and they died not the everlasting death, though they died the common. They saw that the heavenly meat was visible and corruptible, and they spiritually understood by that visible thing, and spiritually received it."

This Homily was appointed publicly to be read to the people in England on Easter-day, before they did receive the communion. The like matter also was delivered to the clergy by the bishops at their synods, out of two other writings of the same 125 Elfrick; in the one whereof, directed to Wulfsine, Bishop of Sherburne, we read thus: "That housel is Christ's body, not bodily, but spiritually: not the body which he suffered in, but the body of which he spake, when he blessed bread and wine to house the night before his suffering, and said by the blessed bread, This is my body; and again by the holy wine, This is my blood, which is shed for many in forgiveness of sins." In the other, written to Wulfstane, Archbishop of York, thus: "The Lord which hallowed housel before his suffering, and saith that the bread was his own body, and that the wine was truly his blood, halloweth daily by the hands of the Priest bread to his body and wine to his blood in spiritual mystery, as we read in books. we read in books. And yet notwithstanding that lively bread is not bodily so, nor the selfsame body that Christ suffered in; nor that holy wine is the Saviour's blood which was shed for us, in bodily thing, but in spiritual understanding. Both be truly, that bread his body, and that wine also his blood, as was the heavenly bread which we call manna, that fed forty years God's people, and the clear water which did then run from the stone in the wilderness was truly his blood, as Paul wrote in one of his Epistles."

Thus was priest and people taught to believe in the Church of England toward the end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh age after the incarnation of our Saviour Christ. And therefore it is not to be wondered, that when Berengarius shortly after stood to maintain this doctrine, 126 many both by word and writing disputed for

125 Impress. Londini cum Homilia Paschali, et MS. in publica Oxoniensis Academiæ Bibliotheca, et Colleg. S. Be. nedict. Cantab.

126 Sigebert. Gemblac. et Guliel. Nangiac. in Chronic. ann. 1051. Conrad. Bruwilerens. in Vita Wolphelmi, apud Surium, April. 22.

him; and not only the English, but also all the French almost and the Italians, as 127 Matthew of Westminster reporteth, were so ready to entertain that which he delivered. Who though they were so borne down by the power of the Pope, who now was grown to his height, that they durst not make open profession of that which they believed; yet many continued, even there where Satan had his throne, who privately employed both their tongues and their pens in defence of the truth, as out of Zacharias Chrysopolitanus, Rupertus Tuitiensis and others, I have 128 elsewhere shewed. Until at length, in the year 1215, Pope Innocent the Third, in the Council of Lateran, published it to the Church for an oracle, that "129 the body and blood of" Jesus Christ are truly contained under the forms of bread and wine; the bread being transubstantiated into the body, and the wine into the blood, by the power of God." And so are

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we now come to the end of this controversy, the original and progress whereof I have prosecuted the more at large, because it is of greatest importance; the very life of the Mass and all massing priests depending thereupon. There followeth the third point, which is

OF CONFESSION.

OUR Challenger here telleth us, that the Doctors, Pastors and Fathers of the primitive Church "exhorted the people to confess their sins unto their ghostly fathers." And we tell him again, that by the public order prescribed in our Church, before the administration of the holy communion, the Minister likewise doth exhort the people, that "if there be any of them which cannot quiet his own conscience, but requireth further comfort or counsel," he should come to him or some other discreet and learned Minister of God's word, and open his grief, that he may receive such ghostly counsel, advice and comfort, as his conscience may be relieved; and that by the ministry of God's word he

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127 Flor. Histor. ann. 1087.

128 De Christian. Eccles. Success. et Stat. edit. ann. 1613, p. 190–192, et 208.

129 Cujus corpus et sanguis in sacra

mento altaris sub speciebus panis et vini veraciter continentur; transubstantiatis pane in corpus, et vino in sanguinem potestate divina. Concil. Lateran. cap. i.

may receive comfort and the benefit of absolution, to the quieting of his conscience and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness." Whereby it appeareth, that the exhorting of the people to confess their sins unto their ghostly fathers maketh no such wall of separation betwixt the ancient Doctors and us, but we may well for all this be of the same religion that they were of, and consequently that this doughty champion hath more will than skill to manage controversies, who could make no wiser choice of points of differences to be insisted upon.

