Dissension.

only excepted, nor church to teach in, nor house to dwell in. But Staphylus may have leave to speak untruth, for that he hath not yet learned to speak otherwise. Hereof M. Harding may conclude thus: The learned sometimes mistake the scriptures, and are deceived; ergo, the learned ought to be banished from reading the scriptures. For all these fantastical imaginations of opinions and sects pertain only to the learned sort, and nothing to the lay-people.

And that the learned, either through ignorance or through affection, may be misled no less than others, it may easily appear both by all these former examples, Exod. xxiii. and also by these words of God in the book of Exodus: Nec in judicio plurimorum acquiesces sententiæ: "In judgment thou shalt not hearken to the mind of the more." Which words Lyra expoundeth thus: Plurimorum, id est, doctorum1: “ Of the more, that is to say, of the learned sort."

Acts xvii.

Op. Imp.

Hom. 49.

Certainly the learned fathers have evermore thought that, in such perilous times of dissension in judgment, it is most behoveful for the people to have recourse unto the scriptures. When Paul and Silas preached at Berrhæa, the people there daily searched and considered the scriptures, to know whether that they preached were true, or no. Chrysostom, expounding these words, "When ye shall see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place," writeth Chrysost. in thus: Ideo mandat, ut Christiani... volentes firmitatem accipere fidei veræ, ad nullam rem fugiant nisi ad scripturas: alioqui, si ad alia respexerint, scandalizabuntur, et peribunt, non intelligentes quæ sit vera ecclesia; et per hoc incident in abominationem desolationis, quæ stat in sanctis ecclesiæ locis 2: "Therefore he commandeth that christian men, that will be assured of the true faith, resort unto nothing else but only unto the scriptures: for else, if they have regard to any other thing, they shall be offended, and shall perish, not knowing which is the true church; and by mean thereof they shall fall into the abomination of desolation, that standeth in the holy places of the church." In like sort writeth Origen upon the same Orig. In Matt. place: Anima [imperitæ verbi justitiæ] ... quia facile seducuntur, non possunt

cap. xxiv.

Hieron. in cap. iii.

inseducibiliter permanere in conspectu abominationis desolationis stantis in loco sancto: "The souls that be unskilful of the word of justice, because they are easily deceived, cannot stand without error in the sight of the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place." St Hierome saith: In adventu Messiæ.... Proph. Nah, populus, qui sub magistris... fuerat consopitus, ... ibit ad montes scripturarum ; ibique invenient montes Mosen,... montes prophetas, montes novi testamenti.... Et in talium montium... lectione versatus, si non invenerit qui ... doceat, . . . tamen illius studium comprobabitur, quod confugerint ad montes: "At the coming of Christ the people that was laid asleep under their teachers shall go to the mountains of the scriptures: there shall they find these mountains, Moses, the prophets, and the new testament. And, being occupied in the reading of these mountains, notwithstanding they find no man to teach them, yet shall their goodwill be well allowed, for that they have fled unto the mountains." So St Basil: Basil. Moral. Divinæ scripturæ faciunt ad certitudinem bonorum, et ad confusionem malorum3: "The holy scriptures are able both to confirm the godly, and also to confound Chrysost. in the ungodly." So Chrysostom: Nec ipsis omnino [ecclesiis] credendum est, nisi ea dicant vel faciant, quæ convenientia sint scripturis: "We may in no wise believe the churches themselves, unless they say and do such things as be agreeable to the scriptures."

26. cap. i.

Matt. Hom.

49.

[Lyra does not appear to use the exact words ascribed to him; but, referring to the Hebrew word rabbim here employed, he says: Item significat idem quod magnos vel magistros: et sic accipitur in secunda parte auctoritatis, &c.-Bibl. cum Gloss. Ord. et Expos. N. de Lyra, Basil. 1502. Exod. xxiii. Pars I. fol. 171. 2.]

[2 Chrysost. Op. Par. 1718-38. Op. Imp. in Matt. Hom. xlix. ex cap. xxiv. Tom. VI. p. cciv.]

[3 Omnis enim qui lacte alitur, imperitus est verbo justitiæ... Istæ sunt ergo animæ quæ ... quia facile, &c.-Orig. Op. Par. 1733-59. In Matt. Comm. Ser.

43. Tom. III. p. 862.]

[ Hieron. Op. Par. 1693-1706. Comm. in Naum Proph. cap. iii. Tom. III. col. 1590; where adventu ergo Christi, inveniet, hujuscemodi montium, tunc et illius, and quia confugerit.]

