A. D. 1534. in the Henry soever refuseth to use the office of an eye in the mystical body, to show unto VIII. the body the right way of believing and living, which appertaineth to the spiritual eye to do, shall show himself to be a blind eye; and if he shall take any other office in hand than appertaineth to the right eye, he shall make a confusion in the body, taking upon him another office than is given him of God. A bishop Wherefore, if the eye will take upon him the office of the whole head, it may be is an eye answered unto it, it cannot do so, for it lacketh brain. And examples show head, but likewise that it is not necessary always that the head should have the faculty or chief office of administration, as you may see in a navy by sea; where the admiral, who is a captain over all, doth not meddle with steering or governing of every ship, but every particular master must direct the ship to pass the sea in breaking the waves by his steering and governance, which the admiral, the head of all, doth not himself, nor yet hath the faculty to do, but commandeth of a head. the masters of the ships to do it. And likewise many a captain of great armies, who is not able, nor ever could peradventure shoot, or break a spear by his own strength, yet, by his wisdom and commandment only, achieveth the wars, and attaineth the victory. not the head of the mys tical body. The office What is unity. And whereas you think that unity standeth not only in the agreeing in one faith and doctrine of the church, but also in agreeing in one head; if you mean the very and only head over all the church, our Saviour Christ, whom the Father hath set over all the church, which is his body, wherein all good christian men do agree, therein you say truth. But, if you mean for any one mortal man to be the head over all the church, and that head to be the bishop of Rome, we do not agree with you. For you do there err in the true understanding of the Scripture; or else you must say that the said council of Nice, and others most ancient did err, which divided the administration of churches, the orient from the occident, and the south from the north, as is before expressed. And that Christ, the universal head, is present in every church, the gospel showeth ; Where two or three be gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them; and in another place, 'Behold, I am with you until the end of the world:" by which it may appear that Christ, the universal head, is everywhere with his mystical body the church; who, by his Spirit, worketh in all places (how far soever they be distant) the unity and concord of the same. And as for any other universal head to be over all, than Christ himself, Scripture proveth not, as it is showed before. And yet for a further proof, to take away the scruples that peradventure do, to your appearance, rise of certain words in some ancient authors, and especially Answer to in St. Cyprian's epistles, as that the unity of the church stood in the unity with Cyprian. the bishop of Rome, though they never call him supreme head; if you will ་ weigh and confer all their sayings together, you shall perceive that they neither spake nor meant otherwise; but when the bishop of Rome was once lawfully elected and enthroned, if then any other would, by faction, might, force, or otherwise (the other living and doing his office), enterprise to put him down, and usurp the same bishopric, or exercise the other's office himself (as Novatian did attempt in the time of Cornelius), then the said fathers reckoned them catholics that did communicate with him that was so lawfully elected: and the custom was, for one primacy to have to do with another by congratulatory letters, soon after the certainty of their election was known, to keep the unity of the church; and all they that did take part with, or maintain the usurper, to be schismatics, because that usurper was a schismatic ; Because it was not lawful for two bishops to be at once together in one church, neither the former bishop, being lawful, to be deposed without his fault were proved.' And this is not a prerogative of the church of Rome, more than of any other cathedral. more pre- special, patriarchal, or metropolitical church, as appeareth in the third epistle rogative of the first book, and in the eighth of the second, and in the fourth book of St. other. Cyprian to Cornelius; whose words and reasons, although peradventure they In what might seem to include the unity of the church in the unity of the bishop of the unity Rome, because they were all written to him in his own case, may as well be church written unto any other bishop lawfully chosen, who percase should be likewise standeth. disturbed, as the bishops of Rome then were, by any factions of ambitious heretics. The church of Rome hath no than any of the (1) Matt. xviii. (2) Matt. xxviii. (3) Quia non sit fas in eadem ecclesia, duos simul episcopos esse, nec priorem legitimum episcopum sine sua culpa deponi.' 