aylmer, who figured in the calendar as Morrel. " goat-herd proud." Bishop

1 In the bowels of Christ.

2 "Not mine, but thine be done." (Luke xxii. 42.)

3 "When he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord." (2 Chronicles xxvi. 16.)

The volume of this Library containing "Shorter English Poems," pages 205-209, contains the eclogue of the "Shepherd's Calendar" which especially illustrates Edmund Spenser's sympathy with Edmund Grindal,

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(From the First Edition of Spenser's "Complaints," 1591.)

66

ARTIN MARPRELATE is a name hardly suggestive of Religion, for it recalls chiefly the bitterness of a zeal that cast out charity. It was the assumed name under which many earnest Puritans, who endangered. their lives by plain speaking, published unlicensed pamphlets against those signs of an imperfect Reformation which they thought they found in prelacy. Martin Marprelate "pistled the Bishops" in earnest and violent tracts, printed by a secret press, which the Government fiercely hunted out of one hiding-place into another. One of the Marprelate writers, John Penry, was caught and hanged. He wrote before his execution, I never did anything in this cause for contention, vainglory, or to draw disciples after me. Great things in this life I never sought for: sufficiency I had with great outward trouble; but most content I was with my lot, and content with my untimely death, though I leave behind me a friendless widow and four infants." John Udall, another of the Marprelate writers, was left to die in prison. When he was tried for the authorship of a book, and offered witnesses in his defence, they were refused a hearing on the plea that. witnesses for the prisoner would be against the Queen. But he said, and said in vain, "It is for the Queen to hear all things when the life of any of her subjects is in question." The pamphlets written against the Puritans in this quarrel, not clandestinely, because authority was with them, were chiefly by wits and playwrights, as violent as those which they opposed, and not so earnest. The most temperate of all these writers was one of the impugned bishops, Thomas Cooper, Bishop of Winchester. This controversy was at its height in 1589, and Francis Bacon, then twenty-nine years old, wrote of it wisely thus :

Indifferent, unprejudiced. (See Note 1, p. 180.)

AN ADVERTISEMENT TOUCHING THE CONTROVERSIES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

It is but ignorance if any man find it strange that the state of Religion (especially in the days of peace) should be exercised and troubled with controversies. For as it is the condition of the Church Militant to be ever under trials, so it cometh to pass that when the fiery trial of persecution ceaseth there succeedeth another trial, which as it were by contrary blasts of doctrine doth sift and winnow men's faith, and proveth them whether they know God aright, even as that other of afflictions discovereth whether they love Him better than the World. Accordingly was it foretold by Christ, saying, That in the latter times it should be said, Lo here, lo there is Christ: which is to be understood, not as if the very person of Christ should be assumed and counterfeited, but his authority and pre-eminence (which is to be Truth itself) that should be challenged and pretended. Thus have we read and seen to be fulfilled that which followeth, Ecce in deserto, ecce in penetralibus; while some have sought the truth in the conventicles and conciliables of heretics and sectaries, and others in the extern face and representation of the Church, and both sorts been seduced. Were it then that the controversies of the Church of England were such as did divide the unity of the spirit, and not such as only do unswathe her of her bonds (the bonds of peace), yet could it be no occasion for any pretended Catholic to judge us, or for any irreligious person to despise us. Or if it be, it shall but happen to us all as it hath used to do; to them to be hardened, and to us to endure the good pleasure of God. But now that our contentions are such, as we need not so much that general canon and sentence of Christ pronounced against heretics, Erratis, nescientes Scripturas, nec potestatem Dei, as we need the admonition of St. James, "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;" and that the wound is no way dangerous, except we poison it with our remedies; as the former sort of men have less reason to make themselves music in our discord, so I have good hope that nothing shall displease ourselves which shall be sincerely and modestly propounded for the appeasing of these dissensions. any shall be offended at this voice, Vos estis fratres (ye are brethren, why strive ye?), he shall give a great presumption against himself, that he is the party that doth his brother wrong.

