MarginaliaAn. 1558. March.my house he hath felt some sorow, and yet I neuer see hys pacience broken. &c.

It is thought & sayd of some that that arrow which was grated betwixt his fingers, beyng tyde together, was not in the Tower, but in the Byshops house.

¶ The day before the blessed Deacon and Martyr of God Cutbert Simson, after his paynefull rackyng should go to his cōdemnation before Boner, to be burned, being in þ^e Bishops colehouse there in þ^e stockes, MarginaliaA vision of Cutbert Simson.he had a certaine vision or apparition very straūge, which he him selfe with his owne mouth declared to the godly learned man M. Austen, to his own wife, and Tho. Simson,  

and to other besides, in the prison of Newgate a litle before his death. The relation wherof I stand in no litle doubt whether to report abroad or not, considering with my selfe the great diuersitie of mēs iudgementes in the readyng of histories, and varietie of affections.   Some, I see, wil not beleue it, some wil deride the same, some also will be offended with setting forth thinges of that sort incerteyne, esteming all thinges to be incertaine and incredible, whatsoeuer is strange from the common order of nature. Other will be perchaunce agreued, thinking with themselues, or els thus reasoning with me, that although the matter were as is reported, yet for somuch as the common error of beleuing rash miracles, phantasied visions, dreames, and apparitions therby may be confirmed, more expedient it were the same to be vnsetforth.

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These and such like will be, I know, the sayinges of many. Wherunto briefely I aunswere, graunting first and admitting with the wordes of Basill, οὐ πᾶν ὀνείαρ ἐστὶ πρωφητία.  

. This is, not euery dreame is streight way a prophecy. Agayne, neither am I ignoraunt that the papistes in theyr bookes and legends of sainctes haue theyr prodigious visions and apparitions of angels, of our Lady, of Christ, and other sainctes: which as I wil not admit to be beleued for true, so will they aske me againe, why should I then more require these to be credited of them, then theires of vs.

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First I write not this, binding any man precisely to beleue the same, so as they doo theyrs, but only report it as it hath bene heard of persons knowne, naming also the parties who were the hearers therof, leauing the iudgement therof notwithstanding free vnto the arbitrement of the reader. MarginaliaWhat credite is to be geuē to visions. and how farre.Albeit, it is no good argument proceding from the singular or particular, to be vniuersall, to say that visions be not true in some, ergo, they be true in none. And if any shall muse or obiect agayne, why should such visions be geuen to him or a few other singular persons more then to all the rest, seing the other were in the same cause and quarell, and dyed also Martyrs as well as he? to this I say, concerning the Lordes times and doinges, I haue not to medle nor make, who may worke where and when it pleaseth him. And what if the Lord thought chiefely aboue the other, with some singular consolation to respect him, who chiefely aboue the other, and singularly did suffer most exquisite tormentes for his sake? what great maruell herein? but as I sayd, of the Lordes secret times I haue not to reason. This only which hath out of the mans owne mouth bene receaued, so as I receaued it of the parties, I thought here to communicate to the reader, for him to iudge therof as God shall rule his minde. The matter is thys.

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The day before this Simson was condemned, he being in the stockes, Cloney his keeper commeth in with the keies, about ix. of the clocke at night (after his vsual maner) to view his prison, and see whether all were present, who when he espied the sayd Cutbert to be there, departed agayne, locking the dores after him. Within ij. houres after, about aleuen of the clocke, toward midnight, the sayd Cutbert (whether being in a slumber of being awake I cannot say) heard one comming in, first opening the outward dore, thē the second, after the third doore, and so looking in to the sayd Cut-

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bert, hauing no candell or torch that hee could see, but geuing a brightnes and light most comfortable and ioyfull to his hart, saying, Ha, vnto him, & departed agayne. Who it was he could not tell, neither I dare define. This that he saw he him selfe declared fower or fiue times to the sayd Master Austen and to other. At the sight wherof he receaued such ioyfull comfort that he also expressed no litle solace in telling and declaring the same.

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MarginaliaArticles seuerally ministred to Cutbert Simson.Marginalia1.FIrst that thou Cutbert Symson, art at this present abidyng within the Citie and Dioces of London, and not out of the Iurisdiction of the Byshop of Rome.

Marginalia2.Item, that thou within the Citie and Dioces of London, hast vttered many tymes & spoken deliberatly these wordes and sentences followyng, videlicet: that though thy parentes, auncestours, kinsfolkes and frendes, yea and also thy selfe, before the tyme of the late schisme here in this Realme of England, haue thought and thoughtest, that the faith and Religion obserued in times past here in this Realme of England, was a true faith and religion of Christ in all pointes & articles, though in the Church it was set forth in the Latin toung and not in English, yet thou beleuest and sayest that the fayth and Relgion now vsed commonly in this Realme, not in the Englishe, but in the Latine toung, is not the true fayth and Religion of Christ, but contrary and expressely agaynst it.

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Marginalia3.MarginaliaCeremonies.Item, that thou within the sayd Citie and Dioces of London, hast willingly, wittingly, and contemptuously done, and spoken agaynst the rites and the ceremonies commonly vsed here through the whole Realme, and obserued generally in the Church of England.

Marginalia4. MarginaliaVij. Sacramentes.Item, that thou hast thought and beleued certeinely, and so within the Dioces of London, hast affirmed and spoken deliberately that there be not in the Catholicke Church seuen Sacramentes, nor of that vertue and efficacie as is commonly beleued in the Church of England them to be.

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Marginalia5. MarginaliaSacramēt of the altar.Item, that thou hast likewise thought and beleued, yea and hast so within the Citie and Dioces of London spoken, and deliberatly affirmed, that in the Sacrament of the altar there is not really, substancially and truly the very body and bloud of our Sauiour Iesus Christ.

Marginalia6.Item, that thou hast bene, and to thy power art at this present, a fauourer of all those that either haue bene here in this Realme heretofore called heretickes, or els conuented and condemned by the Ecclesiasticall Iudges for heretickes,

Marginalia7.Item, that thou, contrary to the order of this Realme of Englād, and contrary to the vsage of the holy Church of this Realme of England, hast at sondry tymes and places within the Citie and Dioces of London, bene at assemblies and conuenticles, where there was a multitude of people gathered together, MarginaliaVsing of Englishe seruice.to heare the Englishe seruice sayd, which was set forth in þ^e late yeares of kyng Edward the vj. and also to heare and haue the Communion booke read, and the Communion ministred, both to the sayd multitude, and also to thy selfe, and thou hast thought, and so thinkest and hast spoken that the sayd English seruice, and Communion booke, and all things conteined in either of them was good and laudable, and and for such thou diddest and doest allowe and approue either of them at this present.

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MarginaliaHys aunsweres to the articles.VNto all which Articles, the said Cutbert Simson aunswered thus or the like in effect.

To the. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. and. 6. Article, he confessed them to be true in euery part therof.

To the. 7. Article he sayd that he was bound to aunswere vnto it, as he beleueth.

MarginaliaA letter of Cutbert Simson to hys wife.DEarely beloued in the Lord Iesus Christ, I can not write as I do wishe vnto you. I besech you with my soule, commit your selfe vnder the mighty hand of our