A07146:888
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.
Guilihelmus Durandus saith,1 that the holy water hath deserved to have of God so great virtue, that as outwardly it washeth the body from filthiness: so inwardly cleanseth the souls from sins. O blasphemy intolerable. This is the goodly Godly Catholic doctrine, wherewith the ungoodly ungodly Papists infect the minds of such Christians, as are simple and light of belief, yea, wherewith they caste the souls of all such, as put their confidence and trust in these pilled, beggarly, and lousy ceremonies, into everlasting damnation. And yet must they be called laudable ceremonies, well worthy (and God will.) to be frequented and used in the Church of Christ. And the teachers of this doctrine, & the ministers of these ceremonies must alone be counted worthy ⟨image 189⟩to bear office in the Church, to be reputed and taken for the only pillars of our mother holy Church, to be had in estimation above all men, and to be reverenced as Gods of all men: and so many as be of contrary opinion,2 teaching that our whole salvation cometh only from God through faith in the blood of Christ, must be adjudged seditious persons, sowers of discord, authors of new learning, teachers of strange doctrine,3 and heretics. But as I may by conjecture speak my mind concerning this ceremony: I think verily, that as the ceremony of dealing holy bread on the Sundays (whereof we shall hereafter speak) was ordained of the fathers of Christs Church at that time, to put the people in remembrance of Christs body breaking: so likewise at the same time was this ceremony of water sprinkling brought into the Church to put the people in remembrance of Christs blood shedding on the altar of the Cross for their sins. But as the papists in process of time lost the signification of holy bread, & of all other ceremonies, & therefore joined unto the ⟨p. 160⟩certain doctrines of error & false faith, so likewise have they done in the ceremony of holy water.
Guilihelmus Durādus sayth,1