66 had been left unto her which she found herself apt for to love too much. And therefore as virtuous men have voluntarily disclosed their own infirmities (scratching as it were the face of beauty) lest others should too much admire them; so I persuade myself, that Master Calvin, if he now lived, would much worse esteem of your fond commendation, than of those speeches, which Mr. Hooker, out of judgment, doth write of him. He was doubtless, as Bishop Jewel calleth him, a reverend Father, and a worthy ornament of God's Church;" and surely, they do much amiss, who have sought by unjust slanders against him† (a thing too usual) to derogate from that truth, whose strength was not builded upon man's weakness. This therefore, being the practice of our adversaries, you ask Mr. Hooker, "What moved him to make choice of that worthy pillar of the Church above all other, to traduce him and to make him a spectacle before all Christians?" Give me leave to answer you for him, who undoubtedly would have given a far better answer for himself, if he had lived; There is not one word that soundeth in that whole discourse, to any other end, towards Master Calvin, but to shew, how his great wisdom wrought upon their weakness; his knowledge, upon their ignorance; his gravity, upon their inconstancy; his zeal, upon their disorders; only, to establish that government, which howsoever not necessary for other places, was fit enough peradventure for that town. Neither need the present inhabitants thereof, take it in evil part, that the faultiness of their people heretofore, was by Master Hooker so far forth laid open, seeing he saith no more than their own learned guides and pastors have thought necessary to discover unto the world. But "what," say you, "hath Master Calvin done against our Church, that he should be singled out as an adversary?" Surely that harm (though against his will) which never will be soundly cured, so long as our Church hath any in it to spurn at the reverend Authority of Bishops. For howsoever those Ecclesiastical Laws, established in Geneva (wherein notwithstanding are some strange things) might be fit enough to pass for statutes, for the government of a private College, or peradventure, some small University; yet to make them a Rule, for so great, so rich, so learned a kingdom as this is, must needs be a vain desire of novelty, idly to attempt; and, a thing in nature, impossible to perform. And therefore, he cannot be free, as an occasion, though no cause, of all those troubles which have disquieted our Church for these many years. But it may be Mr. Hooker spake not thus against Mr. Calvin of himself, but persuaded either by our adversaries, in whose mouth he is an invincible champion," or incited unto it by some of " the Reverend Fathers" of our Church; and * Defence of the Apol. Part II. p. 149. [Vol. I. p. 22.] § November 12, 1557. November 13, 1561. February 19, 1560. 66 + Bolsecus. therefore you desire him to resolve you in that point. Can it possibly be, that you should think him a man of so great simplicity, either to be moved to attempt it, by the persuasion of others, or having attempted it, that he must needs disclose it? Are all those flatterings of the Bishops; that alleging of their authorities, ended in this, To accuse them as Authors of doing that, which your conscience maketh you accuse to be evil done? Could you persuade yourself, that those Reverend Fathers, whose authorities you allege in the praise of Calvin, would be drawn to substitute another to dispraise him whom themselves commended? Is it not a thing differing from sense? void of reason? contrary to religion? And if that be a fault that Mr. Hooker is commended by our adversaries, in no construction, it can be concluded to be his fault. This peradventure, may commend them who are ready to approve learning, judgment, and moderation, even in those who are adversaries, but no way can touch those whom they thus commend: unless we make the conclusion to light heavily upon the best, both for place, wisdom, and learning, that our Church hath. Have not, in all ages, the Heathen thus commended the Christians? And did not Libanius thus think Gregory most worthy to succeed him, if he had not been a Christian? Can we in reason deny Julian his learning, because an Apostata? or Bellarmine, and others, because they have written against us? No, we willingly give them that due that belongs unto them, and hold it not unmeet to receive even from their mouths, without suspicion of treachery, that commendations which are but the recompense of a just desert. The terms of hostility are too violent and unreasonable, which deny us thus far to communicate with our very enemies. But, you