Pope of Rome. 7. That we despise the authority: of the primitive fathers and ancient councils; that we have imprudently and insolently abrogated the ancient ceremonies, which have been approved for many ages by our fathers and grandfathers, who had better manners, and lived in better times; and that by our own private authority, without the consent of a holy and general council, we have introduced new rites into the church; and that we have not done this for the sake of religion, but purely out of a contentious humour; that they, on the contrary, have changed nothing, but have retained all things as they were delivered to them by the apostles, approved by the most ancient fathers, and have been. kept ever since through all the intermediate ages to this day.

6. And, lest all this might seem to be only a calumny, and that managed by secret whispers: only, with design to excite an envy against us, the Popes of Rome have suborned eloquent and not unlearned men to undertake the defence of this de-. sperate cause, and to represent it to the world in books and long discourses, in the best colours it was pos→ sible to give it, to the intent, that, being elegantly and copiously pleaded, unskilful men might suspect there was something more than ordinary in it; for indeed they saw that their cause was every where in' a declining condition; their arts were now seen through, and so were the less esteemed; their fortresses were every day undermined, and their case stood in need of a powerful patronage and defence. But then as to those things, which they have charged us with, some of them are manifestly false, and condemned by the consciences of them that object them against us; others, though in the bottom they: are false too, yet they have the show and similitude of truth, so that an incautious and an unthinking.

reader may (especially if he be surprised by any of their laboured and elegant discourses) be easily circumvented and deceived; and others of the things thus charged upon us, are such as we ought to acknowledge and profess, and not decline the owning them, as if they were crimes, but defend them, as things that were well and rationally done. For, to speak in a word, they slander whatever we do, even those actions of ours, which themselves cannot deny to be rightly and well done, and maliciously deprave and pervert all our words and actions, as if it were not possible we should do or speak any thing as we ought. They ought indeed to treat us with more simplicity and candour, if they designed truth; but, on the other hand, they do not oppose us with truth, nor in a Christian way or manner, but with lies in a close and crafty way, and abuse the blindness and ignorance of the rabble, and the want of learning in. princes, to the inflaming their hatred against us, and, the oppression of the truth. This is indeed the power of darkness, and the folly of men, who trust more to the stupidity and benighted minds of the unpolished multitude than in the light of truth; or, as St. Jerome expresseth it, This is to contradict with shut eyes the truth when it is most perspicuous. But we bless the great and holy God, our cause is such, that though they never so much desire to defame it, yet they can fix no reproach upon it, which they may not with as much reason and justice employ against the holy fathers, the prophets, the, apostles, against St. Peter, St. Paul, and even against Christ himself.

7. But now, if they are so ambitious of the honour of being thought polite and eloquent slanderers, it does so much the less befit us to be mute and careless in the defence of our most excellent cause; for it is certainly the part only of dissolute men, who can securely and wickedly shut their eyes hen the Divine Majesty is injured, to be wholly

unconcerned; what is (though falsely and unjustly) said of them and their cause, especially when it is of that nature, that the glory of God, and the affairs of religion, are at the same time violated; for although other, and those often very great, injuries may be borne and dissembled by a modest Christian, yet he (saith Ruffinus) who shall patiently put up with the name of an heretic, does not deserve to be called a Christian. Permit us then to do that which all laws, and the very voice of nature, command us; that which Christ himself did when he was in a like case assaulted with reproaches; that is, suffer us to repel their defamations, and with modesty and truth to defend our cause and innocence; for Christ himself, when the Pharisees charged him with conjuration, as if he had entered a combination with impure spirits, and by their assistance wrought many wonders, replied (John, viii. 49), I have not a devil, but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me; and St. Paul, when he was undervalued by Festus, the Proconsul, as a madman, answered (Acts, xxvi. 25), I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. And the primitive Christians, when they were traduced to the people as murderers, adulterers, incestuous persons, and disturbers of the government, and saw that the excellence of their religion might be called in question; especially if they held their peace, and by their silence seemed to confess the truth of these accusations, and so the course of the Gospel might be hindered, they thereupon made public orations, wrote supplicant books, and discoursed before em perors and princes, in the public defence of themselves and the church.

8. But we perhaps may seem not to need any defence; so many thousands of our brethren in the, last twenty years having borne testimony to the truth,

amidst the most exquisite tortures; and princes, in endeavouring to put a stop to the progress of the Gospel, and to that purpose using several methods, having yet in the end been able to effect nothing; and the whole world now beginning to open their eyes, and to see the light; and therefore it may seem (as I said), that enough hath been spoken, and that our case is sufficiently defended, the thing speaking for itself; for if the popes themselves would, or, indeed, if they could, consider with themselves the beginning and progress of our religion; how, theirs without any resistance, without any human force, hath fallen; and in the interim, ours hath increased, and by degrees been propagated into all countries, and hath been entertained in the courts of kings and the palaces of princes, even while it was opposed from the beginning, by emperors, by kings, by popes, and almost by all others; these things (I say) are clear indications that God himself fights for us, and doth from heaven deride and scorn their projects and endeavours, and that the power of truth is so great, that no human force, nor the very gates of hell, shall ever be able to prevail against it; for so many free cities, so many princes, cannot be supposed mad, as at this day have fallen from the see of Rome, and chosen rather to join themselves to the Gospel.

9. For although popes have not as yet, at any time, been at leisure to think attentively and seriously of these things; or although other thoughts. may now hinder and distract them, or they may' think these things light, and beneath the dignity of the popedom; is our cause therefore to be thought ever the worse? or if, perhaps, they will pretend not to see what indeed they do see, and that they choose rather to oppose the truth, even then when they are convinced of it, are we therefore presently

to be reputed heretics, because we cannot comply, with their wills? If Pope Pius IV. had been such a person as his name speaks him, and as he so much desires to be thought; nay, indeed, if he had but been so good a man, as to have esteemed us as his brethren, or as men, certainly he would diligently have considered our reasons, and what could have been alleged for and against us, and not with so rash and blindfold a precipitancy have condemned without hearing our cause, or allowing the liberty of a defence, so considerable a part of the world, so many. learned, so many religious men, so many commonwealths, so many kings, and so many princes, as he has sentenced in his bull, concerning his late pretended council.

10. But now, because we are so publicly in this. unjust manner noted by him, lest by our silence we should seem to confess the crimes charged upon us, and the rather, because we could in no manner be heard in any public council, where he would suffer none to have any suffrage, or propose his judgment, who was not first sworn to him, and entirely addicted to his interest (for of this we had too great an experience in the late council of Trent, when the ambassadors and divines of the princes and free cities of Germany were totally excluded out of the council; nor can we forget that Julius III. above ten years since, took a mighty care by his rescript, that none of our men might be heard in the council, except it were one that was disposed to recant and change his opinion): for these causes (I say) we have thought fit by this book to give an account of our faith, and to answer truly and publicly what hath been publicly objected against us, that the whole world may see the parts and reasons of that faith which so many good men have valued above their lives, and that all mankind may understand