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

3. WE wonder (say you) that no Ambassadors from England are come to the Council. I beseech you Sir, are the English the only Nation who have not come to the Council? ⟨p. 148⟩Have you Sir been at the Council your self? Have you taken an exact Account? Have you told them exactly by Poll? Did you Sir, see there all the other Nations come together from all Parts of the World, except the English? But Sir, if you are so mightily in love with Wondering, why did you not admire this too, that neither any one of the three great Patriarchs of Constantinople, Antioch, nor Alexandria, nor Presbyter John, nor the Grecians, Armenians, Medes, Persians, Egyptians; those of Barbary, Ethiopia, or the Indies, did not come to the Council too? for is there not many in those Nations who believe in Christ? have they not Bishops? are they not by Name, and in reality Christians? And Sir, did Ambassadors come from all these Nations to the Council? or will you rather say the Pope did not call them, or that they are not bound by your Ecclesiastical Sanctions?

4. BUT Sir, we have much greater reason to wonder, that when the Pope hath beforehand condemned us, and publicly pronounced us excommunicated as Heretics, without ever hearing us make our Defence, or alleging any thing against us, he should afterwards call us to the Council; for to condemn and punish men first, and then to call them to Judgment, is a very absurd way of Procedure, a mere [Greek or Hebrew], a Cart before the Horses. But Sir, I would very gladly be informed if the Popes Intentions be to consult with us concerning Religion in this Council, whom he has condemned for Heretics, as I said, or if he intends we shall stand at ⟨p. 149⟩the Bar, and be obliged forthwith to change our Minds, or be immediately condemned again? one of these things is new or without Example, and stiffly denied to those of our Persuasion, by Pope Julius the third; and the other is ridiculous, if he thinks the English so silly, as to come to the Council for no other purpose but to be accused, and make their Defence as well as they can, and before his Holiness especially, who is long since accused himself, not only by us, but by his own party, of many great Crimes.