IV. CHAP. we are told, with marks of indignation, (as commonly where is the least knowledge there is the most zeal,) corrected the Bishop in the following manner: "God," says he," wills you to suffer these great reproaches, because 66 you have very unworthily found fault with and denied "the words of St. Jerome and St. Austin, and the opinions "of the Doctor and holy Pope Gregory to be true, as like"wise the works of the other saints." To which insult our Bishop is said to have made this mean reply: “I re"pent that I have so written, for I was not sufficiently 66 knowing in these matters." An answer by no means consistent with the exceptions made by his Lordship to the capacity of his examiners, and the defence he made of his writings. Acta Johan. MS. 27. A good deal of time having been spent in the exastede, &c. mination of the Bishop's opinions, touching Christ's descent into hell, the authority of the universal Church, the power of councils, the sense and understanding of the holy Scriptures, and other various things, and in the Bishop's answers, and the replications made to them; the Archbishop is said at last to have spoken to the Bishop to this effect: "Dear brother, Master Reynold, since as all heretics "are so blind in the light of their understanding, that al"though they know they may conclude better, yet are "wont, having once concluded, obstinately to contradict "and oppose those who would reclaim them; we will not " contend much nor earnestly with you, because we know you abound more in talk than in reasoning. We will "however shew you briefly, and declare to you in short, "how in the foresaid articles you presume plainly to go "against the sayings of the more authentic Doctors. For 66 as to the article of Christ's descent into hell, the Ta 66 notwithstanding, as appears by the register of the church of Canterbury, licentiam obtinet consecrationis extra ecclesiam Cant. penult. Novem. 1458, two years before that time. A fit person to chastise and insult our ancient and learned Bishop. z Doctor Tarentinus, who he was I am not sure. John Archbishop of Ta 66 IV. "rentum Doctor says, in a certain question of his con- CHAP. "cerning the three Creeds, that the said article was left "out of the Nicene Creed, and that of the holy man Atha"nasius; because in those times no heresy was risen "against it, nor was it usual to make any great question of "it. As to the article of the authority of the universal "Church, the Doctor Augustine says, in his Epistle contra "Fundamentum, that so great is its authority, that he "should by no means believe the holy Gospel of Christ, "unless it was approved by the authority of the Church. "As to the power of Councils, the Doctor Gregory says, "(and his saying is decreed in the canon distinct. 15.) as "those four sacred Councils, viz. the Nicene, Constantinopolitan, Ephesine, and Chalcedonian, are not of less “honour or reverence than the books of the holy Gospel, " he would have them embraced and kept with no less de❝votion, or inferior approbation; because, as he asserts, 66 on them, as on a squared or corner stone, the structure "of holy faith is erected, and all the rule of life and good "conversation depends. The rest of the Doctors do also "all of them unanimously say, that though the sacred "Councils may err in matters of fact, they cannot yet be "mistaken in matters of faith; because in every general "Council, where two or three are gathered together in the 66 name of Christ, there forthwith is that good Spirit pre"sent among them, who does not suffer them to err from "the faith, or stray from the way of truth. As to the "sense and understanding of the holy Scripture, the Doc"tor Jerome says, that whosoever understands, expounds, 66 or clears it otherwise than the sense of the Holy Spirit "requires, by whose finger it was written, it is plain, that "he is to be taken for an heretic. The Lincoln Doctor Bp. Grost"also agrees with him, writing to the purpose, and saying "after this manner: Whosoever invents or devises any rentum flourished in 1432, and was in the Councils of Basil and Ferrara, on which occasion perhaps he might discourse on the question concerning the three Creeds. Cave's Hist. Liter. App. p. 108. head. CHAP. Ep. 62. ad Theophilum, &c. Com. in Hoseam, cap. xi. ver. 1. opinion contrary to the holy Scripture, if he publickly "teach it, and obstinately defend it, he is to be accounted "an heretic. Wherefore, Master, seeing you are convicted "of not only holding what is contrary to the sayings of "all these Doctors, but moreover to be a contradicter of "them; it behoves us, according to the doctrine of the "said Doctor Jerome, to cut you off from the body of "the universal Church, as rotten flesh, and to drive you "from the fold as a scabbed sheep, that you may not have "it in your power to corrupt or infect the whole flock. "Choose therefore for yourself one of these two things; "whether you had rather recede from your errors, and "make a public abjuration, and so, for the future, agree "with the rest of Christ's faithful ones in your opinions; "or whether you will incur the penalty of the canons, and "not only suffer the reproach of degradation, but also moreover be delivered over to the power of the secular "arm, that because you have attempted by force to plun"der the treasury of faith, you may become, according to "the saying of the prophet, as well the fuel of the fire, "as the food of the burning. Of these two choose one for 66 yourself, for this is the immediate division in the coer❝tion of heretics." 