office, which Christ calleth speudoprophetas. i. false prophetes, & biddeth vs beware of them, saying they shal come in vestimen∣tis ouium, id est, in sheepes cloathing, and yet they may weare both satten, silke, and veluet, called afterwardes serui ne quam, nō pascentes sed percutientes conseruos, edentes & bibentes cum ebrijs, habituri tandem portionem cum hypocritis. They are cal∣led serui, seruauntes I trowe, quod ore confitentur Christum in carne: nequam vero, quia factis negant eundem, non dantes ci∣bum in tempore, dominum exercentes in gregem: And yet your frendes reason as though there coulde none barcke and bite at true Preachers, but they that be vnchristened, notwithstandinge that S. Austen vpon the same Epistle of Iohn calleth such confes∣sours of Christ, qui••ore confitentur, & factis negant, Antichristos: a straunge n••me for a Christian Congregation: and though S. Au∣gusten coulde defende his saying, yet his saying might appeare not to bee of God, to some mens iudgement, in that it breaketh the chayne of Christes charity, so to cause men to hate Antichri∣stianismum, Antichristes, according to the doctrine of S. Paule: sitis odio persequentes quod malum est. i. Hate that is euill: and so making diuision, not betwene christened and vnchristened, but betwene Christians and Antichristians, when neither penne nor toung can deuide the Antichristians from theyr blind folly. And I would you would cause your frends to read ouer S. Austen, vp∣on the Epistle of S. Iohn, and tell you the meaning thereof, if they thinke it expedient for you to know it, as I remember it is tracta∣tu. 3. but I am not sure nor certaine of that, because I did not see it since I was at Cambridge: and here haue I not S. Austins workes to looke for it: but well I wot, that there he teacheth vs to know the Christians frō the Antichristians, which both be christened, and both confesse Iesum esse Christum, if they be asked the que∣stion: and yet the one part denyeth it in very deed: but to knowe whether, non linguam sed facta attendamus, & viuendi genus, nū studeamus officia vocationis praestare an non studeamus, immo persuasi forte sumus non necesse esse vt praestemus, sed omnia in primitiuam ecclesiam & tempora praeterita. &c. quasi nobis sat sit dominari, & secula••ibus negotijs nos totos voluere, ac volupta∣tibus & pompae inhiare: and yet we will appeare, vel soli ex Deo esse: sed longe aliter Christum confitentur, qui confitēdo ex Deo esse comprobantur.
And yet as long as they minister the word of God or his Sa∣cramentes or any thing that God hath ordeined to the saluation of mankinde, wherewith GOD hath promised to be present, to worke with the ministration of the same to the end of the world, they be to be heard, to be obeyed, to bee honoured for Gods or∣dinaunce sake, which is effectuall and fruitefull, whatsoeuer the minister be, though he bee a Deuill, and neyther Churche, nor member of the same, as Origene saith, and Chrisostome, so that it is not all one to honour them, and trust in them, Saynt Hierome sayth: but there is required a iudgement, to discerne when they minister Gods woorde and ordinaunce of the same, and theyr owne, least peraduenture we take chalke for cheese, whiche wyll edge our teethe, and hinder digestion. For as it is commonlye sayd, the blinde eateth many a flye, as they did which were per∣swaded à principibus sacerdotum vt peterent Barrabam, Iesum autem crucifige••ent. i. Of the high Priestes, to aske Barrabas and to crucify Iesus: and ye know that to followe blinde guides is to come into the pit with the same. And will you know, sayth Saynt Augustine, how apertly they resist Christ, when men beginne to blame them for they•• misliuing, and intollerable secularity, & ne∣gligence? they dare not for shame blaspheme Christ himselfe, but they will blaspheme the ministers and preachers of whome they be blamed.
Therefore, whereas yee will pray for agreement both in the truth, and in vttering of the trueth, when shall that be as longe as we will not heare the trueth▪ but disquiet with crafty conueiance the Preachers of the trueth, because they reprooue our euilnesse with the truth, And to say trueth better it were to haue a defor∣mity in preaching, so that some would preach the truth of God, and that which is to be preached, without cauponation and adul∣teration of the word (as Lyranus sayth in his time few did, what they do now a dayes I report me to them that can iudge) then to haue such an vniformity, that the sely people should be thereby occasioned to continue still in theyr lamentably ignorance, cor∣rupt iudgement, superstition and Idolatry, and esteeme thinges as they doe all, preposterously, doyng that, that they neede not for to doe, leauing vndone that they ought to doe, for lacke or want of knowing what is to be done, and so shewe theyr loue to God, not as God biddeth (which sayth: Si diligitis me, praecepta mea seruate. And agayne: Qui habet praecepta mea & facit ea, hic est qui diligit me) but as they bid qui quaerunt quae sua sunt, non quae Iesu Christi. i. Which seeke theyr owne thinges: not Christes as though to tythe mynt were more, then iudgement, fayth, and mercy.
