The apology of the Church of England, and an epistle to one Seignior Scipio…

24. GERSON complains,¹ that in his times all the force of Theology was degenerated into a mere contest of Wit and Sophistry. The Lugdunensian Brothers, ²a sort of men which were not ill as to their Lives, used to affirm, that the Church of Rome, from whence alone the Oracles of Faith were then fetched, was the Whore of Babylon; concerning which, such clear Predictions were in the Revelations, and that she was the Assembly of Hell. I know that the Authority of these Men is in no esteem with them; but what now would they say if I should produce Witnesses which are of the highest Value with them? What if I say that Pope Adrian ingenuously confessed,³ that all those Mischiefs fell upon the Church from the top of the Papal Power?⁴ Pighius confesseth that they erred in this, that they suffered many Abuses to be brought into the Mass, tho they would have it esteemed most ⟨p. 75⟩Holy. Gerson, ⁵that the multitude of light foolish Ceremonies, had extinguished all that Power of the Holy Spirit which should have flourished in us, and all that was truly Pious. All Greece and Asia complained that the Popes of Rome, by their Doctrines of Purgatory, and Sales of Indulgences, had both offered Violence to the Consciences of Men, and robbed their Purses.

24. GERSON complains,¹ that in his times all the force of Theology was degenerated into a meer contest of Wit and Sophistry. The Lugdunensian Brothers, ²a sort of men which were not ill as to their Lives, used to affirm, that the Church of Rome, from whence alone the Oracles of Faith were then fetched, was the Whore of Babylon; concerning which, such clear Predictions were in the Revelations, and that she was the Assembly of Hell. I know that the Authority of these Men is in no esteem with them; but what now would they say if I should produce Witnesses which are of the highest Value with them? What if I say that Pope Adrian ingenuously confessed,