A67926:2715
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. 2, part 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. 2, part 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
No title page in the transcription: set from the catalogue record.
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.
And if you be moved by your conscience, that you can not take the king your master as supreme head of the Church of England because the Bishop of Rome hath heretofore many years usurped that name universally over all the Church,1 under pretence of the Gospel of S Matthew,2 saying: Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church. Surely the text many of the most holy & ancient expositors, wholly do take to be meant of the faith, then first confessed by the mouth of Peter, upon which faith, confessing Christ to be the Son of God,3 the church is builded, Christ being the very lowest foundation stone, whereupon both the Apostles themselves,4 and also the whole faith of the Church of Christ by them preached through the world, is founded and builded, and other foundation none can be, but that only as S. Paul saith: No other foundation can any man lay, besides that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. And where you think that the Gospel of Luke proveth the same authority of the Bishop of Rome, saying: Peter, I have prayed for thee; that thy faith should not fail: and thou being once converted, confirm thy brethren, Surely that speaketh only of the fall of Peter known to Christ by his godly prescience, whereof he gave an inkling that after the time of his fall, he should not despair, but return again and confirm his brethren, as he ever being most fervent of them, was wont to do. The place doth plainly open it self that it can not be otherwise taken, but this to be the very meaning of it, and not to be spoken but to Peter:5 For else his successors must first fail in the faith and then convert, and so confirm their brethren. And where as you think that this place of the Gospel of John. Feed my sheep, was spoken only to Peter, and that those words make him shepherd over all, and above all:6 S. Peter himself testifieth the contrary in his canonical, Epistle, where he saith to all priests▪ Feed the flock of Christ which is among you: which he bade them do by the authority that Christ had put them in, as followeth: And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive the incorruptible crown of eternal glory. The same likewise Saint Paul in the Acts, testifieth saying: Give heed to your selves and to the whole flock,