The Pharisees of Hierusalem coming so farre to carp him, he chargeth with a tradition
contrarie to Gods commandement. 10. And to the People he yealdeth the reason of that which they
reproued: 15. & againe to his Disciples, shewing the ground of the Pharisaical washing (to wit, that
meates otherwise defile the soule) to be false. 21. then he goeth aside to hide himself among the
Gentils; where, in a woman he findeth such faith, that he is faine, lest the Gentils should before
the time extort the whole bread, as she had a crumme, to returne to the Iewes. 34. where (al contrarie
to those Pharisees) the common People seeke wonderfully vnto him: and he after he hath cured their
diseased, feedeth 4000 of them with seauen loaues.
1.
⋮
The Ghospel vpon wenesday the 3 weeke in Lent.
*
Mark 7,1.
THEN came to him from Hierusalem Scribes and Pharisees, saying:
2. Why do thy Disciples transgresse the tradition of the Ancients? For they wash
not their hands when they eate bread.
3. But he answering said to them: Why do you also transgresse the commandement of
God for your tradition? For God said:
4.
*
Exo. 20,12.
Honour father and mother. And:
*
Leu. 20,9.
He that shal curse father or
mother, dying let him dye.
5. But you say: whosoeuer shal say to father or mother, the guift whatsoeuer
proceedeth from me, shal profit thee:
6. And shal not honour his father or his mother: & you haue made frustrate the
commandement of God for your own tradition.
7. Hypocrits, wel hath Esay Prophecied of you, saying:
8.
*
Isai. 29,13.
This People honoureth me with
With their lips.
This is to be vnderstood properly of such as haue euer God in their mouth, the Word of
our Lord, the Scriptures, the Ghospel, but in their hart and al their life be in deed
Godles. It may be applied also to such as say their prayers without attention or
eleuation of mind to God, whether he vnderstand the prayers or no, that saith them. For
many a poore Christian man that vnderstandeth not the wordes he speaketh, hath his hart
neerer Heauen, more feruor & deuotion, more edification to himself, more profit in spirit
(*as the Apostle speaketh) & lesse distractions, then not only al Heretikes which
haue no true feeling of such things, but then many learned Catholikes. And therefore
it is not to be vnderstood of praying in vnknown tongues, as Heretikes sometime expound
it, farre wide from the circumstance of the place and Christes intention, speaking of
the hypocritical Iewes.
1 Cor. 14.
their lips: but their hart is farre from me.
9. And in vaine do they worship me, teaching doctrines and
Commandements of men.
The difference between the Iewish traditions here reprehended, and the Churches
Apostolical traditions.
Such only are here called traditions, doctrines, or commandements of men, which be
either repugnant to Gods lawes, as this of defrauding their parents vnder pretense of
religion: or which at the lest be friuolous, unprofitable, and impertinent to pietie or
true worship, as that other sort of so often washing hands, and vessels, without regard
of inward puritie of hart and mind. Let no man therefore be abused with the Protestants
peruerse application of this place against the holy lawes, canons, and precepts of the
Church and our spiritual Gouernours, concerning fastes, festiuities, and other rules of
discipline, and due order in life, and in the seruice of God. For such are not repugnant
but consonant to Gods Word & al pietie, & our Lord is truly honoured, worshiped, and
serued both by the making and also by the obseruing of them. *S. Paul gaue commandement
both by his epistles, and by word of mouth, euen in such matters wherin Christ had
prescribed nothing at al, & he chargeth the Faithful to obserue the same. **The Apostles
& Priests at Hierusalem made lawes, and the Christians were bound to obey them. a
The keeping of Sunday in steed of the Sabboth is the tradition of the Apostles: and dare
the Heretikes deny the due obseruation therof to be an acceptable worship of God?
They prescribed the Feastes of Easter, and whitsontide, and other Solemnities of Christ,
and his Saints, which the Protestants them selves obserue. c They appointed the
Lent & Imber fastes and other, as wel to chastise the concupiscence of man, as to serue
and please God therby, as is plaine in the fasting of ***Anna, Tobie, Iudith, Esther;
who serued and pleased God therby. Therefore neither these nor other such Apostolike
Ordinances, nor any precepts of the holy Church, or of our lawful Pastours, are implied
in these Pharisaical traditions here reprehended; nor to be counted or called the doctrines
and commandements of men, because they are not made by mere humane power, but by Christes
warrant and authoritie, and by such as he hath placed to rule his Church, of whom he saith:
****He that heareth you, heareth me: he that dispiseth you, despiseth me. They are
made by the Holy Ghost, ioyning with our Pastours in the regiment of the Faithful.
They are made by our Mother the Church, which whosoever obeieth not, *****we are warned
to take him as an Heathen. But on the other side, al lawes, doctrines, seruices , and
iniunctions of Heretikes, how soeuer pretended to be consonant to the Scriptures, be
commandements of men: because both the things by them prescribed are impious, and the
Authours haue neither sending nor commission from God.
b
*2 Thes. 2, 15. 1 Cor. 11.
