A15057:343
An answer to the Ten reasons of Edmund Campian the Jesuit in confidence whereof…An ansvvere to the Ten reasons of Edmund Campian the Iesuit in confidence wherof…
An answer to the Ten reasons of Edmund Campian the Jesuit in confidence whereof he offered disputation to the ministers of the Church of England, in the controversy of faith. Whereunto is added in brief marginal notes, the sum of the defence of those reasons by John Duræus the Scot, being a priest and a Jesuit, with a reply unto it. Written first in the Latin tongue by the reverend and faithful servant of Christ and his Church, William Whitakers, Doctor in Divinity, and the Kings Professor and public reader of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. And now faithfully translated for the benefit of the unlearned (at the appointment and desire of some in authority) into the English tongue; by Richard Stock, preacher in London. ...An ansvvere to the Ten reasons of Edmund Campian the Iesuit in confidence wherof he offered disputation to the ministers of the Church of England, in the controuersie of faith. Whereunto is added in briefe marginall notes, the summe of the defence of those reasons by Iohn Duræus the Scot, being a priest and a Iesuit, with a reply vnto it. Written first in the Latine tongue by the reuerend and faithfull seruant of Christ and his Church, William Whitakers, Doctor in Diuinitie, and the Kings Professor and publike reader of Diuinitie in the Vniuersitie of Cambridge. And now faithfully translated for the benefit of the vnlearned (at the appointment and desire of some in authoritie) into the English tongue; by Richard Stocke, preacher in London. ...
London: printed by Felix Kyngston for Cuthbert Burby and Edmund Weaver, 1606London: printed by Felix Kyngston for Cuthbert Burby and Edmund Weauer, 1606
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.
Against this Tyrant you oppose Constantine, and make a needless digression in his commendation, rather to fill up room, then frame a reason. For to what end rehearse you these things; Constantine quieted the Church, was baptized by Sylvester Bishop of Rome, used the sign of the cross, had Helen to his mother, joined himself to the Fathers of Nice, commended himself to the prayers of Anthony, chose the lowest place in the Synod, ergo, what will you infer? From this loose ware cannot you evince your Church to be the true Church, unless you strain them very violently. Constantin•• indeed brought peace unto the Church in her most troublesome time, and adorned and honoured it with all the preferments and possessions he could, and since his time, as she increased in wealth, so she decreased ⟨p. 314⟩in piety. Whereas you say, that Constantine sent for Sylvester from Soracte, that he might be baptized by him with our baptism, you might better have said, that Sylvester was fetched from heaven to baptize Constantine, for Sylvester died many years before Constantine was baptized, as is manifest out ofu Eusebius, Socrates, Theodorus, Z•zomen, 2who have recorded the baptism of Constantine to have been not whiles he was young, but in his age, not by Sylvester of Rome, but by Eusebius of Nicomedia, an Arian Bishop. Now Sylvester was extreme old when Constantine was a young man. He used the sign of the cross which he had seen in the air as an Ensign, declaring himself thereby the soldier of Christ, and an enemy of Tyrants. But that he worshipped or adored this cross, you shall never approve. As concerning his* place in the Council it skilleth not greatly: for what if he chose the lowest seat amongst the Bishops?4 but you think he did it rather forced by necessary duty then moved by voluntary humility: mark then what Eusebius writes. When he was come to the chief place, he stood up in the middest of the assembly, and there, when a little seat made of gold was brought for him, he sate down. Here you see that Constantine sate in the highest place, a seat of gold, which was the chiefest, and above all the rest, as Zzomen relates. But these your proofs are passing strange, they strengthen the cause of your Pope excellently well.