Sir John Cheek, Tutor to King Edward VI, 1551 We have loft our mafter, than whom the world fcarce held a greater, whether we confider his knowledge of true religion, or his integrity and innocence of life, or his in-. ceffant ftudy of holy things, or his matchlefs labour of promoting piety, or his authority and amplitude ofteaching, or whatever elfe was praife-worthy and glorious in him. Script. Anglican. pag. 864. John Sturmius of Strasburgh. No man can be ignorant what a great and constant opinion and eftimation of Bucer there is in Italy, France, and England. Whence the faying of Quintilian hath oft come to my mind, that he hath well profited in eloquence whom Cicero pleafes. The fame fay I of Bucer, that he hath made no fmall progrefs in divinity, whom Bucer pleases; for in his volumes, which he wrote very many, there is the plain impreffion to be difcerned of many great virtues, of diligence, of charity, of truth, of acuteness, of judgment, of learning. Wherein he hath a certain proper kind of writing, whereby he doth not only teach the reader, but affects him with the sweetness of his fentences, and with the manner of his arguing, which is fo teaching, and fo logical, that it may be perceived how learnedly he separates probable reafons from neceffary, how forcibly he confirms what he has to prove, how fubtilely he tefutes, not with sharpness but with truth. Theodore Beza, on the Portraiture of M. Bucer. This is that countenance of Bucer, the mirror of mildnefs tempered with gravity; to whom the city of Strafburgh owes the reformation of her church. Whofe fingular learning, and eminent zeal, joined with excellent wifdom, both his learned books, and public difputations in the general diets of the empire, fhall witness to all ages. Him the German perfecution drove into England; where honourably entertained by Edward the VIth, he was for two years chief profeffor of divinity in Cambridge, with greatest frequency and applaufe of all learned and pious men until his death, 1551. Bezæ Icones. F VOL. II. Mr. Mr. Fox's Book of Martyrs, Vol. III, p. 763. Bucer, what by writing, but chiefly by reading and preaching openly, wherein being painful in the word of God, he never spared himself, nor regarded his health, brought all men into fuch an admiration of him, that neither his friends could fufficiently praife him, nor his enemies in any point find fault with his fingular life, and fincere doctrine. A moft certain token whereof may be his fumptuous burial at Cambridge, folemnized with so great an afliftance of all the univerfity, that it was not poffible to devife more to the fetting out and amplify ing of the fame. Dr. Pern, the Popish Vicechancellor of Cambridge, his Adverfary. Cardinal Pool, about the fourth year of queen Mary, intending to reduce the univerfity of Cambridge to popery again, thought no way fo effectual, as to caufe the bones of Martin Bucer and Paulus Fagius, which had been four years in the grave, to be taken up and burnt openly with their books, as knowing that thofe two worthy men had been of greatest moment to the reformation of that place from popery, and had left fuch powerful feeds of their doctrine behind them, as would never die, unlefs the men themselves were digged up, and openly condemned for heretics by the univerfity itfelf. This was put in execution, and doctor Pern, vicechancellor,appointed to preach againft Bucer: who, among other things, laid to his charge the opinions, which he held of the marriage of priests, of divorcement, and of ufury. But immediately after his fermon or fomewhat before, as the Book of Martyrs for a truth relates, Vol. III, p. 770, the faid doctor Pern fmiting himfelf on the breaft, and in manner weeping, withed with all his heart, that God would grant his foul might then prefently depart, and remain with Bucer's; for he knew his life was fuch, that if any man's foul were worthy of Heaven, he thought Bucer's in fpecial to be most worthy. Hiftor. de Combuft. Buceri & Fagii. Acworth, the University-orator. Soon after that queen Elizabeth came to the crown, this condemnation of Bucer and Fagius by the cardinal and and his doctors was folemnly repealed by the university; and the memory of those two famous men celebrated in an oration by Acworth, the University-orator, which is yet extant in the Book of Martyrs, Vol. III, p. 773, and in Latin, Scripta Anglican. p. 936. Nicholas Carre, a learned man; Walter Haddon, mafter of the requests to queen Elizabeth; Matthew Parker, afterwards primate of England, with other eminent men, in their funeral orations and fermons, exprefs abundantly how great a man Martin Bucer was; what an incredible lofs England fuftained in his death; and that with him died the hope of a perfect reformation for that age. Ibid. Jacobus Verheiden of Grave, in his elogies of famous divines, Though the name of Martin Luther be famous, yet thou Martin Bucer, for piety, learning, labour, care, vigilance, and writing, art not to be held inferiour to Luther. Bucer was a fingular inftrument of God, fo was Luther. By the death of this moft learned and most faithful man, the church of Chrift