of innouation or disturbance, doo not cause both to be. Many times in an host, he that crieth enemies, enemies when there bee none, causeth not onely disturbance, but somtimes a mutinie or rebillion to be made: and he that for feare of sicknes to come taketh vnaduisedly a purgation, somtime maketh him selfe sick in dede. We perceaue by the sayd your letters, that haynouser factes & wordes haue bene brought to your eares, then there was cause why: and those factes which were punishable, bee already by hym redrest.

MarginaliaFor Images.For the matter of Images an order was taken in the late king of famous memorye our soueraigne Lordes dayes. When the abused Images (yet lurkyng in some places by negligence of them, who should ere this tyme haue looked vnto the same) be nowe abolished, let not that be made a matter of the abolishing of all Images. Though fellons and adulterers be punished, all men be not slayne. MarginaliaDistinctiō of images.Though the Images which dyd adulterate Gods glory, be taken away, we maye not thinke by and by all maner of Images to be destroyed. Yet after our aduise, better it were for a tyme to abolish them all, then for the dead Images, the kinges louing subiectes beyng faythfull and true to the kinges maiestie, should be put to variaunce and disturbance. Wyth quietnes the Magistrates and Rulers shall keepe them wel in order, whom contentious Preachers might iritate & prouoke to disorder and strife. So it must be prouided, that the kinges Maiesties Images, Armes, and Ensignes shoulde be honored and woorshipped after the decent order and inuention of humaine lawes and ceremonies, and neuertheles that other Images contrary to Gods ordinance and lawes shoulde not be made partakers of that reuerence, adoration, and inuocation, whych forbydden by God, should derogate hys honor, and be occasion to accumulate Gods wrath vpon vs. Where they bee taken for a remembraunce, it maketh no great matter though they stand styll in the Church of Marketsted: MarginaliaMre gentlenes shewed to the bookes of images, then to the bookes of gods word in K. Henryes tyme.and following the late king of famous memory his counsel and order, yet more gentlenes was shewed to those bookes of Images, then to the true and vnfayned bookes of Gods word: both being abused, the one wyth Idolatry, the other wyth contention. The scripture was remoued for a tyme from certayne persons, and almost from all: the Images were left styll to them, who most dyd abuse them, that thing yet being closed from them, which should teach the vse. Wherefore it may appeare vnto vs meete, more diligenter heede to be taken that the abused before bee not abused agayne, the aduauntage of some Priestes, simplicity of lay men, and great inclination of mans nature to idolatry geuing cause therunto.

They that contemne Images, because the matter they are made of is but vile, as stockes and stones, may lykewise despise printing in paper, because þ^e incke hath pitch in it, & the paper is made of olde ragges. And if they be both like, it might be reasoned why a mā should be more agreued, þ^t an image of wood, though it were of S. Anne, or S. Margaret should be burned, then he wyll þ^t the Bible wherin þ^e vndoubted word of God is cōprised, should be torne in peeces, burned, or made past of. Nor we doe not now speake of false Bibles nor false gospels, but of þ^e very true gospel, eyther in latin, Greeke, or English, which we see euery day done, and sometime commaunded, because the Translator displeaseth vs: and yet herein no man exclaimeth, as of a terrible and destable fact done. MarginaliaPapistges can better abyde the booke of gods word then Images to be burned.But let one Image either for age, & because is is worme eaten, or because it hath bene foolishly abused, bee burnt or abolished, by and by some men are in exceeding rage, as though not a stocke or stone, but a true Saint of flesh and bone should be cast in the fyre, which were a detestable and a terrible syght. We can not see, but that Images may be counted marueilous bookes, to whom we haue kneeled, whom we haue kyssed, vppon whom we haue rubbed our heades and hādkerchers, to whom we haue lyghted candels, of whom wee haue asked pardon and helpe: which thyng hath seldome bene seene done to the Gospell of God, or to the very true Bible. MarginaliaImages falsely called & counted for lay mens bookes.For who kisseth that, but the Priest at the Masse, at a painted picture or in such a ceremony? Or who kneleth down vnto it, or setteth a cādel before it? And yet it seeth or heareth aswel as the images or pictures either of S. Iohn, our Lady, or Christ.

