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What glosse sayth so? where shall a man finde it? or where is it? this is to large a scope that you take vnto your selfe. But I muste pardon you, for Illiricus; of whom you haue borrowed it, dothe not otherwyse quote the place. Nowebeit the wordes as Illiricus dothe reporte them (whiche I thinke are taken out of glossa ordinaria) make nothing agaynst any thing that I haue sayde: for if you will thus reason: The Bi∣shop must ordeyne, Ergo, he may not elect? I denie your argument, the reason I haue shewed before, one man may bothe ordeyne and elect.
You haue vtterly falsified Hieromes wordes ad Rusticum monachum, and muche* 1.1 more declined from the true interpretation of them, than I woulde haue suspected, especially séeing you woulde be thoughte to haue intrapped me in the like not long before. For the wordes of Hierome be these: Cum ad perfectam aetatem veneris, si tamen* 1.2 vita comes fuerit, & te vel populus, vel Pontifex ciuitatis in clerum elegerit, agito quae clerici sunt: VVhen thou shalte come to perfecte age, if thy lyfe be answerable, and eyther the people, or the Bishop of the Citie shall choose thee into the Cleargie, doe suche thinges as belong to a Clearke. He dothe not héere will that the people shoulde haue authoritie to choose their Clearks and their Ministers, as you saye, but he saythe vnto Rusticus the Monke, that if eyther the people, or the Bishop of the Citie choose him to be Clearke, that then he must doe those thinges that perteyne to a Clearke. He sayth, vel populus, vel Pontifex. &c. signifying that it was a thing indifferent to be chosen eyther by the peo∣ple, or by the Bishop: which maketh for me against you, for I say that a Bishop may choose a minister, and you denie it.
The place that you alleage out of the Epistle of Hierome, ad Nepotianum de vita* 1.3 Clericorum, is not to be founde in Hierome. They be Master Musculus his owne wor∣des, Titu. de verbi ministris. And bicause that he dothe adioyne them to a place whiche he hathe alleaged out of Hierome, therefore you thinke them to be alleaged of him as Hieromes wordes, whyche is a grosse ouersighte, and argueth that you haue not redde the Authors them selues. Oh, howe woulde you haue triumphed if the lyke coulde haue béene espyed in my booke. There is a manyfest place to the contrarie in that Epistle to Nepotian, for thus he saythe: Gloria patris est filius sa∣piens:* 1.4 gaudeat Episcopus iudicio suo, cum tales Christo elegerit sacerdotes: A wyse sonne is the glory of the father: lette the Bishoppe reioyce and be gladde of his iudgement, when he hathe chosen vnto Christe suche Priestes. Héere mighte I triumphe ouer you (bothe for corrupting of Hieromes wordes, and fathering that vpon him which is not to be founde in him) if I were disposed to deale with you so prophanely in a diuine and serious matter. Onely this I wishe, that by these grosse ouersightes, you woulde learne one poyne of wysedome, that is, to be modest, and to knowe your selfe.