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Sempringham

Lincolnshire

Site of St Mary's Priory

OS grid ref: TF 115 335

nouam aliquam festorum dierum legem præscribam ecclesiæ. &c. And not contented wyth thys foreseeyng before suche wrangling spirites to come, as now I see in you: I shewed also the cause why I needed not so to doe, my woordes were these: Festorum dierum iam plus satis erat in mundo. &c. And yet further, because no cauiller should take holde here of any iniurie done to the holy Saintes, eyther old or new in the Church, therefore in expresse woordes I remoued away all suspition of any iniurie, preuenting the obiection of the aduersary in these wordes. Habeat & Ecclesia suos sanctos, tum recentes, tum veteranos, modo probatos, modo interim ijdem ne adorentur, modo quàm sint vetusti, tam etiam verè sancti sint &c.

MarginaliaCopus Momus. Copus pag. 820.These places of my booke, if ye did see: why do you dissemble them? If yee had not somuch leisure to read them: howe had you so much laisure to wryte against any mans booke, not knowing what is in the booke contained? And howe stands it then wyth trueth, that so like a Mome yee cry out so in your booke, against these new made martyrs, qui non possunt nisi per aliorum iniuriam crescere. &c. And again, where you exclaime against me, and say that I thrust out the auncient Martyrs out from their seat and possession, and place new in their rowmes. &c.

MarginaliaVntruth in Cope.Also where you continuing yet still in your common place of lying (out of which you cannot digresse) do charge me farther, that I do appoint out holy dayes and working daies by colours of red and blacke, in my foresayd Calendare to be obserued: MarginaliaCopus pag. 820. lin. 25.these leude notes of yours, if they had bene picked out of my Calendare by you, wythout myne owne special declaration before made to the contrary, they might seeme to haue some blush of credite. Now what wil the reader say, or what may he iudge, cōsidering and conferring thys your cauilling, with the matter of my premonition made before, but that you are al together set to play the perpetuall Syc. I had almost called you by your right name master Cope. But God make you (as I said) a good man. Reading further in your boke I could not but smile and laugh at this your ridiculous and most loud lying Hyperbolismum: where as you cōparing my making of saints, with the Popes making, can finde (as ye say) in the Pope no such impudent arrogancie in presuming, as ye finde in me. &c.MarginaliaCopus pag. 819. lin. 7. If the Pope had not abused hys arrogant iurisdiction in canonising and deifying his Saintes, more then I haue done: the yeare should not be combred wyth so many idle holy dayes, nor the Calendares wyth so many raskall Saintes, some of them as good, as euer were they that put Christ to death.

But where will you finde (M. Cope) any man to beleue thys your hyperbolical comparison to be true, whych seeth and knoweth the infinit and vnmeasurable excesse of the Popes arrogancie, not only in shrining such a rable of blind saintes of his owne creating: but also in prescribing the same to be receaued vniuersally in the whole worlde, and not to be receaued onely, but also to be inuocated for gifts and graces, also to be worshipped for aduocates and mediatours. MarginaliaDouble abhomination in the popes Calendare.Wherin riseth a double abhomination of the pope, the one for his idolatrous making and worshipping of saintes: the other for his blasphemous iniurie and derogation to Christe, in repulsing him out of his office of mediation, & placing other mediatours of his owne making. MarginaliaThe great Saint maker of Rome and who be his Saintes.And nowe to consider what Saintes these were, or what were the causes of their sancting: what S. almost among all the Popes Saintes shall you finde (M. Cope) made within these 500. yeres, but commonly he was either some Pope, or some rich Bishop and Prelate, or some fat abbat, or some blind Frier, some Monke, or Nunne, some superstitious regulare, or some builder of monasteries, or some geuer and benefactour to the popish clergy, or mainteiner agonising for the dignities and liberties of the Popyshe church? What poore lay man or lay womā, were their liues neuer so Christian, their faith and confession neuer so pure, their death neuer so agonising for the witnes of Christ, and truth of his word, shall finde any place or fauour in all the Popes xxx, that is in the Popes Calendar, either in red colour, or els in blacke.

