The great bragge and challenge of M. Champion a Jesuite co[m]monlye called Edmunde Campion, latelye arriued in Englande, contayninge nyne articles here seuerallye laide downe, directed by him to the lordes of the Counsail, / co[n]futed & aunswered by Meredith Hanmer ...

M. Hanmer the aunswerer vnto the Christian Reader.

THe meanes that Satan vseth to deceaue Gods people are infinite (good christian Reader) his illusions are stronge, his chaine hath manye linkes and runneth to greate length. hee transformeth himselfe to an Angell of Light, and al to delude the sim∣ple christians. His power is ouer the children of vnbeliefe, his kingdome wide and his subiectes many. An Aegyptian Sorcerer drevv after him (as Luke writeth) foure thousande Iewes (as Iosephus saith) thirty thousand:* 1.1 Barchochebas cal∣ling himselfe a stare, had (as Eusebius writeth) fiftye thou∣sand follovvers: There are heathens and infidels, that can∣not be numbred: The number of Turkes and Saracens is in finite: the Arrians deceaued thousandes and the Church of Rome at this day with the goldē cup of idolatry and abho∣mination, maketh drunk the inhabitants of the earrh▪ And whereas these Romanistes of a long time hauinge receaued honor, reuerence, & good opiniō, because of their holy or∣ders, now beyng bewrayed, and stripped of this pharisa∣icall shewe and counterfaite weede, least theire kingdome should fall, they haue found out a newe order, and society, commonly called of Iesuits,* 1.2 as the last refuge and onely shift to vphold their ruinous walles. Montanus with his pro∣phetisses sent disciples to sowe his heresye throughout A∣sia and Phrygia. Manes chose twelue Apostles, and sent thē throughout Persia▪ with the Easterne partes of the worlde▪* 1.3 The Family of Loue haue their prophets and disciples. The Anabaptistes out of Munster the head citye of Westphalia, sente abroade (as Sleidan reporteth) in the euening 28. A∣postles. And the Pope hath lately about 40. yeares past cō∣firmed the sect of Iesuits, & sends thē abroad in the euening of the world with the Anabaptists, & in the night seasō, with

the enemy of God and man, to sow tares among the wheat. And to further the credite of this new found order they fa∣ther the same vpon Iesus, and cal themselues Iesuites, hauing their originall of one Ignatius a maymed Souldioure, as is declared at large in the answeare.* 1.4 There were heretikes cal∣led Angelici, who worshipped Angels: others called Aposto∣lici arrogating in greate pride, that title vnto themselues: o∣thers Humiliati, croaching fryiers, that pretended humi∣lity: others called Iesuati, and they the veriest varlets of all: others of the familye of Loue, and as they affirme deifyed in God. The Carpocratian heretikes sayd, they were like vn∣to Iesu,* 1.5 and excelled the Apostles. The Massilian heretikes called also Euchitae beyng corrected for their lewdnes called them selues Martyrianos, yet (saith Epiphanius) for al their holines,* 1.6 they worshipped the deuil & wer called Sataniani. If ye called any of thē Christ, a Patriarch, a Prophet, or an An∣gel, they said they were so. But as touching this late order of Iesuits,* 1.7 this society passeth all other sectes in Hypocrisie & outward shew of holines. In weede monkish frierish, priestly and Pharisaicall: in discipline austere, much like the Here∣tikes Flagellefiers,* 1.8 or Circumcellions, or Baals priestes, whip∣ping and launcing themselues: in wordes humble, lowlye, dowking, and ready to kisse your fote, but in hart prowde, arrogant, bragging and bosting as this Iesuit doth, & chal∣lenging the combat with countries and kingdomes. I will at this present no more but warne thee: Beware of false Pro∣phets:* 1.9 we are commaunded to be wise as Serpentes, and simple as Doues. Peruse the whole, and trie the spirites: geue the praise vnto God, let the paynes be myne, and the profite thyne owne.

Farewell.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Act. 21. Ioseph. bel. Iud. lib. 2. cap. 12. Euseb. ecel. hist. lib. 4. cap. 6▪
• * 1.2

  Euseb. Ecel. hist. lib. 5. cap. 13. lib. 7. cap. 30.
• * 1.3

  Sleidan lib. 10
• * 1.4

  August. de hae∣res. Epiphan. haeres. 61.
• * 1.5

  Irenaeus· lib. 1 cap. 24.
• * 1.6

  Theodoret. eccle. hist. lib. 4. cap. 11.
• * 1.7

  August. de hae∣res.
• * 1.8

  Epiphan. hae∣res, 80.
• * 1.9

  Math. 7 Math. 10.