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539 [539]

K. Edw. 3. Diuers learned men against the pope. Actes and Mon. of the church.

gueth also agaynst the cloysterers, which leauing the onely and true sauiour, set vp to them selues their Fr?ciscans, theyr Dominickes, and suche other: and haue them for their Sauiours, gloryeng and triumphing in them, and fayninge manye forged lyes vpon them. He was greatly and much offended with Monkes and Friars, for neglecting or rather burieng the word of Christ, and in steede of him, for celebrating and setting vp theyr own rules and Canons, affirmyng it to be much hurtfull to true godlynes, for that priestes, monkes, & n?nes do account themselues onely spirituall, and all other to be lay and secular, attributing onely to themselues the opinion of holynes, and contemning other men, wyth all their politicke administration, and the office as prophane in comparison of their own. He further wryteth that Antechrist hath seduced all Vniuersities and Collegies of learned men, so that they teache no sincere doctrine, neyther geue anye lyght to the Christians wyth their teaching. Finallye, he forewarneth that it will come to passe, that God yet once agayne wyll rayse vp godly teachers, who being feruent in the spirite & zeale of Helias, shall disclose and refute the errours of the Antichrist, and Antichrist hym selfe, openlye to the whole world. This Mathias in the sayd booke of Antichrist alledgeth the sayinges and writinges of the Vniuersitye of Paris, also the writinges of Gulielmus desancto amore, and of Militzius aforenoted.

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MarginaliaIoannes Mountziger protest?t against the pope.
1384.
About the same tyme, or shortlye after, an. 1384. we reade also of Iohannes of Mountziger, Rector of the vniuersity of Vlme  

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The account of Mountziger is taken from Matthias Flacius, Catalogus testium veritatis (Strausburg, 1562), p. 523.

, who openly in the scholes in his orati? propounded that the bodye of Christ was not God, and therefore not to be worshipped as God with that kynde of woorshyp called latria,  
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Latria is the worship that is reserved for God alone; Dualia, by contrast, is the reverence due to the saints and the Virgin Mary.

as the Sophister tearmeth it, meaning thereby the sacrament not to be adored, which afterward he also defended by wryting: affirming also that Christ in his resurrection tooke to hym agayne all hys blood which in hys passion he had shed. Meanyng thereby to inferre, that the blood of Christ which in many places is worshipped, neyther can be called the blood of Christ, neyther ought to be worshipped. But by and by he was resisted and wythstoode by the Monkes and Friers: who by this kynd of Idolatry were greatly enriched, tyl at length the Senate and councell of the citie was fayne to take vp the matter betwene them.

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MarginaliaNilus the archbishop of Thessalonica, an.Nilus was Archbishop of Thessalonica, and lyued muche about this tyme  

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Foxe drew his account of Nilus from Matthias Flacius, Catalogus testium veritatis (Strausburg, 1562), p. 520.

. He wrote a long woorke agaynst the Latines  
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I.e., against the Roman Catholics.

, that is, against suche as tooke part and held wyth the church of Rome. Hys booke first being written in Greke, was after translated in latin, and lately now into English, in this our tyme  
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Foxe is referring to Nilus Cabislas, A briefe treatise, conteyning a playnedeclaration of the popes usurped primacy…, trans. T. Gressop (London, 1560), STC4325. This is a translation of Nilus Cabislas, De primatu papae. Flacius did not mention this translation; this citation is Foxe's insertion into the text.

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. In the fyrst chapiter of his booke, he layeth all the blame and faulte of the dissention and schisme betwene the East and the West church vpon the Pope. He affirmed that the pope onely woulde commaunde what hym listed, were it neuer so contrary to all the old and a?cient canons. That he would heare & folow no mans aduise: that he would not permit any free co?cels to be assembled. &c. And that therefore it was not possible, that the controuersies betwene the Greeke church and latin church, should be decided and determined.

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In the seconde chapiter of his booke, he purposedlye maketh a very learned disputati?. For first he declareth that he no whyt at all by God commaundement, but onely by humane law hath any dignity, more then hath other bishops: whych dignity, the Councels, the fathers, and the Emperours haue graunted vnto hym: Neither did they graunt the same for anye other consideration more, or greater ordinance: then for that the same citye then had the Impery of all the whole world: and not at all for that that Peter euer was there, or not there.

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Secondarely he declareth, that the same primacie orprerogatiue is not such and so great as he and his Sicophantes do vsurpe vnto them selues. Also he refuteth the chiefest propositions of the Papistes one after an other. He declareth that the pope hath no dominion more then other Patriarches haue, and that he himselfe may erre as well as other mortall men: and that he is subiect both to lawes and councels, as well as other bishops. That it belongeth not to hym, but to the Emperour, to cal generall councels: and that in ecclesiasticall causes he coulde establishe and ordayne no more then all other Bishops might. And lastly, that he getteth no more by Peters succession, then that he is a bishop, as all other bishops after the Apostles be. &c.

