moste vntrue: and the contrarye is moste trew. I aunswered: We reade in the decrees: that the fower generall Councelles, Nicene, Constantinopolitane, Ephesine, and Calcedone haue the same autoritie that the foure Euangelistes haue. MarginaliaCanō law approueth priests mariages.And we read in the same decrees (whiche is one of the chiefe bookes of the Canon lawe,) that the Councell of Nicene, by the meanes of one Paphnutius, did allowe Priestes, and Bishoppes mariages. Therefore by the best part of the Canon law, Priests may be maried.

Then my Lord Chauncellour said. Thou falsifiest the generall Councell. For there is expresse mention in the sayde decree, that Priestes should be diuorced frō their wiues, whiche be maried.

Then saide I: if those woordes be there, as you say, then am I content to lose this great head of myne. Let the booke be fetched.MarginaliaThe booke was not fette. Then saide my Lorde of Duresme: Thoughe they be not there, yet they maye be in Ecclesiastica historia, whiche Eusebius wrote, out of which booke the decree was taken. Then sayde I: it is not lyke that the Pope woulde leaue oute any suche sentence, hauynge suche autoritye, and makinge so muche for his purpose. Then my Lorde Chauncelloure saide: MarginaliaGardiner denieth his own Canonist, and calleth it a patched lawe.Gratian was but a Patcher, and thou arte glad to snathe vp suche a patche as maketh for thy purpose. I aunswered: my Lorde: I can not but marueyle that you dooe call one of the chiefe Papistes that euer was, but a patcher.

Then my Lorde Chauncelloure sayde: Naye I call thee a snatcher and a patcher. To make an ende: Wilte thou not retourne agayne with vs to the Catholike Churche? and with that he rose. And I sayde: By goddes grace I wyll neuer departe from Chrystes Church. Then I required that I myght haue some of my frendes to come to me in prison. And my Lorde Chauncellour sayd: thou shalte haue iudgemente within this Weke. And so I was deliuered agayne vnto my keper. My Lorde of Duresme woulde that I shoulde beleue as my father, and my mother: I alledged Saynct Augustine: That we ought to preferre gods worde before al men. &c.

The Copy of a wrytyng that Doctour Taylour sent to a faythul frende, concernyng the causes wherefore he was cōdemned.  

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This letter was first printed in Rerum, pp. 420-22 and then in all editions of the Acts and Monuments. (It does not appear in Letters of the Martyrs). BL, Lansdowne 389, fos. 186r-v and 295r-296v, as well as ECL 262, fos. 189v-191v, are copies of this letter.

MarginaliaPriests mariage confirmed.IT is heresie to defend any doctrine against the holye scripture. Therefore the Lord Chauncellour and Byshops cōsenting to his sētēce against me, be Heretikes. For they haue geuē sētence against

the mariage of Priestes, knowing that sainct Paule to Tymothe and Titus writeth plainlye, that Bishoppes, Priestes, and Deacons maye bee maried: knowinge also that by Saincte Paules Doctrine, it is the Doctrine of the Deuilles to inhibite Matrimonye. And Saincte Paule wylleth euerye faythfull mynyster to teache the people so, leaste they bee deceyued by the marked marchauntes. i. Timoth. iiii.

MarginaliaBishoppes sin agaynst theyr owne conscyence.These Bishoppes are not ignoraunt, that it is not onelye Saincte Paules counsaile and lawfull, but Goddes commaundement also to marye, for suche as cannot otherwyse lyue chaste, neither auoide fornication.Marginaliai. Cor. vii They know that suche as dooe mary, dooe not sinne. They knowe that MarginaliaGenes. ii.GOD, before synne was, ordayned matrimony, and that in paradise, betwene twoo of his principall Creatures, Manne, and Woman. They know what Spirit thei haue, whiche saye it is euyll to marye, (seyng GOD sayde: it is not good for manne to bee alone withoute a wyfe,MarginaliaGenes. ii) hauinge no speciall gyfte contrarye to the generall commaundemente, and ordinaunce, diuers times repeted in the Booke of Genesis, whiche is to encrease and multiplye.MarginaliaGenes. i They knowe that Abraham caried into the lande of Chanaan his olde and yet barraine wife, the vertuous woman Sara with him,MarginaliaGenes, xii leauinge Father, and Mother, and Countrey otherwyse at Goddes commaundement. For thoughe Father and Mother, and other frendes are deare, and neare, yet none are so dearelye nor nearelye ioyned together, as Manne and Wyfe in Matrimonie, whiche muste needes bee holye, for that it is a fygure and similitude of Christe and his Churche.

They knowe that Saincte Paule giueth a great praise to Matrimonie,MarginaliaEphes. v callinge it honourable,MarginaliaHebru. xiii and that not onely to and among many, but to and among all men, without exception, whosoeuer haue nede of that Goddes remedy, for Mannes and Womans infirmitie. They knowe that if there were anye sinne in Matrymonye, it were chiefly to be thoughte to bee in the bedde company. But Saincte Paule sayeth: that the bedde companye is vndefyled. They knowe that the hauynge of a wife was not am impedimente for Abraham, Moses, Isaac, Iacob, Dauid. &c.MarginaliaGene. xviii Exod. xviii Genes. xxv Genes. xxxi Marginaliaii. Reg. vii to talke with God, neyther to the Leuites, Bishoppes, and Priestes office in the tyme of the olde Testamente, or the Newe.

They knowe that Christe woulde not bee conceaued, or borne of the blessed Mother, the Virgine Marye,MarginaliaMath. 1 before shee was espoused in mariage, his owne ordinaunce. They knowe by Sayncte Cyprian, and Sayncte Austyne, that a vowe is not an impedymente suffycyente to lette Matrimonye, or to diuorce the same.