say, this was pride in Mr. Hooker, to contemn all those of our own Church, as too weak to encounter with him; and therefore he must raise "Master Calvin out of his sweet bed of rest,' to contend against him. And here you uncharitably make a comparison betwixt Golias and Master Hooker; only you say "unlike" in this, that Golias was content to challenge "one living" and present in the army, "demanded, but chose not; sought for one, that was alive, and vaunted not over the dead;"† in all which respects by your censure, Master Hooker is more presumptuous. To speak the least which is fit to be answered in this place, surely, he which will take upon him to defend that there is no oversight in this accusation, must beware lest by such defences, he leave not an opinion dwelling in the minds of men, that he is more stiff to maintain what he hath spoken, than careful to speak nothing, but that which justly may be maintained. That he hath not shunned to encounter those, even the best of that faction in our land, your 66 selves can witness: that he named Mr. Calvin, only to this end, To shew the author of that Discipline which he was to handle, you must needs confess; that he rather reproved another State, than discovered the violent and uncharitable proceedings to establish it at home, it was his wisdom: for we know that the age present is corrected, when the age past is justly rebuked for the same fault.* And there cannot be a better means to cure our disorder at home, than by discovering the effects that it hath wrought abroad. Now, that which principally discovereth that you are not such as in the Title of this Letter, you term yourselves, is, that you make not Calvin, but Christ himself, the Author of this Discipline; who, as you say, raised up divers men in divers places," "as Ecolampadius, Zuinglius, Suychius, Philip, Bucer, Capito, and Myconius;" "and taught them, by the same Spirit, out of the same Holy Scripture, the same doctrine and commandment of truth and righteousness." In this you bewray what you are; and how truly you favour our present State, in giving so honourable testimony of that Church government, which hath been so much oppugned by the Fathers of our Church: nay, so much misliked by the Queen herself, as appeareth by her most eloquent speech against those Reformers. And, I must needs tell you, that those who have taken upon them the defence thereof, are only able to confirm it, not by places of Scripture, but by poor and marvellous slight conjectures collected from them. "I need not give instance in any one sentence so alleged, for that I think the instance of any alleged otherwise not easily to be given. A very strange thing sure it were, that such a Discipline as you speak of should be taught by Christ and his Apostles in the Word of God, and no Church ever hath found it out, nor received it till this present time; contrariwise, the government against which you bend yourselves, to be observed every where through all generations and ages of the Christian world, no Church ever perceiving the Word of God, to be against it. Find but one Church (one is not much) upon the face of the whole earth, that hath been ordered, by your Discipline, or hath not been ordered by ours, that is to say, by Episcopal regiment, sithence the time that the blessed Apostles were here conversant. But you complain of it as an injury,'§ That men should be willed to seek for examples and patterns of governments in any of those times, that have been before." It is to small purpose, that some daughter Churches have learned to speak their mother's dialect. In one word to conclude this article, "such is naturally our affection, *"Ætas præsens corrigitur dum præterita suis meritis objurgatur." GREGOR. [Vol. I. p. 23, passim.] The Queen's Oration; in the Parliament, 29 Martii, 1585. that whom in great things we mightily admire, in them we are not persuaded willingly that any thing should be amiss. The reason whereof is, that as dead flies putrify the ointment of the apothecary, so a little folly, him that is in estimation for wisdom." This, in every profession, hath too much authorized the judgments of a few: this with Germans hath caused Luther, and with many other Churches Calvin, to prevail in all things. But thou, O Lord, art only holy, Thou only art just, who permittest the worthiest vessels of thy glory, to be in some things blemished, with the stain of human frailty, even for this cause, lest we should esteem of any man above that which behoveth."