A67922:121
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.
Now if ye grant (as ye must needs) this our christen religion to be spiritual, & not a corporal religion, then show if ye can, any one point of all these things which ye strive for so much with us, to be spiritual, but altogether corporal, & extern matters & ceremonial observations,1 nothing conducing to any spiritual purpose, as your outward succession of bishops, garments, vestures, gestures, colours, choice of meats, difference of days, times & places, hearing, seeing, saying, touching, tasting, numbering of beads, gilding & worshipping Images, building monasteries, rising at midnight, silence in cloisters, abstaining from flesh & white meat, fasting in Lent, keeping Ember days hearing mass & divine service, seeing & adoring the body in form of bread, receiving holy water, & holy bread, creeping to the cross, carrying palms, taking ashes, bearing candles, pilgrimage going, sensing, kneeling, knocking, altars, superaltars, candlesticks, pardons: In orders crossing, anointing, shaving, forswearing marriage: In baptism, crossing, salting, spatling,2 exorcising, washing of hands: At Easter ear• confession, penance doing, satisfaction: And in receiving with beards new shaven, to imagine a body, where they see no body: & though he were there present to be seen, yet the outward seeing & touching of him, of it self, without faith, conduceth no more, than it did to the Jews. At Rogation days, to carry banners, to follow the cross, to walk about the fields. After Pentecost, to go about with Corpus Christi play. At Hallowmas to watch in the church, to say a dirige & commendations, & to ring for all souls to pay tithes truly, to give to the high altar. And if a man will be a Priest, to say Mass & Matins, to serve the Saint of that day, and to lift well over his head. &c. In sickness to be aneled, to take his rites, after his death to have funerals, & obits said for him, and to be rung for at his funeral, month mind, and year mind. &c. Add moreover to these the outward sacrifi•• of the Mass, with opus operatum sine bono motu utentis. &c.
Now if ye graunt (as ye must needes) this our christen religion to be spirituall, & not a corporall religiō, thē shew if ye can, any one poynt of all these thinges which ye striue for so much with vs, to be spirituall, but altogether corporall, & externe matters & ceremoniall obseruations,