A confutation of the Popes bull which was published more then two yeres agoe against Elizabeth the most gracious Queene of England, Fraunce, and Ireland, and against the noble realme of England together with a defence of the sayd true Christian Queene, and of the whole realme of England. By Henry Bullinger the Elder.

¶This discourse is concluded, and here is shewed that the sentence of Pope Pius the fifth published against the most vertuous Queene of England, and all her whole noble Realme, is vt∣terly fond and of none effect.

BUt to what purpose serueth so déepe repetyng of these thinges will some man say? Surely all these thinges serue to this purpose, that it may appeare manifestly by them, yea & be perceiued euē of the most simplest sort of all, that this fulnesse of power & souereintie ouer all kings & kyngdomes, which the sayd Pope Pius the fifth braggeth of in hys Bull, to be giuen vnto himselfe and to all By∣shops of Rome, is nothyng els but Bullyng or Bublyng, that is to say nothyng els but a most vayne forgerie, or ra∣ther a deuilish and cursed lye deuised, found out, and forced vpon the people of God, by the Popes themselues and by flattering clawbackes of their owne stamp. For Christ ne∣uer gaue any such thyng either to Peter or to the other A∣postles. Neyther did Peter leaue any whit thereof to his successors: so as I may well say, that the Popes are no∣thing lesse than the successors of Simon Peter, but rather the successors of Simon Magnus. Moreouer the Lord in his Gospell not once nor darckely, but most openly com∣maundeth byshops to obey kinges, and not to raigne ouer them. And therefore the Apostles and the first byshops of the Romane Church, were ministers of the Church, yea and martyrs, but not Princes of nacions: and they yelded due obedience vnto Princes. What maner of men the lat∣ter byshops of Rome be and haue bene, who stepping aside from the footsteppes of the fathers, haue both vniustly vsur∣ped and cruelly executed, the sayd fulnesse of power, wher∣of they now make their boast, they are knowen to all men, not by their vertues but by their unspeakeble outrages. What els remayneth then, but that the sentence of Pope Pius the fift (who as he sayth himselfe is mounted vp into the throne of Iustice to geue iudgement) which he by the fulnesse of his power hath geuen and pronounced defini∣tiuely by publishing it against the most vertuous Quéene of England and the noble Realme of England, is vtterly nothing and of none effect, because it is but a vayne, a fai∣ned, and counterfet power, by force wherof this disguised

Iudge hath geuen sentence, not as a Iudge, but as a ty∣raunt, and Antichrst.

Therefore O England (happie euen in the same res∣spect) when thou séest the Romish thunderbolts which the Bull spreddeth into the whole world, to be throwen and darted agaynst thée: thou must thinke it is but a new Ita∣lian Cacus that puffeth out again his vaine flashes of fire, from those his shadie dennes of meant Auentine blinded with much mist, and dazeleth the sight of blearied folke with black fogginesse and darcknes mixt with fire. They that haue receiued their eysight by the grace of God, know well inough what that fond Salmonean lightener is, namely euen the man of sinne, & the child of damnation, as the Apostle saith, which is lifted vp against all that is cal∣led God or the power of God, in so much as he sitteth in the temple of God, boasting himselfe to be God. Therfore the godly and those that be enlightened beleue that God bles∣seth their curssages and curseth their blessinges▪ and there∣fore that his excommunications are nothing to be feared.

Surely from the time that these men executed that vn∣measurable power of theirs in the Church, they haue bene so farre from holding Gods people together in the vnitie of the spirit, or from bringing them to their Sauiour, that they rather dispersed them & pulled them away from them their Sauiour. Which thing the matter it self bewrayeth.