Marginalia1557. Iune.which be to long to rehearse: but I will declare the substaunce of them.

MarginaliaReligion estemed by auncitors, and grandfathers, & by place.Lang. What thinke you of them that dyed lōg agone, your graunfather, with their fathers before them? you iudge them to be dāned, & all other that vse þ^e same that they did, throughout all Christendome, vnlesse it be in Germanie, & here in England a few yeares, & in Denmarke: and yet they are returned again. Thus we are sure this is the truth, and I would you should do well. Your father is an honest mā, and one of my parish, and hath wept to me diuers tymes because you would not be ruled: and he loueth you wel, and so doth all the coūtrey, both rich and poore, if it were not for those euil opinions that you holde: wth many such like tales of Robin Hode.

Wood. I pray you geue me leaue to speake a fewe wordes to you.

Lang. Yes, say your minde.

Wood. You haue told a great tale and a long, as it were against me (as you thinke) saying: I hold this and that: I iudge my father and my graundfather, and almost all the world, without it be a few that be of our sect. But I iudge no man. But the xij. of Iohn declareth who it is that iudgeth, and shall iudge in the last day. The father shall not beare þ^e sonnes offences, nor the sonne the fathers offences: but that soule that sinneth shall dye, as sayth the Prophet. MarginaliaMultitude not to be followed in doing euill. To doe as most men doe, and to do as a mā ought to do, be two thinges.And agayn, we may not folow a multitude to do euil, as sayth the Prophet: For the most go the wrong way. And Christ sayth in the xij. of Luke, that his flocke is a litle flocke. Here be places enough to discharge me, although I do not as the most do. But can any man say that I do not as I ought to do? where be my accusers?

Lang. What? you be full of Scripture me thinke, and call for your accusers, as though you were afrayde to vtter your minde to me. But I would haue you not to be afrayde to talke with me: For I meane no more hurt to you then I do to my selfe, I take GOD to my recorde.

MarginaliaHard trusting any mā in thys worlde.Wood. I can not tell. It is hard trusting of faire wordes, when a man can not trust hys father, nor brother, nor other that haue bene his familiar frends, but they deceaue hym. A man may lawfully follow þ^e example of Christ, towardes thē that he neuer saw before, saying: Be as wise as serpentes, and as innocent as doues. Beware of men, for they goe about to betray you. MarginaliaWoodman blamed for answering with scriptures.And it maketh me suspect you much, because you blame me for aunswering wyth the scriptures. It maketh me to doubt that you would take vaūtage of me, if I should speake myne owne wordes. Wherefore I will take as good heede as I can, because I haue bene deceaued already by thē I trusted most. Wherfore blame me not though I answere circūspectly. It shall not be sayd by Gods helpe, þ^t I will rūne wilfully into myne enemies handes: and yet, I prayse God, my lyfe is not deare to my selfe, but it is deare with God: Wherefore I will do the vttermost that I can to keepe it.

MarginaliaDoctor langdales talke with Richard Woodmā, vpon what occasion, & by whose procurement.Lang. You be afrayde where no feare is, for I was desired of maister Sheriffe & his brother, and of other of your frendes, to talke wyth you, and they tolde me that you were desirous to talke wyth me, and now ye make the matter as though you had nothing to do with me, & as though you were sent to prison for nothing: for you call for your accusers, as though there were no man to accuse you. But if there were no man to accuse you, MarginaliaWoodmā charged with hys owne hand writing.your owne hand writyng did accuse you enough, that you set vpon the church doore (if you be remembred) and other letters that you let fall abroad, some at one place, and some at an other. Wherefore you neede not call for your accusers. Your owne hand will accuse you enough, I warrant you: it is kept safe enough. I would not for two hundred pound there were so much against me.

Wood. I wyll not deny myne owne hand, by Gods

helpe: For it can not lightly be counterfaited. I do not deny but I wrote a letter to the priest and other of the parish, declaring to them their folly and presumptiō, to come into my house without my loue or leaue, and fet out my childe, and vse it at their pleasure. Which moued me to write my mynde to thē: and because I could not tell how to conuey it to them, MarginaliaRichard Woodmans writing set vpō þ^e Church doore, vpon what occasion.I set it on the church doore. Which letter my Lord of Chichester hath: for he shewed it me when I was before hym: wherein is contayned nothing but the very scriptures, to their reproche. Let it be layd before me when you or he wyll: I wyll aunswere to it by the helpe of God, to all their shames þ^t I wrote it too. And as for any other letters, I wrote none, as you say I did, neither had I wrote that, if they had done like honest neighbours. Wherefore if they be offended with me, for that I will aunswere thē with Christes wordes, in the xviij. of Mathew: wo vnto them selues because they geue me the occasion.

And whereas you sayd, I was desirous to speake with you, and that maister Sheriffe and his brother, and other of my frendes willed me to talke with you, and that I fare now as though I had nothing to do with you, and as though I were sent to prison for nothing: the truth is, I know no more wherefore I am sent to prison, thē the least childe in this towne knoweth. And as for me, I desired not maister Sheriffe to speake with you: MarginaliaWoodman required of M. Shrieffe and other hys frendes, to talke with D. Langdale.but in deede he desired me that I would speake with you, and to vtter my fayth to you. For he supposed that I did not beleue well: and he reported you to be learned. But I refused to talke wyth you at the first. For I remembred not that you were the Parson of Buxted:MarginaliaD. Langdale parson of Buxstede, where Woodmans fathers dwelt. wherefore I sayd to hym, I would not vtter my fayth to any but to the Byshop. I sayd, he is myne Ordinary: wherefore I appeale vnto him. I am commaunded by S. Peter in the first epistle the third chapter, to render accompt of my hope that I haue in God, to him that hath authority: wherefore I will talke with none in that matter but wyth hym. Wherefore sēd me to him if you will, or els there shall no man know my faith, I tell you plainely.

These wordes then made the Sheriffe angry, and he went his way: and when he was gone from me, I remembred that it was you that he would haue me to talke with, and then I remembred that I had made a promise to my father, and goodmā Day of Vcfield, not past a fourtnight before I was taken, that when soeuer you came into the Countrey, I would speake with you by Gods helpe, because they praysed you so much, that ye were learned, MarginaliaWoodmans frēdes desirous to heare hym and Doct. Langdale talke together.and they would fayne heare vs talke.

So all these thynges called to remembraunce, I desired my keeper, which was the Sheriffes mā, to shew hys maister that I would fayne speake with him: for I had remembred thinges that were not in my mynde before whē I spake to hym. So he wēt to hys maister, and shewed hym the matter, and he came to me: and then I tolde hym my mynde, and what promise I had made: and he sayd he would send for you on the morrow, as he did, and the messenger brought word you could not come: you preached before the Queene, he sayd. Whereupon the Sheriffe came vp himselfe, and spake to the Bishop that he should come downe, but he was sicke. So when he came home agayne, he sent me to the Byshop,MarginaliaThis Byshop was Doct. Christopherson. and I haue talked wyth hym twyse already, and I am sure he can finde no fault in me if he say iustly: MarginaliaWoodman sent to prison not knowing wherefore.and yet I know not wherefore I was sent to prison. For I was not gilty of that which was layd to my charge, that I had baptised children, the which I neuer did, as God knoweth: wherefore I haue wrong to be thus handled.

Lang. In deede, it hath bene reported that you haue christened children, and that you christened your own childe: but since I heard say you would not haue the childe christened, which is a damnable way, if you deny baptisme: and they sayd, your child was not chri-