reading or
retaining of any of those books, whereas they had come out, or
were wrung out, I may almost say, by the outcry that Jewell had
raised. The result was that all the persons interested in the
matter came to understand that the Fathers were Catholics, that
is to say, ours. Nor has Lawrence Humphrey passed over in silence
this wound inflicted on him and his party. After high praise of
Jewell in other respects, he fixes on him this role of
inconsiderateness, that he admitted the reasonings of the
Fathers, with whom Humphrey declares, without any beating about
the bush, that he has nothing in common nor ever will have.

We also sounded once in familiar discourse Toby Matthews, now a
leading preacher, whom we loved for his good accomplishments and
the seeds of virtue in him; we asked him to answer honestly
whether one who read the Fathers assiduously could belong to that
party which he supported. He answered that he could not, if,
besides reading, he also believed them.[1] This saying is most
true; nor do I think that either he at the present time, or
Matthew Hutten, a man of name, who is said to read the Fathers
with an assiduity that few equal, or other adversaries who do the
like, are otherwise minded.

Thus far I have been able to descend with security into this
field of conflict, to wage war with men, who, as though they held
a wolf by the ears, are compelled to brand their cause with an
everlasting stigma of shame, whether they refuse the Fathers or
whether they call for them. In the one case they are preparing to
run away, in the other they are caught by the throat.

SIXTH REASON

THE GROUNDS OF ARGUMENT ASSUMED BY THE FATHERS

If ever any men took to heart and made their special care,--as
men of our religion have made it and should make it their special
care,--to observe the rule, _Search the Scriptures_ (John v. 39),
the holy Fathers easily come out first and take the palm for the
matter of this observance. By their labour and at their expense
Bibles have been transcribed and carried among so many nations
and tongues by the perils they have run and the tortures they
have endured the Sacred Volumes have been snatched from the
flames and devastation spread by enemies: by their labours and
vigils they have been explained in every detail. Night and day
they drank in Holy Writ, from all pulpits they gave forth Holy
Writ, with Holy Writ they enriched immense volumes, with most
faithful commentaries they u