ILLUSTRIOUS MEMBERS OF OUR UNIVERSITIES***


E-text prepared by Geoff Horton



TEN REASONS PROPOSED TO HIS ADVERSARIES FOR DISPUTATION IN THE
NAME OF THE FAITH AND PRESENTED TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS MEMBERS OF OUR
UNIVERSITIES BY EDMUND CAMPION PRIEST OF THE SOCIETY OF THE NAME
OF JESUS Nihil Obstat S. GEORGIUS KIERAN HYLAND, S.T.D, CENSOR
DEPUTATUS Imprimatur + PETRUS EPUS SOUTHWARC CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION RATIONES DECEM TRANSLATION INTRODUCTION






Though Blessed Edmund Campion's _Decem Rationes_ has passed
through forty-seven editions,[1] printed in all parts of Europe;
though it has awakened the enthusiasm of thousands; though Mark
Anthony Muret, one of the chief Catholic humanists of Campion's
age, pronounced it to be "written by the finger of God," yet it
is not an easy book for men of our generation to appreciate, and
this precisely because it suited a bygone generation so exactly.
Before it can be esteemed at its true value, some knowledge of
the circumstances under which it was written, is indispensable.

1. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE _Decem Rationes_.

The chief point to remember is that the _Decem Rationes_ was the
last and most deliberate free utterance of Campion's
ever-memorable mission. During the few months that mission
lasted he succeeded in staying the full tide of victorious
Protestantism, which had hitherto been irresistible. The ancient
Church had gone down before the new religion, at Elizabeth's
accession twenty years before, with an apparently final fall,
and since then the Elizabethan Settlement had triumphed in every
church, in every school and court. The new generation had been
moulded by it; the old order seemed to be utterly prostrate,
defeated and moribund. Nor was it only at home that
Protestantism talked of victory. In every neighbouring land she
had gained or was gaining the upper hand. She had crossed the
Border and subdued Scotland, she held Ireland in an iron grip,
she had set up a new throne in Holland, she had deeply divided
France, and had learned how to paralyze the power of Spain. What
could stay her progress?

Then a new figure appeared, a fugitive flying before the law. He
was hunted backwards and forwards across the country, every man's
hand seemed against him. It was impossible to hold out for long
against such immense odds, and he was in fact soon captured,
mocked, maligned, sentenced and executed with contumely. Yet
Campion and his handful of followers had meanwhile succeeded in
doing what the whole nation, when united, had failed to do. He
had evoked a spirit of faith and fervour, against which the
violence of Protestantism raged in vain. He had saved the beaten,
shattered fragments of the ancient host, and animated them with
invincible courage; and his work endured in spite of endless
assaults and centuries of persecution. The _Decem Rationes_ is
Campion's harangue to those whom he called upon to follow him in
the heroic struggle.

2. THE MAN AND THE MISSION.

Thus much for the inspiration and general significance of
Campion's work considered as a whole. It will also repay a much
more minute study, and to appreciate it we must enter into
further details.

As to the man himself, suffice it to say that he was a Londoner;
his father a publisher; his first school Christ's Hospital; that
he was afterwards a Fellow of St. John's, Oxford, and held at the
same time an exhibition from the Grocer's Company. At Oxford he
accepted to some extent the Elizabethan Settlement of religion,
but not sufficiently to satisfy the Company of Grocers, who
eventually withdrew their exhibition. This was a sign for further
inquisitorial proceedings, which made him leave the University,
and retire to Dublin; but he was driven also thence by the
zealots for Protestantism. Eventually he went over to the English
College at Douay, whence he migrated to Rome, entered the Society
of Jesus, and after eight years' training had returned, a priest,
to his native country, forty years old. His strong point was
undoubtedly a singularly lovable character, and he possessed the
gift of eloquence in no ordinary degree. For the rest, his
natural qualities and acquired accomplishments were above the
ordinary level, without reaching an extraordinary height. He was
a man who never ceased working, and whose temper was always
angelic, though he sometimes suffered from severe depression. He
was adored by his pupils both at Oxford and in Bohemia. His
memory was always bright, and his conversation always sparkled
with fresh thoughts and poetical ideas. He composed with
extraordinary facility in Latin prose and verse; but the extant
fragments of these literary exercises do not strike us as being
of unusual excellence, though genuinely admired in their day. He
was certainly an ideal missioner: saintly, inspired, eloquent,
untireable, patient, consumed with the desire for the success of
his undertaking, and unfaltering in his faith that success would
follow by the providential action of God, despite the obvious
fact that all appearances were against him.

Campion landed at Dover late in June, 1580, and reached London
at the end of the month. There was an immediate rush to hear
him, and Lord Paget was persuaded to lend his great hall at
Paget House in Smithfield to accommodate a congregation for the
feast of Saints Peter and Paul. The sermon was delivered on the
text from the Gospel of the day, _Tu es Christus, Filius Dei
vivi_. The hall was filled, and the impression caused by the
sermon was profound; but the number of hearers had been
imprudently large. Though no arrests followed, the persecutors
took the alarm, and increased their activity to such an extent
that large gatherings had for ever to be abandoned; and after a
couple of weeks both Campion and Persons left London to escape
the notice of the pursuivants, whose raids and inquisitorial
searches were making the lot of Catholics in town unbearable,
whereas in the country the pursuit was far less active, and
could be much more easily avoided. The two Fathers met for the
last time at Hoxton, then a village outside London, to concert
their plans for the next couple of months, and were on the point
of starting, each for his own destination, when a Catholic of
some note rode up from London. This was Thomas Pounde, of
Belmont or Beaumont, near Bedhampton, a landed gentleman of
means, an enthusiastic Catholic, and for the last five years or
so a prisoner for religion. Mr. Pounde's message in effect was
this. "You are going into the proximate danger of capture, and
if captured you must expect not justice, but every refinement of
misrepresentation. You will be asked crooked questions, and your
answers to them will be published in some debased form. Be sure
that whatever then comes through to the outer world will come
out poisoned and perverted. Let me therefore urge you to write
now, and to leave in safe custody, what you would wish to have
published then, in case infamous rumours should be put about
during your incarceration, rumours which you will then not be
able to answer or to repudiate." Father Persons seems to have
agreed at once. Campion at first raised objections, but soon,
with his ever obliging temper, sat down at the end of the table
and wrote off in half an hour an open letter _To the Lords of
Her Majesty's Privy Council_, afterwards so well known as
_Campion's Challenge._

3. THE CHALLENGE.

Campion, after finishing his letter and taking copy for himself,
had consigned the other copy to Pounde. Persons had done the
same; but whereas the latter took the precaution to seal his
letter, Campion had handed over his unfastened. Then the company
broke up. Persons made a wide circle from Northampton round to
Gloucester, while Campion made a smaller circle from Oxfordshire
up to Northampton. When they got back to town in September, they
found all the world discussing "the Challenge." What had happened
was that proceedings had been taken by the Ecclesiastical
Commission against Pounde, and he had been committed to solitary
confinement in the ruinous castle of Bishop's Stortford. Before
he left London he began to communicate the letter to others, lest
it should be altogether lost, and as soon as it was thus
published it attracted everyone's attention, and his adversaries
had ironically christened it _the challenge_. The word was indeed
one which Campion had used, but he had employed it precisely in
order to avoid any charge that might have arisen, of being
combative and presumptuous.

Thus in the course of three months Campion, as it were in spite
of himself, had filled England with his name and with the message
he had come to announce, and he had reduced his adversaries to a
very ridiculous position. They had been dared to meet him in
disputation, and this they feared to do. In effect, they in their
thousands were hiding their heads in the sand, while their
constables and pursuivants were raiding the houses of Catholics
on every side in hopes of catching the homeless wanderer, and of
stopping his mouth by violence. The pulpits, of course, rang with
outcries against the newcomer, and in his absence his doctrines
were rent and scoffed at; but, as Campion said in a contemporary
letter, "The people hereupon is ours, and the error of spreading
that letter abroad hath done us much good." This was the first
popular success which the Catholics had scored for years; and
after so many years of oppression some popular success was of
immense importance to the cause. Father Persons, in a
contemporary letter, says that the Government found that there
were 50,000 more recusants that autumn than they had known of
before. The number is, of course, a round one, and is possibly
much exaggerated, but it gives the Catholic leader's view of the
advantage won at this time.

We may now turn to _The Challenge_ itself, the only piece of
Campion's English during this his golden period, which has survived.

[TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, THE LORDS OF HER MAJESTIE'S PRIVY COUNCIL]

RIGHT HONOURABLE:

Whereas I have come out of Germanie and Boemeland, being sent by
my Superiors, and adventured myself into this noble Realm, my
deare Countrie, for the glorie of God and benefit of souls, I
thought it like enough that, in this busie watchful and
suspicious worlde, I should either sooner or later be intercepted
and stopped of my course. Wherefore, providing for all events,
and uncertaine what may become of me, when God shall haply
deliver my body into durance, I supposed it needful to put this
writing in a readiness, desiringe your good Lordships to give it
ye reading, for to know my cause. This doing I trust I shall ease
you of some labour. For that which otherwise you must have sought
for by practice of wit, I do now lay into your hands by plaine
confession. And to ye intent that the whole matter may be
conceived in order, and so the better both understood and
remembered, I make thereof these ix points or articles, directly,
truly and resolutely opening my full enterprise and purpose.

i. I confesse that I am (albeit unworthie) a priest of ye Catholike
Church, and through ye great mercie of God vowed now these viii
years into the Religion of the Societie of Jhesus. Hereby I have
taken upon me a special kind of warfare under the banner of
obedience, and eke resigned all my interest or possibilitie of
wealth, honour, pleasure, and other worldlie felicitie.

ii. At the voice of our General Provost, which is to me a
warrant from heaven, and Oracle of Christ, I tooke my voyage
from Prage to Rome (where our said General Father is always
resident) and from Rome to England, as I might and would have
done joyously into any part of Christendome or Heathenesse, had
I been thereto assigned.

iii. My charge is, of free cost to preach the Gospel, to
minister the Sacraments, to instruct the simple, to reforme
sinners, to confute errors--in brief, to crie alarme spiritual
against foul vice and proud ignorance, wherewith many my dear
Countrymen are abused.

iv. I never had mind, and am strictly forbidden by our Father that
sent me, to deal in any respect with matter of State or Policy of
this realm, as things which appertain not to my vocation, and from
which I do gladly restrain and sequester my thoughts.

v. I do ask, to the glory of God, with all humility, and under
your correction, iii sortes of indifferent and quiet audiences:
_the first_ before your Honours, wherein I will discourse of
religion, so far as it toucheth the common weale and your
nobilities: _the second_, whereof I make more account, before the
Doctors and Masters and chosen men of both Universities, wherein
I undertake to avow the faith of our Catholike Church by proofs
innumerable, Scriptures, Councils, Fathers, History, natural and
moral reasons: _the third_ before the lawyers, spiritual and
temporal, wherein I will justify the said faith by the common
wisdom of the laws standing yet in force and practice.

vi. I would be loth to speak anything that might sound of any
insolent brag or challenge, especially being now as a dead man
to this world and willing to put my head under every man's foot,
and to kiss the ground they tread upon. Yet have I such a
courage in avouching the Majesty of Jhesus my King, and such
affiance in his gracious favour, and such assurance in my
quarrel, and my evidence so impregnable, and because I know
perfectly that no one Protestant, nor all the Protestants
living, nor any sect of our adversaries (howsoever they face men
down in pulpits, and overrule us in their kingdom of grammarians
and unlearned ears)[2] can maintain their doctrine in
disputation. I am to sue most humbly and instantly for the
combat with all and every of them, and the most principal that
may be found: protesting that in this trial the better furnished
they come, the better welcome they shall be.

vii. And because it hath pleased God to enrich the Queen my
Sovereign Ladye with notable gifts of nature, learning, and
princely education, I do verily trust that--if her Highness would
vouchsafe her royal person and good attention to such a
conference as, in the ii part of my fifth article I have
motioned, or to a few sermons, which in her or your hearing I am
to utter,--such manifest and fair light by good method and plain
dealing may be cast upon these controversies, that possibly her
zeal of truth and love of her people shall incline her noble
Grace to disfavour some proceedings hurtful to the Realm, and
procure towards us oppressed more equitie.

viii. Moreover I doubt not but you her Highness' Council being, of
such wisdom and discreet in cases most important, when you shall
have heard these questions of religion opened faithfully, which
many times by our adversaries are huddled up and confounded, will
see upon what substantial grounds our Catholike Faith is builded,
how feeble that side is which by sway of the time prevaileth
against us, and so at last for your own souls, and for many
thousand souls that depend upon your government, will
discountenance error when it is bewrayed, and hearken to those
who would spend the best blood in their bodies for your
salvation. Many innocent hands are lifted up to heaven for you
daily by those English students, whose posteritie shall never
die, which beyond seas gathering virtue and sufficient knowledge
for the purpose, are determined never to give you over, but
either to win you heaven, or to die upon your pikes. And touching
our Societie be it known to you that we have made a league--all
the Jesuits in the world, whose succession and multitude must
overreach all the practices of England--cheerfully to carry the
cross you shall lay upon us, and never to despair your recovery,
while we have a man left to enjoy your Tyburn, or to be racked
with your torments, or consumed with your prisons. The expense is
reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God, it cannot be
withstood. So the faith was planted: so it must be restored.

ix. If these my offers be refused, and my endeavours can take no
place, and I, having run thousands of miles to do you good, shall
be rewarded with rigour, I have no more to say but to recommend
your case and mine to Almightie God, the Searcher of Hearts, who
send us His grace, and set us at accord before the day of
payment, to the end we may at last be friends in heaven, when all
injuries shall be forgotten.

   *   *   *   *   *

"Direct, true, and resolute," Campion's words certainly are, and
they are calculated in a remarkable degree to reassure and
animate his fellow Catholics and their friends, and it is for
them in reality, rather than for the Lords of the Council, that
the message is composed. If the composition has a fault it is its
combativeness; and in effect, though this drawback was not felt
at the time, it was later. Subsequent missionaries found it best
to adopt a policy of far greater secrecy and silence. If,
however, we remember that Campion intended his paper to be
published under quite different circumstances, we can see that he
at least hardly deserves the reproach of being contentious, or if
he does, his failing was venial when we consider the tastes of
the age. The immediate result of the publication was without
question a great success.

THE "DECEM RATIONES."

Like a wise general, Father Persons at once bethought himself how
best to follow up the good beginning already made. Accordingly,
when he and Campion met at Uxbridge (for it was not safe for
Campion to come to London), he suggested that the latter, seeing
that his memory was still green at Oxford, should compose a short
address on the crisis to the students of the two Universities.
Campion met the suggestion as he had met the suggestion of
Pounde, with a gentle disclaimer, "alleging divers difficulties,"
but soon good-humouredly assented on the condition (not a usual
one with literary men) that someone else should propose the
subject. The company therefore made various suggestions, none of
which met with general acceptance, until Campion proposed "Heresy
in Despair." "Whereat," adds Persons, "all that were present
could not choose but laugh, and wonder to see him fall upon that
argument at such a time when heresy seemed most of all to
triumph." In truth, with England invincible at sea and on land,
and the absolute sway of Elizabeth, Cecil, and Walsingham over
both Church and State, what more hopeful position for
Protestantism could have been imagined? Campion's meaning, of
course, was that Protestantism was in despair of holding the
position of the ancient Church; of ruling in the hearts of a free
people; of co-existing with Christian liberty. It was unworthy,
therefore, of the acceptance of minds that aspired to mental
freedom, as did the youth of the Universities. This subject for
an address was welcomed with acclamation, and Campion promised to
undertake it, suggesting on his side that Persons should arrange
ways and means for printing the tract when finished, and any
other which might seem needed.

This agreed to, all separated once more, and Campion rode
northwards on a tour which he took in Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and
Lancashire, and which was not over for six months. Meantime
Father Persons had set up his "magic press" near London, and
issued from it five volumes of small size indeed, but of
remarkable vigour and merit. As soon as any notable attack was
made on the Catholics, an answer was brought out in a wonderfully
short time, and these answers were pithy, vigorous, and pointed,
in no ordinary degree. When one remembers how much co-operation
is needed to bring out even the slightest volume, one is truly
astonished at the feat of bringing out so many and such good
ones, while the hourly fear of capture, torture, and death hung
over the heads of all. When threatened with danger in one place
the press was bodily transported to another.

However, our business at present is not with Persons, but with
Campion. His book was finished and sent up to Persons in March,
1581, with a title altered to suit the controversy which had
already begun. It was now _Decem Rationes: quibus fretus,
certamen adversariis obtulit in causa Fidei, Edmundus Campianus
&c._ "Ten Reasons, for the confidence with which Edmund Campion
offered his adversaries to dispute on behalf of the Faith, set
before the famous men of our Universities." Persons was charmed,
as he had expected to be, with its literary grace. It was in
Latin, as had been agreed, and Campion's Latin prose, (though
critics of our time find it somewhat silvery and Livian), suited
the tastes of that day to perfection. The only thing which made
Persons at all thoughtful was the number of references. Campion
declared that he was sure he had verified them, as he entered
them in his notebook, but Persons, with greater caution, declared
that they must be verified anew.

The difficulty of this for men living under the ban, and cut off
from access to large libraries, was of course great, but through
the help of others, especially through Mr. Thomas Fitzherbert of
Swynnerton, the task was happily accomplished. Campion came up
from the north to Stonor, on the Oxfordshire border where the
secret press then was; and there, amid a thousand fears, alarms
and dangers, the book was printed.

5. THE PRINTING.

Of the actual preparations for printing the _Ten Reasons_,
Persons gives this account in his memoirs[3]: Persons was of
opinion that Campion should come up to London immediately after
Easter [March 26th] to examine the passages quoted, and to assist
the print. Meanwhile Persons began to prepare new means of
printing, making use of friends and in particular of a certain
priest called William Morris, a learned and resourceful man, who
afterwards died in Rome.[4] This was necessary, as the first
press near London, where the first two books had been printed,
had been taken down. Eventually and with very great difficulty he
found, after much trying, a house belonging to a widow, by name
Lady Stonor, in which she was not living at that time. It was
situated in the middle of a wood, twenty miles from London.

To this house were taken all things necessary, that is, type,
press, paper, &c., though not without many risks. Mr. Stephen
Brinkley, a gentleman of high attainments both in literature and
in virtue, superintended the printing. Father Campion then coming
to London, with his book already revised, went at once to the
house in the wood, where the book was printed and eventually
published. Persons too went down to stay with him for some days
to take counsel on their affairs.

* * * * *

Stonor Park, to which Campion and Persons had betaken
themselves,[5] is still in the possession of the old Catholic
family of that name, of which Lord Camoys is the representative.
Father Morris says that "the printing, according to the
traditions of the place, was carried on in the attics of the old
house."[6] Being near Henley it was possible to go there by road
or by water, and one might come and go on the Oxford high-road
without attracting attention.

Still there was grave risk of discovery from the noise made by
the press, and from the number of extra men about the house, as
to the fidelity of each of whom it was impossible to be
absolutely sure. Day by day the dangers thickened round them.
One evening, soon after their arrival, William Hartley, a priest
and afterwards a martyr, who was helping in the work, and had
then just come back from a visit to Oxford, mentioned casually
that Roland Jenks, the Catholic stationer and book-binder there,
was again in trouble, having been accused by his own servant.
Jenks was doubtless known to all Oxford men, indeed but three
years before his name had been noised all over Europe. He had
been sentenced to have his ears cut off for some religious
offence, when the Judge was taken ill in the court itself, and,
the infection travelling with marvellous rapidity, the greater
part both of the bench and of the jury were stricken down with
gaol fever, and two judges, twelve justices, and other high
officials, almost the whole jury, and many others, died within
the space of two days.[7]

In mentioning Jenks's new troubles Hartley probably did not
realize the extent of the danger to the whole party which they
portended. Persons had in fact employed the very servant who had
now turned traitor, to bind a number of books for him at his
house near Bridewell Church, London, which with all its contents
was thus in a perilous condition. Early next morning an express
messenger was sent in to town with orders to hide or destroy
Persons' papers and other effects. It was already too late: that
very night the house had been searched, and Persons' letters,
books, vestments, rosaries, pictures, and other pious objects,
had all fallen into the hands of the pursuivants. Worse still,
Father Alexander Briant, afterwards a martyr, and one of the
brightest and most lovable of the missionaries, was seized next
door, and hurried off first to the Counter, then to the Tower,
where he was repeatedly and most cruelly racked to make him say
where Persons might be found.

Information about his torture was brought to the Jesuits at
Stonor, and one can easily see how grave and disturbing such
bad news must have been. "For almost the whole of one night,"
says Persons, "Campion and I sat up talking of what we had
better do, if we should fall into their hands. A fate which
befell him soon after."

The Registers of the Privy Council inform us that their Lordships
gave orders to have Jenks sent up to London on the 28th of April.
This settles approximately the date of the beginning of the
printing at Stonor, and the book was not finished till nearly the
end of June. So the work lasted about nine weeks, a fairly long
period when we consider the smallness of the Latin book, here
reproduced. It will, however, be shown from intrinsic evidence,
that the stock of type was very small. The printers had to set up
a few pages at a time, to correct them at once, and to print off,
before they could go any further. Then they distributed the type
and began again. When all was finished they rapidly stabbed and
bound their sheets. Considering the fewness of the workmen[8] and
the unforeseen delays which so often occur during printing, the
time taken over the production does not seem extraordinary.

For many years no example of the original edition of the _Decem
Rationes_ was known to exist: none of our great public libraries
in London or at the Universities possesses a copy. But it was the
singular good fortune of the late Marquess of Bute to pick up two
copies of this extremely rare volume, and he munificently
presented one of them to Stonyhurst College. Canon Gunning of
Winchester is the happy owner of a third copy. By the courtesy of
the Rector of Stonyhurst, I am able to offer a minute description
of the precious little book.

The volume is, considering the printing of that time, distinctly
well got up. There is nothing at first sight to suggest that its
publication had been a matter of so much difficulty and danger;
but when one scrutinizes every page with care, one finds that it
bears about it some traces of the unusual circumstances under
which it was produced.

If we look first for the water-mark in the paper we shall find
that it is the pot--the ordinary English sign; a proof, if one
were needed, that the book was really printed in this country.
The sheets run from A to K (with prefixed [double-dagger]), in
fours, 16mo; the folios are 44, of which 39 are numbered (but by
accident the pagination is omitted from 1 to 4 and 40 is blank as
well as the fly-leaves).

Let us think of what this means. Eleven signatures for 44 folios,
16mo, means that only eight pages 16mo went into each printing
frame, or, in other words, that the frame was so small that it
would have been covered by half a folio sheet, 9 by 13 inches.
They probably printed off each little sheet by itself, for if
they had had a larger frame so as to print an entire folio
sheet--then we should have found in the finished book that the
water-mark would recur once in each sixteen pages. In point of
fact, however, it only recurs irregularly in the first, fifth,
and tenth gathering. This could not have occurred unless the
sheets used were of half folio size.

A Greek fount was evidently wanting. Campion was fond, after the
fashion of scholars of that day, of throwing into his Latin
letters a word or two of Greek, which in his autograph are
written, as Mr. Simpson has remarked, with the facility of one
familiar with the language. Here on fol. 24 a we find _adynata_,
where [Greek: adunata] would have been in Campion's epistolary
manner. Again, on fol. 4 b he quotes, "Hic calix novum
testamentum in sanguine meo, qui (calix) pro vobis fundetur," and
in the margin _Poterion Ekchynomenon_, in Italics, where Greek
script, if obtainable, would obviously have been preferred. A
further indication of the difficulties under which type had been
procured is seen in the use of a query sign of a black-letter
fount (_i.e. [different question mark]_) instead of the Roman
fount (_i.e.,?_). This will be the more readily comprehended when
we remember that Father Persons' books, which Brinkley had
printed before, were in English, and that English prose was then
still generally printed in Gothic character[9].

So Persons also made use of it in order that there might be
nothing in his books to strike the eye as unusual in books of
that class. Campion's volume on the other hand being in Latin, it
was necessary to procure a new set of "Roman" type. The use of
the black-letter query-signs would not at once attract attention,
so they were kept, though all else was changed.

A further trace of the difficulty in finding type is found in
the signs for a, e, diphthong. This combination recurred very
frequently in Latin, and the printers had very few of them. Very
soon after starting we find them substituting for Roman an
Italic diphthong, [ae ligature] also o, e ([oe ligature]), and
even e, an ordinary mediaeval form of the sign. It will be
noticed that these substitutions become increasingly frequent,
as we approach fol. 12 (end of signature C), fol. 32 (end of
signature H), and 36 (end of signature I), whereas as soon as
the next signature begins the fount of [ae ligature] is ready to
hand again. The conclusion to be deduced is that leaves C, H,
and I were each printed off, and the type distributed, before
the setting up of D, I, and K could be proceeded with. This
illustrates what has been said before of the very small stock of
type in the printing establishment.

Another slight peculiarity ought perhaps to be noticed: it is
the accentuation of the Latin. Adverbs, for instance, are
generally accented on the last syllable, e.g., doctiu's,
facile', qua'm, eo', quo': the rule, however, is by no means
regularly kept. But this has evidently nothing to do with the
peculiar conditions under which Campion's book was produced, and
is to be accounted for by the use of accents in other
publications of the same class. Nothing was then definitely
settled about the accentuation of either French, Italian, or
Latin, and Campion's volume does but reproduce the uncertainty
on the matter which was everywhere prevalent.

Whilst the printers were contending with the difficulties arising
from the smallness of their stock of type, difficulties which no
doubt caused vexatious and dangerous delays, Campion and Persons
resumed their missionary labours with vigour. In his Memoirs
Persons writes:

* * * * *

Whilst the preparations were being made Campion preached
unweariedly, sometimes in London, sometimes making excursions.
There was one place [that of the Bellamy's] whither we often
went, about five miles from London, called Harohill. In going
thither we had to pass through Tyburn. But Campion would always
pass bareheaded, and making a deep bow both because of the sign
of the Cross, and in honour of some martyrs who had suffered
there, and also because he used to say that he would have his
combat there.[10]

* * * * *

Father Bombino[11] managed to find out some further details. Mrs.
Bellamy's house, he tells us, had a good library, and as to
Campion's conduct at Tyburn, he explains that the shape of the
gallows was a triangle, supported at its three angles by three
baulks of timber; the tie-beams, however, suggested to Campion
the Cross of Christ.

