Master Bezaes sermons upon the three chapters of the canticle of canticlesMaster Bezaes sermons vpon the three chapters of the canticle of canticles

11 Now this truth cannot be better understood & known then by comparing it unto the language of the Church of Rome at this day, which usurpeth the name of this spouse, & inviteth also her companions to contemplate Jesus, but God knoweth what Jesus Christ, whereof we will speak anon. But where to contemplate him? In a painted and material Image of wood or of stone. And what shall I there see? His remembrance say these deep contemplators. For that Image will tell you that he was crucified for sinners. Just. But first this manner of teaching is forbidden expressly by God in the second commandment, & elsewhere in infinite many places, and is such as in the time of saint Jerome himself was accounted execrable, as the Epistle of Epiphanius Bishop of Cyprus which he took pains to translate out of greek into latin, to this effect, declareth. Farther, what shall it prevail me to know and remember that Jesus Christ was crucified, if I know not what was the true cause of his death, the good that returneth to me thereby, and the mean to attain unto it? Now what can this ⟨p. 396⟩crucifix teach me of all this? For besides the form which is but a vain appearance, this crucifix is nothing else but a dead and corruptible matter. But say they this is taught by word of mouth. Nothing less. For if we consider but of their Curates, Vicars, Priors, or Abbots, Bishops, Archbishops, Primates, Cardinals, & especially their chief head, every one knoweth that not one among an hundred of them knoweth any more then doth the crucifix of wood or stone. And they who know any thing what account make they of preaching? On the other side if we consider of their service, as they call it, what is the people taught by it, sith it consisteth of nothing but of songs in an unknown tongue, beside the Idolatries & mere mockeries of God therein committed? For the rest, if happily some wa let-brother open his mouth sometimes in Advent or in Lent, what is their doctrine else as we have already many times showed in the exposition of this same Canticle, but so many blasphemies against all the parts of the office of Jesus Christ crucified? But besides this, what thing is it else but to mock God and all Christendom, to say that they teach these things as they ought, and yet do forbid the holy Scripture to be interpreted or read in the vulgar tongue, and such as all Christians understand?

11 Now this truth cannot be better vnderstood & known then by comparing it vnto the language of the Church of Rome at this daie, which vsurpeth the name of this spouse, & inuiteth also her companions to contemplate Iesus, but God knoweth what Iesus Christ, whereof we wil speake anon. But where to contemplate him? In a painted and materiall Image of wood or of stone. And what shal I there see? His remembrance say these deepe contemplators. For that Image will tell you that he was crucified for sinners. Iust. But first this manner of teaching is forbiddē expresly by God in the second commandement, & elsewhere in infinite many places, and is such as in the time of saint Ierome himselfe was accounted execrable, as the Epistle of Epiphanius Bishoppe of Cipers which hee tooke paines to translate out of greeke into latin, to this effect, declareth. Farther, what shall it preuaile me to know and remember that Iesus Christ was crucified, if I knowe not what was the true cause of his death, the good that returneth to me thereby, and the meane to attaine vnto it? Now what can this