And what is to liue in state of Curates, but that hee taughte which sayd: Petre amas me? pasce, pasce, pasce: Peter louest thou feede, feede, feede: which is now set aside, as though to loue were to doe nothing els, but to weare ringes: miters, and rochets. &c. And when they erre in right liuing, how can the people but erre in louing, and all of the new fashion, to his dishonor that suffered his passion, and taught the true kinde of louing, whiche is nowe turned into piping, playing, and curious singing, which will not be reformed (I trow) nisi per manū Dei validam. And I haue both S. Austen, and S. Thomas, with diuers other, that lex is taken, not alonely for Ceremonies, but also for Mo••als, where it is sayd: N•• estis sub lege: though your frendes reproue the same. But they can make no diuision in a christian congregation. And whereas both you and they would haue a sobernes in our preaching, I pray god send it vnto vs, whatsoeuer ye meane by it. For I see well, whoso∣euer will be happy, and busye with vae vobis, he shall shortly after come coram nobis.
And where your frendes thinke that I made a lye, when I said that I haue thought in times past that the Pope had bene Lord of the world, though your frendes bee much better learned then I, yet am I sure that they knowe not what eyther I thinke, or haue thought, better then I, iuxta illud▪ nemo nouit quae sunt ho∣minis. &c. as though better men then I haue not thought so, as Bonifacius (as I remember) Octauus, the great learned manne Iohn of the burnt Tower: presbiter Cardinalis in his book where he proueth the Pope to be aboue the counsell Generall and Spe∣ciall, where he sayth that the Pope is Rex ••egum, & Dominus do∣minantium. i. The King of Kinges and Lord of Lordes, and that he is verus Dominus totius orbis, iure, licet non facto. i. the true Lord of the whole worlde by good right, albeit in fact he be not so: and that Constantinus didde but restore his owne vnto him, when he gaue vnto him Rome, so that in propria venit, as S. Iohn sayth Christ did, & sui eum non receperunt: and yet I heare not that any of our Christian congregation hath reclamed agaynste him, vntill now of late, dissention began. Who be your frendes I cannot tell: but I would you woulde desire them to be my good maysters, and if they will doe me no good, at the least way do me no harme: and though they can do you no more good then I, yet I am sure I would be as loth to hurt you as they, either with mine opinions, maner of preaching or writing.
And as for the Popes high dominion ouer al, there is one Ra∣phaell Maruphus in London, an Italian, and in times past a Mar∣chaunt of dispensations, which I suppose woulde dye in the qua∣rell, as Gods true Knight, and true Martyr. As touching Purgato∣ry, and worshipping of Sayntes, I shewed to you my minde before my Ordinary: and yet I maruelled something, that after priuate communication had with him, ye would (as it were) adiure mee to open my minde before him, not geuing mee warning before, sauing I cannot interpret euill your doinges towardes me: & yet neither mine Ordinary, nor you disalowed the thing that I sayd, and I looked not to escape better then Doctor Crome: ••ut whē I haue opened my mind neuer so much, yet I shall be reported to denye my preaching, of them that haue belyed my preaching, as he was. Sed opus est magna patientia ad sustinendas calumnias malignantis Ecclesiae.
Syr, I haue had more busines in my little cure since I spake with you, what with sicke folkes, and what with matrimonies, thē I haue had since I came to it, or then I would haue thought a man should haue in a great cure. I wonder how men can go quietly to bed which haue great cures and many, and yet peraduenture are in none of them all. But I pray you tell none of your frendes that I sayd so foolishly, least I make a dissention in a Christian Congre∣gation, and deuide a sweete and a restfull vnion, or tot quot, with haec requies mea in seculum seculi. Syr I had made an end of this scribling, and was beginning ••o write it agayne more truely and more distinctly, and to correcte it, but there came a man of my Lorde of Farleys, with a Citation to appeare before my Lord of London in haste, to be punished for suche excesses as I com∣mitted at my last being there, so that I coulde not perfourme my purpose: I doubt whether ye can read it, as it is. If ye can, well be it: if not, I pray you sende it me agayne, and that you so doe, whether you can reade it or not. Iesu mercy, what Worlde is this, that I shall be put to so greate laboure and paynes, besides great costes, aboue my power for preachinge of a poore simple Sermon? But I trow, our Sauiour Christ sayd true: Oportet pati, & sic intrare: tam periculosum est in Christo pie viuere velle: yea in a christian Congregation. God make vs all Christian, after the right fashion. Amen.
Here foloweth an other letter of M. Latimer writtten to K. Henry the 8. vpon this occasion. Ye heard before of two sondry Proclamations set out by the Byshops in the time of K. Henry, the one in the yeare 1531. and the other set out an. 1546. In the which proclamatiōs b••ing autho∣rised by the kinges name, were inhibited all english books either conteining or tending to any matter of the scripture. Where also wee haue expre••ed at large the whole Catalo∣gue of all theyr errors & heresies, which the sayd Bishops falsely haue excerpted, and maliciously imputed to Godlye writers, with theyr places and quotations, aboue assigned in the page aforesayd. Now M. Latimer growing in some fauor with the king, and seing the great decay of Christes religion by reason of these Proclamations, and touched