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serve then, say that it comes from the apostles: if that serve not, because the Grecians use it not, then say it comes from Rome, as does the communion in unleavened bread'." Thus ye see, what hard shifts they are driven to, in trying out the authority and ancienty of this their sacrament, and how small it is when it comes to proof.

oath to the

But if ye will indifferently judge, whether the new bishops or the old obey their prince and God's church better, read the oath of them both, and then judge. The pope first devised an oath for his bishops to swear at their creation, and when that was not thought strait enough, he devised this afterward: "I, N., bishop of N., from this hour forward, The prelates' shall be true to St Peter, and the holy Romish church, and pope. to my lord pope N., and to his successors, entering canonically: I shall not be in counsel, consent, nor at deed, that he may lose his life, or that any member may be taken from him by deceit, or violent hands laid on him, or wrong done to him by any means. That counsel that shall be declared to me by himself, letters, or messengers, I shall not disclose to any man wittingly to his harm. I shall help to defend the popedom of the Romish church, and the rules of holy fathers, and the royalties of St Peter against all men, saving my order. I shall not be at any counsel or deed, where any evil is devised against the honour and power of them, but to my power I shall stop it, and so shortly as I can signify it to our lord pope, or some other that will tell it his holiness. Heretics, schismatics, and rebels to our lord pope, to my power I shall pursue, &c." Look how well our holy prelates keep their oath to the pope, and deny it to their lawful prince. The oath of the new bishops is in print in English, and so known of all that lust to learn, that I need not to write it; and al

[ Dicitur quod sic de illo verbo Jacobi quinto, Confitemini alterutrum peccata, &c. Sed nec per hoc videtur mihi, quod Jacobus præceptum hoc dedit, nec præceptum a Christo promulgavit. Primum non. Unde enim sibi auctoritas obligandi totam ecclesiam ? cum esset episcopus ecclesiæ Hierosolymitanæ: nisi dicas illam ecclesiam in principio fuisse principalem, et per consequens ejus episcopum principalem patriarcham ; quod non concederent Romani, nec quod illa auctoritas proprie pro tempore illo erat sibi subtracta. Duns, Tom. I. p. 103. Venet. 1598.-After a long discussion the conclusion arrived at is, that it rests upon tradition orally handed down from the apostles! En.]

Fasting.

Ambrose.

though the popish prelates refuse to take that oath, because it makes the prince the chief governor over them, (which they cannot abide,) hereafter in his proper place, where he falls into that question, I shall entreat of it.

Secondly, where he charges us, that where the church commands to fast, we command to eat, and have eaten flesh in Lent and other forbidden days, we speak plain English, and say he lies. Under the name of the church he ever understands Rome, yea, and not when it continued in any pure religion, but even in these latter days, when it is overwhelmed with infinite superstitions. Fasting days be appointed commonly by every particular church and country, rather than by the universal church; but if any kind of fasting be general, I say they break that order rather than we. Ambrose writes on the 17th chapter of Luke, that "for the space of fifty days betwixt Easter and Whitsunday, the church knows no fasting day". Mark, what the church used in his time, and what it is grown to since. How many fasting days in that space have popes brought in since? From whence came all the gangdays to be fasted in the cross-week?? Was it from the church or no? If the church did it, then the latter church and popes were contrary to the old church in Ambrose' time; or else the church is free in all ages to disannul that which was done afore them. If it be free, why then may not the church now disannul that which was done afore our time, as well as they break the custom of the church in Ambrose' time afore them? Has not the church like power in all ages to decree or disannul what they lust? Are we more bound that we shall not break old customs, than they were? What is the reason that we should be so, or where is it so written? If the church be ruled by general councils, where is that council that decreed so many fasting days to be betwixt Easter and Whitsunday? And Ambrose says none was afore his time. Is council so contrary to council, or does one council deface that which another determined? Then is that true, where I said afore

[Ergo per hos quinquaginta dies jejunium nescit ecclesia, sicut dominica qua Dominus resurrexit, et sunt omnes dies tanquam dominica. Ambros. in Luc. xvii. 4. § 25. ED.]

[2 Gang-days: procession-days. Cross-week: the week in which the feast of the Invention of the Cross (May 3) occurs. ED.]

that their councils were like our parliaments, and they are no longer to be observed than other councils following shall think meet. Which being true and granted, who will be so mad to build his faith upon councils, which have so often changed, and one sort believe contrary to another? And although Ambrose say, that the church knew no fasting day betwixt Easter and Whitsunday, yet beside these many fasts in the Rogation week, our wise popes of late years have devised a monstrous fast on St Mark's day. All other fasting days are on the holy-day even; only St Mark must have his day fasted. Tell us a reason why so, that will not be laughen at. We know well enough your reason of Thomas Becket, and think you are ashamed of it: tell us, where it was decreed by the church or general council. Tell us also, if ye can, why the one side of the street in Cheapside fasts that day, being in London diocese, and the other side being of Canterbury diocese fasts not? And so in other towns more. Could not Becket's holiness reach over the street, or would he not? If he could not, he is not so mighty a saint as ye make him if he would not, he was malicious, that would not do so much for the city wherein he was born. This is his great ancient holy church that he cracks so much of. Becket was living since the conquest under king Henry the second, not four hundred years since: and yet all, as they think, that will not believe their trumpery to be fifteen hundred year old, and ought not to be broken, is an heretic, disobeys the universal church, and not meet to live.