For if

The controversies themselves I will not enter into, as judging that the disease requireth rather rest than any other cure. Thus much we all know and confess, that they be not of the highest nature; for they are not touching the high mysteries of faith, such as detained the churches after their first peace for many years; what time the heretics moved curious questions, and made strange anatomies of the natures and person of Christ; and the Catholic fathers were compelled to follow them with all subtility of decisions and determinations, to exclude them from their evasions and to take them in their labyrinths; so as it is rightly said, illis temporibus ingeniosa res fuit esse Christianum (in those days it was an ingenious and subtle matter to be a Christian). Neither are they concerning the great parts of the worship of God, of which it is true that non servatur unitas in credendo, nisi eadem adsit in colendo (there will be kept no unity in believing, except it be entertained in worshipping); such as were the controversies of the east and west churches touching

"Behold, he is in the desert . . . behold, he is in the secret chambers." (Matthew xxiv. 26.)

"Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." (Matthew xxii. 29.)

images; and such as are many of those between the Church of Rome and us; as about the adoration of the Sacrament, and the like. But we contend about ceremonies and things indifferent; about the extern policy and government of the Church. In which kind, if we would but remember that the ancient and true bonds of unity are one faith, one baptism, and not one ceremony, one policy; if we would observe the league amongst Christians that is penned by our Saviour, “He that is not against us is with us:" if we could but comprehend that saying, differentia rituum commendat unitatem doctrina (the diversity of ceremonies doth set forth the unity of doctrine); and that habet religio quæ sunt æternitatis, habet quæ sunt temporis (Religion hath parts which belong to eternity, and parts which pertain to time): and if we did but know the virtue of silence and slowness to speak, commended by St. James; our controversies of themselves would close up and grow together. But most especially, if we would leave the over-weening and turbulent humours of these times, and revive the blessed proceeding of the Apostles and Fathers of the primitive Church, which was, in the like and greater cases, not to enter into assertions and positions, but to deliver counsels and advices, we should need no other remedy at all. Si eadem consulis, frater, quæ affirmas, debetur consulenti reverentia, cum non debeatur fides affirmanti (Brother, if that which you set down as an assertion, you would deliver by way of advice, there were reverence due to your counsel, whereas faith is not due to your affirmation). St. Paul was content to speak thus, Ego, non Dominus (I, and not the Lord): Et, secundum consilium meum (according to my counsel). But now men do too lightly say, Non ego, sed Dominus (not I, but the Lord): yea, and bind it with heavy denunciations of His judgments, to terrify the simple, which have not sufficiently understood out of Salomon, that the causeless curse shall not come.

Therefore seeing the accidents are they which breed the peril, and not the things themselves in their own nature, it is meet the remedies be applied unto them, by opening what it is on either part that keepeth the wound green, and formalizeth both sides to a further opposition, and worketh an indisposition in men's minds to be reunited. Wherein no accusation is pretended; but I find in reason, that peace is best built upon a repetition of wrongs: and in example, that the speeches which have been made by the wisest men de concordia ordinum3 have not abstained from reducing to memory the extremities used on both parts. So as it is true which is said, Qui pacem tractat non repetitis conditionibus dissidii, is magis animos hominum dulcedine pacis fallit, quam æquitate componit.

And first of all, it is more than time that there were an end and surseance made of this immodest and deformed manner of writing lately entertained, whereby matters of Religion are handled in the style of the stage. Indeed, bitter and earnest writing may not hastily be condemned; for men cannot contend coldly and without affection about things which they hold dear and precious. A politic man may write from his brain, without touch and sense of his heart, as in a speculation that pertaineth not unto him; but a feeling Christian will express in his words a character either of zeal or love. The latter of which as I could wish rather embraced, being more fit for these times, yet is the former warranted also by great examples. But to leave all reverent and religious compassion towards evils, or indignation

3 On concord of arrangements.

♦ Whoever seeks treaty of peace without re-stating the causes of dissension, rather beguiles men's minds with the sweetness of peace than brings them into accord by equity.

towards faults, and to turn religion into a comedy or satire; to search and rip up wounds with a laughing countenance; to intermix Scripture and scurrility sometime in one sentence; is a thing far from the devout reverence of a Christian, and scant beseeming the honest regard of a sober man. Non est major confusio, quam serii et joci (there is no greater confusion, than the confounding of jest and earnest). The majesty of religion, and the contempt and deformity of things ridiculous, are things as distant as things may be. Two principal causes have I ever known of Atheism: curious controversies, and profane scoffing. Now that these two are joined in one, no doubt that sect will make no small progression.

