A67927:1203
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 2] 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 2] 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.
But after that the Bishops of that Sea, seeking their own pride, and not Gods honour, began to set them selves above kings and Emperors, challenging to them the title of God's Vicars,1 the Dominion and Supremacy over all the world, I cannot but with saint Gregory a Bishop of Rome also, confess that the Bishop of that place is the very true Antichrist, whereof saint John speaketh by the name of the whore of Babylon, and say with the said saint Gregory: he that maketh himself a Bishop over all the world, is worse then Antichrist.2 Now, where as you say that saint Augustine should seem, not only to give such a prerogative, but also a supremacy to the sea of Rome, in that he saith, all the christian world is subject to the Church of Rome, and there, fore should give to that Sea a certain kind of subjection: I am sure that your Lordship knoweth that in saint ⟨p. 1759⟩Austin's time, there were four Patriarchs, of Alexandria, Constantinople, Antioch and Rome, which Patriarchs had under them certain Countries, as in England the Archbishop of Canterbury hath under him divers Bishoprics in England and Wales, to whom he may be said to be their Patriarch.3 Also your Lordship knoweth right well, that at what time saint Austin wrote this book, he was then Bishop in Africa. Farther you are not ignorant, that between Europe and Africa lieth the sea called Mare mediterranean, so that all the countries in Europe to him which is in Africa, may be called transmarine, countries beyond the sea. Here of S. Austen saith: Totus orbis Christianus in transmarinis & long remotis terris ecclesiae Romanae subiectus est. That is all the Christian Countries beyond the seas and far Regions, are subject to the sea of Rome. If I should say all Countries beyond the sea, I do except England, which to me now being in England, is not beyond the sea. In this sense saint Austin saith,4 all the Countries beyond the sea are subject to the sea of Rome, declaring thereby that Rome was one of the seas of the four Patriarchs, and under it Europe, by what subjection I pray you? only for a preeminence, as we here in England say, that all the Bishoprics in England, are subject to the archbishopric of Canterbury and York.