Anglican Communion -- Apologetic works; Church of England -- Apologetic works
self, but his flock: that he doth not entangle himself with the worldly
cares of this life: that he doth not use a sovereignty over the Lord's
people: that he seeketh not to have other men minister to him, but
himself rather to minister unto others: that he taketh all bishops as his
fellows and equals; that he is subject to princes, as to persons sent
from God: that he giveth to Caesar that which is Caesar's: and that he,
as the old bishops of Rome did without any question, calleth the emperor
his lord. Unless, therefore, the popes do the like now-a-days, and Peter
did the things aforesaid, there is no cause at all why they should glory
so of Peter's name, and of his succession.
Much less cause have they to complain of our departing, and to call us
again to be fellows and friends with them, and to believe as they
believe. Men say, that one Cobilon, a Lacedaemonian, when he was sent
ambassador to the king of the Persians to treat of a league, and found by
chance them of the court playing at dice, he returned straightway home
again, leaving his message undone. And when he was asked why he did
slack to do the things which he had received by public commission to do,
he made answer, he thought it should be a great reproach to his
commonwealth to make a league with dicers. But if we should content
ourselves to return to the Pope, and to his popish errors, and to make a
covenant not only with dicers, but also with men far more ungracious and
wicked than any dicers be; besides that this should be a great blot to
our good name, it should also be a very dangerous matter, both to kindle
God's wrath against us, and to clog and condemn our own souls for ever.
For of very truth we have departed from him, who we saw had blinded the
whole world this many a hundred year: from him, who too far
presumptuously was wont to say, "he could not err," and whatsoever he did
"no mortal man had power to condemn him, neither kings, nor emperors, nor
the whole clergy," nor yet all the people in the world together; no, and
though he should carry away with him to hell a thousand souls from him
who took upon him power to command, not only men, but even God's angels,
to go, to return, to lead souls into purgatory, and to bring them back
again when he list himself: whom Gregory said, without all doubt, is the
very forerunner and standard-bearer of Antichrist, and hath utterly
forsaken the Catholic faith, from whom also these ringleaders of ours,
who now with might and main resist the gospel, and the truth, which they
know to be the truth, have ere this departed every one of their own
accord and goodwill, and would even now also gladly depart from him, if
the note of inconstancy and shame, and their own estimation among the
people, were not a let unto them. In conclusion, we have departed from
him, to whom we were not bound, and who had nothing to say for himself,
but only I know not what virtue or power of the place where he dwelleth,
and a continuance of succession.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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