And here I do much esteem the wisdom and religion of that bishop' which replied to the first pamphlet of this kind, who remembered that "a fool was to be answered, but not by becoming like unto him;" and considered the matter that he handled, and not the person with whom he dealt. Job, speaking of the majesty and gravity of a judge in himself, saith, "If I did smile, they believed it not:" as if he should have said, If I diverted, or glanced unto conceit of mirth, yet men's minds were so possessed with a reverence of the action in hand, as they could not receive it. Much more ought this to be amongst bishops and divines disputing about holy things. And therefore as much do I dislike the invention of him who (as it seemeth) pleased himself in it as in no mean policy, that these men are to be dealt withal at their own weapons, and pledged in their own cup. This seemed to him as profound a device, as when the Cardinal Sansovino counselled Julius II. to encounter the Council of Pisa with the Council Lateran; or as lawful a challenge as Mr. Jewel made to confute the pretended Catholics by the Fathers. But these things will not excuse the imitation of evil in another. It should be contrariwise with us, as Cæsar said, Nil malo, quam eos similes esse sui, et me mei.2 But now, Dum de bonis contendimus, in malis consentimus (while we differ about good things, we resemble in evil). Surely, if I were asked of these men who were the more to be blamed, I should percase remember the proverb, "that the second blow maketh the fray," and the saying of an obscure fellow, Qui replicat, multiplicat (he that replieth, multiplieth). But I would determine the question with this sentence: Alter principium malo dedit, alter modum abstulit (by the one's means we have a beginning, and by the other's we shall have none end). And truly, as I do marvel that some of those preachers which call for reformation (whom I am far from wronging so far as to join them with these scoffers) do not publish some declaration whereby they may satisfy the world that they dislike their cause should be thus solicited; so I hope assuredly that my lords of the clergy have none intelligence with this other libeller, but do altogether disallow that their credit should be thus defended. For though I observe in him many glosses, whereby the man would insinuate himself into their favours, yet I find it to be ordinary, that many pressing and fawning persons do misconjecture of the humours of men in authority, and many times Veneri immolant suem (they seek to gratify them with that which they most dislike). For I have great reason to satisfy myself touching the judgments of my lords

1 Thomas Cooper, whose pamphlet here referred to was entitled An Admonition to the People of England," and gave rise to a rejoinder entitled "Hay ye any work for a Cooper ?" Thomas Cooper, born at Oxford in 1527, left a fellowship at Magdalene to study physic in the reign of Mary, but after her death he became successively Dean of Christchurch, Dean of Gloucester, Bishop of Lincoln (1570), and Bishop of Winchester (1584). He died in 159. Besides his "Admonition," he published sermons, and a Latin dictionary.

2 "I wish nothing but that they shall be like themselves, I like myself." (Cæsar in Cicero's letters to Atticus.)