66 28. In this speech of the Archbishop's it is observable, 1. That his Grace says not one word of the article wherewith the Bishop was now charged, viz. that it is not neces a Igitur scintilla statim ut apparuerit extinguenda est, et fermentum a massæ vicinia semovendum; secandæ putridæ carnes, et scabiosum animal a caulis ovium repellendum, ne tota domus, massa, corpus, et pecora, ardeat, corrumpatur, putrescat, intereant, &c. Comm. in Epist. ad Galatas, cap. v. ver. 9. And yet this same father could elsewhere observe, that the Church of Christ is founded by shedding of blood, and by suffering reproaches, rather than by being the author of them, that it grew by persecutions, and is crowned with martyrdoms. Accordingly in explaining the parable of the tares he notes on those words, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them; that "we are taught or advised by them, not soon to lop off a brother, because "it may be, that he who to-day is corrupted with an hurtful opinion, may to"morrow repent, and be an advocate for the truth." To the same purpose elsewhere, we are taught, saith he, never to despair of heretics, but to persuade "them to repentance, and to desire their salvation with a brotherly affection." IV. land's Criti nasian sary to salvation to believe in the Holy Ghost; which looks CHAP, as if his Grace thought his Lordship falsely accused of holding that conclusion. 2. The Archbishop owns, that the article of Christ's descent into hell was not in the Nicene nor Athanasian Creeds; which latter has been guessed to have Dr. Waterbeen composed between the year 426 and the year 430. cal History A copy of this Creed, without this article, is given us by of the Athathat prodigy of learning Archbishop Usher. It seems as if Creed, p. our Bishop had, in defence of his saying that this was an 116. article not necessary to be believed in order to salvation, urged, that this article was not in the Nicene or Athanasian Creed, as we know he pleaded in those writings which we have of his, that it was not in the common Creed, or that which is called the Roman or Apostles. To this the Archbishop here replies, that the Tarentum Doctor had given this reason for the said article being left out of those Creeds, that, "when they were drawn up, no heresy was risen 66 against it." But if the account we have of the reason of the addition of these words, viz. that it was occasioned by the heresy of Apollinarius the younger, Bishop of Lao- Critical dicea, which was condemned at Alexandria, and the Bi- History of the Aposhop himself anathematized as an heretic at Constantino- stles' Creed, ple, A. D. 381; and, that this article was first inserted in P. 246, 248. any public Creed about the year 400; this can never be the reason of its omission in the Athanasian Creed, which was not made till near thirty years after the insertion of this article in the common Creed, and almost fifty years after the dispute which occasioned this addition to be made. 29. The Archbishop's quotation from St. Austin is a trite August. c. argument, used by those of the Romish Church, for the authority of the Clergy, to prove that they are of more credit than is any Gospel; Dr. Wiclif mentions it as used Wiclif's in his time, and other of the Popish writers have produced Life, p. 154, it since. But Tho. Walden, a cotemporary of our Bishop, Wharton's and Confessor to King Henry, gives the following answer Preface to Bp.Pecock's to this famous passage of this celebrated Father of the Treatise of Western Church. "I do not," says he, "approve the arroFaith, p. 23, gance of some writers, who upon occasion of this place 66 261. ep. fund. 155. 24. IV. 66 66 CHAP. "maintain the decrees of Bishops in the Church to "be of greater weight, authority, and dignity, than is "the authority of the Scriptures; which seemeth not so "foolish, as mad. Unless such an one would say Philip was greater than Christ, when he induced Nathaniel "to believe that Christ was he of whom Moses wrote in "the Law and the Prophets, although without his autho"rity (or admonition) he would not at that time have per"ceived it.—All ecclesiastical authority, since it serveth "only to bear testimony of Christ and his laws, is of less dignity than the laws of Christ, and must necessarily "submit to the holy Scriptures. Well therefore did St. "Thomas (Aquinas) allegorize, when he introduced the "Samaritan woman to represent the universal Church; "which woman when the citizens of Samaria heard preaching Christ, they were induced to believe on him, "&c." "This passage (as Mr. Wharton observes) clearly 66 represents to us the opinion of Walden to have been, "that by the attestation of the Church the divine autho"rity of the Scripture is known; which being once known, "all matters of belief and articles of faith are to be learned "from the Scripture: just as Philip induced Nathaniel, and "the Samaritan woman her neighbours, to believe Christ “to be a divine person; of the truth of which when once "satisfied, they learned not the rules of life, or articles of 66 faith, from Philip or the woman, but received both from "Christ himself." But to such extravagances were the Popes now running things, that in the decrees it is insinuated, that not only b the discipline of the holy canons, but the ancient institution of the Christian religion, is rather to be had from their mouths, than from the sacred pages, and the traditions of their fathers; that Christians ↳ Et revera tanta reverentia apicem præfatæ apostolicæ sedis omnes suspiciunt, ut nonnullam sanctorum canonum disciplinam, et antiquam Christianæ religionis institutionem magis ab ore præcessoris ejus, quam a sacris paginis, et paternis traditionibus expectant: illius velle, illius nolle, tantum explorant, ut ad ejus arbitrium suam conversationem et ipsi remittant, aut intendant. Decreti prima pars, dist. 40. c. 6. |