and with good hope craue mercy at God & remission of his sinnes: what is he that can let God to absolue that sinner from his sinne? And as God absolueth a sinner from hys sinne, so hath Christ absolued many, although they confessed not theyr sinnes vnto the priests, and although they receiued not due penance for their sinnes. And if Christ could after þ^t maner once absolue sinners: how is he become now not able to absolue? Except some man wil say, that he is aboue Christ, and that his power is minished by þ^e ordinances of his own lawes? How were sinners absolued of god in the time of the Apostles, and alwayes heretofore, vnto þ^e time that these Canons were made? I speake not these thinges as though confession to priestes were wicked, but that it is not of necessity requisite vnto saluation. I beleeue verily that the confession of sinnes vnto good priestes, and likewise to other faythful Christiās, is good, as witnesseth MarginaliaIames 5.S. Iames the Apostle: Cōfesse ye your selues one to another, & pray ye one for another, that ye may be saued: for the continuall prayer of the iust auayleth much. Helias was a man that suffered many things like vnto you, and he praid that it should not rayne vpon the earth, & it rayned not in 3. yeares & 6. monethes. And agayne he prayed, and it rayned from heauen, and the earth yelded forth her fruit. This kinde of confession is good, profitable and expedient: for if God peraduenture heareth not a mans own prayer, he is helped with the intercession of others: Yet neuerthelesse þ^e prayers of the priests seemeth to much to be extolled in the decrees, where it treateth of penitēce, and that saying is ascribed vnto Pope Leo. MarginaliaDe pœnit. dist. 1. cap. Multiplex misericordia dei.Cap. multiplex misericordia Dei. &c. And it followeth: So is it ordeyned by the prouidence of Gods diuine wil, that þ^e mercy of God cannot be obteined but by the praier of þ^e priests. &c. The praier of a good priest doth much auayle a sinner confessing his faults vnto him. The counsel of a discreet priest is very profitable for a sinner, to geue the sinner counsell to beware herafter to sinne, and to instruct him how he shal punish his body by fasting by watching, and such like actes of repentance, that herafter he may be better preserued from sinne.

After this maner I esteme confessiō to priests very expedient and profitable to a sinner. But to cōfesse sinnes vnto the priest as vnto a iudge, & to receiue of him corporall penāce for a satisfaction vnto God for his sinnes committed, I see not how this can be founded vpō the truth of the scripture. For before the comming of Christ, no man was sufficient or able to make satisfactiō vnto God for his sins, although he suffred neuer so much penance for his sinnes. And therefore it was needefull, that he that was without sinne should be punished for sinnes, as witnesseth MarginaliaEsay 53.Isayas. chap. 53. where he sayth: he took our griefes vpon him, and our sorrowes he bare. And again: He was woūded for our iniquities, and vexed for our wickednes. And agayn: The Lord put vpon him our iniquity. And agayne: for the wickednes of my people haue I strikē him. If therfore, Christ through his passion hath made satisfaction for our sinnes, whereas we our selues were vnable to do it, then through him haue we grace & remission of sinnes. How can we say now, that we are sufficient to make satisfaction vnto God by any penance enioyned vnto vs by mans authority? seing that our sinnes are more greuous after Baptisme: thē they were before the comming of Christ. Therefore, as in Baptisme the payne of Christ in his passion was a full satisfaction for our sinnes: euen so after Baptisme if we confesse that we haue offended, & be harty sorry for our sinnes, and minde not to sinne agayne ofterwardes.

Hereupon Marginalia1. Iohn 1.Iohn writeth in his first epistle. ca. 1. If we say we haue no sinne, we deceiue our selues, & the truth is not in vs. If we confesse our sinnes, God is faythfull and iust, he will remit them, and clense vs from all our iniquities. If we say we haue not sinned, we make him a lyar, and his word is not vs. My welbeloued children, this I write vnto you that ye sinne not: but if any man sinne, we haue an aduocate with the father Iesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sinnes, and not for our sinnes onely, but for þ^e sinnes of þ^e whole world. MarginaliaConfession vnto God.Therfore, we ought to confesse our selues chiefly vnto God euen frō the hart, for that he chieflye doth remit sinnes, without whose absolution litle auaileth the absolutiō of man. This kinde of confession is profitable and good. MarginaliaAuricular confession not truely grounded vpon the Scripture. Luke 17.The authors of the Canons say, that although auricular confession made vnto the Priest, be not expresly taught by Christ, yet, say they, it is taught in that saying, which Christ said vnto them diseased of the leprosy, whom he cōmaūded: Go your wayes, & shewe yourselues vnto the Priestes, because as they say, the law of clensing lepers, which was geuen by Moyses, signified the confession of sinnes vnto the Priest. And wheras Christ commaūded the lepers to shew themselues vnto the Priestes, they say that Christ ment, thatthose þ^t were vncleane with the leper of sinne, should shew theyr sinnes vnto the Priestes by auricular confession. MarginaliaThe autors of the Canon Law reproued.I maruell much at the authors of the Canons, for euen from the beginning of their decres vnto the end, they grounde theyr sayings vpō the old law, which was the law of sinne and death, and not (as witnesseth Paule) vpon the words of Christ, which are spirite & life. Christ sayth, the wordes which I speake vnto you, are þ^e spirit and life. They groūd theyr sayings in the shadow of the law, and not in the light of Christ. For euery euill doer hateth the light, & commeth not into it, that his deeds be not reproued: but he that doth the truth, commeth into the light, that his workes may be openly sene, because they are done in God. Ioh. 3.MarginaliaIohn 3.