From the State Papers we hear of other families and places said
to have been visited by Campion at this period: the Prices, of
Huntingdon; Mr. William Griffith, of Uxbridge; Mr. Edwin East, of
Bledlow, Bucks; Lady Babington, at Twyford, Bucks; Mr. Dormer, at
Wynge, and Mrs. Pollard.[12]

In spite of alarms, dangers, and interruptions, the work of
printing was concluded without mishap. The method of publication
was singular. Hartley took the bulk of the copies to Oxford,
where the chief academical display of the year, the Act, as it
was called, was taking place in St. Mary's, on several successive
days. Hartley, coming in at the end of the first day, waited for
every one to go out, then slipped his little books under the
papers left on the seats, and was gone. Next morning he entered
with the rest, and soon saw that his plan had been perfectly
successful. The public disputation began, but the attention of
the audience was elsewhere. There was whispering and comparing
notes, and passing about of little books, and as soon as the
seance was over, open discussion of Campion's "Reasons." Hartley
did not wait for more, but rode back to Stonor with the news that
the book had surely hit its mark.

At Oxford, as Father Persons says, many remembered and loved the
man, or at least knew of his gentle character, and of the career
he had abandoned to become a Catholic missionary. The book
recalled all this; and to those who were able to enter into its
spirit it preached with a strange penetrating force. By all the
lovers of classical Latin, and there were many such at that day,
it was read greedily. The Catholics and lovers of the old Faith
received it with enthusiasm, but a still more valid testimony to
its power was given by the Protestant Government, which gave
orders to its placemen that they should elaborate replies. These
replies drew forth answers from the Catholics, and the controversy
lasted for several years. Mr. Simpson has included an outline of
this controversy in his _Life of Campion_, and to it I may refer
my readers, having nothing substantial to add to his account.

6. CRITICISM.

It would not be necessary for me to say more about its success,
except that to us nowadays, the _Rationes_ will not seem at all
so remarkable as it did to our ancestors. Religious controversy,
in itself, does not much interest us moderns; and those who will
read Latin merely to enjoy the style are very few. But in the
sixteenth century, as Sir Arthur Helps truly says, men found in
the thrill of controversy the interest they now take in novels.
At that time, too, of all literary charms, that of good Latin
prose was by far the most popular, and the language was still the
"lingua franca" of the learned all the world over. Once we get so
far as to appreciate that both subject and style were in its
favour, the popularity of the volume will seem natural enough,
for it is bright, pointed, strong, full of matter, bold,
eloquent, convincing.

Without attempting anything like a complete account of the
reception of the book by the public, I may mention as the most
obvious proof of its popularity, that more strenuous endeavours
were made (so far as I can discover) to answer it than were made
in the case of any other assault upon the Elizabethan religious
settlement. Lord Burghley himself, the chief minister of the
Crown, called upon the Bishop of London, perhaps the most forward
man then on the episcopal bench, to use all endeavours to ensure
the publication of a sufficient answer. Finally they appointed
the Regius Professors of Divinity both at Oxford and at Cambridge
to provide for the occasion, and it took both of these a long
series of months to propound their answers to Campion's tract,
which is only as long as a magazine article. Speaking broadly, we
may say that this was the most that Elizabeth's Establishment
could do officially; and besides this, there were sermons
innumerable, and pamphlets not a few by lesser men, as well as
disputations in the Tower, of which more must be said later.

This hostile evidence is so striking and so ample that it might
seem unnecessary to allege more, but I attach a great deal more
importance to the praise of theologians of Campion's own faith:
for, in the first place this is much harder to obtain than the
attention of the persons attacked. Secondly, those who are
acquainted with Catholic theological criticism are at first
surprised to find what very severe critics Catholic theologians
are one of another. In this case, where the writer had from the
nature of his task to make so much use of rhetorical arguments,
allusions, irony, and unusual forms of expression, there was
more than usual chance of fault being found, especially as every
possible thorny subject is introduced somehow, and that in terms
meant to please not Roman theologians, but Oxford students.
Evidently there was danger here that critics should or might be
severe, or at least insist on certain changes and emendations.
In fact the work was received with joy, and reprinted frequently
and with honour. I have lately found a letter in its
commendation from the Cardinal Secretary of State of that day,
and Muret, as we have heard, perhaps the greatest humanist then
living in the Catholic ranks, described it as "Libellum aureum,
vere digito Dei scriptum."

7. THE DISPUTATIONS.

The publication of the _Decem Rationes_ was the last act of
Campion's life of freedom. He was seized the very next week, and
after five months of suffering was martyred on 1 December, 1581.
During that prolonged and unequal struggle against every variety
of craft and violence the _Ten Reasons_ continued to have their
influence, and on the whole they were extremely helpful, for
they enabled the martyr to recover some ground which he had lost
while under torture. During those awful agonies he confessed to
having found shelter in the houses of certain gentlemen. It is
certain that these names were all known to the Government
before, and that he was not betraying any secret. Nevertheless
the gentlemen in question were at once seized, imprisoned and
fined, on the alleged evidence of Campion's confessions only.
This of course caused much scandal among Catholics, and so long
as he lay lost in the Tower dungeons, unpleasant rumours about
his constancy could not be effectively contradicted. Thus far
Elizabeth's ministers had gained an advantage, which Pounde had
foretold they were likely to win. But the remedy he had
suggested also proved effective.

Though under ordinary circumstances Elizabeth's ministers "meant
nothing less" than having the disputation requested, nevertheless
now that Campion was so terribly shaken and reduced, they hoped
that they might arrange some sort of a meeting, which might in
show correspond with what had been demanded in the _Decem
Rationes_, and yet leave them with a certain victory. They were
emboldened too, by finding that their prisoner was not after all,
such a particularly learned man. He had never been a professor of
theology, or written or made special studies, beyond the ordinary
course which in those days was not a long one. It was, therefore,
settled that four disputations should be held in the Tower of
London. Theology was still taught at Oxford and Cambridge in
something of the old mediaeval method and in syllogistic form.
The men who were pitted against Campion had lately been, or were
still, examiners at the Universities. Nor is it to be denied for
a moment that they did their work well. The attack never
faltered. Their own side quite believed they had won. The method
they adopted was this. They assumed the role of examiners, and
starting with the _Decem Rationes_ before them, they plied
Campion with crabbed texts, and obscure quotations from the
Fathers. Then they cut short his answers, and as soon as one had
examined for one quarter of an hour, another took his place, for
they were anxious above all things to avoid defeat. The number of
topics broached and left unsettled surpasses belief, indeed the
scene was one of utter confusion, taunts, scoldings, sneers--a
very, very different test from the academic argumentation, which
Campion had requested.

The martyr did not show any remarkable erudition, indeed all
opportunity to do so was carefully shut off. No University, I
fancy, would have given him a chair of theology on the strength
of his replies on that occasion. There was more than one
premature assertion of victory on the Protestant side. But when
the Catholic and Protestant accounts are compared, one sees that
the advantages won against Campion were slight. They evidently
hoped that by vigorous and repeated attacks they would at last
puzzle or bear him down. But they were never near this. He was
always fresh and gay, never in difficulties, or at the end of his
tether. He stands out quite the noblest, the most sympathetic and
important figure in those motley assemblies. The Catholics were
delighted. They succeeded in getting their own report of the
disputations, which is still extant, and they would have printed
it, if they had been able. Philip, Earl of Arundel, by far the
most important convert of that generation, was won over by what
he heard in those debates.

On the whole then we must say that, if Campion did not come off
gloriously, he at least acquitted himself well and honourably,
and distinctly gained by the conflict. Offers of disputation were
not the ideal way of forwarding a mission such as his.
Nevertheless, in his case, despite circumstances the most
adverse, the result had proved advantageous. It had greatly
strengthened and encouraged his own followers, and that was in
reality the best that could then be expected. Incidentally too
the adverse rumours, which had gained ground during his
seclusion, were dissipated. It was clear that, though he might
have been deceived, his constancy was unconquerable.

Thus Campion's _Challenge_ and his _Ten Reasons_ not only contain
the message of his mission enunciated with characteristic
eloquence, but the delivery of each message is an history-making
event, big with dramatic consequences. The controversy about his
book did not die with him, but continued for some years, until it
was merged into the standing controversy between the two
religions. We cannot describe it here.

Suffice it to say that Mr. Simpson, in the _Appendix_ to his
_Edmund Campion_ enumerates not less than twenty works, which
appeared in those controversies between 1581 and 1585. The chief
defender of Father Campion's writings was Father Robert Drury,
S.J., but all his biographers also have something to say on the
subject. The chief opponents are William Charke, Meredith Hanmer,
William Fulke, Laurence Humphrey, William Whitaker, R. Stoke,
John Field, Alexander Nowell, and William Day. Some further
information on the whole subject may be found in articles by the
late Father Morris and myself in _The Month_ for July 1889,
January 1905, and January 1910. [J.H.P.]

[Footnote 1: Of these four are in English translations, dated
1606 (by Richard Stock), 1632, 1687, and 1827. The present
translation is thus the fifth into Campion's mother tongue.
Though each of the quaint old versions has its merits, and some
do not lack charm, not one would adequately represent Campion to
the modern reader. A new translation was a necessity--may I not
say, a most happy one--seeing that Father Joseph Rickaby was at
hand to satisfy it. [J.H.P.]]

[Footnote 2: The meaning is--"The ministers tyrannize over us, as
if we were a kingdom of unlearned schoolboys, listening to a
teacher of grammar."]

[Footnote 3: _Catholic Record Society_ IV., 14-17.]

[Footnote 4: Father Bombino calls him Richard Morris, and says he
went into exile and lived with Allen first at Rheims, and
afterwards at Rome, where he died in the English College. (_Vita
Campiani_, p. 139)]

[Footnote 5: Father Morris identified the lady who let or lent
Stonor Park, with Dame Cecilia Stonor, daughter of Leonard
Chamberlain. Father Persons describes her as a widow, and if so,
the Sir Francis, then alive, was not her husband, but her son.
Both father and son had the same Christian name.]

[Footnote 6: On the other hand, Mr. Thomas Edward Stonor, in a
correspondence to be mentioned immediately, says that there were
no definite traditions as to the actual locality of the press.]

[Footnote 7: Challoner, _Missionary Priests_, Introd. p. 12.]

[Footnote 8: As five printers were subsequently arrested, we know
their names, and they deserve to be recorded here, viz., Stephen
Brinkley, John Harris, John Hervey, John Tuker, John Compton. Allen
speaks of seven workmen. _Diary of the Tower and Douay Diary._]

[Footnote 9: The custom however was already changing, and "Roman"
type soon afterwards came into general use.]

[Footnote 1: _Memoirs_, i. cap. 24; _Collectanea P._ fol. 155.]

[Footnote 11: Bombino, _Vita Campiani_ 1620, p.136. Some of
Bombino's additions are not, perhaps, arranged in their true
chronological order. He tells us, for instance, a propos of
Brinkley's difficulties in getting printers, that he had to dress
them, and give them horses to ride, like gentlemen. But he does
not make it clear whether these were the men who printed the _Ten
Reasons_, or Persons' previous works. Bombino says that Brinkley
paid for the type, &c., but Allen, in a contemporary letter, says
that George Gilbert had left a fund for these purposes. Bombino
says the printing of the _Decem Rationes_ was commenced at
Brinkley's own house at Green Street, and had to be removed
because one of the servants was arrested in London, and tortured
to make him confess, which he heroically refused. Campion and
Persons knowing of the torture, not of the man's constancy, at
once removed the press. But Persons' _Memoirs_ ascribes this
incident to an earlier period. (_Domestical Difficulties_, p.
119; _Autobiography_ for 1581).]

[Footnote 12: Simpson, p. 217, following Lansdowne MSS. xxx. 78]

RATIONES DECEM

QVIBVS FRETVS B. EDMVNDVS CAMPIANVS CERTAMEN ADVERSARIIS OBTVLIT
IN CAVSA FIDEI, REDDITAE ACADEMICIS ANGLIAE.

EPISTOLA [1]

AD REGINAE ANGLIAE CONSILIARIOS, QUA PROFECTIONIS SUAE IN ANGLIAM
INSTITUTUM DECLARAT, ET ADVERSARIOS AD CERTAMEN PROVOCAT

Quandoquidem, viri ornatissimi, a Germania et Bohemia revocatus,
non sine ingenti vitae meae periculo, in hoc florentissimum
Angliae regnum, dulcissimam patriam meam, tandem aliquando
perveni, pro Superiorum meorum voluntate, Dei gloriam et animarum
salutem promoturus; verisimile esse putavi, me turbulento hoc,
suspicioso ac difficillimo tempore, sive citius, sive aliquanto
tardius, in medio cursu abreptum iri. Quapropter ignarus quid de
me futurum sit, quum Dei permissu in carceres et vincula forte
detrudendus sim, ad omnem eventum scriptum hoc condidi: quod ut
legere, et ex eo causam meam cognoscere velitis, etiam atque
etiam rogo. Fiet enim, ut hac re non parvo labore liberemini, dum
quod multis ambagibus inquirere vos audio, id totem aperta
confessione libere expromo. Atque ut rem omnem, quo melius et
intelligi, et memoria comprehendi queat, compendio tradam, in
novem omnino capita eam dispertiar.

1. Profiteor me, quamvis indignum, Ecclesiae Catholicae
sacerdotem, et iam octo abhinc annis magna Dei misericordia in
Societatem nominis Iesu cooptatum, peculiare quoddam belli
genus sub obedientiae vexillo suscepisse; ac simul me omni
divitiarum, honorum et aliorum huiusmodi bonorum spe, et
habendi potestate, abdicasse.

2. Generalis Praepositi nostri decreto (quod ego tamquam mandatum
coelitus missum, et a Christo ipso sancitum veneror), Praga Romam,
ubi Generalis nostri perpetua sedes est; Roma deinde in Angliam
contendi: qua animi alacritate etiam in quamcumque aliam orbis
terrarum partem, sive ad christianos, sive ad infideles, profectus
fuissem, si me ad eam profectionem superiores mei designassent.

3. Negotium mihi commisum tale est, ut gratis Evangelium
administrem, rudes in fide instituam, flagitiosos a scelere ad
meliorem vitae rationem traducam, errores convellam; et, ut
summatim omnia complectar, pugnae spiritualis signum tuba canam,
atque alacriter adversus foeda flagitia et superbam ignorationem,
qua innumeri cives mei, quos intimis animi visceribus complector,
oppressi iacent, depugnem.

4. Numquam mihi animus fuit, imo et a Patribus, qui me miserunt,
severe prohibitum mihi est, ut ne reipublicae ac politicae huius
regni administrationis negotiis me immisceam: nam et aliena haec
sunt a vocationis meae instituto, et iis animum cogitationesque
meas libenter avoco.

5. Quamobrem vestra clementia fretus, ad gloriam Dei tria non
minus aequa, quam ab omni pacis et tranquillitatis reipublicae
perturbatione aliena, concedi mihi et permitti humillime postulo.
Primum est, ut Dominationes vestrae, pro sua et reipublicae
dignitate, me pro religione disserentem audire non graventur.
Alterum, quod et cumprimis desidero, et maximi momenti esse
arbitror, ut mihi liceat in consessu doctorum, magistorum et
utriusque Academiae virorum insignium, sacrosanctae theologiae
professorum, verba facere. Promitto me catholicae Ecclesiae fidem
invictis rationibus et sacrarum Scripturarum, Conciliorum, Patrum
atque historiarum auctoritate, ac denique ex ipsa tum naturali,
tum morali philosophia efficaciter demonstraturum et defensurum.
Tertium, ut audiar ab utriusque iuris, sive canonici, sive
civilis, peritis, quibus eamdem fidei veritatem, legum, quae
etiamnum vigent, testimonio atque auctoritate comprobabo.

6. Nollem equidem quidquam proferre, quod insolentem
provocationem aut arrogantiam aliquam prae se ferret; quum et
mundo mortuus iam sim, et ex animo paratus promtusque, ut me ad
cuiusvis pedes abiiciam ac vestigia etiam exosculer. Tantus tamen
animus mihi est pro gloria et maiestate Regis mei Iesu
amplificanda, tanta in eius favore fiducia, tanta denique in
causae aequitate et firmissimorum argumentorum ac probationum
robore confidentia, (quum certo sciam nullum protestantium, nec
omnes simul iunctos, nec ullam adversariorum factionem,
quantumvis imperitam multitudinem et grammaticos quosdam
adolescentulos, apud quos insigniter debacchantur, in errorem
inducant, posse dogmata sua disputatione aut tueri aut probare);
ut cum illis omnibus, vel cum eorum quolibet, vel cum
antesignanis ex omni illorum numero delectis, ultro me offeram
congressurum; bona fide protestans eo mihi gratius fore certamen,
quo melius instructi accesserint.

7. Et quoniam Dominus Deus Dominam meam reginam, eximiis naturae,
eruditionis ac regiae educationis dotibus exornare voluit, si sua
Maiestas huiusmodi auditionem, qualem in quinto articulo secundo
loco efflagitavi, sua regali praesentia et benigna attentione
cohonestare dignaretur, sperarem sane, me articulos controversos
optima methodo et perspicuis argumentis ita illustrare, atque ab
omnibus fallaciarum involucris quibus constricti sunt, explicare
posse, ut zelo veritatis et amore, quo sua Maiestas populum
complectitur, mediocriter eius animum inclinarem, quum ad
plurimas res, quae regno suo non parum detrimenti afferunt,
damnandas et reiiciendas, tum ad nos catholicos, misere iamdui
oppressos, maiore aequitate prosequendos.

8. Neque vero dubium mihi est quin vos, ornatissimi consiliari
S. M., quum in maximi momenti negotiis praeclare ac sapienter
agere soleatis, ubi has de fide controversias, quas adversarii
nostri non sine fuco et confuse plerumque pertractant, bona fide
delectas et fuco nudatas perspexeritis, luce meridiana clarius
cognituri sitis, quam solidis et firmis fundamentis fides
catholica nitatur. Et quia e contrario protestantium argumenta
sunt omnino frivola et infirma, quae temporis iniquitate vim
aliquam contra nos habere putantur; futurum spero, ut vestrarum
animarum et innumerabilium aliarum, quae a vestro nutu et
exemplo pendent, miserti, ab huiusmodi falsorum dogmatum
architectis et doctoribus facies vestras animumque ipsum
avertatis, ac nobis, qui vitam nostram pro vesta salute
alacriter profundere parati sumus, aequiori et magis propitia
mente auscultetis. Multae innocentes manus quotidie et sine
intermissione pro vobis in coelum attolluntur. Haec in vos
studia sunt eorum Anglorum, qui in provinciis transmarinis
numquam interiturae posteritatis patres, virtuti et eruditioni
adquirendae dant operam; omninoque secum statuerunt, a salute
vestra promovenda non prius absistere, quam vel animas vestras
Christo lucrifecerint, vel lanceis vestras confixi generose
occubuerint. Et quidem quod ad Societatem nostram attinet, velim
sciatis, omnes nos, qui sumus de Societate Iesu, per totum
terrarum orbem longa lateque diffusi, (quorum continua successio
et multitudo omnes machinationes vestras anglicas facile
superabit), sanctum foedus iniisse ut cruces, quas nobis
iniicietis, magno animo feramus, neque umquam de vestra salute
desperemus, quamdiu vel unus quispiam e nobis supererit, qui
Tiburno[2] vestro fruatur, atque suppliciis vestris
excarnificari, carceribusque squalere et consumi possit.
Iampridem inita ratio est, divinique numinis auspicio inchoatum
certamen; nulla vis, nullus impetus adversariorum superabit. Hac
ratione consita et tradita olim fides est, eadem in pristinam
dignitatem revocari et restitui debet.

Quod si hoc scriptum meum, quod offero, reiicitur, nec benevoli
conatus mei quidquam possint efficere, et pro itinere multorum
millium milliarium vestri causa suscepto, ingratum animum
experiar; id unum agendum mihi supererit, ut vos causamque meam
Deo scrutatori cordium commendem: quem quidem ex animo precor, ut
nobis tantisper gratiam suam impertiri velit, qua ante extremum
remunerationis diem in unam sententiam conspiremus; et ut tandem
aliquando in coelo, ubi nulla erit iniuriarum memoria, amicitia
sempiterna perfruamur.

PREFATIO

EDMUNDUS CAMPIANVS DOCTISSIMIS ACADEMICIS OXONII FLORENTIBVS ET
CANTABRIGIAE, S. P. D.

Anno praeterito, quum ex instituto vitae meae iussus in hanc
insulam remeassem, clarissimi viri, offendi sane fluctus haud
paulo saeviores in anglicano littore, quam quos in oceano
brittannico recens a tergo reliqueram. Mox interiorem in Angliam
ubi penetrassem, nihil familiarius, quam inusitata supplicia;
nihil certius, quam incerta pericula. Collegi me, ut potui, memor
causae, memor temporum. Ac ne prius forte corriperer, quam
auditus a quopiam fuissem, scripto protinus mandavi consileum
meum, qui venissem, quid quaererem, quod bellum, et quibus,
indicere cogitarem Autographum apud me habui, ut mecum, si
caperer, caperetur; exemplum eius apud amicum deposui, quod, me
quidem nesciente, pluribus communicatum est. Adversarii
publicatam schedulam atrociter acceperunt quum caetera, tum illud
invidiosissime criminantes, quod unus omnibus in hoc religionis
negotio certamen obtulissem; quamquam solus non eram futurus, si
fide publica disputassem. Responderunt postulatis meis Hammerus
et Charcus. Quid tandem? Otiose omnia. Nullum enim responsum,
praeter unum, honeste dabunt, quod numquam dabunt: "Conditiones
amplectimur, Regina spondet, advola." Interea clamant isti:
"Sodalitium tuum, seditiones tuas, arrogantiam tuam, proditorem,
sine dubio proditorem." Ridicule. Operam et oleum et famam
homines non insipientissimi cur profundunt?

Verum his duobus, (quorum prior animi causa meam chartam delegit,
in quam incurrerat; alter malitiosius totam rem convolvit),
praebitus nuper est libellus admodum luculentus, qui quantum
oportuit, tantum et de Societate nostra, et de horum iniuriis, et
de provincia, quam sustinemus, edisserit. Mihi supererat,
(quoniam, ut video, tormenta, non scholas, parant antistites),
rationem facti mei vobis ut probarem; capita rerum, quae mihi
tantum fidentiae pepererunt, quasi digito fontes ostenderem. Vos
etiam hortarer, quorum interest praeter caeteros, incumbatis in
hanc curam, quam a vobis Christus, Ecclesia, respublica et vestra
salus exigunt. Ego si fretus ingenio, litteris, arte, lectione,
memoria, peritissimum quemque adversarium provocavi fui
vanissimus et superbissimus, qui neque me, necque illos
inspexerim; sin causam intuitus, existimavi satis me valentem
esse, qui docerem hunc solem meridie lucere, debetis mihi
fervorem istum concedere, quem honor Iesu Christi, Regis mei, et
invicta veritas imperarunt. Scitis M. Tullium in Quintiana, quum
Roscius victoriam adpromitteret, si efficeret argumentis,
septingenta millia passuum non esse decursa biduo, non modo nihil
veritum articulos et nervos Hortensii, sed ne grandiores quidem
Hortensio, Phillipos, et Cottas, et Antonios, et Crassos, quibus
maximam dicendi gloriam tribuebat, metuere potuisse. Est enim
quaedam veritas tam illustris et perspicua, ut eam nullae
verborum rerumque praestigiae possint obruere. Porro liquidius
est quod nos agimus, quam illa fuit hypothesis Rosciana. Nam si
hoe praestitero: coelos esse, divos esse, fidem esse, Christum
esse, causam obtinui. Hic ego non sim animosus? Equidem occidi
possum, superari non possum, iis enim Doctoribus insisto, quos
ille Spiritus erudiit, qui nec fallitur, nec vincitur.

Quaeso a vobis ut salvi esse velitis. A quibus hoc impetraro,
reliqua minime dubitanter expecto. Date modo vos huic
sollicitudini, Christum obtestamini, industriam adiungite;
profecto sentietis id, quod res est, et adversarios desperare, et
nos, tam solide fundatos, quieto magnoque animo hanc arenam
expetere oportere. Brevior hic sum, quod reliquo sermone vos
alloquor. Valete.

RATIONES OBLATI CERTAMINIS

_Ego dabo vobis os et sapientiam, cui non poterunt resistere et
contradicere omnes adversarii vestri._ Luc. xxi. 15.

Rationum capita.

1. Sacrae Litterae.

2. Sacrarum Litterarum sententia.

3. Natura Ecclesiae.

4. Concilia.

5. Patres.

6. Fermamenta Patrum.

7. Historia.

8. Paradoxa.

9. Sophismata.

10. Omne genus testium.

PRIMA RATIO

SACRAE LITTERAE.

Quum multa sunt, quae adversariorum diffidentiam in causa
loquuntur, tum nihil aeque atque sanctorum maiestas Bibliorum
foedissime violata. Etenim qui, posteaquam reliquorum testium
voces et suffragia contempserunt, eo sunt redacti nihilo secius,
ut stare nequeant, nisi divinis ipsis codicibus vim et manus
intulerint; ii se profecto declarant extrema fortuna confligere,
et rebus iam desperatis ac perditis, experiri durissima velle
atque ultima. Manicheis[3] quid causae fuit, ut "Evangelium
Matthei et Acta refigerent Apostolica?" Desperatio. His enim
voluminibus cruciabantur, et qui Christum negaverant prognatum de
Virgine, et qui Spiritum christianis tum primo coelitus illapsum
finxerant quum ipsorum Paracletus, Persa nequissimus, erupisset.
Quid Ebioniis,[4] ut omnes Pauli repudarient epistolas?
Desperatio. His enim suam dignitatiem retinentibus, antiquata
circumcisio est, quam isti revocaverant. Quid Luthero[5] ut
Epistolam Iacobi "contentiosam, tumidam, aridum, stramineam,"
flagitiosus apostata nominaret, et "indignam spiritu censeret
apostolico?" Desperatio. Hoc enim scripto confessus miser atque
disruptus est, quum "in sola fide iustitiam, constitueret." Quid
Lutheri catulis, ut Tobiam, Ecclesiasticum, Machabaeos, et horum
odio complures alios eadem calumnia comprehensos, e sincero
canone repente dispungerent? Desperatio. His enim oraculis
disertissime coarguuntur, quoties de angelorum patrocinio,
quoties de arbitrii libertate, quoties de fidelibus vita
defunctis, quoties de Divorum hominum intercessione disputant.

Itane vero? Tantum perversitatis, tantum audaciae? Quum Ecclesiam,
concilia, cathedras, Patres, martyres, imperia, populos, leges,
academias, historias, omnia vetustatis et sanctitatis vestigia
conculcassent, scripto Dei verbo tantum controversias velle
dirimere proclamassent, illud ipsum verbum, quod solum restiterat,
exsectis e toto corpore tam multis, tam bonis, tam speciosis,
partibus, delumbasse? Septem enim ipsos de veteri Testamento[6]
codices, ut minuta dissimulem, calviniani praeciderunt; lutherani
vero etiam epistolam Iacobi, et huius invidia quinque alias;[7] de
quibus aliquando fuerat et alicubi controversum. His quoque
libellum Estheris et tria capita Danielis adnumerant novissimi
Genuenses; quae quidem Anabaptistae, istorum condiscipuli, iam
pridem damnaverant atque deriserant.

