redeem mankind, taking away our sins, pacifying the indignation of his Father, and cancelling the obligation that was against us. In which sacrifice-making unto his Father, our said Saviour Jesus Christ, as St. Paul saith plainly to the Hebrews, was not a priest after the order of Aaron, forasmuch as he was of another tribe: and also, that priesthood was imperfect and unprofitable, bringing nothing to perfection. But our Saviour Christ made his sacrifice upon the cross perfectly, absolutely, and with the most highest perfection that could be, so much that after that one oblation and sacrifice for sin, made by him but once only, neither he nor any other creature should at any time after make any more oblations for the same. And for that St. Paul saith, he was called an eternal priest after the order of Melchisedec, and not of Aaron.

This faith ought every man and woman undoubtedly to believe, and openly to profess, upon pain of everlasting damnation; and also to die in this profession, if case shall so require. The which most wholesome and most necessary doctrine of our faith I not diligently considering, as many times to right great clerks and learned men in much writing in like matters it hath chanced to say too far, the infirmity and weakness of men being such, that seldom in many words error hath escaped: so in my book of the sacrifice of the mass, I did incircumspectly and rashly write and set forth to the people, that Christ was not a priest after the order of Melchisedec, when he offered himself upon the cross to his Father for our sins, but was a priest after the order of Aaron. And that when Christ did offer his own body to his Father after the order of Melchisedec, to appease his wrath, it may not be understood of the sacrifice of the cross, but of the sacrfice that Christ made at his maundy in form of bread and wine. To the which indeed St. Paul's doctrine is

85

contrary, both in other places and in the epistle "Ad Hebræos" very manifestly. Against whom, (who without doubt had the very spirit of God), neither it becometh, nor I will not willingly teach or defend any thing. Wherefore ye shall impute that, good audience, to the frailty of man's nature, and to my negligent marking, having at that time rather a respect to a fantasy that then I had in my mind, than to the true and infallible doctrine of Scripture.

And moreover in the same my book I said not only that the sacrifice of the mass is the selfsame substance of Christ, but also the selfsame oblation or offering of our Saviour Christ's very flesh and blood, which himself once offered to his Father on the cross to appease his wrath: and that the priests do continually and daily in the mass offer not only the selfsame body of Christ, but also to the same effect that Christ did offer himself to his Father at his maundy. Of the which words and doctrine, if they be not very warily and circumspectly read, and more favourably taken than the words as they lie may well bear, it might be gathered that priests herein be equal with Christ. Priests of the order of Melchisedec, appeasing the wrath and indignation of the Father of heaven, crucifying or offering Christ to the same effect that Christ in his own person did upon the cross, is a blasphemy intolerable to be heard of Christian ears. For Christ, as St. Paul saith, was but once offered, once gave up himself for the redemption of our sins on Good Friday upon the cross; nor never before nor after was offered for us, but in a sacrament and as a commemoration of the same. And so of the maundy, or supper of the Lord, Christ himself saith, "Hæc quotiescunque feceritis, in meam commemorationem facietis." Once he died for our sins, and once again he rose for our justification. He dieth no

more. And his sacrifice was so good, so full, so pleasant, so precious to God, that there needed no more oblations to appease God, not only for the sins past, but also for all the sins to the day of doom. There need no more sacrifices, no more offerers, but as having a respect and a remembrance of that most holy, most perfect, and most entire lamb, then and for ever offered up for us.

But these things aforesaid, I cannot deny but they were 86 spoken of me, and written. And as I do not now like them, so, at the example of St. Austin and other good doctors, I am not ashamed to retract them, and call them again and condemn them. For when I followed mine own invention, not directed by Scripture, I began, as the nature of man is, to wander, and at the last went clean contrary to God's word. Wherefore I heartily exhort every man, as touching matters of faith, to found the same upon God's certain, true, and infallible word; lest by doing the contrary they fall into superstition, idolatry, and other manifold errors, as myself and many other have done.

