Knox to Calvin
1559.
QUEEN ELIZABETH TO SIR RALPH SADLER.
XXXI.
Queen Elizabeth to Sir Ealph Sadler.
Elizabeth E.
Trusty and welbeloved, we greate you well.
We have sene your lettres and Sir James Crofts to our Secretary, dated the 20 th of this moneth, and uppon consideration aswell thereof, as uppon certeu lettres sent from others there, whereof Sir James Crofts was privee, and sent them to our sayd Secretory, we thynk it convenient that ye shall imparte such monny as was committed to you at your departure, or so much thereof as ye shall thynk mete, in the secretest manner that ye can, to such persons, and to such intents, as maye most effectually furder and avance that manner of service, that hath bene specially recommended unto you.
And therin we do recorumend the maner and circumstances hereof to your discretion, using therin at your clioise ether the counsell of the sayd Sir James, or Sir Henry Percy, or any other our trusty servants there.
Gyven under Our signett the 24 of August 1559.
XXXII.
Knoxus Calvino, S.D.
(Ad Disciplmam Ecclcsiasticam intcrrogata^ Qu^ sit rerum mearum conditio, Fratres in Christo colon dissimi, quibus arniis et machinis impetiti fuimus et simus, et quomodo Dei auxiUo tuti hactenus inimicis nostris non cessiKnox to Calvin.
« (Qwmes relative to Ecclesiastical Discipline.) What is the state of my affairs, most venerable brethren in Christ, with what arms and instruments of war we have been and are attacked, and how, safe through the help of God, we
LETTERS, ETC.
1559. iims, vos docere potest hie Frater, noii mihi soli, sed universse Ecclesise propter pietatem charus.
Quern ut viscera mea, precor, suscipite : eidem signijficantes qute sit vestra de subscriptis articulis seutentia.
1. An ad Baptismum admitti debeant sptirii, idololatraruni et excommunicatoruni filii, priusquaiii vel parentes per resipiscentiam sese siibdideriut Ecclesige, vel ii qui ex hujusuiodi prognati sunt, Baptismum petere possint.
2. Utrum monacliis et sacrificulis Bapisticis, qui ueque Ecclesiae Dei serviunt, neque propter habitudinem servire possunt, annul reditus persolvendi sint, etianisi errorem pristinum ore fateantur.
Hvec quia nego, plus lequo severus judicor, uon a soils Bapisticis, verum etiam ab lis qui sibi veritatis patroni videntur.
Blura scril3ere vetant febris qua crucior, laborum moles qua have not hitherto yielded to our enemies, this brother, endeared by his piety not to me alone but to tlie whole church, can inform you.
Eeceive him, I pray you, as my own bowels, and intimate to him what is your opinion on the following points.
1. Should the bastard sons of idolaters and excommunicated persons be admitted to baptism, till either the parents have by repentance submitted themselves to the church, or their offspring are qualified to ask baptism ?
Should the yearly revenues (of the church) be paid to Bopish monks and priests who neither serve the chiu'ch of God nor from their habits'^ are fit to serve it, even shou.ld they confess their former error ?
Because I answer these in the negative, I am considered unjustly severe not only by Bapists, l)ut also by those who think themselves patrons of the truth.
The fever with wliich I am afflicted, the weight of labours that presses on me, and the ' Habitudo, properly a hahif of bodi/, .seems here to nipaii Itahlts vhetJier of body or of mind.