A67926:5520
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.
We therefore desiring to proceed in the premisses more earnestly, as behooveth in things of most importance and meaning, to cut of the course of this pestiferous and cankered disease, lest it should spread it self further in the Lords field, like hurtful brambles or briers, and using upon the said errors, and every of them diligent trial, debating strait examination, ripe deliberation. And further, weighing and thoroughly sifting all and every of the same together with our reverend brethren,1 the cardinals of the church of Rome, the priors of the orders regular, or ministers general, also with divers other professors and masters of Divinity, & of both the laws, and those the best learned: do find the foresaid errors or articles respectively, as is aforesaid, not to be the catholic, nor to be taught as Catholic, but to be against the doctrine or tradition of the catholic Church, a•d against the true interpretation of holy Scripture, received by the same: to whose author Augustine thought we ought so much to lean, that he would not (as he said) have believed the Gospel, if the authority of the Church had not thereto moved him. For by these errors, or at least by some of them it followeth consequently, that the same Church which is guided by the holy Ghost, now doth, & ever hath erred, which is utterly against that which Christ at the time of his ascension (as we read in the holy Gospel of Matthew) promised to his Disciples, saying: I am with you until the end of the world, &c. and also against the determination of the holy Fathers, against the express ordinances or Canons of Councils and head bishops, whom not to obey, hath always been the cause and nurse of all heresies and schisms, as Cyprian doth witness.2 Wherefore by the counsel and assent of the said our reverend brethren, upon due consideration of all and singular the premisses, by the authority of almighty God, & of the blessed Apostles of Peter and Paul, and our own, we do condemn, reprove, and utterly reject all and singular the Articles or errors aforesaid respectively, as some to be heretical, some to be slanderous, some offensive to godly ears, or else seducing simple minds, and repugnant to the catholic truth, and by the tenor hereof, we here decree and declare that they ought of all christen people both men and women, to be taken as damned, reproved, and rejected.