[5 "Οτι δεῖ πᾶν ῥῆμα ἢ πρᾶγμα πιστοῦσθαι τῇ μαρτυρίᾳ τῆς θεοπνεύστου γραφῆς εἰς πληροφο ρίαν μὲν τῶν ἀγαθῶν, ἐντροπὴν δὲ τῶν πονηρῶν. Basil. Op. Par. 1721-30. Moral. Reg. xxvi. Tom. II. p. 256.]

[Chrysost. Op. Op. Imp. in Matt. Hom. xlix. ex cap, xxiv. Tom. VI. p. ccix; where sunt.]

Valdenses.

M. HARDING. THE THIRTEENTH DIVISION".

The peril of it is known by sundry examples both of times past and also of this present age. For out of this root hath sprung the sect of the Valdenses, otherwise called Pauperes de Lugduno. For Valdo, a merchant of Lyons, their first author, of whom they were named Valdenses, being an unlearned layman, procured certain books of the scripture to be translated into his own language, which when he used to read, and understood not, he fell into many errors. Of the same well-spring issued the filthy puddles of the sects called Adamitæ, or Picardi, Bogardi, and Turelupini; and of late years, beside the same sect of Adamites, newly revived, also the anabaptists and Suenckfeldians. Wherefore that edict or proclamation of the worthy princes Ferdinando and Elizabeth, king and queen of Spain, is of many much commended, by which they gave strait commandment, that under great penalties no man should translate the bible into the vulgar Spanish tongue, and that no man should be found to have the same translated in any wise. These and the like be the reasons and considerations which have moved many men to think the setting forth of the whole bible and of every part of the scripture in the vulgar tongue, for all sorts of persons to read without exception or limitation, to be a thing not necessary to salvation, nor otherwise convenient nor profitable, but contrariwise dangerous and hurtful.

THE BISHOP OF SARISBURY.

Hær. Lib. i.

The story of Valdo is here brought in upon the report and credit of friar Alfonsus. Touching which Valdo, whether he were learned or unlearned, it Alphon. de forceth not greatly. Origen saith: Vide quam prope periculis sint hi, qui negli- cap. xiii. gunt exerceri in divinis literis: ex quibus solis hujusmodi examinationis agnoscenda Ad Rom. discretio est: "Mark how near unto danger they be that refuse to exercise them- xvi. selves in the scriptures; for thereby only the judgment of this trial must be known." If he were learned, then is this no true report: if he were unlearned, then was God's work so much the greater; who, as St Paul saith, oftentimes 1 Cor. i. "chooseth the weak things of the world to condemn the strong, and the foolish things of the world to reprove the wise."

Hær.

Abram. Cret.

The greatest heresies that he maintained stood in reproving the idolatrous Alphon. de worshipping of images; of extreme unction; of exorcisms and conjurations; of Barthol. ear-confessions; of unseemly singing in the church; of feigned miracles; of the in Concil. idle and slanderous lives of priests and bishops; of the lives and manners of the Ferrar. church of Rome; of the outrage and tyranny of the pope; of monks, friars, pardons, pilgrimages, and purgatory 10. And, notwithstanding the reproving hereof were then judged heresy, yet sithence that time infinite numbers of godly men have received it as God's undoubted truth, and M. Harding in part hath yielded unto the same.

He added farther: Out of this well-spring of Valdo issued forth the anabaptists and the Swenkfeldians. I marvel M. Harding can either speak so unadvisedly, or so soon forget what he hath spoken. For immediately before he wrote thus: "Out of Luther have sprung three divers heresies, the anabaptists, the sacramentaries, and the confessionists." If the anabaptists sprang out of Valdo, and were so long before Luther, how could they then afterward spring out of Luther? If they sprang first out of Luther, how were they then before Luther? By this report the father is younger than the child, and the child was born before the father. These be mere monsters in speech, and contradictions in nature. If the one of these reports be true, the other of necessity must needs be false. But M. Harding taketh it for no great inconvenience, whatsoever may help to deface the truth.

[This passage is almost literally from Alfonso de Castro.]

[ Alfons. de Castr. adv. Omn. Hær. Col. 1539. Lib. 1. cap. xiii. foll. 27, 8.]

[ Orig. Op. Comm. in Epist. ad Rom. Lib. x. cap. xvi. Tom. IV. p. 684; where proximi periculo fiant hi qui exerceri in divinis literis negligunt.]

[10 See Alfons. de Castr. adv. Omn. Hær. under

the articles named.

Barthol. Abramus set forth the acts of the Council of Ferrara in Latin. See his letter to the archbishop of Ravenna in Crabb. Concil. Col. Agrip. 1551. Tom. III. pp. 372, 3; in which he mentions purgatory and other matters discussed at the council. Conf. Quæst. de Purg. ibid. pp. 376, 7.]