Be it therefore known unto him, that no kind of Confession, either public or private, is disallowed by us, that is any way requisite for the due execution of that ancient power of the keys which Christ bestowed upon his Church. The thing which we reject is that new picklock of sacramental Confession, obtruded upon men's consciences, as a matter necessary to salvation, by the canons of the late Conventicle of Trent, where those good Fathers put their curse upon every one that either shall "deny that sacramental Confession was ordained by divine right, and is by the same right necessary to salvation;" or shall affirm that in the Sacrament of Penance it is not by the ordinance of God necessary, for the obtaining of the remission of sins, to confess all and every one of those mortal sins, the memory whereof by due and diligent premeditation may be had, even such as are hidden, and be against the two last Commandments of the Decalogue, together with the circumstances which change the kind of the sin; but that this Confession is only profitable to instruct and comfort the penitent, and was anciently observed only for the imposing of canonical satisfaction." This doctrine, I say, we cannot but reject, as being repugnant to that which we have learned both from the Scriptures and from the Fathers.

1Si quis negaverit, Confessionem sacramentalem vel institutam, vel ad salutem necessariam esse, jure divino, &c. Anathema sit. Concil. Trident. Sess. XIV.

Can. 6.

* Si quis dixerit, in sacramento pœnitentiæ ad remissionem peccatorum necessarium non esse jure divino, confiteri omnia et singula peccata mortalia, quorum me

moria cum debita et diligenti præmeditatione habeatur, etiam occulta et quæ sunt contra duo ultima Decalogi præcepta, et circumstantias quæ peccati speciem mutant, sed eam confessionem tantum esse utilem ad erudiendum et consolandum pænitentem, et olim observatam fuisse tantum ad satisfactionem canonicam imponendam, &c. Anathema sit. Ibid. Can. 7.

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For in the Scriptures we find, that the confession which the penitent sinner maketh to God alone, hath the promise of forgiveness annexed unto it, which no priest upon earth hath power to make void upon pretence that himself or some of his fellows were not first particularly acquainted with the business: I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid: I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. And lest we should think that this was some peculiar privilege vouchsafed to the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the same sweet psalmist of Israel doth presently enlarge his note, and inferreth this general conclusion thereupon: For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. King Solomon, in his prayer for the people at the dedication of the temple, treadeth just in his father's steps. If they turn, saith he, and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly; if they return to thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, &c. forgive thy people which have sinned against thee all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee. And the poor publican, putting up his supplication in the temple accordingly, God be merciful to me a sinner, went back to his house justified, without making confession to any other ghostly father, but only the Father of spirits; of whom St John giveth us this assurance, that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Which promise, that it appertained to such as did confess their sins unto God, the ancient Fathers were so well assured of, that they cast in a manner all upon this confession, and left little or nothing to that which was made unto man. Nay, they do not only leave it free for men to confess or not confess their sins unto others, which is the most that we would have; but some of them also seem, in words at least, to advise men not to do it at all, which is more than we seek for.

