Marginalia1555. February.booke stoppeth all their mouthes. Then sayd I: My Lorde, I thinke many thinges bee farre wyde from the truth of Gods word in that booke.

Then my Lord sayd: thou art a very verlet. To that I aunswered: that is as yl as MarginaliaMath. 5.Racha or Fatue. Then my Lord sayd: thou art an ignoraunt beetill brow.

To that I aunswered: MarginaliaDoctour Taylour learned in Diuinitie, & also in the ciuile law.I haue read ouer and ouer agayne the holy scriptures, and S. Augustines workes thorough, S. Cyprian, Eusebius, Origene, Gregory Nazianzen, with diuers other bookes through once: therefore I thanke God I am not vtterly ignorant. Besydes these, my Lord, I professed the Ciuil lawes, as your Lordship dyd, and I haue read ouer the Canon law also.

Then my Lord sayd: with a corrupt iudgement thou readest all thinges. Touching my profession it is Diuinitie, in which I haue written diuers bookes. Then I sayd: my Lord ye did write one booke MarginaliaGardiners booke De vera obediētia.De vera obedientia: I would you had bene constant in that: For in dede you neuer did declare a good conscience, that I heard of, but in that one booke.

Then my Lord sayd: tut, tut, tut, I wrote against Bucer in Priestes mariages: but such bookes please not such wretches as thou art, which hast ben maryed many yeares.

To that I aunswered: MarginaliaPriestes mariage confirmed by Doctor Taylour.I am maried in deede, and I haue had nine children in holy Matrimony, I thanke God: and this I am sure of, that your procedinges now at this present in this realme agaynst Priests mariages is þ^e mayntenance of the doctrine of deuils, agaynst naturall law, Ciuill law, Canon law, generall Councels, Canōs of the Apostels, aūcient doctors, & Gods lawes.

Then spake my Lord of Duresme, saying: MarginaliaTonstall Bishop of Duresme agaynst Priestes mariage.You haue professed the Ciuill law, as you say. Then you know that Iustinian writeth, that Priests should at theyr taking of Orders sweare, that they were neuer maryed: and he bringeth in to proue that, Canones Apostolorum.

To that I aunswered: that I did not remember any such law of Iustinian. MarginaliaIustinians law approueth maryage, & condemneth othes made against it.But I am sure that Iustinian writeth in Titulo de indicta viduitate, in Cod. that if one would bequeath to hys wyfe in hys testament a legacy, vnder a condition that she shoulde neuer mary agayne, and take an oth of her for the accomplishing of the same, yet she may mary agayne if he dye notwithstanding the aforesayd condition and oth taken and made agaynst mariage: and an oth is an other maner of obligation made to God, then is a papisticall vow made to man.MarginaliaTonstall throughly answered by the Ciuile law. Moreouer in the Pandects it is contayned, that if a man doth manumit hys handmayd vnder a condition, that shee shall neuer marry: yet she may mary, and her Patrone shall loose ius patronatus, for his adding of the vnnaturall, and vnlawfull condition against matrimony.

Then my Lord Chauncellour sayd: thou sayest that Priestes may bee maryed by Gods law. How prouest thou that?

MarginaliaScripture approueth Priestes mariage, but the Pope must be heard before the scripture.I aunswered: by the playne wordes and sentences of S. Paule, both to Timothe, and to Titus, where he speaketh most euidently of the mariage of Priestes, Deacons, and Bishops. MarginaliaChrysost. calleth it an heresy, to say that a Priest may not be maried.And Chrysostome, writing vpon the Epistle to Timothy, saith: It is an heresy to say that a Bishop may not be maryed.

Then sayd my Lord Chauncellour: thou lyest of Chrysostome. But thou doest, as all thy companions do, bely euer without all shame, both the Scriptures & the Doctours. Diddest thou not also say, that by the Canon law Priestes may be maried? which is most vntrue: and the contrary is most true.

I aunswered: We read in the decrees, that the foure generall Councelles, Nicene, Constantinopolitane, Ephesine, and Calcedone, haue the same authority that þ^e foure Euangelistes haue. And we read in the same decrees (which is one of the chiefe bookes of the Canon law,) that the Councell of Nicene, by the meanes of one Paphnutius, did allow Priestes and Bishoppes mariages. MarginaliaCanō law approueth Priestes mariages.Therefore by the best part of the Canon law, Pristes, may be maried.

MarginaliaWinchest. belyeth the Councell.Then my Lord Chauncellour said: thou falsifiest the generall Councell. For there is expresse mention in the sayd Decree, that Priestes should be diuorced from their wiues, which be maried.

Then said I: if those wordes be there, as you say, then am I content to lose this great head of myne. Let the booke be fetched.