the bishops in this matter, by that which was written by one of them, which I mentioned before with honour. Nevertheless I note, there is not an indifferent hand carried towards these pamphlets as they deserve. For the one sort flieth in the dark, and the other is uttered openly; wherein I might advise that side out of a wise writer, who hath set it down that punitis ingeniis gliscit auctoritas. And indeed we see it ever falleth out that the forbidden writing is thought to be certain sparks of a truth that fly up in the faces of those that seek to choke it and tread it out; whereas a book authorised is thought to be, but temporis voces (the language of the time). But in plain truth I do find (to my understanding) these pamphlets as meet to be suppressed as the other. First, because as the former sort doth deface the government of the Church in the persons of the bishops and prelates, so the other doth lead into contempt the exercises of religion in the persons of sundry preachers; so as it disgraceth an higher matter, though in the meaner person. Next, I find certain indiscreet and dangerous amplifications, as if the civil government itself of this estate had near lost the force of her sinews, and were ready to enter into some convulsion, all things being full of faction and disorder; which is as unwisely acknowledged as untruly affirmed. I know his meaning is to enforce this unreverent and violent impugning of the government of bishops to be a suspected forerunner of a more general contempt. And I grant there is sympathy between the states, but no such matter in the civil policy as deserveth so dishonourable a taxation. To conclude this point: As it were to be wished that these writings had been abortive, and never seen the sun; so the next is, since they be comen abroad, that they be censured (by all that have understanding and conscience) as the intemperate extravagancies of some light persons. Yea further, that men beware (except they mean to adventure to deprive themselves of all sense of religion, and to pave their own hearts, and make them as the highway) how they be conversant in them, and much more how they delight in that vein; but rather to turn their laughing into blushing, and to be ashamed, as of a short madness, that they have in matters of religion taken their disport and solace. But this perchance is of those faults which will be soonest acknowledged; though I perceive nevertheless that there want not some who seek to blanch and excuse it.

But to descend to a sincere view and consideration of the accidents and circumstances of these controversies, wherein either part deserveth blame or imputation; I find generally, in causes of church controversies, that men do offend in some or all of these five points.

1. The first is, the giving of occasion unto the controversies and also the inconsiderate and ungrounded taking of occasion.

3 Indifferent, impartial. (See Note 1, page 180.)

4 "When wits are punished, their authority increases." Part of a passage in the "Annals of Tacitus" (iv. 35), which says, "Vain and senseless is the attempt by an arbitrary act to extinguish the light of truth and defraud posterity of due information. Genius thrives under oppression; persecute the author, and you enhance the value of his work."

5 Censured, thought of. "Censure" meant originally one's opinion upon a subject, good or bad. The slow advance of culture has caused the majority of such opinions to be in accord with what Chaucer describes as the judgment of the ignorant, in his " Squire's Tale," when magic gifts are under scrutiny; they judge

"As lewed people demen commonly
Of thingés that ben made more subtilly
Than they can in their lewdness comprehend,
They demen gladly to the badder end."

2. The next is, the extending and multiplying the controversies to a more general opposition or contradiction than appeareth at the first propounding of them, when men's judgments are less partial.

3. The third is, the passionate and unbrotherly practices and proceedings of both parts towards the persons each of others, for their discredit and suppression.

4. The fourth is, the courses holden and entertained on either side, for the drawing of their partisans to a more strait union within themselves, which ever importeth a further distraction of the entire body.

5. The last is, the undue and inconvenient propounding, publishing, and debating of the controversies. In which point the most palpable error hath been already spoken of; as that which, through the strangeness and freshness of the abuse, first offereth itself to the conceits of all men.

1. Now concerning the occasion of controversies, it cannot be denied but that the imperfections in the conversation' and government of those which have chief place in the Church have ever been principal causes and motives of schisms and divisions. For whilst the bishops and governors of the Church continue full of knowledge and good works; whilst they feed the flock indeed; whilst they deal with the secular states in all liberty and resolution, according to the majesty of their calling, and the precious care of souls imposed upon them so long the Church is situate as it were upon an hill; no man maketh question of it, or seeketh to depart from it. But when these virtues in the fathers and leaders of the Church have lost their light, and that they wax worldly, "lovers of themselves, and pleasers of men," then men begin to grope for the Church as in the dark; they are in doubt whether they be the successors of the Apostles, or of the Pharisees; yea, howsoever they sit in Moses' chair, yet they can never speak tanquam auctoritatem habentes (as having authority), because they have lost their reputation in the consciences of men, by declining their steps from the way which they trace out to others. So as men had need continually have sounding in their ears this saying, Nolite exire (go not out); so ready are they to depart from the Church upon every voice. And therefore it is truly noted by one that writeth as a natural man, "that the hypocrisy of freres did for a great time maintain and bear out the irreligion of bishops and prelates." For this is the double policy of the spiritual enemy, either by counterfeit holiness of life to establish and authorise errors; or by corruption of manners to discredit and draw in question truth and things lawful. This concerneth my lords the bishops, unto whom I am witness to myself that I stand affected as I ought. No contradiction hath supplanted in me the reverence I owe to their calling; neither hath any detractation or calumny embased mine opinion of their persons. I know some of them, whose names are most pierced with these accusations, to be men of great virtues; although the indisposition of the time, and the want of correspondence many ways, is enough to frustrate the best endeavours in the edifying of the Church. And for the rest generally, I can condemn none. I am no judge of them that belong to so high a master; neither have I two witnesses. And I know it is truly said of fame, Pariter facta, atque infecta canebat. Their taxations arise not all from one coast; they have many and different enemies, ready to invent slander, more ready to amplify it, and most ready to believe

