A73348:10
[The principal points which are at this day in controversy, concerning the holly supper…[The principal points which are at this daye in controuersie, concerning the holly supper…
[The principal points which are at this day in controversy, concerning the holly supper and of the mass.][The principal points which are at this daye in controuersie, concerning the holly supper and of the masse.]
London: printed by C. Barker, 1579
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.
Chapter .iii.
Whether Jesus Christ or his Apostles did ever ordain, say, or celebrate the Mass: and of the ancientie of the same, and of the workmen which laid their hands to the framing thereof, and of the pieces which have been added unto it by succession of time.
VVhether Iesus Christ or his Apostles did euer ordeine, saye, or celebrate the Masse: and of the ancientie of the same, and of the workmen which layed their handes to the framing thereof, and of the pieces which haue bene added vnto it by succession of time.
Thus much touching the foundation of their first reason, which is the strongest & the most apparent that they have. For if they cannot show ⟨image 3⟩that their Mass is of the institution of Jesus Christ, and of the ordinance of God, it must then necessarily be placed amongst the inventions and traditions of men, by the which God him self doth witness, not only by the mouth of the Prophet Isai, 1but also by that of his own son Jesus Christ, that he is served in vain. Wherefore, if this first foundation be already overthrown, the second which is founded upon the same, will also be forthwith overthrown. For if Jesus Christ did not institute such a Mass, nor his Apostles & their true successors did ever celebrate or know such an one, at the least for the time of six hundred years after the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ: where is that whereupon they will build the auncientie thereof, and the long and continual succession, and the common and public consent of all the Church, for so long a time wherewith they make them selves so great a buckler? It is here then needful to enquire, and to consider what difference there is between the Sacrament of the supper ordained by Jesus Christ, and that which is called the sacrament of the Altar in the Romish Church, and how long time the holy supper of the Lord did remain whole and perfect, and when it began to be changed, corrupted, overthrown, and converted into the same fashion that it now is in the Mass of the Romaine Church. For their own doctors can not