MarginaliaTonstall helpeth Winchest. at neede.Then spake my Lord of Duresme: Though they be not there, yet they may be in Ecclesiastica historia, which Eusebius wrote, out of which boke the Decree was takē.

To that sayd I: it is not like that the Pope would leaue out any such sentence, hauing such authority, and making so much for his purpose.

Then my Lord Chaūcellour sayd: MarginaliaGardiner denieth his own Canonist, and calleth it a patched law.Gratian was but a patcher, and thou art glad to snatch vp such a patch as maketh for thy purpose. I aunswered: my Lord, I can not but meruayle that you do call one of the chiefe Papistes that euer was, but a patcher.

Then my Lord Chauncellour sayd: Nay I call thee a snatcher and a patcher. To make an end: wilt thou not returne agayne with vs to the Catholike Church? and with that he rose.

And I sayd: By Gods grace I will neuer depart frō Christes Church. Then I required that I might haue some of my frends to come to me in prison: and my Lord Chauncellour sayd: thou shalt haue iudgement within this weeke: MarginaliaD. Taylour sent agayne to prison.and so I was deliuered agayne vnto my keper. My Lord of Duresme would that I should beleue as my father and my mother. I alleadged Saint Augustine: that we ought to preferre Gods word before all men.

And thus much was contayned in the forsayd letter of D. Taylour for that matter.

Besides this letter moreouer he directed an other writing in like maner to an other frend of hys concerning the causes wherefore he was condemned, which we thought likewyse here to expresse as followeth.

¶ The copie of an other letter to his frend, touching his asserrions of the Mariage of Priestes. and other causes for the which hee was condemned.  

Commentary     Close

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.

MarginaliaThe Bishop of Winchester and his fellowes, proued to be open heretickes by scripture and by the true definition of heresy.JT is heresie to defend any doctrine agaynst the holy Scripture. Therfore the Lord Chaūcellour and Byshops consentyng to his sentence agaynst me, be heretickes. For they haue geuen sentence agaynst the Mariage of Priestes, knowyng that S. Paul to Timothe and Titus writeth playnly, that Bishops, Priestes, and Deacons may be maried: knowyng also that by S. Paules doctrine, it is the doctrine of the Deuils to inhibite Matrimony. And S. Paul wylleth euery faithfull Minister to teach the people so, lest they be deceaued by the marked Marchauntes.Marginalia1. Tim. 4. i. Timothe. iiij.

MarginaliaBishops sinne agaynst their own conscience and that for 9. or 10. causes.These Bishops are not ignoraunt, that it is not onely S. Paules counsell, and lawfull, but Gods cōmaundement also to mary, for such as cannot otherwise lyue chaste, neither auoyde fornication.

Marginalia1. Cor. 7.They know that such as do mary, do not sinne.

MarginaliaGene. 2.They know that God, before synne was, ordeyned Matrimony, and that in Paradise, betwene two of hys principall creatures, man, and woman.

They know what spirite they haue, which say it is euill to mary (seyng God sayd:MarginaliaGene. 2. it is not good for man to be alone without a wife) hauyng no speciall gift contrary to the generall commaundement and ordinaunce, diuers times repeated in the booke of Genesis, which is MarginaliaGene. 1.to encrease and multiply.

They know that MarginaliaGene. 12.Abraham caried into the land of Chanaan his old and yet barraine wife the vertuous woman Sara with him, leauyng father, and mother and countrey otherwise at Gods commaundement.MarginaliaMariage is no impedimēt for a good man to walke in the obedience of Gods commaundement. For though father and mother, and other frendes are deare and neare, yet none are so dearely nor nearely ioyned together, as man and wife in Matrimony, which must needes bee holy, for that it is a figure and similitude of Christ and hys Churche.

They know that S. PaulMarginaliaEphe. 5. Hebru. 13. giueth a great prayse to Matrimonie, callyng it honourable, and that not onely to and among many, but to and among all men without exception, who soeuer haue nede of that Gods remedy, for mans and womans infirmitie.

They know that if there were any sinne in Matrimony, it were chiefly to be thought to bee in the bedcompany. But Saint Paule sayth: that the bedcompany is vndefiled.

They know that the hauyng of a wife was not an impediment for MarginaliaGene. 18. Exod. 18. Gene. 25. Gene. 31. Marginalia2. Reg. 7.Abraham, Moses, Isaac, Iacob, Dauid. &c. to talke with God, neither to the Leuites, Byshops, and Priests office in the tyme of þ^e old Testament or þ^e New.

They know that Christ would not be conceaued, or borne of his blessed mother the virgine Mary, before MarginaliaMath. 1.she was espoused in Mariage, his owne ordinaunce.

They know by S. Cyprian, and Saint Augustine, that a