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"the Church is not so hasty as to determine authorita- CHAP. "tively them to be true."

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1399.

16. As our Bishop thus pleaded for men's use of their reason and judgment in matters of religion, and their searching and examining the truth of what was determined by the Clergy; so he affirmed, that "the Clergy P. 3. "shall be condemned at the last day, if by clear wit they "draw not men into consent of true faith, otherwise than "by fire, or sword, or hanging." This was an usage to recover Dissenters, which had not been long introduced into the English Church. But King Henry IV. being afraid of breaking with the Pope, and desirous to ingratiate himself with his angry Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Arundel, who was violently set against the poor Wiclifists, instructed his ministers, the Earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland, whom he sent to the Con- October 6, vocation, which met in the first year of his reign, to d certify to or assure them, that the King would to the utmost of his power destroy all heresies and heretics. Accordingly, to be as good as his word, in the next parliament it A. D. 1400. was enacted, that any one who preached or wrote contrary to the catholic faith, or determination of the holy Church, should be arrested by the diocesan, and proceeded against according to the canons, and being convict should be kept in prison, and fined at the diocesan's discretion; and if he refused to abjure, or relapsed after abjuration, he should be delivered to the secular arm, and by the Sheriff ordered to be burnt before the people in some high place, that such punishment might strike in fear to the minds of others. This was so much shorter a way with the Dissenters than conferring with them, and by plain sense and argument manifesting the truth to their consciences, that after this law no other method seems to have been much thought of, to stop the mouths of sup

Certificare eisdem Dominis Prelatis et Clero, quod ipse Dominus noster Rex omnes libertates Ecclesiæ sustineret, nec non hereses et hereticos destrueret juxta posse. E Collect. D. White, Episcopi Petroburg.

V.

CHAP. posed heretics, and satisfy their doubts and scruples. Insomuch that the learned Andrew Ammon, in the beginA. D. 1511. ning of the next century, wrote to his friend Erasmus, then at Cambridge, that the price of wood was considerably advanced about London, by the daily burnt sacrifices which the heretics afforded in Smithfield. Accordingly we may observe even our Bishop himself, notwithstanding his insisting on the kind treatment of Dissenters, and the endeavouring to reclaim them by argument and persuasion, yet owns, that he will not deny these second means of fire, or sword, or hanging to be lawful, provided the former means be first used. So cautious was the Bishop of offending the Clergy then living.

17. Our Bishop likewise shewed his dislike of a thing being called catholic, because it is orthodox. It seems to have been an opinion entertained by some in our Bishop's time, that the Holy Ghost imposed this name catholic of the New upon the believers, which in all points were obedient to Testament, the Church's doctrine; and that this word catholic is the p. 324. edit. 1582. 4°. proper note, whereby the holy Apostles in their Creed

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taught us to discern the true Church from the false heretical congregation of what sort soever. In opposition to Treatise of this our Bishop observed, that "all true faith, though it Faith, p.31.❝ be particular, ought to be called orthodox ;" but that it was a contradiction in terms to style each faith, or every particular faith, catholic or general faith. As to the word orthodox, he derived it from opeòs, right or true, and dóza, glory, as much as to say right glory, or the thing which is worthy right or true glory. Which shews how little Greek was then understood.

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18. Further, our Bishop approved of the Council of Nice's ordaining, that those Priests who had wives should not leave them and be divorced from them, since the Apostle Paul allowed Priests to marry. "This deede," says he, "a Prest for to freli take and chese of alle mai"dens to him a wiif, (so that he wedde not eftsoone if his "first wiif die him lyvyng,) and for to bigete children, and

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"for to have meyne, and holde house, and for to nurische CHAP. "and bringe up hise children, and for to reule his wiif, 66 meyne, and children, and for to purveie for hem, was al"lowed of Poul, and bi liik skile of the othere Apostils, as " is open of Paul bi what is writtun, 1 Cor. vii. c."

