Chap. 2. the. 2. Diuision.
It is also manifest by these authorities, that Godfathers or suretyes were required at the baptising of Infantes: which Ter∣tullian also signifyeth in his booke de Baptismo. But you your selfe* 1.1 confesse Godfathers to be of great antiqnitie in the Churche of Christ, for you say that Higinus brought them in, and Higinus was the ninth Bishop of Rome, and liued. Anno. 141,
Touching the last, which you Rhetorically say, you will speake no∣thing of, that is, the euill choyse of witnesses; I thinke in part it is true, but you speake that without the booke, and therefore without my com∣passe of defense: For I meane not to take vpon me the defense of any abuse within the booke (if there be any) muche lesse without the booke.
For Godfathers there is no controuersie betweene the Admonition, and master Doctors booke, which appeareth not onely in their corrections, but plainly in the. 188. page, where they declare that they rather condemne the abuse, whilest it is vrged more than greater matters, and which are in deede necessarie, this being a thing arbitrarie, and left to the discretion of the Church,* 1.2 and whylest there is so euill choyse for the most part of Godfathers, which is expressedly mentio∣ned of the Admonition, and whilest it is vsed almost for nothing else but as a meane for one friende to gratifie an other, without hauing any regarde to the solemne promise made before God and the congregation, of seeing the childe brought vp in the nurture and feare of the Lorde. For the thing it selfe, considering that it is so generally receyued of all the Churches, they doe not mislike of it.
Peraduenture they are better aduised nowe than they were when they wrote