cōmitted. And of his part that geueth absolution,MarginaliaTwo things required on his part that geueth popish absolution. there are two thinges (say they) to be required that is to say: knowledge to discerne one sinne from an other, wherby he ought to make a difference of sinnes, & appoynt a conuenient penaunce, according to the quantitie of the sinnes: The secōd is authoritie to iudge, wherby he ought to ioyne penaunce to the offender. And further they say, that he þ^t is confessed, ought with al humilitie to submit himself to this authoritie, and wholy and voluntarily to doe those penaunces which are commaunded him by the priest, except the sayde penaunce be released by a superiour power: for all priestes (as they say) haue not equall authoritie to absolue sinnes. The chiefe priest whome they call Peters successour hath power fully and wholy to absolue. But the inferior priests haue power, some more some lesse. The more as they are neare him in dignitie: The lesse as they are farther from the degree of his dignitie. All this is declared by proces in the decrees,MarginaliaDecret. de Pœnitentia. but not by the expresse doctrine of Christ or any of his Apostles. For although Christ absolued men from their sinnes, I do not find that he did it after the maner of a iudge, but of a sauior. For Christ sayth, God sent not his sonne into the world to iudge sinners, but that the worlde should be saued by him. MarginaliaIohn 3.Iohn chap. 3. Wherupon he spake vnto him whom he healed of the palsie: Beholde thou art made whole, go thy wayes and sinne no more. And to the woman taken in adultery Christ sayd, woman where be thy accusers, hath no man condemned thee? who sayd: No man Lord. To whom then Iesus thus said: No more wil I condemne thee, go, and now sinne no more.

By which words and deedes of Christ and many other places of scripture,MarginaliaIohn 5. it appereth he was not as a Iudge at his first cōming to punish sinners according to the quātitie of their offences: but þ^t day shal come hereafter, where in he shall iudge all men according to their workes, as in MarginaliaMath. 25.Mat. 25. where he sayth: When the sonne of man shal come in his maiesty, and all his aungels with him: then shall he sit vpon the seat of his maiesty, and all nations shal be gathered together before him, and he shall seperate them one from an other, as a shepheard seperateth the sheepe from þ^e Goates. &c. Neither shall he iudge alone, but his Saintes also with him.MarginaliaThe saintes shal iudge with Christ. For he sayth, you that haue followed me in this generation, when the sonne of man shall sit in the seat of his maiestie, shal sit also vpon 12. seats, and iudge the 12. tribes of Israell. If then sith Christ came not as a Iudge, why doe the Priestes say that they supplye the roome of Christ on earth, to iudge sinners according to the quantitie of theyr offences? And yet not onely this, but it is more to be maruailed at, how the Byshop of Rome dareth to take vpon him to be a Iudge before the day of iudgement, and to preuent the time, iudging some to be saintes in heauen, & to be honoured of men, and some agayn to be tormented in hel eternally w^t the deuils. Would God these men wold wey the saying of S. Paule. MarginaliaCorinth. 4.Corin. 4. Iudge ye not before the time, vntill the comming of the Lorde, who shall make light the darcke and secret places, and disclose the secretes of hartes, and then euery one shall haue his prayse. Let the Byshop of Rome take heede, lest that in Ezechiell be spoken by him: because thy hart is eleuate, and saydst vnto they selfe I am God, I haue sitten in the seat of God, in the hart of the sea, when thou art but man and not God. It is manifest, that the remission of sinnes principallye belongeth to God, who through grace washeth awaye our sinnes. For it is sayd, the lamb of God taketh away the sinnes of the world. And vnto Christians it belongeth as the Ministers of God. For in the MarginaliaIohn 20.20. of Iohn Christ sayth: Receaue vnto you þ^e holy Ghost, whose sinnes you shall remit, they are remitted vnto them: and whose sinnes you shal retain they are reteined. Seing therfore, that all Christians that are baptised in the name of the Father, and of the sonne, & of the holy Ghost, receaue the holy ghost: it appeareth, that they haue power geuēvnto them of Christ, to remit sinnes ministerially. Hath not euery Christian authoritie to baptise? and in the baptisme all the sinnes of the baptised are remitted? Ergo, they that doe baptise, do remit sinnes. MarginaliaThe ministeriall power to remit sin, belongeth as well to one priest as to an other.And thus ministerially all suche haue power to remitte sinnes. Therfore, to say that one man hath more authoritie to remit sinnes then al other Christians haue, is to much to extol him & to place him euen in Gods seat. I pray you how are the sinnes remitted him that is baptised of the Prieste (yea although he were of the pope himselfe baptised) more then if he were baptised of an other Christian? Surely I thinke no more. For seing that before Baptisme he remayneth a sinner and of the kingdome of the deuill by sinne, after baptisme he entreth into þ^e kindgome of heauen: It appeareth, that he þ^t doeth baptise, openeth the gate of þ^e kingdome of heauen to him that is baptised: the whiche he cannot do, w^tout the keyes of the kingdome of heauen.MarginaliaThe keyes of the kingdome of heauen. Ther-fore euery one that doth baptise: hath the keyes of the kingdome of heauen, as well the inferiour Priest as the Pope But these keyes are not the knowledge to discerne, & power to iudge, because these doe nothing auayle in baptisme Ergo, there are other keyes of the kingdome of heauen thē these: Wherfore it seemeth, that the authors of the Canons erred in mistaking the keyes,MarginaliaThe keyes mistaken in the Popes Chanons. wherupon they ground the authoritie iudiciall of the Clergy.