1 VIII. A. D. 1534. And whereas you think the name of supreme head under Christ, given and Henry attributed to the king's majesty, maketh an innovation in the church, and perturbation of the order of the same; it cannot be any innovation or trouble to the church to use the room that God hath called him to, which good christian princes did use in the beginning, when faith was most pure, as St. Augustine, Ad Glorium et Eleusium, saith; One there is, who saith, that a bishop ought not to have been put to his purgation before the judgment seat of the deputy, as though he himself procured it, and not rather the emperor himself caused this inquiry to be made; to whose jurisdiction (for which he must answer to God) that cause did specially pertain.' Chrysostome writeth of that imperial authority thus: 'He is offended that hath no peer at all upon the earth, for he The imis the highest potentate, and the head of all men upon earth.' And Tertullian perial saith, We honour and reverence the emperor in such wise as is lawful to us, is next and expedient to him; that is to say, as a man next and second to God, from under whom he hath received all the power he hath, and also inferior to God alone, whose pleasure it is so to have it: for thus he is greater than all men, whilst he is inferior but to God alone. And the said Tertullian, in his book apologetical, speaking of emperors, saith, They know who hath given to them their government; they know that God is he alone, under whose only power they be; and take themselves as second to God, after whom they be chief above all others.' Theophylact also, on this place in Romans, Let every soul be subject to the higher powers,'' saith, 'The apostle there teacheth every man, that whether he be a priest, or a monk, or an apostle, he should subject himself to princes:' that is, although thou be an apostle, an evangelist, a prophet, or whatsoever thou art, be subject. For, saith he, this subjection overthrows not godliness: and the apostle saith not only, Let him obey,' but saith, 'Let him be subject.' And if the apostles be subject to princes, much more all bishops and patriarchs, yea the bishops of Rome and all others. 8 It is written also in the Chronicles, David said to Solomon, Behold the priests and Levites divided in companies, to do all manner of service that pertaineth to the house of God. Also David did appoint chiefly to thank the Lord, Asaph and his brethren, &c. And Jehoshaphat the king did constitute Levites and priests, and the ancient families of Israel, for the judgment and cause of the Lord towards all the inhabitants of the earth; and he charged them saying, 'Thus shall ye do in the fear of the Lord, faithfully and in a perfect heart,'10 Furthermore Hezekiah appointed the priests and the Levites in their order, to wait by course, every man according to his office. And it followeth, 'Hezekiah gave commandment to the people dwelling in Jerusalem, that they should give their portions unto their priests and the Levites, that they might attend on the law of the Lord.'" Where it followeth also, that by the precept of Hezekiah the king, and of Azarias the bishop of the house of the Lord, all things were done, to whom pertained all the dispensation of the house of the Lord. And in the end it is said, Hezekiah did these things in all Jewry; he wrought that which was good, right, and true, before his Lord God, in all the furniture of the ministry of the house of the Lord, according to the law and ceremonies, desirous to seek his Lord God with all his heart, as he did, and prospered therein. Josias also did ordain priests in their offices, and commanded many things.12 By all which it may appear, that christian kings be sovereigns over the priests, as over all other their subjects, and may command the priests to do their offices, as well as they do others; and ought by their supreme office to see that all men of all degrees do the duties, whereunto they be called either (1) Ait enim quidam, non debuit episcopus pro consulari judicio purgari,' &c. August. Epist. 1€2. (2) Læsus est qui non habet parem ullum super terram: summitas et caput est omnium hominum super terram.' [Ad pop. Antioch. Hom. ii. § 2.] (3) Colimus ergo et imperatorem sic, quomodo et nobis licet et ipsi expedit, ut hominem a Deo secundum.' Tertul. ad Scapulam, &c. [cap. 2.] (4) *Sciunt quis illis dederit imperium.' Tertul. in Apologet. [cap. 30.-ED.] (5) Omnis anima potestatibus sublimioribus subdita sit.' (6) Sive sacerdos ille sit, sive monachus, sive apostolus, ut se principibus subdat.' [See App.] (7) Non enim subvertit pietatem hæc subjectio.' (5) 1 Chron. xxviii. (9) Ib. xvi. (10) 2 Chron. xix. (11) Ib. xxxí. (12) Ib. xxxiv. authority God. A. D. 1534. councils called by Henry by God or by the king; and those kings that so do, chiefly do execute well VIII. their office. So that the king's highness, taking upon him, as supreme head of the church of England, to see that as well spiritual men as temporal do their duties, doth neither make innovation in the church, nor yet trouble the order thereof; but doth, as the chief and best of the kings of Israel did, and as all General good christian kings ought to do. Which office good christian emperors always took upon them, in calling the universal councils of all countries in one the place and at one time to assemble together, to the intent that all heresies trouemperors. bling the church might there be extirped; calling and commanding as well the bishop of Rome, as other patriarchs and all primates, as well of the east as of the west, of the south as of the north, to come to the said councils. As Martian the emperor did, in calling the great council of Chalcedon, one of the four chief and first general councils, commanding Leo, then bishop of Rome, to come unto the same. And albeit