The proclamation of Ferdinandus and Elizabeth, the kings of Spain, for not translating the bible into the Spanish tongue, as it is of very small authority, being made within these threescore and ten years, that is to say, well near fifteen hundred years after Christ; so it is likely it was first devised, not against the christian people of that country, but only against the renegade Jews there; who, by dissimulation and fear of the law being become Christians, afterward returned again to their old errors, and both by their example, and also by misunderstanding of certain places of the scriptures, hardened and confirmed others in the Fur. Bonon. Same1. Against whom also was devised the Spanish inquisition, and that by the same princes, and at the same time. So Julianus, the renegade emperor, thought Sozom. Lib. it good policy to suffer no christian man's child to be set to school2. So the wicked princes Antiochus and Maximinus, for like policy, burnt the books of God, to the intent the people should not read them.

de Trans.

Script.

V. cap. xviii. 1 Macc. i.

But the godly and first christened emperor Constantinus caused the bible to be written out, and to be sent abroad into all kingdoms, countries, and cities of his dominion. King Adelstane, the king of England, caused the bible to be transAlphons. de lated into the English tongue. St Hierome translated the same into the Sclavon tongue; Ulphilas likewise into the Gotthian tongue. Whereto Socrates addeth also these words: Instituit barbaros, ut discerent sacra eloquia1: "He gave occasion to the barbarous people of that country to learn the scriptures.”

Hær. Lib. i.

cap. xiii.

Socrat. Lib. iv. cap. xxxiii.

M. HARDING. THE FOURTEENTH DIVISION.

What parts of the scriptures

appertain to

know.

Yet it is not meant by them that the people be kept wholly from the scripture, so as they read no part of it at all. As the whole, in their opinion, is too strong a meat for their weak stomachs; so much of it they may right wholesomely receive and brook, as that which pertaineth to piety and necessary knowledge of a christian man. Wherein they would the examples of the old the people to holy fathers to be followed. St Augustine hath gathered together into one book all that maketh for good life out of the scriptures, which book he intituled Speculum; that is to say, a mirror or a looking-glass, as Possidonius witnesseth in his life. St Basil hath set forth the like argument almost, in his fourscore moral rules pertaining altogether to good manners. St Cyprian also hath done the like in his three books Ad Quirinum. Such godly books they think to be very profitable for the simple people to read.

THE BISHOP OF SARISBURY.

Here M. Harding alloweth the people to read the scriptures; howbeit, not what they list, but with restraint, and at delivery; that is to say, not cases of question, or pertaining to knowledge, but only matters belonging to manners and order of life. And so he reserveth knowledge to himself and his brethren, and leaveth good life unto the people. Touching the books of St Augustine, St Basil, and St Cyprian, it is untrue that they were written namely and purposely for the unlearned: or if they were, why are they not translated? why are they not delivered unto the people, for whose sakes they were written?

Moreover, it is untrue that in these books is contained only matter of life and manners, and nothing pertaining to religion. For the first words in this

[Fuit... versa sacra scriptura in Valentinam linguam: et... iterum iisdem literis elegantius multo impressa: quam populo interdixit Inquisitorum (quos vocant) societas et ordo hoc nomine, quod Judæis aliquot, qui de centum et viginti millibus ex Hispania exactorum supererant, dicerent, se intelligere, ipsos ritus, cærimonias, et sacrificandi genus ab ipsis bibliis desumere. Itaque ita vetitum est eam legi, ut iis qui originem nullam a Judæis haberent, legi liceret, aliis non item.-Frid. Fur. Cær. Valent. Bonon. Basil. 1556. pp. 111, 2.]

[ Sozom. in Hist. Eccles. Script. Amst. 16951700. Lib. v. cap. xviii. p. 506.]

[3 Alfons. de Castr. adv. Omn. Hær. Col. 1539. Lib. 1. cap. xiii. fol. 28. 2.]

[4 Socrat. in Hist. Eccles. Script. Lib. IV. cap. xxxiii. p. 206.]

[5 Into to one, H. A. 1564. H. A. 1565 omits the to.]

[ August. Op. Par. 1679-1700. Tom. III. Pars 1. cols. 681-818.]

[7 Id. August. Vit. Auct. Possid. cap. xxviii. Tom. X. Post-Append. col. 277.]

[8 Basil. Op. Par. 1721-30. Tom. II. pp. 234318.]

