M. Hardinge.
VVho so euer departe from the Catholike Churche, they be Schismatikes: ye haue departed from the Catholike Churche, of‡ these nine hundred yeeres: ergo ye be schismatikes. The firste proposition ye wil not denie: The seconde your selues confesse: the conclusion then muste nedes be true. If we saie the same, blame vs not. Neither saie we that onely, but also that ye are Heretikes. VVhereby the measure of your iniquitie is increaced. The same crime ye woulde impure vnto vs, if ye wisie howe. If ye haue no more to laie to our charge, but that we haue foresaken the Grekes, ye shal not be offended with the world, if it geue vs the title, name, and estimation of Catholikes, as heretofore. For (remember your selues) we haue not forsaken: he Grekes, but the Greekes in some pointes haue forsaken vs. By the name of vs, al∣waies I vnderstande the Catholike Churche, euen the Holy Romaine Churche, whose faithe we pro∣fesse, and with whom we communicate.
And howe standeth it with your lerninge, that we receiued the faithe first from the Grekes? For where ye saie, we haue forsaken the Primitiue Churche, yea Christe himselfe, and the Apos••les, ye haue tolde vs this so often, that now we take them to be but wordes of course, and a common blaste of your railing sprite. The Romaine Churche receiued the faithe from Ierusalem‡ and not from Grece, as the reste of the world did, according to the Prophecie, De Siō exibit lex, &c. As for the land of Bri∣taine our natiue country, if the faithe were firste brought hither by Ioseph of Arimathaea, and his fe∣lowes, as by old tradition we are told: then was the Church here first planted by faithful Iewes, and not by Grekes. This beinge true, we maruel what ye meane, to charge vs with forsaking the Grekes, specially where ye saie, we firste receiued the faith from them▪ VVhiche is no truer, then that we re∣ceiued our Englishe language from them.