An apology, or answer in defence of the Church of England concerning the state…An apologie, or aunswer in defence of the Church of England concerninge the state…

¹But our Church say they, can not err, the which thing I suppose they speak much like as in time paste the Lacedaemonians were wont to say, that in the whole state of their common wealth it was not possible to find an adulterer: whereas in deed they were rather all adulterers, inasmuch as they coupled thenself in uncertain marriages, & occupied their wives together in common. Or as the Canonists,² for their bellies sake, are wont to speak now a days of the Pope: That he in that he is lord over all benefices, although he do sell for money Bishoprics, Abbeys, personages, and suffereth nothing freely to depart from him: nevertheless because he saith that all is his, though he would never so fain, he can not commit simony. But how this argument should be good, and how the words may agree with reason,³ we can not as yet surely perceive: except peradventure, like as the ancient Romans in time past dealt with Lady Victory, so these men, after that truth came flying unto them, they pulled of her wings, that never ⟨p. 48⟩after she should be able to fly from them. But what if Jeremiah say unto them, according as we said before, that these be the words of lies? What if the same man say again, that even they which ought to have manured the vineyard, have wasted and destroyed the Vineyard of the Lord? What if Christ say, that they which chiefly ought to have been careful over the Temple: of the Lords temple have made a den of thieves? But in case the Church of Rome can not err, then must it needs be that the happiness thereof is greater then the wisdom of these men. For such is their life, doctrine and diligence, that the Church may full well for all them not only err, but also perish utterly, and come to nothing. Doubtless if that Church may err which hath utterly gone astray from the word of God, from the commandments of Christ, from the ordinances of the Apostles, from the examples of the primitive Church, from the constitutions of the old fathers and ancient Councils, and from the very decrees of their own making: and which will not be kept in order with no laws, neither old nor new, neither of their own nor of others, neither of God nor of man: then is it most certain, not only that the Church of Rome might err, but also that most lewdly and shamefully it hath erred.