In dede Images be great letters, yet as bigge as they bee, we haue seene many which haue read them amisse. And belyke they are so likely to be read amisse, that God hym selfe fearyng the Iewes to become euill readers ofthem, generally did forbid them. Nor it is no great maruaile though in readyng of them the lay people are many tymes deceaued, whē your Lordship (as appeareth) hath not truly read a most true and a most common Image. MarginaliaWinchester ouerseene in mistakyng the kinges Image for S. George on horsebacke.Your Lordshyp hath found out in the kynges hyghnes great seale, S. George on horsebacke, which the grauer neuer made in it, nor the sealer neuer sealed with it, and in this, the inscription is not very litle, and if it were, it could not escape your Lordshyps eyes. As the inscriptiō testifieth, the kynges Image is on both the sides: on the one side as in warre the chief Captaine, on the other syde as in peace the liege soueraigne: In harnes with hys sword drawen to defende his subiectes: in his robes in the seate of Iustice with his Scepter rightfully to rule and gouerne them, as he whom both in peace and warre we acknowledge our most naturall and chiefest head, ruler and gouernour. If it were S. George (my Lord) where is hys speare and Dragon? and why should the inscription rounde about tell an vntruth and not agree to the Image? yet it is called sometyme so of the rude and ignoraunt people: but not by and by, that that is commonly called so, is alwayes truest. And some haue thought that by like deceauyng, as your Lordshyp herein appeareth to haue ben deceaued, the Image of Bellerephon or Perseus was turned first and appoynted to be S. George, & of Poliphemus, of Hercules, or of other some Collosus to bee S. Christopher, because autenticall hystories haue not fully proued their ij. lyues. But those be indifferent to be true or not true, either thus inuented vppon some deuise, or risyng of a true fact or history: and whether it were true or not, it maketh no great matter.

MarginaliaIf it bee agaynst reason that learned mē should take frō the vnlearned the bokes of their Images, much more is it against reason, to take frō thē the bookes of Gods worde.It were hardly done in dede my Lord, if that you and a fewe which can read, shoulde take away from the vnlearned multitude, their bookes of their Images: but it were more hardly done, if that you or a fewe whiche can read in one or two languages (as Greeke and Latine) the worde of God, & haue had thereby many reliefes & priuiledges, should pull away the Englishe bookes from the rest which onely vnderstandeth Englishe, and would haue onely your letters of Greeke and Latine in estimation, and blynde all them which vnderstandeth not these languages, from the knowledge of Gods worde. And in deede my Lord, by your saying they haue iust occasion to suspect what is ment?

What you meane by true Images and false Images, it is not so easie to perceaue. If they bee onely false Images which haue nothyng that they represent, as S. Paul writeth: An Idoll is nothyng Marginalia1. Cor. 8.
Winchesters distinction betwene true and false Images, refuted.(because there is no such God) and therfore the Crosse can be no false Image because it was true that Christ suffred vppon it: then the Image of the Sunne and the Moone were no Idoles, for such thynges there be as the Sunne and the Moone, and they were in the Image then so represented as paintyng and keruyng doth represent them. And the Image of Ninus and Cesar, and (as some writeth) the Images of all the xij. chosen Gods, (as they called them) were the Images of once lyuing men. MarginaliaThe Image of the father is false, and therefore by Winchesters reason to be abolyshed.And it might be sayd that the Image of God the father hath no such eyes, nose, lyppes, and a long graye beard, with a furred robe, nor neuer had, as they karue and paint him to haue. But if that bee a false Image and an Idoll which is otherwise worshypped and accepted then it ought to be, as the brasen Serpent beyng a true Image and representation of Christ, by abuse was made an Idoll: it may be thought in tymes past, and peraduenture now at this tyme, in some places the Images, not onely of S. Iohn or S. Anne, but of our Lady and Christ be false Images and Idols, representyng to folishe blynd and ignoraūt mens hartes and thoughtes, that which was not in them, and they ought not to bee made for: The which were by you (my Lord) to haue bene remoued sooner & before that the captaine there should haue nede to haue done it. But if your Lordshyp be slacke in such matters, hee that remoueth false Images and Idols abused, doth not a thyng worthy blame.

Christ called not the money hauyng Cesars Image in it an Idoll when it was vsed to lawful vses, and to pay the due tribute withall. But when a man doth not vse those Images grauen in money, to do his neighbour good and the common wealth seruice, S. Paul Christes disciple called that couetousnes, and the seruyng and bondage to Idols: So that euen in money may bee Idolatrie, if we make to much of those Images which Christ here doth not reprehend. There bee some so tickelish and so feareful one wayes and so tender stomacked, that they