Chancellor, Richard, -1556; Europe -- Description and travel; Russia -- Description and travel; Willoughby, Hugh, Sir, -1554
They maintain the opinions of the Greek Church; they suffer no graven
images of saints in their churches, but their pictures painted in tables
they have in great abundance, which they do adore, and offer unto and
burn wax candles before them, and cast holy water upon them, without
other honour. They say that our images, which are set up in churches,
and carved, have no divinity in them. In their private houses they have
images for their household saints, and, for the most part, they are put
in the darkest place of the house; he that comes into his neighbour’s
house doth first salute his saints, although he see them not. If any
form or stool stand in his way, he oftentimes beateth his brow upon the
same, and often, ducking down with his head and body, worshippeth the
chief image. The habit and attire of the priests and of the laymen doth
nothing at all differ; as for marriage, it is forbidden to no man: only
this is received, and held amongst them for a rule and custom, that if a
priest’s wife do die, he may not marry again nor take a second wife; and,
therefore, they of secular priests, as they call them, are made monks, to
whom then chastity for ever is commanded. Their divine service is all
done and said in their own language, that every man may understand it;
they receive the Lord’s Supper with leavened bread, and after the
consecration they carry it about the church in a saucer, and prohibit no
man from receiving and taking of it that is willing so to do. They use
both the Old and the New Testament, and read both in their own language,
but so confusedly that they themselves that do read understand not what
they themselves do say; and while any part of either Testament is read
there is liberty given by custom to prattle, talk, and make a noise; but
in the time of the rest of the service they use very great silence and
reverence, and behave themselves very modestly and in good sort. As
touching the Lord’s Prayer, the tenth man amongst them knows it not; and
for the Articles of our Faith and the Ten Commandments, no man, or, at
the least, very few of them, do either know them or can say them: their
opinion is that such secret and holy things as they are should not rashly
and imprudently be communicated with the common people. They hold for a
maxim amongst them that the old Law, and the Commandments also, are all
abolished by the death and blood of Christ; all studies and letters of
humanity they utterly refuse; concerning the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew
tongues, they are altogether ignorant in them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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