A07146:303
The relics of Rome containing all such matters of religion, as have in times…The reliques of Rome contayning all such matters of religion, as haue in times…
The relics of Rome containing all such matters of religion, as have in times past been brought into the Church by the Pope and his adherents: faithfully gathered out of the most faithful writers of chronicles and histories, and now newly both diligently corrected & greatly augmented, to the singular profit of the readers, by Thomas Becon. 1563.The reliques of Rome contayning all such matters of religion, as haue in times past bene brought into the Church by the Pope and his adherentes: faithfully gathered out of the moste faithful writers of chronicles and histories, and nowe newly both diligently corrected & greatly augmented, to the singuler profit of the readers, by Thomas Becon. 1563.
London: printed by John Day, 1563London: printed by Iohn Day, 1563
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
And a little after he saith.
And a little after he sayth.
Whatsoever privileges be granted unto you of the church of Rome: yet do I not think that it is expedient for you to do any thing that is against your conscience,1 or to usurp the thing which is none of yours, what if ye had a commandment from that see of Rome, that wheresoever ye find Clerks, priests or monks riding, it should be lawful for you to unhorse them and to set them besides the saddle,2 yea and to retain the horses unto your own uses? Were it right and according to good conscience that ye should thus do? What difference is there, whether ye take away the horses or ⟨p. 44⟩the tithes, but that the tenth is a spiritual matter, and therefore it is a more grievous sin to steal away the tithes than the horses, yea it is plain sacrilege, and an utter robbing of god and of his Ministers? When God commandeth that tithes should be paid, who can give a dispensation contrary to his commandment? When the law of God commandeth one thing, and mans madness willeth the contrary: in this point we must obey God more than men. And when there be two laws, an outward and an inward law: verily the inward law ought to prevail and take place before the outward law evermore: and that which a pure and clear conscience saith unto me, ought more to be regarded, than the outward commandment of any man, yea it ought to put away and to make of no force all manner of indulgences, privileges, grants, immunities, liberties, freedoms, &c. Whatsoever they be that man granteth. If the Children of Israel at the commandment ⟨image 74⟩of the Lord for recompense of their long service, which they did to the unthankful Egyptians, toke away from them their vessels of Gold & Silver: yet is it not mete, that you should draw this unto your purpose, except ye be able to show, that the Lord hath commanded you thus to do, again, that you have long served us as Egyptians. It is therefore better for you and more seemly, that you cast away this your covetous ambition,