Excerpt from Letter to the Right Rev. Father in God: Richard Lord Bishop of Oxford, on the Tendency to Romanism; Imputed to Doctrines Held of Old, as Now, in the English Church "To say that in nothing they may be followed which are of the Church of Rome were violent and extreme. Some things they do in that they are men, in that they are wise men and Christian men some things, some things in that they are men misled and blinded with error. As far as they follow reason and truth, we fear not to tread the selfsame steps wherein they have gone, and be their followers. Where Rome keepeth that which is ancienter and better, others whom we much more affect, leaving it for newer and changing it for worse; we had rather follow the perfections of them whom we like not, than in defects resemble those whom we love." "They which measure religion by dislike of the church of Rome, think every man so much the more sound, by how much he can make the corruptions thereof to seem more large... Wisdom therefore and skill is requisite to know, what parts are sound in that Church and what corrupted. "Neither is it to all men apparent which complain of unsound parts, with 'what kind of unsoundness every such part is possessed. They can say, that in doctrine, in discipline, in prayers, in sacraments, the Church of Rome hath (as it hath indeed) very foul and gross corruptions; the nature whereof, notwithstanding, because they have not for the most part exact skill and knowledge to discern, they think that amiss many times which is not; and the salve of reformation they mightily call for, but where and what the sores are which need it, as they wot full little, so they think it not greatly material to search." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.