[9 Cypr. Op. Oxon. 1682. pp. 17-91.]

book of St Augustine called Speculum are these: Non facies tibi sculptile 10: "Thou shalt make to thyself no graven image," which is now a special case of religion. And the greatest part of St Cyprian's book Ad Quirinum containeth a full disputation of Christ's incarnation, nativity, and passion, and other like cases of religion against the Jews. Touching St Basil, as he wrote this book of morals concerning manners, so he had written another book before concerning faith, and both these books for the people. He maketh his entry into his morals with these words: Cum de sana fide in præcedentibus sufficienter ad præsens dictum esse putemus, &c.12: "Forasmuch as I think I have entreated sufficiently in my former books concerning faith, &c." Therefore this assertion was untrue, and so no firm ground for M. Harding to stand upon. Neither did any of the old fathers ever withdraw the people from the universal and free reading of God's word, and restrain them only to such short collections. St Basil saith: "The scriptures are Basil. in like unto a shop full of medicines for the soul, where as every man may freely take, not only one kind of salve, but also a special and a peculiar remedy for every sore 13" And Irenæus saith: De omni ligno paradisi manducate; id est, ab Iren. Lib. v. omni scriptura divina manducate 14: "Eat ye of all the fruit of paradise; that is to say, eat ye (not only of matters concerning manners, but also) of every part of the holy scriptures." Howbeit, by M. Harding's judgment, the people may learn the ten commandments, but may not meddle with their creed.

Psal.primum.

hundred and

only of

spite and

But how much and what part15 of the scripture the common people may read for their comfort and necessary instruction, and by whom the same may be translated, it belongeth to the judgment of the church; which church hath already condemned all the vulgar translations of the bible of late years, (210) for that The two they be found in sundry places erroneous and partial in favour of the heresies tenth unwhich the translators maintain. And it hath not only in our time condemned raised these late translations, but also hitherto never allowed those few of old time; I mean slander. St Hierome's translation into the Dalmatical tongue, if ever any such was by him made, as to some it seemeth a thing not sufficiently proved; and that which, before St Hierome, Ulphilas an Arian bishop made, and commended to the nation of the Goths, who first invented letters for them, and proponed the scriptures to them translated into their own tongue; and, the better to bring his ambassage16 to the emperor Valens to good effect, was persuaded by the heretics of Constantinople, and of the court there, to forsake the catholic faith, and to communicate with the Arians, making promise also to travail in bringing the people of his country to the same sect, which at length he performed most wickedly.

THE BISHOP OF SARISBURY.

M. Harding alloweth the people to read certain parcels of the scriptures for their comfort, but yet he alloweth them no translation: that is to say, he alloweth them to eat the kernel, but in no wise to break the shell. By these it appeareth that of sufferance and special favour the simple ignorant people may read the word of God in Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, but none otherwise.

The church, saith M. Harding, for the space well near of sixteen hundred years, never yet allowed any manner translation in the vulgar tongue. Yet notwithstanding it is certain that the church, not only in the primitive time, under the apostles and holy fathers, but also long sithence hath both suffered and also used the vulgar translations in sundry tongues. Whereof we may well presume that the church then allowed them.

[10 August. Op. Specul. De Exod. Tom. III. Pars I. col. 682.]

[ Theeself, 1565.]

[12 Basil. Op. De Fid. 6. Tom. II. p. 229.] [13 Πᾶσα γραφὴ θεόπνευστος...διὰ τοῦτο συγγραφεῖσα παρὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος, ἵν ̓, ὥσπερ ἐν κοινῷ τῶν ψυχῶν ἰατρείῳ, πάντες ἄνθρωποι τὸ ἴαμα τοῦ οἰκείου πάθους ἕκαστος ἐκλεγώμεθα.

Id. Hom. in Psalm. i. Tom. I. p. 90.]

[14 Ab omni ergo ligno paradisi escas manducabitis, ait Spiritus Dei; id est, ab omni scriptura dominica manducate.-Iren. Op. Par. 1710. Contr. Hær. Lib. v. cap. xx. 2. p. 317.]

[15 Parts, H. A. 1564.]

[16 Ambassade, 1565, 1609, and H.A. 1564.]

Hieron. in
Epit. Paul.

Basil. in
Epist. ad
Neoc.

And that the scriptures were not only in these three tongues, Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, it appeareth by St Hierome, that saith, the psalms were translated and sung in the Syrian tongue1; by St Basil, that affirmeth the same of the Palestine, Theban, Phenic, Arabic, and Libyc tongues2; by Sulpitius, in the life Sulp. in Vit. of St Martin, that seemeth to say, the lessons and chapters were translated and read openly in the churches of France in the French tongues; and by Isidorus, Eccles. Offic. that avoucheth the like of all christian tongues1.

