MarginaliaAn. 1554. Aprill.which you haue right learnedly satisifed: and now all thinges being done, after our forme and maner, wee wyll end this disputation, saying: In oppositum est sacra theologia. In oppositum est. &c.

¶ Thus ye haue heard in these foresayd disputations, about the holy supper of the Lord, the reasons and argumentes of the Doctors, the aunsweres and resolutions of the Bishops, and the triumph of the Prolocutor, triumphing before the victory: with Vicit veritas: who rather in my mynde should haue exclamed: Vicit potestas. As it happeneth alwayes, vbi pars maior vincit meliorem. For els of potestas had not helped the Prolocutor more then Veritas, there had bene a small victoria. But so it is, where iudgementes bee partiall, and parties be addicted, there all things turne to victory, though it be neuer so meane and simple, as in this disputation myght well appeare. For first of the Opponents part, neyther was there almost any argument in true moode and figure rightly framed: neyther could the aunsweres be permitted to say for themselues: and if they answered any thing, it was condemned before they began to speake. Agayne, such disturbance and confusion, more like a conspiration then any disputation, without all forme and order, was in the Schooles during the time of their aunswering, that neither could the aunswerers haue place to vtter theyr myndes, neyther would the Opponentes bee satisfied wyth any reason. Concerning the which disturbance of that misruled disputation, you shall heare what maister Ridley hym selfe reporteth by his own description in maner as followeth.

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MarginaliaBysh. Ridleys report of the misorder of thys disputation.I Neuer yet sithens I was borne, saw, or heard, any thing done or handled more vainely or tumultuously, then the disputation which was with me in the Scholes at Oxforde. Yea verely I could neuer haue thought that it had bene possible to haue found amongst men recounted to be of knowledge and learning in this realme, any so brasen faced and shameles, so disorderly and vainly to behaue them selues, more like to stage players in Interludes, to set forth a Pageant, then to be graue diuines in Scholes to dispute. The Sorbonicall clamours (which at Paris I haue sene in time past whē poperie most raigned) might be worthely thought (in comparison of thys trasonicall ostentation) to haue had much modestie. And no great meruel, seyng they which should haue ben moderators and ouerseers of others, & which should haue geuen good ensample in wordes & grauitie: they them selues aboue all other gaue worst ensample, and dyd, as it were, blow the trompe to the rest, to raile, rore, rage, and cry out. By reason wherof (good Christian reader) manifestly it may appeare that they neuer sought for any truth or veritie,MarginaliaNot veritie but glory sought for in thys disputation.but onely for the glory of the world and their owne bragging victory. But lest by the innumerable railinges, and reprochefull tauntes, wherwyth I was baited on euery side, our cause, yea rather Gods cause & his churches, should be euel spokē of, & sclaūdred to the world through false reportes, and vntrue examples geuen out of our disputation, & so the verity might sustaine some dammage: I thought it no lesse then my dutie to write mine aunsweres, to the intent that who so euer is desirous to know the truth therof, may by this perceiue, aswell those things which were chiefly obiected, as summarely that which was aunswered of me vnto euery of them. Howbeit (good Reader) I confesse this to be most true, þ^t it is vnpossible to set forth eyther all that was (God knoweth) tumultuously and confusedly obiected of their partes being so many, speaking many times altogether so thicke that one could not wel heare an other, either all that was aunswered on my behalfe, to them so sondry and diuers Opponentes.

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Moreouer, a great part of the time appointed for the disputations was vainely consumed in opprobrious checkes, and reuiling tauntes,MarginaliaTauntes and reuilinges vsed in thys disputation.with hissings & clapping of handes, and that in the english tonge to procure the peoples fauour withall. All which things, when I with great griefe of hart did behold, protesting openly that

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such excessiue and outragious disorder, was vnsemely for those Scholes & men of learning & grauitie, & that they which were the doers and stirrers of such thnges, dyd nothing els but bewray the slendernes of their cause, and their owne vanities: I was so far of by this my humble complainte from doing any good at all, that I was enforced to heare such rebukes, checkes, and tauntes for my labour, as no person of any honesty without blusshing could abide to heare the like spoken of a most vyle varlet, against a most wretched ruffian.

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At the first beginning of the disputation, when I should haue confirmed mine aūswere to the first proposition in few wordes, and that (after the maner and law of Scholes) afore I could make an end of my first probatiō, which was not very long, euē þ^e Doctours thēselues, cryed out, he speaketh blasphemies, he speaketh basphemies. MarginaliaD. Ridley could not be suffered to read forth hys protestation.And when I on my knees besought them & that hartely, that they would vouchsafe to heare me to þ^e end, (wherat the Prolocutor being moued, cried out on hie, let him read it, let him read it) yet when I began to read it againe, there followed immediatly such shouting, such a noyse and tumult, and confusion of voyces, crying, blasphemies, blasphemies, as I to my remembraunce, neuer heard or read the lyke: except it be that one which was in the Actes of the Apostles, stirred vp of Demetrius the siluer Smith and other of his occupation, crying out against Paul, great is Diana of þ^e Ephesians, great is Diana of the Ephesians: and except it be a certain disputatiō which the Arrians had agaynst the Orthodoxes, & such as were of godly iudgemēt in Aphrica, where it is sayd, that such as the President and rulers of the disputation were, such was the end of the disputations. All were in a hurlie burlie, and so great were the sclaūders which the Arrians cast out, that nothing could quietly be heard. This writeth Victor in the second booke of his history.

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The which cries and tumults of them agaynst me so preuailed, that wild I nild I, I was enforced to leaue of the reading of my probations, although they were short. If any man doubt of the truth hereof, let the same aske any one that was there, and not vtterlye peruerted in Popery: and I am assured hee wyll saye I speake the least. But to complayne of these thinges further, I wyll ceasse.

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And further speaking of this disputation, he concludeth with these wordes: And thus was ended thys most glorious disputation of the most holy fathers, sacrificers, Doctours, and Maisters, which fought most manfully (as ye may see) for their God and goods, for their fayth and felicitie, for their countrey and kitchin, for their beautie and bellie, with triumphant applauses and fauour of the whole Vniuersitie.

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After the disputation of Maister Latimer ended,  

which was the. 18. day of Aprill, the Friday folowingMarginaliaThe 3. prisoners at Oxford called before the Cōmissioners. Aprill. 20. which was the. 20. day of the sayd moneth, the Commissioners satte in S. Maries Church, as they dyd the Saterday before, and Doctor Weston vsed particularly dissuasions with euery of them, and would not suffer them to aunswere in any wyse, but directly and peremptorily (as hys wordes were) to say whether they would subscribe, or no. And first to the Bishop of Canterbury, hee sayd hee was ouercome in disputations: whom the Bishop aunswered, that where as Doctour Weston sayd he had aunswered and opposed, and could neyther maintayne his own errours, nor impugne the veritie, all that he sayd was false. For he was not suffred to oppose as he would, nor could aunswere as he was required, vnlesse he would haue brauled with thē, so thycke their reasons came one after an other. Euer 4. or 5. did interrupt him, that hee coulde not speake. Maister Ridley & Maister Latimer, were asked what they would doe, they sayd they would stand to that they had sayd: MarginaliaDoctour Cranmer, B. Ridley, & Maister Latymer, cōdemned.then were they all called together, and sentence read ouer them, that they were no members of the church. And therefore they, their fautours, and patrones were condemned as heretickes: and in reading of it, they were asked whether they would turne or no, and they bad them read on in the name of God, for they were not mynded to turne. So were they condemned all three.

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