And I said; Sir, Saint Paul, that was a great doctor of holie church, speaking to the people, and teaching them in the right beleefe of this most holy sacrament, calleth it bread that we breake. And also in the Canon of the masse' after the consecration, this most worthy sacrament is called holie bread. And every priest in this land, after that he hath received this sacrament, saith in this wise; That thing that wee have taken with our mouth, we pray God that we may take it with a pure and cleane mind: That is, as I understand, wee pray God that we may receive through very beleefe, this holy sacrament worthily. And sir, Saint Augustine saith; That thing that is seene, is bread; but that mens faith asketh to be informed of, is very Christs bodie. And also, Fulgence an ententife doctor1 saith; As it were an error to say that Christ was but a substance, that is, very man, and not very God; or to say that Christ was very God, and not very man; so is it (this doctor saith) an errour to say, that the sacrament of the altar is but a substance; and also sir, accordingly hereto, in the secret of the mid masse' on Christmasse day, it is written thus; Idem refulsit Deus, sic terrena substantia nobis conferat quod divinum est; which sentence sir, with the secret of the fourth ferie, quatuor temporum Septembris'; I pray you sir declare here openly in English.

And the archbishop said to me, I perceive well enough whereabout thou art, and how the divell blindeth thee, that thou may not understand the ordinance of holy church, nor consent thereto. But I command thee now, answere me shortlie; beleevest thou that after the consecration of this foresaid sacrament, there abideth substance of bread or not?

And I said; Sir, as I understand, it is all one to grant or

• Canon of the masse.] In the whole of this paragraph, Thorpe closely follows the arguments of his master Wickliffe. See Lewis's History of Wickliffe, p. 79.

1 An ententife doctor.] "Ententif. (Fr.); busie, earnest, intentive, &c." Cotgrave.

2 Secret of the mid masse.] "Then after followeth a prayer secretly said, which is called the secret of the Mass; and that signifieth Christ's secret and privy conversation, which he kept with his disciples a little before his passion." Book of Ceremonies in Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol. i. p. 287, Records.

3 Quatuor temporum Septembris.] The fourth ferie (feria quarta) quatuor temporum Septembris may be easily found in any Breviary. The Quatuor tempora denote the fasting-days in the four Ember weeks; which in September are the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday next after the 14th.

beleeve, that there dwelleth no substance of bread, and to grant and to beleeve, that this most worthie sacrament of Christs owne body is accident without subject. But sir, for as mikle as your asking passeth my understanding, I dare neither denie it nor grant it, for it is schoole matter, about which I busied mee never for to know and therefore I commit this terme accidens sine subjecto, to those clerkes which delight them so in curious and subtle sophistry, because they determine oft so difficult and strange matters, and wade and wander so in them from argument to argument, with pro et contra, till that they wot not where they are, and understand not themselves. But the shame that these proud sophisters have to yeeld them to men, and before men, maketh them oft fooles, and to be concluded shamefully before God.

And the archbishop said to me; I purpose not to oblige thee to the subtle arguments of clerks, since thou art unable thereto : but I purpose to make thee obey to the determination of holy church.

5

And I said; Sir, by open evidence and great witnesse, a thousand yeere after the incarnation of Christ, the determination which I have here before you rehearsed, was accept of holy church as sufficient to the salvation of all them that would beleeve it faithfully, and worke thereafter charitablie. But sir, the determination of this matter was brought in, since the feend was loosed by frier Thomas Aquine, specially calling the most wor

• Without subject.] Compare above, Life of Wickliffe, note on p. 186. 5 Was accept of holy church.] This was expressly conceded, in after times, in the reign of queen Mary, by the learned and candid Tonstall, bishop of Durham, in his book De Eucharistia. P. 45. A.D. 1554. See also Life of Bernard Gilpin, in this collection.

• Since the feend was loosed.] "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." Revelation, chap. xx. ver. 1-3. To this passage in the Apocalypse, reference is here made by Thorpe, as it was by Wickliffe and his followers, on many other occasions, as prophetical, first, of the purer ages of Christianity, and also of the corruptions which overspread the church in the second millenary after Christ's ascension. See Lewis's History of Wickliffe, p. 87 and 124; Fox, p. 365, 6.

