A07146:875
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.
Saving the Angels reverence whose number is infinite: I say plainly, that ye are greater than Angels, and do far excel their dignity largo modo loquendo. For to which of the Angels hath God given that, which he hath given to the priest?1 I mean. Whatsoever ye bind on earth, shall be bound also in heaven. Note: there are two keys, that is to say, of knowledge and of power, given of the Lord to blessed Peter and to other men: not to all men, but to Priests alone, and to their successors.2 For although God alone forgive sin, yet never or very seldom doth he forgive sin without his ministers, that is to say, Priests. Which thing may be proved by the Lepers, to whom, when the Lord had healed them, he said: Go: ⟨image 186⟩show your selves to the priests, and humbly obey them. And while they were going, they were made clean. It may also be proved by Lazarus, whom when the Lord had raised up; he said to his Disciples:3 Loose him and let him go. But wherefore did not the Lord himself loosen him from yt knots of the bindings, which had loosened him from the bonds of death? And wherefore did he not command Mary and Martha his sisters to loose him or his kinsfolk the Jews, which were nearer unto him by the course of nature, than the Disciples of the Lord? Verily to declare manifestly and to prove plainly that the power to loose and to bind is given of the Lord to priests alone. Behold, how great the goodness of God, and the worthiness of priests, is. For the Lord himself worketh good sometime even by them ye are evil: and that to this end, because the keys of the Church should not be despised or set at nought of the faithful. For although priests sometime have not thys power ex merito: yet have they it ex officio dignitatis. And ⟨p. 157⟩if any priest •e unworthy (which god forbid) it hurteth himself: it hindereth thee nothing at all. Behold, what great power is given to you priests, For your tongues are made the keys of heaven. O how great dignity,4