But heere (M. Cope) if yee had the wit, somuch to defend, as yee haue to ouerwhart, you myght take mee wyth the maner, and replie againe for the defence of your great Saintmaker, MarginaliaThe great Godmaker of Rome.or rather Godmaker of Rome: that he maketh mo martyrs & Saints of these foresayd poore laymen, & laywomen, then euer he did of any other. For he burneth them, he hangeth them, hee drowneth them, imprisoneth & famisheth them, & so maketh truer martyrs of Christ, then any other of his new shrined saints, whom he hath so dignified in his Calendar. For the one he doth rubricate, only w^t his red letters, the other he doth rubricate w^t their owne bloud. And therefore to aunswere you (M. Cope) to yourcomparison made betwene the pope and me, for making of holy Martyrs and Saintes: Briefly I say, and report me to al the world, þ^t herein is no comparison. For if ye speake of true Martyrs, who doth make them, but the pope? if ye speake of fals martyrs, who doth make them, but the pope? And farthermore, to compare together the causes of these Martyred Saintes in my Calendare, wyth them whyche shine shrined in the Popes Calendare (taking the same proportion of time as I do, wythin these last 500. yeares) why may not I haue as good cause to celebrate these in my Calendar, which lost their liues and were slain, principally for the cause of Christ and of hys word: as the pope hath to celebrate his double and simple feasted saintes in hys Calendar, who in their doinges, doctrine, and life, as they seemed rather to serue the Pope, then Christ the Lord: so in their death appeared no such cause, why they shuld be sanctified in the church beyond all other.MarginaliaNo cause why the popes newe saints shuld be put in the Calendare. Let not the Church of Christ (M. Cope) be deluded with hypocritical names, nor fained apparitions, and fabulous miracles, neither be you deceiued your selfe, but let vs resort sincerely to the worde of God. What was in S. Fraunces, looke vpon his superstitious life, & presumptuous testament, wrought no dout by Sathan, to diminish and obscure the Testament of Iesus Christ, why he should be made a Saint, and not an enemy rather of Christ?

What was likewise in Frier Dominicke, who before Fraunces x. yeares together persecuted the poore Waldenses to death and destruction, why should he stand a S. and a pillar of the church? I pray you what see you in Thomas Becket,MarginaliaTho. Becket. but that he died for the ambitious libertyes of the popishe church? What in Aldelmus,MarginaliaAldelmus. and in Anselmus,MarginaliaAnselmus. but only that they chased away maried priests from the churches, and planted in idle Monkes in their steade? The like also did Dunstanus,MarginaliaDunstanus. who was rubricated wyth a duplex festum. ElizabethMarginaliaS. Elizabeth who was the wife of the Marquesse of Thuring, when shee had with much perswasions got out her husbande to fight against the Turkes, and was there slaine, she afterward encloystered her selfe, and was made a Nunne. And doe you thinke these causes to be sufficient, why they shuld be made saintes, worshipped in churches, and set in Calendares? Long it were to make a rehearsal of all this rifraffe, and almost infinite. MarginaliaThe canonisation of S. Gilbert of Sempringham.One example may suffice for many. S. Gilbert of Sempringhā, was the sonne of Iocelin a knight, who for his deformitie of his body was set to learning, & afterward made Chanon, and was author of the Gilbertines, in the time of king Iohn.

This Gilbert after he had erected 13. monasteries of hys order of Sempringham, was afterwarde labored for vnto the Pope to be made a Saint: Who hearing of hys myracles, wrote hys letters to Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury, in the behalfe of the foresayd Gilbert, willing & commaundyng per Apostolica scripta, that the feast of the sayde Gilbert should be solemnised through all the prouince of Canterb. Vt meritis nimirum eius & precibus apud misericordissimum iudicem misericordam consequamur. &c. MarginaliaEx lib. de vita S.Gilberti Confessoris.

Whereuppon Hubert the Archb. directeth downe hys wrytings to all the bishops within hys prouince, the contents of whych his wrytings do folow: MarginaliaThe Popes letter & the Archb. for the canonising of saint Gilbert.Hubertus Dei gratia Cant. Archiepiscop. totius Angliæ primas, dilectis in Christo frat. Episco. per prouinciam Cant. Sal. grat. & benedictionem. D. Papa, sicut ex literis ipsius manifestè perpēditur, de conuersatione, meritis, & moribus b. Gilberti magistri ordinis de Sempringham, & miraculis a Deo per eum factis per testes & testimonia sufficienter instructus, de consilio fratrum Cardin. ipsum mag. Catalogo sanctorum decreuit ascribi, solemnitatem eius constituit & mandauit per Cant. prouinciam solemniter celebrari. Insuper & corpus eius cum requisiti fuerimus præcepit ad honorem Dei & gloriam eleuari. Vestra igitur vniuersitas huic mandato cum deuotione congaudeat, & secundum formam in ipso mandato præscriptam, prædicti confessoris Domini depositionem annuam faciatis cum reuerentia & solemniter obseruari: vt apud Dominum & ab illo vestra debeat & possit deuotio commēdari, necnon & ipsius sancti supplex intercessio vobis proficiat ad salutem. Valete.

The summe of the whiche wryting of the Archb. tendeth to thys effecte. That forsomuch as the Pope hearyng of the life and myracles of Gilbert, Maister of the order of Sempringham, by sufficiēt witnes and testimonies, hath in his letters commanded him by the aduise of hys Cardinals, that the sayde Gilbert should be canonised & ascribed in the Cataloge of saintes, and that his solemnity shoulde be celebrate solemnely throughout al the prouince of Canterb. And also hys body to be taken vp and shrined to the honour and glory of God: He therefore at the Popes commaundement wryting vnto them, wylleth all the Suffraganes within his prouince of Canterb. yearely to solemnise, and cause to be solemnized reuerētly the deposition of the sayd Saint Gilbert Confessor: to the entent that theyr