Quanto modestius Augustinus,[8] qui sacrosanctum catalogum
pertexens, non sibi neque alphabetum hebraicum, ut Iudaei; neque
privatum spiritum, ut Sectarii, pro regula posuit; sed illum
Spiritum, quo totum corpus Ecclesiae Christus animat. Quae quidem
Ecclesia custos huius depositi, non magistra, quod haeretici
cavillantur, thesaurum hunc universum quem Tridentina[9] Synodus
est amplexa, vetustissimis olim conciliis publicitus vindicavit.
Idem Augustinus,[10] de una Scripturarum particula speciatim
disserens, inducere in animum non potest, librum Sapientiae, qui
iam tum Ecclesiae calculo, temporum serie, priscorum testimonio
instinctione fidelium, ut firmus et canonicus robur obtinuerat,
cuiusquam temeritate vel susurro extrudi extra canonem oportere.
Quid ille nunc diceret, si viveret in terris, et Lutheros
Calvinosque concerneret opifices bibliorum, qui sua lima politula
et elegantula vetus novumque Testamentum raserint; neque
Sapientiam tantum, sed et alia permulta de canonicorum librorum
ordine segregaverint: ut quidquid ex horum officina non
prodierit, illud ad omnibus phrenetico decreto tamquam incultum
et horridum conspuatur?

Ad hoc tam dirum et exsecrabile perfugium qui descenderunt, ii
certe licet in ore suorum asseclarum volitent, sacerdotia
nundinentur declamitent in concione, ferrum in catholicos,
equuleum crucemque consciscant; tamen victi, abiecti, squalidi,
prostrati sunt: quandoquidem arrepta virgula censoria, veluti
arbitri sedentes honorarii, divinas ipsas tabulas, si quae ad
stomachum non fecissent, obliterant. Ecquis est vel mediocriter
institutus, qui talium cuniculos hostium reformidet? Qui homines
quamprimum in corona vestra, eruditorum hominum, ad eiusmodi
veteratorias artes, tamquam ad familiarem daemonem currerent, non
aurium convicio sed strepitu pedum exciperentur. Quaererem ab
eis, verbi gratia, quo iure corpus biblicum detruncent atque
diripiant? Respondent: non se veras Scripturas exscindere, sed
excernere supposititias. Quo iudice? Spiritu sancto. Hoc enim
responsum a Calvino[11] praescribitur, ut Ecclesiae iudicium, quo
spiritus examinantur, subterfugiat. Cur igitur alios alii
lancinatis, quum omnes eodem Spiritu gloriemini?

Calvinianorum spiritus recipit sex epistolas, quae spiritui non
placent lutherano; freti tamen uterque sancto Spiritu.
Anabaptistae historiam Iobi fabulam[12] appellant, tragicis et
comicis legibus intermixtam. Qui sciunt? Spiritu docente.
Castalio[13] mysticum illud Salomonis Canticum, quod ut
paradisum animae, ut manna reconditum, ut opiparas in Christo
delicias catholici admirantur, nihilo pluris quam cantilenam de
anicula, et cum pedissequis aulae colloquium amatorium venereus
furcifer aestimavit. Vnde hausit? A spiritu. In Apocalypsi
Ioannis, cuius omnes apices excelsum aliquid et magnificum
sonare confirmat Hieronymus,[14] tamen Lutherus[15] et Brentius
et Kemnitius quiddam, nescio quid, difficiles aristarchi
desiderant; eo scilicet propendentes, ut exautoretur. Quem
percontati? Spiritum. Quatuor Evangelia fervore praepostero
Lutherus[16] inter se committit, et prioribus tribus Epistolas
Pauli longe praeferens, "unicum" deinceps "Evangelium Ioannis,
pulchrum, verum, praecipuum" decernit esse nominandum; quippe
qui, quod in ipso fuit, libenter etiam Apostolos suarum rixarum
socios adscripsisset. Quo doctore? Spiritu. Quin etiam iste
fraterculus[17] non dubitavit Evangelium Lucae petulanti stylo
perstringere, quod in eo crebrius bona nobis virtutum opera
commendentur. Quem interrogavit? Spiritum. Theodorus Beza ex
Lucae vigesimo secundo capite : "Hic calix, novum testamentum,
in meo sanguine, qui (calix) pro vobis fundetur, <Greek:
potaerion enchunomenon>," ausus est ut corruptum vitiatumque
traducere, quod haec oratio nullam expositionem, nisi de vino
calicis converso in verum Christi sanguinem, patiatur. Quis
indicavit? Spiritus. Denique quum omnia credant suo quisque
spiritui, nomen sancti Spiritus horribili blasphemia mentiuntur.
Qui sic agunt, nonne se produnt? Nonne facile refutantur? Nonne
in concessu talium virorum, quales estis Academici, tenentur ac
minimo negotio constringuntur? Cum his ego timeam pro fide
catholica disputare, qui pessima fide voces non humanas, sed
aethereas tractavere?

Nihil hic dico, quae vertendo perverterint quamvis intolerabilia
sint, quae accusem. Gregorio Martino, scientissimo linguarum,
collegae meo, qui doctius et plenius hoc praestabit, nihil
praeripio, nec aliis, quibus id laboris esse iam prae manibus
intellexi. Facinorosius crimen est ac tetrius, quod nunc
persequor. Inventos esse doctorculos, qui temulento quodam
impetu in coeleste chirographum involarint; idipsum pluribus
locis, ut maculatum, ut mancum, ut falsum, ut subreptitium
condemnarint; eius partes aliquas correxerint, aliquas
corroserint, aliquas evulserint. Hinc omne propugnaculum, quo
muniebatur, in lutheranos spiritus, tamquam in valla
phantasmatum pictosque parietes commutarint; ne prorsus
obmutescerent, quum in Scripturas, erroribus suis infestas,
impingerent, quas nihilo commodius expedire, quam sorbere
favillas, aut saxa mandere, potuissent.

Haec ergo mihi prima ratio vehemens et iusta fuit quae ubi partes
adversarias umbraticas et fractas ostendisset, animum sane
addidit viro et christiano et in his studiis exercitato, pro
sempiterni Regis diplomate adversus reliquias profligatorum
hostium decertandi.

SECVNDA RATIO

SACRARVM LITTERARVM SENTENTIA

Alterum est, quod me quidem ad congressum incitarit, et horum
apud me copiolas elevarit, adversarii perpetuum in Scripturis
exponendis ingenium, plenum fraudis, inane prudentiae. Statim
haec, philosophi, tangeretis. Itaque vos auditores expetii.

Sciscitemur ab adversaras, exempli gratia, quidnam sequuti novam
sectam intriverint, qua Christus excluditur e coena mystica? Si
nominant Evangelium, accurrimus. A nobis verba sunt:[18] "Hoc
est corpus meum. Hic est calix meus." Qui sermo visus est ipsi
Luthero[19] tam potens, ut quum etiam discuperet fieri
Zuinglianus, quod ea re plurimum incommodare Pontifici
potuisset, captus tamen et victus apertissimo contextu, cederet;
neque minus invitus Christum vere praesentem in Sacramento
sanctissimo fateretur, quam olim daemones, victi miraculis,
Christum Dei Filium vociferati sunt.[20] Agedum, pagella scripta
superiores sumus; de sententia scripti contenditur. Hanc
pervestigemus ex verbis adiacentibus:[21] "Corpus meum, quod pro
vobis tradetur. Sanguis meus, qui pro multis effundetur." Adhuc
durissimae partes Calvini sunt, nostrae faciles et explicatae.
Quid amplius? Conferte Scripturas, inquiunt. Conspirant
Evangelia,[22] Paulus adstipulatur; voces, clausulae, tota
connexio panem, vinum, insigne miraculum, coeleste pabulum,
carnem, corpus, sanguinem, reverenter ingeminant. Nihil
aenigmaticum, nihil offusum caligine loquendi.

Tamen perstant adversarii, neque finem faciunt altercandi. Quid
agimus? Opinor, audiatur antiquitas; et quod nos alteris alteri
suspecti non possumus, illud omnium saeculorum veneranda
canities, Christo propior, ab hac lite remotior, decidat
arbitrio. Non ferunt: prodi se aiunt. Dei verbum purum, purum,
inclamant; hominum commentarios aversantur. Insidiose inepte. Dei
verbum perurgemus, obscurant; Divos testamur interpretes,
obsistunt. In summa, sic instituunt, nisi reorum iudicio
steteris, nullum iudicium fore.

Atque ita se gerunt in omni, quam exercemus, controversia, de
infusa gratia, de inhaerente iustitia, de Ecclesia conspicua, de
necessitate Baptismatis, de Sacramentis et Sacrificio, de piorum
meritis, de spe et timore, de peccatis imparibus, de auctoritate
Petri, de clavibus, de votis, de conciliis evangelicis, de
caeteris. Scripturas neque paucas et ponderosa catholici passim
in libris, in colloquiis, in templis, in schola citavimus atque
discussimus; eluserunt. Veterum scholia graecorum et latinorum
admovimus; abnuerunt. Quid tum denique? Doctor Martinus Lutherus,
aut vero Phillippus, aut certe Zuinglius, aut sine dubio Calvinus
et Bezza, fideliter enarrarunt. Egone quemquam vestrum existimen
tam esse mucosis naribus, qui hoc artificium, monitus, non
persentiscat? Quare fateor me scholas Academicas cupide
requirere, ut inspectantibus vobis, calamistratos istos milites,
in solem et pulverem e suis umbraculis evocatos, non meis
viribus, qui cum vestris centesima parte non sum conferendus, sed
valentissima causa et certissima veritate debilitem.

TERTIA RATIO

NATVRA ECCLESIAE

Audito iam Ecclesiae nomine, hostis expalluit. Sed tamen
excogitavit quiddam, quod a vobis animadverti volo, ut falsi
ruinam et inopiam cognoscatis. Senserat in Scripturis tum
propheticis, tum apostolicis, ubique honorificam Ecclesiae fieri
mentionem: vocari civitatem sanctam (Apoc. xxi. 10), fructiferam
vineam (Ps. lxxix.9), montem excelsum (Isai. ii. 2), directam
viam (Ibid. xxxv. 8), columbam unicam (Cant. vi. 8), regnum coeli
(Matth. xiii. 24), sponsam (Cant. iv. 8), et corpus Christi (Eph.
v. 23 et 1 Cor. xii. 12), firmamentum veri (1 Tim. iii. 15),
multitudinem illam, cui Spiritus promissas instillet omnia
salutaria (Ioan. xiv. 26): illam, in quam universam nullae sint
umquam fauces diaboli morsum letiferum impacturae (Matth. xvi.
18); illam, cui quicumque repugnet, quantumvis ore Christum
praedicet, non magis Christi, quam publicanus aut ethnicus
(Matth. xviii. 17), potiatur.

Non est ausus contravenire sonitu, videri noluit Ecclesiae, quam
toties Scripturae commemorant, refragari; nomen callide retinuit,
rem ipsam funditus, definiendo, sustulit. His enim proprietatibus
delineavit Ecclesiam, quae penitus ipsam occulant, et dimotam a
sensibus tamquam ideam platonicam, secretis obtutibus hominum
perpaucorum subiiciant[23]; eorum tantummodo, qui singulariter
afflati, corpus hoc aerium intelligentia comprehenderent, et
huiusce sodalitatis participes subtili quodam oculo lustrarent.
Vbi candor? Vbi simplicitas. Quae Scripturae, quae sensa, qui
Patres, hoc penicillo depingunt Ecclesiam? Sunt Christi ad
Asiaticas ecclesias (Apoc. i. 2, 3), sunt Petri, Pauli, Ioannis,
aliorum ad diversos epistolae; frequentes in Actis Apostolicis
inchoantur et propagantur ecclesiae (Act. viii. 10, 11 et seq.).
Quid istae? Num soli Deo et sanctis hominibus, an christianis
etiam cuiuscumque generis, manifestae?

Sed profecto durum telum necessitas est. Ignoscite. Nam qui
saeculis omnino quindecim, non oppidam, non villam, non domum
reperiunt imbutam doctrina sua, donec infelix monachus (Lutherus)
incesto connubio votam Deo virginem funestasset; aut Helvetius
gladiator (Zuinglius) in patriam coniurasset; aut stigmaticus
perfuga (Calvinus) Genevam occupasset; ii coguntur Ecclesiam, si
quam volent, in latebris venditare, et eos parentes asserere,
quos nec ipsi noverint, neque mortalium quisquam aspexerit. Nisi
forte gaudent maioribus illis, quos haereticos fuisse liquet, ut
Aerio, Ioviniano, Vigilantio, Helvidio, Iconomachis, Berengario,
Valdensibus, Lolhardo, Wiclefo, Hussio; a quibus pestifera
quaedam fragmenta dogmatum emendicarint.

Nolite mirari, si fumulos istos non pertimui, quos, modo ad
meridianam lucem venero, minime fuerit laboriosum dispellere.
Haec est enim nostra sermocianatio. Dic mihi: subscribis
Ecclesiae, quae saeculis anteactis viguit?--Omnino.--Obeamus ergo
terras et tempora. Cui?--Coetui fidelium.--Quorum?--Nomina
nesciuntur, sed constat plurimos exstitisse.--Constat? Quibus
constat?--Deo.--Quis dicit?--Nos, qui divinitus edocti
sumus.--Fabulae qui credam?--Si arderes fide, tam scires hoc,
quam te vivere.

/* Spectatum admissi, risum teneatis?

Iuberi christianos omnes adiungere se Ecclesiae, cavere ne
spiritali gladio trucidentur, in domo Dei pacem colore, huic
animas credere columini veritatis, istic querelas omnes deponere,
hinc eiectos habere pro ethnicis; nescire tamen tot centinis, tot
homines, ubinam illa sit, quive huc pertineant? Vnum illud
crepare in tenebris, ubi ubi sit Ecclesia, tantummodo sanctos et
in aethera destinatos ea contineri? Ex quo fit ut, si quis
imperium sui Praesulis detrectare velit, scelere solvatur,
dummodo sibi persuadeat presbyterum in crimen incidisse, et ab
Ecclesia protinus excidisse.

Quum scirem adversarios talia comminisci, quod nullius aetatis
Ecclesiae consuessent, et orbatos tota re, velle tamen inter
angustias vocabulum possidere, solabar me vestro acumine, atque
adeo mihi pollicebar, fore ut quamprimum huiusmodi technas ex
ipsorum confessione cerneretis, statim homines ingenui et cordati
stultas argutias in vestram intextas perniciem exscinderetis.

QVARTA RATIO

CONCILIA

Gravis, Ecclesia nascente, quaestio de legitimis caeremoniis,
quae credentium animos disturbavit, coacto Apostolorum et
seniorum concilio, soluta est. Credidere parentibus filii,
pastoribus oves, in haec verba mandantibus[24]: "Visum est
Spiritui sancto et nobis." Sequuta sunt ad extirpandam haeresim,
quae varia quibusque saeculis pullulavit, oecumenica veterum
Concilia quatuor, tantae firmitudinis, ut iis ante annos mille
singularis honos tamquam divinis vocibus, haberetur[25]. Non
abibo longius. Etiam domi nostrae, comitiis regni eadem Concilia
pristinum ius inviolatamque dignitatem obtinent. Haec citabo,
teque ipsam[26], Anglia, dulcissima patria, contestabor. Si,
quemadmodum prae te fers, quatuor ista Concilia reverebere,
summum honorem primae sedis Episcopo, id est, Petro, deferes:[27]
incruentum corporis et sanguinis Christi sacrificium in altari
recognosces:[28] beatos Martyres, divosque omnes coelites, ut pro
te Christo supplicent, obsecrabis:[29] mulierosos apostatas ab
infando concubitu et incestu publico coercebis:[30] multa facies,
quae demoliris; multa, quae facis, infecta voles.[31] Porro
Synodos aliorum temporum, nominatim vero Tridentinam, eiusdem
auctoritatis ac fidei cum primis illis fuisse, quando usus
venerit, demonstraturum me spondeo atque recipio.

Auctus igitur Conciliorum omnium valido et exquisito praesidio,
cur non ingrediar in hanc palaestram animo tranquillo et
praesenti, observaturus adversarium, quo se proripiat? Nam et
evidentissima producam, quae distorquere non poterit, et
probatissima, quae respuere non audebit.

Fortasse verbosius loquendo diem extrahere conabitur; sed ab
intentis hominibus, si vos rego bene novi, nec aures nec oculos
compilabit. Quod si quis erit omnino tam demens, qui se unum
opponat Senatoribus orbis terrae, et iis quidem omni exceptione
maioribus, sanctioribus, doctioribus, vetustioribus; libenter
aspiciam illud os, quod ubi vobis ostendero, reliqua
cogitationibus vestris relinquam. Interim hoc monebo; qui pleno
Concilio, rite atque ordine consummato, momentum et pondus
abrogat, videri mihi nullo consilio, nullo cerebro; neque solum
in theologicis tardum, sed etiam in politicis inconsultum. Si
umquam Dei Spiritus illuxit Ecclesiae, certe illud est tempus
immitendi Numinis, quum omnium ecclesiarum, quae sunt in terris
patentissimae, religio, maturitas, scientia, sapientia, dignitas,
unam in urbem confluxerint, adhibitisque modis omnibus divinis et
humanis, quibus indagari veritas possit, promissum implorent
Spiritum,[32] quo salutariter et prudenter sanciat.

Prosiliat nunc aliquis factionis haereticae magistellus, attollat
supercilia, suspendat nasum, frontem perfricet, iudicesque suos
scurriliter ipse iudicet. Quos ille ludos, quos iocos dabit?
Repertus est Lutherus,[33] qui diceret, anteferre se Consiliis
duorum suffragia bonorum et eruditorum hominum (putatote suum et
Phillippi), si quando in Christi nomine consensissent. O
circulos! Repertus est Kemnitius[34], qui concilium Tridentinum
ad suos vertiginis importunae calculos exegerit; quid lucratus?
Infamiam. Dum iste nictaverit, sepelietur cum Ario; Tridentina
Synodus quo magis inveterascet, eo magis in dies eoque perennius
efflorescet. Bone Deus! quae gentium varietas, qui delectus
episcoporum totius orbis, qui regum et rerumpublicarum splendor,
quae medulla theologorum, quae sanctitas, quae lacrymae, quae
ieiunia, qui flores academici, quae linguae, quanta subtilitas,
quantus labor, quam infinita lectio, quantae virtutum et
studiorum divitiae augustum illud sacrarium impleverunt? Audivi
ego Pontifices exsultantes, et in his Antonium, archiepiscopum
Pragensem, a quo sum creatus presbyter, amplissimos et
prudentissimos viros, quod in ea schola haesissent aliquot annis,
ut nullum Ferdinandi Caesaris, cui multum debuerant, regalius et
uberius in se beneficium colerent, quam hoc fuit quod in
Tridentino gymnasio legati ex Pannonia consedissent. Intellexit
hoc Caesar, qui reversis ita gratulatus est: "Aluimus vos in
schola optima."

Huc invitati fide publica, cur non properarunt adversarii, ut eos
palam refellerent, in quos ranunculi coaxant e cavernulis?--Hussio
et Hieronymo fregere fidem, inquiunt--Qui?--Constantiensis Concilii
proceres--Falsum est: nullam dedere. Sed nec in Hussium tamen
animadversum fuisset, nisi homo perfidiosus et pestilens, retractus
ex fuga, quam ei Sigismundus Imperator periculo capitis
interdixerat, violatis etiam conditionibus, quas scripto pepigerat
cum Caesare, vim omnem illius diplomatis enervasset. Fefellit
Hussium praecipitata malitia. Iussus enim, quum barbaras in sua
Bohemia tragoedias excitasset, semetipsum sistere Constantiae,
despexit praerogativam Concilii; securitatem periit a Caesare,
Caesar obsignavit, christianus orbis resignavit maior Caesare.
Redire ad mentem haeresiarcha noluit: periit. Hieronymus vero
Pragensis furtim venit Constantiam, protectus a nemine; deprehensus
comparuit, peroravit, habitus est perbenigne, liber abiit quo
voluit, sanatus est, haeresim eiuravit, relapsus est, exustus est.

Quid toties unum exemplum de sexcentis exagitant? Repetant
annales suos. Martinus ipse Lutherus (a. 1518) odium Dei et
hominum, Augustae positus coram Cardinale Caietano, nonne quod
potuit, eructavit, et Maximiliani litteris communitus excessit?
Idem accitus Wormatiam (a. 1521), quum et Caesarem et plerosque
Imperii principes haberet infensos, nonne Caesaris verbo tutus
fuit? Postremo lutheranorum et zuinglianorum capita, praesente
Carolo quinto, haereticorum hoste victore, domino, nonne datis
induciis confessiones suas innovatas exhibuere comitiis
Augustanis, et sospites abiere? Haud secus litterae Tridientinae
locupletissimas adversario cautiones providerant:[35] uti noluit.
Nimirum se iactat in angulis in quibus ubi tria verba graeca
sonuerit, sapere videatur; abhorret a luce, quae litteratorem in
numero poneret, et ad honesta subsellia devocaret. Catholicis
Anglis tale chirographum impunitatis impetrent, si diligunt
salutem animarum. Nos Hussium non causabimur; verbo Principis
innixi, convolabimus.

Sed ut, unde sum egressus, eo regrediar, Concilia generalia mea
sunt, primum, ultimum, media; his pugnabo. Hastam exspectet
adversarius amentatam, quam avellere numquam poterit.
Prosternatur in eo satanas, Christus vivat.

QVINTA RATIO

PATRES

Antiochiae, qua primum in urbe Christianorum nobile cognomentum
increbuit, Doctores,[36] id est, eminentes theologi; et
Prophetae, id est, concionatores perquam celebres, floruerunt.
Huiusce generis "scribas et sapientes, doctos in regno Dei, nova
promentes et vetera,"[37] Christum callentes et Moysem, Dominus
ipse futuros gregi prospexerat. Hos, ingentis beneficii loco
donatos, explodere, quanti maleficii est? Explosit adversarius.
Quid ita? Quia stantibus illis, concidisset. Id ego quum pro
certissimo comperissem, pugnam simpliciter exoptavi, non illam
iocularem, qua turbae velitantur in compitis, sed istam severam
et acrem, qua congredimur in vestris Philosophorum spatiis:

/*-pede pes, densusque viro vir.

Ad Patres si quando licebit accedere, confectum est praelium; tam
sunt nostri, quam Gregorius ipse decimus tertius, filiorum
Ecclesiae Pater amantissimus. Nam ut omittam loca sparsa, quae ex
monumentis veterum conquisita, nostram fidem apposite affirmateque
propugnant; tenemus horum integra volumina, quae de industria
religionem, quam tuemur, evangelicam distincte copioseque
dilucidant. Duplex Hierarchia Martyris Dionysii[38] quas classes,
quae sacra, quos ritus edocet? Pupugit ea res Lutherum[39] tam
valde, ut huius opera "simillima somniis, nec non
perniciosissima" iudicaret. Imitatus parentem Caussaeus,[40]
nescio quis terrae filius, ex Gallia, non est veritus hunc
Dionysium, inclytae gentis Apostolum, vocitare "delirum senem."
Centuriatores[41] vehementer offendit Ignatius et Calvinum,[42]
ut in eius epistolis "deformes naevos, et putidas naenias"
hominum quisquiliae notarint. Censoribus[43] illis "fanaticum
quiddam" Irenaeus edixit; Clemens auctor Stromatum "zizania
faecesque protulit;"[44] reliqui Patres huius aevi, sane
apostolici viri, "blasphemias et monstra posteris reliquerunt."
In Tertulliano rapiunt avide, quod a nobis edocti, nobiscum
communiter detestentur; sed meminerint libellum de
Praescriptionibus,[45] qui nostri temporis sectarios tam
insigniter perculit, numquam fuisse reprehensum. Hippolytus,
Portuensis[46] episcopus, quam belle, quam clare Antichristi
nervum, lutherana tempora, praemonstravit? Eum propterea
"scriptorem infantissimum et larvam" nominant. Cyprianum,
delicias et decus Africae, Gallicanus ille criticus[47] et
Magdeburgici[48] "stupidum, et destitutum Deo, et depravatorem
poenitentiae" nuncuparunt. Quid admisit? Scripsit enim de
virginibus, de lapsis, de unitate Ecclesiae tractationes
euismodi, eas etiam epistolas Cornelio, Romano Pontifici, ut nisi
fides huic martyr detrahatur, Petrus Martyr Vermilius, omnesque
cum eo foederati, peiores adulteris et sacrilegis habeantur. Ac
ne singulis insistam diutius, Patres huius saeculi damnantur
omnes, "quippe qui doctrinam de poenitentia mire
depravarint."[49] Quo pacto? Nam austeritas canonum, quae viguit
ea tempestate, maiorem in modum displicet huic sectae plausibili,
quae tricliniis aptior, quam templis, voluptarias aures titillare
et pulvillos omni cubito[50] solet assuere.

Quid aetas proxima, quid peccavit? Chrysostomus et ii Patres
"iustitiam fidei foede" videlicet "obscurarunt."[51] Nazianzenus,
quem honoris causa, Theologum veteres appellarunt, Caussaeo[52]
iudice, "Fabulator, quid affirmaret, nesciit." Ambrosius "a
cacodaemone fascinatus est." Hieronymus "aeque damnatus, atque
diabolus: iniuriosus Apostolo,[53] blasphemus, sceleratus,
impius." "Vnus" Gregorio Massovio[54] "pluris est Calvinus, quam
centum Augustini." Parum est, centum; Lutherus[55] "nihili facit
adversum se mille Augustinos, mille Cyprianos, mille Ecclesias."
Longius rem deducere, supervacaneum puto. Nam in hos, qui
bachantur, quis miretur in Optatum, Athanasium, Hilarium,
Cyrillos, Epiphanium, Basilium, Vincentium, Fulgentium, Leonem,
Gregoriumque Romanum fuisse procacissimos?

Quamquam si datur ulla rebus iniustis iusta defensio non inficior
habere Patres, ubicumque incideris, quod isti, dum sibi
consentiunt, necessario stomachentur. Etinem qui odere stata
ieiunia, quo animo oportet esse in Basilium, Nazianzenum,
Chrysostomum, qui de quadragesima et indictis ieiuniorum feriis,
tamquam de rebus iam usitatis, conciones egregias publicarunt?
Qui suas animas auro, libidine, crapula et ambitiosis
conspectibus vendiderunt, possuntne non esse inimicissimi
Basilio, Chrysostomo, Hierionymo, Augustino, quorum excellentes
libri de monachorum instituto, regula, virtutibus, teruntur?

