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(Answers to the Questions of the Bishops.) THE ORDERING OF PRIESTS. (Answers to the Bishop.)

THE CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS. The Oath of due Obedience to the Archbishop. (Answers to the Archbishop.)

From the Thirty-nine Articles,

ARTICLE XXXII,

Of the Marriage of Priests.

Bishops, priests, and deacons are not commanded by God's law, either to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from marriage: therefore it is lawful for them, as for all other Christian men, to marry at their own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve better to godliness.

ARTICLE XXXIX.

Of a Christian Man's Oath.

As we confess, that vain and rash swearing is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ, and James his Apostle; so we judge, that Christian religion doth not prohibit, but that a man may swear when the magistrate requireth in

a cause of faith and charity, so it be done according to the Prophets teaching in justice, judgment, and truth.

From the Homilies.

BOOK I.

HOMILY 7. Against Swearing and Perjury. HOMILY 12. Against Strife and Contention.

CRANMER'S CATECHISM.

This Commandment, good children, teacheth us how we ought to behave ourselves towards God in words, bidding us not to speak of the name of God in vain, or without great cause, but to use it only when it tendeth to the praise and glory of God, and to the profit of our neighbour : that every man may perceive by our words and communication that we in our hearts do reverently and humbly fear, magnify, and worship God and his holy name. For by this, our good example, other men are provoked and encouraged to glorify the name of God. And contrariwise, when in scoffing and jesting we be light to abuse the name of God, then other men are offended,

and thereby also are made more irreverent towards God, and less pass of God and godly things, and so by this means we burden ourselves with another man's sin. For Christ saith in the Gospel of Matthew, the eighteenth chapter, "He that giveth cause of offence to any of the weak brethren, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and so drowned in the bottom of the sea." Wherefore, I pray you, diligently beware that you give no such kind of offence to your brethren. Wherefore ye shall now learn, how the name of God is taken in vain, to the intent you may the sooner eschew this sin. For the name of God is taken in vain divers ways.

The first is, when men give the title and name of God to those things which are not God indeed. As the Heathen did call the sun, the moon, and the stars, gods: also they called certain men, as kings and tyrants, gods, and as the Jews did, which made a calf of gold, and said, "This is the god which brought us out of Egypt." And this (good children) is so heinous a fault, that God in the Old Testament commanded him to suffer death, that should commit this sin; and if any city had so offended, he willed the same city to be burned and utterly destroyed, and all that were found therein to be killed. Therefore let us diligently eschew this offence, or else God will horribly punish us.

The second way of taking the name of God in vain is, when we forswear ourselves, or swear

deceitfully, either in common judgment, or in our daily affairs and communication, intending thereby to deceive our neighbour. Wherefore, you must diligently take heed, that you use not to swear lightly, through an evil custom, but do as Christ teacheth us. "Let your communication be yea, yea, and nay, nay." But when necessity driveth you to an oath, or the public officer commandeth you to swear, then be not forsworn, but speak the truth, and faithfully perform and observe that thing that you have sworn. And if it shall chance, any of you in time to come, when you shall come to man's state, to be called to any office in the commonwealth, beware that you give no cause nor occasion to oaths not necessary. For whatsoever sin is committed by such oaths, that God doth impute to the officer which exacteth the same, and not to the subjects which are bound to obey, not only for fear of punishment, but also for conscience sake.

Thirdly, we abuse the name of God, not only in vain but also very ungodly, when with horrible cursing and banning by the name of God we wish to others the vengeance of God. The which sin now in our time is much used. Insomuch that now-a-days you shall hear not only men, but also women and children outrageously curse and ban both themselves and others, saying after this wise, "By God's soul, I would I had never been born, or I would the ground should open and swallow me up ;" "By God's body, I would thou wert hanged;" "By God's passion, I

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would the devil had thee;" "By God's wounds, I would it were on a wild-fire;" or such other like devilish curses and wishes; which offence is not only abominable before God, but also so shameful before the world that it abhorreth good Christian ears to hear such heinous blasphemy.

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Fourthly, the name of God is taken in vain, when men do abuse the Word of God, purposely making false expositions upon Holy Scripture, and wresting the same from the true sense to their evil purpose: or when men make a trifle or a laughing sport of the words of Holy Scripture, as those Papists do which say, that this verse of the Psalm, "He shall drink of the brook by the way, therefore he shall lift up his head," is verified of the goose and the gander. This abuse doth breed a contempt of the Word of God, and it doth corrupt or minish the authority of God's doctrine.

Fifthly, they do misuse the name of God, which do abuse it to charms, witchcraft, sorceries, necromancies, enchantments, and conjurings. And this is not only a great sin, but a thing of its own nature most vain and foolish. For persuade yourselves this thing for a surety, good. children, that all kind of witchcraft is of its own nature nothing else but lies, guiles, and subtleties, to deceive ignorant and simple men, as many have proved by experience to their great loss and utter undoing. Wherefore, beware of them, believe them not, do not learn them, neither fear, that any other man's enchantments are

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