Now a little errour in the beginning graunted, groweth to great incōuenience in þ^e end. Wherfore in my iudgement it seemeth, MarginaliaFayth and hope be the keyes of heauen.that the keyes of the kingdome of heauen are fayth and hope. For by fayth in Iesus Christ, and hope in him for the remission of sinnes, we enter þ^e kingdome of heauē. This faith is a spiritual water, springing from Iesus Christ the fountayne of wisedome, wherein the soule of the sinner is washed from sinne. With this water were the faithfull Patriarches baptised before the lawe, and the faythfull people of the Hebrewes, and the faythful Christians after the law. Wherfore I greatly maruell of that saying in the decrees, which is ascribed vnto Augustine: that litle children that are not baptised, shal be tormented with eternall fire, although they were born of faithfull parents that wished them with all their hartes to haue bene baptised: as though the sacrament of Baptisme in water were simply necessary to saluation, when neuerthelesse many Christians are saued without this kinde of Baptisme, as Martirs. If that kinde of Sacrament be not necessary, to one of elder yeres, how thē is it necessary to an infant born of the faythfull? Are not all baptised with the holy Ghost and with fire? But yet not with materiall fire, no more is the lotion of water corporally necessary to washe awaye sinnes, but onely spirituall water, that is to say, the water of fayth. Are not the quicke baptised for them that are dead, as witnsseth Marginalia2. Cor. 15.Paule. 2. Corin. 15. If the dead arise not at all why are the liuing then baptised for them? If the liuing be baptised for the dead? why then is not the infant saued by the baptisme of his parentes: seeing the infant it selfe is impotent at the time of death, and not able to require baptisme? Christ sayth, he that beleueth and is baptised, shalbe saued. He sayth not, he that is not baptised: but he that beleueth not shall be damned. Wherefore in the MarginaliaIohn 12.12. chap. of Iohn, Christ sayth, I am the resurrection and lyfe, he that beleeueth in me, yea although he were dead, shall lyue. The faith therfore is necessary which the infāt hath in his faithfull parents, although he be not washed with corporall water. How then is the infant damned and tormēted with eternall fire? Were not they that were before the comming of Christ, and dead before his death by a thousande yeres saued also by his death and passion? All þ^t beleued in him, were baptised in his bloud, and so were saued and redemed from sinne and the bondage of the deuill, and made partakers of the kingdome of heauen. How then in þ^e time of grace, shall the infāt be damned that is borne of faythfull parents, that do not despise, but rather desire to haue theyr children baptised? I dare not consent to so hard a sentēce of the decrees: but rather beleue, that he is saued by vertue of the passion of Christ is fayth of his faythfull parentes, and the hope which they haue in Christ. Which fayth and hope are the keies of the heauenly kingdome. God were not iust and mercifull, if he would condemne a man that beleueth not in him, except he shewed vnto him the fayth which hee ought to beleeue. And therefore Christ sayeth: If I had not come and spokē vnto them, sinne could not haue bene layd vnto theyr charge, but nowe they haue no excuse of sinne. Therfore seing the fayth of Christ is not manifest vnto the infāt departing before baptisme, neither hath he denyed it: how thē shal he be damned for the same?MarginaliaChildren departing before baptisme not condemned. But if God speaketh inwardly by way of illumination of the intelligēce of the infant, as he speaketh vnto Aungels: who then knoweth (saue God alone) whether the infant receiueth or not receiueth the fayth of Christ?

What is he therfore that so rashly dare taken vpō him to iudge the infants begottē of faythfull parents, dying with out baptisme, to be tormēted with eternal fire? Now let vs cōsider the 3. thinges which þ^e canons of decrees affirme to be requisite for the remission of þ^e sinnes of those that sinne after baptisme: that is to say, contrition of hart, auricular confession, and satisfaction of the deed through penance enioyned by the priest for the sinnes cōmitted. I cannot finde in any place in the Gospel, where Christ commaūded that this kind of confession should be done vnto þ^e priest:MarginaliaAuriculer confession. nor I cannot find that Christ assigned any penance vnto sinners for theyr sinnes, but that he willed thē to sinne no more. If a sinner confesse that he hath offended God through sinne, & soroweth hartely for his offēces, minding no more hereafter to sinne: then is he truely repentaunt for his sinne, & then is he conuerted vnto the Lord. If he shall then hūbly