The words which follow, viz. "Frier Thomas Aquine," are printed thus in

shipfull sacrament of Christs owne bodie an accident without subject; which terme, since I know not that Gods law approveth it in this matter, I dare not grant, but utterlie I denie to make this friers sentence, or any such other, my beleefe; doe with me God what thou wilt.

And the archbishop said to me; Well, well, thou shalt say otherwise or that I leave thee.

But what saiest thou to this second point that is recorded against thee by worthie men of Shrewsburie, saying, that thou preachedst there, that images ought not to be worshipped in any wise?

And I said; Sir, I preached never thus, nor through Gods grace I will not at any time consent to think nor to say thus, neither privilie nor apertly. For loe, the Lord witnesseth by Moses, that the things which hee made were right good, and so then they were, and yet they are and shall be good and worshipfull in their kind. And therefore, to the end that God made them to, they are all praisable and worshipfull; and speciallie man that was made after the image and likenesse of God, is full worshipfull in his kind; yea, this holy image that is man, God worshippeth'. And herefore every man should worship other, in

all the editions of Fox, which I have had an opportunity of consulting; "Frier Thomas againe." The person intended is undoubtedly St. Thomas Aquinas; and the place cited may be found, Summa Theolog.: part 3, quest. 75, art. 5. I apprehend, therefore, that the alteration of "againe" into "Aquine" will be easily allowed of.

7 God worshippeth.] Thus in bishop Pecock's Treatise on the Rule of Faith, p. 35. "This holi lyver after his death is accepted into salvacioun, and to be reverencid and worschipid and folowid as for a savyd soule, and moche lovyd and worschipid of God."

The disputation between the archbishop and Thorpe upon this celebrated point, cannot be understood, without bearing in mind the ancient meaning of the word worship, of which we have traces still remaining in the marriage service, and in the word worshipful. It did by no means imply of itself so high a degree of reverence as we now usually apply to it. But, as Tyndal says, "worshipping and honouring, these two termes are both one."-Works, p. 269. The reader, who is desirous of further information upon the controversy respecting image worship at the commencement, and in the earlier years of the Reformation, will find much to his purpose by consulting Lewis's Life of Pecock, p. 79-114; Lewis's History of Wickliffe, p. 345–350; Fox, p. 369. 433. 518. 605, 606; Tyndal's Works, p. 269. 275; Barnes's Works, p. 335. 355; Sir Thomas More's Works, p. 113. 124. 187. 203. See also the index of this work, and that of the Christian Institutes, under Images, worship of.

kind, and also for heavenly vertues that men use charitably. And also I say, wood, tin, gold, silver, or any other matter that images are made of, all these creatures are worshipfull in their kind, and to the end that God made them for. But the carving, casting, and painting of an imagery, made within mans hand, albeit that this doing be accept of men of highest state and dignitie, and ordained of them to bee a calendar to leaud men, that neither can, nor will be learned to know God in his word, neither by his creatures, nor by his wonderfull and divers workings; yet this imagerie ought not to be worshipped in forme, nor in the likenesse of mans craft. Neverthelesse, that very matter the painters paint with, since it is Gods creature, ought to be worshipped in the kind, and to the end that God made and ordained it to serve

man.

Then the archbishop said to me, I grant well that no body, ought to doe worship to any such images for themselves. But a crucifix ought to be worshipped for the passion of Christ that

