A07405:61
A godly and learned assertion in defence of the true church of God, and…
A godly and learned assertion in defence of the true church of God, and of His Word written in Latin by that Reverend Father D. Philip Melanchthon, after the convention at Ratisbona, anno 1541 ; translated into English by R.R.A godly and learned assertion in defence of the true church of God, and of His Woorde written in Latine by that Reuerend Father D. Philip Melancthon, after the conuention at Ratisbona, anno 1541 ; translated into English by R.R.
London : Imprinted at London at the three Cranes in the Vinetree by Thomas Dawson, 1580
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.
Furthermore when the ungodly multitude hath authority in the Church,1 it ordaineth many false and wicked things in the name and under the title of the Church. Such alike multitude first embraced the application of Masses, for the quick and dead, & moreover the estimation of vows, and worshipping of Saints: afterwards the very example of these things did hurt the godly. And such a multitude, decreed in a certain Synod, that marriages of Priests should utterly be taken away.2 For it oftentimes comes too pass in the church, that ungodly persons of excellent wits boldly challenge unto themselves the ordinance of religion, by mans wisdom: who when they be not moved or ⟨p. 9⟩affected by the word of God, but are led thereunto by the imagination of reason, and seek for apt opinions for their purposes, do breed wicked errors,3 like as Samosatenus, Arius, and Pelagius. Others seek to establish merits, or seek for fair kind of government, good ordering of the people and with these causes are moved to the institution & heaping up of sundry ceremonies,4 as the Monks do,5 as Gregory did, and as at this day the Popes,6 bishops, Princes, & many learned men, (desiring to ordain a form of the church) are moved with mans wisdom: & rejecting the word of God, will establish a church according to their own imaginations, neither do they see it is a horrible impiety to slide away from the word of God, to seek god without his word, to ordain means & manner of worshipping god, by mans opinion, without the express commandment of god, to change the true opinions, & oppress the purity of gods word.
Furthermore when the vngodly multitude hath autority in the Churche,1