Wherefore these my two books, the one "of the sacrifice of the mass," and the other "of the traditions unwritten," in those points before rehearsed, and all other wherein they be not full consonant to Scripture, I forsake and renounce as false, erroneous, and against the true word of God; requiring the good Christian reader, whosoever shall read them, to give no further credence to them than I would myself: that is, not to take as undoubted truth all that is therein written, but as written of a man that some time falleth; to be so far true as they be consonant to Scripture: where they be not against Scripture, to be human persuasion, which may either be so or not so, as the greater reason shall lead; where they be not consonant to Scripture, to be erroneous and false; and that I

Regist.

Cranm. fol.

much lament and am sorry that I wrote them in those points. And I desire every man that hath any of the said books to beware of them, and to give no credence to them in all such things in them written as be not consonant to the Scripture, as they will avoid occasion of error, and tender the truth of God's word and his glory. To whom be laud, praise, and honour. Amen.

[NUMBER XXXIX*.

THE SENTENCE AGAINST JOAN OF KENT, WITH THE CERTIFI-
CATE MADE UPON IT.

IN Dei nomine, Amen. Nos Thomas, permissione divina 74 b.-75 b. Cantuarien. archiepiscopus, totius Angliæ primas et metropolitanus, Thomas Smyth, miles, Willielmus Cooke, decanus de arcubus, Hugo Latimer, sacræ theologiæ professor, et Richardus Lyell, legum doctor, illustrissimi, invictissimi in Christo principis et domini nostri domini Edwardi Sexti, Dei gratia Angliæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ regis, fidei defensoris et in terra ecclesiæ Anglicane et Hibernice supremi capitis, cognitores, inquisitores, judices et commissarii, per literas suas regias patentes, dat. duodecimo die mensis Aprilis, anno regni sui felicissimi tertio, sufficienter et legitime deputati in quodam hereticæ pravitatis negotio, contra te Joannam Bocher, alias nuncupatam Joannam de Kente, coram nobis in judicio personaliter comparentem, et nobis super hæretica pravitate, juxta et secundum commissionem dicti domini nostri regis detectam et declaratam, ac in ea parte apud bonos et graves notorie et publice, diffamatam, rite et legitime procedentes, auditis, visis, intellectis, cognitis, rimatis, et matura deliberatione discussis et ponderatis dicti negotii meritis et circumstantiis, servatisque in omnibus et per omnia in eodem negotio de jure servandis in quomodolibet requisitis, judi

cialiter et pro tribunali sedentes, Christi nomine invocato ac ipsum solum Deum præ oculis nostris habentes; quia per acta inactitata, deducta, probata, confessata, ac per te sæpius coram nobis in eodem negotio recognita, comperimus et clare invenimus te, tum per confessiones, tum per recognitiones tuas coram nobis judicialiter factas, nefandum et intollerabilem errorem, hæresim damnatam et scandalosam opinionem subscriptam, juri divino et catholicæ fidei obviantem, contrariam et repugnantem; viz. "That you believe that the Word was made flesh in the Virgin's belly; but that Christ took flesh of the Virgin, you believe not; because the flesh of the Virgin, being the outward man, was sinfully gotten and born in sin; but the Word, by the consent of the inward man of the Virgin, was made flesh;" quam quidem errorem, hæresim damnatam et scandalosam opinionem, juri divino et fidei catholicæ obviantem, contrariam et repugnantem, coram nobis tam in judicio, quam extra animo obstinato, pertinaci et indurato arroganter, pertinaciter, et obstinate, etiam non sine fastu, asseruisti, tenuisti, affirmasti, et dixisti, atque sic credere, tenere, affirmare, et dicere velle, paribus obstinacia, pertinacia, malicia, quoque et mira cordis cæcitate etiam affirmasti; idcirco nos Thomas, archiepiscopus, primas et metropolitanus, ac commissarius regius antedictus, tam de aliorum collegatum nostrorum, nobis in hac parte assidentium et assistentium consensu et assensu expressis; quum etiam de et cum consilio et judicio jurisperitorum et sacrarum literarum professorum, cum quibus convocavimus in hac parte, te Joannam Bocher, alias Joannam de Kente prædictam de meritis, culpis, obstinaciis et contumaciis, per tuam nefandam et damnabilem pertinaciam multipliciter contractis, incursis, et aggravatis, de et super hujusmodi destestabili et horrendo hæreticæ privitatis reatu confessam, ad ecclesiæ