Qui captivam hominis voluntatem invexere, qui christiana funebria
sustulere, qui Divorum reliquias incendere, sintne placabiles
Augustino, qui de libero arbitrio libros tres, de cura pro
mortuis unum, de miraculis ad Basilicas et memorias Martyrum
prolixum caput nobilissimi operis[56] et conciones aliquot
exaravit? Qui fidem suis captiunculis metiuntur, nonne
succenseant Augustino, cuius est insignis epistola,[57] qua se
profitetur antiquitati, consensioni, successioni perpetuae et
Ecclesiae, quae sola inter tot haereses Catholicae nomen
usucapione vindicat assentire?

Optatus, Milevitanus episcopus, Donatianam partem revincit[58] ex
communione Catholica; nequitiam accusat ex decreto Melchiadis
(lib. 1); haeresim refutat ex ordine Romanorum Pontificum (lib.
2); insaniam patefacit ex Eucharistia et chrismate contaminatis
(lib. 3); sacrilegium horret ex diffractis altaribus "in quibus
Christi membra portata sunt," pollutisque calicibus "qui Christi
sanguinem tenuerunt," (lib. 6). De Optato quid sentiant, aveo
scire, quem Augustinus[59] ut venerabilem et catholicum
episcopum, Ambrosio parem et Cypriano; quem Fulgentius[60] ut
sanctum et fidelem Pauli interpretem, Augustini similem et
Ambrosii, meminerunt.

Athanasii Symbolum in templis concinunt. Num favent ei, qui
Antonium Eremitam Aegyptium,[61] gravis auctor, accurato libello
dilaudaverit, quique cum Alexandrina Synodo[62] iudicium Sedis
Apostolicae, Divi Petri, suppliciter appellarit? Prudentius in
hymnis quoties precatur Martyres, quos decantat? Quoties ad eorum
cineres et ossa Regem Martyrum veneratur? Num hunc probabunt?
Hieronymus pro Divorum reliquiis et honoribas scribit in
Vigilantium, in Iovinianam pro virginitatis gradu. Huccine
patientur? Ambrosius[63] tutores suos Gervasium et Protasium,
celebritate notissima, in Arianam ignominiam honestavit; cui
facto divinissimi Patres[64] encomium tribuere: quod factum Deus
non uno prodigio decoravit. Num benevoli sunt Ambrosio futuri?
Gregorius Magnus, noster Apostolus, planissime noster est, eoque
nomine nostris adversariis odiosus; quem Calvini[65] rabies negat
in schola sancti Spiritus educatum, propterea quod sacras
imagines illitteratorum libros appellasset.

Dies me deficeret numerantem epistolas, conciones, homilias,
orationes, opuscula, disceptationes Patrum, in quibus ex apparato
graviter et ornate nostra catholicorum dogmata roborarunt.
Quamdiu apud bibliopolas ista venierint, tamdiu frustra nostrorum
codices prohibentur; frustra servantur aditus oraeque maritimae;
frustra domus, arcae, scrinia, capsulae disquiruntur; frustra tot
portis minaces tabulae suffiguntur. Nullus enim Hardingus, nec
Sanderus, nec Stapletonus, nec Bristolius haec nova somnia
vehementius, quam hi, quos recensui, Patres, insectantur. Talia
cogitanti accrevit animus et desiderium pugnae, in qua, quoquo se
moverit adversarius, nisi gloriam Deo cesserit, feret incommodum.
Patres admiserit, captus est; excluserit, nullus est.

Adolescentibus nobis ita contigit. Ioannes Ivellus antesignanus
calvinianorum Angliae, catholicos ad Divi Pauli Londinensium
incredibili iactantia lacessivit, invocatis per hypocrisim et
imploratis Patribus, quicumque intra salutis annum sexcentesimum
claruisset. Accipiunt conditionem memorabiles viri, qui tum
exsulabant Lovanii, summis licet difficultatibus propter
iniquitatem suorum temporum circumsepti. Ausim dicere, tanto
popularibus nostris bono fuisse illam Ivellii astutiam,
inscitiam, improbitatem, impudentiam, quas ii scriptores
feliciter expanderunt, ut vix aliud quidquam, memoria mea,
provenerit Anglorum Ecclesiae laboranti fructuosius. Edictum
continuo valvis appenditur, ne qui codices illiusmodi
legerentur, neve haberentur. Quum tantis clamoribus propemodum
extorti prodiissent, didicere quicumque negotium attigissent,
Patres fuisse catholicos, id est, nostros. Neque hoc sibi
suisque vulnus inflictum Laurentius Humfredus[66] tacuit; qui
quum alte Ivellum quoad caetera sustulisset, unam ei notam
aspersit inconsiderantiae, quod Patrum calculos recepisset,
quibuscum sibi nihil esse commercii, nec fore, sine ulla
circuitione proloquitur.

Pertentavimus etiam familiariter aliquando Tobiam Matthaeum, qui
nunc in concionibus dominatur, quem propter bonas artes et virtutum
semina dileximus, ut responderet ingenue, possetne qui Patres
assiduus lectitaret, istarum esse partium, quas ille suaserat.
Retulit, non posse, si pariter eos legeret iisque crederet.
Verissimum hoc verbum est, neque aliter eum nunc, aut Mattheum
Huttonum, qui vir nominatus in paucis, versare Patres dicitur, aut
reliquos adversarios, qui hoc faciunt, sentire arbitror.

Hactenus ergo securus in hanc aciem potui descendere, bellaturus
cum, iis, qui quasi auribus lupum teneant, aeternam causae
maculam cogantur inutere, sive recusent Patres, sive deposcant.
Nam in altero fugam adornant, in altero suffocantur.

SEXTA RATIO

FIRMAMENTVM PATRVM

Si quibus umquam cordi curaeque fuit id, quod maximopere nostris
fuit et esse debet: "Scrutamini Scripturas,"[67] facile princeps
et palmares in hoc genere sanctissimi Patres exstitere. Horum
opera sumptuque tot gentibus et linguis transcripta Biblia et
importata sunt; horum periculis et cruciatibus erepta de flammis
hostilibus et vastitate; horum laboribus et vigiliis omnem in
partem enucleata studiosissime; die noctuque sacras Litteras
imbibere, de suggestibus omnibus sacras Litteras edidere, immensa
volumina sacris Litteris ditavere, fidelissimis commentariis
sacras Litteras explicuere cibos et inediam sacris Litteris
condivere, occupati denique sacris in Litteris, ad senectutem
decrepitam pervenere.

Quod si frequenter ipsi quoque ab auctoritate maiorum, ab
Ecclesiae praxi, a successione Pontificum, a Conciliis
oecumenicis, a traditionibus apostolicis, a cruore Martyrum, a
scitis Praesulum, a visis eventisque mirabilibus argumentati
sunt; tamen omnium maxime et libentissime sanctarum Litterarum
testimonia densa conglobant, haec premunt, in his habitant, huic
"armaturae fortium" duces robustissimi, sarta tecta civitatis Dei
contra nefarios impetus quotidie munientes, optimo iure primas
partes honoratissimasque porrigunt.

Quo magis demiror illam exceptionem adversarii superbam et
fatuam, qui velut aquam in profluente quaeritans, sic in
Scripturis confertissimis Scripturarum penuriam obiectat.
Tantisper se Patribus assensurum dicit, dum sacris Litteris
adhaerescunt. Num loquitur ex animo? Curabo igitur procedant
armati atque stipati Christo, Prophetis, Apostolis atque omni
apparatu biblico, celeberrimi auctores, antiquissimi Patres,
sanctissimi viri, Dionysius, Cyprianus, Athanasius, Basilius,
Nazianzenus, Ambrosius, Hieronymus, Chrysostomus, Augustinus,
latinusque Gregorius. Regnet in Anglia fides illa, quam hi
Patres, amicissimi Scripturarum, ex Scripturis exstruunt. Quas
afferunt, afferemus; quas conferunt, conferemus; quod inferunt,
inferemus. Placet? Excrea, dic sodes--Minime vero, inquis, nisi
recte exponant--Quid est hoc ipsum, recte? Arbitratu tuo. Nihilne
pudet labyrinthi?

Ergo quum sperem in Academiis florentissimis consociatum iri bene
multos, qui, non pingui Minerva, sed acuto iudicio in has
controversias inspecturi sunt, et horum responsa nugatoria
libraturi, laetus hunc diem campi praestolabor, ut qui contra
sylvestres tumulos mendiculorum inermium nobilitatem et robur
Ecclesiae Christi cogitem educere.

SEPTIMA RATIO

HISTORIA

Pristinam Ecclesiae faciem historia prisca retegit. Huc provoco.
Certe antiquiores historici, quos etiam usurpant adversarii, fere
numerantur Eusebius, Damasus, Hieronymus, Ruffinus, Orosius,
Socrates, Sozomenus, Theodoretus, Cassiodorus, Gregorius
Turonensis, Vsuardus, Regino, Marianus Sigebertus, Zonaras,
Cedrenus, Nicephorus. Quid narrant? Nostrorum laudes, progressus,
vicissitudinem, hostes. Imo vero, quod observes diligenter, illi
qui dissident a nobis odio capitali, Philippus, Pantaleon,
Funecius, Magdeburgici, quum se ad scribendam vel chronologiam
Ecclesiae vel historiam appulissent, nisi nostrorum gesta
colligerent, ac inimicorum Ecclesiae nostrae fraudes et scelera
coacervarent, mille quingentos annos argumento vacui
praetermitterent.

Cum his considera peculiares certarum historiographos regionum,
qui unius acta cuiusque populi curiosius operosiusque scrutati
sunt. Ii quasi Spartam adepti, quam locupletare modis omnibus et
perpolire cuperent, qui ne convivia quidem lautiora, aut
manicatas tunicas, aut pugionum capulos, aut inaurata calcaria,
talesque minutias, si novitatem saperent, tacuere; profecto, si
quid in religione mutatum, aut a primis degeneratum saeculis
inaudissent, frequentes memorassent; si non frequentes, saltem
aliqui: si non aliqui, unus aliquis absque dubio. Nullus omnino,
neque benevolus nobis, neque malevolus, non modo quidquam tale
prodidit, sed nec significavit.

Verbi gratia. Dant nobis adversarii, nec aliter possunt, fuisse
Romanam Ecclesiam aliquando Sanctam, Catholicam, Apostolicam: tum
quum haec a Divo Paulo promeruisset elogia:[68] "Vestra fides
annuntiatur in universo mundo: sine intermissione memoriam vestri
facio: Scio quia venien ad vos, in abundantia benedictionis
Christi veniam: Salutant vos omnes Ecclesiae Christi: Vestra enim
obedientia in omnem locum divulgata est." Tum quum ibi Paulus in
libera custodia[69] disseminaret Evangelium; tum quum in ea
quondam "Babylone coelectam Ecclesiam"[70] Petrus regeret; tum
quum ille Clemens,[71] apprime laudatus ab Apostolo,[72] sederet
ad ipsa gubernacula; tum quum profani Caesares,[73] ut Nero,
Domitianus, Traianus, Antoninus, Romanos Pontifices laniarent;
tum etiam, vel Calvino[74] teste, quum Damasus, Siricius,
Anastasius, Innocentius, clavum tenerent Apostolicum. Hoc enim
saeculo nihil adhuc, praesertim Romae, digressos ab Evangelica
doctrina, liberaliter ille concedit.

Quando igitur hanc fidem tantopere celebratatam Roma perdidit?
Quando esse desiit, quod ante fuit? Quo tempore, quo Pontifice,
qua via, qua vi, quibus incrementis urbem et orbem religio
pervasit aliena? Quas voces, quas turbas, quae lamenta
progenuit? Omnes orbe reliquo sopiti sunt, dum Roma, Roma,
inquam, nova sacramenta, novum sacrificium, novum religionis
dogma procuderet? Nullus exstitit historicus neque latinus,
neque graecus, neque remotus, neque citimus, qui rem tantam vel
obscure iaceret in commentarios?

Ergo perspicuum hoc quidem est, si, quae nos credimus, historia
multa et varia, nuntia vetustatis, vita memoriae, loquitur ac
repetit affluenter; quae vero isti obtrudunt, nulla naratio post
homines natos in Ecclesia valuisse commeminit: et Historicos esse
meos, et incursiones adversarias esse frigidissimas, quae nihil
movere possint, nisi prius receptum sit, omnes omnium temporum
christianos in spissam perfidiam atque in gehennae voraginem
corruisse, donec Lutherus Boram constuprasset.

OCTAVA RATIO

PARADOXA

Ego vero, praestantissimi viri, quum de multis haeresibus quaedam
apud me opiniosissimorum portenta reputo, quae mihi venient
expugnanda; meipsum inertiae nequitiaeque condemnem, si cuiusquam
in experiundo facultatem aut vires extimescerem. Sit ingeniosus,
sit eloquens, sit exercitatus, sit omnium librorum helluo; tamen
aridus et balbus appareat necesse est, quum haec tam "adunata"
sustentabit. Disputabitur enim, si forte nobis annuent, de Deo,
de homine, de peccato, de iustitia, de sacrimentis, de moribus.
Videro an ausint asseverare, quae sentiunt, quaeque, rebus
addicti necessariis, divulgant in scriptiunculis. Faxo norint
ista suorum axiomata.

DE DEO.--"Deus est auctor et causa[75] peccati, volens,
suggerens, efficiens, iubens, operans, et in hoc impiorum
scelerata consilia gubernans. Proprium Dei opus fuit,[76] ut
vocatio Pauli, sic adulterium Davidis, Iudaeque proditoris
impietas." Monstrum hoc, cuius Philippum aliquando puduit,
Lutherus[77] tamen, a quo Philippus hauserat, quasi oraculum
coeleste miris extollit laudibus, et alumnum suum eo nomine
tantum non exaequat[78] Apostolo Paulo. Percontabor etiam, quid
animi Luthero fuerit, quem Angli[79] calviniani "virum divinitus
datum ad orbem illuminandum" pronuntiant, quum hunc versum
demeret supplicationibus Ecclesiae.[80] "Sancta Trinitas, unus
Deus, miserere nobis."

DE CHRISTO.--Mox ad personam Christi progrediar. Quaeram ista
sibi quid velint; Christus De Filius, Deus de Deo? Calvino:[81]
"Deus ex sese," Bezae:[82] "Non est genitus de Patris essentia."
Item: "Duae constituantur in Christo uniones hypostaticae,[83]
altera animae cum carne, Divinitatis cum humanitate altera."
"Locus apud Ioannem:" 'Ego et Pater unum sumus,' non ostendit
Christum Deum 'homoousion'[84] Deo Patri." Sed et 'anima mea,
inquit Lutherus,[85] odit hoc verbum 'homoousion.'" Pergite:
"Christus ab infantia non fuit gratia consummatus,[86] sed animi
dotibus velut caeteri homines adolevit: usu factus quotidie
sapientior, ita ut puerulus ignorantia laborarit." Quod perinde
est, ac si dicerent originis labe et vitio sordidatum. Sed
cognoscite diriora: "Christus, quum orans in horto, sudoribus
aquae manaret et sanguinis, sensu damnationis aeternae
cohorruit:[87] vocem edidit sine ratione, sine spiritu, vocem
doloris impetu repentinam; quam, ut non satis meditatam, cleriter
castigavit." Estne aliquid amplius? Attendite: "Christus, quum
actus in crucem exclamaret:" 'Deus meus, Deus meus, ut quid
dereliquisti me?' accensus est flammis inferni,[88] desperationis
voceni emisit, non aliter affectus, quam si pereundum ei foret
internecione sempiterna."

His etiam, si quid possunt, addant: "Christus, inquiunt,[89]
descendit ad inferos, id est, mortuus gehennam gustavit, nihilo
minus quam animae damnatorum, nisi quod sibi restituendus
erat.--Quandoquidem enim morte corporea nobis nihil
profuisset;[90] anima quoque luctari cum morte debuit aeterna,
atque hoc modo nostrum scelus suppliciumque dependere." Ac ne
quis forte suspicetur, istud Calvino per incuriam obrepsisse,
idem Calvinus:[91] "Omnes vos, si qui doctrinam istam solatii
plenam exagitastis, perditos" appellat "nebulones." Tempora,
tempora, cuiusmodi monstrum aluistis? Cruor ille delicatus et
regius, qui de innocentis Agni corpore lacerato fissoque
scaturiit, cuius cruoris una guttula propter dignitatem Hostiae
mille mundos redimere potuisset, nihil humano genet profecit,
nisi "mediator Dei et hominum (1 Tim ii. 5), homo Christus Iesus
mortem quoque secundam (Apoc. ii. 11)," mortem animae, mortem
gratiae, peccati solius et exsecrabilis blasphemiae sociam,
pertulisset? Prae hac insania modestus videbitur Bucerus,
quamquam est impudens, qui[92] infernum in symbolo sepulcrum
accipit, per epexegesim valde praeposteram, ac potius tautologiam
ineptam atque stolidam.

Anglicani sectarii, pars Calvino, idolo suo, pars Bucero, magno
magistro, solent accedere; pars etiam submurmurant in hunc
articulum, ne quid facessat ultra molestiae, quemadmodum sine
tumultu penitus eximatur de Symbolo. Id veno etiant fuisse
tentatum in conventiculo quodam Londinensi, memini narrasse mihi,
qui interfuit, Richardum Chenaeum, miserrimum senem, male
mulctatum a latronibus foris, neque tamen ingressum in paternam
domum. Hactenus de Christo.

DE HOMINE.--De homine[93] quid? "Imago Dei penitus in homine
deleta est, nulla boni scintilla superstite: tota natura quoad
omnes animae partes ita funditus eversa, ut ne renatus quidem et
sanctus quidquam sit aliud intrinsecus, nisi mera corruptio atque
contagio." Quorsum ista? Vt qui sola fide gloriam rapturi sunt,
in omnium turpitudinum coeno volutati, naturam accusent, virtutem
desperent, praecepta deonerent.

DE PECCATO.--Huc Illyricus, Magdeburgensium primipilus, illud
suum adiecit immane placitum[94] de originis peccato, quod esse
vult: "Intimam substantiam animarum, quippe quas, post Adami
lapsum, diabolus ipse procreet, et in sese transformet." Hoc
quoque tritum est in hac faece: "Omnia peccata esse paria:"[95]
sed ita (ne Stoici reviviscant), "si Deo iudice ponderentur." Ac
si Deus, aequissimus iudex, oneri nostro cumulum potius, quam
levamentum faceret, et id, quod non est in re, quum sit ipse
iustissimus, exaggeraret. Hac trutina non levius in Deum
severissime iudicantem deliquerit ille caupo, qui gallum
gallinaceum, quando non est opus, occiderit, quam infamis ille
sicarius, qui plenus Beza, Gallum heroa Guisium, admiribili
virtute principem, displosa fistula interemit; quo facinore nihil
vidit orbis noster aetate nostra funestius, nihil luctuosius.

DE GRATIA.--Sed fortasse, qui tam sunt in peccati conditione
tetrici, magnifice philosophantur de divina gratia, quae huic
malo succurrere ac mederi possit. Praeclaras vero isti partes
assignant gratiae, "quam neque infusam cordibus nostris, neque ad
resistendum sceleribus validam esse latrant, sedextra nos in solo
Dei favore[96] collocant: "qui favor non emendet impios, nec
purget, nec illuminet, nec ditet; sed veterem illam sentinam
adhuc manantem atque foetentem, ne deformis et odiosa putetur,
Deo connivente, dissimulet. Quo suo plasmate tantopere
delectantur, ut ne "Christus quidem aliter apud illos[97] gratia
plenus et veritate dicatur, quam quod ei Deus Pater mirandum in
modum faverit."

DE IVISTITIA.--Quae res ergo iustitia est? Relatio.[98] Non enim
ex theologics concinnata virtutibus, fide, spe, charitate, quae
animam suo nitore convestiant; sed tantum "occultatio delicti,
quam qui sola fide prehenderit, ille tam de salute certus est, ac
si iampridem interminato coeli gaudio[99] frueretur." Age,
somniet hoc; sed unde constare poterit de futura perseverantia,
qua qui caruit, exivit infelicissimus, licet ad tempus pure
pieque iustitiam coluisset? Imo vero, "haec tua fides, Calvinus
ait[100], nisi tuam tibi perseverantiam firme pronuntiet, ut
hallucinari nequeas, tamquam inanis et languida sperneretur."
Agnosco discipulum Lutheri. "Christianus, inquit ille[101] etiam
volens, non potest salutem perdere, nisi nolit credere."

DE SACRAMENTIS.--Ad Sacramenta festino. Nullum, nullum, non duo,
non unum, O Sancte Christe, reliquerant. Ipsorum quippe panis
venenum est; Baptismus etsi adhuc verus, tamen ipsorum iudicio
"nihil est, non est unda salutis, non est canalis gratiae, non
derivat in nos Christi merita; sed significatio dumtaxat salutis
est. Itaque nihilo pluris Baptismum Christi, quoad naturam rei,
quam Ioannis facere caeremoniam. Si habeas, recte; si careas,
nihil damni: crede, salvus es, antequam abluere."[102] Quid ergo
parvuli, qui nisi iuventur virtute Sacramenti, sua fide miselli
nihil assequuntur? "Potius quam Sacramento Baptismatis quidquam
tribuamus, inquiunt Magdeburgici,[103] demus inesse fidem ipsis
infantulis, qua serventur, cuius fidei pulsus quosdam abditos
intelligant" ipsi, qui vivant necne, nondum intelligunt. Durum. Si
hoc adeo durum est, Lutheri pharmacum auditote: "Praestat,
inquit,[104] omittere, quandoquidem nisi credat infans, nequidquam
lavatur." Haec illi quidem ancipites animo, quidnam enuntient
categorice. Ergo Balthassar Pacimontanus diribitor interveniat;
qui parens Anabaptistarum, quum parvulis motum fidei non posset
affingere, Lutheri cantiunculam adprobavit, et paedobaptismum
eiiciens e templis, "neminen nisi adultum fonte sacro decrevit
abluere." Ad reliqua Sacramenta quod attinet, quamvis illa bestia
multiceps horrendas eiectet contumelias, tamen quia quotidianae
iam sunt et callum auribus obduxerunt, hic praetereo.

DE MORIBVS.--Restant haereticorum de vita et moribus frusta
nocentissima, quae Lutherus evomi in chartas, ut ex unius
pectoris impuro gurgustio pestem lectoribus inhalaret. Audite
patienter, et erubescite, et mihi date veniam recitanti: "Si
nolit uxor[105], aut non possit, veniat ancilla. Siquidem res
uxoria tam est cuique necessaria, quam esca, potus, somnus.
Matrimonium est virginitate multo praestantius; eam Christus, eam
Paulus dissuaserunt hominibus christianis." Sed haec fortasse
propria Lutheri sunt? Non sunt. Etiam nuper a meo Charco,[106]
sed misere timideque defenduntur. Vultis ne plura? Quidni?
"Quanto sceleratior es, inquit,[107] tanto vicinior gratiae.
Omnes actiones bonae peccata sunt; Deo iudice, mortifera; Deo
propitio, leviuscula[108]--Nemo malum suapte voluntate
cogitat[109]--Decalogus nihil ad christianos[110]--Opera nostra
Deus nequaquam curat--Soli recte participant coena Dominica, qui
tristes, afflictas, perturbatas, confusas, erraticas apportant
conscientias.--Confitenda crimina sunt, sed cuilibet, qui si te
vel ioco absolverit, modo credideris, absolutus es.--Legere
preces horarias non est sacerdotum, sed laicorum--Christiani
liberi sunt a statutis hominum." Satis superque lacunam istam
commosse videor. lam finio. Nec vero putetis iniquiorem esse me,
qui lutheranos et zuinglianos promiscue coarguerim; nam isti
memores a quo proseminati sint, inter se fratres et amici volunt
esse,[111] adeoque gravem interpretantur iniuriam, quum in ulla
re praeter unam, discriminantur.

Equidem non sum tanti, ut vel mediocrem locum mihi sumam in
selectis theologis, qui hodie bellum haeresibus indixere; sed hoc
scio, quantuluscumque sum, periclitari me non posse, dum Christi
gratia fultus adversum talia commenta, tam invisa, tam insulsa,
tam bruta, coelo terraque iuvantibus, praeliabor.

NONA RATIO

SOPHISMATA

Scitum est, inter caecos luscum regnare posse. Apud rudes valet
saepe fucata disputatio, quam schola Philosophorum exsibilat. Multa
peccat adversarius in hoc genere; sed quatuor fallacies plerumque
consuitur, quas in Academia malim, quam in trevio, retexere.

Primum vitium [Greek: skiamachia] est, quae auras et umbras magno
contau diverberat. Hoc pacto: contra coelibes iuratos et votos in
castimoniam, quod nuptiae bonae sint, virginitas melior,
offeruntur Scripturae loquentes honorifice de coniugio. Quem
feriunt? Contra meritum hominis christiani, tinctum Christi
sanguine, alioquin nullum, promuntur testimonia, quibus iubemur,
nec naturae, nec legi, sed sanguini Christi fidere. Quem
refellunt? In eos, qui colunt Coelites, ut famulos Christi maxime
gratiosos, citantur integrae pagellae, quae vetant colere multos
Deos. Vbinam sunt? Huiusmodi argumentis, quae apud haereticos
infinita reperio, nobis esse detrimento non poterunt; vobis esse
fastidio poterunt.

Aliud vitium [Greek: logomachia] est, quae sensa deserens,
loquaciter cum verbo litigat, "Invenias mihi Missam, inquiunt,
aut Purgatorium in Scripturis." Quid ergo? Trinitas, Homoousion,
Persona, nusquam sunt in Bibliis, quia voces istae non sunt?
Affine est huic peccato litterarum aucupium; quum neglecta
consuetudine et mente loquentium, quae vita vocabuli est,
adversus elementa contenditur. Nempe sic aiunt: "Presbyter nihil
est Graecis, nisi senior; Sacramentum, quodvis mysterium."
Caeterum acute D. Thomas,[112] ut omnia: "In vocibus, inquit,
videndum, non tam ex quo, quam ad quid sumantur."

Tertium, [Greek: homonumia] est, longe lateque patens. Vt:
"Quorsum ordo sacerdotum; quum Ioannes (Apoc. v. 10) omnes nos
vocaverit sacerdotes?" Etiam hoc addidit: "Regnabimus super
terram." Quorsum ergo reges? Item: "Propheta (Isai. LVIII. 6)
celebrat ieiunium spiritale, hoc est, ab inveteratis criminibus
abstinentiam. Valeat ergo ciborum delectus, et dierum
praescriptio." Siccine? Igitur insanierunt Moyses, David, Elias,
Baptistes, Apostoli, qui biduo, triduo, vel hebdomadis inediam
terminarunt; quae quidem, ut a crimine, debebat esse perpetua.
Hoc quale sit, iam vidistis: propero.

