A reply unto M. Hardinges answerA replie vnto M. Hardinges ansvveare

Now touching the number, and iteration of the Mass, first we have good and ancient authority for (197)¹ two Masses in one Church in one day. That eloquent and Holy Father Leo the first, writeth thus to Dioscorus the Bishop of Alexandria. Volumus illud quoque custodiri, ut cum solennior Festivitas conuentum populi numerosioris indixerit, & ad eam •anta multitudo conuenit, quae recipi Basilica simul una non possit, Sacrificij Oblatio indubitanter iteretur: ne ijs tantùm admi•sis ad hanc Devotionem, qui primi aduenerint, videantur ij, qui postmodum confluxerint, non recepti. Cùm plenum pie•atis atque rationis sit, ut quoties Basilicam, in qua agitur, praesentia novae plebis impl•uerit, toti•s Sacrificium subsequens offeratur. This order we will to be kept, that, when a number of people cometh to Church together at a solemn feast, if the multitude be so great as may not well be received in one Church at once, that the Oblation of the Sacrifice hardly be done again, lest if they only should be admitted to this Devotion, who came first, they that come afterward may seem not to be received:² For as much as it is a thing full of Godliness, and reason, •hat how oftentimes the Church, where the service is done, is filled with a new company of people, so oftentimes the Sacrifice there eftsoons be offered.