**Act. 15.
a Aug. Ser. de temp. See 1 Cor. 16,2.
b Epiph. hær. 75.
c Hiero. ep. 54 ad Marcel. contra Mont.
***Lu. 2,37. Tob. 12. Jud. c. 8. Est. 4.
****Luke 10,16.
*****Mat. 18,17.
commandements of men.
10. And hauing called togeather the multitudes vnto him, he said to them: Heare ye
and vnderstand.
11.
Not that which entreth.
Difference of meates.
The Catholikes doe not abstaine from certaine meates, for that they esteeme any meate vncleane,
either by creation, or by Iudaical obseruation: they abstaine for chasticement of their
concupiscences. Aug. li. de. mor. Ec. Cath. c. 33.
Not that which entreth into the mouth, defileth a man: but that which proceeedeth
out of the mouth, that defileth a man.
12. Then came his Disciples, and said to him: Dost thou know that the Pharisees, when
they heard this word, were scandalized?
13. But answering said: Al planting which my Heauenly Father hath not planted, shal be
rooted vp.
14. Let them alone: blind they are, guides of the blind. And if the blind be guide to
the blind, both fal into the ditch.
15. And Peter answering said to him: Expound vs this parable.
16. But he said: Are you also as yet without vnderstanding?
17. Doe you not vnderstand, that al that entreth into the mouth, goeth into the belly,
and is cast forth into the priuy?
18. But the things that proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the hart, and those
things
Defile a man.
Catholike abstinence.
It is sinne only, which properly defileth man, and meates of them selues or of their owne
nature doe not defile, but so farre as by accident they make a man to sinne, as the
disobedience of Gods commandement, or of our Superiours, who forbid some meates for certaine
times, and causes, is a sinne. As the apple which our first parents did eate of, though of
itself it did not defile them, yet being eaten against the precept, it did defile. So
neither flesh nor fish of itself doth defile, but the breach of the Churches precept
defileth.
defile a man.
19. For from the hart come forth euil cogitations, murders, aduoutries, fornications,
thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies.
20. These are the things that defile a man. But to eate with vnwashen hands, doth not
defile a man.
21.
⋮
The Ghospel vpon Thursday the first weeke in Lent.
And Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ went forth from thence and retired into the quarters of Tyre and Sidon.
22. And behold
*
Mark 7,25.
a woman of Chanaan came forth out of those coasts, & crying out, said to
him: Haue mercie vpon me, O Lord the Sonne of Dauid: my daughter is sore vexed of a Diuel.
23. Who answered her not a word. And his Disciples came and besought him saying:
Dimisse her, because she crieth out after vs.
24. And he answering said: I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house
of Israel.
25. But she came and adored him, saying: Lord, help me.
26. Who answering, said: It is not good to take bread of the Children, and to cast it
to the dogs.
27. But she said: Yea Lord; for the whelps also eate of the crummes that fal from the
table of their maisters.
28. Then Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ answering said to her: O woman,
✟
It were a strange case that Christ should commend in this woman a sole faith
without good workes, that is to say, a dead faith such as could not worke by loue,
and which S. Iames doubted not to cal the faith not of Christians but of Diuels.
Aug. de Fid. & Op. c. 16.
great is thy faith: be it done to thee
as thou wil: And her daughter was made hole from the houre.
29. And when Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ was passed from thence, he came beside the sea of Galilee: &
ascending into the mountaine, sate there.
30. And there came to him great multitudes, hauing with them dumme persons, blind,
lame, feeble, and many others: and they cast them downe at his feete, and he cured them:
31. So that the multitudes marueled seeing the dumme speakem, the lame walke, the
blind see: and they magnified the God of Israel.
32. And
*
Mark 8,1
Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ called togeather his Disciples, and said: I pitie the multitude because
three dayes now they continue with me, & haue not what to eate: and dimisse them fasting I wil not,
lest they faint in the way.
33. And the Disciples say vnto him: whence then may we get so many loaues in the desert
as to fil so great a multitude?
34. And Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ said to them: How many loaues haue you? But they said: Seauen, & a few
litle fishes.
35. And he commanded the multitude to sit downe vpon the ground.
36. And taking the Seauen loaues & the fishes, and giuing thankes, he brake, & gaue
it to his Disciples, and
✟
Here we see againe that the people must not be their owne caruers, nor receaue the
Sacraments or other spiritual sustenance immediatly of Christ, or at their owne hand,
but of their spiritual gouerners.
the Disciples gaue to the People.
37. And they did al eat, and had their fill. And that which was left of the
fragments they tooke vp, seauen baskets ful.
38. And there were that did eate, foure thousand men, beside children & women.
39. And hauing dimissed the multitude, he went vp into a boate, and came into the
coastes of Magedan.