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K. Rich. 2. Writers against I. Wickliffe. Wickliffes articles condemned. I. Hus.

35. The Pope with all his Clergye, hauing those great possessions as they haue, be heretiques in so hauing, & the secular powers in so suffering them do not well.

36. The Church of Rome is the sinagoge of Sathan, neither is the Pope immediately the vicare of Christ, nor of þe Apostles.

37. The Decretals of the Pope by Apochripha and seduce from the fayth of Christ, and the Clergy that study them, be fooles.

38. The Emperor and secular Lordes be seduced, which so enrich the Church with such ample possessions.

39. It is not necessary to saluation to beleue the church of Rome to be supreme head ouer all Churches.

40. It is but folly to beleue the Popes pardons.

41. All others which be made for any cōtract or ciuill bargayne betwixt man and man, be vnlawfull.

43. Benedict, Fraunces, Dominicke, Bern, with all such as haue bene patrons of priuate religion, except they haue repented, with such also as haue entred into the same: be in a damnable state, and so from the Pope to the lowest Noues they be all together heretickes  

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The article following this one read, according to Gratius. 'Omnes religiones indifferentur introductae sunt diabolo' [All religions, without distinction, were invented by the devil]; cf. Ortwin Gratius, Fasciculus rerum expetendarum et fugiendarum (Cologne, 1535), fo. 148r). In the Rerum (p. 27), Foxe changed this to the meaningless 'Omnes religiones privatae, indifferentur, introductae non sunt Christo' [All private religions, without distinction, were not invented by Christ]. In the Acts and Monuments, Foxe simply dropped the offending article entirely.

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MarginaliaW. Wodford, Tho. Walden, Tyssingtō, writers against I. Wickliffe. Besides these Articles to the number of 45  

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Actually 44 in Ortwin Gratius and the Rerum, and, thanks to deletions, 41 in all editions of the Acts and Monuments.

. condemned (as is sayd) by the Counsell of Constance: Other articles also I finde diuersly collected or rather wrasted out of the bookes and writinges of Wickliffe: some by William Wodford, some by Walden, by Frier Tyssington & other, whom they in theyr bookes haue impugned rather thē cōfuted. In the number of whom, William Wodford especially findeth out these Articles, and writeth agaynst the same, to the number of 18, as here vnder follow  
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Woodford's articles against Wiclif come from Ortwin Gratius, Fasciculis rerum expetendarum et fugiendarum (Cologne, 1535), fo. 95v. These are reprinted in the 1570 and subsequent editions, with no significant alterations to the original.

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MarginaliaArticles against Wickliffe by W. Woodford. 1. The bread remayneth in his owne substaunce, after the consecration therof vpon the aultar, and ceaseth not to be bread still.

2. As Iohn was figuratiuely Helias, and not personally, so the bread figuratiuely is the body of Christ, and not naturally. And that without all doubt, this is a figuratiue speach, to say: this is my body, as to say: This Iohn, is Helias.

3. In the Decree, Ergo Berengarius, the Courte of Rome hath determined that the Sacrament of the holy Eucharist, is naturaly true bread.

4. They which do affirme, that the infantes of the faythful departing without the Sacrament of baptisme, are not to be saued: be presumptuous, and fooles in so affirming.

5. The administration of the Sacrament of confirmatiō, is not onely reserued to the Bishops.

6, In the time of S. Paule, onely two orders of clerkes did suffice in the Church: Priests, and Deacons. Neither was there in the time of the Apostles any destinction of Popes, Patriarches and Archbishops, and Bishops, but these the Emperors pride did finde it out.

7. Such as in times past either for couetousnes of temporall lucre, or of hope of mutuall succour by kindred, or for cause to excuse their lust (although they dispayred of issue) were maryed: were coupled together, not by true Matrimony.

8. The causes of diuorcement, either for spirituall consanguinity or for affinity, be not foūded in Scripture, but are onely ordinaunces of men.

9. These words, I wil take thee to wife, are rather to be taken in contract of matrimony, then these wordes I doe take thee to wife. And the contract with any party by the words of the future tence, ought not to be frustrate for the contract with any party afterward made, by the words of the present time.

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10. There be 12. disciples of Antechrist, Popes, Cardinals, Patriarches, Archbishops, Bishops, Archdeacons, Officials, Deanes, Monkes, Chanons, Friers, and Pardoners.

11. In the booke of Numbers the 18. chapeter & in Ezechiell. 44. chapter it is commaunded simply, that neither the Priestes of Aaron, nor the Leuites should haue any part of inheritance with other tribes, but should liue meerly of tithes and oblations.

12. There is no greater hereticke or Antechrist, then that Clerke which teacheth that it is lawfull for Priestes and Leuites of the law of grace, to be indued with temporall possessions. And if there be any heretickes, Apostates, or blasphemers, these Clerkes be such.