Quartum his adiicitur "Circulatio," in hunc modum: Da mihi notas,
inquam, Ecclesiae. "Verbum Dei et purissima Sacramenta." Haeccine
sunt apud vos? "Quis dubitet?"--Ego vero pernego. "Consule verbum
Dei."--Iam consului, minusque vobis, quam antea, faveo. "Attamen
planum est."--Proba mihi. "Quia nos ne latum quidem unguem
discedimus a verbo Dei."--Vbi est acumen tuum? Semperne capies
pro argumento illud ipsum, quod ponitur in quaestione? Quoties
hoc iam inculco? Num tu evigilas? Num faces admovendae sunt? Dico
a te perperam exponi verbum Dei: testes habeo quindecim aetates,
sta sententiae, non meae, non tuae, sed harum omnium.--"Stabo
sententiae verbi Dei: Spiritus ubi vult, spirat." Eccum, quos
gyros, quas rotas fabricat. Hic nugator, tot verborum atque
sophismatum architectus, nescio cui formidolosus esse queat,
molestus erit fortasse. Molestiam vestra prudentia sublevabit,
formidinem res eripuit.

DECIMA RATIO

OMNE GENVS TESTIVM

"Haec erit vobis directa via, ita ut stulti non errent per
eam."[113] Quis enim, quamvis hebes in plebecula, dummodo salutis
cupidus parumper attenderit, semitam Ecclesiae tam egregie
complanatam, non videat, non teneat; vepres, et cautes, et avia
detestatus? Erunt haec etiam rudibus explorata, sicut Isaias
vaticinatus est; vobis igitur, si voletis, exploratissima.

COELITES.--Theatrum universitatis rerum ponamus ob oculos;
quidquid est uspiam peragremus; omnia nobis argumenta
suppeditant. Eamus in coelum: "Rosas[114] et lilia
contemplemur," purpuratos nempe martyrio, candidatos innocentia.
Romanos, inquam, Pontifices[115] tres et triginta continenter
occisos; Pastores terris omnibus, qui suum pro Christi nomine
sanguinem oppignerarunt; greges fidelium, qui Pastorum vestigiis
institere; Divos omnes coelites, qui turbae hominum puritate et
sanctimonia praeluxere. Nostros hic vixisse, nostros hinc
emigrasse reperias. Noster fuit, ut paucula delibemus, ille
martyrii sitientissimus Ignatius[116] "qui in rebus Ecclesiae
neminem, ne regen[117] quidem, aequavit Episcopo: qui
traditiones[118] quasdam Apostolicas, quarum testis ipse fuerat,
ne dilaberentur, scripto mandavit." Noster anachoreta
Telesphorus,[119] "qui ieiunium quadragesimale, sancitum ab
Apostolis, observari severius iussit." Noster Irenaeus,[120]
"qui a successione Cathedraque Romana fidem Apostolicam
declaravit." Noster etiam Victor Pontifex, "qui[121] Asiam
edicto coercuit universam:" quod quum aliquibus, atque etiam
huic Irenaeo, viro sacratissimo, videretur asperius, nemo tamen
attenuavit, ut exoticam potestatem. Noster Polycarpus,[122] qui
super quaestione Paschatis Romam adiit, cuius ambustas reliquias
Smyrna collegit, anniversario die rituque legitimo suum
Episcopum venerata. Nostri Cornelius et Cyprianus,[123] aureum
par Martyrum, ambo magni praesules; sed maior ille, qui Romanus
Africanum errorem resciderat; hic nobilitatus observantia, qua
maiorem est prosequutus, amicissimum sui. Noster Sixtus,[124]
"cui ad aram solemnibus sacris operanti ministrarunt e clero
septemviri." Noster Laurentius, huius Archidiaconus,[125] quem
adversarii de suis fastis eiiciunt, quem ante mille ducentos
annos vir consularis Prudentius[126] sic ornavit:

   Quae sit potestas credita
   Et muneris quantum datum,
   Probant Quiritum gaudia,
   Quibus rogatus annuis.
   Hos inter, o Christi decus,
   Audi et poetam rusticum,
   Cordis fatentem crimina,
   Et facta prodentem sua.
   Audi benignus supplicem
   Christi reum, Prudentium.

Nostrae virgines illae[127] perbeatae, Caecilia, Agatha,
Anastasia, Barbara, Agnes, Lucia, Dorothea, Catharina; quae
decretam pudicitiam adversus et hominum et daemonum tyrannidem
firmaverunt. Nostra Helena, quam dominicae Crucis inventio
celebravit. Nostra Monica, quae moriens[129] orari et
sacrificari pro se mortua ad altare Christi, religiosissime
flagitavit. Nostra Paula,[129] quae ex urbano palatio et opimis
praediis in speluncam Bethleemiticam tantis itineribus peregrina
cucurrit, ut ad Christi vagientis cunabula delitesceret. Nostri
Paulus, Hilarion, Antonius, seniculi solitarii. Noster
Satyrus,[130] Ambrosii germanus frater, qui tremendam illam
hostiam circum se gestans in orario, naufragus insiliit in
Oceanum, et fide plenissimus enatavit. Nostri Nicolaus et
Martinus, episcopi, exerciti vigiliis, paludati ciliciis,
ieiunio pasti, Noster Benedictus, tot monachorum pater.
Chiliadas istas decennio non exsequerer.

Sed nec illos repeto, quos in Ecclesiae Doctoribus ante posueram.
Memor sum brevitatis meae, Petat ista, qui volet, non solum ex
abundanti veterum historia, sed multo etiam magis ex gravissimis
auctoribus, qui paene singuli Divos singulos memoriae[131]
reliquerunt. Renuntiet mihi, de christianis illis antiquissimis
et beatissimis quid autumet? Vtrius doctrinae fuerint,
catholicae, an lutheranae? Testor Dei solium et illud tribunal,
ad quod stabo rationem rationum harum et dicti et facti
redditurus, aut nullum coelum esse, aut nostrorum esse; illud
exsecramur, hoc ergo defigimus.

DAMNATI.-Nunc e contrario, si libet, inspiciamus in Tartara.
Cremantur incendio sempiterno. Qui? Iudaei. Quam Ecclesiam
adversati? Nostram.--Qui? Ethnici. Quam Ecclesiam crudelissime
persequuti? Nostram.--Qui? Turcae. Quae templa demoliti?
Nostra.--Qui? Haeretici. Cuius Ecclesiae perduelles?
Nostrae.--Quae enim Ecclesia praeter nostram omnibus inferorum
portis[132] se opposuit?

IVDAEI.--Quum, pulsis Hebraeis, Christiani[133] succrescerent
Hierosolymis, Deum immortalem! qui concursus hominum ad loca
sacra fuit,[134] quae urbis religio, quae sepulcri, quae
praesepii, quae crucis, quae monumentorum omnium, quibus velut
exuviis mariti, Ecclesia sponsa delectatur? Hinc manavit in nos
Iudaeorum odium ferum et implacabile. Queruntur etiam nunc,
maiores nostros maioribus suis exitio fuisse. A Simone Mago et
lutheranis nullum ictum acceperunt.

ETHNICI.--In Ethnicis violentissimi fuere, qui toto Imperio,
trecentis annis, per intervalla temporum, aerumnosissima
Christianis supplicia machinati sunt. Quibus? Patribus et filiis
nostrae fidei. Cognoscite vocem tyranni, qui Divum Laurentium
torruit in craticula:[135]

   Hunc esse vestris Orgiis
   Moremque et artem, proditum est;
   Hanc disciplinam foederis,
   Libent ut auro antistites.
   Argenteis scyphis ferunt
   Fumare sacrum sanguinem,
   Auroque nocturnis sacris
   Adstare fixos cereos.
   Tunc cura summa est fratribus,
   (Vt sermo testatur loquax),
   Offerre, fundis venditis,
   Sestertiorum millia.
   Addicta avorum praedia
   Foedis sub auctionibus
   Successor exhaeres gemit,
   Sanctis egens parentibus.
   Haec occulantur abditis
   Ecclesiarum in angulis;
   Et summa pietas creditur
   Nudare dulces liberos.
   Deprome thesauros, malis
   Suadendo quos praestigiis
   Exaggeratos obtines,
   Nigrantes quos claudis specu.
   Hoc poscit usus publicus;
   Hoc fiscus, hoc aerarium,
   Vt dedita stipendiis
   Ducem iuvet petunia.
   Sic dogma vestrum est, audio;
   "Suum quibusque reddito."
   En Caesar agnoscit suum
   Numisma, nummis inditum.
   Quod Caesaris scis, Caesari
   Da: nempe iustum postulo,
   Ni fallor; haud ullam tuus
   Signat Deus pecuniam.
   Nec quum veniret, aureos
   Secum Philippos detulit;
   Praecepta
   sed verbis dedit
   Inanis a marsupio.
   Implete dictorum fidem,
   Quae vos per orbem venditis,
   Nummos libenter reddite;
   Estote verbis divites.

Quis videtur? In quos furit? Cuius Ecclesiae sacra, lychnos,
ritus, ornamenta convellit? Cui patellas aureas, et argenteos
calices, et sumptuosa donaria, et opulentam gazam invidet?
Profecto lutherizat. Quod enim aliud velum suo latrocinio
nostri Nemrodes[136] obtenderunt, quum depecularentur
ecclesias, et Christi patrimonium dissiparent? Contra vero
magnus ille Constantinus Christomastigon terror, quam Eeclesiam
tranquillavit? Illam, cui Pontifex Sylvester praefuit,[137]
quem in Soracte latitantem accersiit, ut eius opera nostro
baptismate tingeretur.--Quibus auspiciis victor? Signo
crucis.[138]--Qua matre gloriosus? Helena.--Quibus se patribus
adiunxit? Nicaenis.--Cuiusmodi? Vt Sylvestro, ut Marco, ut
Iulio, ut Athanasio, ut Nicolao.--Cuius se precibus[139]
commendavit? Antonii.--Quam sellam postulavit[140] in Synodo?
Vltimam.--O quanto regalior hac sede, quam qui regis titulum,
non debitum, ambierunt! Singula narrare longum est. Sed ex his
duobus altero nobis infestissimo, altero nobis amicissimo,
licebit singula coniicere, quae sunt horum simillima. Etenim,
ut nostrorum illa fuit Epistasis turbulenta, sic nostrorum haec
evasit divina Catastrophe.

TVRCAE.-Turcica videamus. Mahometes et Sergius monachus apostata
in profundo barathro iacent ululantes, et suis et posterorum
sceleribus onusti. Haec portentosa et efferata bellua,
Sarraceni, Turcae, nisi a nostris ordinibus militiae
sacrae,[141] nisi a nostris principibus et populis accisa
fuisset ac repressa, per Lutherum quidem, (cui gratias hoc
nomine Solymanus Turcus litteris egisse dicitur), et per
lutheranos regulos (quibus Turcorum progressio laetabilis
existimatur); haec, inquam, Erinnys furiosa et exitiosa
mortalibus, totam iam depopularetur et vastaret Europam; neque
indiligentius altaria et signa crucis, quam ipse Calvinus
everteret. Ergo nostri hostes illi sunt proprii, utpote
nostrorum industria a christianorum iugulis repulsi.

HAERETICI.--Despectemus in haereticos, faeces, et folles, et
alimenta gehennae. Primus occurrit Simon Magus. Quid ille?
"Eripiebat homini liberam[142] voluntatem; solam fidem[143]
percrepabat." Mox Novatianus: Quis? Antipapa Cornelio,[144]
Pontifici Romano, "hostis sacramentorum poenitentiae et
chrismatis."[145] Deinde Manes Persa: hic docebat "baptismum
salutem[146] non conferre." Post Aerius Arianus "preces damnabat
pro mortuis,[147] confundebat episcopis sacerdotes." Hinc Aerius
"solam[148] et ipse fidem personabat," cognominatus atheos[149]
non minus quam Lucianus. Sequitur Vigilantius,[150] qui "Divos
orari non ferebat:" ac Iovinianus, qui "virginitatem et nuptias
aequiparabat." Denique colluvies universa Macedonius, Pelagius,
Nestorius, Entyches, Monothelitae, Iconomachi, caeteri, quibus
Lutherum et Calvinum posteritas aggregabit. Quid isti? Omnes mali
corvi, eodem ovo geniti, ab Ecclesiae nostrae Praesulibus
desciverunt, ab illis evicti et exinaniti sunt.

Deseramus avernum, reddamur terris. Quocumque me oculis et
cogitatione convertero, sive Patriarchas intueor et sedes
Apostolicas, sive Antistites caeterarum gentium, sive laudatos
principes, reges, caesares, sive christianorum cuiusque nationis
initia, sive ullum iudicium vetustatis, aut lumen rationis, aut
honestatis decus; nostrae fidei serviunt et suffragantur omnia.

SEDES APOSTOLICA.--Testis Romana successio, "In qua semper
Ecclesia, (ut cum Augustino ep. 162 loquar), Apostolicae
Cathedrae viguit principatus." Testes illae reliquae sedes
apostolicae, in quas hoc nomen insignite convenit, quod ab ipsis
Apostolis horumve auditoribus exaedificatae[151] fuerint.

DISIVNCTTISSIMAE TERRAE.--Testes ubivis gentium pastores, loco
dissiti, religione nostra concordes, Ignatius et Chrysostomus,
Antiochiae; Petrus, Alexander, Athanasius, Theophilus,
Alexandriae; Macharius et Cyrillus, Hierosolymis; Proclus,
Constantinopoli; Gregorius et Basilius, in Cappadocia;
Thaumaturgus, in Ponto; Smyrnae, Polycarpus; Iustinus, Athenis;
Dionysius, Corinthi; Gregorius, Nissae; Methodius, Tyri; Ephremus,
in Cyria; Cyprianus, Optatus, Augustinus, in Africa; Epiphanius,
in Cypro; Andreas, Cretae; Ambrosius, Paulinus, Gaudentius,
Prosper, Faustus, Vigilius in Italia; Irenaeus, Martinus,
Hilarilius, Eucherius, Gregorius, Salvianus, in Gallia;
Vincentius, Orosius, Ildefonsus, Leander, Isidorus, in Hispania;
in Britannia, Fugatius, Damianus, Iustus, Mellitus, Beda. Denique,
ne ambitiosus videar in nominibus, quaecumque vel opera, vel
fragmenta supersunt eorum, qui disiunctissimis terris Evangelium
severunt, omnia nobis unam fidem exhibent, quam hodie catholici
profitemur. Christe, quid causae tibi afferam, quo minus me de
tuis extermines, si tot luminibus Ecclesiae tenebricosos homulos,
paucos, indoctos, dissectos, improbos, antetulero?

PRINCIPES.--Testes item principes, reges, caesares, horumque
respublicae, quorum et ipsorum pietas, et ditionum populi, et
pacis bellique disciplina, se penitus in hac nostra doctrina
catholica fundaverunt. Hic ergo quos ab oriente Theodosios, quos
ab occidente Carolos, quos Eduardos ex Anglia, Ludovicos e
Gallia, Hermenegildos ex Hispania, Henricos a Saxonia, Wenceslaos
e Bohemia, Leopoldos ex Austria, Stephanos ex Hungaria,
Iosaphatos ex India, quos orbe toto dynastas atque toparchas
possim arcessere; qui exemplo, qui armis qui legibus, qui
sollicitudine, qui sumptu, nostram Ecclesiam nutrierunt? Sic enim
praecinuit Isaias (xlix. 23): "Erunt reges nutricii tui, et
reginae iutrices tuae." Audi, Elisabetha, Regina potentissima,
tibi canit, te tuas partes edocet. Narro tibi: Calvinum et hos
principes unum coelum capere non potest. His ergo te principibus
adiunge, dignam maioribus, dignam ingenio, dignam litteris,
dignam laudibus, dignam fortuna tua. Solum hoc de te molior ego
et moliar, quidquid me fiet, cui, tamquam hosti capitis tui,
toties iam isti patibulum ominantur. Salve bona crux. Veniet,
Elisabetha, dies ille, ille dies, qui tibi liquido commonstrabit,
utri te dilexerint, Societas Iesu, an Lutheri progeies Pergo.

NATIONES AD CHRISTAM TRADVCTAE.--Testes iam omne sorae plagaeque
mundi, quibus evangelica tuba post Christum natum insonuit.
Parumne hoc fuit, idolis ora claudere, Dei regnum gentibus
importare? Christum Lutherus, catholici Christum loquimur. "Num
divisus est Christus?"[152] Minime. Aut nos, aut ille, falsum
Christum loquimur. Quid ergo? Dicam. Christus ille sit, et
illorum sit, quo Dagon[153] invecto cervices fregerit. Noster
Christus opera nostrorum uti voluit, quum Ioves, Mercurios,
Dianas, Phaebadas, et illam noctem saeculorum atram, Erebumque
tristem, e tot populorum cordibus relegaret. Non est otium
longinqua perquirere; finitima tantum atque domestica speculemur.
Hiberni ex Patritio, Scoti ex Palladio, Angli ex Augustino, Romae
sacratis, Roma missis, Romam venerantibus, fidem aut nullam aut
certe nostram, id est, catholicam insuxerunt. Res aperta. Curro.

CVMVLVS TESTIVM.--Testes academiae, testes legum tabulae, testes
vernaculi mores hominum, testes selectio caesarum et inauguratio,
testes regum ritus et inunctio, testes equitum ordines, ipsaeque
chlamydes, testes fenestrae, testes nummi, testes urbanae portae
domusque civicae, testes avorum fructus et vita, testes res omnes
et reculae, nullam in orbe religionem, nisi nostram, imis umquam
radicibus insedisse.

Quae mihi quum suppeterent, et certe sic efficerent meditantem,
ut his omnibus nuntium remittere christianis, et consociari cum
perditissimis quibusque, videretur insolentis insaniae; non
diffiteor, animatus sum et incensus ad conflictum, in quo nisi
Divi de coelo deturbentur, et superbus Lucifer coelum recuperet,
cadere numquam potero. Quo mihi sit aequior Charcus, qui me tam
immaniter concerpit, si hanc animulam peccatricem, quam tanti
Christus emit, viae tutae, viae certae, viae regiae malui
credere, quam Calvinis scopulis dumetisve suspendere.

CONCLVSIO

Habetis a me, florentes Academici, hoc munusculum, contextum
operis in itinere subcisivis. Animus fuit et purgare me vobis de
arrogantia, et satisfacere de fiducia, et interim dum ab
adversariis una mecum in scholas invitemini, quaedam apponere
degustanda. Si aequam, si tutum, si honestum ducitis, haberi
Lutherum, aut Calvinum, canonem Scripturae, mentem sancti
Spiritus, normam Ecclesiae, Conciliorum Patrumque paedagogum,
omnium denique testium et saeculorum Deum, nihil est quod
sperem, vobis lectoribus vel auditoribus. Sin estis ii, quos
apud animum formavi meum, philosophi occulati, amatores veri,
simplicitatis, modestiae; hostes temeritatis, nugarum,
sophismatum; facile diem in aprico videbitis, qui dieculam
angusta rima dispicitis. Dicam libere, quod meus in vos amor, et
vestrum periculum et rei magnitudo postulat. Non hoc nescit
diabolus, vos istam lucem, si quando coeperitis oculos attolere,
conspecturos. Cuius enim stuporis fuerit, antiquitati
christianae Hammeros et Charcos anteponere? Sed sunt quaedam
illecebrae lutheranae, quibus suum ille regnum amplificat,
quibus ille tendiculis hamatus multos iani vestri ordinis
inescavit. Quaenam? Aurum, gloria, deliciae, veneres.
Contemnite. Quid enim aliud ista sunt, nisi terrarum ilia,
canorus aer, propina vermium, bella sterquilinia? Spernite.
Christus dives est, qui vos alet; Rex est, qui ornabit; lautus
est, qui satiabit, speciosus est, qui felicitatum omnium cumulos
largietur. Huic vos adscribite militanti, ut cum eo triumphos,
vere doctissimi vereque clarissimi, reportetis. Valete.
Cosmopoli 1581.

[Footnote 1: A Beato Edmundo anglice scripta, ab alio
latine reddita.]

[Footnote 2: Est hic locus supplicii anglice _Tyburn_.]

[Footnote 3: Aug. l. 28 contra Faust. c. 2 et de utilit. cred. c. 3.]

[Footnote 4: Iren. l. 1, c. 26.]

[Footnote 5: Lut. in novo test. german.; Praef. in ep. Iac.;
vide etiam l. de capt. Babyl. cap. de extr. unct. et cent,
Magd. 2 p. 58.]

[Foonote 6: Ii sunt Baruch, Tobias, Iudith, Sapientia,
Ecclesiast., duo Machab.]

[Footnote 7: Ep. ad Hebr., Ep. Iudae, Ep. 2 Petri, Epist. 2 et 3 Ioan.]

[Footnote 8: De doctr. christ. l. 2 c. 3.]

[Footnote 9: Conc. Trid. sess. 4; vid. Melch. Can. l. 2 de loc, theol.]

[Footnote 10: De praedest, sanct. c. 14.]

[Footnote 11: Instit. I. lib. I, c. 7, num. 4 et 5.]

[Footnote 12: Xistus Sen. l. 8, haer. 10.]

[Footnote 13: Praef. in Cant. Vide Bezam in sua praef. ante comm.
Calv. in Iosue.]

[Footnote 4: Epist. ad Paulinum.]

[Footnote 15: Lut. praef. in Apoc.--Kemn. in exam. Conc.
Trid. sess. 4.]

[Footnote 16: Praef. in nov. Test.]

[Footnote 17: Lut. serm. de Pharis. et Publ.]

[Footnote 18: Matth. xxvi. 26; Marc. xiv. 22; Luc. xxii. 19.]

[Footnote 19: In epist. ad Argent.]

[Footnote 20: Matth. viii. 29; Marc. i. 24.]

[Footnote 21: Luc. xxii. 19; Matth. xxvi. 28; Marc. xiv. 24.]

[Footnote 22: Ioan. vi.; Matth. xvi.; Marc. xiv.; Luc. xxii.;. 1
Cor. x. et xi.]

[Footnote 23: Calv. Instit. l. iv., c. 1 n. 2 et 3.]

[Footnote 24: Act. xv. 28.]

[Footnote 25: Greg. I. 1, ep. 24.]

[Footnote 26: Ang. I Elizab.]

[Footnote 27: Nic. can. vi.; Chalc. act. iv.; Const. c. 5.]

[Footnote 28: Ephes. conc. in epist. ad Nestor; Nic. c. xiv.]

[Footnote 29: Chalc. act. xi.]

[Footnote 30: Nic. conc. apud Soc. I. i. c. 8.]

[Footnote 31: Vide Chalc. can. iv., vii., xvi., xxiv.]

[Footnote 32: Matth. xviii. 20; Ioan. xiv. 26.]

[Footnote 33: Lib. de capt. Bab.]

[Footnote 34: Exam. Conc. Trid]

[Footnote 35: Vide Conc. Trid. sess. 11, 15 et 18.]

[Footnote 36: Act. xiii. 1; 1 Cor. xii. 28; Ephes. iv. 11; 1 Cor.
xiv., 1 et seq.]

[Footnote 37: Matth. xiii. 52.]

[Footnote 38: S. Dion. Areop. de quo vide. 6 Syn. act. 4, Adon.,
Tren. in martyr. Turon., Syng., Suid., Metap.]

[Footnote 39: Comm. in 1, 13, 17 Deut. Item in capt. Babyl.]

[Footnote 40: Dial. 5 et 11.]

[Footnote 41: Cent. 2, c. 10.]

[Footnote 42: Inst. l. I, c. 13, n. 29.]

[Footnote 43: Cent. 2, c. 5.]

[Footnote 44: Cent. 1, l. 2, c. 10 et seq.]

[Footnote 45: Tert. l. de praescr. contr. haer.]

[Footnote 46: Orat. de cos. secul.]

[Footnote 47: Causs. dial. 8 et 11.]

[Footnote 48: Cent. 3, c. 4.]

[Footnote 49: Ibid.]

[Footnote 50: Ezech. xiii. 18.]

[Footnote 51: Praef. in Cent. 5.]

[Footnote 52: Dial. 6, 7, 8.]

[Footnote 53: Beza in act. c. 23, v. 3]

[Footnote 54: Test. Stanch. l. de Trinit.]

[Footnote 55: Contr. Henr. reg. Angl.]

[Footnote 56: Lib. 22 de Civit. Dei c. 8 et serm. de
divers. 34 et seq.]

[Footnote 57: Contr. ep. Man. quam vocant funda c. 4.]

[Footnote 58: Lib. 1 contr. Parmen.]

[Footnote 59: Aug. l. 1. contr. Parmen.; De unit. c 16; et De
doctr. christ. c. 40.]

[Footnote 60: Lib. 2 ad Monim.]

[Footnote 61: Vide S. Hieron. de Script. Eccles.]

[Footnote 62: Vide Epist. Syn. Alexandr. ad Felic. 2.]

[Footnote 63: Epist. ad Ital. Item serm. 91.]

[Footnote 64: Aug. l. 22 de Civ. Dei; Greg. Tur. l. de glor,
Mart. e. 46 et Metaph.]

[Footnote 65: Instit. l. 1, c. 11, n. 5.]

[Footnote 66: Lib. de vita Ivelli.]

[Footnote 67: Ioan. v. 39.]

[Footnote 68: Rom. 1, 8, 9; xv. 29; xvi, 16, 19.]

[Footnote 69: Act. xxviii. 30.]

[Footnote 70: 1 Pet. v. 13.]

[Footnote 71: Hieron. in cap. script. Eccles.; Euseb. 2 hist.c, 14.]

[Footnote 72: Phillip. iv. 3.]

[Footnote 73: Iren. l. 3, c. 3.]

[Footnote 74: Inst. l. 4, c. 2, n. 3 et in epist. ad Sadol.]

[Footnote 75: Calv. Inst. l. 1, c. 18; l. 2, c. 4; l. 3, cc. 23
et 24; Petr. Mart. in 1, Sam. 2.]

[Footnote 76: Melanct. in cap. Rom. 8.]

[Footnote 77: Sic docet Luth. in asser. 36 et in resol. asser. 36
et in libr. de servo arbitrio.]

[Footnote 78: Praef. in Phillip. in ep. ad Rom.]

[Footnote 79: In Apol. Eccl. Anglic.]

[Footnote 80: Vide enchir. prec. an. 1541.]

[Footnote 81: Calv. Inst. l. 1, c. 13, n. 23, 24.]

[Footnote 82: Beza in Hes.]

[Footnote 83: Beza cont. Schmidel. l. de unitat. hypost. duas
in Christ. nat.]

[Footnote 84: Calv. in Ioan. x, 30.]

[Footnote 85: Luth. contr. Latom.]

[Footnote 86: Bucer. in Luc. 2; Calv. in har. ev.; Luc. Los.;
Melanct. in ev. Dom. 1 p. Epiph.]

[Footnote 87: Marlorat. in Matth. 26; Calv. in harm. eveng.]

[Footnote 88: Brent. in Luc. part. 2, hom. 65 et in Ioan. hom.
54; Calv. in harm. evang.]

[Footnote 89: Schmidel. Conc. de pass. et coena Dom.; Aepinus
comm. in Ps. 16.]