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MarginaliaIacobus Misnensis and Militzius.I cannot among other, folowing here the occasion of this matter offered, leaue out the memorye of Iacobus Misnensis, who also wrote of the comming of Antichrist  

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Apparently through inadvertance, the following two paragraphs were repeated after having been printed just a few pages earlier. The material in these paragraphs was taken from Matthias Flacius, Catalogus testium veritatis(Strausburg, 1562), p. 524.

. In the same he maketh mencion of a certain learned man, whose name was Militzius, which Militzius (sayth he) was a famous and woorthy preacher in Parga  
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This account of Militizius and of the papal bull denouncing him comes from Matthias Flacius, Catalogus testium veritatis (Strausburg, 1562), pp. 525-6.

. He lyued about the yeare. 1366  
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This is Foxe's mistake. Flacius declared that Militizius lived two hundred years before Hus, which would place him in the early thirteenth century.1366 was the date of Gregory XI's bull denouncing Militizius' heresies.

. long before Husse, and before Wyckleffe also. In the same his writings he declareth, how the same good man Militzius was by the holy spirite of God incited, and vehementlye moued to search out of the holy scriptures the maner and c?ming of Antichrist: and found that now in his time he was all ready come. And the same Iacobus sayth, that the sayd Militzius was constrayned by the spirite of God to go vp to Rome, and there publikly to preache. And that afterwarde before the Inquisitour he affirmed the same. That the same mighty and great Antichrist, the whych the scriptures made mention of, was already comen.

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He affirmed also, that the churche by the negligence of the Pastors, should become desolate: and that iniquitie shouls abound, that is, by reason of Mammon  

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I.e., money or wealth. See Matthew 6:4 and Luke 16.

, maister of iniquitie. Also, he sayd that ther wer in the church of Christ Idols, whiche shoulde destroy Ierusalem, and make the temple desolate, but were cloked by hipocrisy. Further, that ther be many which deny Christ, for that they kepe silence: neyther do they heare Christ, whom all the world shoulde knowe and confesse his verity before men, which also wittingly do detayne the verity and iustice of God.

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MarginaliaMilitzius persecuted by the pope.There is also a certayne bull of pope Gregory. xj. to the archbishop of Praga: wherein he is commaunded to excommunicate and persecute Militzius and hys auditours. The same bull declareth, that he was once a Chanon of Praga, but afterward he renounced his Canonship, and began to preache: who also for that he so manifestly preached of Antichrist to be already come: was of Iohn archbishop of Praga put in pris?, declaring what his errour was. To wit, how he had his company or c?gregation to whom he preached, and that amongest the same were certayne conuerted harlots, which had forsaken their euill life, and did lyue godly and well: which harlots he accustomed in his sermons to prefer before all the blessed virgins that neuer offended. He taught also openly, that in the Pope, Cardinals, bishops, prelats, priestes, and other religious men: was no truth, neither that they taught the way of truth, but that onelye he, and such as helde with him, taught the true way of saluation. Hys Postill in some places is not to bee seene. They alledge vnto him certaine other inconuenient articles, which notwithstanding I thinke, the aduersaries to depraue him wyth all, haue sclaunderously inuented agaynst him. He had as appeared by the foresayd Bull, very many of euery state and condicion, as wel riche as poore, that cleaued vnto hym.

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About the yeare of our Lord. 1371. lyued Henricus de Iota, whom Gerson doth much commend, and also hys companion Henricus de Hassia, an excellent learned and famous man  

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Henricus de Hassia is Henrich of Hesse (also known as Heinrich ofLangenstein, a fourtheenth-century German theologian and mathematician. Henricus de Iota is a virtually unrecognizable variant of Pierre d'Ailly, the famous fourteenth-century French theologian and philosopher. (Henricus is simply a mistake. 'Iota' is the Greek letter equivalent to 'I', which is roughly how Pierre's surname is pronoun-ced). Both men were hardly heterodox, but they were outspoken critics of ecclesiast-ical corruption and d'Ailly was a leading concialarist. Foxe took his accounts ofLangenstein and d'Ailly from Matthias Flacius, Catalogus testium veritatis (Strausburg, 1562), p. 530.

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. An Epistle of thys Henricus de Hassia which he wrote to the bishop of Normacia, Iacobus Cart  
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Jacobus Carthusianus is one of the names by which Jacob ofJüterbogk, a fifteenth century theologian and canonist, was known. The book Foxe is citing is Jacob's De erroribus et moribus Christianorum (Lubeck, 1488). Jacob was rector of the University of Erfurt but he was not a bishop.

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