parts of religion—no one thought of at all; and unless God worked a miracle for the sake of the innocent King, some great catastrophe could not be far off.[1] In such a disposition he could feel small sympathy with a fever about a white dress and a few gestures. To Hooper's appeal he replied coldly, that for himself he preferred simplicity, when simplicity could be had; but while the great men in England were giving benefices to their grooms—when the services in churches were left to be performed by men who could not read, and might as well be Africans or Hindoos as English—while congregations employed their time in laughing and storytelling, other things, he thought, should be first attended to: if earnest men would set themselves to contend against perjury, and adultery, theft, lying, and cheating, 'the very bones and sinews of Antichrist, whereof
- ↑ Res Christi hic geritur ut nisi Dominus innoccntissimum et religiosissimum regem atque alios aliquot pios homines singulari respiciat clementiâ, valde verendum sit ne horrenda Dei ira brevi in hoc regnum exardescat. Inter Episcopos hactenus de Christi doctrinâ convenire non potuit, multo minus de disciplinâ—paucissimæ parochiæ idoneos habent pastores: pleræque venumdatæ sunt nobilibus: sunt etiam ecclesiastico ordine atque ex iis quoque qui Evangelici videri volunt qui tres aut quatuor atque plures parochias tenent nec uni ministrant, sed sufficiunt sibi eos qui minimo se conduci patiuntur, plerumque qui nec Anglice legere possunt quique corde puri Papistæ sunt. Primores regni multis parochiis præfecerunt eos qui in cænobiis fuerunt ut pensione eis persolvend((a^}}, se liberarent qui sunt indoctissimi et ad sacrum ministerium ineptissimi. Hinc invenias parochias in quibus aliquot annis nulla sit habita concio.Cum de hâc tam horrendâ ecclesiarum deformitate querelæ deferuntur a sanctis hominibus ad regni proceres dicunt his malis mederi esse episcoporum. Cum deferentur ad episcopos evangelium pridem professos respondent illi se ista emendare non posse, &c.—Bucer to Calvin, Whitsuntide, 1550: Epistolæ Tigurinæ, p. 356.