[Footnote 90: Calv. Inst. l. 2, c. 16, n. 10, 11; Brent. in
catech, an. 1551.]

[Footnote 91: Ibid. n. 12.]

[Footnote 92: Buc. in Matt. cap. 26.]

[Footnote 93: Illyr. in var. l. de orig. pecc.; Sarcer. de cons.
vet Eccles.; Aepinus de imb. et pecc. Sanct.; Kemn. contra cens.
col.; Calv. Inst. l. 4, c. 15, n. 10, 11.]

[Footnote 94: Illyr. in var. l. de pecc. orig.--Vide Hesbusium
in ep. ad Illyr.]

[Footnote 95: Calv. in antidot. Conc. Trid.--Idem docuerat
Wiclef. apud. Wald. l. 2, de Sacr. c. 154.]

[Footnote 96: Luth. in resp. contra Lovan.]

[Footnote 97: Bucer. in Ioan. 1; Wald. in nat. Christi; Brent.
hom 16 in Ioan.; Cent. l. 1, c. 4.]

[Footnote 98: Hesb. de iustif. in resp . asv. 115 obiect.
Illyric. in Apol. confes. Antuerp. c. 6 de iustif.]

[Footnote 99: Calv. Inst. l. 3, c. 2, n. 28 etc.]

[Footnote 100: Calv. Inst. l. 3, c. 2, n. 40.]

[Footnote 101: Lib. de capt. Babyl.]

[Footnote 102: Calv. Inst. l. 4, c. 15, n. 2 et 10; Cent. l. 1,
c. 19; Luth. l. de capt. Babyl.]

[Footonote 103: Cent. 2 et 5, c. 4.]

[Footnote 104: Luth. adv. Cochlae, Item epist. ad Melanct. t. 2;
et in ep. ad Wald.]

[Footnote 105: Luth. serm. de matrim. et lib. de vit. coniug.; in
asser. art. 16; lib. de vot. monast.]

[Footnote 106: Charc. in Cens. suum.]

[Footnote 107: Luth. serm. de Pet.; in asser. art. 32.]

[Footnote 108: Id. l. de serv. arbit.]

[Footnote 109: Id. serm. de Moyse.]

[Footnote 110: Id. l. de capt. Bab. c. de Euch.]

[Footnote 111: Apol. Eccles. Angl.]

[Footnote 112: In 1, p. q. 13, a. 2 ad 2.]

[Footnote 113: Isai. xxxv. 8.]

[Footnote 114: Aug. serm. 37 de Sanct.]

[Footnote 115: Dam. in vit. Pont. Rom.]

[Footnote 116: Hier. cat. Script.]

[Footnote 117: Ign. epist. ad Smyrn.]

[Footnote 118: Euseb. l. 3, c. 30.]

[Footnote 119: Dam. in vita Telesph. to. 1 con. c. stat. d. 5.]

[Footnote 120: Lib. 3, c. 3.]

[Footnote 121: Euseb. 5 hist. 24.]

[Footnote 122: Euseb. 4 hist. 13 et 14.]

[Footnote 123: Euseb. 7 hist. 2 interp. Ruff.]

[Footnote 124: Prud. in hym. de S. Laur.]

[Footnote 125: Vid. Aug. Ser. 1 de S. Laur.; Ambr. l. 1 offi, c.
41; Leo serm. in die S. Laur.]

[Footnote 126: Prud. in hym. de S. Laur.]

[Footnote 127: Metaph.; Ambr. et alii.]

[Footnote 128: Aug. l. 6 confess. c. 7 ad 13.]

[Footnote 129: Hier. in epit. Paul.]

[Footnote 130: Ambr. in orat. fun. de Satyro.]

[Footnote 131: Vide sex tomos Surii de vitis Sanct.]

[Footnote 132: Matth. xv. 18.]

[Footnote 133: Euseb. 4 hist. 5.]

[Footnote 134: Hieron, in epit. Paul. et passim in epist.]

[Footnote 135: Prudent. in Pin. de S, Laur.]

[Footnote 136: Gen. x. 9.]

[Footnote 137: Dam. in Sylv.; Niceph. l. 7, c. 33; Zonaras, Cedremus.]

[Footnote 138: Euseb. l. 2 de vit. Const. c. 7, 8, 9; Sozom.
l. 1, c. 8, 9.]

[Footnote 139: Athan. in vita S. Ant.]

[Footnote 140: Theod. l. 1, hist. cap.]

[Footnote 141: Vid. Volate, lovium Aemilium l. 8, Blond. l. 9 de 2.]

[Footnote 142: Clem. l. 1, recog.]

[Footnote 143: Iren. l. 1, c. 2.]

[Footnote 144: Cypr. ep. ad Iubatam et l. 4 ep. 2.]

[Footnote 145: Theod. de fab. haeret.]

[Footnote 146: Aug. haer. 46, 53, 54.]

[Footnote 147: Epiph. haer. 75.]

[Footnote 148: Aug. haer. 54.]

[Footnote 149: Socr. l. 2, C. 28.]

[Footnote 150: Hier. in Iovin. et Vigilant.; Aug. haer. 82.]

[Footnote 151: Vid. Tert. de praescr.; Aug. l. 2 de
doctr. christ. c. 8.]

[Footnote 152: 1 Cor. i. 13.]

[Footnote 153: 1 Reg. v. 4.]

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

This is no dry controversial divinity, but a sort of illuminated
copy of _theses_, the call of a knight's trumpet challenging his
antagonist to come forth. The Ten Reasons represent the ten
_theses_, which Edmund Campion would fain have maintained in the
Divinity School at Oxford against all comers, sharing, as he did
to the full, the passion which his age felt and seems entirely to
have lost, for such intellectual tournaments, as the natural
means to bring out the truth and compose religious differences.
The reader, then, must not be surprised to find in this little
work quite as much of rhetoric as of logic; if he is unfriendly,
he may say considerably more. Nor, if he knows anything of the
controversial methods of the sixteenth century, will he be
surprised at the vehemence of the language. Compared with his
opponents, Luther for example, Edmund Campion is mere milk and
honey. His book made a great stir: it is what a successful book
must be, instinct with the spirit of the age in which and for
which it was written.

The Protestant answer to the Ten Reasons was not given in the
Divinity School at Oxford. It was the rack in the Tower, and the
gibbet at Tyburn; and that answer was returned ere the year was out.

J.R.

Pope's Hall, Oxford

May 1910

PREFACE.

_Edmund Campion, to the Learned Members of the Universities of
Oxford and Cambridge, Greeting._

Last year, Gentlemen, when in accordance with my calling in life
I returned under orders to this Island, I found on the shore of
England not a little wilder waves than those I had recently left
behind the in the British Seas. As thereupon I made my way into
the interior of England, I had no more familiar sight than that
of unusual executions, no greater certainty than the uncertainty
of threatening dangers. I gathered my wits together as best I
could, remembering the cause which I was serving and the times in
which I lived. And lest I might perhaps be arrested before I had
got a hearing from any one, I at once put my purpose in writing,
stating who I was, what was my errand, what war I thought of
declaring and upon whom. I kept the original document on my
person, that it might be taken with me, if I were taken. I
deposited a copy with a friend, and this copy, without my
knowledge, was shown to many. Adversaries took very ill the
publication of the paper. What they particularly disliked and
blamed was my having offered to hold the field alone against all
comers in this matter of religion, though to be sure I should not
have been alone had I disputed under a public safe conduct.
Hanmer and Chartres have replied to my demands. What is the
tenour of their reply? All off the point. The only honest answer
for them to give is one they will never give: "We embrace the
conditions, the Queen pledges her word, come at once." Meanwhile
they fill the air with their cries: "Your conspiracy! your
seditious proceedings! your arrogance! traitor! aye marry,
traitor!" The whole thing is absurd. These men are not fools: why
are they wasting their pains and damaging their own reputation?
Nevertheless, in reply to these two gentlemen (one of whom has
chosen my paper to run at for his amusement, the other more
maliciously has confused the whole issue) there has recently been
presented a very clear memorial setting forth all that need be
said about our Society and their calumnies and the part that we
are taking. The only course left open to me (since as I see, it
is tortures, not academic disputations, that the high-priests are
making ready) was to make good to you the account of my conduct;
to show you the chief heads and point my finger to the sources
from whence I derive this confidence; to exhort you also, as it
is your concern above others, to give to this business that
attention which Christ, the Church, the Common Weal, and your own
salvation demand of you. If it were confidence in my own talents,
erudition, art, reading, memory, that led me to challenge all the
skill that could be brought against me, then were I the vainest
and proudest of mortals, not having considered either myself or
my opponents. But if, with my cause before my eyes, I thought
myself competent to show that the sun here shines at noon-day,
you ought to allow in me that heat which the honour of Jesus
Christ, my King, and the unconquered force of truth have put upon
me. You know how in Marcus Tullius's speech for Publius Quintius,
when Roscius promised that he should win the case if he could
make out by arguments that a journey of 700 miles had not been
accomplished in two days, Cicero not only had no fear of all the
force of the pleading of the opposing counsel, Hortensius, but
could not have been afraid even of greater orators than
Hortensius, men of the stamp of Cotta and Antonius and Crassus,
whose reputation for speaking he set higher than that of all
other men: for truth does sometimes stand out in so clear a light
that no artifice of word or deed can hide it. Now the case on our
side is clearer even than that position of Roscius. I have only
to evince this, that there is a Heaven, that there is a God, that
there is a Faith, that there is a Christ, and I have gained my
cause. Standing on such ground should I not pluck up heart? I may
be killed, beaten I cannot be. I take my stand on those Doctors,
whom that Spirit has instructed who is neither deceived nor
overcome. I beg of you, consent to be saved. Of those from whom I
obtain this consent I expect without the least doubt that all the
rest will follow. Only give yourselves up to take interest in
this inquiry, entreat Christ, add efforts of your own, and
certainly you will perceive how the case lies, how our
adversaries are in despair, and ourselves so solidly founded that
we cannot but desire this conflict with serene and high courage.
I am brief here, because I address you in the rest of my
discourse. Farewell.

FIRST REASON

HOLY WRIT

Of the many signs that tell of the adversaries' mistrust of their
own cause, none declares it so loudly as the shameful outrage
they put upon the majesty of the Holy Bible. After they have
dismissed with scorn the utterances and suffrages of the rest of
the witnesses, they are nevertheless brought to such straits that
they cannot hold their own otherwise than by laying violent hands
on the divine volumes themselves, thereby showing beyond all
question that they are brought to their last stand, and are
having recourse to the hardest and most extreme of expedients to
retrieve their desperate and ruined fortunes. What induced the
Manichees to tear out the Gospel of Matthew and the Acts of the
Apostles? Despair. For these volumes were a torment to men who
denied Christ's birth of a Virgin, and who pretended that the
Spirit then first descended upon Christians when their peculiar
Paraclete, a good-for-nothing Persian, made his appearance. What
induced the Ebionites to reject all St. Paul's Epistles? Despair.
For while those Letters kept their credit, the custom of
circumcision, which these men had reintroduced, was set aside as
an anachronism. What induced that crime-laden apostate Luther to
call the Epistle of James contentious, turgid, arid, a thing of
straw, and unworthy of the Apostolic spirit? Despair. For by this
writing the wretched man's argument of righteousness consisting
in faith alone was stabbed through and rent assunder. What
induced Luther's whelps to expunge off-hand from the genuine
canon of Scripture, Tobias, Ecclesiasticus, Maccabees, and, for
hatred of these, several other books involved in the same false
charge? Despair. For by these Oracles they are most manifestly
confuted whenever they argue about the patronage of Angels, about
free will, about the faithful departed, about the intercession of
Saints. Is it possible? So much perversity, so much audacity?
After trampling underfoot Church, Councils, Episcopal Sees,
Fathers, Martyrs, Potentates, Peoples, Laws, Universities,
Histories, all vestiges of Antiquity and Sanctity, and declaring
that they would settle their disputes by the written word of God
alone, to think that they should have emasculated that same Word,
which alone was left, by cutting out of the whole body so many
excellent and goodly parts! Seven whole books, to ignore lesser
diminutions, have the Calvinists cut out of the Old Testament.
The Lutherans take away the Epistle of James besides, and, in
their dislike of that, five other Epistles, about which there had
been controversy of old in certain places and times. To the
number of these the latest authorities at Geneva add the book of
Esther and about three chapters of Daniel, which their
fellow-disciples, the Anabaptists, had some time before condemned
and derided. How much greater was the modesty of Augustine (_De
doct. Christ. lib._ 2, _c._ 8.), who, in making his catalogue of
the Sacred Books, did not take for his rule the Hebrew Alphabet,
like the Jews, nor private judgment, like the Sectaries, but that
Spirit wherewith Christ animates the whole Church. The Church,
the guardian of this treasure, not its mistress (as heretics
falsely make out), vindicated publicly in former times by very
ancient Councils this entire treasure, which the Council of Trent
has taken up and embraced. Augustine also in a special discussion
on one small portion of Scripture cannot bring himself to think
that any man's rash murmuring should be permitted to thrust out
of the Canon the book of Wisdom, which even in his time had
obtained a sure place as a well-authenticated and Canonical book
in the reckoning of the Church, the judgment of ages, the
testimony of ancients, and the sense of the faithful. What would
he say now if he were alive on earth, and saw men like Luther and
Calvin manufacturing Bibles, filing down Old and New Testament
with a neat pretty little file of their own, setting aside, not
the book of wisdom alone, but with it very many others from the
list of Canonical Books? Thus whatever does not come out from
their shop, by a mad decree, is liable to be, spat upon by all as
a rude and barbarous composition. They who have stooped to this
dire and execrable way of saving themselves surely are beaten,
overthrown, and flung rolling in the dust, for all their fine
praises that are in the mouths of their admirers, for all their
traffic in priesthoods, for all their bawling in pulpits, for all
their sentencing of Catholics to chains, rack and gallows. Seated
in their armchairs as censors, as though any one had elected them
to that office, they seize their pens and mark passages as
spurious even in God's own Holy Writ, putting their pens through
whatever they cannot stomach. Can any fairly educated man be
afraid of battalions of such enemies? If in the midst of your
learned body they had recourse to such trickster's arts, calling
like wizards upon their familiar spirit, you would shout at
them,--you would stamp your feet at them. For instance I would
ask them what right they have to rend and mutilate the body of
the Bible. They would answer that they do not cut out true
Scriptures, but prune away supposititious accretions. By
authority of what judge? By the Holy Ghost. This is the answer
prescribed by Calvin (_Instit. lib._ I, _c._ 7), for escaping
this judgment of the Church whereby spirits of prophesy are
examined. Why then do some of you tear out one piece of
Scripture, and others another, whereas you all boast of being led
by the same Spirit? The Spirit of the Calvinists receives six
Epistles which do not please the Lutheran Spirit, both all the
while in full confidence reposing on the Holy Ghost. The
Anabaptists call the book of Job a fable, intermixed with tragedy
and comedy. How do they know? The Spirit has taught them. Whereas
the Song of Solomon is admired by Catholics as a paradise of the
soul, a hidden manna, and rich delight in Christ, Castalio, a
lewd rogue, has reckoned it nothing better than a love-song about
a mistress, and an amorous conversation with Court flunkeys.
Whence drew he that intimation? From the Spirit. In the
Apocalypse of John, every jot and tittle of which Jerane declares
to bear some lofty and magnificent meaning, Luther and Brent and
Kemnitz, critics hard to please, find something wanting, and are
inclined to throw over the whole book. Whom have they consulted?
The Spirit. Luther with preposterous heat pits the Four Gospels
one against another (_Praef. in Nov. Test._), and far prefers
Paul's Epistles to the first three, while he declares the Gospel
of St. John above the rest to be beautiful, true, and worthy of
mention in the first place,--thereby enrolling even the Apostles,
so far as in him lay, as having a hand in his quarrels. Who
taught him to do that? The Spirit. Nay this imp of a friar has
not hesitated in petulant style to assail Luke's Gospel because
therein good and virtuous works are frequently commended to us.
Whom did he consult? The Spirit. Theodore Beza has dared to carp
at, as a corruption and perversion of the original, that mystical
word from the twenty-second chapter of Luke, _this is the
chalice, the new testament in my blood, which_ (chalice) _shall
be shed for you_ [Greek: potaerion ekchunomenon], because this
language admits of no explanation other than that of the wine in
the chalice being converted into the true blood of Christ. Who
pointed that out? The Spirit. In short, in believing all things
every man in the faith of his own spirit, they horribly belie and
blaspheme the name of the Holy Ghost. So acting, do they not give
themselves away? are they not easily refuted? In an assembly of
learned men, such as yours, Gentlemen of the University, are they
not caught and throttled without trouble? Should I be afraid on
behalf of the Catholic faith to dispute with these men, who have
handled with the utmost ill faith not human but heavenly
utterances? I say nothing here of their perverse versions of
Scripture, though I could accuse them in this respect of
intolerable doings. I will not take the bread out of the mouth of
that great linguist, my fellow-Collegian, Gregory Martin, who
will do this work with more learning and abundance of detail than
I could; nor from others whom I understand already to have that
task in hand. More wicked and more abominable is the crime that I
am now prosecuting, that there have been found upstart Doctors
who have made a drunken onslaught on the handwriting that is of
heaven; who have given judgment against it as being in many
places defiled, defective, false, surreptitious; who have
corrected some passages, tampered with others; torn out others;
who have converted every bulwark wherewith it was guarded into
Lutheran "spirits," what I may call phantom ramparts and parted
walls. All this they have done that they might not be utterly
dumbfounded by falling upon Scripture texts contrary to their
errors, texts which they would have found it as hard to get over
as to swallow hot ashes or chew stones. This then has been my
First Reason, a strong and a just one. By revealing the shadowy
and broken powers of the adverse faction, it has certainly given
new courage to a Christian man, not unversed in these studies, to
fight for the Letters Patent of the Eternal King against the
remnant of a routed foe.

SECOND REASON

THE SENSE OF HOLY WRIT

Another thing to incite me to the encounter, and to disparage in
my eyes the poor forces of the enemy, is the habit of mind which
they continually display in their exposition of the Scriptures,
full of deceit, void of wisdom. As philosophers, you would seize
these points at once. Therefore I have desired to have you for my
audience. Suppose, for example, we ask our adversaries on what
ground they have concocted that novel and sectarian opinion which
banishes Christ from the Mystic Supper. If they name the Gospel,
we meet them promptly. On our side are the words, _this is my
body, this is my blood._ This language seemed to Luther himself
so forcible, that for all his strong desire to turn Zwinglian,
thinking by that means to make it most awkward for the Pope,
nevertheless he was caught and fast bound by this most open
context, and gave in to it (_Luther, epistol. ad Argent._), and
confessed Christ truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament no less
unwillingly than the demons of old, overcome by His miracles,
cried aloud that He was Christ, the Son of God. Well then, the
written text gives us the advantage: the dispute now turns on the
sense of what is written. Let us examine this from the words in
the context, _my body which is given for you, my blood which hall
be shed for many_. Still the explanation on Calvin's side is most
hard, on ours easy and quite plain.

What further? Compare the Scriptures, they say, one with another.
By all means. The Gospels agree, Paul concurs. The words, the
clauses, the whole sentence reverently repeat living bread,
signal miracle, heavenly food, flesh, body, blood. There is
nothing enigmatical, nothing befogged with a mist of words. Still
our adversaries hold on and make no end of altercation. What are
we to do? I presume, Antiquity should be heard; and what we, two
parties suspect of one another, cannot settle, let it be settled
by the decision of venerable ancient men of all past ages, as
being nearer Christ and further removed from this contention.
They cannot stand that, they protest that they are being
betrayed, they appeal to the word of God pure and simple, they
turn away from the comments of men. Treacherous and fatuous
excuse. We urge the word of God, they darken the meaning of it.
We appeal to the witness of the Saints as interpreters, they
withstand them. In short their position is that there shall be no
trial, unless you stand by the judgment of the accused party. And
so they behave in every controversy which we start. On infused
grace, on inherent justice, on the visible Church, on the
necessity of Baptism, on Sacraments and Sacrifice, on the merits
of the good, on hope and fear, on the difference of guilt in
sins, on the authority of Peter, on the keys, on vows, on the
evangelical counsels, on other such points, we Catholics have
cited and discussed Scripture texts not a few, and of much
weight, everywhere in books, in meetings, in churches, in the
Divinity School: they have eluded them. We have brought to bear
upon them the _scholia_ of the ancients, Greek and Latin: they
have refused them. What then is their refuge? Doctor Martin
Luther, or else Philip (Melancthon), or anyhow Zwingle, or beyond
doubt Calvin and Besa have faithfully laid down the facts. Can I
suppose any of you to be so dull of sense as not to perceive this
artifice when he is told of it? Wherefore I must confess how
earnestly I long for the University Schools as a place where,
with you looking on, I could call those carpet-knights out of
their delicious retreats into the heat and dust of action, and
break their power, not by any strength of my own,--for I am not
comparable, not one per cent., with the rest of our people;--but
by force of strong case and most certain truth.

THIRD REASON

THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH

At hearing the name of the Church the enemy has turned pale.
Still he has devised some explanation which I wish you to notice,
that you may observe the ruinous and poverty-stricken estate of
falsehood. He was well aware that in the Scriptures, as well of
Prophets as of Apostles, everywhere there is made honourable
mention of the Church: that it is called the holy city, the
fruitful vine, the high mountain, the straight way, the only
dove, the kingdom of heaven, the spouse and body of Christ, the
ground of truth, the multitude to whom the Spirit has been
promised and into whom He breathes all truths that make for
salvation; her on whom, taken as a whole, the devil's jaws are
never to inflict a deadly bite; her against whom whoever rebels,
however much he preach Christ with his mouth, has no more hold on
Christ than the publican or the heathen. Such a loud
pronouncement he dared not gainsay; he would not seem rebellious
against a Church of which the Scriptures make such frequent
mention: so he cunningly kept the name, while by his definition
he utterly abolished the thing, He has depicted the Church with
such properties as altogether hide her away, and leave her open
to the secret gaze of a very few men, as though she were removed
from the senses, like a Platonic Idea. They only could discern
her, who by a singular inspiration had got the faculty of
grasping with their intelligence this aerial body, and with keen
eye regarding the members of such a company.

What has become of candour and straightforwardness? What
Scripture texts or Scripture meanings or authorities of Fathers
thus portray the Church? There are letters of Christ to the
Asiatic Churches (Apoc. i. 3), letters of Peter, Paul, John, and
others to various Churches; frequent mention in the Acts of the
Apostles of the origin and spread of Churches. What of these
Churches? Were they visible to God alone and holy men, or to
Christians of every rank and degree? But, doubtless, necessity
is a hard weapon. Pardon these subterfuges. Throughout the whole
course of fifteen centuries these men find neither town, village
nor household professing their doctrine, until an unhappy monk
by an incestuous marriage had deflowered a virgin vowed to God,
or a Swiss gladiator had conspired against his country, or a
branded runaway had occupied Geneva. These people, if they want
to have a Church at all, are compelled to crack up a Church all
hidden away; and to claim parents whom they themselves have
never known, and no mortal has ever set eyes on, Perhaps they
glory in the ancestry of men whom every one knows to have been
heretics, such as Aerius, Jovinianus, Vigilantius, Helvidius,
Berengarius, the Waldenses, the Lollards, Wycliffe, Huss, of
whom they have begged sundry poisonous fragments of dogmas.
Wonder not that I have no fear of their empty talk: once I can
meet them in the noon-day, I shall have no trouble in dispelling
such vapourings. Our conversation with them would take this
line. Tell me, do you subscribe to the Church which flourished
in bygone ages? Certainly. Let us traverse, then, different
countries and periods. What Church? The assembly of the
faithful. What faithful? Their names are unknown, but it is
certain that there have been many of them. Certain? to whom is
it certain? To God Who says so! We, who have been taught of
God--stuff and nonsense, how am I to believe it? If you had the
fire of faith in you, you would know it as well as you know you
are alive. Let in as spectators, could you withhold your
laughter? To think that all Christians should be bidden to join
the Church; to beware of being cut down by the spiritual sword;
to keep peace in the house of God; to trust their soul to the
Church as to the pillar of truth; to lay all their complaints
before the Church; to hold for heathen all who are cast out of
the Church; and that nevertheless so many men for so many
centuries should not know where the Church is or who belong to
it! This much only they prate in the darkness, that wherever the
Church is, only Saints and persons destined for heaven are
contained in it. Hence it follows that whoever wishes to
withdraw himself from the authority of his ecclesiastical
superior has only to persuade himself that the priest has fallen
into sin and is quite cut off from the Church. Knowing as I did
that the adversaries were inventing these fictions, contrary to
the customary sense of the Churches in all ages, and that,
having lost the whole substance, they still wished in their
difficulties to retain the name, I took comfort in the thought
of your sagacity, and so promised myself that, as soon as ever
you had cognisance of such artifices by their own confession,
you would at once like men of mark and intelligence rend asunder
the web of foolish sophistry woven for your undoing.

