A04459:81
An apology or answer in defence of the Church of England with a brief…An apologie or answere in defence of the Churche of Englande with a briefe…
An apology or answer in defence of the Church of England with a brief and plain declaration of the true religion professed and used in the same.An apologie or answere in defence of the Churche of Englande with a briefe and plaine declaration of the true religion professed and vsed in the same.
Londini: printed by Reginald Wolfe, 1564
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
But O immortal God, and will the Bishop of Rome accuse us of treason? will he teach the people to obey and follow their Magistrates? or hath he any regard at all of the Majesty of Princes? why doth he then as none of the old Bishops of Rome heretofore ever did, suffer him self to be called of his flatterers,1 Lord of Lords, as though he would have all ⟨image 55⟩[…] and Princes, who and what […] they are, to be his underlings? […] doth he vaunt him self to be […] all kings, and to have kingly […] over his Subjects? why […] he all emperors & princes to swear […] and true obedience? Why […] that the Emperors […] is a thousandfold inferior to him and for this reason,2 specially because God hath made two lights in the heaven,3 and because heaven and […] were created not at two beginnings, but at on. Why hath he and his comp•tes (like Anabaptists and […], to the end they might run on more licentiously and carelessly) shaken of the yoke, and exempted themselves from being under all •ivell power? why hath he his Legates (as much to say as most s••tle spies) lying in wait in all […] Courts, Councils, and privy […]? why doth he, when he ly••, […] Christian Princes one against an ⟨image 56⟩other, and at his own pleasure trouble the whole world with debate and discord? why doth he excommunicate and command to be taken as a heathen and a Pagan any Christian prince that renounceth his authority? and why promiseth he his Indulgences & his pardons largely to any that will (what way soever it be) kill any of his enemies? Doth he maintain Empires and kingdoms? Or doth he once desire that common quiet should be provided for? You must pardon us good Reader, though we seem to utter these things more bitterly and bitingly then it becometh Divines to do. For both the shamefulness of the matter, and the desire of rule in the Bishop of Rome is so exceeding and outrageous, that it could not well be uttered with other words, or more mildly. For he is not ashamed to say in open assembly,