Leo neither liked the time, which he would for a season should have been deferred; nor yet the place, for he would have had it in Italy, whereas the emperor, by his own commandment, had called it to Chalcedon in Asia, yet he answered the emperor, that he would gladly obey his commandment, and sent thither his agents to appear there for him, as doth appear in the epistles of Leo to Martian then emperor, forty-first, fortyseventh, forty-eighth, and in the forty-ninth epistle to Pulcheria the empress. And Leo likewise desireth Theodosius the emperor to command a council of bishops to be called in Italy, for taking away such contentions and troubles as at that time troubled the quietness of the churches. And in many more epistles of the same Leo it doth manifestly appear, that the emperors always assembled general councils by their commandments: and in the sixth general council it appeareth very plainly, that at that time the bishops of Rome made no claim, nor used any title, to call themselves heads universal over all the catholic church, as it doth appear in the superscription or salutation of the aforesaid synodical preamble, which is this, word for word: To the most godly lords and most noble victors and conquerors, the well-beloved children of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, Constantine the great emperor, and Heraclius and Tiberius, Cæsars bishop Agatho, the servant of the servants of God, with all the convocations subject to the council of the see apostolic, sendeth greeting.' And he expresseth what countries he reckoned and comprehended in that superscription or salutation; for it followeth, that those were under his assembly which were in the north and east parts; so that at that time the bishop of Rome made no such pretence to be over and above all, as he now doth by usurpation, vindicating to himself the spiritual kingdom of Christ by which he reigneth in the hearts of all faithful people, and then changeth it to a temporal kingdom over and above all kings, to depose them for his pleasure, preaching thereby the flesh for the spirit, and an earthly kingdom for a heavenly, to his own damnation, if he repent not: whereas he ought to obey his prince by the doctrine of St. Peter in his first epistle,' saying, 'Be ye subject to every ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake; whether it be to the king as to the chief, or unto governors, as sent of him to the punishment of the evil doers, and to the praise of the good.' Again, St. Paul; 'Let every soul be subject to the higher powers:" with other things before alleged. So that this his pretensed usurpation to be above all kings is directly against the Scriptures given to the church by the apostles, whose doctrine whosoever overturneth, can be neither the head, nor yet the least member, of the church. : Wherefore, albeit ye have hitherto stuck to the said wrongfully usurped power, moved thereto, as ye write, by your conscience, yet, since now ye see further, if ye list to regard the mere truth and such ancient authors as have been written to you of in times past, we would exhort you, for the weal of your soul, to surrender into the bishop of Rome's hands your red hat, by which he seduced you, trusting so to make you, being come of a noble blood, an instrument to advance his vain glory; whereof by the said hat he made you participant, to allure you thereby the more to his purpose. In which doing ye shall return to the truth from which ye have erred, do your duty to your sovereign lord from whom ye have declined, and please thereby Almighty God, whose laws ye have transgressed: and in not so doing, ye shall remain in error, offending both Almighty God and your natural sovereign lord, VIII. whom chiefly ye ought to seek to please: which thing, for the good mind that Henry we heretofore have borne you, we pray Almighty God of his infinite mercy that you do not. Amen. A. D. When all other the king's subjects, and the learned of the realm 1535. had taken and accepted the oath of the king's supremacy, only Fisher, the bishop of Rochester, and sir Thomas More refused (as is afore said) to be sworn; who therefore falling into the danger of the law were committed to the Tower, and executed for the same, A. D. 1535. Appendix. This John Fisher aforesaid had written before against Ecolampadius, whose book is yet extant, and afterwards against Luther. See bishop of ter, an Christ's Also, amongst other his acts, he had been a great enemy and perse- John cutor of John Frith, the godly and learned martyr of Jesus Christ, Fisher, whom he and sir Thomas More caused to be burned a year and a half Rochesbefore: and, shortly after, the said Fisher, to his confusion, was charged enemy to with Elizabeth Barton (called the holy maid of Kent), and found gospel. guilty by act of parliament, as is above recorded. For his learning. and other virtues of life this bishop was well reputed and reported of by many, and also much lamented by some. But whatsoever his learning was, pity it was that he, being endued with that knowledge, should be so far drowned in such superstition; more pity that he was so obstinate in his ignorance; but most pity of all, that he so abused the learning he had, to such cruelty as he did. But this commonly we see come to pass, as the Lord saith, that "whoso striketh with the sword shall perish with the sword," and they that stain their