A18078:51
A reply to an answer made of M. Doctor Whitgifte Against the admonition to…A replye to an ansvvere made of M. Doctor VVhitgifte Against the admonition to…
A reply to an answer made of M. Doctor Whitgifte Against the admonition to the Parliament. By T.C.A replye to an ansvvere made of M. Doctor VVhitgifte Against the admonition to the Parliament. By T.C.
printed by John Stroud?, 1573
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.
¶ An answer to the whole Epistle to the Church.
¶ An answeare to the whole Epistle to the Church.
What causes either pulled you forward / or thrust you backward / to write / or not to write / and how in this dispute / with your self / in the end you were resolved to write in this sort / I leave it unto the judgement of the Lord / who only knoweth the secretes of the heart / and will in his good time unseal them. But if there be any place of conjecture / the hatred of contention / which you set down / as the first and principal cause / that beat you back from writing / might well have ben put / as the last and least / or rather none at all. For if peace had been so precious unto you (as you pretend) you would not have brought so many hard words / bitter reproaches / enemylike speeches (as it were sticks and coals) to double / and treble / the heat of contention. If the sharpness of the Admonition misliked you / and you think they outreached in some vehemency of words / how could you more effectually have confuted that / then to have in a quiet and mild spirit set them in the way / which (in your opinion) had left it? now in words condemning it / and approving it in your deeds / I will not say / that you do not so much mislike this sharpness / as you are sorry / that you are prevented / and are not the first in it: But this I may well say unto you / which he sayd: Quid verba audiam, cum facta videam? what should I hear words / when I see the deeds? In the fourth reason / whereby you were discouraged to write / if by backbiters / and unlearned tongs / viperous kind of men / not able to judge of controversies / carried away with affections / and blind zeal into divers sinister judgements / and erroneous opinions / you mean all those / that think not as you do in these matters: I answer for my self / and for as many as I know ⟨p. 9⟩of them / that they are they / which first desire (so it be truly) to hear / and speak all good of you. But if that be not / through your perseverance / in the maintenance of the corruptions of this church (which you should help to purge) then the same are they / that desire / that both the evil which you have done / and that which you have yet in your hart to do / may be known / to the less discredit of the truth and sincerity / which you / with such might and main do strive against.