FOURTH REASON

COUNCILS

In the infant Church a grave question about lawful ceremonies,
which troubled the minds of believers, was solved by the
gathering of a Council of Apostles and elders. The Children
believed their parents, the sheep their shepherds, commanding in
their words, _It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us_
(Acts xv). There followed for the extirpation of various heresies
in various several ages, four Oecumenical Councils of the
ancients, the doctrine whereof was so well established that a
thousand years ago (see St. Gregory the Great's Epistles, lib. i.
cap. 24) singular honour was paid to it as to an utterance of
God. I will travel no further abroad. Even in our home, in
Parliament (ann. 1 Elisabeth), the same Councils keep their
former right and their dignity inviolate. These I will cite, and
I will call thee, England, my sweet country, to witness. If, as
thou professest, thou wilt reverence these four Councils, thou
shalt give chief honour to the Bishop of the first See, that is
to Peter: thou shalt recognise on the altar the unbloody
sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ: thou shalt beseech the
blessed martyrs and all the saints to intercede with Christ on
thy behalf: thou shalt restrain womanish apostates from unnatural
vice and public incest: thou shalt do many things that thou art
undoing, and wish undone much that thou art doing. Furthermore, I
promise and undertake to show, when opportunity offers, that the
Synods of other ages, and notably the Synod of Trent, have been
of the same authority and credence as the first. Armed therefore
with the strong and choice support of all the Councils, why
should I not enter into this arena with calmness and presence of
mind, watchful to keep an eye on my adversary and see on what
point he will show himself? I will produce testimonies most
evident that he cannot wrest aside. Possibly he will take to
scolding, and endeavour to talk against time, but he will not
elude the eyes and ears of men who will watch him hard, as you
will do, if you are the men I take you for. But if there shall be
any one found so stark mad as to set his single self up as a
match for the senators of the world, men whose greatness,
holiness, learning and antiquity is beyond all exception, I shall
be glad to look upon that face of impudence; and when I have
shown it to you, I will leave the rest to your own thoughts.
Meanwhile I will say thus much: The man who refuses consideration
and weight to a Plenary Council, brought to a conclusion in due
and orderly fashion, seems to me witless, brainless, a dullard in
theology, and a fool in politics. If ever the Spirit of God has
shone upon the Church, then surely is the time for the sending of
divine aid, when the most manifest religiousness, ripeness of
judgment, science, wisdom, dignity of all the Churches on earth
have flocked together in one city, and with employment of all
means, divine and human, for the investigation of truth, implore
the promised Spirit that they may make wholesome and prudent
decrees. Let there now leap to the front some mannikin master of
an heretical faction, let him arch his eyebrows, turn up his
nose, rub his forehead, and scurrilously take upon himself to
judge his judges, what sport, what ridicule will he excite! There
was found a Luther to say that he preferred to Councils the
opinions of two godly and learned men (say his own and Philip
Melanchthon's) when they agreed in the name of Christ. Oh what
quackery! There was found a Kemnitz to try the Council of Trent
by the standard of his own rude and giddy humour. What gained he
thereby? Infamy. While he, unless he takes care, shall be buried
with Arius, the Synod of Trent, the older it grows, shall
flourish the more, day by day, and year by year. Good God! what
variety of nations, what a choice assembly of Bishops of the
whole world, what a splendid representation of Kings and
Commonwealths, what a quintessence of theologians, what sanctity,
what tears, what fears, what flowers of Universities, what
tongues, what subtlety, what labour, what infinite reading, what
wealth of virtues and of studies filled that august sanctuary! I
have myself heard Bishops, eminent and prudent men,--and among
them Antony, Archbishop of Prague, by whom I was made
Priest,--exulting that they had attended such a school for some
years; so that, much as they owed to Kaiser Ferdinand, they
considered that he had shown them no more royal and abundant
bounty than this of sending them to sit in that Academy of Trent
as Legates from Bohemia. The Kaiser understood this, and on their
return he welcomed them with the words, "We have kept you at a
good school." Invited as our adversaries have been under a safe
conduct, why have they not hastened thither, publicly to refute
those against whom they go on quacking like frogs from their
holes? "They broke their promise to Huss and Jerome," is their
reply. Who broke it? "The Fathers of the Council of Constance."
It is false; they never gave any promise. But anyhow, not even
Huss would have been punished had not the perfidious and
pestilent fellow been brought back from that flight which the
Emperor Sigusmund had forbidden him under pain of death; had he
not violated the conditions which he had agreed to in writing
with the Kaiser and thereby nullified all the value of that
safe-conduct. Huss's hasty wickedness played him false. For,
having instigated deeds of savage violence in his native Bohemia,
and being bidden thereupon to present himself at Constance, he
despised the prerogative of the Council, and sought his
safe-conduct of the Kaiser. Caesar signed it; the Christian
world, greater than Caesar, cancelled the signature. The
heresiarch refused to return to a sound mind, and so perished. As
for Jerome of Prague, he came to Constance protected by no one;
he was detected and arraigned; he spoke in his own behalf, was
treated very kindly, went free whither he would; he was healed,
abjured his heresy, relapsed, and was burnt. Why do they so often
drag out one case in a thousand? Let them read their own annals.
Martin Luther himself, that abomination of God and men, was put
in court at Augsburg before Cardinal Cajetan: there did he not
belch out all he could, and then depart in safety, fortified with
a letter of Maximilian? Likewise, when he was summoned to Worms,
and had against him the Kaiser and most of the Princes of the
Empire, was he not safe under the protection of the Kaiser's
word? Lastly, at the Diet of Augsburg, in presence of Charles V.,
an enemy of heretics, flushed with victory, master of the
situation, did not the heads of the Lutherans and Zwinglians,
under truce, present their Confessions, so frequently re-edited,
and depart in peace? Not otherwise had the letter from Trent
provided most ample safe-guards for the adversary; he would not
take advantage of them. The fact is, he airs his condition in
corners, where he expects to figure as a sage by coming out with
three words of Greek: he shrinks from the light, which should
place him in the number of men of letters [_lilleratorum_
{transcribers note: the Latin is interpolated into the
translation here}] and call him to sit in honourable place. Let
them obtain for English Catholics such a written promise of
impunity, if they love the salvation of souls. We will not raise
the instance of Huss: relying on the Sovereign's word, we will
fly to Court. But, to return to the point whence I digressed, the
General Councils are mine, the first, the last, and those
between. With them I will fight. Let the adversary look for a
javelin hurled with force, which he will never be able to pluck
out. Let Satan be overthrown in him, and Christ live.

FIFTH REASON

FATHERS

At Antioch, in which city the noble surname of Christians first
became common, there flourished _Doctors_, that is, eminent
theologians, and _Prophets_, that is, very celebrated preachers
(Acts xiii. 1). Of this sort were the scribes and wise men,
learned in the kingdom of God, bringing forth new things and old
(Matth. xiii. 52; xxiii. 34), knowing Christ and Moses, whom the
Lord promised to His future flock. What a wicked thing it is to
scout these teachers, given as they are by way of a mighty boon!
The adversary has scouted them. Why? Because their standing means
his fall. Having found that out for certain beyond doubt, I have
asked for a fight unqualified, not that sham-fight in which the
crowds in the street engage, and skirmish with one another, but
the earnest and keen struggle in which we join in the arena of
yon philosophers,

   Foot to foot, and man close gripping man.

If ever we shall be allowed to turn to the Fathers, the battle is
lost and won: they are as thoroughly ours as is Gregory XIII.
himself, the loving Father of the children of the Church. To say
nothing of isolated passages, which are gathered from the records
of the ancients, apt and clear statements in defence of our
faith, we hold entire volumes of these Fathers, which professedly
illustrate in clear and abundant light the Gospel religion which
we defend. Take the twofold _Hierarchy_ of the martyr Dionysius,
what classes, what sacrifices, what rites does he teach? This
fact struck Luther so forcibly that he pronounced the works of
this Father to be "such stuff as dreams are made of, and that of
the most pernicious kind." In imitation of his parent, an obscure
Frenchman, Caussee, has not hesitated to call this Dionysius, the
Apostle of an illustrious nation, "an old dotard." Ignatius has
given grievous offence to the Centuriators of Magdeburg, as also
to Calvin, so that these men, the offscouring of mankind, have
noted in his works "unsightly blemishes and tasteless prosings."
In their judgment, Irenaeus has brought out "a fanatical
production": Clement, the author of the _Stromata_, has produced
"Tares and dregs": the other Fathers of this age, Apostolic men
to be sure, "have left blasphemies and monstrosities to
posterity." In Tertullian they eagerly seize upon what they have
learned from us, in common with us, to detest; but they should
remember that his book _On Prescriptions_, which has so signally
smitten the heretics of our times, was never found fault with.
How finely, how, clearly, has Hippolytus, Bishop of Porto pointed
out beforehand the power of Antichrist, the times of Luther! They
call him, therefore, "a most babyish writer, an owl." Cyprian,
the delight and glory of Africa, that French critic Caussee, and
the Centuriators of Magdeburg, have termed "stupid, God-forsaken
corrupter of repentance." What harm has he done? He has written
_On Virgins, On the Lapsed, On the Unity of the Church_, such
treatises as also such letters to Cornelius, the Roman Pontiff,
that, unless credence be withdrawn from this Martyr, Peter Martyr
Vermilius and all his associates must count for worse than
adulterers and men guilty of sacrilege. And, not to dwell longer
on individuals, the Fathers of this age are all condemned "for
wonderful corruption of the doctrine of repentance." How so?
Because the austerity of the Canons in vogue at that time is
particularly obnoxious to this plausible sect which, better
fitted for dining-rooms than for churches, is wont to tickle
voluptuous ears and to sew _cushions on every arm_ (Ezech. xiii.
18). Take the next age, what offence has that committed?
Chrysostom and those Fathers, forsooth, have "foully obscured the
justice of faith." Gregory Nazianzen whom the ancients called
eminently "the Theologian," is in the judgment of Caussee "a
chatter-box, who did not know what he was saying." Ambrose was
"under the spell of an evil demon." Jerome is "as damnable as the
devil, injurious to the Apostle, a blasphemer, a wicked wretch."
To Gregory Massow--"Calvin alone is worth more than a hundred
Augustines." A hundred is a small number: Luther "reckons nothing
of having against him a thousand Augustines, a thousand Cyprians,
a thousand Churches." I think I need not carry the matter
further. For when men rage against the above-mentioned Fathers,
who can wonder at the impertinence of their language against
Optatus, Hilary, the two Cyrils, Epiphanius, Basil, Vincent,
Fulgentius, Leo, and the Roman Gregory. However, if we grant any
just defence of an unjust cause, I do not deny that the Fathers
wherever you light upon them, afford the party of our opponents
matter they needs must disagree with, so long as they are
consistent with themselves. Men who have appointed fast-days, how
must they be minded in regard of Basil, Gregory, Nazianzen, Leo,
Chrysostom, who have published telling sermons on Lent and
prescribed days of fasting as things already in customary use?
Men who have sold their souls for gold, lust, drunkenness and
ambitious display, can they be other than most hostile to Basil,
Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine, whose excellent books are in the
hands of all, treating of the institute, rule, and virtues of
monks? Men who have carried the human will into captivity, who
have abolished Christian funerals, who have burnt the relics of
Saints, can they possibly be reconciled to Augustine, who has
composed three books on Free Will, one on Care for the Dead,
besides sundry sermons and a long chapter in a noble work on the
Miracles wrought at the Basilicas and Monuments of the Martyrs?
Men who measure faith by their own quips and quirks, must they
not be angry with Augustine, of whom there is extant a remarkable
Letter against a Manichean, in which he professes himself to
assent to Antiquity, to Consent, to Perpetuity of Succession, and
to the Church which, alone among so many heresies, claims by
prescriptive right the name of Catholic?

Optatus, Bishop of Milevis, refutes the Donatist faction by
appeal to Catholic communion: he accuses their wickedness by
appeal to the decree of Melchiades: he convicts their heresy by
reference to the order of succession of Roman Pontiffs: he lays
open their frenzy in their defilement of the Eucharist and of
schism: he abhors their sacrilege in their breaking of altars "on
which the members of Christ are borne," and their pollution of
chalices "which have held the blood of Christ." I greatly desire
to know what they think of Optatus, whom Augustine mentions as a
venerable Catholic Bishop, the equal of Ambrose and of Cyprian;
and Fulgentius as a holy and faithful interpreter of Paul, like
unto Augustine and Ambrose. They sing in their churches the Creed
of Athanasius. Do they stand by him? That grave anchor who has
written an elaborate book in praise of the Egyptian hermit
Antony, and who with the Synod of Alexandria suppliantly appealed
to the judgment of the Apostolic See, the See of St. Peter. How
often does Prudentius in his Hymns pray to the martyrs whose
praises he sings! how often at their ashes and bones does he
venerate the King of Martyrs! Will they approve his proceeding?
Jerome writes against Vigilantius in defence of the relics of the
Saints and the honours paid to them; as also against Jovinian for
the rank to be allowed to virginity. Will they endure him?
Ambrose honoured his patron saints Gervase and Protase with a
most glorious solemnity by way of putting the Arians to shame.
This action of his was praised by most godly Fathers, and God
honoured it with more than one miracle. Are they going to take a
kindly view off Ambrose here? Gregory the Great, our Apostle, is
most manifestly with us, and therefore is a hateful personage to
our adversaries. Calvin, in his rage, says that he was not
brought up in the school of the Holy Ghost, seeing that he had
called holy images the books of the illiterate.

Time would fail me were I to try to count up the Epistles,
Sermons, Homilies, Orations, Opuscula and dissertations of the
Fathers, in which they have laboriously, earnestly and with much
learning supported the doctrines of us Catholics. As long as
these works are for sale at the booksellers' shops, it will be
vain to prohibit the writings of our controversialists; vain to
keep watch at the ports and on the sea-coast; vain to search
houses, boxes, desks, and book-chests; vain to set up so many
threatening notices at the gates. No Harding, nor Sanders, nor
Allen, nor Stapleton, nor Bristow, attack these new-fangled
fancies with more vigour than do the Fathers whom I have
enumerated. As I think over these and the like facts, my courage
has grown and my ardour for battle, in which whatever way the
adversary stirs, unless he will yield glory to God, he will be in
straits. Let him admit the Fathers, he is caught: let him shut
them out, he is undone.

When we were young men, the following incident occurred. John
Jewell, a foremost champion of the Calvinists of England, with
incredible arrogance challenged the Catholics at St. Paul's,
London, invoking hypocritically and calling upon the Fathers, who
had flourished within the first six hundred years of
Christianity. His wager was taken up by the illustrious men who
were then in exile at Louvain, hemmed in though they were with
very great difficulties by reason of the iniquity of their times.
I venture to assert that that device of Jewell's, stupid,
unconscionable, shameless as it was, qualities which those
writers happily brought out, did so much good to our countrymen
that scarcely anything in my recollection has turned out to the
better advantage of the suffering English Church. At once an
edict is hung up on the doors, forbidding the reading or
retaining of any of those books, whereas they had come out, or
were wrung out, I may almost say, by the outcry that Jewell had
raised. The result was that all the persons interested in the
matter came to understand that the Fathers were Catholics, that
is to say, ours. Nor has Lawrence Humphrey passed over in silence
this wound inflicted on him and his party. After high praise of
Jewell in other respects, he fixes on him this role of
inconsiderateness, that he admitted the reasonings of the
Fathers, with whom Humphrey declares, without any beating about
the bush, that he has nothing in common nor ever will have.

We also sounded once in familiar discourse Toby Matthews, now a
leading preacher, whom we loved for his good accomplishments and
the seeds of virtue in him; we asked him to answer honestly
whether one who read the Fathers assiduously could belong to that
party which he supported. He answered that he could not, if,
besides reading, he also believed them.[1] This saying is most
true; nor do I think that either he at the present time, or
Matthew Hutten, a man of name, who is said to read the Fathers
with an assiduity that few equal, or other adversaries who do the
like, are otherwise minded.

Thus far I have been able to descend with security into this
field of conflict, to wage war with men, who, as though they held
a wolf by the ears, are compelled to brand their cause with an
everlasting stigma of shame, whether they refuse the Fathers or
whether they call for them. In the one case they are preparing to
run away, in the other they are caught by the throat.

SIXTH REASON

THE GROUNDS OF ARGUMENT ASSUMED BY THE FATHERS

If ever any men took to heart and made their special care,--as
men of our religion have made it and should make it their special
care,--to observe the rule, _Search the Scriptures_ (John v. 39),
the holy Fathers easily come out first and take the palm for the
matter of this observance. By their labour and at their expense
Bibles have been transcribed and carried among so many nations
and tongues by the perils they have run and the tortures they
have endured the Sacred Volumes have been snatched from the
flames and devastation spread by enemies: by their labours and
vigils they have been explained in every detail. Night and day
they drank in Holy Writ, from all pulpits they gave forth Holy
Writ, with Holy Writ they enriched immense volumes, with most
faithful commentaries they unfolded the sense of Holy Writ, with
Holy Writ they seasoned alike their abstinence and their meals,
finally, occupied about Holy Writ they arrived at decrepit old
age. And if they also frequently have argued from the Authority
of Elders, from the Practice of the Church, from the Succession
of Pontiffs, from ecumenical Councils, from Apostolic Traditions,
from the Blood of Martyrs, from the decrees of Bishops, from
Miracles, yet most persistently of all and most willingly do they
set forth in close array the testimonies of Holy Writ: these they
press home, on these they dwell, to this _armour of the strong_
(Cant. iii. 7), for the best of reasons, is the first and the
most honourable part assigned by these valiant leaders in their
work of forgiving and keeping in repair the City of God against
the assaults of the wicked.

Wherefore I do all the more wonder at that haughty and famous
objection of the adversary, who, like one looking for water in a
running stream, takes exception to the lack of Scripture texts
in writings crowded with Scripture texts. He says he will agree
with the Fathers so long as they keep close to Holy Scripture.
Does he mean what he says? I will see then that there come
forth, armed and begirt with Christ, with Prophets and Apostles,
and with all array of Biblical erudition, those celebrated
authors, those ancient Fathers, those holy men, Dionyius,
Cyprian, Athanasius, Basil, Nazianzen, Ambrose, Jerome,
Chrysostom, Augustine, and the Latin Gregory. Let that faith
reign in England, Oh that it may reign! which these Fathers,
dear lovers of the Scriptures, build up out of the Scriptures.
The texts that they bring, we will bring: the texts they confer,
we will confer: what they infer, we will infer. Are you agreed?
Out with it and say so, please. Not bit of it, he says, unless
they expound rightly. What is this "rightly"? At your
discretion. Are you not ashamed of the vicious circle?

Hopeful as I am that in flourishing Universities there will be
gathered together a good number, who will be no dull spectators,
but acute judges of these controversies and who will weigh for
what they are worth the frivolous answers of our adversaries, I
will gladly await this meeting-day, as one minded to lead forth
against wooded hillocks [cf. Cicero _in Catilinam_ ii. 11],
covered with unarmed tramps, the nobility and strength of the
Church of Christ.

SEVENTH REASON

HISTORY

Ancient History unveils the primitive face of the Church. To this
I appeal. Certainly, the more ancient historians, whom our
adversaries also habitually, consult, are enumerated pretty well
as follows: Eusebius, Damasus, Jerome, Rufinus, Orosius,
Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret Cassiodorus, Gregory of Tours,
Usuard, Regino, Marianus, Sigebert, Zonaras, Cedrinus,
Nicephorus. What have they to tell? The praises of our religion,
its progress, vicissitudes, enemies. Nay, and this is a point I
would have you observe diligently, they who in deadly hatred
dissent from us,--Melancthon, Pantaleon, Funck, the Centuriators
of Magdeburg,--on applying themselves to write either the
chronology or the history of the Church, if they did not get
together the exploits of our heroes, and heap up the accounts of
the frauds and crimes of the enemies of our Church, would pass by
fifteen hundred years with no story to tell.

Along with the above-mentioned consider the local historians, who
have searched with laborious curiosity into the transactions of
some one particular nation. These men, wishing by all means to
enrich and adorn the Sparta which they had gotten for their own,
and to that effect not passing over in silence even such things
as banquets of unusual splendour, or sleeved tunics, or hilts of
daggers, or gilt spurs, and other such minutiae having any smack
of revelry about them, surely, if they had heard of any change in
religion, or any falling off from the standard of early ages,
would have related it, many of them; or, if not many, at least
several; if not several, some one anyhow. Not one, well-disposed
or ill-disposed towards us, has related anything of the sort, or
even dropped the slightest hint of the same.

For example. Our adversaries grant us,--they cannot do
otherwise,--that the Roman Church was at one time holy,
Catholic, Apostolic, at the time when it deserved these
eulogiums from St. Paul: _Your faith is spoken of in the whole
world. Without ceasing I make a commemoration of you. I know
that when I come to you, I shall come in the abundance of the
blessing of Christ. All the Churches of Christ salute you. Your
obedience is published in every place_ (Rom. i. 8, 9; xv. 29;
xvi. 17, 19): at the time when Paul, being kept there in free
custody, was spreading the gospel (Acts xxviii. 31) : at the
time when Peter once in that city was ruling _the Church
gathered at Babylon_ (1 Peter v. 13): at the time when that
Clement, so singularly praised by the Apostle (Phil. iv. 3) was
governing the Church: at the time when the pagan Caesars, Nero,
Domitian, Trajan, Antoninus, were butchering the Roman Pontiffs:
also at the time when, as even Calvin bears witness, Damasus,
Siricius, Anastasius and Innocent guided the Apostolic bark. For
at this epoch he generously allows that men, at Rome
particularly, had so far not swerved from Gospel teaching. When
then did Rome lose this faith so highly celebrated? when did she
cease to be what she was before? at what time, under what
Pontiff, by what way, by what compulsion, by what increments,
did a foreign religion come to pervade city and world? What
outcries, what disturbances, what lamentations did it provoke?
Were all mankind all over the rest of the world lulled to sleep,
while Rome, Rome I say, was forging new Sacraments, a new
Sacrifice, new religious dogma? Has there been found no
historian, neither Greek nor Latin, neither far nor near, to
fling out in his chronicles even an obscure hint of so
remarkable a proceeding?

Therefore this much is clear, that the articles of our belief are
what History, manifold and various, History the messenger of
antiquity, and life of memory, utters and repeats in abundance;
while no narrative penned in human times records that the
doctrines foisted in by our opponents ever had any footing in the
Church. It is clear, I say, that the historians are mine, and
that the adversary's raids upon history are utterly without
point. No impression can they make unless the assertion be first
received, that all Christians of all ages had lapsed into gross
infidelity and gone down to the abyss of hell, until such time as
Luther entered into an unblessed union with Catherine Bora.

EIGHTH REASON

PARADOXES

For myself, most excellent Sirs, when, choosing out of many
heresies, I think over in my mind certain portentous errors of
self-opinionated men, errors that it will be incumbent on me to
refute, I should condemn myself of want of spirit and discernment
if in this trial of strength I were to be afraid of any man's
ability or powers. Let him be able, let him be eloquent, let him
be a practised disputant, let him be a devourer of all books,
still his thought must dry up and his utterance fail him when he
shall have to maintain such impossible positions as these. For we
shall dispute, if perchance they will allow us, on God, on
Christ, on Man, on Sin, on Justice, on Sacraments, on Morals. I
shall see whether they will dare to speak out what they think,
and what under the constraint of their situation they publish in
their miserable writings. I will take care that they know these
maxims of their teachers:--"God is the author and cause of evil,
willing it, suggesting it, effecting it, commanding it, working
it out, and guiding the guilty counsels of the wicked to this
end. As the call of Paul, so the adultery of David, and the
wickedness of the traitor Judas, was God's own work" (Calvin,
_Institut_. i. 18; ii. 4; iii. 23, 24). This monstrous doctrine,
of which Philip Melanchthon was for once ashamed, Luther however,
of whom Philip had learned it, extols as an oracle from heaven
with wonderful praises, and on that score puts his foster-child
all but on an equality, with the Apostle Paul (Luther, _De servo
arbitrio_). I will also enquire what was in Luther's mind, whom
the English Calvinists pronounce to be "a man given of God for
the enlightenment of the world," when he wished to take this
versicle out of the Church's prayers, "Holy Trinity, one God,
have mercy on us."

I will proceed to the person of Christ. I will ask what these
words, "Christ the Son of God, God of God," mean to Calvin, who
says, "God of Himself" (_Instit._ i. 13); or to Beza, who says,
"He is not begotten of the essence of the Father" (Beza in Josue,
nn. 23, 24). Again. Let there be set up two hypostate unions in
Christ, one of His soul with His flesh, the other of His Divinity
with His Humanity (Beza, _Contra Schmidel_). The passage in John
x. 30, _I and the Father are one_, does not show Christ to be
God, consubstantial with God the Father (Calvin on John x.), the
fact is, says Luther, "my soul hates this word, _homousion._" Go
on. Christ was not perfect in grace from His infancy, but grew in
gifts of the soul like other men, and by experience daily became
wiser, so that as a little child He laboured under ignorance
(Melanchthon on the gospel for first Sunday after Epiphany).
Which is as much as to say that He was defiled with the stain and
vice of original sin. But observe still more direful utterances.
When Christ, praying in the Garden, was streaming with a sweat of
water and blood, He shuddered under a sense of eternal damnation,
He uttered an irrational cry, an unspiritual cry, a sudden cry
prompted by the force of His distress, which He quickly checked
as not sufficiently premeditated (Marlorati in Matth. xxvi.;
Calvin _in Harm. Evangel._). Is there anything further? Attend.
When Christ Crucified exclaimed, _My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken me,_ He was on fire with the flames of hell, He uttered
a cry of despair, He felt exactly as if nothing were before Him
but to perish in everlasting death (Calvin _in Harm. Evangel._).
To this also let them add something, if they can. Christ, they
say, descended into hell, that is, when dead, He tasted hell not
otherwise than do the damned souls, except that He was destined
to be restored to Himself: for since by His mere bodily death He
would have profited us nothing, He needed in soul also to
struggle with everlasting death, and in this way to pay the debt
of our crime and our punishment. And lest any one might haply
suspect that this theory had stolen upon Calvin unawares, the
same Calvin calls _all of you who have repelled this doctrine,
full as it is of comfort, God-forsaken boobies_ (Institut. ii.
16). Times, times, what a monster you have reared! That delicate
and royal Blood, which ran in a flood from the lacerated and torn
Body of the innocent Lamb, one little drop of which Blood, for
the dignity of the Victim, might have redeemed a thousand worlds,
availed the human race nothing, unless _the mediator of God and
men, the man Christ Jesus_ (I Tim. ii. 5) had borne also _the
second death_ (Apoc. xx. 6), the death of the soul, the death to
grace, that accompaniment only of sin and damnable blasphemy! In
comparison with this insanity, Bucer, impudent fellow that he is,
will appear modest, for he (on Matth. xxvi.), by an explanation
very preposterous, or rather, an inept and stupid tautology,
takes _hell_ in the creed to mean the tomb. Of the Anglican
sectaries, some are wont to adhere to their idol, Calvin, others
to their great master, Bucer; some also murmur in an undertone
against this article, wishing that it may be quietly removed
altogether from the Creed, that it may give no more trouble. Nay,
this was actually tried in a meeting at London, as I remember
being told by one who was present, Richard Cheyne, a miserable
old man, who was badly mauled by robbers outside, and, for all
that, never entered his father's house.[2]

And thus far of Christ. What of Man? The image of God is utterly
blotted out in man, not the slightest spark of good is left: his
whole nature in all the parts of his soul is so thoroughly
overturned that, even after he is born again and sanctified in
baptism, there is nothing whatever within him but mere corruption
and contagion. What does this lead up to? That they who mean to
seize glory by faith alone may wallow in the filth of every
turpitude, may accuse nature, despair of virtue, and discharge
themselves of the commandments (Calvin, _Instit._ ii. 3). To
this, Illyricus, the standard-bearer of the Magdeburg company,
has added his own monstrous teaching about original sin, which he
makes out to be the innermost substance of souls, whom, since
Adam's fall, the devil himself engenders and transforms into
himself. This also is a received maxim in this scum of evil
doctrine, that all sins are equal, yet with this qualification
(not to revive the Stoics), "if sins are weighed in the judgment
of God." As if God, the most equitable judge, were to add to our
burden rather than lighten it; and, for all His justice, were to
exaggerate and make it what it is not in itself. By this
estimation, as heavy an offence would be committed against God,
judging in all severity, by the innkeeper who has killed a
barn-door cock, when he should not have done, as by that infamous
assassin who, his head full of Beza, stealthily slew by the shot
of a musket the French hero, the Duke of Guise, a Prince of
admirable virtue, than which crime our world has seen in our age
nothing more deadly, nothing more lamentable.