hands Blood with blood, seldom do bring their bodies dry to the grave; as com- revenged monly appeareth by the end of bloody tyrants, and especially such as blood. be persecutors of Christ's poor members; in the number of whom Fisher were this bishop and sir Thomas More, by whom good John Frith, and More Tewkesbury, Thomas Hitten, Bayfield, with divers other good saints tors. of God, were brought to their death. It was said that the pope, to recompense bishop Fisher for his faithful service, had elected him cardinal, and sent him a cardinal's hat as far as Calais; but the head that it should stand upon, was as high as London bridge ere ever the pope's hat could come to him. Thus bishop Fisher and sir Thomas More, who a little before had put John Frith to death for heresy against the pope, were themselves executed and beheaded for treason against the king, the one the 22d of June, the other the 6th of July, headed. A.D. 1535. with persecu Are be books of Of sir Thomas More something hath been touched before, who was also recompted a man both witty and learned: but whatsoever he was besides, a bitter persecutor he was of good men, and a wretched enemy against the truth of the gospel, as by his books left behind him may appear; wherein most slanderously and contumeliously he Lying writeth against Luther, Zuinglius, Tyndale, Frith, Barnes, Bayfield, More. Bainham, Tewkesbury; falsely belying their articles and doctrine, as (God granting me life) I have sufficient matter to prove against him. Briefly, as he was a sore persecutor of them that stood in defence of the gospel, so again, on the other side, such a blind devotion he bare to the pope-holy see of Rome, and so wilfully stood in the pope's quarrel against his own prince, that he would not give over till he had brought the scaffold of the Tower-hill, with the axe and all, upon his own neck. Henry VIII. 1535. More a scoffer death. Edward Hall in his Chronicle,' writing of the death and manners of this sir Thomas More, seems to stand in doubt whether to call A. D. him a foolish wise man, or a wise foolish man: for, as by nature he was endued with a great wit, so the same again was so mingled (saith he) with taunting and mocking, that it seemed to them that best knew him, that he thought nothing to be well spoken, except he had ministered some mock in the communication; insomuch that, at his coming to the Tower, one of the officers demanding his upper garment for his fee, meaning his gown, he answered that he should have it, and took him his cap, saying it was the uppermost garment that he had. Likewise, even going to his death, at the Tower unto his gate, a poor woman called unto him, and besought him to declare that he had certain evidences of hers in the time that he was in office (which, after he was apprehended, she could not come by), and that he would entreat that she might have them again, or else she was undone. He answered; "Good woman, have patience a little while, for the king is so good unto me, that even within this half hour he will discharge me of all businesses, and help thee himself." Also, when he went up the stair of the scaffold, he desired one of the sheriff's officers to give him his hand to help him up, and said, " When I come down again, let me shift for myself as well as I can." Also the hangman kneeled down to him, asking him forgiveness of his death, as the manner is; to whom he answered, "I forgive thee; but I promise thee that thou shalt never have honesty of the striking off my head, my neck is so short." Also, even when he should lay down his neck on the block, he, having a great grey beard, striked out his beard, and said to the hangman, 66 I pray you let me lay my beard over the block, lest you should cut it ;" thus with a mock he ended his life. Exmew, Middle more, gate, There is no doubt but that the pope's holiness hath hallowed and dignified these two persons long since for catholic martyrs: neither is it to be doubted, but after a hundred years expired, they shall be also shrined and porthosed, dying as they did in the quarrel of the church of Rome, that is, in taking the bishop of Rome's part, against their · own ordinary and natural prince. Whereunto (because the matter asketh a long discourse, and a peculiar tractation) I have not in this place much to contend with Cope, my friend. This briefly for a Memorandum' may suffice; that if the causes of true martyrdom ought to be pondered, and not to be numbered, and if the end of martyrs is to be weighed by judgment, and not by affection; then the cause and quarrel of these men standing as it doth, and being tried by God's word, perhaps in the pope's kingdom they may go for martyrs, in whose cause they died; but certes in Christ's kingdom their cause will not stand, howsoever they stand themselves. The like also is to be said of the three monks of the Charter-house, Exmew, Middlemore, and Neudigate, who the same year, in the month Neudi- of June, were likewise attached and arraigned at Westminster, for executed speaking certain traitorous words against the king's crown and dignity; for which they were hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn: whom also, because Cope, my good friend, doth repute and accept in the number of holy catholic martyrs, here would be asked of him a for trea BOD. (1) See page 817, edit. 4to. London, 18 9.- Ep. (2) Honesty,' credit or honour.-ED. |