The second reply of Thomas CartwrightThe second replie of Thomas Cartwright

Whether the 4. First principal differences / between the bishops in times paste and ours now / be true, let the reader judge ¹off that hath been alleged. Likewise off the fifth / upon that which hath and shall be: against which he hath nothing but repetitions. Also whether the D knoweth any thing off order, that denieth this to be the place off mentioning the excommunication, in such sort as I did. ^bThat alleged out off the Council of Hispalis / touching that the elder ought not to preach in the bishop presence: is in a ^cCouncil supposed more ancient then the first Nicene / likewise it was observed in the African churches in ^dAugustine's time. And that it endured until the year off the Lord 659. when there were •rosse corruptions, tendeth to further condemnation off our Bishops / further out of fashion in that behalf / then those degenerate ones. and if this Council be not to be alleged for the corruptions, then how cometh it / that Volufianus in the year •65 / a bishop off a corrupter estate / (whose mass is grosser / then that off this Council) is made so godly a man? it is well known / that later Councils then this / and therefore (for the most part) corrupter: are cited off the godly learned / as testimonial traces of the Sincerity in purer times. That the elder by this canon, willed off the bishop might preach in his presence, is untrue: only it is said / that with the bishops commandment he might give absolution to the penitent / which was then (as now with us) an other thing ⟨p. DCXLVII⟩from preaching. That there hath been no time wherein there have been moe preaching bishops, then now with us: onles all be preachers / is untrue. seeing an unpreaching bishop was wont (as M. Call. proveth ⁵(to be a monster / and cried out on in very corrupt times. If our bishops be compared with the Popish in this point: they may be thought dutiful. but divers compared with bishops off ancient time / may well be accounted dumb. Considering their often preaching / the traces whereof are to be seen diversly: namely in the Council off Ments / before by me alleged. Whereunto serveth M. Hoppers saying / that the church at the beginning