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PREFACE.
xxvii

both of scholars and learning, who, being an intimate friend of mine, told me there was a gentleman, his cousin, pointing to a grave person in the Quadrangle, a man that had spent many thousand pounds in promoting Popery; and that he had a desire to speak with me. The gentleman came up to us of his own accord. We agreed for the greater liberty and privacy to walk abroad into the New Parks. He was a notable man, of an eloquent tongue, and competent reading; bold, forward, talkative enough. He told me, that the Church of Rome had Eleven Millions of Martyrs, Seventeen Œcumenical Councils, above a Hundred Provincial Councils, all the Doctors, all the Fathers, Unity, Antiquity, Consent, &c. I desired him to name me One of his Eleven Million of Martyrs, excepting those who died for treason in Queen Elizabeth's and King James's days. For the martyrs of the primitive times were martyrs of the Catholic, but not of the Roman Church, they only being martyrs of the Roman Church that die for Transubstantiation, the Pope's Supremacy, the doctrine of Merits, Purgatory, and the like. So many he told me they had, but I could not get him to name one. As for his Councils, Antiquities, and Fathers, I asked him what he would say, if I could clearly prove that the Church of Rome was guilty of forging them, so far, that they had published Canons in the Apostles' names, and invented Councils that never were; forged