The honor of the married clergie, maintayned against the malicious challenges of C.E. Masse-priest: or. The apologie written some yeeres since for the marriage of persons ecclesiasticall made good against the cauils of C.E. pseudo-Catholik priest. In three books. By Ios. Hall, D. of Diuin. Deane of Worcest.

SECT. XXVI.

FRom Moses and the Prophets I descend to the Apostles. What did they? C. E. answers roundly: They did not marry; and they who were married before, did leaue their Wiues. I vrge Saint Pauls report of the rest of the Apostles, and the Brethren of the Lord and Cephas, that they not onely had Wiues, but r carried them along in their Trauels. He answeres, They were not Wiues, but other deuout Wo∣men, which followed them to admi∣nister maintenance to them. A likely tale, if they could all agree in it; That the Apostles would cast off their owne Wiues, and carry about strange Women with them, vpon what-euer pretence. Credat Iudaeus apella, Non ego. Yet my shamelesse Refuter cryes out of my pride and ignorāce in not allowing this, which hee dares proclaime for the receiued exposition of all the Fathers, and

all that euer wrote in the Greek and Latin Church. When hee knowes that his s Clement in his Recogniti∣ons, and his owne Pope in their Ca∣non Law, hath expounded it contra∣rily, of Wiues, not of strange Wo∣men. t Leo the ninth, against the Epistle of Nicetas the Abbot; where he directly affirms that the Apostles did carry about their Wiues, Vt de mercede praedicationis sustentarentur ab ijs; That they might be maintay∣ned by the reward of their preaching; making the force of the word to lie in circumducendi, non amplectendi: Either therefore his Pope erres in a deliberate exposition of Scripture, or else I haue not erred; And either his Popes are no Fathers, or C. E. hath no forehead.

Nothing can make the Rhemists (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a Sister, a Woman) not ridiculous; not that Visor of Age, which my Refuter pleases to fasten vpon it. There wants an Ar∣ticle (he saith.) Our Apostle should haue comne to Cardinall Bellarmine

and him, to learne when, and where to vse it.

That our last accurate Translati∣on of the English Bible, hath Woman in the Margin, is a poore aduantage; who seeth not that it is the manner of that exquisite Edition, to set all the Idiotismes of either Language, and diuers readings in the Margin? Euery Schole-Boy knowes that the word signifies both; but whether of them is fit to be receiued into the Text, our Text it selfe shewes; How wittily is Saint PAVLS, A Woman, a Sister, paralelled with Saint PE∣TERS, Viri Fratres; Yee Men which are Brethren, is a meet predication, but, Yee Sisters which are Women, is absurd; Neither doth Saint Pe∣ter say (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) Brethren men, as Saint Paul sayes, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, A Sister Woman. As for the authoritie of Hierome, well may wee appeale from his iudgment as incompetent, whom his owne Doctors accuse as partiall, and censure as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, (if not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.) Yet euen hee

against Heluidius translates it, Vxo∣res circumducendi.

For the rest, it is worth my Rea∣ders note, how the Plagiary Priest hauing stolne this whole passage (as most of the rest) verbatim out of Bellarmine, yet ouer-reaches his Ma∣ster; for where Bellarmine sayes, Ita ferè omnes Graeci & Latini; So al∣most all the Greeke and Latine; this Bayard dares say, All (sauing Cle∣mens) as well Greeke, as Latine; and when hee hath done, names some that say nothing of it at all, as Chry¦sostome; Another that in Heresi•• speakes for him one where, another where against him, as Tertullian▪ who being also himselfe a marryed Priest, could say in his exhortation, Licebat & Apostolis nubere, & v••¦ores circumducere; Another tha•• grounds vpon an euident mis-rea¦ding, as Ambrose; and to make vp the Bulke, puts in Saint Bede, and Saint Thomas parties to the cause, & and then sings, Iō paean. It is well y•• that hee grants Clemens of Alexan∣dria,

and Saint Ignatius to be on our side, for this interpretation; and when hee hath done, he must be for∣ced to yeeld vs his Pope Clement, Pope Leo seconded by his Gratian, and Laurentius Valla, and others ci∣ted by Erasmus; in so much as Espencaeus himselfe grants herein, x 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 veterum, a difference amongst the Ancient. And if these had neuer beene, the Text cleeres it selfe, for, not to inforce the word (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) which implyes a power ouer the partie carryed▪ The Apo∣stle speakes of a matter of charge to the Church, by this circumduction; Now that rich Matrones should follow the Apostles, and minister to them of their substance, was a matter of ease to the Church. Nei∣ther was this attendance for mini∣stration, so much an act of Cephas, and the other Apostles, as a volun∣tarie act of the women themselues. To conclude, in this the Apostles practice should haue crossed their doctrine. For if Saint Paul gaue

that charge (of being the Husband of one Wife) on purpose y (as Chrysostome saith) to stop the mouth of the Enemies to Marriage; how must this needes open them againe, and breed a conceit of that impuri∣tie, which Saint Paul meant to op∣pose, that the Apostles themselues as ashamed of their wiues, forsook them, and chose rather to bee atten∣ded by Strangers?

So as I must take leaue to bee euer in this Heresie, that the Apostles had Wiues, and carryed them about.

Notes

• Refut. p. 112.
• r

  1. Cor. 9.5.
• s

  Clem. Recog∣nit. l. 7.
• t

  Dist. 31. Omnino.
• Refut. p. 113.
• Men and Bre∣thren.
• A Title gi∣uen to Gregory, also in Apolog. Tumultuaria.
• Refut. p. 115.
• x

  Esp. l. 1. de Cont.
• To lead about.
• y

  Chrys. Hom. in Tit. praecitat.