13. It is not onely lawfull for the Lords temporal to take away goods of fortune from the Churchmen, sinning vsually: but also are bounde so to doe, vnder payne of eternall damnation.

14. He that is the more humble and more seruiceable to the Church, and more enamoured with the loue of Christ,he is in the church militant, the greater and the more nearest Vicar of Christ.

15. If corporall vnction or aneling were a Sacrament (as now it is fayned to be) Christ and his Apostles would not haue left the ordinaunce thereof vntouched.

16. Vnto the true dominion secular, is required vertuous life of him that ruleth.

17. All thinges that happen, doe come absolutely of necessity.

18. Whatsoeuer the Pope or his Cardinalles can deduce clearely out of the Scripture: that only is to be beleued, or to be done at their monitiō: & whatsoeuer otherwise they do commaund is to be condemned as hereticall.

MarginaliaTrastatus frat. W. Wodford contra trialogū Wickleui. Besides this W. Woodford afore mentioued, diuers other there were which wrote agaynst these articles of Wickliffe aforesay, maynteyning the Popes part, as seemeth for flatterye, rather then following any iust cause so to doe, or shewing forth any reason or learning in disprouing the same. Notwithstanding, on the contrary part some there were againe both learned and godly, which taking þe part of Wickliffe, without all flattery, defended the most of the sayd articles, openly in scholes and other places, as appereth by the works of Iohn Hus: who in his publicke determinations in the vniuersity of Prage, stoode in defence of the same agaynst all his aduersaryes. As partly is here to be seene in these tractations vnder folowing.

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¶ THE PVBLICK DEFENCE of certayne Articles of Iohn Wickliffe, in the first Act before the whole Vniuersity of Prage, in Charles Colledge
¶ The determination of I. Hus vpon the xiiij. Article of Wickliffe as touching the preaching and hearing of the word of God, made in the yeare of our Lord. 1412  
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In the Rerum, Foxe printed Jan Hus's public defence of some of the articles charged against of Wiclif. These were taken from Johannis Hus et Hieronymi Pragensis confessorum Christi Historia et Monumenta, 2 vols. (Nuremburg, 1558), I, fos, 111r-121r and 124r-128r with Rerum, pp. 28-52. This material was translated with reasonable accuracy in 1563, but dropped from the next two editions. It was reprinted, however, in the 1583 edition.

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FOr so much as to condemne the trueth wittingly or without reasonable examination doth tende to greate daunger of saluation, as the Lord sayth. Luke the sixt, doe ye not condemne, and ye shall not be condemned: MarginaliaThe whole Vniuersitie is against the iudgement of the doctours which condemned the 45. articles.Therefore to auoyd this great daūger, the Vniuersity of Prage, and the whole communalty there of the Rector Masters, Doctors, Bachelers and Studentes, in theyr generall assembly, not agreeing to the condemnation pronounced by the Doctors in theyr councell house, requireth of the sayde Doctors a reasonable proofe of theyr condemnation, and that they should by scripture, authority or infallible reasō proue the falsehead of euery those fiue and forty Articles. The which being once done, the sayd Vniuersity will agree to the sayd condemnation as iust: For the Vniuersity doth well know, that as Augustine sayth, in the end of his second booke of Christian doctrine: MarginaliaAugust. lib. de doct. chri. lib. 2.That what so euer a man doth learne besides the holy scriptures, if it be hurtfull, there it is condemned: If it be profitable, there it is founde. And when a man hath founde all thinges therein which he hath profitably learned els where, he shall much more aboundantly finde those thinges which are found in no place els, but are learned in the maruelous deapth, and maruellous profoundnesse of those most sacred Scriptures onely.

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Thus writeth Augustine: MarginaliaGrego. moral, lib. 23. And Gregory in his three & twenty booke of Moralles, sayth thus, God in the holye scripture hath comprehended whatsoeuer thing may happen vnto any man, and in the same hath, by the examples of those which are gone afore, taught them which are to come, how to reforme theyr liues. Whereby it appeareth that if euery of the fiue and forty Articles conteyneth in it wholly the thing that is false and vntruth, the same is either playnelye or darckly condemned in the holy Scriptures.

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Secondly it followeth by the sentence and minde of this holy man that if the condemation of the fiue and forty Articles be profitable, the same is founde in the holy scriptures. And where as agayne Saynt Augustine writeth vnto Saynt Hierome in his eight Epistle and the ninth Distinction. I (sayth he) haue learned to attribute this honor and reuerence vnto those writers onely which are called Canonicall, that I dare affirme none of them to haue erred in theyr workes or writinges. As for all other writers I doe so read them that although they abound wyth ueuer so much holynesse, or excell in doctrine, I do not by and by thinke it true because they themselues do so iudge:

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