3 Psalm xxxii. 5.

42 Sam. xxiii. 1.

5 Psalm xxxii. 6.

62 Chron. vi. 37, 39; 1 Kings viii. 47, 50. 7 Luke xviii. 13, 14.

8 Heb. xii. 9.

91 John i. 9.

St Chrysostom of all others is most copious in this argument, some of whose passages to this purpose I will here lay down: 10 It is not necessary," saith he, "that thou shouldest confess in the presence of witnesses: let the enquiry of thy offences be made in thy thought; let this judgment be without a witness; let God only see thee confessing." "Therefore I intreat and beseech and pray you, that you would continually make your confession to God. For I do not bring thee into the theatre of thy fellow-servants, neither do I constrain thee to discover thy sins unto men: unclasp thy conscience before God, and shew thy wounds unto him, and of him ask a medicine. Shew them to him that will not reproach, but heal thee. For although thou hold thy peace, he knoweth all." " 12 Let us not call ourselves sinners only, but let us recount our sins, and repeat every one of them in special. I do not say unto thee, Bring thyself upon the stage, nor, Accuse thyself unto others; but I counsel thee to obey the prophet, saying, Reveal thy way unto the Lord. Confess them before God, confess thy sins before the Judge, praying, if not with thy tongue, yet at least with thy memory; and so look to obtain mercy." 66 1 But thou art ashamed to say that thou hast sinned. Confess thy faults then daily in thy prayer. For do I say, Confess them to thy fellow-servant, who may

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10 Nunc autem neque necessarium præsentibus testibus confiteri: cogitatione fiat delictorum exquisitio, absque teste sit hoc judicium. Solus te Deus confitentem videat. Chrysost. Homil. de Penitent. et Confession. Tom. v. edit. Latin. Col. 901, edit. Basil. ann. 1558.

11 Διὰ τοῦτο παρακαλῶ καὶ δέομαι καὶ ἀντιβολῶ ἐξομολογεῖσθαι συνεχῶς τῷ Θεῷ. οὐδὲ γὰρ εἰς θεατρόν σε ἄγω τῶν συνδούλων τῶν σῶν, οὐδὲ ἐκκαλύψαι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἀναγκάζω τὰ ἁμαρτήματα. τὸ συνειδὸς ἀνάπτυξον ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ αὐτῷ δεῖξον τὰ τραύματα, καὶ παρ' αὐτοῦ τὰ φάρμακα αἴτησον. Δεῖξον τῷ μὴ ὀνειδίζοντί σε, ἀλλὰ θεραπεύοντι, καν γὰρ σὺ σιγήσῃς, οἶδεν ἐκεῖνος ἅπαντα. 14. circa finem Hom. v. περὶ ἀκαταλήστου, de incomprehensib. Dei Natur. Tom. vi. edit. Græc. D. Hen. Savil. p. 424, et Tom. v. p. 262, 263.

σε

12 Μὴ ἁμαρτωλοὺς καλῶμεν ἑαυτοὺς μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ ἁμαρτήματα αναλο γισώμεθα, κατ ̓ εἶδος ἕκαστον ἀναλέγοντες. Οὐ λέγω σοι, Εκπόμπευσον σαυτὸν, οὐδὲ, Παρὰ τοῖς ἄλλοις κατηγόρησον, ἀλλὰ πείθεσθαι συμβουλεύω τῷ προφήτῃ λέγοντι, Ἀποκάλυψον πρὸς Κύριον τὴν ὁδόν σου. ἐπὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ ταῦτα ὁμολόγησον, ἐπὶ τοῦ δικαστοῦ ὁμολόγει τὰ ἁμαρτήματα, εὐχόμενος, εἰ καὶ μὴ τῇ γλώττῃ, ἀλλὰ τῇ μνήμῃ, καὶ οὕτως ἀξίου ἐλεηθῆναι. Id. in Epist. ad Hebr. cap. xii. Homil. XXXI. Tom. Iv. Savil. p. 589.

18 Ἀλλ ̓ αἰσχύνῃ εἰπεῖν, διότι ἥμαρτες. λέγε αὐτὰ καθ ̓ ἡμέραν ἐν τῇ εὐχῇ σου. καὶ τί ; μὴ γὰρ λέγω, Εἰπὲ τῷ συνδούλῳ τῷ ὀνειδίζοντί σε; εἰπὲ τῷ θεῷ τῷ θεραπεύοντι αὐτά. οὐ γὰρ, ἐὰν μὴ εἴπῃς, ἀγνοεῖ αὐτὰ ὁ Θεός. Id. in Psal. L. Hom. 11. Tom. I. Savil. p. 708.