A67922:1009
Acts and monuments of matters most special and memorable, happening in the Church. [vol.…Actes and monuments of matters most speciall and memorable, happenyng in the Church. [vol.…
Acts and monuments of matters most special and memorable, happening in the Church. [vol. 1] with an universal history of the same, wherein is set forth at large the whole race and course of the Church, from the primitive age to these latter times of ours, with the bloody times, horrible troubles, and great persecutions against the true martyrs of Christ, sought and wrought as well by heathen emperors, as now lately practised by Romish prelates, especially in this realm of England and Scotland. Newly revised and recognised, partly also augmented, and now the fourth time again published and recommended to the studious reader, by the author (through the help of Christ our Lord) John Fox, which desireth thee good reader to help him with thy prayer.Actes and monuments of matters most speciall and memorable, happenyng in the Church. [vol. 1] with an vniuersall history of the same, wherein is set forth at large the whole race and course of the Church, from the primitiue age to these latter tymes of ours, with the bloudy times, horrible troubles, and great persecutions agaynst the true martyrs of Christ, sought and wrought as well by heathen emperours, as nowe lately practised by Romish prelates, especially in this realme of England and Scotland. Newly reuised and recognised, partly also augmented, and now the fourth time agayne published and recommended to the studious reader, by the author (through the helpe of Christ our Lord) Iohn Foxe, which desireth thee good reader to helpe him with thy prayer.
London: printed by John Daye, 1583London: printed by Iohn Daye, 1583
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.
The same likewise is to be judged of the Epistles & ordinances of Telesphorus, 1who succeeded next unto Xistus, and being Bishop of that congregation the term of a 11, years, the first year of the reign of Antoninus Pius, dyed Martyr, about the year of our Lord. 138. His Epistle like unto the rest containing in it no great matter of doctrine,2 hath these ordinances: First he commandeth all that were of the Clergy to fast and abstain from flesh eating, vij. weeks before Easter. That three Masses should be said upon the Nativity day of the Lord. That no lay man should accuse either bishop or priest. He ordained moreover Gloria in excelsis, to be added to the Mass, &c. but these things falsely to be feigned upon him may easily be conjectured. For as touching the vij. weeks fast neither doth it agree with the old Roman term commonly received, calling it Quadragesima, 3that is the xl. days fast: neither with the example of our Saviour, who fasted not seven weeks but only xl. days. Moreover, as concerning this xl. days fast, we read of the same in the Epistle of Ignatius, which was long before Telesphorus: whereby it may appear that this Telesphorus was not the first inventor thereof. And if it be true, that is lately come out in the name of Obadiah (but untruly, as by many conjectures may be proved) there is read, that in the days of S. Matthew this Lent, fast of xl. days was observed long before Telesphorus: by ⟨p. 56⟩these words that follow: In the days said he, either of Lent, or in the time of other lawful fastings, he that abstaineth not as well from the eating meat as also from the mixture of bodies, doth incur in so doing not only pollution, but also committeth offence, which must be washed away with the tears of repentance.4 Again, Apollonius, affirmeth that Montanus the heretic, was the first deviser and bringer in of these laws of fasting into the Church, which before was used to be free. Euseb. Lib. 5. cap. 18. but especially by Socrates, writer of the Ecclesiastical story, who lived after the days of Theodosius, may be argued, that this vij. weeks fast is falsely imputed to Telesphorus. For Socrates in his first book, speaking of this time hath these words: