in their doing and iudgyng, fearing at least the lords cōmaundement: do not iudge, that ye be not iudged. And s. Paul sayth: who art thou that iudgest another mans seruant? Either he standeth or falleth to hys owne maister: but he shal stand, for the Lord is mighty, & able to make him stande. Therfore let your holines cease to compel & enforce those, whom onely ye ought to admonish: least through your own priuate cōmaundement (whych God forbid) you be found contrary: as wel to the olde Testament, as to the new. For as s. Austen sayth to Donatus: this is onely that we do feare in your iustice, lest (not for the consideration of christian lenity, but for the greuousnes & greatnes of trāsgressiōs cōmitted) you be thought to vse violence in executing punishment of that, whych onely we do desire you (by Christ) not to do. For trāsgressions are so to be punished, that the lyfe of the transgressors may repēt. Also a nother saying of Austen we wold you to remember, which is this: Nil nocendi fiat cupiditate, omnia soluēdi charitate: et nihil fiat immaniter, nihil inhumaniter That is: MarginaliaNote well the saying of Austēlet nothing bee done through the greedines of hurtyng, but allthinges through the charitye of profiting. Neither let any thing be done cruelly, nothing vngently. Item of the same Austen it is writtē: In the fear and name of Christ I exhorte you, which of you so euer haue not the goods of this world, be not greedy to haue them: Such as haue them, presume not to much vpō thē. For I say, to haue them is no damnation, but if ye presume vpon them, that is damnacion: if for the hauing of them ye shall seeme great in your own sight, or if ye doo forget the common condition of man, through the excellency of any thyng you haue. Vse therfore herein due discretion, tempered with moderation, the which cup of discretion is drawen out of that fountayne of the Apostolike preaching whych sayth: art thou lose from thy wyfe? Do not seeke for thy wyfe. Art thou bound to thy wyfe? Seeke not to be loosed from her. Wher also it followeth: suche as haue wiues, let them be as though they had thē not: & they that vse the world, let thē be as not vsing it.

MarginaliaWhat it is to marrye in the Lord.Item concerning the wydow he sayth: Let her marry to whom she wyll, onely in the Lord. To marry in the Lord, is nothing els but to attempt nothing in contracting of matrimony, which the Lord doth forbid. Ieremy also sayth: trust not in the words of lies, saying: the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. The which saying of Ieremy, Ierome expoūding saith thus: this may agree also, and be applied vnto such virgyns, which brag and vaunt theyr virginity with an impudent face, pretending chastity, when they haue another thyng in theyr conscience, and knowe not howe the Apostle defineth the virgine, MarginaliaWhat is a virgine by the definition of the Apostle.that she should be holye in body, and also in spirite. For what auayleth the chastitye of the bodye, if the mynde inwardlye bee defloured? Or if it haue not the other vertues, whych the propheticall sermon doth describe? The whych vertues, for as muche as we see partly to bee in you, and because we are not ignoraunt, that thys discretion (althoughe neglected in thys parte, yet in the other actions of your lyfe to bee kept honestly of you:) doo not dispayre, but you wyll also soone amende the little lacke which is behynd And therfore with as much grauity as we can, we cease not to call vpō you, to correct and amend this your negligence. For although accordyng to our common callyng, a bishop is greater then a priest, yet Austen beyng lesse then Ierome (notwythstanding the good correction proceeding from the lesser to the greater) was not to bee refused or disdayned, especially when he which is corrected, is found to striue agaynst the truth, to please men.

For as S. Austen sayth, writing to Boniface: the disputations of all men, be they neuer so catholike or aproued persons: ought not to be had in steede of the canonicall Scriptures. So that we may disproue or refuse (sauing the honor and reuerence whych is due vnto them) any thyng that is in their wrytings: if any thyng there be found, cōtrary to truth: and what can be found more contrary to the truth then thys? When as the truth him selfe speaking of continency, not of one onely, but of all men together, (the number onely excepted of thē which haue professed continēcy) sayth: He that can take, let him take: the which saying, these men moued, I cannot tel by what occasion, do turne and say: he that cannot take, let hym be accursed. And what can be more folysh amongst men, then when any bishop or archdeacon, runne them selues headlong into al kinde of lust, to adultery and incest, and also Sodometry: yet shame not to saye, that the chaste marriage of priestes do stincke before them. And as vyoce of all compassion of true righteousnes doo not desyre or admonish their clarkes, as theyr felow seruātsto abstayne, but cōmaund them and enforce them as seruaunts, violently to abstayne? Vnto the whych imperious cōmaundement of theirs or councell (whether you wyll, call it) they adde also thys folysh and fylthy sugiestiō, saying: MarginaliaThe absurde saying & contrary during of the papistes.that it is more honest, pryuely to haue to do with many women, then apertly in the syght and consciences of many men, to be bound to one wife. The which truly they would not say, if they were eyther of hym, or in hym, whych sayth: wo to you Phariseis, whych do all things before mē. And by the psalmist: because thei plese men, they are confounded: for the Lord hath despised thē. These bee the men, who rather ought to perswade vs, that we shoul shame to sinne priuely in the sight of him to whom all thynges be open, then to seeme in the syght of men for to bee cleane. These men therefore, although through their synfull wyckednes, deserue no councel of godlynes to be geuen them: yet we not forgetting our humanity, cease not to geue them counsel by the authority of Gods word, which seeketh al mens saluation, desiring them by the bowels of charitye, and laying wyth the wordes of scripture: Cast out thou hipocrite first the beame out of thine owne eye, and then thou shalt see to cast out the mote of the eye of thy brother.

