A confession of faith made by common consent of divers reformed churches beyond the…A confession of fayth made by common consent of diuers reformed churches beyonde the…

Another sort set before them selves the Councils & old Canons: to whom ¹they give glorious titles, as though thereby the concord of the Church might be recovered, but all in vain: for I do think that no man is now so ignorant, but that he doth know, that many Synods and Councils (I do speak of them that are not openly condemned) have decreed even in things concerning doctrine, not only darkly but also unlearnedly. Wherefore oftentimes the Provincials have been corrected by the General, and yet the Provincial hath sometimes judged more uprightly then the General. And that the truth was so, every one may easily perceive, that can compare Gā grensis ²Council with many that they ⟨image 16⟩call general. I pass over that thing which the very History of those times doth most manifestly prove, that in those which we may call the best times (if they be compared with the latter) there was partly such ambition of the Bishops, partly such a vain babbling ignorance, and of many of them such an open and desperate malice, that very ³blind men may easily see that Satan was the president of these assemblies. What now then if we do set before us the Councils assembled for a rule? since that time that most manifest tyranny hath oppressed the Church, such as that late Council of Trent was? Yea what if those best and most approved Councils determine nothing of any of the chief points of Religion, onlesse it be of one point or twain? Again, what if some be corrupted, their Epistles falsified, their decrees feigned, & forged Canons an infinite number crept into place? That fraud ⁴and craft of Boniface, then Bishop of Rome, which was perceived in the time of Augustine, in the African ⟨image 16⟩Council is not unknown: the which yet a certain foolish and most wicked Apostate, whose impudency also is well known, went about of late to excuse before thee (most noble Prince) To conclude, what have not these wicked men attempted? and what durst they not take in hand in these Countries, in the which things were lawful that they lusted? Thus much then for the Councils.