8 Images for themselves.] This was well enough said by the archbishop; and if he and his party would have stopped here, there needed to have been no more controversy on this point, or it would have been merely some verbal disputation about the force and import of the word "worship," or the like. The Lollards, Reformers, Protestants, all were willing enough to accede to the usage of images, as "calendars of lewd men," or "lay-men's books." But what availed this, when all the time, it is unquestionable, that the practice in the church differed very widely from the teaching in the schools: and that, by the connivance or encouragement, and for the direct gain of the clergy themselves? What else could be the meaning of the "engines that were in the images, whereby they could beckon, either with their heades or handes, or move their eyes, or manage some parte of their bodies, to the purpose that the freers and priests would use them?" (Works of William Thomas, p. 61.) Why do we hear so much of the miracles wrought at this shrine and at that? and of the blood of Hayles, or the blood of St. Januarius? The "rood of grace, at Boxley, in Kent, was able to bow down and lift up itself, to shake and stir the hands and feet, to nod the head, roll the eyes, bend the brows, and finally to represent a lively, significant show of a well-contented or displeased mind." (Lewis's Life of Pecock, p. 82.) Can we wonder then at the scandal occasioned by these things to reflecting minds; and at the zeal of Tindal, Bilney, and the like? Bernard Gilpin, we shall read below, in this collection, "was much troubled, hearing the papists condemn idolatry in their discourses, and yet permitting to the people every where the adoration of images." Again, he says: "I beheld for the space of three years at Paris, Antwerp, and Loraine, and in some other places, very gross idolatry. This thing did more and more estrange one from the popish religion: most of all because the learneder papists did in their disputations in the schools deny the adoration of images, yet allowed the intolerable use thereof in their churches."

is painted therein, and so brought therethrough to mans mind: and thus the images of the blessed Trinitie, and of the Virgin Marie Christs mother, and other images of saints, ought to be worshipped. For loe, earthly kings and lords which use to send their letters ensealed with their armes, or with their privie signet to them that are with them, are worshipped of these men. For when these men receive their lords letters, in which they see and know the wils and biddings of the lords, in worship of their lords they doe off their caps to these letters. Why not then, since in

• Doe off their caps to these letters.] This old custom must not be passed by without one or two notices, which will also afford further illustration to the archbishop's argument, "Saynt Austyn sayth, the mynde of Crystys passion puttethe awaye all temptacyons, and the power of all wycked spyrytes. And for this cause roodes and ymages ben set on hye in the chirche; for as soone as a man cometh into the chirche, he sholde see it, and have it in his mynde, and thynke on Crystys passion. Wherefore crosses and other ymages be full necessary and needefull, whatsomever these Lollers say: for and it had not be full profitable, holye faders wolde have destroyed them many yeres agone. For ryght as the people done worshyp to the kynges seale, not for love of the seale, but for reverence of the kyng that it cometh fro, so roodes and ymages be set for the kynges seale in heven, and other sayntes in the same wyse. For ymages ben lewde peples bokes; and as Johan Belet sayth, ther ben many thousandes of peple that can not ymagyn in ther hertes how Cryst was done on the crosse, but as they se by ymagis in the chirches, and in other places."-Festival, fol. 51. b. In so much favour was this argument, that even Sir Thomas More and bishop Gardiner condescended to make use of it. "When a man at the receite of his princes letter putteth off his cappe and kisseth it, doth he this reverence to the paper, or to his prince? In good faith to saie the trouth these heretiques rather trifle than reason in this matter. For where thei saie that ymages be but lay mennes bokes, thei cannot yet saie nay but that thei be necessary, if thei were but so." Works, p. 117. See Fox's Acts, p. 1219, 20. Letter of bishop Gardiner. By the time of the reign of Henry VIII. it should appear, that this courtesy was already contracted within narrower limits. In Coverdale's dedication of his translation of the Bible to that monarch, in which he inforces the king's supremacy with much zeal, he observes in the course of that argument, "as ther is nothing above God, so is ther no man above the king in his realme; but that he only under God is the chief head of all the congregation and church of the same. And in token that this is true, ther hath been of old antiquitie, and is yet unto this day, a loving ceremonie used in your realme of England, that when your grace's subjects read your letter, or begin to talk or commune of your highnesse, they move their bonnets for a sign and token of reverence unto your grace, as to their most sovereign lord and head under God, which thing no man useth to do to ony bishop: whereby if our understandyng were not blynded, we might evidently perceave, that even very nature teacheth us the same that scrypture commaundeth us." If this custom still any where remains, perhaps it may