38 OF CHURCH CONTROVERSIES. 



maketh question of it, or seeketh to depart from it : 

 but when these virtues in the fathers and leaders of 

 the Church have lost their light, and that they wax 

 worldly, lovers of themselves, and pleasers of men, 

 then men begin to grope for the Church as in the 

 dark; they are in douht whether they be the suc 

 cessors of the apostles, or of the Pharisees; yea, 

 howsoever they sit in Moses* chair, yet they can 

 never speak, &quot; tariquam auctoritatem habentes,&quot; as 

 having authority, because they have lost their repu 

 tation in the consciences of men, by declining their 

 steps from the way which they trace out to others ; 

 so as men had need continually have sounding in 

 their ears this same &quot; Nolite exire,&quot; go not out ; so 

 ready are they to depart from the Church upon 

 every voice. And therefore it is truly noted by one 

 that writeth as a natural man, that the humility of 

 the friars did, for a great time, maintain and bear 

 out the irreligion of bishops and prelates. 



For this is the double policy of the spiritual ene 

 my, either by counterfeit holiness of life to establish 

 and authorise errors ; or by corruption of manners 

 to discredit and draw in question truth and things 

 lawful. This concerneth my lords the bishops, unto 

 whom I am witness to myself, that I stand affected 

 as I ought. No contradiction hath supplanted in 

 me the reverence that I owe to their calling ; nei 

 ther hath any detraction or calumny im based mine 

 opinion of their persons. I know some of them, 

 whose names are most pierced with these accusa 

 tions, to be men of great virtues ; although the in- 



