You haue so dismembred my booke, in taking héere a péece and there a péece, to answere as it pleaseth you, and in leauing oute what you liste, that you rather make a newe discourse of your owne, than a Replie to anye thyng that I haue set downe.
Touching the names of the holydayes (whiche you mislike) I haue tolde the cause why they be so called, whiche cause you can not improue, and therefore you fall agayne to your accustomed coniectures, and suppositions, whiche are but very simple and slender argumentes. What if euery one dothe not vnderstande so muche? muste the Churche alter hir decrées and orders, for euery particular mans abusing or not vnderstanding them? He that is moste ignorant maye learne and knowe why they be so called, if he be disposed: if he be not, the faulte is his owne, the name of the day is not the worse to be lyked. You might muche better reason a∣gaynst the names of Sunday, Monday, and Saterday, whiche be Heathenishe and prophane names, yet I suppose that there is no man so madde, as to thinke that those dayes be instituted and vsed of Christians to the honour of the Sunne, of the Moone, and of Saturne. This is but to play the parte of a quareller (as I haue sundry times tolde you) to cauill at the name, when you can not reproue the mat∣ter. Those dayes be rather reteyned in the Churche, to roote out suche supersti∣tious opinions, by the preaching of the worde, and the reading of the Scriptures: Neyther can any man that vnderstandeth Englishe, and frequenteth the common and publike prayers, in those holydayes (except he be wilfull) be so affected as you séeme to suspect.
Trinitie sunday, the Natiuitie of our Sauiour Christe, and suche lyke, al∣thoughe we honour the Trinitie, and our Sauiour Christe in them, as we doe in all other, yet haue they their names especially, bicause the Scriptures then read in the Churche, concerne the Trinitie, and the Natiuitie of our Sauiour Christe. Augustine ad Ianuar. 119. sayth thus of the daye of the Natiuitie of Christe: Heere first* 1.1 it behoueth that thou knowe the daye of the Natiuitie of the Lorde, not to be celebrated in a Sacrament or figure, but onely that it is called backe into remembraunce, that he is borne, and for this there needeth nothing, but that the day yerely be signified by solemne deuotion, wherein the thing was done.
There is no place in this lande so destitute of instructions, eyther by preaching or reading, that any man can iustly pleade ignorance in suche matters, and therefore séeing you haue no other arguments agaynst holydayes, but coniectures, and surmi∣ses, and they false and vntrue, or at the least not sufficient to alter a profitable or∣der in the Churche, holydayes maye still remayne and stande in their former force and strengthe.