A vindication of the Church of England, and of the lawful ministry thereof [electronic resource] : that is to say, of the succession, Election, Confirmation and consecration of bishops; as also Of the Ordination of Priests and Deacons, In Five Books. Wherein the Church of England is defended against the Calumnies and Reproaches of Bellarmine, Saunders, Bristow, Harding, Allen, Stapleton, Parsons, Kellison, Eudaemon, Becanus, and other Romanists: And, amongst other things, full answers to the Exceptions of Fitz-Herbert, Fitz-Simons, Kellison, Champney, Fludd, and another nameless Author, (against the first Edition of this Work) are inserted in their proper Places. Written by Francis Mason, B. D. sometime Fellow of Merton College in Oxford, Rector of Oxford, Archdeacon of Norfolk, and Chaplain to King James the First: and now faithfully translated from the author's Latin edition (much inlarged and corrected.) Whereunto is added A new Edition of a Sermon of the same Author's, concerning the Authority of the Church: A Copy of the first Reformed Ordinal: and a Translation of some Fragments of Letters written to Father Le Courayer; in an Appendix. Together with An exact Index of the Principal Matters; and Marginal Notes upon the whole Book, as occasion offers. To all which is prefixed, A full and particular Series of the Succession of our Bishops, through the several Reigns since the Reformation: An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of this present Controversy, and of the several Writers on both Sides; and particularly of our Learned Author Mason, and of all his Works, in a large Preface. By John Lindsay, a Priest of the Church of England. .