BISHOP AYLMER. 31 



much upon Scripture, he warily required them to lay down CHAP, 

 some sure principle for both parties to proceed upon ; and _ 

 that was this, Whether the private spirit of particular men, 

 or the public spirit of the universal Church, ought to judge 

 of the sense of the Scriptures ? For he, when he heard them 

 frequently quoting places of Scripture, affirmed, that we must 

 not run in these controversies to the only letter of Scripture, 

 understood according to every private man s pleasure, but to 

 the most certain judgment of the universal, at the least the 

 most ancient, Church, which being governed by the Spirit of 

 God, propounded the truth and genuine sense of Scripture. 

 He also then proposed to them (though he were a layman, and 

 not deeply versed in divinity) six firm reasons, as he thought, 

 of his opinion, and required those Ministers to answer them ; 

 and that afterwards he might have liberty to confute their 

 answers either by speech or writing. Upon this relation 

 given of Pond by the Ministers, the Bishop thought fit to 

 remove him to the aforesaid castle, being, as the Popish 

 writers say, much provoked and angry. And they describe 

 it to be an obscure and melancholy place, void of both light 

 and converse. 



CHAP. III. 



His farther dealings with Papists. Campion *s book. 



JN OR was the Bishop s endeavour only to discover and at- campion s 

 tack books of this poisonous nature, but to arm people book 

 against the doctrines and principles contained in them, by 

 providing substantial answers to them. One Edmund Cam 

 pion, formerly a scholar of Oxford, now a revolter from re 

 ligion and his country, had entered himself into the society 

 of the Jesuits. And about the year 1581 he set forth 

 a book consisting of ten reasons, written in a terse, elegant, 

 Latin style, and dedicated to the Scholars of both Univcrsi- 



