in common with us, to detest; but they should
remember that his book _On Prescriptions_, which has so signally
smitten the heretics of our times, was never found fault with.
How finely, how, clearly, has Hippolytus, Bishop of Porto pointed
out beforehand the power of Antichrist, the times of Luther! They
call him, therefore, "a most babyish writer, an owl." Cyprian,
the delight and glory of Africa, that French critic Caussee, and
the Centuriators of Magdeburg, have termed "stupid, God-forsaken
corrupter of repentance." What harm has he done? He has written
_On Virgins, On the Lapsed, On the Unity of the Church_, such
treatises as also such letters to Cornelius, the Roman Pontiff,
that, unless credence be withdrawn from this Martyr, Peter Martyr
Vermilius and all his associates must count for worse than
adulterers and men guilty of sacrilege. And, not to dwell longer
on individuals, the Fathers of this age are all condemned "for
wonderful corruption of the doctrine of repentance." How so?
Because the austerity of the Canons in vogue at that time is
particularly obnoxious to this plausible sect which, better
fitted for dining-rooms than for churches, is wont to tickle
voluptuous ears and to sew _cushions on every arm_ (Ezech. xiii.
18). Take the next age, what offence has that committed?
Chrysostom and those Fathers, forsooth, have "foully obscured the
justice of faith." Gregory Nazianzen whom the ancients called
eminently "the Theologian," is in the judgment of Caussee "a
chatter-box, who did not know what he was saying." Ambrose was
"under the spell of an evil demon." Jerome is "as damnable as the
devil, injurious to the Apostle, a blasphemer, a wicked wretch."
To Gregory Massow--"Calvin alone is worth more than a hundred
Augustines." A hundred is a small number: Luther "reckons nothing
of having against him a thousand Augustines, a thousand Cyprians,
a thousand Churches." I think I need not carry the matter
further. For when men rage against the above-mentioned Fathers,
who can wonder at the impertinence of their language against
Optatus, Hilary, the two Cyrils, Epiphanius, Basil, Vincent,
Fulgentius, Leo, and the Roman Gregory. However, if we grant any
just defence of an unjust cause, I do not deny that the Fathers
wherever you light upon them, afford the party of our opponents
matter they needs must disagree with, so long as they are
consistent with themselves. Men who have appointed fast-days, how
must they be mi