1570 Edition | Book 2 | Page 171 
ned of the auncient ordinaunce of oure foreelders. Marginalia25. q. 2. cap. in Galliarum.But as concerning the bishop of Britaine, we commit them al to your brotherhood, that þe ignorant may be taught, the infirme by persuasion may be confirmed, the wylful by autoritie may be corrected.
MarginaliaThe churching of women.As concerning the churching of women after they haue trauailed: where ye demaunde after howe many dayes they ought to go to the church, this you haue learned in the olde law, that for a man child. 30. daies, after a woman childe. 66. daies be appointed her to kepe in: Albeit this you must take to be vnderstand in a mistery. For if she should the houre after her trauayle enter into the Church to geue thankes, she committed therin no synne. For why the lust and pleasure of the flesh, and not the trauayle and payne of the flesh is synne. In the coniunction of the flesh is pleasure, but in the trauayle and bringing forth of the childe is payne and groning. As vnto the mother of al it is sayd: In sorrowe thou shalt trauayle. Therfore ifwe forbid the woman after her labor to enter þe church,MarginaliaHe speaketh here after the custom of that tyme. thē what do we els but count þe same the punishment geuen vnto her, for synne? Therfore for the woman after her labour to bee baptised: either that which she hath trauailed foorth (if present necessitye of death doth so require) yea in the selfe same houre, either she that hath brought foorth, either that which is borne in the same houre when it is borne, to be baptised wee do not forbid.
[Back to Top]Moreouer, for the man to companye with his wyfe, that he must not: before the childe that is borne be wayned. MarginaliaMothers that nurse not their owne children reprehended.But now there is a leude and naughty custome rysen in the condicion of maried folkes, that mothers doo contemne to nourse their own children, which they haue borne, but set them to other womē out to nourse: which seemeth onely to come of the cause of incontinency. For whyle they wyl not contayne themselues, therfore they put from them their children to nourse. &c.
[Back to Top]As concerning the woman in her menstruous course whether she ought to enter the church? To this I aunswer: she ought not to be forbid. For the superfluitye of nature in her ought not to bee imputed for anye fault, neyther is it iust that she shoulde bee depriued of her accesse to the church, for that which she suffereth agaynst her wyll. And if the woman did wel, presuming in touching the Lordes coate in the tyme of her bloudye issue:why then may not that be graunted vnto al women infirmed by the fault of nature, which is commended in one person done in her infirmitie? Therfore to receaue the mistery of the holy Communion, it is not forbidden them. Albeit if shee dare not so far presume in her great infirmitie, she is to be praysed: but if she do receiue, she is not to be iudged. For it is a point of a good mynde in some maner to acknowledge hys synnes there, wher is no synne: because many times that is done wtout fault, which commeth of faulte. As when we be hungrye, we eate without fault, notwithstanding it commeth by the fault of our fyrst father to vs that we are hungry. &c.
[Back to Top]Where ye aske, if a man after the company with his wife may resorte to the church or to the holy communion, before he be purged with water: The lawe geuen to the olde people, commaunded that a man after the companye with his wife, both shoulde be purified with water, and also should tarye the Sunnes set before he came to the congregation. Which seemeth to be vnderstand spiritually: for then, most true it is, that the man companieth with the woman, whan hys minde through delectation is ioyned to vnlawfull concupiscence in hys hart and cogitation. At what time, before the sayde fyre of concupiscence shall be remoued, let þe person thinke himselfe vnworthie the entraunce to þe congregatiō through the viciousnes of his filthie will. But of this matter sondry nations haue euery one their sundry customes: some one way and some an other. The auncient maner of the Romaines from our forefathers hath bene, that in such case, first they purge themselues with water, then for a litle they abstaine reuerently, & so resort to þe church, &c.
[Back to Top]And after many other words debated of this matter, thus he inferreth: but if any person not for voluptuousnes of the fleshe, but for procreation of children, do companye with his wife, that man concerning either the cōming to the church, or the receauing of the mysterye of the Lordes body & bloud, is to be left to his own iudgement: for he ought not to be forbid of vs, to come, which when he lyeth in the fire, will not burne, &c.
[Back to Top]There is an other question also to these adioyned, with his answere likewyse to the same, concerning pollutions in the night, but I thought these at thys present to our englishe eares, sufficient.
To returne now to the storye againe, Gregorye after he had sent these resolutions to the questions of Austen, sendeth moreouer to the Church of England moe coadiutors, and helpers: as Mellitus, Iustus, Panlinus, and Ruffinianus, with bookes and such other implements as he thought necessarie for þe english church. He sendeth moreouer to þe foresayd Austen a palle, with letters wherin he setteth an order betwene the two Metropolitane seates, the one to be at London, the other to be at Yorke. Notwithstanding, he graunteth to the said Austen during his life to be the onely chiefe Archbishop of all the land: And after hys time, then to returne to the two foresayd seates of London and Yorke, as is in the same letter conteined, the tenour wherof here followeth in his own wordes as ensueth.