Nowe, we muste haue Surplisses deuised by Pope Adrian.
THe impurities you fynde in the administration of Baptisme bee these, Surplis. &c. Touching the Surplis, and suche lyke apparell, I haue spoken before sufficiently: the fyrste inuentor of it (whyche you say to be Pope Adrian) dot he make it neyther better nor woorse, and yet it was vsed long before Adrians tyme, neyther can you proue hym to be the fyrst inuentor thereof. It is certayne that such kynde of vesture hath bene vsed in the ministration of the Sacra∣mentes, long before any corruption of doctrine tooke place in the Churche, as it appeareth both by Hierome in his fyrst booke Aduer∣sus* 1.1 Pelagi. where he maketh manifeste mention of a whyte garmente vsed in the Administration of Sacrifice by the Byshoppe, Prieste, and Deacon. And also Chrysostome Hom. 6. to the people of Anti∣oche, who speaketh of the lyke garmente worne in the Churche. Those that answered the examiner, do but chyldishly cauill at these two places, whyche in deede bee playne of themselues and euident, and so is that of Hieromes also vpon the. 44. of Ezechiell. The reli∣gion of God hath one habite in the ministration, and an other in cōmon vse and lyfe. Reade the place considerately, and it shall easyly ap∣peare, that Hierome meaneth as well of Christian Ministers, as of Iewishe Priestes.
But of the vse of this and other apparel prescribed in this Church to be worne by ministers, I haue spoken partly before, and am ready to speake more as occasion shall be offered. In the meane tyme the Surplis is not of the substance of Baptisme, neyther required as necessarie to the Administration therof, but as comely and decent.