+ ARTICLE XX. OF SCHOOLMEN, PHILOSOPHY, AND POPERY. PHILOSOPHY telleth us (if it be lawful for me to use so much philosophy) that natural motions in the end are swifter, but violent are more slow; and therefore, heavy things, the lower they descend, do move faster; and, by so much also they move slower, by how much they ascend higher. It seemeth that the accusations in this Letter were such, as had their first motion, rather from the violence of some affection, than from any natural inclination to understand the Truth. For surely, though I take not upon me to censure any man (being myself clothed with so many wants), yet in my weak opinion, those, that would desire a "resolution" of such things, as "overthrow the foundation of the Church amongst us," which in your Letter you profess, should hardly esteem the right use of Philosophers and School learning, to be an accusation of that kind. So that whereas, at the first your objections seemed to move with a greater strength, now in the end, they grow weak like the stroke of a man that is half tired. But I have small reason to complain of this, which is mine own advantage: for without the armour of other learning, only in the strength of reason, I durst encounter a stronger man than myself, in this, wherein you accuse Master Hooker; that the right use of Schoolmen, and Philosophers, is no hindrance, or disgrace to true Divinity. And therefore, whereas you charge him, that "in all his discourse for, the most part, Aristotle and the ingenious Schoolmen, almost in all points have some finger;" and, "that reason is highly set up against Holy Scripture," and such like: I verily persuade myself, that herein he hath committed no unlawful thing. For those School employments are acknowledged by grave and wise men, not unprofitable to have been invented; the most approved for learning and judgment do use them without blame; the use of them hath been well liked by those that have written in † [Vol. I. p. 39.] Vol. II. p. 444. Eccles. x. 1. this kind. The quality of the readers of his books, though not of the most, yet of those whom the matter concerned most, was such as he could not but think them of capacity very sufficient to conceive harder learning than he hath used any. The cause he had in hand, did in my opinion necessarily require those Schoolmen and philosophers that he hath used: for, where a cause is strangely mistaken, for want of distinctions, what other way was there for him, but by distinctions to lay it open, that so it might appear unto all men, whether it were consonant to truth or no? And although you and I, peradventure, being used to a more familiar and easy learning, think it unmeet to admit, approve, or frequent the Schools; yet our opinions are no Canons for Master Hooker. And, although you, being troubled in mind, do think that his writings seem like fetters, and manacles; yet no doubt he hath met both with readers and hearers more calmly affected, which have judged otherwise. But it is a strange presumption in my opinion, for private men, such as profess themselves to be but "common Christians,"* (which your writings, besides your own confession, do make manifest) to prescribe a form, either of writing or teaching, so plain and familiar, or rather indeed so empty and shallow, that no man may doubt, how unlearned soever, to give his censure. Must all knowledge be humbled so low that it must stoop to the capacity of the meanest reader? But the Fathers, say you, have misliked it. Indeed I confess, there is an overmuch use, which is evil in all things where there is not an absolute necessity. Besides, things comparatively spoken, in regard of true understanding of the Scriptures, is no rule for warrant that they are to be misliked simply. For Stapleton himself confesseth, in his cautions of expounding the Scripture, that the Schoolmen have not a certain, and infallible authority of interpreting; which as to maintain must needs be great simplicity, so to dislike all use of them is intolerable unthankfulness.§ But, in this accusation, it is not apparent what you mean, when you allege out of Luther," that Schooldivinity hath banished from us the true and sincere divinity." If this were the direct judgment of Luther, to condemn all School-divinity; yet it is a strange opposition to allege the sentence of one man against the practice and authorities of the best Fathers. Neither do we understand which it is (the old or new) that so much offends you; by old, we mean that scholastical kind of expounding, which the most eloquent Fathers lately coment from the Schools of Rhetoricians, and Philosophers, have brought with them, to the interpreting of Holy Scriptures; that thus they might be able to teach, to delight, to persuade; a matter fitting all, but not easy for any that is not excellently * Vol. II. p. 401. § Lib. x. cap. 11. + Cranmer, Luther. [Vol. II. p. 444.] [Vol. II. p. 444.] |