The B. of Sarisburie.
Oui•• againe wee tel le you, M. Hardinge, wee confounde not these Offices: notwithstandinge you so often, and so lewd••ly reporte vs, to your owne discredite.* 1.1 Our Princes neuer tooke vpon them, y• Office of Bishoppes: But your Bishoppes haue taken vpon them the Office of Princes. Of your Bishoppes it is written in your owne Councelles:* 1.2 Ecce, iam pe••e nulla est acti•• 〈◊〉〈◊〉, quam non Sacerdo∣tes administrent: Beholde, there is now in a 〈◊〉〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉〈◊〉 affaire, but Priestes, and Bishoppes ••aue it in hande. Sutche Bishoppes be they, of whom S. Chrysostome writeth thus,* 1.3 Qui non credunt Iudicium Dei, nec timen••, abutentes Primatu suo Ecclesiastico saeculariter, conuertunt eum in saecularem: They that neither be∣leeue, nor feare the Judgemente of God, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 theire Ecclesiastical Dignitie in Seculare sorte, turne the same into Seculare Dignitie: Sutche Bishoppes they be, of whome S. Hierome saithe thus, Ipsi sibi & Laici sunt, & Episcopi: They them selues be to them selues bothe Laiemenne, and Bishoppes too. And againe, Ado∣rant Dominum, & Melchom, qui Saecedo pariter, & Domino putant se posse seruire, & duobus Dominis satisfacere, Deo, & Mammonae: qui Militantes Christo, obligant sese negotijs Saecularibus, & candem Imaginem offerunt & Deo, & Caesari: They woorship the Lorde, and Melchom bothe togeather, thinkinge, that they maie serue bothe the Woorlde,* 1.4 and the Lorde, and satisfie twoo Maisters at once, God, and Mammon: who fightinge vnder Christe, binde them selues to worldly affaires, and of∣fer vp one Image bothe to God, and to Caesar.
If yée wil beleeue none of these, yet your Popes ovvne Legates, in your late Chapter at Tridente, speakinge of your Priestelike Apparel, saie thus: Nihil à Laic••s, praeterquam in Vestis genere, ac ne in hoc quidem differunt: Our Priestes differ nothinge from Laiemenne, sauinge onely in Apparel: naie, in deede they differ not so mutche from them, as in Apparel.
Yee saie,* 1.5 your Bishoppes are gaie, and gallante, attended, and garded with Princelike routes, bothe behinde, and before: And thereof yée make no smal ac∣coumpte, specially in respecte of our estate, whiche you calle beggerly. In sutche disdeigne the Heathens sommetime saide, That Christe was the Beggerliest, and