Mart. Lib. i.
Isidor. de

cap. x.

Vernac. Leg.

M. Harding misliketh the translation of Ulphilas into the Gotthian tongue; for that the author was an Arian. Notwithstanding it appeareth not that ever the church misliked it. But by this rule he may as well condemn all the Greek translations whatsoever, of Symmachus, of Aquila, of Theodotion, and of the Septuagints, and the whole Exaplus of Origen: for there is not one of all these but may be challenged in like sort.

Touching St Hierome's translation of the bible into the Sclavon tongue, M. Harding seemeth to stand in doubt. Howbeit Hosius, his companion, saith: Hos. de Sacr. In Dalmaticam linguam sacros libros Hieronymum vertisse constat : "It is certain and out of doubt that St Hierome translated the bible into the Sclavon Alphons. de tongue." The like whereof is reported by Alphonsus7. Neither can M. Harding shew us any error or oversight in that whole translation of St Hierome; and therefore he seemeth to condemn that godly father, and yet knoweth no cause why.

Hær. Lib. i. cap. xiii.

Dist. 2.
Omnes.

The two

hundred and eleventh untruth.

parts of the bible were translated

into the English tongue by king Alured, by Cedman, and

All late translations, saith he, have been made in favour of heresies, and therefore they may worthily be mistrusted. But will these men never leave these childish colours, and deal plainly? If there be errors, and such errors in these late translations, why do they not descry them? If there be none, why do they thus condemn them? But the greatest heresy that can be holden, and that toucheth them nearest, is the revealing of the usurped authority and tyranny of the church of Rome. For so it is determined by pope Nicolas : Qui... Romance ecclesiæ privilegium...auferre conatur, hic proculdubio in hæresim labitur, et...est... dicendus hæreticus: "Whosoever attempteth to abridge the authority of the church of Rome falleth doubtless into an heresy, and ought to be called an heretic."

M. HARDING. THE SIXTEENTH DIVISION.

Lib. i. 9

As for the church of this land of Britain, the faith hath continued in it thirteen hundred years until now of late, (211) without having the bible translated into the vulgar tongue, to be used of all in common. Our Lord grant we yield no worse For sundry souls to God now, having the scriptures in our own tongue, and talking so much of the gospel, than our ancestors have done before us! "This island," saith Beda Hist. Eccles. (speaking of the estate the church was in at his days), "at this present, according to the number of books that God's law was written in, doth search and confess one and the self-same knowledge of the high truth, and of the true height, with the tongues of five nations, of the English, the Britons, the Scots, the Picts, and the Latins; Quæ meditatione scripturarum ceteris omnibus est facta communis 10: Which tongue of the Latins," saith he, "is for the study and meditation of the scriptures made common to all the other." Verily, as the Latin tongue was then common to all the nations of this land, being of distinct languages, for the study of the scriptures, as Beda reporteth; so the same only hath always until our time been

by Beda, as

shall appear.

[ Hieron. Op. Par. 1693-1706. Ad Eustoch. Epist. lxxxvi. Epit. Paul. Tom. IV. Pars II. cols. 687, 8. See before, page 268.]

[2 Basil. Op. Par. 1721-30. Ad Cler. Neoc. Epist. cevii. Tom. III. p. 311. See before, page 290.]

[3 Sulp. Div. Mart. Vit. ad calc. Abd. Apost. Hist. Par. 1571. Lib. 1. foll. 193, 4. See before, page 298.]

[Isidor. Hispal. Op. Col. Agrip. 1617. De Offic. Eccles. Lib. 1. cap. x. p. 393. See before, page 289.]

[5 Examples, 1611.]

[6 Hos. Op. Col. 1584. De Sacr. Vernac. Leg. Tom. I. p. 664. See before, page 270, note 3.]

[7 Alfons. de Castr. adv. Omn. Hær. Col. 1539.

Lib. 1. cap. xiii. fol. 28. 2.]

[ Nicol. Papa 11. in Corp. Jur. Canon. Lugd. 1624. Decret. Gratian. Decr. Prim. Pars, Dist. xxii. can. 1. col. 100.]

[ H. A. 1564 has not this reference. It appears in H. A. 1565.]

[10 Hæc in præsenti, juxta numerum librorum quibus lex divina scripta est, quinque gentium linguis, unam eamdemque summæ veritatis et veræ sublimitatis scientiam scrutatur et confitetur, Anglorum videlicet, Brittonum, Scottorum, Pictorum et Latinorum, quæ meditatione scripturarum ceteris omnibus est facta communis.-Bæd. Hist. Eccles. Cant. 1722. Lib. 1. cap. i. p. 41.]