The Institution of Christian Religion

For the Lord hath concluded all under sins that all mouths might be stopped, and all flesh humbled before God, and he only justified and exalted.

For the Lorde hath concluded al vnder sinnes yt al mouthes might be stopped, and all fleshe humbled before God, and he onely iustified and exalted.

But I marvel with what face they dare affirm, that the confession whereof they speak, is of the law of God: the use whereof we grant in deed to be very ancient, butte such as we are able to prove in old time to have ben at liberty. Truly even their own chronicles declare, that there was no certain law or constitution of it before the times of Innocent the third. Surely if they had had a more ancient law, they would rather have taken hold thereof, than have been contented with the decree of the council of Lateran, and so made them selves to be laughed at,¹ even of children. In other things they stick not to come forged decrees, which they father upon the most ancient Councils, that they may with very reverence of antiquity dazzle the eyes of the simple. In this point, it came not in their mind to thrust in such a false pack. Therefore by their own witness, there are not yet passed three ⟨image 219⟩hundred years sins Innocent the third laid that snare upon men, & charged them with necessity of Confession. But, to speak nothing of the time: the very barbarousness of the words minisheth the credit of that law. For where these good fathers command every one of both kinds, male & female, ones every year to confess all his sins to his own priest, pleasant men do merrily take exception, that in this commandment are contained only Hermaphrodites, and sate that it belongeth not such a one as is either male or female only. Sins that time, a more gross beastesnesse hath bewrayed it self in their scholars, that can not expound what is meant By his own priest. Whatsoever all the Popes hired babblers do prate, we hold both that Christ was never the author of this law that compelleth men to reckon up their sins, and also that there passed a thousand and two hundred years from the resurrection of Christ before that any such law was made. And so, that this tyranny was then first brought in, when all godliness & learning being destroyed, the visors of Pastors had without choice taken all licentiousness upon them. Moreover there are evident testimonies both in histories and other ancient writers, which teach that this confession was a politic discipline redeemed by the bishops, not a law made by Christ or his Apostles. I will allege but one out of many, which shall be a plain proof thereof.