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19. His Lordship likewise granted, that the Apostles established no distinction of meats and drinks, or did not appoint fish to be eaten at some times and seasons, and flesh at others. "Whatever deede," says he, "eny Apostle 66 or his writing allowith to be in a Prestis moral conver"satioun, thilke same dede is not agens resoun to be in "the same Prestis moral conversatioun; for ellis the "Apostle and his writinge schulde reule agens resoun, "which is not to be grauntid. But so it is, that this "deede a Prest and ech other Cristen man, for to frely receyve, take, and uce alle maner of metis, and alle "maner of drinkis, into his sufficiencie with thankingis to "God, holi Writ weel alowith, as it is open, 1 Tim. iv. cap." His Lordship also allowed, that f" over greet "multitude of mennys posytive lawis oughten not to be "maad; but Prelatis and Princis ougten to be *weel Well waar, that over manye positive lawis be not goven to "her peplis. For," says he, "sotheli therof comuth causeli “nedis ful myche yvel, more than y see men considere it "so to come; of which yvells y desyre in my herte for to "have leiser and space to write my conseite." But then he added by way of caution, that "to holde that it is un"leeful or unexpedient for eny suche posytyve lawis to be "maad and be goven to the peple, was fer fro his witt "and his resoun."

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e De ciborum generibus dixit Dominus Jesus: Quod intrat in os, non coinquinat hominem. Et Paulus a præceptore non dissentiens, Regnum, inquit, Dei non est esca et potus. Cæterum in ciborum delectu quanto nostrorum onus videtur durius quam illorum (Judæorum.) Erasmi Epist. lib. xxxi. 43.

f Sunt in quibus boni et cordati omnes doleant Christi gregem nimium involvi Judaicis ceremoniis, et opprimi vel autoritate vel indiligentia procerum quorundam ecclesiasticorum; qua de re queritur et Augustinus in epistolis suis, clamitans Judæorum conditionem tolerabiliorem esse propemodum, quam Christianorum. Ep. 43.

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20. Lastly, our Bishop styled Christ the head of the Church, which is founded on earth; which Church, he said, is always and at all times one and the same, or cannot fail. But then, as I have shewn at large before, he asserted the Papal supremacy, which was then at its height, and said all he could in defence of it against the objections of the Wiclifists.

CHAP. VI.

Of the Bishop's Friends and Followers.

1. THE main thing for which our Bishop was condemned was, as I have shewn, his disputing against or denying what Waldensis, a contemporary of our Bishop's, called the arrogance of some writers, viz. that the decrees Doct. Fid. Antiq. tom. of Bishops in the Church are of greater weight, authority, ii. lib. 2. c. and dignity, than is the authority of the Scriptures: or, 20. in other words, that the authority of the Church or Clergy is infallible. Thus, it is plain, they who condemned our Bishop maintained, that it is necessary to salvation to believe and hold, that what a general council and the universal Church doth appoint, approve, or determine, in favour of the faith, and for the salvation of souls, is to be approved and holden by all the faithful of Christ; as on the contrary, that what a general council disapproves of, determines, or condemns to be contrary to the catholic faith or good manners, is to be believed and holden by the same, for a thing reprobate, and condemned. But these high and extravagant principles, espoused by men who had more heat than light, were directly contrary to the judgment and opinion of the most sober and learned writers even of that age; however our Bishop was so unhappy as to be condemned for opposing them, by the hasty sentence of two or three partial Bishops. It has been shewn at large, that even then it was generally agreed, "that Mr. Whar"the representative Church, or general councils, were not face to Bp. only fallible, but had sometimes actually erred; that the Pecock's "decrees and definitions of the Church ought to be sub"mitted to the examination of every private Christian; Faith. "that no article of faith was to be received which was re

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pugnant to the principles of reason; and that not the "belief and acceptation of the Church caused any doctrine "to be accounted true, and an article of faith, but the

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