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Ep. 86.

Monica, St Austin's mother, seeing them fast at Rome on August. the Saturday, and coming to Milan see them not fast there, marvelled at it, and asked Austin, her son, the cause of such diversity of fasting, thinking that both did not well. Austin, being yet but a young scholar in Christ's school, asked Ambrose the cause: Ambrose said, "Fasting was free, and therefore, when he came to Rome, he fasted, and did as they done; when he was at Milan, he fasted not, but did as they did." Afterward Austin, being better learned, gave this lesson

[Quando hic sum (Mediolani), non jejuno sabbato; quando Romæ sum, jejuno sabbato: et ad quamcunque ecclesiam veneritis, inquit (Ambrosius), ejus morem servate, si pati scandalum non vultis aut facere. August. Epist. xxxvI. (al. LXXXVI.) Tom. II. p. 120. Paris. 1836. ED.]

Isai. Iviii.

in the same epistle, and said, that "he found written in the New Testament, that we ought to fast; but he never found it there written, what days we should fast." Therefore the time is free to all Christians by the scripture, to eat or not eat: but they must eat so soberly every day, as though they fasted, and see that they surfeit not. Montanus, an heretic, was the first that made laws for fasting; and they, like good children, make it heresy to break their days, or fast otherways than they appoint.

There be two sorts of fasting from meat, which we be bound unto the one voluntary, when we feel ourselves by too much eating given to any kind of sin; then the flesh must be bridled by abstinence, that it rebel not against the spirit, but the mind may more freely serve the Lord: the other is by commandment, on such days as be appointed by common order of the country, wherein we must beware that we be not breakers of politics. These kinds of fasting stand in outward discipline, and are to be observed with freedom of conscience, so far as the health of the body may bear, and superstition be not maintained. There is a third sort which Esay speaks of, that stands not in forbearing meats only, but in exercising the works of mercy. "Is this the fast that I choose," says the Lord, "that a man should punish himself, pinch his belly, and pull down himself, so that for hunger and pain he cry out or fall into sickness, that he writhe and lap his head in hoods and kerchiefs? No," says the Lord; "but this is the fast that I have chosen ; bring the poor and strangers to thy house, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, &c." God is not delighted with a hungry belly for meat, but with the soul that hungers for his righteousness. Furthermore, this general kind of fasting, which stands in forbearing flesh, and eating but one meal a day, to many it is no grief nor a bridling to the lust of the flesh. Some love fish so well, that they had rather feed of that than of other meat; and some have so weak stomachs, or live so idle lives, that they can scarce digest one meal a day. Again, other some have so costly and great dinners, that they eat more at that one dinner, than the poor man can get at three scamlings on a day'. Therefore I cannot say that he punishes his body by abstinence, that

[Scamlings or scamblings: meals obtained by shifting or serambling. ED.]

eats fish which he loves; nor that for weakness of stomach cannot eat more, although his appetite desire it; nor he that gorges himself so full at one meal, that he cannot be hungry of a whole day after. Hard it is therefore to appoint to every particular man, what, when, or how seldom he shall eat when he fasts: but because generally every man loves flesh better than fish, and eats twice a day at the least, generally it was well appointed in fasting to forbear flesh, and eat but once a day, though it fail in many particulars.

Therefore, when any is to be charged with breaking his fast, the person is to be considered, whether he may do it with the health of his body; the kind of fasting, whether it be superstitious, to buy forgiveness of sins and righteousness; the time, that it be not with Jewish observation of days; and the meat itself, that it be not thought unclean by nature and unlawful; and the cause, that it be for taming the flesh, and not to compound with God or bargain, that for so many days' fasting God shall reward him with such worldly blessings as please him to appoint. In Flanders, every Saturday betwixt Christmas and Candlemas they eat flesh for joy, and have pardon for it, because our lady lay so long in child-bed, say they we here may not eat so; the pope is not so good to us: yet surely, it were as good reason that we should eat flesh with them all that while that our lady lay in child-bed, as that we should bear our candle at her churching at candlemas with them, as they do. It is seldom seen that men offer candles at women's churchings, saving at our lady's: but reason it is, that she have some preferment, if the pope would be so good master to us, as let us eat flesh with them. Every one, even by the pope's law, is not bound to fast, as children, old folks, women with child, pilgrims, poor prisoners, labouring or journeying men; and by the consent of the physician and ghostly father, even in the midst of blind popery, all sick persons might eat flesh at all times and those that be bound to fast may be dispensed with for a little money. That is good holiness, that is bought for so little money. Our Saviour Christ, seeing the Pharisees offended with eating meat, said to them, "That which enters in at the Matt. xv. mouth defiles not the man ;" and when they would not be so satisfied, he said, "Let them alone, they be blind, and guides of the blind." So surely to such obstinate blind papists, as will not

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