1 Conversation, intercourse, way of association with others. "Octavia is of a holy, cold, and still conversation." ("Antony and Cleopatra," ii. 6.) "Our conversation is in heaven." (Philippians iii. 20.)

2 She sang equally things done and not done. (Statius, "Thebaid," iii. 430.)

it. And Magnes mendacii credulitas (credulity is the adamant of lies). But if any be, against whom the supreme bishop hath not a few things but many things; if any have "lost his first love;" if any "be neither hot nor cold;" if any have stumbled too foully at the threshold, in sort that he cannot sit well which entered ill; it is time "they return whence they are fallen, and confirm the things that remain." Great is the weight of this fault; et eorum causa abhorrebant homines à sacrificio Domini (and for their cause did men abhor the adoration of God). But howsoever it be, those which have sought to deface them, and cast contempt upon them, are not to be excused.

It is the precept of Salomon, "that the rulers be not reproached; no, not in thought," but that we draw our very conceit into a modest interpretation of their doings. The holy angel would give no sentence of blasphemy against the common slanderer, but said, Increpet te Dominus (the Lord rebuke thee). The Apostle St. Paul, though against him that did pollute sacred justice with tyrannous violence he did justly denounce the judgment of God, in saying Percutiet te Dominus (the Lord will strike thee); yet in saying paries dealbate, he thought he had gone too far, and retracted it: whereupon a learned father said, Ipsum quamvis inane nomes et umbram sacerdotis cogitans expavit. The ancient councils and synods (as is noted by the ecclesiastical story), when they deprived any bishop, never recorded the offence, but buried it in perpetual silence. Only Cham purchased his curse with revealing his father's disgrace. And yet a much greater fault is it to ascend from their person to their calling, and draw that in question. Many good fathers spake rigorously and severely of the unworthiness of bishops, as if presently it did forfeit and cease their office. One saith, Sacerdotes nõialnamur et non sumus (we are called priests, but priests we are not). Another saith, Nisi bonum opus amplectaris, episcopus esse non potes (except thou undertake the good work, th.u canst not be a bishop). Yet they meant nothing less than to make doubt of their calling or ordination.

The second occasion of controversies, is the nature and humour of some men. The Church never wanteth a kind of persons which love "the salutation of Rabbi, master;" not in ceremony or compliment, but in an inward authority which they seek over men's minds, in drawing them to depend up their opinion, and "to seek knowledge at their lips." These men are the true successors of Diotrephes, the lover of pre eminence, and not lords bishops. Such spirits do light upn another sort of natures, which do adhere to them; men quorum gloria in obsequio (stiff followers, and such as zeal marvellously for those whom they have chosen for their masters). This latter sort, for the most part, are men of young years and superficial understanding, carried away with partial respect of persons, or with the enticing appearance of goodly names and pretences. Pauci res ipsas sequester,

plures nomina rerum, plurimi nomina magistrorum (few fellow the things themselves, more the names of the things, ard most the names of their masters). About these genera affections are wreathed accidental and private emulations and discontentments, all which together break forth int contentions; such as either violate truth, sobriety, or per These generalities apply themselves. The universities are the seat and continent of this disease, whence it hath been and is derived into the rest of the realm. There some will no longer be è numero (of the number). There some others side that

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