fuftained a heavy lofs, as Calvin witneffeth; and they who are ftudious of Calvin are not ignorant how much he afcribes to Bucer; for thus he writes in a letter to Viretus: "What a manifold lofs befel the church of God in the death of Bucer, as oft as I call to mind, I feel my heart almoft rent afunder." Peter Martyr Epift. to Conradus Hubertus. He is dead, who hath overcome in many battles of the Lord. God lent us for a time this our father, and our teacher, never enough praifed. Death hath divided me from a moft unanimous friend, one truly according to mine own heart. My mind is overpreffed with grief, infomuch that I have not power to write more. I bid thee in Chrift farewel, and wish thou mayst be able to bear the lofs of Bucer, better than I can bear it. Testimonies given by learned men to Paulus Fagius, who held the fame opinion with Martin Bucer concerning divorce. Paulus Fagius, born in the Palatinate, became moft fkilful F 2 fkilful in the Hebrew tongue. Being called to the miniftry at Ifna, he published many ancient and profitable Hebrew books, being aided in the expenfes by a fenator of that city, as Origen fometime was by a certain rich man called Ambrofius. At length invited to Strafburgh, he there famoufly difcharged the office of a teacher; until the fame perfecution drove him and Bucer into England, where he was preferred to a profeffor's place in Cambridge, and foon after died. Bezæ Icones. Melchior Adamus writes his life among the famous German divines. Sleidan and Thuanus mention him with honour in their hiftory: and Verheiden in his elogies. To the PARLIAMENT. THE Book which, among other great and high points of reformation, contains as a principal part thereof, this treatise here presented, fupreme court of parliament! was, by the famous author Martin Bucer, dedicated to Edward the VI: whofe incomparable youth doubtless had brought forth to the church of England fuch a glorious manhood, had his life reached it, as would have left in the affairs of religion nothing without an excellent pattern for us now to follow. But fince the fecret purpofe of divine appointment hath referved no lefs perhaps than the just half of fuch a facred work to be accomplifhed in this age, and principally, as we truft, by your fuccefsful wifdom and authority, religious lords and commons! what wonder if I feek no other, to whofe exacteft judgment and review I may commend these last and worthieft labours of this renowned teacher; whom living all the pious nobility of thofe reforming times, your trueft and beft-imitated ancestors, reverenced and admired. Nor was he wanting to a recompenfe as great as was himself; when both at many times before, and efpecially among his laft fighs and prayers, teftifying his dear and fatherly affection to the church and realm of England, he fincerely wifhed in the hearing of many devout men, "that what he had in his laft book written to king Ed ward ward concerning difcipline might have place in this kingdom. His hope was then, that no calamity, no confufion, or deformity would happen to the commonwealth; but otherwife he feared, left in the midft of all this ardency to know God, yet by the neglect of difcipline, our good endeavours would not fucceed."* Thefe remarkable words of fo godly and fo eminent a man at his death, as they are related by a fufficient and well-known witness, who heard them, and inferted by Thuanus into his grave and ferious hiftory; fo ought they to be chiefly confidered by that nation, for whofe fake they were uttered, and more especially by that general council, which reprefents the body of that nation. If therefore the book, or this part thereof, for neceffary causes, be now revived and recommended to the ufe of this undifciplined age; it hence appears, that thefe reafons have not erred in the choice of a fit patronage for a difcourfe of fuch importance. But why the whole tractate is not here brought entire, but this matter of divorcement felected in particular, to prevent the full speed of fome mifinterpreter, I haften to difclofe. Firft, it will be foon manifeft to them who know what wife men fhould know, that the constitution and reformation of a commonwealth, if Ezra and Nehemiah did not mifreform, is, like a building, to begin orderly from the foundation thereof, which is marriage and the family, to fet right firft whatever is amifs therein. How can there else grow up a race of warrantable men, while the house and home that breeds them is troubled and difquieted under a bondage not of God's conftraining with a natureless constraint (if his moft righteous judg ments may be our rule) but laid upon us imperiously in the worft and weakest ages of knowledge, by a canonical tyranny of ftupid and malicious monks? who having rafhly vowed themselves to a fingle life, which they could not undergo,invented new fetters to throw on matrimony, that the world thereby waxing more diffolute, they alfo in a general loofenefs might fin with more favour. Next, there being yet among many fuch a ftrange iniquity and perverfeness against all neceffary divorce, while they will Nicol. Car. de abitu Buceri. F3 needs |