Now let vs passe to the words that Christ spake to the leper. Lord if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Iesus stretching forth his hand, touched him, saying: I will, be thou cleane: and straight wayes he was cleansed of hys leper. And Iesus sayd vnto him: See thou tell no man, but go and shew they selfe to the Priest, and offer the gyft that Moyses cōmaunded for a witnesse of these thinges. MarginaliaLuke 5.This Gospell witnesseth playnely that þ^e diseased of lepers were clensed onely by Christ, and not by the Priests, neither did Christ commaund the leper to shew himselfe vnto the priestes, for any helpe of cleansing that he should receiue of the Priestes: but to fulfill the law of Moyses, in offering a sacrifice for his clensing, & for a testimony vnto the Priestes, who alwayes of enuy accused Christ as a transgressour of the law. MarginaliaThe story of the leapers expounded to make nothing for auricular confession.For if Christ after he had clensed the leper, had licensed him to communicate with others that were cleane, before he had shewed himselfe clensed vnto the Priests, thē might the Priestes haue accused Christ, as a transgressour of the law: Because it was a precept of the law, that the leper after he was cleansed, shoulde shewe himselfe vnto the Priestes. And they had signes in the booke of law, whereby they might iudge whether he were truely clēsed or no. And if he were clensed, then would the Priestes offer a gift for his clensing. And if he were not cleansed, then would they segregate him, frō the company of others that were cleane. Seing euery figure, ought to be assimuled vnto the thyng that is figured: MarginaliaThe clensing of the leprey, & the clensing of the priest in auricular confession agree not.I pray you then, what agreement is there betwene the clensing of lepers by the law, & the confession of sinnes? By that law the Priest knew better whether he were leprouse then he himselfe that had the leper. In cōfession the priest knew not the sinnes of him that was confessed, but by his owne confession. In that law the Priest did not clēse the leprouse: How now therfore ought the priests to clense sinners from their sinne, & that without thē they cannot be cleansed? In this law þ^e Priest had certein signes, by the which he could certaynly know whether a mā were clensed frō his leper or not. In confession, the Priest is not certaine of the clensing of sinnes, because he is ignoraunt of his contrition: He knoweth not also whether he will not sinne any more, without the which contrition and graunting to sinne no more, God hath not absolued any sinner. And if God hath not absolued a man, without doubt then is he not made cleane. And how then is confession figured vnder that law? Doubtlesse so it seemeth to me (vnder the correction of them that can iudge better in the matter) that this law beareth rather a figure of excommunication, & reconciliation of him, that hath bene obstinate in his sinne, & is reconciled agayne. For so it appeareth by the processe of the Gospell, that when as the sinner doth not amend for the priuate correction of his brother, nor for the correction of two or three, neither yet for the publick correction of the whole Church: Then is he to be counted as an Ethnike, & a Publicane & as a certayn Leper to be auoyded out of the company of all men. Which sinner notwithstanding, if hee shall yet repent, is then to be reconciled, because he is then clensed from his obstinacy.

MarginaliaThe popes power in absoluing from sinnes not founded in scripture.But he which pretendeth himselfe to be the chiefe vicar of Christ, and the high Priest, sayth: that he hath power to absolue A pœna & culpa: Which I doe not finde how it is founded in the scripture, but that of his owne authority, he enioyneth to sinners, penance for their sinnes. And graūt þ^t frō their sinnes he may well absolue them, yet frō the payn (which they call a pœna) he doth not simply absolue, as in his indulgences he promiseth. MarginaliaThe pope can absolue none from punishment.But if he were in charitye, and had such power, as he pretendeth, he would suffer none to lie in Purgatory for sinne, forsomuch as that payn doth farre exceed all other payne which here we suffer. What mā is there being in charity, but if he see his brother to be tormēted in this world, if he may, he will helpe him, and deliuer him? Much more ought the Pope thē, to deliuer out of paynes of Purgatorye, indifferently as well rich as poore. And if he sel to the rich his indulgēces, double wise, yea triple wise he seduceth them. First in promising to deliuer thē out of the payne from whēce he doth not, neither is able to