Convocation, an old clerical body, in which were assembled the most resolute partisans of the abuses, superstitions, and doctrines of the middle ages, was the real stronghold of Rome in England. To undertake to introduce the light and life of the Gospel into it was a rash and impracticable enterprise. The divine Head of the Church himself has declared that '_no man putteth new cloth to an old garment, neither do men put new wine into old bottles_.' There was but one thing to be done. Suppress the assembly and form a new one, composed of members and ministers of the Church, who acknowledge no other foundation, no other rule, than the Word of God. '_New wine must be put into new bottles._' Such a step as this would have helped powerfully to reform the Church of England really and completely. But it was not taken. [360] 'Pristina rediret amicitia.'—Da Casale to Cromwell. _State Papers_, vii. p. 643. [361] 'Proculdubio vestra Majestas omnia de ipso sibi polliceri possit.' This letter of the 27th of May, which is among the Cotton MSS. (Vitellius, B. xiv.), has suffered by fire, but is given almost entire by Turner in a note to the second volume of his History, pp. 483-5. [362] Letter from Campeggi to the duke of Suffolk, dated 5th of June, 1536.—_State Papers_, vii. p. 657. [363] 'Quid aliud quam Neronem fuisse caput ecclesiæ.'—R. Poli, _Pro Ecclesiasticæ Unitatis defensione_. Libri quatuor, 1555, without place, fol. 7, _verso_. [364] 'Sacerdos ergo tanquam vir populi erga regem patris personam gerit.'—_Ibid._ fol. 17, _verso_ 18-20. [365] 'Atque hoc Turcicum plane et barbarum.'—R. Polus, fol. 71, _verso_. Pole forgot that this reasoning applied still better to the popes than to Henry VIII. [366] 'Audeo autem jurare ne Lutherum quidem ipsum, si rex Angliæ fuisset, &c.'—R. Polus, fol. 75. [367] 'Corona se et sceptro abdicare coegerunt.'—_Ibid._ fol. 79, _verso_. [368] _De Vera Obedientia._ [369] _State Papers_, i. p. 459. [370] 'So help me God, all saints, and the Holy Evangelist.'—Collyers, ii. p. 119. [371] Wilkins, _Concilia_, iii. p. 805. [372] _Ibid._ p. 806. [373] _Ibid._ p. 807. [374] _Ibid._ p. 806. [375] St. Luke xi. 1-8. [376] Latimer's _Sermons_, p. 42. [377] Wilkins, _Concilia_, p. 43. [378] Curius Dentatus.—'Incomptis Curium capillis.' Horace. [379] Latimer's _Sermons_, p. 44. [380] Referring to himself. [381] Latimer's _Sermons_, p. 57. [382] 'Deprecor Majestatem tuam, ut tu Deus deleas iniquitatem meam.'—Wilkins, _Concilia_, p. 806. [383] The list of _mala dogmata_ is given by Collier. [384] Fuller, p. 213. [385] _Ibid._ [386] _Ibid._ [387] Preface to Alesius's treatise _On the Authority of the Word of God_. See also Anderson, _Annals of the Bible_, i. p. 451. In the history of the Reformation in Scotland we shall sketch the most remarkable traits of the life of Alesius. [388] 'Ye will conclude all things by the Word of God, without all brawling or scolding.'—Anderson, _Annals of the Bible_, i. p. 499.