But perchance they who are so severe in the matter of sin
philosophise magnificently on divine grace, as able to bring
succour and remedy to this evil. Fine indeed is the function
which they assign to grace, which their ranting preachers say is
neither infused into our hearts, nor strong enough to resist sin,
but lies wholly outside of us, and consists in the mere favour of
God,--a favour which does not amend the wicked, nor cleanse, nor
illuminate, nor enrich them, but, leaving still the old stinking
ordure of their sin, dissembles it by God's connivance, that it
be not counted unsightly and hateful. And with this their
invention they are so delighted that, with them, even Christ is
not otherwise called _full of grace and truth_ than inasmuch as
God the Father has borne wonderful favour to Him (Bucer on John
i: Brent hom. 12 on John).

What sort of thing then is righteousness? A relation. It is not
made up of faith, hope and charity, vesting the soul in their
splendour; it is only a hiding away of guilt, such that, whoever
has seized upon this righteousness by faith alone, he is as sure
of salvation as though he were already enjoying the unending joy
of heaven. Well, let this dream pass: but how can one be sure of
future perseverance, in the absence of which a man's exit would
be most miserable, though for a time he had observed
righteousness purely and piously? Nay, says Calvin (_Instit._
iii. 2), unless this your faith foretells you your perseverance
assuredly, without possibility of hallucination, it must be cast
aside as vain and feeble. I recognise the disciple of Luther. A
Christian, said Luther (_De captivitate Babylonis_), cannot lose
his salvation, even if he wanted, except by refusing to believe.

I hasten to pass on to the Sacraments. None, none, not two, not
one, O holy Christ, have they left. Their bread is poison; and
as for their baptism, though it is still true baptism,
nevertheless in their judgment it is nothing, it is not a wave
of salvation, it is not a channel of grace, it does not apply to
us the merits of Christ, it is a mere token of salvation
(Calvin, _Instit._ iv. 15). Thus they have made no more of the
baptism of Christ, so far as the nature of the thing goes, than
of the ceremony of John. If you have it, it is well; if you go
without it, there is no loss suffered; believe, you are saved,
before you are washed. What then of infants, who, unless they
are aided by the virtue of the Sacrament, poor little things,
gain nothing by any faith of their own? Rather than allow
anything to the Sacrament of baptism, say the Magdeburg
Centuriators (Cent. v. 4.), let us grant that there is faith in
the infants themselves, enough to save them; and that the said
babies are aware of certain secret stirrings of this faith,
albeit they are not yet aware whether they are alive or not. A
hard nut to crack! If this is so very hard, listen to Luther's
remedy. It is better, he says (_Advers. Cochl._), to omit the
baptism; since, unless the infant believes, to no purpose is it
washed. This is what they say, doubtful in mind what absolutely
to affirm. Therefore let Balthasar Pacimontanus step in to sort
the votes. This father of the Anabaptists, unable to assign to
infants any stirring of faith, approved Luther's suggestion;
and, casting infant baptism out of the churches, resolved to
wash at the sacred font none who was not grown up. For the rest
of the Sacraments, though that many headed beast utters many
insults, yet, seeing that they are now of daily occurrence, and
our ears have grown callous to them, I here pass them over.

There remain the sayings of the heretics concerning life and
morals, the noxious goblets which Luther has vomited on his
pages, that out of the filthy hovel of his one breast he might
breathe pestilence upon his readers. Listen patiently, and blush,
and pardon me the recital. If the wife will not, or cannot, let
the handmaid come (_Serm. de matrimon._); seeing that commerce
with a wife is as necessary to every man as food, drink, and
sleep. Matrimony is much more excellent than virginity. Christ
and Paul dissuaded men from virginity (_Liber de vot. evangel._).
But perhaps these doctrines are peculiar to Luther. They are not.
They have been lately defended by my friend Chark but miserably
and timidly. Do you wish to hear any more? Certainly. The more
wicked you, are, he says, the nearer you are to grace (_Serm. de.
pisc. Petri_). All good actions are sins, in God's judgment,
mortal sins; in God's mercy, venial. No one thinks evil of his
own will. The Ten Commandments are nothing to Christians. God
cares nought at all about our works. They alone rightly partake
of the Lord's Supper, who bury consciences sad, afflicted,
troubled, confused, erring. Sins are to be confessed, but to
anyone you like; and if he absolves you even in joke, provided
you believe, you are absolved. To read the Hours of the Divine
Office is not the function of priests, but of laymen. Christians
are free from the enactments of men (Luther, _De servo arbitrio,
De captivilate Babylon_).

I think I have stirred up this puddle sufficiently. I now finish.
Nor must you think me unfair for having turned my argument against
Lutherans and Zwinglians indiscriminately. For, remembering their
common parentage, they wish to be brothers and friends to one
another; and they take it as a grave affront, whenever any
distinction is drawn between them in any point but one. I am not
of consequence enough to claim for myself so much as an
undistinguished place among the select theologians who at this day
have declared war on heresies: but this I know, that, puny as I
am, I run no risk while, supported by the grace of Christ, I shall
do battle, with the aid of heaven and earth, against such
fabrications as these, so odious, so tasteless, so stupid.

NINTH REASON

SOPHISM

It is a shrewd saying that a one-eyed man may be king among the
blind. With uneducated people a mock-proof has force which a
school of philosophers dismisses with scorn. Many are the
offences of the adversary under this head; but his case is made
out by four fallacies chiefly, fallacies which I would rather
unravel in the University than in a popular audience. The first
vice is [Greek: skiamachia], with mighty effort hammering at
breezes and shadows. In this way: against such as have sworn to
celibacy and vowed chastity, because, while marriage is good,
virginity is better (1 Cor. vii.), Scripture texts are brought
up speaking honourably of marriage. Whom do they hit? Against
the merit of a Christian man, a merit dyed in the Blood of
Christ, otherwise null, testimonies are alleged whereby we are
bidden to put our trust neither in nature nor in the law, but in
the Blood of Christ. Whom do they refute? Against those who
worship Saints, as Christ's servants, especially acceptable to
Him, whole pages are quoted, forbidding the worship of many
gods? Where are these many gods? By such arguments, which I find
in endless quantity in the writings of heretics, they cannot
hurt us, they may bore you.

Another vice is [Greek: logomachia], which leaves the sense, and
wrangles loquaciously over the word. _Find me Mass or Purgatory
in the Scriptures_, they say. What then? Trinity, Consubstantial,
Person, are they nowhere in the Bible, because these words are
not found? Allied to this fault is the catching at letters, when,
to the neglect of usage and the mind of the speakers, war is
waged on the letters of the alphabet. For instance, thus they
say: _Presbyter to the Greeks means nothing else than elder;
Sacrament, any mystery_. On this, as on all other points, St.
Thomas shrewdly observes: "In words, we must look not whence they
are derived, but to what meaning they are put."

The third vice is [Greek: homonumia], which has a very wide
range. For example: _What is the meaning of an Order of Priests,
when John has called us all priests?_ (Apoc. v. 10). He has also
added this: _we shall reign upon the earth_. What then is the use
of Kings? Again: _the Prophet_ (Isaias lviii.) _cries up a
spiritual fast, that is, abstinence from inveterate crimes.
Farewell then to any discernment of meats and prescription of
days._ Indeed? Mad therefore were Moses, David, Elias, the
Baptist, the Apostles, who terminated their fasts in two days,
three days, or in so many weeks, which fasting, being from sin,
ought to have been perpetual. You have already seen what manner
of argument this is. I hasten on.

Added to the above is a fourth vice, Vicious Circle, in this way.
Give me the notes, I say, of the Church. _The word of God and
undefiled Sacraments_. Are these with you? _Who can doubt it?_ I
do, I deny it utterly. _Consult the word of God._ I have
consulted it, and I favour you less than before. _Ah, but it is
plain._ Prove it to me. _Because we do not depart a nail's
breadth from the word of God._ Where is your persecution? Will
you always go on taking for an argument the very point that is
called in question? How often have I insisted on this already? Do
wake up: do you want torches applied to you? I say that your
exposition of the word of God is perverse and mistaken: I have
fifteen centuries to bear me witness stand by an opinion, not
mine, nor yours, but that of all these ages. _I will stand by the
sentence of the word of God: the Spirit breatheth where it will_
(John iii. 8). There he is at it again; what circumvolutions,
what wheels he is making! This trifler, this arch-contriver of
words and sophisms, I know not to whom he can be formidable:
tiresome he possibly will be. His tiresomeness will find its
corrective in your sagacity: all that was formidable about him
facts have taken away.

TENTH REASON

ALL MANNER OF WITNESS

_This shall be to you a straight way, so that fools shall not go
astray in it_ (Isaias xxxv. 8).

Who is there, however small and lost in the crowd of
illiterates, that, with a desire of salvation and some little
attention, cannot see, cannot keep to the path of the Church, so
admirably smoothed out, eschewing brambles and rocks and
pathless wastes! For, as Isaias prophesies, this path shall be
plain even to the uneducated; most plain therefore, if you
choose, to you. Let us put before our eyes the theatre of the
universe: let us wander everywhere: all things supply us with an
argument. Let us go to heaven: let us contemplate roses and
lilies, Saints empurpled with martyrdom or white with innocence:
Roman Pontiffs, I say, three and thirty in a continuous line put
to death: Pastors all the world over, who have pledged their
blood for the name of Christ: Flocks of faithful, who have
followed in the footsteps of their Pastors: all the Saints of
heaven, who as shining lights in purity and holiness have gone
before the crowd of mankind. You will find that these were ours
when they lived on earth, ours when they passed away from this
world. To cull a few instances, ours was that Ignatius, who in
church matters put no one not even the Emperor, on a level with
the Bishop; who committed to writing, that they might not be
lost, certain Apostolic traditions of which he himself had been
witness. Ours was that anchoret Telesphorus, who ordered the
more strict observance of the fast of Lent established by the
Apostles. Ours was Irenaeus, who declared the Apostolic faith by
the Roman succession and chair (lib. iii. cap. 3). Ours was Pope
Victor, who by an edict brought to order the whole of Asia; and
though this proceeding seemed to some minds, and even to that
holy man Irenaeus, somewhat harsh, yet no one made light of it
as coming from a foreign power. Ours was Polycarp, who went to
Rome on the question of Easter, whose burnt relics Smyrna
gathered, and honoured her Bishop with an anniversary feast and
appointed ceremony. Ours were Cornelius and Cyprian, a golden
pair of Martyrs, both great Bishops, but greater he, the Roman,
who had rescinded the African error; while the latter was
ennobled by the obedience which he paid to the elder, his very
dear friend. Ours was Sixtus, to whom, as he offered solemn
sacrifice at the altar, seven men of the clergy ministered. Ours
was his Archdeacon Lawrence, whom the adversaries cast out of
their calendar, to whom, twelve hundred years ago, the Consular
man Prudentius thus prayed:

   What is the power entrusted thee,
   And how great function is given thee,
   The joyful thanks of Roman citizens prove,
   To whom thou grantest their petitions.
   Among them, O glory of Christ,
   Hear also a rustic poet,
   Confessing the crimes of his heart
   And publishing his doings.
   Hear bountifully the supplication
   Of Christ's culprit Prudentius.

Ours are those highly-blest maids, Cecily, Agatha, Anastasia,
Barbara, Agnes, Lucy, Dorothy, Catherine, who held fast against
the violent assault of men and devils the virginity they had
resolved upon. Ours was Helen, celebrated for the finding of the
Lord's Cross. Ours was Monica, who in death most piously begged
prayers and sacrifices to be offered for her at the altar of
Christ. Ours was Paula, who, leaving her City palace and her rich
estates, hastened on a long journey a pilgrim to the cave at
Bethlehem, to hide herself by the cradle of the Infant Christ.
Ours were Paul, Hilarion, Antony, those dear ancient solitaries.
Ours was Satyrus, own brother to Ambrose, who, when shipwrecked,
jumped into the ocean, carrying about his neck in a napkin the
Sacred Host, and full of faith swam to shore (_Ambrose, Orat.
fun. de Satyro_).

Ours are the Bishops Martin and Nicholas, exercised in watchings,
clad in the military garb of hair cloths, fed with fasts. Ours is
Benedict, father of so many monks. I should not run through their
thousands in ten years. But neither do I set down those whom I
mentioned before among the Doctors of the Church. I am mindful of
the brevity imposed upon me. Whoever wills, may seek these
further details, not only from the copious histories of the
ancients, but even much more from the grave authors who have
bequeathed to memory almost one man one Saint. Let the reader
report to me his judgment concerning those ancient blessed
Christians, to what doctrine they adhered, the Catholic or the
Lutheran. I call to witness the throne of God, and that Tribunal
at which I shall stand to render reason for these Reasons, of
everything I have said and done, that either there is no heaven
at all, or heaven belongs to our people. The former position we
abhor, we fix therefore upon the latter.

Now contrariwise, if you please, let us look into hell. There are
burnt with everlasting fire, who? The Jews. On what Church have
they turned their backs? On ours. Who again? The heathen. What
Church have they most cruelly persecuted? Ours. Who again? The
Turks. What temples have they destroyed? Ours. Who once more?
Heretics. Against what Church are they in rebellion? Against
ours. What Church but ours has opposed itself against all the
gates of hell? When, after the driving away of the Hebrews,
Christian inhabitants began to multiply at Jerusalem, what a
concourse of men there was to the Holy Places, what veneration
attached to the City, to the Sepulchre, to the Manger, to the
Cross, to all the memorials in which the Church delights as a
wife in what has been worn by her husband. Hence arose against us
the hatred of the Jews, cruel and implacable. Even now they
complain that our ancestors were the ruin of their ancestors.
From Simon Magus and the Lutherans they have received no wound.
Among the heathen, they were the most violent who, throughout the
Roman Empire, for three hundred years, at intervals of time,
contrived most painful punishments for Christians. What
Christians? The fathers and children of our faith. Learn the
language of the tyrant who roasted St. Lawrence on the gridiron:

   That this is of your rites
   The custom and practice, it has been handed down to memory:
   This the discipline of the institution,
   That priests pour libations from golden cups.
   In silver goblets they say
   That the sacred blood smokes;
   And that in golden candlestick, at the nightly sacrifices,
   There stand fixed waxen candles.
   Then is it the chief care of the brethren,
   As many-tongued report does testify,
   To offer from the sale of estates,
   Thousands of pence.
   Ancestral property made over
   To dishonest auctions,
   The disinherited successor groans,
   Needy child of holy parents.
   These treasures are concealed in secret,
   In corners of the churches;
   And it is believed the height of piety
   To strip your sweet children.
   Bring out your treasures,
   Which by evil arts of persuasion
   You have heaped up and hold,
   Which you shut up in darkling cave.
   Public utility demands this,
   The privy purse demands it, the treasury demands it,
   That the soldiers may be paid for their services,
   And the commander may benefit thereby.
   This is your dogma, then:
   Give every man his own.
   Now Caesar recognises his own
   Image, stamped on the coin.
   What you know to be Caesar's, to Caesar
   Give; surely what I ask is just.
   If I am not mistaken, your Deity
   Coins no money,
   Nor when he came did he bring
   Golden Jacobuses[3] with him;
   But he gave his precepts in words,
   Empty in point of pocket.
   Fulfil the promise of the words
   Which you sell the round world over.
   Give up your hard cash willingly,
   Be rich in words.

(_Prudentius, Hymn on St. Lawrence_).

Whom does this speaker resemble. Against whom does he rage? What
Church is it whose sacred vessels, lamps, and ornaments he is
pillaging, whose ritual he overthrows? Whose golden patens and
silver chalices, sumptuous votive offerings and rich treasure,
does he envy? Why, the man is a Lutheran all over. With what
other cloak did our Nimrods[4] cover their brigandage, when they
embezzled the money of their Churches and wasted the patrimony of
Christ? Take on the contrary Constantine the Great, that scourge
of the persecutors of Christ, to what Church did he restore
tranquillity? To that Church over which Pope Silvester presided,
whom he summoned from his hiding-place on Mount Soracte that by
his ministry he might receive our baptism. Under what auspices
was he victorious? Under the sign of the cross. Of what mother
was he the glorious son? Of Helen. To what Fathers did he attach
himself? To the Fathers of Nice. What manner of men were they?
Such men as Silvester, Mark, Julius, Athanasius, Nicholas. What
seat did he ask for in the Synod? The last. Oh how much more
kingly was he on that seat than the Kings who have ambitioned a
title not due to them! It would be tedious to go into further
details. But from these two [Emperors, Decius and Constantine],
the one our deadly enemy, the other our warm friend, it may be
left to the reader's conjecture to fix on points of closest
resemblance to the one and to the other in the history of our own
times. For as it was our cause that went through its agony under
Decius, so our cause it was that came out triumphant under
Constantine.[5]

Let us look at the doings of the Turks. Mahomet and the apostate
monk Sergius lie in the deep abyss, howling, laden with their own
crimes and with those of their posterity. This portentous and
savage monster, the power of the Saracens and the Turks, had it
not been clipped and checked by our Military Orders, our Princes
and Peoples,--so far as Luther was concerned (to whom Solyman the
Turk is said to have written a letter of thanks on this account),
and so far as the Lutheran Princes were concerned (by whom the
progress of the Turks is reckoned matter of joy),--this frantic
and man-destroying Fury, I say, by this time would be
depopulating and devastating all Europe, overturning altars and
signs of the cross as zealously as Calvin himself. Ours therefore
they are, our proper foes, seeing that by the industry of our
champions it was that their fangs were unfastened from the
throats of Christians.

Let us look down on heretics, the filth and fans and fuel of
hell[6] the first that meets our gaze is Simon Magus. What did he
do? He endeavoured to snatch away free will from man: he prated
of faith alone (Clen. lib. i. recog.; Iren. l. 1, c. 2). After
him, Novatian. Who was he? An Anti-pope, rival to the Roman
Pontiff Cornelius, an enemy of the Sacraments, of Penance and
Chrism. Then Manes the Persian. He taught that baptism did not
confer salvation. After him the Arian Aerius. He condemned
prayers for the dead: he confounded priests with bishops, and was
surnamed "the atheist" no less than Lucian. There follows
Vigilantius, who would not have the Saints prayed to; and
Jovinian, who put marriage on a level with virginity; finally, a
whole mess of nastiness, Macedonius, Pelagius, Nestorius,
Eutyches, the Monothelites, the Iconoclasts, to whom posterity
will aggregate Luther and Calvin. What of them? All black
crows,[7] born of the same egg, they revolted from the Prelates
of our Church, and by, them were rejected and made void.

Let us leave the lower regions and return to earth. Wherever I
cast my eyes and turn my thoughts, whether I regard the
Patriarchates and the Apostolic Sees, or the Bishops of other
lands, or meritorious Princes, Kings, and Emperors, or the origin
of Christianity in any nation, or any evidence of antiquity, or
light of reason, or beauty of virtue, all things serve and
support our faith. I call to witness the Roman Succession, _in
which Church_, to speak with Augustine (_Ep_. 162: _Doctr.
Christ_. ii. 8), _the Primacy of the Apostolic Chair has ever
flourished_. I call to witness those other Apostolic Sees, to
which this name eminently belongs, because they were erected by
the Apostles themselves, or by their immediate disciples. I call
to witness the Pastors of the nations, separate in place, but
united in our religion: Ignatius and Chrysostom at Antioch;
Peter, Alexander, Athanasius, Theophilus, at Alexandria; Macarius
and Cyril at Jerusalem; Proclus at Constantinople; Gregory and
Basil in Cappadocia; Thaumaturgus in Pontus; at Smyrna Polycarp;
Justin at Athens; Dionysius at Corinth; Gregory at Nyssa;
Methodius at Tyre; Ephrem in Syria; Cyprian, Optatus, Augustine,
in Africa; Epiphanius in Cyprus; Andrew in Crete; Ambrose,
Paulinus, Gaudentius, Prosper, Faustus, Vigilius, in Italy;
Irenaeus, Martin, Hilary, Eucherius, Gregory, Salvianus, in Gaul;
Vincentus, Orosius, Ildephonsus, Leander, Isidore, in Spain; in
Britain, Fugatius, Damian, Justus, Mellitus, Bede. Finally, not
to appear to be making a vain display of names, whatever works,
or fragments of works, are still extant of those who sowed the
Gospel seed in distant lands, all exhibit to us one faith, that
which we Catholics profess to-day. O Christ, what cause can I
allege to Thee why Thou shouldst not banish me from Thine own, if
to so many lights of the Church I should have preferred
mannikins, dwellers in darkness, few, unlearned, split into
sects, and of bad moral character!

I call to witness likewise Princes, Kings, Emperors, and their
Commonwealths, whose own piety, and the people of their realms,
and their established discipline in war and peace, were
altogether founded on this our Catholic doctrine. What
Theodosiuses here might I summon from the East, what Charleses
from the West, what Edwards from England, what Louises from
France, what Hermenegilds from Spain, Henries from Saxony,
Wenceslauses from Bohemia, Leopolds from Austria, Stephens from
Hungary, Josaphats from India, Dukes and Counts from all the
world over, who by example, by arms, by laws, by loving care, by
outlay of money, have nourished our Church! For so Isaias
foretold: _Kings shall be thy foster-fathers, and queens thy
nurses_ (Isaias xlix. 23).

Listen, Elizabeth, most powerful Queen, for thee this great
prophet utters this prophecy, and therein teaches thee thy part. I
tell thee: one and the same heaven cannot hold Calvin and the
Princes whom I have named. With these Princes then associate
thyself, and so make thee worthy of thy ancestors, worthy of thy
genius, worthy of thy excellence in letters, worthy of thy
praises, worthy of thy fortune. To this effect alone do I labour
about thy person, and will labour, whatever shall become of me,
for whom these adversaries so often augur the gallows, as though I
were an enemy of thy life. Hail, good Cross. There will come,
Elizabeth, the day, that day which will show thee clearly which
have loved thee, the Society of Jesus or the offspring of Luther.

I proceed. I call to witness all the coasts and regions of the
world, to which the Gospel trumpet has sounded since the birth of
Christ. Was this a little thing, to close the mouth of idols and
carry the kingdom of God to the nations? Of Christ Luther speaks:
we Catholics speak of Christ. _Is Christ divided?_ (1 Cor. i.
13). By no means. Either we speak of a false Christ or he does.
What then? I will say. Let Him be Christ, and belong to them, at
whose coming in Dagon broke his neck. Our Christ was pleased to
use the services of our men, when He banished from the hearts of
so many peoples--Jupiters, Mercuries, Dianas, Phoebades, and that
black night and sad Erebus of ages. There is no leisure to search
afar off, let us examine only neighbouring and domestic history.
The Irish imbibed from Patrick, the Scots from Palladius, the
English from Augustine, men consecrated at Rome, sent from Rome,
venerating Rome, either no faith at all or assuredly our faith,
the Catholic faith. The case is clear. I hurry on.

Witness Universities, witness tables of laws, witness the
domestic habits of men, witness the election and inauguration of
Emperors, witness the coronation rites and anointing of Kings,
witness the Orders of Knighthood and their very mantles, witness
windows, witness coins, witness city gates and city houses,
witness the labours and life of our ancestors, witness all things
great and small, that no religion in the world but ours ever took
deep root there.

These considerations being at hand to me, and so affecting me as
I thought them over that it seemed the part of insolence, nay of
insanity, to renounce all this Christian company and consort
with the most abandoned of men, I confess, I felt animated and
fired to the conflict, a conflict wherein I can never be worsted
until it comes to the Saints being hurled from heaven and the
proud Lucifer recovering heaven. Therefore let Chark, who
reviles me so outrageously, be in better conceit with me, if I
have preferred to trust this poor sinful soul of mine, which
Christ has bought so dearly, rather to a safe way, a sure way, a
royal road, than to Calvin's rocks or woodland thickets, there
to hang caught in uncertainty.

CONCLUSION

You have from me, Gentlemen of the University, this little
present, put together by the labour of such leisure as I could
snatch on the road. My purpose was to clear myself in your
judgment of the charge of arrogance, and to show just cause for
my confidence, and meanwhile, until such time as along with me
you are invited by the adversaries to the disputations in the
Schools, to give you a sort of foretaste of what is to come
there. If you think it a just, safe, and virtuous choice for
Luther or Calvin to be taken for the Canon of Scripture, the Mind
of the Holy Ghost, the Standard of the Church, the Pedagogue of
Councils and Fathers, in short, the God of all witnesses and
ages, I have nothing to hope of your reading or hearing me. But
if you are such as I have pictured you in my mind, philosophers,
keen-sighted, lovers of the truth, of simplicity, of modesty,
enemies of temerity, of trifles and sophisms, you will easily see
daylight in the open air, seeing that you already see the peep of
day through a narrow chink. I will say freely what my love of
you, and your danger, and the importance of the matter requires.
The devil is not unaware that you will see this light of day, if
ever you raise your eyes to it. For what a piece of stupidity it
would be to prefer Hanmers and Charks to Christian antiquity! But
there are certain Lutheran enticements whereby the devil extends
his kingdom, delicate snares whereby that hooker of men has
caught with his baits already many of your rank and station. What
are they! Gold, glory, pleasures, lusts. Despise them. What are
they but bowels of earth, high-sounding air, a banquet of worms,
fair dunghills. Scorn them. Christ is rich, who will maintain
you: He is a King, who will provide you: He is a sumptuous
entertainer, who will feast you; He is beautiful, who will give
in abundance all that can make you happy. Enrol yourselves in His
service, that with Him you may gain triumphs, and show yourselves
men truly most learned, truly most illustrious. Farewell. At
Cosmopolis, City of all the world, 1581.

THE END.

[Footnote 1: Cf. Newman, _Lectures on Anglican Difficulties_,
Lect. xii.: "I say, then, the writings of the Fathers, so far
from prejudicing at least one man (J.H.N.) against the modern
Church, have been singly and solely the one intellectual cause of
his having renounced the religion in which he was born and
submitted himself to her."]

[Footnote 2: Richard Cheyne, Anglican bishop of Gloucester, to whom
there is extant a letter from Campion, dated 1 November, 1571.]

[Footnote 3: The Latin is Philippos.]

[Footnote 4: Seems to refer to the first Protestant bishops,
_mighty hunters_ (Genesis x. 9) after place, and, to secure it, all
too ready to alienate the manors and possessions of their see.]

[Footnote 5: I have here paraphrased, as any literal translation
would have been hopelessly obscure to most modern readers.
Campion could but hint darkly his comparison of the Elizabethan
persecution to the Decian. The Latin runs: _Etenim, ut nostrorum
illa fuit Epistasis turbulenta, sic nostrorum haec evasit divina
Catastrophe_. _Epistasis_ is "the part of the play where the
plot thickens" (Liddell and Scott). _Catastrophe_ is "the turn
of the plot" (Id.).]

[Footnote 6: _Faeces et folles et alumenta gehennae_.]

[Footnote 7: _Mali corvi_.]