Moreouer, thys also we desyre them to attende what the Lord saith of the aduouterous woman: which of you that is wythout sin, let him cast þ^e fyrst stone against her. As though he would say: if Moses byd you, I also byd you. But yet I requyre you þ^t bee the cōpetent ministers & executors of þ^e law: Take hede what ye adde therunto, take hede also I pray you, what you are your selues: for if (as the scripture sayth) thou shalt wel cōsider thy selfe, thou wylt neuer defame or detract an other.

Moreouer, it is signified vnto vs also, that some ther be of them which (whē they ought like good shepheards to gyue their lyues for the Lordes flocke) yet are puffed vp with such pride: that without al reason they presume to rent and teare the Lords flocke wyth whyppyngs & beatynges, whose vnreasonable doyngs Saint Gregory bewayling, thus sayth: Quid fiat de ouibus, quando pastores lupi fiunt? That is: what shal become of the shepe, whē the pastors thēselues be wolues? But who is ouercome, but he which exerciseth the cruelty? Or who shall iudge the persecutor, but he which gaue paciently hys backe to stripes. And this is the fruit which cōmeth to the church by such persecutors, also which commeth to the clergy by such dispiteful hādlyng of their Bishops, or rather Infidels. For why may ye not cal thē infidels, of whom S. Paule thus speaketh and writeth to Timothie: that in the latter dayes there shal certain depart from the faith, geue hede to spirits of error & doctrine of deuils, of them that speake false through hipocrisy, & hauing their consciences marked wyth an hot yron forbidding to marry, & commaunding to abstayne from meates. &c. And thys is if it be wel marked, the whole handful of the darnel and cockel growing amongst the corne: thys is the couent of al madnes: that whyles they of the Cleargy be compelled to relinquish the company of theyr own lawfull wyues: they become afterward fornicators and adulterers wyth other women, & wycked ministers of other sinfull fylthynes. These be they which bring in to the churche of God thys heresy (as blynd guides leading the blynd) that it might be fulfylled which the Psalme speaketh of: as foreseing the errors of such men, and accursyng them after thys maner: let their eyes ke blynded that they see not, and bow downe alwayes their backe. For as much thē (O apostolical syr) as no mā which knoweth you is ignorante, that if you, thorow the light of your discretiō had vnderstanded and seene, what poysoned pestilence might haue come into the church through the sētence of this your decree: they would neuer haue cōsented to the sugiestions of certayne wycked persons. MarginaliaInuenitur hæc epistola in vetustis mēbra naceis libris (testam te illyrico in catalogo) Meminit eiusdē epistolæ Aeneas Syluius, in sua peregrinatione, & Germaniæ descriptionoWherefore we councel you by the fidelitye of our due subiection, that wyth al diligence you wold put awaye so great slaunder frō the church of God: & through your discrite discipline, you wil remoue this pharisaical doctrine from the flock of God: so that this onely sunanite of the Lords (vsyng no more adulterous husbāds) do seperat the holy people & the kingly priesthod frō her spouse which is christ, thorow an vnrecouerable diuorcement: seyng that no mā w^tout chastity (not only in the virgins state, but also in the state of matrimony) shal se our lord: who with the father and the holy ghost liueth and raigneth for euer. Amen.☞ By this epistle of B. Hulderick aboue prefixed, the matter is playne (gentle reader) to cōceiue what was thē the sentence of learned men cōcerning the mariage of ministers: wherof because sufficient hath ben sayd before, we wil therfore (with the Lords help) prosecute that whych foloweth.