The Proëme.
BEfore that we enter into the discourse of our fist booke of ecclesiasticall history,* 1.1 our will is first to forewarne the reader not to blame vs, for all our speciall drift was to deliuer the posterity in writing the ecclesiasticall affayres after our sim∣ple habilitie and as farre forth as we coulde learne: that we haue mingled ther∣withall battells and bloody warres at seuerall times waged in sundry partes of the worlde. We haue so done for diuers causes. First that the noble and valiant feates of armes shoulde not be hid from the posteritie in tyme to come: agayne lest the Reader by perusing continewally of the Bishops affayres and the practises of the one a∣gainst the other inculcated euery where, be ouercome with tediousnes and loth some tying toge∣ther of one matter: last of all that we may vnderstand when the common w••••le hath bene tossed & turmoyled with troublesome dissention and discorde, the Church of God likewise as infected with the same contagious disease hath bene altogether out of quiet. For whosoeuer with diligent obser∣uation will remember the aforesayd tymes, without doubt he shall perceaue that when the com∣mon weale was on hurlyburly, the Church in like sort was shaken with the stormes of aduersitie. Either he shall finde that both at one tyme were out of square, or that the ones miserie ensued im∣mediately after the others misfortune: and sometime when the Church beganne to vary about re∣ligion, the common wealth immediately followed after with rebellion, and some other times of the contrary: so that I am easily brought to beleeue that the interchangeable course of these calami∣ties commeth not to passe by happ hazard but by reason of our horrible sinne: that these mischiefs are sent in steede of punishments: or as the Apostle writeth: some mens sinnes are open before* 1.2 hande hastening before vnto iudgement, and in some they followe after. for the aforesayd cau∣ses we haue mingled temporall with ecclesiasticall, prophane with diuine stories. And though we coulde not attaine vnto the knowledge of such battells as were waged in the raigne of Constantine by reason it is so long agoe: yet haue we enterlaced such acts as befell since that time, as well as we coulde learne of aged and longe liude men. We haue therefore throughout our history made mention of the Emperours because that since they beganne to embrace christian religion, the ec∣clesiasticall affayres seemed very much to depende of them: so that the chiefest councells were in* 1.3 times past and are at this day summoned through their consent and procurement. We haue ther∣fore also remembred paganisine and the Idolatric all seruice of the Ethnicks because it wonderful∣ly molested the quiet estate of the Catholick Church. Thus much I thought good to lay downe by way of preface, and now to the story.